Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 1 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller (PERC) 6/i, PERC 6/E and CERC 6/i User’s Guide w w w. d e l l . c o m | s u p p o r t . d e l l .
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 2 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Notes, Cautions, and Warnings NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your system. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates potential damage to hardware or loss of data if instructions are not followed. WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. ____________________ Information in this document is subject to change without notice. © 2007–2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 3 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Contents 1 WARNING: Safety Instructions . . . . . . . . 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 SAFETY: When Working Inside Your System . . . . . . 12 Protecting Against Electrostatic Discharge . . . . . . 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 SAFETY: General SAFETY: Battery Disposal 2 Overview PERC 6 and CERC 6/i Controller Descriptions . PCI Architecture . . . . .
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 4 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Initializing Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Background Initialization . 25 . . . . . . . . . . 26 Full Initialization of Virtual Disks Fast Initialization of Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . 26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Disk Roaming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Disk Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 5 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Redundant Path With Static Load Balancing Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using Replace Member and Revertible Hot Spares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Patrol Read Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Patrol Read Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Patrol Read . 4 37 Installing and Configuring Hardware . . . 41 . . . . .
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 6 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 5 Driver Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Installing Windows Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Creating the Driver Media Pre-Installation Requirements Installing the Driver During a Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP Operating System Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . Installing the Driver During a Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista Installation . . . . . .
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 7 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 6 Configuring and Managing RAID . . . . . . . 77 . . . . . . . 77 . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Dell OpenManage Storage Management . Dell SAS RAID Storage Manager RAID Configuration Functions . BIOS Configuration Utility . Entering the BIOS Configuration Utility . Exiting the Configuration Utility . 79 . . . . . . . . . . 80 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 . . . . . . . .
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 8 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Replacing an Online Physical Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Performing a Manual Rebuild of an Individual Physical Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Controller Management Enabling Boot Support Enabling BIOS Stop on Error Restoring Factory Default Settings . 7 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . 111 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 9 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM A Regulatory Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 B Corporate Contact Details (Taiwan Only) 135 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 11 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM WARNING: Safety Instructions Use the following safety guidelines to help ensure your own personal safety and to help protect your system and working environment from potential damage. WARNING: There is a danger of a new battery exploding if it is incorrectly installed. Replace the battery only with the same or equivalent type recommended by the manufacturer. See "SAFETY: Battery Disposal" on page 14. NOTE: For complete information about U.S.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 12 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM • Operate the product only from the type of external power source indicated on the electrical ratings label. If you are not sure of the type of power source required, consult your service provider or local power company. • Handle batteries carefully. Do not disassemble, crush, puncture, short external contacts, dispose of in fire or water, or expose batteries to temperatures higher than 60° Celsius (140° Fahrenheit).
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 13 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM In addition, note these safety guidelines when appropriate: • When you disconnect a cable, pull on its connector or on its strain-relief loop, not on the cable itself. Some cables have a connector with locking tabs. If you are disconnecting this type of cable, press in on the locking tabs before disconnecting the cable. As you pull connectors apart, keep them evenly aligned to avoid bending any connector pins.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 14 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM You can also take the following steps to prevent damage from electrostatic discharge: • When unpacking a static-sensitive component from its shipping carton, do not remove the component from the antistatic packing material until you are ready to install the component. Just before unwrapping the antistatic package, be sure to discharge static electricity from your body.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 15 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Overview The Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller (PERC) 6 family of controllers and the Dell Cost-Effective RAID Controller (CERC) 6/i offer redundant array of independent disks (RAID) control capabilities. The PERC 6 and CERC 6/i Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) RAID controllers only support Dell-qualified SAS and SATA hard disk drives (HDD) and solid-state drives (SSD).
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 16 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Operating System Support The PERC 6 and CERC 6/i controllers support the following operating systems: • Citrix® XenServer® Dell Edition • Microsoft® Windows Server® 2003 • Microsoft Windows® XP • Microsoft Windows Vista® • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (including Hyper-V™ virtualization) • Novell® NetWare® 6.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 17 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Summary of RAID Levels • RAID 0 uses disk striping to provide high data throughput, especially for large files in an environment that requires no data redundancy. • RAID 1 uses disk mirroring so that data written to one physical disk is simultaneously written to another physical disk. RAID 1 is good for small databases or other applications that require small capacity, but also require complete data redundancy.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 18 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM For example, in a four-disk system using only disk striping (used in RAID 0), segment 1 is written to disk 1, segment 2 is written to disk 2, and so on. Disk striping enhances performance because multiple physical disks are accessed simultaneously, but disk striping does not provide data redundancy. Figure 2-1 shows an example of disk striping. Figure 2-1.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 19 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Figure 2-2 shows an example of disk mirroring. Figure 2-2. Example of Disk Mirroring (RAID 1) Stripe element 1 Stripe element 2 Stripe element 3 Stripe element 4 Stripe element 1 Duplicated Stripe element 2 Duplicated Stripe element 3 Duplicated Stripe element 4 Duplicated Spanned RAID Levels Spanning is a term used to describe the way in which RAID levels 10, 50, and 60 are constructed from multiple sets of basic, or simple RAID levels.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 20 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Figure 2-3.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 21 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM About PERC 6 and CERC 6/i Controllers This section describes the features of the Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller (PERC) 6 and the Dell Cost-Effective RAID Controller (CERC) 6/i such as the configuration options, disk array performance, RAID management utilities, and operating system software drivers.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 22 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 3-1. PERC 6 and CERC 6/i Controller Comparisons (continued) Specification PERC 6/E Adapter PERC 6/i Adapter PERC 6/i Integrated CERC 6/i Integrated Battery Backup Unit Yes, Transportable Yesb Yes No Cache Memory 256-MB DDRII cache memory size.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 23 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 3-1.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 24 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 3-1. PERC 6 and CERC 6/i Controller Comparisons (continued) Specification PERC 6/E Adapter PERC 6/i Adapter PERC 6/i Integrated CERC 6/i Integrated Revertible Hot Spares Supported Yes Yes Yes Yes Redundant Path Support Yes N/A N/A N/A a. b. c. These RAID configurations are only supported on select Dell modular systems. The PERC 6/i adapter supports a battery backup unit (BBU) on selected systems only.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 25 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM A SMART failure is also referred to as a predicted failure. There are numerous factors that relate to predicted physical disk failures, such as a bearing failure, a broken read/write head, and changes in spin-up rate. In addition, there are factors related to read/write surface failure, such as seek error rate and excessive bad sectors. For information on physical disk status, see "Disk Roaming" on page 27.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 26 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Full Initialization of Virtual Disks Performing a Full Initialization on a virtual disk overwrites all blocks and destroys any data that previously existed on the virtual disk. Full Initialization of a virtual disk eliminates the need for that virtual disk to undergo a Background Initialization and can be performed directly after the creation of a virtual disk. During Full Initialization, the host is not able to access the virtual disk.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 27 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Disk Roaming The PERC 6 and CERC 6/i controllers support moving physical disks from one cable connection or backplane slot to another on the same controller. The controller automatically recognizes the relocated physical disks and logically places them in the proper virtual disks that are part of the disk group. You can perform disk roaming only when the system is turned off.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 28 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Perform the following steps to use disk migration: 1 Turn off the system that contains the source controller. 2 Move the appropriate physical disks from the source controller to the target controller. The system with the target controller can be running while inserting the physical disks. The controller flags the inserted disks as foreign disks. 3 Use the OpenManage storage management application to import the detected foreign configuration.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 29 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Migrating Virtual Disks from SAS 6/iR to PERC 6 and CERC 6/i NOTE: The supported operating systems listed in "Compatibility With Virtual Disks Created on SAS 6/iR Controllers" on page 28 contain the driver for the PERC 6 and CERC 6/i controller family. No additional drivers are needed during the migration process.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 30 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 6 Exit the BIOS Configuration Utility and reboot the system. 7 Ensure all the latest drivers for PERC 6 or CERC 6/i controller (available on the Dell support website at support.dell.com) are installed. For more information, see "Driver Installation" on page 63. NOTE: For more information about compatibility, contact your Dell technical support representative.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 31 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Battery Learn Cycle Learn cycle is a battery calibration operation performed by the controller periodically to determine the condition of the battery. This operation cannot be disabled. You can start battery learn cycles manually or automatically. In addition, you can enable or disable automatic learn cycles in the software utility. If you enable automatic learn cycles, you can delay the start of the learn cycles for up to 168 hours (7 days).
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 32 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Virtual Disk Write Cache Policies The write cache policy of a virtual disk determines how the controller handles writes to that virtual disk. Write-Back and Write-Through are the two write cache policies and can be set on virtual disks individually. All RAID volumes will be presented as Write-Through (WT) to the operating system (Windows and linux) independent of the actual write cache policy of the virtual disk.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 33 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Conditions Under Which Write-Through is Employed Write-Through caching is used under all conditions in which the battery is missing or in a low-charge state. Low-charge state is when the battery is not capable of maintaining data for at least 24 hours in the case of a power loss. Conditions Under Which Forced Write-Back With No Battery is Employed Write-Back mode is available when the user selects Force WB with no battery.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 34 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM RAID level. When a RLM/OCE operation is complete, a reboot is not necessary. For a list of RAID level migrations and capacity expansion possibilities, see Table 3-2. The source RAID level column indicates the virtual disk level before the RAID level migration and the target RAID level column indicates the RAID level after the operation is complete.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 35 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 3-2. RAID Level Migration (continued) Source Target RAID RAID Level Level Required Number of Physical Disks (Beginning) Number of Capacity Description Physical Expansion Disks Possible (End) RAID 5 RAID 0 3 or more 2 or more Yes Converting to a non-redundant virtual disk and reclaiming disk space used for distributed parity data.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 36 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Fault Tolerance Features Table 3-3 lists the features that provide fault tolerance to prevent data loss in case of a failed physical disk. Table 3-3.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 37 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Failed Physical Disk Detection The controller automatically detects and rebuilds failed physical disks when you place a new drive in the slot where the failed drive resided or when an applicable hot spare is present. Automatic rebuilds can be performed transparently with hot spares. If you have configured hot spares, the controllers automatically try to use them to rebuild failed physical disks.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 38 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Automatic Replace Member with Predicted Failure A Replace Member operation can occur when there is a SMART predictive failure reporting on a drive in a virtual disk. The automatic Replace Member is initiated when the first SMART error occurs on a physical disk that is part of a virtual disk. The target drive needs to be a hot spare that qualifies as a rebuild drive.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 39 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 3 Patrol Read adjusts the amount of controller resources dedicated to Patrol Read operations based on outstanding disk I/O. For example, if the system is busy processing I/O operation, then Patrol Read uses fewer resources to allow the I/O to take a higher priority.
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Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 41 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Installing and Configuring Hardware WARNING: Only trained service technicians are authorized to remove the system cover and access any of the components inside the system. Before performing any procedure, see the safety and warranty information that shipped with your system for complete information about safety precautions, working inside the system, and protecting against electrostatic discharge.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 42 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 5 Align the PERC 6/E adapter to the PCI-E slot you have selected. CAUTION: Never apply pressure to the adapter module while inserting it in the PCI-E slot. Applying pressure could break the adapter module. 6 Insert the controller gently, but firmly, until the controller is firmly seated in the PCI-E slot. For more information on installing the PERC 6 adapter, see Figure 4-1.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 43 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Figure 4-2. Installing a PERC 6/i Adapter 4 3 2 1 1 PCI-e slot 3 filler brackets 2 PERC 6/i adapter 4 bracket screw 7 Tighten the bracket screw, if any, or use the system’s retention clips to secure the controller to the system’s chassis. 8 For PERC 6/E adapter, replace the cover of the system.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 44 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 9 Connect the cable from the external enclosure to the controller. For more information, see Figure 4-3. Figure 4-3. Connecting the Cable From the External Enclosure 1 2 3 1 connector on the controller 2 system 3 cable from the external enclosure 10 For PERC 6/i adapter, connect the cables from the backplane of the system to the controller. The primary SAS connector is white and the secondary SAS connector is black.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 45 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Figure 4-4. Connecting Cables to the Controller 1 2 3 1 cable 3 PERC 6/i adapter 2 connector 11 Replace the cover of the system. For more information on closing the system, see the Hardware Owner’s Manual shipped with your system or on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com. 12 Reconnect the power and network cables, and turn on the system.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 46 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Installing the Transportable Battery Backup Unit (TBBU) on PERC 6/E CAUTION: The following procedure must be performed at an Electrostatic Discharge (ESD)-safe workstation to meet the requirements of EIA-625 – "Requirements For Handling Electrostatic Discharge Sensitive Devices." The following procedure must be performed following the IPC-A-610 latest revision ESD recommended practices.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 47 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 4 Place the PERC 6/E adapter on a flat, clean, and static–free surface. 5 Mount the memory module in the controller memory socket like a standard DIMM. For more information, see "Installing the DIMM on a PERC 6/E Adapter" on page 47. The memory module is mounted flush with the controller board so that the memory module is parallel to the board when installed. 6 Press the memory module firmly in the memory socket.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 48 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Figure 4-6. Installing a DIMM 4 3 1 2 1 PERC 6/E adapter 3 memory socket 2 retention clip 4 memory module Transferring a TBBU Between Controllers The TBBU provides uninterrupted power supply for up to 24 hours to the cache memory module. If the controller fails as a result of a power failure, you can move the TBBU to a new controller and recover the data.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 49 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Perform the following steps to replace a failed controller with data in the TBBU: 1 Perform a controlled shutdown on the system in which the PERC 6/E is installed, as well as any attached storage enclosures. 2 Remove the controller that has the TBBU currently installed from the system. 3 Remove the TBBU from the controller. 4 Insert the TBBU in the new controller.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 50 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 3 Locate the PERC 6/E adapter in the system and disconnect the external cables from the adapter. NOTE: The location of the PERC 6/i varies from system to system. For information on PERC 6/i card location, see the Hardware Owner’s Manual shipped with your system or on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 51 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 5 Determine whether the Dirty Cache LED on the controller is illuminated. For location of the LED, see Figure 4-8 • If the LED is illuminated, replace the system cover, reconnect the system to power, turn on the system, and repeat step 1 and step 2. If the LED is not illuminated, continue with the next step. 6 Disconnect the data cables and battery cable from the PERC 6/i.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 52 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Removing the DIMM and Battery from a PERC 6/E Adapter NOTE: The TBBU on the PERC 6/E adapter consists of a DIMM and battery backup unit. 1 Perform a controlled shutdown on the system in which the PERC 6/E adapter is installed, as well as any attached storage enclosures 2 Disconnect the system from the electrical outlet and open the system cover.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 53 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Figure 4-9. PERC 6/E Adapter Dirty Cache LED Location 1 2 3 4 1 battery 3 dirty cache LED 2 memory module 4 PERC 6/E adapter 5 Press down on the tabs at each edge of the DIMM slot until the TBBU pops out. Lift the TBBU off the adapter. 6 Disconnect the battery cable from the DIMM. 7 Detach the battery from the DIMM by pressing out on the battery clips inserted through the DIMM and rotating the battery off the DIMM. See Figure 4-10.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 54 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Figure 4-10. Removing the TBBU 2 1 1 memory module 2 battery Disconnecting the BBU from a PERC 6/i Adapter or a PERC 6/i Integrated Controller NOTE: A PERC 6/i adapter installed in a Dell workstation or a Dell PowerEdge SC system does not have a BBU. NOTE: Batteries with low charges can be detected and recharged. The battery must first be charged and the system must be restarted for the battery to be active again.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 55 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 1 Perform a controlled shutdown on the system in which the PERC 6/i is installed. 2 Disconnect the system from the electrical outlet and remove the system cover. CAUTION: Running a system without the system cover installed can cause damage due to improper cooling. 3 Determine whether the dirty cache LED on the controller is illuminated.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 56 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM If the connection between an Out port on the controller and an In port on an enclosure fails, an alternate path exists through the second Out port on the controller and the second In port on the enclosure. For more information, see Figure 4-11, Figure 4-12 and Figure 4-13. NOTE: The PERC 6/E adapter supports redundant paths when used with Dell PowerVault™ MD1000 and Dell PowerVault MD1120 disk storage enclosures.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 57 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Figure 4-13 displays Redundant path Storage Configuration with three enclosures Figure 4-13. Redundant Path Support Configuration With Three Enclosures Storage Storage Storage Storage Storage Storage A single PERC 6/E adapter can support up to three disk storage enclosures in a redundant path configuration. NOTE: Ensure that the latest firmware version is installed on your storage controller.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 58 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Perform the following steps to configure the hardware to utilize redundant paths on the PERC 6/E adapter: 1 Set up an enclosure on the PERC 6/E adapter. 2 Connect two SAS cables from the Out ports on your PERC 6/E adapter to the In ports of the external enclosure. For more information, see Figure 4-3. NOTE: For information on Unified Mode, see the enclosure documentation that was shipped with the system.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 59 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Removing and Installing the PERC 6/i and CERC 6/i Integrated Storage Controller Cards in Dell Modular Blade Systems (Service-Only Procedure) CAUTION: Electrostatic discharge can damage sensitive components. Always use proper antistatic protection when handling components. Touching components without using a proper ground can damage the equipment. The storage controller card is located below the hard drive bays of the Dell Modular Blade system.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 60 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Figure 4-14. Removing and Installing the Storage Controller Card 1 2 1 release lever 2 storage controller card Installing the Storage Controller Card To install your new storage controller card: 1 Unpack the new storage controller card and check for damage. NOTE: If the card is damaged, contact Dell technical support. 2 Place the storage controller card onto the system board.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 61 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 5 Close the top cover of the Modular Blade system. For more information on closing the top cover of the Modular Blade system, see your system’s Hardware Owner’s Manual or the User’s Guide. 6 Reinstall the Modular Blade system in the Modular Blade system chassis. For more information on reinstalling the Modular Blade system in the Modular Blade system chassis, see your system’s Hardware Owner’s Manual or the User’s Guide.
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Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 63 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Driver Installation The Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller (PERC) 6 and Dell Cost-Effective RAID Controller (CERC) 6/i family of controllers require software drivers to operate with the supported operating systems. This chapter contains the procedures for installing the drivers for the following operating systems.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 64 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Installing Windows Drivers Creating the Driver Media Perform the following steps to create the driver media: 1 Browse to the download section for the system on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com. 2 Locate and download the latest PERC 6 controller driver to the system. 3 Follow the instructions on the Dell Support website for extracting the driver to the media.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 65 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 4 From the list of drivers displayed, select the driver you require. Select the self-extracting zip file and click Run. Copy the driver to a diskette drive, CD, DVD, or USB drive. Repeat this step for all the drivers you require. 5 During the operating system installation, use the media that you created with the Load Driver option to load mass storage drivers.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 66 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 3 Press the key. The system prompts for the driver media to be inserted. NOTE: The driver can be provided using a properly formatted USB key. For additional details on the driver, go the Dell Support website at support.dell.com. 4 Insert the driver media in the media drive and press . A list of PERC 6 and CERC 6/i controllers displays. 5 Select the right driver for the installed controller and press to load the driver.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 67 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Installing a Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, or Windows XP Driver for a New RAID Controller NOTE: PERC 5 and PERC 6 use the same driver and do not require separate driver installations. Perform the following steps to configure the driver for the RAID controller on a system that already has Windows installed. 1 Turn off the system. 2 Install the new RAID controller in the system.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 68 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Updating an Existing Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, or Windows Vista Driver NOTE: Close all applications on your system before you update the driver. 1 Insert the media (CD, DVD, or USB drive) containing the driver. 2 Select Start →Settings →Control Panel →System. The System Properties screen displays. NOTE: For systems running Windows Server 2003 operating system, click Start →Control Panel →System.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 69 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 12 Click Next and continue the installation steps in the Wizard. 13 Click Finish to exit the wizard and reboot the system for the changes to take place. NOTE: Dell provides the Dell Update Package (DUP) to update drivers on systems running Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. DUP is an executable application that updates drivers for specific devices. DUP supports command line interface and silent execution.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 70 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 3 Use the dd command to create a driver update disk. Use the appropriate image for the purpose. dd if= of=/dev/fd0 NOTE: You can create a driver update disk on a Windows system using the program dcopynt. NOTE: The output file of might be different, depending on how your operating system maps the diskette drive. You do not need to mount the diskette drive in order to execute the dd command.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 71 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux Operating System Using the Driver Update Diskette Perform the following steps to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux (versions 4 and 5) and the appropriate driver. 1 Boot normally from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation media. 2 At the command prompt, type: linux expert dd 3 When the install prompts for a driver diskette, insert the diskette and press .
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 72 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 6 Click OK. If you want to install from another driver update medium, continue with the following steps. 7 The system displays the message PLEASE CHOOSE DRIVER UPDATE MEDIUM. 8 Select the appropriate driver update medium. The system selects the driver from the disk and installs it. NOTE: Suse Linux Enterprise Server 9 Gold media is required when you install any Suse Linux Enterprise Server 9 service pack.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 73 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Upgrading the Kernel When upgrading to a new kernel, you must reinstall the DKMS-enabled driver packages.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 74 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Installing Solaris Driver Use the procedures in this section to install the driver for Solaris 10. To ensure that you have the current version of the driver, download the updated Solaris driver from the Dell Support website at support.dell.com. The package is a gzipped .tar file. Download the package to a Solaris system, and perform the following steps: 1 Extract the package contents: gunzip c
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 75 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 5 Select [3] if you created a diskette from the mega_sas.img file and you are using a removable (USB) diskette drive. 6 Follow instructions presented by Driver Update installer. 7 The following message displays: Installation of was successful. 8 Select [e] to end 9 Follow the instructions on the screen to complete installation.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 76 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 4 From the screen that displays, go to the Storage Adapter screen to install the MegaRAID SAS driver. 5 Delete any existing RAID adapter listings. 6 Press to add unlisted drivers. 7 Press again. A path is displayed. 8 Press . 9 Insert the driver diskette in the diskette drive, and press . The system finds the .HAM driver. 10 Press . 11 Select the Driver Summary screen, and press .
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 77 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Configuring and Managing RAID Dell™ OpenManage™ storage management applications enable you to manage and configure the RAID system, create and manage multiple disk groups, control and monitor multiple RAID systems, and provide online maintenance.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 78 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM RAID Configuration Functions After you attach physical disks, use a configuration utility to organize the disks into virtual disks. If the operating system is not yet installed, use the BIOS Configuration Utility to perform this procedure.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 79 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM BIOS Configuration Utility The BIOS Configuration Utility, also known as Ctrl+R, is a storage management application embedded on the PERC 6 controllers that configures and maintains RAID disk groups and virtual disks. Ctrl+R is independent of the operating system. NOTE: Use the BIOS Configuration Utility for initial setup and disaster recovery.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 80 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM NOTE: You can access multiple controllers through the BIOS Configuration Utility by pressing . NOTE: You can access PERC 5 and PERC 6 controllers from the same BIOS if the PERC 5 firmware version is 5.1.1-0040 or later. You need to verify if you are currently set to edit the PERC 5 or PERC 6 adapter. Exiting the Configuration Utility To exit the BIOS Configuration Utility, press at any menu screen.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 81 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 6-1. Menu Navigation Keys (continued) Notation Meaning and Use Example up-arrow key Use the up-arrow key to move to the upper menu Virtual Disk 1 items within a menu or to a higher level menu. You can also use the up-arrow key to close a menu list in a popup window, such as the stripe element size menu. Virtual Disk 4 Word wrap is supported.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 82 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 6-1. Menu Navigation Keys (continued) Notation Meaning and Use Press to move the cursor to the next control Press to on a dialog box or page. move the cursor to the next parameter you want to change. Press to move the cursor to the previous control on a dialog or page.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 83 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 6-1. Menu Navigation Keys (continued) Notation Meaning and Use Example Switch between two controllers. Press to display a list of controllers. Spacebar Press the spacebar to select an item, such as a virtual disk in the List View, select all the virtual disks (Mark All), or de-select all the virtual disks (Unmark All).
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 84 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 6-2 shows the parameters that you can configure when defining virtual disks. Table 6-2. Virtual Disk Parameters and Descriptions Parameter Description RAID Level RAID Level specifies whether the virtual disk is RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, or 60. The RAID level you select depends on the number of disks, disk capacity, and the requirements for fault tolerance and performance. More more information, see "Summary of RAID Levels" on page 17.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 85 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 6-2. Virtual Disk Parameters and Descriptions (continued) Parameter Description Read Policy Read-Ahead enables the read ahead feature for the virtual disk. You can set this parameter to Read-Ahead, No-Read-Ahead, or Adaptive. The default is No-Read-Ahead. Read-Ahead specifies that the controller uses Read-Ahead for the current virtual disk.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 86 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 2 Use the arrow keys to highlight Controller # or Disk Group #. 3 Press to display the actions you can perform. 4 Select Create New VD and press . The Create New VD screen displays. The cursor is on the RAID Levels option. 5 Press to display the possible RAID levels, based on the physical disks available. 6 Press the down-arrow key to select a RAID level and press .
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 87 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 15 Perform the following steps to select the virtual disk parameters: a Press to move the cursor to the parameters you want to change. b Press the down-arrow key to open the parameters and scroll down the list of settings. c To change the stripe element size, press to highlight Stripe Element Size. d Press to display the list of stripe element sizes (8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, 128 KB, 256 KB, 512 KB, and 1024 KB).
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 88 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM l If you have chosen to create hot spares in the earlier steps, a pop-up window displays where drives with appropriate sizes are displayed. Press the spacebar to select the drive size. Select the check box to enable the enclosure affinity setting for the hot spare. m After you select the drive size, click OK to finalize the selection or click Cancel to forfeit the selection.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 89 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM If you attempt to run a Consistency Check on a virtual disk that has not been initialized, the following error message displays: The virtual disk has not been initialized. Running a consistency check may result in inconsistent messages in the log. Are you sure you want to continue? You can select Yes or No. If you select Yes, the CC operation continues. If you select No, the operation ends. Perform the following steps to run a Consistency Check.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 90 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Perform the following steps to import or clear foreign configurations. 1 During bootup, press when prompted by the BIOS banner. The VD Mgmt screen displays by default. 2 On the VD Mgmt screen, highlight the Controller #. The controller number is the only item that displays until you import the foreign configuration. 3 Press to display the available actions.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 91 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM You can use the Foreign Configuration View screen to manage foreign configurations in the following cases: • All the physical disks in a configuration are removed and re-inserted. • Some of the physical disks in a configuration are removed and re-inserted. • All the physical disks in a virtual disk are removed, but at different times, and then re-inserted. • The physical disks in a non-redundant virtual disk are removed.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 92 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM NOTE: When you import a foreign configuration, the dedicated hot spares in the configuration are imported as dedicated hot spares on two conditions — the associated virtual disk is already present or the associated virtual disk is also imported along with the configuration. NOTE: Start a consistency check immediately after the rebuild is complete to ensure data integrity for the virtual disks.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 93 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Managing Preserved Cache If a virtual disk becomes offline or is deleted because of missing physical disks, the controller preserves the dirty cache from the virtual disk. This preserved dirty cache, known as pinned cache, is preserved until you import the virtual disk or discard the cache. NOTE: Certain operations, such as creating a new virtual disk, cannot be performed if pinned cache exists.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 94 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Managing Dedicated Hot Spares A dedicated hot spare automatically replaces a failed physical disk only in the selected disk group which the hot spare is part of. A dedicated hot spare is used before a global hot spare is used. You can create dedicated hot spares or delete them on the VD Mgmt screen. Perform the following steps to create or delete dedicated hot spares.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 95 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 4 Press to confirm the changes. The VD Mgmt screen displays the updated list of hot spares under the Hot spares heading. NOTE: If a global hot spare or dedicated hot spare is removed and reinserted, it regains its status as a hot spare. NOTE: If a dedicated hot spare is removed, re-inserted, and then imported, the physical disk changes to a global hot spare upon completion of the foreign configuration import.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 96 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 3 Press . The action menu displays. 4 Select Delete Disk Group and press . The disk group is deleted. When you delete a disk group, the remaining disk groups with higher numbers are automatically renumbered. For example, if you delete disk group #2, disk group #3 is then automatically renumbered as disk group #2. Resetting the Configuration You can delete all virtual disks on the RAID controller by performing this operation.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 97 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM • Controller Management (Ctrl Mgmt) menu • Foreign Configuration View menu Most menus consist of two panels: • A left panel with the menu options • A right panel with details of the items selected in the left panel The following sections describe the menu and submenu options for each of the major menus.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 98 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 6-3.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 99 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 6-3.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 100 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 6-3.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 101 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Virtual Disk Actions Table 6-4 describes the actions you can perform on virtual disks. For procedures you can use to perform these actions, See "Physical Disk Management" on page 105. Table 6-4. Virtual Disk Actions Action Description Create a new virtual Creates a new virtual disk from one or more physical disks. disk You can configure hot spares when you create a virtual disk.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 102 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM • Performing the Replace Member operation • Setting the LED to blink • Making a disk online or offline (unaffiliated with a disk group) • Creating global hot spares • Removing dedicated hot spares or global hot spares Physical Disk Actions Table 6-5 describes the actions you can perform on physical disks. For procedures that can be used to perform these actions, see "Physical Disk Management" on page 105. Table 6-5.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 103 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Rebuild Select Rebuild to rebuild one or more failed physical disks. For information on performing a physical disk rebuild, see "Performing a Manual Rebuild of an Individual Physical Disk" on page 108. If no workload is placed on the storage subsystem, the controller rebuilds SAS drives at a rate of approximately 200 GB/hour and SATA drives at a rate of approximately 100 GB/hour.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 104 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Controller Management Actions Table 6-6 describes the actions you can perform on the Ctrl Mgmt screen. Table 6-6. Controller Management Options Option Description Enable Controller BIOS Select this option to enable the controller BIOS. If the boot device is on the RAID controller, the BIOS must be enabled. Disable the BIOS to use other boot devices. In a multiple controller environment, you can enable BIOS on multiple controllers.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 105 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM The section "Importing or Clearing Foreign Configurations Using the Foreign Configuration View Screen" on page 90 contains the procedures you can use to manage the foreign configurations. NOTE: The BIOS Configuration Utility reports error codes for failed imports of foreign configurations. Physical Disk Management Setting LED Blinking The LED blinking option indicates when physical disks are being used to create a virtual disk.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 106 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Perform the following steps to create global hot spares. 1 Press to access the PD Mgmt screen. A list of physical disks displays. The status of the each disk displays under the heading State. 2 Press the down-arrow key to highlight a physical disk to change to a global hot spare. 3 Press to display the menu of available actions. 4 Press the down-arrow key to highlight Make Global HS and press .
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 107 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 4 Press the down-arrow key to select Remove Hot Spare from the list of actions and press . The physical disk is changed to the Ready state. The status of the physical disk is displayed under the heading State. NOTE: Try to use physical disks of the same capacity in a specific virtual disk.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 108 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Restrictions and Limitations The following restrictions and limitations apply to the Replace Member operation: • The Replace Member functions are restricted to one per array for RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 5, and two per array for RAID 6. • The Replace Member function and rebuild function cannot run simultaneously on a RAID 6 virtual disk.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 109 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM 3 Press to display a menu of available actions. The Rebuild option is highlighted at the top of the menu. 4 Press the right-arrow key to display the rebuild options and select Start. 5 After you start the rebuild, press to display the previous menu. NOTE: You can also use the VD Mgmt screen to perform a manual rebuild. Use the arrow key to highlight physical disk in the tree view, and press .
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 110 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM After you enable the BIOS for a controller, perform the following steps to enable the boot support for that controller. 1 Press to access the Ctrl Mgmt menu screen. 2 Press to move the cursor to the Select Bootable VD in the Settings box. 3 Press the down-arrow key to display a list of virtual disks. 4 Use the down-arrow key to highlight a virtual disk. 5 Press to select the virtual disk.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 111 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Restoring Factory Default Settings You can use the Ctrl Mgmt menu screen to restore the default settings for the options in the Settings box. The settings are Enable Controller BIOS, Enable Alarm, and Enable BIOS Stop on Error. Perform the following steps to restore default settings: 1 Press to access the Ctrl Mgmt menu screen. 2 Press to move the cursor to the Settings box.
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Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 113 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Troubleshooting To get help with your Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller (PERC) 6 and Dell Cost-Effective RAID Controller (CERC) 6/i controller, you can contact your Dell Technical Service representative or access the Dell Support website at support.dell.com. Post Error Messages The controller BIOS read-only memory (ROM) provides Int 13h functionality (disk I/O) for the virtual disks connected to the controller.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 114 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 7-1. BIOS Errors and Warnings (continued) Message Meaning Adapter at Baseport xxxx is not responding If the BIOS detects the controller but the controller does not respond for any reason, it displays this warning and continues. where xxxx is the baseport of the controller There are offline or missing virtual drives with preserved cache. Please check the cables and ensure that all drives are present.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 115 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 7-1. BIOS Errors and Warnings (continued) Message Meaning Memory/Battery problems were This message occurs under the following detected. The adapter has conditions: recovered, but cached data • The adapter detects data in the was lost. Press any key to controller cache that has not yet been continue. written to the disk subsystem.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 116 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 7-1. BIOS Errors and Warnings (continued) Message Meaning Foreign configuration(s) found on adapter. Press any key to continue, or ’C’ to load the configuration utility or ’F’ to import foreign configuration(s) and continue. When a controller firmware detects a physical disk with existing foreign metadata, it flags the physical disk as foreign and generates an alert indicating that a foreign disk was detected.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 117 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 7-1. BIOS Errors and Warnings (continued) Message Meaning Invalid SAS topology detected. Please check your cable configurations, repair the problem, and restart your system. The SAS cables for your system are improperly connected. Check the cable connections and fix problems if any. Restart the system. Multibit ECC errors were detected on the RAID controller. If you continue, data corruption can occur.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 118 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 7-1. BIOS Errors and Warnings (continued) Message Meaning Some configured disks have been removed from your system or are no longer accessible. Check your cables and ensure all disks are present. Press any key or ’C’ to continue. The message indicates that some configured disks were removed. If the disks were not removed, they are no longer accessible. The SAS cables for your system might be improperly connected.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 119 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 7-2 describes the BBU-related error messages and warnings. Table 7-2. Backup Battery Unit Errors and Warnings Message Meaning Memory/Battery problems were detected. The adapter has recovered, but cached data was lost. Press any key to continue. This message displays under the following conditions: • The adapter detects that the cache in the controller cache has not yet been written to the disk subsystem.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 120 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Memory Errors Memory errors can corrupt cached data, so the controllers are designed to detect and attempt to recover from these memory errors. Single-bit memory errors can be handled by the controller and do not disrupt normal operation. A notification is sent if the number of single-bit errors exceeds a threshold value. Multi-bit errors are more serious, as they result in corrupted data and data loss.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 121 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM General Problems Table 7-3 describes general problems you might encounter, with suggested solutions. Table 7-3. General Problems Problem Suggested Solution The device displays in Device Manager but has a yellow bang (exclamation mark). Reinstall the driver. For more information on reinstalling drivers, see "Driver Installation" on page 63. The device does not appear in Device Manager. Turn off the system and reseat the controller.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 122 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Physical Disk Related Issues Table 7-4 describes physical disk-related problems you might encounter, with suggested solutions. Table 7-4. Physical Disk Issues Problem Suggested Solution One of the physical disks in Perform the following actions to resolve this problem: the disk array is in the 1 Check the backplane for damage. failed state. 2 Check the SAS cables. 3 Reseat the physical disk.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 123 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Physical Disk Failures and Rebuilds Table 7-5 describes issues related to physical disk failures and rebuilds. Table 7-5. Physical Disk Failure and Rebuild Issues Issue Suggested Solution Rebuilding the physical disks after multiple disks become simultaneously inaccessible. Multiple physical disk errors in a single array typically indicate a failure in cabling or connection and could involve the loss of data.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 124 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 7-5. Physical Disk Failure and Rebuild Issues (continued) Issue Suggested Solution Rebuilding a physical If you have configured hot spares, the PERC 6 controller disk after one of them is automatically tries to use one of them to rebuild a physical in a failed state. disk that is in a failed state. Manual rebuild is necessary if no hot spares with enough capacity to rebuild the failed physical disks are available.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 125 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM SMART Errors Table 7-6 describes issues related to the Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART). SMART monitors the internal performance of all motors, heads, and physical disk electronics and detects predictable physical disk failures.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 126 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 7-6. SMART Errors (continued) Problem Suggested Solution A SMART error occurs during a Consistency Check (CC) Specify how the CC operation must perform when a SMART error is encountered. There are two settings, Yes and No. No is the default setting and allows CC to continue when the first error is encountered. The Yes setting halts CC when the first error is encountered.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 127 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Linux Operating System Errors Table 7-8 describes issues related to the Linux operating system. Table 7-8. Linux Operating System Errors Error Message Suggested Solution kernel: sdb: asking for cache data failed This error message displays when the Linux Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) mid-layer asks for physical disk cache settings.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 128 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 7-8. Linux Operating System Errors (continued) Error Message Suggested Solution Driver does not auto-build into This error is a generic problem for Dynamic new kernel after customer updates. Kernel Module Support (DKMS) and applies to all DKMS-enabled driver packages. This issue occurs when you perform the following steps: 1 Install a DKMS-enabled driver package.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 129 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 7-8. Linux Operating System Errors (continued) Error Message Suggested Solution smartd[smartd[2338] Device: /dev/sda, Bad IEC (SMART) mode page, err=-5, skip device This is a known issue. An unsupported command is entered through the user application. User applications attempt to direct Command Descriptor Blocks to RAID volumes. The error message does not effect the feature functionality.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 130 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Drive Carrier LED Indicators The LED on the physical disk carrier indicates the state of each physical disk. Each drive carrier in your enclosure has two LEDs: an activity LED (green) and a status LED (bicolor, green/amber) as shown in Figure 7-1. The activity LED flashes whenever the drive is accessed. Figure 7-1. Drive Carrier LED Indicators 1 2 1 status LED 2 activity LED Table 7-10 lists the flash patterns for the status LED.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 131 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Table 7-10.
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Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 133 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Regulatory Notices For additional regulatory information, please go to the Regulatory Compliance Homepage on www.dell.com at the following location: www.dell.com/regulatory_compliance.
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Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 135 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Corporate Contact Details (Taiwan Only) Pursuant to Article 11 of the Commodity Inspection Act, Dell provides the following corporate contact details for the certified entity in Taiwan for the products addressed by this document: Dell B.V. Taiwan Branch 20/F, No. 218, Sec. 2, Tung Hwa S.
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Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 137 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Glossary A Adapter An adapter enables the computer system to access peripheral devices by converting the protocol of one bus or interface to another. An adapter may also provide specialized function. For example, a RAID controller is a type of adapter that provides RAID functions. Adapters may reside on the system board or be an add-in card. Other examples of adapters include network and SCSI adapters.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 138 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Battery Backup Unit (BBU) The battery backup unit protects the integrity of the cached data on the controller by providing backup power if there is a complete AC power failure or a brief power outage. BIOS Acronym for basic input/output system. Your system's BIOS contains programs stored on a flash memory chip.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 139 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Caching The process of utilizing a high speed memory buffer, referred to as a “cache,” in order to speed up the overall read or write performance. This cache can be accessed at a higher speed than a disk subsystem. To improve read performance, the cache usually contains the most recently accessed data, as well as data from adjacent disk sectors.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 140 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Disk Array A collection of disks from one or more disk subsystems combined using a configuration utility. The utility controls the disks and presents them to the array operating environment as one or more logical drives. Disk Group A logical grouping of disks attached to a RAID controller on which one or more virtual disks can be created, such that all virtual disks in the disk group use all of the physical disks in the disk group.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 141 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM DKMS Acronym for Dynamic Kernel Module Support. Designed by Dell™, DKMS creates a framework in which kernel-dependent module source can reside so that it is easy to rebuild modules as you upgrade kernels. DKMS is used in the upgrade process for drivers for Red Hat® Linux and SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server. DUD Acronym for driver update diskette. A DUD is an image of a diskette stored as a regular file.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 142 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM F Failed Physical Disk A physical disk that has ceased to function, that consistently functions improperly, or that is inaccessible. Fault Tolerance Fault tolerance is the capability of the disk subsystem to undergo a single drive failure per disk group without compromising data integrity and processing capability. The PERC 6 controllers provide this support through redundant virtual disks in RAID levels 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 143 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM G GB Acronym for gigabyte(s). A gigabyte equals 1,024 megabytes or 1,073,741,824 bytes (2^30 bytes). H Host System Any system on which the RAID controller is installed. Mainframes, workstations, and personal systems can all be considered host systems. Hot Spare An idle, powered on, stand-by physical disk ready for immediate use in case of disk failure. It does not contain any user data.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 144 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM I Initialization The process of writing zeros to the data fields of a virtual disk and, in fault tolerant RAID levels, generating the corresponding parity to put the virtual disk in a Ready state. Initializing erases previous data and generates parity so that the virtual disk passes a consistency check. Virtual disks can work without initializing, but they can fail a consistency check because the parity fields have not been generated.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 145 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Logical Disk A set of contiguous chunks on a physical disk. Logical disks are used in array implementations as constituents of logical volumes or partitions. Logical disks are normally transparent to the host environment, except when the array containing them is being configured. M MB Acronym for megabyte(s).
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 146 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM N Non Read Ahead Non read ahead is a cache read policy. If you select Non read ahead in the BIOS Configuration Utility, the controller does not read sequentially ahead of requested data and store the additional data in cache memory, anticipating that the data is needed soon. Non read ahead is most effective when accessing random data.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 147 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Online Capacity Expansion Operation to add capacity to an existing virtual disk by adding an additional physical disk while the host system is active, and without affecting data availability. Operating Environment An operating environment can include the host system where physical disks are attached, any I/O buses and controllers, the host operating system and any additional software required to manage the virtual disk.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 148 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM PHY The interface required to transmit and receive data packets transferred across the serial bus. Each PHY can form one side of the physical link in a connection with a PHY on a different SATA device. The physical link contains four wires that form two differential signal pairs. One differential pair transmits signals, while the other differential pair receives signals.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 149 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Protocol A set of formal rules describing how to transmit data, generally across a network or when communicating with storage subsystems. Low-level protocols define the electrical and physical standards to be observed, bit- and byte-ordering, and the transmission and error detection and correction of the bit stream.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 150 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM The Dell OpenManage™ storage management application configures the disks after you have installed the operating system. Storage Management enables you to perform controller and enclosure functions for all supported RAID and non-RAID controllers and enclosures from a single graphical or command-line interface without requiring the use of the controller BIOS utilities.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 151 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM Redundant Virtual Disk A redundant virtual disk is one which has redundant data on physical disks in the disk group that can be used to rebuild a failed physical disk. A virtual disk can use disk striping across the physical disks, disk mirroring or parity to provide redundancy. This offers protection in case of a physical disk failure.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 152 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM RPM Acronym for Red Hat Package Manager. RPM is a software manager used to install, remove, query, and verify the software on your system. RPMs are used in the driver update procedures for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server (SLES). S SAS Acronym for Serial Attached SCSI. SAS is a serial, point-to-point, enterprise-level device interface that leverages the proven Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) protocol set.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 153 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM SMART Acronym for Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology. The self-monitoring analysis and reporting technology (SMART) feature monitors the internal performance of all motors, heads, and drive electronics to detect predictable drive failures. This feature helps monitor drive performance and reliability, and protects the data on the drive.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 154 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM SSP Acronym for Serial SCSI Protocol. SSP enables communication with other SAS devices. Each PHY on the SAS controller can function as an SSP initiator or SSP target. Storport The Storport driver has been designed to replace SCSIport and work with Windows 2003 and beyond.
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 155 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM V 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. Depending on the RAID level used, the virtual disk may retain redundant data in case of a disk failure.
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Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 158 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM E N electrostatic discharge.
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