Users Guide
Table Of Contents
- Dell EMC Server Administrator Storage Management 9.4 User’s Guide
- Contents
- Overview
- Getting Started
- Understanding RAID concepts
- RAID
- Organizing Data Storage For Availability And Performance
- Choosing RAID Levels And Concatenation
- Concatenation
- RAID level 0 - striping
- RAID level 1 - mirroring
- RAID level 5 -striping with distributed parity
- RAID level 6 - striping with additional distributed parity
- RAID level 50 - striping over RAID 5 sets
- RAID level 60 - striping over RAID 6 sets
- RAID level 10 - striped-mirrors
- RAID Level 1- Concatenated Mirror
- Comparing RAID Level And Concatenation Performance
- No-RAID
- Quick Access To Storage Status And Tasks
- PCI Express Solid-State Device Support
- PCIe SSD
- PCIe SSD Features
- PCIe SSD Subsystem Properties
- PCIe Extender Cards
- Physical Device Properties
- Physical Device Tasks
- PCIe SSD In Slot Card Tasks
- PCIe SSD In Slot Card Properties
- PCIe SSD In Slot Card Tasks
- Exporting The Log For A PCIe SSD In Slot Card
- To Locate Export Log In Storage Management For NVMe PCIe SSDs
- PCIe SSD Subsystem Health
- Storage Information And Global Tasks
- Controllers
- Controller
- RAID Controller Technology - SATA And SAS
- RAID Controller Features
- Controller — Supported RAID Levels
- Controller — Supported Stripe Sizes
- RAID Controller Read, Write, and Disk Cache Policy
- Background Initialization On PERC Controllers
- Non-RAID Controller Description
- Firmware Or Driver Versions
- Controller Health
- Controllers Properties And Tasks
- Controller Tasks
- Creating A Virtual Disk
- Enabling The Controller Alarm
- Disabling The Controller Alarm
- Turning Off The Controller Alarm
- Testing The Controller Alarm
- Setting The Rebuild Rate
- Resetting The Controller Configuration
- Exporting The Controller Log File
- Foreign Configuration Operations
- Importing Foreign Configurations
- Importing Or Recovering Foreign Configurations
- Clearing Foreign Configuration
- Physical Disks In Foreign Virtual Disks
- Setting Background Initialization Rate
- Setting The Check Consistency Rate
- Setting The Reconstruct Rate
- Setting The Patrol Read Mode
- Starting And Stopping Patrol Read
- Changing The Controller Properties
- Managing The Physical Disk Power
- Properties In Manage Physical Disk Power Option
- Physical Disk Power On Unconfigured Drives And Hot Spares
- Managing Physical Disk Power Using The Customized Power Savings Mode
- Managing Physical Disk Power Using The QoS Option
- Managing The Time Interval For The QoS Option
- To Locate Manage Physical Disk Power In Storage Management
- Managing The Preserved Cache
- Encryption Key
- Converting To Non-RAID Disks
- Converting To RAID Capable Disks
- Changing The Controller Mode
- Auto Configure RAID0 Operation
- System Configuration Lock Down Mode
- Global Tasks Supported When System Configuration Lock Down Mode Is On
- Controller Tasks Supported When System Configuration Lock Down Mode Is On
- Controller Reports Supported When System Configuration Lock Down Mode Is On
- Physical Disk Tasks Supported When System Configuration Lock Down Mode Is On
- Virtual Disk Tasks Supported When System Configuration Lock Down Mode Is On
- Viewing Available Reports
- Support For PERC 9 and PERC 10 Hardware Controllers
- Support for BOSS-S1 RAID Controllers
- Enclosures And Backplanes
- Backplanes
- Enclosures
- MX5016s
- Enclosure Physical Disks
- Enclosure Fans
- Fan Properties
- Enclosure Power Supplies
- Power Supply Properties
- Enclosure Temperature Probes
- Enclosure Management Modules
- Enclosure And Backplane Health
- Enclosure And Backplane Properties And Tasks
- Enclosure And Backplane Properties And Tasks
- Enclosure Management
- Identifying An Open Connector On The Enclosure
- Enclosure Components
- Connectors
- Tape Drive
- RAID Controller Batteries
- Physical Disks Or Physical Devices
- Guidelines To Replace A Physical Disk Or Physical Device
- Adding A New Disk To The System
- Replacing A Physical Disk Receiving SMART Alerts
- Other Disk Procedures
- Physical Disk Or Physical Device Properties
- Physical Disk Or Physical Device Tasks
- Physical Disk Tasks
- Blinking And Unblinking A Physical Disk
- Removing Dead Segments
- Preparing To Remove
- Rebuilding Data
- Canceling A Rebuild
- Assigning And Unassigning Global Hot Spare
- Setting The Physical Disk Online Or Offline
- Performing A Clear Physical Disk And Cancel Clear
- Enabling Revertible Hot Spare
- Performing Cryptographic Erase
- Convert To RAID Capable Disk
- Convert To Non-RAID Disk
- Virtual Disks
- Considerations Before Creating Virtual Disks
- Virtual Disk Considerations For Controllers
- Considerations For Hot Spares On PERC S100 And PERC S300 Controllers
- Virtual Disk Considerations On Systems Running Linux
- Number Of Physical Disks Per Virtual Disk
- Number Of Virtual Disks Per Controller
- Calculation For Maximum Virtual Disk Size
- Channel-Redundant Virtual Disks
- Creating Virtual Disks
- Reconfiguring Or Migrating Virtual Disks
- Starting And Target RAID Levels For Virtual Disk Reconfiguration And Capacity Expansion
- Maintaining The Integrity Of Redundant Virtual Disks
- Rebuilding Redundant Information
- Managing Virtual Disk Bad Block Management
- Recommendations For Clearing Bad Blocks
- Virtual Disk Properties And Tasks
- Virtual Disk — Available Tasks
- Reconfiguring A Virtual Disk
- Format, Initialize, Slow, And Fast Initialize
- Canceling Background Initialization
- Restoring Dead Segments
- Deleting Data On the Virtual Disk
- Performing A Check Consistency
- Cancelling A Check Consistency
- Pausing A Check Consistency
- Resuming A Check Consistency
- Blinking And Unblinking A Virtual Disk
- Renaming A Virtual Disk
- Canceling A Rebuild
- Changing The Virtual Disk Policy
- Replacing A Member Disk
- Clearing Virtual Disk Bad Blocks
- Encrypting A Virtual Disk
- Create Virtual Disk Express Wizard
- Create Virtual Disk Express Wizard Step 2
- Create Virtual Disk Advanced Wizard
- Create Virtual Disk Advanced Wizard Step 2
- Create Virtual Disk Advanced Wizard Step 3
- Span Edit
- To Reconfigure A Virtual Disk - Step 1 of 3
- To locate Reconfigure In Storage Management
- Virtual Disk Task - Reconfigure Step 2 of 3
- To Reconfigure A Virtual Disk Expand Virtual Disk Capacity - Step 2 of 3
- Virtual Disk Task - Reconfigure Step 3 of 3
- Slow And Fast Initialize
- Formatting Or Initializing A Disk
- Deleting A Virtual Disk
- Renaming A Virtual Disk
- Changing The Policy Of A Virtual Disk
- Split Mirror
- Unmirror
- Assigning And Unassigning Dedicated Hot Spare
- Virtual Disk Task - Replace Member Disk Step 1 of 2
- Virtual Disk Task - Replace Member Disk Step 2 of 2
- Considerations Before Creating Virtual Disks
- Moving Physical And Virtual Disks From One System To Another
- Protecting Your Virtual Disk With A Hot Spare
- Troubleshooting
- Common Troubleshooting Procedures
- Virtual Disk Troubleshooting
- A Rebuild Does Not Work
- A Rebuild Completes With Errors
- Cannot Create A Virtual Disk
- A Virtual Disk Of Minimum Size Is Not Visible To Windows Disk Management
- Virtual Disk Errors On Systems Running Linux
- Problems Associated With Using The Same Physical Disks For Both Redundant And Non-Redundant Virtual Disks
- Specific Problem Situations And Solutions
- Physical Disk Is Offline Or Displays An Error Status
- Receive A Bad Block Alert With Replacement, Sense, Or Medium Error
- Alerts 2146 Through 2150 Received During A Rebuild Or While A Virtual Disk Is Degraded
- Alerts 2146 Through 2150 Received While Performing IO, Consistency Check, Format, Or Other Operation
- Read And Write Operations Experience Problems
- A Task Menu Option Is Not Displayed
- A Corrupt Disk Or Drive Message Suggests Running Autocheck During A Reboot
- Erroneous Status And Error Messages After A Windows Hibernation
- Storage Management May Delay Before Updating Temperature Probe Status
- Storage Management May Delay Displaying Storage Devices After Reboot
- You Are Unable To Log Into A Remote System
- Cannot Connect To Remote System Running Microsoft Windows Server 2003
- Reconfiguring A Virtual Disk Displays Error In Mozilla Browser
- Physical Disks Are Displayed Under The Connector Object Instead Of The Enclosure Object
- PCIe SSD Troubleshooting
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Supported Features
- Supported Features On PERC Hardware Controllers
- Controller Tasks Supported On PERC Hardware Controllers
- Battery Tasks Supported On PERC Hardware Controllers
- Connector Tasks Supported By PERC Hardware Controllers
- Physical Disk Tasks Supported By PERC Hardware Controllers
- Virtual Disk Tasks Supported By PERC Hardware Controllers
- Virtual Disk Specifications For PERC Hardware Controllers
- RAID Levels Supported By PERC Hardware Controllers
- Read, Write, Cache And Disk Cache Policy Supported By PERC Hardware Controllers
- Supported Features On The PERC Software RAID Controllers
- Controller Tasks Supported On The PERC Software RAID Controllers
- Physical Disk Tasks Supported By The PERC Software RAID Controllers
- Virtual Disk Tasks Supported By The PERC Software Controllers
- Virtual Disk Specifications For PERC Software RAID Controllers
- RAID Levels Supported By The PERC Software RAID Controllers
- Read Write Cache And Disk Cache Policy Supported By The PERC Software RAID Controllers
- Enclosure Support On The PERC Software RAID Controllers
- Determining The Health Status For Storage Components
- Health Status Rollup - Battery Is Charging Or Dead
- Health Status Rollup - Physical Disks In A Virtual Disk Are Failed Or Removed
- Health Status Rollup - Physical Disks In A Virtual Disk Are Unsupported, Partially, Or Permanently Degraded
- Health Status Rollup - All Physical Disks In A Virtual Disk Are In Foreign State
- Health Status Rollup - Some Physical Disks In A Virtual Disk Are In Foreign State
- Health Status Rollup - Virtual Disk Is Degraded, Physical Disks Are Failed Or Rebuilding
- Health Status Rollup - Virtual Disk Is Failed
- Health Status Rollup - Unsupported Firmware Version
- Health Status Rollup - Enclosure Power Supply Failed Or Power Connection Removed
- Health Status Rollup - One Enclosure EMM Is Failed
- Health Status Rollup - Lost Both Power Connections To The Enclosure
- Health Status Rollup - One Or More Physical Disks Are Failed
- Health Status Rollup - Physical Disk Is Rebuilding
- Identifying the series of your Dell EMC PowerEdge servers
Number Of Virtual Disks Per Controller
There are limitations on the number of virtual disks that can be created on the controller. For information about the maximum
number of virtual disks supported by a controller, see the virtual disk specifications for the controller in Supported Features.
Calculation For Maximum Virtual Disk Size
The Create Virtual Disk Express Wizard displays the minimum and maximum values for the virtual disk size. This section
describes how the maximum possible size for the virtual disk is calculated based on the controller type. To identify the controller
type, see RAID Controller Technology: SATA and SAS.
SATA RAID Controllers
When using a SATA RAID controller, the controller calculates the maximum virtual disk size based on your RAID level selection
and the available physical disk space provided by all suitable physical disks attached to the controller. For example, if the
controller contains 12 physical disks with available space and you have specified a RAID 5, then the controller calculates the
maximum virtual disk size based on the disk space provided by the 12 physical disks, because the 12 physical disks can be
included in a RAID 5.
NOTE: SATA RAID does not support disks from MX5016s.
SAS RAID Controllers
When using a SAS controller, the controller calculates the maximum virtual disk size based on the available disk space provided
by the minimum number of physical disks required to create the RAID level you selected. For example, if you specified a RAID 5,
then the controller calculates the maximum virtual disk size based on three physical disks, because only three physical disks are
required to create a RAID 5.
Channel-Redundant Virtual Disks
When creating a virtual disk, it is possible to use disks attached to different channels to implement channel redundancy. This
configuration might be used for disks that reside in enclosures subject to thermal shutdown.
NOTE:
Channel redundancy only applies to controllers that have more than one channel and that attach to an external disk
enclosure.
Creating Virtual Disks
Does my controller support this feature? See Supported Features.
WARNING:
There is an automatic initialization in the background which starts and if there are some user data it
will be erased.
In order to implement RAID functions, you must create a virtual disk. A virtual disk refers to storage created by a RAID controller
from one or more physical disks. Although a virtual disk may be created from several physical disks, it is seen by the operating
system as a single disk.
Before creating a virtual disk, you should be familiar with the information in Considerations Before Creating Virtual Disks.
Storage Management provides wizards to help you create a virtual disk:
● The Create Virtual Disk Express Wizard calculates an appropriate virtual disk layout based on the available space and
controller considerations. Using this wizard, you can quickly create a virtual disk using recommended selections.
● The Create Virtual Disk Advanced Wizard allows you to specify the read, write, and cache policy for the virtual disk. You
can also select the physical disks and the controller connector to be used. You need a good knowledge of RAID levels and
hardware to use the advanced wizard.
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Virtual Disks