Setting up multiple raid sets with PERC H330

Question

I am new to setting up Dell Servers and recently purchased a new T140 server with H330 Raid controller and want to setup 2 Raid sets. 1 for Windows Server 2019, and 1 for data base storage. The server came with 2 Dell EMC 1 TB 3.5' SATA drives installed and I installed 2 WD 500GB 3.5' SATA Data Center Drives. I setup the 2 smaller drives with Raid 1 and installed the Windows Server 2019, all hardware drivers and activated Windows. I added the server to the network and then setup the remaining 2 drives also with Raid 1 for the data storage. As soon as I rebooted the server it no longer saw the 1st set of drives and found no operating system. I had read in these forums that 2 Raid sets could be setup with the H330 controller, so not sure what I did wrong? I have since read that the H330 has no cache memory so maybe I need to purchase an after market Raid controller?

Dave English · Accepted Answer

Yes I am aware of that. The problem was setting up the other disks for data storage deleted the O/S drives. However I did find a solution installing Open Manage that I found listed under a different server model. I have everything working good now.

Thanks

Origin3k · Answer

Do you have checked the boot order?

Dave English · Answer

Yes and the original drives that Windows was installed on are no longer listed as virtual disks. After not finding a way to recover the disks I started over with setting up Raid and installed Windows again. This time I paid more attention to the messages going through the install process and noticed the message that stated Data on ALL disks will be erased. And after finishing the install my second set of disks were blank. So apparently the information I had read about multiple sets of Raid was wrong, and only 1 Raid set can be installed on the controller. Now I will purchase a second Raid controller for the Data Disks and hope that the 2 controllers do not have a conflict with each other.

Origin3k · Answer

According to the docs the H330 supports up to 16 VDisks.

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/de-de/poweredge-rc-h330/perc9ugpublication/perc-card-specifications?guid=guid-ff4e55fb-921b-4445-9ee3-768d80807f2a&lang=en-us

Dave English · Answer

Yes I did see that, but it also says max of 16 disks per group. I believe it only sets up 1 raid group. I have all the documentation I can find on the controller, but it does not mention how many sets are allowed so have been trying to verify that. Thanks for your input.

DELL-Shine K · Answer

You can create multiple virtual disk on H330. While installing OS you can select an existing virtual disk for installation and ensure you are not deleting all other virtual disk. What method are you following to install the operating system?

DELL-Marco B · Answer

Hello Dave, please let us know if those answers can help you. Thanks Marco

Dave English · Answer

I am using the Lifecycle to setup the virtual disks.

DELL-Shine K · Answer

If you are using Lifecycle Controller to install OS and Virtual Disk is already created then you can choose option 'Go Directly to OS Deployment' than creating virtual disk using LC during deployment

PCnetMD · Answer

@Dave English​ what was the solution and where did you find it?

PowerEdge Hardware General

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