Raid Controller DELL R610

You cleared the config.... if the drives were in the machine when you did this, all of the data is gone.

If you are starting over or form scratch, create a new array. If this was a production machine, you will be restoring from backup.

this is a new machine., where can I find the new array setup? I don't see anything in the RAID configuration.

You would be looking for menu items relating to creating volumes. Create a new volume....select your disks, your RAID level, hot spare if applicable and then initialize... last step can take a while but worth the wait.

When I reboot the server though the Hard drives for some reason don't power on! before I cleared out the previous RAID it was working with Raid 1.

When you go in to RAID manager, does it see your physical volumes?

nope! shows my logical volumes at 0

Have you tried pulling them one by one to see if any are holding it down?

Tread carefully ...  First, the original configuration CAN be restored, but you have to build it exactly EXACTLY as it was before, from the drive ordering, block size, etc.. You also have to disable any automated actions like initialization.  

If you guess wrong, then your data will be lost forever. If you build a new raid configuration or even assign a spare, or change a disk, you have high probability of full data loss.

Two options
1. Professional recovery
2. Get a NON-RAID LSI SAS controller and mount the disks to it, and use a product like runtime.org's RAID recovery software.  This will let you build the RAID on a scratch drive, like a large SATA, then you can image to it, and then build a new RAID config & restore.  (Note if you do not have the proper controller and cabling then this can be expensive).

I think a simple question would be
What Raid controller are you using? The R610 has many options

Perc 6/i Raid Controller
Dell-R610-HD-problem.JPG

Also, I have tried pulling each one by one and restarting it to see if it will recognize ANY of the drives.  The drives are all blank and brand new so I am not worried about losing the data.

You don't need ANY of the data?   Then no worries.  Build a new configuration.  The O/S is only going to see LOGICAL RAID VOLUMES  (I.e, VDs) that are created by arranging the PDs into the desired config.

Select VD mgmt, then set up the RAID the way you want to, then initialize them, and you are good to go,

i had this same issue on an HP server.  it turned out that the drives I had (seagate) were not compatible.  I ended up replacing with WD drives which solved my issue.

I cant say for certain because I usually just use system builder... but from what I am reading, the PERC6/I is for SAS drives only.... Are all of your drives SAS or just SATA?

All my drives are brand new SAS HDD's from Dell, identical to the other HDD's in the other identical servers.
@dlethe, i can't setup a new raid configure a new VD configuration because it doesn't give me that option, not highlighted.  None of the systems in the server are recognizing that there are even hard drives connected.

bad-hd-1.JPG

bad-hd-2.JPG

please show the screen that reports the physical disk info

have you tried flashing the raid bios?  could be a bug?

The screenshot helped.  It doesn't provide part numbers, but you need to look below at a comparison chart.  SOME of the 6i models have a hard limit of just 4 disks, others can go to 8 or 16, but only if there is onboard cache.  The link below gives you the differences  ....


topics/topic.aspx/global/products/pvaul/topics/en/us/raid_controller?c=us&l=en&cs=555

BUT I emphasize, this is an UNTESTED, UNSUPPORTED configuration.  You are placing your data at risk.  My official recommendation is to abandon this effort and get a controller that has been qualified with SSDs.  

Sorry, here is the full link:
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/global/products/pvaul/topics/en/us/raid_controller?c=us&l=en&cs=555

it was a physical issue not a software issue