Dell PERC 4-im User Manual

The information below is provided by the supplier of the referenced device without independent verification by Dell and is subject to
the restrictions and disclaimers

noted below.

Integrated Mirroring Guide: Dell™ PowerEdge Expandable RAID
Controller 4/im;
Integrated Mirroring™ Guide

Integrated Mirroring (IM ) Overview
Fusion_MPT SCSI BIOS and Configuration Utility
Common Information Model (CIM) Solution

Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
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Integrated Mirroring™ Guide:
Integrated Mirroring (IM) Overview

Introduction
Features
Description
Integrated Mirroring Firmware

Introduction

This chapter provides general information about the Integrated Mirroring (IM) feature.
The Integrated Mirroring feature provides simultaneous physical mirroring of two hard drives, to assure fault tolerant,

high availability data. If a hard drive fails, the hot swap capability allows the system to be easily restored by simply
swapping drives. The system then automatically re -mirrors the swapped drive.

The Integrated Mirroring feature uses the same device drivers as the standard Fusion- MPT based controllers,
providing seamless and transparent fault tolerance. This eliminates the need for complex backup software or
expensive RAID hardware. The Integrated Mirroring feature operates independently from the operating system, which
helps to conserve system resources. The configuration utility makes it easy to configure mirrored disk pairs.

Features

Following is a list of some key features of the Integrated Mirroring feature:

Two- drive physical mirroring
Support for drives of different types and capacities
Fusion - MPT architecture
Configuration utility
Hot swap capability
Error notification

OS-specific event log
Errors displayed on CIM browser

SAF-TE drive status LED support for Integrated Mirroring feature drives
Write journaling, which allows automatic synchronization of potentially inconsistent data after unexpected
power- down situations
Automatic background resynchronization while host I/Os continue
Media verification

Description

The Integrated Mirroring (IM) feature provides physical mirroring for the boot volume, as shown in the following figure.
The IM firmware maintains a second drive as a mirror of the first drive, which is the boot drive. The runtime mirroring
of the boot drive is transparent to the BIOS, drivers, and operating system. Host-based status software monitors the
state of the mirrored drives and reports any error conditions.

Figure 1-1. Typical System Implementation

The user can configure the mirroring attributes during initial setup and reconfigure them in response to hardware
failures or changes in the environment using the BIOS Configuration Utility.

Integrated Mirroring Firmware

This section describes features of the Integrated Mirroring (IM) firmware.

Host Interface

The IM host interface uses the "Message Passing Interface". Through the Fusion-MPT interface, the host operating
system has access to the virtual IM drive as well as the physical drives. This allows support for domain validation and
Ultra320 SCSI expander configuration.

Initialization

The firmware enables the physical drives in the IM volume before becoming operational to the host OS. The I/Os
include the following:

Inquiry
Test Unit Ready
Start Stop Unit
Read Capacity
Inquiry/EVPD to read the serial number of the disk from the "Vital Product Data"
Mode Sense/Mode Select I/Os to configure disk write caching

Disk write caching may be enabled or disabled, depending upon the Configuration Utility settings. During initialization,
the firmware determines whether full or partial synchronization is needed. The firmware may also be reset without
rebooting the OS.

It may take the firmware from 5 to 30 seconds to spin up the IM physical drives before becoming operational to the
host. However, the SCSI BIOS does not have to spin up the IM physical drives, this should have little impact on
operating system boot time.

Hot Swap

The IM firmware supports "hot swap." The hot- swapped hard drive is automatically resynchronized in the background,
without any host or user intervention. The hot- swapped disk must be at the same physical SCSI ID as one of the
physical disks configured in the IM volume. The firmware detects "Hot Swap" removal on preconfigured IM drives
through a failed SCSI I/O with "Selection Timeout" status, and marks the disk with a status of "Disk Missing". If a
disk has a "Disk Missing" status, it is periodically polled with an Inquiry CDB to detect disk insertion.

Following a "hot swap" event, the firmware readies the new physical drive by spinning it up and verifying sufficient

capacity for the IM volume. The IM firmware resynchronizes all hot-swapped disks that have been removed, even if

the identical disk is re -inserted. The IM firmware marks all hot-swapped disks as the secondary disk and marks the
other mirrored disk as the primary disk. The IM firmware resynchronizes all data from the primary disk onto the new
secondary disk.

Disk Write Caching

The IM firmware disables disk write caching. This is done to increase data integrity, so that the disk write log stored
in NVSRAM is always valid. If disk write caching is enabled (not recommended), the disk write log could be invalid.
For example, consider this case: a write I/O completes to the first physical IM drive. The duplicated write I/O remains
in the cache of the second drive. Both I/Os are reported as complete from the IM firmware, and the system is
powered off.

Please read all restrictions and disclaimers.

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Dell™ PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller 4/im: Integrated
Mirroring™ Guide
Fusion-MPT SCSI BIOS and Configuration Utility

Fusion-MPT SCSI BIOS
Using the Fusion-MPT SCSI BIOS Configuration Utility
Exiting the Fusion- MPT SCSI BIOS Configuration Utility

Fusion-MPT SCSI BIOS

Features
Description
BIOS Boot Specification
CD-ROM Boot Initialization

When you boot the system, the system loads the ROM code known as the Fusion -MPT SCSI BIOS. This enables the
system to boot from Ultra320 SCSI drivers. This BIOS also contains an embedded configuration manager, which
allows you to configure options provided by the firmware. This SCSI BIOS integrates with a standard system BIOS.

Features

The SCSI BIOS supports these features:

Complies with the Fusion -MPT Specification, version 1.2
Allows selection and configuration for up to 256 adapters
Allows boot device selection from any four host adapters
Includes automatic INT13h drive mapping for SCSI drives
Shares a user interface with SCSI BIOS and Configuration Utility

Description

During the boot time initialization, the SCSI BIOS determines if there are other types of hard drives, such as an IDE
drive, already installed by the system BIOS. If there are, the SCSI BIOS maps any SCSI drives it finds behind the
drive(s) already installed. Otherwise, the SCSI BIOS installs drives starting with the system boot drive. In this case,
the system boots from a drive controlled by the SCSI BIOS.

BIOS Boot Specification

The SCSI BIOS provides support for the BIOS Boot Specification, which allows you to choose which device to boot
from by selecting the priority.

To use this feature, the system BIOS must also be compatible with the BIOS Boot Specification. If your system
supports the BIOS Boot Specification, then you will use the system BIOS setup menu to select the boot and drive
order. In the system BIOS, the Boot Connection Devices menu appears with a list of available boot options. Use that
menu to select the device and rearrange the order. Then exit to continue the boot process.

CD-ROM Boot Initialization

The Fusion- MPT SCSI BIOS supports boot initialization from a CD- ROM drive, using one of the following five types
of emulation:

No emulation disk

Floppy 1.2 Mbyte emulation disk

Floppy 1.44 Mbyte emulation disk

Select

Floppy 2.88 Mbyte emulation disk
Hard disk emulation

The type of emulation assigns the drive letter for the CD- ROM. For example, if a 1.44 Mbyte floppy emulation CD
was loaded, then the CDROM drive would become the designated A: drive, and the existing floppy would become
drive B:.

Using the Fusion- MPT SCSI BIOS Configuration Utility

User Inputs
Main Menu
Adapter Properties Menu
Device Properties Menu
Mirroring Properties Menu
Boot Adapter List Menu
Global Properties Menu

The SCSI BIOS allows you to change the default configuration of your host adapters by using the embedded BIOS
Configuration Utility.

When the BIOS loads, the following message will appear on your monitor:

"Press Ctrl - M to start LSI Logic Configuration Utility..."

This message remains on your screen for about five seconds, giving you time to start the utility. After you press Ctrl­M, the message changes to:

"Please wait, invoking LSI Logic Configuration Utility..."

After a brief pause, your computer monitor displays the Main menu of the SCSI BIOS Configuration Utility.

NOTE: Not all devices detected by the Configuration Utility can be controlled by this SCSI BIOS.

Devices such as tape drives and scanners require that a device driver specific to that peripheral be
loaded. However, the SCSI BIOS Configuration Utility does allow parameters to be modified for these
devices.

User Inputs

You make configuration changes in the main area of the menu. This area is lighter in color than the header or footer
areas as displayed on line in the Configuration Utility’s menu. Table 2- 1. lists the various keyboard options you use to
make changes. Settings with gray or yellow text can be changed, settings with white text cannot. This is true
regardless of the Color/Mono setting chosen.

Table 2-1. Keyboard Options

Keyboard
Option

F1 = Help Provides context sensitive help for the cursor resident field.
F2 = menu Sets cursor context to the menu area. Select a menu item and press Enter. This option is only

Arrow
Keys =

Description

available from the Main menu.
Moves the cursor up, down, left, or right.