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PowerVault MD3000, PERC 5/E Configuration
Dear folks,
Has anyone used PERC 5/E on PowerEdge SC440 to configure a RAID system for MD3000, please ?
It says in the manual that it just need to type + on prompt but mine is not prompting this + , and I cannot access the raid configuration.
What I got on screen is following :
Dell SAS 5 Host Bus Adapter BIOS
MPTBIOS-6.12.02.00 (2006.12.22)
Adapter configuration may have changed, reconfiguration is suggested !
Press + to configure.
And once inside there's nothing to do but enabling or disabling the adapter and some configuration not having exactly relation with RAID configuration.
Thanks for your help and/or suggestion.
tommo666
1.2K Posts
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September 1st, 2010 07:00
The Sas 5 is just a host bus connector, the raid is on the MD3000, you either have1 or 2 contollers. Online docs are here. The server connects to this via the Sas card. To manage the MD3000 you need the resource cd. Install the storage manager software on the server. You can control from there.
ning_liang
8 Posts
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September 1st, 2010 22:00
MD3000 use SAS 5E OR SAS6E card, PERC 5/E is MD1000.
vantoora
2 Posts
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September 2nd, 2010 07:00
Thanks for your prompt reply TOMM0666, I can see my MD3000 through the Modular Disk Storage Manager from the resource CD you suggested.
But What I am asking for is that, isn't it possible to see all the disks on the MD3000 directly from the OS (Win2k3 Server Standard R2) through Disk management in MMC ?? As I'm also using a MD1000 and piloted by a Win2k3 Server Standard R1 and had configured my RAID directly in the configuration console without installing any resource CD (means directly after the BIOS invitation).
Thank you!
Dev Mgr
9.3K Posts
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September 2nd, 2010 07:00
This is incorrect; the MD3000 can only be used with the SAS5E card. It is not certified (and the cables wouldn't fit) with the SAS6E.
tommo666
1.2K Posts
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September 4th, 2010 08:00
You can attach up to 4 servers to the MD, ie one cable from a server to one port on the controller. There's no redundancy with this method.
If the MD was just like a raid card all servers would see all disks (nightmare). The MD hide disks from servers until you configure it. You create the virtual disk, create host groups, map hosts to disks etc. The configure tab in MDSM has it all plus there are wizards to assist. Set the host up first using the resource cd to load the software and drivers.
Dev Mgr
9.3K Posts
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September 7th, 2010 09:00
The MD1000, when attached to a PERC5E or PERC6E is a DAS (direct-attached-storage). The MD3000 is a SAN (Storage Area Network) array. Some may question whether it really is a SAN as there isn't really a way to 'network' the SAS protocol, but the rest of the MD3000 acts just like a SAN.
In a SAN you have to use some management application (on the MD3000 it's MDSM, but on others it often is a webpage based GUI) to create the raid setup and let the array know which server gets to see which virtual disk (LUN). As a SAN provides block level storage, you can't undiscrimitally 'share' disk space between servers; you need some kind of locking mechanism in place to prevent servers from overwriting eachothers changes. A common solution for that is clustering.
In a DAS setup, usually you can configure the raid in the bios of the raid controller, or within the OS with the right application(s) installed.