Dell H700, H800 User Manual
Dell PowerEdge RAID
Controller Cards
H700 and H800
Technical Guide
Enterprise-class
controllers
designed for
performance,
reliability, and
fault tolerance.
Dell
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Revision 3 March 2011
DELL PERC H700 and H800 Technical Guide 2
Dell
Table of Contents
1 Product Comparison ........................................................................................... 5
1.1 Overview .................................................................................................. 5
1.2 PERC H700 Model Overview ............................................................................. 6
1.3 PERC H800 Model Overview ............................................................................. 7
2 New Features ................................................................................................... 9
2.1 New Feature Overview .................................................................................. 9
2.2 6Gb/s SAS (SAS 2.0) Overview .......................................................................... 9
2.2.1 6Gb/s SAS Performance Benefit over 3Gb/s SAS ............................................ 10
2.2.2 6Gb/s SAS Expectation .......................................................................... 10
3 Product Support .............................................................................................. 11
3.1 PowerEdge™ Server Support .......................................................................... 11
3.2 Management Software Support....................................................................... 11
3.3 Operating System Support ............................................................................ 11
3.4 Drive Support ........................................................................................... 12
4 Product Overview ............................................................................................ 13
4.1 PERC H700 and PERC H800 Feature Overview ..................................................... 13
4.2 CacheCade .............................................................................................. 15
4.3 Cut-Through IO ......................................................................................... 15
4.4 Reconfiguring Virtual Disks ........................................................................... 15
4.5 Fault-Tolerance Features ............................................................................. 16
4.5.1 Non-Volatile Cache ............................................................................... 17
4.5.2 Automatic Replace Member with Predicted Failure ......................................... 17
4.5.3 Redundant Path with Load Balancing Support ............................................... 17
4.5.4 Failed Physical Disk Detection ................................................................. 17
4.5.5 Using Replace Member and Revertible Hot Spares .......................................... 17
4.5.6 Enclosure Affinity ................................................................................ 18
4.5.7 Battery Back-up of Controller Cache .......................................................... 18
4.6 Physical Disk Hot Swapping ........................................................................... 18
4.7 Disk Roaming ............................................................................................ 19
4.8 Disk Migration ........................................................................................... 19
4.9 PERC H700 and H800 Security Key and RAID Management ....................................... 19
4.9.1 PERC H700 and H800 Security Key Implementation ......................................... 19
4.9.2 Configuring and Managing Secured RAID ...................................................... 19
4.10 Virtual Disk Write Cache Policies .................................................................... 20
4.11 Virtual Disk Read Cache Policies ..................................................................... 20
5 RAID Overview ................................................................................................ 21
5.1 About RAID .............................................................................................. 21
5.2 Advantages of RAID .................................................................................... 21
5.3 Supported RAID Levels................................................................................. 21
5.3.1 RAID 0 (Striped Virtual Disk without Fault Tolerance) ...................................... 21
5.3.2 RAID 1 (Mirroring) ................................................................................ 22
5.3.3 RAID 5 (Striping With Distributed Parity) ..................................................... 23
5.3.4 RAID 6 (Striping With Dual Distributed Parity) ............................................... 24
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5.3.5 RAID 10 (Striping over Mirrored Sets) ......................................................... 25
5.3.6 RAID 50 (Striping Across RAID 5) ............................................................... 26
5.3.7 RAID 60 (Striping Across RAID 6) ............................................................... 27
Appendix A. Additional Resources .......................................................................... 29
Tables
Table 1. Comparison of PERC H700 and PERC H800 to previous PERC 6/I and PERC 6/E .............. 5
Table 2. 6Gb/s SAS (SAS 2.0) Features ..................................................................... 10
Table 3. SAS Performance Details ........................................................................... 10
Table 4. PowerEdge Server Support with PERC H700 and PERC H800 .................................. 11
Table 5. Operating System Support with PERC H700 and PERC H800 .................................. 12
Table 6. Drive Support ........................................................................................ 12
Table 7. PERC H700 and PERC H800 Features ............................................................. 13
Table 8. RAID Level Migration ................................................................................ 16
Table 9. Resource Contact Information and Descriptions ................................................ 29
Figures
Figure 1. PERC H700 Integrated (Additional Sled for PCIe Slot) ........................................... 6
Figure 2. PERC H700 Modular ................................................................................... 7
Figure 3. PERC H800 Adapter ................................................................................... 8
Figure 4. Example of RAID 0 .................................................................................. 22
Figure 5. Example of RAID 1 (Mirroring) ..................................................................... 23
Figure 6. Example of RAID 5 (Single Virtual Disk with 5 drives).......................................... 24
Figure 7. Example of RAID 6 (Single Virtual Disk with 5 drives).......................................... 25
Figure 8. Example of RAID 10 (1 + 0) ........................................................................ 26
Figure 9. Example of RAID 50 (5 + 0) ........................................................................ 27
Figure 10. Example of RAID 60 (6 + 0) ........................................................................ 28
DELL PERC H700 and H800 Technical Guide 4
Dell
Feature/Spec
NEW
PERC H700
PERC 6/I
NEW
PERC H800
PERC 6/E
Interface
6Gb (SAS 2.0)
3Gb (SAS 1.1)
6Gb (SAS 2.0)
3Gb (SAS 1.1)
Bus support
x8 PCIe 2.0
x8 PCIe 1.0
x8 PCIe 2.0
x8 PCIe 1.0
Ports / Channels
8 (2 x4)
8 (2 x4)
8 (2 x4)
8 (2 x4)
Int/Ext
Connectors
2 internal
2 internal
2 external
2 external
Cache Memory
512MB BBU 512MB
Non-Volatile
Cache
(800 MHz DDR2)
256MB
(667 MHz DDR2)
512MB TBBU
512MB TNVC
1GB TNVC
(800 MHz DDR2)
256MB / 512MB
(667 MHz DDR2)
Battery-Backed
Cache
Yes
Yes
Yes
Transportable
Yes
Transportable
RAID Levels
0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50,
60
0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50,
60
0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50,
60
0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50,
60
Max physical
drives in Large
RAID volume
(R10, R50, R60)
16
10
192
(8x MD1220)
144
(6x MD1120)
HDD Support
SAS and SATA
SAS and SATA
SAS only
SAS and SATA
SSD Support
SAS and SATA
SATA
SAS only
Not Supported
SED Support
Yes (Local Key
Management)
Not Supported
Yes (Local Key
Management)
Not Supported
Controller
Firmware
(latest rev)
7.1
6.2
7.1
6.2
Redundant Path
No
No
Yes
Yes
I/O Load
Balancing
No
No
Yes
Yes
Cluster Support
No
No
No
No
Storage
Management
OpenManage™ 6.2
(minimum rev)
OpenManage™ 5.4
(minimum rev)
OpenManage™ 6.2
(minimum rev)
OpenManage™ 5.4
(minimum rev)
1 Product Comparison
1.1 Overview
The PERC H700 (internal) and PERC H800 (external) RAID controllers mark the next stage in the
evolution of the Dell™ PowerEdge™ RAID controller portfolio with the introduction of 6Gb/s SAS (SAS
2.0). PERC H700 and H800 will be supported in PowerEdge 11th Generation servers. The PERC H700 is
follow-on to the PERC 6/I, and the PERC H800 is the follow-on to the PERC 6/E.
Table 1. Comparison of PERC H700 and PERC H800 to previous PERC 6/I and PERC 6/E
DELL PERC H700 and H800 Technical Guide 5
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1.2 PERC H700 Overview
The PERC H700 internal host-RAID product offers three different models to support 11th Generation
Dell PowerEdge servers:
The PERC H700 Integrated card with two x4 internal mini-SAS ports supports the PCIe 2.0 x8
host interface. Cache options include standard 512 MB with battery backup unit (BBU), 512 MB
non-volatile (NV) cache, or 1 GB non-volatile cache. The PERC H700 Integrated card is
installed in the dedicated internal storage slot of the server. See Figure 1 for a view of the
PERC H700 Integrated card.
The PERC H700 Adapter with two x4 internal mini-SAS ports supports the PCIe 2.0 x8 host
interface. Cache options include standard 512 MB with BBU, 512 MB non-volatile cache, or
1 GB non-volatile cache. The PERC H700 Adapter is installed in a PCIe slot in the server. See
Figure 1 for a view of the PERC H700 Integrated card (adapter version is the same with the
addition of a sled for adhering to the PCIe slot connection).
The PERC H700 Modular card with one x4 internal SAS port and a BBU supports the PCIe 2.0 x4
host interface. The PERC H700 Modular card is installed in the integrated slot in the blade
server platforms. See Figure 2 for a view of the PERC H700 Modular card.
Figure 1. PERC H700 Integrated (Additional Sled for PCIe Slot)
DELL PERC H700 and H800 Technical Guide 6
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Figure 2. PERC H700 Modular
1.3 PERC H800 Overview
The PERC H800 external host-RAID product is supported with 11th Generation Dell PowerEdge servers
for expanding storage to the Dell™ PowerVault™ MD1200 and MD1220 6Gb/s SAS enclosures.
The PERC H800 Adapter with two x4 external mini-SAS ports supports the PCIe 2.0 x8 host interface.
Cache options include the standard 512 MB transportable battery backup unit (TBBU) and the
transportable 512 MB and 1 GB non-volatile cache. The PERC H800 Adapter is installed in a PCIe slot
in the server. See Figure 3 for an angled view of the PERC H800 adapter.
DELL PERC H700 and H800 Technical Guide 7
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Figure 3. PERC H800 Adapter
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2 New Features
2.1 Overview
The PERC H700 and PERC H800 offer the new CacheCade feature:
• Produces cost-effective performance scaling for database-type applications
• Offloads Random Reads to Dell-qualified Enterprise SSD configured as CacheCade SSD
• Has a standard feature of 1 GB NV cache (PERC H700/H800)
The PERC H700 and PERC H800 continue to offer the following features:
• 512 MB and 1 GB non-volatile cache (not supported on H700 modular)
o Data retention in cache is extended from hours to years in the event of power
interruption
o Larger cache size of 1 GB
• Cut-through IO (CTIO)
o Performance boost of up to 2X IOPS performance
o Optimized for superior IOPS of SSDs over HDDs
o Ideal for small-block random workloads
o Easy to enable
• Physical disk power management
o Conserve power by spinning down hot spares and unconfigured drives when not in use
o Parameters are user-managed
• PCI-Express Gen2.0 support
• 6Gb/s SAS (SAS 2.0) host interface
o Doubles the throughput performance
o Support for Self Encrypting Drive (SED)—requires unique SED HDD part numbers
• New LSI 2108 ROC (Raid-on-Chip) with increased I/O processor (IOP) performance
• Increased internal drive support (up to 16 drives)
• SAS SSD support for specific 11
• RAID volumes can be migrated from PERC 6/I, PERC 6/E, SAS 6/IR and PERC H200 controllers.
Backwards migration is not supported.
• Change in Virtual Disk default read cache policy (The default VD read cache policy has been
changed to Adaptive Read Ahead from No Read Ahead.)
• Display of expected and negotiated link rate for drives
th
Generation Dell PowerEdge servers
The PERC H800 also offers the following features for PowerVault MD1200 and MD1220 enclosures:
• Increased capacity and scalability—up to 192 drives on one host-RAID controller
• Increased flexibility
o Mix of 2.5” (MD1220) and 3.5” (MD1200) enclosures behind a PERC H800
o Mix of 2.5” and 3.5” drives in the MD1200
• SAS SSD support for Dell PowerVault MD1200 and MD1220 enclosures
• 22-drive RAID-10 can be configured with PERC H800 in the CTRL-R BIOS utility
2.2 6Gb/s SAS (SAS 2.0) Overview
The 6Gb/s SAS 2.0 specification doubles the current 3Gb/s SAS data transfer rate. 6Gb/s SAS is
designed for backward compatibility with 3Gb/s SAS and 3Gb/s SATA hard drives. Regardless of the
drive speed, 6Gb/s controllers will deliver significant performance improvements in both read and
write applications as compared to their 3Gb/s predecessors.
DELL PERC H700 and H800 Technical Guide 9
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