Users Guide

Support For PERC 9 Hardware Controllers

The PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) family of enterprise-class controllers is designed for enhanced performance, increased reliability

and fault tolerance, and simplified management — providing a powerful, easy-to-manage way to create a robust infrastructure and help

maximize server uptime. The introduction of the PERC 9 family of hardware controllers also brings about improvements in storage

solutions.

The new PERC 9 family of hardware controllers support the following storage enhancements:

• Support For RAID Level 10 Virtual Disk On PERC 9 Hardware Controller

• Support For Advanced Format 4KB Sector Hard-Disk Drives

• T10 Standard Protection Information (PI) - Data Integrity Field

NOTE: The order of the controllers displayed on Storage Management may differ with the order of the controllers

displayed in the Human Interface (HII) and PERC Option ROM. The order of the controllers does not cause any

limitation.

Topics:

• Support For RAID Level 10 Virtual Disk Creation On PERC 9 Hardware Controller

• Support For Advanced Format 4KB Sector Hard-Disk Drives

• T10 Standard Protection Information (PI) — Data Integrity Field

Support For RAID Level 10 Virtual Disk Creation On

PERC 9 Hardware Controller

RAID Level 10 is a solution for users who require high performance and redundancy with quickest recovery during drive failure. Though a

RAID Level 10 setup is more expensive to maintain, it has several benefits as it combines the properties of RAID Level 1 and RAID Level 0.

RAID Level 10 virtual disk creations with PERC 9 hardware controllers support Uneven Span feature. When you create RAID Level 10

virtual disks with PERC 9 hardware controller the firmware suggests the preferred span layout for the setup.

NOTE:

A minimum of 4 physical disks and a maximum of 256 physical disks are allowed for a RAID Level 10 virtual disk

setup with PERC 9 hardware controllers.

You can create RAID Level 10 Virtual Disk on PERC 9 hardware controllers using the following Wizards :

• Express Wizard

• Advanced Wizard

NOTE:

The procedure for creating virtual disks on PERC 9 hardware controllers is the same as other PERC hardware

controllers.

Related Tasks

• Create Virtual Disk Express Wizard

• Create Virtual Disk Advanced Wizard

RAID Level 10 Virtual Disk Creation With Uneven Span

RAID Level 10 virtual disk creation with uneven span feature is available on Storage Management User Interface (UI) and Command Line

Interface (CLI). For information on Storage Management CLI, see Server Administrator Command Line Interface Guide.

• Based on the minimum (and even) number of physical disks selection the firmware on the PERC 9 hardware controller recommends

the preferred span layout.

NOTE:

RAID Level 10 virtual disk creation command from Storage Management CLI does not support optional

parameter [spanlength=<n>] on PERC 9 hardware controllers.

Support For PERC 9 Hardware Controllers 79