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PERC7.2_UG.book Page 2 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Notes, Cautions, and Warnings NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your computer. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates potential damage to hardware or loss of data if instructions are not followed. WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. ____________________ Information in this publication is subject to change without notice. © 2010 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 3 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Contents 1 Safety Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . General Safety Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . When Working Inside Your System . . . . . . . . . . . Protecting Against Electrostatic Discharge Overview 12 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 PERC H700 and H800 Card Descriptions . PCI Architecture . . . . . . . . 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 4 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Consistency Checks Disk Roaming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Disk Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Compatibility With Virtual Disks Created on PERC 6 and H200 Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 . . . . . . 28 . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Migrating Virtual Disks From PERC 6 or H200 to PERC H700 and H800 . . . . . . Virtual Disk Write Cache Policies . . . . . . .
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 5 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Patrol Read . 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Installing and Configuring Hardware . Installing the PERC H700 and H800 Adapters . . . . 41 . . . . . . 41 Removing the PERC H700 and H800 Adapters . . . . . . Removing and Installing the PERC H700 Modular Card in Dell Blade Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 . . . 49 . . . . . . . . 51 Installing the DIMM on a PERC H700 . . . . . . . . . .
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 6 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Pre-Installation Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . Installing Driver During a Windows Server 2003 Operating System Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Installing Driver During a Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 Installation . . . . . . . . 72 . . . . . . 72 Installing Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2003 for a New RAID Controller .
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 7 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Creating Virtual Disks . Initializing Virtual Disks . 91 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Checking Data Consistency Importing or Clearing Foreign Configurations Using the Foreign Configuration View Screen Managing Preserved Cache 91 . . . . . . . . . . . . Importing or Clearing Foreign Configurations Using the VD Mgmt Menu . . . . . . . . . . 92 . . . . . . . 93 . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Managing Dedicated Hot Spares. . . . . . . . . .
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 8 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM CacheCade Virtual Disk Management . . . . . . 116 Create CacheCade Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . 116 Delete CacheCade Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . 118 Reconfiguring CacheCade Virtual Disks 8 . . . . . Security Key and RAID Management . . . . 121 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Security Key Implementation Configuring and Managing Secured Virtual Disks . . .
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 9 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Preserved Cache State General Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Physical Disk Related Issues Physical Disk Failures and Rebuild Issues SMART Errors . . . . . . . 144 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Replace Member Errors Disk Carrier LED Indicators A Regulatory Notices 147 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Linux Operating System Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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PERC7.2_UG.book Page 11 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM 1 Safety Instructions Use the following safety guidelines to help ensure your own personal safety and to help protect your system and working environment from potential damage. WARNING: There is a danger of a new battery exploding if it is incorrectly installed. Replace the battery only with the same or equivalent type recommended by the manufacturer. See "Battery Disposal" on page 13. NOTE: For complete information on U.S.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 12 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM When Working Inside Your System Before you remove the system covers, perform the following steps in the sequence indicated: CAUTION: Except as expressly otherwise instructed in Dell documentation, only trained service technicians are authorized to remove the system cover and access any of the components inside the system.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 13 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM You can also take the following steps to prevent damage from electrostatic discharge: • When unpacking a static-sensitive component from its shipping carton, do not remove the component from the antistatic packing material until you are ready to install the component. Just before unwrapping the antistatic package, be sure to discharge static electricity from your body.
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PERC7.2_UG.book Page 15 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM 2 Overview The Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) H700 and H800 family of cards: • Comply with Serial-attached SCSI (SAS) 2.0 providing up to 6 Gb/sec throughput. • Offer RAID control capabilities which include support for RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60. • Provide reliability, high performance, and fault-tolerant disk subsystem management. PERC H700 and H800 Card Descriptions Table 2-1.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 16 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM PCI Architecture • The PERC H700 and H800 cards support a PCI-E 2.0 x8 host interface. • The PERC H700 Modular cards support a PCI-E 2.0 x4 host interface. Operating System Support The PERC H700 and H800 cards support the following operating systems: • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 • Microsoft Windows Server 2008, including Hyper-V virtualization • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 • Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 5.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 17 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM RAID Description RAID is a group of independent physical disks that provides high performance by increasing the number of disks used for saving and accessing data. A RAID disk subsystem offers the following benefits: • Improves I/O performance and data availability. • Improves data throughput because several disks are accessed simultaneously.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 18 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM • RAID 50 is a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 5 where a RAID 0 array is striped across RAID 5 elements. RAID 50 requires at least six disks. • RAID 60 is a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 6 where a RAID 0 array is striped across RAID 6 elements. RAID 60 requires at least eight disks. RAID Terminology Disk Striping Disk striping allows you to write data across multiple physical disks instead of just one physical disk.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 19 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Disk Mirroring With mirroring (used in RAID 1), data written to one disk is simultaneously written to another disk. If one disk fails, the contents of the other disk can be used to run the system and rebuild the failed physical disk. The primary advantage of disk mirroring is that it provides complete data redundancy. Both disks contain the same data at all times. Either of the physical disks can act as the operational physical disk.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 20 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM The parity data is distributed across all the physical disks in the system. If a single physical disk fails, it can be rebuilt from the parity and the data on the remaining physical disks. RAID level 5 combines distributed parity with disk striping, as shown in Figure 2-3. Parity provides redundancy for one physical disk failure without duplicating the contents of entire physical disks. RAID 6 combines dual distributed parity with disk striping.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 21 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM 3 Storage Controller Features This section describes the features of the Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) H700 and H800 cards such as the configuration options, disk array performance, RAID management utilities, and operating system software drivers. The PERC H700 and H800 family of controllers support Dell-qualified serial-attached SCSI (SAS) hard drives, SATA hard drives, and solid-state drives (SSDs).
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 22 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 3-1.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 23 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 3-1.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 24 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Physical Disk Power Management The PERC H700 and H800 cards can be configured to spin down certain hard drives after a set amount of time of inactivity to conserve power. This power-savings feature is disabled by default and can be enabled in the Dell OpenManage storage management application. The power-savings feature can be enabled so that unconfigured disks, hot spares, or both are spun down.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 25 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Initializing Virtual Disks You can initialize the virtual disks as described in the following sections. Background Initialization of Virtual Disks Background Initialization (BGI) is an automated process that writes the parity or mirror data on newly created virtual disks. BGI does not run on RAID 0 virtual disks. NOTE: You cannot disable BGI permanently. If you cancel BGI, it automatically restarts within five minutes.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 26 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Fast Initialization of Virtual Disks A fast initialization on a virtual disk overwrites the first and last 8 MB of the virtual disk, clearing any boot records or partition information. The operation takes only 2–3 seconds to complete and is recommended when you are recreating virtual disks. To perform a fast initialization using the BIOS Configuration Utility, see "Initializing Virtual Disks" on page 91.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 27 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM The controller detects the RAID configuration from the configuration data on the physical disks. Disk Migration The PERC H700 and H800 cards support migration of virtual disks from one controller to another without taking the target controller offline. The controller can import RAID virtual disks in optimal, degraded, or partially degraded states. You cannot import a virtual disk that is in an offline state.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 28 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Compatibility With Virtual Disks Created on PERC 6 and H200 Cards Virtual disks that are created on the PERC 6 and H200 family of controllers can be migrated to the PERC H700 and H800 cards without risking data or configuration loss. Migrating virtual disks from the PERC H700 and H800 cards to PERC 6 or H200 is not supported. NOTE: For more information about compatibility, contact your Dell technical support representative.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 29 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Virtual Disk Write Cache Policies The write cache policy of a virtual disk determines how the controller handles writes to that virtual disk. Write-Back and Write-Through are the two write cache policies and can be set on virtual disks individually. All RAID volumes are presented as Write-Through (WT) to the operating system (Windows and Linux) independent of the actual write cache policy of the virtual disk.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 30 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Conditions Under Which Write-Through is Employed Write-Through caching is used under all conditions in which the battery is missing or in a low-charge state. Low-charge state is when the battery is not capable of maintaining data for at least 24 hours in the case of a power loss. This low-charge state does not apply to controllers with the optional non-volatile cache (NVC) module present.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 31 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Reconfiguring Virtual Disks An online virtual disk can be reconfigured in ways that expands its capacity and/or change its RAID level. Spanned virtual disks such as RAID 10, 50, and 60 cannot be reconfigured. Online Capacity Expansion (OCE) can be done in two ways. The first way is to expand the volume using free space already in the disk group.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 32 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 3-2. RAID Level Migration Source RAID Level Target RAID Level Required Number of Capacity Description Number of Physical Expansion Physical Disks Disks (End) Possible (Beginning) RAID 0 RAID 0 1 2 or more Yes Increases capacity by adding disks RAID 0 RAID 1 1 2 No Converts non-redundant virtual disk into a mirrored virtual disk by adding one disk.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 33 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 3-2. RAID Level Migration (continued) Source RAID Level Target RAID Level Required Number of Capacity Description Number of Physical Expansion Physical Disks Disks (End) Possible (Beginning) RAID 5 RAID 6 3 or more 4 or more Yes At least one disk needs to be added for dual distributed parity data. RAID 6 RAID 0 4 or more 4 or more Yes Converts to a non-redundant virtual disk and reclaims disk space used for distributed parity data.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 34 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM • Battery and optional Non-Volatile Cache backup of controller cache to protect data • Detection of batteries with low charge after boot up The next sections describe some methods to achieve fault tolerance. Using Persistent Hot Spare Slots The H700 and H800 cards can be configured so that system backplane or storage enclosure disk slots are dedicated as hot spare slots.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 35 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Redundant Path With Load Balancing Support The PERC H800 adapter can detect and use redundant paths to disks contained in enclosures. This provides the ability to connect two SAS cables between a controller and an enclosure for path redundancy. The controller is able to tolerate the failure of a cable or Enclosure Management Module (EMM) by utilizing the remaining path.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 36 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Automatic Replace Member with Predicted Failure A Replace Member operation can occur when there is a SMART predictive failure reporting on a physical disk in a virtual disk. The automatic Replace Member is initiated when the first SMART error occurs on a physical disk that is part of a virtual disk. The target disk needs to be a hot spare that qualifies as a rebuild disk.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 37 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Cache Preservation With Battery The lithium-ion battery included in the BBU/TBBU of the controller is an inexpensive way to protect data in cache memory. If the controller has data in cache memory during a power outage or improper system shutdown, battery power is used to preserve cache data until power is restored or the battery is depleted.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 38 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Battery Learn Cycle Learn cycle is a battery calibration operation performed by the controller periodically to determine the condition of the battery. This operation cannot be disabled. NOTE: Virtual disks automatically switch to Write-Through mode when the battery charge is low because of a learn cycle.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 39 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM • Patrol Read adjusts the amount of controller resources dedicated to Patrol Read operations based on outstanding disk I/O. For example, if the system is busy processing I/O operation, then Patrol Read uses fewer resources to allow the I/O to take a higher priority.
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PERC7.2_UG.book Page 41 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Installing and Configuring Hardware 4 WARNING: All work must be performed at an Electrostatic Discharge (ESD)-safe workstation to meet the requirements of EIA-625-Requirements For Handling Electrostatic Discharge Sensitive Devices. All actions must be performed following the IPC-A-610 latest revision ESD recommended practices. CAUTION: Many repairs may only be done by a certified service technician.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 42 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM NOTE: The PERC H700 Integrated and H700 Modular cards have a dedicated storage slot. For details on the correct PCI-E location, see the Hardware Owner's Manual that shipped with your system or see the appropriate documentation available at support.dell.com/manuals. 5 Align the PERC H700 or H800 card to the PCI-E slot you have selected. CAUTION: Never apply pressure to the adapter module while inserting it in the PCI-E slot.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 43 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Figure 4-2. Installing a PERC H700 Adapter 4 3 2 1 1 PCI-e slot 2 PERC H700 adapter 3 filler brackets 4 bracket screw 7 Tighten the bracket screw, if any, or use the system’s retention clips to secure the controller to the system’s chassis. 8 Replace the cover of the system. For more information on closing the system, see the Hardware Owner’s Manual shipped with your system or at support.dell.com/manuals.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 44 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Figure 4-3. Connecting the Cable From the External Enclosure 3 2 1 1 connector on the controller 3 system 2 cable from the external enclosure 10 For the PERC H700 adapter, connect the cables from the backplane of the system to the controller. The primary SAS connector is labeled SAS_A and the secondary SAS connector is labeled SAS_B. For more information, see Figure 4-4.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 45 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Figure 4-4. Connecting Cables to the Controller 1 5 2 4 3 1 cable 2 Port B 3 4 PERC H700 adapter Port A 5 connector 11 Replace the cover of the system. For more information on closing the system, see the Hardware Owner’s Manual shipped with your system or at support.dell.com/manuals. 12 Reconnect the power and network cables, and turn on the system.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 46 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Removing the PERC H700 and H800 Adapters NOTE: In the event that the SAS cable is accidentally pulled out when the system is operational, reconnect the cable and see the online help of your Dell OpenManage storage management application for the required recovery steps. NOTE: Before beginning with the procedure, press when the system is booting to verify that no cache is preserved.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 47 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Figure 4-5. Removing the PERC H800 Adapter 1 2 3 4 5 1 bracket screw 2 memory module 3 battery 4 Dirty Cache LED 5 PERC H800 Adapter 5 Disconnect the data cables and battery cable from the PERC H700. Remove any retention mechanism, such as a bracket screw, that might be holding the PERC H700 in the system, and gently lift the controller from the system’s PCI-E slot.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 48 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Figure 4-6.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 49 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Removing and Installing the PERC H700 Modular Card in Dell Blade Systems NOTE: For more information on removing and installing blade system parts, see your system’s Hardware Owner’s Manual or the User’s Guide from the Dell Support website at support.dell.com. The storage controller card is located below the disk bays of the Dell Blade system. To remove the storage controller card: 1 Remove the Dell Blade system from the Blade system chassis.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 50 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Figure 4-7. Removing and Installing the Storage Controller Card 2 1 3 4 1 battery cable connector 2 storage controller card 3 release lever 4 dirty cache LED To install your new storage controller card: 1 Unpack the new storage controller card and check for damage. NOTE: If the card is damaged, contact Dell technical support. 2 Place the storage controller card onto the system board.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 51 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM 5 Close the top cover of the Blade system. For more information on closing the top cover of the Modular Blade system, see your system’s Hardware Owner’s Manual or the User’s Guide. 6 Reinstall the Blade system in the Blade system chassis. For more information on reinstalling the Blade system in the Blade system chassis, see your system’s Hardware Owner’s Manual or the User’s Guide.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 52 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Figure 4-8.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 53 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Installing the DIMM on a PERC H700 CAUTION: PERC H700 Modular cards, shipped in PowerEdge blade systems, have an integrated DIMM module which cannot be removed. Do not attempt the following procedure on a PERC H700 Modular controller card. 1 Unpack the DIMM and follow all antistatic procedures. NOTE: Do not use excessive pressure on the connector on the DIMM while installing the DIMM.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 54 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Figure 4-10. Mounting the DIMM Support onto the DIMM 1 2 1 DIMM 2 DIMM support 3 Align the keyed edge of the DIMM to the physical divider on the memory socket to avoid damage to the module. 4 Insert the DIMM in the memory socket. Apply a constant, downward pressure on both ends or the middle of the DIMM until the retention clips fall in the allotted slots on either side of the DIMM. See Figure 4-11.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 55 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Figure 4-11.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 56 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Replacing the BBU on a PERC H700 1 Perform a controlled reboot of the system and enter the PERC H700 BIOS Configuration Utility to ensure that there is no data present in cache. See the "Cache Data Recovery" on page 37 for more details. Later, shut down the system. WARNING: Running a system without the system cover installed may cause damage due to improper cooling. 2 Disconnect the system from the electrical outlet and remove the system cover.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 57 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Figure 4-13. PERC H700 (Modular) Dirty Cache LED Location 1 2 3 1 battery cable connector 3 PERC H700 Modular Adapter 2 dirty cache LED 3 Locate the battery cable connection near the edge of the controller, and disconnect the battery. For the location of the battery cable connector, see Figure 4-12 and Figure 4-13. 4 Remove the battery from the plastic mounting shroud in your system and disconnect the battery cable.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 58 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Removing the TBBU or TNVC From a PERC H800 Adapter NOTE: Both the TBBU and TNVC on the PERC H800 Adapter consists of the DIMM and a battery. 1 Perform a controlled reboot of the system and enter the PERC BIOS Configuration Utility to ensure that there is no data present in cache. See "Cache Data Recovery" on page 37 for more details. Later, perform a controller shutdown of the system as well as any attached storage controllers.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 59 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Figure 4-14.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 60 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Replacing the Battery and Battery Cable Onto the DIMM of a PERC H800 Adapter 1 With the old TBBU or TNVC removed from the controller, disconnect the battery cable from both ends and press out on the battery clips inserted through the DIMM rotating the battery out of the DIMM. See Figure 4-15. Figure 4-15.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 61 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Figure 4-16. Installing the Battery and Battery Cable onto the DIMM 2 1 3 4 5 1 connector on the DIMM 2 DIMM 3 battery 4 connector on the battery 5 battery cable Installing the TBBU or TNVC on a PERC H800 Adapter NOTE: Both the TBBU and TNVC on the PERC H800 Adapter consists of the DIMM and a battery. 1 Check the battery attachment to the DIMM and battery cable connection.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 62 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM 2 Align the keyed edge of the DIMM to the physical divider on the memory socket to avoid damage to the module. 3 Insert the DIMM in the memory socket. Apply a constant, downward pressure on both ends or the middle of the DIMM until the retention clips fall in the allotted slots on either side of the DIMM. See Figure 4-17. Figure 4-17.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 63 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Transferring a TBBU or TNVC Between PERC H800 Cards The TBBU or TNVC provides uninterrupted power supply for up to 48 hours to a cache memory module. If the controller fails as a result of a power failure, you can move the TBBU or TNVC to a new controller and recover the data. The controller that replaces the failed controller should not have any prior configuration.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 64 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Setting up Redundant Path Support on the PERC H800 Adapter The PERC H800 adapter can detect and use redundant paths to disks contained in enclosures. With redundant paths to the same device, if one path fails, another path can be used to communicate between the controller and the device. For more information about redundant paths, see "Redundant Path With Load Balancing Support" on page 35.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 65 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Figure 4-18 displays redundant path storage configuration with one enclosure. Figure 4-18. Redundant Path Support Configuration With One Enclosure Server Server Storage Storage Figure 4-19 displays redundant path storage configuration with two enclosures. Figure 4-19.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 66 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Figure 4-20 displays redundant path storage configuration with three enclosures. Figure 4-20. Redundant Path Support Configuration With Three Enclosures Server Server Storage Storage Storage Storage Storage Storage Figure 4-21 displays redundant path storage configuration with four enclosures. A single PERC H800 adapter can support up to four disk storage enclosures in a redundant path configuration.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 67 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Figure 4-21. Redundant Path Support Configuration With Four Enclosures Server Server Storage Storage Storage Storage Storage Storage Storage Storage NOTE: Ensure that the latest firmware version is installed on your storage controller. You can find the latest firmware and installation instructions on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com.
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PERC7.2_UG.book Page 69 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM 5 Driver Installation The Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) H700 and H800 cards require software drivers to operate with the supported operating systems. This chapter contains the procedures for installing the drivers for the PERC H700 and H800 cards. NOTE: For more information on VMware ESX drivers, see the VMware ESX documentation at support.dell.com/manuals.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 70 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Pre-Installation Requirements Before you install the operating system: • Read the Microsoft Getting Started document that shipped with your operating system. • Ensure that your system has the latest BIOS, firmware, and driver updates. If required, download the latest BIOS, firmware, and driver updates from the Dell Support website at support.dell.com. • Create a device driver media (diskette, USB drive, CD, or DVD).
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 71 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM 5 Select the System Type, Operating System, Driver Language, and Category from the drop-down list. 6 The drivers that are applicable to your selection are displayed. From the available list, download the drivers that you require to a diskette drive, USB drive, CD, or DVD. 7 During the operating system installation, use the media that you created with the Load Driver option to load mass storage drivers.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 72 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Installing Driver During a Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 Installation 1 Boot the system using the Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 Server or Windows Server 2008 R2 media. 2 Follow the on-screen instructions until you reach Where do you want to install Vista/2008/7 window and then select Load driver. 3 The system prompts you to insert the media. Insert the installation media and browse to the proper location.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 73 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM 9 The wizard detects and installs the appropriate device drivers for the new RAID controller. 10 Click Finish to complete the installation. 11 Reboot the system when prompted. Updating Existing Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2003 NOTE: Close all applications on your system before you update the driver. 1 Insert the media (CD, DVD, or USB drive) containing the driver. 2 Select Start Settings Control Panel System.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 74 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM NOTE: Dell provides the Dell Update Package (DUP) to update drivers on systems running Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. DUP is an executable application that updates drivers for specific devices. DUP supports command line interface and silent execution. For more information, see support.dell.com.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 75 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM USB key method (Red Hat Enterprise Linux only): Transfer the appropriate .img file to a USB key. System Floppy Disk slot method: Use the dd command to create a driver update disk. Use the appropriate image for the purpose. a Insert a floppy disk into the system floppy disk slot. b At a terminal prompt, do the following: # dd if= of=/dev/fd0 USB Floppy device method: Use the dd command to create a driver update disk.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 76 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Creating a Driver Update Diskette Using DKMS Perform the following steps to create the Driver Update Diskette (DUD) using the DKMS tool: NOTE: The driver must be installed on the system where this procedure is performed. 1 Install the DKMS-enabled megaraid_sas driver rpm package.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 77 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Using the Driver Update Diskette NOTE: For information about creating a driver diskette, see "Creating a DUD" on page 74. To install SUSE Linux Enterprise Server using the DUD: 1 Insert the appropriate SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Service Pack media in the system. 2 For SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, select for the DUD. For SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, select .
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 78 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Installing the RPM Package With DKMS Support Perform the following steps to install the RPM package with DKMS support: 1 Uncompress the gzipped tarball driver release package. 2 Install the DKMS package using the command: rpm –ihv dkms.noarch.rpm 3 Install the driver package using the command: rpm –ihv megaraid_sas-.noarch.rpm NOTE: Use rpm -Uvh when updating an existing package.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 79 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Installing Solaris Driver NOTE: The DUD images are created only for those operating system releases in which the native (in-box) driver is insufficient for installation. In the event that an operating system is being installed with a corresponding DUD image, follow the instructions below.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 80 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Installing Solaris 10 on a PowerEdge System Booting From a PERC H700 or H800 Card To install the driver during Solaris 10 operating system installation: 1 Boot the system from the Solaris installation media and select the preferred console. 2 After Solaris finishes configuring devices, a menu is displayed. Select Apply Driver Updates. 3 Select [1] if you created a CD from the mega_sas_cd.iso file.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 81 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Configuring and Managing RAID 6 Dell OpenManage Storage Management applications enable you to manage and configure the RAID system, create and manage multiple disk groups, control and monitor multiple RAID systems, and provide online maintenance.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 82 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM BIOS Configuration Utility The BIOS Configuration Utility, also known as , is a storage management application embedded on the PERC H700 or PERC H800 cards that configures and maintains RAID disk groups and virtual disks. is independent of the operating system. NOTE: Use the BIOS Configuration Utility for initial setup and disaster recovery.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 83 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Exiting the Configuration Utility To exit the BIOS Configuration Utility, press at any menu screen. If there is only one controller, then a dialog box is displayed to confirm your choice. Select OK to exit and press . If multiple controllers are present, then the key brings you to the Controller Selection screen. Press again to reach the exit screen. A dialog box is displayed to confirm your choice.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 84 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 6-1. Menu Navigation Keys (continued) Notation Meaning and Use Example down-arrow Use the down-arrow key to move to the lower menu Virtual Disk 1 key items within a menu or to a lower level menu. You can also use the down-arrow key to open a menu list in a popup window, such as the stripe element size Virtual Disk 4 menu, and select a setting. Word wrap is supported. Select Add New VD and press to create a new virtual disk.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 85 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 6-1. Menu Navigation Keys (continued) Notation Meaning and Use Example Press to move to the previous menu Press screen among the main menu screens: VD Mgmt, PD on Mgmt, Ctrl Mgmt, and Foreign View. the PD Mgmt screen to return to the VD Mgmt screen. Press to access Help information.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 86 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM When you define the virtual disks, you can set the following virtual disk parameters: • RAID level • Stripe element size • Read policy • Write policy • Type of initialization • Hot spare configuration NOTE: The default hard drive cache policy for a virtual disk composed with SAS hard drives is disabled and with SATA hard drives is enabled. The Virtual Disk parameter can not be changed in the BIOS configuration Utility.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 87 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 6-2. Virtual Disk Parameters and Descriptions (continued) Parameter Description Write Policy Write Policy specifies the controller write policy. You can set the write policy to Write-Back or Write-Through. In Write-Back caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has received all the data in a transaction.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 88 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Virtual Disk Management Creating Virtual Disks NOTE: Combining SAS and SATA hard drives within a virtual disk is not supported. Also, combining hard drives and SSDs within a virtual disk is not supported. NOTE: To create secured virtual disks, see "Security Key and RAID Management" on page 121. Perform the following steps to create a virtual disk: 1 During host system bootup, press when the BIOS screen is displayed.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 89 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM 9 Use the arrow key to highlight a physical disk and press the spacebar, , or to select the disk. 10 Select additional disks, if required. 11 Press to move the cursor to the Basic Settings box. 12 Set the virtual disk size in the VD Size field. The virtual disk size is displayed in GB format.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 90 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM f Press to display the options (No Read Ahead, Read Ahead, or Adaptive Read Ahead). Press the down-arrow key to highlight the desired option and press . g If you need to change the write policy, press to move the cursor to Write Policy. h Press to display the options (Write-Through, Write Back). Press the down-arrow key to highlight an option and press .
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 91 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Initializing Virtual Disks CAUTION: A Full Initialization permanently destroys any existing data on that virtual disk. Perform the following steps to initialize virtual disks: 1 On the VD Mgmt screen, select Virtual Disk # and press to display the menu of available actions. 2 Select Initialization and press the right-arrow key to display the Initialization submenu options. 3 Select Start Init.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 92 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM 3 Press to display the menu of available actions. 4 Press the down-arrow key to select Consistency Check. 5 Press the right-arrow key to display the available actions (Start, Stop). 6 Select Start and press to run a Consistency Check. The Consistency Check runs and checks the redundancy data in the virtual disks. 7 After you start the Consistency Check, press to display the previous menu if needed.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 93 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM 4 Navigate to the Foreign Config option and press the right arrow key to display the available actions: Import and Clear. NOTE: Ensure that your virtual disk has all the physical disks by verifying that there are no physical disks marked as Missing in the foreign view page and that all the disks appear as expected before importing them.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 94 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM The following constraints apply to the physical disks that are considered for import: • The disk state of a physical disk can change from the time the foreign configuration is scanned to when the actual import occurs. The foreign import occurs only on disks that are in the Unconfigured Good state. • Disks in the failed or offline state cannot be imported. • The firmware does not allow you to import more than eight foreign configurations.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 95 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM 2 If all the physical disks in a virtual disk are removed at different times and re-inserted, the controller considers the disks to have foreign configurations. Perform the following steps: a Select Foreign Configuration View to display the complete virtual disk, across different foreign configurations and allow foreign configurations to be imported. b Press to display the options Import and Clear.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 96 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Managing Preserved Cache If a virtual disk becomes offline or is deleted because of missing physical disks, the controller preserves the dirty cache from the virtual disk. The preserved dirty cache, known as pinned cache, is preserved until you import the virtual disk or discard the cache. NOTE: Certain operations, such as creating a new virtual disk, cannot be performed if preserved cache exists.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 97 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Managing Dedicated Hot Spares A dedicated hot spare automatically replaces a failed physical disk only in the selected disk group which the hot spare is part of. A dedicated hot spare is used before a global hot spare is used. You can create dedicated hot spares or delete them on the VD Mgmt screen.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 98 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Deleting Virtual Disks NOTE: You cannot delete a virtual disk during an initialization. NOTE: Warning messages appear stating the effect of deleting a virtual disk. Click OK twice to complete the virtual disk deletion. To delete virtual disks, perform the following steps in the BIOS Configuration Utility: 1 Press to access the VD Mgmt screen. 2 Use the arrow keys to move the cursor to the Virtual Disks heading. 3 Press .
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 99 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Clearing the Configuration You can delete all virtual disks on the RAID controller by performing the operation. To clear the configuration, perform the following steps in the BIOS Configuration Utility: 1 Press to access the VD Mgmt screen. 2 Use the arrow keys to move the cursor to the Controller heading. 3 Press . The action menu is displayed. 4 Select Clear Config.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 100 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Most menus consist of two panels: • A left panel with the menu options • A right panel with details of the items selected in the left panel The following sections describe the menu and submenu options for each of the major menus: Virtual Disk Management (VD Mgmt) The Virtual Disk Management screen, VD Mgmt, is the first screen that is displayed when you access a RAID controller from the main menu screen on the BIOS Configuration Utility.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 101 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 6-3.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 102 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 6-3.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 103 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 6-3.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 104 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Virtual Disk Actions Table 6-4 describes the actions you can perform on virtual disks. For procedures you can use to perform the actions, See "Virtual Disk Management" on page 88. Table 6-4. Virtual Disk Actions Action Description Create a new virtual Creates a new virtual disk from one or more physical disks. disk You can configure hot spares when you create a virtual disk.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 105 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Physical Disk Management (PD Mgmt) The Physical Disk Management screen (PD Mgmt) displays physical disk information and action menus. The screen displays physical disk IDs, vendor names, disk size, type, state, and disk group (DG). You can sort the list of physical disks based on the headings.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 106 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Physical Disk Actions Table 6-6 describes the actions you can perform on physical disks. For procedures that can be used to perform the actions, see "Physical Disk Management" on page 108. Table 6-6. Physical Disk Actions Action Description Rebuild Regenerates all data to a replacement disk in a redundant virtual disk (RAID level 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, or 60) after a disk failure.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 107 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Controller Management (Ctrl Mgmt) The Controller Management screen (Ctrl Mgmt) displays the product name, package, firmware version, BIOS version, boot block version, controller ID, security capability, and security key presence. Use the screen to perform actions on the controller and BIOS.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 108 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Foreign Configuration View When a foreign configuration is present, you can select Foreign Configuration View to display the configuration. The screen shows the foreign configuration as it would be if you import it. You can preview the foreign configuration before you decide whether to import it or clear it. In some cases, a foreign configuration cannot be imported.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 109 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Creating Global Hot Spares You can use a global hot spare to replace a failed physical disk in any redundant array as long as the capacity of the global hot spare is equal to or larger than the coerced capacity of the failed physical disk. Perform the following steps to create global hot spares: 1 Press to access the PD Mgmt screen. A list of physical disks is displayed. The status of the each disk is displayed under the heading State.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 110 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM 4 Press the down-arrow key to select Remove Hot Spare from the list of actions and press . The physical disk is changed to the Ready state. The status of the physical disk is displayed under the heading State. NOTE: Try to use physical disks of the same capacity in a specific virtual disk.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 111 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Restrictions and Limitations The following restrictions and limitations apply to the Replace Member operation: • The Replace Member functions are restricted to one per array for RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 5, and two per array for RAID 6. • The Replace Member function and rebuild cannot run simultaneously on a RAID 6 virtual disk. The rebuild operation has a higher priority, and the Replace Member operation is aborted if a rebuild begins.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 112 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM 3 Press to display a menu of available actions. The Rebuild option is highlighted at the top of the menu. Press the right-arrow key to display the rebuild options and select Start. 4 After you start the rebuild, press to display the previous menu. NOTE: You can also use the VD Mgmt screen to perform a manual rebuild. Use the arrow key to highlight a physical disk, and press . In the menu that is displayed, select the Rebuild option.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 113 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM After you enable the BIOS for a controller, perform the following steps to enable the boot support for that controller: 1 Press to access the Ctrl Mgmt menu screen. 2 Press to move the cursor to the Select Bootable VD in the Settings box. 3 Press the down-arrow key to display a list of virtual disks. 4 Use the down-arrow key to highlight a virtual disk. 5 Press to select the virtual disk.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 114 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM To enable Auto Import: 1 Press to access the Ctrl Mgmt menu screen. 2 Press to move the cursor to Enable Auto Import in the Settings box. 3 Press the spacebar to select Enable Auto Import. An X is displayed beside Enable Auto Import. 4 Press to move the cursor to the Apply button, and then press to apply the selection. The Auto Import is enabled. To disable Auto Import: 1 Use the spacebar to de-select Enable Auto Import.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 115 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM 7 CacheCade The Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) H700 and H800 cards support CacheCade, a feature that can improve application performance by increasing read caching capacity. The CacheCade feature makes use of highperforming solid state disks (SSDs) as a secondary tier of cache. CacheCade provides faster reads and maximizes transactional I/O performance.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 116 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM • Importing a CacheCade drive may result in a RAID 0 VD. You will need to reconfigure the CacheCade VD after importing. • CacheCade virtual disks are not presented to the operating system. Configuring and Managing CacheCade Virtual Disks The Dell OpenManage storage management application and the controller’s BIOS Configuration Utility () allow the creation and deletion of CacheCade virtual disks.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 117 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM To create a CacheCade virtual disk: 1 During host system bootup, press when the BIOS screen is displayed. The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed. If there are more than one controller, the main menu screen is displayed. 2 Select a controller, and press . The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed for the selected controller. 3 Use the arrow keys to highlight Controller #. 4 Press .
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 118 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Delete CacheCade Virtual Disk To delete CacheCade virtual disks, perform the following steps in the BIOS Configuration Utility: 1 Press to access the Virtual Disk Management screen. 2 Use the arrow keys to move the cursor to the CacheCade Disk Group or Virtual Disks heading. 3 Press . The Action menu is displayed. 4 Select Delete VD and press . NOTE: Warning messages are displayed stating the effect of deleting a virtual disk.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 119 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM reconfigures and adjusts its size to reflect the addition of the member SSD. The number of SSDs to be removed from a CacheCade virtual disk cannot equal the total number of SSDs currently in the CacheCade virtual disk. After the automatic reconfiguration and resizing of a CacheCade virtual disk, the new virtual disk size is displayed in both the BIOS configuration utility as well as in the OpenManage storage management application.
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PERC7.2_UG.book Page 121 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Security Key and RAID Management 8 Security Key Implementation Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) H700 and H800 cards support SelfEncrypting Disks (SED) for protection of data against loss or theft of SEDs. Protection is achieved by the use of encryption technology on the drives. The encryption key is protected from unauthorized use by a security key. There is one security key per controller.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 122 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Virtual Disk Management (VD Mgmt) The Virtual Disk Management screen, VD Mgmt, is the first screen that is displayed when you access a RAID controller from the main menu screen on the BIOS Configuration Utility. Virtual Disk Security Actions The following are security-related actions you can perform through the virtual disk management menu: • Security Key Management: creates, changes, or deletes the security settings on a controller.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 123 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM NOTE: There is no passphrase backup option when you create a security key; you need to remember your passphrase. 1 During the host system boot up, press when the BIOS screen is displayed. The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed. If there is more than one controller, the main menu screen is displayed. 2 Select a controller, and press . The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed for the selected controller.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 124 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Change Key NOTE: Change Key is active if there is a security key present on the controller. Perform the following steps when changing the security key on the controller: 1 During host system bootup, press when the BIOS screen is displayed. The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed. If there is more than one controller, the main menu screen is displayed. 2 Select a controller, and press .
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 125 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Delete Key NOTE: Delete Key is active if there is a security key present on the controller. NOTE: Delete Key can only be performed when there are no secured virtual disks present. NOTE: After the Delete Key operation, all unconfigured, secured SEDs shall be secure-erased. Perform the following steps when deleting the security key on the controller: 1 During host system bootup, press when the BIOS screen is displayed.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 126 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Securing Pre-Existing Virtual Disks If an unsecured virtual disk was created on a controller, you can secure the virtual disk as long as the following conditions are met: • The controller has a security key present. • All the physical disks in the virtual disk are SED. Perform the following steps when securing a pre-existing virtual disk on a secured controller: 1 During the host system bootup, press when the BIOS screen is displayed.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 127 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM NOTE: The PERC H700 or H800 card needs to have a security key present before being able to import a secured virtual disk. NOTE: Any unsecured virtual disks imported are still unsecured. NOTE: If you are importing a virtual disk originally secured with a local key (LKM), you are prompted for the passphrase used to secure that virtual disk.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 128 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Instant Secure Erase Instant Secure Erase is the process of permanently erasing all data on an encryption-capable physical disk which is either unconfigured or foreign, and resetting the security attributes. You need to execute Instant Secure Erase on SEDs that are inaccessible (blocked) due to a lost or forgotten passphrase. CAUTION: By executing Instant Secure Erase, the data on your encryption-capable physical disk is lost.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 129 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Failure to Select or Configure Non Self-Encrypting Disks (non-SED) A virtual disk can be either secured or unsecured depending on how it was configured when created. In order to create a secured virtual disk, the controller must have a security key present and must be composed of SEDs only. In order to select/configure non-SED, you must create an unsecured virtual disk. You can create an unsecured virtual disk even if there is a security key present.
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PERC7.2_UG.book Page 131 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM 9 Troubleshooting To get help with your Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) H700 and H800 cards, you can contact your Dell Technical Service representative or access support.dell.com. Post Error Messages The controller BIOS read-only memory (ROM) provides Int 13h functionality (disk I/O) for the virtual disks connected to the controller. You can boot from or access the physical disks without a driver.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 132 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 9-1. BIOS Errors and Warnings (continued) Error Message Probable Cause Corrective Action Cache data was lost, This message is displayed but the controller has under the following recovered. This could conditions: be due to the fact • The adapter detects that that your controller the cache in the had protected cache controller cache has not after an unexpected yet been written to the power loss and your disk subsystem.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 133 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 9-1. BIOS Errors and Warnings (continued) Error Message Probable Cause Corrective Action All of the disks from your previous configuration are gone. If this is an unexpected message, then please power off your system and check your cables to ensure all disks are present. Press any key to continue, or 'C' to load the configuration utility. The message indicates that all configured disks were removed.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 134 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 9-1. BIOS Errors and Warnings (continued) Error Message Probable Cause Corrective Action The cache contains dirty data, but some virtual disks are missing or will go offline, so the cached data can not be written to disk. If this is an unexpected error, then please power off your system and check your cables to ensure all disks are present. If you continue, the data in cache will be permanently discarded.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 135 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 9-1. BIOS Errors and Warnings (continued) Error Message Probable Cause Corrective Action BIOS Disabled. No This warning message is Enable the ROM Logical Drives Handled displayed after you disable option. by BIOS the ROM option in the configuration utility. When the ROM option is disabled, the BIOS cannot boot to INT 13h and cannot provide the ability to boot from the virtual disk.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 136 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 9-1. BIOS Errors and Warnings (continued) Error Message Probable Cause There are offline or missing virtual drives with preserved cache. Please check the cables and ensure that all drives are present. Press any key to enter the configuration utility. The controller preserves the dirty cache from a virtual disk if the disk becomes offline or is deleted because of missing physical disks.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 137 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 9-1. BIOS Errors and Warnings (continued) Error Message Probable Cause Corrective Action Memory/Battery problems were detected. The adapter has recovered, but cached data was lost. Press any key to continue. This message occurs under Allow the battery to the following conditions: charge fully to resolve • The adapter detects data this problem.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 138 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 9-1. BIOS Errors and Warnings (continued) Error Message Probable Cause Corrective Action Ensure all your Physical Disks (PD) are present and all virtual disks are in optimal state. Clear the foreign configuration using or Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management. The foreign configuration message is present during POST but no foreign configurations are present in the foreign view page in CTRL+R.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 139 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 9-1. BIOS Errors and Warnings (continued) Error Message Probable Cause Invalid SAS topology The SAS cables for your detected. Please check system are improperly your cable connected. configurations, repair the problem, and restart your system. Corrective Action Check the cable connections and restart the system. Multibit ECC errors were detected on the RAID controller. If you continue, data corruption can occur.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 140 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 9-1. BIOS Errors and Warnings (continued) Error Message Probable Cause Corrective Action Some configured disks have been removed from your system or are no longer accessible. Check your cables and ensure all disks are present. Press any key or ’C’ to continue. The message indicates that some configured disks were removed. If the disks were not removed, they are no longer accessible. Check the cable connections and restart the system.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 141 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Degraded State of Virtual Disks A redundant virtual disk is in a degraded state when one or more physical disks have failed or are inaccessible. For example, if a RAID 1 virtual disk consists of two physical disks and one of them fails or become inaccessible, the virtual disk become degraded. To recover a virtual disk from a degraded state, you must replace the failed physical disk and rebuild it.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 142 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Preserved Cache State The controller preserves the dirty cache from a virtual disk if the virtual disk becomes offline or is deleted because of missing physical disks. This preserved dirty cache is called pinned cache and is preserved until you import the virtual disk or discard the cache. Use the BIOS Configuration Utility () utility to select whether to import the virtual disk or discard the preserved cache.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 143 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Physical Disk Related Issues Table 9-3 describes physical disk-related problems you might encounter, with suggested solutions. Table 9-3. Physical Disk Issues Issue Corrective Action One of the physical disks in Update the PERC H700 and H800 cards to the the disk array is in the latest firmware available on support.dell.com. failed state. Cannot rebuild a fault tolerant virtual disk. NOTE: For more information, see the alert log for virtual disks.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 144 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Physical Disk Failures and Rebuild Issues Table 9-4 describes issues related to physical disk failures and rebuilds. Table 9-4. Physical Disk Failure and Rebuild Issues Issue Corrective Action Rebuilding the physical disks after multiple disks become simultaneously inaccessible. Multiple physical disk errors in a single array typically indicate a failure in cabling or connection and could involve the loss of data.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 145 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 9-4. Physical Disk Failure and Rebuild Issues (continued) Issue Corrective Action Rebuilding a physical If you have configured hot spares, the PERC H700 or disk after one of them is PERC H800 card automatically tries to use one of them to in a failed state. rebuild a physical disk that is in a failed state. Manual rebuild is necessary if no hot spares with enough capacity to rebuild the failed physical disks are available.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 146 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM SMART Errors Table 9-5 describes issues related to the Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART). SMART monitors the internal performance of all motors, heads, and physical disk electronics and detects predictable physical disk failures. NOTE: For information about where to find reports of SMART errors that could indicate hardware failure, see the Dell OpenManage storage management documentation at support.dell.com/manuals. Table 9-5.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 147 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Replace Member Errors Table 9-6 describes issues related to the Replace Member feature. NOTE: For more information about the Replace Member features, see "Using Replace Member and Revertible Hot Spares" on page 35. Table 9-6.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 148 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Linux Operating System Errors Table 9-7 describes issues related to the Linux operating system. Table 9-7. Linux Operating System Errors Error Message Corrective Action kernel: sdb: asking for cache data failed This error message is displayed when the Linux Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) mid-layer asks for physical disk cache settings.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 149 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 9-7. Linux Operating System Errors (continued) Error Message Corrective Action Driver does not auto-build into This error is a generic issue for Dynamic Kernel new kernel after customer updates. Module Support (DKMS) and applies to all DKMS-enabled driver packages. This issue occurs when you perform the following steps: 1 Install a DKMS-enabled driver package. 2 Run up2date or a similar tool to upgrade the kernel to the latest version.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 150 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Table 9-7. Linux Operating System Errors (continued) Error Message Corrective Action smartd[smartd[2338] Device: /dev/sda, Bad IEC (SMART) mode page, err=-5, skip device This is a known issue. An unsupported command is entered through the user application. User applications attempt to direct Command Descriptor Blocks to RAID volumes. The error message does not effect the feature functionality.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 151 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Disk Carrier LED Indicators The LED on the physical disk carrier indicates the state of each physical disk. Each disk carrier in your enclosure has two LEDs: an activity LED (green) and a status LED (bicolor, green/amber) as shown in Figure 9-1. The activity LED is active whenever a disk is being accessed while the status LED indicates when a disk is being spun up, is rebuilding, or is in a fault state. Figure 9-1.
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PERC7.2_UG.book Page 153 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM A Regulatory Notices For additional regulatory information, please go to the Regulatory Compliance Homepage on dell.com at the following location: dell.com/regulatory_compliance.
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PERC7.2_UG.book Page 155 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM B Corporate Contact Details (Taiwan Only) Pursuant to Article 11 of the Commodity Inspection Act, Dell provides the following corporate contact details for the certified entity in Taiwan for the products addressed by this document: Dell B.V. Taiwan Branch 20/F, No. 218, Sec. 2, Tung Hwa S.
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PERC7.2_UG.book Page 157 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Glossary A Adapter Card An adapter card enables the system to access peripheral devices by converting the protocol of one bus or interface to another. For example, a RAID controller is a type of adapter card that provides RAID functions. Adapter cards may reside on the system board. It may also be in the form of an add-in card.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 158 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Battery Backup Unit (BBU) The battery backup unit protects the integrity of the cached data on the controller by providing backup power if there is a complete AC power failure or a brief power outage. BIOS Basic Input/Output System. Your system's BIOS contains programs stored on a flash memory chip.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 159 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM adjacent disk sectors. To improve write performance, the cache may temporarily store data in accordance with its write back policies. For more information, see "Write-Back" on page 173. Change Key The process of generating a key for an encryption-capable or a security-capable component. All current data on the media is accessible using the newly generated key.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 160 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Default Encryption State The encryption state to which an encryption enabled component reverts at power-on (or after an internal reset such as a firmware upgrade). Encryption states are of two types: encrypted and not encrypted. Default Security State The security state to which a security enabled component is reverted at power-on (or after an internal reset such as a firmware upgrade). Security states are of two types: secured and not secured.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 161 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Disk Roaming Moving disks from one slot to another on a controller. Disk Subsystem A collection of disks and the hardware that controls them and connects them to one or more controllers. The hardware can include an intelligent controller, or the disks can attach directly to a system I/O bus controller. Distributed Parity Parity data is distributed among all the physical disks in the system.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 162 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Enclosure Management Intelligent monitoring of the disk subsystem by software and/or hardware. The disk subsystem can be part of the host system or can reside in an external disk enclosure. Enclosure management helps you stay informed of events in the disk subsystem, such as a physical disk or power supply failure. Enclosure management increases the fault tolerance of the disk subsystem.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 163 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM F Failed Physical Disk A physical disk that has ceased to function, that consistently functions improperly, or that is inaccessible. Fault Tolerance Fault tolerance is the capability of the disk subsystem to undergo a single disk failure per disk group without compromising data integrity and processing capability. The PERC H700 or PERC H800 cards provide this support through redundant virtual disks in RAID levels 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 164 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Hot Swap Replacement of a failed component while the system is running and operating normally. I Initialization The process of writing zeros to the data fields of a virtual disk and, in fault tolerant RAID levels, generating the corresponding parity to put the virtual disk in a Ready state. Initializing erases previous data and generates parity so that the virtual disk passes a consistency check.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 165 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM M MB Megabyte(s). The term megabyte means 1,048,576 bytes (2^20 bytes); however, when referring to disk storage, the term is often rounded to mean 1,000,000 bytes. Mirroring The process of providing complete redundancy using two physical disks, by maintaining an exact copy of one physical disk’s data on the second physical disk.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 166 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Non-Volatile Cache A cache module with flash-based storage to preserve cache data indefinitely. This replaces the need for a battery backup unit (BBU) to supply power to preserve cache data. O Offline A physical disk is offline when it is part of a virtual disk but its data is not accessible to the virtual disk. Online An online device is a device that is accessible.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 167 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Patrol Read A preventive measure that includes review of your system for possible physical disk errors that could lead to disk failure and damage data integrity. Passphrase The user supplied string that the controller uses to create the security key PHY The interface required to transmit and receive data packets transferred across the serial bus. Each PHY can form one side of the physical link in a connection with a PHY on a different SATA device.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 168 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM RAID Level Migration RAID level migration (RLM) changes the array from one RAID level to another. It is used to move between optimal RAID levels. You can perform a RLM while the system continues to run, without having to reboot. This avoids downtime and keeps data available to you. RAID Management Utility A RAID management utility is used to configure physical disks into disk groups and virtual disks.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 169 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Reconstruct The act of remaking a virtual disk after changing RAID levels or adding a physical disk to an existing virtual disk. Redundancy The provision of multiple interchangeable components to perform a single function to cope with failures and errors. Common forms of hardware redundancy are disk mirroring, implementations of parity disks, or distributed parity.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 170 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Replacement Unit A component or collection of components in a system or subsystem that is always replaced as a unit when any part of the collection fails. Typical replacement units in a disk subsystem include disks, controller logic boards, power supplies and cables.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 171 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Related term: Not Secured Secure Disk Group Indicates that a disk group comprised of security-capable physical disks is secured. Secure Migration The process of moving a set of secured disks to a different controller. Security Enabled/Disabled Indicates wether a security capable component is secured. Security Key A key to lock or unlock access to a security-enabled component. This key is not utilized in the actual encryption of the data.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 172 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Spanning The method by which nested RAID levels (such as RAID 10, 50, and 60) are constructed from multiple sets of basic, or single RAID levels. For example, a RAID 10 is made up of multiple sets of RAID 1 arrays where each RAID 1 set is considered a span. Data is then striped (RAID 0) across the RAID 1 spans to create a RAID 10 virtual disk.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 173 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Striping Disk striping writes data across all physical disks in a virtual disk. Each stripe consists of consecutive virtual disk data addresses that are mapped in fixed-size units to each physical disk in the virtual disk using a sequential pattern. For example, if the virtual disk includes five physical disks, the stripe writes data to physical disks one through five without repeating any of the physical disks.
PERC7.2_UG.book Page 174 Thursday, March 3, 2011 2:14 PM Write-Through In Write-Through caching mode, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host when the disk subsystem has received all the data and has completed the write transaction to the disk.
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