[Discussion] Debian 11 Installation Issues on a Dell PowerEdge R720 Server

[kylaodou]

We are facing issues while installing Debian 11 on a Dell PowerEdge R720 server equipped with 11 x 1.2TB disks. We have tried multiple approaches, but we are encountering blocking errors. Server Configuration: Model: Dell PowerEdge R720 Storage: 11 x 1.2TB SAS disks Boot Mode: Tested both UEFI and Legacy BIOS USB Boot Creation Tools: Ventoy and Rufus Steps Taken & Issues Encountered:

First Attempt with Ventoy (Abandoned) We created a bootable USB using Ventoy and the Debian 11 ISO. The server detected the USB, and we accessed the Ventoy menu successfully. Issue: We were unsure which option to choose to start the installation, so we decided to try another tool.
Second Attempt with Rufus (Successful Installation, But Boot Failure) We recreated the USB with Rufus, using MBR (BIOS mode). This time, the installation completed successfully, and Debian was installed on disk h0. Issue: After rebooting, we got the following error: "No boot device available"
Troubleshooting & Diagnosis Attempts We suspected an issue with h0, so we removed it and tried to boot without it. Result: The same error ("No boot device available"). We then removed h1 along with h0 and tried again → same issue.
Reinstalling Debian on Another Disk (h1) We removed h0, assuming it was faulty. We restarted the Debian installation, this time selecting h1 as the system disk. New errors during installation: Failed to create the swap partition → Error message displayed (see image 1). I/O error on /dev/sda during partitioning → "Input/output error during read on /dev/sda" (see image 2). Questions & Investigation Paths: We are unsure whether the issue is caused by hardware failures (disks or RAID controller), BIOS misconfiguration, or Debian's disk detection process.
BIOS or UEFI Mode?

Should we enable a specific mode in the BIOS (UEFI vs Legacy) for Debian to properly detect the boot disk? Possible RAID Issue?

Are our disks part of a RAID configuration (hardware or software)? Could the Dell PERC RAID controller be interfering with the installation? How can we verify and properly configure RAID for Debian? How to Check if Disks Are Faulty?

Is there a command to check disk health before installation? Should we try another Linux distribution to see if the issue is Debian-specific? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated as we are currently stuck with this installation.

Thanks in advance!

[Aki]

Hello,

We are facing issues while installing Debian 11 on a Dell PowerEdge R720 server equipped with 11 x 1.2TB disks. We have tried multiple approaches, but we are encountering blocking errors. Server Configuration: Model: Dell PowerEdge R720 Storage: 11 x 1.2TB SAS disks Boot Mode: Tested both UEFI and Legacy BIOS USB Boot Creation Tools: Ventoy and Rufus Steps Taken & Issues
[..]

The PERC SAS RAID controller is probably not supported by the Linux kernel out of the box in the usual boot configuration.

So you probably need to install Debian on an internal boot disk that is not connected to the PERC SAS RAID controller, but to the main (SATA ?) motherboard disk interface.

After installing and booting Debian, you can probably check if the kernel modules included in the Debian Linux kernel already detect the PERC SAS RAID controller (i.e. by the kernel module named mpt3sas) or if you need to install the kernel module from Dell [1][2].

Then you will probably need to install the user space utilities for the PERC controller (PERCCLI) from here [3] to configure the PERC SAS RAID before using it.

Hope this help.

Please let me know.

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[1] Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller 11 User’s Guide PERC H755, H750, H355, and H350 Controller Series
[2] Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller 11 User’s Guide PERC H755, H750, H355, and H350 Controller Series
[3] PowerEdge: How to Use the PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller Command-Line Interface Utility

[Aristocat]

What is making you want to use Debian 11 over Debian 12?