Adding internal SATA RAID to ML330 G3

[Lonnie Paschall]

I have a ML330G3 that has the Ultra SCSI card and two 36GB drives (non-raid). I would like to add a PCI SATA RAID card and two SATA drives for additional storage.

Problem is when I add the SATA RAID card the server will no longer boot to the internal SCSI drives. I have verified that the SCSI is first in the boot order but it still tries to goto the SATA drive first. If I disconnect the drives from the card the server boots to the SCSI drives. I am puzzled as I have added third party SATA cards and drives to various Proliant servers with no problem. The only difference is that the other servers have SCSI RAID cards for the OS's and SATA RAID cards for storage.

Thanks

[e4services]

Ahhh the eternal question. This is a common occurance for inexpensive IDE or now SATA cards. I think I have answered this 10 times in the few months.
The problem comes from the Firmware/BIOS of the add-in card. For some reason, starting with the inexpensive add-in IDE cards, the manufacturers started assuming you would want to have THEIR card in the boot strap. Unfortunately they do not put anyway to remove them from it. So when the BIOS for the card loads, it now oversteps the SCSI BIOS and takes over the boot strap.
You have to look at each individual cards specs to find out if they provide a configurable BIOS, #1, and then weather they mention the fact that you can configure the BIOS to not boot the connected disks.
I know that Adaptec provides such a BIOS in their card, for they are not Promise from China or TW and cost a bit more for being US and actually providing support, but the product will not frustrate you like what you have does.

[Brian_Murdoch · Accepted solution]

Hi Lonnie,

Yes I agree with e4services that this is something which may or may not be fixable using the new cards BIOS settings (If any).

Please report the exact model of card you have tried to install in a reply and it can hopefully be checked and a solution provided, if available.

Brian

[Lonnie Paschall]

The card is a Highpoint RocketRaid 1520.

[e4services]

From Highpoint-tech.com you can find the manual. In the manual it states "Note: If a SCSI adapter is used to boot the system, make sure the RocketRAID 152x
controller BIOS loads/posts after the SCSI adapterâ s BIOS. It may be necessary to
move the adapter(s) to another PCI slot."

As for the BIOS configuration Utility , the manual mentions a section Set Boot Mark, but it does nonnt mention whether this can be disable or no boot device as a selection

[Lonnie Paschall]

Thx. I will give that a try. I did not realize that you could arrange the order the BIOS loads by the PCI slot number. The SCSI card was in slot 1 and I placed the SATA card in the last slot (4)

I will try to move them around a bit.

[Lonnie Paschall]

I tried to move the cards to different PCI slots and the server will not recognize the HP SCSI card unless it is in the first slot. I moved it to the other three slots and the server does not recognize the scsi card at all. Move it back to slot 1 and it works fine.

Any thoughts?

[Lonnie Paschall]

Just verified that the ML330 G3 is a ATA RAID model that has a HP SCSI card installed in slot 1 with two 36GB drives. Whenever you move the SCSI card to another slot it will not load. Any slot that the SATA card is placed into causes it to load first. IT does not matter what I change in the Boot order in the BIOS.

[e4services]

Well as I said, that was from Highpoint (not exactly a maker of great products). But you are right, you can not reloacte the SCSI card from 1. Your only solution is to buy a better add-in SATA card. Look to the Adaptec, with it you can remove it from the Boot in BIOS.

[Sz_Gy]

Hello,
I've found a solution for booting ML330 G3 equipped Ultra SCSI card, SCSI disk drives with "budget" SATA Raid card SATA disk(s) connected.

First I've disconnected disks RAID card, installed, than booted windows 2003 server, installed card's driver.

Than I powered off machine, connected disk(s).

In ROM-Based Setup Utility, PCI Devices section I set RAID Mass Storage Controller in PCI Slot 5 diabled, and succeed to boot from SCSI drive.

Although PCI SATA RAID card disabled, Windows 2003 recognise and use SATA Raid card and disk(s) connected to and working well.