Problem with Dell PowerEdge CERC SATA RAID

Normally your array controls are accessable during the boot up.

You could also use the CD that came with the Dell to configure.

Hello Todd,
thank you for your fast answer.

I can access the configuration utility with the ctrl-A keys. But in the "MAnage arrays" menu I can not find anyplace where to rebuild the array.

The screen displaied is the following (please, copy the link, I don't know the tag to do that):
http://www.cbs-cbt.com/aa/DSCN7601.JPG

Any help will be very appreciated.

the cerc sata 6 is an adaptec based card so there isnt a quick option for a rebuild in the bios. on an adaptec card usually the rebuild will start automatically, if it doesnt you can assign the drive thats offline as a hotspare and it should start a rebuild. But judging by the make and model of the drives my bet would be one of the drives has gone bad.

OK, thank you jamietoner.

What I have to do yet is to determine which drive is bad, do you know how to do that ?

when you go to manager containers in the cerc bios and choose the container it should show which one is offline. also to test the drive, because i have seen a bad drive stay nline and the good drive get kicked offline you might want to run the diagnostics provided by dell.

I tried to tests the two drives with the utility provided by the CERC "Disk utilities" -> "Verify disk media"

Well, I'm very affraid because I've tested the two drives and the both tests failed with error message "Disk verification failed" !!!!

I don't know how it is possible to have two drives broken at the same time.

8 hours ago eveything worked fine with no errors, no RAID error ...

I think I have to concentrate yet on how recover the data on almost one disk.

One more comment :
how can I run the utilities provided by Dell because they are on a FAT partition on the drives.

I tried to launch the utilities located on Dell's CD-ROM but no one is able to tests the drive as they are connected to the RAID card.

Do you think there is a danger removing the drives from the RAID controller and plug them directly in the SATA controller of the server ?

OK, ok, thank you very much for your answers, even if they are no good news for me.

I will let the problem for tomorrow (today) because it's allready 2 am in Switzerland.

Thank you again for you extremely fasts answers, but yet I don't think it's a good idea to continue working.

I will keep you inform about the evolution of my tests and will give the points after I have resolved (or killed) the problem.

I don't think this will be the best sleep I ever had in my life ...

According to the description in your original Q, it is in the process of actually rebuilding the array.

>> ARRAY0 - RAID-1 148.96 GB - REBUILDING

>> 1 Array(s) found


So I'd just wait, it could be fine after that is finished!

Hello rindi,
it is what I also though, but just after this message the PC try to boot with the HD. I don't press any key, so it just displays the message "REBUILDING" and don't wait for complete rebuilding.

But nevermind, yet I have unplugged the two hard drives and made somes tests on the both (with Dell utility on another computer) AND THE BOTH GAVE ME "Error 7" which means "Bad sectors"

So what I have done is to connect the 2 drives as slave on a new machine. One of the drives was inccassible, but by chanche I can access the other one, so yet I have a backup of the secon drive (which have some bad sectors, because I could not read all the files)

Yet what I have to do is to call Dell and ask for the replacement of the two hard drives and reinstall my server.

I hope that the two drives have not failed due to the RAID card and this incident will never repeat !

The big job is now to rebuild the server and integrate it to the domain. The crashed server was DC, file server, DNS, ActiveDirectory ... all the stuff ! So I don't how to reintegrate a new server in a existing domain which has a dead DC. I will study that tomorrow.

I will keep you inform about my call with Dell

Thank you everybody for the help.

Glad you were able to identify the problem.

Hello everybody,
I just finish the phone call with Dell and they say exactly what we all though : the TWO hard drives are over.

So they will send me 2 new hard drives, I will receive them tomorrow.

Now I have to do the big job : rebuild the domain and retrieve Active Directory from the crashed HD (there were one HD on which I could read almost all data). I found an utility which is able to rebuild Active Directory from files (it is UMove : http://utools.com/UMove.asp) I hope this will work.

If you know another software (free if possible) able to do the same thing I will very appreciate the information.

Thank you everybody for your help, I will split the points and give the biggest part to jamietoner.

Thanks. What part of sitzerland are you from, if I may ask (I'm from kloten...)?

I'm behind the Rösti firewall ;) ... I'm in Lausanne !

Hello,
sorry to ask one more question, Dell has made an error, they sent me only one hard drive !!! Do you think I can install Windows on only one hard disk with RAID 0 and migrate to RAID 1 tomorrow when I receive the second hard drive ?

I don't know if the fact to migrate from RAID 0 to RAID 1 will loose the installation I will make.

Thank you in advance.

I don't know the capabilities of your controller but if possible I'd try to install not using raid, if you can turn that off. A non raid drive should then be able to easily be integrated into a raid1 system. Most controllers I know will allow you to select the source drive when you create the array, and then it will copy what is on this source drive to the other one.

{Off topic:

If your icehockey fan, I hope lausanne will soon replace servette in the swiss hockey league!}

Thank you rindi,
unfortunately I don't find any of these options when I try (with tests drives) to build a new array. So I will install the new server this evening once I've received the second hard drive.

Thank you very much for your assistance and fast answering.

{Off topic : I'm not a icehockey fan, but I also hope (and I'm sure) Lausanne will replace Servette }

Grin, you have to be hockey fan if you are from lausanne, the same as me coming from kloten!

You're right !
now that the world cup is over, I will support another sport !

I've allready watch one icehokey match, but could not follow the last third-time because I was scotched at the buvette ... it was perhaps the reason Lausanne loose that evening !

But nevermind, I will go to almost one match this season.

... and perhaps Lausanne will play against Kloten ... and WIN !!!!!!

No, actually the buvetter in lausanne is a very good thing, it's Irish isn't it? Usually I don't see the complete game either, except if I happen to be the poor guy that is the driver! Anyway, in lausanne we've had some good times in the pub there! I don't really mind if we loose against lausanne or ambri, if I weren't from kloten those other two would be my favourite teams! Ambri has a nice pub close to the stadium where you get real good corretto grappa....