Dell MD3620F User Manual 2

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Dell PowerVault MD3600f and

MD3620f Storage Arrays

Owner’s Manual

Regulatory Model: E03J Series and E04J Series Regulatory Type: E03J001 and E04J001

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.

____________________

Trademarks used in this text: Dell™, the DELL logo, PowerEdge™, PowerVault™, and OpenManage™ are trademarks of Dell Inc. Intel the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft

Explorer and/or other countries. Red Hat Hat, Inc. in the United States and other countries. SUSE the United States and other countries.

Regulatory Model: E03J Series and E04J Series Regulatory Type: E03J001 and E04J001

2013- 06 Rev. A02

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

and Red Hat Enterprise Linux® are registered trademarks of Red

, Windows®, Windows Server®, MS-DOS®, and Internet

is a registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in

is a registered trademark of Novell, Inc. in

Contents

1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

About This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Inside the Box of the Dell PowerVault MD3600f Series Storage Array

Other Information You May Need . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

2 Planning: About Your Storage Array . . . . 25

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

MD3600f Dell PowerVault Modular Disk

Storage Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Series Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Hardware Features

Front-Panel Features and Indicators Back Panel Features and Indicators

Hard–Drive Indicator Patterns Power Supply and Cooling Fan Features

Power Indicator Codes and Features . . . . . . . . . . 32

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

. . . . . . . 26

. . . . . . . . 29

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

. . . . . . . . 31

3 Planning: RAID Controller Modules . . . . 33

RAID Controller Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Contents 3

RAID Controller Module Connectors and Features . . . 34 Host Channel LED Link/Rate Indications RAID Controller Module—Additional Features

Battery Backup Unit

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

Storage Array Thermal Shutdown System Password Reset

Cache Functions and Features

Cache Mirroring Write–Back Cache

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

. . . . . . . . 36

. . . . . 36

. . . . . . . . . 37

Write–Through Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

SFP Transceivers, Fiber Optic, and SAS Cables. . . . . 38

Interoperability of 2 Gbps, 4 Gbps, and 8 Gbps Devices

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

4 Planning: MD3600f Series Storage

Array Terms and Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Physical Disks, Virtual Disks, and Disk Groups. . . . . 41

Physical Disks Physical Disk States Self-Monitoring Analysis and

Reporting Technology Virtual Disks and Disk Groups Virtual Disk States

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

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

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

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

4 Contents

RAID Levels

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

RAID Level Usage

Segment Size

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

Virtual Disk Operations

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

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

Virtual Disk Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Background Initialization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Foreground Initialization Consistency Check

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

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

Media Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Cycle Time Virtual Disk Operations Limit

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

. . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Disk Group Operations

RAID Level Migration Segment Size Migration

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Virtual Disk Capacity Expansion . . . . . . . . . . 51

Disk Group Expansion Disk Group Defragmentation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

. . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Disk Group Operations Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

RAID Background Operations Priority . . . . . . . . . 52

Virtual Disk Migration and Disk Roaming

Disk Migration

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

. . . . . . . . 53

Disk Roaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Advanced Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Host Server–to–Virtual Disk Mapping

. . . . . . . 55

Host Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Snapshot Virtual Disks Snapshot Repository Virtual Disk

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

. . . . . . . . . . 57

Virtual Disk Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Virtual Disk Recovery Using Snapshot and Disk Copy Together

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

. . . . . . 59

Multi-Path Software

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Preferred and Alternate Controllers and Paths

Virtual Disk Ownership

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Contents 5

Load Balancing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Monitoring MD3600f Series System Performance

. . . 61

5 Configuration: Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Enterprise Management Window Array Management Window

. . . . . . . . . 66

. . . . . . . . . . . . 67

6 Configuration: About Your

Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Storage Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Adding Storage Arrays Setting Up Your Storage Array

Locating Storage Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Naming or Renaming Storage Arrays

Setting a Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Viewing Storage Array Connections Adding/Editing a Comment to an

Existing Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Removing Storage Arrays Enabling Premium Features

Failover Alert Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Changing the Cache Settings on the Storage Array

Changing Expansion Enclosure

ID Number. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Changing the Enclosure Order in the

Physical Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

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

. . . . . . . . . . . 72

. . . . . . . . 73

. . . . . . . . 76

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

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

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

6 Contents

Configuring Alert Notifications

Configuring E–mail Alerts

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

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

Configuring SNMP Alerts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Battery Settings

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

Setting the Storage Array RAID Controller Module Clocks

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

7 Configuration: Event Monitor . . . . . . . . . 87

Enabling or Disabling the Event Monitor . . . . . . . . 88

Windows Linux

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

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

8 Configuration: About Your Host. . . . . . . . 89

Configuring Host Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Using the Mappings Tab

Defining a Host

Removing Host Access

Managing Host Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Creating a Host Group

Moving a Host to a Different Host Group. . . . . . 94

Removing a Host Group Host Topology

Starting or Stopping the Host Context Agent. . . . 95

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

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

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

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

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

I/O Data Path Protection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Managing Host Port Identifiers

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Contents 7

9 Configuration: Disk Groups and

Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Creating Disk Groups and Virtual Disks. . . . . . . . 101

Creating Disk Groups

Locating a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Creating Virtual Disks Changing the Virtual Disk

Modification Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Changing the Virtual Disk Cache Settings Changing the Segment Size of a

Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Changing the I/O Type

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

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

. . . . 107

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Choosing an Appropriate Physical Disk Type

. . . . . 111

Physical Disk Security With Self Encrypting Disk

Creating a Security Key Changing a Security Key

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

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

Saving a Security Key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Validate Security Key Unlocking Secure Physical Disks

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

. . . . . . . . . 119

Erasing Secure Physical Disks . . . . . . . . . . 119

Configuring Hot Spare Physical Disks

Hot Spares and Rebuild

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

. . . . . . . . . 120

Global Hot Spares. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Hot Spare Operation Hot Spare Drive Protection

Enclosure Loss Protection Host-to-Virtual Disk Mapping

Creating Host-to-Virtual Disk Mappings

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

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

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

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

. . . . . 126

8 Contents

Modifying and Removing Host-to-Virtual Disk Mapping

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Changing Controller Ownership of the Virtual Disk

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Removing Host-to-Virtual Disk Mapping . . . . . . 129

Changing the RAID Controller Module Ownership of a Disk Group

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Changing the RAID Level of a Disk Group . . . . . 130

Removing a Host-to-Virtual Disk Mapping Using Linux DMMP

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Restricted Mappings

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Changing the RAID Controller Module Ownership of a Virtual Disk or a Disk Group

Changing the RAID Level of a Disk Group Storage Partitioning

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

. . . . 134

. . . . . . . . 136

Disk Group and Virtual Disk Expansion. . . . . . . . . 138

Disk Group Expansion

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Virtual Disk Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Using Free Capacity

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Using Unconfigured Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Disk Group Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Export Disk Group

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Exporting a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Import Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Importing a Disk Group

Storage Array Media Scan

Changing Media Scan Settings Suspending the Media Scan

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

. . . . . . . . . . 143

. . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Contents 9

10 Configuration: Premium

Feature—Snapshot Virtual Disks . . . . . 145

Scheduling a Snapshot Virtual Disk. . . . . . . . . . 146

Common Reasons for Scheduling a Snapshot Virtual Disk

Guidelines for Creating Snapshot Schedules

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Enabling and Disabling Snapshot

Schedules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Creating a Snapshot Virtual Disk Using the Simple Path

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

About the Simple Path Preparing Host Servers to Create the

Snapshot Using the Simple Path . . . . . . . . . 150

Creating a Snapshot Virtual Disk Using the Advanced Path

About the Advanced Path Preparing Host Servers to Create the

Snapshot Using the Advanced Path . . . . . . . 154

Creating the Snapshot Using the Advanced Path

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

10 Contents

Specifying Snapshot Virtual Disk Names Snapshot Repository Capacity

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

. . . . . . . 157

Disabling a Snapshot Virtual Disk. . . . . . . . . . . 162

Preparing Host Servers to Re-create a Snapshot Virtual Disk

Re-creating Snapshot Virtual Disks Snapshot Rollback

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

. . . . . . . . . . 164

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Rules and Guidelines for Performing a Snapshot Rollback

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Protecting Against a Failed Snapshot Rollback

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Previous Versions of the MD Storage Manager

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Starting a Snapshot Rollback. . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Resuming a Snapshot Rollback Canceling a Snapshot Rollback

. . . . . . . . . . 167

. . . . . . . . . . 168

11 Configuration: Premium

Feature—Virtual Disk Copy . . . . . . . . . 169

Types of Virtual Disk Copies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Offline Copy

Online Copy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Creating a Virtual Disk Copy for an MSCS Shared Disk

Virtual Disk Read/Write Permissions . . . . . . . . . . 172

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Virtual Disk Copy Restrictions Creating a Virtual Disk Copy

Before You Begin

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Virtual Disk Copy and Modification Operations

Create Copy Wizard Failed Virtual Disk Copy

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Preferred RAID Controller Module Ownership Failed RAID Controller Module Copy Manager

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Copying the Virtual Disk

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

. . . . . 176

Contents 11

Storage Array Performance During Virtual Disk Copy

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Setting Copy Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Stopping a Virtual Disk Copy Recopying a Virtual Disk

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Preparing Host Servers to Recopy a Virtual Disk

Re-Copying a Virtual Disk

Removing Copy Pairs

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

12 Configuration: Premium Feature—

Upgrading to

High–Performance Tier . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

13 Configuration: Premium Feature—

Remote Replication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Switchable Host Access Configuration

Required With Remote Replication. . . . . . . . 185

Activating Remote Replication

Replication Repository Virtual Disks . . . . . . . 186

RAID Levels for Replication Repository Virtual Disks

Primary and Secondary Virtual Disk Pairs . . . . 187

Using Remote Replication With Other Features

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Storage Partitioning With

Remote Replication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Snapshot Virtual Disk With

Remote Replication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Virtual Disk Copy With Remote Replication

. . . . . . . . . . 186

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

. . . 189

12 Contents

Virtual Disk Expansion With Remote Replication

Required Switch Zoning Configurations Zoning Guidelines for Remote Replication

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

. . . . . . 190

. . . . . 190

Switch Cascading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Journaling File Systems and Remote Replication

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Setting Up and Managing

Remote Replication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Activating the Remote Replication Premium Feature and Creating Replication

Virtual Disks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Activating and Creating Replication Repository Virtual Disks From

the Storage Array. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Activating and Creating Replication Repository Virtual Disks From an

Existing Disk Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Creating a Remote Replication

. . . . . . . . . . . 194

Selecting the Secondary Virtual Disk . . . . . . . 195

Setting the Write Mode

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Setting Synchronization Priority and

Synchronization Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Completing the Remote Replication

. . . . . . . . 197

RAID Controller Module Ownership/Preferred Path

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Viewing Information About a Remote Replication or Replication Repository

Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Viewing the Properties Pane

. . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Viewing Logical Elements of the

Secondary Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Viewing the Physical Components or Logical

Elements of the Primary Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . 201

Virtual Disk Status Icons

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Changing Write Mode and Consistency

Group Membership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Contents 13

Resynchronizing Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . 204

Normally Synchronized Virtual Disks. . . . . . . 204

Changing Synchronization Priority and Method

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Unsynchronized Virtual Disks. . . . . . . . . . . 207

Automatically Resynchronizing Virtual Disks Manually Resynchronizing Virtual Disks

. . . 208

. . . . . 208

Reversing Roles Between the Primary

and Secondary Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Promoting the Secondary Virtual Disk or

Demoting the Primary Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . 210

Suspending a Remote Replication Resuming a Remote Replication

. . . . . . . . 210

. . . . . . . . . 211

About Resumed Remote Replications . . . . . . 211

Testing Communication Between the Primary and Secondary Virtual Disks

. . . . . . . 212

Deleting a Virtual Disk From a Replicated Pair

in a Storage Array. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Deleting a Primary Virtual Disk

. . . . . . . . . . 213

Deleting a Secondary Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . 214

Deleting a Primary Virtual Disk in a

Replicated Pair From a Storage Array . . . . . . 214

Deleting a Secondary Virtual Disk in a Replicated Pair From a Storage Array

. . . . . . 215

Removing a Remote Replication From a Storage Array

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Deactivating the Remote Replication

on the Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Disabling the Remote Replication Premium Feature

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

14 Configuration: Device Mapper

Multipath for Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

14 Contents

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Using DM Multipathing Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Prerequisites

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Device Mapper Configuration Steps . . . . . . . . 221

Limitations and Known Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Troubleshooting

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

15 Management: Firmware

Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Downloading RAID Controller and

NVSRAM Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Downloading Both RAID Controller and NVSRAM Firmware

Downloading Only NVSRAM Firmware Downloading Physical Disk Firmware

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

. . . . . . . . . 232

. . . . . . . . . 235

Downloading MD1200 Series Expansion Module EMM Firmware

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART)

Media Errors and Unreadable Sectors

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

. . . . . . . . . 239

16 Management: Installing Array

Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Recommended Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Front Bezel (Optional)

Removing the Front Bezel Installing the Front Bezel

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Contents 15

Hard Drives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Removing a Hard-Drive Blank

. . . . . . . . . . 243

Installing a Hard-Drive Blank. . . . . . . . . . . 244

Removing a Hard Drive Installing a Hard Drive

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Removing a Hard Drive From a

Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Installing a Hard Drive Into a

Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

RAID Controller Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Removing a RAID Controller Module Blank

. . . 249

Installing a RAID Controller Module Blank . . . . 250

Removing a RAID Controller Module Installing a RAID Controller Module

. . . . . . . 251

. . . . . . . 252

Opening the RAID Controller Module. . . . . . . 253

Closing the RAID Controller Module

. . . . . . . 254

16 Contents

RAID Controller Module Backup Battery Unit

. . . . . 255

Removing the RAID Controller Module Backup Battery Unit

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Installing the RAID Controller Module

Backup Battery Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Power Supply/Cooling Fan Module

. . . . . . . . . . 257

Removing a Power Supply/Cooling Fan Module

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Installing a Power Supply/Cooling

Fan Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Control Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Removing the Control Panel Installing the Control Panel

Backplane

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Removing the Backplane

. . . . . . . . . . . 259

. . . . . . . . . . . . 261

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Installing the Backplane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

17 Management: Firmware Inventory . . . . 267

Viewing the Firmware Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

18 Management: System Interfaces . . . . . 269

Microsoft Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Virtual Disk Service Volume Shadow-Copy Service

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

. . . . . . . . . . . 269

19 Troubleshooting: Your Storage

Array Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Start–Up Routine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Device Health Conditions Storage Array Support Data

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Automatically Collect the Support Bundle Data . . . . 275

Collecting the Physical Disk Data Event Log

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

. . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Recovery Guru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Storage Array Profile Viewing the Logical Associations Viewing the Physical Associations Finding Nodes

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

. . . . . . . . . . . . 280

. . . . . . . . . . . 281

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Contents 17

Using Go To. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Recovering From an Unresponsive Storage Array Condition

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Locating a Physical Disk Locating an Expansion Enclosure

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

. . . . . . . . . . . 287

Capturing the State Information . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

SMrepassist Utility Unidentified Devices

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Recovering From an Unidentified Storage Array . . . 290 Starting or Restarting the Host Context

Agent Software

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

20 Troubleshooting: Your Array . . . . . . . . . 295

Safety First—For You and Your Array . . . . . . . . . 295

Troubleshooting Storage Array Startup Failure Troubleshooting Loss of Communication Troubleshooting an SFP Transceiver

. . . . . . . . . 295

. . . . 295

. . . . . . . 295

18 Contents

Troubleshooting External Connections

. . . . . . . . 298

Troubleshooting Power Supply/Cooling Fan Module

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Troubleshooting Array Cooling Problems Troubleshooting Expansion Enclosure

Management Modules

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Troubleshooting RAID Controller Modules

. . . . . . . 299

. . . . . . 301

Troubleshooting Hard Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Troubleshooting Array and Expansion Enclosure Connections

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Troubleshooting a Wet Storage Array Troubleshooting a Damaged Array

. . . . . . . . . . 304

. . . . . . . . . . . 305

Troubleshooting RAID Controller Modules . . . . . . . 306

Conditions

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

21 Getting Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Locating Your System Service Tag . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Contacting Dell

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Documentation Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Contents 19

20 Contents

Introduction

NOTE: Unless specified, MD3600f Series represents Dell PowerVault MD3600f and

Dell PowerVault MD3620f storage arrays.

WARNING: See the Safety, Environmental, and Regulatory Information document

for important safety information before following any procedures listed in this document.

About This Document

This guide familiarizes you with the functions of the Dell PowerVault MD3600f Series storage array. The guide is organized according to the tasks that you must complete after receiving your MD3600f Series storage array. The tasks are:

Planning—Information about the storage array and its features. Configuration—Tasks that must be completed to ensure that your storage

array performs optimally. Management—Tasks that may be performed to ensure that the storage array

components are up to date and performing properly, including removal and installation of storage array components.

Troubleshooting—Tasks that you must complete to resolve problems that may occur with the storage array.

Additional information on these and other topics can be found in the Dell PowerVault MD3600f and MD3620f Storage Array Deployment Guide at dell.com/support/manuals.

Introduction 21

Inside the Box of the Dell PowerVault MD3600f Series Storage Array

Your MD3600f Series product package includes:

• Dell PowerVault MD3600f

• Small form-factor pluggable (SFP) transceiver (2 per controller)

• Fiber optic cables (optional)

• Power cables (2)

• Front bezel (optional)

• Mounting rails (2) (optional)

• MD3600f

•

Rack Installation Instructions

•

Getting Started With Your System

features, setting up your enclosure, and technical specifications)

Series

resource media

MD3600f Series Storage Array

The MD3600f Series is a 2U rack-mounted external redundant array of independent disks (RAID) storage array capable of accommodating up to twelve 3.5" or twenty four 2.5" 6.0-Gbps Serial-Attached SC SI (SAS) disks. The MD3600f Series storage arrays can be daisy-chained with MD1200 Series expansion enclosures, providing access to a maximum of 120 disks (or 192 disks with Premium Feature activation) in the entire storage array. Connectivity between the storage array and the host server is provided by a Fibre Channel (FC) host bus adapter (HBA).

Series

storage array

(provides an overview of enclosure

Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Stor ag e Man ager

Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager (MDSM) is a graphical user interface (GUI) application, used to configure and manage one or more MD3600f Series storage arrays. The MDSM software is located on the MD3600f Series resource media.

22 Introduction

Other Information You May Need

WARNING: See the safety and regulatory information that shipped with your

system. Warranty information may be included within this document or as a separate document.

•The

• The Resource media contains all system management tools.

•The

•

• This document as well as

•The

Getting Started Guide

your storage array.

Deployment Guide

for both software and hardware.

Storage Manager CLI Guide

command line interface (CLI).

Configuring Fibre Channel with the Dell MD3600f Series Storage

Array

provides information regarding configurations, host bus adapter

(HBA) installation, and zoning. This document is available at

dell.com/support/manuals.

Systems Support Matrix

and hardware for MD systems. The document is available at

dell.com/support/manuals

Dell P owerEdge C luster D ocum entation

dell.com/support/manuals

Release notes

to the enclosure or documentation or advanced technical reference material intended for experienced users or technicians.

Guide

is available at

MD1200 expansion enclosures.

Rack Installation Instructions

describes how to install your enclosure into a rack.

or readme files are included to provide last-minute updates

provides an overview of setting up and cabling

provides installation and configuration instructions

provides information about using the

provides information on supported software

is available at

Dell P o werVault MD 1200 Series Installation

dell.com/support/manuals

included with your rack solution

for users who incorporate

NOTE: Always check for updates on dell.com/support/manuals and read the

updates first because they often supersede information in other documents.

Introduction 23

24 Introduction

Planning: About Your Storage Array

Overview

The MD3600f Series storage array is designed for high availability, offering redundant access to data storage. It’s features support for both single and dual RAID controller configurations.

The Dell PowerVault MD3600f Series storage array provides Fibre Channel (FC) connectivity to the host server and enables access for up to eight nonredundant servers or four redundant servers.

The MD3600f Series storage array includes a number of components. These are:

• RAID controller module(s)

•PSU/fan modules

• Disk drives (also called physical disks/hard drives in this document)

• A front bezel (optional)

• A system enclosure, into which, the other components are plugged

Planning: About Your Storage Array 25

Hardware Features

Front-Panel Features and Indicators

Figure 2-1. Front-Panel Features and Indicators—Dell PowerVault MD3600f

Figure 2-2. Front-Panel Features and Indicators—Dell PowerVault MD3620f

26 Planning: About Your Storage Array

Figure 2-3. Front-Bezel Features and Indicators

Item Indicator, Button, or

Connector

1 Enclosure status LED The enclosure status LED lights when the

2 Power LED The power LED lights green when at least one

Icon Description

enclosure power is on. Lights blue during normal operation. Blinks blue when a host server is identifying the

enclosure or when the system identification button is pressed.

Lights amber as enclosure boots or is reset. Blinks amber when the enclosure is either in a

fault state or the hosts are not using the preferr ed path to a virtual disk.

power supply is supplying power to the enclosure.

Planning: About Your Storage Array 27

Item Indicator, Button, or

Connector

3 Split mode LED This LED must be unlit as the split mode

4 System identification

button

5 Hard drives MD3600f—Up to twelve 3.5" SAS hot-swappable

6Enclosure mode

switch

Icon Description

function is not supported by the MD3600f Series Storage Arrays.

The system identification button on the front control panel can be used to locate a particular enclosure within a rack. When the button is pushed, the system status indicators on the control panel and the RAID controller module(s) blink blue until the button is pushed again.

hard drives. MD3620f—Up to twenty four 2.5" SAS hot-

swappable hard drives. The function of this switch is not applicable to

your storage array. However, if MD1200 Series expansion enclosures are daisy chained to the storage array, the enclosure mode switches of the MD1200 Series expansion enclosures must be set to the Unified-Mode position.

NOTE: This switch must be set before turning on

the MD1200 Series expansion enclosure. Changing the switch setting after the expansion enclosure is turned on has no effect on the enclosure configuration until the expansion enclosure goes through a complete power cycle.

28 Planning: About Your Storage Array

Back Panel Features and Indicators

Figure 2-4. Back-Panel Features and Indicators—Dell PowerVault MD3600f Series

1 600 W power supply/cooling fan

module

3 RAID Controller Module 1 4 600 W power supply/cooling fan

2 RAID Controller Module 0

module

Planning: About Your Storage Array 29

Hard–Drive Indicator Patterns

Figure 2-5. Hard Drive Indicators

1 hard-drive activity indicator (green) 2 hard-drive status indicator (green

30 Planning: About Your Storage Array

and amber)

Drive-Status Indicator Pattern Condition

Off The physical disk is:

• not yet discovered by the host server

•is spun down for removal

• not supported for the RAID con trolle r module or is not in the physical disk slot

NOTE: The drive status indicator remains

off until all hard drives are initialized after system power is turned on. Drives are not ready for insertion or removal during this time.

Steady green Physical disk is online Green flashing (On 250 ms, Off 250 ms) Physical disk is being identified Green flashing (On 400 ms, Off 100 ms) Physical disk rebuilding Amber flashing (On 150 ms, Off 150 ms) Physical disk failed Flashing green, amber , and Off (green On

500 ms, amber On 500 ms, Off 1000 ms) Flashing green, amber, and Off (green 3

seconds, amber 3 seconds, and Off 3 seconds)

Physical disk failure predicted (SMART )

Physical disk rebuild aborted

Power Supply and Cooling Fan Features

The MD3600f Series storage array includes two integrated, hot-swappable power supply/cooling fan modules. Both modules must be installed to ensure proper cooling. The system requires at least one of the cooling fans to function to avoid overheating.

A power supply/cooling fan module can be replaced without powering down the system. For information on removing and installing the modules, see "Power Supply/Cooling Fan Module" on page 257.

CAUTION: A power supply/cooling fan module can be removed from a powered-

on enclosure for a maximum period of 5 minutes. Beyond that time, the system may automatically shut down to prevent damage.

Planning: About Your Storage Array 31

Power Indicator Codes and Features

1 2

Figure 2-6. Power Indicator Codes and Features

Item LED Type Icon Description

1 DC power The LED lights green when the DC output

voltage is within the limit. If this LED is off, it indicates that the DC output

voltage are not within the limit.

2 Power supply/cooling

fan fault

3 AC power The LED lights green when the AC input voltage

4 Power connector Connect the external power supply to

5 Power switches (2) The power switch controls the power supply

The LED lights amber when the DC output voltage is not within the limit or a fault with the fan is detected.

If this LED is off, it indicates that no fault condition is present.

is within the limit. If this LED is off, it indicates either there is no

power or the AC input voltage is not within the limit.

this connector.

output to the enclosure.

32 Planning: About Your Storage Array

Planning: RAID Controller Modules

RAID Controller Modules

The RAID controller modules provide high-performance, advanced virtual disk configuration, and fault-tolerant disk subsystem management. Each RAID controller module contains 2 GB or 4 GB of mirrored cache for high availability and is protected by a battery powered cache offload mechanism.

NOTE: The 4 GB mirrored cache is an optional feature.

RAID controller modules provide the following data path and enclosure management functions:

• Monitoring and controlling enclosur e environment elements (temperature, fans, power supplies, and enclosure LEDs)

• Contro lling access to the physical disks

• Communicating enclosure attributes and states to the host server and management station

Each RAID controller module has multiple Fibr e Channel (FC) ports (labeled FCIN) for host access. The ports provide redundant host connections and support a high availability storage environment. Each port must have a small form-factor pluggable (SFP) transceiver module installed for connectivity. Various configurations can be utilized, in both single controller (simplex) and dual controller (duplex) modes, to connect the storage enclosure to hosts depending on specific redundancy needs.

For information on cabling, see the MD3600f and MD3620f Series Storage Array’s Deployment Guide, at dell.com/support/manuals.

Planning: RAID Controller Modules 33

RAID Controller Module Connectors and Features

18 17 14 13

20 19 16

Figure 3-1. MD3600f Series Fibre Channel RAID Controller Module

Item Component Function

1 SAS OUT port Provides SAS connection for cabling to a downchain

expansion enclosure. 2 FCIN port 0 Provides host-to-controller FC connection. 3 FCIN port 1 Provides host-to-controller FC connection. 4 FCIN port 2 Provides host-to-controller FC connection. 5 FCIN port 3 Provides host-to-controller FC connection. 6 MAC Address

label 7 Debug port Dell support only. 8 Management

port activity

LED

Provides MAC addresses of the management port.

Lights green when Ethernet connection is active. Off when Ethernet connection is not active.

34 Planning: RAID Controller Modules

Item Component Function

9 Management

port Ethernet connector

10 Management

port speed LED

11 Password reset

switch

12 Battery fault Lights amber when battery backup unit or battery

13 FCIN port 3

LED 1 / LED 0

14 Cache active or

cache offload LED

15 FCIN port 2

LED 1 / LED 0

16 System

identification LED

17 Controller fault

LED

18 FCIN port 1

LED 1 / LED 0

19 Controller power

LED

Provides a 100/1000 Mbps Ethernet connection for out-ofband management of the enclosure.

Lights green when Ethernet connection is operating at 1000 Mbps.

Lights amber when Ethernet connection is operating at 100 Mbps.

Off when Ethernet connection is operating at 10 Mbps or is not active.

Activating this switch resets the password.

has failed. Off when battery backup unit is operating normally.

Displays link rate and port status per the accompanying host channel LED link/rate table.

Lights green when on-board controller memory contains data.

If AC power fails, this LED changes to indicate Cache Offload status.

If the password reset function has successfully changed the password, this LED flashes on and off briefly.

Displays link rate and port status per the accompanying host channel LED link/rate table.

Blinks blue when system identification switch push-button on enclosure front panel is pressed.

Lights amber when controller fault detected. Off when controller operating normally.

Displays link rate and port status per the accompanying host channel LED link/rate table.

Lights green when controller power is on. Off when controller is not powered.

Planning: RAID Controller Modules 35

Item Component Function

20 FCIN port 0

LED 1 / LED 0 21 SAS OUT port

link/fault LED

Displays link rate and port status per the accompanying host channel LED link/rate table.

Lights green when all four links are connected. Lights amber when one to 3 links are disconnected. Off when all links in the port are disconnected or cable is

disconnected.

Host Channel LED Link/Rate Indications

Below each FC port is a pair of LED indicators. The status of any FC port can be determined by applying Table 3-1 to the condition of each LED pair.

Table 3-1. LED Status Indicator s

LED 1 LED 0 CommRate

Off Off Link down Off On 2 Gbps On Off 4 Gbps On On 8 Gbps

RAID Controller Module—Additional Features

Battery Backup Unit

Each RAID controller contains a two-cell Lithium ion nanopolymer battery backup unit (BBU). It provides power to the RAID controller module in the event of a power outage, see "RAID Controller Module Backup Battery Unit" on page 255.

NOTE: For virtual disks, the RAID controller firmware changes the data cache

setting based on the state of the battery. If the battery is missing or does not have sufficient charge, the controller flushes the cache and sets the write cache attribute to Write Through for all virtual disks. When the battery is replaced, Write Back is re-enabled.

36 Planning: RAID Controller Modules

Storage Array Thermal Shutdown

The system automatically shuts down when system temperature exceeds the safe threshold. The battery backup unit protects against data loss by providing power to offload cache to non-volatile memory in the event of power loss. It is not necessary to shut down any MD1200 Series expansion enclosures attached to the storage array when thermal shutdown occurs.

Temperature threshold values determine the temperature at which shutdown occurs. These thresholds cannot be changed.

Table 3-2. Shutdown Threshold Type

Threshold Temperature Exceeding Event Description

Nominal failure threshold A critical event is set. Maximum failure threshold Shutdown of the system power supplies occurs

within 3 minutes.

Shutdown threshold Shutdown of the system power supplies occurs

within 5 seconds.

System Password Reset

The storage array password can be reset if it is forgotten. To reset the password, push and hold down the password reset switch for at least 5 seco nds. The password is deleted. See Figure 3-1 to locate the password reset switch.

The RAID controller module allows you to change the password. For more about setting your password, see "Setting a Password" on page75.

NOTE: The reset switch can be accessed by using a small object such as the tip of

a pen.

Cache Functions and Features

Cache Mirroring

Cache mirroring function copies accepted host-write data from the primary controller to the partner controller. This action ensures that host-write data is safely mirrored to the partner controller befor e successful completion status is returned to the host. If a controller fails, the surviving controller safely retains all mirrored data. Cache mirroring is enabled by default.

Planning: RAID Controller Modules 37

Write–Back Cache

In write-back cache, write operations result in a completion signal being sent to the host operating system as soon as the cache receives the data to be written. The target physical disk receives the data at a more appropriate time in order to increase controller performance. In dual-active controller configurations with write-back caching enabled, the write data is always mirrored to the cache of the second controller before completion status is issued to the host initiator. Write-back cache is enabled by default unless cache mirroring is disabled.

Write–Through Cache

In write-through cache, data is written to the physical disk before completion status is returned to the host operating system. Write-through cache is considered more robust than write-back cache, since a power failure is less likely to cause loss of data. The RAID controller automatically switches to write-through if cache mirroring is disabled or if the battery is missing or has a fault condition.

SFP Transceivers, Fiber Optic, and SAS Cables

Figure 3-2 shows fiber optic cable and SFP transceivers.

NOTE: Your SFP transceivers and cables may look different from the ones shown

below. The differences do not affect the performance of the SFP transceivers.

FC host connections may operate at 8 Gbps or at a lower data rate. Ports for 8 Gbps FC host connections require SFP transceivers designed for this data rate. SFP transceivers that support other data rates are incompatible.

WARNING: Do not disassemble or remove any part of a small form-factor

pluggable (SFP) transceiver due to the possibility of being exposed to laser radiation.

38 Planning: RAID Controller Modules

Figure 3-2. Fiber Optic Cable Connection

1 SFP transceiver 2 Fiber optic cable

The RAID expansion ports support SAS expansion connections. Figure 3-3 shows a SAS cable and an SFF-8088 connector.

Figure 3-3. SAS Cable

1 SFF-8088 connector 2 SAS cable

Planning: RAID Controller Modules 39

Interoperability of 2 Gbps, 4 Gbps, and 8 Gbps Devices

The FC standard specifies a procedure for speedy auto-detection. If a 4 Gbps port on a switch or device is connected to a 2 Gbps port, it must negotiate down for the link to run at 2 Gbps. If there are two 8 Gbps ports on either end of a link, the negotiation runs the link at 8 Gbps if the link supports the required specifications. If a link connects at 4 Gbps in this scenario, possible causes could be excessive cable length, poor cable quality, loose cables or SFPs, and so on. Ensure that the cable lengths are not excessive and the quality of the cable and connector is good.

The same rules apply to 8 Gbps devices relative to 4 Gbps and 2 Gbps environments. The 8 Gbps devices have the ability to automatically negotiate down to either 4 Gbps or 2 Gbps, depending on the attached device and link quality. If the link negotiates down to a speed slower than expected, check the device.

40 Planning: RAID Controller Modules

Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts

This chapter explains terms and concepts used for configuration and operation of MD3600f Series storage arrays.

Physical Disks, Virtual Disks, and Disk Groups

Physical disks in your storage array provide the physical storage capacity for your data. Before you can begin writing data to the storage array, you must configure the physical storage capacity into logical components, called disk groups and virtual disks.

A disk group is a set of physical disks upon which multiple virtual disks are created. The maximum number of physical disks supported in a disk group is 120 disks (or 192 disks with Premium Feature activation) for RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 10, and 30 drives for RAID 5 and RAID 6. You can create disk groups from unconfigured capacity on your storage array.

A virtual disk is a partition in a disk group that is made up of contiguous data segments of the physical disks in the disk group. A virtual disk consists of data segments from all physical disks in the disk group. Virtual disks and disk groups are set up according to how you plan to organize your data. For example, you may have one virtual disk for inventory, a second virtual disk for financial and tax information, and so on.

All virtual disks in a disk group support the same RAID level. The storage array supports up to 255 virtual disks (minimum size of 10 MB each) that can be assigned to host servers. Each virtual disk is assigned a Logical Unit Number (LUN) that is recognized by the host operating system.

Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts 41

Physical Disks

Only Dell supported 6.0 Gbps SAS physical disks are supported in the storage array. If the storage array detects unsupported physical disks, it marks the disk as unsupported and the physical disk becomes unavailable for all operations.

NOTE: The MD3600f Series storage array must contain at least two physical disks

for proper operation. This is necessary because the phy sical disks are used to store configuration information.

Physical Disk States

Table 4-1 describes the various states of the physical disk, which are recognized by the storage array and reported in the MDSM application.

Table 4-1. RAID Controller Physical Disk States

Status Mode Description Physical Disk

Status LED

Optimal Assigned The physical disk in the indicated slot

is configured as part of a disk group.

Optimal Unassigned The physical disk in the indicated slot

is unused and available to be configured.

Optimal Hot Spare

standby

Optimal Hot Spare in

use

Failed Assigned,

Unassigned, Hot Spare in use, or Hot Spare standby

Replaced Assigned The physical disk in the indicated slot

The physical disk in the indicated slot is configured as a hot spare.

The physical disk in the indicated slot is in use as a hot spare within a disk group.

The physical disk in the indicated slot has failed because of an unrecoverable error, an incorrect drive type or drive size, or by its operational state being set to failed.

is replaced and is ready to be, or is actively being configured into a disk group.

Steady Green

Amber flashing (150 ms)

Green flashing (On 400 ms, Off 100 ms)

42 Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts

Table 4-1. RAID Controller Physical Disk States

Status Mode Description Physical Disk

Pending Failure

Offline Not applicable The physical disk has either been spun

Identify Assigned,

Assigned, Unassigned, Hot Spare in use, or Hot Spare standby

Unassigned, Hot Spare in use, or Hot Spare standby

A Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting T echnology (SMART) error is detected on the physical disk in the indicated slot.

down or had a rebuild aborted by user request.

The physical disk is being identified. Green flashing

(continued)

Status LED

Green flashing (500 ms), Amber (500 ms), and Off (1000ms)

Green flashing (3000 ms), Amber (3000 ms), and Off (3000ms)

(250 ms)

If a disk drive rebuild fails because of a source drive failure or because the drive is too small, the MDSM reports a failure of the physical disk eve n though the LED state on the drive indicates the rebuild was aborted (green for 3 seconds, amber for 3 seconds, then off for 3 seconds).

Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology

SMART monitors the internal performance of all physical disk components to detect faults indicating the potential for physical disk failure. SMART uses this information to report whether failure is imminent so that a physical disk can be replaced before failure occurs. The storage array monitors all attached drives and notifies you when a predicted failure is reported by a physical disk.

Virtual Disks and Disk Groups

Organize the physical disks into disk groups.

Create virtual disks within these disk groups.

Provide host server access.

Create mappings to associate the virtual disks with the host servers.

NOTE: Host server access must be created before mapping virtual disks.

Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts 43

Disk groups are always created in the unconfigured capacity of a storage array . Unconfigured capacity is the available physical disk space not already assigned in the storage array.

Virtual disks are cr eated within the free ca pacity of a disk group. F r ee capacity is the space in a disk group that has not been assigned to a virtual disk.

Virtual Disk States

The storage array recognizes the following virtual disk states.

Table 4-2. RAID Controller Virtual Disk States

State Description

Optimal The virtual disk contains physical disks that are all online. Degraded The virtual disk with a redundant RAID leve l conta ins an in accessible

physical disk. The system can still work properly, but performance may be affected and additional disk failures may result in data loss.

Offline A virtual disk with one or mor e member disks is in an inaccessible (failed,

missing, or offline) state. Data on the virtual disk is no longer accessible.

Force online The storage array forces a virtual disk that is in an Offline state to an

Optimal state. If all the member physical disks are not available, the storage array forces the virtual disk to a Degraded state. The storage array can force a virtual disk to an Online state only when a sufficient number of physical disks are available to support the virtual disk.

44 Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts

RAID Levels

RAID levels determine the way in which data is written to physical disks. Different RAID levels provide different levels of accessibility, redundancy, and capacity.

Using multiple physical disks has the following advantages over using a single physical disk:

• Placing data on multiple physical disks (striping) allows input/output (I/O) operations to occur simultaneously and improve performance.

• Storing redundant data on multiple physical disks using mirroring or parity supports reconstruction of lost data if an error occurs, even if that error is the failure of a physical disk.

Each RAID level provides different performance and protection. You must select a RAID level based on the type of application, access, fault tolerance, and data you are storing.

The storage array supports RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10. The maximum number of physical disks that can be used in a disk group depends on the RAID level:

• 192 for RAID

•30 for RAID

RAID Level Usage

To ensure best performance, you must select an optimal RAID level when you create a system physical disk. The optimal RAID level for your disk array depends on:

• Number of physical disks in the disk array

• Capacity of the physical disks in the disk array

• Need for redundant access to the data (fault tolerance)

• Disk performance requirements

levels

0, 1, and 10

5 and 6.

Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts 45

RAID 0

RAID 0 uses disk striping to provide high data throughput, especially for large files in an environment that requires no data redundancy. RAID 0 breaks the data down into segments and writes each segment to a separate physical disk. I/O performance is greatly improved by spreading the I/O load across many physical disks. Although it offers the best performance of any RAID level, RAID 0 lacks data redundancy. Select this option only for non-critical data, because failure of one physical disk results in the loss of all data. Examples of RAID 0 applications include video editing, image editing, prepress applications, or any application requiring high bandwidth.

RAID 1

RAID 1 uses disk mirroring so that data written to one physical disk is simultaneously written to another physical disk. This RAID level offers fast performance, the best data availability , and the highest disk overhead. R AID 1 is recommended for small databases or other applications that do not require large capacity. RAID 1 provides full data redundancy. For e xample accounting, payroll, or financial applications.

RAID 5

RAID 5 uses parity and striping data across all physical disks (distributed parity) to provide high data throughput and data redundancy, especially for small random access. This is a versatile RAID level and is suited for multi-user environments where typical I/O size is small a n d the re is a high proportion of read activity such as file, application, database, web, e-mail, news, and intranet servers.

RAID 6

RAID 6 is similar to RAID 5 but provides an additional parity disk for better redundancy. This is the most versatile RAID level and is suited for multi-user environments where typical I/O size is small a n d the re is a high proportion of read activity. RAID 6 is recommended when large size physical disks are used or large number of physical disks are used in a disk group.

46 Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts

RAID 10

RAID 10, a combination of RAID 1 and RAID 0, uses disk striping across mirrored disks. It provides high data throughput and complete data redundancy. Utilizing an even number of physical disks (four or more) creates a RAID level 10 disk group and/or virtual disk. Because RAID levels 1 and 10 use disk mirroring, half of the capacity of the physical disks is utilized for mirroring. This leaves the remaining half of the physical disk capacity for actual storage. RAID 10 is automatically used when a RAID level of 1 is chosen with four or more physical disks. RAID 10 works well for mediumsized databases or any environment that requires high performance and fault tolerance and moderate-to-medium capacity.

Segment Size

Disk striping enables data to be written across multiple physical disks. Disk striping enhances performance because striped disks are accessed simultaneously.

The segment size or stripe element size specifies the size of data in a stripe written to a single disk. The MD3600f Series array supports stripe element sizes of 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, 128 KB, 256 KB, and 512 KB. The default s tr ipe element size is 128 KB.

Stripe width, or depth, refers to the number of disks involved in an array where striping is implemented. For example, a four-disk group with disk striping has a stripe width of four.

NOTE: Although disk striping delivers excellent performance, striping alone does

not provide data redundancy.

Virtual Disk Operations

Virtual Disk Initialization

Every virtual disk must be initialized. Initialization can be done in the foreground or the background. A maximum of four virtual disks can be initialized concurrently on each RAID controller module.

Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts 47

Background Initialization

The storage array executes a background initialization when the virtual disk is created to establish parity, while allowing full host server access to the virtual disks. Background initialization does not run on RAID 0 virtual disks. The background initialization rate is controlled by MDSM. To change the rate of background initialization, you must stop any existing background initialization. The rate change is implemented when the background initialization restarts automatically.

Foreground Initialization

The storage array supports foreground initialization for virtual disks. All access to the virtual disk is blocked during foreground initialization. During foreground initialization, zeros (0x00) are written to every sector of the virtual disk. The virtual disk is available after foreground initialization is completed.

Consistency Check

A consistency check verifies the correctness of data in a redundant array (RAID levels 1, 5, 6, and 10). For example, in a system with parity, checking consistency involves computing the data on one physical disk and comparing the results to the contents of the parity physical disk.

A consistency check is similar to a background initialization. The difference is that background initialization cannot be started or stopped manually, while consistency check can.

NOTE: It is recommended that you run data consistency checks on a redundant

array at least once a month. This allows detection and automatic replacement of unreadable sectors. Finding an unreadable sector during a rebuild of a failed physical disk is a serious problem, beca use the system does not have the redundancy to recover the data.

Media Verification

Another background task performed by the storage array is media verification of all configured physical disks in a disk group. The storage array uses the Read operation to perform verification on the space configured in virtual disks and the space reserved for the metadata.

48 Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts

Cycle Time

The media verification operation runs only on selected disk groups, independent of other disk groups. Cycle time is the time taken to complete verification of the metadata region of the disk group and all virtual disks in the disk group for which media verification is configured. The next cycle for a disk group starts automatically when the current cycle completes. You can set the cycle time for a media verification operation between 1 and 30 days. The storage controller throttles the media verification I/O accesses to disks based on the cycle time.

The storage array tracks the cycle for each disk group independent of other disk groups on the controller and creates a checkpoint. If the media verification operation on a disk group is preempted or blocked by another operation on the disk group, the storage array resumes after the current cycle. If the media verification process on a disk group is stopped due to a RAID controller module restart, the storage array resumes the process from the last checkpoint.

Virtual Disk Operations Limit

The maximum number of active, concurrent virtual disk processes per RAID controller module installed in the storage array is four. This limit is applied to the following virtual disk processes:

• Background initialization

• Foreground initialization

• Consistency check

•Rebuild

•Copy back

If a redundant RAID controller module fails with existing virtual disk processes, the processes on the failed controller are transferred to the peer controller . A transferr ed process is placed in a suspended state if there ar e four active processes on the peer controller. The suspended processes are resumed on the peer controller when the number of active processes falls below four.

Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts 49

Disk Group Operations

RAID Level Migration

You can migrate from one RAID level to another depending on your requirements. For example, fault-tolerant characteristics can be added to a stripe set (RAID 0) by converting it to a RAID 5 set. MDSM provides information about RAID attributes to assist you in selecting the appropriate RAID level. You can perform a RAID level migration while the system is still running and without rebooting, which maintains data availability.

Segment Size Migration

Segment size refers to the amount of data (in KB) that the storage array writes on a single physical disk in a virtual disk before writing data on the next physical disk. Valid values for the segment size are 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, 128 KB, 256 KB, and 512 KB.

Dynamic segment size migration enables the segment size of a given virtual disk to be changed. A default segment size is set when the virtual disk is created, based on such factors as the RAID level and expected usage. You can change the default value (128 KB) if segment size usage does not match your needs.

When considering a segment-size change, two scenarios illustrate different approaches to the limitations:

• If I/O activity stretches beyond the segment size, you can increase it to reduce the number of disks required for a single I/O . Using a single physical disk for a single request frees disks to service other requests, especially when you have multiple users accessing a database or storage environment.

• If you use the virtual disk in a single-user, large I/O environment (such as for multimedia application storage), performance can be optimized when a single I/O request is serviced with a single data stripe (the segment size multiplied by the number of physical disks in the disk group used for data storage). In this case, multiple disks are used for the same request, but each disk is only accessed once.

50 Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts

Virtual Disk Capacity Expansion

When you configure a virtual disk, you select a capacity based on the amount of data you expect to store. However, you may need to increase the virtual disk capacity for a standard virtual disk by adding free capacity to the disk group. This creates more unused space for new virtual disks or to expand existing virtual disks.

Disk Group Expansion

Because the storage array supports hot pluggable physical disks, you can add two physical disks at a time for each disk group while the storage array remains online. Data remains accessible on virtual disk groups, virtual disks, and physical disks throughout the operation. The data and increased unused free space are dynamically redistributed across the disk group. RAID characteristics are also reapplied to the disk group as a whole.

Disk Group Defragmentation

Defragmenting consolidates the free capacity in the disk group into one contiguous area. Defragmentation does not change the way in which the data is stored on the virtual disks.

Disk Group Operations Limit

The maximum number of active, concurrent disk group processes per installed RAID controller module is one. This limit is applied to the following disk group processes:

• Virtual disk RAID level migration

• Segment size migration

• Virtual disk capacity expansion

• Disk group expansion

• Disk group defragmentation

Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts 51

If a redundant RAID controller module fails with an ex isting disk group process, the process on the failed controller is transferred to the peer controller. A transferred process is placed in a suspended state if there is an active disk group process on the peer controller. The suspended processes are resumed when the active process on the peer controller completes or is stopped.

NOTE: If you try to start a disk group process on a controller that does not have an

existing active process, the start attempt fails if the first virtual disk in the disk group is owned by the other controller and there is an active process on the other controller.

RAID Background Operations Priority

The storage array supports a common configurable priority for the following RAID operations:

• Background initialization

•Rebuild

•Copy back

• Virtual disk capacity expansion

• Raid level migration

• Segment size migration

• Disk group expansion

• Disk group defragmentation

The priority of each of these operations can be changed to address performance requirements of the environment in which the operations are to be executed.

NOTE: Setting a high priority level impacts storage array performance. It is not

advisable to set priority levels at the maximum level. Priority must also be assessed in terms of impact to host server access and time to complete an operation. For example, the longer a rebuild of a degraded virtual disk takes, the greater the risk for secondary disk failure.

52 Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts

Virtual Disk Migration and Disk Roaming

Virtual disk migration is moving a virtual di sk or a hot spare from one array to another by detaching the physical disks and re-attaching them to the new array. Disk roaming is moving a physical disk from one slot to another on the same array.

Disk Migration

You can move virtual disks from one array to another without taking the target array offline. However, the disk group being migrated must be offline before your perform disk migration. If the disk group is not offline prior to migration, the source array holding the physical and virtual disks within the disk group marks them as missing. However, the disk groups themselves migrate to the target array.

An array can import a virtual disk only if it is in an optimal state. You can move virtual disks that are part of a disk group only if all members of the disk group are being migrated. The virtual disks automatically become available after the target array has finished importing all the disks in the disk group.

When you migrate a physical disk or a disk group from one MD3600f a rray to another, the MD3600f array you migrate to, recognizes any data structures and/or metadata you had in place on the migrating MD3600f array. However, if you are migrating from any device other than a MD3600f Series storage array, the MD3600f array does not recognize the migrating metadata and that data is lost. In this case, the MD3600f array initializes the physical disks and marks them as unconfigured capacity.

NOTE: Only disk groups and associated virtual disks with all member physical disks

present can be migrated from one storage array to another. it is recommended that you only migrate disk groups that have all their associated member virtual disks in an optimal state.

NOTE: The number of physical disks and virtual disks that a storage array supports

limits the scope of the migration.

Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts 53

Use either of the following methods to move disk groups and virtual disks:

• Hot virtual disk migration—Disk migration with the destination storage array power turned on.

• Cold virtual disk migration—Disk migration with the destination storage array power turned off.

NOTE: To ensure that the migrating disk groups and virtual disks are correctly

recognized when the target storage array has an existing physical disk, use hot virtual disk migration.

When attempting virtual disk migration, follow these recommendations:

• Moving physical disks to the destination array for migration—When inserting drives into the destination storage array during hot virtual disk migration, wait for the inserted physical disk to be displayed in MDSM before inserting the next physical disk.

WARNING: Without the delay between drive insertions, the storage array can

become unstable and manageability is temporarily lost.

• Migrating virtual disks from multiple storage arrays into a single storage array—When migrating virtual disks from multiple or different storage arrays into a single destination storage array, move all of the physical disks from the same storage array as a set into the new destination storage array . Ensure that all of the physical disks from a storage array are migrated to the destination storage array before starting migration from the next storage array.

NOTE: If the drive modules are not moved as a set to the destination storage

array, the newly relocated disk groups may not be accessible.

• Migrating virtual disks to a storage array with no existing physical disks— Turn off the destination storage array, when migrating disk groups or a complete set of physical disks from a storage array to another storage array that has no existing physical disks. After the destination storage array is turned on and has successfully recognized the newly migrated physical disks, migration operations can continue.

NOTE: Disk groups from multiple storage arrays must not be migrated at the

same time to a storage array that has no existing physical disks.

54 Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts

• Enabling premium features before migration—Before migrating disk groups and virtual disks, enable the required premium features on the destination storage array. If a disk group is migrated from a MD3600f storage array that has a premium feature enabled and the destination array does not have this feature enabled, an may be generated.

Out of Compliance

error message

Disk Roaming

You can move physical disks within an array. The RAID controller module automatically recognizes the relocated physical disks and logically places them in the proper virtual disks that are part of the disk group. Disk roaming is permitted when the RAID controller module is either online or powered off.

NOTE: The disk group must be exported before moving the physical disks.

Advanced Features

The RAID enclosure supports several advanced features:

• Virtual Disk Snapshots

•Virtual Disk Copy

• High Performance Tier

• Remote Replication (this premium feature is supported only in storage arrays with the Fibre Channel [FC] host ports)

NOTE: Virtual Disk Snapshot, V irtual Disk Copy , High Perfo rmance Tier, and Remote

Replication are premium features that must be activated separately. If you have purchased these features, an activation card is supplied that contains instructions for enabling this functionality.

Host Server–to–Virtual Disk Mapping

The host server attached to a storage array accesses various virtual disks on the storage array through its host ports. Specific virtual disk-to-LUN mappings to an individual host server can be defined. In addition, the host server can be part of a host group that shares access to one or more virtual disks.

Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts 55

You can manually configure a host server-to-virtual disk mapping. When you configure host server-to-virtual disk mapping, consider these guidelines:

• You can define one host server-to-virtual disk mapping for each virtual disk in the storage array.

• Host server-to-virtual disk mappings are shared between RAID controller modules in the storage array.

• A unique LUN must be used by a host group or host server to access a virtual disk.

• Not every operating system has the sam e nu mb er of LUNs available for use.

Host Types

A host server is a server that accesses a storage array. Host servers are mapped to the virtual disks. Host servers have the following attributes:

• Host name—A name that uniquely identifies the host server.

• Host group (used in Cluster solutions only)—Two or more host servers associated together to share access to the same virtual disks.

This host group is a logical entity you can create in MDSM. All host servers in a host group must be running the same operating system.

• Host type—The operating system running on the host server.

Snapshot Virtual Disks

A snapshot is a point-in-time image of a virtual disk. The snapshot provides an image of the virtual disk at the time the snapshot was created. You create a snapshot so that an application (for example, a backup application) can access the snapshot and read the data while the source virtual disk remains online and user-accessible. When the backup is completed, the snapshot virtual disk is no longer needed. You can create up to four snapshots per virtual disk.

Snapshots are used to recover previous versions of files that have changed since the snapshot was taken. Snapshots are implemented using a copy-onwrite algorithm, which makes a backup copy of data the instant an error occurs. Data on a virtual disk is copied to the snapshot repository before it is modified. Snapshots can be created instantaneously or can be scheduled and take up less overhead than a full physical copy process.

56 Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts

Snapshot Repository Virtual Disk

When you create a snapshot virtual disk, it automatically creates a snapshot repository virtual disk. A snapshot repository is a virtual disk created in the storage array as a resource for a snapshot virtual disk. A snapshot repository virtual disk contains snapshot virtual disk metadata and copy-on-write data for a particular snapshot virtual disk. The repository supports one snapshot only.

You cannot select a snapshot repository virtual disk as a source virtual disk or as a target virtual disk in a virtual disk copy. If you select a snapshot source virtual disk as the target virtual disk of a virtual disk copy, you must disable all snapshot virtual disks associated with the source virtual disk.

CAUTION: Before using the Snapshot Virtual Disks Premium Feature in a

Windows Clustered configuration, you must map the snapshot virtual disk to the cluster node that owns the source virtual disk. This ensures that the cluster nodes correctly recognize the snapshot virtual disk.

CAUTION: Mapping the snapshot virtual disk to the node that does not own the

source virtual disk before the snapshot enabling process is completed can result in the operating system incorr ectly identifying the snapshot virtual disk. This can result in data loss or an inaccessible snapshot.

For more information on mapping the snapshot virtual disk to the secondary node, see the Dell PowerVault MD3600f and MD3620f Storage Arrays With Microsoft Windows Server Failover Clusters on dell.com/support/manuals.

Virtual Disk Copy

Virtual disk copy is a premium feature to:

•Back up data

• Copy data from disk groups that use smaller-capacity physical disks to disk groups using greater capacity physical disks

• Restore snapshot virtual disk data to the source virtual disk

Virtual disk copy generates a full copy of data from the source virtual disk to the target virtual disk in a storage array and can be performed either online or offline.

Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts 57

Source Virtual Disk

When you create a virtual disk copy, a copy pair consisting of a source virtual disk and a target virtual disk is created on the same storage array. When a virtual disk copy is started, data from the source virtual disk is copied completely to the target virtual disk.

Ta rget Virtual Disk

When you start a virtual disk copy, the target virtual disk maintains a copy of the data from the source virtual disk. You can choose whether to use an existing virtual disk or create a new virtual disk as the target virtual disk. If you choose an existing virtual disk as the target, all data on the target is overwritten. A target virtual disk can be a standard virtual disk or the source virtual disk of a failed or disabled snapshot virtual disk.

NOTE: The target virtual disk capacity must be equal to or greater than the source

virtual disk capacity.

When you begin the disk copy process, you must define the rate at which the copy is completed. Giving the copy process top priority slightly impacts I/O performance, while giving it lowest priority makes the copy process longer to complete. You can modify the copy priority while the disk copy is in progress.

For more information, see the online help topics.

Virtual Disk Recovery

You can use the Edit host server-to-virtual disk mappings feature to recover data from the backup virtual disk. This functionality enables you to unmap the original source virtual disk from its host server, then map the backup virtual disk to the same host server.

Ensure that you record the LUN used to provide access to the source virtual disk. You need this information when you define a host server-to-virtual disk mapping for the target (backup) virtual disk. Also, be sure to stop all I/O activity to the source virtual disk before beginning the virtual disk recovery procedure.

58 Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts

Using Snapshot and Disk Copy Together

You can use the Snapshot Virtual Disk and Virtual Disk Copy premium features together to back up data on the same storage array, or to restore the data on the snapshot virtual disk to its original source virtual disk.

You can copy data from a virtual disk by:

• Taking a point-in-time snapshot of the data (online)

• Copying the data to another virtual disk using a virtual disk copy (offline)

You can select a snapshot virtual disk as the source virtual disk for a virtual disk copy. This configuration is one of the best ways you can apply the snapshot virtual disk feature, since it enables complete backups without any impact on the storage array I/O.

You cannot use a snapshot repository virtual disk as a source virtual disk or as a target virtual disk in a virtual disk copy. If you select the source virtual disk as the target virtual disk of a virtual disk copy, you must disable all snapshot virtual disks associated with the source virtual disk.

Multi-Path Software

Mult i-path software (also referred to as the failover driver) is a software resident on the host server that provides management of the redundant data path between the host server and the storage array.

The multi-path software identifies the existence of multiple paths to a virtual disk and establishes a preferred path to that disk. If any component in the preferred path fails, the multi-path software automatically re-routes I/O requests to the alternate path so that the storage array continues to operate without interruption.

NOTE: Multi-path software is available on the MD3600f Series resource media.

Preferred and Alternate Controllers and Paths

A preferred controller is a R AID controller module designated as the owner of a virtual disk or disk group. The preferred controller is automatically selected by MDSM when a virtual disk is created. You can change the preferred RAID controller module owner of a virtual disk after it is created. If a host is only connected to only one RAID controller module, the preferred owner must manually be assigned to the RAID controller module the host can access.

Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts 59

Ownership of a virtual disk is moved from the preferred controller to the secondary controller (also called the alternate controller) when the preferred controller is:

• Physically removed

• Updating firmware

• Involved in an event that caused failover to the alternate controller

Paths used by the pr eferr ed RAID controller module to access either the disks or the host server are called the preferred paths; redundant paths are called the alternate paths. If a failure causes the preferred path to become inaccessible, the storage array automatically uses the alternate path to access data. When this occurs, the enclosure status LED blinks amber.

Virtual Disk Ownership

MDSM can be used to automatically build and view virtual disks. It uses optimal settings to stripe the disk group. Virtual disks are assigned to alternating RAID controller modules when they are created. This default assignation provides a simple means for load balancing the workload of the RAID controller modules.

Ownership can later be modified to balance workload according to actual usage. If virtual disk ownership is not manually balanced, it is possible for one controller to have the majority of the work, while the other controller is idle. Limit the number of virtual disks in a disk group. If multiple virtual disks are in a disk group, consider:

• The impact each virtual disk has on other virtual disks in the same disk group.

• The patterns of usage for each virtual disk.

• Different virtual disks have higher usage at different times of day.

Load Balancing

A load balance policy is used to determine which path is used to process I/O. Multiple options for setting the load balance policies lets you optimize I/O performance when mixed host interfaces are configured.

You can choose one of these load balance policies to optimize I/O performance:

60 Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts

• Round robin with subset—The round robin with subset I/O load balance policy routes I/O requests, in rotation, to each available data path to the RAID controller module that owns the virtual disks. This policy treats all paths to the RAID controller module that owns the virtual disk equally for I/O activity. Paths to the secondary RAID controller module are ignored until ownership changes. The basic assumption for the round-robin policy is that the data paths are equal. With mixed host support, the data paths may have different bandwidths or different data transfer speeds.

• Least queue depth with subset—The least queue depth with subset policy is also known as the least I/Os or least requests policy. This policy routes the next I/O request to a data path that has the least outstanding I/O requests queued. For this policy, an I/O request is simply a command in the queue. The type of command or the number of blocks that are associated with the command are not considered. The least queue depth with subset policy treats large block requests and small block requests equally. The data path selected is one of the paths in the path group of the RAID controller module that owns the virtual disk.

• Least path weight with subset (Windows operating systems only)—The least queue depth with subset policy is also known as the least I/Os or least requests policy. This policy routes the next I/O request to a data path that has the least outstanding I/O requests queued. For this policy, an I/O request is simply a command in the queue. The type of command or the number of blocks that are associated with the command are not considered. The least queue depth with subset policy treats large block requests and small block requests equally. The data path selected is one of the paths in the path group of the RAID controller module that owns the virtual disk.

Monitoring MD3600f Series System Performance

You can use the Performance Monitor to select virtual disks and RAID controller modules to monitor or to change the polling interval. Keep these guidelines in mind when using the Performance Monitor:

• The Performance Monitor does not dynamically update its display if any configuration changes occur while the window is open. You must close the

Performance Monitor

displayed.

Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts 61

window and reopen it for the changes to be

• Using the Performance Monitor to retrieve performance data can affect the normal storage array performance depending on the polling interval that you set.

• If the storage array you are monitoring begins in or transitions to an unresponsive state, an informational dialog is displayed. The dialog informs you that the Performance Monitor cannot poll the storage array for performance data.

To monitor the performance of the arrays:

Open MDSM and select the appropriate storage array.

Open the

Array Management Window

(AMW) for the selected

storage array.

In the AMW, select

Click

Settings

Select the components that you want to monitor. You can monitor:

Storage Array Monitor Performance

• RAID controller modules

•Virtual disks

• Storage array totals

NOTE: By default, all items are selected.

Polling interval

, select how often you want to update the

performance statistics.

NOTE: For an accurate elapsed time, do not use the Set RAID Controller

Module Clocks option while using the Performance Monitor.

Each time the polling interval elapses, the Performance Monitor queries the storage array again and updates the statistics in the table.

Click

Start

Values are displayed for the selected storage arrays in the Performance Monitor data table. The table is updated at the interval specified in the Polling Interval setting.

Click

7 8

Click Click

Update Stop Save As

to force an immediate poll of the storage array.

to stop monitoring the storage array.

on the

Performance Monitor

main dialog to save the

currently displayed performance statistics.

62 Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts

Select an appropriate directory.

Type a file name in the

NOTE: The .perf extension is the default.

Select a file type from the

•Use the

Report format

File name

text box.

Files of type

list.

(ASCII text) file type to save the data to a

report form for viewing or printing.

•Use the

Comma Delimited Format

file type to save the data in a form that can be imported into a commercial spreadsheet application for further analysis. Most leading commercial spreadsheet applications recognize a comma delimiter. These applications use the delimiter to import the data into spreadsheet cells.

Click

Save

The Performance Monitor data provides information about how your storage array is performing. The data is presented in eight columns, which are described in this table. Use this data to make performance tuning decisions for your storage array.

Table 4-3. Performance Monitor Table Description

Column Headings Description

Devices Controller, virtual disk or storage array total. Total IOs Cumulative I/O’s per second from last start time. Read Percentage Percentage of cumulative I/O’s that are reads. Cache Hit Percentage Percentage of cumulative I/O’s that are in-cache. Current KB/second Snapshot of throughput value per second (1KB =

1024 bytes). Maximum KB/second Maximum recorded throughput value from last start time. Current IO/second Snapshot of I/O’s per second (IOP = Input/output per

second or one completed I/O transaction). Maximum IO/second Maximum recorded IOP from last start time.

For more information, see the MD PowerVault Support Matrix at dell.com/support/manuals.

Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts 63

64 Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts

Configuration: Overview

Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager (MDSM) online help contains information on how to use the MDSM application to perform the configuration and management tasks described in this document. You can access online help by selecting Help located at the top right corner of MDSM interface. For information on installing the MDSM, see the MD3600f and MD3620f Storage Array’s Deployment Guide at dell.com/support/manuals.

NOTE: MDSM supports the MD3000 series, MD3200 series, and MD3600 series

storage arrays and can automatically detect all of these storage arrays.

User Interface

The Storage Manager screen is divided into two primary windows:

• Enterprise Management Window (EMW)—The EMW provides highlevel management of the storage arrays. You can launch the Array Management Window from the EMW.

• Array Management Window (AMW)—The AMW provides management functions for a single storage array. Y ou can launch mor e than one AMW at the same time to manage different storage arrays.

The EMW and the AMW consist of the following:

• The title bar at the top of the window shows the name of the application.

• Beneath the title bar, is the menu bar. You can select menu options from the menu bar to perform tasks on a storage array.

• Beneath the menu bar, is the toolbar. You can select options in the toolbar to perform tasks on a storage array.

• Beneath the toolbar , are the tabs. Tabs are used to group the tasks that you can perform on a storage array.

• Beneath the tabs, is the status bar. The status bar shows status messages and status icons related to the storage array.

NOTE: By default, the toolbar and status bar is not displayed. To view the toolbar or

the status bar, select View Toolbar or View Status Bar, respectively.

Configuration: Overview 65

Enterprise Management Window

The EMW provides high-level management of storage arrays. When you start MDSM, the EMW is displayed. The EMW has these tabs:

•

Devices

•

Setup

storage arrays and configuring alerts.

The Devices tab has a Tree view on the left side of the window that shows discovered storage arrays, unidentified storage arrays, and the status conditions for the storage arrays. Discovered storage arrays are managed by MDSM. Unidentified storage arrays are available to MDSM but not configured for management. The right side of the Devices tab has a Table view that shows detailed information for each storage array.

In the EMW, you can:

• Discover hosts and managed storage arrays on the local sub-network.

• Manually add and remove hosts and storage arrays.

• Locate the storage arrays.

• Name or rename discovered storage arrays.

• Add storage array comments to the Table view.

• Sort rows in the Table view according to different criteria.

• Store your EMW view preferences and configuration data in local configuration files. The next time you open the EMW, data from the local configuration files is used to show customized view and preferences.

• Monitor the status of managed storage arrays and indicate status using appropriate icons.

• Add or remove management connections.

• Configure alert notifications for all selected storage arrays through e-mail or SNMP traps.

• Report critical events to the configured alert destinations.

• Launch the AMW for a selected storage array .

• Run a script to perform batch management tasks on specific storage arrays.

• Import the operating system theme settings into the MDSM.

• Upgrade firmware on multiple storage arrays concurrently.

tab—Provides information about the storage arrays.

tab—Presents the initial setup tasks that guide you through adding

66 Configuration: Overview

Inheriting the System Settings

Use the Inherit System Settings option to import the operating system theme settings into the MDSM. Importing system theme settings affects features like font type, font size, color, and contrast in the MDSM.

Open the

• Select

• Select the

Select

Click OK.

Inherit System Settings

ToolsInherit System Settings

Setup

tab and click

window in one of these ways:

Inherit System Settings

Inherit system settings for color and font

Array Management Window

You can launch the AMW from the EMW. The AMW provides management functions for a single storage array. You can have multiple AMWs open simultaneously to manage different storage arrays.

To launch the AMW:

In the

EMW

, on the

The context menu for the selected storage is displayed.

In the context menu, select The AMW for the selected storage is displayed.

The AMW has the following tabs:

•

Summary

tab—You can view the following information about the

storage array: – Status – Hardware components – Capacity –Hosts and Mappings – Storage partitions – Disk groups and virtual disks

•

Logical

tab—You can view the organization of the storage array by virtual disks, disk groups, free capacity nodes, and any unconfigured capacity for the storage array.

Devices

tab, double click on the relevant storage array.

Manage Storage Array.

Configuration: Overview 67

•

Physical

controller modules, physical disks, and other hardware components.

•

Mappings

can change the mappings to grant virtual disk access to host groups and hosts and create storage partitions.

•

Setup

storage array.

•

Support

RAID controller module firmware, viewing the online help, and so on.

In the AMW, you can:

• Provide storage array options, for example, renaming a storage array, changing a password, or enabling a background media scan.

• Provide the ability to configure virtual disks from the storage array capacity, define hosts and host groups, and grant host or host group access to sets of virtual disks called storage partitions.

• Monitor the health of storage array components and report detailed status using applicable icons.

• Provide applicable recovery procedures for a failed logical component or a failed hardware component.

• Present a view of the Event Log for the storage array.

• Present profile information about hardware components, such as RAID controller modules and physical disks.

• Provide RAID controller module management options, such as changing ownership of virtual disks or placing a RAID controller module online or offline.

• Provide physical disk management options, such as assignment of hot spares and locating the physical disk.

• Monitor storage array performance.

tab—You can view the organization of the storage array by RAID

tab—You can define the hosts, host groups, and host ports. You

tab—You can complete the initial setup tasks to configure the

—You can complete common support tasks like downloading

68 Configuration: Overview

Configuration: About Your Storage Array

You can manage a storage array in two ways:

• Out-of-band management

• In-band management

Out-of-Band Management

Using the out-of-band management method, data is separated from commands and events. Data travels through the host-to-controller interface, while commands and events travel through the management port Ethernet cables.

This management method lets you configure the maximum number of virtual disks that are supported by your operating system and host adapters. A maximum of eight storage management stations can concurrently monitor an out-of-band managed storage array. This limit does not apply to systems that manage the storage array through the in-band management method.

When you use out-of-band management, you must set the network configuration for each RAID controller module’s management Ethernet port. This includes the Internet Protocol (IP) address, subnetwork mask (subnet mask), and gateway. If you are using a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server , you can enable automatic network configuration, but if you ar e not using a DHCP server, you must enter the network configuration manually.

NOTE: RAID controller module network configurations can be assigned using a

DHCP server (the default setting). However , if a DHCP server is no t available for 150 seconds, the RAID controller modules assign static IP addresses. The addresses assigned are 192.168.128.101 for controller 0 and 192.168.128.102 for controller 1.

In-Band Management

Using in-band management, commands, events, and data travel through the host-to-controller interface. Unlike out-of -band management, commands and events are mixed with data.

NOTE: For detailed information on setting up in-band and out-of-band management

see the Deployment Guide.

Configuration: About Your Storage Array 69

When you add storage arrays by using this management method, you need to specify only the host name or IP address of the host. After you add the specific host name or IP address, the host-agent software automatically detects any storage arrays that are connected to that host.

CAUTION: Some operating systems can be used only as storage management

stations. For more information about the operating system that you are using, see

MD PowerVault Support Matrix

the

at dell.com/support/manuals.

For more information, see the PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager online help topics.

Access Virtual Disk

Each RAID controller module in an MD3600f Series storage array maintains a special virtual disk, called the access virtual disk. The host-agent software uses the access virtual disk to communicate management requests and event information between the storage management station and the RAID controller module in an in-band–managed storage array. The access virtual disk is not available for application data storage. The default LUN is 31.

Storage Arrays

You must add the storage arrays to MDSM before you can setup the storage array for optimal use.

Adding Storage Arrays

You can add storage arrays only in the EMW. You can:

• Automatically discover storage arrays

• Manually add storage arrays

NOTE: Verify that your host or management station network configuration—

including station IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway—is correct before adding a new storage array using the Automatic option.

NOTE: For Linux, set the default gateway so that broadcast packets are sent to

255.255.255.0. For Red Hat Enterprise Linux, if no gateway exists on the network, set the default gateway to the IP address of the NIC.

NOTE: MDSM uses TCP/UDP port 2463 for communication to the MD Storage Array.

70 Configuration: About Your Storage Array

Automatic Discovery of Storage Arrays

The Automatic Discovery process sends out a broadcast message across the local subnetwork (subnet) and adds any storage array that responds to the message. The Automatic Discovery process finds both in-band and out-ofband storage arrays.

NOTE: The Automatic Discovery option and the Re-scan Hosts option in the

Enterprise Management Window provide automatic methods to discover managed storage arrays.

Manual Addition of a Storage Array

Use Manual Addition if the storage array resides outside of the local subnet. This process requires specific identification information to manually add a storage array.

To add a storage array that uses out-of-band management, specify the host name or management port IP address of each controller in the storage array.

Before using this option, verify that the applicable network configuration tasks are performed.

To add an in-band storage array, add the host through which the storage array is attached to the network.

NOTE: It can take several minutes for MDSM to connect to the specified

storage array.

To add a storage array manually:

Select

EditAdd Storage Array

Select the relevant management method:

•

Out-of-band management

the

RAID controller Modules

In-band management

•

—Enter a host name or an IP address for

in the storage array.

—Enter a name or an IP address for the

Host

through which the storage array is attached to the network.

NOTE: The host agent must be restarted before in-band management

communication can be established. See "Starting or Restarting the Host Context Agent Software" on page 293.

Click

Add

Use one of these methods to name a storage array:

Configuration: About Your Storage Array 71

• In the EMW, select the

Storage Arrays

• In the AMW, select the

• In the EMW, right-click the icon corresponding to the array and

select

Rename

Setup

tab, and select

Setup

tab, and select

Name/Rename

Rename Storage Array

Setting Up Your Storage Array

A list of initial setup tasks is displayed on the Setup tab in the AMW. The list of initial setup tasks shows you how to set up a storage array. Using the steps outlined in the Initial Setup Tasks area, ensures that the basic setup steps are completed properly.

Use the Initial Setup Tasks list the first time that you set up a storage array to perform these tasks:

• Locate the storage array—Find the physical location of the storage array on your network by turning on the unit identify LEDs. The storage array can be identified with a label.

• Give a new name to the storage array—Use a unique name that identifies each storage array.

• Set a storage array password—Configure the storage array with a password to protect it from unauthorized access. MDSM prompts for the password when you attempt to change the storage array configuration. For example, when a virtual disk is created or deleted.

• Configure the storage array—Create disk groups, virtual disks, and hot spare physical disks by using the Automatic configuration method or the Manual configuration method. For more information, see the

Modular Disk Storage Manager online help

• Map Virtual Disks—Map virtual disks to hosts or host groups.

• Save Configuration—Save the configuration parameters in a file that you can use to restore the configuration, or reuse the configuration on another storage array. For more information, see the

Storage Manager online help

After you complete the basic steps for configuring the storage array, you can perform these optional tasks:

topics.

PowerVault Modular Disk

PowerVault

72 Configuration: About Your Storage Array

• Manually define hosts—Define the hosts and the host port identifiers that are connected to the storage array. Use this option only if the host is not automatically recognized and shown in the

• Configure ethernet management ports—Configure the network parameters for the Ethernet management ports on the RAID controller modules if you are managing the storage array by using the out-of-band management connections.

• View and enable premium features—Your MDSM may include premium features. View the premium features that are available and the premium features that are already started. You can start available premium features that are currently stopped.

Mappings

tab.

Locating Storage Arrays

You can use the Blink option to physically locate and identify a storage array. To locate the storage array:

Select the relevant storage array and:

• In the EMW, right-click the appropriate storage array, and select

Storage Array

• In the AMW, select the

• In the AMW, select The LEDs blink on the physical disks in the storage array.

Setup

tab, click

Storage ArrayBlinkStorage Array

Blink Storage Array

Blink

After locating the storage array, click OK. The LEDs stop blinking.

If the LEDs do not stop blinking, select

Stop All Indications

A confirmation message is displayed.

Click OK.

Storage ArrayBlink



Naming or Renaming Storage Arrays

Each storage array must be assigned a unique up to 30-character alphanumeric name. A name can consist of letters, numbers, and the special characters underscore (_), dash (–), and pound sign (#). No other special characters are allowed.

Configuration: About Your Storage Array 73

To rename a selected storage ar ra y:

Perform one of these actions:

• In the AMW

•In the EMW

•In the EMW icon and select

The

Name/Rename Storage Arrays

Select the relevant storage array from the

Setup

tab, select

Devices Devices Devices

Rename.

Renam e Storage Array

tab Tree view, select tab Table view, select

EditRename.

tab Tree view, right-click on the desired array

dialog is displayed.

Select storage array

table.

If you do not know the name or physical location of the storage array, click

Blink

. After locating the storage array, click OK to turn off the LEDs.

The name of the storage array is displayed in the

Storage array name

, type the new name of the storage array. If

applicable, add a comment for the storage array in

Click

Apply

Storage array name

Additional comment

A message is displayed warning you about the implications of changing the storage array name.

Click

Yes

The new storage array name is displayed in the

Repeat step 2 through step 4 to name or rename additional storage arrays.

NOTE: Avoid arbitrary names or names that may lose meaning in the future.

Select storage array

table.

74 Configuration: About Your Storage Array

Setting a Password

You can configure each storage array with a password to protect it from unauthorized access. MDSM prompts for the password when an attempt is made to change the storage array configuration, such as, when a virtual disk is created or deleted. View operations do not change the storage array configuration and do not require a password. You can create a new password or change an existing password.

NOTE: It is recommended that you use a long password with at least 15

alphanumeric characters to increase security.

To set a new password or change an existing password:

Select the relevant storage array and navigate to the AMW for that storage array. See "Array Management Window" on page 67.

The AMW for the selected storage array is displayed.

In the AMW, perform one of these actions:

• Select the storage array in the

Array



Set Password

• Select the

• Select the The

Set Password

If you are resetting the password, type the

Setup Logical

dialog is displayed.

tab, and then click

tab, right-click and select

Logical

pane, and then select

Set a Storage Array Password

Set Password.

Current password

Storage

NOTE: If you are setting the password for the first time, leave the Current

password blank.

Type the

Re-type the new password in

Click OK.

NOTE: You are not prompted for a password when you attempt to change the

storage array configuration in the current management session.

New password

NOTE: The password in Confirm new password and New password must be

exactly the same.

Confirm new password

Configuration: About Your Storage Array 75

Password Guidelines

Follow these guidelines when you create a password:

• Use secure passwords for your storage array. A password must be easy for you to remember but difficult for others to determine. Consider using numbers or special characters in the place of letters, such as a 1 in the place of the letter I, or the at sign (@) in the place of the letter a.

• For increased protection, use a long password with at least 15 alphanumeric characters. The maximum password length is 30 characters.

• Passwords are case sensitive.

NOTE: You can attempt to enter a password up to ten times before the storage

array enters a lockout state. Before you can try to enter a password again, you must wait 10 minutes for the storage array to reset. To reset the password, press the password reset switch on your RAID controller module, see Figure3-1.

Viewing Storage Array Connections

You can use the View Connections option to view the expansion enclosures connected to the RAID controller module.

To view the storage array connections:

From the toolbar in AMW, select The

<Storage Array>:Connections

Click the column name to sort the connections according to your preference.

Click

If you receive an error message for a port, you can use this dialog to identify the components on the port that may have caused the error. By isolating these components, you prevent accidentally disconnecting components that are still in operation, which could cause an interruption in data flow.

Storage ArrayViewConnections

dialog is displayed.

76 Configuration: About Your Storage Array

Adding/Editing a Comment to an Existing Storage Array

A descriptive comment, with an applicable storage array name, is a helpful identification tool. You can add or edit a comment for a storage array in the EMW only.

To add or edit a comment:

In the EMW, select the storage array.

Select

EditComment

The

Edit Comment

Type a 60-character comment.

Click OK.

This option updates the comment in the table view and saves it in your local storage management station file system. The comment is not displayed to administrators who are using other storage management stations.

Devices

dialog is displayed.

tab and select the relevant managed

Removing Storage Arrays

You can remove a storage array from the list of managed arrays if you no longer want to manage it from a specific storage management station. Removing a storage array does not affect the storage array or its data in any way. Removing a storage array simply removes it from the list of storage arrays that are displayed in the drop-down list in the Array Selector . If a storage array is accidentally removed, it can be added again. See "Adding Storage Arrays" on page 70.

You can remove the storage array only from the EMW. To remove the storage array:

In the EMW, select the storage array.

Select

EditRemoveStorage Array

A message prompts you for a confirmation for the removal of the selected storage array.

Devices

tab and select the relevant managed

To remove the storage array, click

Yes

Configuration: About Your Storage Array 77

Enabling Premium Features

You can enable premium features on the storage array. T o enable the premium features, you must obtain a feature key file specific to the premium feature that you want to enable from your storage supplier.

To enable premium features:

From the toolbar in AMW, select The

Premium Features and Feature Pack Information

displayed.

Select the relevant premium feature, and click The

Select Feature Key File

Navigate to the relevant folder, select the appropriate key file, and click OK.

Click

For more information, see the PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager online help topics.

Storage ArrayPremium Features

window is

Enable

dialog is displayed.

Failover Alert Display

You can change the failover alert delay for a storage array. The failover alert delay lets you delay the logging of a critical event if the multi-path driver transfers virtual disks to the non-preferred controller. If the multi-path driver transfers the virtual disks back to the preferred controller within the specified delay period, a critical event is not logged. If the transfer ex ceeds this de lay period, then a virtual disk-not-on-preferred-path alert is issued as a critical event. You can also use this option to minimize multiple alerts when more than one virtual disk fails over because of a system error, such as a failed host adapter.

For more information, see the PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager online help topics.

78 Configuration: About Your Storage Array

Changing the Cache Settings on the Storage Array

In the AMW, select The

Change Cache Settings

Select or enter the percentage of unwritten data in the cache to trigger a cache flush in

Select or enter the percentage of unwritten data in the cache to stop a cache flush in progress in

Select the appropriate A smaller cache size is a good choice for file-system use or database-

application use. A larger cache size is a good choice for applications that generate sequential I/O, such as multimedia.

In the

Enter Password

array, and click

Storage ArrayChangeCache Settings

window is displayed.

Start flushing

Stop flushing

Cache block size

dialog, type the current password for the storage

Changing Expansion Enclosure ID Number

When an MD1200 series expansion enclosure is connected to an MD3600f series storage array for the first time, an enclosure ID number is assigned and maintained by the expansion enclosure. This enclosure ID number is also displayed in the MDSM.

To change the enclosure ID numbers:

In the AMW, select the storage array, and select

ChangeEnclosure ID

Select a new enclosure ID number from the The enclosure ID must be between 0 and 99 (inclusive).

Storage Array

Change Enclosure ID



list.

To save the changed enclosure ID, click

Configuration: About Your Storage Array 79

Change

Changing the Enclosure Order in the Physical Pane

You can change the order of the RAID controller modules and the expansion enclosures in the Physical pane to match the hardware configuration in your storage array. The Physical pane that initially is displayed is a default view that may not match your storage array . The enclosur e order change remains in effect until it is modified again.

To change the enclosure order in the Physical pane:

In the AMW, select

From the either

Click OK. If you have set a password for the selected storage array , the

Password

Type the current password for the storage array.

Click OK.

Enclosures list,

dialog is displayed.

Storage ArrayChangeEnclosure Order

select the enclosure you want to move and click

Down

to move the enclosure to the new position.

Enter

Configuring Alert Notifications

MDSM can send an alert for any condition on the storage array that requires your attention. Alerts can be sent as e-mail messages or as Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) trap messages.

You can configure alert notifications either for all the storage arrays or a single storage array.

To configure alert notifications for all storage arrays:

In the EMW, select the

Select

Configure Alerts

The

Setup

tab.

dialog is displayed.

Select

All storage arrays

Click OK. The

Configure Alerts

"Configuring E–mail Alerts" on page 81. To configure SNMP alerts, see "Configuring SNMP Alerts" on page 83.

80 Configuration: About Your Storage Array

dialog is displayed. To configure e-mail alerts, see

To configure alert notifications for a single storage array:

In the EMW, select the

Select the relevant storage array, then select The

Configure Alerts

"Configuring E–mail Alerts" on page 81. To configure SNMP alerts, see "Configuring SNMP Alerts" on page 83.

Devices

dialog is displayed. To configure e-mail alerts, see

tab.

EditConfigureAlerts

Configuring E–mail Alerts

For more information on configuring alert notifications, see "Configuring Alert Notifications" on page 80.

To configure e-mail alerts:

Open the

• In the Tree view or the Table view on the

•In the

Select one of the following radio buttons to specify an alert level:

•

These results occur, depen ding on your selection :

Configure Alerts

select a node, and then select

Setup

tab in the EMW, select

All storage arrays

events on all storage arrays.

An individual storage array

about events that occur on only a specified storage array.

dialog by performing one of these actions:

Devices

EditConfigure Alerts

Configure Alerts

—Select this option to send an alert e-mail about

—Select this option to send an alert e-mail

tab in the EMW,

. Go to step 2.

. Go to step 3.

• If you select all storage arrays, the

• If you select an individual storage array, the dialog is displayed. Select the storage array for which you want to receive e-mail alerts and click displayed.

• If you do not know which storage array to select, click the LEDs of the storage array.

In the

Configure Alerts

Mail server

(SMTP) mail server.

, type the name of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

dialog, select the

Configuration: About Your Storage Array 81

Configure Alerts

. The

Configure Alerts

Mail Server

Select Storage Array

dialog is displayed.

dialog is

Blink

to turn on

tab.

The SMTP mail server is the name of the mail server that forwards the alert e-mails to the configured e-mail addresses.

E-mail sender address

, type the valid sender e-mail address.

The e-mail address of the sender (the network administrator) is displayed on each e-mail alert sent to the destination.

To include the contact information of the sender in the e-mail alert, select

Include contact information with the alerts

, and type the contact

information.

NOTE: Including the contact information in the e-mail alert is optional.

Select the

• Adding an e-mail address—In

• Replacing an e-mail address—In the

e-mail

and click

tab to configure the e-mail destinations.

Add

e-mail address

, type the e-mail address,

Configured E-mail addresses

area, select the e-mail address to be r e placed, type the r e placement email address in

• Deleting an e-mail address—In the select the e-mail address, and click

• Validating an e-mail address—Type the e-mail address in

address

or select the e-mail address in the

addresses

E-mail address

area, and click

, and click

Replace

Configured E-mail addresses Delete

E-mail

Configured E-mail

Test

. A test e-mail is sent to the selected email address. A dialog with the results of the test and any error is displayed.

For the selected e-mail address, in

Event Only

•

—The alert e-mail contains only the event information.

Information To Send

, select:

This alert type is the default.

•

Event + Profile

—The alert e-mail contains the event information and

the storage array profile.

•

Event + Support

—The alert e-mail contains the event information and a compressed file tha t contains complete support information for the storage array that has generated the alert.

area,

82 Configuration: About Your Storage Array

For the selected e-mail address, in

•

Every event

the default option.

•

Every x hours

if an event occurred during that time interval. You can select this option only if you have selected either

Support

Click OK. An alert icon is displayed next to each node in the Tree view where an alert is

set.

To ensure that the e-mail is sent successfully:

• Y ou must provide an SMTP mail server name and an e-mail sender address for the e-mail addresses to work.

• The e-mail addresses that you had previously configured are displayed in the Configured e-mail addresses area.

• You must use fully qualified e-mail addresses, for example, name@mycompany.com.

• You can configure multiple e-mail addresses before you click

—Sends an alert e-mail whenever an event occurs. This is

—Sends an alert e-mail after the specified time interval

in the

Information To Send

Frequency

Event + Profile

drop down list.

, select:

Event +

Configuring SNMP Alerts

To add a management console to the list of addresses configured to receive SNMP alerts:

Open the

• In the Tree view or the Table view on the

•In the

Select one of the following radio buttons to specify an alert level:

•

Configure Alerts

select a node, and select

Setup

tab in the EMW, select

All storage arrays

about events on all storage arrays.

An individual storage array

notification about events that occur in only a specified storage array.

dialog by performing one of these actions:

Devices

Edit

—Select this option to send an alert notification

Configure Alerts

Configure Alerts.

—Select this option to send an alert

tab in the EMW, . Go to step 3.

Go to step 2.

Configuration: About Your Storage Array 83

These results occur, depending on your selection:

• If you select all storage arrays, the

• If you select an individual storage array, the

Configure Alerts

Select Storage Array

dialog is displayed.

dialog is displayed. Select the storage array for which you want to receive alert notifications and click

. The

Configure Alerts

displayed.

NOTE: If you do not know which storage array to select, click Blink to turn on

the LEDs of the storage array.

Select the

• Adding an SNMP address—In

SNMP

tab to configure the SNMP alert destinations.

Community name

community name. In click

Add

NOTE: The community name is an American Standard Code for Information

Interchange (ASCII) string that identifies a known set of network management stations and is set by the network administrator. The def ault community name is the string “public”.The trap destination is the IP address or the host name of a computer running an SNMP management application. An example of a SNMP enabled management application is the Dell Management Console. For more information on Dell Management Console, see dell.com.

Trap destination

, type the trap destination, and

, type the

• Replacing an SNMP address—Select the SNMP address in the

Configured SNMP addresses

name in

destination

Community name

, and click

area, type the replacement community

and the trap destination in

Replace

Trap

• Deleting an SNMP address—Select the SNMP address in the

Configured SNMP addresses

area, and click

Delete

• Validating an SNMP address—Select the SNMP addr ess in the

Configured SNMP addresses

area, and click

Test

. A test message is sent to the SNMP address. A message box with the results of the validation and any error information is displayed.

Click OK. An alert icon is displayed next to each node in the Tree view for which an

alert is set.

dialog is

84 Configuration: About Your Storage Array

Follow these guideline for SNMP alerts:

• Any SNMP addresses that you had previously configured are displayed in the Configured SNMP addresses area.

• The SNMP Community Name is determined by the system administrator and configured within the management application, such as the Dell Management Console. More information about the Dell Management Console is available at

• You can configure multiple SNMP addresses before you click

dell.com

Battery Settings

A smart battery backup unit (BBU) can perform a learn cycle. The smart BBU module includes the battery, a battery gas gauge, and a battery charger. The learn cycle calibrates the smart battery gas gauge so that it provides a measurement of the charge of the battery module. A learn cycle can only start when the battery is fully charged.

The learn cycle completes the following operations:

• Discharges the battery to a predetermined threshold.

• Charges the battery back to full capacity.

A learn cycle starts automatically when you install a new battery module. Learn cycles for batteries in both RAID controller modules in a duplex system occur simultaneously.

Learn cycles are scheduled to start automatically at regular intervals, at the same time and on the same day of the week. The interval between cycles is described in weeks.

Use the following guidelines to adjust the interval:

• You can use the default interval.

• You can run a learn cycle at any time.

• You can set the learn cycle earlier than the currently scheduled time.

• You cannot set the learn cycle to start more than seven days later than the currently scheduled time.

Configuration: About Your Storage Array 85

To change the battery settings perform these steps:

In the AMW, select The

Battery Settings

Battery location

Check these details about the battery:

• Battery status

• Battery age

• Days until replacement

For more information, see the PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager online help topics.

Storage ArrayChangeBattery Settings

dialog is displayed.

, select a battery.

Setting the Storage Array RAID Controller Module Clocks

You can use the Synchronize RAID Controller Module Clocks option to synchronize the storage array R AID contr oller module clocks with t he stor age management station. This option makes sure that the event timestamps written by the RAID controller modules to the Event Log match the event timestamps written to host log files. The RAID controller modules remain available during synchronization.

To synchronize the RAID controller module clocks with the storage management station:

In the AMW, select

Module Clocks

If a password is set, in the password for the storage array, and click

The RAID controller module clocks are synchronized with the storage management station.

Storage Array

Synchronize RAID Controller

Enter Password

dialog, type the current

Synchronize

86 Configuration: About Your Storage Array

Configuration: Event Monitor

An event monitor is provided with Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Sto rage Manager (MDSM). The event monitor runs continuously in the background and monitors activity on the managed storage arrays. If the event monitor detects any critical problems, it can notify a host or remote system using email, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) trap messages, or both.

For the most timely and continuous notification of events, enable the event monitor on a management station that runs 24 hours a day. Enabling the event monitor on multiple systems or having a combination of an event monitor and MDSM active can result in duplicate events, but this does not indicate multiple failures on the array.

To use the Event Monitor:

• Set up alert destinations for the managed device that you want to monitor. A possible alert destination would be the Dell Management Console. More information about the Dell Management Console can be found at

dell.com

• Replicate the alert settings from a particular managed device by copying the want to receive alerts.

Each managed device shows a check mark that indicates that alerts are set.

emwdata.bin

file to every storage management station from which you

Configuration: Event Monitor 87

Enabling or Disabling the Event Monitor

You can enable or disable the event monitor at any time. Disable the event monitor if you do not want the system to send alert

notifications. If you are running the event monitor on multiple systems, disabling the event monitor on all but one system prevents the sending of duplicate messages.

NOTE: It is recommended that you configure the event monitor to start by default

on a management station that runs 24 hours a day.

Windows

To enab le or disable the event monitor:

Click

Start

or Click

Start Settings Control Panel Administrative Tools

Services

From the list of services, select

Event Monitor

Select

To enable the event monitor, in the

To disable the event monitor, in the

Administrative Tools

ActionProperties

Services

Modular Disk Storage Manager

Service Status

area, click

Start

Stop

Linux

To enable the event monitor, at the command prompt, type SMmonitor start and press <Enter>. When the program startup begins, the system

displays the following message:

SMmonitor started.

To disable the event monitor, start terminal emulation application (console ox xterm) and at the command prompt, type SMmonitor stop and press <Enter>. When the program shutdown is complete, the following message is displayed:

Stopping Monitor process.

88 Configuration: Event Monitor

Configuration: About Your Host

Configuring Host Access

Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager (MDSM) software is comprised of multiple modules. One of these modules is the Host Context Agent. The host context agent is installed as part of the MDSM installation and runs continuously in the background.

If the host context agent is running on a host, the host and the host ports connected from it to the storage array are automatically detected by MDSM and are displayed on the Mappings tab in the Array Management Window (AMW). For more information on the Mappings tab, see "Using the Mappings Tab" on page 90.

If the hosts are not detected automatically, you can use the De fine Host Wizard to define the hosts that access the virtual disks in the storage array. Defining a host is one of the steps required to let the storage array know which hosts are attached to it and to allow access to the virtual disks. For more information on defining the hosts, see "Defining a Host" on page 90.

To enable the host to write to the storage array, you must map the host to the virtual disk. This mapping grants a host or a host group access to a particular virtual disk or to a number of virtual disks in a storage array. You can define the mappings on the Mappings tab in the AMW.

On the Summary tab in the AMW, the Hosts & Mappings area indicates how many hosts are configured to access the storage array. You can click Configured Hosts in the Hosts & Mappings area to see the names of the hosts.

A collection of elements, such as default host groups, hosts, and host ports, are displayed as nodes in the Topology pane of the Mappings tab in the AMW.

Configuration: About Your Host 89

The host topology is reconfigurable. You can perform the following tasks:

• Create a host and assign an alias or user label.

• Add or associate a new host port identifier to a particular host.

• Change the host port identifier alias or user label.

• Move or associate a host port identifier to a different host.

• Replace a host port identifier with a new host port identifier.

• Manually activate an inactive host port so that the port can gain access to host specific or host group specific LUN mappings.

• Change the host port type to another type.

• Move a host from one host group to another host group.

• Remove a host group, a host, or a host port identifier.

• Rename a host group or a host.

Using the Mappings Tab

In the Mappings tab, you can:

• Define hosts and hosts groups

• Add mappings to the selected host groups

For more information, see the PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager online help topics.

Defining a Host

You can use the Define Host Wizard in the AMW to define a host for a storage array. Either a known unassociated host port identifier or a new host port identifier can be added.

NOTE: A user label must be specified before the host port identifier may be added

(the add button is disabled until one is entered). This user label cannot be the same as the host name. It is recommended that you use the host name with HBA port number. For example: Server1-HBA-0.

90 Configuration: About Your Host

To define a host:

In the AMW, select the

Perform one of the actions:

• Select

• Select the

MappingsDefineHost

Setup Mappings

name),

Default Group

pane to which you want to add the host, and select

Mappings

tab and select the appropriate storage array.

tab, and click

Manually Define Hosts

tab. Right-click the root node (storage array

node, or

Host Group

node in the

DefineHost

Topology

from the pop-up menu.

The

Specify Host Name

Host name

Select the relevant option in

, enter an up to 30-character alphanumeric name.

the this storage array

The

Specify Host Port Identifiers

Select the relevant option to add a host port identifier to the host, you can

window is displayed.

Do you plan to use the storage partitions in

? and click

window is displayed.

select:

•

Add by selecting a known unassociated host port identifier Known unassociated host port identifiers

, select the relevant host

port identifier.

•

Add by creating a new host port identifier identifier

character

, enter a 16 hexadecimal character name and an up to 30

Alias

for the host port identifier and click

—In

New host port

Add

—In

NOTE: The host port identifier name is in hexadecimal and must contain the letters A

through F and numbers 0 through 9

Click

Specify Host Type

The

Host

type, select the relevant operating system for the host.

The

Host Group Question

In this window, you can select:

•

Yes

—this host shares access to the same virtual disks with other hosts.

window is displayed.

Configuration: About Your Host 91

•

—this host does NOT share access to the same virtual disks with

other hosts.

Click

If you select select

Enter the name of the host group or select an existing host group and click

The

Preview

Click

Yes

, the

, see step 11

window is displayed.

Finish

Specify Host Group

window is displayed. If you

Removing Host Access

In the AMW, select the

Topology

Perform one of these actions:

• Select

• Right-click the host node and select The

Type

Click OK.

For more information, see the PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager online help topics.

pane.

MappingsRemove

Remove confirmation

yes

Mappings

tab, select the host node in the

dialog is displayed.

Remove

from the pop-up menu.

Managing Host Groups

A host group is a logical entity of two or more hosts that share access to specific virtual disks on the storage array. You create host groups with MDSM.

All hosts in a host group must have the same host type (operating system). In addition, all hosts in the host group must have special software, such as clustering software, to manage virtual disk sharing and accessibility.

If a host is part of a cluster, every host in the cluster must be connected to the storage array, and every host in the cluster must be added to the host group.

92 Configuration: About Your Host

Creating a Host Group

In the AMW, select the

In the

Topology

Perform one of the following actions:

• Select

pane, select the storage array or the

MappingsDefineHost Group

• Right-click the storage array or the

DefineHost Group

Type the name of the new host group in

Select the appropriate hosts in the

Click

Add

NOTE: To remove hosts, select the hosts in the Hosts in group area, and click

Remove.

Click OK. The host group is added to the storage array.

Adding a Host to a Host Group

You can add a host to an existing host group or a new host group using the Define Host Wizard. For more information, see "Definin g a H os t" on page 90.

You can also move a host to a different host group. For more information, see "Moving a Host to a Different Host Group" on page 94.

Mappings

tab.

Default Group,

from the pop-up menu.

Enter new host group name

Select hosts to add

Default Group

and select

area.

Removing a Host From a Host Group

You can remove a host from the Topology pane on the Mappings tab of the Array Management Window. For more information, see "Removing a Host

Group" on page 94.

Configuration: About Your Host 93

Moving a Host to a Different Host Group

In the AMW, select the

Topology

Perform one of these actions:

• Select

• Right-click the host node, and select The

In the the host.

The

Click The host is moved to the selected host group with the following mappings:

• The host retains the specific virtual disk mappings assigned to it.

• The host inherits the virtual disk mappings assigned to the host group

• The host loses the virtual disk mappings assign ed to the host group

pane.

MappingsMove

Move Host

Select host group

Move Host Confirmation

Yes

to which it is moved.

from which it was moved.

dialog is displayed.

Mappings

, select the host group to which you want to move

tab, select the host node in the

Move

from the pop-up menu.

dialog is displayed.

Removing a Host Group

In the AMW, select the

Topology

Perform one of these actions:

• Select

• Right-click the host node, and select The

pane.

MappingsRemove

Remove

dialog is displayed.

Mappings

tab, select the host node in the

Remove

from the pop-up menu.

Click

Yes

The selected host group is removed.

For more information, see the PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager online help topics.

94 Configuration: About Your Host

Host Topology

Host topology is the organization of hosts, host groups, and host interfaces configured for a storage array. You can view the host topology in the Mappings tab of the AMW. For more information, see "Using the Mappings Tab" on page 90.

The following tasks change the host topology:

• Moving a host or a host connection

• Renaming a host group, a host, or a host connection

• Adding a host connection

• Replacing a host connection

• Changing a host type

MDSM automatically detects these changes for any host running the host agent software.

Starting or Stopping the Host Context Agent

The host context agent discovers the host topology and starts and stops with the host. The topology discovered by the host context agent can be viewed by clicking Configure Host Access (Automatic) in the Configure tab in the MDSM.

You must stop and restart the host context agent to see the changes to the host topology if:

• A new storage array is attached to the host server.

• A host is added while turning on power to the RAID controller modules.

Linux

To start or stop the host context agent, enter the following command at the prompt:

SMagent start SMagent stop

You stop and then restart SMagent after:

• Moving a controller offline or replacing a controller.

• Removing host-to-array connections from or attaching host-to-array connections to a Linux host server.

Configuration: About Your Host 95

Windows

To start or stop the host context agent:

Click

StartSettingsControl PanelAdministrative Tools

Services

or Click

StartAdministrative ToolsServices

From the list of services, select

If the host context agent is running, click

Modular Disk Storage Manager Agent

Action

Stop

, then wait

approximately 5 seconds.

Click

Action

Start

I/O Data Path Protection

You can have multiple host-to-array connections for a host. Ensure that you select all the connections to the array when configuring host access to the storage array.

NOTE: See the Deployment Guide for more information on cabling configurations,

at dell.com/support/manuals.

NOTE: For maximum redundancy, you must select all host connections to the array

when manually defining host topology. For example, a host may have two host connections listed when manually configuring host access. For this host, you would select the two host connections listed in the Available hosts section and add them to the Selected hosts section using the Add button.

NOTE: For more information on configuring hosts see "Configuration: About Your

Host" on page 89.

If a component such as a RAID controller module or a cable fails, or an error occurs on the data path to the preferred RAID controller module, the virtual disk ownership is moved to the alternate non-preferred RAID controller module for processing. This process is called failover.

Drivers for multi-path frameworks such as Microsoft Multi-Path IO (MPIO) and Linux Device Mapper (DM) are installed on host systems that access the storage array and provide I/O path failover.

96 Configuration: About Your Host

For more information on Linux DM, see "Configuration: Device Mapper Multipath for Linux" on page 219. For more information on MPIO, see microsoft.com.

NOTE: You must have the multi-path driver installed on the hosts at all times, even

in a configuration where there is only one path to the storage system, such as a single port cluster configuration.

During a failover, the virtual disk transfer is logged as a critical event, and an alert notification is sent automatically if you have configured alert destinations for the storage array.

Managing Host Port Identifiers

You can manage the host port identifiers that are added to the storag e ar r ay. You can:

• Add—Add or associate a new host port identifier to a particular host.

• Edit—Change the host port identifier alias or user label. You can move (associate) the host port identifier to a new host.

• Replace—Replace a particular host port identifier with another host port identifier.

• Remove—Remove the association between a particular host port identifier and the associated host.

NOTE: User label cannot be the same as the host name. It is recommended that

you use the host name with HBA port number. For example: Server1-HBA-0.

Configuration: About Your Host 97

To manage a host port identifier:

Perform one of these actions:

• Right-click the host in the

Port Identifiers

• From the menu bar, select

PortIdentifiers

The

Manage Host Port Identifiers

manage the host port identifiers for a specific host or all of the host port identifiers for all of the h os ts in

If you want to manage the host port identifiers for a specific host, select the host from the list of hosts that are associated with the storage array. If you want to manage the host port identifiers for all hosts, select from the list of hosts that are associated with the storage array.

If you are adding a new host port identifier, go to step4. If you are managing an existing host port identifier , go to step8.

Click

Add

The

Add Host Port Identifier

Select the method to add a host port identifier to the host. You can select:

•

Add by selecting a know unassociated host port identifier

the appropriate host port identifier from the existing list of

unassociated host port identifiers

•

Add by creating a new host port identifier identifier

User label

Associated with host

in the pop-up menu.

, enter the name of the new host port identifier.

, enter up to 30–character alphanumeric name.

, select the appropriate host or host group.

Topology

Mappings Manage Host

Show host port identifiers associated with

dialog is displayed.

pane, and select

dialog is displayed. You can choose to

—In

Manage Host

New host port

All hosts

—Select

Known

98 Configuration: About Your Host

Select the host port identifier that you would like to manage from the list of host port identifiers in the

Perform one of these actions for the selected host port identifier:

Host port identifier information

area.

• To edit the host port identifier—Select the appropriate host port

identifier and click displayed, update

Edit

, the

User label

Edit Host Port Identifier

and

Associated with host

dialog is

and click

• To replace the host port identifier—Select the appropriate host port

identifier and click

Replace

, the

Replace Host P ort Identifier

displayed, replace the current host port identifier with a known unassociated host port identifier or create a new host port identifier, update

User label

and click

Replace

• To remove the host port identifier—Select the appropriate host port

identifier and click displayed, type

For more information, see the

online help

topics.

Edit

, the

yes

and click OK.

Remove Host Port Identifier

dialog is

Power Vault Modular Disk Storage Manager

Save

dialog is

Configuration: About Your Host 99

100 Configuration: About Your Host

Dell MD3620F User Manual 2

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Introduction

About This Document

Inside the Box of the Dell PowerVault MD3600f Series Storage Array

MD3600f Series Storage Array

Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Stor ag e Man ager

Other Information You May Need

Planning: About Your Storage Array

Overview

Hardware Features

Front-Panel Features and Indicators

Back Panel Features and Indicators

Power Supply and Cooling Fan Features

Power Indicator Codes and Features

Planning: RAID Controller Modules

RAID Controller Modules

RAID Controller Module Connectors and Features

Host Channel LED Link/Rate Indications

Battery Backup Unit

Storage Array Thermal Shutdown

System Password Reset

Cache Functions and Features

Cache Mirroring

SFP Transceivers, Fiber Optic, and SAS Cables

Interoperability of 2 Gbps, 4 Gbps, and 8 Gbps Devices

Planning: MD3600f Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts

Physical Disks, Virtual Disks, and Disk Groups

Physical Disks

Physical Disk States

Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology

Virtual Disks and Disk Groups

Virtual Disk States

RAID Levels

RAID Level Usage

Segment Size

Virtual Disk Operations

Virtual Disk Initialization

Background Initialization

Foreground Initialization

Consistency Check

Media Verification

Cycle Time

Virtual Disk Operations Limit

Disk Group Operations

RAID Level Migration

Segment Size Migration

Virtual Disk Capacity Expansion

Disk Group Expansion

Disk Group Defragmentation

Disk Group Operations Limit

RAID Background Operations Priority

Virtual Disk Migration and Disk Roaming

Disk Migration

Disk Roaming

Advanced Features

Host Types

Snapshot Virtual Disks

Snapshot Repository Virtual Disk

Virtual Disk Copy

Virtual Disk Recovery

Using Snapshot and Disk Copy Together

Multi-Path Software

Preferred and Alternate Controllers and Paths

Virtual Disk Ownership

Load Balancing

Monitoring MD3600f Series System Performance

Configuration: Overview

User Interface

Enterprise Management Window

Array Management Window

Configuration: About Your Storage Array

Storage Arrays

Adding Storage Arrays

Setting Up Your Storage Array

Locating Storage Arrays

Naming or Renaming Storage Arrays

Setting a Password