Dell PowerVault MD3600f Series User manual

Dell PowerVault MD3600f and
MD3620f Storage Arrays
Owner’s Manual
Regulatory Model: E03J Series and E04J Series
Regulatory Type: E03J001 and E04J001
book.book Page 1 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 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.
© 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™, PowerVault™, and
OpenManage™ are trademarks of Dell Inc. Intel
®
is a registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in
the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft®, Windows®, Windows Server®, MS-DOS®, and Internet
Explorer®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.
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.
Regulatory Model: E03J Series and E04J Series
Regulatory Type: E03J001 and E04J001
2011 - 09 Rev. A01
book.book Page 2 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 PM

Contents 3
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
About This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Inside the Box of the Dell PowerVault MD3600f
Series Storage Array. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
MD3600f Series Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Storage
Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Other Information You May Need . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2 Planning: About Your Storage Array . . . . 25
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Hardware Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Front-Panel Features and Indicators . . . . . . . 26
Back Panel Features and Indicators . . . . . . . . 29
Hard–Drive Indicator Patterns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Power Supply and Cooling Fan Features . . . . . . . . 31
Power Indicator Codes and Features . . . . . . . . . . 32
3 Planning: RAID Controller Modules . . . . 33
RAID Controller Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
book.book Page 3 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 PM

4Contents
RAID Controller Module Connectors and Features . . . 34
Host Channel LED Link/Rate Indications . . . . . . . . 36
RAID Controller Module—Additional Features . . . . . 36
Battery Backup Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Storage Array Thermal Shutdown . . . . . . . . . 37
System Password Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Cache Functions and Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Cache Mirroring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Write–Back Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Write–Through Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
SFP Transceivers, Fiber Optic, and SAS Cables. . . . . 38
Interoperability of 2 Gbps, 4 Gbps, and
8 Gbps Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4 Planning: MD3600f Series Storage
Array Terms and Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Physical Disks, Virtual Disks, and Disk Groups . . . . . 41
Physical Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Physical Disk States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting
Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Virtual Disks and Disk Groups . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Virtual Disk States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
RAID Levels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
RAID Level Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Segment Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Virtual Disk Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
book.book Page 4 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 PM

Contents 5
Virtual Disk Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Background Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Foreground Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Consistency Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Media Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Cycle Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Virtual Disk Operations Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Disk Group Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
RAID Level Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Segment Size Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Virtual Disk Capacity Expansion . . . . . . . . . . 51
Disk Group Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Disk Group Defragmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Disk Group Operations Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
RAID Background Operations Priority . . . . . . . . . 52
Virtual Disk Migration and Disk Roaming. . . . . . . . 53
Disk Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Disk Roaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Advanced Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Host Server–to–Virtual Disk Mapping . . . . . . . 55
Host Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Snapshot Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Snapshot Repository Virtual Disk. . . . . . . . . . 57
Virtual Disk Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Virtual Disk Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Using Snapshot and Disk Copy Together. . . . . . 59
Multi-Path Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Preferred and Alternate Controllers and Paths . . 59
Virtual Disk Ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Load Balancing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
book.book Page 5 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 PM

6Contents
Monitoring MD3600f Series System Performance . . . 61
5 Configuration: Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Enterprise Management Window . . . . . . . . . 66
Array Management Window . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
6 Configuration: About Your
Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Storage Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Adding Storage Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Setting Up Your Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Locating Storage Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Naming or Renaming Storage Arrays. . . . . . . . 73
Setting a Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Viewing Storage Array Connections . . . . . . . . 76
Adding/Editing a Comment to an Existing
Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Removing Storage Arrays. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Enabling Premium Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Failover Alert Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Changing the Cache Settings on the
Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Changing Expansion Enclosure ID Number . . . . 79
Changing the Enclosure Order in the
Physical Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Configuring Alert Notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Configuring E–mail Alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Configuring SNMP Alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Battery Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
book.book Page 6 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 PM

Contents 7
Setting the Storage Array RAID Controller
Module Clocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
7 Configuration: Event Monitor . . . . . . . . . 87
Enabling or Disabling the Event Monitor . . . . . . . . 88
Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
8 Configuration: About Your Host . . . . . . . . 89
Configuring Host Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Using the Mappings Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Defining a Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Removing Host Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Managing Host Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Creating a Host Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Moving a Host to a Different Host Group. . . . . . 94
Removing a Host Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Host Topology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Starting or Stopping the Host Context Agent. . . . 95
I/O Data Path Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Managing Host Port Identifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
9 Configuration: Disk Groups and
Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Creating Disk Groups and Virtual Disks. . . . . . . . . 101
Creating Disk Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
book.book Page 7 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 PM

8Contents
Locating a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Creating Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Changing the Virtual Disk Modification
Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Changing the Virtual Disk Cache Settings . . . . 107
Changing the Segment Size of a
Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Changing the I/O Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Choosing an Appropriate Physical Disk Type . . . . . 111
Physical Disk Security With Self Encrypting Disk . . 112
Creating a Security Key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Changing a Security Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Saving a Security Key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Validate Security Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Unlocking Secure Physical Disks . . . . . . . . . 119
Erasing Secure Physical Disks . . . . . . . . . . 119
Configuring Hot Spare Physical Disks. . . . . . . . . 120
Hot Spares and Rebuild. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Global Hot Spares. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Hot Spare Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Hot Spare Drive Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Enclosure Loss Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Host-to-Virtual Disk Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Creating Host-to-Virtual Disk Mappings . . . . . 126
Modifying and Removing Host-to-Virtual
Disk Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Changing Controller Ownership of
the Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Removing Host-to-Virtual Disk Mapping . . . . . 129
Changing the RAID Controller Module
Ownership of a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
book.book Page 8 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 PM

Contents 9
Changing the RAID Level of a Disk Group . . . . . 130
Removing a Host-to-Virtual Disk Mapping
Using Linux DMMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Restricted Mappings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Changing the RAID Controller Module
Ownership of a Virtual Disk or a Disk Group . . . . 134
Changing the RAID Level of a Disk Group. . . . . . . . 136
Storage Partitioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Disk Group and Virtual Disk Expansion . . . . . . . . . 138
Disk Group Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Virtual Disk Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Using Free Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Using Unconfigured Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Disk Group Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Export Disk Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Exporting a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Import Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Importing a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Storage Array Media Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Changing Media Scan Settings . . . . . . . . . . 143
Suspending the Media Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
10 Configuration: Premium
Feature—Snapshot Virtual Disks . . . . . 145
Scheduling a Snapshot Virtual Disk. . . . . . . . . . . 146
Common Reasons for Scheduling a
Snapshot Virtual Disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Guidelines for Creating Snapshot Schedules . . . 147
book.book Page 9 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 PM

10 Contents
Enabling and Disabling Snapshot
Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Creating a Snapshot Virtual Disk Using
the Simple Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
About the Simple Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Preparing Host Servers to Create the
Snapshot Using the Simple Path . . . . . . . . . 150
Creating a Snapshot Virtual Disk Using the
Advanced Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
About the Advanced Path. . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Preparing Host Servers to Create the
Snapshot Using the Advanced Path . . . . . . . 154
Creating the Snapshot Using the
Advanced Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Specifying Snapshot Virtual Disk Names . . . . . . . 157
Snapshot Repository Capacity. . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Disabling a Snapshot Virtual Disk. . . . . . . . . . . 162
Preparing Host Servers to Re-create a
Snapshot Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Re-creating Snapshot Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . 164
Snapshot Rollback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Rules and Guidelines for Performing a
Snapshot Rollback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Protecting Against a Failed
Snapshot Rollback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Previous Versions of the MD
Storage Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Starting a Snapshot Rollback . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Resuming a Snapshot Rollback. . . . . . . . . . 167
Canceling a Snapshot Rollback. . . . . . . . . . 168
book.book Page 10 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 PM