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19748
June 19th, 2014 21:00
PowerEdge 2950 Boot
Hi, I am not a hardware person at all, so please be patience with me.
I have recently acquired two PowerEdge 2950. Currently I do not have any OS installed, nor do i know whether the two hard drive that came with it are actually functional. I install the two hard drives in the server and powered up. The hard drives blinked once and the indicator stayed off. I try to get into the raid controller to see whether or not the hard drives are working, or showing up, as suggested by my worker.
Supposedly there should be an option (Ctrl + R) on start up to enter RAID controller BIOS, but its missing from my server for reason. I thought the bio for server was old, therefore, I updated to the latest (2.0.7 i believe). Still, it is now showing the option. I then thought may be the RAID controller is not recolonized by the server, so I unplugged the RAM from RAID controller and started the server, but resulted in an error stating that RAM is missing.
All the above observations are the same in both servers that I have.
Ultimately, I am just trying to install a server OS onto these servers and now the hard drives are not recognized by the server.
Please help me with this issue.
Thanks,
Qun
theflash1932
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June 20th, 2014 08:00
This is normal, but all it shows is that the controller is at least minimally functional. Most hardware failures don't result in a dead piece of circuitry, but rather malfunctioning circuitry.
qungg
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June 19th, 2014 22:00
Thank you for the response.
From set up screen, the integrated raid controller is already set to enabled. I think the RAID controller model is PERC5I. I did not see any text about "RAID" showing up in the start up screen, or any CTRL-R or CTRL-C options.
Thanks,
Qun
qungg
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June 19th, 2014 22:00
Thank you once again for replying.
I reseated the card as you instructed, but the CTRL-R prompt is still not showing up.
Also tried clearing NVRAM but the same result.
I'm fairly sure these are working condition when I got then last week. It would be a surprise to me if both of the RAID controller are bad.
However, if that is the case, is there anyway I can bypass the raid controller and use the hard drive without raid?
theflash1932
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June 19th, 2014 22:00
Keep the RAM in the controller.
You will see one of two prompts during POST, depending on your RAID controller model. You may have CTRL-R or you may have CTRL-C. Watch the screens as it boots up and press the key combination once you see it on the screen. You need to go to the BIOS Setup (F2) and make sure that the Integrated RAID is enabled.
theflash1932
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June 19th, 2014 22:00
The PERC 5/I uses CTRL-R to access its configuration utility.
If it is enabled but you are not seeing the CTRL-R prompt, then your controller(s) is most likely bad.
You can try removing the card, boot up, power down, insert card, power on and see if it recognizes it.
You could also try clearing the NVRAM using the jumpers on the motherboard.
theflash1932
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June 19th, 2014 23:00
Even if there was some setting someplace that would affect the controller, clearing the NVRAM would reset all BIOS values to default, erasing whatever setting was preventing it from working. When you reset the NVRAM, did you power on until you saw the message about the jumper being installed?
The controller plugs into a PCIe slot on the "sideplane" ... check the cable connections from the sideplane to the motherboard.
No. The backplane, to which all the drives connect, must be connected to "some" controller via a SAS cable. The onboard SATA ports are not intended for hard drives, even if you could connect one to them.
qungg
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June 20th, 2014 07:00
Yes, the nvram clearing message was shown after I moved the jumper. Connection seems fine too.
May be the RAID Controllers is bad? But I did realized that when I dont plug in the RAID Controller, the integrated RAID Controller option is not showing in the SETUP(F2). However, it showed up after I inserted into the server...
Thanks,
Qun
theflash1932
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June 20th, 2014 08:00
I agree that it is very odd that both would be experiencing the same thing, but there really isn't much to it ... it should just show up if it is enabled and working.
qungg
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June 20th, 2014 08:00
Ok, I think I will looking into getting a replacement RAID Controller.
Thank you a lot for all the replies.
- Qun
qungg
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June 20th, 2014 09:00
Actually, there's one more thing I forgot to mention.
The RAID Controller did not come with a RAM stick. So I put a spare RAM Stick in there. I am not sure whether or not this could have change anything? May be it needs a special bus/speed RAM?
theflash1932
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June 20th, 2014 09:00
This is probably your issue. RAID controllers are very picky about the memory they use, and in many cases, general system memory will not work.
It must be 256MB, DDR2, 400MHz, Registered ECC memory (the geometry/layout matters too, but I don't know the specs) ... you should get only validated memory for it:
http://www.memoryx.com/del256mbd400r.html?gclid=CPT29JLhiL8CFUFrfgodRkYAsw