Dell OpenManage Storage Management
Dell™ PERC 6/i, PERC 6/E and CERC 6/i User's Guide
Dell OpenManage Storage Management
Dell Open Manage storage management applications enable you to manage and configure the RAID system, create and manage multiple disk groups, control and monitor multiple RAID systems, and provide online maintenance. The applications for Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller (PERC) 6 controllers include:
Dell OpenManage Storage Management is a storage management application for Dell systems that provides enhanced features for configuring a system's locally-attached RAID and non-RAID disk storage. Dell OpenManage Storage Management enables you to perform controller and enclosure functions for all supported RAID controllers and enclosures from a single graphical or command-line interface without requiring the use of the controller BIOS utilities. The graphical user interface (GUI) is wizard-driven with features for novice and advanced users and detailed online help. Using Dell OpenManage Storage Management, 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.
SAS RAID Storage Manager is a storage management application for Dell SC systems and Dell Precision™ workstations. SAS RAID Storage Manager configures virtual disks, and monitors and maintains PERC 6 controllers, battery backup units, and other devices running on systems and workstations. It offers a graphical user interface (GUI) you can use to perform these tasks.
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NOTE: Dell OpenManage Storage Management can perform all the same tasks as and more tasks than the BIOS Configuration Utility. |
After you attach physical disks, use a configuration utility to organize your SAS drives and SATA drives into virtual disks. If the operating system is not yet installed, use the BIOS Configuration Utility to perform this procedure.
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NOTE: The PERC 6 controllers support Dell-qualified SATA physical disks. |
Use the configuration utilities to perform the following tasks:
The following sections describe the menu options and provide detailed instructions used to perform the configuration tasks. They apply to the BIOS Configuration Utility. The following is a list of the procedures used to configure physical disks into virtual disks.
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NOTE: A disk group is deleted when the last virtual disk in the disk group is deleted. |
For more information, see Managing Dedicated Hot Spares.
For the detailed configuration procedures, see Physical Disk Management.
The BIOS Configuration Utility, also known as Ctrl+R, is a Open Manage storage management application embedded on the PERC 6 controllers that configures and maintains RAID disk groups and virtual disks, and manages the RAID system. Ctrl+R is independent of any operating system.
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NOTE: Use the BIOS Configuration Utility for initial setup and disaster recovery. You can set Advanced features through Dell OpenManage Storage Management and Dell SAS RAID Storage Manager. |
The following sections provide information about using the BIOS Configuration Utility. See the online help option by pressing <F1> to obtain additional information about the ongoing operation.
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NOTE: The PERC 6 controller configuration utility refreshes the screen to show changes to information on the screen. The refresh occurs when you press a key or every 15 seconds if you do not press a key. |
The BIOS Configuration Utility configures physical disk groups and virtual disks. Because the utility resides in the controller BIOS, its operation is independent of the operating systems on your system.
Perform the following steps to enter the BIOS Configuration Utility when you boot the system.
A BIOS banner displays information about the controller and configuration.
After you press <Ctrl><R>, if there is only one controller, the Virtual Disk Management screen for that controller displays. If there is more than one controller, the main menu screen displays first. This screen lists the RAID controllers. Use the arrow keys to select the RAID controller you want to configure, and press <Enter> to access the management menus for the controller. The virtual disks, physical disks, free space, hot spares, and other items displays in the other menu screens. The information can display in a list view or in an expandable tree directory similar to that of Microsoft® Windows® Explorer.
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NOTE: You can access multiple controllers through the BIOS Configuration Utility by pressing <F12>. |
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NOTE: You can access PERC 5 and PERC 6 adapters from the same BIOS if the PERC 5 firmware version is 5.1.1-0040 or later. You need to verify if you are currently set to edit the PERC 5 or PERC 6 adapter. |
To exit the BIOS Configuration Utility, press <Esc> at any menu screen. If there is only one controller, then a dialog box displays to confirm your choice. Select OK to exit and press <Enter>.
If multiple controllers are present, then the <Esc> key brings you to the Controller Selection screen. Press <Esc> again to reach the exit screen. A dialog box displays to confirm your choice. Select OK to exit and press <Enter>.
Table 5-1 displays the menu keys you can use to move between the different screens in the BIOS Configuration Utility.
Table 5-1. Menu Navigation Keys
This section contains the procedures used to set up a disk group and create virtual disks. Each of the following procedures are explained individually in this section in detail.
For more information, see Managing Dedicated Hot Spares.
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NOTE: A disk group is deleted when the last virtual disk in the disk group is deleted. |
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NOTE: When you use one physical disk group to create multiple virtual disks, all the virtual disks must be configured with the same RAID level. |
When you define the virtual disks, you can set the virtual disk parameters described in Table 5-2.
Table 5-2. Virtual Disk Parameters and Descriptions
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Parameter |
Description |
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RAID Level | RAID Level specifies the whether the virtual disk is RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60. The RAID level you select depends on the number of disks, disk capacity, and the requirements for fault tolerance and performance. See Summary of RAID Levels for more information. |
Stripe Element Size | Stripe Element Size specifies the size of the segments written to each physical disk in a RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, and 50 virtual disk. You can set the stripe element size to 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, 128 KB, 256 KB, 512 KB, or 1024 KB. The default and recommended stripe element size is 64 KB. A larger stripe element size provides better read performance if your system does mostly sequential reads. |
Write Policy | Write Policy specifies the controller write policy. You can set the write policy to Write-Back or Write-Through. 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 BBU is present, the default cache setting is Write-Back cache. If no BBU is present, the default cache policy default setting is Write-Through. NOTICE: If Write-Back is enabled and the system is quickly turned off and then on, the controller may pause as the system flushes cache memory. Controllers that contain 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. Write-Back caching has a performance advantage over Write-Through caching. NOTE: Certain data patterns and configurations perform better with Write-Through cache policy. |
Read Policy | Read-ahead enables the Read-Ahead feature for the virtual disk. You can set this parameter to Read-ahead, No-read-ahead, or Adaptive. The default is No-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 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. NOTE: No-Read-Ahead shows higher performance results due to the effectiveness of hard-drive caching algorithms. Adaptive specifies that the controller begins using Read-Ahead if the two most recent disk accesses occurred in sequential sectors. If all read requests are random, the algorithm reverts to No-read-ahead; however, all requests are still evaluated for possible sequential operation. |
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NOTE: PERC 6 does not support creation of a virtual disk that combines SAS physical disks and SATA physical disks. |
Perform the following steps to create virtual disks.
The Virtual Disk Management screen displays. If there is more than one controller, the main menu screen displays. Select a controller, and press <Enter>. The Virtual Disk Management screen displays for the selected controller.
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NOTE: This procedure describes the BIOS Configuration Utility screens in Tree View. |
The Create New VD screen displays. The cursor is on the RAID Levels option.
The virtual disk size displays in megabyte (MB) format.
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NOTE: For RAID levels 0, 1, 5, and 6 only, you can use part of the available disk space to create one virtual disk and then use the rest of the disk space to create another virtual disk or disks. |
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NOTE: The minimum virtual disk size is 100 MB. |
An X displays beside Advanced Settings. The settings are the stripe element size, read policy, and write policy. You can also choose advanced options such as forcing the cache policy to be Write-Back, initializing the virtual disk, and configuring a dedicated hot spare.
The defaults for these parameters display when the window displays. You can accept the defaults or change them. For detailed information about the virtual disk parameters, see Virtual Disk Parameters and Descriptions.
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NOTICE: Do not initialize virtual disks when attempting to recreate an existing configuration. |
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NOTE: The initialization performed at this stage is fast initialization. |
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NOTE: The hot spare created at this stage is a dedicated hot spare. |
Select the check box to enable the enclosure affinity setting for the hot spare.
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NOTICE: A full initialization permanently destroys any data that already exists. |
Perform the following steps to initialize virtual disks.
The PERC 6 controllers support up to 64 virtual disks per controller. The currently configured virtual disks display on the screen.
Select the Consistency Check (CC) option in the configuration utility to verify the redundancy data in virtual disks that use RAID levels 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60. (RAID 0 does not provide data redundancy.)
If you attempt to run a Consistency Check on a virtual disk that has not been initialized, the following error message displays:
The virtual disk has not been initialized. Running a consistency check may result in inconsistent messages in the log. Are you sure you want to continue?
You can select Yes or No. If you select Yes, the CC operation continues. If you select No, the operation ends.
Perform the following steps to run a Consistency Check.
The Consistency Check runs and checks the redundancy data in the virtual disks.
When a foreign configuration exists, the BIOS banner displays the message Foreign configuration(s) found on adapter. In addition, a foreign configuration, when present, appears on the right side of the VD Mgmt screen.
You can use the VD Mgmt menu to import the existing configuration to the RAID controller or clear the existing configuration to create a new one. In addition, you can view the foreign drive data from the Foreign View tab without importing the configuration.
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NOTE: The controller does not allow an import that results in more than 64 virtual disks. |
Perform the following steps to import or clear foreign configurations.
The VD Mgmt screen appears by default.
The controller number is the only item that appears until you import the foreign configuration.
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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. |
If you import the configuration, the VD Mgmt displays detailed configuration information. This includes information about the disk groups, virtual disks, physical disks, space allocation, and hot spares.
If one or more physical disks are removed from a configuration, for example, by a cable pull or physical disk removal, the configuration on those disks is considered a foreign configuration by the RAID controller.
You can use the Foreign Configuration View 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 appears in the same format as configurations on the VD Mgmt screen. You can use this screen to view the foreign configuration before you decide whether to import it. After you view the foreign configuration, you can either import it to the RAID controller or clear it.
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NOTE: Before you import, review the configuration on the screen to ensure that it is the desired end result. |
You can use the Foreign Configuration View screen to manage foreign configurations in the following cases:
The following constraints apply to the physical disks that are considered for import:
Perform the following procedures on the Foreign Configuration View screen to manage foreign configurations in each specific case:
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NOTE: You must have all the drives in the system before you perform the import operation. |
In the Preview Configuration Data window, the status of a physical disk that needs to be rebuilt is displayed as Rebuild.
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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. |
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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. |
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NOTE: You must have all the drives in the system before you perform the import operation. |
If you select Import, all drives that were pulled before the virtual disk became offline are imported, and then automatically rebuilt.
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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. |
No rebuilds occur after the import operation because there is no redundant data to rebuild the drives with.
If a virtual disk becomes offline or is deleted because of missing physical disks, the controller preserves the dirty cache from the virtual disk. This preserved dirty cache, known as pinned cache, is preserved until you import the virtual disk or discard the cache.
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NOTE: Certain operations, such as creating a new virtual disk, cannot be performed if pinned cache exists. You have to enter the BIOS Configuration Utility to resolve the situation before you boot to the operating system. Messages are displayed notifying you that you must enter the BIOS Configuration Utility to discard the pinned cache or import the virtual disks with the pinned cache. |
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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. |
Perform the following steps to select whether to import the virtual disk or discard the preserved cache.
A message displays to advise you to import the foreign configuration before you discard the preserved cache. Otherwise, you can lose data that belongs with the foreign configuration. Confirm whether you want to continue. The Manage Preserved Cache screen displays the affected virtual disks.
If you choose to discard the cache, you are prompted to confirm your choice. If you choose to retain the cache, a message displays to notify you that you cannot perform certain operations while the cache exists. Click OK to continue.
Some operations, such as creating a new virtual disk, are not allowed if preserved cache exists. A message warns you that you cannot perform the operation while preserved cache exists. If you choose to clear a configuration, and preserved cache exists, a message warns you that all data on all virtual drives is lost and the preserved cache is discarded.
A dedicated hot spare automatically replaces a failed physical disk only in the selected disk group which the hot spare is part of. A dedicated hot spare is used before a global hot spare is used. You can create dedicated hot spares or delete them on the VD Mgmt screen. Perform the following steps to create or delete dedicated hot spares.
The available menu options appear.
A screen displays a list of the current dedicated hot spares and the physical disks that are available to create dedicated hot spares. An X displays next to the current dedicated hot spares.
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NOTE: The utility allows only disks of the same drive technology and of equal or greater size to be selected as dedicated hot spare. |
An X displays beside the selected physical disk(s).
The VD Mgmt screen displays the updated list of hot spares under the Hot spares heading.
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NOTE: If a global hot spare or dedicated hot spare is removed and re-inserted, it regains its status as a hot spare. |
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NOTE: If a dedicated hot spare is removed, re-inserted, and then imported, the physical disk changes to a global hot spare upon completion of the foreign configuration import. |
To delete virtual disks, perform the following steps in the BIOS Configuration Utility.
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NOTE: You cannot delete a virtual disk during an initialization. |
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NOTE: Warning messages are displayed stating the effect of deleting a virtual disk. Click OK twice to complete the virtual disk deletion. |
The action menu appears.
You can delete disk groups using the BIOS Configuration Utility. When you delete a disk group, the utility also removes the virtual disks in that disk group.
To delete disk groups, perform the following steps in the BIOS Configuration Utility.
The action menu displays.
This deletes the disk group. When you delete a disk group, the remaining disk groups with higher numbers are automatically renumbered. For example, if you delete disk group #2, disk group #3 is then automatically renumbered as disk group #2.
You can delete all virtual disks on the RAID controller by performing this operation.
To reset the configuration, perform the following steps in the BIOS Configuration Utility:
A pop-up window appears prompting for confirmation to delete all virtual disks.
The first menu that displays when you access the BIOS Configuration Utility is the main menu screen. It lists the controller, controller number, and other information, such as the slot number. On this screen, you can select use the arrow keys to select the RAID controller you want to configure. Press <Enter> to access the controller.
This section describes the options for the BIOS Configuration Utility for each of the major menus:
Most menus consist of two panels:
The following sections describe the menu and submenu options for each of the major menus.
The Virtual Disk Management screen, VD Mgmt, is the first screen that displays when you access a RAID controller from the main menu screen on the BIOS Configuration Utility. In the Tree View, the left panel displays the menus for the virtual disk management, which are:
In the Tree View, the right panel displays detailed information for the selected controllers, disk groups, virtual disks, physical disks, space allocation, and hot spares, as shown in Table 5-3.
Table 5-3. Information on the Virtual Disk Management Screen
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NOTE: The List View of the Virtual Disk Management screen displays different options from the Tree View. |
Table 5-4 describes the actions you can perform on virtual disks. For procedures you can use to perform these actions, See Physical Disk Management.
Table 5-4. Virtual Disk Actions
The Physical Disk Management screen, PD Mgmt, displays physical disk information and action menus. The screen displays physical disk IDs, vendor names, disk size, type, state, and disk group (DG). You can sort the list of physical disks based on these headings. You can perform several actions on the physical disks, including the following:
Table 5-5 describes the actions you can perform on physical disks. For procedures that can be used to perform these actions, see Physical Disk Management.
Table 5-5. Physical Disk Actions
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.
If no workload is placed on the storage subsystem, the controller rebuilds SAS drives at a rate of approximately 200 GB/hour and SATA drives at a rate of approximately 100 GB/hour. Several of the controller configuration settings and the virtual disk settings affect the actual rate of rebuild. These 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 on Dell Support website at support.dell.com.
The Controller Management screen, Ctrl Mgmt, displays the product name, package, BIOS version, firmware version, BIOS Configuration Utility version, and boot block. Use this screen to perform actions on the controller and BIOS. You can use this screen to enable or disable the controller BIOS and the BIOS during bootup in event of BIOS errors. In addition, you can select a virtual disk from which to boot, select default settings, and reset the configuration.
Table 5-6 describes the actions you can perform on the Ctrl Mgmt screen.
Table 5-6. Controller Management Options
When a foreign configuration is present, you can select Foreign Configuration View to display the configuration. This screen shows the foreign configuration as it would be if you import it. You can preview the foreign configuration before you decide whether to import it or clear it.
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. For the virtual disks, the text Importable or Not Importable displays next to each virtual disk. No virtual disk target ID displays for virtual disks that cannot be imported.
The section Importing or Clearing Foreign Configurations Using the Foreign Configuration View Screen contains the procedures you can use to manage the foreign configurations.
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NOTE: The BIOS Configuration Utility reports error codes for failed imports of foreign configurations. |
The LED blinking option indicates when physical disks are being used to create a virtual disk. You can choose to start or stop the LED blinking. Perform the following steps to start or stop this option.
A list of physical disks appears. The status of the each disk displays under the heading State.
A global hot spare can be used 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.
You can designate the hot spare to have enclosure affinity, meaning that if there are drive failures present on a split backplane configuration, then the hot spare is first used on the backplane that it resides in.
Perform the following steps to create global hot spares.
A list of physical disks displays. The status of the each disk displays under the heading State.
The physical disk is changed to a global hot spare. The status of the physical disk as a global hot spare displays under the heading State.
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NOTE: To replace a failed physical disk global hot spares must use the same drive technology and must be equal or greater in size. |
You can remove one global or dedicated hot spare at a time on the PD Mgmt screen. Perform the following steps to remove a global hot spare or dedicated hot spare.
A list of physical disks displays. The status of each disk displays under the heading State.
The physical disk is changed to the Ready state. The status of the physical disk is displayed under the heading State.
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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. |
In addition to the automatic Replace Member operation, you can manually replace any physical disk that is part of a virtual disk using the Replace Member functionality. Perform the following steps to replace a physical disk:
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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 (SAS/SATA) as the disk it is replacing. |
The following restrictions and limitations apply to the Replace Member operation:
Background initialization is the automated operation in which parity is created and written. BGI does not run on RAID 0 virtual disks. Under certain conditions, the BIOS Configuration Utility displays a message if you want to stop BGI in progress. An alert message displays if BGI is in progress and you start any of the following actions:
The following alert message displays: 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.
Use the following procedures to rebuild one failed physical disk manually.
A list of physical disks appears. The status of each disk appears under the heading State.
The Rebuild option is highlighted at the top of the menu.
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NOTE: You can also use the VD Mgmt screen to perform a manual rebuild. Use the arrow key to highlight physical disk in the tree view, and press <F2>. In the menu that displays, select the Rebuild option. |
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NOTICE: If a physical disk is a member of a disk group that contains multiple virtual disks and one of the virtual disks is deleted when a rebuild operation is in progress, the rebuild operation stops. If this occurs, you can resume the rebuild operation manually using a storage management application. To avoid interruption, ensure that none of the virtual disks are deleted until the rebuild is complete. |
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NOTE: Refer to your system documentation to ensure the proper boot order is selected in the system BIOS. |
In a multiple controller environment, you can enable BIOS on multiple controllers. However, if you want to boot from a specific controller, then enable the BIOS on that controller and disable it on the other controllers. The system can then boot from the BIOS-enabled controller. Perform the following steps to enable the controller BIOS.
An X displays beside Enable Controller BIOS.
The controller BIOS is enabled. To disable the controller BIOS, use the spacebar to deselect the Enable Controller BIOS control, and then select Apply and press <Enter>.
After you enable the BIOS for a controller, perform the following steps to enable the boot support for that controller.
Boot support is enabled for the selected controller.
The option BIOS Stop on Error is used to stop the system from booting if there are BIOS errors. Perform the following steps to enable BIOS Stop on Error.
An X displays beside Enable BIOS Stop on Error.
The controller BIOS is enabled. To disable Enable BIOS Stop on Error, use the spacebar to deselect Enable BIOS Stop on Error, then select Apply and press <Enter>.
You can use the Ctrl Mgmt menu screen to restore the default settings for the options in the Settings box. The settings are Enable Controller BIOS, Enable Alarm, and Enable BIOS Stop on Error. Perform the following steps to restore default settings.
A dialog box displays for you to confirm your choice.
The defaults are automatically selected for the controller settings and are displayed in Settings.
