Test, And H/W

Hi, folks,

This is a test post; to make it of interest, here’s an issue you might want to be aware of, those with not brand new hardware. We’ve got a few Dell PE R415s. A 2TB b/u drive on one was getting full, so I went to replace it with a 3TB drive (a WD Red, not that it matters.) We got the system in ’11.

I built the drive – a GPT, 1 3TB partition, on an R320, from ’12.

smartctl understood it perfectly well. Anything else, not so much. parted
*crashed* When I managed to force it to see it without crashing – I think I had to create a new GPT, it only saw 2199G. Put the drive back on the other box, parted complained that the “backup block” wasn’t at the end of the disk.

I finally talked to Dell, and was told, and I quote,
<...> three terabyte drives aren’t supported the raid controller installed in this server, the SAS 6 i/r.

It likely worked fine in the R320 due to the age difference and the raid controller installed in it, I don’t believe firmware updates will make the drive usable or extra space visible to the controller.

IMPORTANT NOTE! Only the Dell H700 and H800 currently support the 3TB
drives (H200 will add support later this year) – NO earlier controllers, such as the PERC4/5/6, SAS5/6 (or ANY other Dell controller not mentioned)
have this support and in some cases, even though you may be able to see the drive, this has NOT been tested or validated, so possible data loss could be experienced. ONLY use the Dell H700 and H800 with the proper firmware to ensure a tested and validated >2TB solution! For non-Dell controllers, contact the controller vendor for their support statement on

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