Administrator Guide

Table 15. Disk Information panel
Panel Information displayed
Disk Information
Location, serial number, usage, description, size, status, revolutions per minute (spinning disk only), SSD life left,
manufacturer, model, firmware revision, power on hours, job status, FDE state, FDE lock key, job running, sector
format, transfer rate, SMART, drive spin down count, health
The following are descriptions of some Disk Information panel items:
• Power On Hours – Total number of hours that the disk has been powered on since it was manufactured. This value is updated in 30-
minute increments.
• FDE State – FDE state of the disk. For more information about FDE states, see the Dell EMC PowerVault ME4 Series Storage
System CLI Guide.
• FDE lock keys – FDE lock keys are generated from the FDE passphrase and manage locking and unlocking the FDE-capable disks in
the system. Clearing the lock keys and power cycling the system denies access to data on the disks.
Adding a disk group
You can create virtual or linear disk groups using specified disks through the Add Disk Group panel. You can also create read-cache disk
groups through this panel. When creating a disk group, you explicitly select the RAID level and individual disks and incorporate them into a
pool. All disks in a disk group must be the same type (enterprise SAS, for example). Disk groups support a mix of 512n and 512e disks.
However, for consistent and predictable performance, do not mix disks of different rotational speed or sector size types (512n, 512e). For
more information about disk groups, see About disk groups.
NOTE: After you create a disk group using one storage type, the system uses that storage type for additional disk
groups. To switch to the other storage type, you must first remove all disk groups. For more information, see Removing
disk groups.
Add Disk Group panel overview
The Add Disk Group panel displays different options based on the type of disk group you want to create and the data protection level
selected. There are three sections in the panel.
The top section provides options to name and define the disk group type, select the pool that it resides on, and choose its data protection
(RAID) level.
The middle section contains the Disk Selection Sets summary, which presents cumulative data for the disks that are selected for the disk
group. The section displays information about the data protection and disk type that is selected for the disk group, as well as the total
number of disks selected, the minimum and maximum number of disks allowed for the specified data protection level, the size of the disk
group (total capacity of all selected drives), and the Complete check box. The Complete check box indicates if the minimum number of
disks that are needed to configure the disk group have been selected, and automatically changes from to a . For dedicated spares, it
is always
, since selecting additional spares is optional.
As you select drives to add to the disk group, a color-coded bar graph displays the following:
• Disk group available capacity
• Dedicated overhead capacity (for data protection and array metadata)
• Wasted capacity
The bottom section lists the disks that are located within each enclosure in your system, along with their details. Add disks to the disk
group by doing one of the following:
• Select a range of disks within an enclosure by entering a comma-separated list that contains the enclosure number and disk range in
the Enter Range of Disks text box. Use the format enclosure-number.disk-range,enclosure-number.disk-range.
For example, to select disk 3-12 in enclosure 1 and disk 5-23 in enclosure 2, enter 1.3-12,2.5-23.
• Select all disks by selecting the Select All checkbox.
• Filter the disks in the list per disk type, enclosure ID, slot location, disk size, or health by entering applicable search criteria in the text
box. Clear the filter by clicking the Clear Filters button.
• Click individual disks within the table to select them and add them to the disk group.
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Working in the Pools topic