Adding Perc

Question

Greetings   I have a 6300, with 5x9 HD's, without a Perc card, the drives are blank atm, so im not worried about losing data   My question is this, can i just buy a Perc card, and plug the drives into it, and what kind of perc card would i, should i need?   and what advantages would buying a Perc card bring?

warwizard55 · Answer

The PE6300 can use... PERC II, PERC 2/SC, PERC 2/DC and PERC 2.

The gain of using a H/W RAID is that you gain redundancy to your data if using RAID 1, 5, 10 or 50 (not enough drives for a 50 though).

There are a multitude of technet articles at www.microsoft.com that explain the concepts in great detail. use keywords, performance and RAID.

Warwizard

Dreamthinker · Answer

what about  perc2 QC?, I know quite a bit about RAID, but absolutely nothing about SCSI   What exactly does the battery on the Perc card do?   How many kinds of SCSI connectors are there, are none of them backwards compatable?

warwizard55 · Answer

Dreamthinker,

Perc 2 is the perc 2 /QC. On this card, the internal connectors are 68 pin high density, the external connectors are 68 pin ultra high density (UHD). The battery on RAID cards keep "data on the fly" (data residing in the cache that has not yet been written to disk) protected in the event of power loss.

The SCSI backplanes on the PE6300 are all self terminating, meaning you use a non terminated SCSI cable 68 pin HD to 68 pin HD. For the main bay, use P/N 83KNG, and for 1x2 bays P/N 68RDU.

Warwizard

Dreamthinker · Answer

I just got a Perc2/QC, 64bit, 128 meg =)   I think i have just two more questions, thank you much for your time   when i baught my PE6300, it came with the 5 drives, and 3 empty caddies, but they are not like the others, or any i have seen for sale on ebay, they only have one side, and no vent holes in the bottom plate? is it possible to put a HD in it..there is only holes for mounting on one side..or is it a 'dummy' caddie?   will i need any software or drives for the Perc card? I have the server assistant CD v 6.4

warwizard55 · Answer

Dreamthinker,

The blanks are what you have, you can get the carriers from spare parts...

P/N 4649C Hard Drive Carrier Assembly

P/N 1213C screws 4 per carrier.

P/N 3901C HD Carrier Handle, 1" to 1.6"

(if you have the 1x6 BP the 1" to 1.6" carrier handle extension is needed for proper airflow)

I know you have the 1x8 BP, this entry here to assist others.

Yes there are drivers, F/W and management utilites for this controller available in the downloads section, free of charge.

if using W2k server...

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/type.aspx?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz&SystemID=PWE_PNT_XEO_6300&category=35&os=WNT5&osl=en&deviceid=1372&devlib=35

Warwizard DCSP

Message Edited by Warwizard on 06-17-2005 06:31 PM

Dreamthinker · Answer

i get the lines   Starting up controller 0, please wait, (not exact wording) 5 mins later Fatal Error: controller monitor failed Array contoler not started   so i updated the 6300 Bios   ran the Perc firmware 2.8 disk the controller shows up in the AFU i run Update, and i get Fatal Error #501   I have read ALL documentation, for the controler, and the 6300, a few times   am i missing something, or is the card shot?

yktu · Answer

Greetings.

I am getting the similar lines as Dreamthinker during the POST screen of my PERC2/QC. It mentioned:

1. Starting up controller 0, please wait...
2. Controller Monitor disabled or...
3. Array contoler not started.

I am using PERC2/QC with PE4300.

Any advice on:

1. way to reset the card;
2. jumper to make PERC2/QC functional

is very much appreciated.

In addition, I noticed that the 4 red lights appears to be steady during the booting process; whilst during its good day, these red lights runs back and forth with motions.

Pls advice. Tq.

Sincerely,

yk

PowerEdge HDD/SCSI/RAID

Adding Perc

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