Optimizing the Dell PowerVault MD1xxx Family SAS Solution SAS Solutions Team Dell │ SAS Solutions Team delltechcenter.
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A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) .................................................................................................................................................... 5 2.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 1. Introduction A complete Enterprise storage solution involves various software and hardware components. A given storage project can be addressed using several approaches. Therefore, it is essential to identify optimum storage solutions for different applications.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 An optimal storage solution addresses all key attributes to a greater or lesser extent depending on their relative importance. This paper presents a study of the technological, functional and behavioral differences of the storage solution components and measures them against the attributes listed above.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION • VER A02 SAS introduces the concept of port aggregation to storage interconnects. External storage devices can connect via a x4 (by four) wide-lane. Cabling aggregates four SAS lanes, each operating at 3.0 Gbps, for a full external connection bandwidth of up to 12.0 Gbps on a single connector. Figure 2: Bandwidth improvement with SAS port aggregation One parallel SCSI cable Up to 320MB/s (equal to 2.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 2. Recommended Maintenance for Dell PowerVault MD1xxx Family SAS Solution Dell strives to provide the best possible customer experience for all of our Enterprise server and storage products. Proper maintenance of your solution is essential to ensure that the equipment remains in optimal working condition. Dell recommends the following suggested maintenance activities.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 Perform periodic physical inspection of your connections and cabling Damaged cables and loose connections may cause functional issues with your storage solution. Dell recommends a physical equipment audit two times a year or anytime after re-cabling or redeploying your storage hardware. 3. Dell SAS Product Offering The PowerVault MD1xxx Family enclosures represent Dell JBOD offering.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION Primary use General-purpose storage utilizing cost-effective, high-capacity drives VER A02 High-performance storage for applications requiring high I/O or throughput rates Major features of the PowerVault MD1xxx Family and PERC 5/E and PERC 6/E solution include: Performance • Support for 3.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION • • • • • • VER A02 LSI 1078 SAS RAID-on-Chip 256MB or 512MB of customized DDR2 667MHz, Error-Correcting Code (ECC) cache memory 3 Gbps maximum speed for each SAS lane Two external x4 (“by four”) SAS ports, each aggregating 4 SAS lanes for a total bandwidth per port of 12.0 Gbps x8 PCI E host interface for a total bandwidth of 32.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 For MD1000 - http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/md1000/ For MD1120 - http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/md1120/ 4. PowerVault MD1xxx Family Storage Enclosure Details The Power Vault MD1xxx Family includes two JBOD enclosures, the MD1000 and the MD1120.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION MD1xxx Family Storage Enclosure MD1000 MD1120 Primary EMM Physical Disks 7 through 14 12 through 23 VER A02 Secondary EMM Physical Disks 0 through 6 0 through 11 Split mode is useful in deployments where a single PowerVault MD1xxx Family storage enclosure provides limited amounts of storage each for two different servers.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 Figure 5: Max configuration on a single PERC 5/E or PERC 6/E controller (both ports connected) PowerVault MD1xxx Family – Common Features and Capabilities Regardless of the topology, the PowerVault MD1xxx Family storage enclosure provides a set of common features and capabilities.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 recommended within a single RAID group. PowerVault MD1000 supports 36 GB, 73 GB, 146 GB, 300 GB, and 400 GB capacities for 3.5” SAS physical disks. PowerVault MD1120 supports 36 GB, 73 GB, and 146 GB 2.5” SAS physical disks. When operating in a RAID configuration, the lowest capacity physical disk defines the RAID virtual disk size.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 Note: Hot plugging of SAS cables is not supported. External SAS Cables Depending on the enclosure topology, one or two external SAS cables may be attached between the host system(s) and a PowerVault MD1xxx Family storage enclosure. SAS cables use four active 3 Gbps SAS lanes in a single cable to deliver an aggregate of 12.0 Gbps connection.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 embedded thermal shutdown feature. This is activated by the SES processor in either of the following cases: o Either of the backplane temperature sensors detects temperature below -2°C (28.4°F) or above 60°C (140°F). o Temperature sensor on an EMM detects temperatures below -2°C (28.4°F) or above 65°C (149°F).
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 5. PERC 5/E and PERC 6/E Controller - Detailed Features PERC 5/E PERC 5/E is the RAID controller used to connect the PowerVault MD1000 storage enclosure with PowerEdge servers. It supports 3 Gbps Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) as the storage interconnect technology and PCI -E as the host-based interconnect technology. PERC 5/E controller supports RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 10 and 50.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION • VER A02 RAID Level Migration Changing the RAID level of a virtual disk from the existing level (for example, RAID 1) to another level (for example, RAID 5) is called RAID level migration. Dell recommends that data in the virtual disk be backed up before a RAID level migration is initiated.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 When a physical disk is assigned to a virtual disk as a hot spare, the PERC 5/E and PERC 6/E controllers will automatically rebuild the virtual disk using the hot spare in the event of a failed physical disk. This restores the virtual disk to optimal redundancy. The hot spare disk must be equal to or greater than the largest physical disk size within any of the virtual disks.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/vectors/2004_2tblun.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 6. Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Dell OpenManage Server Administrator is a management application for configuring PowerEdge servers. The Server Administrator’s configuration abilities for host-based RAID and non-RAID disk storage are of particular interest for this paper. The Server Administrator enables you to perform controller and enclosure functions from a single, graphical or command line interface.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 Figure 6: Screenshot of Create Virtual Disk Advanced Wizard with Disk Selection Displayed The Create Virtual Disk Express and Create Virtual Disk Advanced wizards set the virtual disk initialization to “Fast Initialize” by default.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 Table 4: Virtual disk reconfiguration on the PERC 5/E and PERC 6/E RAID controllers Target Disk Requirements PERC 5/E and PERC6/E Controller Starting RAID Level RAID Level RAID 0 RAID 0 Add at least one additional disk RAID 0 (on a single disk) RAID 1 Add a single disk RAID 0 (on a single disk) RAID 5 Add at least two additional disks *RAID 0 (on a single disk) RAID 6 Add at least three additional disks RAID
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 • Virtual disks on a SAS controller can only be migrated to another SAS controller. • When moving an enclosure, power down the enclosure and the server before moving the enclosure. The enclosure can be moved to any connector number on the receiving controller. The following procedure describes how to migrate the physical disks from one controller to another: 1.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 Figure 7: Physical Disks with a Foreign State Server Administrator displays the Import/Recover Foreign Configuration or the Import Foreign Configuration task when the controller detects a foreign configuration. If you have an incomplete foreign configuration which cannot be imported, using the Clear Foreign Configuration task, erases the foreign data on the physical disks.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 Figure 8: Controller Tasks Drop-down Menu With the Import/Recover Foreign Configuration and Clear Foreign Configuration Tasks Displayed PAGE 26 6/16/2008
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 7. Storage Applications and Components Identify customer usage model and needs In order to select the correct storage solution, it is important to understand the application and user requirements. A good starting point is to use the following basic storage profiling considerations. Table 5: Storage Profiling Considerations Characteristic Values Performance • Throughput (MB per sec.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 RAID 1 A RAID 1 solution, while not ideal, could be utilized for small workgroup servers or servers with low storage capacity and growth requirements. Any server beyond a small workgroup server is likely to need more storage and consequently, a more efficient RAID solution. RAID 10 RAID 10 has good I/O performance, excellent availability and redundancy.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 Table 6: RAID Configuration Recommendations Application RAID Level 0 1 10 5 50 6 60 E-mail Web Database or Online Transaction Processing Streaming Media File- Archival File-User File Stores Recommended Not Recommended Possible General Storage Enclosure Guidelines MD1000 – 3U/15 3.5” Hard Drive Enclosure The MD1000 is a storage expansion enclosure housing up to 15 3.5-inch hard drives in 3U of rack space.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 Application-Specific Guidelines E-Mail Servers The storage requirements for e-mail servers can vary depending on the size, the amount, and the type of users. While small departmental e-mail servers may work well with a small amount of storage and limited features; large corporate e-mail servers normally require greater storage capacity, very high availability, performance, and scalability.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 Not recommended: • RAID 0, Concatenated – Not recommended due to lack of redundancy and data protection. Note: While these configurations are not recommended, they can be configured and utilized. Table 10: Email Sever Enclosure Guidelines Application Enclosure MD1000 3U / 15 x 3.5” drive MD1120 2U / 24 x 2.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 Recommended: • RAID 10 – Recommended for enterprise web server solutions where availability and redundancy and performance are the highest priority, usually for stand-alone portal sites that are critical to the organization’s business. • RAID 5 – Recommended for web servers that require maximum storage capacity and moderate data protection and performance.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) oriented servers are used in a number of industries for the entry and retrieval of transactions. For example, OLTP is common in banking, airlines, mail-order, and supermarkets. These servers are generally critical and require maximum availability and redundancy.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION 3U / 15 x 3.5” drive VER A02 2U / 24 x 2.5” drive OLTP Recommended Not Recommended Possible Recommended: • MD1120 – Recommended for OLTP or Database servers with typical capacities where performance and power efficiency are high priority. Possible: • MD1000 – Potential option for OLTP or Database servers where capacity is priority.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 • RAID 50 – Recommended for those solutions that require a balance between storage capacity and performance. • RAID 60 – Recommended for those solutions that require a balance between storage capacity and performance with maximum data protection. Possible: • RAID 1 – Possible solution in situations which do not require high storage capacity.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 Table 21: User Store File Server RAID Guidelines Application RAID Level Concatenated 0 1 10 5 50 6 60 File – User file store Recommended Not Recommended Possible Recommended: • RAID 5 – Recommended for file servers that require maximum storage capacity and moderate data protection and performance. • RAID 50 – Recommended for those solutions that require a balance between storage capacity and performance.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 Streaming Media Servers Streaming media servers are systems that provide web-casting, video conferencing, Internet entertainment (for example, Internet TV or Internet radio), and multimedia services. These systems generally require a balance between storage capacity, availability, redundancy, and performance. Like web servers, they may also be part of a group of systems that work together to provide content.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 Not Recommended: • Concatenated – This solution is not recommended due to lack of redundancy and limited performance. Note: While these configurations are not recommended, they can be configured and utilized. Table 25: Streaming Media Enclosure Guidelines Application Enclosure MD1000 3U / 15 x 3.5” drive MD1120 2U / 24 x 2.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 8. Summary and Conclusions It is important to understand the characteristics of each storage component in order to assess the performance of the overall application. It is also necessary to understand how the storage component is configured since this has a direct impact on the effectiveness of an application. Table 26 summarizes typical storage recommendations for various applications.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 Appendix – A: References 1. SAS Protocol Specification (http://www.t10.org/drafts.htm#SCSI3_SAS) 2. SFF-8470 Connector Specification (http://www.sffcommittee.com/ns/index.html) 3. Beyond The 2-TB SCSI Logical Unit (http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/vectors/2004_2tblun.pdf) 4. Dell PowerVault MD1000 Documentation (http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/md1000/) 5.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 9.
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION VER A02 10. Appendix – C: Revision History PAGE 42 Revision Description Date Modified By A00 First Release 4/17/2006 SAS Solution Core Team A02 Updated to reflect Dell PowerVault MD1000 and MD1120 enclosures (aka. MD1xxx Family).
