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Table Of Contents
Managing storage devices
Starting with iDRAC 3.15.15.15 release, iDRAC supports Boot Optimized Storage Solution (BOSS) controller in the 14
th
generation of
PowerEdge servers. BOSS controllers are designed specifically for booting the operating system of the server. These controllers support
limited RAID features and the configuration is staged.
Starting with iDRAC 4.30.30.30 release, iDRAC supports PERC 11, HBA 11, and BOSS 1.5 for AMD systems.
NOTE: BOSS controllers support only RAID level1.
NOTE: For BOSS Controllers, the complete VD information may not be available when both PD's are plugged-out and plugged-in
back.
NOTE: PERC 11 and later controllers support Hardware Root of Trust (RoT).
iDRAC has expanded its agent-free management to include direct configuration of the PERC controllers. It enables you to remotely
configure the storage components attached to your system at run-time. These components include RAID and non-RAID controllers and
the channels, ports, enclosures, and disks attached to them. For the PowerEdge Rx4xx/Cx4xx servers, PERC 9 and PERC 10 controllers
are supported. For PowerEdge Rx5xx/Cx5xx AMD platform servers, PERC 11 is supported.
The complete storage subsystem discovery, topology, health monitoring, and configuration are accomplished in the Comprehensive
Embedded Management (CEM) framework by interfacing with the internal and external PERC controllers through the MCTP protocol
over I2C interface. For real-time configuration, CEM supports PERC9 controllers and above. The firmware version for PERC9 controllers
must be 9.1 or later.
NOTE:
The Software RAID (SWRAID) is not supported by CEM and thus is not supported in the iDRAC GUI. SWRAID can be
managed using either RACADM, WSMAN or Redfish.
Using iDRAC, you can perform most of the functions that are available in OpenManage Storage Management including real-time (no
reboot) configuration commands (for example, create virtual disk). You can completely configure RAID before installing the operating
system.
You can configure and manage the controller functions without accessing the BIOS. These functions include configuring virtual disks
and applying RAID levels and hot spares for data protection. You can initiate many other controller functions such as rebuilds and
troubleshooting. You can protect your data by configuring data-redundancy or assigning hot spares.
The storage devices are:
● Controllers — Most operating systems do not read and write data directly from the disks, but instead send read and write instructions
to a controller. The controller is the hardware in your system that interacts directly with the disks to write and retrieve data. A
controller has connectors (channels or ports) which are attached to one or more physical disks or an enclosure containing physical
disks. RAID controllers can span the boundaries of the disks to create an extended amount of storage space— or a virtual disk —
using the capacity of more than one disk. Controllers also perform other tasks, such as initiating rebuilds, initializing disks, and more. To
complete their tasks, controllers require special software known as firmware and drivers. In order to function properly, the controller
must have the minimum required version of the firmware and the drivers installed. Different controllers have different characteristics in
the way they read and write data and execute tasks. It is helpful to understand these features to most efficiently manage the storage.
● Physical disks or physical devices — Reside within an enclosure or are attached to the controller. On a RAID controller, physical disks
or devices are used to create virtual disks.
● Virtual disk — It is storage created by a RAID controller from one or more physical disks. Although a virtual disk may be created from
several physical disks, it is viewed by the operating system as a single disk. Depending on the RAID level used, the virtual disk may
retain redundant data if there is a disk failure or have particular performance attributes. Virtual disks can only be created on a RAID
controller.
● Enclosure — It is attached to the system externally while the backplane and its physical disks are internal.
● Backplane — It is similar to an enclosure. In a Backplane, the controller connector and physical disks are attached to the enclosure, but
it does not have the management features (temperature probes, alarms, and so on) associated with external enclosures. Physical disks
can be contained in an enclosure or attached to the backplane of a system.
NOTE:
In any MX chassis which contains storage sleds and compute sleds, iDRAC pertaining to any of the compute sleds in that
chassis will report all storage sleds (both assigned and unassigned). If any one of the assigned or unassigned blades are in Warning or
Critical heath state, the blade controller also reports the same status.
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