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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