Adding a Disk to NX300 RAID 5

Question

Hello,

I am new to RAID setup in general, and came into a job where the last IT person was suppose to add disk for space into our NX300 device. Our current setup involves 4 1 TB SATA HDD on the H700 PERC. 3/4 of the drives are fine, and the 4th drive is in a spun up ready state, but I don't have the option to reconfigure like I have read in other articles for assistance. We have two Vdisks setup and virtual disk 1 is where I want to add space as this is our NAS main. Can someone please offer guidance with the mindset, you are talking to a RAID/Dell OMSA (think that is what they call it) noob, thank you in advance.

DELL-Josh Cr · Answer

Hi,You have two virtual disks using the same set of drives correct? Most likely that is the problem, we don’t recommend doing that for this reason, it makes it so reconstruct may not work. You can try updating the firmware on the drives and controller and see if the option shows up. Also is the replacement drive a Dell drive?

Lbk81 · Answer

Hi Josh,

Ty for the reply. To be honest, I have no idea if I have two virtual disks using the same set of drives. How can I check that? I did not set any of this up, so coming into it without any knowledge, sorry. Also, how do I update the firmware on the drives and controller? I at least know it is using a PERC H700 controller. Three of the four drives are certified Dell drives, whereas the 4th is not. It came from a 3rd party of Dell's.

DELL-Josh Cr · Answer

If you don’t have OMSA installed you can install it and look at the virtual disk settings, if you post screenshots, we can figure out the configuration. https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/drivers/driversdetails?driverId=24H24

Lbk81 · Answer

Josh,I do have OMSA installed. I have attached two screen shots. One of our virtual disks, and the other of our physical disks.&#xa0;

Lbk81 · Answer

Along with the screenshots below, I wanted to add some more information to see if anyone could help.

We are running a Dell Power Vault nx300 with a PERC H700. We have two virtual disks, one being used for OS I think at 80 GB (I did not set it up), and the other at 1.78 TB being used for data. I simply want to add the 4th drive, rebuild, and be able to expand the data drive to an additional TB making it about 2.8 TB. I have updated the firmware on the PERC from the dell site, and updated to the latest OMSA I could.

The issue is, after putting in the 4th disk, it is in a ready/spun up state, but rebuilding is not an option when I go into the configuration hitting control R. I can assign it as a global hot spare, and it just goes into hot spare status, rebuild does not take affect. I have rebooted the server, removed the drive numerous times. I have also ensured the latest windows updates have been applied to my Windows 2008 R2 Storage Server Standard OS.

The screen shots in my previous post also apply to this if anyone can help I would be extremely grateful. Thank you.

Lbk81 · Answer

The Yellow yield sign says 'Status - Non-Critical' when I hover over it. The disk is non-Dell certified, revision #, FW # are difference than the other 3 disks I have. Would that cause the issue?

DELL-Josh Cr · Answer

If you can try another drive that would be best. It could be the slot, but that is less likely to be the issue.

DELL-Josh Cr · Answer

I would try updating the H700 firmware and see if it will let you use the non-Dell drive. https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/drivers/driversdetails?driverId=2948G

Lbk81 · Answer

Josh, I performed an update this past weekend, and I believe this is the PERC FW version in use. Is there a way I can check using OMSA?

Lbk81 · Answer

Josh,

Verified, the latest FW driver is installed. As mentioned before, this 4th disk is different than the previous 3 which were all dell certified disks of the same type/revision/FW/SN# etc. The 4th disk is a diff revision/FW/Product# etc. I have rebooted the server, taken the disk out with it powered all the way back down, re-inserted it, and it has a green light, is in online status and spun up, but I cannot reconfigure from OMSA or rebuild from the PERC Menu upon booting up and hitting cntrl-R. The reconfigure option within Vdisk menu in OMSA is not there, and rebuild is totally grayed out in the PERC menu using Cntrl-R.

Any other suggestions?

DELL-Josh Cr · Answer

It could be an issue with that new drive, it has a warning on it.

DELL-Josh Cr · Answer

Yes the slicing can cause the issue. It doesn’t explain why the drive has a warning, but it could be why it won’t let you add it to the arrays.

Lbk81 · Answer

Yea, I don't have another drive laying around. So, just to cover the troubleshooting steps I have performed, see below.

1. Rebooted server, removed/re-inserted drive, and started server back up

2. Updated PERC H700 FW, OMSA software as well, disk is green in bay, but rebuild is grayed out, and no reconfigure option in OMSA

3. Swapped out drive, but green LED on bay was not even coming on for swapped drive.

4. Verified disk trying to use is non-Dell certified, verified the 3 disks in use, correctly functioning are Dell certified, Samsung drives with same FW, rev, prod/part, and SN numbers.

5. The 4th drive is not, and was sent from through a 3rd party channel of Dell called Axiom.

Josh, I appreciate your help, but do you think having two virtual disks on the enclosure could cause a slicing issue? Or, do you think it is the drive based on the information I have sent you.

Lbk81 · Answer

Hey Josh,I sent the disk back that was not certified. Can you check the images below and let me know if adding the disk in picture A (left) would work with the disk in picture B (right)?&#xa0;&#xa0;Picture A.&#xa0;

dellyonah · Answer

what is the max drive size the h700 will support in the nx300?

PowerVault

Adding a Disk to NX300 RAID 5

Was this post helpful?