Related Manuals for Dell PowerVault MD1000 SAS Solution
Summary of Contents for Dell PowerVault MD1000 SAS Solution
- Page 1 A Reference Guide for Optimizing the Dell™ PowerVault™ MD1000 SAS Solution Authored By: SAS Solution Team April, 2006 rev A01...
- Page 2 Microsoft Corporation. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell disclaims proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.
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Page 3: Table Of Contents
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................4 NTRODUCTION Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)..............................5 MD1000 SAS S .........6 ECOMMENDED AINTENANCE FOR YOUR OWER AULT OLUTION ’ SAS P .............................7 RODUCT FFERING SAS Cabling....................................8 Physical Drive Support ................................8 Party Hardware support..............................9... -
Page 4: Introduction
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 1. Introduction A complete enterprise storage solution involves various software and hardware components. A given storage project can be addressed using several approaches. Therefore, it is essential to identify optimum storage solutions for different applications. -
Page 5: Serial Attached Scsi (Sas)
– such as Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and PCI Express. In this paper, we will focus on Serial Attached SCSI storage technology, specifically for Dell’s PowerVault MD1000 storage expansion enclosure and Dell’s PERC 5/E RAID controller. Other storage technologies such as SCSI or Fibre Channel, as well as topologies such as Network Attached Storage (NAS) or Storage Area Network (SAN) are outside the scope of this document. -
Page 6: Recommended Maintenance For Your Dell Powervault Md1000 Sas Solution
2. Recommended Maintenance for your Dell PowerVault MD1000 SAS Solution Dell strives to provide the best possible customer experience for all of our enterprise server and storage products. Proper maintenance of your solution is essential to help ensure that the equipment remains in optimal working condition. -
Page 7: Dell's Sas Product Offering
Perform periodic physical inspection of your connections and cabling Damaged cables and loose connections may cause functional issues with your storage solution. Dell recommends a physical equipment audit two times a year or anytime after re-cabling or re- deploying your storage hardware. -
Page 8: Sas Cabling
3.0 Gbps SAS cables in 1m, 2m, and 4m cable lengths. Each cable supports x4 SAS connectors to deliver up to 12.0 Gbps of total bandwidth from the host to the enclosure. Only Dell- qualified cables are supported for connecting the PowerVault MD1000 storage enclosure to the PERC 5/E controller. -
Page 9: Rd Party Hardware Support
The main advantage of unified mode is that it provides a high degree of physical disk scalability. For a copy of our guarantees or limited warranties, please write Dell USA L.P., Attn: Warranties, One Dell Way, Round Rock, TX 78682. For more information, visit www.dell.com/warranty. -
Page 10: Split Topology
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 Split Topology In split mode, the enclosure is divided into two logical enclosures; with each host connection accessing its own set of physical disks. The primary Enclosure Management Module (EMM) (located on the left side of the enclosure when viewed from the rear), accesses physical disk slots 7 through 14. -
Page 11: Powervault Md1000 - Common Features And Capabilities
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 Figure 4: Max configuration on a single PERC 5/E controller port Figure 5: Max configuration on a single PERC 5/E controller (both ports connected) PowerVault MD1000 – Common Features and Capabilities Regardless of the topology, the PowerVault MD1000 storage enclosure provides a set of common features and capabilities. - Page 12 SCSI Enclosure Services (SES) The EMM continuously monitors environmental variables such as temperature and voltage. The PowerVault MD1000 storage enclosure works in conjunction with Dell OpenManage Server Administrator to set trigger thresholds that warn the user when these variables exceed safe operating levels.
- Page 13 Gbps SAS lanes in a single cable to deliver an aggregate of 12.0 Gbps connection. All PowerVault MD1000 SAS cables purchased from Dell have been tested and comply with the ANSI SAS 1.0 standard. Dell supports using only Dell-provided cables.
- Page 14 A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 Reliability Capabilities Thermal Reliability • A fully-redundant PowerVault MD1000 storage enclosure contains four digital temperature sensors, two on the backplane and one on each EMM. In conjunction with the SES processor, the temperature sensors provide device protection against adverse thermal conditions.
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Page 15: Perc 5/E Controller - Detailed Features
Background Patrol Read is an automatically scheduled background task that scans and resolves possible physical disk errors that may lead to physical disk failure and result in data integrity issues. Dell recommends implementing Background Patrol Read in all the configurations. - Page 16 RAID level is to be migrated is greater than or equal to the size of the physical disks in the existing virtual disk. Dell supports RAID level migration as follows:...
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Page 17: Capacity Requirements
PERC 5 controllers support virtual disks greater than 2 TB in size, but Dell recommends checking the capacity of the operating systems to support boot volumes of that capacity. - Page 18 A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 Table 2: PERC 5/E controller features Feature Comment 3Gbps SAS Technology Host Bus Interface x8 PCI Express Internal connectors External Connectors RAID Levels Supported 0, 1, 5, 10, 50...
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Page 19: Dell Openmanage Server Administrator
VER A00 6. Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Dell OpenManage Server Administrator is a management application for configuring PowerEdge servers. The Server Administrator’s configuration abilities for host-based RAID and non-RAID disk storage are of particular interest for this paper. The Server Administrator enables you to perform controller and enclosure functions from a single, graphical or command line interface. -
Page 20: Reconfiguring Virtual Disks -- Raid Migration And Capacity Expansion
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 Figure 6: Screenshot of Create Virtual Disk Advanced Wizard with Disk Selection Displayed The Create Virtual Disk Express and Create Virtual Disk Advanced wizards set the virtual disk initialization to “Fast Initialize” by default. After completing the creation of a virtual disk using the Express or Advanced wizard, the PERC 5/E controller implements the virtual disk configuration on the selected physical disks and completes a fast initialize. -
Page 21: Moving Physical Disks And Virtual Disk Configurations - Disk Roaming And Disk Migration
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 Table 3: Virtual disk reconfiguration on the PERC 5/E RAID controller PERC 5/Controller Target RAID Level Disk Requirements Starting RAID Level RAID 0 RAID 0 Add at least one additional disk... -
Page 22: Importing Migrated Virtual Disks
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 The following procedure describes how to migrate the physical disks from one controller to another: 1. Shut down the system from which the physical disks are being moved. 2. Shut down the server of the receiving controller if it does not have a preexisting virtual disk configuration. - Page 23 A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 Figure 7: Physical Disk with a Foreign State The Server Administrator displays the Import Foreign Configuration task when the controller detects a foreign configuration. If you have an incomplete foreign configuration which cannot be imported, using the Clear Foreign Configuration task, erases the foreign data on the physical disks.
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Page 24: Upgrading From Dell Openmanage Array Manager
Foreign Configuration Tasks Displayed Upgrading from Dell OpenManage Array Manager Dell has discontinued the release of Dell OpenManage Array Manager. Server Administrator is a replacement for Array Manager. Customers wishing to take advantage of SAS technology must upgrade their Array Manager installation to Server Administrator. Server Administrator also provides Linux support which was not offered with Array Manager. -
Page 25: Storage Applications And Components
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 SNMP Traps The architecture for handling SNMP traps and the Management Information Base (MIB) is different in Server Administrator than in Array Manager. You may need to modify the applications that are customized to receive SNMP traps from Array Manager. -
Page 26: Picking A Solution Based On The Application Profile
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 Picking a solution based on the application profile One of the most important factors to consider when selecting a storage solution is the type of application that will be utilizing the storage solution. This defines the overall purpose of the server/storage solution and will determine what RAID configuration will be optimal for the application. -
Page 27: Application Specific Guidelines
Concatenated This solution is not recommended due to lack of data protection and redundancy and no performance gain. Note: For more details on RAID configurations see the Dell ‘Getting Started with RAID’ document (http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/RAID/RAIDbk0.pdf) Application specific guidelines E-Mail Servers The storage requirements for e-mail servers can vary depending on the size, the amount, and the type of users. -
Page 28: Web Servers
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 Table 7: Email Sever RAID Guidelines RAID Level Application Concatenated E-Mail Recommended Not Recommended Possible Recommended: RAID 10 – Recommended for mission-critical e-mail servers where availability and • redundancy and/or performance are the highest priority and where reduced storage capacity is acceptable. -
Page 29: Database Or Online Transaction Processing Servers
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 Table 9: Web RAID Guidelines RAID Level Application Concatenated Database Recommended Not Recommended Possible Recommended: RAID 10 – Recommended for enterprise web server solutions where availability and • redundancy and performance are the highest priority, usually for stand-alone portal sites that are critical to the organization’s business. -
Page 30: File Servers
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 Table 11: OLTP RAID Guidelines RAID Level Application Concatenated OLTP Recommended Not Recommended Possible Recommended: RAID 10 – Since OLTP systems are critical for most business, this RAID configuration is •... - Page 31 A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 Table13: Archival File Server RAID Guidelines RAID Level Application Concatenated File - Archival Recommended Not Recommended Possible Recommended: RAID 10 – Recommended due to high availability, redundancy, and good performance.
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Page 32: Streaming Media Servers
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 Recommended: RAID 5 – Recommended for file servers that require maximum storage capacity and • moderate data protection and performance. RAID 50 – Recommended for those solutions that require a balance between storage •... -
Page 33: Hot Spares
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 RAID 50 – Recommended for those solutions that require a balance between storage • capacity and performance. This solution provides greater availability and redundancy but less storage capacity. RAID 0 – While not redundant, this solution may be useful for streaming media servers •... - Page 34 A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 Performance both availability provides capacity performance enable requirements for database and performance scalability Write back cache servers depend on number of users Performance RAID 0 in Web Split Topology...
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Page 35: Appendix - A: References
A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ MD1000 SAS SOLUTIONS VER A00 9. Appendix – A: References 1. SAS Protocol Specification (http://www.t10.org/drafts.htm#SCSI3_SAS) SFF-8470 Connector Specification (http://www.sffcommittee.com/ns/index.html) Beyond The 2-TB SCSI Logical Unit (http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/vectors/2004_2tblun.pdf) 10. Appendix – B: Glossary Array – Collection of multiple physical disks to form a single logical volume BBU –...