Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSD Owner's Manual

Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSD User’s Guide

Regulatory Model: Adapter UCEA-100 Regulatory Type: Module UCEM-100

Notes, Cautions, and Warnings

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

CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem.

WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death.

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Contents

1 Overview.......................................................................................................................................5

PCIe SSD Architecture............................................................................................................................................. 5

PCIe Interface.................................................................................................................................................... 6

PCIe SSD Features....................................................................................................................................................7

Performance.......................................................................................................................................................7

Hot Swap............................................................................................................................................................7

Device Health.....................................................................................................................................................7

Self Monitoring Analysis And Reporting Technology........................................................................................ 8

Device Life Remaining (Device Life Monitor).....................................................................................................8

Device Write Status........................................................................................................................................... 8

Supported Operating Systems For PCIe SSD........................................................................................................... 8

2 Getting Started With PCIe SSD.................................................................................................9

Setting Up Your PCIe SSD For First Use................................................................................................................... 9

Configuring PCIe SSDs In Different Operating Systems...........................................................................................9

Servicing Your PCIe SSD........................................................................................................................................ 10

3 Replacing And Configuring Hardware...................................................................................11

Removing A PCIe SSD From The System................................................................................................................11

Installing A PCIe SSD In The System......................................................................................................................12

Removing The PCIe Extender Adapter Card...........................................................................................................13

Installing The PCIe Extender Adapter Card............................................................................................................14

Removing The PCIe Extender Modular Card.......................................................................................................... 15

Installing The PCIe Extender Modular Card........................................................................................................... 16

4 Driver Installation......................................................................................................................17

Downloading PCIe SSD Drivers..............................................................................................................................17

Installing Or Upgrading The PCIe SSD Driver For Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2012...17

Installing Or Upgrading The PCIe SSD Driver For Red Hat Enterprise Linux Or SUSE Linux Enterprise................ 18

Installing The PCIe SSD Driver In VMware............................................................................................................ 19

5 Configuring And Managing Your PCIe SSD.......................................................................... 21

Human Interface Infrastructure Configuration Utility.............................................................................................21

Entering The HII Configuration Utility...............................................................................................................21

Viewing Physical Device Properties................................................................................................................ 21

Initializing Physical Devices.............................................................................................................................22

Setting LED Blinking......................................................................................................................................... 22

Exporting The Log.............................................................................................................................................22

Exiting The HII Configuration Utility................................................................................................................. 23

Dell OpenManage Server Administrator................................................................................................................ 23

Launching Storage Management.....................................................................................................................23

Storage Information......................................................................................................................................... 23

Configuring And Managing PCIe SSDs............................................................................................................ 24

Running Physical Device Tasks....................................................................................................................... 25

PCIe SSD Drop-Down Menu Tasks..................................................................................................................25

Blink And Unblink Task For PCIe SSD.............................................................................................................. 25

Preparing To Remove A Physical Device Task For PCIe SSD..........................................................................25

Performing Full Initialization Task For PCIe SSD..............................................................................................26

Exporting The Log.............................................................................................................................................26

6 Troubleshooting.........................................................................................................................29

Self-Monitoring Analysis And Reporting Technology Errors................................................................................. 29

PCIe SSD Carrier LED Indicators............................................................................................................................29

Ungraceful System Shutdown Or Power Loss........................................................................................................30

Buffer I/O Error On PCIe SSD During Full Initialization...........................................................................................30

General Errors.........................................................................................................................................................31

PCIe SSD Is Not Seen In the Operating System...............................................................................................31

An Error Message Is Displayed When Running Full Initialization In HII.......................................................... 31

PCIe SSD Is Not Seen In Device Management In The Operating System.......................................................31

PCIe SSD Is Not Seen In Disk Management In The Operating System........................................................... 32

Cannot Update The Firmware Using Dell Update Package (DUP)................................................................... 32

Linux Fails To Boot And Prompts For The Root Password...............................................................................32

PCIe SSD Is Inserted In The System And Is Visible To The Operating System But The Status LED Is Off...... 32

System Boot Delay While The PCIe SSD Activity LED Is Blinking................................................................... 32

I/O Device Error On Write To PCIe SSD........................................................................................................... 33

PCIe SSD Performance Measurement Under Expectations............................................................................33

VMware ESXi Driver Fails To Install.................................................................................................................34

PCIe SSD Is Listed In ESXi Host But Cannot Be Accessed In The Virtual Machine........................................34

VMware Reports A Missing Virtual Disk After A PCIe SSD Is Removed......................................................... 34

7 PCIe SSD Technical Specifications....................................................................................... 35

SFF-8639 (PCIe SAS Combo-Connector).................................................................................................................36

8 Getting Help................................................................................................................................37

Locating Your System Service Tag.........................................................................................................................37

Related Documentation.......................................................................................................................................... 37

Contacting Dell....................................................................................................................................................... 37

Documentation Feedback.......................................................................................................................................38

Overview

Dell PowerEdge Express Flash Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) Solid State Device (SSD) is a high performance storage device designed for solutions requiring low latency, high input output operations per second (IOPS), and enterprise class storage reliability and serviceability. The Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSD is offered as a Single Level Cell (SLC) NAND flash technology with a high-speed PCIe 2.0 compliant interface. The high-speed PCIe

2.0 compliant interface helps improve performance for I/O bound solutions.

NOTE: Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSD is not supported as a bootable device.

PCIe SSD Architecture

The PCIe SSD solution consists of a PCIe extender adapter card, which provides PCIe connectivity for up to four PCIe SSDs at the front of the chassis. The number of supported PCIe SSDs depends on the system.

PCIe SSDs from Dell are available in 175 GB and 350 GB (SLC) capacities and are supported on PowerEdge systems and PowerEdge modular systems.

In PowerEdge systems, the PCIe extender adapter card connects to a PCIe SSD backplane, allowing connectivity for up to four PCIe SSDs. In PowerEdge modular systems, the PCIe extender modular card connects to the PCIe SSD backplane, allowing connectivity for up to two PCIe SSDs.

NOTE: To determine the maximum number of PCIe SSDs supported in your system, see the system-specific

Owner’s Manual

at dell.com/support/manuals.

See the following figures for different components of the PCIe SSD solution.

Figure 1. PCIe SSD Extender Adapter Card

1. filler bracket

2. PCIe extender adapter card

3. port link status LED (4)

4. adapter cable connectors (4)

Figure 2. PCIe SSD Modular Extender Card

1. PCIe connector

2. PCIe modular card

Figure 3. PCIe SSD

1. release button

2. activity indicator

3. status indicator

4. PCIe SSD

NOTE: For more information on activity and status indicators, see the topic PCIe SSD Device Carrier LED Indicators.

PCIe Interface

The SSD controller used on the PCIe SSD has a PCIe Gen2 (5 Gbps) interface. The interface is available in a PCIe x4 lane width for a 16-channel flash memory controller. The PCIe interface is used to transmit or receive storage interface commands between the host and PCIe SSD.

PCIe SSD Features

The following topics describe the different PCIe SSD features.

Performance

The Dell PowerEdge Express Flash Single Level Cell (SLC) PCIe SSD is a high performance solid state storage device that enables IOPS performance of up to 350X more than conventional rotating hard drives. The Dell PowerEdge Express Flash SLC PCIe SSD is designed to deliver sequential throughput on reads and writes at more than 1.5 Gbps speed.

Hot Swap

Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSDs support orderly hot swap allowing you to add or remove a device without halting or rebooting the system in which the devices are installed.

Dell-supported PCIe SSD hot swappable functions are defined below:

Orderly Insertion You insert a device into a running system where a similar device has not been previously

inserted from the time it was last booted. Dell systems that support PCIe SSDs are correctly configured to handle PCIe resource balancing in the event of a hot insertion. This preset system configuration makes this type of hot insertion an orderly operation.

Orderly Removal You remove a device from a running system. Prior to physically removing the device, you must

notify the system that the device is about to be removed. This notification defines hot removal as an orderly operation.

Orderly Swap You remove a device from the system in an orderly fashion and replace it with a supported

device. The device that is removed and the device that replaced it use the same device driver.

WARNING: Do not remove the PCIe SSD without notifying the system first. For more information, see Preparing To

Remove A Physical Device Task For PCIe SSD.

NOTE: Orderly hot swap is only supported when PCIe SSDs are installed in a supported Dell system running a supported operating system. To ensure that you have the correct hardware setup for your PCIe SSD, see the system specific

NOTE: Hot swapping PCIe devices is not supported in VMware ESXi 5.1.

NOTE: To check if your operating system supports PCIe SSD hot swap, see Supported Operating Systems For PCIe

SSD.

Owner's Manual

at dell.com/support/manuals.

Device Health

The Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSD is designed, based on Single Level Cell (SLC) NAND flash technology. NAND SSDs have a finite number of program or erase cycles and a finite number of spare blocks (replacements for other worn or faulty NAND blocks).

The program or erase cycles and spare blocks are continuously monitored for each Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSD through Dell software management applications such as Human Interface Infrastructure (HII) and Dell OpenManage Server Administrator. For more information see, Configuring and Managing Your PCIe SSD.

Self Monitoring Analysis And Reporting Technology

The Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) feature-set minimizes unscheduled system downtimes by providing a method of early detection of device degradation or fault. By monitoring and storing critical performance and calibration parameters, the SMART feature-set attempts to predict degradation or fault conditions. The knowledge of a negative reliability condition allows the host system to warn you of an impending risk of device failure and advise on appropriate action.

NOTE: The Dell OpenManage Server Administrator needs to be installed and running for SMART reporting.

Device Life Remaining (Device Life Monitor)

NAND SSDs have a finite number of program and erase cycles. Due to this, the Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSD is warranted to a maximum amount of data written to the device in total bytes written. The Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSD self monitors for these limits and Dell software management applications notify you when these limits are reached.

NOTE: The Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSD warranty expires when it reaches the threshold of total bytes written.

NOTE: If you continue to write to the device after it reaches the threshold of total bytes written, the amount of time the Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSD retains data while powered off decreases below device specifications. For more information see, PCIe SSD Technical Specifications.

Device Write Status

NAND SSDs have a finite number of spare sectors and if the device exhausts the available spare sectors, the Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSD enters the Write Protect Mode (Read-Only). During the Write Protect Mode, you can only perform read operations to the device. The Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSD monitors for these limits and Dell software management applications notify you when these limits are reached.

Supported Operating Systems For PCIe SSD

Only the following operating systems support Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSDs:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2012. Processor: x64/EM64T

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 or later, including Hyper-V virtualization. Processor: x64/EM64T

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 64 bit or later. Processor: x64/EM64T

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2 64 bit or later. Processor: x64/EM64T

• VMware ESXi 5.1 or later

NOTE: For all operating system documents, go to dell.com/support/manuals, then, Choose from a list of all Dell products

→ Software, Electronics & Peripherals → Software → Operating System .

Getting Started With PCIe SSD

Dell PowerEdge Express Flash Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) Solid State Device (SSD)s are not bootable devices. Your system must have a supported operating system installed to access the PCIe SSD.

The PCIe SSDs you ordered with your system is already configured and ready for use. For more information see

Configuring PCIe SSDs In Different Operating Systems or see Configuring and Managing Your PCIe SSD.

Setting Up Your PCIe SSD For First Use

If you are installing a new operating system, follow the steps below to setup your PCIe SSD for first use:

1. Set up your system and install the operating software on a storage device other than the PCIe SSD.

To set up your system, see the system specific

2. Install the PCIe SSD driver for your operating system.

For more information, see Driver Installation.

NOTE: For the latest list of supported operating systems and driver installation instructions, see the system

specific

Owner’s Manual

requirements, see the Drivers and Downloads section at dell.com/support.

Your PCIe SSD is now ready for use.

at dell.com/support/manuals. For specific operating system service pack

Getting Started Guide

Configuring PCIe SSDs In Different Operating Systems

In Windows-based systems, Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSDs have a controller entity and a device entity. The controller entity is displayed under the Storage controller menu in the Device Manager.

NOTE: In driver versions 7.x and older, PCIe devices are displayed under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.

Use the controller entity when installing or updating the PCIe SSD driver. You can configure the PCIe SSD for use in Windows from, Server Manager → Storage → Disk Management Tool .

In Linux-based systems, you can configure the PCIe SSD from the partitioning tool by specifying or selecting the device name. The device name for PCIe SSDs is /dev/rssdx, where x is the letter corresponding to each PCIe SSD in the system (for example: /dev/rssda).

In VMware-based systems, you can configure the PCIe SSD as datastore or for a passthrough operation. You can use vSphere Client to configure the PCIe SSD. Configuring PCIe devices as passthrough has the following limitations:

• You cannot take snapshots of the Virtual Machine (VM).

• Your VM cannot use failover features such as VMotion and Distributed Resources Scheduler (DRS).

• You cannot hot add any other device to the VM, such as an USB key. In order to add an additional device you have to shut down the VM.

Use OpenManage Server Administrator for managing and performing PCIe SSD related tasks. For more information, see

Configuring and Managing Your PCIe SSD.

Servicing Your PCIe SSD

If you need to remove or replace your PCIe SSD, you may remove the PCIe SSD from the running system, through an orderly removal operation. This operation is supported in Windows and Linux. See Supported Operating Systems For

PCIe SSD.

CAUTION: PCIe device hot swap is not supported in VMware ESXi 5.1. Hot swapping a PCIe SSD on a system running VMware ESXi 5.1 may lead to system instability.

To remove your PCIe SSD from a running system, use the Prepare to Remove task in OpenManage Server Administrator. You can safely remove the device from the system under the following conditions after you use the Prepare to Remove task:

• The PCIe SSD is blinking the prepare for removal LED pattern.

• The PCIe SSD is no longer accessible by the system.

NOTE: See the topic Running Physical Device Tasks.

You can remove or replace your PCIe SSD while the system is offline.

NOTE: To service your PCIe SSD in VMware ESXi 5.1, the system must be offline.

To service your PCIe SSD in VMware:

1. Perform a graceful shutdown of the system.

2. Remove the PCIe SSD.

Replacing And Configuring Hardware

CAUTION: All work must be performed at an electrostatic discharge (ESD)-safe workstation to meet the EIA-625requirements for handling electrostatic discharge sensitive devices. All actions must be performed following the latest revisions of the IPC-A-610 ESD recommended practices.

CAUTION: Many repairs may only be done by a certified service technician. You should only perform troubleshooting and simple repairs as authorized in your product documentation, or as directed by the online or telephone service and support team. Damage due to servicing that is not authorized by Dell is not covered by your warranty. Read and follow the safety instructions that came with the product.

NOTE: For complete information on U.S. Terms and Conditions of Sale, Limited Warranties and Returns, Export Regulations, Software License Agreement, safety, Environmental and Ergonomic Instructions, Regulatory Notices, and Recycling Information, see the

Agreement

All Dell PowerEdge Express Flash Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) Solid State Devices (SSDs) connect to the system board through the PCIe SSD backplane. The PCIe SSD backplane is mounted on the front-chassis assembly of the system. PCIe SSDs are supplied in hot-swappable device carriers that are compatible with the PCIe SSD bays.

CAUTION: Before attempting to remove or install a PCIe device from a system which is running, see Preparing To

Remove A Physical Device Task For PCIe SSD.

, and

Warranty and Support Information

Safety, Environmental and Regulatory Information, End User License

that shipped with your system.

NOTE: For information on removing and installing the system parts, see the system specific dell.com/support/manuals.

Owner's Manual

Removing A PCIe SSD From The System

If you are removing a PCIe SSD from a system which is running, proceed to step 1. Otherwise, skip to step 2.

CAUTION: To prevent data loss, it is mandatory that you prepare the device for removal before physically removing the device.

1. Use the Prepare to Remove task in OpenManage Server Administrator to safely remove a PCIe SSD from the system.

See Preparing To Remove A Physical Device Task For PCIe SSD.

This task causes the status LEDs on the device to blink.

CAUTION: The identify LED pattern (blink operation) is the same LED pattern as prepare for removal. When you initiate a prepare to remove operation, ensure that your PCIe SSD is no longer accessible by the system before you physically remove the PCIe SSD.

You can safely remove the device from the operating system under the following conditions after you use the Prepare to Remove task:

– The PCIe SSD is blinking the prepare for removal LED pattern. See table PCIe SSD States and LED Indicator

Codes.

– The PCIe SSD is no longer accessible by the operating system.

2. Press the release button on the front of the device carrier and open the device carrier release handle to release the PCIe SSD.

See figure Removing and Installing a PCIe SSD From/Into the System.

3. Slide out the PCIe SSD.

NOTE: To maintain proper system cooling, all empty device bays must have device blanks installed. For instructions on how to install a device bay, see the system specific manuals.

Owner's Manual

at dell.com/support/

Figure 4. Removing and Installing a PCIe SSD From/Into the System

1. release button

2. PCIe SSD slot

3. PCIe SSD

4. PCIe SSD carrier handle

Installing A PCIe SSD In The System

WARNING: Inserting a PCIe SSD carrier and attempting to lock its lever next to a partially installed carrier can damage the partially installed carrier's shield spring, making it unusable.

When installing a PCIe SSD, ensure that the adjacent devices are installed.

1. Press the release button on the front of the PCIe SSD carrier and open the handle.

2. Slide the PCIe SSD carrier into the PCIe SSD bay until the carrier contacts the backplane.

3. Close the PCIe SSD carrier handle to lock the device in place.

See figure Removing and Installing a PCIe SSD From/Into the System.

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