Dell EMC PowerVault MD3460 Series Storage Arrays Deployment Guide February 2018 Rev.
Notes, cautions, and warnings NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem. WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. Copyright © 2016 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Dell, EMC, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries.
Contents Chapter 1: Introduction................................................................................................................... 5 System Requirements...........................................................................................................................................................5 Introduction To Storage Arrays...........................................................................................................................................
Locating your Dell system Service Tag ............................................................................................................................
1 Introduction This guide provides information about deploying Dell PowerVault MD3460 storage arrays. The deployment process includes: • • • Hardware installation Modular Disk Storage Manager (MD Storage Manager) installation Initial system configuration Other information provided include system requirements, storage array organization, and utilities. NOTE: For more information on product documentation, see Related Documentation.
each disk group and virtual disk on your storage array. For more information about using RAID and managing data in your storage solution, see the Dell PowerVault MD Series Storage Arrays Administrator's Guide at dell.com/powervaultmanuals. Related Documentation NOTE: For all PowerVault documentation, go to dell.com/powervaultmanuals and enter the system Service Tag to get your system documentation. NOTE: For all Dell OpenManage documents, go to dell.com/openmanagemanuals.
2 Hardware Installation Before using this guide, ensure that you review the instructions in the: • • • Dell PowerVault MD3460/MD3860i/MD3860f Storage Arrays Getting Started Guide — The Getting Started Guide that is shipped with the storage array provides information to configure the initial setup of the system. Dell PowerVault MD Series Storage Arrays Administrator's Guide — The Administrator's Guide provides information about important concepts you must know before setting up your storage solution.
• • Number of hosts required Level of data consistency required Consistent And Non-Consistent Configurations Non-consistent configurations are configurations that provide only a single data path from a host to the storage array. This type of configuration is only recommended for non-critical data storage. Path failure from a failed or removed cable, a failed HBA, or a failed or removed RAID controller module results in loss of host access to storage on the storage array.
Figure 2.
Figure 3. Four Hosts Connected to Two RAID Controllers The following figure shows eight hosts, each connected to only one RAID controller module. This configuration allows the maximum number of hosts that may be connected, but provides no consistency.
Figure 4. Eight Hosts Connected to Two RAID Controllers The following figures show up to four cluster nodes connected to two RAID controller modules. Because each cluster node has consistent paths, loss of a single path would still allow access to the storage array through the alternate path.
Figure 5.
Figure 6. Four Cluster Nodes Connected to Two RAID Controllers Cabling PowerVault MD3060e Expansion Enclosures You can expand the capacity of your PowerVault MD3460 Series storage array by adding PowerVault MD3060e expansion enclosures. You can expand the physical disk drive pool to a maximum of 120 (or 180, if enabled using Premium Feature activation) physical disk drives using a maximum of two expansion enclosures.
MD3060e Expansion cabling diagrams Figure 7.
Figure 8. Dual expansion cabling diagram Expanding With New PowerVault MD3060e Expansion Enclosures NOTE: Hot plug of MD3060e expansion enclosure is not recommended. Power on all MD3060e expansion enclosures before you power on the array enclosure. For helpful videos and other resources on PowerVault MD series, see dell.com/ PVresources. Perform the following steps to attach new PowerVault MD3060e expansion enclosures to a PowerVault MD3460 Series storage array: 1.
6. Turn off the storage array. 7. Turn off any expansion enclosure(s) in the affected system. 8. Cable the expansion enclosure(s) to the storage array. For correct cabling diagrams, see "Cabling PowerVault MD3060e Expansion Enclosure" earlier in this guide. 9. Turn on the expansion enclosure(s) and wait for the enclosure status LED to turn blue. 10. Turn on the storage array and wait for the status LED to indicate that the unit is ready: • • 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.
3 Installing MD Storage Manager The PowerVault MD Series resource media contains software and drivers for both Linux and Microsoft Windows operating systems. The root of the media contains a readme.txt file describing changes to the software, updates, fixes, patches, and other important data applicable to both Linux and Windows operating systems. The readme.
Installing Host Bus Adapters And Drivers 1. 2. 3. 4. Install the host bus adapters (HBAs). Connect the cables. Install the HBA drivers and the operating system HBA patches/hotfixes. Ensure that the recommended HBA settings are applied. Graphical Installation (Recommended) The MD Storage Manager configures, manages, and monitors the storage array. To install the MD storage manager: 1. Insert the PowerVault MD Series resource media. Depending on your operating system, the installer may launch automatically.
The autorun script in the root of the resource media detects when there is no graphical environment running and automatically starts the installer in a text‑based mode. This mode provides the same options as graphical installation. Silent Installation Silent Installation On Windows To run silent installation on a Windows system: 1. Copy the custom_silent.properties file in the /windows folder of the installation media or image to a writable location on the host server. 2. Modify the custom_silent.
4 Post Installation Tasks Before using the Dell PowerVault storage array for the first time, complete these initial configuration tasks in the order shown. These tasks are performed using the MD Storage Manager. 1. For out-of-band management, you must set the network configuration for each RAID controller module, including its Internet Protocol (IP) address, subnetwork mask (subnet mask), and gateway. NOTE: You can set the network configuration using a DHCP server. 2. Launch MD Storage Manager.
2. The default name for a newly installed PowerVault MD3460 series storage array is Unnamed. If another name is displayed in MD Storage Manager, click the down arrow next to the name and click Unnamed in the drop-down list and rename the array. 3. Double-click on the discovered array to launch the array management window and make changes to the configuration of the array. 4. Click Perform Initial Setup Tasks to see an outline and links to the remaining post-installation tasks.
5 Uninstalling MD Storage Manager Topics: • • • • Uninstalling MD Storage Manager From Windows Uninstall MD Storage Manager From Windows Server GUI Version Uninstall MD Storage Manager From Windows Server Core Versions Uninstalling MD Storage Manager From Linux Uninstalling MD Storage Manager From Windows To uninstall the Modular Disk Storage Manager from Microsoft Windows Server: 1. Double-click Add or Remove Programs from the Control Panel. 2. Select Dell MD Storage Software from the list of programs.
Uninstalling MD Storage Manager From Linux By default, PowerVault MD Storage Manager is installed in the /opt/dell/mdstoragemanager directory. If another directory was used during installation, navigate to that directory before beginning the uninstallation procedure. 1. From the installation directory, open the Uninstall Dell MD Storage Software directory. 2. Run the file Uninstall Dell MD Storage Software.exe. 3. From the Uninstall window, click Next, and follow the instructions on the screen.
6 Load Balancing Topics: • • • Load Balance Policy Setting Load Balance Policies in Linux Setting Load Balance Policies in VMware Load Balance Policy Multi-path drivers select the I/O path to a virtual disk through a specific RAID controller module. When the multi-path driver receives a new I/O to process, the driver tries to find a path to the current RAID controller module that owns the virtual disk.
Setting Load Balance Policies in VMware VMware supports Asymmetric Logical Unit Access (ALUA). For more information on Most Recently Used (MRU) and Round Robin (RR) load balancing policies, see VMware documents.
7 Getting help Topics: • • Contacting Dell Locating your Dell system Service Tag Contacting Dell Dell provides several online and telephone-based support and service options. If you do not have an active internet connection, you can find contact information on your purchase invoice, packing slip, bill, or Dell product catalog. Availability varies by country and product, and some services may not be available in your area. To contact Dell for sales, technical assistance, or customer-service issues: 1.
