Hi all,

I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

I am deploying a Dell R410 server with a Dell PERC H200 Controller with 4 X 300GB SAS Drives in two RAID1 arrays. I have loaded Server 2008 R2 onto the first volume. Unfortunately when I open Disc Manager the second volume is not displayed at all. However in "Dell's Open Manage Server Administrator" both Virtual disks are displayed, also while posting after the controller has initialized both arrays show up. I attempted to remove the disks in the functional array and booting with the Installation media, to my dismay the second volume could not be detected by the Windows setup which leads me to believe it is Hardware related.

 
I have contacted dell support today and according to them it is OS related, unfortunately the channel I purchased the server through did not have stock of the Dell OEM Server Standard 2008 R2, thus I was forced to acquire the package via a DSP channel and as such I am not entitled to Dell Support on the Software (won’t make that mistake again...). However the representative I spoke too did make the effort to consult the Software support team and they informed him that this is a known issue and referred me to the following article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457110.aspx

 
Now I am either thick and can’t read or these support guys have it wrong. This article is about basic usage of Disk manager however it has no information on a virtual volume not showing up in Disc Manager... So I can only conclude that they believe I am an idiot and cannot use Disk Manager to initialize the disk, even though I made it clear that there is no volume to initialize in the first place.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I am going out of town for a day or two and will only be able to check back on Monday, so if any feedback is required from me I will reply ASAP.

 
Many thanks in advance.

Regards

Thick sculled Disk Manager user. 

Hello,

I fully understand your situation.

I need to get some information before I can provide further help to you.

1. What is the OS version?

2. Do you use Hardware RAID or software RAID?

3. As you have two RAID1 arrays, how did you configure it? Can you describe the layout of the disks?

4. To troubleshoot the issue, please kindly post the Screenshot of layout of Disk Management Console on the problematic OS.

Hi,

Please have a try on reinstalling the controller. Meanwhile, whether the devices are recognized in BIOS? I'm not familiar with Dell's program. If devices are fine then we may confirm with the compatible reason between Windows 2008 R2 and the controller, as the server is not for Windows 2008 R2.

Equally thick skulled Dell H200 user here with exactly the same problem. New Dell R515 this time (very similar hardware) with H200 with 12 SAS 600GB disk drives. Sequence went like this:

1. Created volume #1 using two disks in RAID-1
2. Booted and installed Windows 2008 R2 without a problem
3. Rebooted and created volume #10 using remaining ten disks in RAID-10
4. Volume #1 disappears and Windows fails to boot

Booting into recovery command line and using diskpart only shows the new volume.

Read something very quickly about H200 only allowing one operation at once. It's currently initialising the 2nd volume. The 1st finished overnight.

I'm hoping that the 1st partition will magically re-appear when the 2nd volume has finished initialising but that's a fingers-cross situation. It's going to take ages though as the initialising is darn slow. It's only at 25% and it's been running since yesterday.

I desparately need to provision this server today!

Cheers, Rob.

I had this problem to the point and I have resolved it.  The Dell support rep stated that the PERC H200 drive was designed for "Dell" proprietary drives only and that they have released a firmware version in May or June of 2011 that resolves this:

• Component              Version                  Previous Version
  -------------            ------------                ---------------- 
  Package               07.02.42.00               07.01.33.00
  MPT Firmware       02.15.04.00                02.15.63.00
  SASBIOS                7.11.01.00                7.01.09.00  
  SASFLASH               7.00.00.00               2.00.00.01
  UEFI BSD                7.00.01.00               2.00.01.09
  NVDATA                  version 17                00.0A.00.15

Make sure the firmware version is the updated version.

Also, there is an updated driver for Server 2008 R2 that is different than the driver for Server 2008 x64 or x32.  Make sure that it is the following version:

• FILE NAME: R294479
• Device Driver for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64
  Version 2.0.35.10

There are README's included that give full instructions for Windows Installation. 

With these two components, your drives will be recognized by Server 2008 R2.  I hope this helps you or anyone else with this problem.

Robert J. McGrew

 

• Proposed as answer by Robert.McGrew Wednesday, June 29, 2011 1:52 PM

Thanks Robert.

I had the same problem, Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard.

-created two volumes, installed OS, only saw one volume. Decided to delete one and ended up deleting OS :( I did not check enough to see where it was installed/Did not see how

-Rebuild again and only created (one) RAID 1. Installed OS, installed DELL OMSA to create second volume, bluescreen and would not boot.

-Deleted Second RAID 1 and only then I was able to boot.

-Downloaded and installed above Firmware

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/driverdetails?driverid=52PY8

- Rebooted Server, went into SAS configuration and created second volume

-Voila

• Edited by r0nd4m 13 hours 58 minutes ago