Dell PowerVault MD3220 Series User manual

Dell™ PowerVault™
MD3200 and MD3220
Storage Arrays
Owner’s Manual
Regulatory Model: E03J Series and E04J Series
Regulatory Type: E03J001 and E04J001
book.book Page 1 Monday, June 21, 2010 11:00 AM

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 document is subject to change without notice.
© 2010 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, OpenManage, PowerEdge, and PowerVault are
trademarks of Dell Inc. Microsoft, Windows, Internet Explorer, MS-DOS, and Windows Server are
either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other
countries; Red Hat and Red Hat Enterprise Linux are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. in the
United States and other countries; SUSE is a registered trademark of Novell, Inc. in the United States
and other countries; VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or
other jurisdictions.
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.
Regulatory Model: E03J Series and E04J Series
Regulatory Type: E03J001 and E04J001
May 2010 Rev. A00
book.book Page 2 Monday, June 21, 2010 11:00 AM

Contents 3
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
About This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Inside the box of the Dell PowerVault
MD3200 Series Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Dell PowerVault MD3200
Series
Storage Array. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Dell PowerVault Modular Disk
Storage Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Other Information you May Need . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2 Planning: About Your Storage Array . . . . 21
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Hardware Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Front-Panel Features and Indicators . . . . . . . 22
Back Panel Features and Indicators . . . . . . . . 25
Hard-Drive Indicator Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Power Supply and Cooling Fan Features . . . . . . . . 27
Power Indicator Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3 Planning: RAID Controller Modules . . . . 29
RAID Controller Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
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4Contents
RAID Controller Module Connectors and Features . . . 30
RAID Controller Module—Additional Features . . . . . 32
Battery Backup Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Storage Array Thermal Shutdown . . . . . . . . . 33
System Password Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Cache Functions and Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Cache Mirroring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Write-Back Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Write-Through Cache. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4 Planning: MD3200 Series Storage
Array Terms and Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Physical Disks, Virtual Disks, and Disk Groups . . . . . 35
Physical Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Physical Disk States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting
Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Virtual Disks and Disk Groups . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Virtual Disk States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
RAID Levels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
RAID Level Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Segment Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Virtual Disk Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Virtual Disk Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Background Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Foreground Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Consistency Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Media Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Cycle Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
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Contents 5
Virtual Disk Operations Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Disk Group Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
RAID Level Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Segment Size Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Virtual Disk Capacity Expansion . . . . . . . . . . 44
Disk Group Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Disk Group Defragmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Disk Group Operations Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
RAID Background Operations Priority . . . . . . . . . 45
Virtual Disk Migration and Disk Roaming. . . . . . . . 46
Disk Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Disk Roaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Advanced Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Host Server-to-Virtual Disk Mapping. . . . . . . . 49
Host Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Snapshot Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Snapshot Repository Virtual Disk. . . . . . . . . . 50
Virtual Disk Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Virtual Disk Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Using Snapshot and Disk Copy Together. . . . . . 52
Multi-Path Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Preferred and Alternate Controllers
and Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Virtual Disk Ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Load Balancing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Monitoring MD3200 Series System Performance . . . . 55
book.book Page 5 Monday, June 21, 2010 11:00 AM

6Contents
5 Configuration: Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Enterprise Management Window . . . . . . . . . 60
Array Management Window . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
6 Configuration: About Your
Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Out-of-Band and In-Band Management . . . . . . . . . 63
Storage Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Adding Storage Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Setting Up Your Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Locating Storage Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Naming or Renaming Storage Arrays. . . . . . . . 68
Setting a Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Viewing Storage Array Connections . . . . . . . . 70
Adding/Editing a Comment to an
Existing Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Removing Storage Arrays. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Enabling Premium Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Failover Alert Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Changing the Cache Settings on
the Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Changing Expansion Enclosure ID Number . . . . 73
Changing the Enclosure Order in the
Physical Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Configuring Alert Notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Configuring E-mail Alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Configuring SNMP Alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Battery Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
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Contents 7
Setting the Storage Array RAID Controlle
r Module Clocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
7 Configuration: Event Monitor . . . . . . . . . 81
Enabling or Disabling the Event Monitor . . . . . . . . 82
Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
8 Configuration: About Your Host . . . . . . . . 83
Configuring Host Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Using the Mappings Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Defining a Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Removing Host Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Managing Host Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Creating a Host Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Moving a Host to a Different Host Group. . . . . . 87
Removing a Host Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Host Topology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Starting or Stopping the Host Context Agent. . . . 89
I/O Data Path Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Managing Host Port Identifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
9 Configuration: Disk Groups and
Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Creating Disk Groups and Virtual Disks. . . . . . . . . 93
Creating Disk Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
book.book Page 7 Monday, June 21, 2010 11:00 AM

8Contents
Locating a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Creating Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Changing the Virtual Disk Modification
Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Changing the Virtual Disk Cache Settings . . . . . 99
Changing the Segment Size of a Virtual Disk . . . 101
Changing the I/O Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Choosing an Appropriate Physical Disk Type . . . . . 103
Physical Disk Security with Self Encrypting
Disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Creating a Security Key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Changing a Security Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Saving a Security Key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Unlocking Secure Physical Disks . . . . . . . . . 110
Erasing Secure Physical Disks . . . . . . . . . . 111
Configuring Hot Spare Physical Disks. . . . . . . . . 111
Hot Spares and Rebuild. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Global Hot Spares. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Hot Spare Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Hot Spare Drive Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Enclosure Loss Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Host-to-Virtual Disk Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Creating Host-to-Virtual Disk Mappings . . . . . 117
Modifying and Removing Host-to-Virtual
Disk Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Changing Controller Ownership of the Virtua
l Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Removing Host-to-Virtual Disk Mapping . . . . . 120
Changing the RAID Controller Module
Ownership of a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Changing the RAID Level of a Disk Group . . . . 122
book.book Page 8 Monday, June 21, 2010 11:00 AM

Contents 9
Restricted Mappings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Changing the RAID Controller Module Ownership
of a Virtual Disk or a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . 124
Changing the RAID Level of a Disk Group. . . . . . . . 125
Storage Partitioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Disk Group and Virtual Disk Expansion . . . . . . . . . 128
Disk Group Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Virtual Disk Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Using Free Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Using Unconfigured Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Disk Group Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Export Disk Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Exporting a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Import Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Importing a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Storage Array Media Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Changing Media Scan Settings . . . . . . . . . . 133
Suspending the Media Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
10 Configuration: Premium Feature—
Snapshot Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Creating a Snapshot Virtual Disk Using the
Simple Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
About the Simple Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Preparing Host Servers to Create the
Snapshot Using the Simple Path . . . . . . . . . . 137
Creating a Snapshot Virtual Disk Using the
Advanced Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
book.book Page 9 Monday, June 21, 2010 11:00 AM

10 Contents
About the Advanced Path. . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Preparing Host Servers to Create
the Snapshot Using the Advanced Path . . . . . 141
Creating the Snapshot Using the
Advanced Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Specifying Snapshot Virtual Disk Names . . . . . . . 145
Snapshot Repository Capacity. . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Re-creating Snapshot Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . 149
Disabling a Snapshot Virtual Disk. . . . . . . . . . . 150
Preparing Host Servers to Re-create
a Snapshot Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Re-creating a Snapshot Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . 152
11 Configuration: Premium Feature—
Virtual Disk Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Creating a Virtual Disk Copy for an MSCS
Shared Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Virtual Disk Read/Write Permissions . . . . . . . . . 155
Virtual Disk Copy Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Creating a Virtual Disk Copy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Before you Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Virtual Disk Copy and Modification
Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Create Copy Wizard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Failed Virtual Disk Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Preferred RAID Controller Module Ownership . . . . 158
Failed RAID Controller Module . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
book.book Page 10 Monday, June 21, 2010 11:00 AM