Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager .................................................................................................15
User Interface.........................................................................................................................................................15
Inheriting The System Settings........................................................................................................................16
Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Configuration Utility...............................................................................................17
Other Information You May Need...........................................................................................................................17
2 About Your MD Series Storage Array....................................................................................19
Physical Disks, Virtual Disks, And Disk Groups......................................................................................................19
Physical Disk States.........................................................................................................................................19
Self-Monitoring Analysis And Reporting Technology......................................................................................20
Virtual Disks And Disk Groups..........................................................................................................................20
Virtual Disk States............................................................................................................................................20
Disk Pools...............................................................................................................................................................21
Virtual Disk Operations...........................................................................................................................................23
Virtual Disk Initialization...................................................................................................................................23
Media Verification............................................................................................................................................24
Virtual Disk Operations Limit............................................................................................................................24
Disk Group Operations............................................................................................................................................24
Virtual Disk Capacity Expansion.......................................................................................................................25
Disk Group Expansion......................................................................................................................................25
Disk Group Defragmentation............................................................................................................................25
Disk Group Operations Limit.............................................................................................................................25
Virtual Disk Migration And Disk Roaming...............................................................................................................26
Disk Migration..................................................................................................................................................26
Disk Roaming....................................................................................................................................................27
Host Server-To-Virtual Disk Mapping..............................................................................................................27
Virtual Disk Copy..............................................................................................................................................29
Virtual Disk Recovery.......................................................................................................................................30
Using Snapshot And Virtual Disk Copy Together.............................................................................................30
Preferred And Alternate Controllers And Paths...............................................................................................31
Virtual Disk Ownership.....................................................................................................................................31
Monitoring System Performance............................................................................................................................32
Monitoring Performance Using The Tabular View...........................................................................................32
Monitoring Performance Using The Graphical View.......................................................................................33
3 Discovering And Managing Your Storage Array.................................................................35
Automatic Discovery Of Storage Arrays..........................................................................................................36
Manual Addition Of A Storage Array...............................................................................................................36
Setting Up Your Storage Array...............................................................................................................................37
Naming Or Renaming Storage Arrays..............................................................................................................38
Setting A Password..........................................................................................................................................38
Adding Or Editing A Comment To An Existing Storage Array...........................................................................39
Changing The Battery Settings........................................................................................................................44
Setting The Storage Array RAID Controller Module Clocks...................................................................................44
4 Using iSCSI.................................................................................................................................47
Changing The iSCSI Target Authentication............................................................................................................47
Creating CHAP Secrets...........................................................................................................................................48
Initiator CHAP Secret.......................................................................................................................................48
Target CHAP Secret.........................................................................................................................................48
Valid Characters For CHAP Secrets.................................................................................................................48
Changing The iSCSI Target Identification..............................................................................................................49
Changing The iSCSI Target Discovery Settings.....................................................................................................49
Configuring The iSCSI Host Ports...........................................................................................................................49
Advanced iSCSI Host Port Settings........................................................................................................................50
Viewing Or Ending An iSCSI Session......................................................................................................................51
Viewing iSCSI Statistics And Setting Baseline Statistics.......................................................................................51
Edit, Remove, Or Rename Host Topology...............................................................................................................52
Enabling Or Disabling The Event Monitor...............................................................................................................53
Using The Host Mappings Tab................................................................................................................................55
Defining A Host.................................................................................................................................................56
Creating A Host Group............................................................................................................................................57
Adding A Host To A Host Group.......................................................................................................................58
Removing A Host From A Host Group...............................................................................................................58
Moving A Host To A Different Host Group.......................................................................................................58
Removing A Host Group...................................................................................................................................58
Starting Or Stopping The Host Context Agent..................................................................................................59
I/O Data Path Protection.........................................................................................................................................59
Managing Host Port Identifiers..............................................................................................................................60
7 Disk Groups, Standard Virtual Disks, And Thin Virtual Disks.............................................63
Creating Disk Groups And Virtual Disks.................................................................................................................63
Creating Disk Groups........................................................................................................................................63
Locating A Disk Group......................................................................................................................................65
Creating Standard Virtual Disks.......................................................................................................................65
Changing The Virtual Disk Modification Priority..............................................................................................66
Changing The Virtual Disk Cache Settings.......................................................................................................67
Changing The Segment Size Of A Virtual Disk.................................................................................................68
Changing The IO Type......................................................................................................................................68
Advantages Of Thin Virtual Disks.....................................................................................................................69
Physical Vs Virtual Capacity On A Thin Virtual Disk........................................................................................69
Thin Virtual Disk Requirements And Limitations..............................................................................................70
Thin Virtual Disk States....................................................................................................................................71
Comparison—Types Of Virtual Disks And Copy Services...............................................................................71
Rollback On Thin Virtual Disks.........................................................................................................................72
Initializing A Thin Virtual Disk...........................................................................................................................72
Changing A Thin Virtual Disk To A Standard Virtual Disk................................................................................75
Choosing An Appropriate Physical Disk Type........................................................................................................75
Physical Disk Security With Self Encrypting Disk..................................................................................................75
Creating A Security Key...................................................................................................................................77
Changing A Security Key..................................................................................................................................78
Saving A Security Key......................................................................................................................................79
Configuring Hot Spare Physical Disks....................................................................................................................80
Hot Spares And Rebuild...................................................................................................................................81
Global Hot Spares............................................................................................................................................82
Hot Spare Operation.........................................................................................................................................82
Hot Spare Drive Protection..............................................................................................................................82
Enclosure Loss Protection......................................................................................................................................83
Drawer Loss Protection..........................................................................................................................................83
Host-To-Virtual Disk Mapping................................................................................................................................84
Creating Host-To-Virtual Disk Mappings.........................................................................................................85
Modifying And Removing Host-To-Virtual Disk Mapping................................................................................86
Changing Controller Ownership Of The Virtual Disk........................................................................................86
Removing Host-To-Virtual Disk Mapping.........................................................................................................87
Changing The RAID Controller Module Ownership Of A Disk Group...............................................................87
Changing The RAID Level Of A Disk Group......................................................................................................88
Removing A Host-To-Virtual Disk Mapping Using Linux DMMP......................................................................88
Disk Group And Virtual Disk Expansion..................................................................................................................91
Disk Group Expansion......................................................................................................................................91
Virtual Disk Expansion......................................................................................................................................91
Using Free Capacity.........................................................................................................................................91
Using Unconfigured Capacity..........................................................................................................................92
Disk Group Migration..............................................................................................................................................92
Export Disk Group.............................................................................................................................................92
Import Disk Group............................................................................................................................................93
Storage Array Media Scan.....................................................................................................................................94
Changing Media Scan Settings........................................................................................................................94
Suspending The Media Scan...........................................................................................................................95
8 Disk Pools And Disk Pool Virtual Disks..................................................................................97
Difference Between Disk Groups And Disk Pools..................................................................................................97
Disk Pool Restrictions.............................................................................................................................................97
Creating A Disk Pool Manually...............................................................................................................................98
Automatically Managing The Unconfigured Capacity In Disk Pools......................................................................99
Locating Physical Disks In A Disk Pool...................................................................................................................99
Renaming A Disk Pool...........................................................................................................................................100
Configuring Alert Notifications For A Disk Pool....................................................................................................100
Adding Unassigned Physical Disks To A Disk Pool..............................................................................................101
Configuring The Preservation Capacity Of A Disk Pool........................................................................................101
Changing The Modification Priority Of A Disk Pool..............................................................................................102
Changing The RAID Controller Module Ownership Of A Disk Pool......................................................................102
Checking Data Consistency..................................................................................................................................103
Deleting A Disk Pool.............................................................................................................................................104
Viewing Storage Array Logical Components And Associated Physical Components ........................................104
Secure Disk Pools.................................................................................................................................................105
Changing Capacity On Existing Thin Virtual Disks................................................................................................106
Creating A Thin Virtual Disk From A Disk Pool......................................................................................................106
9 Using SSD Cache....................................................................................................................109
How SSD Cache Works........................................................................................................................................109
Benefits Of SSD Cache.........................................................................................................................................109
Creating An SSD Cache........................................................................................................................................110
Viewing Physical Components Associated With An SSD Cache.........................................................................110
Locating Physical Disks In An SSD Cache...........................................................................................................111
Adding Physical Disks To An SSD Cache.............................................................................................................111
Removing Physical Disks From An SSD Cache....................................................................................................111
Suspending Or Resuming SSD Caching...............................................................................................................112
Changing I/O Type In An SSD Cache....................................................................................................................112
Renaming An SSD Cache.....................................................................................................................................112
Deleting An SSD Cache........................................................................................................................................112
Using The Performance Modeling Tool................................................................................................................113
Snapshot Virtual Disk Vs. Snapshot Virtual Disk (Legacy)...................................................................................115
Snapshot Images And Groups..............................................................................................................................115
Snapshot Virtual Disk Read/Write Properties......................................................................................................116
Snapshot Groups And Consistency Groups..........................................................................................................116
Creating A Snapshot Image...........................................................................................................................119
Canceling A Pending Snapshot Image...........................................................................................................119
Deleting A Snapshot Image............................................................................................................................120
Creating A Snapshot Schedule......................................................................................................................121
Editing A Snapshot Schedule.........................................................................................................................121
Starting A Snapshot Rollback........................................................................................................................123
Resuming A Snapshot Image Rollback..........................................................................................................123
Canceling A Snapshot Image Rollback..........................................................................................................124
Viewing The Progress Of A Snapshot Rollback.............................................................................................124
Creating A Snapshot Group..................................................................................................................................125
Creating A Consistency Group Repository (Manually)...................................................................................126
Changing Snapshot Group Settings...............................................................................................................128
Renaming A Snapshot Group.........................................................................................................................128
Deleting A Snapshot Group............................................................................................................................129
Converting Snapshots (Legacy) To A Snapshot Group........................................................................................129
Converting A Snapshot Virtual Disk To Read-Write.............................................................................................130
Viewing Associated Physical Components Of An Individual Repository Virtual Disk..........................................130
Creating A Consistency Group..............................................................................................................................131
Creating A Consistency Group Repository (Manually)...................................................................................132
Renaming A Consistency Group.....................................................................................................................133
Deleting A Consistency Group.......................................................................................................................133
Changing The Settings Of A Consistency Group............................................................................................134
Adding A Member Virtual Disk To A Consistency Group...............................................................................134
Removing A Member Virtual Disk From A Consistency Group......................................................................135
Creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk Of A Snapshot Image......................................................................................136
Snapshot Virtual Disk Limitations...................................................................................................................136
Creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk...................................................................................................................136
Creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk Repository.................................................................................................138
Changing The Settings Of A Snapshot Virtual Disk........................................................................................139
Disabling A Snapshot Virtual Disk Or Consistency Group Snapshot Virtual Disk..........................................139
Re-creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk Or Consistency Group Snapshot Virtual Disk......................................140
Renaming A Snapshot Virtual Disk Or Consistency Group Snapshot Virtual Disk.........................................141
Deleting A Snapshot Virtual Disk Or Consistency Group Snapshot Virtual Disk...........................................141
Creating A Consistency Group Snapshot Virtual Disk..........................................................................................142
Creating A Consistency Group Snapshot Virtual Disk Repository (Manually)...............................................144
Disabling A Snapshot Virtual Disk Or Consistency Group Snapshot Virtual Disk..........................................145
Re-creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk Or Consistency Group Snapshot Virtual Disk......................................146
Changing The Modification Priority Of An Overall Repository Virtual Disk....................................................146
Changing The Media Scan Setting Of An Overall Repository Virtual Disk.....................................................147
Changing The Pre-read Consistency Check Setting Of An Overall Repository Virtual Disk..........................147
Increasing The Capacity Of An Overall Repository........................................................................................148
Decreasing The Capacity Of The Overall Repository.....................................................................................150
Performing A Revive Operation......................................................................................................................151
Scheduling A Snapshot Virtual Disk.....................................................................................................................154
Common Reasons For Scheduling A Snapshot Virtual Disk...........................................................................154
Guidelines for Creating Snapshot Schedules................................................................................................154
Creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk Using The Simple Path....................................................................................154
About The Simple Path...................................................................................................................................155
Preparing Host Servers To Create The Snapshot Using The Simple Path.....................................................155
Creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk Using The Advanced Path...............................................................................156
About The Advanced Path.............................................................................................................................156
Preparing Host Servers To Create The Snapshot Using The Advanced Path...............................................157
Creating The Snapshot Using The Advanced Path........................................................................................158
Specifying Snapshot Virtual Disk Names.............................................................................................................159
Disabling A Snapshot Virtual Disk........................................................................................................................162
Preparing Host Servers To Re-Create A Snapshot Virtual Disk.....................................................................162
Re-Creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk....................................................................................................................163
12 Premium Feature—Virtual Disk Copy................................................................................165
Using Virtual Disk Copy With Snapshot Or Snapshot (Legacy) Premium Feature...............................................165
Types Of Virtual Disk Copies.................................................................................................................................166
Creating A Virtual Disk Copy For An MSCS Shared Disk......................................................................................166
Virtual Disk Read/Write Permissions....................................................................................................................167
Virtual Disk Copy Restrictions...............................................................................................................................167
Creating A Virtual Disk Copy.................................................................................................................................168
Setting Read/Write Permissions On Target Virtual Disk................................................................................168
Before You Begin...........................................................................................................................................168
Virtual Disk Copy And Modification Operations.............................................................................................168
Failed Virtual Disk Copy..................................................................................................................................169
Copying The Virtual Disk.......................................................................................................................................170
Storage Array Performance During Virtual Disk Copy.........................................................................................171
Stopping A Virtual Disk Copy................................................................................................................................171
Recopying A Virtual Disk......................................................................................................................................172
Preparing Host Servers To Recopy A Virtual Disk.........................................................................................172
Recopying The Virtual Disk............................................................................................................................173
Using DM Multipathing Devices...........................................................................................................................175
Scan For Newly Added Virtual Disks.............................................................................................................176
Display The Multipath Device Topology Using The Multipath Command......................................................177
Create A New fdisk Partition On A Multipath Device Node...........................................................................177
Add A New Partition To Device Mapper........................................................................................................178
Create A File System On A Device Mapper Partition.....................................................................................178
Mount A Device Mapper Partition.................................................................................................................178
Ready For Use................................................................................................................................................178
Linux Host Server Reboot Best Practices.............................................................................................................178
Important Information About Special Partitions...................................................................................................179
Limitations And Known Issues..............................................................................................................................179
Automatic Transfer Of Ownership........................................................................................................................181
Native ALUA Support On Microsoft Windows And Linux.....................................................................................181
Enabling ALUA On VMware ESX/ESXi..................................................................................................................181
Manually Adding SATP Rule In ESX 4.1 (Update 1 And Update 2).................................................................181
Manually Adding SATP Rule In ESX/ESXi 5.0.................................................................................................182
Verifying ALUA On VMware ESX/ESXi.................................................................................................................182
Verifying If Host Server Is Using ALUA For MD Storage Array............................................................................182
Setting Round-Robin Load Balancing Policy On ESX/ESXi-Based Storage Arrays.............................................183
About Asynchronous Remote Replication............................................................................................................185
Remote Replicated Pairs And Replication Repositories.......................................................................................185
Types Of Remote Replication................................................................................................................................186
Differences Between Remote Replication Features......................................................................................186
Upgrading To Asynchronous Remote Replication From Remote Replication (Legacy).................................186
Remote Replication Requirements And Restrictions............................................................................................187
Restrictions On Using Remote Replication....................................................................................................187
Setting Up Remote Replication.............................................................................................................................187
Journaling File Systems And Remote Replication (Legacy).................................................................................197
Prerequisites For Setting Up And Managing Remote Replication (Legacy).........................................................197
Activating The Remote Replication (Legacy) Premium Feature And Creating Replication Virtual Disks.............197
Activating And Creating Replication Repository Virtual Disks From The Storage Array......................................197
Activating And Creating Replication Repository Virtual Disks From An Existing Disk Group...............................198
Creating A Remote Replication (Legacy)..............................................................................................................198
Selecting The Secondary Virtual Disk..................................................................................................................199
Setting The Write Mode........................................................................................................................................199
Setting Synchronization Priority And Synchronization Method...........................................................................200
Completing The Remote Replication (Legacy)......................................................................................................200
Viewing Information About A Remote Replication (Legacy) Or Replication Repository (Legacy) Virtual Disk....201
Viewing The Storage Array Profile.................................................................................................................201
Viewing The Properties Pane.........................................................................................................................202
Viewing Logical Elements Of The Secondary Virtual Disk.............................................................................202
Viewing The Physical Components Or Logical Elements Of The Primary Virtual Disk..................................202
Virtual Disk Status Icons................................................................................................................................203
Changing Write Mode And Consistency Group Membership........................................................................203
Downloading RAID Controller And NVSRAM Packages......................................................................................213
Downloading Both RAID Controller And NVSRAM Firmware..............................................................................213
Downloading Only NVSRAM Firmware................................................................................................................215
Downloading Physical Disk Firmware..................................................................................................................216
Downloading MD3060e Series Expansion Module EMM Firmware.....................................................................217
Self-Monitoring Analysis And Reporting Technology (SMART)...........................................................................218
Media Errors And Unreadable Sectors................................................................................................................218
Viewing The Firmware Inventory..........................................................................................................................219
19 System Interfaces.................................................................................................................221
Virtual Disk Service...............................................................................................................................................221
Device Health Conditions.....................................................................................................................................223
Collecting Physical Disk Data...............................................................................................................................226
Creating A Support Data Collection Schedule...............................................................................................227
Suspending Or Resuming A Support Data Collection Schedule....................................................................227
Removing A Support Data Collection Schedule.............................................................................................228
Viewing The Event Log...................................................................................................................................228
Viewing The Physical Associations......................................................................................................................230
Recovering From An Unresponsive Storage Array Condition..............................................................................230
Locating A Physical Disk......................................................................................................................................232
Locating An Expansion Enclosure........................................................................................................................232
Capturing The State Information..........................................................................................................................233