R620 w/PERC H710P Mini - SSD Issues

Hello ThatNerdJason, thanks for choosing Dell and welcome to our community. 

Based on your description, you will need to replace the disk with the error. Then the error should most likely be gone.

Another thing I can suggest is to update BIOS and iDRAC https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-au/000227230/minimum-recommended-and-latest-code-versions-for-dell-technologies-poweredge?lwp=rt

Respectfully,

@DELL-Young E​ Thank you for your reply; however, it appears as though you did not, in fact, read my entire post.

To address your first comment, "... replace the disk with the error. Then the error should most likely be gone." In paragraph (3) line (3) I specifically state that this is happening on  "...all (8) drives." These are brand new drives, and I have even swapped a few out with spare, brand new drives of the same size, and the errors remain unchanged.

Also, as I stated in paragraph (5), when I check the logs in the Life Cycle Controller, it shows the error, then a few lines later, it reports that the drives are operating normally. Even the health check shows that the drives are functioning normally.

Finally, to address your last point about updating bios and iDRAC. I would refer you to paragraph (2) where I clearly state that  "I was able to use the Dell SUU 22.11.00 to update BIOS to 2.9.0, iDRAC7 to 2.65.65.65, and the PERC H710P mini controller to 21.3.5-0002."  These are, according to you (sic Dell) the most up to date drivers/firmware for this device.

Would you like to try again?

I would like to point out a couple of additional items:

• I was able to create and configure a RAID 50 array, it built successfully, and I was able to install a working operating system on said array that operates without issue.
• I have (4) of these units that are all operating in the same manner.

Is this possibly a limiting factor on the PERC H710P Mini array? Would switching the H710 to the H730P Mini correct this issue?

Thanks for those who actually read and reply!

ThatNerdJason,

Would you clarify a couple of things for me?

What is the part numbers on the drives? I ask as I am not certain those drives are compatible with the R620. While functional, if not supported could explain why they are being flagged.

What is the part number of the H710 controller you installed? There are different versions of the H710, so I want to make sure this one is also supported on the server. Also, the H710 is a supported controller for the R620, but the H730 isn't.

When you updated the server, did you also happen to include the R620 backplane firmware, found here?

Now regarding the BIOS update issue you have on your other posting, the problem you are running into is that the R620 that you have has a customized BIOS, specifically created per the original customer. Now you can get the update to run and update the BIOS to the Dell standard, but you can't go back. Since you are doing a clean OS install and such, then there shouldn't be an issue. 

The process you will use is with a bootable USB, and non-packaged update. Boot to it, but when you run the filename include /forcetype after it. 

For example 

R620-020900C.exe /forcetype

That will force the update through. 

Let me know if this helps, and what you see.

@DELL-Chris H ​ Thank you for the reply, and also answering (3) different threads here.

1.) Part numbers for the drives are P210S1TB25 and P220S512G25. As mentioned, the drives operate fine and read "operating normal" after the initial "error" on all drives. It should be noted that I am running these drives in other R620's, 6200's, and some HP devices without issue. I also find it odd that 32 brand new drives would fail right out of the box, plus (4) spares.

2.) Where can I find the actual model without opening up the system? I did watch the post, and it shows PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller BIOS copyright 2013 LSI PERC H710 Mini FW 21.3.0-0009 (Please note this is one I'm working to update now)

* When I boot into the lifecycle controller i can see that it is listed as: Integrated RAID Controller 1: Dell PERC <PERC H710 Mini>

* When I boot into the OS and run the SUU updater, it shows that it is: PERC H710 Mini controller

* Here is a view of the controller itself:

3.) The updates offered on the SUU include:

* BIOS_W1WJW_WN64_2.9.0

* Network_Driver_261X3_WN64_21.60.6_216.0.293.8_01
* Network_Firmware_7CM1N_W64_21-70.16

* Network_Firmware_7CM1N_W64_21-70.16

* Network_Firmware_7CM1N_W64_21-70.16

* Network_Firmware_7CM1N_W64_21-70.16

* SAS-RAID_Firmware_KKR9J_WN64_)21.3.5-0002_A09

* Diagnostic_Application_D5M2_WN64_4247A1_4247.2

* R620_Drivers-for-OS-Deployme..._W7W06_WN64_15.07.07_A00

* iDRAC-with-LifecycleControlle...0GHFW_WN64_2.65.65.65_A00

4.) Per the BIOS update, it did take the update to 2.9.0 (latest for this system); however, it still shows the www.lancope.com name and custom boot. Should I go ahead and download the BIOS update directly, get a DOS bootable drive, and install from the DOS command line, versus the SUU updater?

5.) NEW - Another thing that I have noticed is that the white label Lancope BIOS will shut down the machine, instead of rebooting the machine when a reboot command is issued from within Windows Server 2022 (both during the installation and from within the OS). Would this be a setting somewhere inside BIOS? When I got these they were said to have been "factory reset," and I assume (that word we all hate) that this included BIOS settings as well.

1) I am not seeing the part number listed for the R620, so while it may be functional, I can't attest to how it will behave.

2) I believe it will list in the iDrac web interface, when you highlight Controller on the left, it should provide the details of the card (pn, ppid, etc)

If not then you can open the case while the server is running, you just won't want to do it for an extended time period, due to cooling issues.

3) the update wont' be easy to find on the SUU, you can find it here.

4) Yes, I would and be sure to include the /forcetype flag.

5) I cant be certain, as I am not able to see what exactly their custom BIOS entailed. 

Thank you for the response, Chris!

1 & 2.) Please see the images. Inside the iDRAC web interface, this is the information I am able to view for the controller:

3.) I think we got a little off here in our allocations. Originally (3) is where you were mentioning the backplane update, which you linked here. I did download it; however, according to the installation instructions, that is only for inside Windows Server, and is not a firmware update. 

The issue is that the Lifecycle controller sees them normally operating then a fault then normally then a fault. Here is a copy/paste from the IDRAC web interface:

4.) was the BIOS issue, and I downloaded it (from this link here). I created a MS-DOS bootable USB drive, threw it on there, booted into DOS, and attempted to run (I did rename the file to R620BIOS.EXE) C:\R620BIOS.EXE /forcetype, and it gave me the error that it cannot be run from BIOS. 

I am about to try it from within Windows, unless there is a different version of the BIOS I missed, which I will try to look at before trying that within Windows. I did find the following under "other format" and used the /forcetype flag to install it from MS-DOS. 

5.) Looks to be maybe a Windows Server 2022 issue (setup and running), as when I reboot from BIOS/Lifecycle Controller, it does reboot as it should.

While talking with Chris we see the controller is supported, and that's the good news.

The controller is supported on the system, the disk drives and OS are not.

Dell does not block non-Dell drives , we can't guarantee how they will work.

Windows Server 2022 OS is not supported, on the R620. It supports up to Windows Server 2016

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/SupportedOS/poweredge-r620

The specific R620 you have is an OEMR R620 (12th gen) there is no supported way to change it on that generation or newer, as it is now embedded to the system.