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Fresh bare metal install DSM 6.1 on Dell Poweredge R230 not seeing disks


20tn

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Hello and many thanks to all of you for your work on this project, forums etc. you're doing a great job! Thank you! 

 

Ok, here's what I've been trying for some weeks now, but after a lot of researching, reading and so on I really don't know the next step...

 

Hardware: Dell Poweredge R230 Server, PERC H330 Raid Controller, 1x Samsung SSD EVO 850 Pro, 1x SAS DELL WD1004FBYZ 1TB, ...

 

Bios, driver packages are all up to date (2017.11.20). 

 

Xpenology install:  

 

- Jun's official v1.02b for DS3615sx

- Driver extension for jun 1.02b/3615xs/DSM6.1.3 Version 3

 

What I did: 

 

Following exactly every single step with this tutorial: Tutorial

I also integrated the driver extension pack V3 as described here: Driver Extension Pack Version 3

 

Everything worked perfectly (thanks to the authors!) and for weeks I've been able to boot the Dell R230 successfully! The machine is booting, I go to the IP of the booted machine, then I see the DSM assistent page informing me that no disks were found... :cry:

 

Speaking about the Dell Perc H330 raid controller I believe I've tried everything: I configured both disks individually (SSD and SAS) in passthrough mode (Non-Raid mode), in Raid 0 Mode, I initialised them, I didn't initialised them, formated them and so on and on... every possible combination was tested. 

 

After hundreds of reboots, setups and so on one thing stays the same: no disk are seen when I move over to the Synology assitents install page...

 

Every idea on how to solve this is very much appreciated! Thank you very much in advance! :D 

 

 

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Thank you for asking and sorry if I've explained it wrong.

 

No, I never got it working, so the machine is booting, and then I see this Synology Web Assistant "install page" (don't know how to call it) where it says "no harddisks found" so I can't move on to the next install point where you could chose whether to do a fresh install or a migration and so on.  I'm stuck at "no harddisks found".

 

Yes, I reflashed my USB drive for I think for 3 times and added the extra ramdisk, this went perfect.

 

Thank you for you help!

 

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Since you said "Everything worked perfectly" I didn't look into details and didn't bother to check the specs of that machine.

 

The problem seems to be coming from your disk controller not being recognised. You said that you have the PERC H330 Raid Controller which normally is supported by the loader since it contains the megaraid_sas module.

 

Is there a way to change in the BIOS RAID to AHCI?

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Quote

PERC H330 Raid Controller which normally is supported

 

Didn't know that. Very happy that it it is supported! :D

 

Quote

Is there a way to change in the BIOS RAID to AHCI?

 

Done that, but didn' change anything, still no harddisk recognized...

 

 

I was thinking if i have done something wrong adding the extra ramdisk into the image? I followed your tutorial exactly ( with OSFMount mounting partition 0 and 1 of the *.img file, then in Windows explorer going to the mounted drive deleting the extra.lzma file, copying the new extra.lzma with the extra drivers V3 in instead and then dismounting both partitions and "burning" the altered image to my USB stick.) I hope I did it right this way but please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Thanks!

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You don't actually need the customized ramdisk for the disk controller. The megaraid_sas.ko module is already present in the default ramdisk that comes with the loader. You can try using the vanilla loader but I don't think it will change anything because the custom ramdisk only adds additional modules and keeps the defaults ones so the megaraid_sas should also be present there.

 

Try to boot with a live ubuntu usb key and report back what modules are really used by that controller.

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On 11/24/2017 at 7:31 AM, 20tn said:

 

Didn't know that. Very happy that it it is supported! :D

 

 

Done that, but didn' change anything, still no harddisk recognized...

 

 

I was thinking if i have done something wrong adding the extra ramdisk into the image? I followed your tutorial exactly ( with OSFMount mounting partition 0 and 1 of the *.img file, then in Windows explorer going to the mounted drive deleting the extra.lzma file, copying the new extra.lzma with the extra drivers V3 in instead and then dismounting both partitions and "burning" the altered image to my USB stick.) I hope I did it right this way but please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Thanks!

Try creating a single non-raid basic disk, if that works you might need to repeat for the others, or also try a full hardware raid and see if DSM sees it as a single disk.

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Ok, kids are sleeping so here it's what I've tested with my Dell R230: 

 

  • BIOS reset
  • Raid Controller reset
  • formated the SSD and HDD
  • changed BIOS Sata Mode and tested every setting: off, AHCi, RAID
  • changed BIOS boot mode from "UEFI" to "Legacy Bios" and back
  • set the SSD up via PERC controller: as "non-raid" , as "raid 0" (raid 1 not possible because SSD and HDD)
  • set the HDD up via PERC controller: as "non-raid" , as "raid 0" (raid 1 not possible because SSD and HDD)
  • set the HDD and later the SSD as boot drive
  • tried every possible combination of the things mentioned above with a reboot
  • went f... nuts because it didn't help

The result was the same as before: I booted the machine, could see the bootloader screen, started the Synology Web Assistant "install page" in my browser and... no disks found :cry:

 

Any help much appreciated, thank you :D 

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I had the same problem with a Dell R710, what you have to do is create a virtual disk on the RAID first before trying to boot up with the Loader.  Once your Virtual disk is done boot up with the loader and setup will see the disk, if it does not then the loader is missing drivers for your controller on the V3 Extra.

Try it out and see what happens keep us updated...

 

 

Edited by painkiller895
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45 minutes ago, painkiller895 said:

create a virtual disk on the RAID first before trying to boot up with the Loader

 

Yes, ok, I've tried this before but just but just to be sure I did it again. So I setup my SSD as a non-raid drive and left it out of the virtual disk on purpose and with my HDD I created via iDRAC a virtual disk (as seen below). 

 

Virtual Disk as seen by iDRAC

 

Reboot... and... noooooooo

 

No disk found on DS3615XS

 

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13 minutes ago, 20tn said:

 

Yes, ok, I've tried this before but just but just to be sure I did it again. So I setup my SSD as a non-raid drive and left it out of the virtual disk on purpose and with my HDD I created via iDRAC a virtual disk (as seen below). 

 

Virtual Disk as seen by iDRAC

 

Reboot... and... noooooooo

 

No disk found on DS3615XS

 

Realise that there are several tech terms about setting controllers, the perc330 seems to have an hba mode, which is probably one of the non-raid settings you have tried, but if not then maybe its worth a shot. Also,  I think some people have cross flashed these  cards with the standard LSI firmware and set to IT mode in their setups 

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13 minutes ago, sbv3000 said:

Realise that there are several tech terms about setting controllers, the perc330 seems to have an hba mode, which is probably one of the non-raid settings you have tried, but if not then maybe its worth a shot. Also,  I think some people have cross flashed these  cards with the standard LSI firmware and set to IT mode in their setups 

 

Ok, thank you! Tried this HBA mode, but sadly it didn't change anything...

 

I'm thinking about going down the path which was suggest some posts earlier: create an Ubuntu USB boot stick, fire it up and if I'm able to install Ubuntu that way, I think the problem may be connected to a "missing drivers thingy" in my loader USB stick or so... I'm not a pro ;)

 

Keeping you informed! Thanks to everybody for your time and postings! 

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12 minutes ago, 20tn said:

 

Ok, thank you! Tried this HBA mode, but sadly it didn't change anything...

 

I'm thinking about going down the path which was suggest some posts earlier: create an Ubuntu USB boot stick, fire it up and if I'm able to install Ubuntu that way, I think the problem may be connected to a "missing drivers thingy" in my loader USB stick or so... I'm not a pro ;)

 

Keeping you informed! Thanks to everybody for your time and postings! 

Ok, a last suggestion as well, try the 5.2 loader (and matching DSM) if that works then you can check the drivers/modules loaded and work from there, plus it also gets you a working dsm to play with

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40 minutes ago, sbv3000 said:

Ok, a last suggestion as well, try the 5.2 loader (and matching DSM) if that works then you can check the drivers/modules loaded and work from there, plus it also gets you a working dsm to play with

Try it with a regular hard drive first, not the ssd drive... Also try loader 5.2 and 6.0 as mentioned...

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Ok, just wanted to inform you: I've given up! 

 

I tried every single available bootloader ( every one at first without and afterwards with the extra drivers pack), even with 3 different USB sticks... everytime the same result: booting ok but then Synology Web Assistant says "no disks" found! Tried all this on HDD, then SSD, first as Raid 0, then as Non-Raid disk... I took me nearly a day... :-(

 

So if anyone in the future reads this post and manages what didn't worked out for me: please let me know. Thank you! 

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On 11/27/2017 at 2:10 AM, 20tn said:

Ok, just wanted to inform you: I've given up! 

 

I tried every single available bootloader ( every one at first without and afterwards with the extra drivers pack), even with 3 different USB sticks... everytime the same result: booting ok but then Synology Web Assistant says "no disks" found! Tried all this on HDD, then SSD, first as Raid 0, then as Non-Raid disk... I took me nearly a day... :-(

 

So if anyone in the future reads this post and manages what didn't worked out for me: please let me know. Thank you! 

Before you give up totally, you could try the ESXi route, that might allow you to setup a virtual XPE/DSM box as ESXi might allow you to choose a virtual drive controller that XPE sees ok.

Also, have you looked at the controller flashing route to make it a standard LSI device and a final silly option might be to replace the perc with a known to work controller. All of the above depend on how keen you are to get this working :), and the first two just involve time.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just wanted to post an update:  

 

I downloaded an official tailored Version of ESXi 6.5 provided by Dell/EMC for my Dell R230 and... took me about 5 minutes and Xpenology with loader v1.02b was up and running. 

For me it's really perfect, fast and reliable running DSM 6.1.4-15217 Update 3  :D

 

Thanks again to all of you! 

 

 

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