Managing the Controller Battery
Array Manager and FAST Compatibility Issues
This chapter describes how to configure and manage arrays with the following controllers:
The PERC 2 RAID controller contains four channels. PERC 2/Si and PERC 3/Si are single integrated channel controllers. The PERC 3/Di is a dual integrated channel controller.
The PERC 2, PERC 2/Si, PERC 3/Si, and PERC 3/Di controllers support the following RAID levels:
You can create a maximum of 24 virtual disks on a PERC 2, PERC 2/Si, PERC 3/Si, or PERC 3/Di controller.
Working with these controllers requires an understanding of the Array Manager storage model, which represents the Array Manager storage objects in an object hierarchy. Each object has a set of attributes and operations associated with it. Attributes describe the properties of the object, and operations allow you to create new objects and modify existing object attributes. See The Array Manager Storage Model section in the Storage Management Concepts chapter for more information about the Array Manager storage model.
Unless otherwise stated, each operation described in this chapter is available on each controller type listed above. Operations that are grayed out in the console are not supported or not available at that time. To view attributes or to perform operations, right-click on a given storage object. A context menu will appear with a list of commands available, including a Properties command.
Array Manager allows you to create virtual disks, which are logical disks that can be created from one or more physical disks (known as array disks). The logical disks can have RAID layouts, which let you to manage your storage more efficiently. Once a virtual disk is created and a rescan is done, the Windows® operating system sees the virtual disk as if it were a physical disk. The topics in this section include:
See also the section in this chapter on array disks, Array Disk Commands.
Creating virtual disks is the first step in configuring your RAID storage subsystem. For more information about creating RAID solutions, see Choosing RAID Levels in the Storage Management Concepts chapter.
Deleting a virtual disk permanently deletes all information contained within all volumes residing on that virtual disk.
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CAUTION! All volumes and data on the virtual disk are lost when the disk is deleted. |
Use this procedure to delete a virtual disk on a PERC 2, PERC 2/Si, PERC 3/Si, or PERC 3/Di controller:
Use the Virtual Disk Reconfiguration wizard to change attributes of a virtual disk on a PERC 2, PERC 2/Si, PERC 3/Si, or PERC 3/Di controller. You can:
Use this procedure to reconfigure a virtual disk on a PERC 2, PERC 2/Si, PERC 3/Si, or PERC 3/Di controller:
This section describes the following commands that are used to manage virtual disks:
Use this function to change the read and write cache policies of a virtual disk.
The options are to enable or disable the write cache and to enable or disable the read cache.
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Note: The "Write Cache" cache policy is not supported on the PERC 2/Si and 3/Si controllers. |
Use this operation to assign and configure a hot spare. This hot spare will be used to rebuild a degraded array disk, if possible.
If an array disk belonging to a virtual disk fails or is removed, the virtual disk will become degraded. A degraded virtual disk that has a properly configured hot spare will automatically rebuild onto that hot spare.
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Note: This operation is highly recommended. |
This operation verifies the accuracy of the redundant data in the virtual disk. You cannot check the consistency of a non-redundant RAID type.
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Note: It is recommended that you do not access any volumes on the virtual disk during the consistency check. |
Use this procedure to format a virtual disk on a PERC 2, PERC 2/Si, PERC 3/Si, or PERC 3/Di controller.
This operation erases the files and removes the file systems on virtual disks but keeps the virtual disk configuration intact.
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Note: If you are formatting a virtual disk on a NetWare® system, you must first go to the NetWare console and remove the corresponding volume and partition. For information on how to perform these operations, see the appropriate NetWare documentation. |
This command recovers the disk space occupied by an orphan or dead disk segment. An orphan disk segment is part of a multipartition virtual disk that cannot access another disk segment within the same virtual disk. A dead disk segment is either no longer needed by the virtual disk or is physically damaged. This operation can be performed only on failed virtual disks of redundant RAID types.
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Note: You can restore only segments of a redundant RAID type. |
Use the Split Mirror command to permanently convert a mirror set or a multilevel virtual disk of mirror sets into two concatenated sets or two multilevel virtual disks of concatenated sets and preserve the data in each resulting virtual disk.
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Note: This operation is not supported in NetWare. |
Use the Unmirror command to convert the mirror set to a concatenated set or convert a multi-level virtual disk of mirror sets to a multilevel virtual disk of concatenated sets. Unmirroring preserves the data in the mirror set or multilevel virtual disk of mirror sets, but erases any data maintained by the redundant segment and returns the redundant virtual disk's segments to free space.
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CAUTION! Your virtual disk will no longer be redundant. |
The Properties command brings up a screen that displays the properties of the virtual disk.
This section describes the commands available on the Array Group context menu. These commands are:
For more information about this command, see the section Creating Virtual Disks in this chapter.
This command and the concepts associated with it are discussed in detail in the Policy-Based Storage Management chapter.
This command brings up a screen with the properties of the array group.
This section describes Array Manager's commands for working with array disks. These commands are:
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Note: A right-click on any one of the array disks displays a menu of supported operations. These menus are dynamic. Not all menu options are available at all times. |
Use this operation to verify that a disk is free from defects. This assures that the disk is safe to use as a member of a virtual disk.
The Initialize command prepares an array disk for use as a member of a virtual disk.
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CAUTION! This is a data-destructive command. Any virtual disks residing on this array disk will be removed. |
The Format command performs a low-level format on an array disk.
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CAUTION! This is a data-destructive command. Any virtual disks residing on this array disk will be removed. |
This command removes the disk space occupied by an orphan or dead disk segment.
A segment may be designated as dead if it is logically bad, is physically damaged, or resides on a disk that has been disconnected from and then reconnected to the controller.
The Blink command allows you to find an array disk within an enclosure by blinking one of the light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on the disk. This command will automatically cancel in 60 seconds.
The Unblink command allows you to cancel the Blink command before the 60-second threshold has been reached.
Use this command to display the array disk properties.
The PERC subsystem has the following commands on its context menu:
This command allows you to view a report on the PERC 2 subsystem.
This command allows you to save the controller configuration.
Use this command to view the properties of the PERC 2 subsystem.
This section describes the following controller commands and information on how to manage controller batteries:
The Rescan operation scans the channels of the controller to verify the currently connected devices or to recognize new devices that have been added to the channels.
After the operation is finished, the console is refreshed and any configuration changes appear under the Array Group object and under the channel object.
The removal of an array disk within a virtual disk is reflected immediately in the console, whereas an addition is reflected only by performing the Rescan operation. Array disks that are not part of virtual disks will not be polled for status changes.
This command pauses I/O on all channels that are polled for status changes on the controller. Use the Pause I/O command when you need to hot-swap disk drives without having to reboot.
If the disks are contained in an enclosure that supports hot-swapping, Pause I/O is not required unless the disk is part of a virtual disk.
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CAUTION! This can be a potentially dangerous command, and sufficient steps should be taken to warn others who may be using any virtual disks on the selected controller that I/O will be paused. |
The controller stays in this paused state for 150 seconds and then automatically resumes.
Use this function to initialize one or more array disks simultaneously. Array disks must be initialized before they can be used by Array Manager.
This command extracts a log from the controller(s) and places it in the Array Manager installation directory. The log gives detailed information on the controller activities and can be useful for troubleshooting. The log's file name is the word "log" and the month and day, such as "log0921" for a log created on September 21.
Use this function to display controller attributes.
Properties for each of PERC 2, PERC 2/Si, PERC 3/Si, and PERC 3/Di controllers appear differently. When a controller is opened in read-only mode, the console displays Read only in the name that appears in the left pane. If the controller is already in use, it can be opened only in read-only mode.
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Note: A controller will be opened in Read Only mode if it is already in use. |
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Note: The PERC 2/Si and PERC 3/Si RAID controllers do not contain a battery and therefore do not support battery management. |
The battery of the PERC 2 controller preserves the contents of its nonvolatile cache memory in the event of power loss. The battery provides a minimum of 72 hours protection for DIMMs up to 64 MB and 48 hours protection for 128-MB DIMMs. However, the duration of protection, or holdover time, depends on the battery's charge level. This section has two topics:
The battery is fully discharged when you first install the controller. The controller detects this condition and automatically begins charging the battery. This charging process takes approximately three hours. The controller can be used during this time; however, the battery is unable to meet the specified holdover time until it is fully charged. The battery is still able to handle brief power losses during the initial charge cycle.
After you have installed the controller, it notifies you every six months that a battery reconditioning cycle is required. This reconditioning cycle requires a full discharge and recharge of the battery. It ensures that the battery's capacity is being measured correctly and that the battery's full holdover time is maintained.
The reconditioning cycle takes approximately 8 to 10 hours. During this time, the battery's holdover time is reduced to zero (during discharge) and then restored (during full charge). To ensure that no data is lost from nonvolatile cache memory, the controller automatically disables cache (both read and write) during a reconditioning cycle. When the cache is disabled, performance is degraded for the reconditioning period. Once the reconditioning cycle is complete, the cache is restored to its original settings.
It is highly recommended that battery reconditioning be done during off-peak times.
This section describes the following general SCSI channel commands:
This operation can be used to rescan the channel to verify the connected devices or to check for devices that have been added.
This operation displays channel attributes.
Both Array Manager and FAST can be installed on the same server. However, only one program can be used to configure PERC 2, PERC 2/Si, PERC 3/Si, and PERC 3/Di controllers at any given time. These controller interfaces support two different access rights: read-only and read-write. To maintain the integrity of storage device configuration, these controllers grant only one application read-write access and all others read-only access.
When Array Manager is launched, it attempts to get read-write access. If read-write access is denied, then Array Manager gets read-only access. When Array Manager is launched in read-only mode, you can view storage devices and their properties but you cannot configure the PERC 2, PERC 2/Si, PERC 3/Si, and PERC 3/Di controllers or devices on them. Make sure FAST is not running if you want to launch Array Manager in read-write access mode.
After some planning and preparation, it is possible to migrate array disks, virtual disks, and array volumes between one controller and another, between one enclosure and another, or between one server and another. You can perform array and volume migration on PERC 2, PERC 2/Si, PERC 3/Si, and PERC 3/Di controllers as long as the following conditions are met:
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To migrate virtual disks and volumes from one system to another, do the following.
The terminology used in the Array Manager console differs from the terminology used in the PERC 2 BIOS Container Configuration Utility (CCU). The following table shows a summary of these differences.