Topic: Problems encountered: cloning failing disc to RAID (for Windows Server) (solved)

[devnullius]

I sent this email to Supermicro support. While I await answers... You guys any ideas?? RAID question: Supermicro H8QGI+-F (1x PCI): AMD SP5100 (RAID 0, 1, 10) only shows unique discs, not one logical RAID drive / device / volume.

Hello,

I'm trying to use a RAID10 (4x disk configuration) on my server.

Though all devices install correctly (by default by Microsoft UPdate on Windows 2012 R2 x64 OR with manual update to your provided drivers), Windows Disk Administrator itself only shows 3 non-initialized disks. Which is strange, because I used the RAID BIOS (Ctrl-A) to create the array successfully. When booting I get a message the array is there and consists of 4 discs (2 types, per type mirrored).

In Windows though, just three disks that need initialization. The fourth disc just disappears I guess? No logical device found for the RAID either.

I spent 2 days with Windows based boot cd's, adding drivers either when creating the DVD or manually adding them with the software after booting, but always: 3 discs, no RAID. Finally I booted Windows itself again (disk is failing, so I'd rather not have booted the system again). There I checked and even upgraded the drivers to your version but again: 3 disks, no raid (though once I saw 4 disks to be initialized... Dunno why).

Could you help me? Am I missing something obvious (dumb) here? Or what gives :/

Regards,

Nuis (NL)

[Samker]

Hmmm... I don't have any ideas, this will have to wait for "J." or "MM" - experts opinions.

[jheysen]

Maybe you are facing a fakeRAID card?
I'm facing a problem with Intel RST.... nasty one..

I haven't read docs about your particular card now, but I would look if it is real hardware RAID or fakeRAID. Also, you might want to post photos of the RAID Option ROM, so we can have a look at the setup.

[devnullius]

Thanks for the feedback. The RAID is legit. Supermicro server motherboard...

Though, in the mean time, I've updated the BIOS from 3.0b to 3.5, which was a pain in the ass to do (new article being prepared).

It gave, among others, the choice to chose Either DotHill OR Adaptec as RAID adapter... I guess they are kinda compatible?

ANyways, because supermicro website talks about DotHill drivers, I chose that adapter.

This time, I got a new RAID BIOS. Strange thing is, that one disk keeps insisting it's non-raid (though other 3 discs are recognized correctly; bootdisk is ignored. I don't know why, but that's good too ;p). I deleted the 'array' consisting of 1 disk but... No errors, it just remains non-raid while the other 3 disks keep their "ok" status for RAID but are NOT in an array yet.

Then it was time to go to bed; I'll take a careful look later today after RL work to see what's up in the main BIOS...

I'll keep you posted

Devvie

[devnullius]

Ok, some more updates...

In the BIOS I disabled mixed SATA/IDE mode; then I went to the RAID Bios with Ctrl-R.

Again, I could not remove one of the disks from the array-list. But disabling SATA/IDE option gave 1 extra drive in the RAID bios (my single-disk bootdrive; 1 TB). So I again tried removing that 1 disk: this time I now get, in right column, that the disk is offline... I don't understand why either Smart logs are ok; adaptec bios didn't complain either BUT the 3-disk problem I was experiencing might find it's root causes here, somewhere. After rebooting that disk again appears in the array list in the left column... Sigh



PS: I kept talking about SCSI... I meant RAID: all posts corrected 

[devnullius]

According to http://www.manualslib.com/manual/538553/Dot-Hill-Systems-Raidcore.html?page=27 it means my disk cannot be read/written... Due to hardware failure... Gonna double-check that disk now

Devvie

POST-EDIT: drive looks peachy in my other computer... Giving it a quick test, but all smart entries are 100% ok.

[jheysen]

Gotta do a long test on it... :/

[metalmunna]

i really didn't get the scenario as you told @devnullius!!

what is RAID 10? = RAID 1(Mirroring) + RAID 0(Striping)
Did you create 2 mirroring first on 4 Disk? and then you need to create striping on both mirrored drive! then it comes RAID 10! you will get a single drive after then!
If you system have the option on BIOS to configure the RAID 10 before walk through on the server, then done it first and then when you will go to install the Server, you should find a single drive(RAID configured drive) to configure as server hard disk.

Don't forget to mark the RAID drive as Primary or Boot drive or something like that if you need to use that as boot drive, you should have that option too on RAID configuration page.

really without watching some issue it's hard to understand what's the problem or from where comes! i never see any issue on there if need to create the RAID drive before installing the server.

Or i might not get it and i am drunk ...... will read again later.

PS; i just read again to understand! if you create the RAID on 4 hard disk as RAID 10 then on your "disk management" will show a single disk, how comes 3 or 4? i mean if you done that by BIOS or on RAID preboot configuration before installing the server.

[metalmunna]

Hmmm... I don't have any ideas, this will have to wait for "J." or "MM" - experts opinions.

sorry man, i just saw the topic ... i a damn disturbed on my damn unchanged life, you know. i just trying to avoid the whole fu*king world some times.

[jheysen]

I would wait for the results of the disk tests, sounds like the RAID controller is defaulting to non-RAID operation due to the failing drive.