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RAR / Controllers and hosts / Broadcom MegaRAID and ServeRAID

MegaRAID 9260 · 9271 · 9361 · 9460 · 9560 · ServeRAID M5015 · M5210 · storcli · MegaCLI · DDF · Unconfigured Bad

Broadcom MegaRAID and ServeRAID array recovery. The controller under most of the others, and the dialect they all inherit.

MegaRAID is the family behind Dell's PERC, IBM's and Lenovo's ServeRAID, Cisco's 12G RAID, Fujitsu's PRAID and Supermicro's cards, and it is sold under its own name too: LSI, then Avago, then Broadcom, 9260 and 9271 through 9361 and 9460 to the tri-mode 9560. Whatever the badge, it writes DDF-format metadata near the end of every member and reports through storcli or the older MegaCLI in one set of states. Physical drives are Online, Offline, Failed, Rebuild, Unconfigured Good, Unconfigured Bad, Foreign, Missing or JBOD; virtual drives are Optimal, Partially Degraded, Degraded or Offline. Foreign configurations are listed with storcli /c0/fall show and adopted with import; preserved cache is listed and deleted per virtual drive. The buttons that cost are the same as everywhere: clearing a foreign configuration, making an Unconfigured Bad drive good to see, forcing a virtual drive online, discarding preserved cache to boot. A MegaRAID set of two to four members is £500 + VAT upwards after the free look, fixed in writing; larger sets from £1,250 + VAT.

Free first lookOne fixed figure in writingNo data, no bill on most jobsReturn postage paid

Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
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Power down. Label every slot before a drive comes out. Do not rebuild, do not force a drive online, do not import or clear a foreign configuration, do not initialise, and do not run chkdsk, fsck, zpool import -F or mdadm --create on the members. A rebuild reads every sector of every survivor and writes to the replacement; each of the commands writes to the drives. On images, all of them are reversible. On the originals, none of them is.

Models and versions we see.

Which level is it →
Family Models or versions Metadata, defaults and notes
MegaRAID 6Gb/s9260-8i, 9271-8i, 9266DDF · 64KB default · BBU
MegaRAID 12Gb/s9341, 9361-8i, 9380, 9440, 9460-16iDDF · CacheVault · 256KB default on some
MegaRAID tri-mode9560-16i, 9580, 9660SAS, SATA and NVMe
ServeRAIDM1015, M5014, M5015, M5110, M5210, 930-8iIBM and Lenovo firmware over MegaRAID
RebadgedCisco 12G, Fujitsu PRAID EP, Supermicro AOC-S3xxxSame states, vendor firmware

What tends to go wrong on a MegaRAID.

Unconfigured BadA drive the controller dropped and will not use until told to. It answered too slowly once. Making it Unconfigured Good and rebuilding is the forum's fix; imaging it first is the bench's, because a drive dropped for one slow read is usually readable and sometimes stale.
Foreign and importstorcli /c0/fall show lists foreign configurations with their drives; storcli /c0/fall import adopts them and storcli /c0/fall del clears them. Import with every member present usually works; a member missing brings up a degraded set that then wants to rebuild; del deletes the description.
Preserved cachestorcli /c0/vall show preservedcache lists pinned writes for offline virtual drives; storcli /c0/vall delete preservedcache throws them away. The controller may refuse to boot until one or the other; the discard cannot be undone.
Generations and firmwareA 9361 will not always import a set written by a 9560, and vice versa, and vendor firmware on a ServeRAID adds another variable. The DDF on the drives is readable on the bench whatever card wrote it.

Broadcom MegaRAID and ServeRAID symptoms, and how long each gives you.

Not listed? Describe it on the form →
One drive amber; the set still upDegraded. Copy what matters, export the log, power down.Do not delay
Rebuild stalledA survivor's read errors. Power down; the first-dropped drive holds the stripes.Do not delay
Controller replaced; drives foreignThe description is on the drives. Do not clear.Do not delay
Several drives gone at onceBackplane, expander, cable or supply. The drives are usually fine.Everyday job
Cache lost or preservedWrites that never reached the drives. Do not discard yet.Do not delay
Packing it and posting it: power down, photograph the controller's screen or export its log, and write the slot number on each drive with a marker before it comes out of its carrier. Send every member of the set, including the one that failed first; it holds the stripes the rebuild never reached. Each drive travels in an anti-static bag inside its own padding, in a box with nothing able to move. Send the controller if it was replaced or holds an encryption key; otherwise it stays. Insure the parcel for what the data is worth, use a tracked service, and know that the posting address is not printed anywhere on this site; it arrives by email in reply to the form, with a booking sheet to print; the sheet inside the parcel is what matches it to your enquiry when it is opened. Or hand the sealed parcel in at the nearest of ten drop-off points, your name on the outside and the sheet inside; say where you are on the form and it comes by email. We pay the postage home either way. The whole of it is written up on the guide to packing and posting.

What the message means on a MegaRAID.

Describe yours to us →
What you see The usual reason Where that leaves you
Unconfigured BadDropped for a slow readImage it; do not make it good and rebuild
Foreign; storcli import failsA member missing or copies disagreeDo not del; send the set
Preserved cache; controller will not bootPinned writes for an offline VDDo not delete until the members are imaged
Virtual or logical disk degradedA member out; still readableImage the weak drives before rebuilding
Virtual or logical disk failed or offlineToo many members outEvery member imaged; set reassembled from images
Foreign configurationMetadata the controller does not claimDo not clear; import only with every member present
Predictive failure on a survivorThresholds crossedStop; image before any rebuild

From the parcel arriving to your files going back.

Work we have closed →
01

Logged the day it lands, and the first look costs nothing Free

A case number goes on the parcel and a number on every member the day it is opened, matched to the slot you wrote on it. Each member goes on the imager its interface needs, never on a controller, and its metadata is read before a sector is: the level, the order, the stripe size, the event counts that say which member is current and which dropped out first. An engineer settles what has happened to the set and how much of it can honestly be read back. Back to you come two things together: a straight note of what is liftable and what is not, plus one figure, fixed and written down. Accept it, or decline and owe us nothing.

Nothing to pay for lookingA single figure, put in writingNo rebuilds, no imports, no initialise
02

Every member imaged, including the one that failed first

Every drive in the set is imaged sector by sector, weak areas last, on hardware that controls every retry, with a map of what could not be read kept for each. Members with failed heads go to the clean bench first; that is the drive site's work and the same bench does it. The drive that dropped out first is imaged too, because it still holds every stripe written before it dropped, and a rebuild that stalled part-way never reached them.

Sector by sector, weak areas lastThe first-dropped member included
03

The geometry, from the metadata or from the parity

Where the controller's metadata survives on the members, the order, stripe size, parity rotation and data offset are read from it. Where it was cleared or overwritten, they are recovered from the data: parity across the members at the same offset should XOR to zero on a consistent stripe, which confirms the level and finds the stale member; where parity lands says the rotation; entropy at stripe edges and the file system's own anchors give the stripe size, the order and the start.

Metadata first, parity secondOrder, stripe, rotation, offset
04

Assembled in software, and repaired on the virtual volume

The set is put together from the images in software, with nothing written to any of them: the current members in, the stale member used only to fill holes a survivor could not give. The file system is checked and repaired on a copy of the virtual volume, VMFS and CSV volumes opened and the virtual machines' disks extracted, databases repaired where they need it. The originals are not touched again.

Nothing written to the imagesVirtual machines and databases opened
05

You see the file list before you pay

What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not — and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. Recovered data travels home on fresh media bought in for your job, with the postage at our end. Your case is not closed until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.

No charge until you accept the figureFresh media, supplied with the job5–10 days at the bench

From the bench

  • Export storcli /c0 show all and the event log before anything changes. They record every drive's state and every drop with a timestamp.
  • The strip size default changed by generation. Say it if you set it; the bench reads the DDF either way.
  • A ServeRAID is a MegaRAID with IBM or Lenovo firmware, and its DDF reads the same on the bench.
  • Export the controller log first. It is the best record of what failed when, and the bench reads it.
  • The drives are the job; the controller is context. Send it if it was replaced or holds an encryption key.
  • Keep the first-dropped drive. It holds the stripes the rebuild could not compute.

One job, followed all the way through.

UK · RAR-2026-0627JOB LOGGED ✓

A Supermicro chassis on a MegaRAID 9361-8i, RAID 6 of twelve, two drives Unconfigured Bad after a backplane fault and a third failed when the operator made them good and started a rebuild

All twelve drives came in. The two Unconfigured Bad drives were healthy and had been dropped by the backplane fault; the third had failed heads and was imaged after a head swap. The DDF metadata gave the geometry, parity and Q across the images proved it, and the set was assembled from the eleven current members with the third drive's image filling what the rebuild had reached and then lost. The XFS volume mounted read-only and the archive was copied out.

100% of the volume recovered11 days here, and back by post
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine case

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

  • Export the log and photograph the screen
  • Power down and label every slot
  • Send every member
  • Tell us the controller, the level, the stripe size if known, and what was tried

What sets us back

  • Rebuilding with a second drive flagged
  • Clearing a foreign configuration
  • Forcing failed drives online
  • Deleting and recreating the virtual disk

Questions answered before you commit.

What does Unconfigured Bad mean?

MegaRAID's name for a drive it dropped and will not use until told to. It answered too slowly once. It usually reads on the bench, and it may be stale; image it before making it good.

How do I list and import a foreign configuration?

storcli /c0/fall show lists it; storcli /c0/fall import adopts it, and is safe only with every member present and the copies agreeing. storcli /c0/fall del clears it, and deletes the description from the drives.

Should I delete the preserved cache so the controller boots?

Not before the members are imaged. The discard throws away the last writes the file system believes were made, and it cannot be undone.

Is my Dell PERC a MegaRAID?

Yes, with Dell firmware and Dell's names for the same states. The PERC page has Dell's dialect; the DDF on the drives is the same.

What does it cost?

£500 + VAT upwards for a set of two to four members after the free look, fixed in writing; larger sets from £1,250 + VAT.

Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.

Foreign configuration: import or clear →Preserved cache and cache data lost →Virtual disk failed or offline →Dell PERC →Supermicro, Cisco and Fujitsu servers →Several drives failed at once →

Nothing gets worse while it is powered down.

Looking at it is free. Back comes a list of what opened and what did not, together with a single price to finish, set down in writing while you are still free to say no. On most jobs an invoice only follows the data. Until that list reaches you, leave the server off and the drives in their slots.

0800 6890668

Price my jobPacking and posting