"...trying to format SDA1" during installation

[NOSNJECTN]

All,

i currently have a DELL PE2500 server with 3 disks in a RAID5 config. the server has PERC3di, AIC-7899 controller. i update the BIOS so it is now A07. meets the requirements for NIC, Storage, and CPU. for some reason i cannot complete the installation of ESX server 3. i keep getting an error "an error has occurred trying to format sda1. this problem is serious, and the install cannot continue" i have formatted the drives, re-created the RAID5 configuration in a new container. ran a check disk on all 3 disks which came back fine. all i saw in the forums was that someone updated the BIOS and the Controller drivers. i have done this and still get the same error. i don't get it b/c i actually installed ESX3 on an old DELL PE1300 with no problems. there are no HW failures...please help

[Texiwill]

Hello,

You do not have a fibre channel connection? Your card list does not list one so I do not think this is the issue.

Generally if this happens the disks have an issue. You can redo the install and when you reach the failure, use 'alt-f3' or 'ctrl-alt-f3' if running a graphical install and look at the logfile there for specific errors. Also once on that screen use 'alt-f4' to see another logfile with perhaps more errors/issues.

You will get some information that will be helpful in solving your problem.

Best regards,

Edward

[NOSNJECTN]

thanks for the reply. i did as you suggested and the results are below.

when i did ctrlaltf3 all i saw was the log of each part of the install, but no indications of errors. it stopped at:

moving (1) to step enablefilesystem

....BUT when i did ctrlaltf4 i see multiple lines that read:

<4> I/O error: dev 08:02, sector 4194304

in each line the only thing that changes is the sector #'s. now how do i find which disk is causing the problem, if it is indeed the disk that is causing the problem.

[NOSNJECTN]

you were correct it was a bad disk. 1 out of the 3 was bad. so i reconfigured RAID with the 2 disks. got much further in the install to only get yet another error: this is a section from the dump log.

File "/usr/lib/anaconda/gui.py" line 339, in cb self.instLog.flush ()

IOError: \[Errno 30] Read-only file system

any ideas

[Texiwill]

Hello,

It appears you may have more bad disks or misconfigured raid. Since this is raid, I assume you reconfigured the raid to raid 1 or raid 0? Raid 5 will not work as it requires at least 3 drives. I would rebuild the raid device completely by deleting it and using either Raid0 or Raid1.

Best regards,

Edward