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Overview

Dell OpenManage™ Server Administrator Storage Management User's Guide

  Installation Considerations for Storage Management

  Supported Controllers

  Supported Enclosures

  Support for Disk and Volume Management

Dell OpenManage™ Server Administrator Storage Management provides enhanced features for configuring a system's locally-attached RAID and non-RAID disk storage. Storage Management enables you to perform controller and enclosure functions for all supported RAID and non-RAID controllers and enclosures from a single graphical or command-line interface without requiring use of the controller BIOS utilities. The graphical interface is wizard-driven with features for novice and advanced users and detailed online help. The command-line interface is fully-featured and scriptable. Using Storage Management, you can protect your data by configuring data-redundancy, assigning hot spares, or rebuilding failed physical disks. You can also perform data-destructive tasks. All users of Storage Management should be familiar with their storage environment and storage management.

Storage Management supports SCSI, SATA, ATA, and SAS but not fibre channel.

NOTE: Starting with Dell OpenManage 5.0, Array Manager is no longer an installable option. If you have an Array Manager installation and need information on how to migrate from Array Manager to Storage Management, refer to the product documentation prior to Storage Management 2.1 or Dell OpenManage 5.1.

For more information, see the following:

Installation Considerations for Storage Management

The following sections describe considerations for installing Storage Management.

PERC Console and FAST Compatibility Issues When Installing Storage Management

To maintain the integrity of storage device configuration, installing Storage Management on a system that has FAST or the PERC Console installed is an unsupported configuration. It is recommended that you uninstall FAST and the PERC Console before installing Storage Management. In particular, you may find that Storage Management or the FAST features are disabled at run time when using Storage Management on a system that also has FAST installed.

Storage Management replaces all storage management features provided by FAST and the PERC Console. In addition, Storage Management has features not provided by FAST and the PERC Console.

Compatibility With Linux Utilities

Installing Storage Management on a Linux system that has RAID storage management utilities provided by Dell or other vendors is an unsupported configuration. It is recommended that you uninstall these utilities before installing Storage Management. Storage Management replaces the storage management features provided by these utilities. Examples of the Dell or vendor-supplied Linux utilities include:

Prerequisite Drivers and Firmware on Linux

On Linux, Storage Management installation is unable to detect whether the drivers and firmware on the system are at the required level for installing and using Storage Management. When installing on Linux, you will be able to complete the installation regardless of whether the driver and firmware version meets the required level. If the driver and firmware version do not meet the required level, however, you may not have access to all functions provided by Storage Management. At Storage Management runtime, check your application log files for notifications on outdated firmware versions. See Storage Management readme for a complete listing of supported controller firmware and driver versions.

Version Requirements for Controller Firmware and Drivers

In order for Storage Management to function properly, the controllers must have the minimum required version of the firmware and drivers installed. The firmware and drivers listed in the Readme file refer to the minimum supported version for these controllers. Later versions of the firmware and drivers are also supported. See the Dell Support website at support.dell.com for the most recent driver and firmware requirements.

If you install Storage Management without the minimum required firmware and drivers, Storage Management may not be able to display any of the controllers or perform other functions. Storage Management generates alerts "2131" and "2132" when it detects unsupported firmware or drivers on a controller.

Supported Controllers

This release of Storage Management supports the following controllers.

The firmware and drivers listed in the Readme file refer to the minimum supported version for these controllers. Later versions of the firmware and drivers are also supported. See the Dell Support website at support.dell.com for the most recent driver and firmware requirements.

Supported RAID Controllers

Storage Management supports the following RAID controllers. See "RAID Controller Technology: SCSI, SATA, ATA, and SAS" for information on which technology the supported RAID controllers use.

NOTE: Integrated mirroring on the PERC 4/IM controller enables you to mirror a physical disk that resides internally in the server. You can implement the integrated mirror using the PERC 4/IM BIOS. When implemented, Storage Management recognizes the integrated mirror as a virtual disk. You cannot, however, use Storage Management to create a virtual disk on the PERC 4/IM controller. Storage Management supports other functions provided by the PERC 4/IM controller. See "Integrated Mirroring and the PERC 4/IM Controller" for more information.

Supported Non-RAID Controllers

Storage Management supports the following non-RAID controllers.

Supported Enclosures

This release of Storage Management supports the following enclosures.

Support for Disk and Volume Management

This release of Storage Management does not provide disk and volume management. To implement disk and volume management, you need to use the native disk and volume management utilities provided by your operating system.


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