T410 won't boot. No boot device available. PERC 6 H700 controller

Question

The system is running ESXI and has been turned off for several months because I didn't need any of the VMs.

Turned it on to find it won't boot.

Messages displayed on boot:

------------------------------

No boot device available.

Current boot mode is set to BIOS

Please ensure compatible bootable media is available.
------------------------------------------------

PERC 6/i Adapter BIOS Configuration Utility shows:

1 Virtual drive(s) found on the host adapter

1 Virtual Drive Offline

1 Virtual Drive(s) handled by BIOS
-------------------------------------

Raid Configuration shows:

Virtual Disks
---Virtual Disk 0

Physical Drives

--00: Online : 1907200MB

--01: Online : 1907200MB

--02: Online : 1907200MB

--03: Failed : 1907200MB

--04: Online : 1907200MB

OK so obviously we have a bad disk. Is that preventing completing booting?
Once I replace the disk should I expect it to boot?

I searched before posting and read the RAID manual but didn't find an answer to my question.

Thanks!

Dell-Martin S · Accepted Answer

Hi,Short and Direct answers to your questions - 'Is that bad disk preventing booting?'    Yes, because the controller has taken the **entire** virtual disk Offline, the BIOS has no bootable device, so you get 'No boot device available.' - 'Once I replace the disk should I expect it to boot?'    Only if the RAID set is otherwise consistent and the PERC can transition the virtual disk back to Online/Degraded and successfully rebuild. If the VD remains Offline, replacing the disk alone will not restore boot. If you can paste the exact virtual disk status line from CTRL R (including any extra wording) and confirm the RAID level, I can walk you through exact, low risk steps for that specific state.   Helpful links: [1] ‎Perc 6/I Raid offline Drive Failed and replaced but no option to get it ... https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/poweredge-hddscsiraid/perc-6i-raid-offline-drive-failed-and-replaced-but-no-option-to-get-it-to-work/647f3bbbf4ccf8a8de2de17c[2] VxRail: No boot device available or Operating System ... https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-th/000043492/vxrail-no-boot-device-available-or-operating-system-detected-please-ensure-a-compatible-bootable-media-is-available[3] DELL PERC 6/i VIRTUAL DISK SETUP FOR RAID https://www.vikaskumar.org/2021/10/20/dell-perc6i-virtual-disk-raid-setup.html[4] Detecting a RAID Failure on my ESXi Server | VMware vSphere https://community.broadcom.com/vmware-cloud-foundation/discussion/detecting-a-raid-failure-on-my-esxi-server-1[5] Boot fails from H965i PERC Controller as not bootable media https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/1gsc8rj/boot_fails_from_h965i_perc_controller_as_not/[6] Hardware RAID 1 and ESXi - host not seeing virtual volume https://community.broadcom.com/vmware-cloud-foundation/discussion/hardware-raid-1-and-esxi-host-not-seeing-virtual-volume[7] ‎PE R410 / PERC 6/I VDs not visible to OS install | DELL Technologies https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/poweredge-hddscsiraid/pe-r410-perc-6i-vds-not-visible-to-os-install/647f4932f4ccf8a8de18fbde[8] virtual disk on a Dell PERC H730 not bootable? - Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/virtual-disk-on-a-dell-perc-h730-not-bootable.1316257/[9] Secondary guest disk offline after reboot | VMware vSphere https://community.broadcom.com/vmware-cloud-foundation/discussion/secondary-guest-disk-offline-after-reboot[10] Dell T410 PERC i/6 virtual drive booting to grub command line. https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeServer/comments/kpg4t5/dell_t410_perc_i6_virtual_drive_booting_to_grub/

wiz_222 · Answer

Martin, I thought I responded yesterday, but don't see it now.

Here is what I said.

PERC 6/I Adapter BIOS Configuration Utility 1.2.12-12-0952
On the right side of VD Mgmt page.

Virtual Disk 0 Prop.:

RAID Level : 0

RAID Status : Offline

Size : 9.093TB

Operation : None

I am surprised I set it up as RAID 0, and I assume I have most likely lost the data.
RAID 1 would have provided redundancy.
Do I just replace the disk and try to bring it back online?

DELL-Young E · Answer

Hello, could you check your DM? https://www.dell.com/community/en/direct-messaging

wiz_222 · Answer

@DELL-Young E​ Done. I know you sent a lot of links. I haven't gone through them yet.

wiz_222 · Answer

Read through the links, (some I just scanned). Some notes.

This is a personal homelab machine. The data on this machine is not critical. I used it for development but retired two years ago. The VM's on it aren't backed up but not a great loss if they are gone.
I need it now because I need to virtualize my Dell laptop before sending it to Dell service. It's giving an error, Optane memory is degraded. Dell cannot guarantee I'll get my drive data back, it so I want to ensure I have a full backup of everything. Everything important *should* be in OneDrive but I don't trust it
I was running the free version of VMWare ESXi. If I have to start from scratch, I will likely use Proxmox since VMWare is no longer a viable long term option.
I bought the machine used a decade ago or more, and will now just use it for this backup and my photo catalog.
Some time ago, I replaced the original 500gb drives with 2TB drives. Apparently I was an idiot and set it to RAID 0 based on what it shows in the config utility. I'll go RAID 1 or 5 if I have to rebuild it.

Thank you for your assistance.

DELL-Young E · Answer

Hello wiz_222, the page I share in the DM is linked to the very post of this, so no worries.

After going through your previous posts, here are my thoughts:

The controller you’re using wasn’t designed or validated to work with disks of this size.
If even one drive fails, the entire VD will be lost. While the drive can be replaced, the OS and data would still need to be recovered or redeployed.
In a RAID 0 setup, if a physical disk (PD) fails, the system won’t boot, and replacing the failed disk won’t restore the data. RAID 0 offers no redundancy, so when a single drive fails, the data—split across all disks—becomes incomplete and unreadable.

Hope this helps clarify things for you.

Respectfully,

wiz_222 · Answer

@DELL-Young E​ Thank you for the update. I thought I had set it up with reducancy but obvioully didn't. Going forward I'm assuming. Install the disk Boot and select CTRL+R Delete the VD Create a new VD and choose RAID 5.  This should give me ~8tb of storage Install Proxmox Hypervisor. (I will have a learning curve hereAny tips or a suggested guide to follow?

DELL-Charles R · Answer

Hello,

Your outline looks. Sorry you had to recover from a failed RAID0.

I don't have any suggestions for Proxmox, Dell does not validated it on a R410.

There are Community members that have used Proxomx on the PowerEdge servers. Maybe they can share their experience.

PowerEdge HDD/SCSI/RAID

T410 won't boot. No boot device available. PERC 6 H700 controller

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