Dell PowerEdge R910 Technical manual

Dell PowerEdge R910 Systems
Information Update

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.
____________________
© 2010–2012 Dell Inc.
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 U.S. and other countries. Microsoft®,
Windows®, and Windows Server®are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United
States and/or other countries. Broadcom®is a registered trademark of Broadcom Corporation and/or
its subsidiaries in the United States and certain other countries. Red Hat Enterprise Linux®and
Enterprise Linux®are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
2012 - 06 Rev. A02

Information Update 3
Power Supply Removal Updates
The I/O riser with 10G network port requires a minimum of two power
supplies to provide standby power to the system. If you remove AC power
cables from the system while DC power is on, the system may momentarily
operate below the minimum power supply requirement. The BMC SEL may
record VR2/IO riser power not good errors and/or PCIe fatal errors when the
system AC power input falls below the minimum requirement.
NOTE: These errors do not affect the system functionality.
To prevent these errors, ensure the following:
• The system operates with a minimum of two power supply units.
• Turn off the system before removing or connecting AC power cables to the
system.
System Limitations With an Optional 10 GbE I/O
Riser
The 10 GbE I/O riser provides two 10 Gb SFP+ ports using a Broadcom
57711 controller in addition to two 1 GbE ports. The following are the
limitations with the 10 GbE I/O riser:
• To ensure system power redundancy, the 10 GbE I/O riser requires all four
power supplies to be connected to the AC power source. The system power
becomes non-redundant if one of the power supplies is removed.
CAUTION: A power supply failure or removal of another power supply after the
system power becomes non-redundant can lead to a system failure and result in
loss of data.
• Wake On LAN (WOL) is not supported on the 10 Gb SFP+ ports due to
Broadcom 57711 design limitations. However, WOL is supported on the
two 1 GbE ports available on the riser.

4Information Update
System Memory Update
The system supports 32 GB quad-rank RDIMMs for a total of up to 
2 TB. Table 1 shows the memory configurations available with 32 GB
RDIMMs in a four-processor system.
Table 1. Memory Configuration With 32 GB RDIMMs per Processor
Microsoft Updates
The following issues are documented on the Microsoft Help and Support
website at support.microsoft.com:
• Systems running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008
cannot be set to hibernation if they have more than 4 GB of memory
installed. For more information about enabling hibernation on systems
with more than 4 GB of memory, see the knowledge base article KB888575
at
microsoft.com .
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 cannot be installed or run on systems
with 1 TB of system memory. This issue may occur either in Unified
Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) or in legacy BIOS modes. For more
information, see the knowledge base article KB980598
at microsoft.com .
• Systems running Microsoft Windows Server 2008 do not support iSCSI
boot when they have an SD card installed in the internal SD module. In
addition, iSCSI boot does not work when an external USB storage device is
plugged into the system. For more information, see the knowledge base
article KB968410 at
microsoft.com .
Memory
Mode
Total Memory
(per processor)
/ Total System
Memory
Riser A (memory capacity in GB) Riser B (memory capacity in GB)
1
5
2
6
3
7
4
8
1
5
2
6
3
7
4
8
Power and
performance
optimized
256 GB / 1 TB 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32
Power and
performance
optimized
512 GB / 2 TB 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32

Information Update 5
Flash Memory
The VFlash media provided by Dell is not partitioned to support the iDRAC6
Enterprise virtual flash feature. When you use the virtual flash feature for the
first time, you are prompted to format the media using the iDRAC GUI.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 Address Limitation
With 1 TB (When Memory RAS Mode is Not Used)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 has an address limitation with 1 TB of system
memory. To install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4, use the mem=1024G boot
time switch. The system does not boot to the operating system unless a boot
time switch mem=1024G is used. For more information, see the knowledge
base article at kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-25412.
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 (x64)
Edition With SP2 Limitation With 1 TB System
Memory (When Memory RAS Mode is Not Used)
The system does not boot to the operating system with 1 TB of system
memory. To resolve this issue, set the memory RAS mode to sparing or mirror.
After installing the operating system, add a boot time switch mem=1046528
or /burnmemory=2048 in the boot.ini file before disabling the RAS mode
for subsequent boots.
MAC Address Labels
For security reasons, the embedded NIC and iDRAC6 Enterprise MAC
address labels provided with your system cannot be affixed after they have
been removed.
NOTE: The labels are located on the system identification panel on the front of the
system.

6Information Update
System Limitations With an Optional PCIe Riser
The PCIe riser expands the number of PCIe expansion slots available in the
system to 10. Due to the limitation of 64 KB I/O address space on the Intel
IA32 architecture and the I/O granularity of 4 KB set by the PCI bridge
specification, you can exceed the maximum available I/O resources if you
populate the slots with adapters which require more than 4 KB of I/O address
space. The system does not complete POST if 64 KB I/O address space is
exceeded. For more information on supported adapters, see the Dell
PowerEdge R910 Hardware Owner's Manual at support.dell.com/manuals.
Dell Update Package Information
During the Dell Update Package (DUP) installation process, you may see
messages related to the following:
• Request for system reboot before the DUP installation is complete
• Windows hardware detection
• Windows hardware configuration problem
• Re-enumeration of VFlash and momentary drive letter changes in
Windows
It is recommended that you disable the OS Watchdog Timer in the system
BIOS when running the BIOS DUP. The system may reboot in the middle of
an update and result in corrupted flash if:
•The OS Watchdog Timer in the system BIOS is enabled
• The timer expires (if set too short)
NIC Teaming
The system has Broadcom embedded NICs that can be teamed with other
vendors such as Intel. It is recommended that you use Broadcom teaming
driver.

Information Update 7
Dell PERC H800 Storage Adapter Slot Limitation
(With PERC H700i as the Internal Storage
Controller)
The system supports up to two PERC H800 adapters. There is no slot
limitation when only one H800 adapter is installed. However, when you install
two H800 adapters in a system with a PERC H700i internal storage adapter,
one of the H800 adapters must be installed in slot 7 (x16 Gen 2 slot). If you
run embedded system diagnostics without an H800 adapter installed in slot 7,
a software error occurs.
Under the same condition, if you enable Collect System Inventory on Restart
(CSIOR), you may not be able to boot to the operating system. You can
enable/disable CSIOR through the iDRAC Configuration Utility by pressing
<Ctrl><E> during boot up. For more information, see the iDRAC User’s
Guide at support.dell.com/manuals.
Dell Lifecycle Controller System Services
Limitations
Table 2. Lifecycle Controller System Services Issues
Issue Recommended Action
SAS6/iR or PERC H200 has virtual disks
in an inactive or non-optimal state.
Make the virtual disks active before
booting to Lifecycle Controller.
PERC H200 or 6 Gbps SAS HBA are
configured with two virtual disks.
This is a known issue. Do not create
multiple virtual disks using either PERC
H200 or 6 Gbps SAS HBA.

8Information Update
Hardware Owner’s Manual Updates
System Board Jumper Settings Update
This update supersedes the information provided in the Hardware Owner's
Manual at support.dell.com/manuals.
To locate the system board jumpers, see Figure 1.
Table 3. System Board Jumper Settings
Jumper Setting Description
PSWD_EN (default) The password feature is enabled (pins 2-4)
The password feature is disabled, and
iDRAC6 local access is unlocked at the
next AC power cycle (pins 4-6)
NVRAM_CLR (default) The configuration settings are retained at
system boot (pins 3-5)
The configuration settings are cleared at
the next system boot (pins 1-3)

Information Update 9
Figure 1. System Board Jumpers

10 Information Update
BIOS Setup Options Default Settings Update
Power Supply Redundancy Mode (With a 10 Gb I/O Card)
For a redundant system configuration with a 10 Gb I/O card and four power
supplies, the redundancy mode is 2+1.
Table 4. Default Settings for BIOS Setup Options
Screen Option Default Option
Memory Settings System Memory Testing Disabled
Power Management Power Management Active Power Controller
Integrated Devices SR-IOV Global Enable Disabled
SATA Settings Embedded SATA ATA Mode