Cisco UCS C220 M3 User manual

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Support for Cisco UCS C220/C240
M3 Rack Servers
Create and Modify RAID Volumes:
Configuration Guide
March 12, 2014
Configuration Guide

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Contents
Purpose of This Document.....................................................................................................................................3
RAID Overview.........................................................................................................................................................3
RAID Levels Supported by Cisco UCS C220/C240 M3 Rack Servers..................................................................3
Verifying the Supported RAID Levels in Cisco IMC ..............................................................................................3
RAID 0 ..................................................................................................................................................................4
RAID 1 ..................................................................................................................................................................4
RAID 1E................................................................................................................................................................5
RAID 5 ..................................................................................................................................................................6
RAID 6 ..................................................................................................................................................................6
RAID 10 ................................................................................................................................................................7
RAID 50 ................................................................................................................................................................8
RAID 60 ................................................................................................................................................................9
Cisco Integrated Management Controller Overview........................................................................................... 10
Management Interfaces ...................................................................................................................................... 11
Tasks You Can Perform in Cisco IMC ................................................................................................................11
Creating Virtual Drives from Unused Physical Disks.........................................................................................11
Creating a RAID Volume Based on a Single Drive Group: RAID 0, 1, 5, and 6.................................................. 11
Creating a Hot Spare .............................................................................................................................................16
Creating a Global Hot Spare...............................................................................................................................16
Creating a Dedicated Hot Spare.........................................................................................................................17
Creating a RAID Volume Based on Multiple Drive Groups: RAID 00, 10, 50, and 60 .......................................19
Replacing a Drive and Rebuilding the Data.........................................................................................................23
Changing the RAID Level with the WebBIOS Utility ...........................................................................................26
Using the LSI MegaCLI Utility...............................................................................................................................30
General Parameters............................................................................................................................................31
Command Syntax ............................................................................................................................................... 31
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................................32
For More Information.............................................................................................................................................32

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Purpose of This Document
This document gives an overview of RAID technology and describes the various RAID levels, as well as the RAID
levels supported on Cisco UCS®C220 and C240 M3 Rack Servers. It also describes how to work with the Cisco®
Integrated Management Controller (Cisco IMC), including creating RAID volumes and hot spares and replacing a
drive. In addition, it discusses how to migrate the existing RAID level using the WebBIOS utility and how to use the
LSI MegaCLI utility.
RAID Overview
A redundant array of independent disks (RAID) is a group, or array, of independent physical drives that provides
high performance and fault tolerance. The RAID drive group appears to the host computer as either a single unit or
multiple virtual units. I/O is expedited because several drives can be accessed simultaneously.
RAID drive groups provide greater data storage reliability and fault tolerance than single-drive storage systems.
Data loss resulting from a drive failure can be prevented by using the remaining drives to reconstruct missing data.
RAID has become popular because it improves I/O performance and increases storage subsystem reliability.
RAID Levels Supported by Cisco UCS C220/C240 M3 Rack Servers
The RAID levels supported on any Cisco UCS C-Series server vary by RAID controller and can be verified in Cisco
IMC.
Example: RAID levels supported on two different controllers.
Server
Controller
Supported RAID Levels
C220/ C240 M3
Cisco UCS RAID SAS 2008M-8i Mezzanine Card
0, 1, 1E, 5, 10, 50
LSI MegaRAID SAS 9271CV-8i
0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, 60
Verifying the Supported RAID Levels in Cisco IMC
●Log in to Cisco IMC, navigate to the Storage tab, and click Create Virtual Drive from Unused Physical
Drives. The supported RAID levels can be seen in the drop-down menu next to “RAID Level” (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Verifying the Supported RAID Levels

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RAID 0
RAID 0 provides disk striping across all the drives in the RAID drive group. RAID 0 does not provide any data
redundancy, but it offers the best performance of any RAID level. RAID 0 divides data into smaller segments and
then stripes the data segments across each drive in the drive group. The size of each data segment is determined
by the stripe size. RAID 0 offers high bandwidth.
RAID 0 is excellent for applications that require high bandwidth but do not require fault tolerance. Table 1 provides
an overview of RAID 0. Figure 2 shows an example of RAID 0 use.
Table 1. RAID 0
RAID 0
Uses
Ÿ
●Provides high data throughput, especially for large files
●Good for any environment that does not require fault tolerance
Advantages
Ÿ
●Provides increased data throughput for large files
●No capacity loss penalty for parity
Limitations
Ÿ
●Does not provide fault tolerance or high bandwidth
●All data is lost if any drive fails
Drives
1 through 32
Figure 2. RAID 0 Drive Group with Two Drives
RAID 1
In RAID 1, the RAID controller duplicates all the data from one drive to a second drive in the drive group. RAID 1
supports an even number of drives from 2 through 32 in a single span. It provides complete data redundancy, but
at the cost of doubling the required data storage capacity.
RAID 1 is excellent for environments that require fault tolerance and have small capacity. Table 2 provides an
overview of RAID 1. Figure 3 shows an example of RAID 1 use.
Table 2. RAID 1
RAID 1
Uses
Good for small databases or any other environment that requires fault tolerance but has low
capacity
Advantages
Provides complete data redundancy
Limitations
Requires twice as many drives
Drives
2 through 32 (must be an even number of drives)

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Figure 3. RAID 1 Drive Group
RAID 1E
RAID 1E, Integrated Mirroring Enhanced, combines mirroring and data striping. Each mirrored stripe is written to a
disk and mirrored to an adjacent disk.
RAID 1E has a profile similar to that of RAID 1. Any RAID 1 drive group with more than two drives is a RAID 1E
drive group. Table 3 provides an overview of RAID 1. Figure 4 shows an example of RAID 1 use.
RAID 1E provides data redundancy and high levels of performance and allows a larger number of physical drives
to be used. RAID 1E requires a minimum of three drives and supports a maximum of 32 drives.
Table 3. RAID 1E
RAID 1E
Uses
Good for small databases or any other environment that requires fault tolerance
Advantages
Provides complete data redundancy and high performance
Limitations
Requires twice as many drives. Allows only 50 percent of the physical drive storage capacity
to be used
Drives
4 through 32 (must be an even number of drives)
Figure 4. RAID 1E Drive Group 1

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RAID 5
RAID 5 includes parity and disk striping at the block level. Parity is the data’s property of being odd or even, and
parity checking is used to detect errors in the data. In RAID 5, the parity information is written to all drives. RAID 5
is best suited for networks that perform a lot of small I/O transactions simultaneously.
RAID 5 is excellent for environments with applications that have high read request rates but low write request
rates. Table 4 provides an overview of RAID 5. Figure 5 shows an example of RAID 5 use.
Table 4. RAID 5
RAID 5
Uses
●Provides high data throughput, especially for large files
●Good for transaction processing applications because each drive can read and write independently
●If a drive fails, the parity drive of the RAID controller is used to re-create all missing information
Advantages
●Provides data redundancy, high read rates, and good performance in most environments; provides redundancy
with lowest loss of capacity
Limitations
●Not well suited to tasks requiring numerous write operations
●Suffers a greater impact if no cache is used (clustering)
●Drive performance is reduced if a drive is being rebuilt
●Not well suited for environments with few processes; such environments do not perform as well because the
RAID overhead is not offset by the performance gains in handling simultaneous processes
Drives
3 through 32
Figure 5. RAID 5 Drive Group with Six Drives
RAID 6
RAID 6 is similar to RAID 5 (it provides disk striping and parity), except that instead of one parity block per stripe,
there are two. With two independent parity blocks, RAID 6 can survive the loss of any two drives in a virtual drive
without losing data. It is well suited for data that requires a very high level of protection from loss.
RAID 6 is excellent for environments with applications that have high read request rates but low write request
rates. Table 5 provides an overview of RAID 6. Figure 6 shows an example of RAID 6 use.

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Table 5. RAID 6
RAID 6
Uses
●Office automation and online customer service that require fault tolerance
●Any application that has a high read request rate
Advantages
●Provides data redundancy, high read rates, and good performance in most environments
●Can survive the loss of two drives or the loss of a drive while another drive is being rebuilt
●Provides the highest level of protection against drive loss or the loss of a drive while another drive is being
rebuilt
●Provides the highest level of protection against drive failures of all the RAID levels
●Provides read performance similar to that of RAID 5
Limitations
●Not well suited to tasks requiring numerous write operations; RAID 6 virtual drive has to generate two sets of
parity data for each write operation, which results in a significant decrease in performance during write
operations
●Drive performance is reduced during a drive rebuild
●Not well suited for environments with few processes; such environments do not perform as well because the
RAID overhead is not offset by the performance gains in handling simultaneous processes
●Costs more because of the additional capacity required—two parity blocks per stripe
Drives
3 through 32
Figure 6. RAID 6 with Distributed Parity Across Two Blocks in a Stripe
RAID 10
Virtual drives defined across multiple RAID 1 drive groups are referred to as RAID 10 (1 + 0). RAID 10 creates
striped data across mirrored spans. The RAID 10 drive group is a spanned drive group that creates a striped set
from a series of mirrored drives. The RAID 1 virtual drives must have the same stripe size. Spanning is used
because one virtual drive is defined across more than one drive group. Data is striped across drive groups to
increase performance by enabling access to multiple drive groups simultaneously.
Configure RAID 10 by spanning two contiguous RAID 1 virtual drives, up to the maximum number of supported
devices for the controller. RAID 10 supports a maximum of eight spans, with a maximum of 32 drives per span.
You must use an even number of drives in each RAID 10 virtual drive in the span.
RAID 10 is excellent for environments that require a higher degree of fault tolerance and medium-sized capacity.
Table 6 provides an overview of RAID 10. Figure 7 shows an example of RAID 10 use.

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Table 6. RAID 10
RAID 10
Uses
●Appropriate when used with data storage that needs 100 percent redundancy of mirrored drive groups and that
also needs the enhanced I/O performance of RAID 0 (striped drive groups)
●Works well for medium-sized databases
Advantages
Provides both high data transfer rates and complete data redundancy
Limitations
Requires twice as many drives as all other RAID levels
Drives
4 through 32 in multiples of 4 (limited by the maximum number of drives supported by the controller using an even
number of drives in each RAID 10 virtual drive in the span)
Figure 7. RAID 10 Drive Group
RAID 50
RAID 50 is a combination of RAID 5 and RAID 0 (5 + 0). RAID 50 includes both parity and disk striping across
multiple drive groups. It is best implemented on two RAID 5 drive groups with data striped across both drive
groups.
RAID 50 divides data into smaller blocks and then stripes the blocks of data to each RAID 5 disk set. RAID 5
divides data into smaller blocks, calculates parity by performing an exclusive-or operation on the blocks, and then
writes the blocks of data and parity to each drive in the drive group. The size of each block is determined by the
stripe size parameter, which is set during the creation of the RAID set.
RAID 50 can support up to eight spans and tolerate up to eight drive failures, though less than the drive capacity is
available. Although multiple drive failures are tolerated, only one drive failure is tolerated in each RAID 5 drive
group.
RAID 50 is excellent for environments that require high reliability, high request rates, high data transfer, and
medium-sized to large capacity. Table 7 provides an overview of RAID 50. Figure 8 shows an example of RAID 50
use.

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Table 7. RAID 50
RAID 50
Uses
Appropriate when used with data that requires high reliability, high request rates, high data transfer, and medium-
sized to large capacity
Advantages
Provides high data throughput, data redundancy, and very good performance
Limitations
Requires 2 to 8 times as many parity drives as RAID 5
Drives
8 spans of RAID 5 drive groups containing 3 through 32 drives each (limited by the maximum number of devices
supported by the controller)
Figure 8. RAID 50 Drive Group
RAID 60
RAID 60 provides the features of both RAID 6 and RAID 0 (6 + 0) and includes both parity and disk striping across
multiple drive groups. RAID 6 supports two independent parity blocks per stripe. A RAID 60 virtual drive can
survive the loss of two drives in each of the RAID 6 sets without losing data. RAID 60 is best implemented on two
RAID 6 drive groups, with data striped across both drive groups.
RAID 60 divides data into smaller blocks, calculates parity by performing an exclusive-or operation on the blocks,
and then writes the blocks of data and parity to each drive in the drive group. The size of each block is determined
by the stripe size parameter, which is set during the creation of the RAID set.
RAID 60 can support up to eight spans and tolerates up to 16 drive failures, though less than the total drive
capacity is available. Two drive failures can be tolerated in each RAID 6 drive group.
RAID 60 is excellent for environments that require a very high level of protection from loss and that have high read
request rates but low write request rates. Table 8 provides an overview of RAID 60. Figure 9 shows an example of
RAID 60 use.

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Table 8. RAID 60
RAID 60
Uses
●Provides a high level of data protection through the use of a second parity block in each stripe
●Good for data that requires a very high level of protection from loss
●In the event of a failure of one drive or two drives in a RAID set in a virtual drive, the RAID controller uses the
parity blocks to re-create all the missing information
●If two drives in a RAID 6 set in a RAID 60 virtual drive fail, two drive rebuild operations are required, one for each
drive, and these rebuild operations can occur at the same time
●Use for office automation and online customer service that require fault tolerance
●Use for any application that has high read request rates but low write request rates
Advantages
●Provides data redundancy, high read rates, and good performance in most environments
●Each RAID 6 set can survive the loss of two drives or the loss of a drive while another drive is being rebuilt
●Provides the highest level of protection against drive failures of all of the RAID levels
●Read performance is similar to that of RAID 50, though random read operations in RAID 60 may be slightly
faster because data is spread across at least one more disk in each RAID 6 set
Limitations
●Not well suited to tasks requiring numerous write operations; a RAID 60 virtual drive has to generate two sets of
parity data for each write operation, which results in a significant decrease in performance during write
operations
●Drive performance is reduced during a drive rebuild
●Not well suited for environments with few processes; such environments do not perform as well because the
RAID overhead is not offset by the performance gains in handling simultaneous processes
●Costs more because of the additional capacity required to use two parity blocks per stripe
Drives
A minimum of 8
Figure 9. RAID 60 Drive Group
Cisco Integrated Management Controller Overview
The Cisco IMC is the management service for the Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers. Cisco IMC runs within the
server. The Cisco IMC GUI is a web-based management interface. You can launch the GUI and manage the
server from any remote host that meets the following minimum requirements:
●Java 1.6 or later
●HTTP and HTTPS enabled
●Adobe Flash Player 10 or higher

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Management Interfaces
You can use a web-based GUI or Secure Shell (SSH)–based command-line interface (CLI) to access, configure,
administer, and monitor the server. Almost all tasks can be performed in either interface, and the results of tasks
performed in one interface are displayed in the other. However, you cannot do the following:
●Use the Cisco IMC GUI to invoke the Cisco IMC CLI
●View a command that has been invoked through the Cisco IMC CLI in the Cisco IMC GUI
●Generate Cisco IMC CLI output from the Cisco IMC GUI
Tasks You Can Perform in Cisco IMC
You can use the Cisco IMC to perform the following server management tasks:
●Power on, power off, power cycle, reset, and shut down the server
●Toggle the locator LED
●Configure the server boot order
●View server properties and sensors
●Manage remote presence
●Create and manage local user accounts and enable remote-user authentication through Microsoft Active
Directory
●Configure network-related settings, including network interface card (NIC) properties, IPv4, VLANs, and
network security
●Configure communication services, including HTTP, SSH, and Intelligent Platform Management Interface
(IPMI) over LAN
●Manage certificates
●Configure platform event filters
●Update Cisco IMC firmware
●Monitor faults, alarms, and server status
Creating Virtual Drives from Unused Physical Disks
A drive group is a group of physical drives. These drives are managed in partitions known as virtual drives.
A virtual drive is a partition in a drive group that is composed of contiguous data segments on the drives. A virtual
drive can consist of an entire drive group, multiple drive groups, an entire drive group plus parts of other drive
groups, a part of a drive group, parts of more than one drive group, or a combination of any two of these options.
Creating a RAID Volume Based on a Single Drive Group: RAID 0, 1, 5, and 6
Follow the steps presented here to create RAID volumes (virtual drives) from Cisco IMC.

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Step 1: Log in to Cisco IMC.
Step 2: Open the Storage tab in the left panel and select the controller to which SAS cables are connected.
LSI MegaRAID SAS 9271-8i Controller

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LSI RAID SAS 2008M-8i Controller
Step 3: Open the Controller Info tab and select the Create Virtual Drive from Unused Physical Drives option; then
proceed with drive creation.

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Step 4: To create a RAID volume based on a single drive group (RAID 0, 1, 5, or 6), select the required physical
drives and create a drive group with those physical drives. Here are some examples:
●RAID 0 requires at least one physical drive. If the minimum drive requirement is not met, the Create Virtual
Drive button will not be enabled.
●RAID 1 requires a minimum of two physical drives in a drive group. If this minimum requirement is not met,
the Create Virtual Drive button will not be enabled.
◦When only one physical drive is selected, the Create Virtual Drive button is dimmed.

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◦When at least two physical drives are selected, the Create Virtual Drive button is active.
●RAID 5 and 6 require a minimum of three physical drives to create a RAID volume. Select the drives and
click the >> button to create the drive group. Then click the Create Virtual Drive button at the bottom to
create a virtual drive.

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Step 5: Navigate to the Virtual Drive Info tab to see the virtual drives created. In this example, three virtual drives
have been created (RAID 0, 1, and 5).
Creating a Hot Spare
A hot spare is an additional, unused drive that is part of the disk subsystem. It is usually in standby mode, ready for
service if a drive fails. If a drive used in a RAID virtual drive fails, a hot spare automatically takes its place, and the
data on the failed drive is rebuilt on the hot spare. Hot spares can be used for RAID 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60.
Two types of hot spares are used:
●Global hot spares
●Dedicated hot spares
Creating a Global Hot Spare
A global hot spare drive can be used to replace any failed drive in a redundant drive group, as long as its capacity
is equal to or larger than the capacity of the failed drive. A global hot spare defined on any channel should be
available to replace a failed drive on both channels.

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Step 1: To create a global hot spare, log in to Cisco IMC and navigate to the Storage tab and then the Physical
Drive Info tab.
Step 2: Select the unconfigured drive; the options for creating a global or dedicated hot spare are displayed in the
Actions area.
Creating a Dedicated Hot Spare
A dedicated hot spare can be used to replace a failed drive only in a chosen drive group. One or more drives can
be designated as members of a spare drive pool. The most suitable drive in the pool is chosen for failover. A
dedicated hot spare is used before a drive in the global hot spare pool.

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Step 1: To create a dedicated hot spare, log in to Cisco IMC and select the Storage tab and then the Physical
Drive Info tab.
Step 2: Select the unconfigured drive, and in the Actions area select Make Dedicated Hot Spare.
Step 3: After you select the Make Dedicated Hot Spare option, a window pops up showing the options for selecting
the virtual drive to which you want to add this dedicated hot spare. Select the virtual drive.

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Step 4: Click the Make Dedicated Hot Spare button. After you click the button, the drive status will be changed to
Dedicated Hot Spare.
Creating a RAID Volume Based on Multiple Drive Groups: RAID 00, 10, 50, and 60
Disk spanning allows multiple drive groups to function like one big drive. Spanning overcomes a lack of disk space
and simplifies storage management by combining existing resources or adding relatively inexpensive resources.
Spanning alone does not provide reliability or performance enhancements. Spanned virtual drives must have the
same stripe size and must be contiguous. With spanning, a RAID 1 drive group is turned into a RAID 10 drive
group (Figure 10).
Figure 10. RAID 10
Spanning two contiguous RAID 0 virtual drives does not produce a new RAID level or add fault tolerance. It does
increase the capacity of the virtual drive and improves performance by doubling the number of physical disks.
Table 9 describes how to configure RAID 00, 10, 50, and 60. The virtual drives must have the same stripe size,
and the maximum number of spans is eight. The full drive capacity is used when you span virtual drives.

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Table 9. RAID 00, 10, 50, and 60 Configuration
RAID
level
Description
00
Configure RAID 00 by spanning two contiguous RAID 0 virtual drives, up to the maximum number of supported devices for the
controller
10
Configure RAID 10 by spanning two contiguous RAID 1 virtual drives, up to maximum number of supported devices for the
controller RAID 10 supports a maximum of eight spans. You must use an even number of drives in each RAID virtual drive in the
span. The RAID 1 virtual drives must have the same stripe size.
50
Configure RAID 50 by spanning two contiguous RAID 5 virtual drives. The RAID 5 virtual drives must have the same stripe size.
60
Configure RAID 60 by spanning two contiguous RAID 6 virtual drives.
To create a RAID volume based on multiple drive groups (RAID 00, 10, 50, or 60), follow the steps presented here.
Step 1: Log in to Cisco IMC.
Step 2: Open the Storage tab and click on the Controller Info tab. Select the Create Virtual Drive from Unused
Physical Drives option; then proceed with virtual drive creation.