Dell Perc s100 Raid Partitions

[george1421]

Just for a point of reference, you are trying to capture an image on a server chassis with with a windows “hardware assisted software based” raid controller built in.

You have to remember here that FOG uses linux so a windows only raid controller may not work swell.

With that said, there is a kernel parameter to tell the FOS engine to use the built in mdraid software.

So to do this you may have to do a bit of research.

1. Manually register this host.
2. In the host definition you need to add the following parameter mdraid=true
3. Next schedule a debug capture or deploy. I don’t care which, we need console access to the target computer.

[Chrisjmuk]

Do you know where that parameter is?

[george1421]

@Chrisjmuk Sorry I was updating my original post. I’m going to lookup a tutorial that talks about software raids.

This article is not directly related to your situation, but it is a close friend.
https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/7882/capture-deploy-to-target-computers-using-intel-rapid-storage-onboard-raid

[Chrisjmuk]

@george1421 Great, thank you.

I assume i add it in the “Host Kernel Arguments” ?

[george1421]

@Chrisjmuk yes, this kernel parameter tell FOS to load the driver code for software raids.

[Chrisjmuk]

@george1421 as thats for linux, on the “Host Primary Disk: /dev/md126” on Windows any idea what would be?

[Tom Elliott]

@Chrisjmuk The host device is only relevant to the FOS engine which IS linux.

[george1421]

@Chrisjmuk We need you to get to the FOS command prompt to figure that part out ( /dev/md126 ). Since we don’t have that hardware available, guessing is our best path forward.

[Chrisjmuk]

@george1421 Ok, according to Tom, that isnt needed for Windows?

[Tom Elliott]

@Chrisjmuk Correct. We don’t know what that device is currently, but that is only relevant to FOS.

[Chrisjmuk]

I have tried a few times and its now showing the partitions.

I have followed your guide here

https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/7882/capture-deploy-to-target-computers-using-intel-rapid-storage-onboard-raid/2

But when i do the cat /proc/mdstat it doesnt show any devices at all, any ideas?

[george1421]

@Chrisjmuk ok if mdstat returns nothing then the mdraid driver is not able to see the S100 raid controller.

There may be no joy for you then.
https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/dell-poweredge-s100-s300-linux-driver-raid/

I’m going to still keep digging.

[Chrisjmuk]

Is there a known kernel that would have ps100 drivers?

[george1421]

@Chrisjmuk That is what I’m looking for. If we could find a driver it could be added to the FOS engine.

[george1421]

@george1421 Sorry no joy for you. There isn’t (at least what I can find) ANY raid controller driver for the S100/S300 dell raid cards.

I feel FOG is not a good solution for this cloning task. You may want to look into solutions that are WinPE based where at least you can inject the needed driver into the WinPE environment. All linux based imaging solutions will have the same issue as FOG.

[Chrisjmuk]

I have another idea i am trying, i am making a hyper-v VM up and adding installing the raid drivers once installed and then image that and try and deploy it to a physical, not sure if that will work but will give it a go.

[george1421]

@Chrisjmuk How many of these systems are you going to deploy?

If its more than 2, you might want to consider using MDT for image capture and deployment. It surely won’t be as fast as FOG, BUT you can load the windows only RAID drivers in the deployment.

[Tom Elliott]

@george1421 Is it possible the Perc s100 raid is presenting as a sata disk to the system?

For example, it’s not using a software layout but actually presenting the disk in /dev/sda format?

[george1421]

@Tom-Elliott From what I seen (web searches) if you disable the raid functions in bios then it will present the disks as JOBD. But then raid is disabled. If the system used windows raid (or apparently intel “fake raid”) then mdraid would see the disks.

The issue is that the S100 and S300 driver specs are closed source so no one has been able to reverse construct the drivers.

[Tom Elliott]

@george1421 But that’s just it, I’m pretty sure linux can install on these systems without an issue.

So about this posting? https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/9333/dell-perc-s100-raid-partitions/9# He states it’s now showing partitions. But what partitions are showing? It’s obviously able to read something now.