Create virtual devices with PERCCLI
Create virtual devices (VDs) on disks using the PERCCLI utility. You need to perform
this step before adding disks to a VxFlex OS SDS server in the VxFlex Ready Node
system.
Note
If the server contains the HBA330 controller, skip this step.
When creating virtual devices, note the following:
l
You create one virtual device for each kind of disk, HDD or SSD.
l
The VDs for HDD are configured with Direct IO, write-back, and read-ahead
enabled (abbreviated in PERCCLI as RWBD).
l
The VDs for SSD are configured with Direct IO and write-through, but read-ahead
is not enabled. (Abbreviated in PERCCLI as NRWTD.)
In the PERCCLI commands that follow, the controller ID is assumed to be 0,
designated by
/c0
. In some cases, the controller ID may be different, which will cause
a
Controller 0 not found
error to be displayed. If this occurs, determine your
controller ID by running the following command:
cd /opt/lsi/perccli/; ./perccli show
The controller ID is displayed in the
System Overview
section of the output, in the
Ctl
column.
The following table lists different disk configurations on a VxFlex Ready Node server:
Node contains
Caching options
HDD for storage
NA
Mix of HDD and SSD for storage
Caching not used
Mix of HDD and SSD, where some
HDDs or SSDs are for storage and
others provide acceleration
RFcache
Before creating VDs, you must gather some information on the disks/devices on each
node.
Verify the storage and disk controller status
Before creating virtual devices (VDs), verify the storage and disk controller status.
Before you begin
Before using PERCCLI, ensure that your working directory is
/opt/lsi/perccli/
.
If it is not, run:
cd /opt/lsi/perccli/
In this task, use the PERCCLI utility to perform the following tasks:
l
Verifying that all the disks are in UGood (unconfigured, but good) status
Preparing Disks
56
Hardware Configuration and Operating System Installation Guide - ESXi Servers