Dell Sas 6ir Manual

							Getting Help59
 Dell Marketing and Sales e-mail addresses
[email protected]
 (Asian/Pacific countries only)
[email protected] (Canada only)
 Anonymous file transfer protocol (FTP)
ftp.dell.com/
Log in as user: anonymous, and use your e-mail address as your password.
Automated Order-Status Service
To check on the status of any Dell products that you have ordered, you can 
go to
support.dell.com, or you can call the automated order-status service. 
A recording prompts you for the information needed to locate and report on 
your order. See the contact information for your region.
Dell Enterprise Training
Dell Enterprise training is available; see www.dell.com/training for more 
information. This service may not be offered in all locations.
Problems With Your Order
If you have a problem with your order, such as missing parts, wrong parts, or 
incorrect billing, contact Dell for customer assistance. Have your invoice or 
packing slip available when you call. See the contact information for your 
region.
Product Information
If you need information about additional products available from Dell, or if you 
would like to place an order, visit the Dell website at 
www.dell.com. For the 
telephone number to call to speak to a sales specialist, see the contact 
information for your region.
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							60Getting Help
Returning Items for Warranty Repair or Credit
Prepare all items being returned, whether for repair or credit, as follows:
1Call Dell to obtain a Return Material Authorization Number, and write it 
clearly and prominently on the outside of the box.
For the telephone number to call, see the contact information for your 
region.
2Include a copy of the invoice and a letter describing the reason for the 
return.
3Include a copy of any diagnostic information indicating the tests you have 
run and any error messages reported by the system diagnostics.
4Include any accessories that belong with the item(s) being returned (such 
as power cables, media such as CDs and diskettes, and guides) if the return 
is for credit.
5Pack the equipment to be returned in the original (or equivalent) packing 
materials.
You are responsible for paying shipping expenses. You are also responsible 
for insuring any product returned, and you assume the risk of loss during 
shipment to Dell. Collect-on-delivery (C.O.D.) packages are not accepted.
Returns that are missing any of the preceding requirements will be refused at 
our receiving dock and returned to you.
Before You Call
 NOTE: Have your Express Service Code ready when you call. The code helps Dells 
automated-support telephone system direct your call more efficiently.
 
NOTE: See your system’s Hardware Owner’s Manual for the telephone numbers 
and codes provided to contact Dell Support.
If possible, turn on your system before you call Dell for technical assistance and 
call from a telephone at or near the system. You may be asked to type some 
commands at the keyboard, relay detailed information during operations, or try 
other troubleshooting steps possible only at the system itself. Ensure that the 
system documentation is available. 
 CAUTION: Before servicing any components inside your system, see your Product 
Information Guide for important safety information.
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							Appendix C61
Regulatory Notices
For additional regulatory information, please go to the Regulatory 
Compliance Homepage on www.dell.com at the following location: 
www.dell.com/regulatory_compliance.
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							62Appendix C
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							Appendix D63
Corporate Contact Details 
(Taiwan Only)
Pursuant to Article 11 of the Commodity Inspection Act, Dell provides the following corporate 
contact details for the certified entity in Taiwan for the products addressed by this document:
Dell B.V. Taiwan Branch
20/F, No. 218, Sec. 2, Tung Hwa S. Road,
Ta i p e i ,  Ta i w a n
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							64Appendix D
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							Glossary65
Glossary
This section defines or identifies technical terms, abbreviations, and acronyms 
used in this document.
A
Adapter
An adapter enables the computer system to access peripheral devices by 
converting the protocol of one bus or interface to another. An adapter may also 
provide specialized function. Adapters may reside on the system board or be an 
add-in card. Other examples of adapters include network and SCSI adapters.
B
BIOS
(Basic Input/Output System) The part of the operating system in a system that 
provides the lowest level interface to peripheral devices. BIOS also refers to the Basic 
Input/Input Output System of other “intelligent” devices, such as RAID controllers.
BIOS Configuration Utility
The BIOS Configuration Utility reports and enables the configuration of 
controller properties. The utility resides in the controller BIOS and its operation 
is independent of the operating systems on your system. The BIOS 
Configuration Utility, also known as Ctrl-C, is built on elements called controls. 
Each control performs a function.
C
Coercion
Coercion is the process of rounding down the number of Logical blocks used 
for the physical members of a virtual disk to a common number. This allows 
drives with different absolute capacities, which can vary between drive 
manufacturers and drive families, to share a common stripe size and count as 
members of the virtual disk. Coercion necessarily results in a smaller capacity 
than was available on the un-coerced basic physical drive.
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							66Glossary
Controller
A chip that controls the transfer of data between the microprocessor and 
memory or between the microprocessor and a peripheral device such as a 
physical disk or the keyboard. In Storage Management, the hardware or logic 
that interacts with storage devices to write and retrieve data and perform storage 
management. RAID controllers perform RAID functions such as striping and 
mirroring to provide data protection.
D
Disk
A non-volatile, randomly addressable, rewriteable mass storage device, including 
rotating magnetic, optical and solid-state storage devices, or non-volatile 
electronic storage elements.
DKMS
DKMS stands for Dynamic Kernel Module Support. It is designed to create a 
framework where kernel dependent module source can reside so that it is very 
easy to rebuild modules as you upgrade kernels. This will allow Linux vendors to 
provide driver drops without having to wait for new kernel releases while also 
taking out the guesswork for customers attempting to recompile modules for 
new kernels.
Driver
A device driver, often called a driver for short, is a program that allows the 
operating system or some other program to interface correctly with a peripheral 
device such as a printer, a network PC card or the SAS 6/iR controller. 
DUD (Driver Update Diskette)
Acronym for driver update diskette. A DUD is an image of a diskette stored as a 
regular file. To use it, you have to create a real diskette from this file. The steps used 
to create the diskette depend on how the image is supplied.
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							Glossary67
F
Firmware
Software stored in read-only memory (ROM) or Programmable ROM (PROM). 
Firmware is often responsible for the behavior of a system when it is first turned 
on. A typical example would be a monitor program in a system that loads the 
full operating system from disk or from a network and then passes control to the 
operating system.
Flash Memory
Sometimes referred as simply flash, is a compact, solid-state, rewriteable, 
non-volatile memory device that retains its data when the power is turned off. 
It offers fast access time, low power consumption, and relative immunity to 
severe shock or vibration. It is a special type of EEPROM that can be erased and 
reprogrammed in blocks instead of one byte at a time. Many modern PCs have 
their BIOS stored on a flash memory chip so that it can easily be updated if 
necessary. Such a BIOS is sometimes called a flash BIOS.
H
Hardware
The mechanical, magnetic, electronic, and electrical components making up a 
computer system constitutes its hardware.
Hot Add/Remove
It is the addition/removal of a component while the system is running and 
operating normally.
L
Link
A connection between any two PCI Express devices is known as a link.
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							68Glossary
M
MHz
Megahertz or one million cycles per second is a unit of frequency commonly 
used to measure the operating speed of a computer processor or any other 
electronic component.
Mirroring
The process of providing complete redundancy using two physical disks, by 
maintaining an exact copy of one physical disk’s data on the second physical disk. 
If one physical disk fails, the contents of the other physical disk can be used to 
maintain the integrity of the system and to rebuild the failed physical disk.
N
NVDATA
This refers to non-volatile data. It is the configuration information that is part 
of and is used by the controller firmware and is stored in the flash memory on 
the controller.
O
Operating System
The software that runs a computer, including scheduling tasks, managing 
storage, and handling communication with peripherals and performs basic 
input/output functions, such as recognizing input from the keyboard, sending 
output to the display screen, etc. is called an operating system.
P
PCI Express (PCI-E)
PCI Express (PCI-E) is an evolutionary upgrade to the existing Peripheral 
Component Interconnect (PCI) bus. PCI-E is a serial connection that operates 
more like a network than a bus. Instead of one bus that handles data from 
multiple sources, PCI-E has a switch that controls several point-to-point serial 
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