DELL Server onboard RAID support??

kcwong13 · Post by **kcwong13** » 2011/11/01 14:57:35

Hi All,

I'm pretty new in CentOS, most of the time are dealing with Fedora.

Recently I bought a new server (DELL) and configure and onboard SATA RAID 1 with 2 HDD. When I'm trying to install CentOS 6.0, I'm found that it is not able to detect the RAID that i've configure in the BIOS. If I'm continue to install, after I've completed the installation, and I'm try to access my RAID configuration in BIOS again, I'm found that the 2 HDD are not in RAID configuration any more.

May I know whether there is some step I've missed? Or there is compatible issues for installing CentOS 6.0 with Onboard SATA RAID? Hope you all can help to advise. Below with the Spec of my server:

Dell(TM) PowerEdge(TM) R210 II Server
Dell(TM) PowerEdge(TM) R210 Rack Mount Server Heat Sink
Intel(R) Xeon(R) Processor E3-1220, 3.10 GHz, 8MB Cache, Turbo, 4C/4T, 80W
SATA HDD purchased with Dell Basic HW support carries 1 yr limited HW wrty.
This limitation excludes customers who purchased a Dell ProSupport service
Chassis, PSU and TPM Motherboard - R210 II
Electronic Instruction Manual (No hardcopy)
Ship Mod for PowerEdge(TM) R210 II (APCC)
Bezel for Dell(TM) PowerEdge(TM) R210/R310/R410/R415
Memory Info for 1 CPU config
4GB Memory (2x2GB), 1333MHz, Single Rank UDIMMs for 1 Processor
250GB 3.5-inch 7.2K RPM SATA II Hard Drive - Non Hotplug
Configuration Info Mod S100 for 2 Hard Drives
SATA 8X DVD + /-RW Drive for Ms 2008 R2
Cable for SATA Optical Drive 1
Intel Gigabit ET Dual Port Server Adapter PCIe x4
C3 R1 with PERC S100 (Embedded SATA Software RAID), Exactly 2 SATA Drives

Cheers,

Kc

Post by **TrevorH** » 2011/11/01 15:04:00

[quote]
C3 R1 with PERC S100 (Embedded SATA Software RAID), Exactly 2 SATA Drives
[/quote]

This is not a hardware RAID card but some sort of FakeRAID :-( You'd need to have something like a SAS6iR card to get the most basic Dell hardware RAID card.

kcwong13 · Post by **kcwong13** » 2011/11/01 15:25:39

[quote]
TrevorH wrote:
[quote]
C3 R1 with PERC S100 (Embedded SATA Software RAID), Exactly 2 SATA Drives
[/quote]

This is not a hardware RAID card but some sort of FakeRAID :-( You'd need to have something like a SAS6iR card to get the most basic Dell hardware RAID card.[/quote]

Hi TrevorH,

So CentOS is not able to support SATA software RAID?

Cheers,

Kc

Post by **TrevorH** » 2011/11/01 15:47:18

I'm pretty sure that Dell sell those cards as "Windows only". You might be able to use it with dmraid but judging by the (lack of) response round here to other threads asking for help with that, you may wait a long time for help!

pschaff · Post by **pschaff** » 2011/11/03 21:32:30

[quote]
kcwong13 wrote:
...
So CentOS is not able to support SATA software RAID?[/quote]
CentOS can certainly support [url=http://wiki.centos.org/?action=fullsearch&context=180&value=raid&titlesearch=Titles]software RAID[/url] as long as the controller can operate in AHCI mode rather than RAID. FakeRAID/HostRAID is a different issue, would require a driver for the specific hardware, is often less reliable/robust than software RAID, and does not offer performance advantages as there is no hardware acceleration on the controller.

CentOS