Dell H810, H710, H710P, H310 User Manual

Name: Dell H810
Brand: Dell
SKU: 1068545
Rating: 4 (1 reviews)

4 (1)

Dell PowerEdge RAID

Controller (PERC) H310,

H710, H710P, and H810

User’s Guide

Notes, Cautions, and Warnings

NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of

your computer.

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.

COMMENT

____________________

Information in this document is subject to change without notice.

Reproduction of these materials in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc.

is strictly forbidden.

Trademarks used in this text: Dell™, the DELL logo, PowerEdge™, PowerVault™, and

OpenManage™ are trademarks of Dell Inc. Intel

is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation in

the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft

, Windows

, Windows Server

, MS-DOS

, and Windows

Vista

are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States

and/or other countries. Red Hat Enterprise Linux

, and Enterprise Linux

are registered trademarks

of Red Hat, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Novell

and SUSE™ are registered

trademarks of Novell Inc. in the United States and other countries. VMware

is a registered trademark

of VMWare, Inc. in the United States or other countries.

Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming

the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and

trade names other than its own.

Model UCPA-801, UCPB-800, UCPM-800 and UCPE-800

2012 - 02 Rev. A00

Contents 3

Contents

1Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Supported Operating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Related Documentation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Contacting Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

2 Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Physical Disk Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Configured Spin Down Delay

. . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Types of Virtual Disk Initialization

. . . . . . . . . . . 18

Background Initialization of Virtual Disks

. . . . . 18

Full Initialization of Virtual Disks

. . . . . . . . . . 19

Fast Initialization of Virtual Disks. . . . . . . . . . 19

Consistency Checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Disk Roaming

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Virtual Disk Migration

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Migrating Virtual Disks from PERC H700 

or H800 to PERC H710, H710P, or H810

. . . . . . . 22

Virtual Disk Write Cache Policies

. . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Write-Back and Write-Through

. . . . . . . . . . 23

Conditions Under Which 

Write-Back is Employed

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

4 Contents

Conditions Under Which Forced 

Write-Back With No Battery is Employed

. . . . . 24

Virtual Disk Read Cache Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Reconfiguration of Virtual Disks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Fault Tolerance

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

The SMART Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Automatic Replace Member 

with Predicted Failure

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Patrol Read . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Redundant Path Support (For PERC H810 Only)

. . . . . 29

Physical Disk Failure Detection

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Using Persistent Hot Spare Slots . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Physical Disk Hot Swapping

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Using Replace Member and 

Revertible Hot Spares

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Controller Cache Preservation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Cache Preservation With 

Non-Volatile Cache (NVC)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Cache Data Recovery

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Battery Transparent Learn Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

3 Deploying the PERC Card. . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Removing the PERC Controller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Installing the PERC Controller

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Contents 5

Support For Internal 

Multiple Controllers

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Setting up Redundant Path Support 

on the PERC H810 Adapter

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Reverting to Single Path Support 

from Redundant Path Support for PERC H810

. . . . . . 41

4 Driver Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Installing the Windows Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Creating the Driver Media

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Pre-Installation Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Creating the Device Driver Media

. . . . . . . . . 44

Installing Driver During a Windows 

Server 2008, Windows Server 

2008 R2 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Installing Windows Server 2008 or 

Windows Server 2008 R2 for a 

New RAID Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Updating Existing Windows Server 

2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 . . . . . . . . . . 46

Updating the Linux Driver

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Installing or Updating the 

RPM Driver Package With 

DKMS Support

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Installing or Updating the 

RPM Driver Package With KMOD Support. . . . . 48

Installing or Updating the 

RPM Driver Package With KMP Support. . . . . . 49

6 Contents

5 Management Applications 

for PERC Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Dell OpenManage Storage Management . . . . . . . . 51

BIOS Configuration Utility

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Entering the BIOS Configuration Utility

. . . . . . . 52

Exiting the Configuration Utility

. . . . . . . . . . . 53

Menu Navigation Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Setting Up Virtual Disks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Virtual Disk Management

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Creating Virtual Disks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Converting Physical Disk to 

RAID Capable for PERC H310

. . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Converting Physical Disk to 

Non-RAID for PERC H310 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Initializing Virtual Disks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Checking Data Consistency. . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Importing or Clearing Foreign 

Configurations Using the VD Mgmt Menu . . . . . 63

Importing or Clearing Foreign 

Configurations Using the Foreign 

Configuration View Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Break Mirror

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Managing Preserved Cache

. . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Managing Dedicated Hot Spares . . . . . . . . . . 69

Deleting Virtual Disks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Deleting Disk Groups

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Clearing the Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

BIOS Configuration Utility Menu Options

. . . . . . . . 71

Virtual Disk Management (VD Mgmt)

. . . . . . . . 72

Virtual Disk Actions

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Physical Disk Management (PD Mgmt)

. . . . . . . 77

Physical Disk Actions

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Contents 7

Rebuild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Controller Management (Ctrl Mgmt) . . . . . . . . 79

Controller Management Actions

. . . . . . . . . . 80

Foreign Configuration View

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Physical Disk Management

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Setting LED Blinking

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Creating Global Hot Spares

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Removing Global or Dedicated Hot Spares . . . . 82

Replacing an Online Physical Disk

. . . . . . . . . 83

Stopping Background Initialization

. . . . . . . . . 84

Performing a Manual Rebuild of an

Individual Physical Disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Controller Management

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Enabling Boot Support

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Enabling BIOS Stop on Error

. . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Enabling Auto Import

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Restoring Factory Default Settings . . . . . . . . . 88

UEFI RAID Configuration Utility

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Entering the UEFI RAID Configuration Utility

. . . . 88

Exiting the UEFI RAID Configuration Utility

. . . . . 89

Configuration Options

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Controller Management

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Virtual Disk Management

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Physical Disk Management

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Enclosure Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

6 CacheCade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

CacheCade Virtual Disk Characteristics . . . . . . . . 93

Configuring and Managing 

CacheCade Virtual Disks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

8 Contents

CacheCade Virtual Disk Management . . . . . . . 94

Create CacheCade Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Delete CacheCade Virtual Disk

. . . . . . . . . . . 96

Reconfiguring CacheCade Virtual Disks

. . . . . . 96

Automatic Reconfiguration of 

CacheCade Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Manual Resizing of CacheCade Virtual Disks

. . . 98

7 Security Key and 

RAID Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Security Key Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Security Key Management in the 

BIOS Configuration Utility

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Local Key Management (LKM)

. . . . . . . . . . 100

Create Security Key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Change Security Key

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Delete Security Key

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Creating Secured Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . 103

Securing Pre-Existing Virtual Disks

. . . . . . . . 103

Importing or Clearing Secured 

Foreign Configurations and 

Secure Disk Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Instant Secure Erase

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Troubleshooting Security Key Errors . . . . . . . . . 106

Secured Foreign Import Errors

. . . . . . . . . . 106

Failure to Select or Configure 

Non Self-Encrypting Disks (non-SED) . . . . . . 106

Failure to Delete Security Key

. . . . . . . . . . 106

Failure to Instant Secure Erase 

Task on Physical Disks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Contents 9

8 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

BIOS Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Discovery Error Message

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Extra Enclosure Error Message

. . . . . . . . . . 109

Cache Data Lost Error Message . . . . . . . . . . 110

Missing Disks in Virtual Disk Error Message

. . . . 110

Previous Configuration of Disks 

Removed Error Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Missing Virtual Disks Error Message

. . . . . . . . 111

Dirty Cache Data Error Message

. . . . . . . . . . 112

BIOS Disabled Error Message . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Drive Configuration Changes

Error Message

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Adapter at Baseport not 

Responding Error Message . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Offline or Missing Virtual Drives 

With Preserved Cache Error Message. . . . . . . 113

Virtual Disks Offline Error Message

. . . . . . . . 114

Virtual Disks Degraded Error Message

. . . . . . 114

Virtual Disks Partially Degraded 

Error Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Memory or Battery Problem Error Message . . . . 114

Firmware Fault State Error Message

. . . . . . . . 115

Foreign Configuration Found Error Message

. . . . 115

Foreign Configuration Not Found in 

<Ctrl><R> Error Message. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Previous Configuration Cleared or 

Missing Error Message. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Invalid SAS Topology Detected 

Error Message

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Multibit ECC Errors Detected 

Error Messages

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Configured Disks Removed or 

Not Accessible Error Message. . . . . . . . . . . 117

10 Contents

Battery Discharged or Disconnected 

Error Message

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Degraded State of Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Memory Errors

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Preserved Cache State

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

General Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

PERC Card Has Yellow Bang

in Device Manager

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

PERC Card Not Seen in Device Manager

. . . . . 119

No Hard Drives Found Error 

Message During Microsoft Windows

Server 2003 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Physical Disk Issues

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Physical Disk in Failed State

. . . . . . . . . . . 120

Unable to Rebuild a Fault Tolerant Virtual Disk

. . 120

Fatal Error or Data Corruption Reported

. . . . . 121

Physical Disk Displayed as Blocked . . . . . . . 121

Multiple Disks Become Inaccessible

. . . . . . . 121

Rebuilding a Failed Physical Disk . . . . . . . . . 122

Virtual Disk Fails During Rebuild 

Using a Global Hot Spare

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Virtual Disk Fails During Rebuild 

Using a Dedicated Hot Spare

. . . . . . . . . . . 122

Physical Disk Fails During 

Reconstruction on Redundant Virtual Disk . . . . 123

Virtual Disk Fails Rebuild Using a 

Dedicated Hot Spare

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Physical Disk Takes a Long Time to Rebuild . . . 123

SMART Errors

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Smart Error Detected on a Physical 

Disk in a Redundant Virtual Disk

. . . . . . . . . 124

Contents 11

Smart Error Detected on a Physical Disk 

in a Non-Redundant Virtual

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Replace Member Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Source Disk Fails During 

Replace Member Operation

. . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Target Disk Fails

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

General Disk Fails

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Linux Operating System Errors

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Virtual Disk Policy is Assumed as 

Write-Through Error Message

. . . . . . . . . . . 126

Driver Does not 

Auto-Build into New Kernel . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Unable to Register SCSI 

Device Error Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Disk Carrier LED Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

A Appendix: RAID Description . . . . . . . . . 129

Summary of RAID Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

RAID Terminology

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

12 Contents

Overview 13

Overview

The Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) H310, H710, H710P and

H810 family of storage controller cards has the following characteristics:

• Complies with Serial-attached SCSI (SAS) 2.0 providing up to 6 Gb/sec

throughput.

• Supports Dell-qualified serial-attached SCSI (SAS) hard drives, SATA

hard drives, and solid-state drives (SSDs).

NOTE: Mixing SAS and SATA drives within a virtual disk is not supported.

Also, mixing hard drives and SSDs within a virtual disk is not supported.

NOTE: Mixing disks of different speed (7,200 rpm, 10,000 rpm, or 15,000 rpm)

and bandwidth (3 Gbps or 6 Gbps) PCIe while maintaining the same drive type

(SAS or SATA) and technology (HDD or SSD) is supported.

• Offers RAID control capabilities which include support for

RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60.

NOTE: RAID 6 and RAID 60 are not supported by PERC H310.

• Supports a PCIe 2.0 x8 host interface.

• Provides reliability, high performance, and fault-tolerant disk subsystem

management.

• Offers Non-RAID support for direct access to disk drives

(PERC H310

only)

NOTE: Operating systems can directly access Non-RAID hard drives. 

A Non-RAID hard drive is not fault-tolerant and cannot be recovered if it fails.

Only the PERC H310 controller allows configuration of disk drives as 

Non-RAID.

14 Overview

Table 1-1 compares the hardware configurations for the PERC H310, H710,

H710P, and H810 cards.

Table 1-1. PERC H310, H710, H710P, and H810 Cards Hardware Configurations

Specification H310 H710 H710P H810

RAID Levels 0,1,5,10,50 0,1,5,6,10,50,

0,1,5,6,10,50,

Enclosures Per Port Not Applicable Not Applicable Not Applicable Up to four

enclosures

Processor Dell Adapter

SAS RAID-on-

Chip, 8-port

with LSI 2008

chipset

Dell Adapter

SAS RAID-on-

Chip, 8-port

with LSI 2208

chipset

Dell Adapter

SAS RAID-on-

Chip, 8-port

with LSI 2208

chipset

Dell Adapter

SAS RAID-on-

Chip, 8-port

with LSI 2208

chipset

Backup Battery

Unit (BBU)

N o Ye s Ye s Ye s

Non-Volatile

Cache

Not A p p licab l e Ye s Yes Yes

Cache Memory Not Applicable 512 MB DDR3

800 Mhz

1 GB DDR3

133 Mhz

1 GB DDR3

1333 Mhz

Cache Function Not Applicable Write Back,

Write

Through,

Adaptive Read

Ahead, No

Read Ahead,

Read Ahead

Wri t e B a c k,

Wri te

Through,

Adaptive Read

Ahead, No

Read Ahead,

Read Ahead

Write Back,

Wri te

Through,

Adaptive Read

Ahead, No

Read Ahead,

Read Ahead

Maximum number

of spans per Disk

Group

8888

Overview 15

Supported Operating Systems

The

PERC

H310, H710, and H710P

cards support the following operating

systems:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 including Hyper-V virtualization

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 5.7 and later (32-bit and 64-bit)

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 6 SP1 and later (64-bit)

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server version 10 SP4 and later (64-bit)

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server version 11 SP2 and later (64-bit)

• VMware ESX and ESXi 4 Update 2

•VMware ESXi 5.0

NOTE: For the latest list of supported operating systems and driver installation

instructions, see the system documentation at support.dell.com/manuals. For

specific operating system service pack requirements, see the Drivers and

Downloads section at support.dell.com.

Maximum number

of Virtual Disks

per Disk Group

16 16 16 16

Online Capacity

Expansion

Ye s Ye s Ye s Ye s

Dedicated and

Global Hot Spares

Ye s Ye s Ye s Ye s

Hot Swap Devices

Supported

Ye s Ye s Ye s Ye s

Hardware XOR

Engine

N o Ye s Ye s Ye s

Redundant Path

Support

No No No Yes

Table 1-1. PERC H310, H710, H710P, and H810 Cards Hardware Configurations

Specification H310 H710 H710P H810

16 Overview

Contacting Dell

For customers in the United States, call 800-WWW-DELL (800-999-3355).

NOTE: If you do not have an active Internet connection, you can find contact

information on your purchase invoice, packing slip, bill, or Dell product catalog.

Dell provides several online and telephone-based support and service options.

Availability varies by country and product, and some services may not be

available in your area. To contact Dell for sales, technical support, or

customer service issues:

Visit

support.dell.com

Verify your country or region in the

Choose A Country/Region

drop-down

menu at the bottom of the page.

Click

on the left side of the page.

Select the appropriate service or support link based on your requirement.

Choose the method of contacting Dell that is convenient for you.

Features 17

Features

Some of the features discussed for PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC)

H310, H710, H710P, and H810 cards are:

• Physical Disk Power Management

• Fault Tolerance

• Consistency Checks

• Disk Roaming

• Virtual Disk Migration

• Virtual Disk Cache Policies

• Virtual Disks Reconfiguring

• Virtual Disk Initialization

• Patrol Read

Physical Disk Power Management

Physical disk power management is a power saving feature of the PERC H310,

H710, H710P, and H810 cards. The feature allows disks to be spun down

based on disk configuration and I/O activity. The feature is supported on all

rotating SAS and SATA disks and includes unconfigured, configured and 

hot-spare disks.

The physical disk power management feature is disabled by default. The

feature can be enabled in the Dell Open Manage Storage Management

application using the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) RAID

Configuration utility. For more information, see the Dell OpenManage

documentation at support.dell.com/manuals.

18 Features

There are four power saving modes available:

•

No Power Savings

(

default mode

)—All power savings features are disabled.

•

Balanced Power Savings

—Spin down is enabled only for unconfigured and

hot spare disks.

•

Maximum Power Savings

—Spin down is enabled for configured,

unconfigured and hot spare disks.

•

Customized Power Savings

—All power savings features are customizable.

You can specify a Quality of Service window during which the configured

disks are excluded from spin-down.

Configured Spin Down Delay

NOTE: The Configured Spin Down Delay option is not applicable for the No Power

Savings mode.

The amount of time to wait before spinning down disks can be set using

Configured Spin Down Delay. The minimum value of the timer is 30

minutes (default) and the maximum is 1 day. Disks are spun down

automatically and spun up when accessed. All disks are spun up on reboot.

NOTE: There is a delay to I/O operations when a configured disk is being spun up.

Types of Virtual Disk Initialization

You can initialize the virtual disks as described in the following sections.

CAUTION: The initializing virtual disks task erases the files and file systems

while keeping the virtual disk configuration intact. Initializing a virtual disk

destroys all data on the virtual disk.

NOTE: The initialization operations mentioned here are not applicable for 

Non-RAID disks.

Background Initialization of Virtual Disks

Background Initialization (BGI) is an automated process that writes the

parity or mirror data on newly created virtual disks. BGI does not run on

RAID 0 virtual disks.You can control the BGI rate in the Dell OpenManage

storage management application. Any change in the BGI rate does not take

effect until the next BGI run.

Features 19

NOTE: You cannot disable BGI permanently. If you cancel BGI, it automatically

restarts within five minutes. For information on stopping BGI, see "Stopping

Background Initialization" on page 84.

NOTE: Unlike full or fast initialization of virtual disks, background initialization does

not clear data from the physical disks.

NOTE: CC/BGI typically causes some loss in performance until the operation

completes.

Consistency Check (CC) and BGI perform similar functions in that they

both correct parity errors. However, CC reports data inconsistencies through

an event notification, but BGI does not. You can start CC manually, but not

BGI.

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 the virtual disk to undergo a BGI.

Full initialization can be performed after the creation of a virtual disk.

During full initialization, the host is not able to access the virtual disk.

You can start a full initialization on a virtual disk by using the Slow Initialize

option in the Dell OpenManage storage management application. For more

information on using the BIOS Configuration Utility to perform a full

initialization, see "Initializing Virtual Disks" on page 61.

NOTE: If the system reboots during a full initialization, the operation aborts and

a BGI begins on the virtual disk.

Fast Initialization of Virtual Disks

A fast initialization on a virtual disk overwrites the first and last 8 MB of the

virtual disk, clearing any boot records or partition information. The operation

takes only 2–3 seconds to complete and is recommended when you are

recreating virtual disks. To perform a fast initialization using the BIOS

Configuration Utility, see "Initializing Virtual Disks" on page 61.

20 Features

Consistency Checks

Consistency Check (CC) is a background operation that verifies and corrects

the mirror or parity data for fault tolerant virtual disks. It is recommended

that you periodically run a consistency check on virtual disks.

You can manually start a CC using the BIOS Configuration Utility or the

Dell OpenManage storage management application. You can schedule CC to

run on virtual disks using a Dell OpenManage storage management

application. To start a CC using the BIOS Configuration Utility, see

"Checking Data Consistency" on page 62.

Disk Roaming

Disk roaming is moving the 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 virtual disks that are part of the disk group. You can perform disk

roaming only when the system is turned off.

CAUTION: Do not attempt disk roaming during RAID level migration (RLM) or

online capacity expansion (OCE). This causes loss of the virtual disk.

Perform the following steps to use disk roaming:

Turn off the power to the system, physical disks, enclosures, and system

components. Disconnect power cords from the system.

Move the physical disks to desired positions on the backplane or

the enclosure.

Perform a safety check. Make sure the physical disks are inserted properly.

Turn on the system.

The controller detects the RAID configuration from the configuration

data on the physical disks.

Features 21

Virtual Disk Migration

The PERC H710, H710P, and H810 cards support migration of virtual disks

from one controller to another without taking the target controller offline.

The controller can import RAID virtual disks in optimal, degraded,

or partially degraded states. You cannot import a virtual disk that is in

an offline state.

Disk migration pointers:

• Supports migration of VDs from PERC H700 and H800 to PERC H710P

and H810

• Supports migration of volumes created within

H710, H710P, or H810

• Supports migration of volumes created on H310 to

H710, H710P, or H810

• Does not support migration from H700 or H800 to H310

• Does not support migration from H710, H710P, or H810 to H310

NOTE: The source controller must be offline prior to performing the disk migration.

NOTE: Disks cannot be migrated to older revisions or generations of the PERC

cards.

NOTE: Non-RAID disks are supported only on the PERC H310 controller. Migration

to any other PERC product is not supported

NOTE: Importing secured virtual disks is supported as long as the appropriate key

(LKM) is supplied or configured.

When a controller detects a physical disk with an existing configuration,

it flags the physical disk as foreign, and generates an alert indicating that

a foreign disk was detected.

CAUTION: Do not attempt disk roaming during RLM or online capacity

expansion (OCE). This causes loss of the virtual disk.

22 Features

Perform the following steps to use disk migration:

Turn off the system that contains the source controller.

Move the appropriate physical disks from the source controller to the

target controller.

The system with the target controller can be online while inserting the

physical disks.

The controller flags the inserted disks as foreign disks.

Use the Dell OpenManage storage management application or the

controller

BIOS Configuration Utility

to import the detected foreign

configuration.

Ensure that all physical disks that are part of the virtual disk are migrated.

NOTE: For more information about compatibility, contact your Dell technical

support representative.

Migrating Virtual Disks from PERC H700 or H800 to PERC H710, H710P, or

H810

To migrate virtual disks from PERC H700 or H800 to PERC H710, H710P, or

H810:

Turn off the system.

Move the appropriate physical disks from the PERC H700 or H800 card to

the

PERC H710, H710P, or H810

card.

NOTE: If you are replacing your PERC H700 or H800 with a PERC H710, H710P,

or H810 card, see the Owner’s Manual that shipped with your system or at

support.dell.com/manuals.

Boot the system and import the foreign configuration that is detected.

You can do one of the following:

• Press <F> to automatically import the foreign configuration.

• Enter the

BIOS Configuration Utility

and navigate to the

Foreign

Configuration View

NOTE: For more information on accessing the BIOS Configuration Utility,

see "Entering the BIOS Configuration Utility" on page 52

NOTE: For more information on Foreign Configuration View, see "Foreign

Configuration View" on page 81.

Features 23

Exit the

BIOS Configuration Utility

and reboot the system.

Ensure that all the latest drivers for the

PERC H710, H710P, or H810

card

(available at

support.dell.com

) are installed.

For more information, see "Driver Installation" on page 43.

Virtual Disk Write Cache Policies

NOTE: PERC H310 only supports Write-Through mode.

The write cache policy of a virtual disk determines how the controller handles

writes to the virtual disk. Write-Back and Write-Throug h are the two write

cache policies and can be set on virtual disks individually.

All RAID volumes are presented as Wri te-Thro ugh to the operating system

(Windows and Linux) independent of the actual write cache policy of the

virtual disk (except PERC H310, which only supports Write-Back). The

PERC cards manage the data in cache independently of the operating system

or any applications.

NOTE: Use the Dell OpenManage storage management application or the BIOS

Configuration Utility to view and manage virtual disk cache settings.

Write-Back and Write-Through

In Writ e-Throug h caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion

signal to the host system when the disk subsystem has received all the data

in a transaction.

In Writ e-Bac k caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal

to the host when the controller cache has received all the data in a

transaction. The controller then writes the cached data to the storage device

in the background.

The risk of using Writ e-Ba ck cache is that the cached data can be lost if

there is a power failure before it is written to the storage device. This risk is

mitigated by using a Non-Volatile Cache on the PERC H710, H710P or H810

card.

NOTE: The default cache setting for virtual disks is Write-Back caching.

NOTE: Certain data patterns and configurations perform better with a

Write-Through cache policy.

24 Features

Conditions Under Which Write-Back is Employed

Write-Back caching is used under all conditions in which the battery is

present and in good condition.

Conditions Under Which Forced Write-Back With No Battery is

Employed

CAUTION: It is recommended that you use a power backup system when forcing

Write-Back to ensure there is no loss of data if the system suddenly loses power.

Write-Back mode is available when you select Force WB with no battery.

When Forced Write-Back mode is selected, the virtual disk is in Wri te-B ack

mode even if the battery is not present.

Virtual Disk Read Cache Policies

The read policy of a virtual disk determines how the controller handles reads

to that virtual disk. The read policies are:

•

Always Read Ahead

—

llows the controller to read sequentially ahead of

requested data and to store the additional data in cache memory,

anticipating that the data is required soon. This speeds up reads for

sequential data, but there is little improvement when accessing random

data.

•

No Read Ahead

—Disables the

Read-Ahead

capability.

•

Adaptive Read Ahead

—Begins using

Read-Ahead

if the two most recent

disk accesses occurred in sequential sectors. If the read requests are

random, the controller reverts to

No Read Ahead

mode.

NOTE: The default read cache setting for virtual disks is Adaptive Read Ahead.

Features 25

Reconfiguration of Virtual Disks

An online virtual disk can be reconfigured in ways that expands its capacity

and/or change its RAID level.

NOTE: Spanned virtual disks such as RAID 10, 50, and 60 cannot be reconfigured.

NOTE: Reconfiguring Virtual Disks typically impacts disk performance until the

reconfiguration operation is complete.

Online Capacity Expansion (OCE) can be done in two ways:

• If there is a single virtual disk in a disk group and free space is available, the

virtual disk’s capacity can be expanded within that free space.

• If a virtual disk is created and it does not use the maximum size of the disk

group, free space is available.

Free space is also available when a disk group’s physical disks are replaced by

larger disks using the Replace Member feature. A virtual disk's capacity can

also be expanded by performing an OCE operation to add more physical

disks.

RAID Level Migration (RLM) refers to changing a virtual disk’s RAID level.

Both RLM and OCE can be done at the same time so that a virtual disk can

simultaneously have its RAID level changed and its capacity increased. When

a RLM/OCE operation is complete, a reboot is not required. For a list of

RLM/OCE possibilities, see Table 2-1. The source RAID level column

indicates the virtual disk RAID level before the RLM/OCE and the target

RAID level column indicates the RAID level after the operation has

completed.

NOTE: If the controller already contains the maximum number of virtual disks, you

cannot perform a RAID level migration or capacity expansion on any virtual disk.

NOTE: The controller changes the write cache policy of all virtual disks undergoing

a RLM/OCE to Write-Through until the RLM/OCE is complete.

26 Features

NOTE: The total number of physical disks in a disk group cannot exceed 32. You

cannot perform RAID level migration and expansion on RAID levels 10, 50, and 60.

Table 2-1. RAID Level Migration

Source

RAID

Level

Target

RAID

Level

Number of

Physical

Disks

(Beginning)

Number of

Physical

Disks (End)

Capacity

Expansion

Possible

Description

RAID

1 2 or more Yes Increases capacity by adding disks

RAID

1 2 No Converts non-redundant virtual disk into

a mirrored virtual disk by adding one disk.

RAID

1 or more 3 or more Yes At least one disk needs to be added for

distributed parity data.

RAID

1 or more 4 or more Yes At least two disks need to be added for

dual distributed parity data.

RAID

2 2 or more Yes Removes redundancy while increasing

capacity.

RAID

2 3 or more Yes Maintains redundancy while doubling

capacity.

RAID

2 4 or more Yes Two disks required to be added for

distributed parity data.

RAID

3 or more 3 or more Yes Converts to a non-redundant virtual disk

and reclaims disk space used for

distributed parity data.

RAID

3 or more 4 or more Yes Increases capacity by adding disks

RAID

3 or more 4 or more Yes At least one disk needs to be added for

dual distributed parity data.

RAID

4 or more 4 or more Yes Converts to a non-redundant virtual disk

and reclaims disk space used for

distributed parity data.

RAID

4 or more 4 or more Yes Removes one set of parity data and

reclaims disk space used for it.

RAID

4 or more 5 or more Yes Increases capacity by adding disks

Features 27

Fault Tolerance

The list of features of the PERC cards that provide fault tolerance to prevent

data loss is as follows:

• Support for Self Monitoring and Reporting Technology (SMART)

• Support for Patrol Read

• Redundant path support (for PERC H810 only)

• Physical disk failure detection

• Physical disk rebuild using hot spares

• Battery and Non-Volatile Cache backup of controller cache to protect data

• Detection of batteries with low charge after boot up

The next sections describe some methods to achieve fault tolerance.

The SMART Feature

The SMART feature monitors certain physical aspects of all motors, heads,

and physical disk electronics to help detect predictable physical disk failures. 

SMART-compliant physical disks have attributes for which data can be

monitored to identify changes in values and determine whether the values are

within threshold limits. Many mechanical and electrical failures display some

degradation in performance before failure.

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.

NOTE: For detailed information on SCSI interface specifications, see t10.org

and for detailed information on SATA interface specifications, see t13.org.

28 Features

Automatic Replace Member with Predicted Failure

A Replace Member operation can occur when there is a SMART predictive

failure reporting on a physical disk 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 disk needs to be a hot spare that

qualifies as a rebuild disk. The physical disk with the SMART error is marked

as failed only after the successful completion of the Replace Member. This

avoids putting the array in degraded status.

If an automatic Replace Member occurs using a source disk that was

originally a hot spare (that was used in a rebuild), and a new disk added for

the Replace Member operation as the target disk, the hot spare reverts to the

hot spare state after a successful Replace Member operation.

NOTE: To enable the automatic Replace Member, use the Dell OpenManage

storage management application. For more information on automatic Replace

Member, see "Dell OpenManage Storage Management" on page 51. For information

on manual Replace Member, see "Replacing an Online Physical Disk" on page 83.

Patrol Read

The Patrol Read feature is designed as a preventative measure to ensure

physical disk health and data integrity. Patrol Read scans for and resolves

potential problems on configured physical disks. The Dell OpenManage

storage management application can be used to start Patr ol Read and

change its behavior.

The following is an overview of Patrol Read behavior:

•

Patrol Re a d

runs on all disks on the controller that are configured as

part of a virtual disk, including hot spares.

•

Patrol Re a d

does not run on physical disks that are not part of a virtual disk

or are in

Ready

state.

•

Patrol Re a d

adjusts the amount of controller resources dedicated to

Patrol Re a d

operations based on outstanding disk I/O. For example,

if the system is busy processing I/O operation, then

Pat ro l Read

uses

fewer resources to allow the I/O to take a higher priority.

Features 29

•

Pat ro l Read

does not run on any disks involved in any of the

following operations:

–Rebuild

– Replace Member

– Full or Background Initialization

–CC

–RLM or OCE

NOTE: By default, Patrol Read automatically runs every seven days on configured

SAS and SATA hard drives. Patrol Read is not necessary on SSD and is disabled by

default.

For more information on Pat ro l Read, see the Dell OpenManage

documentation at support.dell.com/manuals.

Redundant Path Support (For PERC H810 Only)

The PERC H810 adapter can detect and use redundant paths to disks

contained in enclosures. This provides the ability to connect two SAS cables

between a controller and an enclosure for path redundancy. The controller is

able to tolerate the failure of a cable or Enclosure Management

Module (EMM) by utilizing the remaining path.

When redundant paths exist, the controller automatically balances I/O load

through both paths to each disk. Load balancing increases throughput to

virtual disks in storage enclosures and is automatically turned on when

redundant paths are detected. The ability to load balance I/O can be disabled

using the Dell OpenManage storage management application.

To set up your hardware to support redundant paths, see "Setting up

Redundant Path Support on the PERC H810 Adapter" on page 40.

NOTE: This support for redundant paths refers to path-redundancy only and not to

controller-redundancy.

30 Features

Physical Disk Failure Detection

Failed physical disks are detected and rebuilds automatically start to new

disks that are inserted into the same slot. Automatic rebuilds can also happen

transparently with hot spares. If you have configured hot spares, the

controllers automatically try to use them to rebuild failed physical disks.

Using Persistent Hot Spare Slots

NOTE: The persistent hot spare slot feature is disabled by default.

The PERC H310, H710, H710P, and H810 cards can be configured so that the

system backplane or storage enclosure disk slots are dedicated as hot spare

slots. This feature can be enabled using the Dell OpenManage storage

management application.

Once enabled, any slots with hot spares configured automatically become

persistent hot spare slots. If a hot spare disk fails or is removed, a replacement

disk that is inserted into the same slot automatically becomes a hot spare with

the same properties as the one it is replacing. If the replacement disk does not

match the disk protocol and technology, it does not become a hot spare.

For more information on persistent hot spares, see the Dell OpenManage

documentation at support.dell.com/manuals.

Physical Disk Hot Swapping

NOTE: To check if the backplane supports hot swapping, see the Owner’s Manual

of your system.

Hot swapping is the manual replacement of a disk while the PERC H310,

H710, H710P, or H810 cards are online and performing their normal

functions. The following requirements must be met before hot swapping a

physical disk:

• The system backplane or enclosure must support hot swapping for the

PERC H310, H710, H710P or H810 cards to support hot swapping.

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