CentOS doesn't see HDD on Dell R710 Server

[jeremiahlandi]

Hello all,

I am running a Dell R701 with the following specifications:
• Dell PowerEdge R710 Server
• 2 L5520 Procs
• Perc 6/i RAID
• 1TB SSD
I am trying to install the latest version of CentOS (CentOS-Stream-x86_64-dvd1.iso) onto the server via the USB port on the front of the machine.
When I go to run the installation from the USB stick it goes through the normal process; however, does not show any hard drives. I have narrowed the issue down to the RAID that is associated with the R710; however, I have not been able to overcome this issue.

I first tried botting into “rescue Mode” and using the `dmraid -r -E /dev/sdb`; however, the command line said that it couldn’t find the dmraid command. I moved onto the second command `dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1024 count=20`. The second `dd~ command string ran without any issues, but I wasn't sure how to kick off the installation after running it.
When I reboot the R710 the system no longer finds the virtual RAID and makes me setup the RAID again which continues the vicious cycle all over again.

I was wondering if someone could help out and let me know how I could kick off the installation without having to reboot the machine causing me to have to reconfigure the RAID.

My next step is to try and install CentOS 6 and see if the kicks the issue or not. I have read on forums that older versions of CentOS handle the RAID better hopefully preventing me from having to do all this workaround.

Research Done:
• CentOS7 installer fails to see HDDs [SOLVED] – CentOS viewtopic.php?t=49069
• viewtopic.php?t=55898
• https://centosfaq.org/centos/centos-ins ... ard-drive/
• Re: Can't find hard disk where to install CentOS 7 viewtopic.php?f=47&t=56499

[TrevorH]

I'm pretty sure that the RAID controller in an R710 is too old to be supported by CentOS 8. In addition, you say you will try CentOS 6 but that only has 1 year of life left. CentOS 7 should support it so I'd use that.

[Xenorites]

Those adapters are based on the SAS2008 chipset, which was depreciated in EL8. To get those cards to function now, you have to use an oemdrv disk during installation, or install the kmod-mpt3sas package from ELRepo once the machine is set up.

If you use the oemdrv disk method, make sure to manually update dracut before updating the kernel; the dracut that ships with 8 does not work correctly.