Users Guide

12. Run the following command and verify that only 0–11 drives are displayed:
storage get pdisks
For more information about the racadm command, see the iDRAC8 RACADM Command Line
Interface Reference Guide available at dell.com/idracmanuals
Viewing universal slots
Some of the 13th generation PowerEdge server backplanes supports both SAS/SATA and PCIe SSD drives
in the same slot. These slots are wired to the primary storage controller (PERC) and a PCIe extender card.
These slots are called “universal” slots. Backplane firmware provides information on the slots that support
this feature. The backplane supports SAS/SATA disks or PCIe SSDs. Typically the four higher number slots
are universal. For, example, in a universal backplane supporting 24 slots, slots 0-19 support only SAS/
SATA disks while slots 20-23 support either SAS/SATA or PCIe SSD.
The roll-up health status for the enclosure provides the combined health status for all the drives in the
enclosure. The enclosure link on the Topology page display the entire enclosure information, irrespective
of which controller it is associated with. As two storage controllers (PERC and PCIe extender) can be
connected to the same backplane, only the backplane associated with the PERC controller is displayed in
System Inventory page.
In the Storage → Enclosures → Properties page, the Physical Disks Overview section displays the
following:
• If a slot is empty, Slot Empty is displayed for the slot.
• If there are no PCIe capable slots, then the PCIe Capable column is not displayed.
• If it is a universal backplane with PCIe SSD in one of the slots, then the Bus Protocol column displays
PCIe.
• The Hotspare column is not applicable for PCIe SSD.
NOTE: Hot swapping is supported for universal slots. If you want to remove a PCIe SSD drive and
swap it with a SAS/SATA drive, make sure to first complete the PrepareToRemove task for the PCIe
SSD drive. If you do not perform this task, the host operating system may have issues such as a blue
screen, kernel panic, and so on.
Setting SGPIO mode
The storage controller can connect to the backplane in I2C mode (default setting for Dell backplanes) or
Serial General Purpose Input/Output (SGPIO) mode. This connection is required for blinking LEDs on the
drives. Dell PERC controllers and backplane support both these modes. To support certain channel
adapters, the backplane mode must be changed SGPIO mode.
The SGPIO mode is only supported for passive backplanes. It is not supported for expander-based
backplanes or passive backplanes in downstream mode. Backplane firmware provides information on
capability, current state, and requested state.
After LC wipe operation or iDRAC reset to default, the SGPIO mode is reset to disabled state. It compares
the iDRAC setting with the backplane setting. If the backplane is set to SGPIO mode, iDRAC changes its
setting to match the backplane setting.
Server power cycle is required for any change in setting to take effect.
You must have Server Control privilege to modify this setting.
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