Dell 2900 with PERC 5/i Firmware update to 5.2.2-0072

Good morning.

The firmware update doesn't address the storage limit on the Perc controller.. It does, however, update the controllers ability to interact with the latest updates in the server OS.   If it is not updated, it can lead to array failures and possible loss of data.

Here are the issues the update specifically addresses:

1.  Fixes a Ctrl+R display issue caused due to DRAM initialization when BBU History is turned on

2.  Fixed an issue where hot spare goes offline during multiple virtual drive initialization

3.  Fixed an issue where PERC card allow RAID6 volume created on PERC6 to import

4.  Modified firmware to fail import of RAID6 volumes created on PERC6, since PERC5 does not support RAID6

5.  Addressed an restriction seen during the 128kb stripe sizes RAID volume creation from Ctrl+R

6.  Enhanced capabilities to notify users of hard drive failure through Server Backplane LEDs

7.  Improved handling of SKQ 02/04/11 sense data in firmware

8.  Enhanced Backplane SEP reset handling after firmware download

9.  Added improvements for handling PERC5 and PERC6 co-existence

10. Fixed an issue Write Cache Bit Settings being incorrectly toggled, causing warnings in database environments

11. Addresses a problem that may occur if a drive fails in a Virtual Disk within seconds after another drive completes a rebuild

12. Fixed issues around handling of drive failures during Raid Level Migration or Online Capacity Expansion

13. Modified the PERC Option ROM to improve CHS (Cylinder/Head/Sector) to LBA (Logical Block Address) translation, to add support for newer disk partition utilities

14. Addressed spinup issue for higher capacity SATA drives.

Regards,

As Geoff outlined, there are many reasons to update, and with servers, you should always keep you server firmware up to date, as they usually address potentially critical issues with the hardware.

The 2TB limit applies only to individual disks and cannot be addressed on the PERC 5 or 6 via firmware update.  For >2TB disks, you need to use a PERC 7 or 8.

Thank you for providing me with the this information. I am aware of the need for applying firmware updates. The part I was not clear on was the PERC 5/i integrated storage limitation. With in the Dell Poweredge 2900 hardware manual it simply stated that there is a 2 TB limit but it does not provide any further details. Is the 2 TB limit per controller? Per Disk drive? I tried placing 8 1 TB WD WD10EARX Enterprise drives in the system but the controller could only see 2 TB. This was done before applying the updated firmware--before I change out all the drives again I would like to have a better understanding of what the limitation of the PERC controller are. Again, if there are any white papers or detailed information on the PERC 5/i, 6/i, 7, or 8 I would be very interested in reading them. I have not completed my profile as of yet but I have been working with computer/networks for 15 years so I have some understanding of how things work.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my inquires.

Mark R Bracking

Microsoft Small Business Specialist

Sorry if I missed something ... in your original post, you said you were looking for information on updating "from 5.1.1-0040 to 5.2.2-0072" ... I guess I assumed you had not already done so and were looking for a good reason to - or not to - (which is probably also why I started lecturing on the importance of firmware updates :)).

Generally speaking, it is safest to do BIOS, ESM, then the PERC (driver first), DRAC, etc., because some device firmware is dependent on updated BIOS or ESM firmware.  In many cases, there is no harm done, but in some cases, the update can fail, the system may not properly communicate with the device, things like CPU errors can occur, etc.

Good luck.

I have 5.2.2-0072 wouldn't 5.2.1-0067 be one older? Has for the information being simplistic don't worry about that. You are correct  even the most seasoned IT people can miss stuff.

I have updated the BIOS and the PERC 5/i to what I believe are the newest releases. I plan on doing the ESM/BMC today. The order of updating I followed are BIOS, PERC 5 firmware, than the ESM/BCM. I'll finish updating the rest of the hardware today than give the 1 TB drives another shot.

Thank you for your help and suggestion

Is it going to cause any problems that I did the BIOS PERC ESM than DRAC? Do you know were I can find detailed information that explains the PERC. I have downloaded all the Document on the dell site for the 2900 (based on Service Tag) and read through them all but I would like something that is more detailed if possible. I need to place this server in a clients site on Monday so I would like to finish this up by Saturday so I can spend Sunday testing all the pieces together.

Thanks for all your help this will be my last questions

Not if everything is working ok now.  The chance of problems jumps the older the firmware you are talking about - yours wasn't "that" old ... the 2900 has like 16 BIOS updates and the PERC like 8, so if we were talking about some of the original firmware, you might have seen some issue ... and the issues are going to be immediate (no POST, error messages, update failed messages, etc.) - it's not like there might be some bug lurking in your system somewhere because of how it was updated :)

Here is the manual for the PERC 5 controllers:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/RAID/PERC5/en/

Some additional information, as it is compared with the PERC 6:
http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/power/ps2q08-20080255-Dixit.pdf

And some additional information in the manual for OpenManage Server Administrator (User's Guide and Storage Management User's Guide):

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

Don't hesitate to ask more questions, if you have them ... not everything can be learned from the documentation :)