Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSD User’s Guide Regulatory Model: Adapter UCEA-100 and UCEM-100
Notes, Cautions, and Warnings NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your computer. 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. © 2013 Dell Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Contents 1 Overview.......................................................................................................................................7 PCIe SSD Architecture............................................................................................................................................. 7 PCIe Interface.................................................................................................................................................... 8 PCIe SSD Features.........
Exporting The Log.............................................................................................................................................24 Exiting The HII Configuration Utility................................................................................................................. 25 Dell OpenManage Server Administrator................................................................................................................ 25 Launching Storage Management.................
Related Documentation.......................................................................................................................................... 39 Contacting Dell....................................................................................................................................................... 39 Documentation Feedback.......................................................................................................................................
Overview 1 Dell PowerEdge Express Flash Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) Solid State Device (SSD) is a high performance storage device designed for solutions requiring low latency, high input/output operations per second (IOPS), and enterprise class storage reliability and serviceability. The Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSD is offered as a Single-Level Cell (SLC) and Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND flash technology with a high-speed PCIe 2.0 compliant interface. The high-speed PCIe 2.
1. 2. 3. 4. filler bracket PCIe extender adapter card port link status LED (4) adapter cable connectors (4) Figure 2. PCIe SSD Modular Extender Card 1. PCIe connector 2. PCIe modular extender card Figure 3. PCIe SSD 1. 2. 3. 4. release button activity indicator status indicator PCIe SSD NOTE: For more information on activity and status indicators, see PCIe SSD Device Carrier LED Indicators. PCIe Interface The SSD controller used on the PCIe SSD has a PCIe Gen2 (5 Gbps) interface.
PCIe SSD Features The following topics describe the different PCIe SSD features. Performance PCIe SSD is a high performance solid state storage device that enables IOPS performance of up to 350x more than conventional hard drives. A SLC PCIe SSD is designed to deliver sequential throughput on reads and writes at more than 1.5 Gbps speed.
Self-Monitoring Analysis And Reporting Technology The Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) feature-set minimizes unscheduled system downtimes by providing a method of early detection of device degradation or fault. By monitoring and storing critical performance and calibration parameters, the SMART feature-set attempts to predict degradation or fault conditions.
Getting Started With PCIe SSD 2 Dell PowerEdge Express Flash Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) Solid State Devices (SSD)s are not bootable devices. Your system must have a supported operating system installed to access the PCIe SSD. The PCIe SSDs you ordered with your system are preconfigured and ready for use. For more information, see Configuring PCIe SSDs In Different Operating Systems or see Configuring and Managing Your PCIe SSD.
NOTE: VMware ESX 5.5 version 3.3.4 only supports booting in the BIOS mode. NOTE: OpenManage Server Administrator is not supported on VMware ESX 5.5 version 3.3.4. Servicing Your PCIe SSD If you need to remove or replace your PCIe SSD, you can remove the PCIe SSD from a system that's operational, through an orderly removal process. This operation is supported in Windows and Linux. See Supported Operating Systems For PCIe SSD. CAUTION: PCIe device hot swap is not supported in VMware ESXi 5.1.
Replacing And Configuring Hardware 3 CAUTION: All work must be performed at an electrostatic discharge (ESD)-safe workstation to meet the EIA-625requirements for handling electrostatic discharge sensitive devices. All actions must be performed following the latest revisions of the IPC-A-610 ESD recommended practices. CAUTION: Many repairs may only be done by a certified service technician.
2. – The PCIe SSD is no longer accessible by the operating system. Press the release button and open the PCIe SSD carrier release handle to release the PCIe SSD. See figure Removing and Installing a PCIe SSD From/Into the System. 3. Slide out the PCIe SSD. NOTE: To maintain proper system cooling, all empty PCIe SSD bays must have PCIe SSD blanks installed. For instructions on how to install a PCIe SSD bay, see the system specific Owner's Manual at dell.com/support/ manuals. Figure 4.
Removing The PCIe Extender Adapter Card Follow the steps below to remove the PCIe extender adapter card: 1. Perform a controlled shutdown of the system in which the PCIe extender adapter card is installed. 2. Disconnect the system from the electrical outlet and remove the system cover. CAUTION: Running a system without the system cover installed may cause damage due to improper cooling. 3. Disconnect the data cables from the PCIe extender adapter card. 4.
Installing The PCIe Extender Adapter Card NOTE: Contact Dell technical support if the PCIe extender adapter card is damaged. See Contacting Dell. 1. Unpack the PCIe extender adapter card. 2. Turn off the system and attached peripherals, and disconnect the system from the electrical outlet and peripherals. 3. Disconnect all attached devices and remove the system cover. 4. Select an empty PCIe x16 slot.
Figure 6. Cabling a PCIe Extender Adapter Card 1. PCIe extender adapter card 2. Ctrl PCIe D 3. Ctrl PCIe C 4. Ctrl PCIe B 5. Ctrl PCIe A NOTE: Depending on the maximum number of PCIe SSDs supported on your system, fewer PCIe SSD cables may be required. Removing The PCIe Extender Modular Card Follow the steps below to remove the PCIe extender modular card: 1. Remove the modular system from the modular system chassis. 2. Remove the system cover. 3.
Figure 7. Removing and Installing a PCIe Extender Modular Card 1. PCIe slot 2. PCIe extender modular card Installing The PCIe Extender Modular Card NOTE: Contact Dell technical support if the PCIe extender adapter card is damaged. See Contacting Dell. The PCIe extender modular card is located below the PCIe SSD bays of the Dell modular system. 1. Remove the modular system from the modular system chassis. 2. Remove the system cover. 3. Remove the system board and place it on a stable and flat surface.
Driver Installation 4 For the current list of operating systems supported by Dell PowerEdge Express Flash Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) Solid State Devices (SSDs), see Supported Operating Systems For PCIe SSD. Downloading PCIe SSD Drivers To download PCIe SSD drivers: 1. Go to dell.com/support/drivers. 2. Enter Service Tag or Express Service Code or select Choose from a list of all Dell products. 3. Select Servers, Storage & Networking. 4. Select PowerEdge. 5.
3. Select Device Manager under the System option. The Device Manager screen is displayed. 4. Double-click the entry to expand Storage controllers. Alternatively, you can click on the plus symbol next to the Storage controllers. The PCIe SSD device is displayed as Dell Express Flash 175 GB (or 350 GB) P320h PCIe Controller or Dell Express Flash 700 GB P420m PCIe Controller. NOTE: In driver versions 7.x and earlier, PCIe devices are displayed under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.
5. Verify that the driver has been loaded with the system command: # lsmod or # cat /proc/modules These commands return mtip32xx in the list if the driver is loaded. The PCIe SSDs are ready for use. See, Configuring PCIe SSDs In Different Operating Systems. Installing The PCIe SSD Driver On Systems Supporting VMware NOTE: For a complete list of supported operating systems, see Supported Operating Systems For PCIe SSD. NOTE: Use the procedures in this section to install the driver for VMware ESXi 5.1.
NOTE: To remove the PCIe SSD VIB from host, run the following command: esxcli software vib remove --vibname=mtip32xx-scsi 22
Configuring And Managing Your PCIe SSD 5 Dell storage management applications enable you to manage and configure the Dell PowerEdge Express Flash Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) Solid State Device (SSD) subsystem, control, and monitor multiple PCIe SSDs, and provide online maintenance.
Initializing Physical Devices CAUTION: Performing a full initialization on a PCIe SSD overwrites all blocks and results in permanent loss of all data on the PCIe SSD. NOTE: During full initialization, the host cannot access the PCIe SSD. NOTE: If the system restarts or experiences a power loss during a full initialization, the operation is aborted. You must restart the system and restart the process. Perform the following steps to initialize a PCIe SSD from the PCIe SSD HII Configuration utility: 1.
3. Select the directory where you want to save the log. 4. Confirm the export log path selected to save the PCIe SSD log. 5. Select the Save Log link. NOTE: The log file is saved as: PCIeSSD_MDHMS.log, where MD = Month, Date and HMS = Hour, Min, Sec. 6. Press to return to the previous screen. 7. To exit the PCIe SSD HII Configuration utility, click the Exit button on the top right corner in the System Setup menu.
Name Displays the name of the extender. State Displays the current state of the PCIe SSD subsystem. Possible values are: – Ready: The component is functioning normally. – Degraded: The component has encountered a failure and is operating in a degraded state. – Failed: The component has encountered a failure and is no longer functioning. Driver Version Displays the version of the driver that is currently installed on the PCIe SSDs.
Running Physical Device Tasks 1. Expand the Storage tree object to display the storage component objects. 2. Expand the PCIe-SSD SubSystem object. 3. Expand the PCIe-SSD Extender object. 4. Expand the Enclosure (Backplane) object. 5. Select the Physical Devices object. 6. Select a task from the Available Tasks drop-down menu. 7. Click Execute.
4. Expand the Enclosure (Backplane) object. 5. Select the Physical Devices object. 6. Select Prepare To Remove task. 7. Click Execute. The following warning message is displayed: “Warning: Are you sure you want to prepare the physical device for removal?” 8. Select Prepare to Remove Physical Device to proceed or select Go Back to previous page to cancel the operation.
6 Troubleshooting NOTE: To get help for your Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSD, see Contacting Dell. Self-Monitoring Analysis And Reporting Technology Errors The PCIe SSD solution is always monitored for errors by its internal software. If an error occurs, it is detected and recorded in an internal log. Based on the criticality of the error, the software may inform the host server that further action is needed.
State Name Slot/Device State Status LED (Green) Status LED (Amber) NOTE: Device online state indicates the OpenManage Server Administrator is installed and running on the system. Device identify (blink) The device is identifying the On for 250 msec slot location or is indicating Off for 250 msec the device has received a Prepare for Removal command from the host operating system.
General Errors The following section describes the general errors related to PCIe SSD. PCIe SSD Is Not Listed In the Operating System Cause Hardware is not correctly installed. Solution Check the following components: • Devices: Ensure that the PCIe SSDs are installed in a PCIe SSD backplane. CAUTION: PCIe SSDs must be used with PCIe SSD backplanes. To ensure that you have the correct configuration for the PCIe SSD, see the platform-specific Owner’s Manual at dell.com/support/manuals.
PCIe SSD Is Not Seen In Disk Management In The Operating System Cause The device is in recovery mode (rebuilding). Solution During the recovery period, the device does not respond to commands from the host operating system. You must wait until the recovery period completes, in order to access the PCIe SSD through the disk management. See Ungraceful System Shutdown Or Power Loss. Cannot Update The Firmware Using Dell Update Package (DUP) Cause The device driver is not installed.
I/O Device Error On Write To PCIe SSD Cause PCIe SSDs have a finite number of write cycles, when a PCIe SSD exhausts the number of writes it goes in to the Write Protect mode (Read Only). Description Windows event log may report the following entries on the first write attempt to a PCIe SSD: • Event ID 11: The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort# • Event ID 7: Device in Write-Protect Mode Linux messages log may report the following entries on a write attempt to a PCIe SSD: • Ta
VMware ESXi Driver Fails To Install Cause Full path to the offline zip depot or VIB (vSphere Installation Bundle) is not specified. Description When the full path to the zip depot or VIB is not specified, the following error message is displayed: [MetadataDownloadError] Could not download from depot at zip:/var/log/vmware/ ? index.xml, skipping (('zip:/var/log/vmware/
Description VMware ESX 5.5 with native driver version 3.3.4 is unable to see or manage the PCIe SSD. Solution Download and install the latest available driver from dell.com/support.
PCIe SSD Technical Specifications 7 NOTE: The specifications provided is for information purposes only and do not constitute an extension of Dell's warranty for this product.
Device life (total bytes written) – SLC 175 GB: 12.5 petabyte (PB) 350 GB: 25 PB Device life (total bytes written) – MLC 700 GB: 10 PB Environment Operating temperature 0 °C to 70 °C Shock 1500 G/1.0ms Vibration 2 Hz–500 Hz at 3.1G Power Requirements Active power 25 W (FW Limit) 30 W (HW Limit) Electrical characteristics Voltage input 12 Volts SFF-8639 (PCIe SAS Combo-Connector) The combo-connector, also known as a 6x unshielded connector, is a high-speed plug and receptacle connector pair.
Getting Help 8 Locating Your System Service Tag Your system is identified by a unique Express Service Code and Service Tag number. The Express Service Code and Service Tag are found on the front of the system by pulling out the information tag. This information is used by Dell to route support calls to the appropriate personnel. Related Documentation NOTE: For all PowerEdge and PowerVault documentation, go to dell.com/support/manuals and enter the system Service Tag to get your system documentation.
To contact Dell for sales, technical support, or customer-service issues: 1. Go to dell.com/contactdell. 2. Select your country or region from the drop-down menu in the top-left corner. 3. Select your business segment. The main support page for the selected business segment is displayed. 4. Select the appropriate option depending on your requirement. NOTE: If you have purchased a Dell system, you may be asked for the Service Tag.
