Administrator Guide
Table Of Contents
- Dell EMC PowerVault ME4 Series Storage System Administrator’s Guide
- Contents
- Getting started
- New user setup
- Configure and provision a new storage system
- Using the PowerVault Manager interface
- System concepts
- About virtual and linear storage
- About disk groups
- About RAID levels
- About ADAPT
- About SSDs
- About SSD read cache
- About spares
- About pools
- About volumes and volume groups
- About volume cache options
- About thin provisioning
- About automated tiered storage
- About initiators, hosts, and host groups
- About volume mapping
- About operating with a single controller
- About snapshots
- About copying volumes
- About reconstruction
- About quick rebuild
- About performance statistics
- About firmware updates
- About managed logs
- About SupportAssist
- About CloudIQ
- About configuring DNS settings
- About replicating virtual volumes
- About the Full Disk Encryption feature
- About data protection with a single controller
- Working in the Home topic
- Guided setup
- Provisioning disk groups and pools
- Attaching hosts and volumes in the Host Setup wizard
- Overall system status
- Configuring system settings
- Managing scheduled tasks
- Working in the System topic
- Viewing system components
- Systems Settings panel
- Resetting host ports
- Rescanning disk channels
- Clearing disk metadata
- Updating firmware
- Changing FDE settings
- Configuring advanced settings
- Changing disk settings
- Changing system cache settings
- Configuring partner firmware update
- Configuring system utilities
- Using maintenance mode
- Restarting or shutting down controllers
- Working in the Hosts topic
- Working in the Pools topic
- Working in the Volumes topic
- Viewing volumes
- Creating a virtual volume
- Creating a linear volume
- Modifying a volume
- Copying a volume or snapshot
- Abort a volume copy
- Adding volumes to a volume group
- Removing volumes from a volume group
- Renaming a volume group
- Remove volume groups
- Rolling back a virtual volume
- Deleting volumes and snapshots
- Creating snapshots
- Resetting a snapshot
- Creating a replication set from the Volumes topic
- Initiating or scheduling a replication from the Volumes topic
- Manage replication schedules from the Volumes topic
- Working in the Mappings topic
- Working in the Replications topic
- About replicating virtual volumes in the Replications topic
- Replication prerequisites
- Replication process
- Creating a virtual pool for replication
- Setting up snapshot space management in the context of replication
- Replication and empty allocated pages
- Disaster recovery
- Accessing the data while keeping the replication set intact
- Accessing the data from the backup system as if it were the primary system
- Disaster recovery procedures
- Viewing replications
- Querying a peer connection
- Creating a peer connection
- Modifying a peer connection
- Deleting a peer connection
- Creating a replication set from the Replications topic
- Modifying a replication set
- Deleting a replication set
- Initiating or scheduling a replication from the Replications topic
- Stopping a replication
- Suspending a replication
- Resuming a replication
- Manage replication schedules from the Replications topic
- About replicating virtual volumes in the Replications topic
- Working in the Performance topic
- Working in the banner and footer
- Banner and footer overview
- Viewing system information
- Viewing certificate information
- Viewing connection information
- Viewing system date and time information
- Viewing user information
- Viewing health information
- Viewing event information
- Viewing capacity information
- Viewing host information
- Viewing tier information
- Viewing recent system activity
- Other management interfaces
- SNMP reference
- Using FTP and SFTP
- Using SMI-S
- Using SLP
- Administering a log-collection system
- Best practices
- System configuration limits
- Glossary of terms
Table 16. Disk group options (continued)
Option Description
Assign to (optional, only appears for
linear disk groups)
For a system operating in Active-Active ULP mode, this option specifies the
controller module to own the group. To let the system automatically load-balance
groups between controller modules, select the Auto setting instead of Controller A
or Controller B.
RAID Level Select one of the following RAID levels when creating a virtual or linear disk group:
● RAID 1 – Requires 2 disks.
● RAID 5 – Requires 3-16 disks.
● RAID 6 – Requires 4-16 disks.
● RAID 10 – Requires 4-16 disks, with a minimum of two RAID-1 subgroups, each
having two disks.
● RAID 50 – (only appears for linear disk groups). Requires 6-32 disks, with a
minimum of two RAID-5 subgroups, each having three disks.
● ADAPT – Requires 12-128 disks.
To create an NRAID, RAID-0, or RAID-3 (linear-only) disk group, you must use
the CLI add disk-group command. For more information on this command,
see the Dell EMC PowerVault ME4 Series Storage System CLI Guide.
Number of Sub-groups (options only
appear when RAID-10 or RAID-50 is
selected)
Changes the number of sub-groups that the disk group should contain.
Chunk size (optional, only for linear non-
ADAPT disk groups)
Specifies the amount of contiguous data, in KB, that is written to a group member
before moving to the next member of the group. For NRAID and RAID 1, chunk-size
has no meaning and is therefore not applicable. For RAID 50, this option sets the
chunk size of each RAID-5 subgroup. The following chunk size options are available
when creating a linear disk group:
● 64k
● 128k
● 256k
● 512k
For a virtual group, the system uses one of the following chunk sizes, which
cannot be changed:
○ RAID 1: Not applicable
○ RAID 5 and RAID 6:
￭ With 2, 4, or 8 non-parity disks: 512k. For example, a RAID-5 group with
3, 5, or 9 total disks or a RAID-6 group with 4, 6, or 10 total disks.
￭ Other configurations: 64k
○ RAID 10: 512k
Online Initialization (only appears for
linear disk groups)
Specifies whether the group is initialized online or offline.
● Online. When the Online Initialization check box is selected, you can use the
group immediately after creating it while it is initializing. Because online uses the
verify method to create the group, it takes longer to complete initializing than
offline. Online initialization is fault-tolerant.
● Offline. When the Online Initialization check box is cleared, you must wait for
the group initialization process to finish before using the group. However, offline
takes less time to complete initializing than online.
Add a disk group
Perform the following steps to add a disk group:
1. In the Pools topic, select Action > Add Disk Group. The Add Disk Group panel opens.
2. Set the options. See Disk group options for more information.
3. If you are creating a linear disk group, select the RAID
number
or SPARE option to determine if you are selecting disks for
the RAID configuration or as dedicated spares for the disk group.
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Working in the Pools topic