Dell PERC S100 User Manual

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Dell PowerEdge

RAID Controller (PERC) S100,

PERC S300

User’s Guide

Page 2

Notes, Cautions, and Warnings

NOTE:

your computer.

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

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.

____________________

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™, and OpenManage™ are trademarks of Dell Inc. Intel™ is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. AMD Sempron™ are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Microsoft

Server and/or other countries.

Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this publication 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.

Models: UCS61, UCS60

February 2011 Rev. A01

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

is a registered trademark and AMD Opteron™, AMD Phenom™, and AMD

, Windows®, and Windows

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Contents

1 WARNING: Safety Instructions

SAFETY: General

SAFETY: When Working Inside Your System

Protecting Against Electrostatic Discharge

2Overview

Introduction

General Information, Intended Audience, and Prerequisites for Use

Related Documentation

For more information about the PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter and its relationship to the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management documentation, see the Storage Management documentation available on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals.

PERC S100 Adapter or PERC S300 Adapter Descriptions

The following list describes each type of controller:

• The PERC S300 Adapter has two internal connectors with x4 SAS ports.

• The PERC S300 Modular has two internal connectors with x4 SAS ports.

• The PERC S100 adapter runs on the ICH or PCH chipset on the platform motherboard.

Overview

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Supported Platforms

Table 2-1. Dell Systems and Support Matrix for the PERC S100 Adapter and PERC S300 Adapter

PowerEdge Server PERC Controller, with Chipset and Adapter Support per Platform

PowerEdge R210 PERC S100 adapter – Intel Ibex Peak chipsets

PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Adapter

PowerEdge R210 II PERC S100 adapter – Intel Cougar Point chipsets

PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Adapter

PowerEdge R310 PERC S100 adapter – Intel Ibex Peak chipsets

PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Modular

PowerEdge R410 PERC S100 adapter – Intel ICH10R chipsets

PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Modular

PowerEdge R415 PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Modular,

AMD SP5100 South Bridge chipsets

PowerEdge R510 PERC S100 adapter – Intel ICH10R chipsets,

PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Adapter

PowerEdge R515 PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Adapter,

AMD SP5100 South Bridge chipsets

PowerEdge T110 PERC S100 adapter – Intel Ibex Peak chipsets

PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Adapter

PowerEdge T110 II PERC S100 adapter – Intel Cougar Point chipsets

PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Adapter

PowerEdge T310 PERC S100 adapter – Intel Ibex Peak chipsets

PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Adapter

PowerEdge T410 PERC S100 adapter – Intel ICH10R chipsets

PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Adapter

Overview

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Platform Requirements for the PERC S100 Controller and PERC S300 Controller

Table 2-2. Platform Requirements — PERC S100 Controller or PERC S300 Controller

Component Requirements

Processor x86, 32-bit compatible processor greater than 500 MHz. Memory 512 MB or greater. Physical

disk

Ports

Available slots

At least one Hard Disk Drives (HDD) or Solid State Disk (SSD) Drives.

NOTE:

4 SATA HDD or 4 SATA SSD physical disks. The PERC S300 controller supports cabled or hot-swap configurations of up to 8 SATA or SAS HDD physical disks.

• SATA-II HDD physical disks can be used with a PERC S100 adapter or

• SATA-II SSD physical disks can be used only with a PERC S100

• SAS HDD physical disks can be used only with a PERC S300 adapter.

• The S300 Adapter has two 8470-type internal SAS connectors on the

• The S300 Modular typically plugs into a backplane that has a single

The PERC S300 Adapter and PERC S300 Modular cards plug into 8-lane Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCI-E) slots.

The PERC S100 controller supports cabled configurations of up to

a PERC S300 adapter.

adapter.

adapter card. Each mini-SAS connector supports 4 SAS/SATA ports.

8470-type SAS connector (except for PERC S300 adapters on an R210 or T110, whose cables plug directly into the physical disks).

Overview

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Table 2-2. Platform Requirements — PERC S100 Controller or PERC S300 Controller

Component Requirements

Operating systems

• Microsoft Windows Essential Business Server (x64)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Datacenter Edition (x64)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition (x64)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition (x86)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Foundation

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 HPC Edition

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter SP1

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise SP1

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation SP1

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC Edition

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard SP1

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 Datacenter Edition (x64)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 Enterprise Edition (x64)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 Enterprise Edition (x86)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 Standard Edition (x64)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 Standard Edition (x86)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 Web Edition (x64)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 Web Edition (x86)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition (x64)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition (x86)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, 64-bit, Standard and Enterprise Edition

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 64-bit Web Edition

Overview

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Table 2-2. Platform Requirements — PERC S100 Controller or PERC S300 Controller

Component Requirements

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Web Edition (x64)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Web Edition (x86)

• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008

• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008 SP2

• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 SP2 (x86 or x64)

• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2011

• Microsoft Windows Web Server 2008 R2

• Microsoft Windows Web Server 2008 R2 SP1

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2 (x86 or x64)

•Microsoft Windows Enterprise Edition

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 32-bit Web Edition

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2, 32-bit or 64-bit, Standard and Enterprise Edition

Server 2003 R2 SP2, 32-bit or 64-bit, Standard and

Supported devices

NOTE: NOTE:

NOTE:

with Windows Hyper-V.

• PERC S100 adapter: supports Dell-supported SATA-based tape devices

NOTE:

Dell RD1000 tape device. Select Continue while in CTRL-R for RD1000 to remain first in the boot order. The RD1000 option goes to end of the boot order listing if <Ctrl><Alt><Del> is selected and you would not be able to boot to it.

• PERC S300 adapter: does not support tape devices or SATA optical disk

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP1 is not supported.

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 is not supported.

PERC S100 controllers and PERC S300 controller are not supported

and SATA optical disk devices.

The PERC S100 controller supports system boot to a tape using a

devices.

Overview

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About RAID

A RAID disk array is a group of independent physical disks that provides high performance by increasing the number of drives used for saving and accessing data. A RAID disk subsystem improves I/O performance and data availability. The physical disks appear to the host system either as a single storage unit or multiple logical units. Data throughput improves because several disks are accessed simultaneously. RAID systems also improve data storage availability and fault tolerance. Data loss caused by a physical disk failure can be recovered by rebuilding missing data from the remaining physical disks containing data or parity.

NOTE:

is no redundancy for this RAID level. However, when a physical disk in a RAID 1, RAID 5, or RAID 10 fails, data is preserved because there is redundancy with these RAID levels.

Summary of RAID Levels

When a physical disk in a RAID 0 virtual disk fails, data is lost because there

•Volume logical volume on which data is stored.

• RAID 0 uses disk striping to provide high data throughput, especially for large files in an environment that requires no data redundancy.

• RAID 1 uses disk mirroring so that data written to one physical disk is simultaneously written to another physical disk. RAID 1 is good for small databases or other applications that require small capacity but also complete data redundancy.

• RAID 5 uses disk striping and parity data across all physical disks (distributed parity) to provide high data throughput and data redundancy.

• RAID 10 uses disk striping across two mirrored sets. It provides high data throughput and complete data redundancy.

uses available space on a single physical disk and forms a single

Overview

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RAID Terminology

Stripe element 1 Stripe element 5 Stripe element 9

Stripe element 2 Stripe element 6

Stripe element 10

Stripe element 3 Stripe element 7

Stripe element 11

Stripe element 4 Stripe element 8

Stripe element 12

Disk Striping

Disk striping allows you to write data across multiple physical disks instead of just one physical disk. Disk striping involves partitioning each physical disk storage space into stripes of the various sizes. These stripes are interleaved in a repeated sequential manner. The part of the stripe on a single physical disk is called a stripe element.

For example, in a four-disk system using only disk striping (used in RAID level 0), segment 1 is written to disk 1, segment 2 is written to disk 2, and so on. Disk striping enhances performance because multiple physical disks are accessed simultaneously, but disk striping does not provide data redundancy.

Figure 2-1 shows an example of disk striping.

Figure 2-1. Example of Disk Striping (RAID 0)

Disk Mirroring

With mirroring (used in RAID 1), data written to one disk is simultaneously written to another disk. If one disk fails, the contents of the other disk can be used to run the system and rebuild the failed physical disk. The primary advantage of disk mirroring is that it provides 100 percent data redundancy. Because the contents of the disk are completely written to a second disk, it does not matter if one of the disks fails. Both disks contain a copy of the same data at all times. Either of the physical disks can act as the operational physical disk. Disk mirroring provides 100 percent redundancy, but is expensive because each physical disk in the system must be duplicated.

Figure 2-2 shows an example of disk mirroring.

Overview

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Stripe element 1 Stripe element 2 Stripe element 3

Stripe element 1 Duplicated Stripe element 2 Duplicated Stripe element 3 Duplicated

Stripe element 4 Stripe element 4 Duplicated

NOTE:

devices cannot be migrated to a PERC S300 controller.

Figure 2-2. Example of Disk Mirroring (RAID 1)

Mirrored physical disks improve read performance by read load balancing.

The PERC S300 controller only supports physical disks (SAS and SATA). SSD

Spanned RAID Levels

Spanning is a term used to describe the way in which RAID level 10 is constructed from multiple sets of simpler RAID levels. For example, a RAID 10 has multiple sets of RAID 1 disk arrays in which each RAID 1 set is considered a span. Data is then striped (as it is in RAID 0) across the RAID 1 spans to create a RAID 10 virtual disk.

Parity Data

Parity data is redundant data that has been generated to provide fault tolerance within certain RAID levels. In the event of a drive failure, the parity data can be used by the controller to regenerate user data. Parity data is present only for RAID 5 disk arrays.

The parity data is distributed across all the physical disks in the system. If a single physical disk fails, it can be rebuilt from the parity and the data on the remaining physical disks. RAID 5 combines distributed parity with disk striping, as shown in Figure 2-3. Parity provides redundancy for one physical disk failure without duplicating the contents of entire physical disks.

Overview

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Figure 2-3. Example of Distributed Parity (RAID 5)

stripe element1 stripe element2 stripe element3 stripe element4 stripe element5 parity (1-5)

stripe element7 stripe element8 stripe element9 stripe element10 parity (6-10) stripe element6

stripe element13 stripe element14 stripe element15 parity (11-15) stripe element11 stripe element12

stripe element19 stripe element20 parity (16-20) stripe element16 stripe element17 stripe element18

stripe element25 parity (21-25) stripe element21 stripe element22 stripe element23 stripe element24

parity (26-30) stripe element26 stripe element27 stripe element28 stripe element29 stripe element30

Overview

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Features

General Features

The features of the Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) S100 and PERC S300 adapter are described in Table 3-1.

NOTE:

Table 3-1. Features of the PERC S100 controller and PERC S300 controller

RAID Controller Feature Description

BAS, BGI, CC and OCE run only on the operating system.

Automatic virtual disk rebuild

Background Array Scan (BAS)

Background virtual disk initialization (BGI)

Rebuilds a redundant virtual disk automatically when a failure is detected, if a hot spare is assigned for this capability.

Verifies and corrects correctable media errors on mirror, volume, or parity data for virtual disks. BAS starts automatically after a Virtual Disk is created while in the OS.

The background initialization of a redundant virtual disk creates the parity data that allows the virtual disk to maintain its redundant data and survive a physical disk failure.

Because background initialization helps the controller to identify and correct problems that might occur with the redundant data at a later time, background initialization is similar to a consistency check.

Background initialization allows a redundant virtual disk to be used immediately. Data is lost if a physical disk fails before the completion of a BGI.

NOTE:

Disk Management utility, the PERC S100 adapter/PERC S300 adapter drivers must be loaded before the BGI runs.

Although a BGI is software-initiated at the PERC Virtual

NOTE:

Management utility refers to both the PERC S100 Virtual Disk Management utility and the PERC S300 Virtual Disk Management utility.

Unless mentioned otherwise, the term PERC Virtual Disk

Features

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Table 3-1. Features of the PERC S100 controller and PERC S300 controller

RAID Controller Feature Description

(continued)

Boot support for RAID levels

Boot support for degraded virtual disks

Cache support for virtual disks

Checkpointing Allows different types of checkpointing (background

Command queuing Command queuing is a command protocol used by SATA

Allows boot support for Volume, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10.

Enables the system to boot from degraded redundant virtual disks (RAID 1, RAID 5, or RAID 10).

Supports these cache options: None, Read Only, Read/Write. The PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter uses part of system memory for cache.

initialization, consistency check, and rebuild) to resume at the last point following a restart.

After the system restarts, background checkpointing resumes at its most-recent checkpoint.

and SAS physical disks that is supported by the PERC S100 adapter and PERC S300 adapter.

Command queuing allows the host to issue multiple input/output requests to a disk simultaneously. The disk can then decide in which order to process the commands to achieve maximum performance.

The SATA and SAS versions of command queuing have slightly different protocols and means of handling multiple traffic requests at the same time, but the end-purposes are comparable.

Features

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Table 3-1. Features of the PERC S100 controller and PERC S300 controller

RAID Controller Feature Description

(continued)

Consistency check (CC)

Disk initialization For physical disks, initialization writes metadata to the

Fault tolerance The following fault tolerance features are available with the

A consistency check is a background operation that verifies and corrects the mirror or parity data for fault-tolerant physical disks. It is recommended that you periodically run a consistency check on the physical disks.

By default, a consistency check corrects mirror or parity inconsistencies. After the data is corrected, the data on the primary physical disk in a mirror set is assumed to be the correct data and is written to the secondary physical disk in the mirror set.

A consistency check cannot be user-initiated in the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility. However, a consistency check can user-initiated when using Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management.

physical disk, so that the controller can use the physical disk.

PERC S100 adapter and PERC S300 adapter, in order to prevent data loss in case of a failed physical disk:

• Physical disk failure detection (automatic).

• Virtual disk rebuild using hot spares (automatic, if the hot spare is configured for this functionality).

• Parity generation and checking (RAID 5 only).

• Hot-swap manual replacement of a physical disk without rebooting the system (only for systems with a backplane that allows hot-swapping).

If one side of a RAID 1 (mirror) fails, data can be rebuilt by using the physical disk on the other side of the mirror.

If a physical disk in RAID 5 fails, parity data exists on the remaining physical disks, which can be used to restore the data to a new, replacement physical disk configured as a hot spare.

If a physical disk fails in RAID 10, the virtual disk remains functional and data is read from the surviving mirrored physical disk(s). A single disk failure in each mirrored set can be sustained, depending on how the mirrored set fails.

Features

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Table 3-1. Features of the PERC S100 controller and PERC S300 controller

RAID Controller Feature Description

Mirror rebuilding A broken mirror can be rebuilt after a new physical disk is

inserted and the physical disk is designated as a hot spare. The system does not have to be rebooted.

(continued)

Online Capacity Expansion (OCE)

Physical disks (general)

OCE is a process that allows you to add storage capacity to an existing virtual disk. In most cases additional storage capacity can be added without taking the system offline. However, if an additional physical disk needs to be added and the system does not support hot-swapping, the system must be turned off.

OCE enables you to increase the total storage capacity of a virtual disk by integrating unused storage with the virtual disk.

Data can be accessed while the physical disks are added (if a system has hot-swap capability) and while data on the virtual disk is being redistributed.

For Volume and RAID 1, OCE expands the virtual disk by using the available space of the physical disks that are already members of the virtual disk. For RAID 0, RAID 5 and RAID 10, additional capacity can be attained by adding physical disks to the virtual disk.

The PERC S100 adapter supports up to four SATA HDD or SSD physical disks. The PERC S300 adapter supports up to eight SAS or SATA HDD physical disks.

Features

NOTE:

interface and drive type (HDD or SSD). For example, you cannot mix a SATA and SAS interface (HDD or SSD), or HDD and SSD physical disks, in the same virtual disk.

A maximum of eight physical disks can be used for RAID 0 and RAID 5. A maximum of two physical disks can be used for RAID 1. A maximum of four physical disks can be used for RAID 10.

If a physical disk fails during system startup, the controller identifies the failed physical disk as follows:

• At the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility by

The physical disks in a virtual disk must be the same

highlighting the failed physical disk in a virtual disk in red.

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Table 3-1. Features of the PERC S100 controller and PERC S300 controller

RAID Controller Feature Description

(continued)

Physical disk hot-swapping (hot-swap capability)

• In a brief warning at the

BIOS

that a virtual disk(s) were found that are

Failed

• At Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management.

• With a bi-color Status LED on each physical disk. The green element of the Status LED is off, while the amber element flashes on and off.

NOTE:

adapter and a backplane that has removable physical disks.

NOTE:

capacity 2 TB and greater. Current and upcoming releases of PERC S300 adapters will only support upto 2 TB HDD physical disks .

Hot-swap (hot-plug) capability is the manual substitution of a physical disk for another one while the host system is powered on.

If a system supports hot-swapping, physical disks can be plugged into a system’s backplane while the controller is operating, without causing the controller to reset.

Dell Inc. PERC S300 Controller BIOS

. This alerts the user to the failed physical disk(s).

The Status LED applies only to systems with a PERC S300

PERC S100 adapters support HDD physical disks of

Dell Inc. PERC S100 Controller

screen,

Degraded

and/or

CAUTION:

only if the system has a PERC S300 adapter and a backplane that supports hot-swapping.

NOTE:

system’s cover is removed, the physical disks cannot be hotswapped. The physical disks must be located on the backplane (behind the removable front panel) and accessible externally.

NOTE:

already been created, make sure that SAS HDD physical disks are replaced with SAS HDD physical disks, that SATA HDD physical disks are replaced with SATA HDD physical disks, and that SATA SSD physical disks are replaced with SATA SSD physical disks.

NOTE:

new disk is of equal or greater capacity to the physical disk that is being replaced.

A physical disk can be hot-swapped from a system

If a system’s physical disks are accessible only when the

When replacing physical disks in a virtual disk that has

When hot-swapping a physical disk, make sure that the

Features

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Table 3-1. Features of the PERC S100 controller and PERC S300 controller

RAID Controller Feature Description

Physical disk roaming The controller supports moving a physical disk from one

backplane slot or cable connection to another (on the same controller). The controller automatically recognizes the repositioned physical disk and logically places it in the proper order.

(continued)

WARNING:

roaming while an OCE is running at Storage Management.

NOTE:

add parts, see the Hardware Owner’s Manual, available on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals.

Perform the following steps for physical disk roaming:

NOTE:

backplane with hot-swap capability.

NOTE:

configuration data on the physical disks.

For more information on how to open the system and

These steps do not apply to systems that have a

Turn off the power to the system, physical disks, and system components.

Disconnect the power cables from the system.

Move the physical disks to different slots on the backplane or to different cable connections.

Perform a safety check. Make sure the physical disks are inserted properly.

Connect the power cables and power up the system.

The controller detects the RAID configuration from the

A virtual disk is lost if you perform disk

Storage port (Storport) driver support

Stripe size Stripe size is determined by a PERC S100 adapter/PERC

Features

For use with Storport driver improves throughput and miniport driver interfaces.

S300 adapter algorithm. Stripe size cannot be configured by the user.

Microsoft Windows Server

2003 and later, the

Page 27

Table 3-1. Features of the PERC S100 controller and PERC S300 controller

RAID Controller Feature Description

Virtual disks (general) Up to eight virtual disks are supported.

The PERC S100 adapter and PERC S300 adapter allows:

• Creating virtual disks of different RAID levels on a single controller.

• Creating different RAID level virtual disks on the same physical disk, to adapt each virtual disk to the I/O that it processes.

• Building different virtual disks with different characteristics for different applications.

The PERC S100 adapter and PERC S300 adapter does not allow:

• Creating a virtual disk from a mix of different type physical disks. For example, a RAID 10 virtual disk cannot be created from two SATA-II HDD physical disks, a SAS HDD physical disk, and a SSD physical disk. All of the physical disks must be the same interface (SAS or SATA) and drive type (HDD or SSD).

(continued)

• Selecting a physical disk as a dedicated hot spare if the physical disk is a different type from the physical disk or disks.

A virtual disk refers to data storage created by the controller from one or more physical disks. Although a virtual disk can be created from several physical disks, it is seen by the operating system as a single disk.

The capacity of a virtual disk can be expanded online for any RAID level, without the operating system being rebooted.

Features

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Table 3-1. Features of the PERC S100 controller and PERC S300 controller

RAID Controller Feature Description

Virtual disk migration The controller supports automatic virtual disk migration

from a PERC S100 adapter to a PERC S300 adapter (or vice versa). Manual intervention for migration is not required or used by the PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter.

(continued)

Virtual disk RAID levels

Virtual disk transformation

CAUTION:

down both systems before removing or inserting the physical disks. After the migration occurs, make sure that all of the physical disks have been migrated and are present in the virtual disk.

CAUTION:

migration during an OCE.

NOTE:

SATA SSD disks. SAS disks cannot be migrated with a PERC S100 adapter.

NOTE:

dissimilar controllers or dissimilar system models when the system uses Microsoft Windows Server 2003 as its operating system.

Virtual disks at different RAID levels can be created.

Virtual disk transformation can consist of:

• Capacity expansion, using OCE (to allocate additional virtual disk space on the original physical disks or after additional physical disks are added).

Before starting a virtual disk migration, power-

The virtual disk is lost if you perform a virtual disk

The PERC S100 adapter only supports SATA HDD and

A bootable virtual disk cannot be migrated between

• Rebuilding (rebuilding data on a virtual disk consists of using an available hot spare or backup physical disk).

Features

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Specifications

Table 3-2 compares the specifications of the PERC S100 adapter and PERC S300 adapter.

Table 3-2. Specifications for the PERC S100 adapter and PERC S300 adapter

Specification PERC S100 adapter PERC S300 adapter

SAS technology No Yes SATA technology Yes Yes eSATA technology Yes No SSD technology Yes No Support for x8 PCI-E Host Interface No Yes I/O Controller Intel ICH10R or

Intel Ibex Peak chipsets or Intel Cougar Point

chipsets Communication to the system Integrated PCI-E lanes Communication to end devices SATA links SAS/SATA links SAS connectors No Two 4-port connectors

SATA connectors Discrete on the

motherboard Lead-free Yes Yes Supported operating systems Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Family,

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Family,

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Dell-compliant SATA compatibility Yes Yes Dell-compliant SAS compatibility No Yes

Dell 3Gb/s SAS Adapter

on all systems Two 4 -po rt c onn ect ors

on all systems

Dell-supported direct-connected end devices

*SMART error support through management applications

Backplane supported systems No Yes

Dell-compliant

physical disks

Yes Ye s

Dell-compliant physical disks

Features

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Table 3-2. Specifications for the PERC S100 adapter and PERC S300 adapter

Specification PERC S100 adapter PERC S300 adapter

Software-based RAID Volume, RAID 1,

RAID 0, RAID 5,

RAID 10 Maximum number of virtual disks 8 8 Support for internal tape drive Yes No Support for global hot spare Yes Yes Maximum number of hot spares Varies (by the number

of free disks in the

system)

Volume, RAID 1, RAID 0, RAID 5, RAID 10

Varies (by the number of free disks in the system)

*SMART is supported under the Windows Driver but is not supported with Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) and CTRL-R. The SWRAID SMART drive status shows as "Degraded" in OpenManage Storage Services (OMSS).

Features

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Hardware Installation

Before You Begin

This chapter describes how to install the Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) S300 adapter.

NOTE:

Hardware installation instructions are not required for a system with a PERC S100 controller.

General Considerations

WARNING:

safety instructions that were shipped with your system. For additional safety information, see the Regulatory Compliance Homepage on dell.com at the following location: dell.com/regulatory_compliance.

The PERC S100 controller is an integral component of the motherboard.

Before you begin any of the procedures in this chapter, follow the

WARNING:

use proper antistatic protection when handling components. Touching components without using a proper ground can damage the equipment.

WARNING:

controller into an incorrect type of slot can potentially destroy the controller, as well as the motherboard.

CAUTION:

data. Failure to follow this accepted system management practice could result in a loss of data.

Electrostatic discharge can damage sensitive components. Always

Plug the PERC S300 controller only into a PCI-E slot. Plugging the

Before installing a controller in an existing system, back up all critical

Hardware Installation

Page 32

Installing the PERC S300 Adapter

NOTE:

system. For more information, see the Hardware Owner's Manual of the system on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals.

Unpack the PERC S300 Adapter and check it for damage.

Turn off the system and attached peripherals. Disconnect the system power cable from the electrical outlet. See the system’s

Manual

about power supplies.

Disconnect the system from the network and remove the cover of the system. See your system’s more information on opening the system.

Select an appropriate PCI-E slot. Remove the blank filler bracket on the back of the system aligned with the PCI-E slot you have selected.

The procedure to open a system and add parts might vary from system to

NOTE:

support.dell.com.

If the PERC S300 Adapter is damaged, contact Dell Support at

Hardware Owner’s

User’s Guide

support.dell.com/manuals

Hardware Owner’s Manual

for more information

User’s Guide

for

NOTE:

optimum performance.

NOTE:

connector.

NOTE:

system’s Hardware Owner’s Manual or User’s Guide on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals.

Align the PERC S300 Adapter to the PCI-E slot you have selected.

Insert the controller gently, but firmly, until the controller is firmly seated

Insert the controller into a slot that has at least eight PCI-E lanes for

Insert the controller into a slot with a PCI-E x8 or larger physical

For more information about your system’s PCI-E slots, see your

in the PCI-E slot. See Figure 4-1.

Tighten the bracket screw, if any, or use the system’s retention clips to secure the controller to the system’s chassis.

NOTE:

platform documentation for help with the installation.

If you are attempting to install a Modular PERC S300 refer to the

Hardware Installation

Page 33

Figure 4-1. Installing a PERC S300 Adapter

1 bracket screw 2 PERC S300 Adapter

3 PCI-E slot 4 filler bracket

5 PCI bracket

Hardware Installation

Page 34

Figure 4-2. Connecting the Cables

1 cables to the physical disks (applies to

systems with a PERC S300 adapter) or to backplanes (applies only to systems with a PERC S300 modular)

3 PERC S300 Adapter

2 SAS/SATA x4 internal

connectors (2)

Hardware Installation

Page 35

Connect Physical Disks to the PERC S300 Adapter

WARNING:

properly grounded to prevent electrostatic discharge (ESD).

Critical system components might be damaged if the installer is not

NOTE:

supply, a SATA/SATA II power connector. Do not use both.

NOTE:

controller by removing the front panel from the system.

NOTE:

disk sequentially. This allows enough time between physical disk starts to prevent the power supply from overloading.

Install the physical disks into the system.

Connect a multiple-connector cable from the physical disks (or from the

Use either the standard power connector or, if available on the power

You can view the physical disk LEDs on a system that uses a PERC S300

The controller supports a feature that staggers the spinup of each physical

backplane) to the controller.

NOTE:

swap capability, the cables cannot be inserted directly into the physical disks. The physical disks (within their carriers) are inserted and seated in the backplane. A cable from the backplane is then connected to the PERC S300 controller.

If the system contains a PERC S300 controller and has a backplane with hot-

Complete the Hardware Installation

After the

controller and cables are installed, perform the following steps:

Make sure that the wire bundles and cables inside the system are not twisted. Make sure they do not interfere with fans, power supplies, heat sinks, or electrical devices.

Replace the cover of the system. See your system’s

Manual

Reconnect the power cable(s) and network cables, and then turn on the

User’s Guide

for more information on closing the system.

Hardware Owner’s

system.

Hardware Installation

Page 36

Hardware Installation

Page 37

Installing the Drivers

The Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) S100 or PERC S100 adapter require controller drivers to operate with the supported operating systems.

This chapter contains the procedures for installing the controller drivers for the following operating systems:

•

Microsoft Windows Server 2008

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2

NOTE:

Installing the Microsoft Windows Drivers

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 is not supported.

Downloading the Controller Driver Media

Go to

Select

Enter the PERC S100 adapter/PERC S300 adapter drivers and select

Choose the applicable operating system.

Expand the

Select

support.dell.com/support/downloads

Choose by Service TagEnter a Tag

Service Tag

NOTE:

Model. Navigate to Servers, Storage, Networking PowerEdge Server. Select the model of your system and select Confirm.

NOTE:

Alternatively, you can select Choose a ModelSelect

SAS RAID Controller

Download Now

Load a blank optical medium (CD-ROM or DVD) in your system.

of the system on which you want to install the

for the appropriate controller driver.

category.

Installing the Drivers

Page 38

Use the blank optical medium to burn the ISO image.

Download the files for the PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter to the driver media, as indicated in Figure 5-1.

Table 5-1. Operating System And Device Driver Media

Operating System Driver Media (

to Use

Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows Server 2003 32-bit or 64-bit:

32-bit or 64-bit: USB flash drive, or floppy disk.

NOTE:

support driver load for operating system installation using a USB key

Windows Server 2003 versions SP1 and older

CD-ROM, DVD, USB flash drive, or floppy disk)

Copy all of the files to a CD-ROM, DVD,

Copy all of the files to a floppy disk.

Pre-Installation Requirements for the Controller Drivers

• Make sure that your system has the latest BIOS and firmware updates from the Dell Support website at

support.dell.com/manuals

• Perform the pre-installation procedures in Table 5-2 before you install the controller drivers and the operating system.

• When you are ready to install the controller drivers and operating system see "Installing the Controller Drivers During the Operating System Installation: For Systems with a PERC S100 Adapter" on page 42 or "Installing the Controller Drivers During the Operating System Installation: For Systems with a PERC S300 Adapter" on page 44.

Installing the Drivers

Page 39

Table 5-2. Pre-Installation Procedures For The Controller Drivers

Procedure Steps

Confirm or change configuration settings at the

System

Dell PowerEdge

window

Boot the system. When the

(POST)

Wait until t he Dell PowerEdge System window

screen appears, press <F2>.

Dell Power-On Self-Test

appears. Perform the following, depending on the controller:

For a PERC S100 adapter

•

Settings.

confirm that the

Press <Enter>. At the sub-screen,

SATA Controller

: Scroll to

SATA

is set to a RAID

mode.

NOTE:

If necessary, use the space bar to change the

setting.

•

For a PERC S300 adapter

Settings

. Press <Enter>. At the sub-screen, set

SATA Controller

NOTE:

If necessary, use the space bar to change the

: Scroll to

to either

ATA

SATA

Mode or

setting.

Press <Esc> to exit.

Press <Esc> again. The following occurs:

• If no change was made at step b, the boot sequence continues.

• If a change was made at Select

Save Changes and Exit

step b

, a dialog box appears.

. Press <Enter>.

The boot sequence continues.

AHCI

Install the PERC S300 adapter (as required)

Initialize physical disks (as required)

NOTE:

If you decide to change from a PERC S100 adapter to a PERC S300 adapter, make sure that you also change the setting at SATA SettingsSATA Controller from a RAID mode to ATA Mode. See step b.

See "Install the PERC S300" in the Hardware Installation Guide, located on the Dell Support website at

support.dell.com/manuals. See "Initializing Physical Disks" on page 50.

Installing the Drivers

Page 40

Table 5-2. Pre-Installation Procedures For The Controller Drivers

Procedure Steps

Create a bootable

See "Creating Virtual Disks" on page 51.

virtual disk

Check controller options and the boot list priority

At the PERC S100 Virtual Disk Management utility or PERC S300 Virtual Disk Management utility, use the arrow keys to select <Enter>. Make sure that

Support

At the

is ON. Press <Esc> to exit.

Virtual Disks

Controller Options

Toggle INT13 Boot

field, make sure the bootable virtual disk created in Procedure 4, is the first virtual disk listed.

If the bootable virtual disk is not the first virtual disk listed, see "Swapping Two Virtual Disks" on page 55.

(continued)

. Press

NOTE:

If Non-Raid virtual disks are used (and appear in the Virtual Disks list), the Swap Two Virtual Disks option is enabled only if the system contains an initialized physical disk.

Select

NOTE:

Continue to Boot

and press <Enter>.

If the next Procedure (6) is not applicable, continue with one of the following procedures:

• "Installing the Controller Drivers During the Operating System Installation: For Systems with a PERC S100 Adapter" on page 42

• "Installing the Controller Drivers During the Operating System Installation: For Systems with a PERC S300 Adapter" on page 44

Installing the Drivers

Page 41

Table 5-2. Pre-Installation Procedures For The Controller Drivers

Procedure Steps

Change the

Priority List for Devices (if

applicable)

Boot

To change the order of the devices (CD-ROM, optical DVD, and so on), perform the following:

NOTE:

Unless mentioned otherwise, the term PERC Virtual Disk Management utility refers to both the PERC S100 Virtual Disk Management utility and the PERC S300 Virtual Disk Management utility.

(continued)

NOTE:

If the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility is open, select Continue to Boot, then press <Enter>. Press <Ctrl><Alt><Delete> to reboot the system.

Boot the system. When the

POST

screen appears,

press <F2>.

At the keys to scroll to

Make sure that

Dell PowerEdge System

Boot Sequence

Hard drive C:

screen, use the arrow

. Press <Enter>.

is the first device

listed.

To change the sequence of other devices:

•Use the <+> key to move devices up, or the <-> key to move devices down.

•Use the space bar to enable or disable a device.

Press <Esc> to exit.

Press <Esc> again. Select

Exit

NOTE:

and press <Enter>.

Continue with one of the following procedures:

Save Changes and

• "Installing the Controller Drivers During the Operating System Installation: For Systems with a PERC S100 Adapter" on page 42

• "Installing the Controller Drivers During the Operating System Installation: For Systems with a PERC S300 Adapter" on page 44

Installing the Drivers

Page 42

Installing the Controller Drivers During the Operating System Installation: For Systems with a PERC S100 Adapter

CAUTION:

whenever the controller software is upgraded. A previous version of the driver might not work with the latest controller software and vice versa.

NOTE:

the system when the system is turned-off and before starting step 1. Failure to do so might result in the external USB floppy disk drive not being recognized by the system.

Reboot the system. When the

Insert the Windows operating system media into the optical drive of the system.

When the BIOS boot manager or boot device menu appears, select the text that begins with

Install the applicable Microsoft Windows operating system, using the on-screen instructions.

The latest firmware, drivers and applications must be installed

When using an external USB floppy disk drive, make sure to connect it to

POST

Embedded SATA...

screen appears press <F11>.

and press <Enter>.

At the appears.

Select the driver to be installed

Perform the following:

window a Load Driver

For Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2:

Insert the CD-ROM, DVD, USB flash drive, or floppy disk that contains the files copied at "Downloading the Controller Driver Media" on page 37. Click

At the

Browse to folder

Browse

window, access the directory that contains the

controller driver files. Locate and select the files. Click

sub-screen

Installing the Drivers

Page 43

For Microsoft Windows Server 2003:

Insert the floppy disk that contains the files copied at "Downloading the Controller Driver Media" on page 37. (An external USB floppy disk drive can be used, if your system does not have a built-in floppy disk drive).

Press <F6> on the keyboard, when prompted at the beginning of the Windows setup.

Wait until the

Additional Device

Insert the requested media disk (as applicable) and press <Enter>.

At the next

Select the driver to be installed

S100 S300 Controller...

Windows Setup

appears. Press <S> on the keyboard.

Click

window with

window, select

to load the driver files.

S = Specify

Dell PERC

For Microsoft Windows Server 2003:

When you are asked to load additional drivers, press <Enter> to start the Microsoft Windows installation process.

From the list at the window, select the applicable operating system. Click

Select the operating system you want to install

Perform the remaining operating system installation instructions. Some of the windows require user-specific password and system information. As required, contact your IT administrator for assistance.

For Microsoft Windows Server 2003 only: Two warning dialog boxes appear during the Installing Windows segment of the installation:

• At the

NOTE:

installation media inserted in step 5.

Software Installation

Hardware Installation

When the operating system installation process is finished, remove the

dialog box, click

Yes

Installing the Drivers

Page 44

Installing the Controller Drivers During the Operating System Installation: For Systems with a PERC S300 Adapter

CAUTION:

whenever the controller software is upgraded. A previous version of the driver might not work with the latest controller software and vice versa.

NOTE:

the system when the system is powered-off and before starting step 1.

Reboot the system. When the

Insert the Windows operating system media into the optical drive of the system.

When the begins with

Install the applicable Microsoft Windows operating system, using the on-screen instructions.

From the list at the window, select the applicable operating system. Click

The latest firmware, drivers and applications must be installed

When using an external USB floppy disk drive, make sure to connect it to

POST

BIOS Boot Manager

SATA Optical Drive...

screen appears press <F11>.

window appears, select the text that

and press <Enter>.

Select the operating system you want to install

Perform the on-screen instructions at the next several windows.

Install Windows - Where do you want to install Windows?,

the following:

For Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2:

Insert the CD-ROM, DVD, USB flash drive, or floppy disk that contains the files copied at "Downloading the Controller Driver Media" on page 37. Click

At the

Select the directory that has the controller driver files. Click OK.

Load Driver

sub-screen, click

Load Driver

Browse

For Microsoft Windows Server 2003:

Press <F6> on the keyboard, when prompted at the beginning of the Windows setup.

perform

Installing the Drivers

Page 45

Wait until the

Additional Device

Insert the requested media disk (as applicable) and press <Enter>.

At the

Select the driver to be installed

S100, S300 Controller...

Windows Setup

. Press <S> on the keyboard.

screen appears with

window, select

Click

to load the driver files.

S = Specify

Dell PERC

For Microsoft Windows Server 2003: When you are asked to load additional drivers, press <Enter> to start the Microsoft Windows installation process.

Perform the remaining operating system installation instructions. Some of the windows require user-specific password and system information. As required, contact your IT administrator for assistance

For Microsoft Windows Server 2003 only: Two w arni ng d ialo g boxes

appear during the Installing Windows segment of the installation: – At the – At the

NOTE:

installation media inserted in step 7.

Software Installation

Hardware Installation

When the operating system installation process is finished, remove the

dialog box, click

Yes

Performing the PERC S100 Controller or PERC S300 Controller Management Setup Procedure

The PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter management setup procedure is described in Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management. To set up a PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter on your system, see the Storage Management procedures located at the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals.

Installing the Drivers

Page 46

Installing the Drivers

Page 47

RAID Configuration and Management

The Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) S100 and PERC S100 adapter are configured by using the PERC S100 Virtual Disk Management utility or PERC S300 Virtual Disk Management utility. The utility is accessed at system startup, when you are prompted to press <Ctrl><R>.

NOTE:

refers to both the PERC S100 Virtual Disk Management utility and the PERC S300 Virtual Disk Management utility.

NOTE:

OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management, see the Dell Support Website at support.dell.com/manuals.

NOTE:

without the operating system and controller drivers being installed.

Unless mentioned otherwise, the term PERC Virtual Disk Management utility

To configure the PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter with Dell

The PERC Virtual Disk Management utility can be accessed and configured

Configuring the Controller: Using the PERC Virtual Disk Management Utility

Table 6-1. PERC Virtual Disk Management Utility Operations

Operation Description

Accessing the PERC Virtual Disk Management Utility

Understanding the Text Colors in the PERC Virtual Disk Management Utility

Initializing Physical Disks Describes how to initialize a physical disk for data storage. Creating Virtual Disks Describes how to create a virtual disk from the connected

Describes how to log onto the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.

Describes the status of the physical disks and virtual disks, based on the color-highlighted text.

physical disks.

RAID Configuration and Management

Page 48

Table 6-1. PERC Virtual Disk Management Utility Operations

Operation Description

Deleting Virtual Disks Deletes one or more virtual disks that are configured for

the controller.

(continued)

Swapping Two Virtual Disks

Managing Global Hot Spares

Viewing Physical Disk Details

Viewing Virtual Disk Details

Rescanning Disks Rescans the disks to detect new or removed physical disks

Controller Options Changes the selected controller options, such as booting

Continuing to Boot Enables the system to continue booting after you use the

Swaps virtual disks to enable them to load in any order.

Enables you to create or delete a global hot spare(s).

Enables you to view detailed information about any connected physical disk.

Enables you to view detailed information about any virtual disk.

or virtual disks.

and virtual disk warnings.

PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.

Accessing the PERC Virtual Disk Management Utility

Boot the system and wait until the message

Configure

appears.

Press <Ctrl><R> to

Press <Ctrl><R>. You have a maximum of three seconds to press <Ctrl><R>, or the

system’s boot process continues.

CAUTION:

Make sure to backup all data before changing modes.

NOTE:

system uses a PERC S100, press F2 to access the Dell system BIOS. At the SATA Settings field, make sure that SATA Controller is set to RAID Mode. If

the settings are correct and the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility still does not appear contact Dell support at support.dell.com.

RAID Configuration and Management

If SATA Controller is not set to RAID Mode, data might be destroyed.

If the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility does not appear and your

Page 49

The utility contains these fields:

• An information field (yellow or red text): Located below the window name and the current build number.

•

Virtual Disks

: Displays the virtual disks that have been created and information about them: virtual disk number, RAID level, virtual disk size, virtual disk status, and caching mode status.

•

Main Menu

operations

•

Physical Disks

: Indicates the main

: Displays information about the physical disks or

PERC Virtual Disk Management

utility

ATAPI devices.

•

Available Keys

: Indicates the keyboard keys to use to select a line of

text or perform an operation.

NOTE:

Table B-3, located on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals.

For a description of virtual disk and physical disk states, see Table B-2 and

NOTE:

virtual disk. The system can boot only when the bootable virtual disk is at the first position in the list.

The first virtual disk listed in Virtual Disks must be the bootable

Understanding the Text Colors in the PERC Virtual Disk Management Utility

Text within the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility is color-coded, as follows:

Table 6-2. PERC Virtual Disk Management Text Colors

Text Color Description

White text Indicates an available option or informational text. Black text, yellow

highlighting Yellow text Indicates information about the yellow-highlighted option. Green text Indicates an item that has been selected. Light blue text Indicates that the item cannot be selected.

Indicates an option or device for which you might take action.

Magenta text Indicates items that are related to hot spares or boot options. Red text Indicates a failed virtual or physical disk or a warning. For example,

informational text might be red if an option is not available.

RAID Configuration and Management

Page 50

Initializing Physical Disks

New physical disks must be initialized before they can be used. Initialization writes controller configuration information to the physical disk.

Physical disks with the following statuses can be initialized:

•

Non-RAID

adapter or PERC S300 adapter.

•

Ready

PERC S300 adapter configuration information.

Physical disks that are Online cannot be initialized.

Power-up the system to start booting.

When prompted, press the Disk Management

At the

Physical Disk(s)

Press <Enter>.

—

A physical disk that was configured by a non-PERC S100

— Contains no stored data but has PERC S100 adapter or

Main Menu

utility.

field u

se the arrow keys to select the

keys to access the PERC Virtual

Initialize

option.

Use the arrow keys to select

Initialize to Non-Raid

Press <Enter>.

Use the arrow keys to select a physical disk. Press <Insert> to select the

Initialize for PERC S100 (PERC S300)

physical disk, or press the <A> key to choose all selectable physical disks.

NOTE:

to initialize one physical disk at a time.

Press <Enter> to initialize the selected physical disk or disks.

NOTE:

Raid in the Physical Disks field of the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility. A Non-Raid virtual disk is also created and appears in the Virtual Disks field.

A dialog box appears, warning that any data on the physical disk will be

You can select and initialize multiple physical disks. There is no need

After a physical disk is initialized as Non-Raid, it appears as Non-

permanently lost if it is initialized. Press the <C> key to continue with initialization or press <Esc> to cancel.

Initialization takes 10–15 seconds per physical disk. A status indicator shows which physical disk is being initialized. When initialization is complete, the status indicator turns off, and all channels are re-scanned automatically.

RAID Configuration and Management

Page 51

CAUTION:

selected for initialization. To initialize the physical disk anyway, make sure to delete the virtual disk. Be sure you want to initialize the physical disk, because all data on it (including PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter configuration information) is deleted.

If a physical disk has a virtual disk on it, the physical disk cannot be

NOTE:

Non-Raid virtual disks must be deleted in order to use the physical disks with the PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter. Deleting the Non-Raid virtual disks initializes the Non-Raid physical disks and changes their state to Ready.

NOTE:

When Non-Raid physical disks are installed in the system, their associated

Typically, continue with the next procedure, Creating Virtual Disks.

Creating Virtual Disks

You can create virtual disks after the physical disks are initialized, especially if the virtual disk is a bootable virtual disk for your system. If you have not decided what RAID level to use, see the Raid Technology Guide, located on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals.

Before You Begin

• At any point in this procedure, return to a prior state by pressing <Esc>.

• A maximum of eight virtual disks can be created with the PERC Virtual Disk Management

• Avoid mixing of redundant and non-redundant raid levels on the same set of physical disks.

utility.

NOTE:

available capacity on the physical disks.

Power-up the system to start booting.

When prompted, press the

The Create Virtual Disk operation is not selectable when there is no

Disk Management utility.

At the

Virtual Disk

Main Menu

. Press <Enter>.

field, use the arrow keys to select

keys to access the PERC Virtual

Create

RAID Configuration and Management

Page 52

At the

Physical Disks

field, select the physical disk(s) on which to

create a virtual disk:

For each physical disk, press the <Insert> key to select the physical disk. (The physical disks can be inserted in any order.)

After selecting the physical disk(s) to be included in the virtual disk, press <Enter>.

At the

User Input

field, use the arrow keys to select a virtual disk type (RAID level). Press <Enter>. (Only the virtual disk types that can be created with the selected physical disk(s) are indicated; they are highlighted in white text).

If hot spares are applicable:

At the

User Input

field, use the arrow keys to select a dedicated hot

spare. Press <Enter>.

NOTE:

selecting the Manage Global Hot Spare(s) option.

At the

A global hot spare can be assigned after a virtual disk is created, by

Physical Disks

field, select the physical disk to use as a

hot spare (if applicable). Press <Insert> to select it.

Press <Enter> to add the hot spare. Press the <C> key to confirm the change.

Select a size for the virtual disk, depending on the available free space of the physical disks. Review the choices indicated in Table 6-3. (Virtual disk size changes are displayed at the

Input

After you choose the virtual disk size, press <Enter>.

At the

Press the <C> key to confirm that you want to create the virtual disk.

At the

to Boot

NOTE:

Disks field. If necessary, use the Swap Two Virtual Disks option to place the bootable virtual disk in the first position.

fields.)

NOTE:

space of the physical disks and by the RAID level that you select.

The maximum size of the virtual disk is affected by the available free

User Input

Main Menu

field, select a

field, perform other operations or select

and press <Enter>.

The boot virtual disk must be the first virtual disk listed in the Virtual

Create Virtual Disk

Caching Mode

. Press <Enter>.

and

Continue

User

RAID Configuration and Management

Page 53

Table 6-3. Selection of Virtual Disk Sizes

To Create This Virtual Disk Size

< 2.199 TB Use the <Page Up> or <Page Down> keys to select a size in large

> 2.199 TB

Perform This Task

increments

Use the up arrow or down arrow keys to select a size in small increments.

Continue with "Creating Virtual Disks" on page 51.

Press the <Page Up> or the up arrow key to increase the virtual disk size.

At the maximum size, a dialog box appears in the field. It inquires if you want to limit the size of the virtual disk or exceed the normal maximum size.

Press <Esc> to create a larger virtual disk.

Press the <Page Up> or the up arrow key, until the desired or maximum available size has been attained.

Continue with "Creating Virtual Disks" on page 51.

NOTE:

maximum size of the virtual disk is limited by the size of the physical disk with the smallest capacity.

When physical disks of different capacities are used, the

User Input

NOTE:

enabled on the controller, as described in "Controller Options" on page 58.

If you want to have a bootable virtual disk, make sure that INT 13 support is

Deleting Virtual Disks

CAUTION:

deleted, including the first-listed virtual disk in the field, do not delete the firstlisted virtual disk. It may be the system’s bootable virtual disk. Deleting the bootable virtual disk erases the operating system and the controller drivers.

CAUTION:

adapter or PERC S300 adapter configuration information (metadata) remains on the disk. If the removed physical disk causes a virtual disk to fail, and the virtual disk is then deleted and a Rescan is performed, re-inserting the physical disk causes the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility to merge the re-inserted physical disk's

Although any virtual disk in the Virtual Disks field can be

When a physical disk is removed from a system, the current PERC S100

RAID Configuration and Management

Page 54

configuration information with the existing configuration information. The previously deleted virtual disk re-appears in the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.

CAUTION:

the system before you delete the virtual disk.

Power-up the system to start booting.

When prompted, press the Disk Management

At the

Make sure that all physical disks that are part of a virtual disk are in

utility.

Main Menu

field, select

Delete Virtual Disk(s)

keys to access the PERC Virtual

<Enter>.

Perform one of the following:

• Select each virtual disk in the

to delete. Press <Insert>

Virtual Disks

to confirm each selection.

field that you want

• Press <A> to select all virtual disks for deletion.

NOTE:

Press <Enter>.

CAUTION:

selected virtual disk(s). Deleting a virtual disk permanently destroys all data that is on the virtual disk, as well as the virtual disk itself. This action cannot be undone.

The text color of the selected virtual disk(s) changes to green.

A dialog box appears, describing the consequences of deleting the

. Press

Press the <C> key to confirm the deletion.

RAID Configuration and Management

Page 55

Swapping Two Virtual Disks

Use the Swap Two Virtual Disks option of the Management utility to arrange

CAUTION:

system’s bootable virtual disk. The bootable virtual disk must always be the firstlisted virtual disk at Virtual Disks.

Before You Begin

•The

Swap Two Virtual Disks

Do not swap the first-listed virtual disk at Virtual Disks if it is the

virtual disks in a different order.

option is enabled only if there is at least one

PERC Virtual Disk

initialized physical disk in the system. For example, if all the physical disks in the system are Non-Raid, the

Swap Two Virtual Disks

option is

disabled.

• It is recommended that the bootable virtual disk be a redundant virtual disk-type, such as RAID 1, RAID 5, or RAID 10, to preserve data in case a physical disk in the virtual disk fails. As required, swap that virtual disk into the first position at disk 1. See the

Swap Two Virtual Disks

Virtual Disks

, if it is not already virtual

option below.

• The boot device and the boot order are user-selectable.

• The swap feature is available only with the PERC Virtual Disk Management

NOTE:

Power-up the system to start booting.

When prompted, press the Disk Management

At the

Main Menu

utility

Only two virtual disks can be swapped at a time.

utility.

field, select

keys to access the PERC Virtual

Swap Two Virtual Disks

<Enter>.

Use the arrow keys to highlight a virtual disk at the

Virtual Disk

Press <Insert>.

Use the arrow keys to highlight another virtual disk. Press <Insert>.

Press <Enter> to swap the virtual disks.

Press

field.

RAID Configuration and Management

Page 56

Managing Global Hot Spares

This option enables you to create a global hot spare from a selected physical disk, or to delete a global hot spare.

NOTE:

Normal status at the Physical Disks field. If the physical disk is in Online status, it is being used by a virtual disk and cannot be selected as a hot spare.

Create a Global Hot Spare

Power-up the system to start booting.

When prompted, press the Disk Management

At the <Enter>.

Select

Use the up or down arrow key to select a physical disk(s) for use as a global hot spare(s). Press <Insert>.

A global hot spare can be created only if a physical disk is in Ready or

utility.

Main Menu

field, select

Manage Global Spare(s)

Assign Global Hot Spare(s).

keys to access the PERC Virtual

. Press

Press <Enter>.

Press <Enter> to add the global hot spare.

Press the <C> key to confirm the action.

Delete a Global Hot Spare

Power-up the system to start booting.

When prompted, press the Disk Management

At the

Main Menu

utility.

field, select

keys to access the PERC Virtual

Manage Global Spare(s)

<Enter>.

Select

Use the up or down arrow key to select the physical disk(s) to delete as a

Unassign Global Hot Spare(s)

. Press <Enter>.

global hot spare(s). Press <Insert>.

Press <Enter> to delete the global hot spare.

Press the <C> key to confirm the action.

. Press

RAID Configuration and Management

Page 57

Viewing Physical Disk Details

Power-up the system to start booting.

When prompted, press the Disk Management

At the

Main Menu

utility.

field, select

Press <Enter>.

Use the arrow keys to choose a physical disk.

Physical disk information is displayed at the top of the window:

• Physical disk number

• Channel number

• Physical disk size

keys to access the PERC Virtual

View Physical Disk Details

• Physical disk status:

New/Non-Raid/Ready/Online

• Amount of free space

• Manufacturer and model number

When finished, press <Esc> to return to the main window.

Viewing Virtual Disk Details

Power-up the system to start booting.

When prompted, press the Disk Management

At the

Main Menu

utility.

field, select

<Enter>.

Use the arrow keys to choose a virtual disk.

Virtual disk information is displayed at the top of the window and in the

Virtual Disks

field:

• Virtual disk number

•RAID level

keys to access the PERC Virtual

View Virtual Disk Details

. Press

•Size

• Status (

When finished, press <Esc> to return to the main window.

NOTE:

the virtual disk, highlighted by green text.

R/W, R, NA

The Physical Disks field indicates the physical disks that are in

)

RAID Configuration and Management

Page 58

Rescanning Disks

This option enables you to rescan all channels and detect new or removed physical disks or virtual disks.

• To perform a rescan, select

Rescan Disks

from the

Main Menu

field and press <Enter>. (The activity indicator, in the information field at the top of the window, spins while the physical disks are being polled).

•The

Rescan Disks

option rescans all the channels, searches for new or removed physical disks, and re-reads the configuration information from each physical disk.

NOTE:

through a rescan.

Sometimes when a physical disk has failed, it can be brought online

Controller Options

The Controller Options feature enables you to select INT 13 boot support and select whether the boot process pauses when an error occurs. The boot process pauses when Pause if... is enabled and a virtual disk becomes Degraded or has Failed. Press <Enter> to continue booting.

View the error message on the window. If Pause... is OFF, the error message is displayed briefly, but the system continues to boot.

At the

Options

Main Menu

. Press <Enter>.

field, use the arrow key to select

Controller

At the

Controller Options

field, use the up or down arrow keys to

scroll to the desired controller option. See Table 6-4.

When finished, press <Esc> to return to the main window.

Table 6-4. Controller Options

Controller Option Description How to Operate

INT13 Boot Support Determines whether the BIOS

installs INT 13 support (physical disk seek, read, and write operations for a PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter).

RAID Configuration and Management

Press <Enter> to toggle between ON and OFF.

Page 59

Table 6-4. Controller Options

Controller Option Description How to Operate

Pause if Degraded When ON, the BIOS stops

booting when a degraded virtual disk is found.

Pause if Failed When ON, the BIOS stops

booting when a failed virtual disk is found.

Press <Enter> to toggle between ON and OFF.

Continuing to Boot

After using the normal booting process by selecting Continue to Boot in the Main Menu field and pressing <Enter>.

PERC Virtual Disk Management utility,

return the system to its

RAID Configuration and Management

Page 60

RAID Configuration and Management

Page 61

Troubleshooting

To get help with your Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) PERC S100 adapter and PERC S300 adapter, contact your Dell Technical Service representative or access the Dell Support Web site at support.dell.com.

The chapter discusses four major categories of troubleshooting:

• Normal tasks that cannot be performed during system startup.

• Warning messages that might appea or

Controller BIOS

• Functions that cannot be performed with virtual disks.

• Functions that cannot be performed with physical disks.

NOTE:

refers to both the PERC S100 Virtual Disk Management utility and the PERC S300 Virtual Disk Management utility.

Unless mentioned otherwise, the term PERC Virtual Disk Management utility

Dell Inc. PERC S300 Controller BIOS

r at the Dell Inc. PERC S100

screen.

System Startup Problems

The following table indicates potential PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter-related causes for system startup problems.

Table 7-1. System Does Not Boot

Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions

Controller mode is set incorrectly at System Setup

At system startup, when the

Tes t ( POS T)

the

Dell Inc. PowerEdge BIOS

screen appears, press <F2> to enter

Dell Power-On Self-

screen.

Scroll to make sure that the following is true:

• For a PERC S100 adapter: is set to a RAID mode.

• For a PERC S300 adapter: is set to

NOTE:

RAID Mode to ATA Mode.

SATA Settings

ATA Mode

Data might be lost when switching from

. Press <Enter> and

SATA Controller

AHCI

Troubleshooting

Page 62

Table 7-1. System Does Not Boot

Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions

Boot Mode, Boot Sequence

and/or

Boot Sequence Retry

set incorrectly

Bootable virtual disk is in a failed state

are

At system startup, when the Dell appears, press <F2> to enter the

PowerEdge BIOS

Scroll to

Boot Settings

make sure that

Scroll to

Boot Sequence

make sure that

screen.

Boot Mode

Hard drive C: (* PERC

POST

screen

Dell Inc.

. Press <Enter> and

is set to

BIOS

. Press <Enter> and

S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter

the first device listed. * The variable text displayed here might be:

Embedded SATA 1, Slot 1 SAS

Scroll to that the setting is

Press <Esc> to exit and continue booting.

NOTE:

PowerEdge BIOS

Boot Sequence Retry

Enabled

If changes are made at the

screen, a dialog box appears and

, or

Integrated

. Make sure

Dell Inc.

asks you to save your changes and then exit.

Press <Ctrl><Alt><Del> to restart.

After the system restarts, press <Ctrl><R>. Check the status of the bootable virtual disk at the

Virtual Disk Virtual Disks Details

field, or by highlighting

and pressing

<Enter>.

)

View

The boot order is incorrect for a bootable virtual disk

Troubleshooting

Check for missing or offline physical disks.

When prompted at system startup, press <Ctrl><R> to access the Management utility

Check

Virtual Disks

PERC Virtual Disk

and make sure that the

bootable virtual disk is the first virtual disk listed.

As required, use the

Disks

option to reposition the virtual disks.

Swap Two Virtual

Page 63

Table 7-1. System Does Not Boot

Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions

A Non-Raid virtual disk is no longer in the first position in the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility list after the system is rebooted

NOTE:

Non-Raid virtual disk, creating a virtual disk in Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management changes the virtual disk order and displaces the bootable Non-Raid virtual disk from the first position. PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter then attempts to boot from the first virtual disk.

NOTE:

can be created from Non-Raid physical disks (which are physical disks initialized at a non-PERC S100 adapter or a nonPERC S300 adapter).

When booting from a

A Non-Raid virtual disk

When prompted at system startup, press <Ctrl><R> to access the Management

Check bootable Non-Raid virtual disk is no longer in the first position.

Use the swap the virtual disks and place the bootable NonRaid virtual disk in the first position of the

Virtual Disks

utility.

Swap Two Virtual Disks

field.

PERC Virtual Disk

and determine if the

option to

Table 7-2. The PERC Virtual Disk Management Option Does Not Display

Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions

The PERC S100 adapter mode is set incorrectly in the system BIOS

The PERC S300 adapter is not seated correctly

See Table 7-1 for the correct SATA Setting.

Make sure that the PERC S300 adapter is installed in the correct slot and is properly seated.

Troubleshooting

Page 64

Warning Messages: Dell Inc. PERC S100 Adapter or Dell Inc. PERC S300 Adapter BIOS Screen

The Dell Inc. PERC S100 Controller BIOS screen or Dell Inc. PERC S300 Controller BIOS screen is one of the first screens to appear during your

system’s boot sequence. If the system’s virtual disks were in Normal or Ready status before a system boot, the boot sequence continues normally to the Microsoft Windows system.

But, if a virtual disk is in Degraded or Failed status, or if specific options in the Controller Options field were changed previously at the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility, the warning messages described in Table 7-3 through Table 7-6 appear during the boot sequence. For other issues, see Ta bl e 7- 7 .

Server 2008 or Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating

Troubleshooting

Page 65

Table 7-3. Warning Messages: Dell Inc. PERC S100 or PERC S300 Adapter BIOS

Warning Message Corrective Action

WARNING: Found virtual disks that are Degraded

This warning message appears when at least one virtual disk is in a Degraded state and Pause if Degraded is set to ON at the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.

The following message appears after the warning is displayed:

--- Press <Enter> to continue, or <CTRL><R> to enter setup ---

Press <Enter> to allow the operating system to continue with the boot sequence, or press PERC Virtual Disk Management utility to investigate the cause of the Degraded virtual disk.

To investigate the cause, check for the following:

• Whether a physical disk in the virtual disk has failed or has gone offline. Check the status at the field. A virtual disk and the number of physical disks that have failed:

– For a virtual disk at RAID 1 or RAID 5, a single physical disk

– For a virtual disk at RAID 10, the failure of a physical disk in

Degraded

failure causes a

each of the mirror sets creates a RAID 10. The failure of two physical disks in the same mirror set creates a

status depends on the RAID level of the

Degraded

status.

Failed

status for the RAID 10.

to enter into the

Physical Disks

Degraded

status for the

• Whether the controller has failed, due to a firmware failure or a component failure. A failed controller causes a virtual disk not to boot.

For the virtual disk to recover from Degraded status, the failed physical disk must be replaced and the virtual disk must be rebuilt, using Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management. When the rebuild operation is completed, the virtual disk status changes from Degraded to Ready. For a description of the rebuild function, see located on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals.

Storage Management,

Troubleshooting

Page 66

Table 7-4. Warning Messages: Dell Inc. PERC S100 or S300 Adapter BIOS

Warning Message Corrective Action

(continued)

WARNING: Found virtual disks that are Failed

This warning message appears when at least one virtual disk is in a Failed state and Pause if Failed is set to ON at the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.

The following message appears after the warning is displayed:

--- Press <Enter> to continue, or <Ctrl><R> to enter setup ---

Press <Enter> to allow the operating system to continue its boot, or press <Ctrl><R> to enter into the Management disk.

NOTE:

operating system from booting.

To investigate the cause, check for the following:

• Determine if a single or multiple physical disks in a non-

• Determine if two or more physical disks in a redundant virtual

A boot virtual disk that is in a Failed state prevents the

redundant virtual disk have failed. If "yes," data is lost. Recover the lost data from a backup storage source.

disk have failed. If "yes," data is lost. Recover the lost data from a backup storage source.

utility to investigate the cause of the

PERC Virtual Disk

Failed

virtual

NOTE:

mirrored set, the redundant virtual disk goes to a Degraded status but data is not lost. If two physical disks fail in one of the mirrored sets, the redundant virtual disk goes to a Failed status and data is lost.

Troubleshooting

For a RAID 10, if a single physical disk fails in each

Page 67

Table 7-5. Warning Messages: Dell Inc. PERC S100 or S300 Adapter BIOS

Warning Message Corrective Action

(continued)

WARNING: Found virtual disks that are Degraded and Failed

This warning message appears when multiple virtual disks are in Degraded and Failed state and Pause if Degraded or Pause if Failed are set to ON at the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.

The following message appears after the warning is displayed:

--- Press <Enter> to continue, or <Ctrl><R> to enter setup ---

Press <Enter> to allow the operating system to continue its boot, or press <Ctrl><R> to enter into the Management and

Failed

NOTE:

operating system from booting.

To investigate the cause, check for the following:

• Whether the virtual disk is in the physical disks of a RAID 1 or RAID 5 virtual disk has failed, or one of the physical disks of a RAID 10 virtual disk has failed. Press <Ctrl><R> or missing. Remove and replace a failed physical disk. A second physical disk failure could cause a disk to change to

utility to investigate the cause of the

virtual disks.

A boot virtual disk that is in a Failed state prevents the

Degraded

and verify if the physical disks are offline

Failed

status.

PERC Virtual Disk

Degraded

status because one of

Degraded

virtual

• Whether the virtual disk is in a more of the physical disks have failed. Press <Ctrl><R> or missing. Remove and replace the failed physical disk or disks.

and verify if the physical disks are offline

Failed

status because one or

Troubleshooting

Page 68

Table 7-6. Warning Messages: Dell Inc. PERC S100 or S300 Adapter BIOS

Warning Message Corrective Action

(continued)

BIOS NOT INSTALLED User Disabled INT13 BIOS Load

This warning message appears when:

•

The

INT13 Boot Support

option has been set to OFF

the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.

Bootable devices do not function with the controller when INT 13 Boot Support is set to OFF. (ON is the default setting, which allows bootable devices to function with the controller).

NOTE:

You can set INT 13 Boot Support to OFF when you want to boot the system from another boot device (for example, another hard-drive). It is recommended that you use only your system’s current boot device.

If INT 13 Boot Support is set to OFF and another boot device is not selected, the following occurs:

• The boot sequence stops after

User Disabled INT 13 BIOS Load

• A second warning message appears:

BIOS Not Installed -

appears.

No boot device available - strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility, F11 for BIOS boot manager

When the system’s boot sequence stops, perform the following:

Press <Ctrl><Alt><Del> to exit from the boot sequence.

Turn off your system, then restart it.

When instructed during the start-up sequence, press <Ctrl><R> to access the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.

At the

Controller Options

Main Menu

field, use the arrow key to scroll to

. Press <Enter>.

INT13 Boot Support

press <Enter> and change

to ON.

Press <Esc>.

At the

Continue to Boot

NOTE:

Main Menu field, use the arrow key to scroll to

. Press <Enter>.

The system boot sequence continues to the operating

system.

OFF

Troubleshooting

Page 69

Table 7-7. Other Errors Appearing on the BIOS

Issue Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions

The RAID 0 goes offline and the RAID 1 becomes degraded in a PowerEdge R210 system with two drives.

Faulty physical disk

Boot system into CTLR-R and replace faulty drive.

Delete the failed RAID 0 and then create a new RAID 0. Now RAID 0 is optimal and RAID 1 is still degraded.

Install OS on the RAID 0 and backup RAID 1.

Delete and Recreate RAID 1 and restore backup data.

When attempting to update system backplane firmware and or Hard drive firmware using DUPs the updates fail.

eSata devices appear in Ready state in CTLR-R

During CTRL-R, S100/S300 do not display greater than eight Virtual Disks.

Unable to delete Virtual Disks when there are more than eight Virtual Disks present in the system.

DUPs are not supported.

Issue with the physical connection

The function is not supported.

Use the DOS utilities

Remove the devices from eSata port and plug them into the chassis.

NOTE:

eSATA devices are blocked

from virtual disk creation.

Remove all physical disks except for the last one(s) added. Then proceed with deleting the virtual disks that are not needed. Remember to take account of the virtual disks that are currently being used.

Virtual disk rebuild status while during CTLR-R

Rebuild is not supported in Ctrl-R.

Boot to a supported OS. Rebuild starts. To view rebuild status, install a supported storage application.

Troubleshooting

Page 70

Table 7-7. Other Errors Appearing on the BIOS

Issue Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions

S100 rom option not visible during S300 controller use in the system.

S100 and S300 coexistence in the same system is not supported. S100 option rom becomes disabled when S100 and S300 are available.

Remove S300 adapter and reboot system to select F1 and select RAID for boot BIOS.

The S100 rom option appears during POST boot.

NOTE:

the system, the windows driver manager displays the additional driver.

If both controllers are used in

Virtual Disk-Related Errors

Use the information on the following tables as guidelines for troubleshooting the controller.

Table 7-8. Cannot Create a Virtual Disk

Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions

The physical disk is not displayed

This error might be because:

– The controller cannot communicate with the

physical disks.

Insufficient free space available on the selected physical disks

Incorrect number of physical disks selected for the desired RAID level

Troubleshooting

– A cable might be loose or defective.

Re-seat the physical disks in the backplane and check their cables.

There must be sufficient available free space on the physical disk(s) used by the virtual disk.

See "Understanding RAID Levels" in the RAID Technology Guide, located on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals, for a description of RAID levels and the allowable number of physical disks used with each RAID level.

Page 71

Table 7-8. Cannot Create a Virtual Disk

Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions

(continued)

The desired physical disk is unavailable

The system already has a maximum of eight virtual disks

Table 7-9. A Virtual Disk is in a Failed State

Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions

The virtual disk has lost one or more physical disks

physical disk in the virtual disk

has failed or has been removed

Determine whether the physical disk:

• Is a dedicated hot spare and unavailable for use in another virtual disk.

• Is full or has insufficient available capacity.

Delete unused virtual disks.

CAUTION:

on the virtual disk.

Replace the failed physical disk(s) and restore the data from a backup storage source.

• Re-install the original physical disk if it was inadvertently removed. Perform a rescan.

• Check the status of the physical disks in the virtual disk. Replace any failed disk(s), if necessary. Restore the data from a backup storage source.

Deleting a virtual disk destroys all data

The virtual disk has lost the maximum allowable physical disks per RAID level

After any change, perform a rescan to verify if the disk is still in a Failed state.

One or more physical disks have failed.

– If the virtual disk is non-redundant, the failure

of a single physical disk can cause the virtual disk to fail.

– If the virtual disk is redundant, two or more

physical disks have failed and the virtual disk cannot be rebuilt.

Create a new virtual disk. Restore the data from a backup storage source.

Troubleshooting

Page 72

Table 7-10. A Virtual Disk is in a Degraded State

Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions

A physical disk was removed

Physical or mechanical problems with the physical disk

The virtual disk has lost redundancy

• Install the original physical disk, if it was inadvertently removed, or replace it with a new or used physical disk.

• Initialize a new physical disk. Perform a

Rescan

for all physical disks that are replaced.

•If the physical disk was not removed, check that its cables are correctly installed.

•Check if the physical disk in the virtual disk has failed.

• If a physical disk was recently removed and replaced, check that it is correctly positioned in the backplane. Check the cable connections at the physical disk and at the motherboard. Perform a rescan.

• One or more physical disks in the virtual disk have failed. Due to the failed physical disk or disks, the virtual disk is no longer maintaining redundant (mirrored or parity) data. The failure of an additional physical disk results in lost data.

Corrupted metadata in the virtual disk

Troubleshooting

• Replace the physical disk or disks. Rebuild the physical disk using Storage Management. See the applicable Storage Management screen,

located on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals.

Delete the virtual disk that has the failed metadata.

Assign the physical disk as a hot spare to rebuild a redundant virtual disk.

To create a non-redundant virtual disk, delete and rebuilt the data on a virtual disk, and restore the data from a backup storage source.

Page 73

Table 7-11. Cannot Assign a Dedicated Hot Spare to a Virtual Disk

Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions

The RAID level does not allow a dedicated hot spare to be created

The designated physical disk does not have sufficient capacity to be a dedicated hot spare

The physical disk is already part of a virtual disk

The physical disks are of different types

Hot spares cannot be created for Volume or RAID 0 virtual disks.

The capacity of the physical disk selected to be a dedicated hot spare must be equal to or larger than the capacity of the smallest physical disk in the virtual disk. For example, if the physical disk selected for a dedicated hot spare is 160 GB, and the physical disks in the virtual disk are 80 GB, 160 GB, and 500 GB, a dedicated hot spare can be assigned. That is because the physical disk selected for the dedicated hot spare is larger than the smallest (80 GB) physical disk in the virtual disk.

A dedicated hot spare cannot be assigned to another virtual disk.

The physical disk used as a dedicated spare must be the same type as the physical disks that are already part of the virtual disk. For example, if a virtual disk consists of SATA-II physical disks, the dedicated hot spare must be a SATA-II physical disk.

Table 7-12. Cannot Create a Global Hot Spare

Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions

There are no empty physical disks available or the physical disks have not been initialized

Install additional physical disks and initialize them. If existing physical disks have a status of New they need to be initialized.

WARNING:

data on the physical disk is lost.

NOTE:

initialized, if desired, but it is no longer Non-Raid (initialization adds PERC S100 adapter/PERC S300 adapter configuration information to the physical disk).

When a physical disk is initialized, all

A physical disk with a Non-Raid status can be

Troubleshooting

Page 74

Table 7-12. Cannot Create a Global Hot Spare

(continued)

The physical disk is already part of a virtual disk

The physical disk assigned as the global hot spare has failed

The physical disk assigned as the global hot spare is missing

A global hot spare cannot be selected if it is already part of an existing virtual disk.

When prompted at system startup, press <Ctrl><R>to access the Management

At the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility, select View Virtual Disk Details and press <Enter>. Determine whether the physical disk that is designated as the global hot spare has a status of Failed.

• Check to see if the physical disk is malfunctioning or is physically disconnected.

• Select another physical disk as the global hot spare.

• Check to see if the physical disk was removed from the backplane or cable connection, or whether the cables from the controller to the physical disk are disconnected or faulty.

utility.

PERC Virtual Disk

• Perform a rescan to verify that the physical disk is still missing.

Troubleshooting

Page 75

Physical Disk-Related Errors

Table 7-13. The Physical Disk Fails

Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions

A physical disk is not visible in the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility or is offline

A physical disk is highlighted red at the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility

• Check that the cables are properly connected.

• For PERC S300 adapters only: check that the physical disk is installed properly in the system’s backplane.

• For PERC S300 adapters only: check the system’s backplane for damage.

• For PERC S300 adapters only: reinstall the physical disk and make sure that it is seated correctly in the system’s backplane.

•Perform a devices attached to the controller, or (b) fix an error caused by deleting or initializing a virtual disk.

• Replace the physical disk. Depending on the RAID level of the virtual disk, data might be lost.

• Perform a rescan to confirm that the new disk was discovered.

Rescan

, to (a) update the status of storage

Table 7-14. A Dedicated Hot Spare Fails

Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions

The controller cannot communicate with the hot spare

The dedicated spare is not visible in the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility or is offline

• Check that the cable from the controller to the physical disk is connected properly.

• Make sure that the physical disk is still assigned as a global or dedicated hot spare.

•Check if the physical disk assigned as the hot spare has failed.

The controller cannot communicate with the hot spare.

• Check if the physical disk has been removed or has failed.

• Check for a loose or bad cable.

Troubleshooting

Page 76

Table 7-15. The Wrong Physical Disk was Removed

Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions

A physical disk has been removed from a virtual disk

Table 7-16. Cannot Initialize a Physical Disk

Likely Causes to Check Corrective Actions

The physical disk cannot be initialized

The removal of one physical disk from a virtual disk causes:

• A Volume or RAID 0 virtual disk to change to status.

• A RAID 1 and RAID 5 virtual disk to change to

Degraded

• A RAID 10 virtual disk to change to (when a physical disk is removed from one of the mirrored sets).

Re-insert the removed physical disk and perform a Rescan of the virtual disk.

Check whether or not the physical disk is:

• Already a member of a virtual disk.

• Currently a global or dedicated spare.

status.

Degraded

Failed

status

•Reporting an

Only physical disks that are Ready can be initialized.

Offline

state.

Troubleshooting

Page 77

Appendix A

Controller Specifications

This section contains information about the Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) S100 and S300 adapter specifications:

• Read, write, and cache policy

• Physical and virtual disk tasks

• Virtual disk specifications

• Supported RAID levels

Read, Write, and Cache Policy

Table A-1 indicates the supported by the PERC S100 Adapter and PERC S300 adapter.

Table A-1. Read, Write, and Cache Policy for the PERC S100 adapter and PERC S300 adapter

Category Supported by PERC S100 Adapter, PERC

Cache Settings Yes Read/Write Yes Read Only Yes None (Read/Write) Yes

CAUTION:

Write Through, Non Read Ahead (WT, NRA). To enable Write Back (WB), a UPS is recommended.

The current default for Write-Cache mode enablement is

read

, write, and cache policies that are supported/not

S300 adapter

Appendix A

Page 78

Controller Tasks

Table A-2 indicates the tasks that are supported or not supported by the PERC S100 Adapter and PERC S300 adapter.

Table A-2. PERC S100 Adapter and PERC S300 Adapter Tasks

PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapterTask Name

Enable alarm No Disable alarm No Quiet alarm No Test alarm No Set check consistency rate No Rescan controller No Create virtual disk Yes

Supported by PERC S100 adapter, PERC S300 adapter

Physical Disk Tasks

Table A-3 indicates the physical disk tasks that are supported/not supported by the controllers at the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.

NOTE:

refers to both the PERC S100 Virtual Disk Management utility and the PERC S300 Virtual Disk Management utility.

Unless mentioned otherwise, the term PERC Virtual Disk Management utility

Table A-3. Physical Disk Tasks

Physical Disk Task Name Supported by PERC S100 adapter,

PERC S300 adapter

Blink/Unblink Only with a system that has a

PERC S300 adapter and a backplane

Assign and unassign global hot spare Yes

Appendix A

Page 79

Virtual Disk Tasks

Table A-4 indicates the virtual disk tasks that are supported/not supported by the controllers.

Table A-4. Virtual Disk Tasks

Virtual Disk Task Name Supported by PERC S100 adapter, PERC S300

adapter

Assign and unassign dedicated hot spare

Create virtual disk Yes Reconfigure Yes Delete (any) virtual disk Yes Start a check consistency Yes Cancel check consistency Yes Initialize virtual disk No (if using the PERC Virtual Disk

Yes

Management utility) Yes (if doing a BGI in Storage Management)

Supported RAID Levels

Table A-5 indicates the RAID levels that are supported by the PERC S100 Adapter and PERC S300 adapter.

Table A-5. Supported RAID Levels for the PERC S100 adapter and PERC S300 adapter

RAID Level Supported by PERC S100 adapter,

PERC S300 adapter

Volume Yes (only when using the PERC Virtual Disk

Management utility) RAID 0 Yes RAID 1 Yes RAID 5 Yes RAID 10 Yes

Appendix A

Page 80

Virtual Disk Specifications

Table A-6 indicates the virtual disk specifications that apply to the PERC S100 Adapter and PERC S300 adapter.

Table A-6. Virtual Disk Specifications for the PERC S100 adapter and PERC S300 adapter

Virtual Disk Specification Value

Maximum number of virtual disks per controller 8 Minimum virtual disk size 102 MB Maximum virtual disk size No maximum size;

there may operating

system size limitations Maximum number of physical disks per virtual disk 8 Maximum number of virtual disks per physical disk 8 Maximum number of physical disks that can be

concatenated Maximum number of physical disks in a Volume 1 Maximum number of physical disks in a RAID 0 8 Maximum number of physical disks in a RAID 1 2 Maximum number of physical disks in a RAID 5 8 Maximum number of physical disks in a RAID 10 8 Minimum number of physical disks that can be

concatenated Minimum number of physical disks in a Volume 1 Minimum number of physical disks in a RAID 0 2 Minimum number of physical disks in a RAID 1 2 Minimum number of physical disks in a RAID 5 3 Minimum number of physical disks in a RAID 10 4

N/A

Appendix A

Page 81

Appendix B

RAID Technology - Understanding Disk Arrays and Virtual Disks

A disk array consists of the physical disks that are connected to a controller. A virtual disk is data storage created by a controller from one or more physical

disks. The virtual disk is viewed by the operating system as a single disk. The Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) S100 controller and PERC

S300 controller allows:

• SAS HDD (PERC S300 controller only), SATA HDD, and/or SATA SSD (PERC S100 controller only) physical disks to co-exist on a single controller.

• Physical disks of the same type (SAS HDD, SATA HDD, SATA SSD) but of different capacities.

• Virtual disks to be at different RAID levels on the same controller, but not supported on the same group of physical disks.

Because some RAID levels enhance performance while others improve reliability, it is important to consider your needs when planning a virtual disk configuration.

The ability of the controller to provide online expansion to virtual disks across multiple physical disks and controllers becomes extremely valuable when storage expansion is a requirement.

Appendix B

Page 82

Understanding RAID Levels

A PERC S100 controller or PERC S300 controller supports the following RAID levels:

Table B-1. RAID Levels and Characteristics

RAID Level Main Characteristics Advantages

Volume (can be created only using the PERC S100 Virtual Disk Management utility or PERC S300 Virtual Disk Management utility. Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management can manage a Volume but cannot create it.)

NOTE:

mentioned otherwise, the term PERC Virtual Disk Management utility refers to both the PERC S100 Virtual Disk Management utility and the PERC S300 Virtual Disk Management utility

Unless

A virtual disk type that links available space on a single physical disk and forms a single logical volume on which data is stored.

• Concatenation allows access to a single physical disk.

• Concatenation does not provide performance benefits or data redundancy.

• When a physical disk in a concatenated virtual disk fails, data is lost from that virtual disk. Because there is no redundancy, data can be restored only from a backup.

RAID 0 (striping) Provides the highest

performance, but no data redundancy. Data in the virtual disk is striped (distributed) across two or more physical disks.

Appendix B

RAID 0 virtual disks are useful for holding information, such as the operating system paging file, where performance is extremely important but redundancy is not.

Page 83

Table B-1. RAID Levels and Characteristics

RAID Level Main Characteristics Advantages

(continued)

RAID 1 (mirroring) Mirrors data on one physical

disk to another, to provide basic redundancy.

In the event of a single physical disk failure a second copy of the data exists, which can be used to restore the data to a new, replacement physical disk.

RAID 10 (striped mirror sets)

Combines mirrored and striped sets; data are striped across mirrored sets of physical disks.

RAID 10 allows multiple physical disk failures, up to one failed physical disk in each mirror that has been striped.

In the event of a single physical disk failure (per mirror set) a second copy of the data exists, which can be used to restore the data to a new, replacement physical disk.

Useful when only two physical disks are available, and when data integrity is more important than storage capacity.

• Offers better performance than a simple mirror because of the additional physical disks.

• Requires twice the disk space of RAID 0 to offer redundancy.

• When a physical disk in a RAID 10 virtual disk fails, the virtual disk is still functional. Data is read from the surviving mirrored disk.

Appendix B

Page 84

Table B-1. RAID Levels and Characteristics

RAID Level Main Characteristics Advantages

(continued)

RAID 5 (striping with parity)

Stripes data, as well as parity, across all physical disks in the virtual disk. Parity information is interspersed across the virtual disk.

In the event of a single physical disk failure, parity data exists on the remaining physical disks, which can be used to restore the data to a new, replacement physical disk.

• Offers exceptional read performance, as well as redundancy.

• Requires only one extra physical disk to offer redundancy.

• For most systems with three or more physical disks this is the best choice as a RAID level.

Disk States - Virtual and Physical Disks

The following tables indicate the statuses that can appear at the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.

Table B-2. Physical Disk States

State Definition

ATAPI Indicates a peripheral device (CD-ROM, DVD, or tape drive) instead

of a physical disk. An ATAPI device cannot be initialized or added to a virtual disk.

Non-Raid A physical disk has been moved from another, non-PERC S100

controller or non-PERC S300 controller.

Online The physical disk has been initialized and is part of a virtual disk. Ready The physical disk has been initialized but is not currently used in a

virtual disk.

Failed A failed physical disk appears as Failed only when (a) View Virtual

Disk Details is selected, and (b) the virtual disk to which the physical

disk belongs is selected. The Failed status is reported only when the physical disk is part of a virtual disk.

Spare A physical disk that is assigned as a dedicated or global hot spare.

Appendix B

Page 85

Table B-3. Virtual Disk States

State Definition

Degraded A physical disk in a redundant virtual disk has failed. Additional failures

might result in lost data.

Failed One or more physical disks have failed. The virtual disk has gone offline.

The virtual disk cannot restore the data.

Non-Raid A Non-Raid physical disk is automatically linked to a Non-Raid virtual

disk for use with a PERC S100 controller or PERC S300 controller.

Normal A virtual disk has been created and its preparation process has been

completed.

Ready A redundant virtual disk has been created, and is ready for additional

preparation.

Failure States

Whether a virtual disk is marked as Failed or Degraded depends upon what RAID level virtual disk it is, and how many physical disks of the virtual disk have failed. In Table B-4 note the changes in state.

If a rescan of all channels is performed after disconnecting a physical disk, the state of every virtual disk using the disconnected physical disk changes from the Ready state to either the Failed or Degraded state, depending on the virtual disk’s RAID level.

For additional information about rescanning to update storage configuration changes, see the OpenManage documentation available on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals.

Table B-4. Failure Status by Virtual Disk RAID Level

Virtual Disk RAID Level Failure Status Description

RAID 1, RAID 5 Degraded A single physical disk fails. RAID 10 Degraded A single physical disk fails in one or

more of the mirrored sets. Volume, RAID 0 Failed A single physical disk fails. RAID 1 or RAID 5 Failed Two or more physical disks fail. RAID 10 Failed Two physical disks in a mirrored set

fail.

Appendix B

Page 86

Creating Virtual Disks: Future Expansion

When creating virtual disks, consider whether or not the virtual disk capacity needs to be expanded in the future.

For a

Microsoft Windows operating system, format the virtual disks with New Technology File System (NTFS). Microsoft Corporation provides a utility (diskpart.exe) that can dynamically extend an NTFS file system onto any unused adjacent space.

Note also that using a single partition per virtual disk makes expansion much easier.

NOTE:

operating system is running.

NOTE:

Windows operating systems, or on the Microsoft Corporation website (microsoft.com) for other versions. Use the correct version for your operating system.

The diskpart.exe utility version depends on which version of the Windows

The diskpart.exe utility can be found on the CD for some versions of

Understanding Physical Disks

Physical Disk States

Within the management applications, physical disks can be part of one or more virtual disks and can exist in the states indicated:

Table B-5. Minimum and Maximum Physical Disk Configurations

RAID Level Minimum Number of Physical Disks Maximum Number of Physical Disks

RAID 0 2 8 RAID 1 2 2 RAID 10 8 8 RAID 5 3 8

Appendix B

Page 87

Rescanning Physical Disks for Changes in State

The physical disk information displayed at the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility is the state of the physical disks when they were last scanned. If a rescan has not been performed, the information displayed is the state of the physical disks at boot time.

Every time a physical disk is connected or disconnected while online, a rescan is performed. A rescan is automatically performed when Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management detects that a physical disk has been added or removed.

Dedicated Hot Spares

A dedicated hot spare is a backup physical disk for the redundant virtual disk to which it is assigned. The physical disk that is used as a dedicated hot spare cannot be a member of an existing virtual disk. When the hot spare is activated, it becomes the receptacle for the data from the failed physical disk member of the volume, without interrupting the system or requiring your intervention.

A dedicated hot spare can be assigned to any redundant virtual disk, and up to four hot spares can be assigned to a virtual disk. However, a dedicated hot spare cannot be assigned while a task is running on the virtual disk.

A global hot spare can be assigned when a virtual disk is created in the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility. A global hot spare can be added at any time when Storage Management is used.

If there is enough space available on the dedicated hot spare, and a disk failure occurs, the rebuild process for the virtual disk starts automatically.

Dedicated hot spare assignments do not apply to a non-redundant virtual disk.

NOTE:

state, or if the SAS/SATA cable to the physical disk or power cable is disconnected.

A virtual disk is marked Failed or Degraded if a physical disk reports a Failed

A dedicated hot spare is often preferred to a global hot spare, especially for critical data. This is because a dedicated hot spare guarantees that the virtual disk has a backup physical disk assigned exclusively to it in case of a failure.

For additional information, see "Managing Global Hot Spares" on page 56.

Appendix B

Page 88

Global Hot Spares

A global hot spare is a backup physical disk that can be used by any redundant virtual disk. It is not assigned (dedicated) to any specific virtual disk.

Virtual disks can typically be rebuilt by using a global spare disk, as long as the global hot spare is not already part of the virtual disk and has enough available capacity. Unlike a dedicated hot spare, a global hot spare can be assigned at anytime, even while tasks are running on virtual disks.

If there is enough space available on the global hot spare, and a disk failure occurs, the rebuild process for the virtual disk starts automatically.

Appendix B

Page 89

Appendix C

Regulatory Notices

Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) is any signal or emission, radiated in free space or conducted along power or signal leads, that endangers the functioning of a radio navigation or other safety service or seriously degrades, obstructs, or repeatedly interrupts a licensed radio communications service. Radio communications services include, but are not limited to, AM/FM commercial broadcast, television, cellular services, radar, air-traffic control, pager, and Personal Communication Services (PCS). These licensed services, along with unintentional radiators such as digital devices, including computers, contribute to the electromagnetic environment.

Electromagnetic Compatibility is the ability of items of electronic equipment to function properly together in the electronic environment. While this system has been designed and determined to be compliant with regulatory agency limits for EMI, there is no guarantee that interference may not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause interference with radio communications services, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, you are encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

• Reorient the receiving antenna.

• Relocate the system with respect to the receiver.

• Move the system away from the receiver.

• Plug the system into a different outlet so that the system and the receiver are on different branch circuits.

If necessary, consult a Dell Technical Support representative or an experienced radio/television technician for additional suggestions.

For additional regulatory information, see the owner’s manual or user’s guide for your system.

Appendix C

Page 90

Dell computers are designed, tested, and classified for their intended electromagnetic environment. These electromagnetic environment classifications generally refer to the following harmonized definitions:

• Class A is typically for business or industrial environments.

• Class B is typically for residential environments.

Information Technology Equipment (ITE), including devices, expansion cards, printers, input/output (I/O) devices, monitors, and so on, that are integrated into or connected to the system must match the electromagnetic environment classification of the system.

A Notice About Shielded Signal Cables: Use only shielded cables for connecting devices to any Dell device to reduce the possibility of interference with radio communications services. Using shielded cables ensures that you maintain the appropriate Electromagnetic Compatibility classification for the intended environment. Cables are available from Dell at dell.com.

Most Dell computers are classified for Class B environments. However, the inclusion of certain options can change the rating of some configurations to Class A. To determine the electromagnetic classification for your system or device, see the following sections specific for each regulatory agency. Each section provides country-specific Electromagnetic Compatibility/EMI or product safety information.

FCC Notice (U.S. Only)

FCC, Class A

This product has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference when the equipment is operated in a commercial environment. This product generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the manufacturer’s instruction manual, may cause harmful interference with radio communications. Operation of this product in a residential area is likely to cause harmful interference, in which case you will be required to correct the interference at your own expense.

Appendix C

Page 91

FCC, Class B

This product generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the manufacturer’s instruction manual, may cause interference with radio and television reception. This product has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules.

This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions:

• This device may not cause harmful interference.

• This device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.

CAUTION:

expressly approved by Dell Inc. could void your authority to operate this equipment.

These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. However, there is no guarantee that interference may not occur in a particular installation.

The FCC regulations provide that changes or modifications not

If this equipment does cause harmful interference with radio or television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, you are encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

• Reorient the receiving antenna.

• Relocate the system with respect to the receiver.

• Move the system away from the receiver.

• Plug the system into a different outlet so that the system and the receiver are on different branch circuits.

If necessary, consult a representative of Dell Inc. or an experienced radio/television technician for additional suggestions.

Appendix C

Page 92

The following information is provided on the device or devices covered in this document in compliance with FCC regulations:

Product Name PERC S100, PERC S300

Company Name: Dell Inc.

Worldwide Regulatory Compliance & Environmental Affairs One Dell Way Round Rock, Texas 78682 USA 512-338-4400

Industry Canada Notice (Canada Only)

Industry Canada, Class A

This Class A digital apparatus complies with Canadian ICES-003. Cet appareil numérique de la classe A est conforme à la norme NMB-003 du

Canada.

Industry Canada, Class B

This Class B digital apparatus complies with Canadian ICES-003 Cet appareil numérique de la classe B est conforme à la norme NMB-003 du

Canada.

CAUTION:

modifications not expressly approved by Dell Inc. could void your authority to operate this equipment.

The Industry Canada regulations provide that changes or

CE Notice (European Union)

Marking by the symbol indicates compliance of this Dell system to the Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive 89/336/EEC and the Low Voltage Directive 73/23/EEC of the European Union. Such marking is indicative that this Dell system meets the following technical standards:

• EN 55022 — "Information Technology Equipment — Radio Disturbance Characteristics — Limits and Methods of Measurement."

• EN 55024 — "Information Technology Equipment - Immunity Characteristics - Limits and Methods of Measurement."

Appendix C

Page 93

• EN 61000-3-2 — "Electromagnetic Compatibility - Part 3: Limits - Section 2: Limits for Harmonic Current Emissions (Equipment Input Current Up to and Including 16 A Per Phase)."

• EN 61000-3-3 — "Electromagnetic Compatibility - Part 3: Limits - Section 3: Limitation of Voltage Fluctuations and Flicker in Low-Voltage Supply Systems for Equipment With Rated Current Up to and Including 16 A."

• EN 60950 — "Safety of Information Technology Equipment."

EN 55022 emissions requirements provide for two classifications:

• Class A is for typical commercial areas.

• Class B is for typical domestic areas.

To determine which classification applies to your system, examine the FCC or ICES information on the regulatory label located on the back, side, or bottom panel of the system.

If the FCC or ICES information on the label indicates a Class B rating, the following Class B statement applies to your system:

This Dell device is classified for use in a typical Class B domestic environment.

A "Declaration of Conformity" in accordance with the preceding directives and standards has been made and is on file at Dell Inc. Products Europe BV, Limerick, Ireland.

Appendix C

Page 94

CE Mark Notice

This equipment complies with the essential requirements of the European Union Directive 1999/5/EC.

Appendix C

Page 95

Appendix D

Contacting Dell

For customers in the United States, call 800-WWW-DELL (800-999-3355).

NOTE:

information on your purchase invoice, packing slip, bill, or Dell product catalog.

Dell provides several online and telephone-based support and service options. Availability varies by country and product, and some services may not be available in your area. To contact Dell for sales, technical support, or customer service issues:

Visit

Click your country/region at the bottom of the page. For a full listing of country/region click

If you do not have an active Internet connection, you can find contact

support.dell.com

All

Click

Select the appropriate service or support link based on your need.

Choose the method of contacting Dell that is convenient for you.

All Support

from the Support menu.

Appendix D

Page 96

Appendix D

Page 97

Index

background initialization, 21 BIOS, major functions, 47 boot device, warning

message, 68

boot priority list

changing it, 41

checking controller options, 40 boot support, RAID levels, 22 booting the system after using

the BIOS configuration utility, 59

cache policy, 77

controller drivers,

pre-installation

requirements, 38 controller options, changing, 58 controller options, changing

them, 58 controller tasks, supported by

PERC S100 adapter, PERC

S300 adapter, 78

dedicated hot spares, 87 degraded virtual disks, warning

message, 65 Dell system BIOS

configuring the chipset, 39

CE Mark Notice, 94 CE Notice (European Union), 92 checkpointing, 22 chipsets, configuration at the

Dell system BIOS, 39 Command Queuing, 22 consistency check, 23 continuing to boot the

system, 59 controller driver, download

procedure, 37

device driver installation

procedure, 37

disk arrays, understanding

them, 81 disk roaming, 26 drivers

installation, 42, 44

Index

Page 98

electrostatic discharge,

protecting against, 9

errors, physical disks

dedicated hot spare has failed or is

in error, 75

Failed status is displayed, 75

errors, virtual disks

Failed status, 71

hot spares

dedicated, 87 global, 88

hot spares, global, managing

them, 56

hot swapping, 25

virtual disk has been deleted, 73

ESD protection, 9

fault tolerance, 23 FCC Notice (U.S. only), 90 features of the PERC S100

adapter, PERC S300 adapter, 21

global hot spares, 88 global hot spares, manage, 56

Industry Canada Notice (Canada

only), 92 initialization, physical disks, 23 installation

PERC S300 Adapter, 32 PERC S300 adapter, 32

installing the controller drivers,

PERC S100 adapter, 42 installing the controller drivers,

PERC S300 adapter, 44 installing the operating system

and drivers, PERC S100

adapter, 42 installing the operating system

and drivers, PERC S300

adapter, 44

hardware installation

completion, 35 general considerations, 31 PERC S100 adapter, PERC S300

adapter, 31

Index

INT13 disabled, warning

message, 68

Management Setup, 45 mirror rebuilding, 24

Page 99

OCE, 24 offline virtual disks, warning

message, 66 Online Capacity Expansion, 24 options

changing controller options, 58

options, controller, 58

PERC S100 controller,

Management Setup, 45 PERC S100 Virtual Disk

Management utility, PERC

S300 Virtual Disk

Management utility

access to it, 48

PERC S300 Adapter

installation, 32

PERC S300 adapter

installation, 32

PERC S300 controller,

Management Setup, 45

physical disk tasks, supported by

PERC S100 adapter, PERC S300 adapter, 78

physical disks

automatic rebuild, 21 connecting them to the PERC

S300 controller, 35 errors, 75 troubleshooting, 75 view disk details, 57

physical disks, general

description, 24

platform requirements for the

PERC S100 controller, PERC S300 controller, 14

RAID configuration and

management, 47

RAID levels, supported by PERC

S100 adapter, PERC S300

adapter, 79 RAID technology, 81 read policy, 77

PERC Virtual Disk Management

utility

major functions, 47 physical disk details, viewing, 57 physical disk hot swapping, 25 physical disk initialization, 23 physical disk roaming, 26

regulatory notices, 89

CE Mark Notice, 94 CE Notice (European Union, 92 FCC Notice (U.S. only), 90 Industry Canada (Canada

only), 92 related documentation, 12 rescan disks, 58

Index

Page 100

rescanning

for changes in state, 87

Virtual Disk Management

utility, 47

configuring the controller

using the PERC S100, 47

safety

general, 8 safety instructions, 7 working inside your system, 8

specifications, PERC S100

adapter, PERC S300

adapter, 77 specificationsÖ virtual disks, 80 Storport, driver support, 26 stripe size, 26 support for RAID level, 22

text colors, PERC S100 Virtual

Disk Management utility,

PERC S300 Virtual Disk

Management utility, 49

virtual disk specifications, for

PERC S100 adapter, PERC S300 adapter, 80

virtual disk tasks, supported by

PERC S100 adapter, PERC S300 adapter, 79

virtual disks

background initialization, 21 boot support for degraded virtual

disks, 22 cache support, 22 creating, future expansion, 86 errors, 70 general description, 27 migration, 28 PERC S100 Virtual Disk

Management utility, PERC

S300 Virtual Disk

Management utility, 48 swapping the order of two

disks, 55 transformation, 28 troubleshooting, 70 view details, 57

transformation, virtual disks, 28 troubleshooting, PERC S100

adapter, PERC S300 adapter, 61

100

Index

virtual disks, understanding

them, 81

warning message