Dell PowerEdge C8000XD User manual

Dell PowerEdge C8000XD
Hardware Owner’s
Manual
Regulatory Model: B06B
Regulatory Type: B06B002

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.
© 2013 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction of these materials in anymanner whatsoever without the written permissionof Dell Inc.
is strictly forbidden.
Trademarks used in this text: Dell™, the DELL logo, and PowerEdge™ are trademarks of Dell Inc.
Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation in the United States or other countries.
Othertrademarksandtradenamesmaybeusedinthispublicationtorefertoeithertheentitiesclaiming
the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and
trade names other than its own.
Regulatory Model B06B
Regulatory Type: B06B002
2013 - 10 P/N XXXXX Rev. A02

Contents 3
Contents
1 About Your System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Front-Panel Features and Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Hard-Drive Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Hard-Drive Bay Numbering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Hard-Drive Indicator Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . 10
SAS Connectors Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Expander Configuration Mode . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Service Tag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Other Information You May Need . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2 Installing System Components . . . . . . . . 25
Safety Instructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Recommended Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Inside the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Sled. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Opening the Sled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Closing the Sled. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Removing a Sled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Installing a Sled. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

4Contents
Sled Blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Removing a Sled Blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Installing a Sled Blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Hard-Drives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Hard-Drive Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Hard-Drive Installation Guidelines . . . . . . . . . 33
Standard Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Removing a Standard Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . 34
Installing a Standard Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . 35
Removing a 3.5-inch Hard-Drive From
a Standard Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Installing a 3.5-inch Hard-Drive Into
a Standard Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Flexible Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Removing a Flexible Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . 38
Installing a Flexible Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . 39
Removing a 2.5-inch Hard-Drive From
a Flexible Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Installing a 2.5-inch Hard-Drive Into
a Flexible Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Expansion Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Removing an Expansion Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . 42
Installing an Expansion Hard-Drive Carrier. . . . . 43
Removing a SSD Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . 44
Installing a SSD Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . 45
Removing a 2.5-inch SSD Hard-Drive
From a SSD Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Installing a 2.5-inch SSD Hard-Drive
Into a SSD Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Removing a SSD Hard-Drive Carrier
From an Expansion Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . 48
Installing a SSD Hard-Drive Carrier
Into an Expansion Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . 49

Contents 5
Removing the Hard-Drive Backplane
From an Expansion Hard-Drive Carrier. . . . . . . 50
Installing a Hard-Drive Backplane Into
an Expansion Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . 51
3 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Safety First—For You and Your System . . . . . . . . . 53
Installation Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Troubleshooting External Connections . . . . . . . . . 54
Troubleshooting a Sled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Troubleshooting a Hard-Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Hard-Drive Not Recognized . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Hard-Drive Indicator Does Not Light . . . . . . . . 55
Troubleshooting the SAS Expander Board . . . . . . . 56
Troubleshooting the External SAS Connection . . . . . 56
Troubleshooting the Hard-Drive Backplane . . . . . . 57
Troubleshooting the Node Power Distribution
Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Checking the Expander Firmware Version . . . . . . . 58
4 Using the Expander Flash Utility . . . . . . . 59
Hardware and Software Requirements . . . . . . . . . 59
SAS Expander Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Command Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Command Line Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

6Contents
Cabling Configurations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Expander Firmware File Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Expander Firmware Update Guidelines . . . . . . . . . 65
Updating the Expander Firmware . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5 Jumpers and Connectors. . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Hard-Drive Backplane Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . 71
SAS Expander Board Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Node Power Distribution Board Connectors . . . . . . 75
6 Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Contacting Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

About Your System 7
1
About Your System
Front-Panel Features and Indicators
Figure 1-1. Front-Panel Features and Indicators
Item Indicator, Button, or
Connector
Icon Description
1 Handle Hold to pull the hard-drive cage from the
sled.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
910
11

8About Your System
2 External mini-SAS
connector A2
Connects to a compute sled’s host bus
adapter (HBA) or RAID card. When you
configure zoning for the storage sled, the
external mini-SAS connector becomes
zone group 0.
3 External mini-SAS
connector A1
Connects to a compute sled’s host bus
adapter (HBA) or RAID card. When you
configure zoning for the storage sled, the
external mini-SAS connector becomes
zone group 1.
4, 8 Sled power/status
indicator
The power/status indicator lights green
when the sled power is on and power is
applied to the SAS expander board.
The power/status indicator alternately
lights green and blinks amber when a
critical event occurs.
5, 9 Sled identification
indicator
Lights blue to identify a particular mini-
SAS connector and sled.
6 External mini-SAS
connector B2
Connects to a compute sled’s host bus
adapter (HBA) or RAID card. When you
configure zoning for the storage sled, the
external mini-SAS connector becomes
zone group 2.
7 External mini-SAS
connector B1
Connects to a compute sled’s host bus
adapter (HBA) or RAID card. When you
configure zoning for the storage sled, the
external mini-SAS connector becomes
zone group 3.
10 Sled release tab Press to release the sled from the
enclosure.
11 Hard-drive cage release
latch
Press to release the hard-drive cage from
the sled.
Item Indicator, Button, or
Connector
Icon Description

About Your System 9
Hard-Drive Features
The C8000XD storage sled is available with 12-drive or 24-drive option. All
hard-drives are mounted in special hard-drive carriers and connect to the
hard-drive backplane inside the sled.
• Standard hard-drive carrier supports 3.5-inch SAS/SATA/SSD hard-drive.
• Flexible hard-drive carrier supports 2.5-inch SAS/SATA/SSD hard-drive.
• Expansion hard-drive carrier supports two 2.5-inch SSD hard-drives.
The 12-drive configuration installs 12 standard or flexible hard-drive carriers.
The 24-drive configuration installs 12 expansion hard-drive carriers. See
"Hard-Drive Indicator Patterns" on page 10 for information on the hard-drive
indicators on the sled. Different patterns are displayed as drive events occur
in the sled.
Hard-Drive Bay Numbering
Figure 1-2. 12-Drive Bay Numbering
11, 10
1, 0
9, 8
7, 6
5, 4
3, 2

10 About Your System
Figure 1-3. 24-Drive Bay Numbering
Hard-Drive Indicator Patterns
The C8000XD sled hard-drive backplanes include a hard-drive activity LED
and two bi-colored hard-drive status and fault LEDs per drive. The state of
the hard-drive backplane indicators alerts you to the condition of the hard-
drives in the sled. You can view the status of the hard-drive indicators on the
backplane by opening the sled (See "Opening the Sled" on page 28). The
hard-drive indicators are visible on both sides of the bottom edge of the hard-
drive cage.
The following illustrations show the location of the hard-drive indicators in a
12-drive or 24-drive bay sled.
23, 22, 21, 20
3, 2, 1, 0
19, 18, 17, 16
15, 14, 13, 12
11, 10, 9, 8
7, 6, 5, 4

About Your System 11
12-Drive Bay Hard-Drive Indicators
Figure 1-4. 12-Drive Bay Hard-Drive Indicators—Left Side Hard-Drive Cage
Figure 1-5. 12-Drive Bay Hard-Drive Indicators—Right Side Hard-Drive Cage
NOTE: Group A in the illustrations indicate the grouping of the hard-drives in the
single port mode configuration. The illustration above shows the location of the
hard-drive indicators in a single port mode.
Group A Group A Group A
Group AGroup A
Group A
Group A
Group A Group A Group A
Group AGroup A

12 About Your System
24-Drive Bay Hard-Drive Indicators
Figure 1-6. 24-Drive Bay Hard-Drive Indicators—Left Side Hard-Drive Cage
Figure 1-7. 24-Drive Bay Hard-Drive Indicators—Right Side Hard-Drive Cage
NOTE: Group A and Group B in the illustrations indicate the grouping of the hard-
drives in an expansion mode (zoning or non-zoning) configuration. The illustration
above shows the location of the hard-drive indicators in an expansion mode. In
expansion mode with zoning configuration, zone 0 and 1 can access grouped A
hard-drives and zone 2 and 3 can access group B hard-drives.
Group B
Group A
Group B
Group A
Group B
Group A
Group B
Group A
Group B
Group A
Group B
Group A
Group B
Group A
Group B
Group A
Group B
Group A
Group B
Group A
Group B
Group A
Group B
Group A

About Your System 13
* This condition is not supported in LSI HBA/RAID cards. When you abort the RAID rebuild process,
the hard-drive LED blinks amber to indicate drive failure.
Icon Indicator
Hard-drive activity indicator
Hard-drive status indicator
Hard-drive fault indicator
Table 1-1. Hard-Drive Indicator Patterns
Condition Hard-Drive Activity
Indicator
Hard-Drive
Status and Fault Indicators
Green LED Green LED Amber LED
Drive bay empty Off Off Off
Drive idle Off Off Off
Drive online/access On 50 ms
Off 50 ms
On Off
Drive identify/Preparing
for removal
On 100 ms
Off 100 ms
On 250 ms
Off 250 ms
Off
Drive rebuilding On 500 ms
Off 500 ms
On 400 ms
Off 100 ms
Off
Drive failed Off/Blinking
when active
Off On 150 ms
Off 150 ms
Predicted drive failure
(SMART)
Off/Blinking
when active
On 500 ms
Off 500 ms
Off 1000 ms
Off 500 ms
On 500 ms
Off 1000 ms
Drive rebuilding aborted* Off/Blinking
when active
On 3000 ms
Off 9000 ms
Off 6000 ms
On 3000 ms
Off 3000 ms

14 About Your System
SAS Connectors Features
The storage sled has two SASx28 expander chips on the SAS expander. Each
expander chip, labeled LSI 28 port 6 GB expander A/B port in Figure 1-8, has
its own unique SAS address and connects to two internal mini-SAS
connectors and two external mini-SAS connectors. The external mini-SAS
connectors support direct cable connection, an external mini-SAS x4 cable
(SFF-8088) connects the compute sled’s HBA/RAID card to the SAS
expander. The external mini-SAS A1, A2, B1, and B2 connectors connect to
all 12 or 24 hard-drives. The internal mini-SAS connectors support hard-drive
backplane connection, the hard-drives and SAS expander in the storage sled
communicates via the hard-drive backplane.
The storage sled includes an Expander Flash Utility (Xflash). This utility is a
Windows or Linux-based command line utility that you can use to identify
the SAS address of the SAS expander, determine the expander firmware
version, reset the SAS expander, or upgrade the firmware on the SAS
expander chips. See "Using the Expander Flash Utility" on page 59 for more
information about the expander flash utility.
NOTE: When you configure zoning for the storage sled, the external mini-SAS
connectors are separated into zone groups 0, 1, 2, and 3. Zoning allows each
compute sled to have access to the hard-drives in an assigned zone.

About Your System 15
Figure 1-8. SAS Expander Board
SAS Expander Board

16 About Your System
Expander Configuration Mode
The C8000XD sled is equipped with a SAS expander to operate the hard-
drives in single port, dual port, or expansion mode. Use mini-SAS x4 cable(s)
to connect a compute sled to your C8000XD sled.
The sled supports the following configuration modes.
•Singleportmode
In single port mode, the storage sled supports 12 x 2.5 or 3.5-inch
SAS/SATA/SSD hard-drives from a single cable connection.
The figure below shows a single path connection from a single-HBA/RAID
compute sled to the storage sled’s external mini-SAS A1 and A2
connectors. In this mode, the hard-drives in the storage sled are cascaded
for extended storage capacity.
Figure 1-9. Single Host to Storage Sled Connection
Single-HBA/RAID Compute SledStorage Sled

About Your System 17
The figure below shows a single path connection from single-HBA/RAID
compute sled to two cascaded storage sleds. In this mode, the hard-drives
in the two storage sleds are cascaded for extended storage capacity.
Figure 1-10. Single Host to Cascaded Storage Sled Connection
Single-HBA/RAID
Compute Sled
Storage Sled 2 Storage Sled 1

18 About Your System
•Dualportmode
In dual port mode, the storage sled SAS expander board supports 12 x 2.5
or 3.5-inch SAS hard-drives from a dual-cable connection.
The figure below shows a dual path connection from a dual-HBA compute
sled connected to the storage sled’s external mini-SAS A1 and B1
connectors. This mode delivers dual path functionality and redundant
path capability.
Figure 1-11. Dual Port Mode Configuration
Dual-HBA Compute SledStorage Sled

About Your System 19
• Expansion mode (non-zoning)
In expansion mode, the storage sled SAS expander board supports 24 x 2.5
SSD hard-drives from a dual-cable connection.
The figure below shows a dual path connection from a single-RAID
compute sled connected to the storage sled’s external mini-SAS A1 and A2
connectors. In this mode, the hard-drives in the storage sled are cascaded
for extended storage capacity.
Figure 1-12. Expansion Mode (Non-Zoning)
Single-RAID Compute SledStorage Sled

20 About Your System
• Expansion mode (four zones)
In expansion mode with four zones configuration, the storage sled SAS
expander board supports 24 x 2.5 SSD hard-drives from a single-cable
connection. The SAS connections are grouped into four zones (A1/Zone 0,
A2/Zone 1, B1/Zone 2, B2/Zone 3) and each zone allows the host/compute
sled to access a group of hard-drives in the storage sled.
The figure below shows four single-RAID compute sleds connected to the
storage sled’s four external mini-SAS connectors. Each compute sled can
only access the hard-drives in the assigned zone.
Figure 1-13. Expansion Mode (Four Zones)
Figure 1-14. Zoning Table
Single-RAID Compute SledsStorage Sled
Compute Sled 1
Compute Sled 2
Compute Sled 3
Compute Sled 4