PowerEdge Tutorials: Physical Disks and RAID Controller (PERC) on Servers

This page provides tutorials about Hard Drives, Virtual Disks, and the RAID Controller (PERC) in PowerEdge Server. It explains how to replace a hard drive when it is failed or in predictive failure status.

A RAID controller is a hardware device on high-end servers or software program on low-end servers that are used to manage hard drives (HDDs) or solid state drives (SSDs) a server or storage array. The controller offers a level of abstraction between an operating system and the hard drives. A RAID controller can prevent groups of hard drives to the operating system for which data protection schemes such as RAID 5 or RAID 10 can be defined to protect and guarantee data integrity.

Table of Contents

• Hard Drives
• Virtual Disks
• RAID Controller
• More RAID information

Legend: Illustration of drives that are connected to a backplane, and communicating with the RAID Controller to provide two virtual disks to the host.

Operations on Hard Drives (HDD)

Dell Enterprise HDD: What is the meaning of LED on Physical Drives (PD)?
Most of the time these LEDs are blinking green. When amber appears, it can be interesting to know the color code.

PowerEdge HDD: How to identify the hard drive properties and update the firmware?
Each hard drive is using firmware that is manufacturer-provided, and new versions improve the reliability. Learn how to check the current version and how to update.

PowerEdge HDD: What is predicted Drive Failure and how to solve it?
The number of bad blocks is increasing to the limit, it may be a good time to replace the hard drive before the failure.

PowerEdge HDD: How to physically replace an HDD (Hot Swap procedure)?
When it is time to replace the hard drive, this article is useful. It explains the steps to perform to safely replace the component.

Dell Nautilus Firmware Update Utility: Bootable media for automatic Hard Drive updates
Using the Dell Nautilus Firmware Update Utility is probably one of the easiest and most flexible ways of updating your hard drive firmware. A server reboot is required to perform the update.

PowerEdge: How to physically replace a Hard Drive
An introduction to how to physically replace an HDD (Hot Swap procedure). This short video covers the steps to physically replace a hard drive in a PowerEdge Server.

Operations on Virtual Disks (VD)

Create a Virtual Disk is the first step to do before loading data on it. Settings differ based on the PERC model.
PERC 10 and 11:

• How to Create a Virtual Disk on a Dell RAID Controller Series 10 and 11
• Dell PowerEdge: How to Create a Virtual Disk Using iDRAC9

For software PERC, the procedure to replace a failed disk is more specific.

Dell PowerEdge: How to Assign a Hard Drive in Global Hot Spare.
Declaring a hard drive as a hot spare is useful when replacing a failed disk. (OMSA, PERC BIOS, or iDRAC)

Assign and Unassign hot spare in system setup in PowerEdge RAID Controller 10
How to assign or unassign hot spare in the BIOS.

How Reconfigure a Virtual disk or add additional hard drives.
Extending a Virtual Disk allows to expand the RAID size.

An online virtual disk can be reconfigured in ways that expand its capacity or change its RAID level.
For example, this is possible to move from a RAID 0 to a RAID 5 or from a RAID 1 to a RAID 5.

Dell PowerEdge: How to backup a Virtual Disk?
Before engaging any critical data operation or as part of scheduled maintenance, having a working backup is an excellent option.

PowerEdge Server: How to delete a virtual disk using the System Setup
How to delete a virtual disk using the BIOS.

How to import a "Foreign Configuration" in the RAID Controller using the System Setup Menu
How to import a virtual disk showing as foreign using the BIOS menus.
 

Operations on PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC)

How to update a PERC RAID Controller (PERC)?
The firmware and the driver can be updated on a RAID controller card.

• The driver must be updated directly from the operating system, see Update a Dell PowerEdge Driver or Firmware Directly from the OS (Windows and Linux) to know more.
• The firmware can be updated from the operating system, see Update a Dell PowerEdge Driver or Firmware Directly from the OS (Windows and Linux) or How to update firmware remotely using the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) web interface.

The management applications for PERC cards include:

• Comprehensive-Embedded Management
• Dell OpenManage Storage Management
• Human Interface Infrastructure (HII) Configuration Utility
• The PERC CLI

Another alternative method to extract RAID controller logs for advanced analysis is to use the software a tool like PercCLI.

How to use the PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) Command-Line Interface (CLI) utility to manage your RAID controller
The list of available command lines is provided in the article. A binary must be installed on the operating system.

More RAID Operations and Information

How to fix Double Faults and Punctures in RAID Arrays.
What are "double faults" is explained in the article, Double Faults and Punctures in RAID Arrays.

How to solve PowerEdge RAID Controller Card errors?
See the Troubleshooting section of your specific RAID Controller User's Guide as the detailed steps and procedures vary across PERC controller generations and cards. See Storage Adapters & Controllers, select your specific PERC model, and then Documentation.

Can different drives be used in a RAID?
See article: Dell Enterprise RAID and Physical Drive: Replacement FAQ - Can different drives be used in a RAID?.

What are the RAID levels and their specifications?
A RAID is a group of independent hard drives. The hard drive group appears to the host system either as a single storage unit or multiple logical units. Data throughput improves because several disks are accessed simultaneously. RAID systems also improve data storage availability and fault tolerance. Data loss that is caused by a hard drive failure can be recovered by rebuilding missing data from the remaining hard drives containing data or parity. See article Dell Servers - What are the RAID levels and their specifications for more information.

What is the PERC Learn Cycle feature and how to enable?
The "Learn Cycle" feature is a battery calibration operation that is performed by the controller periodically to determine the condition of the battery. This operation cannot be disabled. See article Dell PERC controller learn cycle mode for more information.

What is the meaning of "No Boot Device Available"?
The server powers on, and the Dell screen appears. Unfortunately, when the operating system should be loaded, the error "No Boot Device Available" is displayed and nothing happens. See PowerEdge: Troubleshooting a Server that Does Not Start-No Power, POST, Boot, or Video article for further help.

PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) Maintenance
Even though the PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) performs several Automated Maintenance: Controller operations, users are still responsible for performing certain manual operations.
The most common manual maintenance processes are detailed below: 

• PERC controller management on Dell PowerEdge Cloud Servers