Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Version 7.2 User Manual

Server Administrator Storage

Management

User’s Guide

Notes, Cautions, and Warnings

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

your computer.

CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates potential damage to hardware or loss of data if

instructions are not followed.

____________________

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 - 12

Contents

1Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

What’s New in this Release? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Before Installing Storage Management

. . . . . . . . . 22

Version Requirements for Controller Firmware and Drivers

Supported Controllers

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

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

Supported Enclosures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Support for Disk and Volume Management

. . . . . . . 24

2 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Launching Storage Management . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Microsoft Windows

Linux and any Remote System

User Privileges

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

Using the Graphical User Interface

Storage Object

Health Subtab

Information/Configuration Subtab

Drop-down Menus and Wizards

for Running Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

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

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

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

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

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

. . . . . . . . . 27

Using the Storage Management Command Line Interface

Displaying the Online Help

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

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

Contents 3

Common Storage Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

3 Understanding RAID Concepts . . . . . . . 31

What Is RAID? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Hardware and Software RAID

RAID Concepts

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

RAID Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Organizing Data Storage for Availability and Performance

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Choosing RAID Levels and Concatenation . . . . . . . 34

Concatenation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

RAID Level 0 (Striping) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

RAID Level 1 (Mirroring)

RAID Level 5 (Striping with distributed parity)

RAID Level 6 (Striping with additional

distributed parity) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

RAID Level 50 (Striping over RAID 5 sets) . . . . . 42

RAID Level 60 (Striping over RAID 6 sets)

RAID Level 10 (Striping over mirror sets)

RAID Level 1-Concatenated

(Concatenated mirror) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

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

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

. . . 39

. . . . . 44

. . . . . . 46

4 Quick Access to Storage Status

and Tasks

4 Contents

Comparing RAID Level and Concatenation Performance

No-RAID

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

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

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

Storage Dashboard and Storage Health. . . . . . . . . 53

Storage Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Hot Spare Protection Policy

Select Report

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Storage Component Severity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Storage Properties and Current Activity

Alerts or Events

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

. . . . . . . . 55

Monitoring Disk Reliability on RAID Controllers . . . . 56

Using Alarms to Detect Failures

Using Enclosure Temperature Probes

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

. . . . . . . . . . 57

Rescan to Update Storage Configuration Changes . . . 57

Time Delay in Displaying Configuration Changes

5 PCI Express Solid-State Device

Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

What is PCIe SSD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

. . . 58

PCIe SSD Features

PCIe Sub System Properties

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

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

PCIe Extender Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Physical Device Properties

Physical Device Tasks

Blink and Unblink

Full Initialization

Prepare to Remove

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

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Contents 5

Export Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

PCIe SSD Sub System Health

Backplanes

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Backplane Firmware Version

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

. . . . . . . . . . . . 64

6 Storage Information and

Global Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Storage Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Global Tasks

Storage Controllers

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Global Rescan

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

Enable/Disable Smart Thermal Shutdown

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

Storage Components

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

. . . . . 66

7 Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

What is a Controller?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

RAID Controller Technology: SCSI, SATA, ATA, and SAS

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

6 Contents

RAID Controller Features

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

Controller-supported RAID Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Controller-supported Stripe Sizes

. . . . . . . . . . . . 74

RAID Controller Read, Write, Cache, and Disk Cache Policy

Read Policy

Write Policy

Cache Policy

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

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

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

Disk Cache Policy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Background Initialization on PERC Controllers

Non-RAID Controller Description

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

. . . . . 78

Firmware/Driver Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Firmware/Driver Properties

Controller Health

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

Controller Severity

Controller Information

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

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

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Controller Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Controller Properties and Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Controller Properties

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Controller Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Available Reports

Set Rebuild Rate

Reset Configuration

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

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

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

Export Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Foreign Configuration Operations

Foreign Configuration Properties

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

. . . . . . . . . . 98

Importing Foreign Configurations

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

Importing/Recovering Foreign Configurations . . . . . 102

Clear Foreign Configuration

Physical Disks in Foreign Virtual Disks

Set Background Initialization Rate

Set Check Consistency Rate

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

. . . . . . . . . 104

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

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

Contents 7

Set Reconstruct Rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Redundant Path Configuration

Clearing the Redundant Path View

Related Topics

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Set Patrol Read Mode

Start and Stop Patrol Read

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

. . . . . . . . 115

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

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

Change Controller Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Manage Physical Disk Power

Manage Preserved Cache

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

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

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

Manage Encryption Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Encryption Key

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

Creating an Encryption Key and

Enabling LKM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Manage CacheCade

Creating a CacheCade

Resizing the CacheCade

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

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

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

Renaming the CacheCade . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Blinking and Unblinking the CacheCade

Deleting the CacheCade

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

. . . . . 128

CacheCade Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

8 Contents

Convert to Non-RAID Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Convert to RAID Capable Disks

Patrol Read Report

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

Check Consistency Report

Slot Occupancy Report

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

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

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

Physical Disk Firmware Version Report. . . . . . . . . 132

8 Enclosures and Backplanes . . . . . . . . . 135

Backplanes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Enclosures

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Enclosure Physical Disks

Enclosure Fans

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Enclosure Power Supplies

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Enclosure Temperature Probes . . . . . . . . . . 136

Enclosure Management Modules (EMMs)

SMART Thermal Shutdown

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

. . . . . 137

Changing the Mode on 220S and 221S Enclosures . . . 138

Enclosure Management

Enclosure and Backplane Health

Enclosure and Backplane Status

Enclosure and Backplane Information

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

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

. . . . . . . . . . 140

. . . . . . . 140

Enclosure and Backplane Components . . . . . . 141

Enclosure and Backplane Properties and Tasks . . . . 141

Enclosure and Backplane Properties

. . . . . . . 141

Enclosure Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Available Reports

Set Asset Data

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

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

Set Temperature Probe Values

View Slot Occupancy Report

EMM Properties

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

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

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Contents 9

Fan Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Power Supply Properties

Temperature Probe Properties and Tasks

Set Temperature Probe Properties and Tasks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

. . . . . . . 157

. . . . 157

. . 159

9 Connectors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Channel Redundancy and Thermal Shutdown . . . . 161

Creating a Channel-redundant Virtual Disk . . . . . . 161

Connector Health

Connector Status

Connector Information

Connector Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Connector Properties and Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Connector Properties

Connector Tasks: Rescan Connector

Connector Components

Logical Connector Properties and Tasks

Logical Connector Properties

Path Health

Clearing the Redundant Path View . . . . . . . . 167

Related Tasks

Logical Connector Components

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

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

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

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

. . . . . . . 166

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

. . . . . . . 166

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

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

. . . . . . . . . 168

10 Tape Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

10 Contents

Tape Drive Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

11 RAID Controller Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Battery Properties and Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Battery Properties

Battery Tasks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

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

12 Physical Disks or Physical Devices . . . . 177

Guidelines to Replace a Physical Disk or

Physical Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Add a New Disk to Your System

How to Avoid Removing the Wrong Disk

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

. . . . . . . . 179

Replacing a Physical Disk Receiving SMART Alerts

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

Other Disk Procedures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Physical Disk or Physical Device Properties and Tasks

Blink and Unblink (Physical Disk)

Remove Dead Segments

Prepare to Remove

Rebuild

Cancel Rebuild

Assign and Unassign Global Hot Spare

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

Physical Disk or Physical Device Properties

Physical Disk or Physical Device Tasks

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

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

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

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

. . . . . . . . . 190

. . . . 181

. . . . . . 187

Online and Offline

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Contents 11

Clear Physical Disk and Cancel Clear . . . . . . . . . 192

Revertible Hot Spare

Instant Encrypt Erase

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

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

Full Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Convert to RAID Capable Disk

Convert to Non-RAID Disk

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

13 Virtual Disks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Considerations Before Creating Virtual Disks . . . . 197

Virtual Disk Considerations for Controllers

Virtual Disk Considerations for PERC S100,

S110, and S300 Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Virtual Disk Considerations on Linux

Number of Physical Disks per Virtual Disk . . . . 201

Maximum Number of Virtual Disks

per Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Calculation for Maximum Virtual Disk Size and the Create Virtual Disk Express Wizard

Channel Redundant Virtual Disks. . . . . . . . . 202

. . . . 198

. . . . . . . 201

. . . 202

12 Contents

Creating Virtual Disks

Reconfiguring/Migrating Virtual Disks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

. . . . . . . . 204

Starting and Target RAID Levels for Virtual Disk Reconfiguration and Capacity Expansion

. . . . . . . 204

Maintain Integrity of Redundant Virtual Disks

Rebuilding Redundant Information

Virtual Disk Bad Block Management

. . . . . . . . . . 208

. . . . . . . . . 208

. . . . 207

What is a Virtual Disk Bad Block? . . . . . . . . . 208

Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Virtual Disk Properties and Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Virtual Disk Properties

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Virtual Disk Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Create Virtual Disk Express Wizard. . . . . . . . . . . 219

Create Virtual Disk Express Wizard (Step 2)

Create Virtual Disk Advanced Wizard

. . . . . . 221

. . . . . . . . . . 222

Create Virtual Disk Advanced Wizard (Step 2) . . . . . 226

Create Virtual Disk Advanced Wizard (Step 3)

Span Edit

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

. . . . . 228

Virtual Disk Task: Reconfigure (Step 1 of 3) . . . . . . . 230

Virtual Disk Task: Reconfigure (Step 2 of 3)

Virtual Disk Task: Reconfigure (Step 3 of 3)

Slow and Fast Initialize

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Considerations for Fast Initialize

Considerations for Slow Initialize

Formatting or Initializing a Disk

Virtual Disk Task: Delete

Virtual Disk Task: Rename

Virtual Disk Task: Change Policy

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

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

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

. . . . . . . 232

. . . . . . . 234

. . . . . . . . . . 234

. . . . . . . . . 235

. . . . . . . . . . . 235

Split Mirror

Unmirror

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Contents 13

Assign and Unassign Dedicated Hot Spare . . . . . . 240

Virtual Disk Task: Replace Member Disk (Step 1 of 2)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Virtual Disk Task: Replace Member Disk (Step 2 of 2)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

14 Moving Physical and Virtual Disks

from One System to Another . . . . . . . . . 245

Required Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Migrating SAS Virtual Disks to Another System

15 Protecting Your Virtual Disk with

a Hot Spare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Understanding Hot Spares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Setting Hot Spare Protection Policy

Dedicated Hot Spare Protection Policy

Resetting the Hot Spare Protection Policy

Global Hot Spare Protection Policy. . . . . . . . 249

Considerations for Hot Spare Protection Policy

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Considerations for Enclosure Affinity. . . . . . . 249

Considerations for Hot Spares on PERC 5/E, PERC 5/i, PERC 6/E, PERC 6/I, and CERC 6/I Controllers

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Dedicated Hot Spare Considerations

Considerations for Hot Spares on S100, and S300 Controllers

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

. . . . . . . . . . 247

. . . . . 248

. . . . 248

. . . . . . . 251

. . . 246

14 Contents

Size Requirements for Global Hot Spares on S100, and S300 Controllers

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Global Hot Spare Considerations on a SAS 6/iR . . . . 252

16 CacheCade Using Solid State

Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

17 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Common Troubleshooting Procedures . . . . . . . . . 257

Cables Attached Correctly

System Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Drivers and Firmware

Isolate Hardware Problems

Rescan to Update Information on

SCSI Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Replacing a Failed Disk

Replacing a Failed Physical Disk that is Part

of a Non-Redundant Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . 260

Recovering from Removing the Wrong

Physical Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Resolving Microsoft Windows Upgrade Problems

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

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

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

. . . . . . . . . . . . 258

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

Virtual Disk Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

A Rebuild Does Not Work

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

A Rebuild Completes with Errors . . . . . . . . . . 263

Cannot Create a Virtual Disk

. . . . . . . . . . . . 263

A Virtual Disk of Minimum Size is Not Visible

to Windows Disk Management. . . . . . . . . . . 264

Virtual Disk Errors on Linux

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Problems Associated With Using the Same Physical Disks for Both Redundant and

Non-Redundant Virtual Disks. . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Contents 15

Specific Problem Situations and Solutions . . . . . . 265

Physical Disk is Offline or Displays an Error Status

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Receive a “Bad Block” Alert with “Replacement,” “Sense,” or “Medium”

Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Read and Write Operations Experience Problems

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

A Task Menu Option is Not Displayed . . . . . . 268

A Corrupt Disk or Drive Message Suggests Running autocheck During a Reboot

. . . . . . . 268

Erroneous Status and Error Messages after

a Windows Hibernation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Storage Management May Delay Before

Updating Temperature Probe Status . . . . . . . 268

Storage Management May Delay Displaying Storage Devices After Reboot

. . . . . . . . . . 269

You are Unable to Log into a Remote System . . . 269

Cannot Connect to Remote System Running Windows Server 2003

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

Reconfiguring a Virtual Disk Displays Error

in Mozilla Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Physical Disks Display Under Connector

Not Enclosure Tree Object . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

18 Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . 273

16 Contents

PCIe SSD Troubleshooting

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) Solid-State Drive (SSD) is not seen in the operating system

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

PCIe SSD is not seen in disk management in

the operating system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Why is a Rebuild not Working? . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

How Can I Safely Remove or Replace a Physical Disk?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

How do I Recover from Removing the Wrong Physical Disk?

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

How do I Identify the Firmware Version that is installed?

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

Which Controllers do I Have? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

How do I Turn off an Alarm?

Which RAID level is Best for me?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

. . . . . . . . . . . . 275

A Supported Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Supported Features on the PERC 5/ PERC 6/, and CERC 6/I Controllers

Controller Tasks

Battery Tasks

Connector Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Physical Disk Tasks

Virtual Disk Tasks

Virtual Disk Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Supported RAID Levels

Read, Write, Cache and Disk Cache Policy

Enclosure Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Supported Features on the PERC Hardware Controllers

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

Controller Tasks

Battery Tasks

Connector Tasks

Physical Disk Tasks

Virtual Disk Tasks

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

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

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

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

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

. . . . 286

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

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

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

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Contents 17

Virtual Disk Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Supported RAID Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Read, Write, Cache and Disk Cache Policy

Enclosure Support

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

. . . . 300

Supported Features on the SAS 5/iR, SAS 6/iR, and PERC H200 Controllers

Controller Tasks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Battery Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Connector Tasks

Physical Disk Tasks

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

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Virtual Disk Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Supported RAID Levels

Virtual Disk Specifications

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

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

Read, Write, Cache and Disk Cache Policy. . . . 308

Enclosure Support

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

Supported Features on the PERC S100, PERC S110, and S300 Controllers

Controller Tasks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Physical Disk Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Virtual Disk Tasks

Virtual Disk Specifications

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

. . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Supported RAID Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Read, Write, Cache and Disk Cache Policy

Enclosure Support

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

. . . . 313

18 Contents

Supported Features on the Non-RAID Controllers

Controller Tasks

Battery Tasks

Connector Tasks

Physical Disk Tasks

Virtual Disk Tasks

Enclosure Support

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

. . 314

Enclosure and Backplane Features . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Enclosure and Backplane Tasks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

. . . . . . . . . . 319

Maximum Supported Configuration

. . . . . . . . . . . 319

19 Determining the Health Status for

Storage Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Health Status Rollup: Battery is Charging

or Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Health Status Rollup: Physical Disks in a Virtual Disk are Failed or Removed

Health Status Rollup: Physical Disks in a Virtual Disk are Unsupported, Partially or Permanently Degraded

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Health Status Rollup: All Physical Disks in a Virtual Disk are in Foreign State

Health Status Rollup: Some Physical Disks in a Virtual Disk are in Foreign State

Health Status Rollup: Virtual Disk is Degraded; Physical Disks are Failed or Rebuilding

Health Status Rollup: Virtual Disk is Failed. . . . . . . 325

. . . . . . . . . . . 322

. . . . . . . . . . . . 323

. . . . . . . . . . . . 324

. . . . . . . . 324

Health Status Rollup: Unsupported Firmware

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

Version

Health Status Rollup: Enclosure Power Supply Failed or Power Connection Removed

. . . . . . . . . 326

Health Status Rollup: One Enclosure Fan is

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Failed

Contents 19

Health Status Rollup: One Enclosure EMM is

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Failed

Health Status Rollup: One Enclosure Temperature Probe is Failed

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Health Status Rollup: Lost Both Power Connections to the Enclosure

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Health Status Rollup: One or More Physical Disks are Failed

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Health Status Rollup: Physical Disk is Rebuilding . . 330

20 Contents

Overview

Server Administrator Storage Management provides enhanced features for configuring a system's locally-attached RAID and non-RAID 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 command-line interface is fullyfeatured 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 data-destructive 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 Server Administrator Messages Reference Guide.

What’s New in this Release?

This release of Storage Management provides the following new features:

• Added support for the following operating systems:

– Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3

–Citrix Xen 6.1

• Added support for the following browsers:

– Internet Explorer 10

– Mozilla Firefox 13 and 14

Overview 21

• Added support for mapping Enhanced Error Message Initiative (EEMI) messages.

• Added support for debranding.

• Added support for enumerating the following Tape drives in SAS 6GB HBA controller:

– LTO3-080 for IBM ULTRIUM-HH3

– LTO4-120 for IBM ULTRIUM-HH4

– LTO5-140 for IBM ULTRIUM-HH5

– LTO6-200 for IBM ULTRIUM-HH6

• Added support for Physical Disk Firmware Version Reporting

• Improvement in create Virtual Disk workflow

Before Installing Storage Management

The following sections describe considerations for installing Storage Management.

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 minimum supported version for these controllers. Later versions of the firmware and drivers are also supported. For the most recent driver and firmware requirements, contact your service provider.

Server Administrator Readme refer to the

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 Server Administrator Messages

Reference Guide.

22 Overview

Supported Controllers

This release of Storage Management supports the following controllers.

The firmware and drivers listed in 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, contact your service provider.

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 5/E

• PERC 5/i Integrated and PERC 5/i Adapter

• SAS 5/iR Integrated and SAS 5/iR Adapter

• PERC 6/E

• PERC 6/I Integrated and PERC 6/I Adapter

•PERC 6/I Modular

• 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

Server Administrator Readme refer to the

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

Overview 23

• SAS 5/i Integrated

• SAS 5/E

• SAS 6Gbps Adapter

Supported Enclosures

This release of Storage Management supports the following enclosures:

• 20xS and 21xS storage systems

• 220S and 221S storage systems

• MD1000 and MD1120 storage system

• 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.

24 Overview

Getting Started

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 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.

SMART Thermal Shutdown

.) Storage

NOTE: Storage Management reports the change in state of disks and other storage

components as viewed by the controller.

Getting Started 25

Launching Storage Management

Storage Management is installed as a 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 Server Administrator User’s Guide.

Microsoft Windows

To start a Server Administrator session on a local system running Microsoft Windows operating system, click the Server Administrator 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 Server Administrator 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

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.

26 Getting Started

Administrator privileges are required to access all Storage Management features. Administrator privilege allows you to execute the drop-down menu tasks, launch wizards, and use the omconfig storage command line interface commands. Without Administrator privileges, you cannot manage and configure the storage component.

User and Power User privileges allow you to view storage status, but not manage or configure storage. With User and Power User privileges, you can use the omreport storage command and not the omconfig storage command.

For more information on user groups and other Server Administrator security features, see the Server Administrator User’s Guide.

Using the Graphical User Interface

The following sections describe how to access the Storage Management features using the Server Administrator graphical user interface (GUI).

Storage Object

The Server Administrator tree view displays a Storage object. The Storage Management features are accessible by selecting the Storage object or expanding the Storage object and selecting a lower-level object.

Health Subtab

The Health subtab displays status information for the storage components. For more information, see

Storage Health

Information/Configuration Subtab

The Information/Configuration subtab displays the property information for a storage object. The Information/Configuration subtabs also have drop down menus and buttons for executing storage tasks or launching wizards.

Drop-down Menus and Wizards for Running Tasks

Many of the storage objects displayed in the tree view have tasks. Examples of these tasks include creating virtual disks, assigning hot spares, reconditioning a battery, and so on. To access a storage object’s task, select the component in

Getting Started 27

the tree view and then select the Information/Configuration subtab. The Information/Configuration subtabs have task drop-down menus or buttons

for launching a task.

Using the Storage Management Command Line Interface

Storage Management has a fully-featured command line interface (CLI). For more information, see the Server Administrator Command Line Interface User’s Guide.

Displaying the Online Help

Storage Management provides extensive online help. This help is available from the Server Administrator graphical user interface when the Storage or lower-level tree view object is selected. For more information, see

Object

The online help is available as:

•

Context-sensitive Help.

button. Clicking the Help button displays context-sensitive online help that describes the contents of the displayed screen.

•

Table of Contents.

button) help contain links to the online help’s access the button to display a help screen. Next, click the

for Storage Management Online Help Contents

Use the

Table of Contents

. This link is displayed at the top and bottom of each help screen.

Table of Contents

Each Storage Management screen has a Help

The help screens for the context-sensitive (Help

Table of Contents

, first click a Storage Management Help

Go to Table of Contents

link to display the

to access all topics covered in the online help.

Storage

. To

Tab le o f

Common Storage Tasks

This section provides links to information describing commonly performed storage tasks.

• Create and configure virtual disks (RAID configuration) For more information, see:

28 Getting Started

– Create Virtual Disk Express Wizard—This sub-section describes using

the Express Wizard to create a virtual disk. Using the Express Wizard is the quickest method for creating a virtual disk. The Express Wizard is appropriate for novice users.

– Create Virtual Disk Advanced Wizard—This sub-section describes

using the Advanced Wizard to create a virtual disk. The Advanced Wizard requires a good knowledge of RAID levels and hardware and is appropriate for advanced users.

– Virtual Disks—This sub-section provides detailed information

regarding virtual disk management. This information includes controller-specific considerations that affect virtual disk creation and management.

• Assign a hot spare to the virtual disk—When a virtual disk uses a redundant RAID level, then you can assign a hot spare (backup physical disk) to rebuild data if a physical disk in the virtual disk fails. For more information, see:

– Protecting Your Virtual Disk with a Hot Spare—This section describes

hot spares and includes controller-specific information.

• Perform a Check Consistency—The Maintain Integrity of Redundant Virtual Disks task verifies the accuracy of a virtual disk’s redundant data.

• Reconfigure a Virtual Disk—You can add physical disks to a virtual disk to expand the virtual disk’s capacity. You can also change RAID levels. For more information, see Virtual Disk Task: Reconfigure (Step 1 of 3).

Getting Started 29

30 Getting Started

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