Ubuntu isn't a supported operating system, but I am fairly positive I had an earlier version of Ubuntu on my R710 at home. I would recommend you crate a RAID volume, and then try again. Setting a drive to a global hotspare with no raid config just sets the drive into a state where it will do nothing and be unavailable to anything, as a hotspare can only act in support of a RAID volume. I would create whatever RAID level you want, then try the install again. The PERC doesn't act like an HBA, in that the hard drives would get passed straight through. You have to make a virtual disk first, then the OS should see storage. If not, then the version of Ubuntu you have is missing a driver. However, with Ubuntu not being supported, there isn't a driver for it on the Dell website.
Hi! I Long Ago Bought A Dell Poweredge R710 Server And When I Tried To Install Windows Server It Was Unable To See Any Drives. Because Of This (And The Required Overhead For Windows) I Installed Ubuntu (Desktop, Yes I Know That Is A Bad Move For Servers But This Is A Plex Server) And Could Only See The USB Drive That The OS Was Installed On. I Looked At The Dell Forums And Saw A similar Post Detailing That I Needed To Go Into The Ctrl+R Menu But The Instructions Differed From My Situation From There And I Was Not Able To Change Any Settings That Would Allow My OS To See The Drives. Do You Have Any Fixes To This? The Server's Ctrl+R Menu CAN See The Drives.
Dell-PowerEdge R710 HDD Not Detected (OS) But Detected In Ctrl+R Menu.