[SOLVED] Why is it Intel Embedded Server RAID Technology II limited to 2 Terabyte?

[vjbangis]

I have Intel S5000VSA motherboard with 6pcs of 1Terabyte hard drive.

Installing CentOS-6.0 64Bit. detected 2.8 Terabyte

Enabled Embedded Server RAID Technology II as RAID10.

During installation, i've downloaded drivers from Intel
"Intel? ESRT-2 SATA & SAS Software RAID Driver for Linux*"

follow the instruction to load driver at boot prompt
"boot: linux dd blacklist=ahci"

detected the RAID10 but on partitioning, my max storage is only 2 Terabyte.

Is there anyway to properly load or install the driver for this motherboard please?

TIA!

[TrevorH]

Chances are that it's not the driver that is the problem but the size of the disk is too big for fdisk and the standard MS-DOS type partition table. Did you try using a GPT label on the device?

[vjbangis]

@TrevorH

Thanks a lot for giving me idea of GPT.

Installing CentOS-6.0 64bit on Intel S5000VSA motherboard with RAID10
6 X 1 Terabyte Hard drives

Download [url=http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Search.aspx?Prod_nm=SATA+SAS+Software+RAID+Driver&lang=eng]ESRT-2 Linux Driver[/url]

copy "megasr-14.00.1203.2010-1-rhel60-ga-x86_64.img" to USB drive and plugin to Intel S5000VSA server

Change boot options 1. CD/DVD drive 2. ICHx

Enable ESRT2
Select Advanced > ATA Controller Configuration
Set On board SATA Controller to Enabled
Set SATA Mode to Enhanced
Set Configure SATA as RAID to Enabled

Press - during server boot up to activate the Intel? Embedded Server RAID Technology II Configuration Utility.
Create RAID10

Press "ESC" key to enter boot prompt. and type "linux dd blacklist=ahci" and hit "Enter"
boot: linux dd blacklist=ahci

open shell prompt: (Ctrl+Alt+F2)
type in "parted /dev/sdb"
mklabel gpt
reboot

Press "ESC" key to enter boot prompt. and type "linux dd blacklist=ahci" and hit "Enter"
boot: linux dd blacklist=ahci

then proceed to installation. That's it!!! :-D

[pschaff]

Welcome to the CentOS fora. Please see the recommended reading for new users linked in my signature.

Thanks for reporting back. Marking this thread [SOLVED] for posterity.

[jstacey]

Thanks for these instructions to install ESRT2 driver, but I don't understand why you copied the driver to USB drive? When did it prompt you to load the megasr driver??

The "Rocks" cluster software I'm installing is Centos6 based distro and it has it's own frontend for the install but I think I can do something similar to what you did to get the Intel built-in raid working.

[TrevorH]

He copied the img file to a USB drive because he used linux dd blacklist=ahci to invoke the installer kernel. The 'dd' part tells the installer that you have a driver disk and it stops and asks you where it is, then you point it at the USB stick and hopefully it loads the driver and then it can find the RAID controller...