Dell PowerVault NX300 User manual

Dell™ PowerVault™
NX300 Systems
Hardware Owner’s
Manual
book.book Page 1 Thursday, August 13, 2009 7:27 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.
© 2009 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, and PowerVault are trademarks of Dell Inc.;
Microsoft, Windows,and Windows Server are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft
Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
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.
August 2009 Rev. A00
book.book Page 2 Thursday, August 13, 2009 7:27 AM

Contents 3
Contents
1 About Your System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Accessing System Features During Startup. . . . . . . . 9
Front-Panel Features and Indicators . . . . . . . . . . 10
LCD Panel Features (Optional). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Hard Drive Status Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Back-Panel Features and Indicators . . . . . . . . . . 17
Guidelines for Connecting Optional External
Devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
NIC Indicator Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Power Indicator Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Diagnostic Lights (Optional). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
LCD Status Messages (Optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
System Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Warning Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Diagnostics Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Alert Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Other Information You May Need . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
book.book Page 3 Thursday, August 13, 2009 7:27 AM

4Contents
2 Using the System Setup Program and
UEFI Boot Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Choosing the System Boot Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Entering the System Setup Program . . . . . . . . . . . 58
System Setup Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Entering the UEFI Boot Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
System and Setup Password Features. . . . . . . . . . 72
Embedded System Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Baseboard Management Controller
Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
iDRAC Configuration Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
3 Installing System Components . . . . . . . 79
Recommended Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Inside the System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Removing and Replacing the Optional
Front Bezel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Opening and Closing the System . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Hard Drives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Expansion Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Integrated Storage Controller Card . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Expansion-Card Riser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
book.book Page 4 Thursday, August 13, 2009 7:27 AM

Contents 5
Internal USB Memory Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
System Board Shroud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
iDRAC6 Express Card (Optional). . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
iDRAC6 Enterprise Card (Optional) . . . . . . . . . . . 106
VFlash Media (Optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Cooling Fans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
RAID Battery (Optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
System Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Processors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
System Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Control Panel Assembly-LED/LCD (Optional) . . . . . . 132
SAS Backplane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Power Distribution Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
System Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
4 Troubleshooting Your System . . . . . . . . 147
Safety First—For You and Your System . . . . . . . . . 147
Troubleshooting System Startup Failure . . . . . . . . 147
Troubleshooting External Connections . . . . . . . . . 147
Troubleshooting the Video Subsystem . . . . . . . . . 148
Troubleshooting a USB Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
book.book Page 5 Thursday, August 13, 2009 7:27 AM

6Contents
Troubleshooting a Serial I/O Device. . . . . . . . . . 149
Troubleshooting a NIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Troubleshooting a Wet System. . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Troubleshooting a Damaged System. . . . . . . . . . 151
Troubleshooting the System Battery . . . . . . . . . . 152
Troubleshooting Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Troubleshooting System Cooling Problems . . . . . . 153
Troubleshooting a Fan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Troubleshooting System Memory . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Troubleshooting an Internal USB Key . . . . . . . . . 156
Troubleshooting an Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Troubleshooting an External Tape Drive. . . . . . . . 157
Troubleshooting a Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Troubleshooting a SAS or SAS RAID
Controller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Troubleshooting Expansion Cards . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Troubleshooting the Microprocessors . . . . . . . . 162
5 Running the System Diagnostics . . . . . . 167
Using Online Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Embedded System Diagnostics Features . . . . . . . 167
When to Use the Embedded System
Diagnostics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
book.book Page 6 Thursday, August 13, 2009 7:27 AM

Contents 7
Running the Embedded System Diagnostics . . . . . . 168
Embedded System Diagnostics Testing Options . . . . 168
Using the Custom Test Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
6 Jumpers and Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . 171
System Board Jumpers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
System Board Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Disabling a Forgotten Password . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
7 Getting Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Contacting Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
book.book Page 7 Thursday, August 13, 2009 7:27 AM

8Contents
book.book Page 8 Thursday, August 13, 2009 7:27 AM

About Your System 9
About Your System
Accessing System Features During Startup
The following keystrokes provide access to system features during startup.
Keystroke Description
<F2> Enters the System Setup program. See "Using the System Setup
Program and UEFI Boot Manager" on page 57.
<F10> Enters System Services, which opens the Unified Server Configurator.
The Unified Server Configurator allows you to access utilities such as
embedded system diagnostics. For more information, see the Unified
Server Configurator documentation.
<F11> Enters the BIOS Boot Manager or the UEFI Boot Manager,
depending on the system’s boot configuration. See "Using the System
Setup Program and UEFI Boot Manager" on page 57.
<F12> Starts PXE boot.
<Ctrl><E> Enters the Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) or iDRAC
Configuration Utility, which allows access to the system event log
(SEL) and configuration of remote access to the system. For more
information, see the BMC or iDRAC user documentation.
<Ctrl><C> Enters the SAS Configuration Utility. See your SAS adapter
documentation for more information.
<Ctrl><R> Enters the RAID Configuration Utility. For more information, see the
documentation for your SAS RAID card.
<Ctrl><S> Enters the utility to configure NIC settings for PXE boot. For more
information, see the documentation for your integrated NIC.
book.book Page 9 Thursday, August 13, 2009 7:27 AM

10 About Your System
Front-Panel Features and Indicators
Figure 1-1. Front-Panel Features and Indicators
Item Indicator, Button, or
Connector
Icon Description
1 Power-on indicator,
power button
The power-on indicator lights when the
system power is on.
The power button controls the
DC power supply output to the system.
When the optional system bezel is
installed, the power button is not
accessible.
NOTE: When powering on the system,
the video monitor can take from several
seconds to over 2 minutes to display an
image, depending on the amount of
memory installed in the system.
NOTE: On ACPI-compliant operating
systems, turning off the system using the
power button causes the system to
perform a graceful shutdown before
power to the system is turned off.
NOTE: To force an ungraceful shutdown,
press and hold the power button for
five seconds.
1 2 34
5789
610
book.book Page 10 Thursday, August 13, 2009 7:27 AM