Dell Server R640 - PERC issues

Computer Hardware & Server Infrastructure Builds
1

Hi ,

I have an R640 with 6 drives total. 2x 500GB Samsung SSD, 4x 8TB Samsung SSD. I iopen the case and see the PERC card and it looks like all drives are attached to correctly.

I enter F10 for Idrac and Lifecycle etc and go to RAID but it shows the PERC as having no cards available. I have tried BIOS SATA to RAID and ACH, tried re-initializing disk multiple times.

If I get into the RAID controller, i see all the drives but when i click any or a few of them to attempt to create a virtual disk its greyed out.

What else could it be? It almost seems like the PERC is just not working.

If I boot a server 2016 boot USB it lets me install it to one of the 500GB drives, loads into windows and it does show all the other drives in Formart Drive control panel.

I want: the 2x 500GB to be a single Raid 1 and the 4x 8TB to a RAID 5

2

I have had a couple of these cards die over the years, I would change the battery and re-seat the controller.

3

Thanks I just checked and re-seated it. I did not see a battery but while in there i changed the CMOS just to be safe anyways. When booting do you see CNTRL+R or I to enter RAID config? I feel like all my other Dell blades do this but not this one. Am I expected to go into Idrac settings everytime at boot to set the raid?

4

I would for sure go into the iDRAC interface to check things out.

5

Were you able to get things going?