Dell PowerVault MD3600f Series User manual

Dell PowerVault MD3600f and

MD3620f Storage Arrays

Owner’s Manual

Regulatory Model: E03J Series and E04J Series

Regulatory Type: E03J001 and E04J001

book.book Page 1 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 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.

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 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 PM

Contents 3

Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

About This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Inside the Box of the Dell PowerVault MD3600f

Series Storage Array. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

MD3600f Series Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Storage

Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Other Information You May Need . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

2 Planning: About Your Storage Array . . . . 25

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Hardware Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Front-Panel Features and Indicators . . . . . . . 26

Back Panel Features and Indicators . . . . . . . . 29

Hard–Drive Indicator Patterns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Power Supply and Cooling Fan Features . . . . . . . . 31

Power Indicator Codes and Features . . . . . . . . . . 32

3 Planning: RAID Controller Modules . . . . 33

RAID Controller Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

book.book Page 3 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 PM

4Contents

RAID Controller Module Connectors and Features . . . 34

Host Channel LED Link/Rate Indications . . . . . . . . 36

RAID Controller Module—Additional Features . . . . . 36

Battery Backup Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Storage Array Thermal Shutdown . . . . . . . . . 37

System Password Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Cache Functions and Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Cache Mirroring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Write–Back Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Write–Through Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

SFP Transceivers, Fiber Optic, and SAS Cables. . . . . 38

Interoperability of 2 Gbps, 4 Gbps, and

8 Gbps Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

4 Planning: MD3600f Series Storage

Array Terms and Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Physical Disks, Virtual Disks, and Disk Groups . . . . . 41

Physical Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Physical Disk States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting

Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Virtual Disks and Disk Groups . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Virtual Disk States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

RAID Levels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

RAID Level Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Segment Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Virtual Disk Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

book.book Page 4 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 PM

Contents 5

Virtual Disk Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Background Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Foreground Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Consistency Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Media Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Cycle Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Virtual Disk Operations Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Disk Group Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

RAID Level Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Segment Size Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Virtual Disk Capacity Expansion . . . . . . . . . . 51

Disk Group Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Disk Group Defragmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Disk Group Operations Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

RAID Background Operations Priority . . . . . . . . . 52

Virtual Disk Migration and Disk Roaming. . . . . . . . 53

Disk Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Disk Roaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Advanced Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Host Server–to–Virtual Disk Mapping . . . . . . . 55

Host Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Snapshot Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Snapshot Repository Virtual Disk. . . . . . . . . . 57

Virtual Disk Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Virtual Disk Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Using Snapshot and Disk Copy Together. . . . . . 59

Multi-Path Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Preferred and Alternate Controllers and Paths . . 59

Virtual Disk Ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Load Balancing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

book.book Page 5 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 PM

6Contents

Monitoring MD3600f Series System Performance . . . 61

5 Configuration: Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Enterprise Management Window . . . . . . . . . 66

Array Management Window . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

6 Configuration: About Your

Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Storage Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Adding Storage Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Setting Up Your Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Locating Storage Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Naming or Renaming Storage Arrays. . . . . . . . 73

Setting a Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Viewing Storage Array Connections . . . . . . . . 76

Adding/Editing a Comment to an Existing

Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Removing Storage Arrays. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Enabling Premium Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Failover Alert Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Changing the Cache Settings on the

Storage Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Changing Expansion Enclosure ID Number . . . . 79

Changing the Enclosure Order in the

Physical Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Configuring Alert Notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Configuring E–mail Alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Configuring SNMP Alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Battery Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

book.book Page 6 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 PM

Contents 7

Setting the Storage Array RAID Controller

Module Clocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

7 Configuration: Event Monitor . . . . . . . . . 87

Enabling or Disabling the Event Monitor . . . . . . . . 88

Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

8 Configuration: About Your Host . . . . . . . . 89

Configuring Host Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Using the Mappings Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Defining a Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Removing Host Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Managing Host Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Creating a Host Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Moving a Host to a Different Host Group. . . . . . 94

Removing a Host Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Host Topology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Starting or Stopping the Host Context Agent. . . . 95

I/O Data Path Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Managing Host Port Identifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

9 Configuration: Disk Groups and

Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Creating Disk Groups and Virtual Disks. . . . . . . . . 101

Creating Disk Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

book.book Page 7 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 PM

8Contents

Locating a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Creating Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Changing the Virtual Disk Modification

Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Changing the Virtual Disk Cache Settings . . . . 107

Changing the Segment Size of a

Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Changing the I/O Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Choosing an Appropriate Physical Disk Type . . . . . 111

Physical Disk Security With Self Encrypting Disk . . 112

Creating a Security Key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Changing a Security Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Saving a Security Key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Validate Security Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Unlocking Secure Physical Disks . . . . . . . . . 119

Erasing Secure Physical Disks . . . . . . . . . . 119

Configuring Hot Spare Physical Disks. . . . . . . . . 120

Hot Spares and Rebuild. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Global Hot Spares. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Hot Spare Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Hot Spare Drive Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Enclosure Loss Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Host-to-Virtual Disk Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Creating Host-to-Virtual Disk Mappings . . . . . 126

Modifying and Removing Host-to-Virtual

Disk Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Changing Controller Ownership of

the Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Removing Host-to-Virtual Disk Mapping . . . . . 129

Changing the RAID Controller Module

Ownership of a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

book.book Page 8 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 PM

Contents 9

Changing the RAID Level of a Disk Group . . . . . 130

Removing a Host-to-Virtual Disk Mapping

Using Linux DMMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Restricted Mappings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Changing the RAID Controller Module

Ownership of a Virtual Disk or a Disk Group . . . . 134

Changing the RAID Level of a Disk Group. . . . . . . . 136

Storage Partitioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Disk Group and Virtual Disk Expansion . . . . . . . . . 138

Disk Group Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Virtual Disk Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Using Free Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Using Unconfigured Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Disk Group Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Export Disk Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Exporting a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Import Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Importing a Disk Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Storage Array Media Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Changing Media Scan Settings . . . . . . . . . . 143

Suspending the Media Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

10 Configuration: Premium

Feature—Snapshot Virtual Disks . . . . . 145

Scheduling a Snapshot Virtual Disk. . . . . . . . . . . 146

Common Reasons for Scheduling a

Snapshot Virtual Disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Guidelines for Creating Snapshot Schedules . . . 147

book.book Page 9 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 PM

10 Contents

Enabling and Disabling Snapshot

Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Creating a Snapshot Virtual Disk Using

the Simple Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

About the Simple Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Preparing Host Servers to Create the

Snapshot Using the Simple Path . . . . . . . . . 150

Creating a Snapshot Virtual Disk Using the

Advanced Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

About the Advanced Path. . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Preparing Host Servers to Create the

Snapshot Using the Advanced Path . . . . . . . 154

Creating the Snapshot Using the

Advanced Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Specifying Snapshot Virtual Disk Names . . . . . . . 157

Snapshot Repository Capacity. . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Disabling a Snapshot Virtual Disk. . . . . . . . . . . 162

Preparing Host Servers to Re-create a

Snapshot Virtual Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Re-creating Snapshot Virtual Disks . . . . . . . . . . 164

Snapshot Rollback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Rules and Guidelines for Performing a

Snapshot Rollback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Protecting Against a Failed

Snapshot Rollback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Previous Versions of the MD

Storage Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Starting a Snapshot Rollback . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Resuming a Snapshot Rollback. . . . . . . . . . 167

Canceling a Snapshot Rollback. . . . . . . . . . 168

book.book Page 10 Friday, September 23, 2011 2:46 PM

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