Dell PowerEdge RAID H700 User Manual
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Dell PowerEdge RAID H700 User Manual

Poweredge raid controller (perc)
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Dell PowerEdge RAID
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Summary of Contents for Dell PowerEdge RAID H700

  • Page 1 Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) H700 and H800 User’s Guide...
  • Page 2 Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this publication to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own.

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    ......PERC H700 and H800 Card Descriptions ..
  • Page 4 ... . . Migrating Virtual Disks From PERC 6 or H200 to PERC H700 and H800 ... . Virtual Disk Write Cache Policies .
  • Page 5 ......Installing and Configuring Hardware ..Installing the PERC H700 and H800 Adapters ..Removing the PERC H700 and H800 Adapters .
  • Page 6 ....Installing Solaris 10 on a PowerEdge System Booting From a PERC H700 or H800 Card ..Adding or Updating the Driver to an Existing System .
  • Page 7 Creating Virtual Disks ....Initializing Virtual Disks ....Checking Data Consistency .
  • Page 8 CacheCade Virtual Disk Management ..Create CacheCade Virtual Disk ..Delete CacheCade Virtual Disk ..Reconfiguring CacheCade Virtual Disks .
  • Page 9 Preserved Cache State ....General Issues ..... . Physical Disk Related Issues .
  • Page 10 Contents...

  • Page 11: Safety Instructions

    Safety Instructions Use the following safety guidelines to help ensure your own personal safety and to help protect your system and working environment from potential damage. WARNING: There is a danger of a new battery exploding if it is incorrectly installed. Replace the battery only with the same or equivalent type recommended by the manufacturer.

  • Page 12: When Working Inside Your System

    Before you remove the system covers, perform the following steps in the sequence indicated: CAUTION: 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.

  • Page 13: Battery Disposal

    You can also take the following steps to prevent damage from electrostatic discharge: • When unpacking a static-sensitive component from its shipping carton, do not remove the component from the antistatic packing material until you are ready to install the component.
  • Page 14 Safety Instructions...

  • Page 15: Overview

    Overview The Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) H700 and H800 family of cards: • Comply with Serial-attached SCSI (SAS) 2.0 providing up to 6 Gb/sec throughput. • Offer RAID control capabilities which include support for RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60.

  • Page 16: Pci Architecture

    PCI Architecture • The PERC H700 and H800 cards support a PCI-E 2.0 x8 host interface. • The PERC H700 Modular cards support a PCI-E 2.0 x4 host interface. Operating System Support The PERC H700 and H800 cards support the following operating systems: •...

  • Page 17: Raid Description

    RAID Description RAID is a group of independent physical disks that provides high performance by increasing the number of disks used for saving and accessing data. A RAID disk subsystem offers the following benefits: • Improves I/O performance and data availability. •...

  • Page 18: Raid Terminology

    • RAID 50 is a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 5 where a RAID 0 array is striped across RAID 5 elements. RAID 50 requires at least six disks. • RAID 60 is a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 6 where a RAID 0 array is striped across RAID 6 elements.
  • Page 19 Disk Mirroring With mirroring (used in RAID 1), data written to one disk is simultaneously written to another disk. If one disk fails, the contents of the other disk can be used to run the system and rebuild the failed physical disk. The primary advantage of disk mirroring is that it provides complete data redundancy.

  • Page 20: Physical Disks

    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 shown in Figure 2-3.

  • Page 21: Storage Controller Features

    Storage Controller Features This section describes the features of the Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) H700 and H800 cards such as the configuration options, disk array performance, RAID management utilities, and operating system software drivers. The PERC H700 and H800 family of controllers support Dell-qualified serial-attached SCSI (SAS) hard drives, SATA hard drives, and solid-state drives (SSDs).
  • Page 22 Table 3-1. PERC H700 and H800 Card Comparisons Specification PERC H700 Adapter PERC H700 PERC H700 PERC H800 Integrated Modular Adapter BBU (Backup Optional Optional Optional, Battery Unit) Transportable Non-Volatile Optional Optional Optional, Cache Transportable Cache Memory 512 MB DDR2 or 1...
  • Page 23 User’s Guide Only one boot controller (PERC H700) is supported on a server, consult the system determine which one is the appropriate boot controller on you system. Only up to two PERC H800 controller for additional storages are supported on a system, this may User’s...

  • Page 24: Physical Disk Power Management

    Physical Disk Power Management The PERC H700 and H800 cards can be configured to spin down certain hard drives after a set amount of time of inactivity to conserve power. This power-savings feature is disabled by default and can be enabled in the Dell OpenManage storage management application.

  • Page 25: Initializing Virtual Disks

    For information on stopping BGI, see "Stopping Background Initialization" on page 111. You can control the BGI rate in the Dell OpenManage storage management application. Any change in the BGI rate does not take effect until the next BGI run.

  • Page 26: Fast Initialization Of Virtual Disks

    You can manually start a CC using the BIOS Configuration Utility or the Dell OpenManage storage management application. To start a CC using the BIOS Configuration Utility, see "Checking Data Consistency" on page 91. You can schedule CC to run on virtual disks using a Dell OpenManage storage management application. Disk Roaming Disk roaming is moving the physical disks from one cable connection or backplane slot to another on the same controller.

  • Page 27: Disk Migration

    The controller detects the RAID configuration from the configuration data on the physical disks. Disk Migration The PERC H700 and H800 cards support migration of virtual disks from one controller to another without taking the target controller offline. The controller can import RAID virtual disks in optimal, degraded, or partially degraded states.

  • Page 28: Compatibility With Virtual Disks Created On Perc 6 And H200 Cards

    2 Move the appropriate physical disks from the PERC 6 or H200 card to the PERC H700 and H800 card. If you are replacing your PERC 6 or H200 card with a PERC H700 or H800 card, see the Hardware Owner’s Manual that shipped with your system or at support.dell.com/manuals.

  • Page 29: Virtual Disk Write Cache Policies

    The risk of using Write-Back cache is that the cached data can be lost if there is a power failure before it is written to the storage device. This risk is mitigated by using a BBU on PERC H700 or H800 cards. For information on which controllers support a BBU, see Table 3-1.

  • Page 30: Conditions Under Which Write-Through Is Employed

    Conditions Under Which Write-Through is Employed Write-Through caching is used under all conditions in which the battery is missing or in a low-charge state. Low-charge state is when the battery is not capable of maintaining data for at least 24 hours in the case of a power loss. This low-charge state does not apply to controllers with the optional non-volatile cache (NVC) module present.

  • Page 31: Reconfiguring Virtual Disks

    Reconfiguring Virtual Disks An online virtual disk can be reconfigured in ways that expands its capacity and/or change its RAID level. Spanned virtual disks such as RAID 10, 50, and 60 cannot be reconfigured. Online Capacity Expansion (OCE) can be done in two ways. The first way is to expand the volume using free space already in the disk group.
  • Page 32 Table 3-2. RAID Level Migration Source Target Required Number of Capacity Description RAID RAID Number of Physical Expansion Level Level Physical Disks Disks (End) Possible (Beginning) RAID 0 RAID 0 2 or more Increases capacity by adding disks RAID 0 RAID 1 Converts non-redundant...

  • Page 33: Fault Tolerance Features

    (continued) Table 3-2. RAID Level Migration Source Target Required Number of Capacity Description RAID RAID Number of Physical Expansion Level Level Physical Disks Disks (End) Possible (Beginning) RAID 5 RAID 6 3 or more 4 or more At least one disk needs to be added for dual distributed parity data.

  • Page 34: Using Persistent Hot Spare Slots

    (SED). Physical Disk Hot Swapping Hot swapping is the manual replacement of a disk while the H700 and H800 cards are online and performing their normal functions. The following requirements must be met before hot swapping a physical disk: •...

  • Page 35: Redundant Path With Load Balancing Support

    The ability to load balance I/O can be disabled using the Dell OpenManage storage management application. To set up your hardware to support redundant paths, see "Setting up Redundant Path Support on the PERC H800 Adapter"...

  • Page 36: Controller Cache Preservation

    Controller Cache Preservation The controller is capable of preserving its cache in the event of a system power outage or improper system shutdown. The PERC H700 controllers are attached to a Battery Backup Unit (BBU) that provides backup power during system power loss to preserve the controller's cache data.

  • Page 37: Cache Preservation With Battery

    Cache Data Recovery The dirty cache LED that is located on the H700 and H800 cards cannot be used to determine if cache data is being preserved. If a system power loss or improper system shutdown has occurred, restore system power and boot the system.

  • Page 38: Battery Learn Cycle

    For additional information, see the Dell OpenManage storage management application. During the discharge phase of a learn cycle, the PERC H700 or H800 battery charger is disabled and remains disabled until the battery is discharged. After the battery is discharged, the charger is re-enabled.
  • Page 39 • Patrol Read adjusts the amount of controller resources dedicated to Patrol Read operations based on outstanding disk I/O. For example, if the system is busy processing I/O operation, then Patrol Read uses fewer resources to allow the I/O to take a higher priority. •...
  • Page 40 Storage Controller Features...

  • Page 41: Installing And Configuring Hardware

    You should only perform troubleshooting and simple repairs as authorized in your product documentation, or as directed by the online or telephone service and support team. Damage due to servicing that is not authorized by Dell is not covered by your warranty. Read and follow the safety instructions that came with the product.
  • Page 42 5 Align the PERC H700 or H800 card to the PCI-E slot you have selected. CAUTION: Never apply pressure to the adapter module while inserting it in the PCI-E slot.
  • Page 43 Figure 4-2. Installing a PERC H700 Adapter PCI-e slot PERC H700 adapter filler brackets bracket screw 7 Tighten the bracket screw, if any, or use the system’s retention clips to secure the controller to the system’s chassis. 8 Replace the cover of the system. For more information on closing the system, see the Hardware Owner’s Manual shipped with your system or at...
  • Page 44 10 For the PERC H700 adapter, connect the cables from the backplane of the system to the controller. The primary SAS connector is labeled SAS_A and the secondary SAS connector is labeled SAS_B. For more information, see Figure 4-4.
  • Page 45 Figure 4-4. Connecting Cables to the Controller 1 cable Port B Port A PERC H700 adapter 5 connector 11 Replace the cover of the system. For more information on closing the system, see the Hardware Owner’s Manual shipped with your system or at support.dell.com/manuals.

  • Page 46: Removing The Perc H700 And H800 Adapters

    For instructions on removing a PERC H800 adapter, go to step 3. For instructions on removing a PERC H700 adapter, go to step 5. 3 Locate the PERC H800 adapter in the system and disconnect the external cables from the adapter.
  • Page 47 5 Disconnect the data cables and battery cable from the PERC H700. Remove any retention mechanism, such as a bracket screw, that might be holding the PERC H700 in the system, and gently lift the controller from the system’s PCI-E slot.
  • Page 48 Figure 4-6. Removing the PERC H700 Adapter 1 bracket screw Dirty Cache LED 3 PERC H700 controller Installing and Configuring Hardware...

  • Page 49: Removing And Installing The Perc H700 Modular Card In Dell Blade Systems

    Dell Support website at support.dell.com. The storage controller card is located below the disk bays of the Dell Blade system. To remove the storage controller card: 1 Remove the Dell Blade system from the Blade system chassis.
  • Page 50 1 Unpack the new storage controller card and check for damage. NOTE: If the card is damaged, contact Dell technical support. 2 Place 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.

  • Page 51: Removing The Dimm From A Perc H700

    DIMM module which cannot be removed. Do not attempt the following procedure on a PERC H700 Modular controller card. 1 Perform a controlled reboot of the system and enter the PERC H700 BIOS Configuration Utility to ensure that there is no data present in cache.
  • Page 52 Figure 4-8. Removing the DIMM From a PERC H700 DIMM support dirty cache LED DIMM PERC H700 Adapter Installing and Configuring Hardware...

  • Page 53: Installing The Dimm On A Perc H700

    Installing the DIMM on a PERC H700 CAUTION: PERC H700 Modular cards, shipped in PowerEdge blade systems, have an integrated DIMM module which cannot be removed. Do not attempt the following procedure on a PERC H700 Modular controller card. 1 Unpack the DIMM and follow all antistatic procedures.
  • Page 54 Figure 4-10. Mounting the DIMM Support onto the DIMM DIMM DIMM support 3 Align the keyed edge of the DIMM to the physical divider on the memory socket to avoid damage to the module. 4 Insert the DIMM in the memory socket. Apply a constant, downward pressure on both ends or the middle of the DIMM until the retention clips fall in the allotted slots on either side of the DIMM.
  • Page 55 Figure 4-11. Installing a DIMM on a PERC H700 PERC H700 retention clip memory socket DIMM dirty cache LED Installing and Configuring Hardware...

  • Page 56: Replacing The Bbu On A Perc H700

    Replacing the BBU on a PERC H700 1 Perform a controlled reboot of the system and enter the PERC H700 BIOS Configuration Utility to ensure that there is no data present in cache. See the "Cache Data Recovery" on page 37 for more details. Later, shut down the system.
  • Page 57 Figure 4-13. PERC H700 (Modular) Dirty Cache LED Location battery cable connector dirty cache LED PERC H700 Modular Adapter 3 Locate the battery cable connection near the edge of the controller, and disconnect the battery. For the location of the battery cable connector, see Figure 4-12 and Figure 4-13.

  • Page 58: Removing The Tbbu Or Tnvc From A

    3 Remove the PERC H800 Adapter from the system. For more information, see "Removing the PERC H700 and H800 Adapters" on page 46. 4 Press down on the tabs at each edge of the DIMM slot and lift the TBBU or TNVC assembly off the PERC H800 Adapter.
  • Page 59 Figure 4-14. Removing the TBBU From a PERC H800 Adapter battery dirty cache LED DIMM PERC H800 Adapter Installing and Configuring Hardware...

  • Page 60: Replacing The Battery And Battery Cable Onto

    Replacing the Battery and Battery Cable Onto the DIMM of a PERC H800 Adapter 1 With the old TBBU or TNVC removed from the controller, disconnect the battery cable from both ends and press out on the battery clips inserted through the DIMM rotating the battery out of the DIMM.

  • Page 61: Installing The Tbbu Or Tnvc On A Perc H800 Adapter

    Figure 4-16. Installing the Battery and Battery Cable onto the DIMM connector on the DIMM DIMM battery connector on the battery battery cable Installing the TBBU or TNVC on a PERC H800 Adapter NOTE: Both the TBBU and TNVC on the PERC H800 Adapter consists of the DIMM and a battery.
  • Page 62 2 Align the keyed edge of the DIMM to the physical divider on the memory socket to avoid damage to the module. 3 Insert the DIMM in the memory socket. Apply a constant, downward pressure on both ends or the middle of the DIMM until the retention clips fall in the allotted slots on either side of the DIMM.

  • Page 63: Transferring A Tbbu Or Tnvc Between Perc H800 Cards

    6 Insert the replacement controller in the system. See the relevant sections on installing controllers under "Installing the PERC H700 and H800 Adapters" on page 41. 7 Reconnect all external storage enclosures as they were originally connected and turn on the enclosures.

  • Page 64: Setting Up Redundant Path Support On The Perc H800 Adapter

    Figure 4-18 to Figure 4-21. NOTE: The PERC H800 adapter supports redundant paths when used with Dell PowerVault MD1200 and Dell PowerVault MD1220 disk storage enclosures. Perform the following steps to configure the hardware to utilize redundant paths on the PERC H800 adapter: 1 Set up an enclosure on the PERC H800 adapter.
  • Page 65 Figure 4-18 displays redundant path storage configuration with one enclosure. Figure 4-18. Redundant Path Support Configuration With One Enclosure Server Server Storage Storage Figure 4-19 displays redundant path storage configuration with two enclosures. Figure 4-19. Redundant Path Support Configuration With Two Enclosures Server Server Storage...
  • Page 66 Figure 4-20 displays redundant path storage configuration with three enclosures. Figure 4-20. Redundant Path Support Configuration With Three Enclosures Server Server Storage Storage Storage Storage Storage Storage Figure 4-21 displays redundant path storage configuration with four enclosures. A single PERC H800 adapter can support up to four disk storage enclosures in a redundant path configuration.

  • Page 67: Reverting From Redundant Path Support To Single Path Support On The Perc H800 Adapter

    After you remove the cable and power up the system, ensure that there are no warning messages during boot, and that all virtual disks are online and optimal. If you are using Dell OpenManage, see the Dell OpenManage documentation at support.dell.com/manuals for additional instructions.
  • Page 68 Installing and Configuring Hardware...

  • Page 69: Driver Installation

    Perform the following steps to create the driver media: 1 Browse to the download section for the system at support.dell.com. 2 Locate and download the latest PERC H700 or H800 driver to the system. 3 Follow the instructions for extracting the driver to the media.

  • Page 70: Pre-Installation Requirements

    Use one of the following two methods to create the device driver media. Downloading Drivers From the Dell Systems Service and Diagnostic Tools Media 1 Insert the Dell Systems Service and Diagnostics Tools media in a system. The Welcome to Dell Service and Diagnostic Utilities screen is displayed.

  • Page 71: Installing Driver During A Windows Server 2003 Operating System Installation

    The system prompts for the driver media to be inserted. NOTE: The driver can be provided using a properly formatted USB key. For additional details on the driver, go the Dell Support website at support.dell.com. 4 Insert the driver media in the media drive and press <Enter>.

  • Page 72: Installing Driver During A Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 Installation

    Vista/2008/7 window and then select Load driver. 3 The system prompts you to insert the media. Insert the installation media and browse to the proper location. 4 Select the appropriate PERC H700 or H800 card from the list, click Next and continue installation. NOTE: The Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system includes native drivers for the PERC H700 and H800 cards.

  • Page 73: Updating Existing Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2003

    9 The wizard detects and installs the appropriate device drivers for the new RAID controller. 10 Click Finish to complete the installation. 11 Reboot the system when prompted. Updating Existing Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2003 NOTE: Close all applications on your system before you update the driver.

  • Page 74: Installing Linux Driver

    Installing Linux Driver NOTE: PERC H700/H800 cards and both the PERC 5 and PERC 6 family of controllers use the same driver and do not require separate driver installations. Use the procedures in this section to install the driver for Linux. The driver is updated frequently.
  • Page 75 USB key method (Red Hat Enterprise Linux only): Transfer the appropriate .img file to a USB key. System Floppy Disk slot method: Use the dd command to create a driver update disk. Use the appropriate image for the purpose. Insert a floppy disk into the system floppy disk slot. At a terminal prompt, do the following: # dd if= <image_file_name>...

  • Page 76: Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux Operating System Using The Dud

    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 mkdriverdisk –m megaraid_sas –v <driver version>...

  • Page 77: Installing Suse Linux Enterprise Server Using The Driver Update Diskette

    Installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Using the Driver Update Diskette NOTE: For information about creating a driver diskette, see "Creating a DUD" on page 74. To install SUSE Linux Enterprise Server using the DUD: 1 Insert the appropriate SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Service Pack media in the system.

  • Page 78: Installing The Rpm Package With Dkms Support

    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: rpm -Uvh <package name>...

  • Page 79: Installing Solaris Driver

    Use the procedures in this section to install the driver for Solaris 10. To ensure that you have the current version of the driver, download the updated Solaris driver from the Dell Support website at support.dell.com. The package is a gzipped .tar file. Download the package to a Solaris system,...

  • Page 80: Installing Solaris 10 On A Poweredge System

    Installing Solaris 10 on a PowerEdge System Booting From a PERC H700 or H800 Card To install the driver during Solaris 10 operating system installation: 1 Boot the system from the Solaris installation media and select the preferred console. 2 After Solaris finishes configuring devices, a menu is displayed.

  • Page 81: Configuring And Managing Raid

    Dell OpenManage Storage Management • BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl><R>) NOTE: Dell Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) RAID Storage Manager is not supported for SED management. Dell OpenManage Storage Management The Dell OpenManage Storage Management is a storage management application for Dell systems that provides enhanced features for configuring a system's locally-attached RAID and non-RAID disk storage.

  • Page 82: Bios Configuration Utility

    You can access multiple controllers through the BIOS Configuration Utility by pressing <F12>. NOTE: You can access PERC 6, and PERC H700 or H800 cards from the same BIOS if the PERC 6 firmware is 6.2.0-0013 or later. Configuring and Managing RAID...

  • Page 83: Exiting The Configuration Utility

    Exiting the Configuration Utility To exit the BIOS Configuration Utility, press <Esc> at any menu screen. If there is only one controller, then a dialog box is displayed to confirm your choice. Select OK to exit and press <Enter>. If multiple controllers are present, then the <Esc> key brings you to the Controller Selection screen.
  • Page 84 (continued) Table 6-1. Menu Navigation Keys Notation Meaning and Use Example down-arrow Use the down-arrow key to move to the lower menu Virtual Disk 1 items within a menu or to a lower level menu. You can also use the down-arrow key to open a menu list Virtual Disk 4 in a popup window, such as the stripe element size menu, and select a setting.

  • Page 85: Setting Up Virtual Disks

    (continued) Table 6-1. Menu Navigation Keys Notation Meaning and Use Example <Ctrl> Press <Ctrl><P> to move to the previous menu Press <P> screen among the main menu screens: VD Mgmt, PD <Ctrl><P> on Mgmt, Ctrl Mgmt, and Foreign View. the PD Mgmt screen to return to the VD Mgmt screen.
  • Page 86 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 NOTE: The default hard drive cache policy for a virtual disk composed with SAS disabled enabled hard drives is...
  • Page 87 (continued) Table 6-2. Virtual Disk Parameters and Descriptions Parameter Description 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.

  • Page 88: Virtual Disk Management

    Virtual Disk Management Creating Virtual Disks NOTE: Combining SAS and SATA hard drives within a virtual disk is not supported. Also, combining hard drives and SSDs within a virtual disk is not supported. NOTE: To create secured virtual disks, see "Security Key and RAID Management" on page 121.
  • Page 89 9 Use the arrow key to highlight a physical disk and press the spacebar, <Alt>, or <Enter> to select the disk. 10 Select additional disks, if required. 11 Press <Tab> to move the cursor to the Basic Settings box. 12 Set the virtual disk size in the VD Size field. The virtual disk size is displayed in GB format.
  • Page 90 Press <Enter> to display the options (No Read Ahead, Read Ahead, or Adaptive Read Ahead). Press the down-arrow key to highlight the desired option and press <Enter>. If you need to change the write policy, press <Tab> to move the cursor to Write Policy.

  • Page 91: Initializing Virtual Disks

    5 Repeat the procedures from step 1 to step 4 to configure another virtual disk. The PERC H700 or PERC H800 cards support up to 64 virtual disks per controller. The currently configured virtual disks display on the screen. Checking Data Consistency...

  • Page 92: Importing Or Clearing Foreign Configurations Using The Vd Mgmt Menu

    3 Press <F2> to display the menu of available actions. 4 Press the down-arrow key to select Consistency Check. 5 Press the 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.

  • Page 93: Importing Or Clearing Foreign Configurations Using The Foreign Configuration View Screen

    4 Navigate to the Foreign Config option and press the right arrow key to display the available actions: Import and Clear. NOTE: Ensure that your virtual disk has all the physical disks by verifying that there are no physical disks marked as Missing in the foreign view page and that all the disks appear as expected before importing them.
  • Page 94 The following constraints apply to the physical disks that are considered for import: • The disk state of a physical disk can change from the time the foreign configuration is scanned to when the actual import occurs. The foreign import occurs only on disks that are in the Unconfigured Good state. •...
  • Page 95 2 If all the physical disks in a virtual disk are removed at different times and re-inserted, the controller considers the disks to have foreign configurations. Perform the following steps: Select Foreign Configuration View to display the complete virtual disk, across different foreign configurations and allow foreign configurations to be imported.

  • Page 96: Managing Preserved Cache

    Managing Preserved Cache If a virtual disk becomes offline or is deleted because of missing physical disks, the controller preserves the dirty cache from the virtual disk. The preserved dirty cache, known as pinned cache, is preserved until you import the virtual disk or discard the cache. NOTE: Certain operations, such as creating a new virtual disk, cannot be performed if preserved cache exists.

  • Page 97: Managing Dedicated Hot Spares

    Managing Dedicated Hot Spares A dedicated hot spare automatically replaces a failed physical disk only in the selected disk group which the hot spare is part of. A dedicated hot spare is used before a global hot spare is used. You can create dedicated hot spares or delete them on the VD Mgmt screen.

  • Page 98: Deleting Virtual Disks

    Deleting Virtual Disks NOTE: You cannot delete a virtual disk during an initialization. NOTE: Warning messages appear stating the effect of deleting a virtual disk. Click OK twice to complete the virtual disk deletion. To delete virtual disks, perform the following steps in the BIOS Configuration Utility: 1 Press <Ctrl><N>...

  • Page 99: Clearing The Configuration

    Clearing the Configuration You can delete all virtual disks on the RAID controller by performing the operation. To clear the configuration, perform the following steps in the BIOS Configuration Utility: 1 Press <Ctrl><N> to access the VD Mgmt screen. 2 Use the arrow keys to move the cursor to the Controller heading. 3 Press <F2>.
  • Page 100 Most menus consist of two panels: • A left panel with the menu options • A right panel with details of the items selected in the left panel The following sections describe the menu and submenu options for each of the major menus: Virtual Disk Management (VD Mgmt) The Virtual Disk Management screen, VD Mgmt, is the first screen that is...
  • Page 101 (continued) Table 6-3. Information on the Virtual Disk Management Screen Menu Item Selected Information Displayed in Right Panel in Left Panel Disk Group # Disk Group # Properties: • Number of virtual disks (VD) • Number of physical disks (PD) •...
  • Page 102 (continued) Table 6-3. Information on the Virtual Disk Management Screen Menu Item Selected Information Displayed in Right Panel in Left Panel Physical Disks Disk Group # Properties: • Number of virtuals disks (VD) • Number of physical disks (PD) • Space available on the physical disks •...
  • Page 103 (continued) Table 6-3. Information on the Virtual Disk Management Screen Menu Item Selected Information Displayed in Right Panel in Left Panel Hot Spares Physical disk properties: • Vendor name • Physical disk size • Physical disk state • Enclosure Position •...
  • Page 104 The option is available only if RAID level 1, 5, 6, virtual disk 10, 50, or 60 is used. The PERC H700 or PERC H800 cards automatically correct any differences found in the data. Display or update Displays the properties of the selected virtual disk.
  • Page 105 • Firmware Revision • Physical Disk State • Disk Write Cache • Disk Group • S.M.A.R.T state • Vendor • Physical Disk operation • Max Device Link Rate • Negotiated Link Rate • Dell Certified Disk Configuring and Managing RAID...
  • Page 106 For information on getting the best rebuild performance from your RAID controller, see the documentation on Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals. Configuring and Managing RAID...
  • Page 107 Controller Management (Ctrl Mgmt) The Controller Management screen (Ctrl Mgmt) displays the product name, package, firmware version, BIOS version, boot block version, controller ID, security capability, and security key presence. Use the screen to perform actions on the controller and BIOS. You can perform functions such as enable or disable the controller BIOS, enable or disable the BIOS during bootup in the event of BIOS errors, and enable or disable the option to Auto Import.

  • Page 108: Physical Disk Management

    Foreign Configuration View When a foreign configuration is present, you can select Foreign Configuration View to display the configuration. The screen shows the foreign configuration as it would be if you import it. You can preview the foreign configuration before you decide whether to import it or clear it. In some cases, a foreign configuration cannot be imported.

  • Page 109: Creating Global Hot Spares

    Creating Global Hot Spares You can use a global hot spare to replace a failed physical disk in any redundant array as long as the capacity of the global hot spare is equal to or larger than the coerced capacity of the failed physical disk. Perform the following steps to create global hot spares: 1 Press <Ctrl><N>...

  • Page 110: Replacing An Online Physical Disk

    4 Press the down-arrow key to select Remove Hot Spare from the list of actions and press <Enter>. The physical disk is changed to the Ready state. The status of the physical disk is displayed under the heading State. NOTE: Try to use physical disks of the same capacity in a specific virtual disk.

  • Page 111: Stopping Background Initialization

    Restrictions and Limitations The following restrictions and limitations apply to the Replace Member operation: The Replace Member functions are restricted to one per array for RAID 0, • RAID 1, and RAID 5, and two per array for RAID 6. •...

  • Page 112: Controller Management

    3 Press <F2> to display a menu of available actions. The Rebuild option is highlighted at the top of the menu. Press the right-arrow key to display the rebuild options and select Start. 4 After you start the rebuild, press <Esc> to display the previous menu. NOTE: You can also use the VD Mgmt screen to perform a manual rebuild.

  • Page 113: Enabling Bios Stop On Error

    After you enable the BIOS for a controller, perform the following steps to enable the boot support for that controller: 1 Press <Ctrl><N> to access the Ctrl Mgmt menu screen. 2 Press <Tab> to move the cursor to the Select Bootable VD in the Settings box.

  • Page 114: Restoring Factory Default Settings

    To enable Auto Import: 1 Press <Ctrl><N> to access the Ctrl Mgmt menu screen. 2 Press <Tab> to move the cursor to Enable Auto Import in the Settings box. 3 Press the spacebar to select Enable Auto Import. An X is displayed beside Enable Auto Import. 4 Press <Tab>...

  • Page 115: Cachecade

    CacheCade The Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) H700 and H800 cards support CacheCade, a feature that can improve application performance by increasing read caching capacity. The CacheCade feature makes use of high- performing solid state disks (SSDs) as a secondary tier of cache. CacheCade provides faster reads and maximizes transactional I/O performance.

  • Page 116: Configuring And Managing Cachecade Virtual Disks

    CacheCade virtual disks are not presented to the operating system. Configuring and Managing CacheCade Virtual Disks The Dell OpenManage storage management application and the controller’s BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl><R>) allow the creation and deletion of CacheCade virtual disks. The following sections describe the menu options specific to CacheCade virtual disk management and provide detailed instructions to perform the configuration tasks.
  • Page 117 To create a CacheCade virtual disk: 1 During host system bootup, press <Ctrl><R> when the BIOS screen is displayed. The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed. If there are more than one controller, the main menu screen is displayed. 2 Select a controller, and press <Enter>. The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed for the selected controller.

  • Page 118: Delete Cachecade Virtual Disk

    Delete CacheCade Virtual Disk To delete CacheCade virtual disks, perform the following steps in the BIOS Configuration Utility: 1 Press <Ctrl><N> to access the Virtual Disk Management screen. 2 Use the arrow keys to move the cursor to the CacheCade Disk Group or Virtual Disks heading.
  • Page 119 reconfigures and adjusts its size to reflect the addition of the member SSD. The number of SSDs to be removed from a CacheCade virtual disk cannot equal the total number of SSDs currently in the CacheCade virtual disk. After the automatic reconfiguration and resizing of a CacheCade virtual disk, the new virtual disk size is displayed in both the BIOS configuration utility as well as in the OpenManage storage management application.
  • Page 120 CacheCade...

  • Page 121: Security Key And Raid Management

    There is one security key per controller. Under Local Key Management (LKM) the key is managed by you (on-controller key management). The key can be escrowed in to a file using Dell OpenManage. The security key is used by the controller to lock and unlock access to encryption-capable physical disks.

  • Page 122: Security Key Management

    Virtual Disk Management (VD Mgmt) The Virtual Disk Management screen, VD Mgmt, is the first screen that is displayed when you access a RAID controller from the main menu screen on the BIOS Configuration Utility. Virtual Disk Security Actions The following are security-related actions you can perform through the virtual disk management menu: •...
  • Page 123 NOTE: There is no passphrase backup option when you create a security key; you need to remember your passphrase. 1 During the host system boot up, press <Ctrl><R> when the BIOS screen is displayed. The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed. If there is more than one controller, the main menu screen is displayed.
  • Page 124 Change Key NOTE: Change Key is active if there is a security key present on the controller. Perform the following steps when changing the security key on the controller: 1 During host system bootup, press <Ctrl><R> when the BIOS screen is displayed.

  • Page 125: Creating Secured Virtual Disks

    Delete Key NOTE: Delete Key is active if there is a security key present on the controller. NOTE: Delete Key can only be performed when there are no secured virtual disks present. NOTE: After the Delete Key operation, all unconfigured, secured SEDs shall be secure-erased.

  • Page 126: Securing Pre-Existing Virtual Disks

    Importing or Clearing Secured Foreign Configurations and Secure Disk Migration Secured virtual disks created on a PERC H700 or H800 card can be migrated to another PERC H700 or H800 card. A virtual disk secured with a local security key different from the current controller security key cannot be imported without authentication of the original passphrase used to secure them.
  • Page 127 NOTE: The PERC H700 or H800 card needs to have a security key present before being able to import a secured virtual disk. NOTE: Any unsecured virtual disks imported are still unsecured. NOTE: If you are importing a virtual disk originally secured with a local key (LKM), you are prompted for the passphrase used to secure that virtual disk.

  • Page 128: Instant Secure Erase

    Instant Secure Erase Instant Secure Erase is the process of permanently erasing all data on an encryption-capable physical disk which is either unconfigured or foreign, and resetting the security attributes. You need to execute Instant Secure Erase on SEDs that are inaccessible (blocked) due to a lost or forgotten passphrase. CAUTION: By executing Instant Secure Erase, the data on your encryption-capable physical disk is lost.

  • Page 129: Failure To Select Or Configure Non Self-Encrypting Disks (Non-Sed)

    Failure to Select or Configure Non Self-Encrypting Disks (non-SED) A virtual disk can be either secured or unsecured depending on how it was configured when created. In order to create a secured virtual disk, the controller must have a security key present and must be composed of SEDs only.
  • Page 130 Security Key and RAID Management...

  • Page 131: Troubleshooting

    Troubleshooting To get help with your Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) H700 and H800 cards, you can contact your Dell Technical Service representative or access support.dell.com. Post Error Messages The controller BIOS read-only memory (ROM) provides Int 13h functionality (disk I/O) for the virtual disks connected to the controller. You can boot from or access the physical disks without a driver.
  • Page 132 DIMM might be faulty; had protected cache controller cache has not contact Dell Technical after an unexpected yet been written to the Support. power loss and your disk subsystem. system was without •...
  • Page 133 (continued) Table 9-1. BIOS Errors and Warnings Error Message Probable Cause Corrective Action The message indicates that Check the cable All of the disks from all configured disks were connections and restart your previous removed. If the disks were the system. configuration are not removed, they are no gone.
  • Page 134 (continued) Table 9-1. BIOS Errors and Warnings Error Message Probable Cause Corrective Action The controller preserves Check the cable The cache contains the dirty cache from a connections and restart dirty data, but some virtual disk if the disk the system. virtual disks are becomes offline or is missing or will go...
  • Page 135 The commands include actions you can perform with a physical disk, such as reading, writing, and formatting. Contact Dell Technical Adapter at Baseport Support. xxxx is not responding where xxxx is the baseport of the controller...
  • Page 136 (continued) Table 9-1. BIOS Errors and Warnings Error Message Probable Cause Corrective Action <Ctrl><R> The controller preserves Use the There are offline or the dirty cache from a utility to import the missing virtual drives virtual disk if the disk virtual disk or discard with preserved cache.
  • Page 137 DIMM might be faulty; Press any key to written to the disk contact Dell Technical continue. subsystem. Support. • The controller detects an Error-Correcting Code (ECC) error while...
  • Page 138 POST in optimal state. Clear but no foreign the foreign configurations are configuration using present in the foreign <Ctrl><R> or Dell view page in CTRL+R. OpenManage Server All virtual disks are Administrator Storage in an optimal state. Management. CAUTION:...
  • Page 139 This error is specific to the CAUTION: Multibit ECC errors PERC H700 controller. errors are serious, as were detected on the they cause data Multi-bit ECC errors RAID controller. If corruption and data...
  • Page 140 Contact Verify the connection Dell Technical and allow 30 minutes Support if the issue for charging.If the persist after 30 battery is properly minutes. connected and it has not returned to •...

  • Page 141: Degraded State Of Virtual Disks

    • The controller logs an event to the controller’s internal event log and a message during POST is displayed indicating a multi-bit error has occurred. NOTE: In case of a multi-bit error, contact Dell Technical Support. Troubleshooting...

  • Page 142: Preserved Cache State

    Preserved Cache State The controller preserves the dirty cache from a virtual disk if the virtual disk becomes offline or is deleted because of missing physical disks. This preserved dirty cache is called pinned cache and is preserved until you import the virtual disk or discard the cache.

  • Page 143: Physical Disk Related Issues

    Table 9-3 describes physical disk-related problems you might encounter, with suggested solutions. Table 9-3. Physical Disk Issues Issue Corrective Action Update the PERC H700 and H800 cards to the One of the physical disks in the disk array is in the latest firmware available on support.dell.com. failed state.

  • Page 144: Physical Disk Failures And Rebuild Issues

    Optimal state without a rebuild occurring. You can use the BIOS Configuration Utility or Dell OpenManage storage management application to perform a manual rebuild of multiple physical disks. For information on rebuilding a single physical disk, see "Performing a Manual Rebuild of an Individual...
  • Page 145 Table 9-4. Physical Disk Failure and Rebuild Issues Issue Corrective Action Rebuilding a physical If you have configured hot spares, the PERC H700 or disk after one of them is PERC H800 card automatically tries to use one of them to in a failed state.

  • Page 146: Smart Errors

    NOTE: For information about where to find reports of SMART errors that could indicate hardware failure, see the Dell OpenManage storage management documentation at support.dell.com/manuals. Table 9-5. SMART Errors Issue...

  • Page 147: Replace Member Errors

    Replace Member Errors Table 9-6 describes issues related to the Replace Member feature. NOTE: For more information about the Replace Member features, see "Using Replace Member and Revertible Hot Spares" on page 35. Table 9-6. Replace Member Operation Errors Issue Corrective Action The source disk fails If the source data is available from other disks in the virtual...

  • Page 148: Linux Operating System Errors

    Except for this message, there is no effect of this behavior on normal operation. The cache policy of the virtual disk and the I/O throughput are not affected by this message. The cache policy settings for the PERC H700 and PERC H800 SAS RAID system remain unchanged. Troubleshooting...
  • Page 149 (continued) Table 9-7. Linux Operating System Errors Error Message Corrective Action Driver does not auto-build into This error is a generic issue for Dynamic Kernel new kernel after customer updates. Module Support (DKMS) and applies to all DKMS-enabled driver packages. This issue occurs when you perform the following steps: Install a DKMS-enabled driver package.
  • Page 150 (continued) Table 9-7. Linux Operating System Errors Error Message Corrective Action This is a known issue. An unsupported smartd[smartd[2338] command is entered through the user Device: /dev/sda, Bad application. User applications attempt to direct IEC (SMART) mode page, Command Descriptor Blocks to RAID volumes. err=-5, skip device The error message does not effect the feature functionality.

  • Page 151: Disk Carrier Led Indicators

    Disk Carrier LED Indicators The LED on the physical disk carrier indicates the state of each physical disk. Each disk carrier in your enclosure has two LEDs: an activity LED (green) and a status LED (bicolor, green/amber) as shown in Figure 9-1. The activity LED is active whenever a disk is being accessed while the status LED indicates when a disk is being spun up, is rebuilding, or is in a fault state.
  • Page 152 Troubleshooting...

  • Page 153: A Regulatory Notices

    Regulatory Notices For additional regulatory information, please go to the Regulatory Compliance Homepage on dell.com at the following location: dell.com/regulatory_compliance. Regulatory Notices...
  • Page 154 Regulatory Notices...

  • Page 155: B Corporate Contact Details (Taiwan Only)

    Corporate Contact Details (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,...
  • Page 156 Corporate Contact Details (Taiwan Only)

  • Page 157: Glossary

    Glossary Adapter Card An adapter card enables the system to access peripheral devices by converting the protocol of one bus or interface to another. For example, a RAID controller is a type of adapter card that provides RAID functions. Adapter cards may reside on the system board.
  • Page 158 Battery Backup Unit (BBU) The battery backup unit protects the integrity of the cached data on the controller by providing backup power if there is a complete AC power failure or a brief power outage. BIOS Basic Input/Output System. Your system's BIOS contains programs stored on a flash memory chip.
  • Page 159 adjacent disk sectors. To improve write performance, the cache may temporarily store data in accordance with its write back policies. For more information, see "Write-Back" on page 173. Change Key The process of generating a key for an encryption-capable or a security-capable component.
  • Page 160 Default Encryption State The encryption state to which an encryption enabled component reverts at power-on (or after an internal reset such as a firmware upgrade). Encryption states are of two types: encrypted and not encrypted. Default Security State The security state to which a security enabled component is reverted at power-on (or after an internal reset such as a firmware upgrade).
  • Page 161 DKMS Dynamic Kernel Module Support. Designed by Dell, DKMS creates a framework in which kernel-dependent module source can reside so that it is easy to rebuild modules as you upgrade kernels. DKMS is used in the upgrade process for drivers for Red Hat Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
  • Page 162 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 reside in an external disk enclosure. Enclosure management helps you stay informed of events in the disk subsystem, such as a physical disk or power supply failure. Enclosure management increases the fault tolerance of the disk subsystem.
  • Page 163 Fault tolerance is the capability of the disk subsystem to undergo a single disk failure per disk group without compromising data integrity and processing capability. The PERC H700 or PERC H800 cards provide this support through redundant virtual disks in RAID levels 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60.
  • Page 164 Hot Swap Replacement of a failed component while the system is running and operating normally. Initialization The process of writing zeros to the data fields of a virtual disk and, in fault tolerant RAID levels, generating the corresponding parity to put the virtual disk in a Ready state.
  • Page 165 Megabyte(s). The term megabyte means 1,048,576 bytes (2^20 bytes); however, when referring to disk storage, the term is often rounded to mean 1,000,000 bytes. Mirroring The process of providing complete redundancy using two physical disks, by maintaining an exact copy of one physical disk’s data on the second physical disk.
  • Page 166 Non-Volatile Cache A cache module with flash-based storage to preserve cache data indefinitely. This replaces the need for a battery backup unit (BBU) to supply power to preserve cache data. Offline A physical disk is offline when it is part of a virtual disk but its data is not accessible to the virtual disk.
  • Page 167 Patrol Read A preventive measure that includes review of your system for possible physical disk errors that could lead to disk failure and damage data integrity. Passphrase The user supplied string that the controller uses to create the security key The interface required to transmit and receive data packets transferred across the serial bus.
  • Page 168 SAS RAID Storage Manager configures, monitors, and maintains the PERC H700 card, battery backup units, and other devices running on a system. Read-Ahead A memory caching capability in some controllers that allows them to read sequentially ahead of requested data and store the additional data in cache memory, anticipating that the additional data is required soon.
  • Page 169 Reconstruct The act of remaking a virtual disk after changing RAID levels or adding a physical disk to an existing virtual disk. Redundancy The provision of multiple interchangeable components to perform a single function to cope with failures and errors. Common forms of hardware redundancy are disk mirroring, implementations of parity disks, or distributed parity.
  • Page 170 Replacement Unit A component or collection of components in a system or subsystem that is always replaced as a unit when any part of the collection fails. Typical replacement units in a disk subsystem include disks, controller logic boards, power supplies and cables. Revertible Hot Spare In the case of a Revertible Hot Spare, when you use the Replace Member procedure, after data is copied from a hot spare to a new physical disk, the hot...
  • Page 171 Related term: Not Secured Secure Disk Group Indicates that a disk group comprised of security-capable physical disks is secured. Secure Migration The process of moving a set of secured disks to a different controller. Security Enabled/Disabled Indicates wether a security capable component is secured. Security Key A key to lock or unlock access to a security-enabled component.
  • Page 172 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.
  • Page 173 Striping Disk striping writes data across all physical disks in a virtual disk. Each stripe consists of consecutive virtual disk data addresses that are mapped in fixed-size units to each physical disk in the virtual disk using a sequential pattern. For example, if the virtual disk includes five physical disks, the stripe writes data to physical disks one through five without repeating any of the physical disks.
  • Page 174 Write-Through In Write-Through caching mode, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host when the disk subsystem has received all the data and has completed the write transaction to the disk. Glossary...

  • Page 175: Index

    Index consistency check, 91, 104, 159 controller, 159, 169 Background Initialization, 25 controller management, 107 background initialization, 25, stopping, 111 baseport, 157 disk groups battery deleting, 98 management, 28 removing from PERC 5/E disk migration, 27 Adapter, 64 disk mirroring, 19 BIOS, 107, 158 Disk roaming, 26 BIOS Configuration...
  • Page 176 Foreign Configuration View, 108 architecture, 16 full initialization, 25 PERC overview, 15 PERC 6 controller descriptions, 15 hot swap, 164 PERC H700, H800 hot swapping, 34 Card Descriptions, 15 supported operating systems, 16 physical disk actions, 106 initialization, 164 physical disks...
  • Page 177 management, 81 SMART error, 146-147 summary of levels, 17 RAID level, 86 RAID levels, 168 virtual disks read policy, 87 deleting, 98 rebuild, 106 management, 100 manual, 111 menu options, 104, 107 Red Hat Enterprise Linux parameters, 86 creating a driver diskette, 74 setting up, 107-108 installing with the driver update diskette, 76...
  • Page 178 Index...

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