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Dell PowerEdge XE2420 EMC PowerEdge RAID Controller S140 Users Guide - Page 15

Virtual disk features

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3 Virtual Disks A logical grouping of physical disks attached to a PERC S140 allows you to create multiple virtual disks of the same RAID levels, without exceeding a maximum of 30 virtual disks. The PERC S140 controller allows: • Creating virtual disks of different RAID levels on a S140 controller. NOTE: Ensure that you do not mix RAID levels on the same physical disks. • Building different virtual disks with different characteristics for different applications. • Creating virtual disks from a mix of NVMe PCIe SSD 2.5-inch SFFs and NVMe PCIe SSD adapters. The PERC S140 controller does not allow: • Creating a virtual disk from a mix of different types of physical disks. For example, a RAID 10 virtual disk cannot be created from two SATA HDD physical disks and a SATA SSD physical disk. All of the physical disks must be of the same drive type (HDD/SSD/NVMe PCIe SSDs). • Selecting a physical disk as a dedicated hot spare if the physical disk is a different type from the physical disk of the virtual disks. A virtual disk refers to data storage which a controller creates using one or more physical disks. NOTE: A virtual disk can be created from several physical disks; the operating system considers it a single disk. The capacity of a virtual disk can be expanded online for any RAID level without rebooting the operating system. NOTE: If the boot VD is spanned across different SATA controllers, then Windows Hardware Quality Labs testing (WHQL), DF - Reinstall with I/O Before and After (Reliability) fails in a server having two SATA controllers. Topics: • Virtual disk features Virtual disk features TRIM for SATA SSDs The TRIM command allows an operating system to delete a block of data that is no longer considered in use from the SATA SSDs. TRIM resolves the Write Amplification issue for supported operating systems. When an operating system deletes a file, the file is marked for deletion in the file system, but the contents on the disk are not actually erased. As a result, the SSDs do not know that the Logical Block Addressing (LBA) file previously occupied can be erased. With the introduction of TRIM, when a file is deleted, the operating system sends a TRIM command along with the LBAs that do not contain valid data. NOTE: The TRIM feature is supported only on pass-through SSDs. NOTE: The TRIM feature is not supported on NVMe PCIe SSDs. To perform TRIM on the pass-through SSDs 1. Create a volume on a pass-through SSD drive. 2. In the Windows operating system, navigate to the Defragmentation and Optimize Drive tool. 3. Select the volume created on the pass-through SSD and click Optimize. TRIM is applied. Disk initialization For physical disks, initialization writes metadata to the physical disk so that the controller can use the physical disk. Virtual Disks 15

Section	Page
Dell EMC PowerEdge RAID Controller S140 User’s Guide	3
Overview	7
PERC S140 specifications	7
Supported operating systems	10
Supported PowerEdge systems	10
Supported physical disks	10
Management applications for the PERC S140	11
Physical Disks	12
Physical disk features	12
Physical disk roaming	12
Physical disk hot-swapping	12
Physical disk power management	12
Physical disk failure detection	12
Mirror rebuilding	13
Fault tolerance	13
Self-Monitoring And Reporting Technology	13
Native Command Queuing	13
NVMe PCIe SSD support	13
Physical disk write cache policy for SATA drives	14
Linux RAID	14
Virtual Disks	15
Virtual disk features	15
TRIM for SATA SSDs	15
To perform TRIM on the pass-through SSDs	15
Disk initialization	15
Background Array Scan	16
Checkpointing	16
Consistency check	16
Background initialization	16
Automatic virtual disk rebuild	16
Virtual disk cache policies	16
Virtual disk migration	17
Migrating a virtual disk	17
Expanding virtual disk capacity	17
Cabling the drives for S140	18
Disk connectivity for AHCI devices	19
BIOS Configuration Utility	20
Entering the BIOS configuration utility	20
Exiting the BIOS Configuration Utility	21
Initializing the physical disks	21
Converting to RAID disks	21
Converting to Non-RAID disks	21
Creating the virtual disks	22
Selecting virtual disk sizes while creating a virtual disk	22
Deleting the virtual disks	22
Swapping two virtual disks	22
Managing the hot spare disks	23
Assigning the global hot spare disks	23
Assigning the dedicated hot spare disks	23
Unassign hot spare disks	24
Viewing the physical disks details	24
Viewing the virtual disks details	24
Rescan disks	24
Controller Options	25
Continue to boot	25
UEFI RAID configuration utility	26
Entering the DELL PERC S140 Configuration Utility	26
Exiting the DELL PERC S140 Configuration Utility	27
Controller management	27
Viewing the controller properties	27
Changing the boot order of the virtual disks	28
Stopping the system from booting if there is a critical BIOS error	28
Converting a physical disk to a Non-RAID disk	28
Converting physical disk to RAID capable disk	29
Rescan disks	29
Virtual disk management	29
Configuring Windows RAID	29
Configuring Linux RAID	30
Mixed RAID configuration	31
Manage virtual disk properties	31
Viewing virtual disks properties and policies	32
Deleting a virtual disk	33
Physical disk management	34
Viewing physical disk properties	34
Managing the physical disk write cache policy for SATA drives	35
Assigning the global hot spare	36
Unassign a global hot spare	36
Assigning the dedicated hot spare	36
Cryptographic erase	37
Viewing global hot spares	37
Installing the drivers	38
Pre-installation requirements	38
Setting the SATA controller to RAID mode	38
Setting the NVMe PCIe SSDs to RAID mode	38
Creating a virtual disk	39
Checking PERC S140 options and the boot list priority.	39
Creating the device driver media for Windows driver installation	40
Downloading drivers for PERC S140 from the Dell support website for all operating systems	40
Downloading drivers from the Dell Systems Service and Diagnostic Tools media for Windows	40
Accessing ZP files	40
Troubleshooting your system	42
Precautions for hot removal or hot insertion of NVMe drives	42
Unable to configure Linux RAID using UEFI Configuration Utility	42
Performance degradation after disabling SATA physical disk write cache policy	42
Unable to modify any feature settings in UEFI or OPROM	43
Extra reboot during OS installation	43
After enabling Hypervisor, system displays Blue Screen of Death	43
After enabling node interleaving in BIOS, system displays Blue Screen of Death	43
OS installation failing on NVMe PCIe SSD with third-party driver	43
System startup issues	43
System does not boot	44
Controller mode is set incorrectly at System Setup	44
Boot mode, boot sequence, and or boot sequence retry are set incorrectly	44
Bootable virtual disk is in a failed state	44
The boot order is incorrect for a bootable virtual disk	44
A Non-RAID virtual disk is no longer in first position in the BIOS configuration utility list after a system reboot	44
The BIOS configuration utility option does not display	45
Configuring RAID using the Option ROM Utility is disabled	45
Warning Messages	45
WARNING- Found virtual disks that are degraded	45
WARNING - Found virtual disks that are failed	45
WARNING - Found virtual disks that are degraded and failed	46
Offline status of SAMSUNG 1733 or 1735 drives	46
Other errors appearing on the BIOS screen	46
BSOD is observed while booting on the NVMe configuration server	46
Failure of dump file creation	47
S140 does not display greater than ten virtual disks in the BIOS Configuration Utility or CTRL R	47
Unable to delete virtual disks when there are more than 30 virtual disks present in the system	47
Virtual disk rebuild status in the BIOS Configuration Utility (<CTRL><R>) or in UEFI HII	47
Physical disk - related errors	47
The physical disk fails	47
A physical disk is not visible in the BIOS Configuration Utility or is offline	47
A physical disk is highlighted red at the BIOS Configuration Utility or Ctrl R	48
Cannot initialize a physical disk	48
Status LED is not working	48
Blinking and unblinking feature not working on PowerEdge R740	48
Cannot update NVMe PCIe SSD firmware by using Dell Update Package or DUP	48
Third-party driver installation for NVMe PCIe SSD failing	48
Unable to find the NVMe PCIe SSD for operating system installation	49
Virtual disks - Related errors	49
Virtual disk size in decimals is not supported while creating a VD	49
Cannot create a virtual disk	49
The physical disk is not displayed	49
Insufficient free space available on the selected physical disks	49
Incorrect number of physical disks selected for the desired RAID level	49
The desired physical disk is unavailable	50
The system already has a maximum of 30 virtual disks	50
A virtual disk is in a degraded state	50
A physical disk was removed	50
Physical or mechanical problems with the physical disk	50
The virtual disk has lost redundancy	50
Corrupted metadata in the virtual disk	50
Cannot assign a dedicated hot spare to a virtual disk	50
The RAID level does not allow a dedicated hot spare to be created	50
The designated physical disk does not have sufficient capacity to be a dedicated hot spare	51
The physical disk is already part of a virtual disk	51
The physical disk are of different types	51
Cannot create a global hot spare	51
There are no empty physical disks available or the physical disks have not been converted to RAID-capable disks	51
The physical disk is already part of a virtual disk	51
The physical disk assigned as the global hot spare has failed	51
The physical disk assigned as the global hot spare is missing	51
A dedicated hot spare fails	52
The controller cannot communicate with the hot spare	52
The dedicated spare is not visible in the BIOS Configuration Utility or is offline	52
Failed or degraded virtual disk	52
Cannot create a virtual disk on selected physical disks	52
RAID disk created from the NVMe PCIe SSDs not appearing in operating system environment, showing as partitioned disks	52
Cannot perform an Online Capacity Expansion or Reconfigure on a virtual disk	52
Unable to configure RAID on NVMe PCIe SSD using a third party RAID configuration utility	52
Getting help	53
Contacting Dell	53
Locating your system Service Tag	53
Related documentation	53

Match case Limit results 1 per page

Virtual Disks

A logical grouping of physical disks attached to a PERC S140 allows you to create multiple virtual disks of the same RAID levels, without

exceeding a maximum of 30 virtual disks.

The PERC S140 controller allows:

•

Creating virtual disks of different RAID levels on a S140 controller.

NOTE:

Ensure that you do not mix RAID levels on the same physical disks.

•

Building different virtual disks with different characteristics for different applications.

•

Creating virtual disks from a mix of NVMe PCIe SSD 2.5-inch SFFs and NVMe PCIe SSD adapters.

The PERC S140 controller does not allow:

•

Creating a virtual disk from a mix of different types of physical disks. For example, a RAID 10 virtual disk cannot be created from two

SATA HDD physical disks and a SATA SSD physical disk. All of the physical disks must be of the same drive type (HDD/SSD/NVMe

PCIe SSDs).

•

Selecting a physical disk as a dedicated hot spare if the physical disk is a different type from the physical disk of the virtual disks.

A virtual disk refers to data storage which a controller creates using one or more physical disks.

NOTE:

A virtual disk can be created from several physical disks; the operating system considers it a single disk.

The capacity of a virtual disk can be expanded online for any RAID level without rebooting the operating system.

NOTE:

If the boot VD is spanned across different SATA controllers, then Windows Hardware Quality Labs testing

(WHQL), DF - Reinstall with I/O Before and After (Reliability) fails in a server having two SATA controllers.

Topics:

•

Virtual disk features

TRIM for SATA SSDs

The TRIM command allows an operating system to delete a block of data that is no longer considered in use from the SATA SSDs. TRIM

resolves the Write Amplification issue for supported operating systems. When an operating system deletes a file, the file is marked for

deletion in the file system, but the contents on the disk are not actually erased. As a result, the SSDs do not know that the Logical Block

Addressing (LBA) file previously occupied can be erased. With the introduction of TRIM, when a file is deleted, the operating system sends

a TRIM command along with the LBAs that do not contain valid data.

NOTE:

The TRIM feature is supported only on pass-through SSDs.

NOTE:

The TRIM feature is not supported on NVMe PCIe SSDs.

To perform TRIM on the pass-through SSDs

Create a volume on a pass-through SSD drive.

In the Windows operating system, navigate to the

Defragmentation and Optimize Drive

tool.

Select the volume created on the pass-through SSD and click

Optimize

TRIM is applied.

Disk initialization

For physical disks, initialization writes metadata to the physical disk so that the controller can use the physical disk.

Virtual Disks