Intel PowerEdge External Media System 1434 Operation manual

Intel 320 Series SSD
User's Information for Dell PowerEdge Products

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2012 - 08
Rev. A00

Contents
1 Intel 320 Series SSD User's Information for Dell PowerEdge Products............................5
About This Document...............................................................................................................................................5
Compatible Hardware...............................................................................................................................................5
12th Generation PowerEdge Servers.................................................................................................................5
11th Generation PowerEdge Servers.................................................................................................................5
SSD Hard Drive Indicator Patterns...........................................................................................................................6
Drive Activity Indicator.......................................................................................................................................6
Drive Status Indicator........................................................................................................................................6
Controller BIOS Configuration Utility Behavior.........................................................................................................7
OMSA Drive Information Page.................................................................................................................................7
SMART Predictive Failure Notification Support.................................................................................................7
SMART Wear Out Indicator Not Supported.......................................................................................................8
OMSA Warnings.......................................................................................................................................................8
System Alerts Page............................................................................................................................................8
Storage Pages....................................................................................................................................................9
Wear Usage Monitoring.........................................................................................................................................10
The Smartmon Tool..........................................................................................................................................10
Obtaining the Smartmon Tool...........................................................................................................................10
SMART Attributes............................................................................................................................................10
Smartmon Tool and smartctl Resources..........................................................................................................11
Monitoring Drive Wear Example Using the Smartmon Tool — Linux RAID Environments..............................11
Monitoring Drive Wear Example Using the Smartmon Tool — Non-RAID Environments...............................11
Using the Smartmon Tool to Estimate Wear Usage — Windows RAID Environments ONLY..........................11
Calculating Estimated Drive Wear...................................................................................................................13
Adjusting SSD Usable Capacity to Improve Drive Performance............................................................................14
Intel 320 SSD ATA Instant Secure Erase Functionality ..........................................................................................14
2 Getting Help................................................................................................................................15
Contacting Dell.......................................................................................................................................................15

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1
Intel 320 Series SSD User's Information for Dell
PowerEdge Products
About This Document
This document describes features and behaviors of the Intel 320 Series SSDs that you may encounter when using these
drives in a Dell PowerEdge server.
Compatible Hardware
12th Generation PowerEdge Servers
The following 12th Generation Dell PowerEdge servers are currently qualified as compatible with the Intel 320 Series
SDDs:
• PowerEdge R820
• PowerEdge R720
• PowerEdge R720xd
• PowerEdge R620
• PowerEdge T620
• PowerEdge R520
• PowerEdge R420
• PowerEdge R320
The following controllers are supported by these servers for use with the Intel SSDs:
• H710
• H710P
• H310
Note that the H810 and S110 controllers are NOT qualified for use with the Intel SSDs.
11th Generation PowerEdge Servers
The following 11th Generation Dell PowerEdge servers are currently qualified as compatible with the Intel 320 Series
SDDs:
• PowerEdge R910
• PowerEdge R815
• PowerEdge R715
• PowerEdge M915
The following controllers are supported by these servers for use with the Intel SSDs:
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• H700
• H200
Note that the H800, S100, and S300 controllers are NOT qualified for use with the Intel SSDs.
NOTE: Additional servers and controllers may be qualified in the future as compatible with Intel 320 Series SDDs.
Contact your Dell sales representative for the latest information.
SSD Hard Drive Indicator Patterns
Figure 1. Hard-Drive Indicators
1. hard-drive activity indicator (green)
2. hard-drive status indicator (green and amber)
Drive Activity Indicator
NOTE: The drive activity indicator behavior on an SSD is noticeably different than that of a hard disk drive. When
SSD I/O activity is occurring, the indicator will switch on and remain on without blinking. This is normal behavior.
SSD Drive Activity
Indicator Pattern
Condition
Off No drive activity
Steady green Drive I/O activity occurring
Drive Status Indicator
The hard-drive status indicator functions the same as that of a hard disk drive.
SSD Drive Status
Indicator Pattern
(RAID Only)
Condition
Blinks green two
times per second
Identifying drive or preparing for removal
Off Drive ready for insertion or removal
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SSD Drive Status
Indicator Pattern
(RAID Only)
Condition
NOTE: The drive status indicator remains off until all hard drives are initialized after the
system is turned on. Drives are not ready for insertion or removal during this time.
Blinks green and off Predicted drive failure
Blinks green slowly Drive rebuilding
Steady green Drive online
Blinks green three
seconds and off six
seconds
Rebuild aborted
Controller BIOS Configuration Utility Behavior
The BIOS Configuration Utility is a storage management application embedded on PowerEdge Raid Controller (PERC)
cards that configures and maintains RAID disk groups and virtual disks. (For more information on the utility, see the Dell
PowerEdge RAID Controller User’s Guide.)
The utility's Physical Disk Management screen displays physical disk information and action menus. On the right side of
the screen, the SSD's Certified field will be set to “No.” This is normal behavior and does not indicate an issue with the
drive.
Figure 2. Controller BIOS configuration utility
OMSA Drive Information Page
SMART Predictive Failure Notification Support
SMART trips for actual drive errors will be noted on the Physical Disks page of the OpenManage Server Administrator
(OMSA) Storage subsection. If such an error occurs, “Yes” will be displayed in the Failure Predicted column of this
page.
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Figure 3. Drive information page with predictive failure notice
SMART Wear Out Indicator Not Supported
Although the Intel SSD 320 Series drives log SMART attribute E9, Media Wear Out Indicator, that captures the remaining
life of the SSD as a percentage, the OMSA Physical Disks page does not report this indicator.
OMSA Warnings
NOTE: Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) will displays a yellow warning icon next to the Intel SSDs,
as noted below. These warning icons do not indicate a current or pending problem with the drive. They only appear
because the drive is not recognized by OMSA as a “Dell-branded” drive.
System Alerts Page
A yellow warning icon and a“Non-Dell-supplied disk drive has been detected.” message will be displayed next to each
Intel SSD drive. This is normal behavior and does not indicate an issue with the drive.
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Figure 4. OMSA system alerts page
Storage Pages
Within the Storage section of OMSA, a yellow warning icon will appear on the controller page, and the Physical Disks
page. This is normal behavior and does not indicate an issue with the drive.
Figure 5. Controller page
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Figure 6. Physical disks page
Wear Usage Monitoring
The Smartmon Tool
You can use a software tool — Smartmon — that monitors three Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology
(SMART) attributes for SSDs. Smartmon includes a command line utility, smartctl, used to check these attributes.
Obtaining the Smartmon Tool
The Smartmon tool is available from the following sources:
• From Intel as part of the “Intel Solid-State Drive Toolbox” at http://downloadcenter.intel.com.
• From http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/smartmontools/wiki.
NOTE: Use the latest version of the Smartmon tool with the Intel 320 Series SSDs.
SMART Attributes
The three primary attributes measured by the Smartmon tool are:
• Workload Timer ID E4h — Time elapsed during the current workload.
• Timed Workload Host Reads Percentage ID E3h — Percentage of I/O operations that are read operations during
the last workload timer loop.
• Timed Workload Media Wear Indicator ID E2h — Drive wear during the last wear timer loop, as a percentage of
the maximum rated cycles.
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