Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller S100 User manual

Dell PowerEdge
RAID Controller (PERC) S100,
PERC S300
User’s Guide
A5_bk0.book Page 1 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

Notes, Cautions, and Warnings
NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of
your computer.
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 publication is subject to change without notice.
© 2008—2011 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™, and OpenManage™ are
trademarks of Dell Inc. Intel™ is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other
countries. AMD
®
is a registered trademark and AMD Opteron™, AMD Phenom™, and AMD
Sempron™ are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Microsoft
®
, Windows
®
, and Windows
Server
®
are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States
and/or other countries.
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this publication 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: UCS61, UCS60
February 2011 Rev. A01
A5_bk0.book Page 2 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

Contents 3
Contents
1 WARNING: Safety Instructions . . . . . . . . . 7
SAFETY: General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
SAFETY: When Working Inside Your System
. . . . . . . 8
Protecting Against Electrostatic Discharge
. . . . . . . 9
2Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
General Information, Intended Audience, and
Prerequisites for Use
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Related Documentation
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
PERC S100 Adapter or PERC S300 Adapter
Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
About RAID
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
RAID Terminology
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3 Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
General Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Specifications
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4 Hardware Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
A5_bk0.book Page 3 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

4 Contents
General Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Installing the PERC S300 Adapter
. . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Connect Physical Disks to the PERC S300 Adapter
. . . 35
Complete the Hardware Installation
. . . . . . . . . . 35
5 Installing the Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Installing the Microsoft Windows Drivers . . . . . . . 37
6 RAID Configuration and
Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Configuring the Controller: Using the PERC
Virtual Disk Management Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
7 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
System Startup Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Warning Messages: Dell Inc. PERC S100
Adapter or Dell Inc. PERC S300 Adapter
BIOS Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Virtual Disk-Related Errors
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Physical Disk-Related Errors
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
8 Appendix A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Controller Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Controller Tasks
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Physical Disk Tasks
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Virtual Disk Tasks
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
A5_bk0.book Page 4 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

Contents 5
Supported RAID Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Virtual Disk Specifications
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
9 Appendix B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
RAID Technology - Understanding Disk Arrays
and Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
10 Appendix C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Regulatory Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
FCC Notice (U.S. Only)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Industry Canada Notice (Canada Only)
. . . . . . . . . 92
CE Notice (European Union)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
CE Mark Notice
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
11 Appendix D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Contacting Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Glossary
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
A5_bk0.book Page 5 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

6 Contents
A5_bk0.book Page 6 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

WARNING: Safety Instructions 7
1
WARNING: Safety Instructions
Use the following safety guidelines to help ensure your own personal safety
and to help protect your system and working environment from potential
damage.
WARNING: Do not expose the Dell PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller
(PERC) S300 adapter to liquids. To reduce risk of fire hazard, do not cover or
obstruct the ventilation openings of the system in which it is installed. Do not
install the controller in a zero-clearance compartment. This could result in
overheating.
WARNING: Do not operate the controller if it has been dropped or damaged in
any way.
WARNING: The controller, like every other electronic part of a system, can be
damaged by static electricity. Be sure that you are properly grounded. It is
recommended that you wear a grounded antistatic strap and that the system is
unplugged before you install the controller.
CAUTION: Cable connectors must be mated carefully with the connectors on the
PERC S300 adapter. The connectors are keyed to prevent them from being inserted
incorrectly.
CAUTION: Ensure that the current RAID controller (if any) is not currently working
on any pending tasks (such as a rebuild) before it is turned off to conduct a system
upgrade.
CAUTION: During a firmware update, do not reboot the system that contains the
PERC S300 adaper. An update might take up to five minutes per controller.
A5_bk0.book Page 7 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

8 WARNING: Safety Instructions
SAFETY: General
Observe and follow service markings:
• Do not service any product except as explained in the user documentation.
Opening or removing covers that are marked with a triangular symbol with
a lightning bolt might expose you to electrical shock. Components inside
these compartments must be serviced only by a trained service technician.
• Use the product only with Dell-approved equipment.
• Operate the product only from the type of external power source indicated
on the electrical ratings label. If you are not sure of the type of power
source required, consult your service provider or local power company.
SAFETY: When Working Inside Your System
Before you remove the system covers, perform the following steps in the
sequence indicated.
WARNING: Only trained service technicians are authorized by Dell to remove
covers from the system, and access any of the internal components, unless the
Dell documentation expressly states otherwise.
CAUTION: To help avoid possible damage to the system board, wait five seconds
after turning off the system before disconnecting the controller.
1 Turn off the system and any devices.
2 Wear grounding straps that are properly grounded before touching
anything inside the system.
3 While you work, periodically touch an unpainted metal surface on the
chassis to dissipate any static electricity that might harm internal
components.
4 Disconnect your system and devices from their power sources. To reduce
the potential of personal injury or shock, disconnect any
telecommunication lines from the system.
A5_bk0.book Page 8 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

WARNING: Safety Instructions 9
In addition, take note of these safety guidelines when appropriate:
• When you disconnect any cable, pull on its connector or on its strain-relief
loop, not on the cable itself. Some cables have a connector with locking
tabs. If you are disconnecting this type of cable, press in on the locking
tabs before disconnecting the cable. As you pull connectors apart, keep
them evenly aligned to avoid bending any connector pins. Also, before you
connect a cable, make sure that both connectors are correctly oriented and
aligned.
• Handle the controller with care. Do not touch the components or contacts
on the controller.
Protecting Against Electrostatic Discharge
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) events can harm electronic components inside
your system. ESD, or electrostatic discharge, is the process by which static
electricity can build up within a person or an object, and then discharge into
another object. ESD events can harm your PERC S300 adaper, your system,
and other electrical components. To prevent ESD damage, you must
discharge static electricity from your body before you interact with any of the
system’s internal electronic components. You can protect against ESD by
touching a metal grounded object (such as an unpainted metal surface on
your system’s I/O panel) before you interact with anything electronic. In
addition, as you work inside the system, periodically touch an I/O connector
to remove any static charge your body might have accumulated.
You can also take the following steps to prevent damage from electrostatic
discharge:
• When unpacking the controller from its shipping carton, do not remove
the controller from the antistatic packing material until you are ready to
install it. Just before unwrapping the antistatic package, be sure to
discharge static electricity from your body.
• Handle all electrostatic sensitive components in a static-safe area. If
possible, use anti-static floor pads and work bench pads.
A5_bk0.book Page 9 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

10 WARNING: Safety Instructions
A5_bk0.book Page 10 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

Overview 11
2
Overview
Introduction
The Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) S300 provides an integrated
software RAID solution for Dell PowerEdge Value Servers. The PERC S300
controllers support SAS and SATA interfaces. Containing two internal
connectors with four ports each, the PERC S300 adapter features
eight ports for connecting drives with a maximum burst speed of up to
3 Gbps per port.
The PERC S100 adaper is targeted as a low-cost RAID solution for Dell
PowerEdge Value Servers. The PERC S100 adapter solution supports SATA
Hard Disk Drives (HDD) and Solid State Disk (SSD) drives. The PERC S100
adapter requires no additional hardware; it runs from the I/O Controller HUB
(ICH) or Platform Controller Hub (PCH) chipset on the platform
motherboard.
The PERC S100 adapter and PERC S300 adapter offer the same RAID level
support and functionality, including the support of up to eight physical
drives.
General Information, Intended Audience, and
Prerequisites for Use
This document provides information about:
•The PERC S100 adapter and PERC S300 adapter, including server,
operating system, and software support
• Controller configuration and startup procedures
• Controller operating modes
A5_bk0.book Page 11 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

12 Overview
This document is intended for use by system administrators and technicians
who are familiar with the storage system installation and configuration.
Prerequisites for configuring and using the controller include familiarity with:
• Servers and computer networks
• RAID technology
• Storage-interface technology, such as SAS and SATA
Related Documentation
For more information about the PERC S100 adapter or PERC S300 adapter
and its relationship to the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage
Management documentation, see the Storage Management documentation
available on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals.
PERC S100 Adapter or PERC S300 Adapter
Descriptions
The following list describes each type of controller:
• The PERC S300 Adapter has two internal connectors with x4 SAS ports.
• The PERC S300 Modular has two internal connectors with x4 SAS ports.
• The PERC S100 adapter runs on the ICH or PCH chipset on the platform
motherboard.
A5_bk0.book Page 12 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

Overview 13
Supported Platforms
Table 2-1. Dell Systems and Support Matrix for the PERC S100 Adapter and
PERC S300 Adapter
PowerEdge Server PERC Controller, with Chipset and Adapter Support per Platform
PowerEdge R210 PERC S100 adapter – Intel Ibex Peak chipsets
PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Adapter
PowerEdge R210 II PERC S100 adapter – Intel Cougar Point chipsets
PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Adapter
PowerEdge R310 PERC S100 adapter – Intel Ibex Peak chipsets
PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Modular
PowerEdge R410 PERC S100 adapter – Intel ICH10R chipsets
PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Modular
PowerEdge R415 PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Modular,
AMD SP5100 South Bridge chipsets
PowerEdge R510 PERC S100 adapter – Intel ICH10R chipsets,
PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Adapter
PowerEdge R515 PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Adapter,
AMD SP5100 South Bridge chipsets
PowerEdge T110 PERC S100 adapter – Intel Ibex Peak chipsets
PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Adapter
PowerEdge T110 II PERC S100 adapter – Intel Cougar Point chipsets
PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Adapter
PowerEdge T310 PERC S100 adapter – Intel Ibex Peak chipsets
PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Adapter
PowerEdge T410 PERC S100 adapter – Intel ICH10R chipsets
PERC S300 adapter – Dell 3Gb/s SAS Adapter
A5_bk0.book Page 13 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

14 Overview
Platform Requirements for the PERC S100 Controller and PERC S300
Controller
Table 2-2. Platform Requirements — PERC S100 Controller or PERC S300 Controller
Component Requirements
Processor x86, 32-bit compatible processor greater than 500 MHz.
Memory 512 MB or greater.
Physical
disk
At least one Hard Disk Drives (HDD) or Solid State Disk (SSD) Drives.
NOTE: The PERC S100 controller supports cabled configurations of up to
4 SATA HDD or 4 SATA SSD physical disks. The PERC S300 controller
supports cabled or hot-swap configurations of up to 8 SATA or SAS HDD
physical disks.
• SATA-II HDD physical disks can be used with a PERC S100 adapter or
a PERC S300 adapter.
• SATA-II SSD physical disks can be used only with a PERC S100
adapter.
• SAS HDD physical disks can be used only with a PERC S300 adapter.
Ports • The S300 Adapter has two 8470-type internal SAS connectors on the
adapter card. Each mini-SAS connector supports 4 SAS/SATA ports.
• The S300 Modular typically plugs into a backplane that has a single
8470-type SAS connector (except for PERC S300 adapters on an R210
or T110, whose cables plug directly into the physical disks).
Available
slots
The PERC S300 Adapter and PERC S300 Modular cards plug into
8-lane Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCI-E) slots.
A5_bk0.book Page 14 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

Overview 15
Operating
systems
• Microsoft Windows Essential Business Server (x64)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Datacenter Edition (x64)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition (x64)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition (x86)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Foundation
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 HPC Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter SP1
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise SP1
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation SP1
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard SP1
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 Datacenter Edition (x64)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 Enterprise Edition (x64)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 Enterprise Edition (x86)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 Standard Edition (x64)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 Standard Edition (x86)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 Web Edition (x64)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 Web Edition (x86)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition (x64)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition (x86)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, 64-bit, Standard and Enterprise
Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 64-bit Web Edition
Table 2-2. Platform Requirements — PERC S100 Controller or PERC S300 Controller
Component Requirements
A5_bk0.book Page 15 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

16 Overview
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Web Edition (x64)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Web Edition (x86)
• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008
• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008 SP2
• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 SP2 (x86 or x64)
• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2011
• Microsoft Windows Web Server 2008 R2
• Microsoft Windows Web Server 2008 R2 SP1
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2 (x86 or x64)
•MicrosoftWindows
Server 2003 R2 SP2, 32-bit or 64-bit, Standard and
Enterprise Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 32-bit Web Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2, 32-bit or 64-bit, Standard and
Enterprise Edition
NOTE: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP1 is not supported.
NOTE: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 is not supported.
NOTE: PERC S100 controllers and PERC S300 controller are not supported
with Windows Hyper-V.
Supported
devices
• PERC S100 adapter: supports Dell-supported SATA-based tape devices
and SATA optical disk devices.
NOTE: The PERC S100 controller supports system boot to a tape using a
Dell RD1000 tape device. Select Continue while in CTRL-R for RD1000 to
remain first in the boot order. The RD1000 option goes to end of the boot
order listing if <Ctrl><Alt><Del> is selected and you would not be able to
boot to it.
• PERC S300 adapter: does not support tape devices or SATA optical disk
devices.
Table 2-2. Platform Requirements — PERC S100 Controller or PERC S300 Controller
Component Requirements
A5_bk0.book Page 16 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

Overview 17
About RAID
A RAID disk array is a group of independent physical disks that provides high
performance by increasing the number of drives used for saving and accessing
data. A RAID disk subsystem improves I/O performance and data availability.
The physical disks appear to the host system either as a single storage unit or
multiple logical units. Data throughput improves because several disks are
accessed simultaneously. RAID systems also improve data storage availability
and fault tolerance. Data loss caused by a physical disk failure can be
recovered by rebuilding missing data from the remaining physical disks
containing data or parity.
NOTE: When a physical disk in a RAID 0 virtual disk fails, data is lost because there
is no redundancy for this RAID level. However, when a physical disk in a
RAID 1, RAID 5, or RAID 10 fails, data is preserved because there is redundancy
with these RAID levels.
Summary of RAID Levels
•Volume uses available space on a single physical disk and forms a single
logical volume on which data is stored.
• RAID 0 uses disk striping to provide high data throughput, especially for
large files in an environment that requires no data redundancy.
• RAID 1 uses disk mirroring so that data written to one physical disk is
simultaneously written to another physical disk. RAID 1 is good for small
databases or other applications that require small capacity but also
complete data redundancy.
• RAID 5 uses disk striping and parity data across all physical disks
(distributed parity) to provide high data throughput and data redundancy.
• RAID 10 uses disk striping across two mirrored sets. It provides high data
throughput and complete data redundancy.
A5_bk0.book Page 17 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

18 Overview
RAID Terminology
Disk Striping
Disk striping allows you to write data across multiple physical disks instead of
just one physical disk. Disk striping involves partitioning each physical disk
storage space into stripes of the various sizes. These stripes are interleaved in
a repeated sequential manner. The part of the stripe on a single physical disk
is called a stripe element.
For example, in a four-disk system using only disk striping (used in RAID
level 0), segment 1 is written to disk 1, segment 2 is written to disk 2, and so
on. Disk striping enhances performance because multiple physical disks are
accessed simultaneously, but disk striping does not provide data redundancy.
Figure 2-1 shows an example of disk striping.
Figure 2-1. Example of Disk Striping (RAID 0)
Disk Mirroring
With mirroring (used in RAID 1), data written to one disk is simultaneously
written to another disk. If one disk fails, the contents of the other disk can be
used to run the system and rebuild the failed physical disk. The primary
advantage of disk mirroring is that it provides 100 percent data redundancy.
Because the contents of the disk are completely written to a second disk, it
does not matter if one of the disks fails. Both disks contain a copy of the same
data at all times. Either of the physical disks can act as the operational
physical disk. Disk mirroring provides 100 percent redundancy, but is
expensive because each physical disk in the system must be duplicated.
Figure 2-2 shows an example of disk mirroring.
Stripe element 1
Stripe element 5
Stripe element 9
Stripe element 2
Stripe element 6
Stripe element 10
Stripe element 3
Stripe element 7
Stripe element 11
Stripe element 4
Stripe element 8
Stripe element 12
A5_bk0.book Page 18 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

Overview 19
NOTE: Mirrored physical disks improve read performance by read load balancing.
NOTE: The PERC S300 controller only supports physical disks (SAS and SATA). SSD
devices cannot be migrated to a PERC S300 controller.
Figure 2-2. Example of Disk Mirroring (RAID 1)
Spanned RAID Levels
Spanning is a term used to describe the way in which RAID level 10 is
constructed from multiple sets of simpler RAID levels. For example, a RAID
10 has multiple sets of RAID 1 disk arrays in which each RAID 1 set is
considered a span. Data is then striped (as it is in RAID 0) across the RAID 1
spans to create a RAID 10 virtual disk.
Parity Data
Parity data is redundant data that has been generated to provide fault
tolerance within certain RAID levels. In the event of a drive failure, the parity
data can be used by the controller to regenerate user data. Parity data is
present only for RAID 5 disk arrays.
The parity data is distributed across all the physical disks in the system. If a
single physical disk fails, it can be rebuilt from the parity and the data on the
remaining physical disks. RAID 5 combines distributed parity with disk
striping, as shown in Figure 2-3. Parity provides redundancy for one physical
disk failure without duplicating the contents of entire physical disks.
Stripe element 1
Stripe element 2
Stripe element 3
Stripe element 1 Duplicated
Stripe element 2 Duplicated
Stripe element 3 Duplicated
Stripe element 4 Stripe element 4 Duplicated
A5_bk0.book Page 19 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM

20 Overview
Figure 2-3. Example of Distributed Parity (RAID 5)
stripe element1 stripe element2 stripe element3 stripe element4 stripe element5 parity (1-5)
stripe element7 stripe element8 stripe element9 stripe element10 parity (6-10) stripe element6
stripe element13 stripe element14 stripe element15 parity (11-15) stripe element11 stripe element12
stripe element19 stripe element20 parity (16-20) stripe element16 stripe element17 stripe element18
stripe element25 parity (21-25) stripe element21 stripe element22 stripe element23 stripe element24
parity (26-30) stripe element26 stripe element27 stripe element28 stripe element29 stripe element30
A5_bk0.book Page 20 Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:34 PM