Adding a Drive to a Server

Sorry for the lack of knowledge here but I've never had to do this before.

We have a Dell PowerEdge 2950 server running two hard drives. They are mirrored. I managed to set this up using the Dell Server software. I'm happy with that and it works.

However, I've just putchased a new 148Gb drive for the server to fit as well. However I want to use it as a standalone extra drive and not as part of the raid. The server is running the Perc5i hard/software.

I've put the drive in the bay - they server boots up but there is no extra drive showing - as I would expect with a normal workstation drive.

Can anyone advise? Rather naively I assumed it would just slot in. Not the case it seems.

Any help appreciated,

Gareth

Do you have to configure the drive to be in its own array, as a single drive,
(if that makes sense) so its initialized when the card comes online?

Chunks

Simply Rescan Disks in Computer Management - Disk Management.

The new disk won't be initialized so you will need to initialize it, then create and format the new volume.

If that does not work then it may need setting up in RAID Manager, on either your onboard controller or on your addin card.

D

hi

I know this will be a silly question but why dont you fit 2 drives and mirror drives 3 and 4 to protect the data.

Richard

Yeah that would be a better idea if you have the £££??

Unfortunately we do not have the cash to purchase another drive. Swansea have sliced 10% off the education budget and this is being passed onto schools. We are looking at 0 ICT spend this year.

Now onto the serious stuff - I've gone into the PERC5/i configuration screen and I can see the drive there. We have what I assume is an array with the two drives mirrored. The third drive is showing as ready - but there is no way to initialise it. I simply cannot find the command to do this.

I can Force it to be ready but this throws up a load of warnings.

Do I need to set up a new array with 1 drive? There is probably an obvious setting there.

And on another note, does anyone have the latest version of the Dell Open Manage sofware? We have 5.2.0 and it doesn't support Windows 2008 - only up tp 2003R2

Gareth

You need to go into the perc bios. Then create a new virtual hard disk that uses raid 0. Add your single disk to this. Then initialize it.

Windows will then see it. You will need to go into computer manager and format it.


The open manage software is currently on 6.2 you can download that here: Drivers and Downloads

When you install the new version of open manage it may ask you to update raid controller drivers and firmware you can download all that here - Drivers & Downloads

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FN-GM

You need to go into the perc bios. Then create a new virtual hard disk that uses raid 0. Add your single disk to this. Then initialize it.

Windows will then see it. You will need to go into computer manager and format it.


The open manage software is currently on 6.2 you can download that here: Drivers and Downloads

When you install the new version of open manage it may ask you to update raid controller drivers and firmware you can download all that here - Drivers & Downloads

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Morning,

If I could add more than one thanks to you for this post then I would.

I found the drivers page for all of that but spent a fair while looking for the new Open Manage software - all I got was version 5.something which was a Linux install and was for setting up the server from scratch.

Again thanks - now to suss out this Perc bios.

Gareth

No worries let me know how you get on

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FN-GM

No worries let me know how you get on

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All worked. The version of the Dell Management software let me set up a new virtual disk set with one drive. My WDS server is now back online. :-)

I updated the PERC5/i Windows software based on what the management console was telling me. I've downloaded the BIOS drivers but discovered today that the floppy drive on the server is broken and the Techie has lost the USB floppy drive that I sometimes use. :-( I'm not best pleased.

I wonder if I could boot from CD to update the PERC bios - USB memory stick perhaps. Will try them tomorrow.

Thanks again for you help,

Gareth