Users Guide

Drop-down Menu Battery Tasks:
l "Recondition Battery"
l "Start Learn Cycle"
l "Battery Delay Learn Cycle"
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Recondition Battery
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Does my controller support this feature? See "Supported Features."
Some controllers have NiMHi batteries which need to be reconditioned approximately every six months to maintain reliability. This reconditioning cycle requires
a full discharge and recharge of the battery. It ensures that the battery's capacity is being measured correctly and that the battery's full holdover time is
maintained. See "RAID Controller Batteries" for more information.
The controller battery should be reconditioned when either of the following occurs:
l The controller reports the battery state as Degraded. See "Battery Properties" for more information on the battery state.
l The controller generates event 2145 indicating that the battery needs reconditioning.
For information on Alert Messages, see the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Messages Reference Guide on the Dell Support website at
support.dell.com/manuals.
The battery recondition takes approximately 8 to 10 hours. During this time, the battery is fully discharged and recharged. The battery holdover time is
reduced to zero (during discharge) and then restored as the battery is fully charged. The write cache is disabled during the battery recondition resulting in
performance degradation.
Do the following to recondition the controller battery:
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1. Expand the Storage tree object to display the controller objects.
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2. Expand the controller object.
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3. Select the Battery object.
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4. Select Recondition Battery from the Available Tasks drop-down menu.
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5. Click Execute.
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Related information:
l "Battery Properties"
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Start Learn Cycle
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Does my controller support this feature? See "Supported Features."
Use the Start Learn Cycle task to initiate the battery Learn cycle.
The battery Learn cycle discharges and then fully charges the controller battery.
The Learn cycle recalibrates the battery integrated circuit so that the controller can determine whether the battery can maintain the controller cache for the
prescribed period of time in the event of a power loss. For example, some controller batteries are required to maintain the controller cache for 72 hours.
While the Learn cycle is in progress, the battery may not be able to maintain the cache during a power loss. If the controller is using write-back cache policy,
then the controller changes to write-through cache policy until the Learn cycle completes. The write-through cache policy writes the data directly to the disk
and reduces the risk that data can be lost in the cache if there is a power loss.
The controller firmware automatically initiates the Learn cycle every 90 days. You can, however, delay the start time of the Learn cycle for a further seven
days, after which the firmware automatically initiates the Learn cycle. For more information, see "Battery Delay Learn Cycle."
NOTE: The Recondition Battery task is only available on controllers with NiMHi batteries that are in Degraded state or that have generated alert 2145.
For information on Alert Messages, see the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Messages Reference Guide on the Dell Support website at
support.dell.com/manuals. Some controllers do not have batteries. Other controllers have lithium ion batteries which are automatically reconditioned and
therefore do not have a recondition task in Storage Management.
NOTE: If you have set the controller to write-back force cache policy, then the cache policy is not changed during the Learn cycle. When using write-back
force cache policy, it is possible for data loss to occur if there is a power loss while the Learn cycle is in progress.
NOTE: The Learn cycle cannot be performed while the battery is charging. If either a user or the controller firmware initiate the Learn cycle while the
battery is charging, then the battery Learn State displays Requested. When the battery is fully charged, the Learn cycle will begin.