Network Card User Manual
Table Of Contents
- Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) H310, H710, H710P, and H810 User’s Guide
- Overview
- Features
- Physical Disk Power Management
- Types Of Virtual Disk Initialization
- Consistency Checks
- Disk Roaming
- FastPath
- Virtual Disk Migration
- Virtual Disk Write Cache Policies
- Virtual Disk Read Cache Policies
- Reconfiguration Of Virtual Disks
- Fault Tolerance
- The SMART Feature
- Patrol Read
- Redundant Path Support (For PERC H810 Only)
- Physical Disk Failure Detection
- Using Persistent Hot Spare Slots
- Physical Disk Hot Swapping
- Using Replace Member And Revertible Hot Spares
- Controller Cache Preservation
- Battery Transparent Learn Cycle
- Deploying The PERC Card
- Driver Installation
- Pre-Installation Requirements For Windows Driver Installation
- Creating The Device Driver Media For Windows Driver Installation
- Downloading Drivers From The Dell Systems Service And Diagnostic Tools Media For Windows
- Downloading Drivers From The Dell Support Website For Windows
- Installing Driver During a Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 Installation
- Installing Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 For A New RAID Controller
- Updating Existing Windows Server 2008 Or Windows Server 2008 R2
- Updating The Linux Driver
- Management Applications For PERC Cards
- Dell OpenManage Storage Management
- BIOS Configuration Utility
- Virtual Disk Management
- Creating Virtual Disks
- Selecting Virtual Disk Parameters
- Converting Physical Disk To RAID Capable For PERC H310
- Converting Physical Disk To Non-RAID For PERC H310
- Initializing Virtual Disks
- Checking Data Consistency
- Running A Data Consistency Check
- Importing Or Clearing Foreign Configurations Using The VD Mgmt Menu
- Importing Or Clearing Foreign Configurations Using The Foreign Configuration View Screen
- Break Mirror
- Managing Preserved Cache
- Managing Dedicated Hot Spares
- Deleting Virtual Disks
- Deleting Disk Groups
- Clearing The Configuration
- BIOS Configuration Utility Menu Options
- Physical Disk Management
- Controller Management
- UEFI RAID Configuration Utility
- CacheCade
- Security Key And RAID Management
- Troubleshooting
- BIOS Error Messages
- Discovery Error Message
- Extra Enclosure Error Message
- Cache Data Lost Error Message
- Missing Disks In Virtual Disk Error Message
- Previous Configuration Of Disks Removed Error Message
- Missing Virtual Disks Error Message
- Dirty Cache Data Error Message
- BIOS Disabled Error Message
- Drive Configuration Changes Error Message
- Adapter At Baseport Not Responding Error Message
- Offline Or Missing Virtual Drives With Preserved Cache Error Message
- Virtual Disks Offline Error Message
- Virtual Disks Degraded Error Message
- Virtual Disks Partially Degraded Error Message
- Memory Or Battery Problem Error Message
- Firmware Fault State Error Message
- Foreign Configuration Found Error Message
- Foreign Configuration Not Found In
Error Message - Previous Configuration Cleared Or Missing Error Message
- Invalid SAS Topology Detected Error Message
- Multibit ECC Errors Detected Error Messages
- Configured Disks Removed Or Not Accessible Error Message
- Battery Discharged Or Disconnected Error Message
- Degraded State Of Virtual Disks
- Memory Errors
- Preserved Cache State
- General Issues
- Physical Disk Issues
- Physical Disk In Failed State
- Unable to Rebuild A Fault Tolerant Virtual Disk
- Fatal Error Or Data Corruption Reported
- Physical Disk Displayed As Blocked
- Multiple Disks Become Inaccessible
- Rebuilding A Failed Physical Disk
- Virtual Disk Fails During Rebuild Using A Global Hot Spare
- Virtual Disk Fails During Rebuild Using A Dedicated Hot Spare
- Physical Disk Fails During Reconstruction On Redundant Virtual Disk
- Virtual Disk Fails Rebuild Using A Dedicated Hot Spare
- Physical Disk Takes A Long Time To Rebuild
- SMART Errors
- Replace Member Errors
- Linux Operating System Errors
- Disk Carrier LED Indicators
- BIOS Error Messages
- Appendix: RAID Description
![](/manual/dell/h710/network-card-user-manual/images/img-11.png)
Virtual Disk Read Cache Policies
The read policy of a virtual disk determines how the controller handles reads to that virtual disk. The read policies are:
• Always Read Ahead—Allows the controller to read sequentially ahead of requested data and to store the
additional data in cache memory, anticipating that the data is required soon. This speeds up reads for sequential
data, but there is little improvement when accessing random data.
• No Read Ahead—Disables the Read-Ahead capability.
• Adaptive Read Ahead—Begins using Read-Ahead if the two most recent disk accesses occurred in sequential
sectors. If the read requests are random, the controller reverts to No Read Ahead mode.
NOTE: The default read cache setting for virtual disks is Adaptive Read Ahead.
Reconfiguration Of Virtual Disks
An online virtual disk can be reconfigured in ways that expands its capacity and/or change its RAID level.
NOTE: Spanned virtual disks such as RAID 10, 50, and 60 cannot be reconfigured.
NOTE: Reconfiguring Virtual Disks typically impacts disk performance until the reconfiguration operation is
complete.
Online Capacity Expansion (OCE) can be done in two ways:
• If there is a single virtual disk in a disk group and free space is available, the virtual disk’s capacity can be
expanded within that free space.
• If a virtual disk is created and it does not use the maximum size of the disk group, free space is available.
Free space is also available when a disk group’s physical disks are replaced by larger disks using the Replace Member
feature. A virtual disk's capacity can also be expanded by performing an OCE operation to add more physical disks.
RAID Level Migration (RLM) refers to changing a virtual disk’s RAID level. Both RLM and OCE can be done at the same
time so that a virtual disk can simultaneously have its RAID level changed and its capacity increased. When a RLM/OCE
operation is complete, a reboot is not required. See the following table for a list of RLM/OCE possibilities. The source
RAID level column indicates the virtual disk RAID level before the RLM/OCE and the target RAID level column indicates
the RAID level after the operation has completed.
NOTE: If the controller already contains the maximum number of virtual disks, you cannot perform a RAID level
migration or capacity expansion on any virtual disk.
NOTE: The controller changes the write cache policy of all virtual disks undergoing a RLM/OCE to Write-Through
until the RLM/OCE is complete.
Table 3. RAID Level Migration
Source RAID
Level
Target RAID Level Number of
Physical Disks
(Beginning)
Number of
Physical Disks
(End)
Capacity
Expansion
Possible
Description
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
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