User guide

Maintenance Best Practices for Direct-Attached SCSI Solutions
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1.0 Revision History.
Date Revision Explanation of Changes
02/25/04 0.1 Initial draft
04/19/04 0.2 Adding Core Team Input.
05/11/04 0.3 Format rewrite
05/20/04 0.4 Format Changes, adding cabling best practice, and bus mode
comments
05/25/04 0.5 Adding Core Team Input.
05/25/04 1.0 Official Release.
2.0 Introduction.
Objective and Scope: This document is intended to provide insight into the best practices
for routine maintenance of direct attached SCSI disk systems. This document is not
intended for addressing or recommending the type or size of arrays for specific applications
the user may encounter. These maintenance best practices are recommended to all Dell
Enterprise customers to avoid failures, downtime, and data loss. The use of these practices
will ensure a better customer experience through maintaining the integrity of data and
minimizing the costs of downtime.
The practices which will be discussed are as follows:
• Cabling Practices
• Maintenance of Arrays
• Maintenance of software/firmware stack
• Reconditioning of RAID controller battery
• Recovery of Arrays