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Dell Poweredge R720 (No drives detected)
I haven't really used any Dell servers before so sorry in advance if this is a dumb question.
Back story - I recently inherited a recycled R720 server which used only SAN storage and no physical drives. I purchased 8 x 1TB SATA 7K drives which are Dell certified enterprise class drives. This system has a S110 software raid available but nothing else. When I power it up I get 1 green blip on the drives and nothing else. The drives are not detected in BIOS nor in the S110.
After looking through manual I noticed an 'integrated storage controller card' shown in the diagram for the 8x 3.4" back-pane setup.
Question:
Do I need this integrated storage card? I was looking at purchasing a PERC H710
DELL-Daniel My
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December 29th, 2016 13:00
Hello
You should be able to use the S110 RAID controller that is integrated into the system board with the 3.5" x8 backplane. Check to make sure there is a SAS cable connected from the backplane to the system board. It should be connected to the SAS connector labeled SW RAID on the system board. A diagram of the connectors should be on the top panel of the server.
You will need to enable the S110 in the BIOS to use the backplane. In the system BIOS locate the SATA settings. Set it to RAID to enable the S110. Once it is enabled you should have an option to boot into the PERC S110 BIOS during system startup. You can configure the drives in the PERC BIOS. Only the first 4 slots will function with an S110.
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neemobeer
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December 29th, 2016 14:00
I double checked all of the cables (SAS, signal and power) connectors and the SAS cable(s) are plugged into the SW raid port. I also verified the embedded sata is set to RAID. Still no go. Any other ideas?
DELL-Daniel My
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December 29th, 2016 15:00
One common mistake made when first working with hot plug drive carriers is properly inserting them. Make sure you have fully inserted the drives. When you insert the drives into the backplane the handle should be out, not pressed in. Once the drive is inserted most of the way you will then push in the handle to snap them into place.
If you still have issues then check your cabling again. Check to see which SAS connector on the backplane the cable is connected. Also, list which slots the drives are in. There is something about your configuration that is not compatible or installed correctly. You need to provide as much information as possible so someone can locate the problem. Part numbers from the drives would also be useful. The S110 is a SATA controller. A part number would help verify that you have installed SATA drives that are compatible with the controller.
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neemobeer
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December 30th, 2016 16:00
The hard drives I have a WD1003FBYZ SATA drives. After examining the back plane it is actually a SAS back plane with 2 SAS data cables running into a single connector that go into the internal SAS controller on the mothoer board near the SW Raid port. With the top of the case of and a flashlight I can confirm the drivers are seated all the way. I've read that SATA drives will still work in a SAS back plane. Is there a way to get this to work such as a different cable from the back plane to the SW RAID port or a different RAID controller. I'm fine if I need to purchase other parts.
DELL-Daniel My
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December 31st, 2016 14:00
The SAS cables should go into the SW RAID port, not a port near it.
That is not a Dell hard drive. The issue may be drive compatibility. If you use drives that are not validated for the system they may not function at all, may partially function, or may operate normally. I would suggest testing with a different model of SATA drive if you have any available.
That is not always true. It is true in this case though. SAS is backwards compatible with SATA.
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neemobeer
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January 10th, 2017 10:00
As stated previously the cable that came with the server is a 2 to 1 SAS cable the connector at the motherboard end is twice the width of a mini SAS SFF 8087 cable so there is no way it can plug into the SW RAID port. I did buy a mini SAS cable and plugged that into the SW RAID port and was able to detect the drives in the S110 software RAID. I'm trying to use this as a VMware ESXi server, so I've settled on purchasing an additional mini SAS SFF 8087 cable and a PERC H310 hardware card to work with VMware. I think I'm good to go on this.