Poweredge RC h730p Users Guide en Us
Poweredge RC h730p Users Guide en Us
Poweredge RC h730p Users Guide en Us
Guide
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.
Copyright © 2016 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Dell, EMC, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its
subsidiaries. Other trademarks may be trademarks of their respective owners.
2016 - 12
Rev. A06
Contents
1 Overview......................................................................................................................... 9
Supported operating systems........................................................................................................................................... 13
PERC card specifications.................................................................................................................................................. 14
Management applications for PERC cards........................................................................................................................15
Comprehensive embedded management ................................................................................................................... 15
Dell OpenManage Storage Management.................................................................................................................... 15
Related documentation..................................................................................................................................................... 16
3 Features........................................................................................................................22
Enhanced rebuild prioritization......................................................................................................................................... 22
Redundant path support for PERC H830.........................................................................................................................22
Setting up redundant path support on the PERC H830 adapter................................................................................ 22
Reverting to single path support from redundant path support for PERC H830........................................................ 23
240 virtual disk support for H830.....................................................................................................................................23
PERC 9 personality management..................................................................................................................................... 23
Secure firmware update...................................................................................................................................................24
Improved RAID 10 configuration....................................................................................................................................... 24
4 KB sector disk drives.....................................................................................................................................................24
Physical disk power management.....................................................................................................................................24
Configured spin down delay....................................................................................................................................... 25
Types of virtual disk initialization...................................................................................................................................... 25
Full initialization.......................................................................................................................................................... 25
Fast initialization.........................................................................................................................................................25
Background initialization...................................................................................................................................................25
Consistency checks......................................................................................................................................................... 26
Disk roaming.....................................................................................................................................................................26
Using disk roaming..................................................................................................................................................... 26
FastPath.......................................................................................................................................................................... 26
Configuring FastPath-capable virtual disks.................................................................................................................27
Virtual disk migration........................................................................................................................................................ 27
Migrating virtual disks.................................................................................................................................................27
Virtual disk write cache policies........................................................................................................................................ 28
Conditions under which write-back is employed.........................................................................................................28
Conditions under which forced write-back with no battery is employed.................................................................... 28
Virtual disk read cache policies......................................................................................................................................... 28
3
Reconfiguration of virtual disks........................................................................................................................................ 29
Fault tolerance................................................................................................................................................................. 30
The SMART feature....................................................................................................................................................31
Patrol Read................................................................................................................................................................. 31
Physical disk failure detection.....................................................................................................................................32
Using persistent hot spare slots................................................................................................................................. 32
Physical disk hot swapping.........................................................................................................................................32
Using replace member and revertible hot spares........................................................................................................32
Controller cache preservation.................................................................................................................................... 32
Battery Transparent Learn Cycle............................................................................................................................... 33
Non-RAID disks support............................................................................................................................................. 33
5 Driver installation...........................................................................................................51
Creating the device driver media...................................................................................................................................... 51
Downloading drivers from the Dell support website.................................................................................................... 51
Downloading drivers from the Dell systems service and diagnostic tools media ......................................................... 51
Windows driver installation...............................................................................................................................................52
Installing the driver during a Windows Server 2008 R2 and newer installation........................................................... 52
Installing the driver after Windows Server 2008 R2 and newer installation ............................................................... 52
Updating PERC 9 driver for existing Windows Server 2008 R2 and newer................................................................52
Linux driver installation..................................................................................................................................................... 53
Installing or updating the RPM driver package with KMOD support...........................................................................53
Installing or updating the RPM driver package with KMP support............................................................................. 53
4
Virtual disk actions..................................................................................................................................................... 60
Physical disk management (PD Mgmt)....................................................................................................................... 61
Physical disk actions................................................................................................................................................... 61
Rebuild....................................................................................................................................................................... 62
Controller management (Ctrl Mgmt)......................................................................................................................... 62
Controller management actions................................................................................................................................. 62
Foreign configuration view......................................................................................................................................... 63
Virtual Disk Management................................................................................................................................................. 63
Creating virtual disks.................................................................................................................................................. 63
Selecting virtual disk parameters................................................................................................................................64
Initializing virtual disks................................................................................................................................................ 65
Checking data consistency........................................................................................................................................ 65
Running a data consistency check............................................................................................................................. 65
Importing or clearing foreign configurations using the VD mgmt menu...................................................................... 65
Importing or clearing foreign configurations using the foreign configuration view screen.......................................... 66
Break mirror............................................................................................................................................................... 67
Managing preserved cache........................................................................................................................................ 68
Managing dedicated hot spares................................................................................................................................. 68
Deleting virtual disks...................................................................................................................................................69
Deleting disk groups................................................................................................................................................... 69
Clearing the configuration.......................................................................................................................................... 69
Physical Disk Management...............................................................................................................................................70
Physical disk erase......................................................................................................................................................70
Converting physical disk to Non-RAID or RAID capable..............................................................................................70
Setting LED blinking................................................................................................................................................... 70
Creating global hot spares...........................................................................................................................................71
Removing global or dedicated hot spares....................................................................................................................71
Replacing an online physical disk................................................................................................................................. 71
Restrictions and limitations.........................................................................................................................................72
Stopping background initialization.............................................................................................................................. 72
Performing a manual rebuild of an individual physical disk...........................................................................................72
Controller Management....................................................................................................................................................72
Enabling boot support................................................................................................................................................ 72
Enabling boot support for a BIOS-enabled controller..................................................................................................73
Enabling BIOS stop on error....................................................................................................................................... 73
Disabling BIOS stop on error.......................................................................................................................................73
Enabling auto import...................................................................................................................................................73
Disabling auto import.................................................................................................................................................. 74
Restoring factory default settings.............................................................................................................................. 74
5
Creating profile based virtual disks............................................................................................................................. 77
Converting physical disks to RAID capable disk.......................................................................................................... 77
Converting physical disks to non-RAID disk................................................................................................................ 77
Viewing disk group properties.....................................................................................................................................77
Viewing disk group properties.....................................................................................................................................77
Managing foreign configurations on a RAID controller................................................................................................78
Deleting existing configurations on a RAID controller................................................................................................. 78
Controller management.................................................................................................................................................... 78
Restoring factory settings for the controller...............................................................................................................78
Saving controller events............................................................................................................................................. 78
Enabling security for the controller.............................................................................................................................78
Saving debug log........................................................................................................................................................ 79
Switching the controller to HBA mode....................................................................................................................... 79
Switching the controller to RAID mode...................................................................................................................... 79
Virtual disk management.................................................................................................................................................. 79
Viewing virtual disk properties.................................................................................................................................... 79
Viewing physical disks associated with a virtual disk.................................................................................................. 80
Physical disk management............................................................................................................................................... 80
Viewing physical disk properties................................................................................................................................. 80
Hardware components management................................................................................................................................ 81
Viewing battery properties..........................................................................................................................................81
Viewing physical disks associated with an enclosure................................................................................................... 81
Controller management (Ctrl Mgmt)................................................................................................................................ 81
Controller management actions........................................................................................................................................ 81
Dirty cache data error message........................................................................................................................................82
Discovery error message.................................................................................................................................................. 82
Drive Configuration Changes Error Message....................................................................................................................83
9 Troubleshooting............................................................................................................ 89
Adapter at baseport not responding error message......................................................................................................... 89
BIOS disabled error message............................................................................................................................................89
BIOS configuration utility error messages.........................................................................................................................89
Discovery error message............................................................................................................................................89
6
Extra enclosure error message...................................................................................................................................89
Missing disks in virtual disk error message................................................................................................................. 90
Previous configuration of disks removed error message............................................................................................ 90
Missing virtual disks error message............................................................................................................................ 90
Dirty cache data error message................................................................................................................................. 90
BIOS disabled error message...................................................................................................................................... 91
Drive Configuration Changes Error Message.............................................................................................................. 91
Adapter at baseport not responding error message.................................................................................................... 91
Offline or missing virtual drives with preserved cache error message......................................................................... 91
Virtual disks offline error message..............................................................................................................................92
Virtual disks degraded error message.........................................................................................................................92
Virtual disks partially degraded error message............................................................................................................92
Memory or battery problem error message................................................................................................................ 92
Firmware fault state error message............................................................................................................................93
Foreign configuration found error message................................................................................................................93
Foreign configuration not found in <ctrl> <R> error message.................................................................................... 93
Previous configuration cleared or missing error message........................................................................................... 93
Invalid SAS topology detected error message............................................................................................................ 93
Configured disks removed or not accessible error message....................................................................................... 94
Configured disks removed or not accessible error message............................................................................................. 94
Dirty cache data error message....................................................................................................................................... 94
Discovery error message..................................................................................................................................................94
Drive Configuration Changes Error Message................................................................................................................... 95
Windows operating system installation errors ................................................................................................................. 95
Extra enclosure error message.........................................................................................................................................95
Firmware fault state error message................................................................................................................................. 95
Foreign configuration found error message......................................................................................................................95
Foreign configuration not found in <ctrl> <R> error message..........................................................................................96
Degraded state of virtual disks.........................................................................................................................................96
Memory errors................................................................................................................................................................. 96
Preserved Cache State.................................................................................................................................................... 96
Security key errors........................................................................................................................................................... 97
Secured foreign import errors.................................................................................................................................... 97
Failure to select or configure non Self-Encrypting Disks (non-SED)...........................................................................97
Failure to delete security key...................................................................................................................................... 97
Failure to secure erase task on physical disks............................................................................................................. 97
General issues.................................................................................................................................................................. 97
PERC card has yellow bang in device manager.......................................................................................................... 97
PERC card not seen in device manager......................................................................................................................97
Physical disk issues.......................................................................................................................................................... 98
Physical disk in failed state......................................................................................................................................... 98
Unable to rebuild a fault tolerant virtual disk...............................................................................................................98
Fatal error or data corruption reported.......................................................................................................................98
Physical disk displayed as blocked.............................................................................................................................. 98
Multiple disks become inaccessible.............................................................................................................................98
7
Rebuilding a failed physical disk.................................................................................................................................. 99
Virtual disk fails during rebuild using a global hot spare...............................................................................................99
Virtual disk fails during rebuild using a dedicated hot spare........................................................................................ 99
Physical disk fails during reconstruction on redundant virtual disk..............................................................................99
Virtual disk fails rebuild using a dedicated hot spare................................................................................................... 99
Physical disk takes a long time to rebuild....................................................................................................................99
SMART errors.................................................................................................................................................................. 99
Smart error detected on a physical disk in a redundant virtual disk...........................................................................100
Smart error detected on a physical disk in a non-redundant virtual disk................................................................... 100
Replace member errors.................................................................................................................................................. 100
Source disk fails during replace member operation................................................................................................... 100
Target disk fails........................................................................................................................................................ 100
General disk fails.......................................................................................................................................................100
Linux operating system errors......................................................................................................................................... 101
Virtual disk policy is assumed as write-through error message.................................................................................. 101
Unable to register SCSI device error message...........................................................................................................101
Disk Carrier LED Indicators..............................................................................................................................................101
UEFI error messages.......................................................................................................................................................102
Unhealthy Status of the Drivers................................................................................................................................102
8
1
Overview
The Dell PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller (PERC) 9 Series of cards consist of the H330, H730, H730P, and H830 cards.
• PERC H330: The PERC H330 is a general purpose RAID solution card. The card is available in Adapter (low profile and full
height), Mini Monolithic, and Mini Blade form factors for internal storage and tape devices.
9
Figure 2. Features of PERC H330 mini monolithic card
• PERC H730: The PERC H730 is a RAID solution card consisting of a minimum of 1 GB Non-Volatile Cache and is available in the
Adapter (low profile and full height), Mini Monolithic, and Mini Blade form factors for internal storage.
10
5. SAS cable connectors
• PERC H730P: The PERC H730P is the performance RAID solution card consisting of 2 GB Non-Volatile Cache and is available
in the Adapter (low profile and full height), Slim, and Mini Monolithic form factors for internal storage.
11
Figure 5. Features of PERC H730P adapter card
• PERC H830: The PERC H830 is similar to the H730P solution, except that it supports external storage. The PERC H830 is only
available in the Adapter (low profile and full height) form factor.
12
Figure 6. Features of PERC H830 adapter card
NOTE: The PERC 9 driver for VMware ESXi is bundled with the VMware ISO image available from Dell. For more
information, see Dell.com/virtualizationsolutions.
• VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 6.5 (64-bit)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 for HPC Compute Node
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 6.6
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 6.7
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 6.8
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 7
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 7.1
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 7.2
13
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server version 11 SP3 (64-bit)
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server version 11 SP4
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server version 12
NOTE: For the latest list of supported operating systems and driver installation instructions, see the system
documentation at Dell.com/support/manuals. For specific operating system service pack requirements, see the Drivers
and Downloads section at Dell.com/support/manuals.
Feature PERC H330 PERC H730 PERC H730P PERC H830 PERC FD33xD/
FD33xS
RAID Levels 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, 60 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, 60 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50,
60 60
Enclosures per port Not applicable Not applicable Not applicable 8 (4 per port) Not applicable
Processor Dell Adapter SAS Dell Adapter SAS Dell Adapter SAS Dell Adapter SAS Dell Adapter SAS
RAID-on-Chip, 8- RAID-on-Chip, 8- RAID-on-Chip, 8- RAID-on-Chip, 8- RAID-on-Chip, 8-
port with LSI 3008 port with LSI 3108 port with LSI 3108 port with LSI port with LSI 3108
chipset chipset chipset 3108 chipset chipset
Cache policy No 1 GB DDR3 1333 2 GB DDR3 1866 2 GB DDR3 1866 2 GB DDR3 1866
Mhz cache Mhz cache Mhz cache Mhz cache
NOTE: H330
does not
support
caching,
which affects
performance
in RAID 5 and
RAID 50
arrays. For
performance
sensitive
solutions,
caching is
recommende
d.
Cache function Write Through and Write Back, Write Write Back, Write Write Back, Write Write Back, Write
No Read Ahead Through, No Read Through, No Read Through, No Through, No Read
Ahead, and Read Ahead, and Read Read Ahead, and Ahead, and Read
Ahead Ahead Read Ahead Ahead
14
Feature PERC H330 PERC H730 PERC H730P PERC H830 PERC FD33xD/
FD33xS
Maximum number of 16 16 16 16 16
virtual disks per disk
group
Drives Types 3 Gbps SATA, 6 3 Gbps SATA, 6 3 Gbps SATA, 6 6 Gbps SAS, and 3 Gbps SATA, 6
Gbps SATA/SAS, Gbps SATA/SAS, Gbps SATA/SAS, 12 Gbps SAS Gbps SATA/SAS,
and 12 Gbps SAS and 12 Gbps SAS and 12 Gbps SAS and 12 Gbps SAS
15
you can protect your data by configuring data-redundancy, assigning hot spares, or rebuilding failed physical disks. The command
line interface available on selected operating systems to perform RAID management tasks is fully featured and scriptable.
NOTE: For more information, see the Dell OpenManage Storage Management User's Guide at Dell.com/
openmanagemanuals.
Related documentation
NOTE:
16
2
Getting started with your PERC card
The workflows outlined below list the procedures to getting started with the PERC card, based on your system configuration:
• Installing the operating system and the PERC card on a base system
• Installing the PERC card on a system with the operating system pre-installed
• Installing the operating system on a system with the PERC card pre-installed
• Setting up the system with the PERC card and the operating system pre-installed
• Configuring settings of a replaced PERC card on a system with operating system pre-installed
Installing the operating system and the PERC card on a base system
1. Install the PERC 9 card in the system. For more information, see Deploying the PERC card.
2. Download the PERC 9 drivers from the Dell support site. For more information, see Dell.com/support.
3. Use any of the PERC management applications to create the virtual disks and RAID configurations you require using the
procedures listed below:
17
4. Enabling Auto Import
4. Install the operating system. For more information, refer to your operating system documentation.
5. Install the operating system drivers for PERC 9.
• If your operating system is Windows, install the Windows drivers. For more information, see Windows driver installation.
• If your operating system is Linux, install the Linux drivers. For more information, see Linux driver installation.
6. Additionally, you can install and use OpenManage Storage Services to manage the PERC card(s), after the operating system is
installed.
Installing the PERC card on a system with the operating system pre-
installed
1. Install the PERC 9 card in the system. For more information, see Deploying the PERC card.
2. Download the PERC 9 drivers from the Dell support site. For more information, see Dell.com/support.
3. Install the operating system drivers for PERC 9.
• If your operating system is Windows, install the Windows drivers. For more information, see Windows driver installation.
• If your operating system is Linux, install the Linux drivers. For more information, see Linux driver installation.
4. Use any of the PERC management applications to create the virtual disks and RAID configurations you require using the
procedures listed below:
18
5. Additionally, you can install and use OpenManage Storage Services to manage the PERC card(s).
Installing the operating system on a system with the PERC card pre-
installed
1. Use any of the PERC management applications to manage the virtual disks and RAID configurations on your system, using the
procedures listed below:
• If your operating system is Windows, install the Windows drivers. For more information, see Windows driver installation.
• If your operating system is Linux, install the Linux drivers. For more information, see Linux driver installation.
4. Additionally, you can install and use OpenManage Storage Services to manage the PERC card(s), after the operating system is
installed.
Setting up the system with the PERC card and the operating system
pre-installed
1. Use any of the PERC management applications to create the virtual disks and RAID configurations you require using the
procedures listed below:
19
a. Importing Or Clearing Secured Foreign Configurations And Secure Disk Migration
b. Manage physical disks.
20
d. Managing virtual disks
21
3
Features
PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) nine series cards support the following features:
• Enhanced rebuild prioritization
• 240 virtual disk support for H830
• Personality mode management
• Secure firmware update
• Improved RAID 10 configuration
• 4 KB sector disk drives
• 1 MB IO support for H730, H730P and H830 controllers
NOTE: The 1 MB IO feature must be enabled by using PERC CLI command perccli /cx set largeIOsupport=on. If the
capacity of IO frame is greater than 1 MB, the IO frame is broken into smaller chunks.
NOTE: This support for redundant paths refers to path redundancy only and not to controller redundancy.
1. Connect two SAS cables from the out ports (EMM0_Out and EMM1_Out) on your PERC H830 card to the in ports (EMM3_In
and EMM4_In) of the external enclosure.
22
Figure 7. PERC H830 card ports
For information on unified mode, see the enclosure documentation that was shipped with the enclosure.
2. To add multiple enclosures, cable both out ports of the first enclosure to both in ports of the next enclosure.
After you set up the hardware, the controller detects the redundant paths and automatically utilizes them to balance the I/O
load.
Reverting to single path support from redundant path support for PERC H830
If you need to revert to single path support from redundant path support, shut down the system and remove the exact same cables
that were added to support redundant path support, leaving only one connection between the controller and enclosures. After you
remove the cable and turn on the system, ensure that there are no warning messages during boot, and that all virtual disks are
online and optimal.
23
• RAID mode: RAID mode is commonly used and the controllers are mostly shipped from the factory in RAID mode. This mode
allows the creation and operation of RAID virtual disks and non-RAID disks.
• HBA mode: In the HBA mode, PERC controller operates as Host Bus Adapter (HBA). This mode does not contain virtual disks or
the ability to create them. All physical disks function as non-RAID disks under operating system control. The PERC card acts as a
conduit between the host server and the physical disks. Input and output requests originate from the host and are passed
through the controller to the physical drives. HBA mode is the approach used for Windows Storage Spaces.
NOTE: HBA mode should be enabled for customers, using Microsoft Storage Spaces or VMware Virtual SAN. HBA mode
allows the operating system to control backplane LED functionality on supported systems.
NOTE:
• Mixing 512–byte native and 512–byte emulated drives in a virtual disk is allowed, but mixing 512–byte and 4 KB native
drives in a virtual disk is not allowed.
• 4 KB sector disk drives boot only in UEFI mode.
Balanced Power Spin down is enabled only for unconfigured and hot spare disks.
Savings
Maximum Power Spin down is enabled for configured, unconfigured, and hot spare disks.
Savings
NOTE: The maximum power savings mode is not supported by the H330 PERC card.
Customized Power All power savings features are customizable. You can specify a Quality of Service window during which the
Savings configured disks are excluded from spin-down.
24
NOTE: The customized power savings mode is not supported by the H330 PERC card.
The amount of time to wait before spinning down disks can be set using Configured Spin Down Delay. The minimum value of the
timer is 30 minutes (default) and the maximum is one day. Disks are spun down automatically and spun up when accessed. All disks
are spun up on reboot.
NOTE: There is a delay in I/O operations when a configured disk is being spun up.
• Full Initialization
• Fast Initialization
CAUTION: Initializing virtual disks erases files and file systems while keeping the virtual disk configuration intact.
NOTE: The following initialization operations are not applicable for non-RAID disks.
Full initialization
Performing a full initialization on a virtual disk overwrites all blocks and destroys any data that previously existed on the virtual disk.
Full initialization of a virtual disk eliminates the need for the virtual disk to undergo a Background initialization (BGI). Full initialization
can be performed after the virtual disk is created.
During full initialization, the host cannot access the virtual disk. You can start a full initialization on a virtual disk by using the Slow
Initialize option in the Dell OpenManage storage management application. For more information on using the BIOS Configuration
Utility to perform a full initialization, see Initializing virtual disks.
NOTE: If the system reboots during a full initialization, the operation aborts and a BGI begins on the virtual disk.
Fast initialization
A fast initialization on a virtual disk overwrites the first and last 8 MB of the virtual disk, clearing any boot records or partition
information. The operation takes only 2–3 seconds to complete, but it is followed by BGI, which takes a longer time to complete. To
perform a fast initialization using the BIOS Configuration Utility, see Initializing virtual disks.
Background initialization
Background Initialization (BGI) is an automated process that writes the parity or mirror data on newly created virtual disks. BGI does
not run on RAID 0 virtual disks. You can control the BGI rate in the Dell OpenManage storage management application. Any change
in the BGI rate does not take effect until the next BGI run.
NOTE: You cannot disable BGI permanently. If you cancel BGI, it automatically restarts within five minutes. For
information on stopping BGI, see Stopping Background Initialization.
NOTE: Unlike full or fast initialization of virtual disks, background initialization does not clear data from the physical
disks.
NOTE: Consistency Check (CC)/BGI typically causes some loss in performance until the operation completes.
25
Consistency Check (CC) and BGI perform similar functions in that they both correct parity errors. However, CC reports data
inconsistencies through an event notification, but BGI does not. You can start CC manually, but not BGI.
Consistency checks
Consistency Check (CC) is a background operation that verifies and corrects the mirror or parity data for fault tolerant virtual disks.
It is recommended that you periodically run a consistency check on virtual disks.
You can manually start a CC using the BIOS Configuration Utility or the Dell OpenManage storage management application. You
can schedule a CC to run on virtual disks using the Dell OpenManage storage management application. To start a CC using the
BIOS Configuration Utility, see Checking Data Consistency .
NOTE: CC/BGI typically causes some loss in performance until the operation completes.
Consistency Check (CC) and BGI both correct parity errors. However, CC reports data inconsistencies through an event
notification, but BGI does not. You can start CC manually, but not BGI.
Disk roaming
Disk roaming is moving the physical disks from one cable connection or backplane slot to another on the same controller. The
controller automatically recognizes the relocated physical disks and logically places them in the virtual disks that are part of the disk
group. You can perform disk roaming only when the system is turned off.
CAUTION: Do not attempt disk roaming during RAID level migration (RLM) or online capacity expansion (OCE). This
causes loss of the virtual disk.
1. Turn off the power to the system, physical disks, enclosures, and system components.
2. Disconnect power cables from the system.
3. Move the physical disks to desired positions on the backplane or the enclosure.
4. Perform a safety check. Make sure the physical disks are inserted properly.
5. Turn on the system.
The controller detects the RAID configuration from the configuration data on the physical disks.
FastPath
FastPath is a feature that improves application performance by delivering high I/O per second (IOPs) for the Solid State Drives
(SSD). The Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) 9 series supports FastPath.
To enable FastPath on a virtual disk the Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) 9 series cache policies need to be set to Write-
Through and No Read Ahead. This enables FastPath to use the proper data path through the controller based on command (read/
write), IO size, and RAID type.
For small random workloads, like OLTP, a RAID 10 array provides high performance and for sequential read dominant workloads, a
RAID5 array provides high performance.
NOTE: Only IO block sizes smaller than virtual disk’s stripe size are eligible for FastPath.
NOTE: The Physical Disk Power Management feature is not applicable to FastPath-capable virtual disks.
26
Configuring FastPath-capable virtual disks
All simple virtual disks configured with write cache policy Write Through and read cache policy No Read Ahead can utilize FastPath.
Only IO block sizes smaller than virtual disk’s stripe size are eligible for FastPath. In addition, there should be no background
operations (rebuild, initialization) running on the virtual disks. FastPath will not be used if these operations are active.
NOTE: RAID 50, and RAID 60 virtual disks cannot use FastPath.
The following table summarizes the FastPath-eligibility of read and write IOs across the supported RAID levels.
• Supports migration of virtual disks from PERC H310, H710, H710P, and H810 to PERC 9 series
• Supports migration of volumes created within PERC 9 series
• Does not support migration from PERC 9 series to H310, H710, H710P, H810
NOTE: The source controller must be offline prior to performing the disk migration.
NOTE: Importing secured virtual disks is supported as long as the appropriate Local Key Management (LKM) is supplied
or configured.
When a controller detects a configured physical disk, it flags the physical disk as foreign, and generates an alert indicating that a
foreign disk was detected.
CAUTION: Do not attempt disk migration during RLM or online capacity expansion (OCE). This causes loss of the virtual
disk.
27
NOTE: For more information on accessing the BIOS Configuration Utility, see Entering the BIOS configuration
utility.
NOTE: For more information on Foreign Configuration View, see Foriegn Configuration View.
5. Exit the BIOS Configuration Utility and reboot the system.
NOTE: Use the Dell OpenManage storage management application or the BIOS Configuration Utility to view and manage
virtual disk cache settings.
Write-Back mode is available when you select Force WB with no battery. When Forced Write-Back mode is selected, the virtual
disk is in Write-Back mode even if the battery is not present.
28
for sequential data, but there is little improvement when
accessing random data.
No Read Ahead Disables the Read-Ahead capability.
NOTE: Reconfiguring Virtual Disks typically impacts disk performance until the reconfiguration operation is complete.
• If there is a single virtual disk in a disk group and free space is available, the virtual disk’s capacity can be expanded within that
free space. If multiple virtual disks exist within a common disk group, those virtual disk’s capacities cannot be expanded.
• If a virtual disk is created and it does not use the maximum size of the disk group, free space is available.
Free space is also available when a disk group’s physical disks are replaced by larger disks using the Replace Member feature. A
virtual disk's capacity can also be expanded by performing an OCE operation to add more physical disks.
RAID Level Migration (RLM) refers to changing a virtual disk’s RAID level. Both RLM and OCE can be done at the same time so that
a virtual disk can simultaneously have its RAID level changed and its capacity increased. When a RLM/OCE operation is complete, a
reboot is not required. The source RAID level column indicates the virtual disk RAID level before the RLM/OCE operation and the
target RAID level column indicates the RAID level after the RLM/OCE operation.
NOTE: If the controller already contains the maximum number of virtual disks, you cannot perform a RAID level migration
or capacity expansion on any virtual disk.
NOTE: The controller changes the write cache policy of all virtual disks undergoing a RLM/OCE operation to Write-
Through until the RLM/OCE operation is complete.
Source RAID Level Target RAID Level Number of Number of Capacity Description
Physical Disks Physical Disks Expansion Possible
(Beginning) (End)
RAID 0 RAID 0 1 2 or more Yes Increases capacity
by adding disks.
29
Source RAID Level Target RAID Level Number of Number of Capacity Description
Physical Disks Physical Disks Expansion Possible
(Beginning) (End)
RAID 1 RAID 0 2 2 or more Yes Removes
redundancy while
increasing capacity.
NOTE: The total number of physical disks in a disk group cannot exceed 32. You cannot perform RAID level migration
and expansion on RAID levels 50 and 60.
Fault tolerance
The PERC 9 series supports the following:
30
• Physical disk rebuild using hot spares
• Controller cache preservation
• Battery and non-volatile cache backup of controller cache to protect data
• Detection of batteries with low charge after boot up
A SMART failure is also referred to as predicted failure. There are numerous factors that are predicted physical disk failures, such as
a bearing failure, a broken read/write head, and changes in spin-up rate. In addition, there are factors related to read/write surface
failure, such as seek error rate and excessive bad sectors.
NOTE: For detailed information on SCSI interface specifications, see t10.org and for detailed information on SATA
interface specifications, see t13.org.
If an automatic Replace Member occurs using a source disk that was originally a hot spare (that was used in a rebuild), and a new
disk added for the Replace Member operation as the target disk, the hot spare reverts to the hot spare state after a successful
Replace Member operation.
NOTE: To enable the automatic Replace Member, use the Dell OpenManage storage management application. For
information on manual Replace Member, see Replacing An Online Physical Disks.
Patrol Read
The Patrol Read feature is designed as a preventative measure to ensure physical disk health and data integrity. Patrol Read scans
and resolves potential problems on configured physical disks. The Dell OpenManage storage management application can be used to
start Patrol Read and change its behavior.
• Patrol Read runs on all disks on the controller that are configured as part of a virtual disk, including hot spares.
• Patrol Read does not run on physical disks that are not part of a virtual disk or are in Ready state.
• Patrol Read adjusts the amount of controller resources dedicated to Patrol Read operations based on outstanding disk I/O. For
example, if the system is busy processing I/O operation, then Patrol Read uses fewer resources to allow the I/O to take a
higher priority.
• Patrol Read does not run on any disks involved in any of the following operations:
– Rebuild
– Replace Member
– Full or Background Initialization
– CC
– RLM or OCE
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NOTE: By default, Patrol Read automatically runs every seven days on configured SAS and SATA hard drives. Patrol
Read is not necessary on SSD and is disabled by default.
For more information on Patrol Read, see the Dell OpenManage documentation at Dell.com/support/manuals.
The PERC 9 series can be configured so that the system backplane or storage enclosure disk slots are dedicated as hot spare slots.
This feature can be enabled using the Dell OpenManage storage management application.
Once enabled, any slots with hot spares configured automatically become persistent hot spare slots. If a hot spare disk fails or is
removed, a replacement disk that is inserted into the same slot automatically becomes a hot spare with the same properties as the
one it is replacing. If the replacement disk does not match the disk protocol and technology, it does not become a hot spare.
For more information on persistent hot spares, see the Dell OpenManage documentation at Dell.com/support/manuals.
Hot swapping is the manual replacement of a disk while the PERC 9 series cards are online and performing their normal functions.
The following requirements must be met before hot swapping a physical disk:
• The system backplane or enclosure must support hot swapping for the PERC 9 series cards to support hot swapping.
• The replacement disk must be of the same protocol and disk technology. For example, only a SAS hard drive can replace a SAS
hard drive and only a SATA SSD can replace a SATA SSD.
NOTE: The controller automatically reverts a hot spare only if the failed disk is replaced with a new disk in the same slot.
If the new disk is not placed in the same slot, a manual Replace Member operation can be used to revert a previously
commissioned hot spare.
NOTE: A Replace Member operation typically causes a temporary impact to disk performance. Once the operation
completes, performance returns to normal.
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Cache Preservation With NVC
The Non-Volatile Cache (NVC) allows controller cache data to be stored indefinitely. If the controller has data in the cache memory
during a power outage or improper system shutdown, a small amount of power from the battery is used to transfer the cache data
to a non-volatile flash storage where it remains until power is restored and the system is booted.
The controller automatically performs the Transparent Learn Cycle (TLC) on the battery to calibrate and gauge its charge capacity
once every 90 days. The operation can be performed manually, if required.
NOTE: Virtual disks stay in Write Back mode, if enabled, during transparent learn cycle. When the TLC completes, the
controller sets the next TLC to +90 days.
1. In the Virtual Disk Mgmnt screen, use the arrow keys to highlight the PERC 9 adapter or Disk Group #.
2. Press <F2>.
The list of available action is displayed.
3. Click Convert to Non-RAID.
The Convert RAID Capable Disks to Non-RAID window is displayed.
4. Press the down-arrow key to highlight an available physical disk.
5. Press the spacebar to select the disk.
NOTE: An X is displayed beside the selected physical disk(s).
6. Select OK.
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4
Deploying the PERC card
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 system.
This document provides a set of high-level installation and removal instructions for the following Dell PowerEdge RAID Controllers
(PERC) 9 series:
NOTE: For detailed information on cabling the PERC 9 cards, see the system documentation at Dell.com/
poweredgemanuals.
1. Turn off the system, including any attached peripherals, and disconnect the system from the electrical outlet and peripherals.
NOTE: It is recommended that you always use a static mat and static strap while working on components in the
interior of the system.
2. Open the system.
3. Locate the PERC card on the system board.
CAUTION: To prevent damage to the card, you must hold the card by its edges only.
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4. Lift the card to remove it from the connector on the system board.
5. Disconnect the SAS cables connected to the card:
a. Press down and hold the metal tab on the SAS cable connector.
b. Pull the SAS cable out of the connector.
6. Replace the storage controller card and connect the cable. For more information on installing the card, see Installing the PERC
9 adapter.
7. Close the system.
8. Reconnect the system to its electrical outlet and turn the system on, including any attached peripherals.
1. Turn off the system, including any attached peripherals, and disconnect the system from the electrical outlet.
NOTE: It is recommended that you always use a static mat and static strap while working on components in the
interior of the system.
2. Open the system.
3. Align the card-edge connector with the connector on the system board.
To prevent damage to the card, you must hold the card by its edges only.
35
4. Press the card-edge down until the card is fully seated.
5. Align the PERC card connector with the card connector on the system board and push the PERC card towards the connector
to seat it firmly.
6. Connect the SAS data cable connectors to the card.
NOTE: Ensure that you connect the cable according to the connector labels on the cable. The cable does not
function properly if reversed.
7. Route the SAS data cable through the clip on the card and through the channel on the inner side of the chassis.
8. Attach the connector labeled "SAS A" to connector SAS A on the backplane, and attach the connector labeled "SAS B" to
connector SAS B on the backplane.
9. Close the system.
10. Reconnect the system to its electrical outlet and turn the system on, including any attached peripherals.
1. Turn off the system, including any attached peripherals, and disconnect the system from the electrical outlet and peripherals.
NOTE: It is recommended that you always use a static mat and static strap while working on components in the
interior of the system.
2. Open the system.
3. Locate the HBA card on the system board
4. To disconnect the storage controller cable:
a. Remove the two screws that secure the cable to the card.
b. Grasp the cable on both sides of the cable connector, and pull the cable up and away from the HBA card.
5. Angle the card so that the other end of the card disengages from the storage-controller card holder on the system board.
6. If applicable, replace the storage controller card and connect the cable. For more information on installing the card, see
Installing the HBA330 mini monolithic controller.
7. Close the system.
8. Reconnect the system to its electrical outlet and turn the system on, including any attached peripherals.
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Figure 9. Removing and installing the HBA330 mini monolithic card
1. Turn off the system, including any attached peripherals, and disconnect the system from the electrical outlet and peripherals.
NOTE: It is recommended that you always use a static mat and static strap while working on components in the
interior of the system.
2. Open the system.
3. Locate the PERC card on the system board.
4. Remove the PERC card. For more information, see Removing the HBA330 mini monolithic controller.
5. Disconnect the battery cable from the PERC card.
6. Pull the battery carrier until the tabs on the battery carrier disengage from the PERC card.
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Figure 10. Removing the battery carrier
38
Figure 11. Removing the battery
1. Turn off the system, including any attached peripherals, and disconnect the system from the electrical outlet.
NOTE: It is recommended that you always use a static mat and static strap while working on components in the
interior of the system.
2. Open the system.
3. Locate the HBA card connector on the system board and align one end of the card with the card holder on the system board.
CAUTION: To prevent damage to the card, you must hold the card by its edges only.
4. Lower the other end of the card into the card holder on the system board.
5. Connect the storage controller cable:
a. Grasp the cable on both sides of the cable connector and connect to the HBA card.
b. Attach the two screws to secure the cable to the card.
6. Connect the SAS data cable connector to the card.
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NOTE: Ensure that you connect the cable according to the connector labels on the cable. The cable does not
function properly if reversed.
7. Route the SAS data cable through the clip on the card and through the channel on the inner side of the chassis.
8. Attach the connector labeled "SAS A" to connector SAS A on the backplane, and attach the connector labeled "SAS B" to
connector SAS B on the backplane.
9. Close the system.
10. Reconnect the system to its electrical outlet and turn the system on, including any attached peripherals.
40
5. H730P slim card release latch 6. lock and unlock icon on the H730P slim card bracket
1. Turn off the system, including any attached peripherals, and disconnect the system from the electrical outlet and peripherals.
NOTE: It is recommended that you always use a static mat and static strap while working on components in the
interior of the system.
2. Open the system.
3. Locate the H730P slim card on the system board.
4. Remove the H730P slim card. For more information, see Removing a H730P Slim card.
5. Remove the screw that secures the battery along with the flexible cable retainer to the H730P slim card.
6. Remove the clamp that secures the battery along with the flexible cable retainer to the H730P slim card.
7. Pull the blue tab to an upright position, until the top of the battery is out of the battery holder on the H730P slim card.
8. Disconnect the battery cable from the H730P slim card.
9. Lift the battery out of the battery holder.
1. screw securing the battery to the H730P slim card 2. clamp securing the battery to the H730P slim card
3. tab 4. H730P slim card
5. battery 6. battery holder
7. battery cable 8. flexible cable retainer
10. Insert the battery into the battery holder.
11. Push the blue tab toward the inserted battery.
12. Attach the clamp that secures the battery along with the flexible cable retainer to the H730P slim card.
13. Attach the screw that secures the battery along with the flexible cable retainer to the H730P slim card.
14. Connect the battery cable to the H730P slim card.
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15. Replace the H730P slim card. For more information, see Installing a H730P Slim card.
16. Close the system.
17. Reconnect the system to its electrical outlet and turn on the system, including any attached peripherals.
5. Lift the PERC 9 mini blade controller up and out of the connector.
6. Replace the storage controller card and connect the cable. For more information on installing the card, see Installing the PERC
9 mini blade controller.
7. Close the system.
8. Reconnect the system to its electrical outlet and turn the system on, including any attached peripherals.
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Figure 14. Removing and installing the PERC 9 mini blade controller
1. hard-drive/SSD backplane cable connector 2. slot on the PCIe extender/storage controller card
3. tabs on the PCIe extender/storage controller card 4. standoff (2)
support bracket
1. Turn off the system, including any attached peripherals, and disconnect the system from the electrical outlet and peripherals.
NOTE: It is recommended that you always use a static mat and static strap while working on components in the
interior of the system.
2. Open the system.
3. Locate the battery carrier of the PERC card on the system board.
4. Push the tab on the battery carrier forward until the battery carrier disengages from the slot of the chassis.
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Figure 15. Removing the battery carrier
44
Figure 16. Removing the battery from the battery carrier
45
5. guide for the battery on the battery carrier
8. Align the battery carrier with the guide pin slots on the chassis and lower the battery carrier until the guide pin slots on the
battery carrier engage with the guide pins on the chassis
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6. Lower the PERC 9 mini blade controller onto the connector on the system board.
7. Tighten the two retention screws on the hard-drive/SSD backplane cable connector to secure the card on to the system
board.
8. Install the tethered battery cable, if applicable.
9. Close the clamp.
10. Install the NDC riser.
11. Close the system.
12. Reconnect the system to its electrical outlet and turn the system on, including any attached peripherals.
1. Turn off the system, including any attached peripherals, and disconnect the system from the electrical outlet and peripherals.
NOTE: It is recommended that you always use a static mat and static strap while working on components in the
interior of the system.
2. Open the system.
3. Locate the PERC card.
4. Loosen the screws securing the cable to the PERC card.
5. Lift the cable away from the PERC card by holding the cable touch point.
6. Holding the touch point, allow the cable to slowly retract into the cable coil.
7. Remove the screws securing the PERC card to the PERC card holder.
8. Holding it by the touch points, lift the PERC card from the connector on the midplane interface module.
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Figure 19. Removing and installing the PERC FD33xD card
1. Turn off the system, including any attached peripherals, and disconnect the system from the electrical outlet and peripherals.
NOTE: It is recommended that you always use a static mat and static strap while working on components in the
interior of the system.
2. Open the system.
3. Locate the PERC card.
4. Remove the PERC card. For more information, see Removing the PERC FD33xD Card.
5. Disconnect the battery cables from the PERC card.
6. Slide the battery carrier in the direction of the arrow printed on the battery carrier, and then flip the battery carrier open.
7. Remove the battery from the PERC card.
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Figure 20. Removing the battery
1. Turn off the system, including any attached peripherals, and disconnect the system from the electrical outlet.
NOTE: It is recommended that you always use a static mat and static strap while working on components in the
interior of the system.
2. Open the system.
3. Align the PERC card with the connector on the midplane interface module.
4. Lower the PERC card until it is firmly seated on the connector on the midplane interface module.
5. Install the screws to secure the PERC card to the PERC card holder on the midplane interface module.
6. Holding the cable touch point, align the cable guide pins with the holes on the PERC card.
7. Tighten the screws to secure the cable to the PERC card.
8. Close the system.
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9. Reconnect the system to its electrical outlet and turn on the system, including any attached peripherals.
50
5
Driver installation
The Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) 9 series of cards require software drivers to operate with the supported operating
systems.
This chapter contains the procedures for installing the drivers for the PERC 9 cards.
NOTE: The drivers for PERC 9 for VMware ESXi is packaged within the VMware ESXi ISO image downloaded from Dell.
For more information, see the VMware documentation at Dell.com/virtualizationsolutions. It is not recommended to have
drivers from controllers prior to PERC 9 on the same system.
The two methods for installing a driver discussed in this chapter are:
• Installing a driver during operating system installation: Use this method if you are performing a new installation of the
operating system and want to include the drivers.
• Updating existing drivers: Use this method if the operating system and the PERC 9 family of controllers are already installed
and you want to update to the latest drivers.
NOTE: It is recommended that you update existing operating system drivers after installation. Native driver support is
available for Windows 2012 R2.
• Downloading Drivers From The Dell Systems Service And Diagnostic Tools Media
• Downloading Drivers From The Dell Support Website
1. Go to Dell.com/support.
2. Enter the service tag of your system in the Choose by Service Tag to get started field or select Choose from a list of all Dell
products.
3. Select the System Type, Operating System, and Category from the drop-down list.
The drivers that are applicable to your selection are displayed.
4. Download the drivers that you require to a USB drive, CD, or DVD.
5. During the operating system installation, use the media that you created with the Load Driver option to load mass storage
drivers. For more information on reinstalling the operating system, see the relevant section for your operating system below.
Downloading drivers from the Dell systems service and diagnostic tools media
To download drivers from the Dell Systems Service and Diagnostic Tools media:
1. Insert the Dell Systems Service and Diagnostics Tools media in your system.
The Welcome to Dell Service and Diagnostic Utilities screen is displayed.
2. Select your system model and operating system.
3. Click Continue.
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4. From the list of drivers displayed, select the driver you require.
5. Select the self-extracting zip file and click Run.
6. Copy the driver to a CD, DVD, or USB drive.
7. Repeat this procedure for all the drivers you require.
• Read the Microsoft Getting Started document that shipped with your operating system.
• Ensure that your system has the latest BIOS, firmware, and driver updates. If required, download the latest BIOS, firmware, and
driver updates from Dell.com/support.
• Create a device driver media using one of the methods listed below:
– USB drive
– CD
– DVD
Installing the driver during a Windows Server 2008 R2 and newer installation
To install the driver:
1. Boot the system using the Windows Server 2008 R2, or newer media.
2. Follow the on-screen instructions until you reach Where do you want to install Windows Server 2008 R2 or newer window
and then select Load driver.
3. The system prompts you to insert the media. Insert the installation media and browse to the appropriate location.
4. Select a PERC 9 series card from the list.
5. Click Next and continue installation.
Installing the driver after Windows Server 2008 R2 and newer installation
Perform the following steps to configure the driver for the RAID controller on a system that already has Windows installed:
Updating PERC 9 driver for existing Windows Server 2008 R2 and newer
NOTE: Close all applications on your system before you update the driver.
1. Insert the media (CD, DVD, or USB drive) containing the driver.
2. Select Start → Settings → Control Panel → System.
The System Properties screen is displayed.
52
NOTE: The path to System might vary depending on the operating system family.
3. Click on the Hardware tab.
4. Click Device Manager.
The Device Manager screen is displayed.
NOTE: The path to Device Manager might vary depending on the operating system family.
5. Expand SCSI and RAID Controllers by double-clicking the entry or by clicking on the plus symbol next to SCSI and RAID
Controller.
NOTE: In Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012, the PERC 9 series of cards
are listed under Storage Controllers.
6. Double-click the RAID controller for which you want to update the driver.
7. Click the Driver tab and click Update Driver.
The screen to update the device driver wizard is displayed.
8. Select Install from a list or specific location.
9. Click Next.
10. Follow the steps in the wizard and browse to the location of the driver files.
11. Select the INF file from the driver media (CD, DVD, or other media).
12. Click Next and continue the installation steps in the wizard.
13. Click Finish to exit the wizard and reboot the system for the changes to take place.
NOTE: Dell provides the Dell Update Package (DUP) to update drivers on systems running Windows Server 2008
R2 and newer operating system. DUP is an executable application that updates drivers for specific devices. DUP
supports command line interface and silent execution. For more information, see Dell.com/support.
NOTE: The driver update disk (DUD) images are created only for those operating system releases in which the native
(in-box) driver is insufficient for installation. In the event that an operating system is being installed with a
corresponding DUD image, follow the instructions below.
Perform the following steps to install the RPM package with KMOD support:
Perform the following steps to install the RPM package with KMP support:
53
NOTE: Use rpm -Uvh <package name> when updating an existing package.
3. If the previous device driver is in use, you must reboot the system for the updated driver to take effect.
4. Verify that the driver is loaded with the following system commands: modinfo megaraid_sas.
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6
BIOS Configuration Utility
The BIOS Configuration Utility, (Ctrl R), is a storage management application embedded on the PERC 9 cards that configure and
maintain RAID disk groups and virtual disks. Ctrl R is independent of the operating system.
NOTE: Use the BIOS Configuration Utility (Ctrl R) for initial setup and disaster recovery. You can use advanced features
through Dell OpenManage storage management application and Dell SAS RAID storage manager.
The following sections provide information about using the BIOS Configuration Utility (Ctrl R). For more information, see the online
help option by pressing F1 in the BIOS Configuration Utility (Ctrl R).
NOTE: The PERC 9 card configuration utility refreshes the screen every 15 seconds to show changes to the information.
You can also press F5 to refresh the screen.
NOTE: You can access multiple controllers through the BIOS Configuration Utility (Ctrl R) by pressing F 12.
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Menu navigation controls
The following table displays the menu keys you can use to move between the different screens in the BIOS Configuration Utility
(<Ctrl> <R>).
Table 6. Menu navigation keys
down- Use the down-arrow key to move to the lower menu Virtual Disk 1
arrow key items within a menu or to a lower level menu. You can
also use the down-arrow key to open a menu list in a ↓
popup window, such as the stripe element size menu, and
select a setting. Word wrap is supported. Virtual Disk 4
<Enter> After you highlight a menu item, press <Enter> to select Select Add New VD and press <Enter> to create a new
that item. An options menu for the menu item opens. It virtual disk.
applies to only certain menu items, such as Virtual Disk #.
In a list of options for that item, such as the write policy
for a virtual disk, highlight a setting, such as Write-
Through, and press <Enter> to select it.
<Esc> After you expand a pop-up window, press <Esc> to close Press <Esc> to return to the VD Mgmt screen.
the window. You can continue to press <Esc> to exit the
BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>).
<Tab> Press <Tab> to move the cursor to the next control on a Press <Tab> to move the cursor to the next parameter
dialog box or page. you want to change.
<Shift> Press <Shift> <Tab> to move the cursor to the previous Press <Shift> <Tab> to move the cursor from Sort By to
<Tab> control on a dialog or page. the previously selected PD in thePD Mgmt screen.
<Ctrl> <N> Press <Ctrl> <N> to move to the next menu screen Press <Ctrl> <N> on the VD Mgmt screen to move to
among the main menu screens: VD Mgmt, PD Mgmt, the PD Mgmt screen.
Ctrl Mgmt, and Foreign View.
<Ctrl> <P> Press <Ctrl> <P> to move to the previous menu screen Press <Ctrl> <P> on the PD Mgmt screen to move to
among the main menu screens: VD Mgmt, PD Mgmt, the VD Mgmt screen.
Ctrl Mgmt, and Foreign View.
<F1> Press <F1> to accessHelp information. The Help screens <F1>
display a glossary of topics you can use to access
information about navigation, RAID levels, and general
topics.
56
Notation Meaning and Use Example
<F2> Press <F2> to access the context menu, which displays <F2>
the list of options.
<F5> Press <F5> to refresh the information on the screen. <F5>
<F11> Switch between two controllers. <F11>
<F12> Press <F12> to display a list of controllers. <F12>
Spacebar Press the <spacebar> to select an item. Press the <spacebar> to select or deselect a controller
setting in the Ctrl Mgmt View.
When you define the virtual disks, you can set the following virtual disk parameters:
• RAID level
• Stripe element size
• Read policy
• Write policy
• Type of initialization
• Hot spare configuration
NOTE: The default hard drive cache policy for a virtual disk with SAS hard drives is disabled and virtual disk with
SATA hard drives is enabled. The Virtual Disk parameter cannot be changed in the BIOS Configuration Utility
(<Ctrl> <R>). Use Dell OpenManage Storage Management for the hard drive cache setting operation.
The following table shows the parameters that you can configure when defining virtual disks.
Parameter Description
RAID Level Specifies whether the virtual disk is RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, or 60. The number of disks, disk
capacity, requirements for fault tolerance, performance, and capacity should be considered when
selecting the RAID level.
Stripe Element Size Specifies the size of the segments written to each physical disk in a RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60
virtual disk. You can set the stripe element size to 64 KB 128 KB, 256 KB, 512 KB, or 1 MB. The
default and recommended stripe element size is 64 KB.
A larger stripe element size provides better read performance if your system mostly does
sequential reads.
Write Policy Specifies the controller write policy. You can set the write policy to Write-Back or Write-Through.
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Parameter Description
In Write-Back caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host when the
controller cache has received all the data in a transaction.
NOTE: If a Battery Backup Unit (BBU) is present, the default cache setting is Write-
Back. If no BBU is present, the default cache policy default setting is Write-Through.
NOTE: If Write-Back is enabled and the system is turned off and then on, the controller
may pause as the system flushes cache memory. Controllers have a battery backup
default to Write-Back caching.
In Write-Through caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host
when the disk subsystem has received all the data in a transaction.
Read Policy Read-Ahead enables the read-ahead feature for the virtual disk. You can set the parameter to
Read-Ahead or No-Read-Ahead. The default is Read-Ahead.
Read-Ahead specifies that the controller uses Read-Ahead for the current virtual disk. Read-
Ahead capability allows the controller to read sequentially ahead of requested data and store the
additional data in the cache memory, anticipating that the data is required soon.
No-Read-Ahead specifies that the controller does not use read ahead for the current virtual disk.
This section describes the options for the BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>) for each of the major menus:
The following sections describe the menu and submenu options for each of the major menus:
Controller—Consists of the sub-menu item Disk Group which again has the following sub-menu items:
• Virtual Disks
• Physical Disks
• Total Free Capacity (virtual disk size and free space you can use to create a virtual disk)
• Hot Spares (global and dedicated)
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The right panel displays detailed information for the selected controllers, disk groups, virtual disks, physical disks, total free capacity,
and hot spares, as shown in the following table:
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Menu Item Selected in Left Panel Information Displayed in Right Panel
• Number of virtual disks (VD)
• Number of physical disks (PD)
• Space available on the physical disks
• Number of free segments
• Number of dedicated hot spares
Action Description
Create a new virtual disk Creates a new virtual disk from one or more physical disks. You can configure hot spares when you
create a virtual disk.
Manage dedicated hot Creates or deletes a hot spare, which is dedicated to a single redundant virtual disk.
spares
Initialize a virtual disk Initializes the selected virtual disk. You must initialize every virtual disk that is configured. You can
perform a fast initialization or a full initialization.
Check data consistency on Verifies the correctness of the redundancy data in the selected virtual disk. The option is available
a virtual disk only if RAID level 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, or 60 is used. The PERC 9 series of cards automatically correct any
differences found in the data.
Display or update virtual Displays the properties of the selected virtual disk. You can modify the cache write policy and read
disk parameters policy from the menu.
Manage preserved cache Preserves the dirty cache from a virtual disk if it goes offline or is deleted. The dirty cache is
preserved until you import the virtual disk or discard the cache.
Delete a virtual disk Deletes the virtual disk and frees up disk space to create another virtual disk.
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Action Description
Delete a disk group Deletes a disk group, which is a collection of disks from one or more disk subsystems controlled by
the management software.
The PD Mgmt screen also displays several physical disk properties as shown in the following table.
Action Description
Rebuild Regenerates all data to a replacement disk in a redundant virtual disk (RAID level 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, or
60) after a disk failure. A disk rebuild normally occurs without interrupting normal operations on the
affected virtual disk.
Replace Member Replaces the disk in the virtual disk with another disk that can be selected.
LED Blinking Indicates when physical disks are being used to create a virtual disk. You can choose to start or stop
the LED blinking.
Force Online Changes the state of the selected physical disk to online.
Force Offline Changes the state of the selected physical disk so that it is no longer part of a virtual disk.
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Action Description
Make Global HS Designates the selected physical disk as a global hot spare. A global hot spare is part of a pool for all
virtual disks controlled by the controller.
Remove HS Removes a dedicated hot spare from its disk group or a global hot spare from the global pool of hot
spares.
Rebuild
Select Rebuild to rebuild one or more failed physical disks. For information on performing a physical disk rebuild, see Performing A
Manual Rebuild Of An Individual Physical Disk.
Several of the controller configuration settings and the virtual disk settings affect the actual rate of rebuild. The factors include the
rebuild rate setting, virtual disk stripe size, virtual disk read policy, virtual disk write policy, and the amount of workload placed on the
storage subsystem. For information on getting the best rebuild performance from your RAID controller, see the documentation at
Dell.com/storagecontrollermanuals.
The listed rates in the following table were taken during single disk failure with no I/O. Rates vary depending on type, speed and
number of hard drives present in array; as well as which controller model and enclosure configuration are being used.
RAID Level Number of Hard Drives 7.2 K rpm 12 Gbps SAS Hard Drive 15 K rpm 6 Gbps SAS Hard
Drive
RAID 1 2 320 GB/hour 500 GB/hour
Option Description
Enable Controller BIOS Select the option to enable the controller BIOS. If the boot
device is on the RAID controller, the BIOS must be enabled.
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Option Description
disable it on the other controllers. The system can then boot
from the BIOS-enabled controller.
Select Bootable Device Select the option to specify a virtual disk as the boot disk on the
controller.
Enable Auto Import Attempts to import every online foreign configuration during
boot without having the need to access the BIOS
Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>).
Factory Default Select the option to restore the default settings for the options
in the Settings box.
Personality Mode Select this option to switch to the HBA mode. The default mode
is RAID-mode.
In some cases, a foreign configuration cannot be imported. If a physical disk in a virtual disk is rebuilding, the physical disk's state is
set to Rebuild. Virtual disks that cannot be imported do not display the virtual disk target id.
The section Importing or Clearing Foreign Configurations Using the Foreign Configuration View Screen contains the procedures you
can use to manage the foreign configurations.
NOTE: The BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>) reports error codes for failed imports of foreign configurations.
• Combining SAS and SATA disk drives within a virtual disk is not supported. Also, combining disk drives and SSDs within a
virtual disk is not supported.
• Combing 4 KB disk drives and 512n or 512e disk drives within a virtual disk is not supported.
• To create secured virtual disks, see Security Key And RAID Management.
Perform the following steps to create a virtual disk:
1. During host system bootup, press <Ctrl><R> after the BIOS screen is displayed.
The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed. If there is more than one controller, the main menu screen is displayed.
Select a controller, and press <Enter>. The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed for the selected controller.
2. Use the arrow keys to highlight the PERC 9 series of adapters, for example the PERC H730P Adapter or Disk Group #.
3. Press <F2>.
A list of available actions is displayed.
4. Select Create New VD and press <Enter>.
The Create New VD screen is displayed. The cursor is on the RAID Level option. When adding a virtual disk to a Disk Group,
the Add VD in Disk Group screen is displayed. Skip to step 11 to change the basic settings of the virtual disk.
5. Press <Enter> to display the possible RAID levels.
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6. Press the down-arrow key to select a RAID level and press <Enter>.
7. When creating a spanned virtual disk (RAID 50 or 60), enter the number of physical disks per span in the PD per Span field and
press <Enter>.
8. Press <Tab> to move the cursor to the list of physical disks.
9. Use the arrow key to highlight a physical disk and press the spacebar, <Alt> , or <Enter> to select the disk.
10. Select additional disks, if required.
11. Press <Tab> to move the cursor to the Basic Settings box.
12. Set the virtual disk size in the VD Size field.
The virtual disk size is displayed in GB format.
13. Press <Tab> to access the VD Name field, and type a virtual disk name.
14. Press <Tab> to move the cursor to Advanced settings
15. Press the spacebar to make the settings active so that you can change them.
An X is displayed beside Advanced settings. The settings are the stripe size, read policy, write policy, and disk cache policy.
You can also choose advanced options such as forcing the cache policy to Write-Back, initializing the virtual disk, and
configuring a dedicated hot spare. The default parameters are displayed. You can accept the defaults or change them. To
change the virtual disk parameters, see Virtual Disk Parameters and Descriptions in Setting up virtual disks.
1. On the VD Mgmt screen, press <Tab> to move the cursor to the parameters you want to change.
2. Press the down-arrow key to expand the parameters and scroll down the list of settings.
3. To change the stripe element size, press <Tab> to highlight Stripe Size.
4. Press <Enter> to display the list of stripe element sizes (64 KB, 128 KB, 256 KB, 512 KB, and 1 MB).
The default stripe size is 64 KB.
5. Press the down-arrow key to highlight the desired option and press <Enter>.
6. To change the read policy, press <Tab> to move the cursor to Read Policy.
7. Press <Enter> to display the options (No Read Ahead or Read Ahead).
8. Press the down-arrow key to highlight the desired option and press <Enter>.
9. To change the write policy, press <Tab> to move the cursor to Write Policy.
10. Press <Enter> to display the options (Write-Through, Write Back).
11. Press the down-arrow key to highlight an option and press <Enter>.
12. Press <Tab> to move the cursor to Force WB with no battery and press <Enter>.
NOTE: If you chose Write-Through as the write policy, then the option Force WB with no battery is not available.
CAUTION: Do not initialize virtual disks when attempting to recreate an existing configuration.
13. Press <Tab> to move the cursor to Initialize and press <Enter>.
NOTE: Fast initialization is performed at this stage.
14. Press <Tab> to move the cursor to Configure Hot Spare and press <Enter>.
NOTE: The hot spare created at the stage is a dedicated hot spare.
15. If you have chosen to create hot spares in the earlier steps, a pop-up window is displayed where disks with appropriate sizes
are displayed. Press the <spacebar> to select the disk size.
16. After you select the disk size, click OK to finalize the selection or click Cancel to forfeit the selection.
17. Select OK to accept the settings and press <Enter> to exit the window or select Cancel and press <Enter> to exit if you do
not want to change any virtual disk parameters.
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Initializing virtual disks
CAUTION: A full initialization permanently destroys any existing data on that virtual disk.
1. On the VD Mgmt screen, select Virtual Disk # and press <F2> to display the menu of available actions.
2. Select Initialization and press the right-arrow key to display the Initialization submenu options.
3. Select Start Init. to begin a regular initialization or select Fast Init. to begin a fast initialization.
A pop-up window is displayed indicating that the virtual disk has been initialized.
4. Repeat the procedures from step 1 to step 3 to configure another virtual disk.
NOTE: The current configured virtual disks display on the screen.
If you attempt to run a Consistency Check on a virtual disk that has not been initialized, the following error message is displayed:
The virtual disk has not been initialized. Running a consistency check may result in
inconsistent message in the log. Are you sure you want to continue?
NOTE: To import a secured foreign configuration, see Security Key And RAID Management.
1. During bootup, press <Ctrl> <R> when prompted by the BIOS screen.
The VD Mgmt screen is displayed by default.
2. On the VD Mgmt screen, highlight the Controller #.
3. Press <F2> to display the available actions.
4. Navigate to the Foreign Config option and press the right arrow key to display the available actions:
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a. Import
b. Clear
NOTE: Ensure that your virtual disk has all the physical disks by verifying that there are no physical disks marked as
Missing in the foreign view page and that all the disks appear as expected before importing them.
5. Select Import to import the foreign configuration or Clear to delete the foreign configuration and then press <Enter>.
If you import the configuration, the VD Mgmt screen displays detailed configuration information. It includes information about
the disk groups, virtual disks, physical disks, space allocation, and hot spares.
Importing or clearing foreign configurations using the foreign configuration view screen
NOTE: To import a secured foreign configuration, see Security Key And RAID Management.
If one or more physical disks are removed from a configuration, the configuration on those disks is considered a foreign
configuration by the RAID controller.
You can use the Foreign Config screen to view information about the foreign configuration, such as disk groups, virtual disks,
physical disks, space allocation, and hot spares. The foreign configuration data is displayed in the same format as configurations on
the VD Mgmt screen. You can use the VD Mgmt screen to view the foreign configuration before importing. After you view the
foreign configuration, you can either clear or import to the RAID controller.
NOTE: Before you import the foreign configuration, review the configuration on the screen to ensure that it is the end
result that you require.
You can use the Foreign Config screen to manage foreign configurations in the following cases:
The following constraints apply to the physical disks that are considered for import:
• The disk state of a physical disk can change from the time the foreign configuration is scanned to when the actual import
occurs. The foreign import occurs only on disks that are in the Unconfigured Good state.
• Disks in the failed or offline state cannot be imported.
• The firmware does not allow you to import more than eight foreign configurations.
1. If all or some of the physical disks in a configuration are removed and reinserted, the controller considers the disks to have
foreign configurations. Perform the following steps:
a. Select Foreign Config to display the foreign configuration information on the Foreign Config screen.
b. Press <F2> to display the options (Import, Clear).
NOTE: You must have all the disks in the system before you perform the import operation.
c. Select Import to import the foreign configuration to the controller or select Clear to delete the foreign configuration(s)
from the re-inserted disk(s).
In the Preview Configuration Data window, the status of a physical disk that needs to be rebuilt is displayed as Rebuild.
NOTE: When you import a foreign configuration, the dedicated hot spares in the configuration are imported as
dedicated hot spares on two conditions — the associated virtual disk is already present or the associated virtual
disk is also imported along with the configuration.
NOTE: Start a consistency check immediately after the rebuild is complete to ensure data integrity for the
virtual disks. For more information about checking data consistency, see Checking Data Consistency .
2. If all the physical disks in a virtual disk are removed at different times and re-inserted, the controller considers the disks to have
foreign configurations. Perform the following steps:
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a. Select Foreign Configuration View to display the complete virtual disk, across different foreign configurations and allow
foreign configurations to be imported.
b. Press <F2> to display the options Import and Clear.
NOTE: You must have all the drives in the system before you perform the import operation.
c. Select Import to merge the foreign configurations with the existing configuration on the controller or Clear to delete the
foreign configuration(s) from the re-inserted disk(s).
If you select Import, all drives that were removed before the virtual disk became offline are imported, and then
automatically rebuilt.
NOTE: Start a consistency check immediately after the rebuild is complete to ensure data integrity for the
virtual disks. For more information about checking data consistency, see Checking Data Consistency .
3. If the physical disks in a non-redundant virtual disk are removed, the controller considers the disks to have foreign
configurations. Perform the following steps:
a. Select Foreign Configuration View to display the complete foreign configuration information.
b. Press <F2> to display the options Import and Clear.
c. Select Import to import the foreign configurations to the virtual disk or Clear to delete the foreign configuration(s) from
the re-inserted disk(s).
No rebuilds occur after the import operation because there is no redundant data to rebuild the disks with.
Break mirror
A Break Mirror is performed only on RAID 1 arrays. It provides a way to 'split' the mirror and spin-down one of the hard disks, which
can then be imported into the configuration of a different PERC 9 series controller. This can be a useful way to:
• Create a disk image that can be imported and booted on a different system.
• Assist in software or configuration testing, where half of the mirror can be removed to ensure configuration consistency.
NOTE: The Break Mirror operation is not available within the booted operating system environment. It is only
available in the BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>) utility and the UEFI RAID configuration utility.
To use the Break Mirror feature, from the BIOS Configuration Utility Ctrl R, perform the following steps:
1. During boot up, press Ctrl R when prompted by the BIOS screen. If there is more than one controller in the system, choose the
controller.
The VD Mgmt screen is displayed by default.
2. Highlight the appropriate Disk Group
3. Press F2 to display the available actions.
4. Choose Break Mirror and press <Enter>.
A dialog box is displayed describing the operation and asking if you are sure you want to perform the operation.
5. Select Yes to continue.
The exported disk (exporting configuration) spins down and the hard drive status LED starts flashing to identify which drive
must be removed.
The remaining disk (exporting configuration) is in a degraded state until the missing member is replaced or rebuilt.
If there are any Global or Dedicated Hot Spare assigned, which fulfills the rebuild requirements for the degraded RAID 1 disk, a
rebuild starts automatically. If there is no hot spare assigned, then an hot spare that meets all the requirements for the virtual
disk must be assigned before the rebuild starts.
NOTE: Importing a broken mirror is the same as importing a foreign configuration. See Importing Or Clearing
Foriegn Configurations Using VD Mgmt Menu. The imported virtual disk is in a degraded state until the missing
member is rebuilt.
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Managing preserved cache
If a virtual disk goes offline or is deleted goes of missing physical disks, the controller preserves the dirty cache from the virtual disk.
The preserved dirty cache, known as pinned cache, is preserved until you import the virtual disk or discard the cache.
NOTE: Certain operations, such as creating a new virtual disk, cannot be performed if preserved cache exists. You have
to enter the BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>) to resolve the situation before you boot to the operating system.
Messages are displayed notifying you that you must enter the BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>) to discard the
preserved cache or import the virtual disks with the preserved cache.
CAUTION: If there are any foreign configurations, it is strongly advised that you import the foreign configuration before
you discard the preserved cache. Otherwise, you might lose data that belongs with the foreign configuration.
To manage the preserved cache:
NOTE: The utility allows only disks of the same disk technology and of equal or greater size to be selected as
dedicated hot spare.
3. Use the following instructions to create or delete a dedicated hot spare:
• Creating a dedicated hot spare
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NOTE: If a global hot spare or dedicated hot spare is removed, reinserted and imported, it regains its status as a hot
spare. A dedicated hot spare becomes a global hot spare when the disk group it was assigned to protect is no longer
present during import.
NOTE: Warning messages appear stating the effect of deleting a virtual disk. Click OK twice to complete the virtual disk
deletion.
Perform the following steps in the BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>) to delete the virtual disks:
NOTE: When you delete a disk group, the remaining disk groups with higher numbers are automatically renumbered.
For example, if you delete disk group #2, then disk group #3 is automatically renumbered as disk group #2.
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Physical Disk Management
Physical disk erase
Physical Disk Erase is the process of permanently erasing all data on a physical disk. You must execute Physical Disk Erase on a drive
that is in Ready state.
NOTE: By executing Physical Disk Erase, the data on your physical disk is lost.
To execute Physical Disk Erase, perform the following steps in the BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>):
NOTE: You can only convert a physical disk that is in Ready or Unconfigured good state to Non-RAID or RAID capable.
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Creating global hot spares
You can use a global hot spare to replace a failed physical disk in any redundant array as long as the capacity of the global hot spare
is equal to or larger than the coerced capacity of the failed physical disk.
Perform the following steps to create global hot spares:
1. Press the down-arrow key to highlight a physical disk to change to a global hot spare.
2. Press <F2> to display the menu of available actions.
3. Press the down-arrow key to highlight Make Global HS and press <Enter>.
The physical disk is changed to a global hot spare. The status of the physical disk as a global hot spare is displayed under the
heading State.
NOTE: To replace a failed physical disk global hot spares must use the same disk technology and must be equal or
greater in size.
NOTE: To change additional physical disks to global hot spares, follow step 1 to step 4.
NOTE: Try to use physical disks of the same capacity in a specific virtual disk. If you use physical disks with
different capacities in a virtual disk, all physical disks in the virtual disk are treated as if they have the capacity of
the smallest physical disk.
NOTE: To remove additional global or dedicated hot spares, follow step 1 to step 4.
1. In the Virtual Disk Management window, select Virtual Disk # and press the down-arrow key until Physical Disks is
highlighted.
2. Press the right-arrow key to expand the list of physical disks that are members of the virtual disk.
3. Press the down-arrow key and highlight the desired physical disk you want to replace. Press <F2> to expand the list of allowed
operations on the disk.
4. Select Replace.
5. Select Start.
6. Press the down-arrow to highlight a replacement disk and then press the spacebar to select the disk.
7. Select OK to start the replacement.
NOTE: The replacement disk must be a hot spare or an unconfigured disk without a foreign configuration. It must
have the same or greater capacity and should be of the same type as the disk it is replacing.
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Restrictions and limitations
The following restrictions and limitations apply to the Replace Member operation:
• The Replace Member functions are restricted to one per array for RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 5, and two per array for RAID 6.
• The Replace Member function and rebuild cannot run simultaneously on a RAID 6 virtual disk. The rebuild operation has a higher
priority, and the Replace Member operation is aborted if a rebuild begins.
The virtual disk is undergoing a background initialization process. Would you like to stop
the operation and proceed with the <full initialization/quick initialization/consistency
check> instead?
Click Yes to stop the BGI and start the requested operation or No to allow the BGI to continue.
Controller Management
In a multiple controller environment, you can enable BIOS on multiple controllers. However, if you want to boot from a specific
controller, enable the BIOS on that controller and disable it on the other controllers. The system can then boot from the BIOS-
enabled controller.
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NOTE: BIOS displays 4 KB and 512-byte drives, whereas you can only boot using 512-byte drives. All 4 KB drives must
boot only from UEFI mode.
Perform the following steps to enable the controller BIOS:
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To enable auto import:
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7
UEFI/HII RAID configuration utility
The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) RAID configuration utility is a storage management application integrated into the
System BIOS <F2>. It is used to configure and manage RAID disk groups, virtual disks, and physical disks. This utility is independent
of the operating system.
When the system is in HII utility environment and using PERC H330 controller, the progress of operations such as the Background
initialization (BGI), Consistency Check (CC), and Rebuild pauses and does not resume. These operations are processed only in
<CTRL> <R> and the Post environment.
NOTE: Progress of operation on H330 perc card is not captured in TTY logs when the system is in HII environment
whereas it is captured in <CTRL> <R> environment in GUI and TTY logs.
The following sections provide information about using the UEFI RAID configuration utility. For more information, see the online help
option in the UEFI RAID configuration utility.
NOTE: Use the UEFI RAID configuration utility for initial setup and disaster recovery. Certain advanced features are also
offered in the utility.
NOTE: For more information in all the options, click Help that is available on the top right-hand corner of the
browser screen. Help information for individual option menus can also be viewed by scrolling down on each option.
NOTE: Some of the options within the UEFI RAID configuration utility are not present if the controller does not
support the corresponding feature. Options may also be grayed out if the feature is supported in existing
configuration.
1. Click Finish at the bottom-right corner on the System Setup Main Menu screen.
Displays a warning message to confirm your choice.
2. Click Yes to exit the configuration utility.
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Navigating to Dell PERC 9 configuration utility
1. Enter the UEFI configuration Utility. See Entering the UEFI configuration utility.
The Device Settings screen displays a list of NIC ports and the Dell PERC 9 configuration utility.
2. To enter PERC 9 configuration utility, click Dell PERC 9 Configuration Utility.
Displays the list of Configuration Options:
• Controller Management — allows you to configure, manage, and view the controller properties.
• Virtual Disk Management — allows you to configure, manage, and view the virtual disk properties
• Physical Disk Management — allows you to configure, manage, view and perform varied operations on the physical disk
properties.
Configuration management
Creating virtual disks
1. Enter the Dell PERC 9 Configuration Utility. See Navigating to PERC 9 Configuration Utility.
2. Click Configuration Management → Create Virtual Disks.
3. Select the RAID level by selection the radio button next to the available RAID configurations.
4. If you want to create a secured virtual disk, select Secure Virtual Disk.
NOTE: The Secure Virtual Disk option is enabled and selected by default, only if the security key has been
configured. Only SED physical disks are listed.
5. Select one of the following physical disk capacities:
• Unconfigured Capacity: Creates a virtual disk on unconfigured physical disks.
• Free Capacity: Utilizes unused physical disk capacity that is already part of a virtual disk.
6. To select the physical disks from which the virtual disks are being created, click Select Physical Disks. This option is displayed
if you select Unconfigured Capacity as your physical disk capacity.
7. To select the disk groups from which the virtual disks are being created, click Select Disk Group. This option is displayed if you
select Free Capacity as your physical disk capacity.
8. Specify the name for the virtual disk in the Virtual Disk Name field.
9. Specify the size of the virtual disk in the Virtual Disk Size field.
10. Select the unit for the virtual disk size.
11. Specify the read policy for the virtual disk. The options for read policy are:
• No Read Ahead
• Read Ahead
12. Specify the write policy for the virtual disk. The options for read policy are:
• Write Back
• Write Through
• Force Write Back
13. Select the cache setting of the virtual disk. You can either enable or disable the cache setting for the virtual disk.
14. Select the virtual disk initialization method. The options are:
• No: The virtual disk is not initialized.
• Fast: The first 8 MB of the virtual disk is initialized.
• Full: The entire virtual disk is initialized.
15. Click Create Virtual Disk and the virtual disks are created with the specified parameters.
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Creating profile based virtual disks
1. Enter the Dell PERC 9 Configuration Utility. See Navigating to PERC 9 Configuration Utility.
2. Click Configuration Management → Create Profile Based Virtual Disks.
3. Select the RAID type. The following are the options available:
• Generic RAID 0
• Generic RAID 1
• Generic RAID 5
• Generic RAID 6
4. Based on the RAID mode selected, one or more the physical disk selection criteria are displayed. Select a criteria based your
requirement.
The Profile Parameters of the selected option is displayed.
5. Click Create Virtual Disk.
6. Select Confirm and click Yes to continue.
The virtual disk is created with the parameters of the profile selected.
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Option Description
NOTE: A single hot spare disk can be assigned to multiple disk groups.
Controller management
Restoring factory settings for the controller
1. Enter the Dell PERC 9 Configuration Utility. See Navigating to PERC 9 Configuration Utility.
2. Click Controller Management → Set Factory Defaults.
3. Click OK.
A screen is displayed asking if you are sure you want to perform the operation.
4. Click Yes to continue.
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Saving debug log
1. Enter the Dell PERC 9 Configuration Utility. See Navigating to PERC 9 Configuration Utility.
2. Click Controller Management → Save Debug Log.
3. Select the file system.
4. Select the directory in which the log file containing the controller events, are to be saved.
5. Specify the name of the log file into which the controller events are saved.
6. Click Save log.
A screen is displayed asking if you are sure you want to perform the operation.
7. Click Yes to continue.
1. Enter the Dell PERC 9 Configuration Utility. See Navigating to PERC 9 Configuration Utility.
2. Click Controller Management → Switch to HBA mode.
The controller is switched to the HBA mode. You must reboot the system for the change to be effected.
3. Click OK.
A screen is displayed asking if you are sure you want to perform the operation.
4. Click Yes to continue.
The following steps must be taken before switching from RAID mode to HBA mode:
NOTE: All physical disks retain their non-RAID status until converted to Unconfigured Good (UG) following a
successful transition to RAID mode.
3. Click OK.
A screen is displayed asking if you are sure you want to perform the operation.
4. Click Yes to continue.
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All the virtual disks associated with the RAID controller are displayed.
3. To view the properties, click on the virtual disk. You can view the following properties of the Virtual disk:
Option Description
Operation Displays the lists of operations you can perform on the selected virtual disk. The options are:
• Blink
• Unblink
• Delete Virtual Disk
• Reconfigure Virtual Disks
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NOTE: When you select the Patrol Read option in the Advanced... section, an error message may be displayed. The
error message can be safely ignored.
Option Description
Enable Controller BIOS Select the option to enable the controller BIOS. If the boot
device is on the RAID controller, the BIOS must be enabled.
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Option Description
disable it on the other controllers. The system can then boot
from the BIOS-enabled controller.
Select Bootable Device Select the option to specify a virtual disk as the boot disk on the
controller.
Enable Auto Import Attempts to import every online foreign configuration during
boot without having the need to access the BIOS
Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>).
Factory Default Select the option to restore the default settings for the options
in the Settings box.
Personality Mode Select this option to switch to the HBA mode. The default mode
is RAID-mode.
Probable Cause: The controller preserves the dirty cache from a virtual disk if the disk becomes offline or is deleted because
of missing physical disks. This message indicates that some configured disks were removed. If the disks
were not removed, they are no longer accessible. The SAS cables for your system might be improperly
connected.
Corrective Action: Check the cable connections and fix any problems. Restart the system. Use the <Ctrl> <R> utility to import
the virtual disk or discard the preserved cache. For the steps to manage preserved cache, see Managing
The Preserved Cache .
Probable Cause: This message indicates that discovery did not complete within 120 seconds. The SAS cables for your
system might be improperly connected.
Corrective Action: Check the cable connections and fix any problems. Restart the system.
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Drive Configuration Changes Error Message
Error Message: Entering the configuration utility in this state will result in drive
configuration changes. Press 'Y' to continue loading the configuration
utility or please power off your system and check your cables to ensure all
disks are present and reboot.
Probable Cause: The message is displayed after another BIOS warning indicating there are problems with previously
configured disks and you have chosen to accept any changes and continue. The SAS cables for your system
might be improperly connected.
Corrective Action: Check the cable connections and fix any problems before restarting the system. If there are no cable
problems, press any key or <Y> to continue.
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8
Security key and RAID management
NOTE: The H330 PERC card does not support security key and RAID management features.
• The Virtual Disk Management screen, VD Mgmt, is the first screen that is displayed when you access a RAID controller from the
main menu screen on the BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>). The following are security-related actions you can perform
through the virtual disk management menu:
– Secure Erase—Permanently erases all data on an encryption-capable physical disk and resets the security attributes.
For more information on the Physical Disk Management screen and the Virtual Disk Management screen, see Physical Disk
Management (PD Mgmt) and Virtual disk management respectively.
NOTE: Under LKM, you are prompted for a passphrase when you create the key.
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Perform the following steps to create a security key on the controller:
1. During the host system boot up, press <Ctrl> <R> when the BIOS screen is displayed.
The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed.
If there is more than one controller, the main menu screen is displayed.
2. Select a controller, and press <Enter>.
The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed for the selected controller.
3. Press <F2> to display the actions you can perform.
4. Use the arrow keys to highlight Security Key Management.
5. Select Create Key and press <Enter>.
The Create Security Key screen is displayed. The cursor is at the Security Key Identifier.
6. Enter an identifier for your security key.
NOTE: The Security Key Identifier is a user supplied clear text label used to associate the correct security key with
the controller.
7. Press <Tab> to enter a passphrase.
NOTE: Passphrase is case-sensitive. You must enter minimum 8 or maximum 32 characters. Ensure that the
characters contain at least one number, one lower case letter, one upper case letter, and one nonalphanumeric
character.
CAUTION: If you lose or forget your passphrase, the data in your virtual disk is inaccessible.
8. Press <Tab> and select OK to accept the settings. Select Cancel to exit if you do not want to create a security key on the
controller.
Perform the following steps when changing the security key on the controller:
1. During host system bootup, press <Ctrl> <R> when the BIOS screen is displayed.
The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed.
If there is more than one controller, the main menu screen is displayed.
2. Select a controller, and press <Enter>.
The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed for the selected controller.
3. Press <F2> to display the actions you can perform.
4. Use the arrow keys to highlight Security Key Management.
5. Select Change Key and press <Enter>.
The Change Security Key screen is displayed. The cursor is at the Security Key Identifier.
6. Enter an identifier for your Security Key.
7. Press <Tab> to enter a new passphrase.
NOTE:
• You must provide the current passphrase to change the security key on the controller.
• Passphrase is case-sensitive. You must enter minimum eight or maximum 32 characters. Ensure that the characters
contain at least one number, one lower case letter, one upper case letter, and one nonalphanumeric character.
8. Press <Tab> and select OK to accept the settings and to exit the window. Select Cancel to exit if you do not want to change
the security key on the controller.
NOTE: If there is an existing configuration on the controller, it is updated with the new security key. If you had
previously removed any secured disks, you must supply the old passphrase to import them.
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Deleting a security key
NOTE: Delete Key is active if there is a security key present on the controller.
NOTE: Delete Key can only be performed when there are no secured virtual disks present.
NOTE: After the Delete Key operation, all unconfigured, secured SEDs are secure-erased.
Perform the following steps when deleting the security key on the controller:
1. During host system bootup, press <Ctrl> <R> when the BIOS screen is displayed.
The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed. If there is more than one controller, the main menu screen is displayed.
2. Select a controller, and press <Enter>.
The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed for the selected controller.
3. Press <F2> to display the actions you can perform.
4. Use the arrow keys to highlight Security Key Management.
5. Select the Delete Key and press <Enter>.
After the security key is established, perform the steps outlined in the topicCreating virtual disks to create a virtual disk.
To secure the virtual disk, navigate to the Secure VD option at the bottom left area of the Create New VD screen.
NOTE: All virtual disks added to a secured Disk Group are secured.
1. During the host system bootup, press <Ctrl> <R> when the BIOS screen is displayed.
The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed.
If there is more than one controller, the main menu screen is displayed.
2. Select a controller, and press <Enter>.
The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed for the selected controller.
3. Use the arrow keys to highlight the Disk Group number.
4. Press <F2> to display a menu of the available actions.
5. Highlight the Secure Disk Group option and press <Enter>.
NOTE: If you select to secure a Disk Group, all VDs part of the Disk Group are secured.
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NOTE: If you are importing secured and unsecured virtual disks, you are prompted to resolve the secured foreign
configuration first.
NOTE: The PERC 9 series of cards need to have a security key present before being able to import a secured virtual
disk.
NOTE: Any unsecured virtual disks imported are still unsecured.
NOTE: If you are importing a virtual disk originally secured with a local key management (LKM), you are prompted for
the passphrase used to secure that virtual disk.
Perform the following steps when importing a secured foreign virtual disk:
1. During the host system bootup, press <Ctrl> <R> when the BIOS screen is displayed.
The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed.
If there is more than one controller, the main menu screen is displayed.
2. Select a controller, and press <Enter>.
The Virtual Disk Management screen is displayed for the selected controller.
3. Press <F2> to display a menu of available actions.
4. Select Import to import the foreign configuration or Clear to delete the foreign configuration. Press <Enter>.
NOTE: To Clear, you need to Secure Erase foreign configurations secured with a different security key.
5. If you select to Import the configuration, the Secure Foreign Import screen is displayed.
NOTE: The key identifier for the passphrase used to secure the foreign secured virtual disks is displayed under the
Secured Drives option.
6. Enter the passphrase that was used to secure the foreign configuration.
7. Press <Tab> and select OK to finish importing the secured foreign configuration or select Cancel to exit this menu.
If you select Cancel for the secured foreign import, the disks remain inaccessible until imported or secure erased. See Secure
erase.
Secure erase
Secure Erase is the process of permanently erasing all data on an encryption-capable physical disk and resetting the security
attributes. You need to execute Secure Erase on SEDs that are inaccessible (blocked) due to a lost or forgotten passphrase.
CAUTION: By executing Secure Erase, the data on your encryption-capable physical disk is lost.
Cryptographic Erase
Cryptographic Erase is the process of permanently erasing all data on an ISE-capable physical disk. You must execute Cryptographic
Erase on ISE-capable drives that are either in Ready or Non-RAID state.
NOTE: By executing Cryptographic Erase, the data on your ISE-capable physical disk is lost.
To execute Cryptographic erase, perform the following steps in the BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>):
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A list of physical disks are displayed. The status of each disk is displayed under the heading State.
2. Press the down-arrow key to highlight the physical disk to be erased.
3. Press <F2> to display the menu of available actions.
4. Use the down-arrow key to highlight Cryptographic Erase option.
5. Press <Enter> to perform Cryptographic Erase on the physical disk.
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9
Troubleshooting
To get help with your Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) 9 series of cards, you can contact your Dell Technical Service
representative or see Dell.com/support.
Probable Cause: This warning message is displayed after you disable the ROM option in the configuration utility. When the
ROM option is disabled, the BIOS cannot boot to Int 13h and cannot provide the ability to boot from the
virtual disk. Int 13h is an interrupt signal that supports numerous commands that are sent to the BIOS and
then passed to the physical disk. The commands include actions you can perform with a physical disk, such
as reading, writing, and formatting.
Probable Cause: This message indicates that discovery did not complete within 120 seconds. The SAS cables for your
system might be improperly connected.
Corrective Action: Check the cable connections and fix any problems. Restart the system.
Probable Cause: This message is displayed when the BIOS detects more than four enclosures connected to a single SAS
connector.
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Corrective Action: You must remove all additional enclosures and restart your system.
Probable Cause: The message indicates that some configured disks were removed. If the disks were not removed, they are
no longer accessible. The SAS cables for your system might be improperly connected.
Corrective Action: Check the cable connections and fix any issues. Restart the system. If there are no cable problems, press
any key or <C> to continue.
Probable Cause: The message indicates that some configured disks were removed. If the disks were not removed, they are
no longer accessible. The SAS cables for your system might be improperly connected.
Corrective Action: Check the cable connections and fix any issues before restarting the system. If there are no cable problems,
press any key or <C> to continue.
Probable Cause: The message indicates that some configured disks were removed. If the disks were not removed, they are
no longer accessible. The SAS cables for your system might be improperly connected.
Corrective Action: Check the cable connections and fix any issues. Restart the system. If there are no cable problems, press
any key or <C> to continue.
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cables to ensure all disks are present. If you continue, the data in cache
will be permanently discarded. Press 'X' to acknowledge and permanently
destroy the cached data.
Probable Cause: The controller preserves the dirty cache from a virtual disk if the disk becomes offline or is deleted because
of missing physical disks. This message indicates that some configured disks were removed. If the disks
were not removed, they are no longer accessible. The SAS cables for your system might be improperly
connected.
Corrective Action: Check the cable connections and fix any problems. Restart the system. Use the <Ctrl> <R> utility to import
the virtual disk or discard the preserved cache. For the steps to manage preserved cache, see Managing
The Preserved Cache .
Probable Cause: This warning message is displayed after you disable the ROM option in the configuration utility. When the
ROM option is disabled, the BIOS cannot boot to Int 13h and cannot provide the ability to boot from the
virtual disk. Int 13h is an interrupt signal that supports numerous commands that are sent to the BIOS and
then passed to the physical disk. The commands include actions you can perform with a physical disk, such
as reading, writing, and formatting.
Probable Cause: The message is displayed after another BIOS warning indicating there are problems with previously
configured disks and you have chosen to accept any changes and continue. The SAS cables for your system
might be improperly connected.
Corrective Action: Check the cable connections and fix any problems before restarting the system. If there are no cable
problems, press any key or <Y> to continue.
Probable Cause: The controller preserves the dirty cache from a virtual disk if the disk becomes offline or is deleted because
of missing physical disks. This preserved dirty cache is called pinned cache, and is preserved until you import
the virtual disk, or discard the cache.
Corrective Action: Use the <Ctrl> <R> utility to import the virtual disk or discard the preserved cache. For the steps used to
manage preserved cache, see Managing The Preserved Cache .
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NOTE: Ctrl R is not available for systems set to UEFI boot mode. Use the HII menu to manage
preserved cache in these cases.
Probable Cause: This message is displayed when the BIOS detects virtual disks in a degraded state.
Corrective Action: Take corrective action(s) to make the virtual disks optimal. The BIOS does not take any action.
Probable Cause: This message is displayed when the BIOS detects virtual disks in a degraded state.
Corrective Action: To make the virtual disks optimal, take one the following corrective actions:
• Ensure all disks in the Virtual Disk are present and online.
• Replace any failed disks that may be in the array.
• Correct a hot spare disk, and rebuild the array.
Probable Cause: This message is displayed when the BIOS detects a single disk failure in a RAID 6 or RAID 60 configuration.
Corrective Action: You must check why the member disk is not present to correct the problem. The BIOS does not take any
action.
• The adapter detects data in the controller cache that has not yet been written to the disk subsystem.
• The controller detects an Error-Correcting Code (ECC) error while performing its cache checking
routine during initialization.
• The controller discards the cache rather than sending it to the disk subsystem because the data
integrity cannot be guaranteed.
• The battery may be under charged.
Corrective Action: Allow the battery to charge fully to resolve this problem. If the problem persists, the battery or controller
memory may be faulty. Contact Dell Technical Support.
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Firmware fault state error message
Error Message: Firmware is in Fault State.
Probable Cause: When a controller firmware detects a physical disk with existing foreign metadata, it flags the physical disk
as foreign and generates an alert indicating that a foreign disk was detected.
Corrective Action: Press <F> at this prompt to import the configuration (if all member disks of the virtual disk are present)
without loading the BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>). Or press <C> to enter the BIOS
Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>) and either import or clear the foreign configuration.
Corrective Action: Ensure all your PDs are present and all VDs are in optimal state. Clear the foreign configuration using <Ctrl>
<R> or Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management.
CAUTION: The physical disk goes to Ready state when you clear the foreign configuration.
If you insert a physical disk that was previously a member of a virtual disk in the system, and that disk’s
previous location has been taken by a replacement disk through a rebuild, you must manually remove the
foreign configuration flag of the newly inserted disk.
Probable Cause: The message indicates that the controller and physical disks have different configurations.
Corrective Action: You can use the BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>) to clear the foreign configuration.
Probable Cause: The SAS cables for your system are improperly connected.
Corrective Action: Check the cable connections and fix problems if any. Restart the system.
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Configured disks removed or not accessible error message
Error Message: Some configured disks have been removed from your system or are no longer
accessible. Check your cables and ensure all disks are present. Press any
key or ’C’ to continue.
Probable Cause: The message indicates that some configured disks were removed. If the disks were not removed, they are
no longer accessible. The SAS cables for your system might be improperly connected.
Corrective Action: Check the cable connections and fix issues if any. Restart the system. If there are no cable problems, press
any key or <C> to continue.
Probable Cause: The message indicates that some configured disks were removed. If the disks were not removed, they are
no longer accessible. The SAS cables for your system might be improperly connected.
Corrective Action: Check the cable connections and fix issues if any. Restart the system. If there are no cable problems, press
any key or <C> to continue.
Probable Cause: The controller preserves the dirty cache from a virtual disk if the disk becomes offline or is deleted because
of missing physical disks. This message indicates that some configured disks were removed. If the disks
were not removed, they are no longer accessible. The SAS cables for your system might be improperly
connected.
Corrective Action: Check the cable connections and fix any problems. Restart the system. Use the <Ctrl> <R> utility to import
the virtual disk or discard the preserved cache. For the steps to manage preserved cache, see Managing
The Preserved Cache .
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Probable Cause: This message indicates that discovery did not complete within 120 seconds. The SAS cables for your
system might be improperly connected.
Corrective Action: Check the cable connections and fix any problems. Restart the system.
Probable Cause: The message is displayed after another BIOS warning indicating there are problems with previously
configured disks and you have chosen to accept any changes and continue. The SAS cables for your system
might be improperly connected.
Corrective Action: Check the cable connections and fix any problems before restarting the system. If there are no cable
problems, press any key or <Y> to continue.
1. Read and understand about the updates to the version of Windows that you have installed. You can find this information in the
Microsoft help.
2. Refer Release Notes: Important Issues in Windows Server.
Probable Cause: This message is displayed when the BIOS detects more than four enclosures connected to a single SAS
connector.
Corrective Action: You must remove all additional enclosures and restart your system.
Probable Cause: When a controller firmware detects a physical disk with existing foreign metadata, it flags the physical disk
as foreign and generates an alert indicating that a foreign disk was detected.
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Corrective Action: Press <F> at this prompt to import the configuration (if all member disks of the virtual disk are present)
without loading the BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>). Or press <C> to enter the BIOS
Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>) and either import or clear the foreign configuration.
Corrective Action: Ensure all your PDs are present and all VDs are in optimal state. Clear the foreign configuration using <Ctrl>
<R> or Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management.
CAUTION: The physical disk goes to Ready state when you clear the foreign configuration.
If you insert a physical disk that was previously a member of a virtual disk in the system, and that disk’s
previous location has been taken by a replacement disk through a rebuild, you must manually remove the
foreign configuration flag of the newly inserted disk.
To recover a virtual disk from a degraded state, you must replace the failed physical disk and rebuild it. Once the rebuilding process
is complete, the virtual disk state changes from degraded to optimal. For information on rebuilding the disk, see Performing A
Manual Rebuild Of An Individual Physical Disk.
Memory errors
Memory errors can corrupt cached data, so the controllers are designed to detect and attempt to recover from the memory errors.
Single-bit memory errors can be handled by the controller and do not disrupt normal operation. A notification is sent if the number of
single-bit errors exceeds a threshold value.
Multi-bit errors are more serious as they result in corrupted data and data loss. The following are the actions that occur in the case
of multi-bit errors:
• If a multi-bit error occurs while accessing data in the cache when the controller is started with dirty cache, the controller
discards the cache contents. The controller generates a warning message to the system console to indicate that the cache was
discarded and generates an event.
• If a multi-bit error occurs at run-time either in code/data or in the cache, the controller stops.
• The controller logs an event to the controller’s internal event log and a message during POST is displayed indicating a multi-bit
error has occurred.
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Use the BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>) to select whether to import the virtual disk or discard the preserved cache. In the
VD Mgmt menu, select Manage Preserved Cache and follow the steps on the screen.
• The passphrase authentication fails—A virtual disk secured with a security key different from the current controller security
key cannot be imported without authentication of the original passphrase used to secure them. Supply the correct passphrase
to import the secured foreign configuration. If you have lost or forgotten the passphrase, the secured foreign disks remain
locked (inaccessible) until the appropriate passphrase is entered or if they are secure erased.
• The secured virtual disk is in an offline state after supplying the correct passphrase—You must check to determine why the
virtual disk failed and correct the problem.
To delete the security key, you must have a previously established security key present on the controller and there cannot be any
configured secured disks. If there are configured secured virtual disks, remove or delete them.
Secure Erase can be executed only on encryption-capable disks as long as the disks are not hot spares and are not configured (part
of a virtual disk). Ensure that the conditions are met and see Secure erase.
General issues
PERC card has yellow bang in device manager
Issue: The device is displayed in Device Manager but has a yellow bang (exclamation mark).
Corrective Action: Reinstall the driver. For more information on reinstalling drivers, see Driver installation.
Corrective Action: Turn off the system and reseat the controller.
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For more information, see Installing The PERC 9 Card.
Corrective Action: Update the PERC cards to the latest firmware available on Dell.com/support and replace the drive.
Corrective Action: The replacement disk is too small or not compatible with the virtual disk. Replace the failed disk with a
compatible good physical disk with equal or greater capacity.
Corrective Action: Update the PERC cards to the latest firmware available on Dell.com/support. Replace the drive and ensure
not to use the blocked drive.
Corrective Action: Multiple physical disk errors in a single array typically indicate a failure in cabling or connection and could
involve the loss of data. You can recover the virtual disk after multiple physical disks become simultaneously
inaccessible. Perform the following steps to recover the virtual disk:
1. Turn off the system, check cable connections, and reseat physical disks.
2. Ensure that all the disks are present in the enclosure.
3. Turn on the system and enter the BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>) utility.
4. Import the foreign configuration.
5. Press <F> at the prompt to import the configuration, or press <C> to enter the BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>) and
either import or clear the foreign configuration.
If the virtual disk is redundant and transitioned to Degraded state before going Offline, a rebuild operation starts automatically after
the configuration is imported. If the virtual disk has gone directly to the Offline state due to a cable pull or power loss situation, the
virtual disk is imported in its Optimal state without a rebuild occurring.
NOTE: You can use the BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>) or Dell OpenManage storage management application to
perform a manual rebuild of multiple physical disks. For information on rebuilding a single physical disk, see Performing A
Manual Rebuild Of An Individual Physical Disk.
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Rebuilding a failed physical disk
Issue: Rebuilding a physical disk that is in a failed state.
Corrective Action: If you have configured hot spares, the PERC card automatically tries to use one of the hot spares to rebuild
a physical disk that is in a failed state. Manual rebuild is necessary if no hot spares with enough capacity to
rebuild the failed physical disks are available. You must insert a physical disk with enough storage in the
subsystem before rebuilding the physical disk.
NOTE: You can use the BIOS Configuration Utility (<Ctrl> <R>) or Dell OpenManage storage management application to
perform a manual rebuild of an individual physical disk. For information on rebuilding a single physical disk, see
Performing A Manual Rebuild Of An Individual Physical Disk.
Description: You must manually rebuild or add a new drive to system and start rebuilding.
Description: The dedicated hot spare reverts to Ready state and the virtual disk goes to Failed state.
Description: The dedicated hot spare is in Ready state and the virtual disk is in Failed state.
Description: A physical disk takes longer to rebuild when under high stress. There is only one rebuild I/O operation for
every five host I/O operations.
SMART errors
SMART monitors the internal performance of all motors, heads, and physical disk electronics and detects predictable physical disk
failures.
NOTE: For information about where to find reports of SMART errors that could indicate hardware failure, see the Dell
OpenManage storage management documentation at Dell.com/support/manuals.
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Smart error detected on a physical disk in a redundant virtual disk
Issue: A SMART error is detected on a physical disk in a redundant virtual disk.
Corrective Action: If the source data is available from other disks in the virtual disk, the rebuild begins automatically on the
target disk, using the data from the other disks.
Corrective Action: If the target disk fails, the Replace Member operation aborts.
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Corrective Action: If the target disk fails and the Replace Member operation aborts but the source data is still available, then
the Replace Member operation continues as Replace Member.
Corrective Action: The error message is displayed when the Linux Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) mid-layer asks for
physical disk cache settings. The controller firmware manages the virtual disk cache settings on a per
controller and a per virtual disk basis, so the firmware does not respond to this command. The Linux SCSI
mid-layer assumes that the virtual disk's cache policy is Write-Through. SDB is the device node for a virtual
disk. This value changes for each virtual disk.
For more information about Write-Through cache, see Virtual Disk Write Cache Policies.
Except for this message, there is no effect of this behavior on normal operation. The cache policy of the
virtual disk and the I/O throughput are not affected by this message. The cache policy settings for the
PERC SAS RAID system remain unchanged.
Corrective Action: This is a known issue. An unsupported command is entered through the user application. User applications
attempt to direct Command Descriptor Blocks to RAID volumes. The error message does not affect the
feature functionality. The Mode Sense/Select command is supported by firmware on the controller.
However, the Linux kernel daemon issues the command to the virtual disk instead of to the driver IOCTL
node. This action is not supported.
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Figure 21. Disk Carrier LED Indicators
1. activity LED
2. status LED
Probable Cause: This message might indicate that the cables are not connected, the disks might be missing, or the UEFI
driver might require configuration changes.
Corrective Action:
1. Check if the cables are connected properly, or replace missing hard drives, if any and then restart the
system.
2. Press any key to load the driver health manager to display the configurations. The Driver Health
Manager displays the driver(s), which requires configuration.
3. Alternately, if the UEFI driver requires configuration, press any key to load the Configuration Utility.
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Appendix: RAID description
RAID is a group of independent physical disks that provides high performance by increasing the number of disks used for saving and
accessing data.
CAUTION: In the event of a physical disk failure, a RAID 0 virtual disk fails, resulting in data loss.
• 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 and 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, especially for small random access.
• RAID 6 is an extension of RAID 5 and uses an additional parity block. RAID 6 uses block-level striping with two parity blocks
distributed across all member disks. RAID 6 provides protection against double disk failures, and failures while a single disk is
rebuilding. If you are using only one array, deploying RAID 6 is more effective than deploying a hot spare disk.
• RAID 10 is a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 1, uses disk striping across mirrored disks. It provides high data throughput and
complete data redundancy.
• RAID 50 is a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 5 where a RAID 0 array is striped across RAID 5 elements. RAID 50 requires at
least six disks.
• RAID 60 is a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 6 where a RAID 0 array is striped across RAID 6 elements. RAID 60 requires at
least eight disks.
The following table lists the minimum and maximum disks supported on each RAID levels.
Table 15. Minimum and maximum disks supported on each RAID levels
1 2 2
5 3 32
6 4 32
10 4 192
50 6 192
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RAID Level Minimum disk Maximum disk
60 8 192
RAID terminology
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 in stripes of the following sizes: 64 KB, 128 KB, 256 KB, 512 KB, and 1 MB. The 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 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.
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 complete data redundancy. Both disks contain the same data at all times. Either of the physical disks can act as the
operational physical disk.
Disk mirroring provides complete redundancy, but is an expensive option because each physical disk in the system must be
duplicated.
NOTE: Mirrored physical disks improve read performance by read load balance.
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Parity data
Parity data is redundant data that is generated to provide fault tolerance within certain RAID levels. In the event of a disk failure, the
parity data can be used by the controller to regenerate user data. Parity data is present for RAID 5, 6, 50, and 60.
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 level 5 combines distributed parity with disk striping. Parity provides redundancy
for one physical disk failure without duplicating the contents of the entire physical disks.
RAID 6 combines dual distributed parity with disk striping. This level of parity allows for two disk failures without duplicating the
contents of entire physical disks.
NOTE: Parity is distributed across multiple physical disks in the disk group.
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11
Getting help
You can get help with your Dell product by contacting Dell, or send feedback on product documentation.
Contacting Dell
Dell provides several online and telephone based support and service options. If you do not have an active internet connection, you
can find contact information about your purchase invoice, packing slip, bill, or Dell product catalog. Availability varies by country and
product, and some services may not be available in your area. To contact Dell for sales, technical assistance, or customer service
issues:
1. Go to Dell.com/support.
2. Select your country from the drop-down menu on the lower right corner of the page.
3. For customized support:
a. Enter your system Service Tag in the Enter your Service Tag field.
b. Click Submit.
The support page that lists the various support categories is displayed.
4. For general support:
a. Select your product category.
b. Select your product segment.
c. Select your product.
The support page that lists the various support categories is displayed.
5. For contact details of Dell Global Technical Support:
a. Click Global Technical Support.
b. The Contact Technical Support page is displayed with details to call, chat, or e-mail the Dell Global Technical Support
team.
Documentation feedback
Click the Feedback link in any of the Dell documentation pages, fill out the form, and click Submit to send your feedback.
Your system is identified by a unique Express Service Code and Service Tag number. The Express Service Code is and Service Tag
are found on the front of the system by pulling out the information tag. Alternatively, the information may be on a sticker on the
chassis of the system. This information is used by Dell to route support calls to the appropriate personnel.
Your system is identified by a unique Express Service Code and Service Tag number. The Express Service Code and Service Tag are
found on the chassis label. Alternatively, the information may be on a sticker on the chassis of the system. This information is used
by Dell to route support calls to the appropriate personnel.
Your system is identified by a unique Express Service Code and Service Tag number. The Express Service Tag is found on top of the
system and Express Service Code is found on back of the system. This information is used by Dell to route support calls to the
appropriate personnel.
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Figure 26. Locating Service Tag of your system
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