Users Guide

NOTE: Firmware update using DUP within an operating system (in-band) enters through the iDRAC as a staged operation.
Foreign import of VDs
A virtual disk is considered foreign if it is not native to the adapter.
● A virtual disk is considered native to the adapter if:
○ The virtual disk was created or imported on the adapter.
● A physical disk is considered native to the adapter if:
○ There is no previous virtual disk metadata on the adapter and the physical disk are unconfigured.
○ When the virtual disk corresponding to the physical disks is deleted
The system must be rebooted after performing foreign import.
To check for previous virtual disk metadata, see Controller Information. Only a virtual disk or physical disk native to the adapter
will be presented to the operating system.
Upon migrating two foreign drives to a controller, you must do either of the following:
● Clear the controller configuration if using unconfigured drives—Clear Controller Configuration.
● Import the virtual disk if using configured drives—Virtual Disk Import.
Detect a drive failure using SMART feature
SMART monitors certain physical aspects of the disk electronics to help detect predictable disk failures. Data on SMART-
compliant physical disks can be monitored to identify changes in values and determine whether the values are within the
threshold limits. Any electrical failures in the disk can cause degradation in the performance before failure.
A SMART failure is also referred to as a predicted failure. There are numerous factors that predict physical disk failures, such as
a read error rate, throughput performance, and changes in spin-up time. In addition, there are factors related to read/write
surface failure, such as seek error rate and excessive bad blocks.
NOTE: The BOSS-S2 CLI displays error messages with the status OK and NOT OK along with smart attributes.
Auto–rebuild a degraded drive
Auto–rebuild is enabled by default, and the rebuild can start automatically if the native virtual disk is degraded and a valid rebuild
target is present. A valid rebuild target is any functional drive attached to the BOSS-S2 device which is not part of the native
virtual disk and is of equal or greater storage capacity. An auto–rebuild occurs without prompting the user, and any data on the
rebuild target is overwritten.
NOTE: Auto–rebuild is applicable during drive replacement (hot–plug event).
Support of non–RAID drives
By default, all the drives are in an unconfigured state.
NOTE:
● For the BOSS-S2 card, unconfigured drives are automatically non–RAID drives. To convert RAID drives to non–RAID
drives, delete the virtual disk.
● The BOSS-S2 only supports one configured (RAID) and two unconfigured states. The BOSS-S2 card does not break
unconfigured drives into RAID and non–RAID states.
Features of BOSS-S2 15