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Adding Hotplug HD into Dell PowerEdge 2950

Hi,

Just installed additional 160GB of hotpluggble HD into my Dell PowerEdge 2950 server.

I got a solid green line and a yellow plashing light.

is there a particular task I need to perform in the BIOS etc, before VMWare be able to detect it so I can add it as DataStore?

Appreciate your help.

SOLUTION

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

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Alan_White

Hanccoka is correct, you will have to put a RAID volume on there first, even if it is just a JBOD. And yes, unfortunately with VMware running on there, you will need to reboot to get into the RAID config. If it was running Windows you could do the Raid config through the Dell Server Assistant.

I would be slightly worried by the flashing (orange?) light. That is usually an indication of predicted failure of the drive.

mcse2007

ASKER

I'm at the BIOS so which one in particular to go into?

The options are relating to HD are

SATA Port A (currently off)
SATA Port B (currently off)
Integrated Devices
PCI IRQ Assignment

Also, I ran the Dell Assistant Management disk but the thing is asking me to install a bunch of Operating System and reformat my hard disks...which is not want i want. Also, it doesn't not detect the new HD that I plugged into the server. The lighs are both solid green after a reboot.

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

Have you got RAID creation options?

mcse2007

ASKER

During the reboot, I was hoping to find anything relating to RAID, it says, found 1 logical drive, that's about it.I'll reboot again and see what I can locate.

Alan_White

It's not the BIOS you want, its the RAID controller config. Is it a PERC RAID controller? If so, it's usually CTLR + M to get into it.

When it reboots, watch all the messages that come up, it will usuallu be memory, RAC (if you have one), SCSI, then RAID.

You should probably download some manuals for your server / RAID card. If you don't know what you are doing in a RAID config, you could easliy destroy the current volumes. I've been doing this for years on Dell servers and I'm still ultra cautious when using this method of RAID config.

mcse2007

ASKER

Ok, just found it...it is CNTRL + R,

From 5/i Integrated BIOS Config Utility screen,
under Controller 0, the options are

Disk Group 0
Virtual Disk > Virtual Disk 0
Physical Disk > 01:00,
01:01
01:02

Space allocation
Virtual Disk 0

Hot Spare

What's next?

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Alan_White

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Alan_White

You will want to create a new Virtual Disk and select the new drive, but as I said above, tread carefully!

mcse2007

ASKER

Initially, (only when I have 3 disks), I ran the Dell Assistant Management disk to create Spanning Disk. Dell picked up the following:
Physical Disk > 01:00,
01:01
01:02

When I added the 4th disk, from the VD screen, it registered as 01:03, it makes sense that is the 4th disk
(i.e. :00, :01, :02, :03). It's funny when you configure the disk size, named it, accept the default settings from the advanced configuration, then hit OK, it will destroy the disk, rather than just say, it will erase or reformat. Cheers for the link, Alan, it does help alot.