Dell 6 series User manual

www.dell.com | support.dell.com
Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable
RAID Controller (PERC) 6/i,
PERC 6/E and CERC 6/i
User’s Guide
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 1 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM

Notes, Cautions, and Warnings
NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of
your system.
CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates potential damage to hardware or loss of data if
instructions are not followed.
WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage,
personal injury, or death.
____________________
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
© 2007–2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction of these materials in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc.
is strictly forbidden.
Trademarks used in this text: Dell, the DELL logo, PowerEdge, PowerVault, Dell Precision, and
OpenManage are trademarks of Dell Inc.; MegaRAID is a registered trademark of LSI Corporation;
Microsoft,MS-DOS,WindowsServer,Windows,andWindowsVista areeithertrademarksorregistered
trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries; Citrix XenServer is
a trademark of Citrix Systems Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the
U.S.PatentandTrademarkOfficeandinothercountries;VMwareisaregisteredtrademarkofVMware,
Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions; Solaris is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.;
Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States or other
countries;NovellandNetWareareregisteredtrademarks,andSUSEisa registeredtrademarkofNovell,
Inc. in the United States and other countries; Red Hat and Red Hat Enterprise Linux are registered
trademarks of Red Hat, Inc.
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming
the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and
trade names other than its own.
Models UCC-60, UCP-60, UCPM-60, and UCP-61
June 2009 Rev. A01
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 2 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM

Contents 3
Contents
1 WARNING: Safety Instructions . . . . . . . . 11
SAFETY: General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
SAFETY: When Working Inside Your System . . . . . . 12
Protecting Against Electrostatic Discharge . . . . . . 13
SAFETY: Battery Disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
PERC 6 and CERC 6/i Controller Descriptions . . . . . . 15
PCI Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Operating System Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
RAID Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Summary of RAID Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
RAID Terminology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3 About PERC 6 and CERC
6/i Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
PERC 6 and CERC 6 Controller Features . . . . . . . . . 21
Using the SMART Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 3 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM

4Contents
Initializing Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Background Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Full Initialization of Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . 26
Fast Initialization of Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . 26
Consistency Checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Disk Roaming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Disk Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Compatibility With Virtual Disks Created
on PERC 5 Controllers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Compatibility With Virtual Disks Created
on SAS 6/iR Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Migrating Virtual Disks from SAS 6/iR
to PERC 6 and CERC 6/i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Battery Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Battery Warranty Information . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Battery Learn Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Virtual Disk Write Cache Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Write-Back and Write-Through. . . . . . . . . . . 32
Conditions Under Which Write-Back
is Employed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Conditions Under Which Write-Through
is Employed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Conditions Under Which Forced Write-Back
With No Battery is Employed . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Virtual Disk Read Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Reconfiguring Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Fault Tolerance Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Physical Disk Hot Swapping . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Failed Physical Disk Detection . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 4 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM

Contents 5
Redundant Path With Static Load
Balancing Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Using Replace Member and Revertible
Hot Spares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Patrol Read. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Patrol Read Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Patrol Read Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4 Installing and Configuring Hardware . . . 41
Installing the PERC 6/E and PERC 6/i Adapters . . . . . 41
Installing the Transportable Battery Backup
Unit (TBBU) on PERC 6/E. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Installing the DIMM on a PERC 6/E Adapter . . . . . . 47
Transferring a TBBU Between Controllers . . . . . . . 48
Removing the PERC 6/E and PERC 6/i Adapters . . . . . 49
Removing the DIMM and Battery from a
PERC 6/E Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Disconnecting the BBU from a PERC 6/i Adapter
or a PERC 6/i Integrated Controller . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Setting up Redundant Path Support on the
PERC 6/E Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Reverting From Redundant Path Support to Single
Path Support on the PERC 6/E Adapter . . . . . . . . . 58
Removing and Installing the PERC 6/i and CERC 6/i
Integrated Storage Controller Cards in Dell
Modular Blade Systems (Service-Only Procedure) . . . 59
Installing the Storage Controller Card . . . . . . . 60
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 5 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM

6Contents
5 Driver Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Installing Windows Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Creating the Driver Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Pre-Installation Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Installing the Driver During a Windows
Server 2003 or Windows XP
Operating System Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Installing the Driver During a Windows Server
2008 or Windows Vista Installation . . . . . . . . . 66
Installing a Windows Server 2003, Windows
Server 2008, Windows Vista, or Windows XP
Driver for a New RAID Controller. . . . . . . . . . 67
Updating an Existing Windows Server 2003,
Windows Server 2008, Windows XP,
or Windows Vista Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Installing Linux Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux Operating
System Using the Driver Update Diskette . . . . . 71
Installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Using the Driver Update Diskette . . . . . . . . . . 71
Installing the RPM Package With
DKMS Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Installing Solaris Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Installing Solaris 10 on a PowerEdge System
Booting From a PERC 6 or CERC 6/i Controller . . . 74
Adding/Updating the Driver to an
Existing System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Installing NetWare Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Installing the NetWare Driver in a New
NetWare System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Installing or Updating the NetWare Driver in
an Existing NetWare System . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 6 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM

Contents 7
6 Configuring and Managing RAID. . . . . . . 77
Dell OpenManage Storage Management . . . . . . . . 77
Dell SAS RAID Storage Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
RAID Configuration Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
BIOS Configuration Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Entering the BIOS Configuration Utility. . . . . . . 79
Exiting the Configuration Utility. . . . . . . . . . . 80
Menu Navigation Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Setting Up Virtual Disks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Virtual Disk Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Creating Virtual Disks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Initializing Virtual Disks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Checking Data Consistency . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Importing or Clearing Foreign Configurations
Using the VD Mgmt Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Importing or Clearing Foreign
Configurations Using the Foreign
Configuration View Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Managing Preserved Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Managing Dedicated Hot Spares. . . . . . . . . . 94
Deleting Virtual Disks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Deleting Disk Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Resetting the Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
BIOS Configuration Utility Menu Options. . . . . . 96
Physical Disk Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Setting LED Blinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Creating Global Hot Spares. . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Removing Global or Dedicated Hot Spares . . . . 106
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 7 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM

8Contents
Replacing an Online Physical Disk . . . . . . . . 107
Stopping Background Initialization . . . . . . . . 108
Performing a Manual Rebuild of an
Individual Physical Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Controller Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Enabling Boot Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Enabling BIOS Stop on Error . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Restoring Factory Default Settings . . . . . . . . 111
7 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Post Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Virtual Disks Degraded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Memory Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Pinned Cache State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
General Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Physical Disk Related Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Physical Disk Failures and Rebuilds . . . . . . . . . 123
SMART Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Replace Member Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Linux Operating System Errors. . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Controller LED Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Drive Carrier LED Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 8 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM

Contents 9
A Regulatory Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
B Corporate Contact Details (Taiwan Only) 135
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 9 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM

10 Contents
Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 10 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM