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After disk reinstallation 2 disks in RAID1 became foreign // PowerEdge r720
Hello community, I'm a newbie in DELL servers, so need your advice.
First of all, we have PowerEdge r720 with 4 HDDs, two 2TB SAS with RAID 1 and two SAS 1TB in RAID 1 too.
After the 1 of the HDD was plugged out and plugged in the slot, it's activity LED was no more blinking green. After the server start, half of our VMs were unavailable due to storage connect lost.
We opened a BIOS, where we can see, that the one of the virtual disks is no more available. When we came to Physical disks management page, we've seen that both of 2TB HDDs are became foreign. One of them is in status (Foreign)Online, the other is (Foreign)Rebuild Pending.
Some of the Guides I've read say that after clearing the foreign configuration all data from disks will be erased, others say that the data will not be lost. Who of them are right?
How we can restore those disks without losing data?
If we will use Import Foreign Configuration option, will the other two disks still be working as usual?
Thanks you all in advance!
DELL-Erman O
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May 11th, 2023 04:00
Hi, a foreign disk state is caused by a mismatch between the virtual disk configuration information on the disk and the controller. This can happen if a disk is removed and reinserted, or swapped with another disk.
To resolve this issue, you have two options: clearing or importing the foreign configuration. Clearing means deleting the configuration information from the disk and using the controller’s information instead. Importing means using the disk’s information and updating the controller’s information accordingly.
The choice depends on whether your virtual disk is still booting or not. If it is booting, then you should clear the foreign configuration, because the controller’s information is correct. If it is not booting, then you should import the foreign configuration, because the disk’s information is correct.
Clearing or importing the foreign configuration does not affect the data on the disk, only the configuration information. However, you should always back up your data before performing any operation on your disks.
To clear or import the foreign configuration, you can use either the RAID controller BIOS or the OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) software.
d.pustovoitov
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May 11th, 2023 23:00
Thanks for advice!
Let me ask one more dumb question
If we don't see virtual disk in VD Mgmt Menu anymore, is it correct we should use Import option?
d.pustovoitov
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May 12th, 2023 00:00
Unfortunately, we don't have any opportunity to make backups, due to lack of storage. So we also hope that all of the data will be safe.
That what we see in PD Mgmt menu:
DELL-Erman O
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May 12th, 2023 00:00
Hmm, you should check if the physical disks are showing as foreign or not. If they are, you may be able to import the foreign configuration and restore the virtual disk. I hope you have your important data backup because always a risk of data loss during this process. However when the VD Mgmt Menu does not show the virtual disk, this might indicate that the virtual disk is corrupted or deleted. Then, you might have to make a new virtual disk using the physical disks that are free. I hope you don't get an error while importing.
DELL-Erman O
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May 12th, 2023 02:00
Glad to hear it ) have a good one!
d.pustovoitov
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May 12th, 2023 02:00
Thanks for help, import helped to restore VD and all the data is available