DL560 Gen 8 - Legacy Only and Raid 1 only.

[GuyMarkT]

Hello.

I had a DL560 Gen 8 which was working ok, but found it difficult to install with UEFI - so with a little effort, I managed to install RHEL on legacy with two small SSDs - RAID 1.

After a short time, decided this was not the right way to do things, fitted five x 560GB SSDs (no important data on the two small SSDs) and now I want to install RHEL with UEFI. as RAID 5 (Data not critical, storage more important than data integrity - have daily backups).

I cannot find anywhere that allows me to select UEFI / Legacy Boot. I found this easily before, but now for some reason I cannot locate it. I can find the F11 boot order (and according to info online, the very first option should be about Legacy / UEFI). All I can do is to decide what is to boot first, second third etc. NO options shown for UEFI / Legacy. Have screenshot if that helps anyone to see what I mean. Suffice to say there is no mention of Legacy and no mention of UEFI.

I went into the BIOS - but went through EVERY option - and I can do all sorts of things - but again NO options to chance from Legacy to UEFI.

Out of frustration and desperation, I thought I would just try to setup an array on the five drives - even if was going to limit me to 2TB - just to get the thing going. Instead of RAID1, this time I wanted RAID 5 - but my “choice” is RAID 1. It knows about all five drives (and oddly refers to drive 5 as in an external box) but when I select them all and hope to make it a RAID 5 array, I can only select RAID 1. (If I deselect a drive, I can then choose 1 or 1+0)

I tried the RESET option in BIOS - made no difference.  No obvious errors showing up - so I am obviously doing something wrong - but some pointers would be really helpful please.

I am happy to upload screenshots of any specific pages - eg: what my options are when trying to configure RAID or what my options are when looking at the BOOT menu..

I can access ILO fine too, but cannot see any extra options there that might help me out.

When I FIRST had the machine I kept seeing references to UEFI and pressing F11 would allow me to change boot method “just this once” etc – now none of these options show.

I have searched on here, Google and other HPE forums (Facebook etc), but found nothing to help. The only GOOD news, is there is no data at risk – not settings I need to preserve, so happy to reset everything and anything.

My end goal here is simply the five drives configured as RAID 5 with UEFI boot to RHEL.

Happy to show ANY screens you want if you cannot understand me saying I have no UEFI / Legacy optons when you know they should be there!

Many thanks.
Guy

[shiva_jr]

Hi @GuyMarkT ,

I cannot find anywhere that allows me to select UEFI / Legacy Boot. 
     First, the UEFI feature is enabled from Gen9 onwards. I believe, DL560 Gen8 is not having UEFI.

My end goal here is simply the five drives configured as RAID 5 with UEFI boot to RHEL.
    You can boot/reboot the system, press F11 for 'Onboard Administrator', you can get the option 'HPE Smart Storage Administrator',
    You can configure the array with required RAID and number of disks.
Let us know if any further detail required.
Regards,
Shiva_JR    

[GuyMarkT]

@shiva_jr Thank you for the reply

When I first had the DL560, I was convinced it was set to to UEFI - as it caused a LOT of hassle for me - when I finally managed to install RHEL using Legacy Mode (boot legacy mode just this once) I still had to swtich the system to Legacy Mode before it was able to boot from the newly installed RHEL.

I struggle to believe I just "invented all the above in my head" - having said that. It certainly has no UEFI option now anyway - so moving on......

As for F11 - my options with FIVE drives are: RAID 1
My options with FOUR drives are RAID 1 or RAID 1+0

There are no options for RAID 5 anymore - though when I first installed 3 drives before going to 2, it DID offer me the option of RAID 5 as I spent quite a while thinking about that option, before going with just two drives as a RAID 1 mirror.

As I have 5 x 512GB drives, I guess the 2TB legacy limit is not too much of an issue if that allows for 4 x 512GB as data and 1 x 512GB as parity - but since trying to reset everything and going "back to factory settings", I now have no ability for RAID 5 even with five drives. It now seems my option is just RAID 1 or RAID 10.

Any idea why I have lost the option to choose RAID 5 please?

[SydUmar_1]

Hello @GuyMarkT 
Could you please confirm the Storage controller being used to configure the RAID ?

[support_s]

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[GuyMarkT]

Sadly not. I can do an install but despite having five idential drives (5 x 512GB SSDs), which are all correctly recognised, it will ONLY permit me to use RAID 1 If I remove a drive (so I have an even number), it will then also allow me to select RAID 10.

I cannot select RAID 5, nor RAID 6 - yet with only THREE drives when first playing around, RAID 5 was an option.

I guess I messed something up with I did the "reset to default settings" - but I thought this would be the best way to start over, with everything configured optimally.

RAID 10 is not the end of the world - but as the data is NOT critical but there is quite a lot of it, on this occasion, RAID 5 was a distinct preference (2 TB storage over a 4+1 parity instead of 1TB over 4 drives - and one totally spare (in addition to the two spares I have on the shelf!)

I have not touched the built in RAID Controller - so I am puzzled as to why the option of RAID 5 WAS there - but no longer is.

I have access to the ILO of course, but it doesn't seem to offer me any extra ways to tell it I want my RAID 5 option back.

Something I have done, was wrong, I just thought the "RESET EVERYTHING" would be a good way to "start over". Seems not.

[SydUmar_1]

Hello @GuyMarkT 
Could you please confirm the Storage controller model being used to configure the RAID ?

[GuyMarkT]

@SydUmar_1 

Yes, happily. It is a 420i.

In the interest of trying to help, please see attached screenshot which shows controller model (420i), the drives available and the RAID option offered (though only RAID 0 may be selected here - thought elsewhere in the Provisioning, it only allows me to choose RAID 1 or RAID 1+0 (if I de-select the 5th drive)

Although I cannot recreate it, I would put money on being offered the chance originally to have RAID 5 when I had three drives added. Now with five, it offers me RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 1+0.

When I did the "reset everything", is there anything I might have reset which I should not have - but could manually "correct" ?

If I have to, I can fit an 638834-001  I was given - but I was assuming an "embedded" system would be faster than an "add-on".

I hope the image helps - and I am very happy to take more if it helps - both of the screen and also of the inside of the server if need be.

Thank you for your efforts so far

[SydUmar_1]

Hello @GuyMarkT  
This will require diagnosis and troubleshooting over a remote session. We would request you to log a support ticket with the HPE support teams for further assistance. 

[GuyMarkT]

I'm afraid I don't have a support contract - this is a piece of second hand kit I was learning on to see if I could use i for a little project. I have a feeling a support contract would cost more than I paid for the server.

In truth, I guess I'm just pleased that it's "not just me", and that it does indeed have a problem.

Thank you for trying to help though, I appreciate it.

Kind Regards
Mark