Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Version 7.0 User Manual
Dell OpenManage Server Administrator
Storage Management
User’s Guide
Notes and Cautions
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.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
© 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction of these materials in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc.
is strictly forbidden.
Trademarks used in this text: Dell™, the DELL logo, PowerEdge™, PowerVault™, and
OpenManage™ are trademarks of Dell Inc. Microsoft
trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other
countries. Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Novell
trademark of Novell Inc. VMware
United States or other countries.
Server Administrator includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation
(www.apache.org). Server Administrator utilizes the Ov erLIB Ja v aScript library. This library can be
obtained from www.bosrup.com.
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming
the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and
trade names other than its own.
®
and Enterprise Linux® are registered trademarks of Red Hat,
®
is a registered trademarks or trademarks of VMWare, Inc. in the
®
, Windows®, and Windows Server® are either
®
is a registered trademark and SUSE ™ is a
2012 - 03
Contents
1Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
What’s New in this Release? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Before Installing Storage Management
. . . . . . . . . 24
Version Requirements for Controller Firmware
and Drivers
Supported Controllers
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Supported Enclosures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Support for Disk and Volume Management
. . . . . . . 27
2 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Launching Storage Management . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Microsoft Windows
Linux and any Remote System
User Privileges
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Using the Graphical User Interface
Storage Object
Health Subtab
Information/Configuration Subtab
Drop-down Menus and Wizards for Running
Ta sk s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
. . . . . . . . . . . 30
. . . . . . . . . . . 31
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
. . . . . . . . . 31
Using the Storage Management Command Line
Interface
Displaying the Online Help
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Contents 3
Common Storage Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3 Understanding RAID Concepts . . . . . . . 35
What Is RAID? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Hardware and Software RAID
RAID Concepts
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
RAID Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Organizing Data Storage for Availability and
Performance
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Choosing RAID Levels and Concatenation . . . . . . . 38
Concatenation
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
RAID Level 0 (Striping) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
RAID Level 1 (Mirroring)
RAID Level 5 (Striping with distributed parity)
RAID Level 6 (Striping with additional distributed
parity) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
RAID Level 50 (Striping over RAID 5 sets) . . . . . 46
RAID Level 60 (Striping over RAID 6 sets)
RAID Level 10 (Striping over mirror sets)
RAID Level 1-Concatenated (Concatenated
mirror) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Considerations for RAID 10 and 50 on PERC 4/SC,
4/DC, 4e/DC, 4/Di, 4e/Si, and 4e/Di
. . . . . . . . . . . 35
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
. . . 43
. . . . . 48
. . . . . . 50
. . . . . . . . . 53
4 Contents
Comparing RAID Level and Concatenation
Performance
No-RAID
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4 Quick Access to Storage Status and
Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Storage Dashboard and Storage Health. . . . . . . . . 57
Storage Health
Hot Spare Protection Policy
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Select Report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Storage Component Severity
Storage Properties and Current Activity
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
. . . . . . . . 59
Alerts or Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Monitoring Disk Reliability on RAID Controllers
Using Alarms to Detect Failures
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
. . . . 60
Using Enclosure Temperature Probes. . . . . . . . . . 61
Rescan to Update Storage Configuration Changes
Time Delay in Displaying Configuration Changes
. . . 61
. . . 62
I/O and Reboot Requirements for Detecting Physical
Disk Status Changes
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5 PCI Express Solid-State Device
Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
What is PCIe SSD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
PCIe SSD Features
PCIe Sub System Properties
PCIe Extender Cards
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Contents 5
Physical Device Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Physical Device Tasks
Blink and Unblink
Full Initialization
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Preparing to Remove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Export Log
PCIe SSD Sub System Health
Backplanes
Backplane Firmware Version
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
. . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6 Storage Information and Global
Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Storage Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Global Tasks
Storage Controllers
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Global Rescan
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Enable/Disable Smart Thermal Shutdown
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Storage Components
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
. . . . . 76
7 Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
6 Contents
What is a Controller?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
RAID Controller Technology: SCSI, SATA, ATA,
and SAS
RAID Controller Features
Controller-supported RAID Levels
Controller-supported Stripe Sizes
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
. . . . . . . . . . . . 84
. . . . . . . . . . . . 84
RAID Controller Read, Write, Cache, and Disk
Cache Policy
Read Policy
Write Policy
Cache Policy
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Disk Cache Policy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Cluster-enabled RAID Controllers. . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Updating the Display of Clustered Resources
. . . 89
Downloading Firmware and Cluster
Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Creating and Deleting Virtual Disks on Cluster-enabled
Controllers
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Integrated Mirroring and the PERC 4/IM
Controller
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Background Initialization on PERC Controllers
. . . . . 91
Non-RAID Controller Description . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Firmware/Driver Versions
Firmware/Driver Properties
Controller Health
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Controller Severity
Controller Information
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
. . . . . . . . . . . . 92
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Controller Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Controller Properties and Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Controller Properties
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Controller Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Available Reports
Set Rebuild Rate
Reset Configuration
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Contents 7
Export Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Foreign Configuration Operations
Foreign Configuration Properties
Importing Foreign Configurations
. . . . . . . . . . . 109
. . . . . . . . . 110
. . . . . . . . . . . 113
Importing/Recovering Foreign Configurations . . . . 114
Clear Foreign Configuration
Physical Disks in Foreign Virtual Disks
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
. . . . . . . . 116
Set Background Initialization Rate . . . . . . . . . . 121
Set Check Consistency Rate
Set Reconstruct Rate
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Redundant Path Configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Clearing the Redundant Path View
. . . . . . . . 127
Related Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Set Patrol Read Mode
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Start and Stop Patrol Read. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Change Controller Properties
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
8 Contents
Manage Physical Disk Power
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Manage Preserved Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Manage Preserved Cache
Manage Encryption Key
Encryption Key
Enabling LKM
Manage CacheCade
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Creating a CacheCade
. . . . . . . . . . . . 135
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Resizing the CacheCade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Renaming the CacheCade . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Blinking and Unblinking the CacheCade
Deleting the CacheCade
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
. . . . . . 140
CacheCade Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Convert to Non-RAID Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Convert to RAID Capable Disks
Patrol Read Report
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Check Consistency Report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Slot Occupancy Report
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
8 Enclosures and Backplanes . . . . . . . . . 145
Backplanes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Enclosures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Enclosure Physical Disks
Enclosure Fans
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Enclosure Power Supplies
Enclosure Temperature Probes . . . . . . . . . . 146
Enclosure Management Modules (EMMs)
SMART Thermal Shutdown
Changing the Mode on PowerVault 220S and
PowerVault 221S Enclosures
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
. . . . . 147
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Enclosure Management
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Enclosure and Backplane Health
Enclosure and Backplane Status
Enclosure and Backplane Information
. . . . . . . . . . . . 150
. . . . . . . . . . 150
. . . . . . . 151
Contents 9
Enclosure and Backplane Components . . . . . 151
Enclosure and Backplane Properties and Tasks
Enclosure and Backplane Properties
Enclosure Tasks
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
. . . 151
. . . . . . . 151
Available Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Set Asset Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Set Temperature Probe Values
View Slot Occupancy Report
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
EMM Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Fan Properties
Power Supply Properties
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Temperature Probe Properties and Tasks . . . . . . . 167
Temperature Probe Properties and Tasks
. . . . 167
Set Temperature Probe Properties and
Ta sk s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
9 Connectors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
10 Contents
Channel Redundancy and Thermal Shutdown . . . . 171
Channel Redundancy on PERC 4/DC, 4e/DC, 4/Di,
and 4e/Di Controllers
Creating a Channel-redundant Virtual Disk
Connector Health
Connector Status
Connector Information
Connector Components
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
. . . . . . 172
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Connector Properties and Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Connector Properties
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Connector Tasks: Rescan Connector. . . . . . . . 177
Connector Components
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Logical Connector Properties and Tasks
Logical Connector Properties
Path Health
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Clearing the Redundant Path View
. . . . . . . . 177
. . . . . . . . . . . 177
. . . . . . . . . 178
Related Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Logical Connector Components
. . . . . . . . . . 179
10 RAID Controller Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Battery Properties and Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Battery Properties
Battery Tasks
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
11 Physical Disks or Physical Devices . . . . 189
Guidelines to Replace a Physical Disk or Physical
Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Add a New Disk to Your System
How to Avoid Removing the Wrong Disk
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
. . . . . . . . 191
Replacing a Physical Disk Receiving SMART
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Alerts
Other Disk Procedures
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Physical Disk or Physical Device Properties and
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Tas ks
Physical Disk or Physical Device Properties
. . . . 193
Contents 11
Physical Disk or Physical Device Tasks. . . . . . 199
Blink and Unblink (Physical Disk)
Remove Dead Segments
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
. . . . . . . . . . . 200
Prepare to Remove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Initialize
Rebuild
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Cancel Rebuild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Assign and Unassign Global Hot Spare
Online and Offline
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
. . . . . . . . 203
Clear Physical Disk and Cancel Clear . . . . . . . . . 205
Revertible Hot Spare
Instant Encrypt Erase
Full Initialization
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Convert to RAID Capable Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Convert to Non-RAID Disk
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
12 Virtual Disks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
12 Contents
Considerations Before Creating Virtual Disks . . . . 211
Virtual Disk Considerations for Controllers
. . . . 212
Virtual Disk Considerations for CERC SATA1.5/6ch,
and CERC SATA1.5/2s Controllers
. . . . . . . . . 214
Virtual Disk Considerations for PERC S100, S110,
and S300 Controllers
Virtual Disk Considerations on Linux
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
. . . . . . . 215
Number of Physical Disks per Virtual Disk . . . . . 216
Maximum Number of Virtual Disks per
Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Calculation for Maximum Virtual Disk Size and
the Create Virtual Disk Express Wizard . . . . . . 217
Channel Redundant Virtual Disks
. . . . . . . . . . 217
Creating Virtual Disks
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Reconfiguring/Migrating Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . 218
Starting and Target RAID Levels for Virtual Disk
Reconfiguration and Capacity Expansion
Maintain Integrity of Redundant Virtual Disks
Rebuilding Redundant Information
. . . . . . . . 219
. . . . . 223
. . . . . . . . . . . 224
Virtual Disk Bad Block Management . . . . . . . . . . 224
What is a Virtual Disk Bad Block?
. . . . . . . . . 224
Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Virtual Disk Properties and Tasks
Virtual Disk Properties
Virtual Disk Tasks
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Create Virtual Disk Express Wizard (Step 1 of 2)
Create Virtual Disk Express Wizard (Step 2 of 2)
Create Virtual Disk Advanced Wizard (Step 1 of 4)
Create Virtual Disk Advanced Wizard (Step 2 of 4)
. . . . . . . . . . . . 227
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
. . . . 237
. . . . 239
. . . 241
. . . 244
Create Virtual Disk Advanced Wizard (Step 3 of 4)
Create Virtual Disk Advanced Wizard (Step 4 of 4)
Span Edit
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Contents 13
. . . 246
. . . 248
Virtual Disk Task: Reconfigure (Step 1 of 3) . . . . . . 249
Virtual Disk Task: Reconfigure (Step 2 of 3)
Virtual Disk Task: Reconfigure (Step 3 of 3)
. . . . . . 251
. . . . . . 253
Format and Initialize; Slow and Fast Initialize . . . . 254
Considerations for Format
. . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Considerations for Initialize. . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Considerations for Fast Initialize
Considerations for Slow Initialize
. . . . . . . . . 255
. . . . . . . . . 255
Formatting or Initializing a Disk . . . . . . . . . . 256
Virtual Disk Task: Delete. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Virtual Disk Task: Rename
Virtual Disk Task: Change Policy
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
. . . . . . . . . . . 259
Split Mirror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Unmirror
Assign and Unassign Dedicated Hot Spare
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
. . . . . . 262
Virtual Disk Task: Replace Member Disk
(Step 1 of 2)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
13 Moving Physical and Virtual Disks
from One System to Another . . . . . . . . . 265
14 Contents
Virtual Disk Task: Replace Member Disk
(Step 2 of 2)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Required Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Migrating SCSI Virtual Disks to Another System
Migrating SAS Virtual Disks to Another System
. . . 266
. . . 268
14 Protecting Your Virtual Disk with a
Hot Spare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Understanding Hot Spares. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Setting Hot Spare Protection Policy
Dedicated Hot Spare Protection Policy
Resetting the Hot Spare Protection Policy
. . . . . . . . . . 270
. . . . . . 270
. . . . . 270
Global Hot Spare Protection Policy . . . . . . . . 271
Considerations for Hot Spare Protection
Policy
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Considerations for Enclosure Affinity . . . . . . . 271
Considerations for Hot Spares on PERC 4/SC, 4/DC,
4e/DC, 4/Di, 4e/Si, 4e/Di, PERC 5/E, PERC 5/i, PERC 6/E,
PERC 6/I, and CERC 6/I Controllers
Dedicated Hot Spare Considerations
. . . . . . . . . . . 272
. . . . . . . 273
Physical Disk State, Alert Messages and Hot
Spares on PERC 4/SC, 4/DC, 4e/DC, 4/Di, 4e/Si,
and 4e/Di Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Considerations for Hot Spares on CERC SATA1.5/6ch,
S100, and S300 Controllers
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Size Requirements for Global Hot Spares on CERC
SATA1.5/6ch, S100, and S300 Controllers
. . . . . . 275
Dedicated Hot Spare Considerations on CERC
SATA1.5/6ch Controllers
Global Hot Spare Considerations on a SAS 6/iR
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
. . . . 276
15 CacheCade Using Solid State Drives . . 277
16 BIOS Terminology
BIOS Terms and the PERC 4/SC, 4/DC, 4e/DC, and
4/Di Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Contents 15
BIOS Terms and the CERC SATA1.5/6ch and CERC
SATA1.5/2s Controllers
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
17 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Common Troubleshooting Procedures. . . . . . . . . 281
Cables Attached Correctly
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Drivers and Firmware
Isolate Hardware Problems
Rescan to Update Information on SCSI
Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Replacing a Failed Disk
Replacing a Failed Physical Disk that is Part of
a Non-Redundant Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . 284
Recovering from Removing the Wrong Physical
Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Resolving Microsoft Windows Upgrade
Problems
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
. . . . . . . . . . . . 281
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
. . . . . . . . . . . . 282
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
16 Contents
Virtual Disk Troubleshooting
A Rebuild Does Not Work
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
A Rebuild Completes with Errors . . . . . . . . . 288
Cannot Create a Virtual Disk
. . . . . . . . . . . 289
A Virtual Disk of Minimum Size is Not Visible
to Windows Disk Management
Virtual Disk Errors on Linux
. . . . . . . . . . 289
. . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Problems Associated With Using the Same
Physical Disks for Both Redundant and
Non-Redundant Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Specific Problem Situations and Solutions
. . . . . . 291
Physical Disk is Offline or Displays an Error
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Status
A Disk is Marked as Failed When Rebuilding
in a Cluster Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
A Disk on a PERC 4/Di Controller Does not
Return Online after a Prepare to Remove
. . . . . 292
Receive a “Bad Block” Alert with “Replacement,”
“Sense,” or “Medium” Error
. . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Read and Write Operations Experience
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
I/O Stops When a Redundant Channel Fails
. . . . 294
A Task Menu Option is Not Displayed . . . . . . . 294
A Corrupt Disk or Drive Message Suggests
Running autocheck During a Reboot
. . . . . . . . 295
Erroneous Status and Error Messages after
a Windows Hibernation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Storage Management May Delay Before Updating
Temperature Probe Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Storage Management May Delay Displaying
Storage Devices After Reboot
. . . . . . . . . . . 295
You are Unable to Log into a Remote System . . . 295
Cannot Connect to Remote System Running
Windows Server 2003
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Reconfiguring a Virtual Disk Displays Error in
Mozilla Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Physical Disks Display Under Connector Not
Enclosure Tree Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
PCIe SSD Troubleshooting
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Peripheral Component Interconnect Express
(PCIe) Solid-State Drive (SSD) is not seen in the
operating system
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
PCIe SSD is not seen in disk management in the
operating system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
18 Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . 299
Why is a Rebuild not Working? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
How Can I Safely Remove or Replace a Physical
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Disk?
Contents 17
How do I Recover from Removing the Wrong Physical
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Disk?
How do I Identify the Firmware Version that is
installed?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Which Controllers do I Have? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
How do I Turn off an Alarm?
Which RAID level is Best for me?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
. . . . . . . . . . . 301
A Supported Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Supported Features on the PERC 4/ Controllers . . . . 303
Controller Tasks
Battery Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Connector Tasks
Physical Disk Tasks
Virtual Disk Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Virtual Disk Specifications
Supported RAID Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Read, Write, and Disk Cache Policy
Enclosure Support
Supported Features on the CERC SATA
Controllers
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Controller Tasks
Battery Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Connector Tasks
Physical Disk Tasks
Virtual Disk Tasks
Virtual Disk Specifications
Supported RAID Levels
Read, Write, and Disk Cache Policy
Enclosure Support
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
. . . . . . . . . . . . 309
. . . . . . . 313
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
. . . . . . . . . . . . 318
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
. . . . . . . 321
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
18 Contents
Supported Features on the PERC 5/ PERC 6/, and
CERC 6/I Controllers
Controller Tasks
Battery Tasks
Connector Tasks
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Physical Disk Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Virtual Disk Tasks
Virtual Disk Specifications
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Supported RAID Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Read, Write, Cache and Disk Cache Policy
Enclosure Support
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
. . . . 330
Supported Features on the PERC Hardware
Controllers
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Controller Tasks
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Battery Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Connector Tasks
Physical Disk Tasks
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Virtual Disk Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Virtual Disk Specifications
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Supported RAID Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Read, Write, Cache and Disk Cache Policy
Enclosure Support
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
. . . . 344
Supported Features on the SAS 5/iR, SAS 6/iR, and
PERC H200 Controllers
Controller Tasks
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Battery Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Connector Tasks
Physical Disk Tasks
Virtual Disk Tasks
Supported RAID Levels
Virtual Disk Specifications
Read, Write, Cache and Disk Cache Policy
Enclosure Support
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
. . . . 352
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Contents 19
Supported Features on the PERC S100, PERC S110,
and S300 Controllers
Controller Tasks
Physical Disk Tasks
Virtual Disk Tasks
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Virtual Disk Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Supported RAID Levels
Read, Write, Cache and Disk Cache Policy
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
. . . . 356
Enclosure Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Supported Features on the Non-RAID
Controllers
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Controller Tasks
Battery Tasks
Connector Tasks
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Physical Disk Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Virtual Disk Tasks
Enclosure Support
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
19 Determining the Health Status for
Storage Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
20 Contents
Enclosure and Backplane Features
Enclosure and Backplane Tasks
. . . . . . . . . . 361
. . . . . . . . . 362
Enclosure and Backplane Support for Smart
Thermal Shutdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Maximum Supported Configuration
. . . . . . . . . . 364
Health Status Rollup: Battery is Charging or Dead . . 365
Health Status Rollup: Physical Disks in a Virtual Disk
are Failed or Removed
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Health Status Rollup: Physical Disks in a Virtual
Disk are Unsupported, Partially or Permanently
Degraded
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Health Status Rollup: All Physical Disks in a Virtual
Disk are in Foreign State
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Health Status Rollup: Some Physical Disks in a
Virtual Disk are in Foreign State
. . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Health Status Rollup: Virtual Disk is Degraded;
Physical Disks are Failed or Rebuilding
. . . . . . . . 368
Health Status Rollup: Virtual Disk is Failed
. . . . . . . 369
Health Status Rollup: Unsupported Firmware
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Version
Health Status Rollup: Enclosure Power Supply
Failed or Power Connection Removed
. . . . . . . . . 370
Health Status Rollup: One Enclosure Fan is Failed . . . 371
Health Status Rollup: One Enclosure EMM is
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Failed
Health Status Rollup: One Enclosure Temperature
Probe is Failed
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Health Status Rollup: Lost Both Power Connections
to the Enclosure
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Health Status Rollup: One or More Physical Disks
are Failed
Health Status Rollup: Physical Disk is Rebuilding
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
. . . 374
Contents 21
22 Contents
1
Overview
Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management provides
enhanced features for configuring a system's locally-attached RAID and nonRAID disk storage. Storage Management enables you to perform controller
and enclosure functions for all supported RAID and non-RAID controllers
and enclosures from a single graphical or command-line interface without
requiring use of the controller BIOS utilities. The graphical interface is
wizard-driven with features for novice and advanced users. The commandline interface is fully-featured and scriptable. Using Storage Management,
you can protect your data by configuring data-redundancy, assigning hot
spares, or rebuilding failed physical disks. You can also perform datadestructive tasks. All users of Storage Management should be familiar with
their storage environment and Storage Management.
Storage Management supports SCSI, SATA, ATA, and SAS but not fibre
channel.
For more information, see the following:
• Getting Started
• Understanding RAID Concepts
• Quick Access to Storage Status and Tasks
For information on Storage Management alerts, see the Dell OpenManage
Server Administrator Messages Reference Guide at support.dell.com/manuals.
What’s New in this Release?
This release of Storage Management provides the following new features:
•The
• On Dell PowerEdge yx2x systems, multiple backplanes and multiple
Manage Physical Disk Power
power saving modes that help you to customize the power saving settings.
internal controllers are supported. The
Information/Configuration
controller task provides additional
Controller
screen displays information from multiple
Overview 23
backplanes. The backplane can be identified by the bay ID which is
displayed on the screen. This ID is also displayed on the bezel of the
system.
NOTE: Creating virtual disks spanning multiple backplanes configured with
different controllers is not supported.
NOTE: On selected Dell PowerEdge xx2x systems, PERC H710 mini and H710P
adapters can be used as secondary controllers for multiple internal controller
configurations.
• On Dell PERC H310 card, the new controllers tasks Convert to Non-RAID
Disks and Convert to RAID Capable Disks allow you to convert
unconfigured
versa.
• The release supports the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x operating system
and the load balancing server, Citrix XenServer 5.6.
• The current release supports the Web browsers, Internet Explorer 9.0 and
Mozilla Firefox 4.0.
• The current release supports Internal Tape Adapter (ITA) for LSI PCI-e
U320 SCSI non-RAID controllers.
• This release provides device management support for PCI Express SolidState Drive (PCIe SSD).
• In this release, the Physical Disk Power Management for Configured
Drives feature is supported on the PERC H710, PERC H710P, and PERC
H810 controllers.
For information on Alert Messages, see the Dell OpenManage Server
Administrator Messages Reference Guide and for information on Command
Line Interface, see Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Command Line
Interface User’s Guide, at support.dell.com/manuals.
Ready
RAID capable disks to Non-RAID disks and vice-
Before Installing Storage Management
The following sections describe considerations for installing Storage
Management.
24 Overview
Version Requirements for Controller Firmware and Drivers
In order for Storage Management to function properly, the controllers must
have the minimum required version of the firmware and drivers installed. The
firmware and drivers listed in the readme.txt file refer to the minimum
supported version for these controllers. Later versions of the firmware and
drivers are also supported. For the most recent driver and firmware
requirements, see support.dell.com.
NOTE: To download the latest storport driver, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base
article KB 943545 at support.microsoft.com.
If you install Storage Management without the minimum required firmware
and drivers, Storage Management may not be able to display any of the
controllers or perform other functions. Storage Management generates alerts
2131 and 2132 when it detects unsupported firmware or drivers on a
controller.
For information on Alert Messages, see the Dell OpenManage Server
Administrator Messages Reference Guide at support.dell.com/manuals.
Supported Controllers
This release of Storage Management supports the following controllers.
The firmware and drivers listed in the Readme file refer to the minimum
supported version for these controllers. Later versions of the firmware and
drivers are also supported. See support.dell.com for the most recent driver
and firmware requirements.
Supported RAID Controllers
Storage Management supports the following RAID controllers. For
information on the technology used by the supported RAID controllers, see
RAID Controller Technology: SCSI, SATA, ATA, and SAS.
• PERC 4/SC, 4/DC, 4e/DC, 4/Di, 4/IM, 4e/Si, and 4e/Di
• CERC SATA1.5/6ch, and CERC SATA1.5/2s
• PERC 5/E
• PERC 5/i Integrated and PERC 5/i Adapter
• SAS 5/iR Integrated and SAS 5/iR Adapter
• PERC 6/E
Overview 25
• PERC 6/I Integrated and PERC 6/I Adapter
•PERC 6/I Modular
•CERC 6/I controller
• SAS 6/iR controller
• PERC S100, PERC S110, and S300
• PERC H200 Adapter, PERC H200 Integrated, and PERC H200 Modular
• PERC H800 Adapter, PERC H700 Adapter, PERC H700 Integrated, and
PERC H700 Modular
• PERC H310 Adapter, PERC H310 Mini Monolithic, PERC H310 Mini
Blades, PERC H710 Adapter, PERC H710 Monolithic, PERC H710 Mini
Monolithic, PERC H710P Adapter, PERC H710P Monolithic, PERC
H710P Mini Monolithic, and PERC H810 Adapter
NOTE: Integrated mirroring on the PERC 4/IM controller enables you to mirror a
physical disk that resides internally in the server. You can implement the integrated
mirror using the PERC 4/IM BIOS. When implemented, Storage Management
recognizes the integrated mirror as a virtual disk. You cannot, however, use Storage
Management to create a virtual disk on the PERC 4/IM controller. Storage
Management supports other functions provided by the PERC 4/IM controller. For
more information, see Integrated Mirroring and the PERC 4/IM Controller.
NOTE: The PERC H200, PERC H7x0, and PERC H8x0 Controllers support 3 TB NL
SAS hard drives, 3 TB NL SATA hard drives, SATA SSDs, and SAS SSDs.
Supported Non-RAID Controllers
Storage Management supports the following non-RAID controllers.
• LSI PCI-e U320
• SAS 5/i Integrated
• SAS 5/E
• SAS 6Gbps Adapter
Supported Enclosures
This release of Storage Management supports the following enclosures:
• Dell PowerVault 20xS and 21xS storage systems
• PowerVault 220S and 221S storage systems
26 Overview
• PowerVault MD1000 and MD1120 storage system
• PowerVault MD1200 and MD1220 storage system
Support for Disk and Volume Management
Storage Management does not provide disk and volume management. To
implement disk and volume management, you need to use the native disk
and volume management utilities provided by your operating system.
Overview 27
28 Overview
2
Getting Started
Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management is designed for
system administrators who implement hardware RAID solutions and
understand corporate and small business storage environments.
Storage Management enables you to configure the storage components
attached to your system. These components include RAID and non-RAID
controllers and the channels, ports, enclosures, and disks attached to them.
Using Storage Management, you can configure and manage controller
functions without accessing the BIOS. These functions include configuring
virtual disks and applying RAID levels and hot spares for data protection. You
can initiate many other controller functions like rebuilds, troubleshooting,
setting thresholds, and so on. Most functions can be configured and managed
while the system remains online and continues to process requests.
Storage Management reports the status of storage components. When the
status for a component changes, Storage Management updates the display for
that component and sends an alert to the Alert Log.
In addition to status changes, Storage Management generates alerts for user
actions such as creating or deleting a virtual disk and for many other events.
Most alerts also generate SNMP traps.
Other than monitoring and reporting status, Storage Management does not
automatically initiate actions independent of user input. (Automatic
shutdown of enclosures that have exceeded a critical temperature is the only
exception. For more information, see SMART Thermal Shutdown.) Storage
Management actions are user-initiated using wizards and drop-down menus.
Storage Management does, however, report the actions taken by the
controllers, which include generating alerts, initiating tasks, such as a rebuild,
and making state changes.
NOTE: Storage Management reports the change in state of disks and other storage
components as viewed by the controller.
Getting Started 29
Launching Storage Management
Storage Management is installed as a Dell OpenManage Server Administrator
service. All Storage Management features are accessible by selecting the
Storage object in the Server Administrator tree view. For more information
on starting Server Administrator, see the Dell OpenManage Server
Administrator User’s Guide.
Microsoft Windows
To start a Server Administrator session on a local system running Microsoft
Windows operating system, click the Dell OpenManage icon on your
desktop and log in using an account with Administrator privileges.
NOTE: Administrative privileges are required for configuration purposes.
Linux and any Remote System
To start a Server Administrator session on a Linux or any remote system, click
the Dell OpenManage icon on your desktop and log in using an account with
Administrator privileges.
Or, open a Web browser and type one of the following in the address field
and press <Enter>:
https://<localhost>:1311
where <localhost> is the assigned name for the managed system and 1311 is
the default port
or
https://<IP address>:1311
where <IP address> is the IP address for the managed system and 1311 is the
default port.
NOTE: You must type https:// (not http://) in the address field to receive a valid
response in your browser.
User Privileges
Server Administrator provides security through the User, Power User, and
Administrator user groups. Each user group is assigned a different level of
access to the Server Administrator features.
30 Getting Started
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