ML110 G5 Embedded RAID

[Milinda]

Is this Hardware RAID or software RAID.
How can i mirror two HDD using this Embedded RAID?

[TTr]

> Is this Hardware RAID or software RAID
It is a little bit of both. Some people refer to it as fake raid because the raid components and disk i/o are not a separate subsystem from the rest of the system board and raid functionality relies on some of the resources of the system board and maybe the OS to do some of the processing.

For configuring it refer to the embedded raid user manual http://bizsupport.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00771065/c00771065.pdf

Also look in the ML100 user manual for SATA RAID on page 50.
http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00260539/c00260539.pdf

[Milinda]

THANK you TTr

[Chris Bedford]

Hi there

Just to add my 2cents' worth: there are a couple of important omissions in the ML110G5 documentation referenced above.

1. On page 50, "Creating a diskette image" is dealt with like this: "Download the HP Embedded SATA RAID Controller driver and create a driver diskette using the instructions on the HP website (http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Home.jsp). At the website, click the link for 'Support and Drivers.'"

There is no "Support and Drivers" link on that page. Where you actually find those instructions is pretty much a mystery - maybe you can find something by searching, but good luck with that.

2. The next heading is "Installing the Embedded SATA RAID driver with a USB diskette drive" which then goes on to describe how to enable the RAID controller and create a RAID set. It then refers you to page 55, where you start installing the software, completely glossing over the "USB diskette drive" part (which is never mentioned again - well, not explicitly).

The instructions for installation of Windows give no new information, simply following the standard MS procedure for loading drivers for a mass storage device not natively supported in Windows - press F6, press S, insert the floppy disk. At this point we assume that the USB floppy has loaded itself as drive A:, because that is the ONLY PLACE that Windows Installer will look for those drivers.

GOTCHA: You HAVE to have a drive A: floppy. You can't "borrow" a diskette drive from your junk pile, or another computer, and plug it into the ML110 temporarily, because it doesn't even have an on-board floppy controller.

I ask you, with tears in my eyes, what is Microsoft thinking? How do system administrators in large companies install high-end servers with RAID controllers these days? Surely not everyone deploys images, and anyway that image has to be created somehow in the first place. ILO virtual floppies? USB floppies? Expensive options for the small business which is going to use it for this installation, and never again.

Is there a workaround with a USB flash disk? I have a bootable floppy-emulating USB "thumb drive" (created using an HP utility) but once the computer is booted it looks like a 1.44 MB C: drive, and I haven't found a way to make it "A:".

The only other workaround I have heard of is
A. Leave the controller as native SATA (non-RAID)
B. Install Windows on the first hard disk, get it running and update to latest Service Pack
C. Manually force installation of the RAID drivers (Windows tries to tell you no such hardware found and doesn't want to install the drivers)
D. Reboot and enable the RAID controller
E. Go into RAID config and create a RAID set, *carefully* ensuring that you build it from the disk that contains your OS install, not the other blank disk!
- at this point the machine (theoretically) boots from the RAID set and everything works beautifully

Personally I'm inclined just to use Windows' software RAID because the whole thing above looks to be frought with danger, frustration, and lots of do-overs.

Chris

[marcus1234]

plan b use

nlite cd with driver slipstreamed

http://www.nliteos.com/guide/

[Chris Bedford]

A-hah! Now there's an idea

Good thinking, Mark. My next project!