Assistance with disc enclosure to R630/MD1400

[LtChachee]

Hello, I was able to get an R630 last yea & have been having fun with it. Throughout the year I've been able to get various pieces to connect to an external disk array.

I got a PERC H830 RAID card direct from Dell on sale.

After some less the scrupulous sellers on Ebay sold me a "new in box" MD1400 that clearly had been crushed (the pics were a lie!), I was able to pick up another one that appears to work fine.

I've followed the instructions for the H830 here - Manuals | Dell Canada

And for the MD1400 here - Manuals | Dell Canada

Followed the deployment guidance for single port configuration using the SAS cables that came with the MD1420 - https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/md1400-md1420-dg_en-us.pdf

However, when I go into to the configuration utility are no physical disks present. I make sure it's actually turned on, I do in fact have green blinkys and no red blinkeys. From port 1 on H830 to port 0 on the EMM. Reboot, still nada.

Attempted redundant port configuration. Still Nada. It doesn't seem like my cables are seating correctly in the H830. Re-seated cables, man getting that cable into the H830 is rough.

Can someone assist here with something I may have missed?

Thank you.

pics -

http://imgur.com/a/joY1DjA

H830 version info -

http://imgur.com/a/EJuM5VK

 

[Spartacus]

So since the server bios cant see the discs at all I have to assume a communication issue.
I would try
1) try the cable SAS cable into port 1 on the other EMM to see if perhaps its running as primary perhaps?
2) Replacing the SAS cable
3) Add a 2nd SAS cable so both EMM are connected
4) Update firmware on both the server and the storage unit to see if theres some kind of update for compatibility.

Theoretically it should just be plug and play though so something is awry.

 

[LtChachee]

Yea, that's what I thought. I've tested 3 cables in both H830 ports to each port on the EMM while watching the config utility to see if it connects. Got nada.

 

[golfatx]

Yea, that's what I thought. I've tested 3 cables in both H830 ports to each port on the EMM while watching the config utility to see if it connects. Got nada.

We’re you ever able to figure this out? I have the exact same problem. H830 doesn’t recognize any of the physical disks in the MD1400

 

[LtChachee]

We’re you ever able to figure this out? I have the exact same problem. H830 doesn’t recognize any of the physical disks in the MD1400

Unfortunately not yet. I ended up ordering a second card, same indications. I got 2 EMM's with the MD1400 purchase, tried them both is slot 0 with either card. At this moment I've got both cards installed in different slots and was going to try again.

 

[golfatx]

ok, thanks. I also have 2 additional EMM's coming and new cables so I'll hopefully be able to swap those out this week. another 830 will be my last resort

 

[LtChachee]

Cool, I'll try to run through this final set of tests this weekend. That don't work...not sure what I'll do actually.

 

[LtChachee]

Sorry for the long delay, life happened - almost lost job due to company going out of business, Mom died, etc.
---------------------------------------------

Finally got it working. I think the H830 dell shipped me was hosed. I ended up buying another one on Ebay and throwing that in slot #3. Then life happened and I finally got around to testing it this week.

Slot #2 still failed on all ports. Slot #3 did as well, however I decided to remove all the 4TB SAS drives I had in the MD1400 and replace them with 2 10TB SAS drives. Hooked up #3 according to the Dell guidance and turned it on and the drives were detected!

I then started a drive delete to clear them which I accidentally cancelled at 94%... =(

Have since retested the 4TB drives and they are detected as well. Looks like the from Dell H830 has issues.

Answers to some questions:

Yes, LEDs light up on both the H830 card and the EMM.

Dell H830 took a little effort to get the plug into. Slot #3 H830 is a smooth slide and click. Having been in IT for awhile I'm used to both types of plug efforts, so I wasn't able to tell prior if this was an issue.