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A5_bk0.book Page 2 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Notes, Cautions, and Warnings NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your computer. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates potential damage to hardware or loss of data if instructions are not followed. WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. ____________________ Information in this publication is subject to change without notice. © 2008—2011 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
A5_bk0.book Page 3 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Contents 1 WARNING: Safety Instructions . SAFETY: General . 2 . . . . . . . . 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 SAFETY: When Working Inside Your System . . . . . . . 8 Protecting Against Electrostatic Discharge . . . . . . . 9 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . General Information, Intended Audience, and Prerequisites for Use . . . . . . . .
A5_bk0.book Page 4 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM General Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Installing the PERC S300 Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . Connect Physical Disks to the PERC S300 Adapter Complete the Hardware Installation 5 Installing the Drivers . 35 . . . . . . . . . . 35 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RAID Configuration and Management . . . . . . . . . Troubleshooting . 37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Warning Messages: Dell Inc.
A5_bk0.book Page 5 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Supported RAID Levels Virtual Disk Specifications 9 Appendix B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 RAID Technology - Understanding Disk Arrays and Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Appendix C . . . . 81 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Regulatory Notices 90 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Industry Canada Notice (Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . 92 . . . .
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A5_bk0.book Page 7 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM 1 WARNING: Safety Instructions Use the following safety guidelines to help ensure your own personal safety and to help protect your system and working environment from potential damage. WARNING: Do not expose the Dell PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller (PERC) S300 adapter to liquids. To reduce risk of fire hazard, do not cover or obstruct the ventilation openings of the system in which it is installed.
A5_bk0.book Page 8 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM SAFETY: General Observe and follow service markings: • Do not service any product except as explained in the user documentation. Opening or removing covers that are marked with a triangular symbol with a lightning bolt might expose you to electrical shock. Components inside these compartments must be serviced only by a trained service technician. • Use the product only with Dell-approved equipment.
A5_bk0.book Page 9 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM In addition, take note of these safety guidelines when appropriate: • When you disconnect any cable, pull on its connector or on its strain-relief loop, not on the cable itself. Some cables have a connector with locking tabs. If you are disconnecting this type of cable, press in on the locking tabs before disconnecting the cable. As you pull connectors apart, keep them evenly aligned to avoid bending any connector pins.
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A5_bk0.book Page 11 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM 2 Overview Introduction The Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) S300 provides an integrated software RAID solution for Dell PowerEdge Value Servers. The PERC S300 controllers support SAS and SATA interfaces. Containing two internal connectors with four ports each, the PERC S300 adapter features eight ports for connecting drives with a maximum burst speed of up to 3 Gbps per port.
A5_bk0.book Page 12 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM This document is intended for use by system administrators and technicians who are familiar with the storage system installation and configuration.
A5_bk0.book Page 13 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Supported Platforms Table 2-1.
A5_bk0.book Page 14 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Platform Requirements for the PERC S100 Controller and PERC S300 Controller Table 2-2. Platform Requirements — PERC S100 Controller or PERC S300 Controller Component Requirements Processor x86, 32-bit compatible processor greater than 500 MHz. Memory 512 MB or greater. Physical disk At least one Hard Disk Drives (HDD) or Solid State Disk (SSD) Drives.
A5_bk0.book Page 15 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 2-2.
A5_bk0.book Page 16 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 2-2.
A5_bk0.book Page 17 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM About RAID A RAID disk array is a group of independent physical disks that provides high performance by increasing the number of drives used for saving and accessing data. A RAID disk subsystem improves I/O performance and data availability. The physical disks appear to the host system either as a single storage unit or multiple logical units. Data throughput improves because several disks are accessed simultaneously.
A5_bk0.book Page 18 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM RAID Terminology Disk Striping Disk striping allows you to write data across multiple physical disks instead of just one physical disk. Disk striping involves partitioning each physical disk storage space into stripes of the various sizes. These stripes are interleaved in a repeated sequential manner. The part of the stripe on a single physical disk is called a stripe element.
A5_bk0.book Page 19 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM NOTE: Mirrored physical disks improve read performance by read load balancing. NOTE: The PERC S300 controller only supports physical disks (SAS and SATA). SSD devices cannot be migrated to a PERC S300 controller. Figure 2-2.
A5_bk0.book Page 20 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Figure 2-3.
A5_bk0.book Page 21 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM 3 Features General Features The features of the Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) S100 and PERC S300 adapter are described in Table 3-1. NOTE: BAS, BGI, CC and OCE run only on the operating system. Table 3-1.
A5_bk0.book Page 22 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 3-1. Features of the PERC S100 controller and PERC S300 controller (continued) RAID Controller Feature Description Boot support for RAID Allows boot support for Volume, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, levels and RAID 10. Boot support for degraded virtual disks Enables the system to boot from degraded redundant virtual disks (RAID 1, RAID 5, or RAID 10). Cache support for virtual disks Supports these cache options: None, Read Only, Read/Write.
A5_bk0.book Page 23 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 3-1. Features of the PERC S100 controller and PERC S300 controller (continued) RAID Controller Feature Description Consistency check (CC) A consistency check is a background operation that verifies and corrects the mirror or parity data for fault-tolerant physical disks. It is recommended that you periodically run a consistency check on the physical disks. By default, a consistency check corrects mirror or parity inconsistencies.
A5_bk0.book Page 24 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 3-1. Features of the PERC S100 controller and PERC S300 controller (continued) RAID Controller Feature Description Mirror rebuilding A broken mirror can be rebuilt after a new physical disk is inserted and the physical disk is designated as a hot spare. The system does not have to be rebooted. Online Capacity Expansion (OCE) OCE is a process that allows you to add storage capacity to an existing virtual disk.
A5_bk0.book Page 25 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 3-1. Features of the PERC S100 controller and PERC S300 controller (continued) RAID Controller Feature Description • In a brief warning at the Dell Inc. PERC S100 Controller BIOS or Dell Inc. PERC S300 Controller BIOS screen, that a virtual disk(s) were found that are Degraded and/or Failed. This alerts the user to the failed physical disk(s). • At Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management.
A5_bk0.book Page 26 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 3-1. Features of the PERC S100 controller and PERC S300 controller (continued) RAID Controller Feature Description Physical disk roaming The controller supports moving a physical disk from one backplane slot or cable connection to another (on the same controller). The controller automatically recognizes the repositioned physical disk and logically places it in the proper order.
A5_bk0.book Page 27 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 3-1. Features of the PERC S100 controller and PERC S300 controller (continued) RAID Controller Feature Description Virtual disks (general) Up to eight virtual disks are supported. The PERC S100 adapter and PERC S300 adapter allows: • Creating virtual disks of different RAID levels on a single controller. • Creating different RAID level virtual disks on the same physical disk, to adapt each virtual disk to the I/O that it processes.
A5_bk0.book Page 28 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 3-1. Features of the PERC S100 controller and PERC S300 controller (continued) RAID Controller Feature Description Virtual disk migration The controller supports automatic virtual disk migration from a PERC S100 adapter to a PERC S300 adapter (or vice versa). Manual intervention for migration is not required or used by the PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter.
A5_bk0.book Page 29 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Specifications Table 3-2 compares the specifications of the PERC S100 adapter and PERC S300 adapter. Table 3-2.
A5_bk0.book Page 30 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 3-2.
A5_bk0.book Page 31 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM 4 Hardware Installation Before You Begin This chapter describes how to install the Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) S300 adapter. NOTE: The PERC S100 controller is an integral component of the motherboard. Hardware installation instructions are not required for a system with a PERC S100 controller.
A5_bk0.book Page 32 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Installing the PERC S300 Adapter NOTE: The procedure to open a system and add parts might vary from system to system. For more information, see the Hardware Owner's Manual of the system on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals. 1 Unpack the PERC S300 Adapter and check it for damage. NOTE: If the PERC S300 Adapter is damaged, contact Dell Support at support.dell.com. 2 Turn off the system and attached peripherals.
A5_bk0.book Page 33 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Figure 4-1.
A5_bk0.book Page 34 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Figure 4-2.
A5_bk0.book Page 35 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Connect Physical Disks to the PERC S300 Adapter WARNING: Critical system components might be damaged if the installer is not properly grounded to prevent electrostatic discharge (ESD). NOTE: Use either the standard power connector or, if available on the power supply, a SATA/SATA II power connector. Do not use both. NOTE: You can view the physical disk LEDs on a system that uses a PERC S300 controller by removing the front panel from the system.
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A5_bk0.book Page 37 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM 5 Installing the Drivers The Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) S100 or PERC S100 adapter require controller drivers to operate with the supported operating systems. This chapter contains the procedures for installing the controller drivers for the following operating systems: • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2 NOTE: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 is not supported.
A5_bk0.book Page 38 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM 7 Use the blank optical medium to burn the ISO image. 8 Download the files for the PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter to the driver media, as indicated in Figure 5-1. Table 5-1. Operating System And Device Driver Media Operating System Driver Media (CD-ROM, DVD, USB flash drive, or floppy disk) to Use Windows Server 2008, 32-bit or 64-bit: Copy all of the files to a CD-ROM, DVD, Windows Server 2008 R2 USB flash drive, or floppy disk.
A5_bk0.book Page 39 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 5-2. Pre-Installation Procedures For The Controller Drivers Procedure 1 Confirm or change configuration settings at the Dell PowerEdge System window Steps a Boot the system. When the Dell Power-On Self-Test (POST) screen appears, press . b Wait until the Dell PowerEdge System window appears. Perform the following, depending on the controller: • For a PERC S100 adapter: Scroll to SATA Settings. Press .
A5_bk0.book Page 40 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 5-2. Pre-Installation Procedures For The Controller Drivers (continued) Procedure 4 Create a bootable virtual disk 5 Check controller options and the boot list priority Steps See "Creating Virtual Disks" on page 51. a At the PERC S100 Virtual Disk Management utility or PERC S300 Virtual Disk Management utility, use the arrow keys to select Controller Options. Press . Make sure that Toggle INT13 Boot Support is ON.
A5_bk0.book Page 41 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 5-2. Pre-Installation Procedures For The Controller Drivers (continued) Procedure 6 Change the Boot Priority List for Devices (if applicable) Steps To change the order of the devices (CD-ROM, optical DVD, and so on), perform the following: NOTE: Unless mentioned otherwise, the term PERC Virtual Disk Management utility refers to both the PERC S100 Virtual Disk Management utility and the PERC S300 Virtual Disk Management utility.
A5_bk0.book Page 42 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Installing the Controller Drivers During the Operating System Installation: For Systems with a PERC S100 Adapter CAUTION: The latest firmware, drivers and applications must be installed whenever the controller software is upgraded. A previous version of the driver might not work with the latest controller software and vice versa.
A5_bk0.book Page 43 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM For Microsoft Windows Server 2003: a Insert the floppy disk that contains the files copied at "Downloading the Controller Driver Media" on page 37. (An external USB floppy disk drive can be used, if your system does not have a built-in floppy disk drive). b Press on the keyboard, when prompted at the beginning of the Windows setup. c Wait until the Windows Setup window with S = Specify Additional Device appears. Press on the keyboard.
A5_bk0.book Page 44 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Installing the Controller Drivers During the Operating System Installation: For Systems with a PERC S300 Adapter CAUTION: The latest firmware, drivers and applications must be installed whenever the controller software is upgraded. A previous version of the driver might not work with the latest controller software and vice versa.
A5_bk0.book Page 45 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM c Wait until the Windows Setup screen appears with S = Specify Additional Device. Press on the keyboard. d Insert the requested media disk (as applicable) and press . 8 At the Select the driver to be installed window, select Dell PERC S100, S300 Controller... Click Next to load the driver files.
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A5_bk0.book Page 47 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM RAID Configuration and Management 6 The Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) S100 and PERC S100 adapter are configured by using the PERC S100 Virtual Disk Management utility or PERC S300 Virtual Disk Management utility. The utility is accessed at system startup, when you are prompted to press .
A5_bk0.book Page 48 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 6-1. PERC Virtual Disk Management Utility Operations (continued) Operation Description Deleting Virtual Disks Deletes one or more virtual disks that are configured for the controller. Swapping Two Virtual Disks Swaps virtual disks to enable them to load in any order. Managing Global Hot Spares Enables you to create or delete a global hot spare(s).
A5_bk0.book Page 49 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM The utility contains these fields: • An information field (yellow or red text): Located below the window name and the current build number. • Virtual Disks: Displays the virtual disks that have been created and information about them: virtual disk number, RAID level, virtual disk size, virtual disk status, and caching mode status. • Main Menu: Indicates the main PERC Virtual Disk Management utility operations.
A5_bk0.book Page 50 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Initializing Physical Disks New physical disks must be initialized before they can be used. Initialization writes controller configuration information to the physical disk. Physical disks with the following statuses can be initialized: • Non-RAID — A physical disk that was configured by a non-PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter. • Ready — Contains no stored data but has PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter configuration information.
A5_bk0.book Page 51 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM CAUTION: If a physical disk has a virtual disk on it, the physical disk cannot be selected for initialization. To initialize the physical disk anyway, make sure to delete the virtual disk. Be sure you want to initialize the physical disk, because all data on it (including PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter configuration information) is deleted.
A5_bk0.book Page 52 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM 4 At the Physical Disks field, select the physical disk(s) on which to create a virtual disk: a For each physical disk, press the key to select the physical disk. (The physical disks can be inserted in any order.) b After selecting the physical disk(s) to be included in the virtual disk, press . 5 At the User Input field, use the arrow keys to select a virtual disk type (RAID level). Press .
A5_bk0.book Page 53 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 6-3. Selection of Virtual Disk Sizes To Create This Perform This Task Virtual Disk Size < 2.199 TB Use the or keys to select a size in large increments or Use the up arrow or down arrow keys to select a size in small increments. Continue with "Creating Virtual Disks" on page 51. > 2.199 TB 1 Press the or the up arrow key to increase the virtual disk size.
A5_bk0.book Page 54 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM configuration information with the existing configuration information. The previously deleted virtual disk re-appears in the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility. CAUTION: Make sure that all physical disks that are part of a virtual disk are in the system before you delete the virtual disk. 1 Power-up the system to start booting. 2 When prompted, press the keys to access the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.
A5_bk0.book Page 55 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Swapping Two Virtual Disks Use the Swap Two Virtual Disks option of the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility to arrange virtual disks in a different order. CAUTION: Do not swap the first-listed virtual disk at Virtual Disks if it is the system’s bootable virtual disk. The bootable virtual disk must always be the firstlisted virtual disk at Virtual Disks.
A5_bk0.book Page 56 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Managing Global Hot Spares This option enables you to create a global hot spare from a selected physical disk, or to delete a global hot spare. NOTE: A global hot spare can be created only if a physical disk is in Ready or Normal status at the Physical Disks field. If the physical disk is in Online status, it is being used by a virtual disk and cannot be selected as a hot spare. Create a Global Hot Spare 1 Power-up the system to start booting.
A5_bk0.book Page 57 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Viewing Physical Disk Details 1 Power-up the system to start booting. 2 When prompted, press the keys to access the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility. 3 At the Main Menu field, select View Physical Disk Details. Press . 4 Use the arrow keys to choose a physical disk.
A5_bk0.book Page 58 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Rescanning Disks This option enables you to rescan all channels and detect new or removed physical disks or virtual disks. • To perform a rescan, select Rescan Disks from the Main Menu field and press . (The activity indicator, in the information field at the top of the window, spins while the physical disks are being polled).
A5_bk0.book Page 59 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 6-4. Controller Options Controller Option Description How to Operate Pause if Degraded When ON, the BIOS stops booting when a degraded virtual disk is found. Press to toggle between ON and OFF. Pause if Failed When ON, the BIOS stops booting when a failed virtual disk is found. Press to toggle between ON and OFF.
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A5_bk0.book Page 61 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM 7 Troubleshooting To get help with your Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) PERC S100 adapter and PERC S300 adapter, contact your Dell Technical Service representative or access the Dell Support Web site at support.dell.com. The chapter discusses four major categories of troubleshooting: • Normal tasks that cannot be performed during system startup. • Warning messages that might appear at the Dell Inc. PERC S100 Controller BIOS or Dell Inc.
A5_bk0.book Page 62 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 7-1. System Does Not Boot Likely Causes to Check Boot Mode, Boot Sequence, and/or Boot Sequence Retry are set incorrectly Corrective Actions 1 At system startup, when the Dell POST screen appears, press to enter the Dell Inc. PowerEdge BIOS screen. 2 Scroll to Boot Settings. Press and make sure that Boot Mode is set to BIOS. 3 Scroll to Boot Sequence.
A5_bk0.book Page 63 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 7-1. System Does Not Boot Likely Causes to Check A Non-Raid virtual disk is no longer in the first position in the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility list after the system is rebooted NOTE: When booting from a Non-Raid virtual disk, creating a virtual disk in Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management changes the virtual disk order and displaces the bootable Non-Raid virtual disk from the first position.
A5_bk0.book Page 64 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Warning Messages: Dell Inc. PERC S100 Adapter or Dell Inc. PERC S300 Adapter BIOS Screen The Dell Inc. PERC S100 Controller BIOS screen or Dell Inc. PERC S300 Controller BIOS screen is one of the first screens to appear during your system’s boot sequence.
A5_bk0.book Page 65 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 7-3. Warning Messages: Dell Inc. PERC S100 or PERC S300 Adapter BIOS Warning Message Corrective Action WARNING: Found virtual disks that are Degraded This warning message appears when at least one virtual disk is in a Degraded state and Pause if Degraded is set to ON at the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.
A5_bk0.book Page 66 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 7-4. Warning Messages: Dell Inc. PERC S100 or S300 Adapter BIOS (continued) Warning Message Corrective Action WARNING: Found virtual disks that are Failed This warning message appears when at least one virtual disk is in a Failed state and Pause if Failed is set to ON at the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.
A5_bk0.book Page 67 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 7-5. Warning Messages: Dell Inc. PERC S100 or S300 Adapter BIOS (continued) Warning Message Corrective Action WARNING: Found virtual disks that are Degraded and Failed This warning message appears when multiple virtual disks are in Degraded and Failed state and Pause if Degraded or Pause if Failed are set to ON at the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.
A5_bk0.book Page 68 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 7-6. Warning Messages: Dell Inc. PERC S100 or S300 Adapter BIOS (continued) Warning Message Corrective Action BIOS NOT INSTALLED User Disabled INT13 BIOS Load This warning message appears when: • The INT13 Boot Support option has been set to OFF at the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility. Bootable devices do not function with the controller when INT 13 Boot Support is set to OFF.
A5_bk0.book Page 69 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 7-7. Other Errors Appearing on the BIOS Issue Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions The RAID 0 goes Faulty physical disk offline and the RAID 1 becomes degraded in a PowerEdge R210 system with two drives. When attempting to update system backplane firmware and or Hard drive firmware using DUPs the updates fail. DUPs are not supported. 1 Boot system into CTLR-R and replace faulty drive.
A5_bk0.book Page 70 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 7-7. Other Errors Appearing on the BIOS Issue Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions S100 rom option not visible during S300 controller use in the system. S100 and S300 coexistence in the same system is not supported. S100 option rom becomes disabled when S100 and S300 are available. Remove S300 adapter and reboot system to select F1 and select RAID for boot BIOS. The S100 rom option appears during POST boot.
A5_bk0.book Page 71 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 7-8. Cannot Create a Virtual Disk (continued) Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions The desired physical disk is unavailable Determine whether the physical disk: • Is a dedicated hot spare and unavailable for use in another virtual disk. • Is full or has insufficient available capacity. The system already has a maximum of eight virtual disks Delete unused virtual disks.
A5_bk0.book Page 72 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 7-10. A Virtual Disk is in a Degraded State Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions A physical disk was removed • Install the original physical disk, if it was inadvertently removed, or replace it with a new or used physical disk. • Initialize a new physical disk. Perform a Rescan for all physical disks that are replaced. • If the physical disk was not removed, check that its cables are correctly installed.
A5_bk0.book Page 73 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 7-11. Cannot Assign a Dedicated Hot Spare to a Virtual Disk Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions The RAID level does not allow a Hot spares cannot be created for Volume or RAID 0 dedicated hot spare to be created virtual disks.
A5_bk0.book Page 74 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 7-12. Cannot Create a Global Hot Spare (continued) The physical disk is already part A global hot spare cannot be selected if it is already of a virtual disk part of an existing virtual disk. The physical disk assigned as the When prompted at system startup, press global hot spare has failed to access the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.
A5_bk0.book Page 75 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Physical Disk-Related Errors Table 7-13. The Physical Disk Fails Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions A physical disk is not visible in the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility or is offline • Check that the cables are properly connected. • For PERC S300 adapters only: check that the physical disk is installed properly in the system’s backplane. • For PERC S300 adapters only: check the system’s backplane for damage.
A5_bk0.book Page 76 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table 7-15. The Wrong Physical Disk was Removed Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions A physical disk has been removed from a virtual disk The removal of one physical disk from a virtual disk causes: • A Volume or RAID 0 virtual disk to change to Failed status. • A RAID 1 and RAID 5 virtual disk to change to Degraded status. • A RAID 10 virtual disk to change to Degraded status (when a physical disk is removed from one of the mirrored sets).
A5_bk0.book Page 77 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM A Appendix A Controller Specifications This section contains information about the Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) S100 and S300 adapter specifications: • Read, write, and cache policy • Physical and virtual disk tasks • Virtual disk specifications • Supported RAID levels Read, Write, and Cache Policy Table A-1 indicates the read, write, and cache policies that are supported/not supported by the PERC S100 Adapter and PERC S300 adapter.
A5_bk0.book Page 78 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Controller Tasks Table A-2 indicates the tasks that are supported or not supported by the PERC S100 Adapter and PERC S300 adapter. Table A-2.
A5_bk0.book Page 79 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Virtual Disk Tasks Table A-4 indicates the virtual disk tasks that are supported/not supported by the controllers. Table A-4.
A5_bk0.book Page 80 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Virtual Disk Specifications Table A-6 indicates the virtual disk specifications that apply to the PERC S100 Adapter and PERC S300 adapter. Table A-6.
A5_bk0.book Page 81 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM B Appendix B RAID Technology - Understanding Disk Arrays and Virtual Disks A disk array consists of the physical disks that are connected to a controller. A virtual disk is data storage created by a controller from one or more physical disks. The virtual disk is viewed by the operating system as a single disk.
A5_bk0.book Page 82 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Understanding RAID Levels A PERC S100 controller or PERC S300 controller supports the following RAID levels: Table B-1. RAID Levels and Characteristics RAID Level Main Characteristics Advantages Volume (can be created only using the PERC S100 Virtual Disk Management utility or PERC S300 Virtual Disk Management utility. Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management can manage a Volume but cannot create it.
A5_bk0.book Page 83 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table B-1. RAID Levels and Characteristics (continued) RAID Level Main Characteristics Advantages RAID 1 (mirroring) Mirrors data on one physical disk to another, to provide basic redundancy. RAID 10 (striped mirror sets) Combines mirrored and striped sets; data are striped across mirrored sets of physical disks. • Offers better performance than a simple mirror because of the additional physical disks.
A5_bk0.book Page 84 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table B-1. RAID Levels and Characteristics (continued) RAID Level Main Characteristics Advantages RAID 5 (striping with Stripes data, as well as parity, • Offers exceptional read parity) across all physical disks in the performance, as well as virtual disk. Parity redundancy. information is interspersed • Requires only one extra across the virtual disk. physical disk to offer In the event of a single redundancy.
A5_bk0.book Page 85 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Table B-3. Virtual Disk States State Definition Degraded A physical disk in a redundant virtual disk has failed. Additional failures might result in lost data. Failed One or more physical disks have failed. The virtual disk has gone offline. The virtual disk cannot restore the data. Non-Raid A Non-Raid physical disk is automatically linked to a Non-Raid virtual disk for use with a PERC S100 controller or PERC S300 controller.
A5_bk0.book Page 86 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Creating Virtual Disks: Future Expansion When creating virtual disks, consider whether or not the virtual disk capacity needs to be expanded in the future. For a Microsoft Windows operating system, format the virtual disks with New Technology File System (NTFS). Microsoft Corporation provides a utility (diskpart.exe) that can dynamically extend an NTFS file system onto any unused adjacent space.
A5_bk0.book Page 87 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Rescanning Physical Disks for Changes in State The physical disk information displayed at the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility is the state of the physical disks when they were last scanned. If a rescan has not been performed, the information displayed is the state of the physical disks at boot time. Every time a physical disk is connected or disconnected while online, a rescan is performed.
A5_bk0.book Page 88 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Global Hot Spares A global hot spare is a backup physical disk that can be used by any redundant virtual disk. It is not assigned (dedicated) to any specific virtual disk. Virtual disks can typically be rebuilt by using a global spare disk, as long as the global hot spare is not already part of the virtual disk and has enough available capacity.
A5_bk0.book Page 89 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM C Appendix C Regulatory Notices Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) is any signal or emission, radiated in free space or conducted along power or signal leads, that endangers the functioning of a radio navigation or other safety service or seriously degrades, obstructs, or repeatedly interrupts a licensed radio communications service.
A5_bk0.book Page 90 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Dell computers are designed, tested, and classified for their intended electromagnetic environment. These electromagnetic environment classifications generally refer to the following harmonized definitions: • Class A is typically for business or industrial environments. • Class B is typically for residential environments.
A5_bk0.book Page 91 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM FCC, Class B This product generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the manufacturer’s instruction manual, may cause interference with radio and television reception. This product has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules.
A5_bk0.book Page 92 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM The following information is provided on the device or devices covered in this document in compliance with FCC regulations: Product Name PERC S100, PERC S300 Company Name: Dell Inc. Worldwide Regulatory Compliance & Environmental Affairs One Dell Way Round Rock, Texas 78682 USA 512-338-4400 Industry Canada Notice (Canada Only) Industry Canada, Class A This Class A digital apparatus complies with Canadian ICES-003.
A5_bk0.book Page 93 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM • EN 61000-3-2 — "Electromagnetic Compatibility - Part 3: Limits - Section 2: Limits for Harmonic Current Emissions (Equipment Input Current Up to and Including 16 A Per Phase)." • EN 61000-3-3 — "Electromagnetic Compatibility - Part 3: Limits - Section 3: Limitation of Voltage Fluctuations and Flicker in Low-Voltage Supply Systems for Equipment With Rated Current Up to and Including 16 A.
A5_bk0.book Page 94 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM CE Mark Notice This equipment complies with the essential requirements of the European Union Directive 1999/5/EC.
A5_bk0.book Page 95 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM D Appendix D Contacting Dell For customers in the United States, call 800-WWW-DELL (800-999-3355). NOTE: If you do not have an active Internet connection, you can find contact information on your purchase invoice, packing slip, bill, or Dell product catalog. Dell provides several online and telephone-based support and service options. Availability varies by country and product, and some services may not be available in your area.
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A5_bk0.book Page 98 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM E electrostatic discharge, protecting against, 9 errors, physical disks dedicated hot spare has failed or is in error, 75 Failed status is displayed, 75 errors, virtual disks Failed status, 71 virtual disk has been deleted, 73 ESD protection, 9 hot spares dedicated, 87 global, 88 hot spares, global, managing them, 56 hot swapping, 25 I Industry Canada Notice (Canada only), 92 initialization, physical disks, 23 F fault tolerance, 23 FCC Notice (U.S.
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A5_bk0.book Page 103 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM Glossary A D A P T E R — An adapter enables the system to access peripheral devices by converting the protocol of one bus or interface to another. An adapter may also provide specialized function. For example, a RAID controller is a type of adapter that provides RAID functions. Adapters may reside on the system board or be an add-in card. Other examples of adapters include network and SCSI adapters.
A5_bk0.book Page 104 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM immediately and the main memory read is aborted (or not started). If the data is not cached (a cache miss), it is fetched from main memory and saved in cache memory. C A C H I N G — The process of utilizing a high speed memory buffer, referred to as a “cache,” in order to speed up the overall read or write performance. This cache can be accessed at a higher speed than a disk subsystem.
A5_bk0.book Page 105 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM F A U L T TO L E R A N C E — Fault tolerance is the capability of the disk subsystem to undergo a single drive failure for the physical disks in a virtual disk without compromising data integrity and processing capability. The PERC S100 controller and PERC S300 controller provide this support through redundant virtual disks in RAID levels 1, 5 and 10.
A5_bk0.book Page 106 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM H O T S W A P — Replacement of a failed component while the system is running and operating normally. I N I T I A L I Z A T I O N — The process of writing zeros to the data fields of a virtual disk and, in fault tolerant RAID levels, generating the corresponding parity to put the virtual disk in a Ready state. Initialization generates parity information, so that the virtual disk is redundant.
A5_bk0.book Page 107 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM NCQ (N A T I V E C O M M A N D Q U E U I N G ) — A command protocol for Serial ATA, that allows multiple, outstanding commands to be active on a drive at the same time. N O N - R A I D C O N F I G U R A T I O N — Non-Raid data is data that already exists on a replacement physical disk. The Non-Raid physical disk must be initialized before it can be used with the PERC S100 controller or PERC S300 controller.
A5_bk0.book Page 108 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM system. The PERC Virtual Disk Management utility, accessed by pressing at system startup, is built on elements called controls. Each control performs a function. The functions include procedures you can use to configure physical disks and virtual disks. The PERC Virtual Disk Management utility differs from the Dell Inc.
A5_bk0.book Page 109 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM SAN (S T O R A G E A R E A N E T W O R K ) — A high-performance, typically enterprise-level network that attaches disk storage subsystems to servers. The storage devices are accessible to multiple hosts at the same time. S A S ( S E R I A L A T T A C H E D S CSI) — SAS is a serial, point-to-point, enterprise-level device interface that leverages the proven Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) protocol set.
A5_bk0.book Page 110 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM S T R I P I N G — Disk striping writes data across all physical disks in a virtual disk. Each stripe consists of consecutive virtual disk data addresses that are mapped in fixed-size units to each physical disk in the virtual disk using a sequential pattern. For example, if the virtual disk includes five physical disks, the stripe writes data to physical disks one through five without repeating any of the physical disks.