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Perc 6/E problem

ciscokid454

2[H]4U
Joined
Oct 26, 2000
Messages
2,359
I ended up with a pair of perc 6/e raid controllers in a pair of PE 2900 III's i bought off of ebay.
I have a HP SaS expander connected to the card, connecting to backplanes in norco 4224 case.
Raid controller does not see drives.
Both controllers have the message "Configuration not allowed".
I tried resetting factory defaults, re-seating each card (testing them in separate systems).
I found this so far, but have not tried it yet.
http://www.overclock.net/raid-controllers-software/648967-perc-6-i-configuration-not-allowed.html
Cards are both using 6.3 fw.
Any help would be appreciated.
 
Start with the basics. If you connect the drives directly to the PERC6 with a SFF-8484 (that's what it looks like at least) to SATA cable, do you see the drives and can you create a simple RAID1 array or even see it as JBOD?

Not sure if the HP SAS Expander would work at all with the PERC6, there might be some sort of compatibility issue in the controller firmware. The PERC card might be expecting a piece of Dell hardware and would throw a fit. Also for a little while the firmware on a Dell PERC controller was forcing the use of Dell hard drives through firmware - use of non-Dell drives would not work. Do you have the latest firmware for the PERC6 (I saw you mentioned 6.3, but didn't know if that was the latest).

Those servers tend to not like non-Dell parts. I would ask if you had tried another SAS Expander but those things are not cheap. Was the HP Expander a system pull or one you bought new? Can you test in the card in a non-server system to make sure it works?
 
I am testing the cards in multiple systems. I figured out the problem with the controller.

Currently, I have 7 2tb drives installed in the norco case, however, it's only showing 6 drives, all of which appear to be the same drive?
 
Start with the basics. If you connect the drives directly to the PERC6 with a SFF-8484 (that's what it looks like at least) to SATA cable, do you see the drives and can you create a simple RAID1 array or even see it as JBOD?

Not sure if the HP SAS Expander would work at all with the PERC6, there might be some sort of compatibility issue in the controller firmware. The PERC card might be expecting a piece of Dell hardware and would throw a fit. Also for a little while the firmware on a Dell PERC controller was forcing the use of Dell hard drives through firmware - use of non-Dell drives would not work. Do you have the latest firmware for the PERC6 (I saw you mentioned 6.3, but didn't know if that was the latest).

Those servers tend to not like non-Dell parts. I would ask if you had tried another SAS Expander but those things are not cheap. Was the HP Expander a system pull or one you bought new? Can you test in the card in a non-server system to make sure it works?

I have a PERC H800 in a Dell PE 1950 and it is working great with a SuperMicro 12 drive SAS expander case and Hitachi 3tb drives. This isn't necessarily relevant to the OP, but it shows that the Dell PERC cards aren't opposed to non Dell expanders or drives.
 
I have a PERC H800 in a Dell PE 1950 and it is working great with a SuperMicro 12 drive SAS expander case and Hitachi 3tb drives. This isn't necessarily relevant to the OP, but it shows that the Dell PERC cards aren't opposed to non Dell expanders or drives.
Correct, People have tested and have working the HP SaS Expander, posted in that cards thread here.
 
Ok, All the main issues I was experiencing are out of the way.
I currently have 6 drives in the case, and see them, however, when I go to create any array, it doesn't allow me to create an array larger than the size of the first drive.
All drives are identical, same firmware, etc.
Creating a Raid 0 array, allows me to choose all six drives (they disappear, when I remove them and reappear when I reinstall them), however I cannot create an array greater than the total size of a single drive, ie. 2tb.
Creating a Raid 6 does the same.
 
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