What You See:
- “Foreign Configuration Detected” message at boot
- Options to Import or Clear config
- Drives show up as present, but no volume is accessible
What It Likely Means:
- Controller metadata got out of sync after the outage
- RAID 6 parity or order info may differ from what the controller expects
- One or more drives may have timed out and rejoined with stale metadata
What NOT To Do:
- Don’t rush to “Import Foreign Config” without analysis
- Don’t “Clear and recreate” unless you’re 100% certain of drive order
- Don’t guess which config is correct — controller logic isn’t always right
What You CAN Do:
- Pause and label each drive’s port and physical bay
- Use JeannieLite to capture both the foreign and onboard config maps
- Compare metadata versioning to determine safest path
Foreign configs are common after RAID 6 power events — but choosing the wrong one can split parity and corrupt the array.