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April 23rd, 2021 12:00
Foreign configuration on boot
I decided I wanted to go with a software raid and bypass the hardware raid controller. I'm not interested in having a discussion about that decision. I believe this is causing my server to have a warning when it boots talking about how a foreign configuration was discovered and 'F' needs to be pressed to import that configuration.
This is bad because it means we can no longer remotely reboot this server and we can't trust it to come back up after a power failure. Can I somehow disable this warning?
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DELL-Josh Cr
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9.2K Posts
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April 23rd, 2021 16:00
Hi,
Which model server do you have? Which RAID controller is it? Which software raid solution are you using? Most likely you will want to clear the foreign configuration. It would be recommended to back up the data prior to making any changes to the raid configuration.
twiclo
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April 26th, 2021 07:00
It's an R620. I'm not sure what the raid controller is. Is there a way to tell without turning the machine off? What even is the "foreign configuration" and how do I clear it? Will it get rid of my hardware raid configuration?
DELL-Marco B
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3.8K Posts
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April 26th, 2021 09:00
Hello,
if you have R620 you should have a PERC8 controller.
I didn't found a documentation for this controller, but here you have PERC9 pdf manual.
The process to clear foreign config is the same, described at pag 35.
https://dell.to/3vevnKa
Baiscally if the server see that there is a foreign raid config written on hard drive, it ask you to clear or import. If you clear it delete the raid configuration from the reinserted hard drive.
I hope it helps
Thanks
Marco
twiclo
4 Posts
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April 26th, 2021 11:00
I'm not sure I understand. If I clear the configuration I'd be deleting my raid set up right? That's not what I want to do. Is there a way to keep my configuration but get rid of the warning?
DELL-Josh Cr
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9.2K Posts
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April 26th, 2021 12:00
It depends on how you have it configured currently. Most likely, the only solution is going to be backup, delete and restore. Which software raid solution are you using? What OS is running on there?
Dell-DylanJ
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2.9K Posts
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April 27th, 2021 08:00
RAID volumes are not able to move from hardware and software controllers. For example, say you had an array being managed by an H710, but you want to use software RAID instead. The solution is to fully delete the RAID volume and create a new volume using the software PERC. You should get a prompt to either import or clear the foreign configuration. Based on what you're looking for, I would recommend clearing the configuration. This will remove the array and you will no longer see this message.
As for being able to see this message with the drives having no data - you're absolutely correct. This error pops in relation to metadata for the RAID volume itself.
As a point of clarification, when you say software RAID, can you expand on that? For example, are you looking to use the onboard software PERC, or are you wanting to do something else?
twiclo
4 Posts
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April 27th, 2021 08:00
I'm using mdadm but this isn't a software issue. At least I don't see how it could be. This warning comes up on boot. I have each disk set up as its own individual raid. 6 disks, 6 hardware raids. This way they'll all show up to the OS so I can set up my own mdadm raid
I feel like these disks could be completely empty. No OS or anything and I would still get this warning. Could you explain to me what the warning is even for?