About C-series server RAID configuration

[hanxiao84]

Hi Guys,

I have a problem with the RAID configuration. When I want try to boot up the server from the local harddisk, I found the server cannot recognize the HD.

I can see the server detect the LSI controller and HD from the BIOS boot history, and I can enter the MegaRAID wevBIOS to configure the HD.

If I do not use the RAID for the server, normally I can see it in the boot option, like "#0600 ID03 LUN0 SEAGATE". But in the current server, I find the server do not show any local HDs in the boot option.

So if any configuration need to change? I did not configure the RAID.

If anyone can help me, thanks!

[Robert Burns]

Han,

Check the BIOS Sata Mode  under the Mass Storage configuration  - Advanced Tab.

See this guide for configuring the RAID controller to handle your local disks:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/sw/os/install/RAID.html#wp1014394

Regards,

Robert

[K P SIM]

Robert:

What happen if customer does not want to have any RAID at all? Sound weird, but I remembered one EMC engineer asked me before.

Appreciate your inputs as ususal.

Thanks.

Sim

[Robert Burns]

Sim,

Hopefully you didn't spend money on an add-on RAID controller .

You can use the on-board RAID controller to "manage" the individual disks and just keep them as independent disks w/o creating a RAID set. Obviously this offers no redundancy so use with caution.

Regards,

Robert

[hanxiao84]

Hi Robert,

First, thanks for your reply.

But I think it would be some misunderstanding here. For the RAID controller, a noboard one( for SATA disk, interagted in the IOH chipset) and the other one ( RAID card).

If I want to use the RAID card, should I disable the onboard one?

When I using the LSI RAID card, and also I do not need to do any RAID for the disk, I just try to test if the controller can detect the disk.

Power up the server and press F6, the logs on the screen will show the disk and the LSI card. But when the system boot to the boot menu, I cannot see any disks in the list.

If it means the server cannot detect the disk or any configuration need to be done first?

[richard.pugh]

Although you are not setting any RAID, you still need to go to the controller setting and choose which disk is your boot disk. Once selected it should work fine.

[hanxiao84]

We need to set the local disk to online status, right?

I did not find any documents can help me to do this kind configuration.

If anyone can give me some instructions? This is very confused for our hardware team.

Thanks!