Users Guide

Support For PERC 9 and PERC 10 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 and PERC 10 family of hardware controllers also brings about improvements in

storage solutions.

The new PERC 9 and PERC 10 family of hardware controllers support the following storage enhancements:

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

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

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 and PERC 10 Hardware Controllers

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

Support For RAID Level 10 Virtual Disk Creation On

PERC 9 and PERC 10 Hardware Controllers

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 and PERC 10 hardware controllers support Uneven Span feature. When you create RAID

Level 10 virtual disks with PERC 9 and PERC 10 hardware controllers 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 and PERC 10 hardware controllers.

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

• Express Wizard

• Advanced Wizard

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 and later of 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 on PERC 9 and PERC 10 hardware controllers.

• The Advanced Wizard does not provide the option to select span length for RAID Level 10 virtual disk creation on PERC 9 and later

of hardware controllers.

74 Support For PERC 9 and PERC 10 Hardware Controllers