Dell r710 help

[Razor Blade]

To get into the BIOS on an R710 it is F2. To boot from the USB you go into the BIOS and check under "Boot Settings" to make sure your USB stick shows up. Then under "Boot  Sequence" you can configure the boot order.

 

As for your RAID card, using the F2 key in the RAID configuration menu brings up your functions menu. Any disks that have a foreign array will not be available to configure as a virtual disk. You would have to clear the configuration first which will destroy any data on the disk. After that you can put your disks into an array.

[Oli1549]

5 minutes ago, Razor Blade said:

To get into the BIOS on an R710 it is F2. To boot from the USB you go into the BIOS and check under "Boot Settings" to make sure your USB stick shows up. Then under "Boot  Sequence" you can configure the boot order.

 

As for your RAID card, using the F2 key in the RAID configuration menu brings up your functions menu. Any disks that have a foreign array will not be available to configure as a virtual disk. You would have to clear the configuration first which will destroy any data on the disk. After that you can put your disks into an array.

Ok thanks for this, im not yet implementing this on my network as i dont yet have a HBA card.

 

I wanted some reassurance before i put my 2 2TB hard drives into this setup and risk losing my 3TB worth of data;

once I put this in my server: NIC

 it should be as simple as inserting my drives, opening the RAID configuration, making sure they are there and booting from the usb to unraid?

 

This bit confuses me and is vital i get correct.

 

Thanks.

[Razor Blade]

29 minutes ago, Oli1549 said:

Ok thanks for this, im not yet implementing this on my network as i dont yet have a HBA card.

 

I wanted some reassurance before i put my 2 2TB hard drives into this setup and risk losing my 3TB worth of data;

once I put this in my server: NIC

 it should be as simple as inserting my drives, opening the RAID configuration, making sure they are there and booting from the usb to unraid?

 

This bit confuses me and is vital i get correct.

 

Thanks.

Nope. Do not put drives with data in an array with the Perc controller or you will lose that data.

 

The Perc6/i is incapable of pass through. The RAID card creates a virtual disk that your OS would see. In order to do that you initialize the disk once it is part of a RAID array. This process on the Perc6/i will erase all of the data on the disk.

[Oli1549]

2 minutes ago, Razor Blade said:

Nope. Do not put drives with data in an array with the Perc controller or you will lose that data.

 

The Perc6/i is incapable of pass through. The RAID card creates a virtual disk that your OS would see. In order to do that you initialize the disk once it is part of a RAID array. This process on the Perc6/i will erase all of the data on the disk.

i dont understand, i have a perc controller now i guess, but the HBA is not a perc controller?

[Razor Blade]

Just now, Oli1549 said:

i dont understand, i have a perc controller now i guess, but the HBA is not a perc controller?

No. The Perc 6/i is a RAID controller. It doesn't have the ability to pass through drives. If you boot into UnRAID without creating a virtual drive in the Perc controller UnRAID will not see your drives.

 

Like I said in your previous thread a HBA that can pass hard drives through to your OS is what you would need for something like UnRAID.

[Oli1549]

Just now, Razor Blade said:

No. The Perc 6/i is a RAID controller. It doesn't have the ability to pass through drives. If you boot into UnRAID without creating a virtual drive in the Perc controller UnRAID will not see your drives.

 

Like I said in your previous thread a HBA that can pass hard drives through to your OS is what you would need for something like UnRAID.

yes ok, and with HBA, is it just plug and play?

[Razor Blade]

1 minute ago, Oli1549 said:

yes ok, and with HBA, is it just plug and play?

Sort of... You have to make sure whatever HBA you choose will connect to your backplane and the firmware will support the drives you intend to plug into it. There are a lot of different cards out there that would probably work. I only have experience with a few...so make sure to research and ask questions before you buy one. Also that the OS that you use can support the HBA...which usually isn't much of an issue unless it is some odd proprietary hardware or something...

[Oli1549]

1 minute ago, Razor Blade said:

Sort of... You have to make sure whatever HBA you choose will connect to your backplane and the firmware will support the drives you intend to plug into it. There are a lot of different cards out there that would probably work. I only have experience with a few...so make sure to research and ask questions before you buy one. Also that the OS that you use can support the HBA...which usually isn't much of an issue unless it is some odd proprietary hardware or something...

what would you reckon to that hba card i linked working with my SAS backplane, i have no idea about the firmware and that to be honest.

[Razor Blade]

12 minutes ago, Oli1549 said:

what would you reckon to that hba card i linked working with my SAS backplane, i have no idea about the firmware and that to be honest.

It looks like this one

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-IT-Mode-LSI-9211-8i-SAS-SATA-8-port-PCI-E-6Gb-s-RAID-Controller-Card/153073495364?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20160323102634%26meid%3Dbcf906dc67c94036bc63300151b4d28c%26pid%3D100623%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D131829448255%26itm%3D153073495364&_trksid=p2047675.c100623.m-1

 

is already flashed in IT mode which would cut out a step for you.

[beersykins]

You need a h200 probably which also needs to be flashes into IT mode or similar and different backplane cables.  That's a hba which doesn't support raid and will passthrough the drives.

 

I'm pretty sure these would be compatible but you'd want to do some double checking before ordering.

 

https://www.amazon.com/CableDeconn-Internal-36-Pin-SFF-8087-Cable/dp/B00S7KU3

 

I'm having to do something similar upgrading the perc6/I to a h700 in this r610.

[Oli1549]

3 minutes ago, Razor Blade said:

It looks like this one

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-IT-Mode-LSI-9211-8i-SAS-SATA-8-port-PCI-E-6Gb-s-RAID-Controller-Card/153073495364?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20160323102634%26meid%3Dbcf906dc67c94036bc63300151b4d28c%26pid%3D100623%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D131829448255%26itm%3D153073495364&_trksid=p2047675.c100623.m-1

 

is already flashed in IT mode which would cut out a step for you.

thanks.

 

[Oli1549]

12 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Unraid its really ment for use without a raid card.

 

And there are many other hypervisors for running vms, and are much better at running vms with many more options and are free. Look at proxmox, esxi, and hyper-v server.

Also, to do this id need to use a perc controller, and to be honest I have no experience whatsoever on these, id have no idea how to do redundancy on these raids either. 

 

And then it comes back to, would it do what I needed? NAS, VM’s/windows 2012 servers. 

 

It’s definitely a option to upgrade but for me I feel it’s beyond my ability. The servers woujd he running game servers like arma 3, fairly resourceful, I’m not sure if that would be fine on a unraid VM. Unless I had 2 servers? 1 for nas(my current one) and 1 for game servers and whatever else? Your opinion would he greatly apriciated.

[Electronics Wizardy]

5 hours ago, Oli1549 said:

Also, to do this id need to use a perc controller, and to be honest I have no experience whatsoever on these, id have no idea how to do redundancy on these raids either. 

 

And then it comes back to, would it do what I needed? NAS, VM’s/windows 2012 servers. 

 

It’s definitely a option to upgrade but for me I feel it’s beyond my ability. The servers woujd he running game servers like arma 3, fairly resourceful, I’m not sure if that would be fine on a unraid VM. Unless I had 2 servers? 1 for nas(my current one) and 1 for game servers and whatever else? Your opinion would he greatly apriciated.

Id really just use proxmox here. Better vm options, Its free, and better storage options. ANd really not much harder to use. unRAID just does some weird vm options as its KVM slapped onto a nas os instead of a true vm hypervisor.

 

What drives do you have? Id proably just make a raid 5/ 10 here.

[Oli1549]

11 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id really just use proxmox here. Better vm options, Its free, and better storage options. ANd really not much harder to use. unRAID just does some weird vm options as its KVM slapped onto a nas os instead of a true vm hypervisor.

 

What drives do you have? Id proably just make a raid 5/ 10 here.

I can use proxmox for NAS too? 

 

Drives in my unraid are 1 1TB and 1 2TB drives, going to have to find a way of moving the data across.... 

 

 

I’d buy some more drives happily, they have to be all the same? 

 

I could buy 2x 1TB drives to start with and move the data across, but what RAID should I use? I don’t know how to choose the RAID levels inside the config, would my current RAID controller be sufficient?

 

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

15 minutes ago, Oli1549 said:

I can use proxmox for NAS too? 

 

Drives in my unraid are 1 1TB and 1 2TB drives, going to have to find a way of moving the data across.... 

 

 

I’d buy some more drives happily, they have to be all the same? 

 

I could buy 2x 1TB drives to start with and move the data across, but what RAID should I use? I don’t know how to choose the RAID levels inside the config, would my current RAID controller be sufficient?

 

 

yep you can easily make a file share for a nas in proxmox

 

DO you have a  backup?

 

Id suggest you have all the same drive, Or with vms, have a couple of ssds for vms.

 

What is your current raid card?

[Oli1549]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

yep you can easily make a file share for a nas in proxmox

 

DO you have a  backup?

 

Id suggest you have all the same drive, Or with vms, have a couple of ssds for vms.

 

What is your current raid card?

I don’t have a backup, unraid does some weird shit with splitting the data across drives, once I’m ready to convert I shall merge it, I shall have to look into ways of backing it up, of tbf, don’t use that drive and just buy 2 so there are no risks. 

 

Il look at buying some. As I don’t gave great money at the moment I’m just going to get 2 300gb cheapo drives off cex so I can practise my raid settings before I risk data. 

 

Can I find out the raid card from the iDRAC? if not I’ll hsve to wait till I’m home.

 

thanks a lot for the help!

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 hours ago, Oli1549 said:

I don’t have a backup, unraid does some weird shit with splitting the data across drives, once I’m ready to convert I shall merge it, I shall have to look into ways of backing it up, of tbf, don’t use that drive and just buy 2 so there are no risks. 

 

Il look at buying some. As I don’t gave great money at the moment I’m just going to get 2 300gb cheapo drives off cex so I can practise my raid settings before I risk data. 

 

Can I find out the raid card from the iDRAC? if not I’ll hsve to wait till I’m home.

 

thanks a lot for the help!

You need a backup if you care about your data. Get a backup now, Id look into cloud or get a big external hdd

 

 

[Oli1549]

56 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You need a backup if you care about your data. Get a backup now, Id look into cloud or get a big external hdd

 

 

I just won’t use that drive...

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

37 minutes ago, Oli1549 said:

I just won’t use that drive...

 

huh? Use that external drive as a backup. or use a cloud solution.

 

Then setup whatever raid array you want.

 

[Oli1549]

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

huh? Use that external drive as a backup. or use a cloud solution.

 

Then setup whatever raid array you want.

 

Use the current drives in my unraid as the backup. My raid controller is here: 

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Oli1549 said:

Use the current drives in my unraid as the backup. My raid controller is here: 

can't tell from that pic. Look it up in software or in the bios.

 

Or if you just bought it, they should have it in the spec list.

 

 

If the drive is in your server, its not a backup.

[Oli1549]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

can't tell from that pic. Look it up in software or in the bios.

 

Or if you just bought it, they should have it in the spec list.

 

 

If the drive is in your server, its not a backup.

What I’m meaning is, its in my current server, once the new one is up and running il move across. I will Make backups of something’s but not all. 

[Oli1549]

I cant find the RAID card on the ebay listing, how can i find it on the BIOS?

[Oli1549]

its a perc 6/i

[Oli1549]

@Electronics Wizardy

 

Ive ordered 4 300GB Hard drives and caddies for my server, thats enough to create a RAID 5 array with, which counts me for 1 drive loss. If at a later date i wish to upgrade these drives i could switch to a 1 TB right? i could always treat a drive as a loss and put a bigger one and let it re-create itself?

 

as for backing up, once im all established and familiarized i will sort some sort of off-site backup like cloud that the server can take of but thats a whole different story.

 

Ive had a play around in the RAID config and installing/using proxmox, if it can see my drives and its loaded and installed proxmox, is everything right? god knows what settings ive ended up with in RAID because i dont know what im looking at.