Adding HDD to Perc 2/SC

Question

I am having problems getting Windows 2003 Server to recognise a Seagate Cheetah ST318203LC HDD.

1. The physical configuration is as follows:
    o Dell Poweredge 2400 running Windows 2003 Server.
    o SCSI Perc/2C controller for 6 SCA slots (ID=0 to ID=5)
    o Four drives currently installed and working as a single logical C: drive in slots ID=0 to ID=3.
    (3 x 36Gb Drives RAID 5 plus 1 x 36Gb Drive on hot standby)
    o Two CD-Rom devices located as D: and E:

2. Three ST318203LC drives are available in the remaining 2 slots.
    o On installation the drives are recognised by the PERC controller in slots ID=4 & ID=5. “New Drives found: Configuration updated”.
    o No jumpers are set on the drives.
    o Drives can be formatted (with no errors) and are marked as READY.

3. Windows 2003 Server does not recognise the drives.
o They cannot be seen through “Computer Manager”. Therefore no partition, drive letter can be set.
o “Add new hardware” does not recognise the new drives.

4. Purpose.
o Currently not intended to make these drives bootable.
o Intended as (grandfather – father - son) hotswap for backup only.

5. Questions
    o I have exhausted the Seagate website, Dell website, and MSN website for instructions.
    o Any suggestions how I can get these drives recognised by Win2k3?
    o Any utilities I could use?

DELL-Mark A · Answer

Hi,

To make these drive visible in Win2003, they must be made into an array. Use the View-Add Configuration section of this document:

If these drives are to be in a true Hot-Spare configuration, they will never be seen by the Operating System. Use this link to configure the drives as Hot-Spares:

Complete documentation for the Perc 2/sc can be found here:

DELL-Mark A · Answer

Hi Anthony,

I have a couple of thoughts, you cant get exactly what you want, but I think you can get close. None of this is officially supported, this is just not the way the Perc subsystem is designed to work.

1. The drives X, Y and Z, while technically physically hot-swappable, however the Operating System will not recognize the change without a reboot and there is a chance of data loss if you try to hot swap these drives.

Windows has a nasty habit of changing drive letters when changing drives around like this. It is my belief the data will remain intact, but the drive letters may change at the whim of windows.

2. The NVRAM warning is just the fact the Perc knows something has changed, and is asking you which is correct, the data in NVRAM or the data on the disk. If you choose "Read from Disk", the controller should continue and boot into the Operating System.

I am sure this is not exactly what you wanted to hear, but it is about the best possible given your hardware configuration.

Thanks for using the Dell Community Forums!

Dedans · Answer

Many thanks - Dell - Mark A. Yes, this worked fine. I managed to configure the the two extra slots as A1-0 and A2-0 with two of the three SCA disks I have. Through Windows Disk Manager I have now given them partitions and drive letters. They work fine.
I am nearly there - but not quite! My aim is this: Let me try to explain…

1. I have space for 6 SCA drives.

2. Four drives are installed and working under RAID 5 (Three drives and a hot spare). These form the bootable C: drive. Let’s call these drives 0, 1, 2, & 3. They are permananetly situated in slots 0, 1, 2 & 3.

3.  Two empty slots remain 5 & 6.

4.  I have three SCA drives available for backup (grandfather~father~son). Let’s call these drives X, Y & Z.

5.  Following your advice I have successfully configured drive X into slot 4; and drive Y into slot 5. They are configured as simple stand-alone drives (no stripes, RAID 0, PERC recognises them as A1-0 and A2-0). Windows also recognises these drives and can write / backup to them. Drive X has been given the label “X” and the drive letter X:. Drive Y has been given the label “Y” and the drive letter Y:.

6.  I now want to store drive X (say) offsite, and plug in drive Z into X’s old slot 4. Drive Z will have the label “Z” and the drive letter Z:.

7.  On restartthe NVRAM part of the RAID complains that it has a conguration mismatch with the drive in slot 4. (It is now of course the Z drive; previously the X drive was in this slot). The boot stops there.

8.  Ideally I would like to be able to unplug / plug in any of the stand-alone X, Y or Z drives at any time, in any combination into slots 4 & 5.
I do not want to reconfigure the RAID system each time I hotswap a drive. (These are NOT hot spares).

9.  Ideally Windows will also recognise which drive is available at any time by its own drive letter and label.

Any suggestions? Can I do it without reinitialising through PERC and Windows each time?

Many thanks,

Anthony Prince

Dedans · Answer

Many thanks Mark,

As I am using the drives for backup only, I shall be pretty sure when all writing has been done to disk. So rebooting is not a problem at all. If Windows can still see a disk on reboot, then I can tell which disk it is by placing an identifiaction file in at its root (Eg X Grandfather.txt).

I'll give it a try. Best regards,

Anthony Prince

PowerEdge HDD/SCSI/RAID

Adding HDD to Perc 2/SC

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