How to use the PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) Command Line Interface (CLI) utility to manage your RAID controller
Summary:How to download, install and use the Dell EMC PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) Command Line Interface (CLI) utility to manage your RAID controller on Dell EMC systems.
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This article explains how to download, install, and use the Dell EMC PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) Command Line Interface (CLI) utility to manage your RAID controller. The utility is supported on PERC Series 8 and newer family controllers on host running Windows, Linux, or ESXi. PERCCLI can also extract RAID controller logs which contain information that allows you and/or Dell Technical Support to determine the status of RAID controllers and the connected storage devices to narrow down possible sources of error.
PERCCLI has replaced MegaCli starting with the PERC Series 8 and newer series. See the List of PERC types for Dell EMC systems to identify which series is your PERC controller.
Access the PERCCLI in Microsoft Windows, Linux, or VMware:
Video for using PERCCLI in Windows Videos are in English. Translated subtitles available for some languages. Additional videos can be found in our Video Library.
Perform the following procedures to install and use PERCCLI in Windows operating systems:
Download the Windows PERCCLI utility from Dell support site. Select your system, then Drivers & downloads filtering by category SAS RAID or by using the keyword PERCCLI
Unzip the self-extracting downloaded file, and copy the perccli.exe and perccli64.exe files to C:\Windows\System32 directory
From the command prompt, run any of the following example PERCCLI commands:
PERCCLI commands require Administrative rights in Windows operating systems
Depending upon version of OS and perccli, executable may be perccli or perccli64
Command
Action
perccli show
Shows a summary of controller and controller-associated information. The summary includes the number of controllers by index.
perccli /cx show termlog
/cX specifies the controller where X is the controller index
Example: If the controller index was 0 the command would be "perccli /c0 show termlog"
Creates the RAID controller log (ttylog)
perccli /cX /eall /sall show all > disks.txt
/cX specifies the controller where X is the controller index
Example: perccli /c0 /eall /sall show all > disks.txt
Creates the RAID controller log with all information for all slots on the controller
perccli /cX show eventloginfo > eventloginfo.txt
/cX specifies the controller where X is the controller index
Example: perccli /c0 show eventloginfo > eventloginfo.txt
Creates the RAID controller log with history of the log files
Perform the following procedures to install and use the PERCCLI in Linux operating systems:
Download the Linux PERCCLI utility from Dell support site. Select your system, then Drivers & downloads filtering by category SAS RAID or by using the keyword PERCCLI
To install the percli RPM, run rpm -ivh <percli-x.xx-x.noarch.rpm>, or to upgrade the percli RPM, run rpm -Uvh <percli-x.xx-x.noarch.rpm>.
Change directory to /opt/MegaRAID/perccli.
As a root user, run ./perccli.
From the terminal window, run any of the following example PERCCLI commands:
PERCCLI commands require root privileges in Linux
Depending upon version of OS and perccli, executable may be perccli or perccli64
Command
Action
./perccli show
Shows a summary of controller and controller-associated information. The summary includes the number of controllers by index.
./perccli /cX show termlog
/cX specifies the controller where X is the controller index
Example: If the controller index was 0 the command would be "./perccli /c0 show termlog"
Creates the RAID controller log (ttylog)
./perccli /cX /eall /sall show all > disks.txt
/cX specifies the controller where X is the controller index
Example: ./perccli /c0 /eall /sall show all > disks.txt
Creates the RAID controller log with all information for all slots on the controller
./perccli /cX show eventloginfo > eventloginfo.txt
/cX specifies the controller where X is the controller index
Example: ./perccli /c0 show eventloginfo > eventloginfo.txt
Creates the RAID controller log with history of the log files
Perform the following procedures to access the command prompt in systems using VMware:
Download the VMware PERCCLI utility from Dell support site. Select your system, then Drivers & downloads filtering by category SAS RAID or by using the keyword PERCCLI
Extract the VMware_PERCCLI_xxxxx_x.x-xxx.xxxx.tar.gz to /vmfs/volume/datastore1 on the host
View the list of installed VIB packages using the following command: esxcli software vib list
Install the VIB package using the command: esxcli software vib install -v /vmfs/volume/datastore1/vmware-perccli-xxx.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.vib --no-sig-check where /vmfs/volume/datastore1 is the path detail of the VIB.
You can remove the installed VIB by using the command: esxcli software vib remove -n=vmware-esx-perccli.vib --force
Run perccli by browsing to the following location: cd/opt/lsi/perccli
From the terminal window, run any of the following example PERCCLI commands:
Depending upon version of OS and perccli, executable may be perccli or perccli64
Command
Action
./perccli show
Shows a summary of controller and controller-associated information. The summary includes the number of controllers by index.
./perccli /cX show show termlog logfile=log.txt
/cX specifies the controller where X is the controller index
Example: ./perccli /c0 show termlog logfile=log.txt
Creates the RAID controller log (ttylog)
./perccli /cX /eall /sall show all > disks.txt
/cX specifies the controller where X is the controller index
Example: ./perccli /c0 /eall /sall show all > disks.txt
Creates the RAID controller log with all information for all slots on the controller
./perccli /cX show eventloginfo > eventloginfo.txt
/cX specifies the controller where X is the controller index
Example: ./perccli /c0 show eventloginfo > eventloginfo.txt
Creates the RAID controller log with history of the log files
List of available PERC commands
See your PERC User's Guide or CLI Reference Guide for information on the specific commands that are supported by that controller. For your PERC adapter documentation, access Storage Adapters & Controllers, select your specific storage controller, and click the "Documentation" tab and then "Manuals and Documents" section.
In each manual command lines are listed by category, for example: