Dell Perc 6i Manual
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Dell DELL PERC H700 and H800 Technical Guide 11 3 Product Support 3.1 Dell PowerEdge Server Support The Dell PERC H700 and PERC H800 are supported with 11th Generation Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers. Refer to Table 1 for the 11th Generation PowerEdge servers that support the PERC H700 and PERC H800. For the latest Dell PERC support matrix with Dell PowerEdge servers, visit the PERC web page at www.dell.com/PERC. Table 4. PowerEdge Server Support with PERC H700 and PERC H800 PERC H700 Internal Integrated PERC H700 Internal Adapter PERC H700 Internal Modular PERC H800 External Adapter R510 R610 T610 R710 T710 R715 R810 R815 R910 R310 T310 R410 T410 M610 M610x M710 M910 T310 R310 R410 T410 R510 R610 T610 M610x R710 T710 R715 R810 R815 R910 3.2 Management Software Support The Dell PERC H700 and H800 are supported with 11th Generation Dell PowerEdge servers and managed through common Dell OpenManage™ Storage Management software (minimum version 6.2). For pre-OS configuration, the PERC BIOS utility can also be used to configure and troubleshoot the PERC H700 and PERC H800 products. 3.3 Operating System Support The Dell PERC H700 and PERC H800 provide operating system support based on Dell 11th Generation PowerEdge support requirements as shown in Error! Reference source not found.. For the latest list of supported operating systems and driver installation instructions, see the system documentation on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals. For specific operating system service pack requirements, see the Drivers & Downloads page on the Dell Support website.
Dell DELL PERC H700 and H800 Technical Guide 12 Table 5. Operating System Support with PERC H700 and PERC H800 Supported Operating Systems Microsoft® Windows Server® 2003 Family Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Family Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® Version 4 and Version 5 RHEL 4.7 and later (32 and 64 bit) RHEL 5.3 and later (32 and 64 bit) Sun® Solaris™ 10 (64-bit) Novell® SUSE® Linux® Enterprise Server Version 10 (64-bit) and Version 11 (64-bit) SLES10 SP2 and later SLES11 GM and later VMware® vSphere™ 4.1 (including VMware ESX® 4.1 or VMware ESXi™ 4.1) For the most up-to-date information on supported operating systems, see the Operating System Support Matrix for Dell PowerEdge Systems on Dell.com. 3.4 Drive Support The Dell PERC H700 supports SAS and SATA interface drives, both HDD (hard-disk drive) and SSD (solid-state drive). The Dell PERC H800 supports SAS interface drives, both HDD and SSD. Refer to the following table for drive support details. For specific form-factor and capacity support, see the Technical Guidebook for your server at http://www.dell.com. Non Dell certified drives will be blocked. For more information on the benefits of using Dell certified drives, see the Dell Point of View paper Why Customers Should Insist on DELLTM Hard Drives for Enterprise Systems. Table 6. Drive Support Drive Type Interface PERC H700 PERC H800 HDD 6Gb/s SAS Yes Yes 3Gb/s SAS Yes Yes 3Gb/s SATA Yes No SSD 3Gb/s SAS Yes Yes 3Gb/s SATA Yes No SATA interface drives are not supported with PERC H800 and the Dell PowerVault MD1200 and MD1220 enclosures.
Dell DELL PERC H700 and H800 Technical Guide 13 4 Product Overview 4.1 PERC H700 and PERC H800 Overview Table 7. PERC H700 and PERC H800 Features Feature PERC H700 Integrated/Adapter PERC H700 Modular PERC H800 Adapter RAID Levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, 60 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, 60 Ports 2 x4 internal mini-SAS wide ports 1 x4 integrated SAS wide port 2 x4 external mini-SAS wide ports Processor Dell adapter SAS RAID-on- Chip, 8-port with LSI 2108 chipset Dell adapter SAS RAID-on- Chip, 4 lanes with LSI 2108 chipset Dell adapter SAS RAID-on- Chip, 8-port with LSI 2108 chipset Hardware Exclusive OR (XOR) Assistance Yes Yes Yes Battery Backup (BBU) Yes Yes Yes, transportable Cache Memory 512MB BBU 512MB NVC 1GB NVC integrated DDR2 512MB integrated DDR2 512MB TBBU 512MB TNVC 1GB TNVC DDR2 Cache Function Write-Back, Write-Through, Adaptive Read Ahead, No-Read Ahead, Read Ahead Maximum number of drives per large RAID volume (R10, R50, R60) 16 drives 4 drives 192 drives (8 – MD1220) Maximum number of virtual disks (RAID volumes) per disk group 16 16 16 Multiple Virtual Disks (RAID volumes) per controller Up to 64 Up to 64 Up to 64 PCI-Express 2.0 Support x8 x4 x8 Cut-through IO Yes Yes Yes
Dell DELL PERC H700 and H800 Technical Guide 14 Feature PERC H700 Integrated/Adapter PERC H700 Modular PERC H800 Adapter Physical Disk Power Management Yes Yes Yes RAID Level Migration Yes Yes Yes On-line Capacity Expansion Yes Yes Yes Non-Volatile Cache Yes No Yes SMART Support Yes Yes Yes Redundant Path Support N/A N/A Yes Dedicated and Global Hot Spares Yes Yes Yes Revertible Hot Spares Yes Yes Yes Hot Swap Devices Yes Yes Yes Disk Roaming Yes Yes Yes Disk Migration Yes Yes Yes SED Support Yes Yes Yes Mixed Capacity Physical Drive Yes Yes Yes Enclosures per Port N/A N/A Up to 4 per port (total of 8 enclosures per Adapter) Enclosure Hot-Add N/A N/A Yes SAS port connection LED LEDs used to determine the status of the SAS port Supported. Port State; LED State Power On State; Off Reset State; Off All links in port Connected; Green On 1 or more links not connected (only applicable in wide port configurations); Amber On All links in port disconnected or Cable disconnected; Off
Dell DELL PERC H700 and H800 Technical Guide 15 Feature PERC H700 Integrated/Adapter PERC H700 Modular PERC H800 Adapter Clustering Card and software stack enables High Availability Clusters Not supported 4.2 CacheCade CacheCade provides cost-effective performance scaling for database-type application profiles in a host-based RAID environment by extending the PERC RAID controller cache with the addition of Dell- qualified Enterprise SSDs. CacheCade identifies frequently-accessed areas within a data set and copies this data to a Dell- qualified, Enterprise SSD (SATA or SAS), enabling faster response time by directing popular Random Read queries to the CacheCade SSD instead of to the underlying HDD. Supporting up to 512 GB of extended cache, CacheCade SSDs must all be the same interface (SATA or SAS) and will be contained in the server or storage enclosure where the RAID array resides. CacheCade SSDs will not be a part of the RAID array. CacheCade is a standard feature on, and only available with, the PERC H700/H800 1 GB NV Cache RAID controller. CacheCade SSDs can be configured using the PERC BIOS Configuration Utility or OpenManage. 4.3 Cut-Through IO Cut-through IO (CTIO) is an IO accelerator for SSD arrays that boosts the throughput of devices connected to the PERC Controller. It is enabled through disabling the write-back cache (enable write-through cache) and disabling Read Ahead. 4.4 Reconfiguring Virtual Disks There are two methods to reconfigure RAID virtual disks—RAID Level Migration (RLM) and Online Capacity Expansion (OCE). RLM involves the conversion of a virtual disk to a different RAID level. OCE refers to increasing the capacity of a virtual disk, which can be accomplished in three ways: 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 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 disks capacity can also be expanded by performing an OCE operation to add more physical disks by encompassing all available free space on a given virtual disk, adding drives and/or migrating to a different RAID level. When a RLM/OCE operation is complete, a reboot is not necessary. For a list of RAID level migrations and capacity expansion possibilities, see Table 1. The source RAID level column indicates the virtual disk level before the RAID level migration and the target RAID level column indicates the RAID level after the operation is complete. If you configure 64 virtual disks on a controller, you cannot perform a RAID level migration or capacity expansion on any of the virtual disks. The controller changes the write cache policy of all virtual disks undergoing a RLM/OCE to Write-Through until the RLM/OCE is complete. Note: RAID level migration and expansion is not supported on RAID levels 10, 50, and 60.
Dell DELL PERC H700 and H800 Technical Guide 16 Table 8. RAID Level Migration Source RAID Level Target RAID Level # of Physical Drives (Beginning) # of Physical Drives (End) Capacity Expansion Possible Description RAID 0 RAID 1 1 2 No Converting non- redundant virtual disk into a mirrored virtual disk by adding one drive. RAID 0 RAID 5 1 or more 3 or more Yes At least one drive needs to be added for distributed parity data. RAID 0 RAID 6 1 or more 4 or more Yes At least two drives need to be added for dual distributed parity data. RAID 1 RAID 0 2 2 or more Yes Removes redundancy while increasing capacity. RAID 1 RAID 5 2 3 or more Yes Maintains redundancy while doubling capacity. RAID 1 RAID 6 2 4 or more Yes Two drives are required to be added for distributed parity data. RAID 5 RAID 0 3 or more 3 or more Yes Converting to a non- redundant virtual disk and reclaiming disk space used for distributed parity data. RAID 5 RAID 6 3 or more 4 or more Yes At least one drive needs to be added for dual distributed parity data. RAID 6 RAID 0 4 or more 4 or more Yes Converting to a non- redundant virtual disk and reclaiming disk space used for distributed parity data. RAID 6 RAID 5 4 or more 4 or more Yes Removing one set of parity data and reclaiming disk space used for it. 4.5 Fault-Tolerance Features Below is a list of features that provide fault tolerance to prevent data loss: Non-volatile cache: extends data retention from hours to years Support for SMART Redundant path support (for PERC H800 only) Physical disk failure detection
Dell DELL PERC H700 and H800 Technical Guide 17 Physical disk rebuild using hot spares Enclosure affinity Parity generation and checking (for RAID 5, 50, 6, and 60 only) Battery backup of controller cache to protect data Detection of batteries with low charge after boot up 4.5.1 Non-Volatile Cache Dell PERC controllers with non-volatile (NV) cache use the standard battery as contained in the Dell PERC controllers with a battery back-up unit (BBU). The difference is in battery implementation: The battery in the BBU offering retains the data in cache in the event of a power cycle for a guaranteed period of 24 hours (typically up to 72 hours). The battery in the NV cache offering will transfer the data from cache to flash in the event of a power cycle, where the data will be retained for up to ten years. 4.5.2 Automatic Replace Member with Predicted Failure A Replace Member operation can occur when there is a SMART predictive failure reporting on a drive in a virtual disk. The automatic Replace Member is initiated when the first SMART error occurs on a physical disk that is part of a virtual disk. The target drive needs to be a hot spare that qualifies as a rebuild drive. The physical disk with the SMART error is marked as failed only after the successful completion of the Replace Member. This avoids putting the array in degraded status. If an automatic Replace Member occurs using a source drive that was originally a hot spare (that was used in a rebuild), and a new drive added for the Replace Member operation as the target drive, the hot spare reverts to the hot spare state after a successful Replace Member operation. To enable the automatic Replace Member, use the Dell OpenManage storage management application. 4.5.3 Redundant Path with Load Balancing Support The PERC H800 adapter can detect and use redundant paths to drives contained in enclosures. This provides the ability to connect two SAS cables between a controller and an enclosure for path redundancy. The controller is able to tolerate the failure of a cable or Enclosure Management Module (EMM) by using the remaining path. When redundant paths exist, the controller automatically balances I/O load through both paths to each disk drive. This load balancing feature increases throughput to each drive and is automatically turned on when redundant paths are detected. To set up your hardware to support redundant paths, see the Setting up Redundant Path Support on the PERC H800 Adapter section in the PERC H700 and PERC H800 User’s Guide (support.dell.com/manuals). 4.5.4 Failed Physical Disk Detection The controller automatically detects and rebuilds failed physical disks when you place a new drive in the slot where the failed drive resided or when an applicable hot spare is present. Automatic rebuilds can be performed transparently with hot spares. If you have configured hot spares, the controllers automatically try to use them to rebuild failed physical disks. 4.5.5 Using Replace Member and Revertible Hot Spares The Replace Member functionality allows a previously commissioned hot spare to be reverted back to a usable hot spare. When a drive failure occurs within a virtual disk, an assigned hot spare (dedicated or global) is commissioned and begins rebuilding until the virtual disk is optimal. After the failed drive is replaced (in the same slot) and the rebuild to the hot spare is complete, the controller automatically starts to copy data from the commissioned hot spare to the newly inserted drive. After the data is copied, the new drive is part of the virtual disk and the hot spare is reverted back to
Dell DELL PERC H700 and H800 Technical Guide 18 being a ready hot spare. This allows hot spares to remain in specific enclosure slots. While the controller is reverting the hot spare, the virtual disk remains optimal. The controller automatically reverts a hot spare only if the failed drive is replaced with a new drive in the same slot. If the new drive is not placed in the same slot, a manual Replace Member operation can be used to revert a previously commissioned hot spare. 4.5.6 Enclosure Affinity Enclosure affinity is used to set the preference for a hot spare to be used to rebuild a physical disk that resides in the same physical enclosure. This does not preclude the hot spare from being provisioned to a second enclosure if there are no other hot spares present. For example, if there are two enclosures and each enclosure has a hot spare with affinity set, then upon a drive failure the hot spare will be provisioned from the same enclosure as the failed drive. Hot-spare enclosure affinity can be configured only if you are using an external storage enclosure. 4.5.7 Battery Back-up of Controller Cache 4.5.7.1 Battery Management The transportable battery backup unit (TBBU) is a cache memory module with an integrated battery pack that enables you to transport the cache module with the battery in a new controller. The TBBU protects the integrity of the cached data on the PERC H800 adapter by providing backup power during a power outage. The battery backup unit (BBU) is a battery pack that protects the integrity of the cached data on the PERC H700 cards by providing backup power during a power outage. The battery provides up to 24 hours of backup power for the cache memory. 4.5.7.2 Battery Learn Cycle Learn cycle is a battery calibration operation performed by the controller periodically to determine the condition of the battery. This operation cannot be disabled. The time frame for completion of a learn cycle is a function of the battery charge capacity and the discharge/charge currents used. For PERC H700 or H800 cards, the expected time frame for completion of a learn cycle is approximately seven hours and consists of the following parts: • Learn cycle discharge cycle: approximately three hours • Learn cycle charge cycle: approximately four hours During the discharge phase of a learn cycle, the PERC H700 or H800 battery charger is disabled and remains disabled until the battery is discharged. After the battery is discharged, the charger is re- enabled. 4.6 Physical Disk Hot Swapping Hot swapping is the manual replacement of a unit in a disk subsystem while the subsystem is performing its normal functions. The following requirements must be met before hot swapping a physical disk: • The system backplane or enclosure must support hot swapping. • The replacement drive must be of the same protocol and drive technology. For example, only a SAS HDD can replace a SAS HDD; only a SATA SSD can replace a SATA SSD. • The replacement drive must be of equal or greater capacity than the one it is replacing.
Dell DELL PERC H700 and H800 Technical Guide 19 4.7 Disk Roaming The PERC H700 and H800 cards support moving 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 proper virtual disks that are part of the disk group. Disk roaming can be performed only when the system is turned off. Disk roaming should not be performed during RAID level migration (RLM) or online capacity expansion (OCE). This causes loss of the virtual disk. 4.8 Disk Migration The PERC H700 and H800 cards support migration of virtual disks from one controller to another without taking the target controller offline. However, the source controller must be offline prior to performing the disk migration. The controller can import RAID virtual disks in optimal, degraded, or partially degraded states. A virtual disk cannot be imported if it is in an offline state. Disks cannot be migrated back to previous PERC RAID controllers. When a controller detects a physical disk with an existing configuration, it flags the physical disk as foreign, and it generates an alert indicating that a foreign disk was detected. Disk roaming should not be used during RLM or online capacity expansion OCE as it can cause loss of the virtual disk. Virtual disks that are created on the PERC 6 and H200 family of controllers can be migrated to the PERC H700 and H800 controllers without risking data or configuration loss. Migrating virtual disks from the PERC H700 and H800 cards to PERC 6 or PERC H200 is not supported. During the discharge phase of a learn cycle, the PERC H700 or H800 battery charger is disabled and remains disabled until the battery is discharged. After the battery is discharged, the charger is re- enabled. 4.9 PERC H700 and H800 Security Key and RAID Management 4.9.1 PERC H700 and H800 Security Key Implementation The Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) H700 and H800 cards support encryption of data on the drives when using Dell qualified self-encrypting drives (SEDs). This feature provides protection to the data at rest in the event of theft or loss of drives. There is one security key per controller which resides in the controller memory and it can be managed by the user (local key management). The security key is used by the controller to lock and unlock access to encryption-capable physical drives. In order to take advantage of this feature, you need to create a security key on your PERC H700 or PERC H800 controller and have Dell qualified SEDs. 4.9.2 Configuring and Managing Secured RAID Dell OpenManage storage management applications enable you to create and manage a security key, manage and configure the RAID system, create and manage multiple disk groups, control and monitor multiple RAID systems, and provide online maintenance. The management applications for PERC H700 and H800 include: • Dell OpenManage Storage Management • BIOS Configuration Utility
Dell DELL PERC H700 and H800 Technical Guide 20 4.10 Virtual Disk Write Cache Policies The write cache policy of a virtual disk determines how the controller handles writes to that virtual disk. Write-Back and Write-Through are the two write cache policies and can be set on virtual disks individually. All RAID volumes will be presented as Write-Through (WT) to the operating system (Windows and Linux) independent of the actual write cache policy of the virtual disk. The PERC cards manage the data in cache independently of the operating system or any applications. You can use OpenManage or the BIOS configuration utility to view and manage virtual disk cache settings. In Write-Through caching, the controller sends a data-transfer completion signal to the host system when the disk subsystem has received all the data in a transaction. 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. The controller then writes the cached data to the storage device in the background. The risk of using Write-Back cache is that the cached data can be lost if there is a power failure before it is written to the storage device. This risk is mitigated by using a BBU on PERC H700 or H800 cards. Write-Back caching has a performance advantage over Write-Through caching. The default cache setting for virtual disks is Write-Back caching. Certain data patterns and configurations perform better with a Write-Through cache policy. Write-Back caching is used under all conditions in which the battery is present and in good condition. Write-Through caching is used under all conditions in which the battery is missing or in a low-charge state. Low-charge state is when the battery is not capable of maintaining data for at least 24 hours in the case of a power loss. Write-Back mode is available when the user selects 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. It is recommended that you use power backup system when forcing Write-Back to ensure there is no loss of data if the system suddenly loses power. 4.11 Virtual Disk Read Cache Policies The read policy of a virtual disk determines how the controller handles reads to that virtual disk. The read policies are: • Always Read Ahead—Read-Ahead capability allows the controller to read sequentially ahead of requested data and to store the additional data in cache memory, anticipating that the data is required soon. This speeds up reads for sequential data, but there is little improvement when accessing random data. • No Read Ahead—Disables the Read-Ahead capability. • Adaptive Read Ahead—When selected, the controller begins using Read-Ahead if the two most recent disk accesses occurred in sequential sectors. If the read requests are random, the controller reverts to No Read Ahead mode. Note: The default read cache setting for virtual disks is Adaptive Read Ahead.