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bipolardave
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April 4th, 2007 09:00
Need help with creating container/array on PowerEdge 2300.
Hello. I've just purchased a "previously enjoyed" Poweredge 2300 for my classroom. I've udpated the BIOS, ESM and backplane firmware, upgraded the processors to 700 Mhz and purchased some SCSI hard drives with sleds. I've two 9.1 GB hard drives that I'm able to format but I'm unable to create a container. I'd like for these to be mirrored as they will become the boot drives (locations 0 and 1). How can I create the array? I find nothing obvious in the setup utility or the SCSI utility (Control + A). I've tried Control + M but haven't had any luck. Secondly, I have 4 18GB IBM drives that are supposedly Ultra 2 LVD. During start up, one or two will fail to be found (usually at channel 3, but sometimes none) and all have a "!#" symbol displayed beside them during startup diagnostics. When I load the SCSI utility, the only device found is the controller. The 9.1 GB drives are also not found. Once those 18 GB drives are pulled, they are. These are IBM drives, model number 36L8651. Any advice on this issue, as well? For what it's worth, there is also a SCSI CD and an Archive "Python 04106-XXX", which I take to be the DAT drive, that are also displayed during startup....followed promptly by a SCSI BIOS not loaded message and a beep. SCSI BIOS is installed for the hard drives. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Message Edited by bipolardave on 04-04-2007 05:31 AM
Message Edited by bipolardave on 04-04-2007 05:31 AM
bipolardave
4 Posts
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Posted April 6th, 2007 11:00
Thanks for the reply.I've come to the same conclusions, myself. I also have a 2400 and it was a dream to work with by comparison.Although the 2300 was advertised as having a RAID controller, I've found that it doesn't have one. I've just ordered a 4320C PCI RAID controller and hope to try that. From what I've found on this site, that was the only RAID option anyway. The backplane/motherboard didn't have a built in RAID controller.The IBM hard drives do, indeed, have a plethora of jumpers. I've tried disabling the S/E option to no avail. By default, if there are no jumpers on the ID settings then they are set to 0. So that's not an issue. I've also disabled the auto spin up hoping that the backplane would tell it to spin up instead.I'm going to drop by the local college and see if I can get their network guy to lend me a hand. Failing that I'll scout eBay for some cheap drives other than IBM. The U160 10K Quantum Atlas seems to work fine in either 9 or 18 GB flavors. More importantly, they only have one jumper to deal with. Besides, these drives are pushing 10 years old. I don't know if I'd trust them much longer, anyway.And I agree about recycling the hardware. With a CPU and RAM upgrade, there's no reason why this 2300 can't serve alongside my 2400 and be of some utility for the better part of the next decade. As I've configured it now, it should meet the minimum specs to run any Longhorn features that I'll need.BTW, do you happen to know if the SCSI ribbon currently connecting the backplane and MOBO will reach the new PCI RAID controller or will I need to get a longer one? If I need to buy one, will any 68 pin SCSI ribbon do?Thanks!ReedMikel2
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Posted April 6th, 2007 14:00
ribbon cable length - I'm not sure about that in the 2300. In my 2400 I'd venture to guess that the original cable would be long enough to reach a PCI card... I'd love to hear how the 4320C RAID card works out for you. I might consider disabling the onboard PERC2 RAID in my 24000 and put in a modern PCI based RAID controller card... Don't know if this will help you, but here's something I found out last night (actually very early this am :) : I was getting very poor write performance from my array of 5 brand new 73GB 10K Seagate drives, especially on large file copies (1 GB file, copied between different or same partitions). Turns out I had set the SCSI Device settings for each drive to 160 Mb/s (in the Adaptec/PERC2's BIOS). The default in the PERC2's BIOS was 80. I naively thought setting it to 160 for each drive would give me more speed. Not so. Dropping it back down to 80 made a huge difference, with much better write speeds. In fact, I need to do some more timing tests, as when I dropped it even lower, say 40MB/s, seemed a slight bit faster.warwizard55
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Posted April 12th, 2007 21:00
Hi folks,I've got a PE2300 at home I've been enjoying for years, from the postings I assume that you're getting a new RAID controller and are looking for the SCSI cable to use with it.The original cable was P/N 2477R a non terminated 68 pin cable, at about 20 inches long.The PE2300 had options for three different backplanes... a 1X6, a 2X3 and a 2X2. Only the 1x6 backplane supported hot plug drives and will need to have the ESM cable P/N 88280 installed.After about 4 years I started having problems with the drive not being recognized on a cold boot, reseating the drive did not change the problem, replacing the power supply however fixed the problem. (P/N 0726C). You may also go into your SCSI BIOS and delay the start up spin timing to try to get around it. My call is to replace the P/S though. The electrolytic caps in the P/S do not last forever, you have not enough current in the +- 12V portion of the P/S.Do update the BIOS and ESM prior to installing the new controller, might save you some headaches.Regards,warwizardbipolardave
4 Posts
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Posted April 14th, 2007 14:00
Update:Thanks for the assistance getting me squared away. I thought that I'd post one last message for posterity should anyone else encounter the same issues.I received a 4230C RAID (dual channel PERC 2 with 32 MB) controller yesterday ( $21 with shipping from eBay). Luckily, I had also ordered a longer 68 pin SCSI cable (<$10). The stock backplane cable wouldn't have been long enough. I had to modify the card to fit into my case as it had a "handle" on one end that made it too long. A few twists of a screw driver took care of that.I had previously updated the BIOS and Backplane firmware to the latest versions.The RAID controller was detected during the boot sequence. Aside from the failed hard drive alarm (from the card) everything worked fine. BTW, the alarm was due to the controller being unable to find the RAID 5 array from the previous owner's server. This was easily disabled inside the controller BIOS. Configuring a new mirrored array wasn't overly difficult, either.Be warned, however, that you cannot have a boot driver larger than 8GB should you be installing Windows 2003 Server. During the install, you must create a partition that's smaller. Failure to do so will cause Windows to not load during the first boot. I'm unsure of why this is, but there are other posts on this here tech support board that go into it. You might also want to use the driver from the Dell site as opposed to using the stock 2003 Server driver.As a footnote, I still can't get the IBM drives to work. No response from the eBay seller, either. I've manipulated all jumper settings, altered the spin up times in the controller BIOS, and a few other things to no avail. I'll try them in my 2400 some day to see if it's an issue that's isolated to the 2300s. Although the P/S might be due for replacement, I don't think the drive issue is related to that as I can install several Quantum drives and they spin up fine.Anyway, for just over a $100 before software I'll have a working domain controller for my class's computer lab that, I hope, will have another half decade of useful life ahead of it.Thanks again for the help.Timnjohnson
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Posted May 31st, 2007 15:00
I'm also in the process of dusting out an old pe2300/450 for a none-profit org. and they don't have monnies to buy new equipments. I'm following your thread and it has really helped me a lot. I've few questions for you though....My pe2300 has 1x6, all 36gb. I haven't tested them yet. No RAID controllers attached. Is there limitation in storage capacity as far as MOBO can handle? I see most people with 9gb and 18gb. During the OS install, what firmware drivers did you have hand? I'm searching the 4230C PERC 2/DC RAID Controller, with 64 or 128 MB. Did you HAVE manual to create RAID Containers/array or it's just common( give me a link or steps on how to )sense. You also noted that the Boot partition is limited to 8gb....with all the windows updates/patches is 8gb enough? This server will host almost everything..including MS Exchange, AD, etc. Give me as much as you can to get me started on the right footing. Any body is welcome to respond or contribute. Again thanks in advice. timnjohnsonwarwizard55
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Posted June 7th, 2007 23:00
Hi Timnjohnson,The drivers used on a non-RAID PE2300 are on the file library at support.dell.com, just put in your service tag and select the operating system and category SCSI- non RAID you'll need the drivers for both SCSI controllers as your CDROM is on a lower speed SCSI controller seperate from the hard drives. From memory they would be AIC7880 for the CDROM and AIC7890 for the hard drives.If installing NT or W2k, you have to press S (not prompted on NT) when it is searching for a mass storage device, , you then give it the driver (extracted to a floppy) for the AIC7890, then give it the driver for the AIC7880, after it loads the 2nd driver switch the floppy back to the AIC7890 disk.You should try to install it on the largest partition as possiable. This will vary depending on the O/S you're installing.The BIOS should handle 36 GB drives just fine.Good luck,warwizard.
ReedMikel2
13 Posts
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Posted April 6th, 2007 02:00