How to configure hardware RAID in Dell Servers
One of the Dell Servers, Dell PowerEdge 2850, in our Cyber Jaya DC had hard disk issues, so I had to replace it. For some reason, I had a little bit of trouble setting up and configuring hardware RAID. Mostly because the terms used in the configuration menus and the menu itself is kinda confusing
So here’s a note to myself on how to make raid in dell servers:
- While booting the server, enter PERC/CERC BIOS Configuration Utility by pressing Control + M key.
- From the Management menu select Configure option.
- Select Clear Configuration from the Configure menu, Select Yes when prompted. At this point we have deleted all existing arrays and/or logical drives. Pressing Escape button go to Management menu.
- Go to Clear option in Management menu. Select drives by pressing spacebar and when you see READY status flashing you press F10 button. Select Yes and you will be reformatting those drives. This will take some time depending on your drive capacity. With my drives (2×73GB) it took around 1hour ++. When it’s done press escape and reboot your server
- Repeat Step 1.
- Select Easy Configuration from Configure menu. Make sure all drives are in GREEN and READY state.
- Using arrow keys select the drives one by one and press spacebar. This will change drives status from READY to ONLINE A00-00. Repeat this step for as much hard drives you have.
- If you want to make a hot spare, select a hard drive you wanna make hot spare and press F4.
- Select all ONLINE status drives and press F10. This will bring you Select Configurable Array(s) dialog. Now pressing spacebar you get A-00 window, here you should get Span-1. Press F10 key to verify your logical drive settings. Here you will get options of RAID-0 and RAID-1. When you made your mind and set your RAID configs go to Accept option and press enter. When prompted select YES.
- Now it’s time to make our logical drive bootable. In Configure menu go to Specify Boot Drive and select Specify a Logical Drive as BootDrive. The number in Logical BootDrive set to 0. (This will change according to your drive configs). And press enter.
- Pressing Escape button you quit from the menus and go to Exit dialog. Reboot your server and you are set to install your preferred OS now!
This note is for RAID-1 with 2×73GB SCSI hard drives. For your case it might be slightly different but the overall process should be something like this.
Enjoy!
UPDATE: Here’s a snapshot of the PERC/CERC BIOS Configuration Utility
A laptop for $150 running Linux
I recently found out that there’s a laptop for only USD$150! The more interesting part is it’s running Fedora Linux. The specs of the laptop as follows:
Intel® Celeron 1.5 GHz CPU
14″ Widescreen X-bright LCD
256 MB Ram memory
40 GB Hard Drive
802.11g Wireless LAN
Optimized Linux operating system
Pre-installed office and multimedia applications
I think it’s difficult to find even second hand laptops for this cheap here in Lowyat, KL. They ship internationally, so I’m gonna see if I can get one of those. 
Will be an extra machine to be entertained with!
Here’s the link Medison Celebrity Laptop
Kiss good-bye to my R60 Thinkpad
I’ve been using thinkpads since 2005. I have used R50, R50e, R51, R51e, R52 and lastly R60 models along the way. All the models served me well during that time, they never failed, the hardware was just tough for a guy like me.
I’ve tried almost all kinds of linux distributions on them, I even give it a shot and install Mac OS Tiger on my last R60 Thinkpad. This was a great exploration and I had my first experience using OS X. I was quite happy with the performance, although I couldn’t manage to install wireless card(ipw3945) I could after some tricks use my built-in network card.
I was, I’m sure as all of the thinkpad users, afraid that since IBM sold the PC business line to Lenovo Group the quality of the products will go down. Read more
Project Blackbox - Data Center on the go
Did you know Sun has come up with a Data Center on the go. Project Blackbox is a transportable shock-proof shipping container. It is capable of accommodating up to 250 Sun Fire T1000s or x64 servers, with up to 7 terabytes of memory and as many as 1.5 petabytes of disk or 2 petabytes of tape storage — just supply water and power, and the thing will run on its own.
The question is - Who’s gonna use it and where?
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How to embedd Linux Applications
Are you a software vendor looking for embedded linux appliances for your softwares? Or just another geek to see how embedded linux operates? Well, here’s your chance to try it out!
FOX Board, a complete Linux system in just 66 x 72 mm
FOX Board runs a real Linux operating system (not a uC Linux) on an ETRAX 100LX microprocessor, a 100MIPS RISC CPU made by Axis.
FOX Board has two main field applications:
- As a stand alone device to build a micro web server or other network devices as proxy, router, firewall, etc.
- As a core engine to plug onto the PCB of a user application board instead of a simple microcontroller.
Two USB 1.1 host interfaces can be connected to USB memory stick, hard disk, webcam, modem, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth dongle, ADSL adapter, Serial converter, etc.
Through the 10/100 ethernet interface it is possible to have access to the internal Web server, FTP server, SSH, Telnetd and the complete TCP/IP stack.
Hardware Features
Size: 66 x 72 mm (2.6 x 2.8 inches)
Weight : 37 gr
Cpu: Axis ETRAX 100LX 32 bit, RISC, 100MHz (100MIPS)
Memory: FOXLX816: 8MB FLASH 16MB RAM FOXLX832: 8MB FLASH 32MB RAM
Power: Single power supply 5 Volt 280mA (1 watt)
Ports: 1 Ethernet (10/100 Mb/s), 2 USB 1.1, 1 serial console port
Extension: 2 extension sockets with IDE, SCSI, serial lines, parallel ports, I/O lines, I2C bus interface
Temperature range: 0-70 °C
KDEV developed SMS FoxBox - SMS Gateway Solution with this board and Linux embedded inside.
Acme Systems provides various kinds of APIs and documentations on how to do things with the boards, which I find very useful indeed. This item is already in my must have list!
About
Welcome to Arstan's personal blog. This blog includes tips on Linux, Apache, MySQL, Shell Scripts. Hardware/software and internet technologies reviews and updates.
