Dell Perc 4E Dc Users Manual PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller 4/SC, 4/DC, And 4e/DC User's Guide

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Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 4/SC, 4/DC, and 4e/DC
User's Guide
Overview
RAID Controller Features
Hardware Installation
Configuring the RAID Controller
BIOS Configuration Utility and Dell Manager
Troubleshooting
Appendix A: Regulatory Notice
Glossary

Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
© 2004 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden.
Trademarks used in this text: Dell, the DELL logo, PowerEdge, and Dell OpenManage are trademarks of Dell Inc. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft
Corporation. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. Novell and NetWare are registered trademarks of Novell Corporation. Red Hat is a registered trademark of Red Hat,
Inc.
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document 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.

Model PERC 4
Release: July 2004
Part Number: D8096 Rev.A00

Back to Contents Page

Overview
Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 4/SC, 4/DC, and 4e/DC User's Guide
Overview of PERC 4/SC, 4/DC, and 4e/DC
Documentation

Overview of PERC 4/SC, 4/DC, and 4e/DC
The PERC 4 RAID controller is a high-performance, intelligent peripheral component interconnect (PCI) and PCI-Express to Small Computer System Interface
(SCSI) host adapter with RAID control capabilities. It provides reliable fault-tolerant disk subsystem management and is an ideal RAID solution for internal
storage in Dell's™ PowerEdge™ enterprise systems. The RAID controller offers a cost-effective way to implement RAID in a server.
PERC 4 controllers are available with one or two SCSI channels using PCI or PCI-Express input/output (I/O) architecture:
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PERC 4/SC (single channel) provides one SCSI channel and PCI architecture

PERC 4/DC (dual channel) provides two SCSI channels and PCI architecture

PERC 4e/DC (dual channel) provides two SCSI channels and PCI-Express architecture

PCI and PCI-Express are I/O architectures designed to increase data transfers without slowing down the central processing unit (CPU). PCI-Express goes
beyond the PCI specification in that it is intended as a unifying I/O architecture for various systems: desktops, workstations, mobile, server, communications,
and embedded devices.
Your RAID controller supports a low-voltage differential (LVD) SCSI bus. Using LVD, you can use cables up to 12 meters long. Throughput on each SCSI channel
can be as high as 320 MB/sec.

Documentation
The technical documentation set includes
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Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller 4/SC, 4/DC, and 4e/DC User's Guide, which contains information about installation of the RAID controller, general
introductory information about RAID, RAID system planning, configuration information, and software utility programs.

CERC and PERC RAID Controllers Operating System Driver Installation Guide, which contains the information you need to install the appropriate operating
system software drivers.

Back to Contents Page

RAID Controller Features
Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 4/SC, 4/DC, and 4e/DC User's Guide
Hardware Requirements
RAID Controller Specifications
Configuration Features
Hardware Architecture Features
Array Performance Features
Fault Tolerance Features
Operating System Software Drivers
RAID Management Utilities

Hardware Requirements
The RAID controller can be installed in a system with a motherboard that has 5-V or 3.3-V, 32- or 64-bit PCI or PCI-Express slots.
NOTE: PERC 4/DC and 4e/DC support clustering, but PERC 4/SC does not.

RAID Controller Specifications
Table 2-1 provides a summary of the specifications for the RAID controllers.

Table 2-1. RAID Controller Specifications
Parameters

PERC 4/SC Specifications

PERC 4/DC Specifications

PERC 4e/DC Specifications

Card size

Low-profile PCI adapter card size (6.875"
X 4.2")

Half-length PCI adapter card size (6.875" X
4.2")

Processor

Intel® GC80302 (Zion Lite)

Intel GC80303 (Zion)

80332

Bus type

PCI 2.2

PCI Express 1.0a

PCI bus data
transfer rate

2 - 4 GB/sec, depending on the system

Cache
configuration

64 MB SDRAM

128 MB SDRAM

Firmware

Flash size is 1MB

Nonvolatile
random access
memory (RAM)

32 KB for storing RAID configuration

Operating voltage
and tolerances

3.3V +/- 0.3V, 5V +/- 5%, +12V +/- 5%, 12V +/- 10%

SCSI controller

One SCSI LSI53C1020 controller for
Ultra320 support

One SCSI LSI53C1030 controller for
Ultra320 support

SCSI data transfer
rate

Up to 320 MB/sec per channel

SCSI bus

LVD, Single-ended (SE)

SCSI termination

Active

Termination
disable

Automatic through cable and device
detection

Automatic through cable and device
detection This is automatic capable, but
jumpers by default do not allow auto
termination on PERC 4/DC.

Automatic through cable and device
detection

Devices per SCSI
channel

Up to 15 Wide SCSI devices

SCSI device types

Synchronous or asynchronous

RAID levels
supported

0, 1, 5, 10, 50

SCSI connectors

One 68-pin internal high-density connector
for SCSI devices. One very high density 68pin external connector for Ultra320 and

Two 68-pin internal high-density connectors Two 68-pin internal high-density
for SCSI devices. Two very high density 68- connectors for SCSI devices. Two very high
pin external connectors for Ultra320 and
density 68-pin external connectors for

Serial port

Wide SCSI.

Ultra320 and Wide SCSI.

3-pin RS232C-compatible connector (for
manufacturing use only)

NOTE: PERC 4 controller cards are not PCI Hot Pluggable. The system must be powered down in order to change or add cards.

Cache Memory
64 MB of cache memory resides in a memory bank for PERC 4/SC and 128 MB for PERC 4/DC and PERC 4e/DC. The RAID controller supports write-through or
write-back caching, selectable for each logical drive. To improve performance in sequential disk accesses, the RAID controller uses read-ahead caching by
default. You can disable read-ahead caching.

Onboard Speaker
The RAID controller has a speaker that generates audible warnings when system errors occur. No management software needs to be loaded for the speaker
to work.

Alarm Beep Codes
The purpose of the alarm is to indicate changes that require attention. The following conditions trigger the alarm to sound:
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A logical drive is offline

A logical drive is running in degraded mode

An automatic rebuild has been completed

The temperature is above or below the acceptable range

The firmware gets a command to test the speaker from an application

Each of the conditions has a different beep code, as shown in Table 2-2. Every second the beep switches on or off per the pattern in the code. For example, if
the logical drive goes offline, the beep code is a three second beep followed by one second of silence.

Table 2-2. Alarm Beep Codes
Alarm Description

Code

A logical drive is offline.

Three seconds on, one second off

A logical drive is running in degraded mode.

One second on, one second off

An automatic rebuild has been completed.

One second on, three seconds off

The temperature is above or below the acceptable range.

Two seconds on, two seconds off

The firmware gets a command to test the speaker from an application. Four seconds on

BIOS
For easy upgrade, the BIOS resides on 1 MB flash memory. It provides an extensive setup utility that you can access by pressing at BIOS
initialization to run the BIOS Configuration Utility.

Background Initialization
Background initialization is the automatic check for media errors on physical drives It ensures that striped data segments are the same on all physical drives in
an array.
The background initialization rate is controlled by the rebuild rate set using the BIOS Configuration Utility, . The default and recommended rate is
30%. Before you change the rebuild rate, you must stop the background initialization or the rate change will not affect the background initialization rate. After
you stop background initialization and change the rebuild rate, the rate change takes effect when you restart background initialization.

NOTE: Unlike initialization of logical drives, background initialization does not clear data from the drives.

Configuration Features
Table 2-3 lists the configuration features for the RAID controller.

Table 2-3. Configuration Features
Specifications

PERC 4/SC

PERC 4/DC

PERC 4e/DC

RAID levels

0, 1, 5, 10, and 50

SCSI channels

Maximum number of drives
per channel

14 (for a maximum of 28 on two
channels)

Array interface to host

PCI Rev 2.2

PCI Express Rev. 1.0a

Cache memory size

64 MB SDRAM

Up to 128 MB SDRAM

Cache Function

Write-back, write-through, adaptive
read-ahead, non read-ahead, readahead

Number of logical drives and
arrays supported

Up to 40 logical drives and 32 arrays
per controller

Hot spares

Yes

Flashable firmware

Yes

Hot swap devices supported Yes

Yes

Non-disk devices supported

Only SCSI accessed fault-tolerant
enclosure (SAF-TE) and SES

Only SAF-TE and SES

Mixed capacity hard drives

Yes

Number of 16-bit internal
connectors

Cluster support

Yes

Hot swap of drives must be supported by enclosure or backplane.

Firmware Upgrade
You can download the latest firmware from the Dell website and flash it to the firmware on the board. Perform the following steps to upgrade the firmware:
1.

Go to the support.dell.com website.

Download the latest firmware and driver to a diskette.

The firmware is an executable file that downloads the files to the diskette in your system.
3.

Restart the system and boot from the diskette.

Run pflash to flash the firmware.

NOTICE: Do not flash the firmware while performing a background initialization or data consistency check, as it can cause the procedures to fail.

SMART Hard Drive Technology
The Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) detects predictable hard drive failures. SMART monitors the internal performance of all motors,
heads, and hard drive electronics.

Drive Roaming

Drive roaming occurs when the hard drives are changed to different channels on the same controller. When the drives are placed on different channels, the
controller detects the RAID configuration from the configuration information on the drives.
Configuration data is saved in both non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) on the RAID controller and on the hard drives attached to the controller. This
maintains the integrity of the data on each drive, even if the drives have changed their target ID. Drive roaming is supported across channels on the same
controller, except when cluster mode is enabled.
NOTE: Drive roaming does not work if you move the drives to a new controller and put them on different channels. If you put drives on a new controller,
the controller must have a clear configuration. In addition, the drives must be on the same channel/target as they were on the previous controller to
keep the same configuration.
NOTE: Before performing drive roaming, make sure that you have first powered off both your platform and your drive enclosure.
Table 2-4 lists the drive roaming features for the RAID controller.

Table 2-4. Features for Drive Roaming
Specification

PERC 4/SC PERC 4/DC PERC 4e/DC

Online RAID level migration

Yes

RAID remapping

Yes

No reboot necessary after capacity extension Yes

Yes

Drive Migration
Drive migration is the transfer of a set of hard drives in an existing configuration from one controller to another. The drives must remain on the same channel
and be reinstalled in the same order as in the original configuration.
NOTE: Drive roaming and drive migration cannot be supported at the same time. PERC can support either drive roaming or drive migration at any one
time, but not both at the same time.

Hardware Architecture Features
Table 2-5 displays the hardware architecture features for the RAID controller.

Table 2-5. Hardware Architecture Features
Specification

PERC 4/SC

PERC 4/DC

PERC 4e/DC

Processor

Intel GC80302 (Zion Lite)

Intel GC80303 (Zion)

80332

SCSI controller(s)

One LSI53C1020 Single SCSI
controller

One LSI53C1030 Dual SCSI
controller

Size of flash memory

1 MB

Amount of NVRAM

32 KB

Hardware exclusive OR (XOR) assistance

Yes

Direct I/O

Yes

SCSI bus termination

Active or LVD

Double-sided dual inline memory modules (DIMMs)

Yes

Support for hard drives with capacities of more than
eight gigabytes (GB)

Yes

Hardware clustering support on the controller

Yes

LED Operation
After you remove a physical drive and place it back in the slot for a rebuild, the LED blinks for the drive as it is being rebuilt.

Array Performance Features
Table 2-6 displays the array performance features for the RAID controller.

Table 2-6. Array Performance Features
Specification

PERC 4/SC, PERC 4/DC, and PERC 4e/DC

PCI host data transfer rate

2 - 4 GB/sec, depending on the system

Drive data transfer rate

Up to 320 MB/sec

Maximum size of I/O requests

6.4 MB in 64 KB stripes

Maximum queue tags per drive

As many as the drive can accept

Stripe sizes

8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB

Maximum number of concurrent commands 255
Support for multiple initiators

Only on PERC 4/DC and PERC 4e/DC

Fault Tolerance Features
Table 2-7 describes the fault tolerance capabilities of the RAID controller.

Table 2-7. Fault Tolerance Features
Specification

PERC 4/SC PERC 4/DC

PERC 4e/DC

Support for SMART

Yes

Optional battery backup for cache memory N/A

Yes. Up to 72 hours data retention.1 Yes. Up to 72 hours data retention.

Drive failure detection

Automatic

Drive rebuild using hot spares

Automatic

Parity generation and checking

Yes

User-specified rebuild rate

Yes

1 The length of data retention depends on the cache memory configuration.

Operating System Software Drivers

Operating System Drivers
Drivers are provided to support the controller on the following operating systems:
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Windows® 2000

Windows 2003

Novell® NetWare®

Red Hat® Linux, Advanced Server, Enterprise

NOTE: We support both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (IA64) processors for Windows 2003 and Red Hat Linux.
See the CERC and PERC RAID Controllers Operating System Driver Installation Guide for more information about the drivers.

SCSI Firmware

The RAID controller firmware handles all RAID and SCSI command processing and supports the features described in Table 2-8.

Table 2-8. SCSI Firmware Support
Feature

PERC 4/SC, PERC 4/DC, and PERC 4e/DC Description

Disconnect/reconnect

Optimizes SCSI bus utilization

Tagged command queuing Multiple tags to improve random access
Multi-threading

Up to 255 simultaneous commands with elevator sorting and concatenation of requests per SCSI channel

Stripe size

Variable for all logical drives: 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB.

Rebuild

Multiple rebuilds and consistency checks with user-definable priority.

RAID Management Utilities
Software utilities enable you to manage and configure the RAID system, create and manage multiple disk arrays, control and monitor multiple RAID servers,
provide error statistics logging, and provide online maintenance. The utilities include:
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BIOS Configuration Utility

Dell Manager for Linux

Dell OpenManage™ Array Manager for Windows and Netware

BIOS Configuration Utility
The BIOS Configuration Utility configures and maintains RAID arrays, clears hard drives, and manages the RAID system. It is independent of any operating
system. See BIOS Configuration Utility and Dell Manager for additional information.

Dell Manager
Dell Manager is a utility that works in Red Hat Linux. See BIOS Configuration Utility and Dell Manager for additional information.

Dell OpenManage Array Manager
Dell OpenManage Array Manager is used to configure and manage a storage system that is connected to a server, while the server is active and continues to
handle requests. Array Manager runs under Novell NetWare, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003. Refer to the online documentation that accompanies
Array Manager or the documentation section at support.dell.com for more information.
NOTE: You can run the OpenManage Array Manager remotely to access NetWare, but not locally.

Server Administrator Storage Management Service
Storage Management provides enhanced features for configuring a system's locally attached RAID and non-RAID disk storage. Storage Management runs
under Red Hat Linux, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003. Refer to the online documentation that accompanies Storage Management or the
documentation section at support.dell.com for more information.

Back to Contents Page

Hardware Installation
Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 4/SC, 4/DC, and 4e/DC User's Guide
Requirements
Quick Installation Procedure
Installation Steps

Requirements
This section describes the procedures for installing the RAID controller. You must have the following items to install the controller:
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A PERC 4/SC, 4/DC, or 4e/DC controller

A host system with an available 32- or 64-bit, PCI extension slot for PERC 4/SC or 4/DC, and a PCI-Express slot for PERC 4e/DC

The Dell OpenManage™ Systems Management CD or driver diskette

The necessary internal and/or external SCSI cables

Ultra, Ultra2, Ultra3, Ultra160, or Ultra320 SCSI hard drives
(SCSI is backward compatible, but it slows to the speed of the slowest device).

Quick Installation Procedure
Perform the following steps for quick installation of the controller if you are an experienced system user/installer. All others should follow the steps in the next
section, Installation Steps.
CAUTION: See your Product Information Guide for complete information about safety precautions, working inside the computer, and protecting
against electrostatic discharge.
1.

Turn off all power to the server and all hard drives, enclosures, and system components, then disconnect power cords from the system.

Open host system by following the instructions in the host system technical documentation.

Determine the SCSI ID and SCSI termination requirements.

NOTE: The default for SCSI termination is onboard SCSI termination enabled. See the section Step 7 Set SCSI Termination for a description of SCSI
termination.
4.

Install the PERC 4/SC or 4/DC RAID controller in a PCI slot or the PERC 4e/DC in the PCI- Express slot in the server and attach the SCSI cables and
terminators.

See the section Cable Suggestions for cable information and suggestions.

Make sure pin 1 on the cable matches pin 1 on the connector.

Make sure that the SCSI cables conform to all SCSI specifications.

Perform a safety check.
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Make sure all cables are properly attached.

Make sure the RAID controller is properly installed.

Close the cabinet of the host system.

Turn power on after completing the safety check.

Format the hard drives as needed.

Configure logical drives using the BIOS Configuration Utility or Dell Manager.

Initialize the logical drives.

Install the network operating system drivers as needed.

Installation Steps
This section provides instructions for installing the RAID controllers.

Step 1 Unpack the Controller
CAUTION: See your Product Information Guide for complete information about safety precautions, working inside the computer, and protecting
against electrostatic discharge.
Unpack and remove the controller and inspect it for damage. If the controller appears damaged, or if any items listed below are missing, contact your Dell
support representative. The RAID controller is shipped with:
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The PERC 4 RAID Controller User's Guide (on CD)

The CERC and PERC RAID Controllers Operating System Driver Installation Guide (on CD)

NOTE: You can order a hard copy of the documentation for the controller.

A license agreement

Step 2 Power Down the System
CAUTION: See your Product Information Guide for complete information about safety precautions, working inside the computer, and protecting
against electrostatic discharge.
Perform the following steps to power down the system:
1.

Turn off the system.

Remove the AC power cord.

Disconnect the system from any networks before installing the controller.

Remove the system's cover.

Please consult the system documentation for instructions.

Step 3 Set Jumpers
Make sure the jumper settings on the RAID controller are correct. The default jumper settings are recommended. Following are diagrams of the controllers
showing their jumpers and connectors, and tables describing them. Select your controller from the ones shown on the following pages.

Figure 3-1. PERC 4/SC Controller Layout

Table 3-1. PERC 4/SC Jumper and Connector Descriptions
Connector Description

Type

Setting

Internal SCSI connector

68-pin connector Internal high-density SCSI bus connector.
Connection is optional.

NVRAM Clear

2-pin header

To CLEAR configuration data, install a jumper.

Serial EPROM

2-pin header

To CLEAR configuration data, install a jumper.

Onboard BIOS Enable

2-pin header

No jumper = Enabled (Default is Enabled)
With jumper in = Disabled

SCSI Activity

2-pin header

Connector for enclosure LED to indicate data transfers. Connection is optional.

Serial Port

3-pin header

Connector is for diagnostic purposes.
Pin-1 RXD (Receive Data)
Pin-2 TXD (Transmit Data)
Pin-3 GND (Ground)

External SCSI connector

68-pin connector External very-high density SCSI bus connector.
Connection is optional.

SCSI bus TERMPWR Enable

2-pin header

J10

SCSI bus Termination Enable 3-pin header

Install jumper to enable onboard termination power. Default is installed.
Jumper pins 1-2 to enable software control of SCSI termination through drive detection.
Jumper pins 2-3 to disable onboard SCSI termination.
No jumper installed enables onboard SCSI termination. This is the default.

D12 - D19 LEDs

Indicate problems with the card.

Figure 3-2. PERC 4/DC Controller Layout

Table 3-2. PERC 4/DC Jumper and Connector Descriptions
Connector Description

Type

Settings

I2C Header

4-pin header

Reserved.

SCSI Activity LED

4-pin header

Connector for LED on enclosure to indicate data transfers. Optional.

Write Pending Indicator

2-pin header

Connector for enclosure LED to indicate when data in the cache has yet to be written to the

(Dirty Cache LED)

device. Optional.

SCSI Termination Enable
Channel 1

3-pin header

Jumper pins 1-2 to enable software control of SCSI termination via drive detection.

SCSI Termination Enable
Channel 0

3-pin header

DIMM socket

Socket that hold the memory module

Internal SCSI Channel 0
connector

68-pin
connector

Internal high-density SCSI bus connector. Connection is optional.

Internal SCSI Channel 1
connector

68-pin
connector

Internal high-density SCSI bus connector. Connection is optional.

External SCSI Channel 0
connector

68-pin
connector

External very-high density SCSI bus connector. Connection is optional.

J10

Battery connector

3-pin header

Connector for an optional battery pack.
Pin-1 -BATT Terminal (black wire)
Pin-2 Thermistor (white wire)
Pin-3 +BATT Terminal (red wire)

J11

NVRAM clear

2-pin header

To CLEAR the configuration data, install a jumper.

J12

NMI jumper

2-pin header

Reserved for factory.

J13

32-bit SPCI Enable

3-pin header

Reserved for factory.

J14

Mode Select jumper

2-pin header

J15

Serial Port

3-pin header

Connector is for diagnostic purposes.
Pin-1 RXD (Receive Data)
Pin-2 TXD (Transmit Data)
Pin-3 GND (Ground)

J16

Onboard BIOS Enable

2-pin header

No jumper = Enabled (Default setting)
Jumpered = Disabled

J17

TERMPWR Enable Channel 0

2-pin header

Jumper installed enables TERMPWR from the PCI bus. Default setting.

J18

TERMPWR Enable Channel 1

2-pin header

No jumper installed enables TERMPWR from the SCSI bus. (See J4 and J5)

J19

External SCSI Channel 1
connector

68-pin
connector

External very-high density SCSI bus connector. Connection is optional.

J23

Serial EEPROM

2-pin header

To CLEAR configuration data, install a jumper.

Indicate problems with the card.

Jumper pins 2-3 to disable onboard SCSI termination.

D17 - D24 LEDs (located on back of card)

No jumper installed enables onboard SCSI termination. (See J17 and J18). This is the default.

Figure 3-3. PERC 4e/DC Controller Layout

Table 3-3. PERC 4e/DC Jumper and Connector Descriptions
Connector Description

Type

Settings

Write Pending Indicator
(Dirty Cache LED)

2-pin header

Connector for enclosure LED to indicate when data in the cache has yet to be written to the
device. Optional.

Onboard BIOS Enable

2-pin header

No jumper = Enabled (Default setting)
Jumpered = Disabled

I2C Header

3-pin header

Reserved

SCSI Termination Enable
Channel 0

3-pin header

Jumper pins 1-2 to enable software control of SCSI termination via drive detection.

SCSI Termination Enable
Channel 1

3-pin header

Serial Port (RS232)

3-pin header

Jumper pins 2-3 to disable onboard SCSI termination.
No jumper installed enables onboard SCSI termination. (See J17 and J18). This is the default.
Connector is for diagnostic purposes.
Pin-1 RXD (Receive Data)
Pin-2 TXD (Transmit Data)
Pin-3 GND (Ground)

Internal SCSI Channel 0
connector

68-pin
connector

Internal high-density SCSI bus connector. Connection is optional.

J10

Internal SCSI Channel 1
connector

68-pin
connector

Internal high-density SCSI bus connector. Connection is optional.

J11

Mode Select

2-pin header

Reserved for internal use.

J12

External SCSI Channel 0
connector

68-pin
connector

External very-high density SCSI bus connector. Connection is optional.

J14

External SCSI Channel 1
connector

68-pin
connector

External very-high density SCSI bus connector. Connection is optional.

J15

Termination Power

2-pin connector

J16

Termination Power

2-pin connector

Step 4 Install the RAID Controller
CAUTION: See your Product Information Guide for complete information about safety precautions, working inside the computer, and protecting
against electrostatic discharge.
Perform the following steps to install the controller:
1.

Select a PCI slot for PERC 4/SC or PERC 4/DC, or a PCI-Express slot for PERC 4e/DC and align the controller PCI bus connector to the slot.

Press down gently but firmly to make sure that the controller is properly seated in the slot, as shown in Figure 3-4 and Figure 3-5.

Screw the bracket to the system chassis.

CAUTION: You cannot install a PCI board in a PCI-Express slot or a PCI-Express board in a PCI slot.

Figure 3-4. Inserting a PERC 4 RAID Controller into a PCI Slot

Figure 3-5. Inserting a PERC 4e/DC RAID Controller in a PCI-Express Slot

Step 5 Connect SCSI Cables and SCSI Devices
Connect the SCSI cables to the SCSI connectors and SCSI devices.

Connect SCSI Devices
Perform the following steps to connect SCSI devices.
1.

Disable termination on any SCSI device that does not sit at the end of the SCSI bus.

Configure all SCSI devices to supply TermPWR.

Set proper target IDs (TIDs) for all SCSI devices.

The host controller has a SCSI ID of 7.

Connect the cable to the devices.

NOTE: The maximum cable length for Fast SCSI (10 MB/sec) devices is 3 meters and for Ultra SCSI devices is 1.5 meters. The cable length can be up to
12 meters for LVD devices. Use shorter cables if possible.

Cable Suggestions
System throughput problems can occur if the SCSI cables are not the correct type. To avoid problems, you should follow the following cable suggestions:

Use cables no longer than 12 meters for Ultra3, Ultra160, and Ultra320 devices. (It's better to use shorter cables, if possible.)

Make sure the cables meet the specifications.

Use active termination.

Note that cable stub length should be no more than 0.1 meter (4 inches).

Route SCSI cables carefully and do not bend cables.

Use high impedance cables.

Do not mix cable types (choose either flat or rounded and shielded or non-shielded).

Note that ribbon cables have fairly good cross-talk rejection characteristics, meaning the signals on the different wires are less likely to interfere with
each other.

Step 6 Set Target IDs
Set target identifiers (TIDs) on the SCSI devices. Each device in a channel must have a unique TID. Non-disk devices should have unique SCSI IDs regardless of
the channel where they are connected. See the documentation for each SCSI device to set the TIDs. The RAID controller automatically occupies TID 7, which is
the highest priority. The arbitration priority for a SCSI device depends on its TID. Table 3-4 lists the target IDs.
NOTE: The RAID controller can occupy TID 6 in cluster mode. When in cluster mode, one controller is TID 6 and the other TID 7. IDs 0 - 7 are valid target
IDs; 7 has the highest priority.

Table 3-4. Target IDs
Priority Highest Lowest
TID

...

Step 7 Set SCSI Termination
The SCSI bus is an electrical transmission line and must be terminated properly to minimize reflections and losses. Termination should be set at each end of
the SCSI cable(s).
For a disk array, set SCSI bus termination so that removing or adding a SCSI device does not disturb termination. An easy way to do this is to connect the
RAID controller to one end of the SCSI cable and an external terminator module at the other end of the cable, as shown in Figure 3-6.
The connectors between the two ends can connect SCSI drives which have their termination disabled, as shown in the drives (ID0, ID1, ID2) attached in the
figure. See the documentation for each SCSI drive to disable termination.
NOTE: Dell does not recommend mixing U160 and U320 drives on the same bus or logical drive.
Set the termination so that SCSI termination and TermPWR are intact when any hard drive is removed from a SCSI channel.

Figure 3-6. Terminating Internal SCSI Disk Array

Step 8 Start the System
Replace the system cover and reconnect the AC power cords. Turn power on to the host system. Set up the power supplies so that the SCSI devices are
powered up at the same time as or before the host system. If the system is powered up before a SCSI device, the device might not be recognized.
During bootup, the BIOS message appears:
PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller BIOS Version x.xx date
Copyright (c) LSI Logic Corp.
Firmware Initializing... [ Scanning SCSI Device ...(etc.)... ]
The firmware takes several seconds to initialize. During this time, the adapter scans the SCSI channel. When ready, the following appears:
HA –0 (Bus 1 Dev 6) Type: PERC 4/xx Standard FW x.xx SDRAM=xxxMB
Battery Module is Present on Adapter
0 Logical Drives found on the Host Adapter
0 Logical Drive(s) handled by BIOS
Press to run PERC 4 BIOS Configuration Utility
The BIOS Configuration Utility prompt times out after several seconds.
The host controller number, firmware version, and cache SDRAM size display in the second portion of the BIOS message. The numbering of the controllers
follows the PCI slot scanning order used by the host motherboard.

Light-emitting Diode (LED) Description
When you start the system, the boot block and firmware perform a number of steps that load the operating system and allow the system to function properly.
The boot block contains the operating system loader and other basic information needed during startup.
As the system boots, the LEDs indicate the status of the boot block and firmware initialization and whether the system performed the steps correctly. If there
is an error during startup, you can use the LED display to identify it.
Table 3-5 displays the LEDs and execution states for the boot block. Table 3-6 displays the LEDs and execution states during firmware initialization. The LEDs
display in hexadecimal format so that you can determine the number and the corresponding execution state from the LEDs that display.

Table 3-5. Boot Block States
LED

Execution State

0x01 Setup 8-bit Bus for access to Flash and 8-bit devices successful

0x03 Serial port initialization successful
0x04 Spd (cache memory) read successful
0x05 SDRAM refresh initialization sequence successful
0x07 Start ECC initialization and memory scrub
0x08 End ECC initialization and memory scrub
0x10 SDRAM is present and properly configured. About to program ATU.
0x11 CRC check on the firmware image successful. Continue to load firmware.
0x12 Initialization of SCSI chips successful.
0x13 BIOS protocols ports initialized. About to load firmware.
0x17 Firmware is either corrupt or BIOS disabled. Firmware was not loaded.
0x19 Error ATU ID programmed.
0x55 System Halt: Battery Backup Failure

Table 3-6. Firmware Initialization States
LED Execution State
0x1 Begin Hardware Initialization
0x3 Begin Initialize ATU
0x7 Begin Initialize Debug Console
0xF Set if Serial Loopback Test is successful

Step 9 Run the BIOS Configuration Utility or Dell Manager
Press when prompted during the boot process to run the BIOS Configuration Utility. You can run Dell Manager in Red Hat Linux to perform the same
functions, such as configuring arrays and logical drives.
See BIOS Configuration Utility and Dell Manager for additional information about running the BIOS Configuration Utility and Dell Manager.

Step 10 Install an Operating System
Install one of the following operating systems: Microsoft® Windows® 2000, Windows 2003, Novell® NetWare®, and Red Hat Linux.

Step 11 Install the Operating System Driver
Operating system drivers are provided on the Dell OpenManage Server Assistant CD that accompanies your PERC controller. See the CERC and PERC RAID
Controllers Operating System Driver Installation Guide for additional information about installing the drivers for the operating systems.
NOTE: To make sure you have the latest version of the drivers, download the updated drivers from the Dell Support website at support.dell.com.

Back to Contents Page

Configuring the RAID Controller
Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 4/SC, 4/DC, and 4e/DC User's Guide
Configuring SCSI Physical Drives
Physical Device Layout
Device Configuration
Setting Hardware Termination
Configuring Arrays
Assigning RAID Levels
Optimizing Storage
Planning the Array Configuration
This section describes how to configure for physical drives, arrays, and logical drives. It contains tables you can complete to list the configuration for the
physical drives and logical drives.

Configuring SCSI Physical Drives
Your SCSI hard drives must be organized into logical drives in an array and must be able to support the RAID level that you select.
Observe the following guidelines when connecting and configuring SCSI devices in a RAID array:
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You can place up to 28 physical drives in an array.

Use drives of the same size and speed to maximize the effectiveness of the controller.

When replacing a failed drive in a redundant array, make sure that the replacement drive has the same or larger capacity than the smallest drive in the
array (RAID 1, 5, 10, and 50).

NOTE: For RAID levels 10 and 50, the additional space in larger arrays can store data, so you can use arrays of different sizes.
When implementing RAID 1 or RAID 5, disk space is spanned to create the stripes and mirrors. The span size can vary to accommodate the different disk sizes.
There is, however, the possibility that a portion of the largest disk in the array will be unusable, resulting in wasted disk space. For example, consider a RAID 1
array that has the following disks, as shown in Table 4-1.

Table 4-1. Storage Space in a RAID 1 Array
Disk Disk Size Storage Space Used in Logical Drive for RAID 1 Array Storage Space Left Unused
A

20 GB

30 GB

20 GB

10 GB

In this example, data is mirrored across the two disks until 20 GB on Disk A and B are completely full. This leaves 10 GB of disk space on Disk B. Data cannot be
written to this remaining disk space, as there is no corresponding disk space available in the array to create redundant data.
Table 4-2 provides an example of a RAID 5 array.

Table 4-2. Storage Space in a RAID 5 Array
Disk Disk Size Storage Space Used in Logical Drive for RAID 5 Array Storage Space Left Unused

40 GB

0 GB

40 GB

0 GB

60 GB

40 GB

20 GB

In this example, data is striped across the disks until 40 GB on Disks A, B, and C are completely full. This leaves 20 GB of disk space on Disk C. Data cannot be
written to this remaining disk space, as there is no corresponding disk space available in the array to create redundant data.

Physical Device Layout
Use Table 4-3 to list the details for each physical device on the channels.

Table 4-3. Physical Device Layout

Channel 0 Channel 1

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/ drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/ drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/ drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Device Configuration
The following contain tables you can fill out to list the devices assigned to each channel. The PERC 4/SC controller has one channel; the PERC 4/DC and 4e/DC
have two.
Use Table 4-4 to list the devices that you assign to each SCSI ID for SCSI Channel 0.

Table 4-4. Configuration for SCSI Channel 0
SCSI Channel 0
SCSI ID

Device Description

Reserved for host controller.

Use Table 4-5 to list the devices that you assign to each SCSI ID for SCSI Channel 1.

Table 4-5. Configuration for SCSI Channel 1
SCSI Channel 1
SCSI ID

Device Description

Reserved for host controller.

Setting Hardware Termination
NOTE: If you are using the PERC 4/DC RAID controller for clustering, then you must use hardware termination. Otherwise, software termination is OK.
The SCSI bus is an electrical transmission line and must be terminated properly to minimize reflections and losses. Termination should be set at each end of
the SCSI cable(s). For PERC 4e/DC, the following headers specify control of the SCSI termination:
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J5 Termination Enable is a three-pin header that specifies control of the SCSI termination for channel 0.

J6 Termination Enable is a three-pin header that specifies control of the SCSI termination for channel 1.

To enable hardware termination, leave the pins open. The default is hardware termination.
NOTE: See Step 7 Set SCSI Termination for additional information about setting SCSI termination.

Configuring Arrays
After you configure and initialize the hard drives, you are ready to configure arrays. The number of drives in an array determines the RAID levels that can be
supported.
For information about the number of drives required for different RAID levels, see Table 4-7 in Assigning RAID Levels.

Spanned Drives
You can arrange arrays sequentially with an identical number of drives so that the drives in the different arrays are spanned. Spanned drives can be treated
as one large drive. Data can be striped across multiple arrays as one logical drive.
You can create spanned drives using your array management software.

Hot Spares
Any hard drive that is present, formatted, and initialized, but is not included in an array or logical drive, can be designated as a hot spare. A hot spare should
have the same or greater capacity than the smallest physical disk in the array it protects. You can designate hard drives as hot spares using your array
management software.

Logical Drives
Logical drives, also known as virtual disks, are arrays or spanned arrays that are available to the operating system. The storage space in a logical drive is
spread across all the physical drives in the array or spanned arrays.
You must create one or more logical drives for each array, and the logical drive capacity must include all of the drive space in an array. You can make the logical
drive capacity larger by spanning arrays. In an array of drives with mixed sizes, the smallest common drive size is used and the space in larger drives is not
used. The RAID controller supports up to 40 logical drives.

Configuration Strategies
The most important factors in RAID array configuration are:
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Drive capacity

Drive availability (fault tolerance)

Drive performance

You cannot configure a logical drive that optimizes all three factors, but it is easy to choose a logical drive configuration that maximizes one factor at the
expense of the other two factors. For example, RAID 1(mirroring) provides excellent fault tolerance, but requires a redundant drive.

Configuring Logical Drives
After you have attached all physical drives, perform the following steps to prepare a logical drive. If the operating system is not yet installed, use the BIOS
Configuration Utility to perform this procedure. If the operating system is installed, you can use the Dell Manager for Linux or OpenManage Array Manager (for
Windows and Netware), depending on the operating system.
1.

Start the system.

Run your array management software.

Select the option to customize the RAID array.

In the BIOS Configuration Utility and Dell Manager for Linux, use either Easy Configuration or New Configuration to customize the RAID array.
CAUTION: If you select New Configuration, all previous configuration information will be deleted.

Create and configure one or more system drives (logical drives).

Select the RAID level, cache policy, read policy, and write policy.

NOTE: Refer to the section Summary of RAID Levels for RAID level explanations.

Save the configuration.

Initialize the system drives.

After initialization, you can install the operating system.
See BIOS Configuration Utility and Dell Manager for detailed configuration instructions.

Logical Drive Configuration
Use Table 4-6 to list the details for each logical drive that you configure.

Table 4-6. Logical Drive Configuration
Logical Drive RAID Level Stripe Size Logical Drive Size Cache Policy Read Policy Write Policy Number of Physical Drives
LD0

LD1

LD2

LD3

LD4

LD5

LD6

LD7

LD8

LD9

LD10

LD11

LD12

LD13

LD14

LD15

LD16

LD17

LD18

LD19

LD20

LD21

LD22

LD23

LD24

LD25

LD26

LD27

LD28

LD29

LD30

LD31

LD32

LD33

LD34

LD35

LD36

LD37

LD38

LD39

Assigning RAID Levels
Only one RAID level can be assigned to each logical drive. Table 4-7 shows the minimum and maximum number of drives required.

Table 4-7. Physical Drives Required for Each RAID Level
RAID Level Minimum # of Physical Drives Maximum # of Physical Drives for PERC 4/SC Maximum # of Physical Drives for PERC 4/DC and 4e/DC
0

Summary of RAID Levels
RAID 0 uses striping to provide high data throughput, especially for large files in an environment that does not require fault tolerance.
RAID 1 uses mirroring and is good for small databases or other applications that require small capacity, but complete data redundancy.
RAID 5 provides high data throughput, especially for small random access. Use this level for any application that requires high read request rates, but low
write request rates, such as transaction processing applications. Write performance is significantly lower for RAID 5 than for RAID 0 and RAID 1.
RAID 10 consists of striped data across mirrored spans. It provides high data throughput and complete data redundancy, but uses a larger number of spans.
RAID 50 uses parity and disk striping and works best with data that requires high reliability, high request rates, high data transfers, and medium-to-large
capacity. Write performance is limited to the same as RAID 5.

Storage in an Array with Drives of Different Sizes
For RAID levels 0 and 5, data is striped across the disks. If the hard drives in an array are not the same size, data is striped across all the drives until one or
more of the drives is full. After one or more drives are full, disk space left on the other disks cannot be used. Data cannot be written to that disk space
because other drives do not have corresponding disk space available.
Figure 4-1 shows an example of storage allocation in a RAID 5 array. The data is striped, with parity, across the three drives until the smallest drive is full. The
remaining storage space in the other hard drives cannot be used because not all of the drives have disk space for redundant data.

Figure 4-1. Storage in a RAID 5 Array

Storage in RAID 10 and RAID 50 Arrays
You can span RAID 1 and 5 arrays to create RAID 10 and RAID 50 arrays, respectively. For RAID levels 10 and 50, you can have some arrays with more storage
space than others. After the storage space in the smaller arrays is full, you can use the additional space in larger arrays can store data.

Figure 4-2 shows the example of a RAID 50 span with three RAID 5 arrays of different sizes. (Each array can have from three to 14 hard disks.) Data is striped
across the three RAID 5 arrays until the smallest array is full. The data is striped across the remaining two RAID 5 arrays until the smaller of the two arrays is
full. Finally, data is stored in the additional space in the largest array.

Figure 4-2. Storage in a RAID 50 Array

Performance Considerations
The system performance improves as the number of spans increases. As the storage space in the spans is filled, the system stripes data over fewer and fewer
spans and RAID performance degrades to that of a RAID 1 or RAID 5 array.

Optimizing Storage

Data Access Requirements
Each type of data stored in the disk subsystem has a different frequency of read and write activity. If you know the data access requirements, you can more
successfully determine a strategy for optimizing the disk subsystem capacity, availability, and performance.
Servers that support video on demand typically read the data often, but write data infrequently. Both the read and write operations tend to be long. Data
stored on a general-purpose file server involves relatively short read and write operations with relatively small files.

Array Functions
Define the major purpose of the disk array by answering questions such as the following, which are followed by suggested RAID levels for each situation:
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Will this disk array increase the system storage capacity for general-purpose file and print servers? Use RAID 5, 10, or 50.

Does this disk array support any software system that must be available 24 hours per day? Use RAID 1, 5, 10, or 50.

Will the information stored in this disk array contain large audio or video files that must be available on demand? Use RAID 0.

Will this disk array contain data from an imaging system? Use RAID 0 or 10.

Planning the Array Configuration
Fill out Table 4-8 to help you plan the array configuration. Rank the requirements for your array, such as storage space and data redundancy, in order of
importance, then review the suggested RAID levels. Refer to Table 4-7 for the minimum and maximum number of drives allowed per RAID level.

Table 4-8. Factors to Consider for Array Configuration
Requirement

Rank Suggested RAID Level(s)

Storage space

RAID 0, RAID 5

Data redundancy

RAID 5, RAID 10, RAID 50

Hard drive performance and throughput

RAID 0, RAID 10

Hot spares (extra hard drives required)

RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, RAID 50

Back to Contents Page

BIOS Configuration Utility and Dell Manager
Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 4/SC, 4/DC, and 4e/DC User's Guide
Starting the BIOS Configuration Utility
Starting Dell Manager
Using Dell Manager in Red Hat Linux GUI Mode
Configuring Arrays and Logical Drives
Designating Drives as Hot Spares
Creating Arrays and Logical Drives
Drive Roaming
Initializing Logical Drives
Deleting Logical Drives
Clearing Physical Drives
Rebuilding Failed Hard Drives
Using a Pre-loaded SCSI Drive "As-is"
FlexRAID Virtual Sizing
Checking Data Consistency
Reconstructing Logical Drives
Exiting the Configuration Utility
The BIOS Configuration Utility configures disk arrays and logical drives. Because the utility resides in the RAID controller BIOS, its operation is independent of
the operating systems on your system.
Dell™ Manager is a character-based, non-GUI utility that changes policies, and parameters, and monitors RAID systems. Dell Manager runs under Red Hat®
Enterprise Linux, Advanced Server edition and Enterprise edition.
NOTE: The OpenManage™ Array Manager can perform many of the same tasks as the BIOS Configuration Utility and Dell Manager.
Use these utilities to do the following:
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Create hot spare drives.

Configure physical arrays and logical drives.

Initialize one or more logical drives.

Access controllers, logical drives, and, physical drives individually.

Rebuild failed hard drives.

Verify that the redundancy data in logical drives using RAID level 1, 5, 10, or 50 is correct.

Reconstruct logical drives after changing RAID levels or adding a hard drive to an array.

Select a host controller to work on.

The BIOS Configuration Utility and the Dell Manager for Linux use the same command structure to configure controllers and disks. The following sections
describe the steps to start either utility and detailed instructions to perform configuration steps using either utility.
NOTE: Dell Manager screens differ slightly from the BIOS Configuration Utility screens, but the utilities have similar functions.

Starting the BIOS Configuration Utility
When the host computer boots, hold the key and press the key when a BIOS banner such as the following appears:
HA -0 (Bus X Dev X) Type: PERC 4 Standard FWx.xx SDRAM=128MB
Battery Module is Present on Adapter

1 Logical Drive found on the Host Adapter
Adapter BIOS Disabled, No Logical Drives handled by BIOS
0 Logical Drive(s) handled by BIOS
Press to Enable BIOS
For each controller in the host system, the firmware version, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) size, and the status of logical drives on that controller
display. After you press a key to continue, the Management Menu screen displays.
NOTE: In the BIOS Configuration Utility, pressing has the same effect as pressing .
NOTE: You can access multiple controllers through the BIOS Configuration Utility. Be sure to verify which controller you are currently set to edit.

Starting Dell Manager
Make sure the program file is in the correct directory before you enter the command to start Dell Manager. For Linux, use the Dell Manager RPM to install files in
the usr/sbin directory. The RPM installs them automatically in that directory.
Type dellmgr to start the program.

Using Dell Manager in Red Hat Linux GUI Mode
On a system running Red Hat Linux, for Dell Manager to work correctly in a terminal in GUI Mode, you must set the terminal type to linux and keyboard
mappings.
Perform the procedure below if you use konsole, gnome terminal, or xterm.
The Linux console mode, which you select from the terminal with the File —> Linux Console command, works correctly by default. The text mode console (nonGUI) also works correctly by default.
To prepare the system to use Dell Manager, perform the following steps:
1.

Start the Terminal.

Before you enter dellmgr to start Dell Manager, type the following commands:

TERM=linux
Export TERM
3.

Select Settings—> Keyboard—> Linux Console from the Terminal menu.

NOTE: On a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system, when you run Dell Manager (v. x.xx) from a Gnome- terminal in XWindows, the key cannot be
used to create a logical drive. Instead, use the alternate keys <0>. (This is not an issue if Xterm is used to call dellmgr). The following is a
list of alternate keys you can use in case of problems with keys through , and :
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<1> for

<2> for

<3> for

<4> for

<5> for

<6> for

<7> for

<0> for

Configuring Arrays and Logical Drives
The following procedures apply to both the BIOS Configuration Utility and the Dell Manager for Linux.
1.

Designate hot spares (optional).

See Designating Drives as Hot Spares in this section for more information.
2.

Select a configuration method.

See Creating Arrays and Logical Drives in this section for more information.
3.

Create arrays using the available physical drives.

Define logical drives using the arrays.

Save the configuration information.

Initialize the logical drives.

See Initializing Logical Drives in this section for more information.

Designating Drives as Hot Spares
Hot spares are physical drives that are powered up along with the RAID drives and usually stay in a standby state. If a hard drive used in a RAID logical drive
fails, a hot spare will automatically take its place and the data on the failed drive is reconstructed on the hot spare. Hot spares can be used for RAID levels 1,
5, 10, and 50. Each controller supports up to eight hot spares.
NOTE: In the BIOS Configuration Utility and Dell Manager, only global hot spares can be assigned. Dedicated hot spares cannot be assigned.
The methods for designating physical drives as hot spares are:
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Pressing while creating arrays in Easy, New or View/Add Configuration mode.

Using the Objects—> Physical Drive menu.

Key
When you select any configuration option, a list of all physical devices connected to the current controller appears. Perform the following steps to designate a
drive as a hot spare:

On the Management Menu select Configure, then a configuration option.

Press the arrow keys to highlight a hard drive that displays as READY.

Press to designate the drive as a hot spare.

Click YES to make the hot spare.

The drive displays as HOTSP.
5.

Save the configuration.

Objects Menu
1.

On the Management Menu select Objects—> Physical Drive.

A physical drive selection screen appears.
2.

Select a hard drive in the READY state and press to display the action menu for the drive.

Press the arrow keys to select Make HotSpare and press .

The selected drive displays as HOTSP.

Creating Arrays and Logical Drives
Configure arrays and logical drives using Easy Configuration, New Configuration, or View/Add Configuration. See Using Easy Configuration, Using New
Configuration, or Using View/Add Configuration for the configuration procedures.
After you create an array or arrays, you can select the parameters for the logical drive. Table 5-1 contains descriptions of the parameters.

Table 5-1. Logical Drive Parameters and Descriptions
Parameter

Description

RAID Level

The number of physical drives in a specific array determines the RAID levels that can be implemented with the array.

Stripe Size

Stripe Size specifies the size of the segments written to each drive in a RAID 1, 5, or 10 logical drive. You can set the stripe size to 8 KB, 16
KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB. The default is 64 KB.
A larger stripe size provides better read performance, especially if your computer does mostly sequential reads. However, if you are sure that
your computer does random read requests more often, select a small stripe size.

Write
Policy

Write Policy specifies the cache write policy. You can set the write policy to Write-back or Write-through.
In Write-back caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has received all the data in
a transaction. This setting is recommended in standard mode.
NOTICE: If WriteBack is enabled and the system is quickly turned off and on, the RAID controller may hang when flushing cache memory.
Controllers that contain a battery backup will default to WriteBack caching.
In Write-through caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host when the disk subsystem has received all the
data in a transaction.
Write-through caching has a data security advantage over write-back caching. Write-back caching has a performance advantage over writethrough caching.
NOTE: You should not use write-back for any logical drive that is to be used as a Novell NetWare volume.
NOTE: Enabling clustering turns off write cache. PERC 4/DC and PERC 4e/DC support clustering.

Read
Policy

Read-ahead enables the read-ahead feature for the logical drive. You can set this parameter to Read-Ahead, No-Read-ahead, or Adaptive.
The default is Adaptive.
Read-ahead specifies that the controller uses read-ahead for the current logical drive. Read-ahead capability allows the adapter to read
sequentially ahead of requested data and store the additional data in cache memory, anticipating that the data will be needed soon. Readahead supplies sequential data faster, but is not as effective when accessing random data.
No-Read-Ahead specifies that the controller does not use read-ahead for the current logical drive.
Adaptive specifies that the controller begins using read-ahead if the two most recent disk accesses occurred in sequential sectors. If all read
requests are random, the algorithm reverts to No-Read-Ahead; however, all requests are still evaluated for possible sequential operation.

Cache
Policy

Cache Policy applies to reads on a specific logical drive. It does not affect the Read-ahead cache. The default is Direct I/O.
Cached I/O specifies that all reads are buffered in cache memory.

Direct I/O specifies that reads are not buffered in cache memory. Direct I/O does not override the cache policy settings. Data is transferred
to cache and the host concurrently. If the same data block is read again, it comes from cache memory.
Span

The choices are:
Yes—Array spanning is enabled for the current logical drive. The logical drive can occupy space in more than one array.
No—Array spanning is disabled for the current logical drive. The logical drive can occupy space in only one array.
The RAID controller supports spanning of RAID 1 and 5 arrays. You can span two or more RAID 1 arrays into a RAID 10 array and two or more
RAID 5 arrays into a RAID 50 array.
For two arrays to be spanned, they must have the same stripe width (they must contain the same number of physical drives).

Using Easy Configuration
In Easy Configuration, each physical array you create is associated with exactly one logical drive. You can modify the following parameters:
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RAID level

Stripe size

Write policy

Read policy

Cache policy

If logical drives have already been configured when you select Easy Configuration, the configuration information is not disturbed. Perform the following steps
to create arrays and logical drives using Easy Configuration.
1.

Select Configure—> Easy Configuration from the Management Menu.

Hot key information displays at the bottom of the screen.
2.

Press the arrow keys to highlight specific physical drives.

Press the spacebar to associate the selected physical drive with the current array.

The selected drive changes from READY to ONLIN A[array number]-[drive number]. For example, ONLIN A02-03 means array 2 with hard drive 3.
4.

Add physical drives to the current array as desired.

Try to use drives of the same capacity in a specific array. If you use drives with different capacities in an array, all drives in the array are treated as if
they have the capacity of the smallest drive in the array.
5.

Press after you finish creating the current array.

The Select Configurable Array(s) window appears. It displays the array and array number, such as A-00.
6.

Press the spacebar to select the array.

NOTE: You can press to display the number of drives in the array, their channel and ID, and press to display array information, such as
the stripes, slots, and free space.
7.

Press to configure logical drives.

The window at the top of the screen shows the logical drive that is currently being configured.
8.

Highlight RAID and press to set the RAID level for the logical drive.

The available RAID levels for the current logical drive display.
9.

Select a RAID level and press to confirm.

10.

Click Advanced Menu to open the menu for logical drive settings.

11.

Set the Stripe Size.

12.

Set the Write Policy.

13.

Set the Read Policy.

14.

Set the Cache Policy.

15.

Press to exit the Advanced Menu.

16.

After you define the current logical drive, select Accept and press .

The array selection screen appears if any unconfigured hard drives remain.
17.

Repeat step 2 through step 16 to configure another array and logical drive.

The RAID controller supports up to 40 logical drives per controller.
18.

When finished configuring logical drives, press to exit Easy Configuration.

A list of the currently configured logical drives appears.
19.

Respond to the Save prompt.

After you respond to the prompt, the Configure menu appears.
20.

Initialize the logical drives you have just configured.

See Initializing Logical Drives in this section for more information.

Using New Configuration
If you select New Configuration, the existing configuration information on the selected controller is destroyed when the new configuration is saved. In New
Configuration, you can modify the following logical drive parameters:
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RAID level

Stripe size

Write policy

Read policy

Cache policy

Logical drive size

Spanning of arrays

NOTICE: Selecting New Configuration erases the existing configuration information on the selected controller. To use the existing configuration, use
View/Add Configuration.
1.

Select Configure—> New Configuration from the Management Menu.

Hot key information appears at the bottom of the screen.
2.

Press the arrow keys to highlight specific physical drives.

Press the spacebar to associate the selected physical drive with the current array.

The selected drive changes from READY to ONLINE A[array number]-[drive number]. For example, ONLINE A02-03 means array 2 with hard drive 3.
4.

Add physical drives to the current array as desired.

NOTE: Try to use drives of the same capacity in a specific array. If you use drives with different capacities in an array, all drives in the array are
treated as if they have the capacity of the smallest drive in the array.
5.

Press twice after you finish creating the current array.

The Select Configurable Array(s) window appears. It displays the array and array number, such as A-00.
6.

Press the spacebar to select the array.

Span information displays in the array box. You can create multiple arrays, then select them to span them.
NOTE: You can press to display the number of drives in the array, their channel and ID, and to display array information, such as the
stripes, slots, and free space.
7.

Repeat step 2 through step 6 to create another array or go to step 8 to configure a logical drive.

Press to configure a logical drive.

The logical drive configuration screen appears. Span=Yes displays on this screen if you select two or more arrays to span.
The window at the top of the screen shows the logical drive that is currently being configured as well as any existing logical drives.
9.

Highlight RAID and press to set the RAID level for the logical drive.

A list of the available RAID levels for the current logical drive appears.
10.

Select a RAID level and press to confirm.

11.

Highlight Span and press .

12.

Highlight a spanning option and press .

NOTE: The PERC 4 family supports spanning for RAID 1 and RAID 5 only. You can configure RAID 10 by spanning two or more RAID 1 logical drives.
You can configure RAID 50 by spanning two or more RAID 5 logical drives. The logical drives must have the same stripe size.
13.

Move the cursor to Size and press to set the logical drive size.

NOTE: The full drive size is used when you span logical drives; you cannot specify a smaller drive size.
By default, the logical drive size is set to all available space in the array(s) being associated with the current logical drive, accounting for the Span
setting.
14.

Click Advanced Menu to open the menu for logical drive settings.

15.

Set the Stripe Size.

16.

Set the Write Policy.

17.

Set the Read Policy.

18.

Set the Cache Policy.

19.

Press to exit the Advanced Menu.

20.

After you define the current logical drive, select Accept and press .

If space remains in the arrays, the next logical drive to be configured appears. If the array space has been used, a list of the existing logical drives
appears.
21.

Press any key to continue, then respond to the Save prompt.

22.

Initialize the logical drives you have just configured.

See Initializing Logical Drives in this section for more information.

Using View/Add Configuration
View/Add Configuration allows you to control the same logical drive parameters as New Configuration without disturbing the existing configuration
information. In addition, you can enable the Configuration on Disk feature.
1.

Select Configure—> View/Add Configuration from the Management Menu.

Hot key information appears at the bottom of the screen.
2.

Press the arrow keys to highlight specific physical drives.

Press the spacebar to associate the selected physical drive with the current array.

The selected drive changes from READY to ONLIN A[array number]-[drive number]. For example, ONLIN A02-03 means array 2 with hard drive 3.
4.

Add physical drives to the current array as desired.

Press twice after you finish creating the current array.

The Select Configurable Array(s) window appears. It displays the array and array number, such as A-00.
6.

Press the spacebar to select the array.

Span information, such as Span-1, displays in the array box. You can create multiple arrays, then select them to span them.
NOTE: You can press to display the number of drives in the array, their channel and ID, and to display array information, such as the
stripes, slots, and free space.
7.

Press to configure a logical drive.

The logical drive configuration screen appears. Span=Yes displays on this screen if you select two or more arrays to span.
8.

Highlight RAID and press to set the RAID level for the logical drive.

The available RAID levels for the current logical drive appear.
9.

Select a RAID level and press to confirm.

10.

Highlight Span and press .

11.

Highlight a spanning option and press .

12.

Move the cursor to Size and press to set the logical drive size.

By default, the logical drive size is set to all available space in the array(s) associated with the current logical drive, accounting for the Span setting.
13.

Highlight Span and press .

14.

Highlight a spanning option and press .

NOTE: The full drive size is used when you span logical drives; you cannot specify a smaller drive size.

15.

Open the Advanced Menu to open the menu for logical drive settings.

16.

Set the Stripe Size.

17.

Set the Write Policy.

18.

Set the Read Policy.

19.

Set the Cache Policy.

20.

Press to exit the Advanced Menu.

21.

After you define the current logical drive, select Accept and press .

If space remains in the arrays, the next logical drive to be configured appears.
22.

Repeat step 2 to step 21 to create an array and configure another logical drive.

If all array space is used, a list of the existing logical drives appears.

23.

Press any key to continue, then respond to the Save prompt.

24.

Initialize the logical drives you have just configured.

See Initializing Logical Drives in this section for more information.

Drive Roaming
Drive roaming occurs when the hard drives are changed to different channels on the same controller or to different target IDs. When the drives are placed on
different channels, the controller detects the RAID configuration from the configuration data on the drives. See Drive Roaming in the RAID Controller Features
section for more information.

Initializing Logical Drives
Initialize each new logical drive you configure. You can initialize the logical drives individually or in batches (up to 40 simultaneously).

Batch Initialization
1.

Select Initialize from the Management Menu.

A list of the current logical drives appears.
2.

Press the spacebar to select the desired logical drive for initialization.

Press to select/deselect all logical drives.

After you finish selecting logical drives, press and select Yes from the confirmation prompt.

The progress of the initialization for each drive is shown in bar graph format.
5.

When initialization is complete, press any key to continue or press to display the Management Menu.

Individual Initialization
1.

Select the Objects—> Logical Drive from the Management Menu.

Select the logical drive to be initialized.

Select Initialize from the action menu.

Initialization progress appears as a bar graph on the screen.
4.

When initialization completes, press any key to display the previous menu.

Deleting Logical Drives
This RAID controller supports the ability to delete any unwanted logical drives and use that space for a new logical drive. You can have an array with multiple
logical drives and delete a logical drive without deleting the whole array.
After you delete a logical drive, you can create a new one. You can use the configuration utilities to create the next logical drive from a free space (`hole'), and
from the newly created arrays. The configuration utility provides a list of configurable arrays where there is a space to configure. In the BIOS Configuration
Utility, you must create a logical drive in the hole before you create a logical drive using the rest of the disk.

NOTICE: The deletion of the logical drive can fail under certain conditions: During a rebuild, initialization or check consistency of a logical drive.
To delete logical drives, perform the following steps:
1.

Select Objects—> Logical Drive from the Management Menu.

The logical drives display.
2.

Use the arrow key to highlight the logical drive you want to delete.

Press to delete the logical drive.

This deletes the logical drive and makes the space it occupied available for you to make another logical drive.

Clearing Physical Drives
You can clear the data from SCSI drives using the configuration utilities. To clear a drive, perform the following steps:
1.

Select Management Menu—> Objects—> Physical Drives in the BIOS Configuration Utility.

A device selection window displays the devices connected to the current controller.
2.

Press the arrow keys to select the physical drive to be cleared and press .

Select Clear.

When clearing completes, press any key to display the previous menu.

NOTICE: Do not terminate the clearing process, as it makes the drive unusable. You would have to clear the drive again before you could use it.

Displaying Media Errors
Check the View Drive Information screen for the drive to be formatted. Perform the following steps to display this screen which contains the media errors:
1.

Select Objects—> Physical Drives from the Management Menu.

Select a device.

Press .

The error count displays at the bottom of the properties screen as they occur. If you feel that the number of errors is excessive, you should probably clear the
hard drive. You do not have to select Clear to erase existing information on your SCSI disks, such as a DOS partition. That information is erased when you
initialize logical drives.

Rebuilding Failed Hard Drives
If a hard drive fails in an array that is configured as a RAID 1, 5, 10, or 50 logical drive, you can recover the lost data by rebuilding the drive.

Rebuild Types
Table 5-2 describes automatic and manual rebuilds.

Table 5-2. Rebuild Types

Type

Description

Automatic
Rebuild

If you have configured hot spares, the RAID controller automatically tries to use them to rebuild failed disks. Select Objects—> Physical
Drive to display the list of physical drives while a rebuild is in progress. The hot spare drive changes to REBLD A[array number]-[drive
number], indicating the hard drive is being replaced by the hot spare. For example, REBLD A01-02 indicates that the data is being rebuilt on
hard drive 2 in array 1.

Manual
Rebuild

Manual rebuild is necessary if no hot spares with enough capacity to rebuild the failed drives are available.You must insert a drive with
enough storage into the subsystem before rebuilding the failed drive. Use the following procedures to rebuild a failed drive manually in
individual or batch mode.

Manual Rebuild – Rebuilding an Individual Drive
1.

Select Objects—> Physical Drive from the Management Menu.

A device selection window displays the devices connected to the current controller.
2.

Designate an available drive as a hot spare before the rebuild starts.

See the section Designating Drives as Hot Spares for instructions on designating a hot spare.
3.

Press the arrow keys to select the failed physical drive you want to rebuild, then press .

Select Rebuild from the action menu and respond to the confirmation prompt.

Rebuilding can take some time, depending on the drive capacity.
5.

When the rebuild is complete, press any key to display the previous menu.

Manual Rebuild – Batch Mode
1.

Select Rebuild from the Management Menu.

A device selection window displays the devices connected to the current controller. The failed drives display as FAIL.
2.

Press the arrow keys to highlight any failed drives to be rebuilt.

Press the spacebar to select the desired physical drive for rebuild.

After you select the physical drives, press and select Yes at the prompt.

The selected drives change to REBLD. Rebuilding can take some time, depending on the number of drives selected and the drive capacities.
5.

When the rebuild is complete, press any key to continue.

Press to display the Management Menu.

Using a Pre-loaded SCSI Drive "As-is"
NOTE: To use a pre-loaded system drive in the manner described here, you must make it the first logical drive defined (for example: LD1) on the
controller it is connected to. This will make the drive ID 0 LUN 0. If the drive is not a boot device, the logical drive number is not critical.
If you have a SCSI hard drive that is already loaded with software and the drive is a boot disk containing an operating system, add the PERC device driver to
this system drive before you switch to the RAID controller and attempt to boot from it. Perform the following steps:

Connect the SCSI drive to the channel on the RAID controller, with proper termination and target ID settings.

Boot the computer.

Start the configuration utility by pressing .

Select Configure—> Easy Configuration.

Press the cursor keys to select the pre-loaded drive.

Press the spacebar.

The pre-loaded drive should now become an array element.
7.

Press .

You have now declared the pre-loaded drive as a one-disk array.
8.

Set the Read Policy and Cache Policy on the Advanced Menu.

Exit the Advanced Menu.

10.

Highlight Accept and press .

Do not initialize.
11.

Press and select Yes at the Save prompt.

12.

Exit the configuration utility and reboot.

13.

Set the host system to boot from SCSI, if such a setting is available.

FlexRAID Virtual Sizing
The FlexRAID Virtual Sizing option can no longer be enabled on PERC 4/SC or PERC 4/DC. This option allowed Windows® NT and Novell® NetWare® 5.1 to
use the new space of a RAID array immediately after you added capacity online or performed a reconstruction.
NOTE: FlexRAID virtual sizing is not supported on PERC 4e/DC.
FlexRAID Virtual Sizing is in the BIOS Configuration Utility. If you have this option enabled on older cards, you need to disable it, then upgrade the firmware.
Perform the following steps to do this:
1.

Go to the support.dell.com website.

Download the latest firmware and driver to a diskette or directly to your system.

The download is an executable file that generates the firmware files on bootable diskette.
3.

Restart the system and boot from the diskette.

Run pflash to flash the firmware.

Checking Data Consistency
Select this option to verify the redundancy data in logical drives that use RAID levels 1, 5, 10, and 50. (RAID 0 does not provide data redundancy.)
The parameters of the existing logical drives appear. Discrepancies are automatically corrected when the data is correct. However, if the failure is a read error
on a data drive, the bad data block is reassigned and the data is re-generated.
NOTE: Dell recommends that you run periodic data consistency checks on a redundant array. This allows detection and automatic replacement of bad
blocks. Finding a bad block during a rebuild of a failed drive is a serious problem, as the system does not have the redundancy to recover the data.
Perform the following steps to run Check Consistency:

Select Check Consistency from the Management Menu.

Press the arrow keys to highlight the desired logical drives.

Press the spacebar to select or deselect a drive for consistency checking.

Press to select or deselect all the logical drives.

Press to begin the consistency check.

A progress graph for each selected logical drive displays.
6.

When the check is finished, press any key to clear the progress display.

Press to display the Management Menu.

(To check an individual drive, select Objects—> Logical Drives from the Management Menu, the desired logical drive(s), then Check Consistency on the
action menu.)
NOTE: Stay at the Check Consistency menu until the check is complete.

Reconstructing Logical Drives
A reconstruction occurs when you change the RAID level of an array or add a physical drive to an existing array. Perform the following steps to reconstruct a
drive:
1.

Move the arrow key to highlight Reconstruct on the Management Menu.

Press .

The window entitled "Reconstructables" displays. This contains the logical drives that can be reconstructed. You can press to view logical drive
information or to select the reconstruct option.
3.

Press .

The next reconstruction window displays. The options on this window are to select a drive, to open the reconstruct menu, and
to display logical drive information.
4.

Press to open the reconstruct menu.

The menu items are RAID level, stripe size, and reconstruct.
5.

To change the RAID level, select RAID with the arrow key, and press .

Select Reconstruct and press to reconstruct the logical drive.

NOTE: After you start the reconstruct process, you must wait until it is complete. You cannot reboot, cancel, or exit until the reconstruction is complete.

Exiting the Configuration Utility
1.

Press when the Management Menu displays.

Select Yes at the prompt.

Reboot the system.

Back to Contents Page

Troubleshooting
Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 4/SC, 4/DC, and 4e/DC User's Guide
General Problems
BIOS Boot Error Messages
Other Potential Problems
Cache Migration
SCSI Cable and Connector Problems
Audible Warnings

General Problems
Table 6-1 describes general problems you might encounter, along with suggested solutions.

Table 6-1. General Problems
Problem

Suggested Solution
l

No PERC 4 Adapter
Run View/Add Configuration option
of Configuration Utility.
Press A Key to Run Configuration
Utility Or to
Continue.

Some legacy configurations in the drives cannot be
cleared.

Unresolved configuration mismatch
between disks and NVRAM on the
adapter after creating a new
configuration

A logical drive failed to sign on.

1 Logical Drive Failed

X number of logical drives signed on in a degraded state.

X Logical Drives Degraded

Insufficient memory to run BIOS
Press any key to continue...
Insufficient Memory

The physical drives with SCSI IDs a, b, and c are not
responding on SCSI channel x.

Make sure the physical drives are properly
connected and are powered on.

The physical disk roaming feature did not find the physical
disk with the displayed SCSI ID. No slot is available to map
Following SCSI disk not found and the physical drive and the RAID controller cannot resolve
the physical drives into the current configuration.
no empty slot available for
mapping it

Reconfigure the array.

The physical drive roaming feature found the same data
on two or more physical drives on channel x with SCSI IDs
a, b, and c. The RAID controller cannot determine the drive
that has the duplicate information.

Remove the drive or drives that should not be
used.

Press to run the BIOS Configuration
Utility.

Select Configure—> New Configuration to create
a new configuration.

The following SCSI IDs are not
responding:
Channel x:a.b.c

Following SCSI IDs have the same
data y, z
Channel x: a, b, c

The RAID controller is unable to determine the proper
configuration after reading both NVRAM and Configuration
Unresolved configuration mismatch on Disk
between disks and NVRAM on the
adapter

Note that this will delete any configuration that
existed.

Other Potential Problems
Table 6-3 describes other problems that can occur.

Table 6-3. Other Potential Problems
Topic

Information

Physical drive errors

To display the BIOS Configuration Utility Media Error and Other Error options, press after selecting
a physical drive under the Objects—> Physical Drive menu.
A Media Error is an error that occurs while transferring data.
An Other Error is an error that occurs at the hardware level, such as a device failure, poor cabling, bad
termination, or signal loss.

RAID controller power requirements

The maximum power requirements are 15 watts at 5-V and 3 Amps.

Changes in the BIOS Configuration Utility do
not appear to take affect.

When there are multiple controllers in a system, make sure the correct controller is selected in the BIOS
Configuration Utility.

Cache Migration
To move cache memory from one controller to another, first determine whether the cache memory contains data, then transfer it to the other controller. The
cache memory with a transportable battery backup unit (TBBU) contains an LED that lights up if data exists on the cache memory.
If the cache memory contains data, perform the following steps before you move the cache from one controller to another:
1.

Make sure the NVRAM configuration on the new controller is cleared.
a.

Before connecting any disks to the new controller, start the system and press at the prompt to enter the BIOS Configuration Utility.

If there is an existing configuration on the new controller, make sure that no drives are connected to the new controller before clearing the
NVRAM configuration.

Access the Management Menu, then select Configure—> Clear Configuration.

This clears the configuration on the NVRAM.
2.

Make sure that the configuration data on the disks is intact.

Transfer the cache to the new controller and connect the drives in the same order as they were connected on the previous adapter.

This ensures that the configuration data on the cache matches the configuration data on they physical disks. This is important for successful cache
migration.
4.

Power on the system.

SCSI Cable and Connector Problems
If you are having problems with your SCSI cables or connectors, first check the cable connections. If still having a problem, visit the Dell's website at
www.dell.com for information about qualified small computer system interface (SCSI) cables and connectors or contact your Dell representative for information.

Audible Warnings
The RAID controller has a speaker that generates warnings to indicate events and errors. Table 6-4 describes the warnings.

Table 6-4. Audible Warnings
Tone Pattern

Meaning

Examples

Three seconds on and one
second off

A logical drive is offline.

One or more drives in a RAID 0 configuration failed.

One second on and one
second off

A logical drive is running in degraded
mode.

One drive in a RAID 5 configuration failed.

One second on and three
seconds off

An automatically initiated rebuild has been
completed.

While you were away from the system, a hard drive in a RAID 1 or 5
configuration failed and was rebuilt.

Two or more drives in a RAID 1 or 5 configuration failed.

Back to Contents Page

Appendix A: Regulatory Notice
Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 4/SC, 4/DC, and 4e/DC User's Guide
FCC Notices (U.S. Only)
A Notice About Shielded Cables
Class B
Canadian Compliance (Industry Canada)
MIC Notice (Republic of Korea Only)
VCCI Class B Statement

FCC Notices (U.S. Only)
Most Dell systems are classified by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as
the rating of some configurations to Class A. To determine which classification applies
panel of your system, on card-mounting brackets, and on the controllers -themselves.
considered to be a Class A digital device. If all labels carry either the Class B rating or
device.

Class B digital devices. However, the inclusion of certain options changes
to your system, examine all FCC registration labels located on the back
If any one of the labels carries a Class A rating, your entire system is
the FCC logo (FCC), your system is considered to be a Class B digital

Once you have determined your system's FCC classification, read the appropriate FCC notice. Note that FCC regulations provide that changes or modifications
not expressly approved by Dell Inc. could void your authority to operate this equipment.

A Notice About Shielded Cables
Use only shielded cables for connecting peripherals to any Dell device to reduce the possibility of interference with radio and television reception. Using
shielded cables ensures that you maintain the appropriate FCC radio frequency emissions compliance (for a Class A device) or FCC certification (for a Class B
device) of this product. For parallel printers, a cable is available from Dell Inc.

Class B
This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the manufacturer's instruction
manual, may cause interference with radio and television reception. This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital
device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential
installation.
However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference with radio or
television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, you are encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the
following measures:
l

Reorient the receiving antenna.

Relocate the system with respect to the receiver.

Move the system away from the receiver.

Plug the system into a different outlet so that the system and the receiver are on different branch circuits.

If necessary, consult a representative of Dell Inc. or an experienced radio/television technician for additional suggestions. You may find the following booklet
helpful: FCC Interference Handbook, 1986, available from the U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402, Stock No. 004-000-00450-7. This device
complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions:
l

This device may not cause harmful interference.

This device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.

The following information is provided on the device or devices covered in this document in compliance with FCC regulations:

l
l

Product name: Dell PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller 4 Controller
Company name:
Dell Inc.
Regulatory Department
One Dell Way
Round Rock, Texas 78682 USA
512-338-4400

Canadian Compliance (Industry Canada)
Canadian Regulatory Information (Canada Only)
This digital apparatus does not exceed the Class B limits for radio noise emissions from digital apparatus set out in the Radio Interference Regulations of the
Canadian Department of Communications. Note that the Canadian Department of Communications (DOC) regulations provide, that changes or modifications
not expressly approved by Intel could void your authority to operate the equipment. This Class B digital apparatus meets all the requirements of the Canadian
Interference -Causing Equipment Regulations.
Cet appareil numerique de la classe B respecte toutes les exigences du Reglement sur la material brouilleur du Canada.

MIC Notice (Republic of Korea Only)

B Class Device

Please note that this device has been approved for non-business purposes and may be used in any environment, including residential areas.

VCCI Class B Statement

Back to Contents Page

Overview
Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 4/SC and 4/DC User's Guide
Overview of PERC 4/SC and 4/DC
Documentation

Overview of PERC 4/SC and 4/DC
The PERC 4 RAID controller is a high-performance, intelligent peripheral component interconnect (PCI)-to-small computer system interface (SCSI) host adapter
with RAID control capabilities. It provides reliability, high performance, fault-tolerant disk subsystem management, and is an ideal RAID solution for internal
storage in Dell's workgroup, departmental, and enterprise systems. The RAID controller offers a cost-effective way to implement RAID in a server.
PERC 4 controllers are available with one or two SCSI channels:
l

PERC 4/SC (single channel) provides one SCSI channel.

PERC 4/DC (dual channel) provides two SCSI channels.

Your RAID controller supports a low-voltage differential (LVD) SCSI bus.Using LVD, you can use cables up to 12 meters long. Throughput on each SCSI channel
can be as high as 320 MB/sec.

Documentation
The technical documentation set includes:
l

PERC 4 RAID Controller User's Guide

CERC and PERC RAID Controllers Operating System Driver Installation Guide

PERC 4 RAID Controller User's Guide
The PERC 4 RAID Controller User's Guide contains information about installation of the RAID controller, general introductory information about RAID, RAID system
planning, configuration information, and software utility programs.

CERC and PERC RAID Controllers Operating System Driver Installation Guide
This manual provides all the information you need to install the appropriate operating system software drivers.

Back to Contents Page

RAID Controller Features
Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 4/SC and 4/DC User's Guide
Hardware Requirements
RAID Controller Specifications
Configuration Features
Hardware Architecture Features
Array Performance Features
Fault Tolerance Features
Software Utilities
Operating System Software Drivers
RAID Management Utilities

Hardware Requirements
The RAID controller can be installed in a Dell™ PowerEdge™ system with a motherboard that has 5-V or 3.3-V, 32- or 64-bit PCI slots.
NOTE: PERC 4/DC supports clustering, but PERC 4/SC does not.

RAID Controller Specifications
Table 2-1 provides a summary of the specifications for the RAID controller.

Table 2-1. RAID Controller Specifications

Parameters

PERC 4/SC Specifications

PERC 4/DC Specifications

Card size

Low-profile PCI adapter card size (6.875" X 4.2")

Half-length PCI adapter card size (6.875" X 4.2")

Processor

Intel® GC80302 (Zion Lite)

Intel GC80303 (Zion)

Bus type

PCI 2.2

PCI bus data transfer
rate

Up to 532 MB/sec

Cache configuration

64 MB SDRAM

128 MB SDRAM

Firmware

Flash size is 1MB.

Nonvolatile random
access memory (RAM)

32 KB for storing RAID configuration

Operating voltage and
tolerances

3.3V +/- 0.3V, 5V +/- 5%, +12V +/- 5%, -12V +/- 10%

SCSI controller

One SCSI LSI53C1020 controller for Ultra320 support

One SCSI LSI53C1030 controller for Ultra320 support

SCSI data transfer rate

Up to 320 MB/sec per channel

SCSI bus

LVD, Single-ended (SE)

SCSI termination

Active

Termination disable

Automatic through cable and device detection

Automatic through cable and device detection This is automatic
capable, but jumpers by default do not allow auto termination on
PERC 4/DC.

Devices per SCSI
channel

Up to 15 Wide SCSI devices

SCSI device types

Synchronous or asynchronous

RAID levels supported

0, 1, 5, 10, 50

SCSI connectors

One 68-pin internal high-density connector for SCSI devices.
One very high density 68-pin external connector for Ultra320
and Wide SCSI.

Two 68-pin internal high-density connectors for SCSI devices.
Two very high density 68-pin external connectors for Ultra320
and Wide SCSI.

Serial port

3-pin RS232C-compatible connector (for manufacturing use
only)

3-pin RS232C-compatible connector (for manufacturing use only)

Cache Memory
64 MB of cache memory resides in a memory bank for PERC 4/SC and 128 MB for PERC 4/DC. The RAID controller supports write-through or write-back caching,
selectable for each logical drive. To improve performance in sequential disk accesses, the RAID controller uses read-ahead caching by default. You can disable
read-ahead caching.

Onboard Speaker
The RAID controller has a speaker that generates audible warnings when system errors occur. No management software needs to be loaded for the speaker
to work.

Alarm Beep Codes
The purpose of the alarm is to indicate changes which require attention. The following conditions trigger the alarm to sound:
l

A logical drive is offline.

A logical drive is running in degraded mode.

An automatic rebuild has been completed.

The temperature is above or below the acceptable range.

The firmware gets a command to test the speaker from an application.

Each of the conditions has a different beep code, as shown in Table 2-2. Every second the beep switches on or off per the pattern in the code. For example, if
the logical drive goes offline, the beep code is three one-second beeps followed by one second of silence.

Table 2-2. Alarm Beep Codes
Alarm Description

Code

A logical drive is offline.

Three seconds on, one second off

A logical drive is running in degraded mode.

One second on, one second off

An automatic rebuild has been completed.

One second on, three seconds off

The temperature is above or below the acceptable range.

Two seconds on, two seconds off

The firmware gets a command to test the speaker from an application. Four seconds on

BIOS
For easy upgrade, the BIOS resides on 1 MB flash memory. It provides an extensive setup utility that you can access by pressing at BIOS
initialization to run the BIOS Configuration Utility.

Background Initialization
Background initialization is the automatic check for media errors on physical drives It makes sure that striped data segments are the same on all physical
drives in an array.
NOTE: Unlike initialization of logical drives, background initialization does not clear data from the drives.
The background initialization rate is controlled by the rebuild rate set using the BIOS Configuration Utility, . The default and recommended
rate is 30%. You must stop the background initialization before you change the rebuild rate or the rate change will not affect the background
initialization rate. After you stop background initialization and change the rebuild rate, the rate change takes affect when you restart background
initialization.

Configuration Features

Table 2-3 lists the configuration features for the RAID controller.

Table 2-3. Configuration Features
Specifications

PERC 4/SC

PERC 4/DC

RAID levels

0, 1, 5, 10, and 50

SCSI channels

Maximum number of drives per
channel

14 (for a maximum of 28 on two channels)

Array interface to host

PCI Rev 2.2

Cache memory size

64 MB SDRAM

Up to 128 MB SDRAM

Cache Function

Write-back, write-through, adaptive read-ahead, non
read-ahead, read-ahead

Number of logical drives and arrays
supported

Up to 40 logical drives and 32 arrays per controller

Hot spares

Yes

Flashable firmware

Yes

Hot swap devices supported

Yes

Non-disk devices supported

Only SAF-TE and SES

Mixed capacity hard drives

Yes

Number of 16-bit internal
connectors

Cluster support

Yes

Firmware Upgrade
You can download the latest firmware from the Dell web site and flash it to the firmware on the board. Perform the following steps to upgrade the firmware:
1.

Go to the support.dell.com web site.

Download the latest firmware and driver to a diskette.

The firmware is an executable file that downloads the files to the diskette in your system.
3.

Restart the system and boot from the diskette.

Run pflash to flash the firmware.

CAUTION: Do not flash the firmware while performing a background initialization or data consistency check, as it can cause the procedures to
fail.

Drive Roaming
Drive roaming (also known as configuration on disk) occurs when the hard drives are changed to different channels on the same controller. When the drives
are placed on different channels, the controller detects the RAID configuration from the configuration information on the drives.
Configuration data is saved in both non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) on the RAID controller and on the hard drives attached to the controller. This
maintains the integrity of the data on each drive, even if the drives have changed their target ID. Drive roaming is supported across channels on the same
controller, except when cluster mode is enabled.
NOTE: Drive roaming does not work if you move the drives to a new controller and put them on different channels on the new adapter. If you put drives
on a new controller, they must be on the same channel/target as they were on the previous controller to keep the same configuration.
NOTE: Before performing drive roaming, make sure that you have first powered off both your platform and your drive enclosure.

Table 2-4 lists the drive roaming features for the RAID controller.

Table 2-4. Features for Drive Roaming
Specification

PERC 4/SC PERC 4/DC

Online RAID level migration

Yes

RAID remapping

Yes

No reboot necessary after capacity extension Yes

Yes

Hardware Architecture Features
Table 2-5 displays the hardware architecture features for the RAID controller.

Table 2-5. Hardware Architecture Features
Specification

PERC 4/SC

PERC 4/DC

Processor

Intel GC80302 (Zion Lite)

Intel GC80303 (Zion)

SCSI controller(s)

One LSI53C1020 Single SCSI controller One LSI53C1030 Dual SCSI controller

Size of flash memory

1 MB

Amount of NVRAM

32 KB

Hardware exclusive OR (XOR) assistance

Yes

Direct I/O

Yes

SCSI bus termination

Active or LVD

Double-sided dual inline memory modules (DIMMs)

Yes

Support for hard drives with capacities of more than eight gigabytes (GB) Yes

Yes

Hardware clustering support on the controller

Yes

LED Operation
The LED on the system displays the data for a PV Dell enclosure connected a PERC 4/DC RAID controller. Table 2-6 displays the normal operation mode after
you remove a physical drive and place it back in the slot.

Table 2-6. LED Operation
Controller/ System

Physical Drive
State

Virtual Disk
State

Physical Drive
State

Virtual Disk
State

Status LED Blink Pattern

PV Dell enclosure attached to PERC 4/DC
online

Online

Ready

Rebuilding

Degraded

Only reinserted disk blinks during
rebuild

Array Performance Features
Table 2-7 displays the array performance features for the RAID controller.

Table 2-7. Array Performance Features
Specification

PERC 4/SC and PERC 4/DC

PCI host data transfer rate

532 MB/sec

Drive data transfer rate

Up to 320 MB/sec

Maximum size of I/O requests

6.4 MB in 64 KB stripes

Maximum queue tags per drive

As many as the drive can accept

Stripe sizes

2 KB, 4 KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB
NOTE: Using a 2 KB or 4 KB stripe size is not recommended.

Maximum number of concurrent commands 255
Support for multiple initiators

Only on PERC 4/DC

Fault Tolerance Features
Table 2-8 describes the fault tolerance capabilities of the RAID controller.

Table 2-8. Fault Tolerance Features
Specification

PERC 4/SC PERC 4/DC

Support for SMART

Yes

Optional battery backup for cache memory N/A

Yes. Up to 72 hours data retention for 64 MB cache memory (less for larger cache memory).

Drive failure detection

Automatic

Drive rebuild using hot spares

Automatic

Parity generation and checking

Yes

User-specified rebuild rate

Yes

Software Utilities
Table 2-9 describes the features offered by the utilities used for RAID management. See "RAID Management Utilities" in this section for descriptions of the
utilities.

Table 2-9. Software Utilities Features
Specification

PERC 4/SC PERC 4/DC

Management utility

Yes

Bootup configuration using the PERC BIOS Configuration Utility (Ctrl–M) Yes

Yes

Online read, write, and cache policy switching

Yes

Operating System Software Drivers

Operating System Drivers
Drivers are provided to support the controller on the following operating systems:
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Microsoft® Windows NT®

Windows® 2000

Windows 2003

Novell® NetWare®

Red Hat Linux

See the CERC and PERC RAID Controllers Operating System Driver Installation Guide for more information about the drivers.

SCSI Firmware
The RAID controller firmware handles all RAID and SCSI command processing and supports the features described in Table 2-10.

Table 2-10. SCSI Firmware Support
Feature

PERC 4/SC and PERC 4/DC Description

Disconnect/reconnect

Optimizes SCSI bus utilization

Tagged command queuing Multiple tags to improve random access
Multi-threading

Up to 255 simultaneous commands with elevator sorting and concatenation of requests per SCSI channel

Stripe size

Variable for all logical drives: 2 KB, 4 KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB.
NOTE: Using a 2 KB or 4 KB stripe size is not recommended.

Rebuild

Multiple rebuilds and consistency checks with user-definable priority.

BIOS Configuration Utility

Dell Manager for Linux

Dell OpenManage™ Array Manager for Windows and Netware

BIOS Configuration Utility
The BIOS Configuration Utility configures and maintains RAID arrays, clears hard drives, and manages the RAID system. It is independent of any operating
system. See "BIOS Configuration Utility and Dell Manager" for additional information.

Dell Manager
Dell Manager is a utility that works in Red Hat Linux. See "BIOS Configuration Utility and Dell Manager" for additional information.

Dell OpenManage Array Manager
Dell OpenManage Array Manager is used to configure and manage a storage system that is connected to a server, while the server is active and continues to
handle requests. Array Manager runs under Novell NetWare, Windows NT, and Windows 2000. Refer to Dell documentation and CDs at the Dell Support web
site at support.dell.com for more information.
NOTE: You can run the OpenManage Array Manager remotely to access NetWare, but not locally.

Back to Contents Page

Hardware Installation
Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 4/SC and 4/DC User's Guide
Requirements
Quick Installation Procedure
Installation Steps

Requirements
This section describes the procedures for installing the RAID controller. You must have the following items to install the controller:
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A PERC 4/SC or 4/DC controller

A host system with an available 32- or 64-bit, 3.3-V PCI extension slot

The Dell OpenManage™ Systems Management CD or driver diskette

The necessary internal and/or external SCSI cables

Ultra, Ultra2, Ultra3, Ultra160, or Ultra320 SCSI hard drives
(SCSI is backward compatible, but it slows to the speed of the slowest device).

Turn off all power to the server and all hard drives, enclosures, and system components.

Open host system by following the instructions in the host system technical documentation.

Determine the SCSI ID and SCSI termination requirements.

Install the RAID controller in the server and attach the SCSI cables and terminators.

Make sure pin 1 on the cable matches pin 1 on the connector.

Make sure that the SCSI cables conform to all SCSI specifications.

Perform a safety check.
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Make sure all cables are properly attached.

Make sure the RAID controller is properly installed.

Close the cabinet of the host system.

Turn power on after completing the safety check.

Format the hard drives as needed.

Configure logical drives using the BIOS Configuration Utility or Dell Manager.

Initialize the logical drives.

Install the network operating system drivers as needed.

Installation Steps
This section provides instructions for installing the RAID controllers.

Step 1 Unpack the Controller

NOTICE: See the safety instructions in your system documentation for information about protecting against electrostatic discharge.
Unpack and remove the controller and inspect it for damage. If the controller appears damaged, or if any items listed below are missing, contact your Dell
support representative. The RAID controller is shipped with:
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The PERC 4 RAID Controller User's Guide (on CD)

The CERC and PERC RAID Controllers Operating System Driver Installation Guide (on CD)

NOTE: You can order a hard copy of the documentation for the controller.

A license agreement

Step 2 Power Down the System
Perform the following steps to power down the system:
1.

Turn off the system.

Remove the AC power cord.

Disconnect the system from any networks before installing the controller.

Remove the system's cover.

Please consult the system documentation for instructions.

Step 3 Set Jumpers
Make sure the jumper settings on the RAID controller are correct. Following are diagrams of the controllers showing their jumpers and connectors, and tables
describing them. Select your controller from the ones shown on the following pages.

PERC 4/SC Jumpers and Connectors
Figure 3-1. PERC 4/SC Controller Layout

Table 3-1. PERC 4/SC Jumper and Connector Descriptions
Connector Description

Type

Setting

Internal SCSI connector

68-pin
connector

Internal high-density SCSI bus connector.
Connection is optional.

NVRAM Clear

2-pin header

To CLEAR configuration data, install a jumper.

Serial EPROM

2-pin header

To CLEAR configuration data, install a jumper.

Onboard BIOS Enable

2-pin header

No jumper = Enabled (Default is Enabled)

With jumper in = Disabled
J5

SCSI Activity

2-pin header

Connector for enclosure LED to indicate data transfers. Connection is optional.

Serial Port

3-pin header

Connector is for diagnostic purposes.
Pin-1 RXD (Receive Data)
Pin-2 TXD (Transmit Data)
Pin-3 GND (Ground)

External SCSI connector

68-pin
connector

External very-high density SCSI bus connector.
Connection is optional.

SCSI bus TERMPWR Enable

2-pin header

Install jumper to enable onboard termination power. Default is installed.

J10

SCSI bus Termination
Enable

3-pin header

Jumper pins 1-2 to enable software control of SCSI termination through drive detection.
Jumper pins 2-3 to disable onboard SCSI termination.
Having no jumper installed enables onboard SCSI termination. The default is no jumper
installed.

D12 - D19 LEDs

Indicate problems with the card.

PERC 4/DC Jumpers and Connectors
Figure 3-2. PERC 4/DC Controller Layout

Table 3-2. PERC 4/DC Jumper and Connector Descriptions
Connector Description

Type

Settings

I2C Header

4-pin header

Reserved.

SCSI Activity LED

4-pin header

Connector for LED on enclosure to indicate data transfers. Optional.

Write Pending Indicator
(Dirty Cache LED)

2-pin header

Connector for enclosure LED to indicate when data in the cache has yet to be written to the
device. Optional.

SCSI Termination Enable
Channel 1

3-pin header

Jumper pins 1-2 to enable software control of SCSI termination via drive detection.

SCSI Termination Enable
Channel 0

3-pin header

DIMM socket

Socket that hold the memory module

Internal SCSI Channel 0
connector

68-pin
connector

Internal high-density SCSI bus connector. Connection is optional.

Internal SCSI Channel 1
connector

68-pin
connector

External SCSI Channel 0
connector

68-pin
connector

External very-high density SCSI bus connector. Connection is optional.

J10

Battery connector

3-pin header

Connector for an optional battery pack.
Pin-1 -BATT Terminal (black wire)
Pin-2 Thermistor (white wire)
Pin-3 +BATT Terminal (red wire)

J11

NVRAM clear

2-pin header

To CLEAR the configuration data, install a jumper.

J12

NMI jumper

2-pin header

Reserved for factory.

J13

32-bit SPCI Enable

3-pin header

Reserved for factory.

J14

Mode Select jumper

2-pin header

J15

Serial Port

3-pin header

Connector is for diagnostic purposes.
Pin-1 RXD (Receive Data)

Jumper pins 2-3 to disable onboard SCSI termination.
No Jumper installed enables onboard SCSI termination. (See J17 and J18). The default is no
jumper installed.

Pin-2 TXD (Transmit Data)
Pin-3 GND (Ground)
J16

Onboard BIOS Enable

2-pin header

No jumper = Enabled (Default setting)
Jumpered = Disabled

J17

TERMPWR Enable Channel 0

2-pin header

Jumper installed enables TERMPWR from the PCI bus. Default setting.

J18

TERMPWR Enable Channel 1

2-pin header

No jumper installed enables TERMPWR from the SCSI bus. (See J4 and J5)

J19

External SCSI Channel 1
connector

68-pin
connector

External very-high density SCSI bus connector. Connection is optional.

J23

Serial EEPROM

2-pin header

To CLEAR configuration data, install a jumper.

Indicate problems with the card.

D17 - D24 LED (located on back of card)

Step 4 Install the RAID Controller
Perform the following steps to install the controller:
1.

Select a 3.3-V PCI slot and align the controller PCI bus connector to the slot.

Press down gently but firmly to make sure that the controller is properly seated in the slot, as shown in Figure 3-3.

Screw the bracket to the system chassis.

Figure 3-3. Inserting the RAID Controller into a PCI Slot

Step 5 Connect SCSI Cables and SCSI Devices
Connect the SCSI cables to the SCSI connectors and SCSI devices.

Connect SCSI Devices
Perform the following steps to connect SCSI devices.
1.

Disable termination on any SCSI device that does not sit at the end of the SCSI bus.

Configure all SCSI devices to supply TermPWR..

Set proper target IDs (TIDs) for all SCSI devices.

The host controller has a SCSI ID of 7.

Connect the cable to the devices.

Cable Suggestions
System throughput problems can occur if the SCSI cables are not the correct type. To avoid problems, you should follow the following cable suggestions:
l

Use cables no longer than 12 meters for Ultra3, Ultra160, and Ultra320 devices. (It's better to use shorter cables if possible.)

Make sure the cables meet the specifications.

Use active termination.

Note that cable stub length should be no more than 0.1 meter (4 inches).

Route SCSI cables carefully and do not bend cables.

Use high impedance cables.

Do not mix cable types (choose either flat or rounded and shielded or non-shielded).

Note that ribbon cables have fairly good cross-talk rejection characteristics, meaning the signals on the different wires are less likely to interfere with
each other.

Table 3-3. Target IDs
Priority Highest Lowest
TID

...

Step 7 Set SCSI Termination
The SCSI bus is an electrical transmission line and must be terminated properly to minimize reflections and losses. Termination should be set at each end of
the SCSI cable(s).
For a disk array, set SCSI bus termination so that removing or adding a SCSI device does not disturb termination. An easy way to do this is to connect the
RAID controller to one end of the SCSI cable and an external terminator module at the other end of the cable, as shown in Figure 3-4.
The connectors between the two ends can connect SCSI drives which have their termination disabled, as shown in the drives (ID0, ID1, ID2) attached in the
figure. See the manual for each SCSI drive to disable termination.
Set the termination so that SCSI termination and TermPWR are intact when any hard drive is removed from a SCSI channel.

Figure 3-4. Terminating Internal SCSI Disk Array

Step 8 Start the System
Replace the system cover and reconnect the AC power cords. Turn power on to the host system. Set up the power supplies so that the SCSI devices are
powered up at the same time as or before the host system. If the system is powered up before a SCSI device, the device might not be recognized.
During bootup, the BIOS message appears:
PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller BIOS Version x.xx date
Copyright (c) Dell Inc
Firmware Initializing... [ Scanning SCSI Device ...(etc.)... ]
The firmware takes several seconds to initialize. During this time the adapter scans the SCSI channel. When ready, the following appears:
HA –0 (Bus 1 Dev 6) Type: PERC 4/xx Standard FW x.xx SDRAM=xxxMB
0 Logical Drives found on the Host Adapter
0 Logical Drive(s) handled by BIOS
Press to run PERC 4 BIOS Configuration Utility

The BIOS Configuration Utility prompt times out after several seconds.
The host controller number, firmware version, and cache SDRAM size display in the second portion of the BIOS message. The numbering of the controllers
follows the PCI slot scanning order used by the host motherboard.

Light-emitting Diode (LED) Description
When you start the system, the boot block and firmware perform a number of steps that load the operating system and allow the system to function properly.
The boot block contains the operating system loader and other basic information needed during startup.
As the system boots, the LEDs indicate the status of the boot block and firmware initialization and whether the system performed the steps correctly. If there
is an error during startup, you can use the LED display to identify it.
Table 3-4 displays the LEDs and execution states for the boot block. Table 3-5 displays the LEDs and execution states during firmware initialization. The LEDs
display in hexadecimal format so that you can determine the number and the corresponding execution state from the LEDs that display.

Table 3-4. Boot Block States
LED

Execution State

0x01 Setup 8-bit Bus for access to Flash and 8 Bit devices successful
0x03 Serial port initialization successful
0x04 Spd (cache memory) read successful
0x05 SDRAM refresh initialization sequence successful
0x07 Start ECC initialization and memory scrub
0x08 End ECC initialization and memory scrub
0x10 SDRAM is present and properly configured. About to program ATU.
0x11 CRC check on the firmware image successful. Continue to load firmware.
0x12 Initialization of SCSI chips successful.
0x13 BIOS protocols ports initialized. About to load firmware.
0x17 Firmware is either corrupt or BIOS disabled. Firmware was not loaded.
0x19 Error ATU ID programmed.
0x55 System Halt: Battery Backup Failure

Table 3-5. Firmware Initialization States
LED Execution State
0x1 Begin Hardware Initialization
0x3 Begin Initialize ATU
0x7 Begin Initialize Debug Console
0xF Set if Serial Loopback Test is successful

Step 10 Install an Operating System
Install one of the following operating systems: Microsoft® Windows NT®, Windows® 2000, Windows 2003, Novell® NetWare®, and Red Hat Linux.

Step 11 Install the Operating System Driver
Operating system drivers are provided on the Dell OpenManage Systems Management CD that accompanies your PERC controller. See the CERC and PERC RAID
Controllers Operating System Driver Installation Guide for additional information about installing the drivers for the operating systems.
NOTE: To make sure you have the latest version of the drivers, download the updated drivers from the Dell Support web site at support.dell.com.

Back to Contents Page

Configuring the RAID Controller
Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 4/SC and 4/DC User's Guide
Configuring SCSI Physical Drives
Physical Device Layout
Device Configuration
Setting Hardware Termination
Configuring Arrays
Assigning RAID Levels
Optimizing Data Storage
This section describes how to configure for physical drives, arrays, and logical drives. It contains tables you can complete to list the configuration for the
physical drives and logical drives.

You can place up to 32 physical drives in an array.

When implementing RAID 1 or RAID 5, disk space is spanned to create the stripes and mirrors. The span size can vary to accommodate the different
disk sizes. There is, however, the possibility that a portion of the largest disk in the array will be unusable, resulting in wasted disk space. For example,
consider an array that has the following disks:
¡

Disk A = 40 GB

Disk B = 40 GB

Disk C = 60 GB

Disk D = 80 GB

In this example, data is spanned across all four disks until Disk A and Disk B and 40 GB on each of Disk C and D are completely full. Data is then spanned
across Disks C and D until Disk C is full. This leaves 20 GB of disk space remaining on Disk D. Data cannot be written to this disk space, as there is no
corresponding disk space available in the array to create redundant data.
l

For RAID levels 10 and 50, the additional space in larger arrays can store data, so you can use arrays of different sizes.

When replacing a failed hard drive, make sure that the replacement drive has a capacity that is the same size or larger than the smallest drive in a
logical drive that supports redundancy (RAID 1, 5, 10, and 50).

Physical Device Layout
Use Table 4-1 to list the details for each physical device on the channels.

Table 4-1. Physical Device Layout
Channel 0

Channel 1

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/ drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/ drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/ drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Target ID

Device type

Logical drive number/drive number

Manufacturer/model number

Firmware level

Device Configuration
The following contain tables you can fill out to list the devices assigned to each channel. The PERC 4/SC controller has one channel; the PERC 4/DC has two.
Use Table 4-2 to list the devices that you assign to each SCSI ID for SCSI Channel 0.

Table 4-2. Configuration for SCSI Channel 0
SCSI Channel 0
SCSI ID

Device Description

Reserved for host controller.

Use Table 4-3. to list the devices that you assign to each SCSI ID for SCSI Channel 1.

Table 4-3. Configuration for SCSI Channel 1
SCSI Channel 1

SCSI ID

Device Description

Reserved for host controller.

J5 Termination Enable is a three-pin header that specifies control of the SCSI termination for channel 0.

J6 Termination Enable is a three-pin header that specifies control of the SCSI termination for channel 1.

To enable hardware termination, leave the pins open. The default is hardware termination.
NOTE: See "Step 7 Set SCSI Termination" for additional information about setting SCSI termination.

Configuring Arrays
Organize the physical drives into arrays after the drives are connected to the RAID controller, formatted, and initialized. An array can consist of up to 28
physical drives (24 drives when used with the span feature in a RAID 50 configuration).
The number of drives in an array determines the RAID levels that can be supported. The RAID controller supports up to 40 logical drives per controller.

Creating Hot Spares
Any drive that is present, formatted, and initialized, but not included in an array or logical drive can be designated as a hot spare. You can use the RAID
management utilities to designate drives as hot spares. The utilities are described in the RAID Management Utilities section.

Creating Logical Drives
Logical drives are arrays or spanned arrays that are presented to the operating system. The logical drive capacity can also be larger than an array by using
spanning. The RAID controller supports up to 40 logical drives.

Configuration Strategies
The most important factors in RAID array configuration are drive capacity, drive availability (fault tolerance), and drive performance.
You cannot configure a logical drive that optimizes all three factors, but it is easy to select a logical drive configuration that maximizes one or two factors at the
expense of the other factor(s).

Configuring Logical Drives
After you have installed the RAID controller in the server and have attached all physical drives, perform the following steps to prepare a RAID disk array:
1.

Start the system.

Press during bootup to run the BIOS Configuration Utility.

Select Easy Configuration, New Configuration, or View/Add Configuration in BIOS Configuration Utility and Dell Manager to customize the RAID array.

Create and configure one or more system drives (logical drives).

Select the RAID level, cache policy, read policy, and write policy.

Save the configuration.

Initialize the system drives.

Install the operating system.

See BIOS Configuration Utility and Dell Manager for detailed instructions.

Logical Drive Configuration
Use Table 4-4 to list the details for each logical drive that you configure.

Table 4-4. Logical Drive Configuration
Logical Drive

RAID Level

Stripe Size

Logical Drive
Size

Cache Policy

Read Policy

Write Policy

Number of
Physical Drives

LD0

LD1

LD2

LD3

LD4

LD5

LD6

LD7

LD8

LD9

LD10

LD11

LD12

LD13

LD14

LD15

LD16

LD17

LD18

LD19

LD20

LD21

LD22

LD23

LD24

LD25

LD26

LD27

LD28

LD29

LD30

LD31

LD32

LD33

LD34

LD35

LD36

LD37

LD38

LD39

Assigning RAID Levels
Only one RAID level can be assigned to each logical drive. Table 4-5 shows the minimum and maximum number of drives required.

Table 4-5. Physical Drives Required for Each RAID Level
RAID Level

Minimum # of Physical Drives

Maximum # of Physical Drives for
PERC 4/SC

Maximum # of Physical Drives for
PERC 4/DC

Storage in RAID 10 and RAID 50 Arrays of Different Sizes
For RAID levels 10 and 50, the additional space in larger arrays can store data, so you can use arrays of different sizes. Figure 4-1 shows the example of a
RAID 50 array with three RAID 5 arrays of different sizes. Data is striped across the three arrays until the smallest drive is full. The data is then striped across
the larger two arrays until the smaller of those two arrays is full. Finally, data is stored in the additional space in the largest of the three arrays.

Performance Considerations
Performance is better the more spans there are. As the storage space in the spans is filled, the system stripes data over fewer and fewer spans and RAID
performance degrades to that of a RAID 1 or RAID 5 array.

Figure 4-1. Storage in a RAID 50 Array

Optimizing Data Storage

Data Access Requirements
Each type of data stored in the disk subsystem has a different frequency of read and write activity. If you know the data access requirements, you can more
successfully determine a strategy for optimizing the disk subsystem capacity, availability, and performance. For example, servers that support Video on
Demand typically read the data often, but write data infrequently. Both the read and write operations tend to be long. Data stored on a general-purpose file
server involves relatively short read and write operations with relatively small files.

Array Considerations
You must identify the purpose of the data to be stored in the disk subsystem before you can confidently select a RAID level and a RAID configuration. Will this
array increase the system storage capacity for general-purpose file and print servers? Does this array support any software system that must be available 24
hours per day? Will the information stored in this array contains large audio or video files that must be available on demand? Will this array contain data from
an imaging system?

Back to Contents Page

BIOS Configuration Utility and Dell Manager
Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 4/SC and 4/DC User's Guide
Starting the BIOS Configuration Utility
Starting Dell Manager
Using Dell Manager in Red Hat Linux GUI Mode
Configuring Arrays and Logical Drives
Designating Drives as Hot Spares
Creating Arrays and Logical Drives
Drive Roaming
Initializing Logical Drives
Deleting Logical Drives
Clearing Physical Drives
Rebuilding Failed Hard Drives
Using a Pre-loaded SCSI Drive "As-is"
FlexRAID Virtual Sizing
Checking Data Consistency
Reconstructing Logical Drives
Exiting the Configuration Utility
The BIOS Configuration Utility configures disk arrays and logical drives. Because the utility resides in the RAID controller BIOS, its operation is independent of
the operating systems on your system.
Dell™ Manager is a character-based, non-GUI utility that changes policies, and parameters, and monitors RAID systems. Dell Manager runs under Red Hat
Linux, Advanced Server, Enterprise.
Use these utilities to do the following:
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Create hot spare drives.

Configure physical arrays and logical drives.

Initialize one or more logical drives.

Access controllers, logical drives, and, physical drives individually.

Rebuild failed hard drives.

Verify that the redundancy data in logical drives using RAID level 1, 5, 10, or 50 is correct.

Reconstruct logical drives after changing RAID levels or adding a hard drive to an array

Select a host controller to work on.

0 Logical Drive(s) handled by BIOS
Press to Enable BIOS
For each controller in the host system, the firmware version, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) size, and the status of logical drives on that controller
display. After you press a key to continue, the Management Menu screen displays.
NOTE: In the BIOS Configuration Utility, pressing has the same effect as pressing .

Using Dell Manager in Red Hat Linux GUI Mode
On a Red Hat Linux system, for Dell Manager to work correctly in a terminal in GUI Mode, you must set the terminal type to linux and keyboard mappings.
Perform the procedure below if you use konsole, gnome terminal, or xterm.
The linux console mode, which you select from the terminal with the File —> Linux Console command, works correctly by default. The text mode console (nonGUI) also works correctly by default.
To prepare the system to use Dell Manager, perform the following steps:
1.

Start the Terminal.

Before you enter dellmgr to start Dell Manager, type the following commands:

TERM=linux
Export TERM
3.

Select Settings—> Keyboard—> Linux Console from the Terminal menu.

NOTE: On a Red Hat Linux 8.x system, when you run Dell Manager (v. x.xx) from a Gnome-terminal in XWindows, the key cannot be used to
create a logical drive. Instead, use the alternate keys <0>. (This is not an issue if Xterm is used to call dellmgr). The following is a list of
alternate keys you can use in case of problems with keys through , and :

<1> for

<2> for

<3> for

<4> for

<5> for

<6> for

<7> for

<0> for

Configuring Arrays and Logical Drives
1.

Designate hot spares (optional).

See Designating Drives as Hot Spares in this section for more information.
2.

Select a configuration method.

See Creating Arrays and Logical Drives in this section for more information.
3.

Create arrays using the available physical drives.

Define logical drives using the arrays.

Save the configuration information.

Initialize the logical drives.

See Initializing Logical Drives in this section for more information.

Designating Drives as Hot Spares
Hot spares are physical drives that are powered up along with the RAID drives and usually stay in a standby state. If a hard drive used in a RAID logical drive
fails, a hot spare will automatically take its place and the data on the failed drive is reconstructed on the hot spare. Hot spares can be used for RAID levels 1,
5, 10, and 50. Each controller supports up to eight hot spares.
The methods for designating physical drives as hot spares are:
l

Pressing while creating arrays in Easy, New or View/Add Configuration mode.

Using the Objects—> Physical Drive menu.

Key
When you select any configuration option, a list of all physical devices connected to the current controller appears. Perform the following steps to designate a
drive as a hot spare:
1.

On the Management Menu select Configure, then a configuration option.

Press the arrow keys to highlight a hard drive that displays as READY.

Press to designate the drive as a hot spare.

Click YES to make the hot spare.

The drive displays as HOTSP.
5.

Save the configuration.

Objects Menu
1.

On the Management Menu select Objects—> Physical Drive.

A physical drive selection screen appears.

Select a hard drive in the READY state and press to display the action menu for the drive.

Press the arrow keys to select Make HotSpare and press .

The selected drive displays as HOTSP.

Table 5-1. Logical Drive Parameters and Descriptions
Parameter Description
RAID Level

The number of physical drives in a specific array determines the RAID levels that can be implemented with the array.

Stripe Size

Stripe Size specifies the size of the segments written to each drive in a RAID 1, 5, or 10 logical drive. You can set the stripe size to 2 KB, 4
KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB. The default is 64 KB.
A larger stripe size provides better read performance, especially if your computer does mostly sequential reads. However, if you are sure
that your computer does random read requests more often, select a small stripe size.
NOTE: Using a 2 KB or 4 KB stripe size is not recommended.

Write Policy

Write Policy specifies the cache write policy. You can set the write policy to Write-back or Write-through.
In Write-back caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has received all the
data in a transaction. This setting is recommended in standard mode.
NOTICE: If WriteBack is enabled and the system is quickly turned off and on, the RAID controller may hang when flushing cache
memory. Controllers that contain a battery backup will default to WriteBack caching.
In Write-through caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host when the disk subsystem has received all the
data in a transaction.
Write-through caching has a data security advantage over write-back caching. Write-back caching has a performance advantage over
write-through caching.
NOTE: You should not use write-back for any logical drive that is to be used as a Novell NetWare volume.
NOTE: Enabling clustering turns off write cache. PERC 4/DC supports clustering.

Read Policy

Read-ahead enables the read-ahead feature for the logical drive. You can set this parameter to Read-Ahead, No-Read-ahead, or
Adaptive. The default is Adaptive.
Read-ahead specifies that the controller uses read-ahead for the current logical drive. Read-ahead capability allows the adapter to read
sequentially ahead of requested data and store the additional data in cache memory, anticipating that the data will be needed soon. Readahead supplies sequential data faster, but is not as effective when accessing random data.
No-Read-Ahead specifies that the controller does not use read-ahead for the current logical drive.
Adaptive specifies that the controller begins using read-ahead if the two most recent disk accesses occurred in sequential sectors. If all
read requests are random, the algorithm reverts to No-Read-Ahead; however, all requests are still evaluated for possible sequential
operation.

Cache Policy

Cache Policy applies to reads and writes on a specific logical drive. It does not affect the Read-ahead cache. The default is Direct I/O.
Cached I/O specifies that all reads and writes are buffered in cache memory.
Direct I/O specifies that reads and writes are not buffered in cache memory. Direct I/O does not override the cache policy settings. Data
is transferred to cache and the host concurrently. If the same data block is read again, it comes from cache memory.

Span

The choices are:
Yes—Array spanning is enabled for the current logical drive. The logical drive can occupy space in more than one array.
No—Array spanning is disabled for the current logical drive. The logical drive can occupy space in only one array.
The RAID controller supports spanning of RAID 1 and 5 arrays. You can span two or more RAID 1 arrays into a RAID 10 array and two or
more RAID 5 arrays into a RAID 50 array.
For two arrays to be spanned, they must have the same stripe width (they must contain the same number of physical drives).

Using Easy Configuration

In Easy Configuration, each physical array you create is associated with exactly one logical drive. You can modify the following parameters:
l

RAID level

Stripe size

Write policy

Read policy

Cache policy

Select Configure—> Easy Configuration from the Management Menu.

Hot key information displays at the bottom of the screen.
2.

Press the arrow keys to highlight specific physical drives.

Press the spacebar to associate the selected physical drive with the current array.

The selected drive changes from READY to ONLIN A[array number]-[drive number]. For example, ONLIN A2-3 means array 2 with hard drive 3.
4.

Add physical drives to the current array as desired.

Press after you finish creating the current array.

The Select Configurable Array(s) window appears. It displays the array and array number, such as A-00.
6.

Press the spacebar to select the array.

Press to configure logical drives.

The window at the top of the screen shows the logical drive that is currently being configured.
8.

Highlight RAID and press to set the RAID level for the logical drive.

The available RAID levels for the current logical drive display.
9.

Select a RAID level and press to confirm.

10.

Click Advanced Menu to open the menu for logical drive settings.

11.

Set the Stripe Size.

12.

Set the Write Policy.

13.

Set the Read Policy.

14.

Set the Cache Policy.

15.

Press to exit the Advanced Menu.

16.

After you define the current logical drive, select Accept and press .

The array selection screen appears if any unconfigured hard drives remain.

NOTE: The PERC 4 family supports spanning across RAID 1 and 5 arrays only.

17.

Repeat step 2 through step 16 to configure another array and logical drive.

The RAID controller supports up to 40 logical drives per controller.
18.

When finished configuring logical drives, press to exit Easy Configuration.

A list of the currently configured logical drives appears.
19.

Respond to the Save prompt.

After you respond to the Save prompt, the Configure menu appears.
20.

Initialize the logical drives you have just configured.

See "Initializing Logical Drives"in this section for more information.

RAID level

Stripe size

Write policy

Read policy

Cache policy

Logical drive size

Spanning of arrays

NOTICE: Selecting New Configuration erases the existing configuration information on the selected controller. To use the spanning feature and keep
the existing configuration, use View/Add Configuration.
1.

Select Configure—> New Configuration from the Management Menu.

Hot key information appears at the bottom of the screen.
2.

Press the arrow keys to highlight specific physical drives.

Press the spacebar to associate the selected physical drive with the current array.

The selected drive changes from READY to ONLINE A[array number]-[drive number]. For example, ONLINE A2-3 means array 2 with hard drive 3.
4.

Add physical drives to the current array as desired.

Press after you finish creating the current array.

The Select Configurable Array(s) window appears. It displays the array and array number, such as A-00.
6.

Press the spacebar to select the array.

Span information displays in the array box. You can create multiple arrays, then select them to span them.

NOTE: You can press to display the number of drives in the array, their channel and ID, and to display array information, such as the
stripes, slots, and free space.
7.

Repeat step 2 through step 6 to create another array or go to step 8 to configure a logical drive.

Press to configure a logical drive.

Highlight RAID and press to set the RAID level for the logical drive.

A list of the available RAID levels for the current logical drive appears.
10.

Select a RAID level and press to confirm.

11.

Highlight Span and press .

12.

Highlight a spanning option and press .

Move the cursor to Size and press to set the logical drive size.

Click Advanced Menu to open the menu for logical drive settings.

15.

Set the Stripe Size.

16.

Set the Write Policy.

17.

Set the Read Policy.

18.

Set the Cache Policy.

19.

Press to exit the Advanced Menu.

20.

After you define the current logical drive, select Accept and press .

If space remains in the arrays, the next logical drive to be configured appears. If the array space has been used, a list of the existing logical drives
appears.
21.

Press any key to continue, then respond to the Save prompt.

22.

Initialize the logical drives you have just configured.

See Initializing Logical Drives in this section for more information.

Select Configure—> View/Add Configuration from the Management Menu.

Hot key information appears at the bottom of the screen.

Press the arrow keys to highlight specific physical drives.

Press the spacebar to associate the selected physical drive with the current array.

The selected drive changes from READY to ONLIN A[array number]-[drive number]. For example, ONLIN A2-3 means array 2 with hard drive 3.
4.

Add physical drives to the current array as desired.

Press after you finish creating the current array.

The Select Configurable Array(s) window appears. It displays the array and array number, such as A-00.
6.

Press the spacebar to select the array.

Press to configure a logical drive.

The logical drive configuration screen appears. Span=Yes displays on this screen if you select two or more arrays to span.
8.

Highlight RAID and press to set the RAID level for the logical drive.

The available RAID levels for the current logical drive appear.
9.

Select a RAID level and press to confirm.

10.

Highlight Span and press .

11.

Highlight a spanning option and press .

12.

Move the cursor to Size and press to set the logical drive size.

By default, the logical drive size is set to all available space in the array(s) associated with the current logical drive, accounting for the Span setting.
13.

Highlight Span and press .

14.

Highlight a spanning option and press .

NOTE: The full drive size is used when you span logical drives; you cannot specify a smaller drive size.

15.

Open the Advanced Menu to open the menu for logical drive settings.

16.

Set the Stripe Size.

17.

Set the Write Policy.

18.

Set the Read Policy.

19.

Set the Cache Policy.

20.

Press to exit the Advanced Menu.

21.

After you define the current logical drive, select Accept and press .

If space remains in the arrays, the next logical drive to be configured appears.
22.

Repeat step 2 to step 21 to create an array and configure another logical drive.

If all array space is used, a list of the existing logical drives appears.
23.

Press any key to continue, then respond to the Save prompt.

24.

Initialize the logical drives you have just configured.

See "Initializing Logical Drives"in this section for more information.

Press during system boot to run the BIOS Configuration Utility.

Select Configure—> View/Add Configuration.

Select Disk when asked to use Disk or NVRAM.

Select Save.

Press to exit the BIOS Configuration Utility.

Reboot the computer.

Initializing Logical Drives
Initialize each new logical drive you configure. You can initialize the logical drives individually or in batches (up to 40 simultaneously).

Batch Initialization
1.

Select Initialize from the Management Menu.

A list of the current logical drives appears.
2.

Press the spacebar to select the desired logical drive for initialization.

Press to select/deselect all logical drives.

After you finish selecting logical drives, press and select Yes from the confirmation prompt.

The progress of the initialization for each drive is shown in bar graph format.
5.

When initialization is complete, press any key to continue or press to display the Management Menu.

Individual Initialization
1.

Select the Objects—> Logical Drive from the Management Menu.

Select the logical drive to be initialized.

Select Initialize from the action menu.

Initialization progress appears as a bar graph on the screen.
4.

When initialization completes, press any key to display the previous menu.

Deleting Logical Drives
This RAID controller supports the ability to delete any unwanted logical drives and use that space for a new logical drive. You can have an array with multiple
logical drives and delete a logical drive without the whole array.
After you delete a logical drive, you can create a new one. You can use the configuration utilities to create the next logical drive from the non-contiguous free
space (`holes'), and from the newly created arrays. The configuration utility provides a list of configurable arrays where there is a space to configure.

NOTICE: The deletion of the logical drive can fail under certain conditions: During a rebuild, initialization or check consistency of a logical drive, if that
drive has a higher logical drive number than the drive you want to delete.
To delete logical drives, perform the following steps:
1.

Select Objects—> Logical Drive from the Management Menu.

The logical drives display.
2.

Use the arrow key to highlight the logical drive you want to delete.

Press to delete the logical drive.

This deletes the logical drive and makes the space it occupied available for you to make another logical drive.

Clearing Physical Drives
You can clear the data from SCSI drives using the configuration utilities. To clear a drive, perform the following steps:
1.

Select Management Menu—> Objects—> Physical Drives in the BIOS Configuration Utility.

A device selection window displays the devices connected to the current controller.
2.

Press the arrow keys to select the physical drive to be cleared and press .

Select Clear.

When clearing completes, press any key to display the previous menu.

CAUTION: Do not terminate the clearing process, as it makes the drive unusable. The drive would have to be cleared again.

Displaying Media Errors
Check the View Drive Information screen for the drive to be formatted. Perform the following steps to display this screen which contains the media errors:
1.

Select Objects—> Physical Drives from the Management Menu.

Select a device.

Press .

Rebuilding Failed Hard Drives
If a hard drive fails in an array that is configured as a RAID 1, 5, 10, or 50 logical drive, you can recover the lost data by rebuilding the drive.

Rebuild Types
Table 5-2 describes automatic and manual rebuilds.

Table 5-2. Rebuild Types
Type

Description

Automatic
Rebuild

If you have configured hot spares, the RAID controller automatically tries to use them to rebuild failed disks. Select Objects—> Physical
Drive to display the physical drives screen while a rebuild is in progress. The drive for the hot spare drive changes to REBLD A[array number][drive number], indicating the hard drive being replaced by the hot spare.

Manual
Rebuild

Manual rebuild is necessary if no hot spares with enough capacity to rebuild the failed drives are available. Use the following procedures to
rebuild a failed drive manually.

Manual Rebuild – Rebuilding an Individual Drive
1.

Select Objects—> Physical Drive from the Management Menu.

A device selection window displays the devices connected to the current controller.
2.

Press the arrow keys to select the physical drive to rebuild, then press .

Select Rebuild from the action menu and respond to the confirmation prompt.

Rebuilding can take some time, depending on the drive capacity.
4.

When the rebuild is complete, press any key to display the previous menu.

Manual Rebuild – Batch Mode
1.

Select Rebuild from the Management Menu.

A device selection window displays the devices connected to the current controller. The failed drives display as FAIL.
2.

Press the arrow keys to highlight any failed drives to be rebuilt.

Press the spacebar to select the desired physical drive for rebuild.

After you select the physical drives, press and select Yes at the prompt.

The selected drives change to REBLD. Rebuilding can take some time, depending on the number of drives selected and the drive capacities.
5.

When the rebuild is complete, press any key to continue.

Press to display the Management Menu.

Connect the SCSI drive to the channel on the RAID controller, with proper termination and target ID settings.

Boot the computer.

Start the configuration utility by pressing .

Select Configure—> Easy Configuration.

Press the cursor keys to select the pre-loaded drive.

Press the spacebar.

The pre-loaded drive should now become an array element.
7.

Press .

You have now declared the pre-loaded drive as a one-disk array.
8.

Set the Read Policy and Cache Policy on the Advanced Menu.

Exit the Advanced Menu.

10.

Highlight Accept and press .

Do not initialize.
11.

Press and select Yes at the Save prompt.

12.

Exit the configuration utility and reboot.

13.

Set the host system to boot from SCSI, if such a setting is available.

FlexRAID Virtual Sizing
The FlexRAID Virtual Sizing option can no longer be enabled. It was used to allow Windows NT® and Novell® NetWare® 5.1 to use the new space of a RAID
array immediately after you added capacity online or performed a reconstruction.
FlexRAID Virtual Sizing is in the BIOS Configuration Utility. If you have this option enabled on older cards, you need to disable it, then upgrade the firmware.
Perform the following steps to do this:
1.

Go to the support.dell.com web site.

Download the latest firmware and driver to a diskette.

The firmware is an executable file that downloads the files to the diskette in your system.
3.

Restart the system and boot from the diskette.

Run pflash to flash the firmware.

Select Check Consistency from the Management Menu.

Press the arrow keys to highlight the desired logical drives.

Press the spacebar to select or deselect a drive for consistency checking.

Press to select or deselect all the logical drives.

Press to begin the consistency check.

A progress graph for each selected logical drive displays.
6.

When the check is finished, press any key to clear the progress display.

Press to display the Management Menu.

(To check an individual drive, select Objects—> Logical Drives from the Management Menu, the desired logical drive(s), then Check Consistency on the
action menu.)

NOTE: Stay at the Check Consistency menu until the check is complete.

Reconstructing Logical Drives
A reconstruction occurs when you change the RAID level of an array or add a physical drive to an existing array. Perform the following steps to reconstruct a
drive:
1.

Move the arrow key to highlight Reconstruct on the Management Menu.

Press .

The window entitled "Reconstructables" displays. This contains the logical drives that can be reconstructed. You can press to view logical drive
information or to select the reconstruct option.
3.

Press .

The next reconstruction window displays. The options on this window are to select a drive, to open the reconstruct menu, and
to display logical drive information.
4.

Press to open the reconstruct menu.

The menu items are RAID level, stripe size, and reconstruct.
5.

To change the RAID level, select RAID with the arrow key, and press .

Select Reconstruct and press to reconstruct the logical drive.

NOTE: Once you start the reconstruct process, you must wait until it is complete.

Exiting the Configuration Utility
1.

Press when the Management Menu displays.

Select Yes at the prompt.

Reboot the system.

Back to Contents Page

Troubleshooting
Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 4/SC and 4/DC User's Guide
General Problems
BIOS Boot Error Messages
Other Potential Problems
Cache Migration
SCSI Cable and Connector Problems
Audible Warnings

General Problems
Table 6-1 describes general problems you might encounter, along with suggested solutions.

Table 6-1. General Problems
Problem

Dell Perc 4E Dc Users Manual PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller 4/SC, 4/DC, And 4e/DC User's Guide

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