Dell PowerEdge VRTX User Manual
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Dell PowerEdge VRTX User Manual

Shared poweredge raid controller (perc) 8 user's guide
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Dell Shared PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) 8
User's Guide

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Summary of Contents for Dell PowerEdge VRTX

  • Page 1 Dell Shared PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) 8 User’s Guide...
  • Page 2 CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem. WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. © 2013 Dell Inc. Trademarks used in this text: Dell , the Dell logo, Dell Boomi , Dell Precision , OptiPlex...

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    Contents 1 Overview............................5 ..........................6 Supported Operating Systems ............................7 Related Documentation ...........................7 Locating Your System Service Tag ................................. 7 Contacting Dell ............................7 Documentation Feedback 2 Shared PERC 8 Card Features....................9 ...........................9 Physical Disk Power Management ..............................9 Consistency Checks ............................9 Virtual Disk Initialization ......................9...
  • Page 4 ....21 Downloading Drivers From The Dell Systems Service And Diagnostic Tools Media For Windows .............. 22 Downloading Drivers From The Dell Support Website For Windows ..............22 Updating Existing Windows Server 2008 R2 Or Windows Server 2012 5 Management Applications For Shared PERC 8 Card............25 6 Troubleshooting.........................27...

  • Page 5: Overview

    Root Input Output Virtualization (SR-IOV). This feature allows multiple systems to share available hardware resources. In the PowerEdge VRTX system, the Shared PERC 8 card allows four server modules to access a local shared storage. Each server module's operating system loads a Virtual Function (VF) driver that allows the server module to communicate with the Shared PERC 8 firmware.

  • Page 6: Supported Operating Systems

    Specification Shared PERC 8 Card Capabilities Cache policies Write Back, Write Through, Adaptive Read Ahead, No Read Ahead, and Read Ahead Maximum number of spans per disk group Eight Maximum number of virtual disks per disk group Dedicated and global hot spares Hot swap devices supported Hardware XOR engine Virtual disk initialization;...

  • Page 7: Related Documentation

    Service Tag are found on the front of the system by pulling out the information tag. Alternatively, the information may be on a sticker on the chassis of the system. This information is used by Dell to route support calls to the appropriate personnel.

  • Page 9: Shared Perc 8 Card Features

    Consistency Check (CC) is a background operation that verifies and corrects the mirror or parity data for fault tolerant virtual disks. It is recommended that you periodically run a consistency check on virtual disks. You can manually start a CC in the Dell Chassis Management Controller (CMC). Dell Chassis Management Controller for Dell NOTE: For detailed navigation of the CMC for Shared PERC 8, see the PowerEdge VRTX User’s Guide at dell.com/esmmanuals.

  • Page 10: Full Initialization Of Virtual Disks

    Dell Chassis Management Controller for Dell NOTE: For detailed navigation of the CMC for Shared PERC 8, see the PowerEdge VRTX User’s Guide at dell.com/esmmanuals. NOTE: If the system reboots during a full initialization, the operation terminates and a BGI begins on the virtual disk.

  • Page 11: Fastpath

    FastPath FastPath is a feature that improves application performance by delivering high I/O per second (IOPS). The Shared PERC 8 card supports FastPath in non-VMware systems. FastPath is a further enhancement of the Cut Through IO (CTIO) feature, introduced in earlier PERC cards. FastPath is used to accelerate I/O performance by reducing the I/O processing overhead of the firmware.

  • Page 12: Migrating Virtual Disks

    The Shared PERC 8 cards manage data in the cache independently of the operating system or any applications. NOTE: Use the Dell Chassis Management Controller (CMC) to view and manage virtual disk cache settings. Write-Back 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 13: Virtual Disk Read Cache Policies

    Conditions Under Which Write-Back Is Employed Write-Back caching is used under all conditions in which the battery is present and in good condition. Conditions Under Which Forced Write-Back With No Battery Is Employed CAUTION: It is recommended that you use a power backup system when forcing Write-Back to ensure there is no loss of data if the system loses power.

  • Page 14: Patrol Read

    The Patrol Read feature is designed as a preventive measure to ensure physical disk health and data integrity. Patrol Read scans for and resolves potential problems on configured physical disks. The Dell Chassis Management Controller (CMC) can be used to start and control the features of Patrol Read.

  • Page 15: Controller Cache Preservation

    Ensure all online physical disks are still connected. Access the Dell Chassis Management Controller (CMC) to discard pinned cache. If you do not see the Discard Pinned Cache option, it indicates that all preserved cache data is written to the disks successfully.
  • Page 16 TLC Time Frame The time frame for completion of a learn cycle is a function of the battery charge capacity and the discharge and charge currents used. For Shared PERC 8 card, the expected time frame for completion of a learn cycle is approximately seven hours.

  • Page 17: Deploying The Shared Perc 8 Card

    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 system.

  • Page 18: Installing The Shared Perc 8 Controller

    Figure 1. Removing and Installing the Shared PERC 8 Controller 1. release lever (2) 6. touch points (2) 2. storage-controller card holder 7. storage-controller card connector on the system board 3. storage controller card 8. guide pins (2) 4. battery 5.
  • Page 19 Reconnect the system to its electrical outlet and turn the system on, including any attached peripherals.

  • Page 21: Driver Installation

    Driver Installation The Dell Shared PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) 8 card requires software drivers to operate with the supported operating systems. This chapter contains the procedures for installing the drivers for the Shared PERC 8 card. NOTE: For more information on VMware ESX drivers, see the VMware ESX documentation at www.dell.com/ virtualizationsolutions.

  • Page 22: Downloading Drivers From The Dell Support Website For Windows

    Downloading Drivers From The Dell Support Website For Windows To download drivers from the Dell support website: Go to dell.com/support. Select your line of business. In the Popular support tools section, click Drivers and Downloads. Enter the service tag of your system in the Choose by Service Tag to get started field or select Choose from a list of all Dell products.
  • Page 23 NOTE: Dell provides the Dell Update Package (DUP) to update drivers on systems running Windows Server 2012 or Window Server 2008/2008 R2 operating systems. DUP is an executable application that updates drivers for specific devices. DUP supports command line interface and silent execution. For more information,...

  • Page 25: Management Applications For Shared Perc 8 Card

    Provide online maintenance through a web interface or Command Line Interface (CLI) NOTE: Dell OpenManage Storage Management, BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <L>), or Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) RAID Configuration Utility does not support the Shared PERC 8 and may only be used to manage non-shared PERC cards.

  • Page 27: Troubleshooting

    Troubleshooting To get help with your Dell Shared PowerEdge RAID Controller Shared (PERC) 8, you can contact your Dell Technical Service representative or see dell.com/support. Controller Boots Into Safe Mode In the event of some failure conditions encountered at boot, Shared PERC 8 boots up with restricted capability in safe mode without user intervention.

  • Page 28: Performance

    Issue: The device does not appear in the Device Manager. Corrective In the Dell Chassis Management Controller (CMC) application, verify if the Shared PERC 8 is Action: correctly mapped to the desired server module. For more information on assigning Virtual...

  • Page 29: Fatal Error Or Data Corruption Reported

    Shared PERC 8 to the latest firmware available on dell.com/support. NOTE: For the Dell Update Package (DUP), update of the hard drive after it reports completed and perform a graceful shutdown of all server modules and power cycle the chassis.

  • Page 30: Virtual Disk Fails During Rebuild Using A Global Hot Spare

    NOTE: For information about where to find reports of SMART errors that can indicate hardware failure, see the Dell Chassis Management Controller for Dell PowerEdge VRTX User’s Guide at dell.com/esmmanuals. SMART Error Detected On A Physical Disk In A Redundant Virtual Disk Issue: A SMART error is detected on a physical disk in a redundant virtual disk.

  • Page 31: Smart Error Detected On A Physical Disk In A Non-Redundant Virtual Disk

    4. Delete the failed virtual disk and recreate the virtual disk with the same members. Dell Chassis NOTE: For information on creating and deleting virtual disks, see the Management Controller for Dell PowerEdge VRTX User’s Guide at dell.com/ esmmanuals. 5. Restore from the backup.

  • Page 32: General Disk Fails

    General Disk Fails Issue: A general disk fails. Description: If the target disk fails and the Auto Replacement Member operation terminates but the source data is still available, then the Auto Replacement Member operation continues as Auto Replacement Member. Disk Carrier LED Indicators The LED on the physical disk carrier indicates the state of each physical disk.

  • Page 33: Appendix: Raid Description

    Appendix: 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. CAUTION: In the event of a physical disk failure, a RAID 0 virtual disk fails, resulting in data loss. A RAID disk subsystem offers the following benefits: •...

  • Page 34: Disk Mirroring

    For example, in a four-disk system using only disk striping (used in RAID 0), segment 1 is written to disk 1, segment 2 is written to disk 2, and so on. Disk striping enhances performance because multiple physical disks are accessed simultaneously, but disk striping does not provide data redundancy.
  • Page 35 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. Parity provides redundancy for one physical disk failure without duplicating the contents of the entire physical disks.

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