Page 3 - Contents
Contents 1 About The Shared PERC 8 Card..........................................................................6 Configurations of the Shared PERC 8 card .......................................................................................... 6 Specifications of a Shared PERC 8 card ...............
Page 6 - About The Shared PERC 8 Card; Configurations of the Shared PERC 8 card
1 About The Shared PERC 8 Card The Dell Shared PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) 8 card installed on the Dell PowerEdge VRTX system supports Single Root Input Output Virtualization (SR-IOV). This feature allows multiple systems to share available hardware resources.The PERC 8 card allows four server ...
Page 7 - Specifications of a Shared PERC 8 card
• Currently, Linux drivers do not support the fault tolerance feature of the PowerEdge VRTX system. Host servers running Linux are only supported in single-controller configuration. Specifications of a Shared PERC 8 card The characteristics of a Shared PERC 8 card are as follows: Table 1. Shared PER...
Page 9 - Supported Operating Systems; Best Practices For Shared PERC 8
Specification Description Multipath support Required for systems with Fault Tolerant Shared PERC 8 card configuration. NOTE: Multipath is not supported on systems running Linux operating system. Controller failover Available only for systems with Fault Tolerant Shared PERC 8 card configuration. Supp...
Page 10 - Locating your system Service Tag
• The PowerEdge VRTX Storage Subsystem Compatibility Matrix provides information on the minimum driver and firmware requirements for the components of the Dell PowerEdge VRTX storage subsystem. • The setup placemat shipped with your system provides information on the initial system setup and configu...
Page 11 - Documentation Feedback
or Dell product catalog. Availability varies by country and product, and some services may not be available in your area. To contact Dell for sales, technical support, or customer-service issues: 1. Go to dell.com/support . 2. Select your country from the drop-down menu on the bottom right corner of...
Page 12 - Shared PERC 8 Card Features; Physical Disk Power Management; Consistency Checks; Virtual Disk Initialization
2 Shared PERC 8 Card Features Some of the features of the Shared PERC 8 card are as follows: • Physical disk power management• Consistency checks• Virtual disk initialization• Disk roaming• FastPath• Virtual disk migration• Virtual disk cache policies• Fault tolerance• Patrol read• Multipath support...
Page 13 - Fast Initialization Of Virtual Disks; Physical Disk Roaming
Background Initialization Of Virtual Disks Both Consistency Check (CC) and Background Initialization (BGI) correct parity errors. However, CC reports data inconsistencies through an event notification, whereas BGI is an automatic process. BGI does not run on RAID 0 virtual disks. You cannot disable ...
Page 14 - Using Physical Disk Roaming; Virtual Disk Migration
Using Physical Disk Roaming Perform the following steps to use disk roaming: 1. Turn off the power to the system, physical disks, enclosures, and system components. 2. Disconnect power cables from the system. 3. Move the physical disks to the required positions on the backplane or the enclosure. 4. ...
Page 15 - Migrating Virtual Disks If The Target System Is Turned Off; Migrating Virtual Disks If The Target System Is Turned On; Virtual Disk Cache Policies
• Does not support migration from any other PERC cards such as PERC H310, H700, H710, H800, and H810. • Supports migration of virtual disks from the Single Shared PERC 8 card configuration to the Fault Tolerant Shared PERC 8 card configuration, but does not support migration from a newer firmware ve...
Page 17 - Physical Disk Write Cache Policy
NOTE: If the virtual drives are created with write-through as selected mode, make sure that the virtual drives are changed to write-back mode. Conditions under which write-through is employed Write-through caching is used under conditions in which the battery fails or is not present. Virtual Disk Re...
Page 19 - Shared PERC 8 Card Cache Preservation
Physical disk failure detection Failed physical disks are detected and rebuilds automatically start to new disks that are inserted into the same slot. Automatic rebuilds can also occur with hot spares. If you have configured hot spares, the controllers automatically try to use them to rebuild failed...
Page 20 - Battery Transparent Learn Cycle; The Controller Failover Feature
Recovering cache data If a system power loss or improper system shutdown has occurred: 1. Ensure all online physical disks are still connected. 2. Restore the system power. 3. Boot the system.Virtual disks are automatically imported and preserved cache (if any) will be flushed to the physical disks ...
Page 21 - Multipath Support; Configuring Multipath Support In Windows; Configuring Multipath Support In VMWare
Multipath Support Multipathing solutions use redundant physical path components such as adapters, cables, and switches to create logical paths between the server and the storage device. In the event that one or more of these components fails, multipathing logic uses an alternate path for I/O so that...
Page 22 - Deploying The Shared PERC 8 Card; Installing A New Shared PERC 8 Card; Replacing A Shared PERC 8 Card
3 Deploying The Shared PERC 8 Card Follow the documentation in this section to remove or install a Shared PERC 8 card under different scenarios. Installing A New Shared PERC 8 Card For information on how to install a Shared PERC 8 card, see Installing The Shared PERC 8 Card . For information on the ...
Page 26 - Firmware installation or update; Updating firmware
Firmware installation or update The VRTX storage subsystem comprises of Shared PERC firmware, drivers, Chassis Infrastructure firmware and the CMC. When updating any of these components, make sure that all the component versions are at a compatible baseline. NOTE: For more information, see the Power...
Page 27 - Driver Installation; Downloading Drivers and Firmware For Shared PERC 8
4 Driver Installation The Dell Shared PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) 8 card requires software drivers to operate with the supported operating systems. This chapter contains the procedures for installing the drivers for the Shared PERC 8 card. NOTE: To check operating system compatibility, see dell...
Page 28 - Installing Or Updating Windows Drivers For Shared PERC
For the list of supported operating systems, see Supported Operating Systems . 3. Click Continue . 4. From the list of drivers displayed, select the driver you require. 5. Select the self-extracting zip file and click Run . 6. Copy the driver to a diskette drive, CD, DVD, or USB drive.Repeat this st...
Page 31 - Troubleshooting; Performance variations between write-back and write-
6 Troubleshooting To get help with your Dell Shared PowerEdge RAID Controller Shared (PERC) 8 card, you can contact your Dell Technical Service representative or see dell.com/contactdell . Performance variations between write-back and write- through cache modes Performance is highly variable across ...
Page 32 - Shared PERC 8 Card Has Yellow Exclamation Mark In Device Manager; Shared PERC 8 Card Not Seen In Device Manager
Category Event Reported To the CMC Description of the Failure Corrective Action Critical Error during boot - NVDATA image is invalid - reflash NVDATA image The NVData image is invalid. Contact Dell Technical Support. Degraded State Of Virtual Disks A redundant virtual disk is in a degraded state whe...
Page 33 - Shared PERC 8 Cards Fail To Function; Physical disk issues; Physical Disk In Failed State; Unable to rebuild a fault tolerant virtual disk
Warning event: Event 153, Disk The IO operation at logical block address xxxxxx for Disk x was retried referring to the PercSAS2 driver is seen in the Windows Event log . Corrective Action: These error messages may be triggered under some non-critical cases. See the system status and the CMC logs to...
Page 34 - Rebuilding A Failed Physical Disk
Fatal Error Or Data Corruption Reported Issue: Fatal error(s) or data corruption(s) is reported when accessing virtual disks. Corrective Action: Contact Dell Technical Support. Physical Disk Displayed As Blocked By Management Application Issue: One or more physical disks are displayed as Blocked and...
Page 36 - SMART Errors
Conditions Actions NOTE: Unresolved pinned cache can occur if a virtual drive goes offline for any reason while there is uncommitted cache data in memory. NOTE: Clearing pinned cache means that the pinned data is lost. During a Shared PERC firmware flash, virtual drive transitions to write-through u...
Page 37 - Auto Replacement Member Errors; Source Disk Fails
SMART Error Detected On A Physical Disk In A Non-Redundant Virtual Disk Issue: A SMART error is detected on a physical disk in a non-redundant virtual disk. Corrective Action: Perform the following steps: 1. Back up your data. 2. Physically remove the physical disk that detected the SMART error. NOT...
Page 38 - Hard-Drive Indicator Patterns
Hard-Drive Indicator Patterns Figure 2. Hard-Drive Indicators 1. hard-drive activity indicator (green) 2. hard-drive status indicator (green and amber) Drive-Status Indicator Pattern Condition Blinks green two times per second Identifying drive or preparing for removal Off Drive ready for insertion ...
Page 39 - Getting help; Contacting Dell; Documentation feedback
7 Getting help Contacting Dell Dell provides several online and telephone-based support and service options. If you do not have an active Internet connection, you can find contact information on your purchase invoice, packing slip, bill, or Dell product catalog. Availability varies by country and pr...
