Users Guide

Background operations
Background initialization
Background initialization (BGI) is an automated process that writes parity or mirror data on newly created virtual disks. BGI does
not run on RAID 0 virtual disks. You can control the BGI rate in the Dell OpenManage storage management application. Any
change to the BGI rate does not take effect until the next BGI is executed.
NOTE:
● On PERC H345, background operations will not run until the operating system boots.
● You cannot disable BGI permanently. If you cancel BGI, it automatically restarts within five minutes.
● Unlike full or fast initialization of virtual disks, background initialization does not clear data from the physical disks.
● Consistency Check (CC) and BGI typically cause some loss in performance until the operation completes.
Consistency check and BGI perform similar functions in that they both correct parity errors. However, CC reports data
inconsistencies through an event notification, while BGI does not. You can start CC manually, but not BGI.
Consistency checks
Consistency Check (CC) is a background operation that verifies and corrects the mirror or parity data for fault tolerant virtual
disks. It is recommended that you periodically run a consistency check on virtual disks.
You can manually start a CC using the HII Configuration Utility or the Dell OpenManage storage management application. You
can schedule a CC to run on virtual disks using the Dell OpenManage storage management application. To start a CC using the
HII Configuration Utility, see Performing consistency check on page 64.
NOTE: CC or BGI typically causes some loss in performance until the operation completes.
CC and BGI both correct parity errors. However, CC reports data inconsistencies through an event notification, while BGI does
not. You can start CC manually, but not BGI.
Hard drive features
This section lists the following hard drive features supported on PERC 10 cards in detail:
● Self-encrypting disks (SED)
● Instant secure erase (ISE)
● 4 KB sector disk drives
Self-Encrypting Disks
The Dell PERC 10 series of cards support self-encrypting disks (SED) for protection of data against loss or theft of SEDs.
Protection is achieved by the use of encryption technology on the drives. There is one security key per controller. You can
manage the security key under local key management (LKM). The security key is used by the controller to lock and unlock
access to encryption-capable physical disks. In order to take advantage of this feature, you must:
● Have SEDs in your system.
● Create a security key.
For more information, see the Security key and RAID management section.
NOTE: You cannot enable security on non-optimal virtual disks.
NOTE: PERC supports Trusted Computing Group Enterprise (TCG) Security Subsystem Classes (SSC) SAS/SATA SED
drives.
Features 27