URGENT. Dell Poweredge 2850 Mirror 1 Now it is not booting. How to make it boot from Mirrored disk Thanks for any assistance

You will have to get into the controlled setup in order to find out what the problem is, or you can simply hit ctrl-D and do the Dell disk diagnostics which will take an hour or more, but will give you an idea of where to start.

Logically, if it won't boot, then your RAID is probably broken. it can sometimes be repaired through either the RAID or controller setup menu, which you can see during boot.

go here, for the manuals and documentation on how to do that: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/poweredge-t105/manuals

Make sure it is mirrored (Raid 1) in Server Administor. Then swap it out with same type and size. It auto rebuild.

2 drives indicates they are RAID 1, which are mirrored. 2 x 36GB = 36GB. This is an industry standard config. If you make any changes you will lose the array making it RAID 0 (no RAID - no longer hot swap), and or the complete loss of OS / data.

Instead make another logical drive for data storage. You need three or four drives to set up as RAID 5, again an industry standard config.

Make sure to back up in all instances. GL

hi!
This is a quite serious matter to be solved. The information you have provided is not enough at all.
What you have to include in here:

1. First, Be precise. Don't assume.
2. How did you recognized the failure. Which indicators or POST/BIOS/RAID BIOS reported you the errors? Was it from the OpenManageSA?
3. Please specify the Hardware Controller model and manufacturer with the version (RAID controller).
4. Which Operating System do you run (or ran)?
5. Are these disks Hot Swappable?
6. Have you used hardware RAID controller or software RAID? Provided by OS.
7. Do you have Dell OpenManage Server Administrator?
8. How do you describe the RAID configuration? Are you sure that Disk 1 and 4 are mirrored to 2 and 3? You must be precise. Because raids can be used in many ways. You can combine any two disks and mirror them to any two disks. Even though it prevents hard drive failures, if your OS had an issue Mirrors may not be an option to recover it.
9. That message is a Warning Message. However Drive Roaming has completed. You don't need to worry about that.
10. If your BIOS has associated firmware controllers you could rebuild the array. But you may have to add new disks to replace others. You may need to update the firmware if necessary.
11. Then if you plan to use disk 2 and 3, you have to position them to 1 and 4. Then try to rebuild the array. But you may have to have Controller Drive installed on the disk. That varies from type to type. So I cannot say exactly. However if the mirroring of the OS is done to one disk, that disk would be enough. But you have to be certain. Reconfiguring should be done using both the disks replaced if you do not know anything about the configuration.
12. Check BOOT ORDER. Change it if necessary. If disks fail again check one by one and repair them using a separate machine.
13. Use Dell Software (OpenManage Server Administrator, if its the one available). Rebuild and or Resync the array.
14. If boot record errors occur, you have to boot from CD/DVD and repair the Boot Record and/or MBR.
15. If you need any other issue like BSOD, please write them down. Make sure the OS is not corrupted. If you backed up the System Status, restore it in such a case. Do an In-place Upgrade otherwise (will replace the OS files only, not data).
16. Use the manuals for Dell Server and RAID Controller if you do not know how to use properly.
17. If all the options are not working, you have to contact an engineer at Dell.

Feel free to contact again.
Thanks for using Fixya!
-Lasitha

I don't understand the beep code you describe, but the 2850 has many beep codes to help understand what is going on.

First ... Identify the beep. Does the beep start as soon as you power it on, or after several seconds? What is the pattern of the beep - is it a repeating set of beeps - 3 sets of beeps between 1 and 4 beeps ... like 1 beep-3 beeps-2 beeps, or 3 beeps, 3 beeps, 1 beep? Or is it a steady repeating beep - about once per second?

Second ... is the LCD panel on the server blue or orange? If orange, what is the error code(s) it is scrolling?

If it is a steady, once-per-second beep, it is probably your RAID controller. Does the system boot to Windows/OS ok? If so, use (or install) OpenManage Server Administrator (Managed Node from Dell's Support Site) to check the Hardware Logs and check the RAID array (under Storage/Virtual Disks). If it is not booting to the OS, then go into CTRL-M to see what the status of your array is.

As RAID uses block for block copy, a re-sync when adding in a new mirror on RAID 1 will take some time, and system performance will be affected during that time period. There is no indication in windows if the rebuild is complete as this is being done on a hardware level by the controller. Both Raid 5 and RAID 10 have added benefits , but alos require more storage (a lot more in case of RAID 10 as you will have effectivly 3 spares for 1 data.) Raid 5 has the best space/protection pay off, but will be slightly slower than both RAID 1 and RAID 0 as parity has to be calculated for each write. As caffineshark states your best option is to use a combination of the methods we have described:

1) Use the two SATA disks as RAID 0 for performance and reliability.
2) Make backup images of the boot volume using Drive Image / Ghost and store on external USB IDE drive, and then offsite.

If you make an image in the USB drive, make sure you run a verfiy of the image after creation to make sure it's valid.

This should allow you to restore in a DR sutuation, but also give you some decent HDD crash protection.

Check the Boot Sequence again -- if there are any "SCSI" devices listed, enable them, and make your CD-ROM the "primary" boot-device (so that you can install Windows) and make this "SCSI" device the SECONDARY boot-device, and disable the internal hard-drive, so that it won't be used as a boot-device.

yes Ubuntu can be installed in Dell poweredge 2850 server

It sounds like a hard disk has failed or fallen out of sync.
This can be a serious problem if not addressed ASAP.

Call Dell, they have lifetime phone support for their servers.

Write down the Express Service Code and Service Tag number that is on the server chassis before you call.
This is the last number I used for server support: (800) 945-3355
If it doesn't work you should be able to find a valid number at support.dell.com

I hope this helps.