Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation How to setup a custom RAID configuration Precision 5820 Tower Precision 7820 Tower Precision 7920 Tower Dell Precision Workstation Engineering May 2018 A Dell configuration guide
Revisions Date Description May 2018 Initial release The information in this publication is provided “as is.” Dell Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Use, copying, and distribution of any software described in this publication requires an applicable software license. Copyright © 2018 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries.
Table of contents Revisions.............................................................................................................................................................................2 1 2 3 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................5 1.1 Overview .............................................................................................................
6.3 Foreign configurations ......................................................................................................................................53 6.3.1 Importing a foreign configuration ......................................................................................................................53 6.3.2 Deleting a foreign configuration ........................................................................................................................55 6.
1 Introduction This chapter provides introduction to this document along with the scope and Glossary of terms. 1.1 Overview This document helps with configuring RAID volumes on SATA, SAS, and NVMe drives using Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Enterprise (Intel® RSTe), Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) and Broadcom MegaRAID® SAS 9440-8i and 9460-16i RAID controllers. Intel® RSTe supports only SATA drives. Intel® VROC supports only NVMe drives.
1.4 Solid State Drive JBOD Just a Bunch Of Disks. Mode that uses raw drives without any RAID configuration. RAID Redundant Array of Independent Disks RAID Array Set of drives grouped together to form a Drive Group which is also known as Array. RAID Volume You may create more than one RAID volume from the same Drive Group. Volume is same as array if the Volume is made of whole drive group/array. Physical disk Represent the actual hardware, which could be a SSD, or an HDD.
2 RAID Introduction There are four RAID types supported in Precision 5820, 7820, 7920 Tower workstations: RAID0, RAID1, RAID5, and RAID10. Other RAID types are available on the MegaRAID SAS controllers, but they have not been validated on these platforms. Note: Broadcom RAID controllers support JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks) mode as well. Though JBOD mode should work fine on Precision 5820, 7820, 7920 Tower workstations, JBOD mode is not officially supported on these platforms.
2.2 RAID 1 – Data mirroring (100% redundancy) for data protection 8 100% duplication and instant failover. Requires two drives. Same capacity is expected. When two different capacity drives are used, Volume size will be same as that of the smaller drives capacity. e.g. if you use two 2TB drives, you get 2.0TB of RAID1 volume. Advantage – With proper load balancing, read performance can be twice that of a single drive. Write performance is almost same as single drive. Suitable for OS volumes.
2.3 RAID 5 – Striping (performance) and data protection via parity 9 Requires at least three drives Data is available even if one of the drives present in the volume fails, however the failed drive must be replaced and the volume must be rebuilt to for the data to be accessible. Total capacity = N-1, e.g. When you use 3 drives of 1.0TB size, you get a 2.0TB RAID5 volume Disadvantage - rebuilding a large RAID5 volume can take a long time Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
2.4 RAID 10 – A “stripe of mirrors” 10 Combines RAID0 and RAID1. Requires minimum 4 drives. Only even number of drives can be used. Odd number of drives are not possible. Total capacity = half the sum of individual drives capacity, e.g. When you use 4 drives of 1.0TB, you get a RAID10 Volume of 2.0TB. Advantage: Higher performance (as blocks are striped), Better redundancy (as blocks are mirrored) Disadvantage: Cost. Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
3 Platforms and Supported Controllers The workstations used in this guide are Precision 5820 Tower, Precision 7820 Tower, and Precision 7920 Tower. The Precision 7820 Tower and Precision 7920 Tower systems support processors from the Intel Xeon Processor Scalable Family and ship with the C621 (C620 Family) chipset. The Precision 5820 Tower system supports processors from the Intel Xeon Processor Workstation Family and contain the C422 chipset.
Intel® VMD Controller layout Controller 5820/7820 Tower 7920 Tower VMD Controller 1 Slot 1 (2 ports), PCIE0, PCIE1 Slot 1 (2 ports), PCIE0, PCIE1 VMD Controller 2 Slot 2 (4 ports) Slot 2 (4 ports) VMD Controller 3 Slot 4 (4 ports) Slot 4 (4 ports) VMD Controller 1 (CPU1) Not applicable PCIE0_CPU1, PCIE1_CPU1 VMD Controller 2 (CPU1) Not applicable Slot 6 VMD Controller 3 (CPU1) Not Applicable Slot 7 Boot is supported for RAID arrays attached to Intel® VMD controllers this generation.
UEFI mode and use the UEFI-HII utility to create RAID volumes as shown in this document. Then, switch the mode back to Legacy BIOS mode to install OS. The RAID volumes created in UEFI Mode are persistent and are usable in Legacy BIOS as well. Note: Installing OS in UEFI mode, will partition the drive to GPT mode. If you switch the boot mode to Legacy after installing the OS, your operating system will not be bootable. Because legacy BIOS expects the OS to be installed on an MBR partition.
4 Configuring RAID with Intel RSTe 4.1 Configuring RAID using Legacy OROM configuration utility During POST when the Intel RSTE Option ROM is loading, press CTRL+I on the keyboard to enter the Intel® RSTE Configuration Utility. Once inside the OROM the user can navigate around using the up (↑) and down (↓) arrows on the keyboard. ESC can be used to exit the OROM and reboot the system. ENTER is used to select the currently highlighted menu option.
Choose a RAID level: The next step is to choose the RAID level that you plan on configuring. Use the ↑ and ↓ arrow keys on the keyboard to select different options. Once the desired RAID level is chosen, press TAB to go to the next step. Note: Depending on the number of drives attached to the system, the RAID options may be limited. RAID0 requires a minimum of 2 drives. RAID1 is limited to 2 drives. RAID5 requires a minimum of 3 drives. RAID10 requires a minimum of 4 drives.
You will now be presented with a screen similar to the below. You can use ↑ and ↓ arrow keys on the keyboard to navigate between the different drives. The SPACE key is used to select the drives you plan on using for the RAID Volume. The ENTER key is used to finish this step. Press TAB to move to the next step. A small green indicator will appear next to the drives that you have selected as shown below. 16 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
Select Stripe size and Capacity (Optional): Strip size can be adjusted depending on the usage scenario. This is entirely up to the user on the strip size that might provide the most benefit to your usage model. The capacity section of this menu is automatically populated with the maximum capacity available based on the combination of RAID Level chosen, and the actual drive capacity. This can be adjusted if the user desires.
Confirmation: Press ENTER to select this option. You will now be presented with a warning that all data will be lost on the drives when you create the RAID array. If you are ready, press Y to create the RAID volume. 18 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
Completion: You will now be taken back to the home page. If your RAID volume was created successfully, you should see the RAID volume appear in the list, and the drive status for the member drives will have changed as well. Please see below, for a simple RAID0 built from two 500GB HDD’s. 4.1.2 Deleting a RAID Volume Enter the Intel RSTE Legacy OROM: During POST when the Intel RSTE Option ROM is loading, press CTRL+I on the keyboard to enter the Intel® RSTE Configuration Utility.
Choosing the Volume to delete: You will now be presented with the below screen. Use the ↑ and ↓ arrow keys again to select the RAID volume you would like to delete. Once selected, press the DEL (Delete) button on your keyboard to delete the volume. 20 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
Confirmation: There is a confirmation step prior to deletion to confirm. All data on the disks will be deleted upon completion of this step. If you are certain you’d like to proceed, press the Y key on your keyboard. Upon successful deletion, you will be taken back to the original home screen. 4.2 Configuring RAID using UEFI-HII When UEFI boot mode is enabled, and Legacy Option ROMs are disabled, the user will not see the Intel RSTE Option ROM load during system boot.
Entering the Device Configuration Utility: Using the ↑ and ↓ arrow keys, navigate to Device Configuration, and press the ENTER key on your keyboard. Depending upon the devices you have installed in the system, you may be presented with different options than the below. You can use the left and right arrow keys to navigate to the different devices you have installed in the system. 22 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
Navigation within the Device Configuration Utility: Once inside the Intel RSTe SATA Controller the user can navigate around using the up (↑) and down (↓) arrows on the keyboard. ESC can be used to exit the device and return to the Boot Options Menu. ENTER is used to select the currently highlighted menu option. These options are also described at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Creating a RAID Volume: Navigate to “Create RAID Volume” and press the “ENTER” key.
Name the RAID Volume: The first step is to provide a name for the RAID Array. This can be an alphanumeric name with no more than 16 characters. Once finished, press the down arrow to go to the next step. Choose a RAID Level: The next step is to choose the RAID level that you plan on configuring. Use the + and – keys on the keyboard to select different options. Once the desired RAID level is chosen, press TAB to go to the next step.
Note: A small X will appear next to the drives that you have selected as shown above. Drives already a part of an existing volume will not appear in this list. You will need to delete the existing volume if you plan to use those drives within a new RAID volume. Choose Strip Size and Capacity (Optional): Strip size can be adjusted depending on the usage scenario. This is entirely up to the user on the strip size that might provide the most benefit to your usage model.
Confirmation: Press ENTER to select this option. You will now be presented with a warning that all data will be lost on the drives when you create the RAID array. If you are ready, press Y to create the RAID volume. Completion: You will now be taken back to the home page. If your RAID volume was created successfully, you should see the RAID volume appear in the list, and the drives included in the RAID volume are no longer present within the Non-RAID Physical Disks list.
4.2.2 Deleting a RAID Volume Entering the Boot Options menu: During system POST, press the F12 menu when the Dell logo is loading. You will see a progress bar appear if your keystroke was successful. You will now be presented with a menu similar to the below. Choosing the right RAID Volume: Enter the Device Configuration menu as shown in the Creating a RAID Volume step.
Delete Volume: You will now be presented with the below screen. Use the ↑ and ↓ arrow keys again to navigate to different options within the menu. You can also select the individual disks and press Enter to see additional information on the disks. Once you are ready to delete the volume, navigate to the Delete option as below, and press Enter on your keyboard. 28 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
Confirmation: There is a confirmation step prior to deletion to confirm. All data on the disks will be deleted upon completion of this step. If you are certain you’d like to proceed, navigate to Yes using the up and down arrow keys, and press Enter. Completion: Upon successful deletion, you will be taken back to the original home screen. 29 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
5 Configuring RAID with Intel VROC The Intel VROC is used to configure RAID volumes on NVMe drives connected to Onboard PCIe slots. It is only available in UEFI boot mode. This feature needs a VROC key to be installed, and it is available when Intel VMD technology is enabled in system BIOS setup. 5.1 Enabling Intel VMD Technology To enter BIOS setup, we can either press F12 during POST and then select BIOS Setup or press F2 to go directly to the BIOS settings.
Entering the Device Configuration Utility: Using the ↑ and ↓ arrow keys, navigate to Device Configuration, and press the ENTER key on your keyboard. Depending upon the devices you have installed in the system, you may be presented with different options than the below. You can use the left and right arrow keys to navigate to the different devices you have installed in the system. Select the Intel Virtual RAID on CPU tab as shown below. 32 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
Navigation within the Device Configuration Utility: Once inside the Intel Virtual RAID on CPU the user can navigate around using the up (↑) and down (↓) arrows on the keyboard. ESC can be used to exit the device and return to the Boot Options Menu. ENTER is used to select the currently highlighted menu option. These options are also described at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Creating a RAID Volume: Navigate to “All Intel VDM Controllers” and press the “ENTER” key.
Then highlight the “Create RAID Volume” and press the “ENTER” key. Name the RAID Volume: The first step is to provide a name for the RAID Array. This can be an alphanumeric name with no more than 16 characters. Once finished, press the down arrow to go to the next step. 34 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
Choose a RAID Level: The next step is to choose the RAID level that you plan on configuring. Use the + and – keys on the keyboard to select different options. Once the desired RAID level is chosen, press TAB to go to the next step. Note: Depending on the number of drives attached to the system, the RAID options may be limited. RAID0 requires a minimum of 2 drives. RAID1 is limited to 2 drives. RAID5 requires a minimum of 3 drives. RAID10 requires a minimum of 4 drives.
Press ENTER to select this option. Completion: You will now be taken back to the home page. If your RAID volume was created successfully, you should see the RAID volume appear in the list, and the drives included in the RAID volume are no longer present within the Non-RAID Physical Disks list. Please see below, for a simple RAID1 built from two 256GB NVME drives. 5.3 Deleting a RAID Volume Choosing the right RAID Volume: Enter the Device Configuration menu as shown in the Creating a RAID Volume step.
Delete Volume: You will now be presented with the below screen. Use the ↑ and ↓ arrow keys again to navigate to different options within the menu. You can also select the individual disks and press Enter to see additional information on the disks. Once you are ready to delete the volume, navigate to the Delete option as below, and press Enter on your keyboard. 37 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
Confirmation: There is a confirmation step prior to deletion to confirm. All data on the disks will be deleted upon completion of this step. If you are certain you’d like to proceed, navigate to Yes using the up and down arrow keys, and press Enter. Completion: Upon successful deletion, you will be taken back to the original home screen. 38 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
6 Broadcom MegaRAID® 9440-8i and 9460-16i Controllers In this current generation Configuration utility in Legacy BIOS mode is de-featured. And so, the user need to use UEFI-HII Configuration utility to do RAID configurations with Broadcom MegaRAID 9440-8i and 9460-16i controllers. After successfully creating the RAID volumes, user is free to use either legacy BIOS mode or UEFI boot mode. Note: Avago is the previous name for Broadcom and may still appear in some of the tools.
Creating the RAID Volume: When you are ready to create a RAID Array or Virtual Drive, navigate to where Configuration Management is highlighted and press Enter. You will now be presented with the below menu. Press Enter again (Create Virtual Drive) to begin setting the RAID array. 41 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
Choosing a RAID Level: The first step to creating a RAID array is to choose the RAID level desired. You can either use the +/ -- keys on the keyboard to change the RAID level, or press Enter to bring up a list of supported RAID options based on the HDD’s available in the system. On this same page, you can use the up and down arrows to navigate down to other options that will be different based on a given use case. We will proceed with using the default options.
Saving Configuration and Confirmation: You will now be back at the previous menu. From here, navigate to Save Configuration and press the Enter key. At this point, you will be presented with a final warning that creating the drive will cause all data to be lost. Press the Enter key, and enable the Confirmation button. Alternatively, you can use the + key to enable the confirmation button. Use the arrow keys to navigate down to Yes, and press Enter again.
6.1.1 Creating a RAID10 Volume RAID10 is a spanned volume and so it requires additional steps to create a RAID10 compared to other volumes. The additional steps are shown below for an example of creating a RAID 10 volume from 4x 500GB drives. Choosing a RAID Level: Choose RAID10 from select RAID level option. Select Spans: As RAID10 is a spanned virtual drive, we need to add multiple spans. For a 4 drive RAID10, you need 2 spans of RAID1. Select “Add More Spans” to create two spans.
Then we will select drives for each span as shown below. Selecting Drives for Span 1: When we press enter with the “Select Drives” highlighted for span 1, we can choose from the Unconfigured drives shown. For this example, two drives are selected (shown as enabled) and we will then apply the changes. 45 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
Selecting Disks for Span 2: When we press enter with the “Select Drives” highlighted for span 2, we can choose from the Unconfigured drives shown. For this example, we select the two drives left and we will then apply the changes. Once both spans have drives selected, we will see a screen similar to that shown below. 46 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
Saving Configuration and Confirmation: From here, navigate to Save Configuration and press the Enter key. At this point, you will be presented with a final warning that creating the drive will cause all data to be lost. Press the Enter key, and enable the Confirmation button. Alternatively, you can use the + key to enable the confirmation button. Use the arrow keys to navigate down to Yes, and press Enter again. Your RAID array will now be created and begin initialization.
6.2 Deleting a RAID Volume Enter the Device Configuration Menu: During system POST, press the F12 menu when the Dell logo is loading. You will see a progress bar appear if your keystroke was successful. You will now be presented with a menu similar to the below. Using the ↑ and ↓ arrow keys, navigate to Device Configuration, and press the ENTER key on your keyboard. Depending upon the devices you have installed in the system, you may be presented with different options than the below.
Managing a Virtual Drive: From this menu, use the down arrows to select Virtual Drive Management and press the Enter key. 49 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
Selecting a Virtual Drive: Using the arrow keys, navigate to the Virtual Drive that you are planning on deleting, and press the Enter key. The example below, only contains a single Virtual Drive. Deleting the Virtual Drive: The next menu will show you the current status and configuration information for the RAID drive. You are able to make changes to the RAID array at this point. To delete the Virtual Drive, use the arrow keys to highlight the Operation option and press the Enter key.
This will bring up a small submenu as shown below. Use the arrow keys again to navigate down and highlight the Delete Virtual Drive option as shown below and press Enter. Perform Delete: A new option is presented to the previous menu as shown below, GO. Navigate to this option, and press Enter. 51 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
Confirmation: You will need to enable the confirmation and then confirm to actually delete the Virtual Drive. Completion: After you enable and confirm, your RAID array is deleted. 52 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
6.3 Foreign configurations When a volume is migrated by means of replacing one or more physical drives or by replacing the RAID controller, the remaining volume becomes Foreign. This scenario occurs when a controller fails, or one or more drives fail/malfunction. These foreign volumes will not be usable until it is imported. If the data present in the volume is not needed anymore, foreign volumes can be deleted instead of importing. 6.3.
Confirmation: This will then show information about importing the configuration. You will need to enable the confirm option, and then select Yes and press Enter. After importing, the volume will be available for access similar to any native RAID volume. 54 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
6.3.2 Deleting a foreign configuration Foreign configurations can either be imported, or deleted. If there is no use for the foreign configuration it is better to delete. Deleting foreign configuration is done by selecting “Clear Foreign configuration” and confirming the selection. 6.4 MegaRAID UEFI Driver health If the UEFI-HII configuration utility is not available, it is possible that the controller is not functioning correctly.
6.4.2 Making a controller healthy from failed state Select the Failed driver: Highlight the Avago EFI SAS Driver as shown below. 56 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
Acknowledging and Correcting Driver Health: We will next select the “Configuration Required” as shown below and press enter. The next screen will show that we need to input something to configure the driver. Press enter to get the input window and enter Y. After we press enter again, this will display Critical Message handling completed. Please exit. Now press Escape once. 57 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
Reconnect to the UEFI driver: After we completed the above step we will now need to reconnect the card. Press enter to get the Proceed with Reconnecting the Controller. Select OK and press enter. Completion - Card back to Healthy: We should now see that the card is healthy as shown below. We can press escape once and then continue on with the operation we wanted to execute. 58 Configuring RAID in a Dell workstation | 1.
7 Conclusion There are multiple ways to manage a RAID configuration in Precision workstations. Only the basic methods under pre-boot environment are discussed here. There are advanced methods and applications available to do these basic steps and advanced configurations options. These methods include StorCLI, LSI Storage Authority (LSA). If you are an advanced user, please contact Dell support or the MegaRAID controller documentations to know more about these advanced options.
