How to clear foreign config on a DELL PERC RAID contoller

Introduction

The foreign state means that the newly inserted disks carry an existing raid configuration (possibly once created on another server).

You may either:

• CLEAN this state on each individual disk (this action will destroy data on these disks)
• IMPORT this foreign raid configuration (assuming that all disk involved in the raid configuration are present) to recover the whole disk configuration.

 

Solution

The easiest way to CLEAR a foreign config is by using OMSA.

You must login as "root" to do this.

This only works if there is only one foreign disk on the controller.  In case of multiple foreign disk, you must IMPORT the foreign config instead.

• Logon to OMSA https://<IP>:1311
• Select the controller on OpenManage
• Go to the "Information/Configuration" tab
• On "Controller Tasks" select "Foreign Configuration Operations", click "Execute"
• On the next page, click "Clear"