Precision Workstation: RAID Controller Setup

Table of Contents:

1. Different models of RAID controller cards available
2. Understanding RAID terms and concepts
3. RAID BIOS Configuration Utility
4. RAID Storage driver
5. Using and Understanding the LSI 9271-8i RAID Controller

Different models of RAID controller cards available

Dell Precision workstations offer several options for hard drive controllers:

• ✓ Dell H310 PCIe RAID card
• ✓ Dell H710P PCIe RAID card
• ✓ Dell H330 PCIe RAID card
• ✓ Dell H730P PCIe RAID card
• ✓ LSI 9271-8i RAID Controllers

Both the H310 and H710P cards offer multiple 6 Gb/s ports for SATA, SAS, or SSD drives. They support RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 configurations.

The H310 is a host-based RAID card. Host-based means that system processor cycles are used to implement the RAID.

(Figure.1 PERC H310)

The H710P is a hardware RAID controller. Hardware RAID means that all the processing needed for RAID occurs on the card; no system processor cycles are used. Hardware RAID puts less burden on the workstation processor and provides the utmost performance for your workstation. (This card supports Internal storage only.)

(Figure.2 H710p)

Both the H330 and H730P cards offer multiple 12 Gb/s ports for SATA, SAS or SSD drives. They support RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 configurations.

The H330 is a general-purpose RAID solution card. (This card supports both Internal storage and Tape Devices but does not support Caching. This can affect performance in RAID 5 and RAID 6 arrays.)

(Figure.3 H330)

The H730P is a Hardware RAID. This card has a 1 GB or 2 GB nonvolatile cache. (This card supports Internal storage only.)

(Figure.4 H730p)

The RAID BIOS Configuration Utility, otherwise known as Dell OpenManage Storage Services is a storage management application. This application is embedded on the various cards that configure and maintains RAID disk groups and virtual disks. This utility is independent of the operating system. Press the <CTRL + R> keys together during POST to enter this utility.

For Information on the LSI 9271-8i RAID Controllers, check out the Videos below in section 5.

(Figure.5 PERC LSI)

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Understanding RAID terms and concepts

We have included several videos below to go through the basic concepts and terms used in RAID. Videos may be English only or have local captions available.

These should be helpful to you if you have no prior experience with RAID. If you have you can go to the next section.

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RAID BIOS Configuration Utility

Before loading the PERC controller drivers, you must set up the RAID with the help of this utility.

The utility for the older cards has several sections including Virtual Disk Management, Physical Disk Management, Controller Management, and Properties.

(Figure.6 PERC Utility)

The utility for the newer cards is identical, but it changes properties to Foreign Configuration View.

(Figure.7 BIOS PERC6i)

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RAID Storage driver

When installing/reinstalling a Windows operating system, set-up prompts for a RAID Storage driver at some point during installation. An on-site engineer or user must have the RAID storage driver ready on a USB drive when trying to format and load the operating system.

Below is a screenshot of no hard disk drive found in the Windows 7 installation: (No significant change for newer versions of Windows.)

(Figure.8 PERC Driver)

If you receive the no Hard disk drive found message, then the USB drive with the driver must be plugged in. Click on Load Drivers and browse to the driver's location on the USB drive and run it.

You can download the drivers from the Dell Support Site.

Ensure you enter your Service Tag or Express Service Code to ensure you get the correct page up. (You can also select your model type from the product list.)

You must click on the Drivers & Downloads button on the left-hand side of the page and then make sure your operating system is selected correctly.

Open the Storage Controller section and download the driver file from the link.

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Using and Understanding the LSI 9271-8i RAID Controller

The videos below should take you through the uses of the LSI 9271-8i RAID Controllers and hopefully give a better understanding of them. Videos may be English only or have local captions available.

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Recommended Articles

Here are some recommended articles related to this topic that might be of interest to you.

• RAID Configuration for Dell Precision Mobile Workstations
• Configuring RAID in a Dell Precision Workstation
• Dell Precision Workstation 7920 Rack System Guide
• How to Troubleshoot and Reinstall the Operating System on Precision Desktop Workstations
• Dell Precision Tower 5820 Workstation System Guide