Yesterday I had the opportunity to play with prolient server. Nothing flash anymore, only dual P2/400. Kinda slow now.

It has a PERC 2 RAID controller connecting to a hot swap drive bay in the front, with three 8G drives. (massive huh?)
Before it was handed to us, the techs had removed the settings of the RAID drive 'containers' (groupings of drives in the array). I created a new container but could only add one of the drives to a container; ever. I removed the good drive to see if the controller would pick up the other drives (they were visible, formattable, checkable, but not available). No dice.
I have been able to install Novell, Linux and Win2k3 on this drive all in succession and none of them could do anything with the other drives as the controller was not making them available

Has anyone had any experience with this server or RAID card? I'd like to be able to know what to use to get these drives working

Umm, I have no clue what model Proliant that is, since we never made a 4300, and we never used a "PERC2 RAID" Controller.

Being a dual P2 400, I'm guessing PL1600 or a PL3000. PL1600 is going to be similar to a normal tower chassis, but with modular parts in the back for the PCI and processor cages. PL3000 is going to be quite a bit bigger, and have probably 8 PCI slots.

The array controller I am guessing is a third party device thrown in by the past owner. All Proliant array controllers are "Smart Array" controllers, and integrate well with the server.

Did you get a SmartStart CD with the server?

edit: Actually, searching around, looks like it might be a Dell PowerEdge 4300 server with a PowerEdge Raid Controller (PERC). Can't help you with that one, never had much experience with Dell servers.

Yep, 4300 and PERC means its a Dell.
OMG Dude, you got a Dell ! ! !
Unfortunately, the 4300 is one of Dells earlier attempts at making a real server and as such SUCKS ROYALLY
Start from square one.
Unless the controller configures all of the drives into an array, your OS will not see a thing.
Boot the server and wait to be prompted to hit CTRL - M
In the resultant menu, you should be able to create a new array/logical drive and initialize it.
Watch out the the menu items, the yes/OK prompt jump all over the from screen to screen with no consistancy.
you must create the Array, logical drive and initialize it before your OS will see anything.
Good luck!

I've got essentially the same server (mine is the 2300) and RAID card. I need to add another disk to a virtual disk and then resize it.

I have been putting it off for months as before I can do it I have to upgrade about half a dozen bits of firmware/driver/utility, in the right order, before I can do it...

I have been putting it off for months as before I can do it I have to upgrade about half a dozen bits of firmware/driver/utility, in the right order, before I can do it...

Well, if the OS is Windows 2000, part of the blame can go to Microsoft for developing a disk format that puts the partition information at the end of the disk. Service Pack 3 now deals with hardware drive expansion properly.

*bang*
/body falls limply to floor, blood trickles from gaping wound in head. BBS colleagues stand around nodding sagely and muttering that they knew it would come to this.

Yes I mean PowerEdge 4300. I'd just done an assignment using an HP Prolient thing and it infected my head. I'll sue someone, maybe the dog.

Are you sure it's Ctrl+M, ashmore?
I've done Ctrl+A to get the PERC2 bios setup. What I haven't tired now that I can get one drive is using the Dell driver CD. It needed a partition to put stuff on before. Maybe that'll help

I spoke to the tech today and all they did before giving it to us was remove one of the drives from the RAID container. Would that affect the disks if they were still assigned somewhere? Where is this stored? On the controller? I've formatted the drives from the controller.

Steps 1 & 2: Flash upgrade Mobo Bios & PERC2 firmware.
Step 3: Set up RAID how you want it in the RAID's config screens (as horrible as they are). That it won't set up now probably indicates a shortcoming in the BIOS (hence steps 1 & 2). You must get the RAID groupings set up here, the OS has NOTHING to do with it. Once this is done, the OS install should proceed as usual. The OS will only see the 'drive' presented to it by the PERC2. I have a Dell Poweredge 2400 with a similar (if not identical) RAID card.

-Zeke

ps: use the customized support pages (www.support.dell.com) with the service tag # to find the latest BIOS & PERC Firmware versions. DON'T FLASH UNTIL YOU'RE SURE THEY'RE THE RIGHT ONES!

Out of interest, how exactly do you recover the PERC2 if you've flashed it with a dud firmware? I got given one a while back because somebody didn't read the model number properly and flashed it with some other random firmware.
I called Dell and they didn't have a clue...

- Trevor

If it is a chip installed in a socket, you could just remove and program it in a programmer. I just did that with a motherboard BIOS that someone had flashed with a corrupt file.

Stig

DON'T FLASH UNTIL YOU'RE SURE THEY'RE THE RIGHT ONES!

Wow, Dell ROM flashes on their servers don't check to ensure it is supported for the hardware in the box? I wonder how much money they are saving by not having a software developer code this into the update vs. the worthless boards exchanged under warranty when a user uses the wrong ROM.

thanks everyone, I'll give it a shot next week.

Come to think of it, ctrl-M maybe just for the 6300 server.
I will check at work on Monday, I have several of them just lying around.
The impact of removing a disk from an array depends on how it was configured.

If you get stuck, PM me. I check the BBS at work so I can go verify on my servers here. (assuming its a weekday!)

I don't really care what the impact of disk removal is, I just want to be able to access them. There is nothing on it which is important. I put in three OS's in one day, just for 'fun'.

Well, I've never intentionally flashed an incorrect bit of firmware, so I've never tried to find out. There's so many similarly named Dell units, that I figured this needed stressing as a matter of course, just in case. Accessing Dell's support site with the Service Tag is the _best_ way to be sure you get the right drivers, they're good about that.

-Zeke

Service Tag

Random story time... One day I answered the phone in my typical way, and asked for the serial number of the unit the customer was calling in about. He proceeded to tell me he didn't have one, but he did have the service tag number from it. I told the customer I didn't know what that was, and would need the serial number off the unit to provide him the specifications he was asking for. I then explained where the serial number was located, and he proceeded to go check. He came back to the phone, explained he couldn't find it, and was starting to get upset. I tried to explain again I couldn't use this "service tag" number, and finally he said "Well, I have never needed to provide one of these serial numbers to any other Dell tech". My response "Sir, this is HP". *click*

Mind you, he managed to navigate through several menus to get to me. Menus that proclaim the person is calling HP, and generally describing HP names like Proliant. I also answered the phone with HP in the greeting. How he didn't realise his mistake is beyond me.

LOL!! That's priceless !!