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Configuring and Managing RAID

79

BIOS Configuration Utility

The BIOS Configuration Utility, also known as Ctrl+R, is a storage
management application embedded on the PERC 6 controllers that
configures and maintains RAID disk groups and virtual disks. Ctrl+R is
independent of the operating system.

NOTE:

Use the BIOS Configuration Utility for initial setup and disaster recovery.

You can use advanced features through Dell OpenManage storage management
application and Dell SAS RAID storage manager.

The following sections provide information about using the BIOS
Configuration Utility. For more information, see the online help option by
pressing <F1>.

NOTE:

The PERC 6 controller configuration utility refreshes the screen to show

changes to information. The refresh occurs when you press a key or every 15
seconds.

Entering the BIOS Configuration Utility

The BIOS Configuration Utility configures physical disk groups and
virtual disks. The utility resides in the controller BIOS so its operation is
independent of the operating systems.
Perform the following steps to enter the BIOS Configuration Utility when
you boot the system.

1

Turn on the system.
A BIOS banner displays information about the controller and
configuration.

2

During startup, press <Ctrl><R> when prompted by the BIOS banner.
After you press <Ctrl><R>, if there is only one controller, the

Virtual

Disk Management

screen for that controller displays. If there are more

than one controllers, the main menu screen displays. This screen lists the
RAID controllers. Use the arrow keys to select the RAID controller you
want to configure, and press <Enter> to access the management menus
for the controller. The virtual disks, physical disks, free space, hot spares,
and other items displays in the other menu screens. The information can
appear in a list view or in an expandable tree directory similar to that of
Microsoft

®

Windows

®

Explorer.

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Summary of Contents for 6 series

Page 1: ...Dell PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller PERC 6 i PERC 6 E and CERC 6 i User s Guide ...

Page 2: ...marks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and or other countries Citrix XenServer is a trademark of Citrix Systems Inc and or one or more of its subsidiaries and may be registered in the U S PatentandTrademarkOfficeandinothercountries VMwareisaregisteredtrademarkofVMware Inc in the United States and or other jurisdictions Solaris is a trademark of Sun Microsystem...

Page 3: ...ctrostatic Discharge 13 SAFETY Battery Disposal 14 2 Overview 15 PERC 6 and CERC 6 i Controller Descriptions 15 PCI Architecture 15 Operating System Support 16 RAID Description 16 Summary of RAID Levels 17 RAID Terminology 17 3 About PERC 6 and CERC 6 i Controllers 21 PERC 6 and CERC 6 Controller Features 21 Using the SMART Feature 24 ...

Page 4: ...28 Migrating Virtual Disks from SAS 6 iR to PERC 6 and CERC 6 i 29 Battery Management 30 Battery Warranty Information 30 Battery Learn Cycle 31 Virtual Disk Write Cache Policies 32 Write Back and Write Through 32 Conditions Under Which Write Back is Employed 32 Conditions Under Which Write Through is Employed 33 Conditions Under Which Forced Write Back With No Battery is Employed 33 Virtual Disk R...

Page 5: ...ter 47 Transferring a TBBU Between Controllers 48 Removing the PERC 6 E and PERC 6 i Adapters 49 Removing the DIMM and Battery from a PERC 6 E Adapter 52 Disconnecting the BBU from a PERC 6 i Adapter or a PERC 6 i Integrated Controller 54 Setting up Redundant Path Support on the PERC 6 E Adapter 55 Reverting From Redundant Path Support to Single Path Support on the PERC 6 E Adapter 58 Removing and...

Page 6: ...indows Server 2003 Windows Server 2008 Windows XP or Windows Vista Driver 68 Installing Linux Driver 69 Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux Operating System Using the Driver Update Diskette 71 Installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Using the Driver Update Diskette 71 Installing the RPM Package With DKMS Support 72 Installing Solaris Driver 74 Installing Solaris 10 on a PowerEdge System Booting Fr...

Page 7: ...Virtual Disks 85 Initializing Virtual Disks 88 Checking Data Consistency 88 Importing or Clearing Foreign Configurations Using the VD Mgmt Menu 89 Importing or Clearing Foreign Configurations Using the Foreign Configuration View Screen 90 Managing Preserved Cache 93 Managing Dedicated Hot Spares 94 Deleting Virtual Disks 95 Deleting Disk Groups 95 Resetting the Configuration 96 BIOS Configuration ...

Page 8: ...g BIOS Stop on Error 110 Restoring Factory Default Settings 111 7 Troubleshooting 113 Post Error Messages 113 Virtual Disks Degraded 119 Memory Errors 120 Pinned Cache State 120 General Problems 121 Physical Disk Related Issues 122 Physical Disk Failures and Rebuilds 123 SMART Errors 125 Replace Member Errors 126 Linux Operating System Errors 127 Controller LED Indicators 129 Drive Carrier LED Ind...

Page 9: ...Contents 9 A Regulatory Notices 133 B Corporate Contact Details Taiwan Only 135 Glossary 137 Index 157 ...

Page 10: ...10 Contents ...

Page 11: ...g Information see the documentation that was shipped with your system SAFETY General Observe and follow service markings Do not service any product except as explained in your user documentation Opening or removing covers that are marked with the triangular symbol with a lightning bolt may expose you to electrical shock Components inside these compartments must be serviced only by a trained servic...

Page 12: ...ed WARNING Except as expressly otherwise instructed in Dell documentation only trained service technicians are authorized to remove the system cover and access any of the components inside the system WARNING To help avoid possible damage to the system board wait 5 seconds after turning off the system before removing a component from the system board or disconnecting a peripheral device 1 Turn off ...

Page 13: ... pins Protecting Against Electrostatic Discharge Electrostatic discharge ESD events can harm electronic components inside your system Under certain conditions ESD may build up on your body or an object such as a peripheral and then discharge insto another object such as your system To prevent ESD damage you must discharge static electricity from your body before you interact with any of your syste...

Page 14: ... SAFETY Battery Disposal Your system may use a nickel metal hydride NiMH lithium coin cell and or a lithium ion battery The NiMH lithium coin cell and lithium ion batteries are long life batteries and it is possible that you will never need to replace them However should you need to replace them see the instructions included in the section Configuring and Managing RAID on page 77 NOTE Do not dispo...

Page 15: ...portable battery backup unit TBBU The PERC 6 i Adapter with two internal x4 SAS ports with or without a battery backup unit depending on the system The PERC 6 i Integrated controller with two internal x4 SAS ports and a battery backup unit The CERC 6 i Integrated controller with one internal x4 SAS port and no battery backup unit Each controller supports up to 64 virtual disks NOTE The number of v...

Page 16: ...ns see the system documentation on the Dell Support website at support dell com For specific operating system service pack requirements see the Drivers and Downloads section on the Dell Support site at support dell com RAID Description RAID 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 subsy...

Page 17: ...one array deploying RAID 6 is more effective than deploying a hot spare disk RAID 10 a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 1 uses disk striping across mirrored disks It provides high data throughput and complete data redundancy RAID 10 can support up to eight spans and up to 32 physical disks per span RAID 50 a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 5 uses distributed data parity and disk striping and works be...

Page 18: ...n the system and rebuild the failed physical disk The primary advantage of disk mirroring is that it provides complete data redundancy Because the contents of the disk are completely written to a second disk it does not matter if one of the disks fails Both disks contain the same data at all times Either of the physical disks can act as the operational physical disk Disk mirroring provides complet...

Page 19: ...n the event of a drive failure the parity data can be used by the controller to regenerate user data Parity data is present for RAID 5 6 50 and 60 The parity data is distributed across all the physical disks in the system If a single physical disk fails it can be rebuilt from the parity and the data on the remaining physical disks RAID level 5 combines distributed parity with disk striping as show...

Page 20: ...pe element 14 Stripe element 13 Stripe element 19 Stripe element 25 Stripe element 20 Stripe element 23 Stripe element 18 Stripe element 21 Stripe element 16 Stripe element 22 Stripe element 17 Parity 21 25 Parity 26 30 Parity 16 20 Stripe element 24 Stripe element 30 Stripe element 27 Stripe element 29 Stripe element 26 Stripe element 28 Stripe element 1 Stripe element 5 Stripe element 2 Stripe e...

Page 21: ...ives within a virtual disk is not supported Also mixing HDDs and SSDs within a virtual disk is not supported Table 3 1 compares the hardware configurations for the PERC 6 and CERC 6 i controllers Table 3 1 PERC 6 and CERC 6 i Controller Comparisons Specification PERC 6 E Adapter PERC 6 i Adapter PERC 6 i Integrated CERC 6 i Integrated RAID Levels 0 1 5 6 10 50 60 0 1 5 6 10 50 60 0 1 5 6 10 50 60 ...

Page 22: ...rays Up to 8 arrays Up to 2 arrays Maximum Number of Virtual Disks per Disk Group Up to 16 virtual disks per disk group for non spanned RAID levels 0 1 5 and 6 One virtual disk per disk group for spanned RAID levels 10 50 and 60 Up to 16 virtual disks per disk group for non spanned RAID levels 0 1 5 and 6 One virtual disk per disk group for spanned RAID levels 10 50 and 60 Up to 16 virtual disks p...

Page 23: ...Interface Yes Yes Yes x4 PCIe Online Capacity Expansion Yes Yes Yes Yes Dedicated and Global Hot Spares Yes Yes Yes Yes Hot Swap Devices Supported Yes Yes Yes Yes Enclosure Hot Addc Yes N A N A N A Mixed Capacity Physical Disks Supported Yes Yes Yes Yes Hardware Exclusive OR XOR Assistance Yes Yes Yes Yes Table 3 1 PERC 6 and CERC 6 i Controller Comparisons continued Specification PERC 6 E Adapter...

Page 24: ...iant physical disks have attributes for which data can be monitored to identify changes in values and determine whether the values are within threshold limits Many mechanical and electrical failures display some degradation in performance before failure Revertible Hot Spares Supported Yes Yes Yes Yes Redundant Path Support Yes N A N A N A a These RAID configurations are only supported on select De...

Page 25: ...n Background Initialization BGI is an automated process that writes the parity or mirror data on newly created virtual disks BGI assumes that the data is correct on all new drives BGI does not run on RAID 0 virtual disks NOTE You cannot permanently disable BGI If you cancel BGI it automatically restarts within five minutes For information on stopping BGI see Stopping Background Initialization on p...

Page 26: ... disk clearing any boot records or partition information This operation takes only 2 3 seconds to complete and is recommended when recreating virtual disks To perform a fast initialization using the BIOS Configuration Utility see Initializing Virtual Disks on page 88 Consistency Checks CC is a background operation that verifies and corrects the mirror or parity data for fault tolerant virtual disk...

Page 27: ...enclosure 3 Perform a safety check Make sure the physical disks are inserted properly 4 Turn on the system The controller detects the RAID configuration from the configuration data on the physical disks Disk Migration The PERC 6 and CERC 6 i controllers support migration of virtual disks from one controller to another without taking the target controller offline However the source controller must ...

Page 28: ...ntrollers without risking data or configuration loss Migrating virtual disks from PERC 6 and CERC 6 i controllers to PERC 5 is not supported Virtual disks created on the CERC 6 i controller or the PERC 5 family of controllers can be migrated to PERC 6 NOTE For more information about compatibility contact your Dell technical support representative Compatibility With Virtual Disks Created on SAS 6 i...

Page 29: ... iR controller with a PERC 6 controller see the Hardware Owner s Manual shipped with your system or on the Dell Support website at support dell com CAUTION After you have imported the foreign configuration on the PERC 6 or CERC 6 i storage controllers migrating the storage disks back to the SAS 6 iR controller may result in the loss of data 4 Boot the system and import the foreign configuration th...

Page 30: ...e cached data on the PERC 6 E adapter by providing backup power during a power outage The Battery Backup Unit BBU is a battery pack that protects the integrity of the cached data on the PERC 6 i adapter and PERC 6 i Integrated controllers by providing backup power during a power outage The battery when new provides up to 24 hours of backup power for the cache memory Battery Warranty Information Th...

Page 31: ...select the schedule for initiating the learn cycle When in Warning Only mode the controller continues to prompt you to start the learn cycle every seven days until it is performed NOTE Virtual disks automatically switch to Write Through mode when the battery charge is low because of a learn cycle Learn Cycle Completion Time Frame The time frame for completion of a learn cycle is a function of the ...

Page 32: ...when the disk subsystem has received all the data in a transaction In Write Back caching the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has received all the data in a transaction The controller then writes the cached data to the storage device in the background The risk of using Write Back cache is that the cached data can be lost if there is a power f...

Page 33: ...es how the controller handles reads to that virtual disk The read policies are Always Read Ahead Read Ahead capability allows the controller to read sequentially ahead of requested data and to store the additional data in cache memory anticipating that the data is required soon This speeds up reads for sequential data but there is little improvement when accessing random data No Read Ahead Disable...

Page 34: ...ndergoing a RLM OCE to Write Through until the RLM OCE is complete Table 3 2 RAID Level Migration Source RAID Level Target RAID Level Required Number of Physical Disks Beginning Numberof Physical Disks End Capacity Expansion Possible Description RAID 0 RAID 1 1 2 No Converting non redundant virtual disk into a mirrored virtual disk by adding one drive RAID 0 RAID 5 1 or more 3 or more Yes At least...

Page 35: ...AID 5 RAID 6 3 or more 4 or more Yes At least one drive needs to be added for dual distributed parity data RAID 6 RAID 0 4 or more 2 or more Yes Converting to a non redundant virtual disk and reclaiming disk space used for distributed parity data RAID 6 RAID 5 4 or more 3 or more Yes Removing one set of parity data and reclaiming disk space used for it Table 3 2 RAID Level Migration continued Sour...

Page 36: ...ly a SATA SSD can replace a SATA SSD NOTE The replacement drive must be of equal or greater capacity than the one it is replacing Table 3 3 Fault Tolerance Features Specification PERC CERC Support for SMART Yes Yes Support for Patrol Read Yes Yes Redundant path support Yesa a Supported only on PERC 6 E adapters N A Physical disk failure detection Automatic Automatic Physical disk rebuild using hot...

Page 37: ...e to support redundant paths see Setting up Redundant Path Support on the PERC 6 E Adapter on page 55 NOTE This support for redundant paths refers to path redundancy only and not to controller redundancy Using Replace Member and Revertible Hot Spares The Replace Member functionality allows a previously commissioned hot spare to be reverted back to a usable hot spare When a drive failure occurs wit...

Page 38: ...spare reverts to the hot spare state after a successful Replace Member operation NOTE To enable the automatic Replace Member use the Dell OpenManage storage management application For more information on automatic Replace Member see Dell OpenManage Storage Management on page 77 NOTE For information on manual Replace Member see Replacing an Online Physical Disk on page 107 Patrol Read The Patrol Re...

Page 39: ...Member Full or Background Initialization Consistency Check RAID Level Migration or Online Capacity Expansion Patrol Read Modes The following describes each of the modes Patrol Read can be set to Auto default Patrol Read is set to the Auto mode by default In this mode Patrol Read is enabled to run automatically and start every seven days on SAS and SATA HDDs Patrol Read is not necessary on SSD and ...

Page 40: ...40 About PERC 6 and CERC 6 i Controllers ...

Page 41: ...amage the equipment NOTE For a list of compatible controllers see the documentation that shipped with the system Installing the PERC 6 E and PERC 6 i Adapters 1 Unpack the PERC 6 E adapter and check for damage NOTE Contact Dell technical support if the controller is damaged 2 Turn off the system and attached peripherals and disconnect the system from the electrical outlet For more information on p...

Page 42: ...lying pressure could break the adapter module 6 Insert the controller gently but firmly until the controller is firmly seated in the PCI E slot For more information on installing the PERC 6 adapter see Figure 4 1 For more information on installing the PERC 6 i adapter see Figure 4 2 Figure 4 1 Installing a PERC 6 E Adapter 1 PCI e slot 3 filler bracket 2 PERC 6 i adapter 4 bracket screw 4 3 1 2 ...

Page 43: ...ntion clips to secure the controller to the system s chassis 8 For PERC 6 E adapter replace the cover of the system For more information on closing the system see the Hardware Owner s Manual shipped with your system or on the Dell Support website at support dell com 1 PCI e slot 3 filler brackets 2 PERC 6 i adapter 4 bracket screw 2 3 1 4 ...

Page 44: ...gure 4 3 Connecting the Cable From the External Enclosure 10 For PERC 6 i adapter connect the cables from the backplane of the system to the controller The primary SAS connector is white and the secondary SAS connector is black For more information see Figure 4 4 1 connector on the controller 3 cable from the external enclosure 2 system 3 2 1 ...

Page 45: ...eplace the cover of the system For more information on closing the system see the Hardware Owner s Manual shipped with your system or on the Dell Support website at support dell com 12 Reconnect the power and network cables and turn on the system 1 cable 3 PERC 6 i adapter 2 connector 3 1 2 ...

Page 46: ...AUTION Handle all sensitive components in a static safe area If possible use antistatic floor pads and work bench pads 1 Unpack the TBBU and follow all antistatic procedures 2 Remove the DIMM from the controller Insert one end of the battery pack harness the red white yellow and green wires in the connector on the memory module and the other end in the connector on the battery 3 Place the top edge...

Page 47: ...ic packing material until you are ready to install the component Before unwrapping the antistatic package ensure to discharge static electricity from your body Handle all sensitive components in a static safe area If possible use antistatic floor pads and work bench pads CAUTION PERC 6 cards support Dell qualified 512 MB and 256 MB DDRII 667 MHz ECC registered DIMMs with x16 DRAM components Instal...

Page 48: ...ower supply for up to 24 hours to the cache memory module If the controller fails as a result of a power failure you can move the TBBU to a new controller and recover the data The controller that replaces the failed controller should not have any prior configuration 1 PERC 6 E adapter 3 memory socket 2 retention clip 4 memory module 3 2 1 4 ...

Page 49: ...PERC 6 E and PERC 6 i Adapters NOTE In the event that the SAS cable is accidentally pulled out when the system is operational reconnect the cable and see the online help of your Dell OpenManage storage management application for the required recovery steps NOTE Some PERC 6 i adapters installed on a Dell workstation or Dell PowerEdge SC systems do not have a BBU 1 Perform a controlled shutdown on t...

Page 50: ...rd location see the Hardware Owner s Manual shipped with your system or on the Dell Support website at support dell com 4 Remove any retention mechanism such as a bracket screw that may be holding the PERC 6 E in the system and gently lift the controller from the system s PCI E slot For more information see Figure 4 7 Figure 4 7 Removing the PERC 6 E Adapter 1 bracket screw 3 memory module 2 batte...

Page 51: ...rn on the system and repeat step 1 and step 2 If the LED is not illuminated continue with the next step 6 Disconnect the data cables and battery cable from the PERC 6 i Remove any retention mechanism such as a bracket screw that might be holding the PERC 6 i in the system and gently lift the controller from the system s PCI E slot Figure 4 8 Removing the PERC 6 i Adapter 1 bracket screw 3 dirty ca...

Page 52: ...Running a system without the system cover installed can cause damage due to improper cooling 3 Remove the PERC 6 E adapter from the system For instruction on removing the PERC 6 E adapter see Removing the PERC 6 E and PERC 6 i Adapters on page 49 4 Visually inspect the controller and determine whether the dirty cache LED on the DIMM is illuminated For location of the LED see Figure 4 9 If the LED ...

Page 53: ...the DIMM slot until the TBBU pops out Lift the TBBU off the adapter 6 Disconnect the battery cable from the DIMM 7 Detach the battery from the DIMM by pressing out on the battery clips inserted through the DIMM and rotating the battery off the DIMM See Figure 4 10 1 battery 3 dirty cache LED 2 memory module 4 PERC 6 E adapter 3 2 1 4 ...

Page 54: ...ttery to be active again This section describes how to disconnect the BBU on a PERC 6 i adapter or a PERC 6 i Integrated controller while the adapter or controller is installed in a system NOTE The location of the PERC 6 i varies from system to system For information on PERC 6 i card location see the Hardware Owner s Manual shipped with your system or on the Dell Support website at support dell co...

Page 55: ... cache If a non graceful shutdown occurs reboot the system and ensure no cache related warnings appear during POST Then shut down the system and remove the controller If this is not done cache data may be discarded 4 Locate the battery cable connection on the controller and disconnect the battery Setting up Redundant Path Support on the PERC 6 E Adapter The PERC 6 E adapter can detect and use redu...

Page 56: ...nd Figure 4 13 NOTE The PERC 6 E adapter supports redundant paths when used with Dell PowerVault MD1000 and Dell PowerVault MD1120 disk storage enclosures Figure 4 11 displays Redundant path Storage Configuration with one enclosure Figure 4 11 Redundant Path Support Configuration With One Enclosure Figure 4 12 displays Redundant path Storage Configuration with two enclosures Figure 4 12 Redundant ...

Page 57: ...th Three Enclosures A single PERC 6 E adapter can support up to three disk storage enclosures in a redundant path configuration NOTE Ensure that the latest firmware version is installed on your storage controller You can find the latest firmware and installation instructions on the Dell Support website at support dell com Storage Storage Storage Storage Storage Storage ...

Page 58: ...hs and automatically utilizes them to balance the I O load Reverting From Redundant Path Support to Single Path Support on the PERC 6 E Adapter If you need to revert from redundant path support to single path support shut down the system and remove the exact same cables that were added to support redundant path support leaving only one connection between the controller and enclosures After you rem...

Page 59: ...n removing the blade system from the Modular Blade system chassis see your system s Hardware Owner s Manual or the User s Guide 2 Remove the system cover of the Modular Blade system For more information on opening the top cover of the Modular Blade system see your system s Hardware Owner s Manual or the User s Guide 3 Remove the system board and place it on a stable and flat surface For more infor...

Page 60: ...ace the storage controller card onto the system board Align the storage controller card such that the tabs on the system board tray fit through the notches on the edges of the storage controller card 3 Slide the storage controller card towards the connector on the system board until the storage controller clicks in place 4 Reinstall the system board For more information on reinstalling the system ...

Page 61: ...ular Blade system in the Modular Blade system chassis For more information on reinstalling the Modular Blade system in the Modular Blade system chassis see your system s Hardware Owner s Manual or the User s Guide NOTE The CERC 6 i Integrated does not provide support for a battery backup unit NOTE For the latest list of firmware and installation instructions see the system documentation located at...

Page 62: ...62 Installing and Configuring Hardware ...

Page 63: ...olaris 10 64 bit SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Version 9 64 bit Version 10 64 bit and Version 11 64 bit VMware ESX 3 5 and 3 5i NOTE For more information on Citrix XenServer and VMware ESX drivers see the Citrix XenServer and VMware ESX documentation respectively on the Dell Support website at support dell com NOTE To check operating system compatibility see the Dell Support website at support dell...

Page 64: ...t that shipped with your operating system Ensure that your system has the latest BIOS firmware and driver updates If required download the latest BIOS firmware and driver updates from the Dell Support website at support dell com Create a device driver media diskette USB drive CD or DVD Creating the Device Driver Media Use one of the following two methods to create the device driver media Downloadi...

Page 65: ...ystem Type Operating System Driver Language and Category from the drop down list 5 The drivers that are applicable to your selection are displayed From the available list download the drivers that you require to a diskette drive USB drive CD or DVD 6 During the operating system installation use the media that you created with the Load Driver option to load mass storage drivers For more information...

Page 66: ...ver that is on the media 6 Press Enter again to continue the installation process as usual Installing the Driver During a Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista Installation 1 Boot the system using the Microsoft Windows Vista Microsoft Windows Server 2008 media 2 Follow the on screen instructions until you reach Where do you want to install Vista 2008 and then select Load driver 3 The system prompts...

Page 67: ...nd Configuring Hardware on page 41 3 Turn on the system 4 The Found New Hardware Wizard screen pops up and displays the detected hardware device NOTE Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista have native drivers for the PERC adapters The system automatically detects the controller and installs the drivers Check the version of the driver and update if required 5 Click Next 6 On the Locate device driver...

Page 68: ...ice Manager applet you can right click My Computer and choose Manage The Computer Management window displays Select Device Manager in the left pane 5 Expand SCSI and RAID Controllers by double clicking the entry or by clicking on the plus symbol next to SCSI and RAID Controller NOTE In Windows 2008 and Windows Vista the PERC adapter is listed under Storage Controllers 6 Double click the RAID contr...

Page 69: ...ly To ensure that you have the current version of the driver download the updated Linux driver from the Dell Support website at support dell com Creating a Driver Diskette Before beginning the installation copy the drivers from the Service and Diagnostic Utilities media or download the driver appropriate for Linux from the Dell Support website at support dell com This file includes two Red Hat Pac...

Page 70: ...Linux Enterprise Server Using the Driver Update Diskette on page 71 Creating a Driver Update Diskette Using DKMS Perform the following steps to create the Driver Update Diskette DUD using the DKMS tool NOTE The driver must be installed on the system where this procedure is performed 1 Install the DKMS enabled megaraid_sas driver rpm package 2 Type the following command in any directory dkms mkdriv...

Page 71: ...nux Enterprise Server Using the Driver Update Diskette NOTE For information about creating a driver diskette see Creating a Driver Diskette on page 69 To install SUSE Linux Enterprise Server version 9 or 10 using the DUD 1 Insert the appropriate SUSE Linux Enterprise Server version 9 or 10 Service Pack media in the system 2 Select F5 for the driver update disk NOTE If you are installing Suse Linux...

Page 72: ...inux Enterprise Server 9 service pack Installing the RPM Package With DKMS Support Perform the following steps to install the RPM package with DKMS support 1 Uncompress the gzipped tarball driver release package 2 Install the DKMS package using the command rpm ihv dkms version noarch rpm 3 Install the driver package using the command rpm ihv megaraid_sas version noarch rpm NOTE Use rpm Uvh package...

Page 73: ... the following dkms build m module_name v module version k kernel version dkms install m module_name v module version k kernel version 2 To check whether the driver is successfully installed in the new kernel type dkms status You see a message similar to the following one driver name driver version new kernel version installed 3 If the previous device driver is in use you must reboot the system fo...

Page 74: ... the correct Logical Node NOTE You can create a DUD on a system running the Windows operating system using the program dcopynt 3 If you prefer you may use the cdrecord command to create a CDROM instead of a floppy image Type cdrecord dev bus target lun mega_sas_cd iso NOTE To identify the correct location of the bus target and logical unit number LUN combination execute the following command cdrec...

Page 75: ... system to start using the new driver To confirm the mega_sas driver is loaded run the following command modinfo grep mega_sas 3 Ensure that the driver version is correct Installing NetWare Drivers Use the procedures in this section to install the driver for Novell NetWare 6 5 To ensure that you have the current version of the driver download the updated NetWare driver from the Dell Support websit...

Page 76: ...pdating the NetWare Driver in an Existing NetWare System Perform the following steps to add the Novell NetWare driver to an existing installation 1 At the root prompt type hdetect and press Enter The Configuration Options screen is displayed 2 From the screen that displays go to the Storage Adapter screen to install the MegaRAID SAS driver 3 Delete any existing RAID adapter listings 4 Press Insert...

Page 77: ...functions for all supported RAID controllers and enclosures from a single graphical or command line interface without requiring the use of the controller BIOS utilities The graphical user interface GUI is wizard driven with features for novice and advanced users and detailed online help Using Dell OpenManage storage management application you can protect your data by configuring data redundancy as...

Page 78: ...ed physical disks Preserve the cache data known as pinned cache from a virtual disk that goes offline or is deleted for any reason The following sections describe the menu options and provide detailed instructions to perform the configuration tasks They apply to the BIOS Configuration Utility You can configure physical disks into virtual disks by following the procedure below 1 Define virtual disk...

Page 79: ...n Utility The BIOS Configuration Utility configures physical disk groups and virtual disks The utility resides in the controller BIOS so its operation is independent of the operating systems Perform the following steps to enter the BIOS Configuration Utility when you boot the system 1 Turn on the system A BIOS banner displays information about the controller and configuration 2 During startup pres...

Page 80: ...ct OK to exit and press Enter Menu Navigation Controls Table 6 1 displays the menu keys you can use to move between the different screens in the BIOS Configuration Utility Table 6 1 Menu Navigation Keys Notation Meaning and Use Example right arrow key Use the right arrow key to open a submenu move from a menu heading to the first submenu or move to the first item in that submenu If you press the r...

Page 81: ... Underlined letter in a menu item Indicates a shortcut you can use to expand a menu by pressing Alt menu underlined letter Pressing Alt again closes the menu Menu shortcuts are allowed but cannot be used when a menu is active Virtual Disk 1 Key presses are enclosed in angle brackets F1 Esc Enter Enter After you highlight a menu item press Enter to select that item This opens an options menu for th...

Page 82: ...ssed Ctrl N Press Ctrl N on the VD Mgmt screen to move to the PD Mgmt screen Ctrl P Press Ctrl P to move to the previous menu screen among the main menu screens VD Mgmt PD Mgmt Ctrl Mgmt and Foreign View When you return to the previous screen the cursor is on the same menu item it was on before you pressed Ctrl P Press Ctrl P on the PD Mgmt screen to return to the VD Mgmt screen F1 Press F1 to acc...

Page 83: ...se one physical disk group to create multiple virtual disks all the virtual disks must be configured with the same RAID level When you define the virtual disks you can set the following virtual disk parameters RAID level Stripe element size Read policy Write policy Type of initialization Hot spare configuration F11 Switch between two controllers F11 F12 Press F12 to display a list of controllers F...

Page 84: ... your system mostly does sequential reads Write Policy Write Policy specifies the controller write policy You can set the write policy to Write Back or Write Through In Write Back caching the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has received all the data in a transaction NOTE If a Battery Backup Unit BBU is present the default cache setting is Wr...

Page 85: ...e virtual disk You can set this parameter to Read Ahead No Read Ahead or Adaptive The default is No Read Ahead Read Ahead specifies that the controller uses Read Ahead for the current virtual disk Read Ahead capability allows the controller to read sequentially ahead of requested data and store the additional data in cache memory anticipating that the data is required soon No Read Ahead specifies ...

Page 86: ...s in megabyte MB format NOTE For RAID levels 0 1 5 and 6 only you can use part of the available disk space to create one virtual disk and then use the rest of the disk space to create another virtual disk or disks NOTE The minimum virtual disk size is 100 MB 12 Press Tab to access the VD Size field and type a virtual disk name 13 Press Tab to move the cursor to Advanced Settings 14 Press the space...

Page 87: ... options No Read Ahead Read Ahead or Adaptive Read Ahead Press the down arrow key to highlight the desired option and press Enter g If you need to change the write policy press Tab to move the cursor to Write Policy h Press Enter to display the options Write Through Write Back Press the down arrow key to highlight an option and press Enter i Press Tab to move the cursor to Force WB with no battery...

Page 88: ...hat drives Perform the following steps to initialize virtual disks 1 On the VD Mgmt screen select Virtual Disk and press F2 to display the menu of available actions 2 Select Initialization and press the right arrow key to display the Initialization submenu options 3 Select Start Init to begin a regular initialization or select Fast Init to begin a fast initialization 4 A pop up windows displays in...

Page 89: ...he right arrow key to display the available actions Start Stop 6 Select Start and press Enter to run a Consistency Check The Consistency Check runs and checks the redundancy data in the virtual disks 7 After you start the Consistency Check press Esc to display the previous menu if needed Importing or Clearing Foreign Configurations Using the VD Mgmt Menu When a foreign configuration exists the BIO...

Page 90: ...nfiguration the VD Mgmt screen displays detailed configuration information This includes information about the disk groups virtual disks physical disks space allocation and hot spares Importing or Clearing Foreign Configurations Using the Foreign Configuration View Screen If one or more physical disks are removed from a configuration the configuration on those disks is considered a foreign configu...

Page 91: ...d or offline state cannot be imported The firmware does not allow you to import more than eight foreign configurations Perform the following procedures on the Foreign Configuration View screen to manage foreign configurations in each specific case 1 If all or some of the physical disks in a configuration are removed and reinserted the controller considers the drives to have foreign configurations ...

Page 92: ...drives in the system before you perform the import operation c Select Import to merge the foreign configurations with the existing configuration on the controller or Clear to delete the foreign configuration s from the re inserted disk s If you select Import all drives that were pulled before the virtual disk became offline are imported and then automatically rebuilt NOTE Start a consistency check...

Page 93: ...disk or discard the preserved cache 1 On the VD Mgmt screen click on a controller icon 2 Press F2 to display the menu of available actions 3 Select Manage Preserved Cache A message displays advising you to import the foreign configuration before you discard the preserved cache to avoid losing data belonging to the foreign configuration Confirm whether you want to continue The Manage Preserved Cach...

Page 94: ...e current dedicated hot spares and the physical disks that are available to create dedicated hot spares An X displays next to the current dedicated hot spares NOTE The utility allows only disks of the same drive technology and of equal or greater size to be selected as dedicated hot spare 3 To create or delete a dedicated hot spare Creating a hot spare a Press the down arrow key to highlight an av...

Page 95: ...mplete the virtual disk deletion To delete virtual disks perform the following steps in the BIOS Configuration Utility 1 Press Ctrl N to access the VD Mgmt screen 2 Press Tab to move the cursor to a virtual disk under the Virtual Disks heading 3 Press F2 The action menu displays 4 Select Delete VD and press Enter 5 On the VD Mgmt screen select Space Allocation to display the amount of free space a...

Page 96: ...ow keys to move the cursor to the Controller heading 3 Press F2 The action menu displays 4 Select Reset Configuration A pop up window displays prompting for confirmation to delete all virtual disks 5 Select OK to delete the virtual disks or Cancel to retain the existing configuration BIOS Configuration Utility Menu Options The first menu that displays when you access the BIOS Configuration Utility...

Page 97: ...ou access a RAID controller from the main menu screen on the BIOS Configuration Utility In the Tree View the left panel displays the menus for the virtual disk management which are Controller Disk Group Virtual Disks displayed in descending numerical order Physical Disks individual physical disks are displayed in enclosure slot format Space Allocation virtual disk size and free space you can use t...

Page 98: ... disks Number of free segments Number of dedicated hot spares Virtual Disks Disk Group Properties Number of virtuals disks VD Number of physical disks PD Space available in the virtual disk Number of free segments Number of dedicated hot spares Virtual Disk Virtual Disk Properties RAID level 0 1 5 6 10 50 or 60 RAID status of the virtual disk Failed Degraded or Optimal Size of the virtual disk Ope...

Page 99: ...ot spares Physical Disk Physical Disk Properties Vendor name Physical disk size Physical disk state Disk Group Properties Number of virtuals disks VD Number of physical disks PD Space available on the physical disks Number of free segments Number of dedicated hot spares Table 6 3 Information on the Virtual Disk Management Screen continued Menu Item Selected in Left Panel Information Displayed in R...

Page 100: ...cal disks Number of free segments Number of dedicated hot spares Hot Spares Physical disk properties Vendor name Physical disk size Physical disk state Disk group properties Number of virtuals disks VD Number of physical disks PD Space available on the physical disks Number of free segments Number of dedicated hot spares Table 6 3 Information on the Virtual Disk Management Screen continued Menu It...

Page 101: ...ndant virtual disks Initialize a virtual disk Initializes the selected virtual disk You must initialize every virtual disk that is configured You can perform a fast initialization or a Full Initialization Check data consistency on a virtual disk Verifies the correctness of the redundancy data in the selected virtual disk This option is available only if RAID level 1 5 6 10 50 or 60 is used The PER...

Page 102: ...pting normal operations on the affected virtual disk Replace Member Replaces the drive in the virtual disk with another drive that can be selected LED Blinking Indicates when physical disks are being used to create a virtual disk You can choose to start or stop the LED blinking Force Online Changes the state of the selected physical disk to online Force Offline Changes the state of the selected ph...

Page 103: ... virtual disk stripe size virtual disk read policy virtual disk write policy and the amount of workload placed on the storage subsystem For information on getting the best rebuild performance from your RAID controller see the documentation on Dell Support website at support dell com Controller Management Ctrl Mgmt The Controller Management screen Ctrl Mgmt displays the product name package BIOS ve...

Page 104: ...to enable the controller BIOS If the boot device is on the RAID controller the BIOS must be enabled Disable the BIOS to use other boot devices In a multiple controller environment you can enable BIOS on multiple controllers However if you want to boot from a specific controller then enable the BIOS on that controller and disable it on the other controllers The system can then boot from the BIOS en...

Page 105: ...disks displays The status of the each disk displays under the heading State 2 Press the down arrow key to highlight a physical disk 3 Press F2 to display the menu of available actions 4 Press the down arrow key to highlight LED Blinking 5 Press the right arrow key to display the available actions Start and Stop 6 Select Start to begin LED blinking or Stop to end LED blinking Creating Global Hot Sp...

Page 106: ...pare displays under the heading State NOTE To replace a failed physical disk global hot spares must use the same drive technology and must be equal or greater in size 5 Select additional physical disks if desired and follow the previous steps to change them to global hot spares Removing Global or Dedicated Hot Spares You can remove one global or dedicated hot spare at a time on the PD Mgmt screen ...

Page 107: ...place any physical disk that is part of a virtual disk using the Replace Member functionality Perform the following steps to replace a physical disk 1 In the Virtual Disk Management window select Virtual Disk and press the down arrow key until Physical Disks is highlighted 2 Press the right arrow key to expand the list of physical disks that are members of the virtual disk 3 Press the down arrow k...

Page 108: ... if you want to stop BGI in progress An alert message displays if BGI is in progress and you start any of the following actions A Full Initialization on the virtual disk A fast initialization on the virtual disk A consistency check on the virtual disk The following alert message displays The virtual disk is undergoing a background initialization process Would you like to stop the operation and pro...

Page 109: ...ne of the virtual disks are deleted until the rebuild is complete Controller Management Enabling Boot Support NOTE See your system documentation to ensure the proper boot order is selected in the system BIOS In a multiple controller environment you can enable BIOS on multiple controllers However if you want to boot from a specific controller enable the BIOS on that controller and disable it on the...

Page 110: ...ection Boot support is enabled for the selected controller Enabling BIOS Stop on Error The option BIOS Stop on Error is used to stop the system from booting if there are BIOS errors Perform the following steps to enable BIOS Stop on Error 1 Press Ctrl N to access the Ctrl Mgmt menu screen 2 Press Tab to move the cursor to Enable BIOS Stop on Error in the Settings box 3 Press the spacebar to select...

Page 111: ...to restore default settings 1 Press Ctrl N to access the Ctrl Mgmt menu screen 2 Press Tab to move the cursor to the Settings box 3 Use the spacebar to de select the settings for the options in the Settings box 4 Press Tab to move the cursor to the Factory Default box and press the Alt Enter or the spacebar A dialog box displays for you to confirm your choice 5 Select OK and press Enter The defaul...

Page 112: ...112 Configuring and Managing RAID ...

Page 113: ...s the error messages for the Battery Backup Unit BBU Table 7 1 BIOS Errors and Warnings Message Meaning BIOS Disabled No Logical Drives Handled by BIOS This warning message displays after you disable the ROM option in the configuration utility When the ROM option is disabled the BIOS cannot boot to INT 13h and cannot provide the ability to boot from the virtual disk Int 13h is an interrupt signal ...

Page 114: ... Use the Ctrl R utility to import the virtual disk or discard the pinned cache For the steps used to manage preserved cache see Managing Preserved Cache on page 93 x Virtual Disk s Offline where x is the number of virtual disks failed When the BIOS detects virtual disks in the offline state it displays this warning You must check to determine why the virtual disks failed and correct the problem Th...

Page 115: ...em because the data integrity cannot be guaranteed Allow the battery to charge fully to resolve this problem If the problem persists the battery or adapter DIMM might be faulty contact Dell Technical Support Firmware is in Fault State Contact Dell Technical Support Firmware version inconsistency was detected The adapter has recovered but cached data was lost Press any key to continue New firmware ...

Page 116: ...eign view page in CTRL R All virtual disks are in an optimal state Clear the foreign configuration using CTRL R or Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management CAUTION The physical disk goes to Ready state when you clear the foreign configuration and this may lead to data loss If you insert a physical disk that was previously a member of a virtual disk in the system and that disk s prev...

Page 117: ...e memory and can corrupt cached data and discard it CAUTION MBE errors are serious as they cause data corruption and data loss In case of MBE errors contact Dell Technical Support NOTE A similar message displays when multiple single bit ECC errors are detected on the controller during bootup Multibit ECC errors were detected on the RAID controller The DIMM on the controller needs replacement If yo...

Page 118: ...ature is working as designed A storage component such as a physical disk or an enclosure has failed The failed component might have been identified by the controller while performing a task such as a rescan or a Consistency Check Replace the failed component You can identify the failed disk as its status displays a red X Perform a rescan after replacing the disk Your battery is either charging bad...

Page 119: ...orming a Manual Rebuild of an Individual Physical Disk on page 108 Table 7 2 Backup Battery Unit Errors and Warnings Message Meaning Memory Battery problems were detected The adapter has recovered but cached data was lost Press any key to continue This message displays under the following conditions The adapter detects that the cache in the controller cache has not yet been written to the disk sub...

Page 120: ...warning message to the system console to indicate that the cache was discarded and generates an event If a multi bit error occurs at run time either in code data or in the cache the controller stops The controller logs an event to the controller s internal event log and displays a message during POST indicating a multi bit error has occurred NOTE In case of a multi bit error contact Dell Technical...

Page 121: ... during a media based installation of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or Microsoft Windows XP because of the following causes 1 The driver is not native in the operating system 2 The virtual disks are not configured properly 3 The controller BIOS is disabled The corresponding solutions are 1 Press F6 to install the RAID device driver during installation 2 Enter the BIOS Configuration Utility to conf...

Page 122: ...em 1 Check the backplane for damage 2 Check the SAS cables 3 Reseat the physical disk 4 Contact Dell Technical Support if the problem persists Cannot rebuild a fault tolerant virtual disk NOTE For more information see the alert log for virtual disks The replacement disk is too small or not compatible with the virtual disk Replace the failed disk with a compatible good physical disk with equal or g...

Page 123: ...sks 2 Ensure that all the drives are present in the enclosure 3 Turn on the system and enter the CTRL R utility and import the foreign configuration Press F at the prompt to import the configuration or press C to enter the BIOS configuration utility and either import or clear the foreign configuration If the virtual disk is redundant and transitioned to Degraded state before going Offline a rebuil...

Page 124: ... back to Hotspare state and the virtual disk goes to Failed state A virtual disk fails during rebuild while using a dedicated hot spare The dedicated hot spare goes to Ready state and the virtual disk goes to Failed state A physical disk fails during a reconstruction process on a redundant virtual disk that has a hot spare The rebuild operation for the inaccessible physical disk starts automatical...

Page 125: ...e rebuild starts with the hot spare after the drive is forced offline 2 Replace it with a new physical disk of equal or higher capacity 3 Perform the Replace Member operation The Replace Member operation allows you to copy data from a source physical disk of a virtual disk to a target physical disk that is not a part of the virtual disk For more information about the Replace Member feature see Usi...

Page 126: ...irst error is encountered Events are generated in the Event Log when errors are encountered during CC Table 7 7 Replace Member Operation Errors Problem Suggested Solution The source drive fails during the Replace Member operation If the source data is available from other drives in the virtual disk the rebuild begins automatically on the target drive using the data from the other drives Target dri...

Page 127: ...mware manages the virtual disk cache settings on a per controller and a per virtual disk basis so the firmware does not respond to this command The Linux SCSI mid layer assumes that the virtual disk s cache policy is Write Through SDB is the device node for a virtual disk This value changes for each virtual disk See the section Physical Disk Management on page 105 for more information about Write ...

Page 128: ...ew kernel is the native driver of the new kernel The driver package you installed previously in the new kernel does not take effect in the new kernel Perform the following procedure to make the driver auto build into the new kernel 1 Type dkms build m module_name v module version k kernel version 2 Type dkms install m module_name v module version k kernel version 3 Type the following to check whet...

Page 129: ...entered through the user application User applications attempt to direct Command Descriptor Blocks to RAID volumes The error message does not effect the feature functionality The Mode Sense Select command is supported by firmware on the controller However the Linux kernel daemon issues the command to the virtual disk instead of to the driver IOCTL node This action is not supported Table 7 9 LED Be...

Page 130: ... accessed Figure 7 1 Drive Carrier LED Indicators Table 7 10 lists the flash patterns for the status LED 1 status LED 2 activity LED Table 7 10 Drive Carrier Status LEDs LED Description Off Slot is empty drive is not yet discovered by the system Steady green Drive is online Green flashing 250 milliseconds ms Drive is being identified or is being prepared for removal Green flashing On 400 ms Off 10...

Page 131: ... On 500 ms Off 1000 ms Predicted failure reported by drive Green flashing Green On 3000 ms Off 3000 ms Amber On 3000 ms Off 3000 ms Drive being spun down by user request or other non failure condition Table 7 10 Drive Carrier Status LEDs continued LED Description ...

Page 132: ...132 Troubleshooting ...

Page 133: ...egulatory Notices 133 Regulatory Notices For additional regulatory information please go to the Regulatory Compliance Homepage on www dell com at the following location www dell com regulatory_compliance ...

Page 134: ...134 Regulatory Notices ...

Page 135: ...Taiwan Only Pursuant to Article 11 of the Commodity Inspection Act Dell provides the following corporate contact details for the certified entity in Taiwan for the products addressed by this document Dell B V Taiwan Branch 20 F No 218 Sec 2 Tung Hwa S Road Taipei Taiwan ...

Page 136: ...136 Corporate Contact Details Taiwan Only ...

Page 137: ...rts to Non read ahead however all requests are still evaluated for possible sequential operation Array A grouping of physical disks that combines the storage space on the physical disks into a single segment of contiguous storage space The RAID controller can group physical disks on one or more channels into an array A hot spare drive does not participate in an array B Background Initialization Ba...

Page 138: ... systems on your system The BIOS Configuration Utility also known as Ctrl R 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 C Cache Fast memory that holds recently accessed data Using cache speeds subsequent access to the same data It is most often applied to processor memory access but...

Page 139: ...tion verifies correct mirror data for each stripe Controller A chip that controls the transfer of data between the microprocessor and memory or between the microprocessor and a peripheral device such as a physical disk or the keyboard In Storage Management the hardware or logic that interacts with storage devices to write and retrieve data and perform storage management RAID controllers perform RA...

Page 140: ...Disk Roaming Moving disks from one slot to another on a controller Disk Subsystem A collection of disks and the hardware that controls them and connects them to one or more controllers The hardware can include an intelligent controller or the disks can attach directly to a system I O bus controller Distributed Parity Parity involves an extra bit added to a byte or word to reveal errors in storage ...

Page 141: ...gle bit errors exceeds a threshold value ECC double bit errors are more serious as they result in corrupted data and data loss Enclosure A structure such as a system which contains physical disks that are grouped together to create virtual disks Enclosure Management Intelligent monitoring of the disk subsystem by software and or hardware The disk subsystem can be part of the host system or can res...

Page 142: ... auto rebuild feature Firmware Software stored in read only memory ROM or Programmable ROM PROM Firmware is often responsible for the behavior of a system when it is first turned on A typical example would be a monitor program in a system that loads the full operating system from disk or from a network and then passes control to the operating system Foreign Configuration A RAID configuration that ...

Page 143: ...it can be part of the global hot spare pool for all virtual disks controlled by the controller When a disk fails the controllers firmware automatically replaces and rebuilds the data from the failed physical disk to the hot spare Data can be rebuilt only from virtual disks with redundancy RAID levels 1 5 10 or 50 not RAID 0 and the hot spare must have sufficient capacity If the hot spare is design...

Page 144: ...o maximize resource use throughput or response time In the PERC 6 controllers the balancing service is performed by the firmware You can choose between a single path for load balancing and a round robin load balancing scheme In single path the firmware can detect multiple paths to a device and use only a single path for I O activity to that device The secondary path is used if a failure is detecte...

Page 145: ...cond physical disk If one physical disk fails the contents of the other physical disk can be used to maintain the integrity of the system and to rebuild the failed physical disk Multi bit ECC Errors ECC errors are errors that occur in the memory which can corrupt cached data so that it has to be discarded ECC double bit errors are serious as they result in corrupted data and data loss In case of d...

Page 146: ...ebuild a failed physical disk A RAID 0 virtual disk consists of data striped across the physical disks without disk mirroring or parity to provide redundancy This provides for high data throughput but offers no protection in case of a physical disk failure Ns Acronym for nanosecond s one billionth of a second NVRAM Acronym for non volatile random access memory A storage system that does not lose t...

Page 147: ... However parity data does not fully duplicate the parent data sets In RAID this method is applied to entire physical disks or stripe elements across all physical disks in a virtual disk Parity consists of dedicated parity in which the parity of the data on two or more physical disks is stored on an additional physical disk and distributed parity in which the parity data are distributed among all t...

Page 148: ...r but not configured as a part of a virtual disk or as a hot spare Hot Spare A physical disk that is configured as a hot spare Online A physical disk can be accessed by the RAID controller and is a part of the virtual disk Rebuild A physical disk to which data is being written to restore full redundancy for a virtual disk Failed A physical disk that was originally configured as Online or Hot Spare...

Page 149: ... can be accessed simultaneously Redundant RAID levels RAID levels 1 5 6 10 50 and 60 provide data protection RAID Level Migration RAID level migration RLM changes the array from one RAID level to another It is used to move between optimal RAID levels You can perform a RLM while the system continues to run without having to reboot This avoids downtime and keeps data available to users RAID Levels A...

Page 150: ...upplies sequential data faster but is not as effective when accessing random data Rebuild The regeneration of all data to a replacement disk in a redundant virtual disk RAID level 1 5 6 10 50 or 60 after a physical disk failure A disk rebuild normally occurs without interrupting normal operations on the affected virtual disk though some degradation of performance of the disk subsystem can occur Re...

Page 151: ... Typically a physical disk fails or is expected to fail and the data is rebuilt on a hot spare The failed physical disk is replaced with a new disk Then the data is copied from the hot spare to the new physical disk and the hot spare reverts from a rebuild drive to its original hot spare status The Replace Member operation runs as a background activity and the virtual disk is still available onlin...

Page 152: ...tion interface that is compatible with Serial ATA technology SATA Acronym for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment A physical storage interface standard is a serial link that provides point to point connections between devices The thinner serial cables allow for better airflow within the system and permit smaller chassis designs SCSIport The SCSIport driver is a feature of the Microsoft Windows s...

Page 153: ...unicates topology management information directly with an attached SAS expander device Each PHY on the controller can function as an SMP initiator Spanning The method by which nested RAID levels such as RAID 10 50 and 60 are constructed from multiple sets of basic or single RAID levels For example a RAID 10 is made up of multiple sets of RAID 1 arrays where each RAID 1 set is considered a span Dat...

Page 154: ...stripe that resides on a single physical disk See also striping Stripe Element Size The total disk space consumed by a stripe not including a parity disk For example consider a stripe that contains 64 KB of disk space and has 16 KB of data residing on each disk in the stripe In this case the stripe element size is 16 KB and the stripe size is 64 KB Striping Disk striping writes data across all phy...

Page 155: ...ntroller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has received all the data in a disk write transaction Data is written to the disk subsystem in accordance with policies set up by the controller These policies include the amount of dirty clean cache lines the number of cache lines available elapsed time from the last cache flush and others Write Through In Writ...

Page 156: ...156 Glossary ...

Page 157: ...enus 96 physical disk management 101 rebuild menu 103 starting 79 virtual disk management 97 C cables SAS 122 cache 138 compatibility with existing RAID controllers 24 consistency check 88 101 139 controller 139 151 descriptions 15 controller management 103 D disk groups deleting 95 disk migration 27 disk mirroring 18 disk roaming 27 disk striping 17 display update parameters 101 distributed parit...

Page 158: ...erns 129 operation 27 M manual rebuild 108 N NetWare driver installation 75 Novell NetWare drivers 63 Novell Netware 63 O operating system support 16 operating systems 16 P parity 19 36 147 distributed 140 Patrol Read 38 behavior 38 behavior details 39 configuration 39 modes 39 PCI architecture 15 PERC features 21 overview 15 PERC 6 controller descriptions 15 physical disk actions 102 physical dis...

Page 159: ... 108 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 63 creating a driver diskette 69 installing with the driver update diskette 71 replacement disk 151 S safety instructions for preventing ESD 13 SAS 152 cables 122 controller descriptions 15 devices 15 overview 15 SATA 152 SCSIport 152 SMART technology 24 spare 153 Storport 154 stripe element size 84 T troubleshooting 113 general problems 121 physical disk issues 122 p...

Page 160: ...160 Index W Windows 63 drivers 63 updating drivers 68 Windows XP Driver Installation on an Existing System 76 write policy 84 ...

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