Dell PowerVault MD3620i User manual

Dell PowerVault MD3600i and
MD3620i Storage Arrays
Owner’s Manual
Regulatory Model: E03J Series and E04J Series
Regulatory Type: E03J001 and E04J001
book.book Page 1 Tuesday, September 27, 2011 3:13 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.
© 2010–2011 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 Tuesday, September 27, 2011 3:13 PM

Contents 3
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
About This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Inside the Box of the Dell PowerVault MD3600i
Series Storage Array. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
MD3600i Series Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Dell PowerVault Modular Disk
Storage Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Dell PowerVault Modular Disk
Configuration Utility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Other Information You May Need . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2 Planning: About Your Storage Array . . . . 23
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Hardware Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Front-Panel Features and Indicators . . . . . . . 24
Back-Panel Features and Indicators . . . . . . . . 27
Hard-Drive Indicator Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Power Supply and Cooling Fan Features . . . . . . . . 29
Power Indicator Codes and Features . . . . . . . . . . 30
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4Contents
3 Planning: RAID Controller Modules. . . . 31
RAID Controller Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
RAID Controller Module Connectors
and Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
RAID Controller Module—Additional Features . . . . . 34
Battery Backup Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Storage Array Thermal Shutdown . . . . . . . . . 34
System Password Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Cache Functions and Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Cache Mirroring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Write-Back Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Write-Through Cache. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4 Planning: MD3600i Series Storage
Array Terms and Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Physical Disks, Virtual Disks, and Disk Groups . . . . . 37
Physical Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Physical Disk States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Self-Monitoring Analysis and
Reporting Technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Virtual Disks and Disk Groups . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Virtual Disk States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
RAID Levels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
RAID Level Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Segment Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Virtual Disk Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Virtual Disk Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Consistency Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
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Contents 5
Media Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Cycle Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Virtual Disk Operations Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Disk Group Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
RAID Level Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Segment Size Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Virtual Disk Capacity Expansion . . . . . . . . . . 46
Disk Group Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Disk Group Defragmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Disk Group Operations Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
RAID Background Operations Priority . . . . . . . . . 47
Virtual Disk Migration and Disk Roaming. . . . . . . . 48
Disk Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Disk Roaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Host Server-to-Virtual Disk Mapping. . . . . . . . 50
Host Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Advanced Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Snapshot Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Snapshot Repository Virtual Disk. . . . . . . . . . 52
Virtual Disk Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Virtual Disk Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Using Snapshot and Disk Copy Together. . . . . . 54
Multi-Path Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Preferred and Alternate Controllers
and Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Virtual Disk Ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Load Balancing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Monitoring MD3600i Series System
Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
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6Contents
5 Configuration: Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Enterprise Management Window . . . . . . . . . 62
Array Management Window . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
6 Configuration: About Your
Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Out-of-Band and In-Band Management . . . . . . . . . 67
Storage Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Adding Storage Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Setting Up Your Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Locating Storage Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Naming or Renaming Storage Arrays. . . . . . . . 72
Setting a Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Viewing Storage Array Connections . . . . . . . . 75
Adding/Editing a Comment to an
Existing Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Removing Storage Arrays. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Enabling Premium Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Displaying Failover Alert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Changing the Cache Settings on
the Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Changing Expansion Enclosure
ID Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Changing the Enclosure Order in the
Physical Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Configuring Alert Notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Configuring E-mail Alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Configuring SNMP Alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Battery Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
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Contents 7
Setting the Storage Array RAID Controller
Module Clocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
7 Configuration: Using iSCSI . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Changing the iSCSI Target Authentication . . . . . . . 87
Entering Mutual Authentication Permissions. . . . . . 88
Creating CHAP Secrets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Initiator CHAP Secret. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Target CHAP Secret . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Valid Characters for CHAP Secrets . . . . . . . . 89
Changing the iSCSI Target Identification . . . . . . . . 90
Changing the iSCSI Target Discovery Settings . . . . . 90
Configuring the iSCSI Host Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Advanced iSCSI Host Ports Settings . . . . . . . . . . 93
Viewing or Ending an iSCSI Session . . . . . . . . . . 94
Viewing iSCSI Statistics and Setting
Baseline Statistics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Edit, Remove, or Rename Host Topology . . . . . . . . 96
8 Configuration: Event Monitor . . . . . . . . . 97
Enabling or Disabling the Event Monitor . . . . . . . . 98
Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
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8Contents
9 Configuration: About Your Host . . . . . . . 99
Configuring Host Access. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Using the Mappings Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Defining a Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Removing Host Access. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Managing Host Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Creating a Host Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Moving a Host to a Different
Host Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Removing a Host Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Host Topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Starting or Stopping the Host
Context Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
I/O Data Path Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Managing Host Port Identifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
10 Configuration: Disk Groups
and Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Creating Disk Groups and Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . 111
Creating Disk Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Locating a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Creating Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Changing the Virtual Disk
Modification Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Changing the Virtual Disk Cache Settings . . . . 117
Changing the Segment Size of a
Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Changing the I/O Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
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Contents 9
Choosing an Appropriate Physical Disk Type . . . . . . 121
Physical Disk Security with Self
Encrypting Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Creating a Security Key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Changing a Security Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Saving a Security Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Validate Security Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Unlocking Secure Physical Disks. . . . . . . . . . 129
Erasing Secure Physical Disks . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Configuring Hot Spare Physical Disks . . . . . . . . . 130
Hot Spares and Rebuild. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Global Hot Spares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Hot Spare Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Hot Spare Drive Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Enclosure Loss Protection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Host-to-Virtual Disk Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Creating Host-to-Virtual Disk Mappings . . . . . . 136
Modifying and Removing Host-to-Virtual
Disk Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Changing Controller Ownership of the
Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Removing Host-to-Virtual Disk Mapping . . . . . . 139
Changing the RAID Controller Module
Ownership of a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Changing the RAID Level of a Disk Group . . . . . 141
Removing a Host-to-Virtual Disk Mapping
Using Linux DMMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Restricted Mappings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Changing the RAID Controller Module
Ownership of a Virtual Disk or a Disk Group . . . . 144
Changing the RAID Level of a Disk Group. . . . . . . . 146
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10 Contents
Storage Partitioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Disk Group and Virtual Disk Expansion . . . . . . . . 148
Disk Group Expansion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Virtual Disk Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Using Free Capacity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Using Unconfigured Capacity. . . . . . . . . . . 149
Disk Group Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Export Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Exporting a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Import Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Importing a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Storage Array Media Scan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Changing Media Scan Settings. . . . . . . . . . 153
Suspending the Media Scan . . . . . . . . . . . 154
11 Configuration: Premium Feature—
Snapshot Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Scheduling a Snapshot Virtual Disk. . . . . . . . . . 157
Common Reasons for Scheduling a
Snapshot Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Guidelines for Creating Snapshot
Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Enabling and Disabling Snapshot
Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Creating a Snapshot Virtual Disk Using
the Simple Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
About the Simple Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Preparing Host Servers to Create the
Snapshot Using the Simple Path . . . . . . . . . 160
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Contents 11
Creating a Snapshot Virtual Disk Using
the Advanced Path. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
About the Advanced Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Preparing Host Servers to Create the
Snapshot Using the Advanced Path . . . . . . . . 164
Creating the Snapshot Using the Advanced Path . 166
Specifying Snapshot Virtual Disk Names . . . . . . . . 167
Snapshot Repository Capacity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Disabling a Snapshot Virtual Disk. . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Preparing Host Servers to Re-Create a
Snapshot Virtual Disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Re-creating Snapshot Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Snapshot Rollback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Rules and Guidelines for Performing a
Snapshot Rollback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Protecting Against a Failed
Snapshot Rollback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Previous Versions of the MD
Storage Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Starting a Snapshot Rollback. . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Resuming a Snapshot Rollback . . . . . . . . . . 177
Canceling a Snapshot Rollback . . . . . . . . . . 177
12 Configuration: Premium Feature—
Virtual Disk Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Types of Virtual Disk Copies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Offline Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Online Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Creating a Virtual Disk Copy for an MSCS
Shared Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
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12 Contents
Virtual Disk Read/Write Permissions . . . . . . . . . 182
Virtual Disk Copy Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Creating a Virtual Disk Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Before you Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Virtual Disk Copy and
Modification Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Create Copy Wizard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Failed Virtual Disk Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Preferred RAID Controller Module Ownership . . . . 186
Failed RAID Controller Module . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Copy Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Copying the Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Storage Array Performance During
Virtual Disk Copy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Setting Copy Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Stopping a Virtual Disk Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Recopying a Virtual Disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Preparing Host Servers to Recopy a
Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Re-copying the Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Removing Copy Pairs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
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Contents 13
13 Configuration: Premium Feature—
Upgrading to
High-Performance-Tier . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
14 Configuration: Device Mapper
Multipath for Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Using DM Multipathing Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Device Mapper Configuration Steps . . . . . . . . 197
Linux Host Server Reboot Best Practices . . . . . 202
Important Information About
Special Partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Limitations and Known Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
15 Management: Firmware Downloads . . . 207
Downloading RAID Controller and
NVSRAM Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Downloading Both RAID Controller and
NVSRAM Firmware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Downloading Only NVSRAM Firmware . . . . . . . . . 211
Downloading Physical Disk Firmware . . . . . . . . . 213
Downloading MD1200 Series Expansion
Module EMM Firmware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Self-Monitoring Analysis and
Reporting Technology (SMART) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
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14 Contents
Media Errors and Unreadable Sectors . . . . . . . . 216
16 Management: Installing
Array Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Recommended Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Front Bezel (Optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Removing the Front Bezel. . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Installing the Front Bezel . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Hard Drives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Removing a Hard-Drive Blank . . . . . . . . . . 221
Installing a Hard-Drive Blank . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Removing a Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Installing a Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Removing a Hard Drive From a
Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Installing a Hard Drive Into a
Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
RAID Controller Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Removing a RAID Controller
Module Blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Installing a RAID Controller
Module Blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Removing a RAID Controller Module . . . . . . . 229
Installing a RAID Controller Module . . . . . . . 230
Opening the RAID Controller Module. . . . . . . 230
Closing the RAID Controller Module . . . . . . . 231
RAID Controller Module Backup Battery Unit. . . . . 232
Removing the RAID Controller Module
Backup Battery Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Installing the RAID Controller Module
Backup Battery Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
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Contents 15
Power Supply/Cooling Fan Module . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Removing a Power Supply/Cooling
Fan Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Installing a Power Supply/Cooling
Fan Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Control Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Removing the Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Installing the Control Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Backplane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Removing the Backplane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Installing the Backplane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
17 Management: Firmware Inventory . . . . 243
Viewing the Firmware Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
18 Management: System Interfaces . . . . . 245
Microsoft Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Virtual Disk Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Volume Shadow-Copy Service . . . . . . . . . . . 245
19 Troubleshooting: Your Storage
Array Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Start-Up Routine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Device Health Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Storage Array Support Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Automatically Collect the Support Bundle Data . . . . 251
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16 Contents
Retrieving Trace Buffers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Collecting Physical Disk Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Event Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Recovery Guru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Storage Array Profile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Viewing the Logical Associations. . . . . . . . . . . 258
Viewing the Physical Associations . . . . . . . . . . 258
Finding Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Using Go To. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Recovering From an Unresponsive Storage
Array Condition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Locating a Physical Disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Locating an Expansion Enclosure . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Capturing the State Information . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
SMrepassist Utility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Unidentified Devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Recovering From an Unidentified
Storage Array. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Starting or Restarting the Host Context
Agent Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
20 Troubleshooting: Your Array . . . . . . . . . 273
Safety First—For you and Your Array . . . . . . . . . 273
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Contents 17
Troubleshooting Storage Array Startup Failure . . . . . 273
Troubleshooting Loss of Communication . . . . . . . . 273
Troubleshooting External Connections . . . . . . . . . 273
Troubleshooting Power Supply/Cooling
Fan Module. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Troubleshooting Array Cooling Problems . . . . . . . . 275
Troubleshooting Expansion Enclosure
Management Modules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Troubleshooting RAID Controller Modules . . . . . . . 276
Troubleshooting Hard Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Troubleshooting Array and Expansion
Enclosure Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Troubleshooting a Wet Storage Array. . . . . . . . . . 279
Troubleshooting a Damaged Array . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Troubleshooting RAID Controller Modules . . . . . . . 281
Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Invalid Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
ECC Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
PCI Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Critical Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Noncritical Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
21 Getting Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Contacting Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
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18 Contents
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
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Introduction 19
1
Introduction
NOTE: Unless specified, MD3600i Series represents Dell PowerVault MD3600i and
Dell PowerVault MD3620i storage arrays.
WARNING: See the Safety, Environmental, and Regulatory Information document
for important safety information before following any procedures listed in this
document.
About This Document
This document familiarizes you with the functions of the Dell PowerVault
MD3600i Series storage array. The document is organized according to the
tasks that you must complete after receiving your MD3600i Series storage
array. The tasks are:
Planning—Provides information about the storage array and its features.
Configuration—Provides information on tasks you must complete to ensure
that your storage array performs optimally.
Management—Provides information on tasks that you must complete to
ensure the storage array components are up to date and performing properly,
including removal and installation of storage array components.
Troubleshooting—Provides information on tasks you must complete to
resolve problems that may occur with the storage array.
For more information on these and other topics, see Dell PowerVault
MD3600i and MD3620i Storage Array Deployment Guide at
support.dell.com/manuals.
Inside the Box of the Dell PowerVault MD3600i
Series Storage Array
Your MD3600i Series product package includes:
• MD3600i Series storage array
• Power cables
• Front bezel (optional)
book.book Page 19 Tuesday, September 27, 2011 3:13 PM

20 Introduction
• Mounting rails (2) (optional)
• MD3600i
Series resource media
•
Rack Installation Instructions
• Getting Started With Your System (provides information on enclosure
features, the procedure to set up your enclosure, and technical
specifications)
MD3600i Series Storage Array
The MD3600i Series is a 2U rack-mounted external redundant array of
independent disks (RAID) storage array capable of accommodating up to
twelve 3.5" or twenty four 2.5" 6.0-Gbps Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS) disks.
The MD3600i Series storage arrays can be daisy-chained with MD1200 Series
expansion enclosures, providing access to a maximum of 120 disks (or 192
disks with Premium Feature activation) in the entire storage system.
Connectivity between the storage array and the host server is provided by a
standard CAT6 or higher Ethernet connection.
Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager
Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager (MDSM) is a graphical user
interface (GUI) application, used to configure and manage one or more
MD3600i Series storage arrays. The MDSM software is available on the
MD3600i Series resource media.
Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Configuration Utility
Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Configuration Utility (MDCU) is an iSCSI
Configuration Wizard that can be used in conjunction with MDSM to
simplify the configuration of iSCSI connections. The MDCU software is
available on the MD3600i Series resource media.
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