Users Guide

○ 4K — indicates that the 4K block size hard disk drives (HDD) are selected. 4K block HDDs allow the faster data transfer
with fewer commands.
● T10 Protection Information (T10 PI) Capability— It is known as DIF (Data Integrity Fields) and the supporting HDDs are
referred to DIF drives. The T10 enabled HDDs validates and stores the data integrity fields for each block. It performs this
action when you write the data on the disk and return these values on a read request. When you read or write the data from
the HDD, the data is checked for the errors. Select one of the following types of T10 protection information capabilities:
○ All — indicates that both the T10 PI capable and non-capable HDDs are selected.
○ T10 PI Capable — indicates that only T10 PI capable HDDs are selected.
○ Non-T10 Capable — indicates that only non-T10 capable HDDs are selected.
NOTE: PERC 9 with version 9.3.2 and above doesn’t support T10 PI capabilities.
●
Encryption Capability — Select Yes to enable encryption capability.
● Select Span Length — Select the span length. The span length value refers to the number of physical disk drives included
in each span. Span length applies only to RAID 10, RAID 50, and RAID 60. The Select Span Length drop‑down list is active
only if you have selected RAID 10, RAID 50, or RAID 60.
● Drives remaining for current span — Displays the number of physical disk-drives remaining in the current span based on
the span length value selected.
● Select the physical disk-drives using the check boxes at the bottom of the screen. The physical disk-drive selection must
meet the requirements of the RAID level and span length. To select all the physical disk-drives, click Select All. After you
select the option, the option changes to Deselect.
Setting virtual disk attributes
Use this page to specify the values for the following virtual drive attributes:
● Size — Specify the size of the virtual drive.
● Stripe Element Size — Select the stripe element size. The stripe element size is the amount of drive space a stripe
consumes on each physical-disk drive in the stripe. The Stripe Element Size list may contain more options than initially
displayed on the screen. Use the up arrow and down arrow keys to view all available options.
● Read Policy — Select the read policy:
○ Read Ahead — The controller reads sequential sectors of the virtual drives when seeking data. The Read Ahead policy
may improve system performance if the data is written to sequential sectors of the virtual drives.
○ No Read Ahead — The controller does not use the Read Ahead policy. The No Read Ahead policy may improve system
performance, if the data is random and not written to sequential sectors.
○ Adaptive Read Ahead — The controller initiates the Read Ahead policy only if the most-recently-read requests
accessed sequential sectors of the disk drive. If the most-recently-read requests access random sectors of the disk
drive, then the controller uses the No Read Ahead policy.
● Write Policy — Select the write policy.
○ Write Through — The controller sends a write-request-completion signal only after the data is written to the disk drive.
The Write Through policy provides better data security than the Write Back policy, because the system assumes that the
data is available only after it has been written to the disk drive.
○ Write Back — The controller sends a write-request completion signal as soon as the data is in the controller cache, but
has not yet been written to the disk drive. The Write Back policy may provide faster 'write' performance, but it provides
less data security, because a system failure can prevent the data from being written to the disk drive.
○ Force Write Back — The write cache is enabled regardless of whether the controller has an operational battery. If the
controller does not have an operational battery, data loss may occur in the event of a power failure.
● Disk Cache Policy— Select the write policy.
○ Enabled — The controller enables physical disk cache setting while creating virtual disks.
○ Disabled —The controller disables physical disk cache setting while creating virtual disks.
● Assign a Hot Spare Disk if available — Select this option to assign a hot spare to the virtual drive. A hot spare is an
unused backup physical disk drive that is used to rebuild data from a redundant virtual drive. A hot spare can be used only
with a redundant RAID level. Hot spares also have physical disk-drive size requirements. The hot spare must be as large as
or bigger than the smallest physical disk-drive included in the virtual drive. If the RAID level and physical disk-drive availability
do not meet these requirements, a hot spare is not assigned.
NOTE:
Assign a hot spare only from disk drives populated across slots 0–3 of the system. For slot information, see the
PowerEdge Owner's manual at https://www.dell.com/poweredgemanuals.
● Hot Spare Disk — Select a disk that is used as a hot spare. Only one dedicated hot spare is supported in Lifecycle
Controller.
● Secure Virtual Disk — Select to secure the virtual drive using the controller’s security key.
Configure
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