User Manual
Table Of Contents
- Dell PowerVault MD 34XX/38XX Series Storage Arrays Administrator's Guide
- Introduction
- About Your MD Series Storage Array
- Physical Disks, Virtual Disks, And Disk Groups
- Disk Pools
- Thin Virtual Disks
- RAID Levels
- Segment Size
- Virtual Disk Operations
- Disk Group Operations
- RAID Background Operations Priority
- Virtual Disk Migration And Disk Roaming
- Advanced Features
- Multi-Path Software
- Load Balancing
- Monitoring System Performance
- Interpreting Performance Monitor Data
- Viewing Real-time Graphical Performance Monitor Data
- Customizing the Performance Monitor Dashboard
- Specifying Performance Metrics
- Viewing Real-time Textual Performance Monitor
- Saving Real-time Textual Performance Data
- Starting and Stopping Background Performance Monitor
- Viewing Information about the Current Background Performance Monitor Session
- Viewing Current Background Performance Monitor Data
- Saving the Current Background Performance Monitor Data
- Viewing Saved Background Performance Monitor Data
- What are invalid objects in the Performance Monitor?
- Discovering And Managing Your Storage Array
- Out-Of-Band Management
- In-Band Management
- Storage Arrays
- Setting Up Your Storage Array
- Locating Storage Arrays
- Naming Or Renaming Storage Arrays
- Setting A Password
- Adding Or Editing A Comment To An Existing Storage Array
- Removing Storage Arrays
- Enabling Premium Features
- Displaying Failover Alert
- Changing The Cache Settings On The Storage Array
- Changing Expansion Enclosure ID Numbers
- Changing The Enclosure Order
- Configuring Alert Notifications
- Battery Settings
- Setting The Storage Array RAID Controller Module Clocks
- Using iSCSI
- Changing The iSCSI Target Authentication
- Entering Mutual Authentication Permissions
- Creating CHAP Secrets
- Changing The iSCSI Target Identification
- Changing The iSCSI Target Discovery Settings
- Configuring The iSCSI Host Ports
- Advanced iSCSI Host Port Settings
- Viewing Or Ending An iSCSI Session
- Viewing iSCSI Statistics And Setting Baseline Statistics
- Edit, Remove, Or Rename Host Topology
- Event Monitor
- About Your Host
- Disk Groups, Standard Virtual Disks, And Thin Virtual Disks
- Creating Disk Groups And Virtual Disks
- Thin Virtual Disks
- Advantages Of Thin Virtual Disks
- Physical Vs Virtual Capacity On A Thin Virtual Disk
- Thin Virtual Disk Requirements And Limitations
- Thin Volume Attributes
- Thin Virtual Disk States
- Comparison—Types Of Virtual Disks And Copy Services
- Rollback On Thin Virtual Disks
- Initializing A Thin Virtual Disk
- Changing A Thin Virtual Disk To A Standard Virtual Disk
- Choosing An Appropriate Physical Disk Type
- Physical Disk Security With Self Encrypting Disk
- Configuring Hot Spare Physical Disks
- Enclosure Loss Protection
- Drawer Loss Protection
- Host-To-Virtual Disk Mapping
- Creating Host-To-Virtual Disk Mappings
- Modifying And Removing Host-To-Virtual Disk Mapping
- Changing Controller Ownership Of The Virtual Disk
- Removing Host-To-Virtual Disk Mapping
- Changing The RAID Controller Module Ownership Of A Disk Group
- Changing The RAID Level Of A Disk Group
- Removing A Host-To-Virtual Disk Mapping Using Linux DMMP
- Restricted Mappings
- Storage Partitioning
- Disk Group And Virtual Disk Expansion
- Disk Group Migration
- Storage Array Media Scan
- Disk Pools And Disk Pool Virtual Disks
- Difference Between Disk Groups And Disk Pools
- Disk Pool Restrictions
- Creating A Disk Pool Manually
- Automatically Managing The Unconfigured Capacity In Disk Pools
- Locating Physical Disks In A Disk Pool
- Renaming A Disk Pool
- Configuring Alert Notifications For A Disk Pool
- Adding Unassigned Physical Disks To A Disk Pool
- Configuring The Preservation Capacity Of A Disk Pool
- Changing The Modification Priority Of A Disk Pool
- Changing The RAID Controller Module Ownership Of A Disk Pool
- Checking Data Consistency
- Deleting A Disk Pool
- Viewing Storage Array Logical Components And Associated Physical Components
- Secure Disk Pools
- Changing Capacity On Existing Thin Virtual Disks
- Creating A Thin Virtual Disk From A Disk Pool
- Using SSD Cache
- How SSD Cache Works
- Benefits Of SSD Cache
- Choosing SSD Cache Parameters
- SSD Cache Restrictions
- Creating An SSD Cache
- Viewing Physical Components Associated With An SSD Cache
- Locating Physical Disks In An SSD Cache
- Adding Physical Disks To An SSD Cache
- Removing Physical Disks From An SSD Cache
- Suspending Or Resuming SSD Caching
- Changing I/O Type In An SSD Cache
- Renaming An SSD Cache
- Deleting An SSD Cache
- Using The Performance Modeling Tool
- Premium Feature—Snapshot Virtual Disk
- Snapshot Virtual Disk Vs. Snapshot Virtual Disk (Legacy)
- Snapshot Images And Groups
- Snapshot Virtual Disk Read/Write Properties
- Snapshot Groups And Consistency Groups
- Understanding Snapshot Repositories
- Creating Snapshot Images
- Scheduling Snapshot Images
- Performing Snapshot Rollbacks
- Creating A Snapshot Group
- Converting A Snapshot Virtual Disk To Read-Write
- Viewing Associated Physical Components Of An Individual Repository Virtual Disk
- Creating A Consistency Group
- Creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk Of A Snapshot Image
- Snapshot Virtual Disk Limitations
- Creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk
- Creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk Repository
- Changing The Settings Of A Snapshot Virtual Disk
- Disabling A Snapshot Virtual Disk Or Consistency Group Snapshot Virtual Disk
- Re-creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk Or Consistency Group Snapshot Virtual Disk
- Renaming A Snapshot Virtual Disk Or Consistency Group Snapshot Virtual Disk
- Deleting A Snapshot Virtual Disk Or Consistency Group Snapshot Virtual Disk
- Creating A Consistency Group Snapshot Virtual Disk
- Creating A Consistency Group Snapshot Virtual Disk Repository (Manually)
- Disabling A Snapshot Virtual Disk Or Consistency Group Snapshot Virtual Disk
- Re-creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk Or Consistency Group Snapshot Virtual Disk
- Changing The Modification Priority Of An Overall Repository Virtual Disk
- Changing The Media Scan Setting Of An Overall Repository Virtual Disk
- Changing The Pre-read Consistency Check Setting Of An Overall Repository Virtual Disk
- Increasing The Capacity Of An Overall Repository
- Decreasing The Capacity Of The Overall Repository
- Performing A Revive Operation
- Premium Feature—Snapshot Virtual Disks (Legacy)
- Scheduling A Snapshot Virtual Disk
- Creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk Using The Simple Path
- Creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk Using The Advanced Path
- Specifying Snapshot Virtual Disk Names
- Snapshot Repository Capacity
- Re-Creating Snapshot Virtual Disks
- Disabling A Snapshot Virtual Disk
- Re-Creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk
- Premium Feature—Virtual Disk Copy
- Using Virtual Disk Copy With Snapshot Or Snapshot (Legacy) Premium Feature
- Types Of Virtual Disk Copies
- Creating A Virtual Disk Copy For An MSCS Shared Disk
- Virtual Disk Read/Write Permissions
- Virtual Disk Copy Restrictions
- Creating A Virtual Disk Copy
- Preferred RAID Controller Module Ownership
- Failed RAID Controller Module
- Copy Manager
- Copying The Virtual Disk
- Storage Array Performance During Virtual Disk Copy
- Setting Copy Priority
- Stopping A Virtual Disk Copy
- Recopying A Virtual Disk
- Removing Copy Pairs
- Device Mapper Multipath For Linux
- Configuring Asymmetric Logical Unit Access
- Premium Feature—Remote Replication
- About Asynchronous Remote Replication
- Remote Replicated Pairs And Replication Repositories
- Types Of Remote Replication
- Remote Replication Requirements And Restrictions
- Setting Up Remote Replication
- Activating Remote Replication Premium Features
- Deactivating Remote Replication
- Remote Replication Groups
- Replicated Pairs
- Management Firmware Downloads
- Downloading RAID Controller And NVSRAM Packages
- Downloading Both RAID Controller And NVSRAM Firmware
- Downloading Only NVSRAM Firmware
- Downloading Physical Disk Firmware
- Downloading MD3060e Series Expansion Module EMM Firmware
- Self-Monitoring Analysis And Reporting Technology (SMART)
- Media Errors And Unreadable Sectors
- Firmware Inventory
- System Interfaces
- Storage Array Software
- Start-Up Routine
- Device Health Conditions
- Trace Buffers
- Collecting Physical Disk Data
- Event Log
- Recovery Guru
- Storage Array Profile
- Viewing The Physical Associations
- Recovering From An Unresponsive Storage Array Condition
- Locating A Physical Disk
- Locating An Expansion Enclosure
- Capturing The State Information
- SMrepassist Utility
- Unidentified Devices
- Recovering From An Unidentified Storage Array
- Starting Or Restarting The Host Context Agent Software
- Getting Help
The Total Unconfigured Capacity node, shown in the Storage & Copy Services tab, is a contiguous
region of unassigned capacity on a defined disk group. When increasing virtual disk capacity, some or all
of the free capacity may be used to achieve the required final capacity. Data on the selected virtual disk
remains accessible while the process for increasing virtual disk capacity is in progress.
Using Unconfigured Capacity
You can increase the capacity of a standard virtual disk or a snapshot repository virtual disk using the
unconfigured capacity when no free capacity exists on a disk group. An increase is achieved by adding
unconfigured capacity, in the form of unassigned physical disks, to the disk group of the standard virtual
disk or the snapshot repository virtual disk. See Disk Group Expansion.
For more information, see the online help topics.
Disk Group Migration
Disk group migration allows to you to migrate a disk group by exporting a disk group and then importing
it to another storage array. You can also export a disk group to store data offline.
When you export a disk group, all the physical disks become offline. To ensure that the export is
successful, at least two physical disks that are not part of the disk group you are migrating must be
present in the storage array.
When you migrate the exported disk group to the new storage array, the import fails if a majority of the
physical disks are not present in the group. For example, both the physical disks in a two-disk RAID 1
configuration, or three physical disks (one from each disk pair) in a four-disk RAID 10 configuration must
be present.
Export Disk Group
The export disk group operation prepares the physical disks in the disk group for removal. You can
remove the physical disks for offline storage, or you can import the disk group to a different storage
array. After you complete the export disk group operation, all of the physical disks are offline. Any
associated virtual disks or free capacity nodes are no longer shown in the MD Storage Manager.
Non-Exportable Components
You must remove or clear any non-exportable settings before you can complete the export disk group
procedure. Remove or clear the following settings:
• Persistent reservations
• Host-to-virtual disk mappings
• Virtual disk copy pairs
• Snapshot virtual disks and snapshot repository virtual disks
• Remote mirror pairs
• Mirror repositories
Exporting A Disk Group
On the source storage array:
1. Save the storage array configuration.
2. Stop all I/O, and unmount or disconnect the file systems on the virtual disks in the disk group.
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