foreign configuration import failed

Question

I have a T620 with a PERC H710P controller. There are 11 drives attached to the PERC controller (9 in RAID 5 with 2 hot spares.) The RAID is for data storage only. The OS is CentOS 7, which is installed on an SSD.

I installed some software for a project, but was having trouble getting it to work properly. The software was designed for Ubuntu but is supposed to run on CentOS as well. I decided to try installing Ubuntu to see if that would get it to work right. I replaced the SSD with another drive to preserve the working installation of CentOS undisturbed. When I tried to install Ubuntu, it identified the RAID as sda and wanted to install there, rather than the SSD. So, I shut it down and removed the RAID drives so that Ubuntu would only see the SSD and install there properly. That worked just fine. However, when I reconnected the RAID drives, the controller identified them as a foreign configuration. I tried to import the foreign configuration, but that failed with an error that it could not be imported.

Now I need to figure out how to get that RAID to work again, without losing all the data on it. The drives are all fine. None have moved from their original position in the computer, as I never actually took them out of the case, just pulled them partway out to disconnect them. The firmware on the controller is a rather old version. Would updating that help, or might that make it harder to import a configuration created with an older version? What else should I try?

Dell-DylanJ · Answer

Hello,

Updating the firmware is definitely worth trying. There's no guarantee that it'll fix the issue, but it shouldn't leave you in a worse position, either. If that fails, you can try performing what is called a 'retag.' This process is very similar to deleting and creating a new array. The key difference is that when you finish recreating the RAID 5 volume (with identical parameters), you make sure to *NOT* initialize the virtual disk. The initialization is what causes data loss.

I will say that we recommend having a backup to restore from, because data loss can happen if something causes an error with the retag. You'll want to proceed with caution, but as long as you double-check your settings before you apply them, it should be fine. The only retag operations I've seen fail were due to either an underlying problem with the drives, or when a parameter wasn't set right.

drfarmkid · Answer

I'm trying to update the firmware, but that proves more difficult than expected. The Windows installer isn't an option because Windows is not installed on the machine. The bootable medium option should work, except I can't get it to boot from the FreeDos flash drive I made for that purpose--still working on that. The linux .bin file doesn't seem to exist on the download page. I'll keep trying to do update it, but I may need to get more creative to make that happen.

I'll look into the retag process, as I have a feeling that's where I'll end up. How can I backup the data if I can't access the RAID? If I attach the drives to a different controller, will the RAID be recognized so I can copy it off to something else? I potentially have a couple of ways I could do that that might work.

Dell-DylanJ · Answer

The first priority would be getting the drives imported somewhere. If the other system has the same model PERC, then it should get picked up by the other controller without issue. If it's different, the import may not succeed. If you can get it imported, you'd need to look at either a file level backup utility, or a block level utility. I don't have enough experience with specific ones to make a good recommendation on what to use, though.

drfarmkid · Answer

The others I have access to are a Synology rackstation and an Intel RAID card that it turns out supports only 8 drives. I guess that's a no-go. I managed to update the firmware by booting with Hiren's boot CD and using the Windows update utility. As expected, it didn't help. One thing I forgot to mention in the first post is the error message. It says that it can't import the foreign configuration because the configuration is not complete. Does that help in any way? At this point, I think all I'm left with is trying a retag. As I understand it, the process is: 1. clear foreign configuration 2. create new VD with the same settings as before 3. don't let it initialize A few questions before moving on: Is that correct? Am I missing something? I put in some other drives so I could go through the VD creation process as a practice run. The only things I could change were the drives included, the size of the array, and the name of the VD. Is that all there is to it (with the drives in the same place, of course)? Will it make a difference if I include only one of the hot spares instead of both? There are two interfaces to the settings (one is through the BIOS setup screen, the other is reached by hitting Ctrl-R at the appropriate time.) Is there any reason to choose one interface over the other?

Dell-DylanJ · Answer

I would personally do it in the Control R PERC utility, but that's also because that's the only place I've ever tried doing it. I'm not certain that the F2 BIOS interface would present the option to not initialize the array.

You've described the process accurately, though. It really is essentially the same as creating a new array, because it's only writing that metadata stamp, though. Having a different set of disks is a good idea, though, because that will help you see the locations where you can choose not to initialize, without putting anything at risk.

There are other parameters, but they aren't always modified. For example, you can use multiple different stripe sizes. That said, everyone I've worked with used default settings for most everything, except where you are required to make an input (like a RAID type, or which disks).

PowerEdge HDD/SCSI/RAID

foreign configuration import failed

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