PE1550 with Perc 3/DC - RH4 install probs

[Nick_Parrott at Dell.com]

Hi Faris,

It's possible there is still an issue with the VD.. when you initialise,
you are most likely doing a fast initialisation. In a case like this
where you have problems, I'd be tempted to blitz the array, delete it
from the config and ensure that the initialisation mode on the PERC is
NOT set to FAST INIT.

Objects > Adapter > Fast Initialisation (Set to OFF)

Create a new array and then start the init. It will take some time, but
will perform a full init, rather than just starting on the first few
blocks and continuing in the background while you boot your OS and
attempt to write to the VD. Stay in the PERC BIOS for this process...

You can verify the state of the disks somewhat by doing the following;
Objects > Physical Drive > 'Select each drive and press F2 to see any
medium/comms errors'

I'd also recommend updating firmwares beforehand;
http://tinyurl.com/3fqqxj

If that doesn't work, come back to us, may be time to get a TTY log (can
be done from floppy or liveCD)

Regards,

Nick

-----Original Message-----
From: linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com
[mailto:linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com] On Behalf Of Faris Raouf
Sent: 07 October 2008 07:56
To: linux-poweredge-Lists
Subject: PE1550 with Perc 3/DC - RH4 install probs

We've recently pulled a PE1550 from frontline duty. It has lasted
amazingly
well considering it has been in constant service since 2000 or 2001,
moved
between at least 3 datacentres and survived two power spikes. 

I have it here in the office now and I wanted to do something useful
with
it. I figured I may as well install Centos/RedHat 4 on it, then try to
get
Vmware Server running (or alternatively install ESXi on it).

It has a Perc 3/DC card with 3x 36Gb 15k drives configured as RAID5.

Unfortunately it won't play ball. ESXi says it can't write to the hard
disk
and crashes on install.

The Centos 4 installer sees the logical volume and lets me partition it,
but
then immediately bombs out saying it can't write to disk and I probably
don't have any free disk space. 

I'm hoping someone has had similar problems and knows exactly what to do
;-)

I've done the Google thing but I'm none the wiser for it. Matt's page
comes
up a lot but I can't quite figure out if there's anything helpful there
or
not, as it seems to imply that RH4 supports most things out of the box
with
no hassles.

I've tried formatting each drive, initialising the logical drive again
and
again....I don't think there's a hardware fault. It passes its
diagnostics
with flying colours.

Faris.




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