From e193bc73fe57268142aa6877461c92110450f43a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Ethan Paul Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2019 16:54:43 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] Add initial raid card setup docs --- docs/hardware/raid.md | 37 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 37 insertions(+) create mode 100644 docs/hardware/raid.md diff --git a/docs/hardware/raid.md b/docs/hardware/raid.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df6d82c --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/hardware/raid.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +# Dell PERC Hardware RAID Controllers + +The Dell PERC (PowerEdge RAID Controller) line is a series of LSI cards flashed with Dell-custom firmware. I run two different models of PERC: + +* Dell PERC H310 + * One in each of the PowerEdge R410's +* Dell PERC H200 + *One in the PowerEdge R210 + +The H310 supports up to eight physical SAS6/SATA3 disks and has Dell's "large disk support" (meaning supporting drives over 2.6TB). It supports RAID configurations 0, 1, 5, and 10. It also supports non-RAID SAS/SATA passthrough. + +The H200 supports up to four physical SAS6/SATA3 disks and does not support "large" disks; each physical disk is capped at 2.6TB. It supports RAID configurations 0, 1, and 5. + +## Working with CentOS 8 + +I'm not a fancy guy. I don't need the fastest, sleekest, coolest computer on the block. At the time of this writing (2019) my R410s and R210 are like a trusty '97 Toyota Tacoma (or Carolla, for the R210). They don't have a lot of bells and whistles, but I don't need them to and they work fine for what I need. + +But I do like new software. And more importantly, I like supported software and the security updates it brings with it. So during my most recent rebuild of my homelab I figured I'd bump all three servers from CentOS 7.5 to the newly released CentOS 8 and then forget about updates until 2029. + +Unfortunately Red Hat decided to drop the drivers that support these perfectly good RAID cards from Cent8. Here's how to make it work: + +!!! note + Ensure the BIOS and RAID settings are configured properly before continuing. Optionally boot into a CentOS 7.x live image to verify everything is setup properly + +**Find RAID Card PCI ID** + +1. Burn a bootable CentOS installation live ISO to a USB drive (or CD if you're feeling old school) +2. Boot the target device off of the live image +3. Once the GUI installer is presented, press `Ctrl+Alt+F5` to switch to a different TTY session. + * You should be presented with a `root@anaconda` terminal prompt. +4. Enter the command `lspci -nn` and identify the RAID card from the list. It will have some combination of `LSI`, `megaraid`, and/or `Dell PERC` in the identifier +5. Note the PCI ID of the RAID card + +!!! note + If the RAID card is not visible in the output of `lspci` then there is likely a misconfiguration or hardware fault farther down the stack than the operating system. Check your BIOS and RAID card settings. + +**Download Drivers** \ No newline at end of file