Be sure to "enable" the "enable SATA RAID" selection in the BIOS of new IBM servers prior to loading any software. If not, the server will only use one hard drive and mirroring will not be available. In order to recover from not enabling RAID in the BIOS, the server has to be completely wiped and reloaded starting from RAID configuration.

Again, neither the ServeRAID Manager, nor IBM ServerGuide will enable RAID automatically.

If this happens to you, my recommendation is to blow away the server and reload it properly. I did not have this information and was finished with loading all software on the new server before discovering the mirror had not been established. In an attempt to save my config, I tried imaging the server with Ghost. The imaging process went smoothly, but the server failed to boot. After locating the proper RAID driver and running a repair install of Windows Server 2003, the following issues appeared:

Windows Setup
type: Information

Windows Setup cannot run under Safemode.  Setup 
will restart now.


===   ===   ===   ===   ===   ===   ===   

lsass.exe - System Error
type: Red X

Security Accounts Manager initialization failed 
because of the following error:  Directory 
Service cannot start.  Error Status: 0xc00002e1.  
Please click OK to shutdown the system.  You can 
use the recovery console to diagnose the system 
further.

===   ===   ===   ===   ===   ===   ===   

Microsoft KB article 258062 had some nice suggestions, but the server just didn't want to cooperate. (Q258062) "Directory Services cannot start" error message when you start your Windows-based or SBS-based domain controller

I may have had better luck using NTbackup with System State option enabled, but for now, we're already engaged in a complete reload.

 

 

( IBM EServer xSeries 226 Serial ATA )