H3C UniServer R4300 G6 User manual

H3C G6 Servers
Storage Controller User Guide
New H3C Technologies Co., Ltd.
http://www.h3c.com
Document version: 6W101-20240109

Copyright © 2024, New H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. and its licensors
All rights reserved
No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written
consent of New H3C Technologies Co., Ltd.
Trademarks
Except for the trademarks of New H3C Technologies Co., Ltd., any trademarks that may be mentioned in this
document are the property of their respective owners.
Notice
The information in this document is subject to change without notice. All contents in this document, including
statements, information, and recommendations, are believed to be accurate, but they are presented without
warranty of any kind, express or implied. H3C shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions
contained herein.

Preface
This preface includes the following topics about the documentation:
•
Audience.
•
Conventions.
•
Documentation feedback.
Audience
This documentation is intended for:
•
Network planners.
•
Field technical support and servicing engineers.
•
Server administrators.
Conventions
The following information describes the conventions used in the documentation.
Command conventions
Convention
Description
Boldface
Bold
text represents commands and keywords that you enter literally as shown.
Italic Italic text represents arguments that you replace with actual values.
[ ] Square brackets enclose syntax choices (keywords or arguments) that are optional.
{ x | y | ... }
Braces enclose a set of required syntax choices separated by vertical bars, from which
you select one.
[ x | y | ... ]
Square brackets enclose a set of optional syntax choices separated by vertical bars,
from which you select one or none.
{ x | y | ... } *
Asterisk marked braces enclose a set of required syntax choices separated by vertical
bars, from which you select a minimum of one.
[ x | y | ... ] *
Asterisk marked square brackets enclose optional syntaxchoices separated by vertical
bars, from which you select one choice, multiple choices, or none.
&<1-n> The argument or keyword and argument combination before the ampersand (&) sign
can be entered 1 to n times.
# A line that starts with a pound (#) sign is comments.
GUI conventions
Convention
Description
Boldface Window names, button names, field names, and menu items are in Boldface. For
example, the
New User
window opens; click
OK
.
> Multi-level menus are separated by angle brackets. For example, File > Create >
Folder.

Symbols
Convention
Description
WARNING! An alert that calls attention to important information that if not understood or followed
can result in personal injury.
CAUTION:
An alert that calls attention to important information that if not understood or followed
can result in data loss, data corruption, or damage to hardware or software.
IMPORTANT:
An alert that calls attention to essential information.
NOTE:
An alert that contains additional or supplementary information.
TIP:
An alert that provides helpful information.
Network topology icons
Convention
Description
Represents a generic network device, such as a router, switch, or firewall.
Represents a routing-capable device, such as a router or Layer 3 switch.
Represents a generic switch, such as a Layer 2 or Layer 3 switch, or a router that
supports Layer 2 forwarding and other Layer 2 features.
Represents an access controller, a unified wired-WLAN module, or the access
controller engine on a unified wired-WLAN switch.
Represents an access point.
Represents a wireless terminator unit.
Represents a wireless terminator.
Represents a mesh access point.
Represents omnidirectional signals.
Represents directional signals.
Represents a security product, such as a firewall, UTM, multiservice security
gateway, or load balancing device.
Represents a security module, such as a firewall, load balancing, NetStream, SSL
VPN, IPS, or ACG module.
Examples provided in this document
Examples in this document might use devices that differ from your device in hardware model,
configuration, or software version. It is normal that the port numbers, sample output, screenshots,
and other information in the examples differ from what you have on your device.
T
T
T
T

Documentation feedback
You can e-mail your comments about product documentation to [e-mail].
We appreciate your comments.

1
Storage controller overview
The information in this document might differ from your product if it contains custom configuration
options or features. The following information is subject to change over time. For the most
up-to-date information, contact H3C Support.
The software screenshots used in this document are for illustration only and might differ from your
products or versions.
The model name of a hardware option in this document might differ slightly from its model name
label.
A model name label might add a prefix or suffix to the hardware-coded model name for purposes
such as identifying the matching server brand, applicable region, or capacity. For example, the
RAID-LSI-9560-LP-16i-8GB or LSI-9560 storage controller model represents the storage controller
model name label UN-RAID-LSI-9560-LP-16i-8GB-M.
Storage controllers provide powerful I/O transmission and bandwidth processing capabilities and
support various RAID expansions to improve system performance. With support for multi-disk
fragment storage of data and data read/write concurrency over multiple disks, storage controllers
effectively reduce disk access delay and can meet RAID requirements in various scenarios.
Applicable servers
This document is applicable to the following servers:
•
H3C UniServer R4300 G6
•
H3C UniServer R4500 G6
•
H3C UniServer R4700 G6
•
H3C UniServer R4700LE G6
•
H3C UniServer R4900LE G6 Ultra
•
H3C UniServer R4900 G6 Ultra
•
H3C UniServer R4900 G6
•
H3C UniServer R4950 G6
•
H3C UniServer R5300 G6
•
H3C UniServer R5350 G6
•
H3C UniServer R5500 G6
•
H3C UniServer R6700 G6
•
H3C UniServer R6900 G6
For information about storage controller and server compatibility, contact Technical Support.
Technical specifications
For technical specifications of storage controllers, see H3C Servers Storage Controllers Technical
Specifications.
Operating systems
For operating systems supported by storage controllers, contact Technical Support.

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Configuration methods
Table 1 RAID configuration methods
RAID
configuration
method
Whether
services are
affected
Application scenarios Reference
Configure RAID from
the BIOS text or
graphical interface Yes Applicable to all RAID configuration
scenarios H3C Servers Storage Controllers User Guide
Configure RAID
simultaneously when
the OS is installed
from the iFIST
interface
Yes
Applicable to the scenario where
iFIST is used to configure RAID in the
OS installation process for a single
server.
For the available storage controllers,
see H3C Servers iFIST User Guide.
H3C Servers iFIST
User Guide
Configure RAID from
the HDM2 interface. No
Applicable to the scenario where
service continuity must be guaranteed
during the RAID configuration
process.
For the available storage controllers,
see H3C Servers HDM2 User Guide.
H3C Servers HDM2
User Guide
Configure a template
with RAID settings
and then apply the
template to the
server from the FIST
interface.
Yes
Applicable to the scenario to configure
RAID for multiple servers in batch.
For the available storage controllers,
see H3C Servers FIST User Guide.
H3C Servers FIST User
Guide
Use command lines
or a third-party tool to
configure RAID in the
OS.
No
Applicable to the following scenarios
•Use ARCCONF Command Line
Utility to configure RAID with a
PMC storage controller.
•Use StorCLI to configure RAID
with an LSI storage controller.
•Use Intel VROC 6.0 PV GUI to
configure RAID with a VROC
module in a Windows operating
system.
•Use command lines to configure
RAID with a VROC module in a
Linux operating system.
For more information
about common
functions, see H3C
Servers Storage
Controllers User Guide.
For detailed
information, see the tool
user guide from third
parties.

1
Storage controller features
The available features vary by storage controller model. For more information, see H3C Servers
Storage Controllers Technical Specifications.
Hot spare drives
About hot spare drives
You can configure hot spare drives to improve data security. One or multiple independent drives in
the drive system can function as hot spare drives. When a drive in a redundant RAID fails, a spare
drive automatically replaces the failed drive and rebuilds the data of the failed drive, enhancing the
fault tolerance of the system.
From the management interface or CLI of a storage controller, you can specify a hot spare drive for
the RAID. Make sure the following conditions are met:
•
The hot spare drive is idle and of the same media type as a RAID member drive.
•
The capacity of the hot spare drive is equal to or larger than a RAID member drive.
Hot spare drives include the following types:
•
Global Spare—Specifies a hot spare drive for all the redundant RAIDs. You can specify one or
multiple global spare drives. A global spare drive can replace any failed drive in any redundant
RAID. When the storage controller detects that a new drive replaces the failed drive, states of
the spare and new drives vary by support of the storage controller for data copyback:
If the storage controller supports copying data on the global spare drive back to the new
drive, the new drive becomes a RAID member drive and the global spare drive is placed in
standby status.
If the storage controller does not support copying data on the global spare drive back to the
new drive, the global spare drive becomes a RAID member drive and the new drive is idle.
You can configure the new drive as a hot spare drive from the management interface or
CLI.
•
Dedicated Spare—Specifies a hot spare drive for a specific redundant RAID. You can specify
one or multiple dedicated spare drives for a redundant RAID. A dedicated spare drive can
replace a failed drive in the specific RAID. When the storage controller detects that a new drive
replaces the failed drive, states of the spare and new drives vary by the support of the storage
controller for data copyback:
If the storage controller supports copying data on the dedicated spare drive back to the
new drive, the new drive becomes a RAID member drive and the dedicated spare drive is
placed in standby status.
If the storage controller does not support copying data on the dedicated spare drive back to
the new drive, the dedicated spare drive becomes a RAID member drive and the new drive
is idle. You can configure the new drive as a hot spare drive from the management
interface or CLI.
•
Auto Replace—Specifies a hot spare drive for a specific redundant RAID. Only P460 and
H460 storage controllers support auto replace spare drives. You can specify one or multiple
auto replace spare drives for a redundant RAID. An auto replace spare drive can replace a
failed drive in the specific RAID. When the storage controller detects that a new drive replaces
the failed drive, it will not copy data on the auto replace spare drive back to the new drive and
place the new drive in standby status.
•
Pooled Spare—Specifies a hot spare drive for a RAID array set. You can specify one or
multiple pooled spare drives for a RAID array set. Apooled spare drive can replace a failed
drive in the RAID set. When the storage controller detects that a new drive replaces the failed

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drive, states of the spare and new drives vary by the support of the storage controller for data
copyback:
If the storage controller supports copying data on the pooled spare drive back to the new
drive, the new drive becomes a RAID member drive and the pooled spare drive is placed in
standby status.
If the storage controller does not support copying data on the pooled spare drive back to
the new drive, the pooled spare drive becomes a RAID member drive and the new drive is
idle. You can configure the new drive as a hot spare drive from the management interface
or CLI.
Applicable scenarios
The hot spare drive feature is applicable to critical data storage scenarios with high security and
disaster recovery requirements, for example, unattended equipment rooms.
RAID rebuild
About RAID rebuild
RAID rebuild is required when a new drive or hot spare drive replaces a failed drive in a redundant
RAID.
Applicable scenarios
The RAID rebuild feature is applicable to scenarios where automatic RAID rebuild is required after
faulty drive replacement.
Copyback
About copyback
If a drive fails, the storage controller uses a hot spare drive to replace the failed drive and rebuilds
data of the failed drive on the hot spare drive. When the storage controller detects that a new drive
replaces the failed drive, it copies data on the hot spare drive back to the new drive and places the
hot spare drive in standby status.
Applicable scenarios
If a drive fails, a hot spare drive will automatically replace the failed drive in a RAID. If the
administrator uses a new drive to replace the failed drive, the administrator can set the new drive as
a hot spare drive, changing the slot for the hot spare drive. With copyback enabled on a storage
controller, the storage controller will copy data on the hot spare drive back to the new drive and
places the hot spare drive in standby status.
Copyback ensures that hot spare drives remain in fixed slots for easy location and management.
Copyback affects drive performance. As a best practice, perform copyback when the system I/O is
not busy.

3
RAID level migration
About RAID level migration
RAID level migration is to change the level of a RAID array to reconfigure RAID without
compromising data integrity.
Applicable scenarios
You can perform RAID level migration when the current RAID level cannot meet service
requirements.
RAID capacity expansion
About RAID capacity expansion
The storage controller supports the following methods to expand the capacity of a RAID array:
•
Adding available capacity—If the total capacity of all drives in a RAID array is not fully
configured in RAID, the unconfigured capacity can be added to the RAID array to expand the
RAID capacity.
•
Adding drives—New drives can be added to a RAID array to expand the RAID capacity. If
needed, the level of the RAID array can be migrated to accommodate the newly added drives.
This method is typically accompanied by RAID migration.
Applicable scenarios
You can perform RAID capacity expansion when the current RAID capacity cannot meet service
requirements.
RAID location migration
About RAID location migration
This feature allows you to migrate logical drives in a RAID array or a whole RAID array to other
physical drives with a sufficient capacity. The target physical drives can be of different types from
the initial physical drives. For example, you can migrate logical drives on SATA HDDs to SAS SSDs.
Applicable scenarios
You can perform RAID location migration when bulk drive replacement, bulk data recovery, and host
replacement occurs.

4
High speed read/write cache
About high speed read/write cache
The storage controller supports the cache feature. The cache provides a much faster read/write
speed than drives.
•
Read policy—Monitoring data reads, the storage controller reads sequential data that will be
requested in advance and stores the data in the cache. When the sequential data is requested,
the controller directly reads the data stored in the cache. This mechanism speeds up reads for
sequential data.
•
Write policy—The storage controller stores received data in the cache and notifies the system
of the completion of data write. Without waiting for the data to be written into physical drives,
the system immediately starts the next data transmission.
The storage controller writes data stored in the cache to physical drives when the data in the
cache is accumulated to a certain amount.
Applicable scenarios
The high speed read/write cache feature is applicable to scenarios where high read/write speed is
required.
RAID information clearing on drives
About RAID information clearing
If a drive is hot swapped, RAID information remains on the drive. You must clear RAID information
on the drive before you configure the drive in a RAID array.
Applicable scenarios
The RAID information clearing feature is applicable to scenarios when you want to use a used drive
to build a RAID array.
Power fail safeguard
About power fail safeguard
A power fail safeguard module is composed of a flash card and a supercapacitor. With write cache
enabled, data stored in the cache gets lost if the server is powered down unexpectedly when power
fail safeguard does not take effect. You can enable both write cache and power fail safeguard on the
server to ensure data security:
•
Data in the cache will be copied to the flash card when the server is powered down
unexpectedly.
•
Data in the flash card will be written to the drives when the server is powered on.
Applicable scenarios
You can configure power fail safeguard for critical data to provide data security.

5
Drive initialization and uninitialization
About drive initialization and uninitialization
Before RAID and hot spare drive configuration, some PMC storage controllers require drive
initialization for drives in RAW status.
During initialization, the storage controller draws an area to save RAID configuration. During
uninitialization, the storage controller clears all RAID configuration and places the drives in RAW
status.
Applicable scenarios
Drive initialization is required if you use some storage controllers to configure RAID arrays. Drive
uninitialization is required if you want to place the drives in RAW status.
Drive state switching
About drive state switching
You can change the state of drives attached to the storage controller.
PMC storage controllers with RAID capabilities support the following drive states:
•
RAW—Drives in this state cannot be used to configure RAID arrays but can be identified by
the OS.
•
Ready—Drives in this state can be used to configure RAID arrays.
•
Optimal—Drives in this state have been used for configuring RAID arrays and are member
drives of RAID arrays.
LSI storage controllers with RAID capabilities support the following drive states:
•
Unconfigured Good—Drives in this state are normal and can be used to configure RAID
arrays or hot spare drives.
•
Unconfigured Bad—Drives in this state are faulty or have RAID information remaining on
them. If a drive is faulty, replace the drive. If RAID information remains on a drive, clear the
RAID information.
•
Hotspare—Drives in this state act as hot spare drives.
•
JBOD—Just a Bunch Of Drives. Drives in this state cannot be used to configure RAID arrays.
Applicable scenarios
You can change the state of drives as required.
Drive locating
About drive locating
This feature allows the storage controller to turn the Fault/UID LEDs on the drives to steady blue,
which makes it easier for you to find the locations of the drives.

6
Applicable scenarios
To manually locate the drives, you can use this feature.
Logical drive initialization
About logical drive initialization
For some PMC storage controllers, you must initialize logical drives after you configure a RAID
array. After logical drives are initialized, they can be used by the operating system and the member
drives in the redundant RAID array can meet the requirement of the RAID level.
The storage controller supports the following methods to initialize a logical drive:
•
Fast Initialize Drive—Firstly initializes the first 10 MB and the last 10 MB of the logical drive,
which sets the RAID state to Optimal.
•
Slow Initialize Drive—Initializes all space in the logical drive. Data write is available after the
initialization is finished.
Applicable scenarios
To make the member drives in the redundant RAID array meet the requirement of the RAID level,
you can use this feature.
Drive scanning
About drive scanning
You can perform this task for the storage controller to detect the status change of a hot-swapped
drive timely.
Applicable scenarios
You can use this feature to manually refresh the drive information.
Drive erasing
About drive erasing
CAUTION:
•
If the operating system is installed on a logical drive, erasing the logical drive might cause
system failure. Perform this operation with caution.
•
To avoid damage to drives, do not perform any other operations while the controller is erasing
drives.
This feature enables the storage controller to completely delete data on drives and prevents data
from being recovered. You can perform this task to protect data security.

7
The drive erasing operation might take a few hours and cannot be aborted deliberately. If this
operation is aborted due to server powering off or reboot, drives might get damaged or become
unusable.
NOT
E:
For
some storage controller, this feature is available only when the storage controller operates in
RAID mode.
Applicable scenarios
To completely delete data on drives and prevent data from being recovered, you can use this
feature on storage controllers. Before you use this feature, make sure the storage controllers
support this feature.
Drive failure alarming
About drive failure alarming
When a storage controller detects a failing drive, HDM generates an alarm and turns the Fault/UID
LED on the drive backplane to flashing amber.
When a storage controller detects a failed drive, the storage controller turns the Fault/UID LED on
the drive backplane to steady amber.
Applicable scenarios
You can use this feature to locate failed or failing drives.
Online firmware upgrade
About online firmware upgrade
The storage controller supports updating the firmware online from the CLI.
Applicable scenarios
You can use this feature to update the firmware of storage controllers.
Drive hot-swapping
About drive hot-swapping
CAUTION:
To avoid drive damage,
make sure there is a minimum of 30 seconds between two consecutive
drive hot swapping operations.

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The storage controller allows you to hot swap drives. You can remove or replace failed drives
without shutting down the server system or powering off the server. This feature improves disaster
recovery capability and capacity scalability of the server.
Applicable scenarios
You can use this feature to replace drives without powering off the server.
RAID creation with NVMe drives
About RAID creation with NVMe drives
You can use Intel VROC or specific storage controllers to create RAIDs with NVMe drives to meet
performance, cost efficiency, and high availability requirements.
Applicable scenarios
This feature is applicable to scenarios where you need to create RAIDs with NVMe drives.
IO Bypass
About IO Bypass
IO Bypass can provide an optimized data path for drives. With IO Bypass enabled, the driver can
bypass the hardware RAID stack through the optimized path, and directly read and write
information from drives. This improves the waiting time for accessing information from the drive.
To use this feature, install a storage controller that supports IO Bypass, and make sure the
operating system driver support IO Bypass as well.
Applicable scenarios
This feature is applicable to scenarios where businesses have low requirements for read/write
latency of SSD logical disks, and require IOPS greater than 300K.

1
Configuring the VROC SATA RAID
controller
NOTE:
The BIOS screens might vary by the BIOS version. The screenshots in this chapter are for
illustration only.
About the VROC SATA RAID controller
Intel Virtual RAID on CPU (VROC) is an embedded virtual RAID technology from Intel that provides
RAID capacity for systems that use SATA drives. If the RAID controller has multiple drives attached,
you can configure RAID arrays to protect data and improve read/write performance.
Features
Operating modes
The VROC SATARAID controller supports the following operating modes:
•
AHCI mode—This is the default mode. In this mode, all physical drives are exposed to the
operating system (OS). The drives can be directly used for data storage. Native Command
Queuing (NCQ) is supported, which improves the I/O performance of SATA drives.
•
RAID mode—In this mode, RAID functions are enabled and RAID arrays can be created on
physical drives to improve I/O performance and data security.
NOTE:
•
For the new mode to take effect, restart the server after an operating mode change.
•
The OS might fail to start up after the operating mode of the storage controller is changed. To
resolve this issue, reinstall the OS. If the issue persists, contact Technical Support.
RAID levels
The supported RAID levels vary by storage controller model. For more information about the
supported RAID levels of each storage controller, see H3C Servers Storage Controllers Technical
Specifications.
Table 1 shows the minimum number of drives required by each RAID level and the maximum
number of failed drives supported by each RAID level. For more information about RAID levels, see
"Appendix B RAID arrays and fault tolerance."
Table 1 RAID levels and the numbers of drives for each RAID level
RAID level Min. drives required Max. drives Max. failed drives
RAID 0 2 Maximum number of drives
supported by the drive backplane 0
RAID 1 2 2 1
RAID 5 3 Maximum number of drives
supported by the drive backplane 1
RAID 10 4 4 2

2
Restrictions and guidelines for RAID configuration
•
As a best practice, install drives that do not contain RAID information.
•
To avoid degraded RAID performance or RAID creation failures, make sure all drives in the
RAID are the same type (HDDs or SSDs) and have the same connector type (SAS or SATA).
•
For efficient use of storage, use drives that have the same capacity to build a RAID. If the
drives have different capacities, the lowest capacity is used across all drives in the RAID.
•
If one drive is used by several logical drives, RAID performance might be affected and
maintenance complexities will increase.
Configuring RAID arrays in UEFI mode
This section describes how to configure RAID arrays through a VROC SATA RAID controller in
UEFI mode. For more information about how to enter the BIOS and set the boot mode to UEFI, see
the BIOS user guide for the server.
Setting the VROC SATA operating mode
1. During server POST, press Delete, Esc, or F2 as prompted to open the BIOS setup screen as
shown in Figure 1.
For how to navigate screens and modify settings, see the operation instructions at the lower
right corner.
Figure 1 BIOS setup screen
2. On the screen as shown in Figure 2, select Advanced > Platform Configuration > PCH-IO
Configuration, and press Enter.

3
Figure 2 Platform Configuration screen
3. On the screen as shown in Figure 3, select SATA And RST Configuration, and then press
Enter.
Figure 3 PCH-IO Configuration screen
4. On the screen as shown in Figure 4, select Controller 1 SATA And RST Configuration,
Controller 2 SATA And RST Configuration or Controller 3 SATA And RST Configuration
based on the drive position, and then press Enter.

4
Figure 4 Modifying the storage controller operating mode
5. Select an operating mode. For more information about setting the operating mode for a VROC
SATA RAID controller, see "Features."
Figure 5 Selecting an operating mode
6. After the configuration is complete, press F4. On the dialog box that opens, select Yes to save
the current configuration and reboot the system to complete the storage controller operating
mode configuration.
Accessing the VROC SATA configuration screen
1. Access the BIOS setup screen.

5
2. On the screen as shown in Figure 6, select Advanced > Intel(R) VROC SATA Controller or
Intel(R) VROC sSATA Controller, and press Enter.
NOTE:
For the
Intel(R) VROC SATA Controller or Intel(R) VROC sSATA Controller option to
appear on the
screen shown in Figure 6, make sure the SATA or sSATA controller has been
configured to operate in RAID mode. For how to set the operating mode, see "
Setting the
VROC SATA operating mode."
Figure 6 Advanced screen
The VROC SATA configuration screen as shown in Figure 7 opens.
Figure 7 VROC SATA configuration screen