How to Install, Update, and Manage Fusion-IO Drives in Windows OS on Dell PowerEdge Servers

1. Installation

1. Refer to the Owner's Manual for your PowerEdge server for instructions on installing a PCIe at the Dell Product Support site.
2. To determine the optimal PCIe slot to install the card in refer to the - PowerEdge Servers Slot Support Matrix.
3. Navigate to Dell ioDrive Support Center.
4. Under drivers and downloads, choose the following:
   1. 1. Select Product (Choose appropriate drive).
      2. Operating System (Choose your operating system).
      3. Select Version (Choose "Current").
5. Under software binaries, download OS appropriate version of the Dell_IO_Management application.
6. Change the "Select Product" option to ioSphere. Select appropriate OS and Version.
7. Under ioSphere, download the OS appropriate Dell IO Management Server application.
8. Install the appropriate IO Management.
9. Install ioSphere.
10. Run ioSphere. Choose new install.
11. Set the administrative password, and confirm it.
12. Choose the configuration tab in the GUI, and click the name of the ioDrive device. Confirm that the driver and firmware are listed for the device.

2. Driver update and reinstallation

1. Remove all io management software through Add/Remove programs in control panel.
2. Navigate to C:\Program Files Delete Fusion-io iomemory VSL if present.
3. Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData. Delete the fio and fio-logs folders if present.
4. Navigate to Device Manager. Uninstall any Fusion IO drivers under storage or disk drives.
5. Reboot. Download and install latest VSL driver first.
6. Download and install latest version of ioSphere.
7. Open ioSphere and confirm that the card is recognized.

3. Updating Fusion ioDrive while in minimal status

On a fresh install, you may run into the card being in a "minimal" status when attempting to update the firmware. The status should provide a description of the problem, but it will not allow the update to be performed through the web GUI. Here are the instructions to perform the update through command line.

1. Download the latest firmware from dell.fusionio.com.
2. Create a folder named Firmware in C:\Program Files\Fusion-io iomemory VSL.
3. Move firmware file to C:\Program Files\Fusion-io iomemory VSL\Firmware.
4. Open an elevated command prompt. Navigate to the location of the ioDrive firmware. Example: cd "C:\Program Files\Fusion-io iomemory VSL\Firmware".
5. Enter: <fio-status> fct# should be displayed for the device ID, where # is your listed ID.
6. Enter: <fio-update-iodrive /dev/fct# "C:\Program Files\Fusion-io iomemory VSL\Firmware">. Update should begin.
7. Allow update to complete.
8. Reboot the system.

Note: Duo card models have two fct# IDs; the update command needs to be performed for each node.