Dell EMC PowerEdge RAID Controller S140 User’s Guide December 2020 Rev.
Notes, cautions, and warnings NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem. WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. © 2017-2020 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Dell, EMC, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries.
Contents Chapter 1: Overview...................................................................................................................... 7 PERC S140 specifications..................................................................................................................................................7 Supported operating systems...........................................................................................................................................
Managing the hot spare disks........................................................................................................................................ 24 Assigning the global hot spare disks....................................................................................................................... 24 Assigning the dedicated hot spare disks................................................................................................................24 Unassign hot spare disks.......
Performance degradation after disabling SATA physical disk write cache policy............................................. 44 Unable to modify any feature settings in UEFI or OPROM.....................................................................................44 Extra reboot during OS installation............................................................................................................................... 44 After enabling Hypervisor, system displays Blue Screen of Death...............
Chapter 9: Getting help...............................................................................................................56 Contacting Dell.................................................................................................................................................................. 56 Locating your system Service Tag................................................................................................................................56 Related documentation..........
1 Overview The Dell EMC PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) S140 is a software RAID solution for the Dell EMC PowerEdge systems. The S140 controller supports up to 30 Non-Volatile Memory express (NVMe) PCIe SSDs, SATA SSDs, SATA HDDs depending on your system backplane configuration.
Table 2. SATA Specifications for PERC S140 (continued) Specification PERC S140 Communication with the system Integrated Windows RAID: Volume, RAID 1, RAID 0, RAID 5, RAID 10 Software-based RAID for SATA drives Linux RAID: RAID 1 NOTE: Non-boot virtual disks of any supported RAID level by the Linux OS installed on RAID-1 disk can also be created using native Linux RAID utilities. Pass through SSD support Yes Table 3.
Table 4.
NOTE: See Dell EMC Enterprise operating systems support for information on the operating systems supported by specific servers. ● Microsoft ○ Windows Server 2019 ○ Windows Server 2016 ○ Windows Server 2012 R2 NOTE: The Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system is not supported on AMD platforms. ● Linux ○ Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.
NOTE: M.2 SATA form factor is not supported. ● NVMe PCIe SSDs including NVMe PCIe SSD 2.5 - inch small form factor and NVMe PCIe SSD adapter. ● DVD drives connected to SATA NOTE: Only Dell - complaint NVMe PCIe SSDs are supported. For information on PowerEdge NVMe 2.5 - inch SFF and PowerEdge NVMe PCIe SSD adapter, see the Express Flash NVMe PCIe SSD user's guide at dell.com/manuals.
2 Physical Disks NOTE: The physical disks in a virtual disk must be of the same drive type (HDD, SSD or NVMe PCIe SSD). For example, you cannot mix an HDD and an NVMe PCIe SSD in the same virtual disk. NOTE: The drive activity LED blinks continuously while there are background tasks running on the disk.
Mirror rebuilding A RAID mirror configuration can be rebuilt after a new physical disk is inserted and the physical disk is designated as a hot spare. NOTE: The system does not have to be rebooted. Fault tolerance The following fault tolerance features are available with the PERC S140: ● Physical disk failure detection (automatic). ● Virtual disk rebuild using hot spares (automatic, if the hot spare is configured for this feature). ● Parity generation and checking (RAID 5 only).
Drives S140 operating system driver S140 UEFI driver Kioxia CM6/CD6 5.5.4.0000 5.5.2.0006 NOTE: Hot removal or hot insertion of the NVMe PCIe SSDs in UEFI or pre-boot mode is not supported. In the operating system environment, hot-swapping two or more NVMe PCIe SSDs simultaneously is not supported. NOTE: Mixing of SATA drives and NVMe PCIe SSDs in a virtual disk is not supported. NOTE: Ensure that you use only the S140 UEFI configuration utility to configure the NVMe PCIe SSDs during preboot.
3 Virtual Disks A logical grouping of physical disks attached to a PERC S140 allows you to create multiple virtual disks of the same RAID levels, without exceeding a maximum of 30 virtual disks. The PERC S140 controller allows: ● Creating virtual disks of different RAID levels on a S140 controller. NOTE: Ensure that you do not mix RAID levels on the same physical disks. ● Building different virtual disks with different characteristics for different applications.
Disk initialization For physical disks, initialization writes metadata to the physical disk so that the controller can use the physical disk. Background Array Scan Verifies and rectifies correctable media errors on mirror, volume, or parity data for virtual disks. Background array scan (BAS) starts automatically after a virtual disk is created while in the Windows operating system. Checkpointing Allows different types of checkpointing to resume at the last point following a restart.
● Read Ahead/Write Through ● No Read Ahead/Write Through Table 6. Read, Write, and Cache Policy for the PERC S140 Category Supported by S140 controller Cache settings Yes Read Ahead/Write Back Yes No Read Ahead/Write Back Yes Read Ahead/Write Through Yes No Read Ahead/Write Through Yes NOTE: The current default for Write-Cache mode enablement is Write Through, No Read Ahead (WT, NRA). To enable Write Back (WB), a UPS is recommended.
NOTE: If an additional physical disk is required and the system does not support hot-swapping, the system must be turned off. OCE/Reconfigure enables you to increase the total storage capacity of a virtual disk by integrating unused storage with the virtual disk. Data can be accessed while the physical disks are added (if a system has hot-swap capability) and while data on the virtual disk is being redistributed.
4 Cabling the drives for S140 CAUTION: Many repairs may only be done by a certified service technician. You should only perform troubleshooting and simple repairs as authorized in your product documentation, or as directed by the online or telephone service and support team. Damage due to servicing that is not authorized by Dell is not covered by your warranty. Read and follow the safety instructions that are shipped with your product.
Figure 1. Cabling the S140 controller 1. backplane 2. system board 3. connector on the first AHCI device (J_SATA A) 4. connector on the second AHCI device (J_SATA B) Topics: • Disk connectivity for AHCI devices Disk connectivity for AHCI devices The S140 controller supports systems with up to two AHCI devices. For systems with two AHCI devices, the first AHCI device connects the drives from ports 0–5 and the second AHCI device connects the drives from ports 6–13.
5 BIOS Configuration Utility The BIOS Configuration Utility, also known as Ctrl+R or Option ROM (OPROM), is a storage management application integrated into the System BIOS accessible using F2 during system boot, which configures and maintains RAID disk groups and virtual disks on SATA drives. The BIOS Configuration Utility (Ctrl+R) is independent of the operating system. NOTE: Use the Ctrl+R for initial setup and disaster recovery.
CAUTION: If the SATA controller is not set to RAID Mode, data might be destroyed. Ensure that you backup all data before changing modes. NOTE: If the BIOS Configuration Utility does not appear and your system uses a PERC S140, press F2 to access the system BIOS. In the SATA Settings field, ensure that SATA controller is set to RAID Mode. If the settings are correct and the BIOS Configuration Utility does not appear, contact Dell support at https:// www.dell.com/supportdell.com/support.
6. Press Enter. The selected physical disk is converted to Non-RAID disks. Creating the virtual disks 1. Enter the BIOS Configuration Utility. See Entering the BIOS configuration utility on page 21. 2. Select Create Virtual Disks from the Main Menu screen and press . NOTE: The S140 controller supports a maximum of 30 virtual disks per physical disk. You cannot modify any feature settings in UEFI or OPROM if the number of virtual disks exceeds the maximum limit of 30.
Swapping two virtual disks 1. Enter the BIOS Configuration Utility. See Entering the BIOS configuration utility on page 21. 2. In the Main Menu screen, select the Swapping Two Virtual Disks and press Enter. 3. Use the arrow keys to highlight a virtual disk at the Virtual Disk field. Press Insert. 4. Use the arrow keys to highlight another virtual disk. Press Insert. 5. Press Enter to swap the virtual disks. NOTE: Only two virtual disks can be swapped at a time.
Perform the following procedure to assign a dedicated hot spare disk: 1. Enter the BIOS configuration utility. See Entering the BIOS configuration utility on page 21. 2. In the Main Menu screen, select the Manage Hot Spare and press Enter. 3. Select Assign Dedicated Hot Spare. Press Enter. 4. Use the up or down arrow key to select a physical disk for use as a dedicated hot spare and press Insert. 5. Press Enter to add the dedicated hot spare. 6. Press the C key to confirm the action.
Rescan disks This option allows you to view the list of existing Physical and Virtual disks. NOTE: The Rescan disks option may take from 10 to 20 seconds to display the list of disks, depending on the number of disks available in the system. 1. Enter the Dell PERC S140 Configuration Utility. See Entering the DELL PERC S140 Configuration Utility on page 27. 2. Click Controller Management > Rescan Disks. The Rescan Disks screen is displayed.
6 UEFI RAID configuration utility The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) RAID configuration utility is a storage management application integrated into the System BIOS F2. It is used to configure and manage RAID, virtual disks, and physical disks. This utility is independent of the operating system. NOTE: The following sections provide information about using the UEFI RAID configuration utility. For more information, see the online help option in the UEFI RAID configuration utility.
Figure 2. Dell PERC S140 Configuration Utility Exiting the DELL PERC S140 Configuration Utility To exit the utility and return to the System Setup screen, click Finish in the bottom-right corner on the screen. Controller management Viewing the controller properties The View Controller Information screen allows you to view your controller and firmware properties.
Figure 3. View Controller Information Screen Changing the boot order of the virtual disks Set Bootable Device allows you to change the boot order of the virtual disks. 1. Enter the Dell PERC S140 Configuration Utility. See Entering the DELL PERC S140 Configuration Utility on page 27. 2. Click Controller Management > Change Controller Properties. 3. Click Set Bootable Device. A Change Order dialog box displays the list of virtual disks available. 4.
5. Click Apply Changes. Converting physical disk to RAID capable disk CAUTION: Any data already existing on the disk will be lost during this operation. Ensure that you have backed up critical data before converting the physical disk to a RAID capable disk. 1. Enter the Dell PERC S140 Configuration Utility. See Entering the DELL PERC S140 Configuration Utility on page 27. 2. Click Controller Management > Convert to RAID Capable Disk. 3. Select the RAID type.
NOTE: It is recommended to select the unit before specifying the disk size value. Changing the unit after entering the value may change the disk size. 14. Select the Read Cache Policy. 15. Select the Write Cache Policy. 16. Select the Physical Disk Write Cache. 17. Click Create Virtual Disk. The virtual disk is ready. Configuring Linux RAID NOTE: The Linux RAID feature is supported on all the 14th generation systems.
Figure 4. Convert to Linux RAID selection page Mixed RAID configuration If your system detects mixed RAID configurations with both Windows and Linux RAID disks, then the S140 UEFI configuration utility displays the mixed configuration screen where you are encouraged to perform the following tasks: 1. To convert the Linux RAID disks: a. In the WARNING: MIXED CONFIGURATION screen, select Windows RAID configuration. b.
Table 11.
Table 12.
Physical disk management This section allows you to view, select and manage physical disks. NOTE: NVMe PCIe SSDs may not be sorted by slot number or ID in the physical disk list. NOTE: Physical disk capacity displayed may be lower than the actual capacity. Viewing physical disk properties The View Physical Disk Properties screen allows you to view the properties of physical disk and also provides details about the associated virtual disks.
Table 13. View Physical Disk Properties (continued) Manufacturing Date Displays the manufacturing date of the physical disk. Associated Virtual Disks Displays the disk ID, RAID level, size and status of the associated virtual disk. Figure 6. Physical Disk Properties Screen Managing the physical disk write cache policy for SATA drives Perform the following procedure to enable the physical disk write cache policy: 1. Enter the Dell PERC S140 Configuration Utility.
6. Click Apply to save the changes made. NOTE: Ensure that you change the physical disk write cache policy of a global hot spare disk after rebuild to the write cache policy of the last configured virtual disk. NOTE: In the View Virtual Disk Properties screen, ensure that the physical disk write cache setting is consistent across the physical disk associated with the virtual disk. NOTE: If you have Linux RAID configured on the system, you cannot modify the physical disk write cache policy feature settings.
NOTE: Cryptographic erase is only supported on NVMe PCIe SSDs and ISE-capable SATA drives. 1. Enter the Dell PERC S140 Configuration Utility. See Entering the DELL PERC S140 Configuration Utility on page 27. 2. Click Physical Disk Management → Select Physical Disk Operations. 3. Select the Interface Type. The options are SATA and NVMe. 4. Select the physical disk from the drop-down menu. 5. Click Cryptographic Erase. 6. Click Yes to start the cryptographic erase.
7 Installing the drivers The PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) S140 requires software drivers to operate with supported operating systems. Which drives to install depends on the type of the system and the operating system installed. NOTE: To check operating system compatibility, see www.dell.com/manuals.
Figure 8. NVMe Settings in BIOS NOTE: If you change the NVMe Mode setting from RAID to Non RAID, ensure that the NVMe driver (Microsoft or thirdparty NVMe driver) is installed manually in the Windows environment. Creating a virtual disk For more information about creating a virtual disk, see Creating the virtual disks on page 23. Checking PERC S140 options and the boot list priority. 1. In the Virtual Disks field, ensure the bootable virtual disk is the first virtual disk listed.
Creating the device driver media for Windows driver installation Downloading drivers for PERC S140 from the Dell support website for all operating systems 1. Go to www.dell.com/support/drivers. 2. In the Product Selection section, enter the service tag of your system in the Service Tag or Express Service Code field.
3. Extract the content. The driver files will be visible in the extracted folder. The diver can be installed by right clicking the .inf file. NOTE: S140 I/O driver name is bcraid .sys, where xyz is the first three digits of the driver version. For example, if the version is 5.5.2.0008, driver name is bcraid552.sys.
8 Troubleshooting your system To get help with your Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) S140, you can contact your Dell Technical Service representative or see dell.com/support.
Performance degradation after disabling SATA physical disk write cache policy Likely Cause: Disk write operations can cause degradation in performance. Corrective Action: To resolve this issue, enable the physical disk write cache policy. NOTE: Ensure that there is constant power supply to the system (A UPS is recommended). NOTE: If you create a virtual disk using Dell LifeCycle controller, then the physical disk write cache policy is set to default.
OS installation failing on NVMe PCIe SSD with thirdparty driver Likely Cause: Using third-party driver for NVMe PCIe SSD while NVME mode is set to RAID may cause the OS installation to fail. Corrective Action: Third-party drivers for NVMe PCIe SSDs are not supported in NVMe in RAID mode. System startup issues To troubleshoot system startup issues, review the following: System does not boot Check for the following causes when the system does not boot: ● Incorrect Controller Mode at the System Setup.
NOTE: If changes are made at the BIOS screen, a dialog box is displayed and asks you to save your changes and then exit. Bootable virtual disk is in a failed state 1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart. 2. After the system restart, press Ctrl+R. Check the status of the bootable virtual disk at the Virtual Disk field, or by highlighting View Virtual Disks Details and pressing Enter. 3. Check for missing or offline physical disks. The boot order is incorrect for a bootable virtual disk 1.
WARNING- Found virtual disks that are degraded This warning message is displayed when at least one virtual disk is in a Degraded state and Pause if Degraded is set to ON at the BIOS Configuration Utility Ctrl+R. The following message is displayed after the warning is displayed: --- Press Enter to continue, or Ctrl+R to enter setup ---.
To investigate the cause, check for the following: ● Whether the virtual disk is in Degraded status because one of the physical disks of a RAID 1 or RAID 5 virtual disk has failed, or one of the physical disks of a RAID 10 virtual disk has failed. Press Ctrl+R and verify if the physical disks are offline or missing. Remove and replace a failed physical disk. A second physical disk failure could cause a Degraded virtual disk to change to Failed status.
Virtual disk rebuild status in the BIOS Configuration Utility () or in UEFI HII Likely Cause: Rebuild is not supported in the BIOS Configuration Utility () or in UEFI HII mode. Corrective Action: Boot to a supported operating system. Rebuild starts. To view rebuild status, install a supported storage application.
Status LED is not working Ensure system is booted to the operating system. Install Open Manage Server Administrator management utility version 8.0 (or higher). Blinking and unblinking feature not working on PowerEdge R740 Description The Blink task allows you to locate a disk within an enclosure by blinking one of the light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on the disk. This feature is currently not supported on PowerEdge R740 systems with 2.5 inch back plane.
Stale partitions are listed on creating a virtual disk for Linux Description: When a virtual disk is created using physical disks that were earlier used for creating Linux virtual disk, we see some Linux partitions present during OS installation. Solution Whenever we create or delete a virtual disk, only the superblock metadata is modified. The partition table of the virtual disk which is stored at logical LBA-0 is not modified.
Incorrect number of physical disks selected for the desired RAID level For details about RAID levels and the allowable number of physical disks used with each RAID level, see understanding RAID levels in RAID Technology Guide at dell.com/support/manuals. The desired physical disk is unavailable Determine whether the physical disk: 1. Is a dedicated hot spare and unavailable for use in another virtual disk. 2. Is full or has insufficient available capacity.
3. To create a non-redundant virtual disk, delete and rebuilt the data on a virtual disk, and restore the data from a backup storage source. Cannot assign a dedicated hot spare to a virtual disk If you cannot assign a dedicated hot spare to a virtual disk, check the following causes: 1. The RAID level does not allow a dedicated hot spare to be created. 2. The designated physical disk does not have sufficient capacity to be a dedicated hot spare. 3. The physical disk is already part of a virtual disk. 4.
The physical disk is already part of a virtual disk A hot spare cannot be selected if it is already part of an existing virtual disk. The physical disk assigned as the global hot spare has failed When prompted at system startup, press Ctrl+R to access the BIOS Configuration Utility Ctrl+R. In the BIOS Configuration Utility Ctrl+R, select View Virtual Disk Details and press Enter. Determine whether the physical disk that is designated as the global hot spare has a status of Failed. 1.
RAID disk created from the NVMe PCIe SSDs not appearing in operating system environment, showing as partitioned disks Description RAID disk created in UEFI mode from the NVMe PCIe SSDs are not discoverable in the operating system mode. Corrective Action Ensure that the partitioned drives are not deleted. Install the PERC S140 driver to see the RAID disks. See Installing the drivers on page 39 for more information.
9 Getting help You can get help with your Dell product by contacting Dell, or send feedback on product documentation. Topics: • • • • Contacting Dell Locating your system Service Tag Related documentation Documentation feedback Contacting Dell Dell provides online and telephone based support and service options. If you do not have an active internet connection, you can find Dell contact information on your purchase invoice, packing slip, bill or Dell product catalog.
● For all PowerEdge documentation, go to www.dell.com/poweredgemanuals. Documentation feedback Click the Feedback link in any of the Dell EMC documentation pages, fill out the form, and click Submit to send your feedback.
