Dell Poweredge T310 (No RAID) with onboard controlled -- How to setup new drive for Datastore

[skotagiri]

I have just got my new Dell Poweredge T310. I did not get any RAID card and this server has onboard drive controllers.

I have installed 2 * 1TB SATA (Western Digital Black Edition) drives.

I have installed ESXi 4.0 Update 1 for DELL without any problem but the install doe no pickup the second drive so I can setup a new datastore.

What do I neded to do?

[AndreTheGiant]

Check the onboard controller configuration.

The SAS/i is able to do RAID1, so maybe this is the reason why you do not see the second disk.

Andre

[skotagiri]

The server configuration I have does not have RAID. The configuration of hardware is below:

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PowerEdge T310 Chassis with upto 4 Cabled Hard Drives and Quad Pack LED Diagnostics

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1 224-6557 PowerEdge T310 Chassis with upto 4 Cabled Hard Drives and Quad Pack LED Diagnostics

1 330-5947 Shipping for PowerEdge T310

1 317-2299 12GB Memory (6x2GB), 800MHz, Dual Ranked RDIMM

1 317-2022 Memory for 1CPU Platform

1 317-2043 X3460 Xeon Processor, 2.8 GHz 8M Cache, Turbo, HT

1 330-5114 PowerEdge T310 Heatsink

1 341-4158 HD Multi-Select

1 341-3933 No Controller

1 420-6320 No Operating System

1 430-2008 On-Board Dual Gigabit Network Adapter

1 313-7919 Baseboard Management Controller

1 330-5342 SATA Optical Drive Cable for PowerEdge T310

1 313-9097 DVD+/-RW, SATA, INTERNAL

1 330-5091 Electronic System Documentation and OpenManage DVD Kit

1 330-5100 Onboard SATA, 1-4 Hard Drives connected to onboard SATA Controller -No RAID

1 330-5112 Power Supply, Non-Redundant 375W

1 330-5113 Power Cord, NEMA 5-15P to C13 wall plug, 10 feet

1 904-1472 Basic: Business Hours (5X10) Next Business Day On Site Hardware Warranty Repair 2Year Extended

1 904-8680 Basic: Business Hours (5X10) Next Business Day On Site Hardware Warranty Repair Initial Year

1 904-8377 Dell Hardware Limited Warranty Plus On Site Service Initial Year

1 905-1428 Dell Hardware Limited Warranty Extended Year

1 994-4019 Basic support covers SATA Hard Drive for 1 year only regardless of support duration on the system

1 905-8769 DECLINED CRITICAL BUSINESS SERVER OR STORAGE SOFTWARE SUPPORT PACKAGE-CALL YOUR DELL SALES REP IF UPGRADE NEEDED

1 900-9997 On-Site Installation Declined

1 909-3149 Warranty Extension Notice (Online Renewal) - Ensure coverage with notifications when your warranty is about to expire

1 341-9246 250GB 7.2k RPM Serial ATA 3Gbps 3.5-in Cabled Hard Drive

[Borja_Mari]

Hi,

the Dell T310 is in the HCL i just checked it.

Then you must be sure the on-board SATA disk controller "shows" the 2 x 1 TB SATA disk.

Check in the BIOS or/and the on-board SATA disk controller to check the status and availability of the 2 disks.

Aditionally, for example one thing you can do is start with a linux live-cd (typically Knoppix) and check if the OS sees the two SATA disk.

You should know the model of the T310 sata controller , "onboard SAT A Controller -No RAID" isn't to much information :smileywink:

Try to do a rescan in the esxi datastore section to be sure the esxi doesn't see the second disk.

Really your issue seems a on-board disk controller misconfiguration or error.

Regards/Saludos,

Pablo

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[skotagiri]

I am not really a unix admin but get around.

For a T310 BIOS what should I be looking?

[Soupy66]

Hello

Was there a resolution to this posting? I'm looking into buying either a PowerEdge T310 or T410. I believe based on this posting the standard onboard hard drive controller works with ESXI 4.0 update 1. I looking to have 2 hard drives installed just like in this posting and want to make sure I can use both with ESXI 4.

On the Dell web site it only says that the PERC S100 & PERC S300 are Windows only. I don't believe the onboard is one of those controllers.

[skotagiri]

Well I started this thread and am defining my problem and the solution I got from DELL Complex Systems Group Support:

I bought a DELL T310 from DELL but due to the HIGH cost of HARD DRIVES (SATA) I decided to go with 250GB single disk and ordered a SAS/SATA Controller seperately. Unfortunately after THREE re-orders of the SAS/SATA Controller all were sent with SATA Cable set having a POWER Connector with PINS that did nto match the pins on my SERVER. I finally got fed up and on advice from DELL support RETURNED the server and ordered a NEW SERVER with RAID Controller (I got A PERC SATA Controller).

I bought 2 1TB SATA Drives (tried both SEGATE and WD) from Microcenter but DELL Controller did not recognise these DRIVES. The BAD part is that DELL forces you to BUY minimum 2 * SATA DRIVE so I bought 250GB drives and later replaced with 1TB from another vendor online which costed me around $130.00 each and worked great. Looks like the T310 does not recognise SATA Drives from retail stores (I was told only ENTERPRISE Drives will work and have not found any difference in specs).

I would get the CONTROLLER pre-installed as DELL SUPPORT is extremenly difficult to deal with and they have no clue on the parts.

Hope this helps you to avoid the pain and time (almost 2 months to get it right) I went through.