The topics discussed in this chapter include:
PERC Console consists of:
PERC Console (Remote) Any computer running Windows NT can run PERC Console remotely (on a network). Running PERC Console allows this computer to access any Dell Server Service that is registered in the Registration Server. You can use the Registration Server, Dell Server Service, PERC Service Monitor, and SNMP Agent when you run PERC Console remotely. PERC Console (Local) Any computer running Windows NT can run PERC Console locally. Run locally, PERC Console monitors only the machine that is running it. You can use only PERC Service Monitor when you run PERC Console locally. Registration Server The Registration Server contains a database of all computers that have registered as users of PERC Console or Dell Server Service. Before any computer running PERC Console or Dell Server Service can use PERC Console, it must be registered in the Registration Server. You can use Registration Server only when running PERC Console remotely. Dell Server The Dell Server software runs in any server that has one or more PERC controllers and has registered with the Registration Server. You can use Registration Server only when running PERC Console remotely. PERC Service Monitor The Dell Service Monitor Program is a Window NT Service Process. The monitor program tracks status changes for hardware devices. The monitor program runs in the background. You can use Registration Server when running PERC Console locally or remotely. SNMP Agent The SNMP Agent monitors the hardware and software activity and reports to the PERC Console.
|
|
Installation Component |
Description |
|
PERC Registration Server |
Makes the server a Registration Server. |
|
PERC Server |
Allow the server to register to the Registration Server. |
|
PERC Client |
Allows the server to monitor other servers with a PERC 2/DC adapter. |
Any configuration is valid. Common combinations include:
Table 2. Configuration Options
|
Configuration |
Description |
|
PERC Server only |
You cannot monitor any other server. |
|
PERC Server Client |
Allows you to register into the registration server. You can monitor any other server including the server you are currently working on. |
|
PERC Registration Server only |
Allows other servers to register so they can be monitored by the PERC client. You cannot monitor any server, including the server you currently work on. |
|
PERC Registration Server and PERC Client |
Allows other servers to register so they can be monitored by the PERC client. You can monitor any server, but not the server you currently work on. |
|
PERC Registration Server, PERC Client, and Server |
Allows other servers to register so they can be monitored by the PERC client. You can monitor any server, including the server you currently work on. |
|
PERC Client only |
Allows you to monitor any server. You do not have to have a RAID controller installed in this system. |
Note: If a remote PERC Console
tries to open PERC Console with an old server agent, it will not work. A password
prompt will display.
Sample Installation
In this example, all three components are selected. The server includes the following features:
� the server is the primary registration server of the network,
� the server registers to itself so it can be monitored, and
� the server can monitor other RAID servers, including itself.
11. Click on the Next button. Select the destination directory path. Type
C:\DELLRAID
as the destination directory and type
PERC Console
as the Program Folder Name.
Note: You can select this path
and name as the default or type another. If you select this as the default,
the information above is provided automatically; you do not have to type it
in.
12. Security is a new feature that has been added to the PERC Console. You are prompted to enter a password to connect to the agent (on the server machine.) If the password is incorrect, you cannot connect. The password is set during installation of the PERC Console components.
Full access to the server from a remote machine requires the previously set password. You can change the password while running installation. The following dialog box displays, asking whether you want to change the password. Click on Yes or No.
If you select Yes, the following screen displays. Enter a new password, retype the password, and click on OK.
To change the password after installation, run the setpass.exe utility. This utility prompts you for the current password, and then a new password. This file resides in the server (\DELLRAID\RSERVER) directory only, not in the client directory. The client only passes the password to the agent. If you use an older client (prior to 8.08H), the connection will be denied. Refer to the Remote Client Console section for more information about the setpass.exe utility.
Enter the name and password, and press Enter. Use the Select a Server screen to select the server you want to access, and the access mode, view only or full access. The screen displays as follows:
The default access mode is full access. For full access, you must enter a password. If you do not enter the correct password, you will receive view only access.
Note: The default password is "DELLRAID".
- The PERC Console installation process prompts you to edit the REGSERV.DAT and HOST files.
Edit the HOSTS file in the same directory. The HOSTS file should look like this:
The HOSTS file information varies depending on the type of installation:
Table 3. Host File Information and the Type of Installation
|
Type of Installation |
Required Action |
|
PERC registration server |
Enter the IP address and name for all PERC RAID servers including the registration server (the server you are working on). |
|
PERC RAID server |
Enter the IP address and name of the registration server. |
|
If an NT workstation |
Enter the IP address and name for all PERC servers including the registration server (the server you are working on). |
Press <Enter> after typing the name of the registration server. If you do not, Notepad will enter the information.
14. Specify all Sequential IP addresses for the server or servers, and the workstation. For example:
123.123.234.1 Server A
123.123.234.2 Server B
123.123.234.3 Workstation C
All specified systems must conform to the TCP/IP specification for address structures.
15. The INSTALL utility creates c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc� and installs the following files in this subdirectory:
RAIDPASS.VAL
REGSERV.DAT
The following files are already present from the NT installation:
HOSTS
LMHOSTS
16. Edit REGSERV.DAT in c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc using Notepad. REGSERV.DAT should look something like this:
When editing REGSERV.DAT, replace the name local host with your Registration Server name, no matter what configuration you have selected even if the Registration Server is the server you are working on. Press <Enter> after typing the name of the Registration Server. If you do not, Notepad will not enter the information.
17. After changing the server name, save the file and exit.
You can run remote client console from a client machine connected to the server. The remote machine can access the server with either full access or view only access. With full access, you can use the remote machine to view and configure the PERC Console configuration in the selected server. With view only access, you can only view the console screens; you cannot make changes to them, such as configuring or initializing.
The difference between remote PERC Console and local PERC Console is that with remote power console, you can select which controller in which server to monitor, instead of being able to select only the local host in the server pull-down menu.
Full access to the server requires that you set a password that you enter when you select the access mode. You can set the password while running installation. To set a password, run setpass.exe, which is in the default directory C:\DELLRAID\RSERVER\. The following screen displays.
Note: C:\DELLRAID\RSERVER\
is the default directory for the setpass.exe file, but you can move this file
into another directory if you desire.
Type setpass.exe at the command prompt and press Enter. The following screen displays. Type the name and password, and press Enter.
Use the Select a Server screen to select the server you want to access, and the access mode, view only or full access. The screen displays as follows:
The default access mode is full access. For full access, you must enter a password. If you do not enter the correct password, you will receive view only access.
The Dell Service Monitor Program is a Window NT Service Process. The monitor program tracks status changes for hardware devices. The monitor program runs in the background. It polls the status of the resources connected to PERC 2/DC adapters every 10 to 15 seconds.
The monitor program can be started automatically the same time Window NT starts or it can be started manually after logging into Window NT. The monitor program writes peripheral device activities and status changes to the Windows NT Event Log. Status changes are stored in the Windows NT Event Log. The contents of the displayable activity log include all status changes and device activities.
Contents
The two programs that make up the monitor program are:
- PERCCTRL.EXE and
- PERCSERV.EXE.
Manual Installation
PERCSERV.EXE should be installed in the "%SystemRoot%\system32" directory.
PERCCTRL.EXE can be in any path.
Manually Starting the Monitor Program with Windows NT
Go to the Windows NT command prompt. Type
PERCCTRL -START
and press <Enter>.
Note: For auto installation, run setup.exe. For more information, refer to Installation Prequisites.
Command Line Options
The PERCCTRL command line options are:
Table 4. Command Line Options
|
Option |
Description |
|
-start |
Start the monitor program when Windows NT is started. This option can be selected from the Windows NT Services Utility. |
|
-stop |
Stop the monitor program. This option can be selected from the Windows NT Services Utility. |
|
-add |
Add the monitor program to the Services Utilities. This option can be used only when running PERCCTRL from the command prompt. |
|
-pause |
Stop the monitor program temporarily. Use the -RESUME option to start the monitor program after it has been stopped. This option can be selected from the Windows NT Services Utility. |
|
-resume |
Start the monitor program after it has been stopped using the -PAUSE command line option. This option can be selected from the Windows NT Services Utility. |
|
-del |
Remove the monitor program to the Services Utilities. This option can be used only when running PERCCTRL from the command prompt. |
The Start, pause, resume or stop command-line option can also be issued in the Services Utility. Only -add and -del should be executed from the DOS Shell.
Starting the Monitor Program Automatically
You can start the monitor program automatically or you can start it manually using the Services control panel applet or you can start it manually by typing:
PERCTRL -start
at the command prompt and pressing <Enter> to start the monitor program automatically. Before starting the monitor program each time, make sure the program is installed.
Manually Adding the Monitor Program
To add the monitor program to the Services Utilities, type
PERCTRL -add
at the command prompt and press <Enter>.
Manually Deleting the Monitor Program
To delete the monitor program from the Services Utilities, type
PERCTRL -del
from the command prompt and press <Enter>.
The Dell SNMP Agent monitors activity on the server, such as rebuilds and reconstructs, and sends the information to the Client. SNMP Agent can be run remotely.
To run Dell SNMP Agent, select the SNMP Agent installation package in Step 8 of the PERC Console installation procedure.
Contents
The program that makes up the monitor program is:
PER_SNMP.DLL
This file resides in the C:\winnt\system32 directory.
Double-click on the PERC Console icon in the PERC Console program group on the Windows screen. The following screen appears:
Select Adapter
Click on the Adapter box in the upper part of the screen. Select an adapter from the displayed list.
Logical Drives
Click the right mouse button on any logical drive icon to display a list of actions that can be performed on the selected drive:
Change Policy
Select Change Policy from the menu shown on the previous screen to change the Read, Write, or Cache Policy. Click on the checkbox to display the policy options. The following appears:
Change Configuration
Right click on a logical drive. The following screen appears. Click on Advanced Menu, then Change Config. (Change Configuration is not supported when Cluster Mode is enabled.)
A warning about possible loss of data displays after you select Change Config.
Click on OK. The Advance Logical Drive Window displays. You can change the RAID level using this screen.
Add Drive
You can add a physical disk drive to a logical drive by clicking on the Logical drive, Advanced Menu, and then Add Drive. (Add Drive is not supported when Cluster Mode is enabled.) The following screen appears. You can change the RAID Level from this screen. Click on the RAID Level checkbox. Only valid RAID levels are displayed.
Logical Drive Properties
Click on Property to display the properties for this logical drive.
Note: The Stripe Size options are 2KB, 4KB, 8KB, 16KB, 32KB, 64KB, or 128KB.
Displaying Drive Properties
Click the right mouse button on any drive in a logical drive to display a menu of actions that you can take for that drive.
Tools Menu
Click on the Tools menu to display additional actions that can be performed on this drive:
PERC Console includes several "toolbox" icons on the right side of the screen. These icons provide easy access to PERC Console features. You can remove the toolbox from the screen by clicking on Hide Toolbox in the Adapter menu. The buttons are described below.
The Display Configuration icon is shown above. Click on this icon to display the current RAID system configuration, for example:
The print icon is shown above. Click on this icon to make a hard copy of the current configuration.
The auto configuration icon is shown above. Click on this icon to allow PERC to automatically configure the RAID subsystem.
The custom configuration icon is shown above. Click on this icon to allow PERC to custom configure the RAID subsystem.
The reset button is shown above. Click on this icon to clear the RAID configuration on the currently selected controller. You are asked to confirm the reset request. The following appears:
Reset will destroy the currently selected adapter logical drive configuration.
Do you really want to Reset Configuration?
Click on OK in the confirmation screen when it appears to reset the configuration.
The display log icon is shown above. Click here to display a list of PERC activities, as shown below:
The rebuild rate icon is shown above. Click on this icon to set the RAID rebuild drive rate.
Note: Dell
does not recommend setting the rebuild rate above 30 percent.
The rescan icon is shown above. When you click on this icon, the currently selected PERC scans the SCSI channels again to make sure that all drive configuration information is current.
The hard disk drive format icon is shown above. Drag the drive icon that represents the physical drive to be formatted to this icon to format the selected drive.
The rebuild disk icon is shown above. Drag the drive icon that represents the drive to be rebuilt to this icon to rebuild the selected drive.
The initialize logical drive icon is shown above. Drag the logical drive icon that represents the drive to be initialized to this icon.
|
Important Initializing a drive destroys all data on the drive. If you have inadvertently reset your configuration, you can recover it by immediately re-configuring the physical drives into the EXACT same array and logical drive structure in which they had been, and by saving the configuration without initializing. |
The logical drive parity consistency check icon is shown above. Drag the logical drive icon to this icon.
The change RAID level icon is shown above. Drag the drive icon that represents the drive to be changed to this icon.
Logical Drives
The logical drive icons are shown above. You can select one or more logical drive icons to group drives into RAID arrays. The button on the logical drive icon indicates its status:
- Green indicates that the drive is operational
- Yellow indicates that the drive performance is degraded, and
- Red indicates a failed drive.
With the cursor over a configured logical drive, right-click the mouse for a pull-down menu of action options for that logical drive.
Channels
The channel icon consists of a stack of drive icons. Each drive on the SCSI channel is represented by a disk icon. With the cursor over one of the channel bars, click the right mouse button to display a list of actions that can be applied to that channel, as shown below:
The channel indicator light on each channel icon indicates the status of that channel:
- Green indicates that the drives in the channel is operating normally,
- Yellow indicates that one or more logical drives are degraded, and
- Red indicates a failed logical drive.
Main Menu Options
The menu options are:
Table 5. Main Menu Options
|
Option |
Description |
|
Adapter |
Choose this option for adapter-related functions. You can configure logical drives, enable the speaker, toggle object identification, invoke the performance monitor, and display the toolbar by selecting an item from this menu. |
|
Physical Drv |
Choose this option to rebuild, format, and display the properties of the physical drives. |
|
Logical Drv |
Choose this option to create, delete, initialize, display the properties of, and check parity of logical drives. |
|
Window |
Choose this option to view the progress of a disk rebuild, diagnostic, initialization, parity check, reconstruction or to view the performance monitor. |
|
Help |
Choose this to display information on PERC Console. |
|
Important PERC 2/DC supports only PowerEdge hard disk drives purchased from Dell to provide maximum reliability for you. Only Dell PowerEdge hard disk drives have been thoroughly tested with PERC in all types of RAID environments. |
|
Important Due to differences in drive sizes across the industry, PERC 2/DC will coerce hard disk drives of nominally different sizes to a common drive size so they can be used in the same logical drive and so they can be used easily as replacement drives. For example, a 4 GB drive from one manufacturer may be 4,196 MB and a 4 GB from another manufacturer may be 4,128 MB. These drives will be coerced to a usable size of 4,088 MB each (4095 minus 7 MB used by the controller). The coercion will occur at 200 MB intervals. A 4,396 MB drive size would be coerced to a usable size of 4,288 MB. A 4,500 MB drive would be coerced to a usable size of 4,488 MB. |
The options on the PERC Console Adapter menu are described below. The PERC Console Adapter menu is shown on the following screen:
 |
Warning If you use hard drives with different capacities in an array, all hard drives in the array are treated as if they have the capacity of the smallest hard drive in the array. |
Table 6. PERC Console Adapter Menu
|
Option |
Description |
|
Configuration |
Select this option to configure or reconfigure RAID arrays and drives. |
|
Flush Cache |
Forces PERC 2/DC to send the contents of cache memory to the logical drives. |
|
View Log |
Displays an event log. |
|
Properties |
Displays the adapter properties: the firmware and BIOS versions, the rebuild rate, and cache memory size. |
|
Hide/Show Toolbox |
Displays the toolbox if it is not displayed on the PERC Console screen, or to remove the toolbox from the screen if it is already displayed. |
|
Performance Monitor On/Off |
Displays a graph of the performance of a logical drive. You can select a bar graph or a line graph. |
|
Object Identification On/Off |
Turns Object Identification on if it is not already on. Select this option to turn it off it is on. Object identification is a PERC Console feature that identifies all objects displayed on the screen. |
|
Enable/Disable Sound |
Enables or disables the onboard speaker. To silence the speaker when it is activated, you must choose Disable Sound and Disable Alarm. |
|
Enable/Disable Alarm Control |
Select this option to enable or disable the system alarm when a drive failure occurs. |
|
Exit |
Exits the utility. You cannot exit if disk operations are ongoing. New configurations are not saved unless you select the Save Configuration option. |
Configuring Drives
Choose Configure from the Adapter menu to configure RAID arrays and logical drives. The following screen appears:
Table 7. Options for Configuring Drives
|
Option |
Description |
|
Auto Configuration |
Select this option to automatically configure RAID arrays and logical drives. This option generates the simplest RAID configuration possible with the current physical drives attached to the selected adapter. Auto configuration performs the following tasks: 1. Attempts to gather physical drives of the same size into groups of five. 2. Attempts to gather the remaining drives into groups with up to three drives per group. 3. Groups the remaining drives into groups of two drives each and single drives. 4. Combines each group of three or more drives into a RAID 5 logical drive. 5. Combines each group of two drives into a RAID 1 logical drive. 6. Designates single physical drives as RAID 0 logical drives.
The drive configuration that results from auto configuration is displayed. Select OK to program this configuration in the PERC firmware. All new configurations are added to existing configurations. Any existing logical drive configuration is not changed. |
|
Custom Configuration |
Select this option to add configuration information to the existing configuration information and configure new arrays and logical drives into different groups. You can perform logical drive configuration functions and associate logical drives with multiple or partial arrays. You must first create an array. Arrays are groups of physical drives that define the stripe width common to one RAID type. Arrays are combined into logical drives. Logical drives can be created out of part of an array or can be a combination of several arrays if the arrays have the same properties. |
|
Save Configuration |
Select this option to save the new RAID drive configuration. |
|
Easy Configuration |
With this option, each array you create is automatically treated as exactly one logical drive. The Create Logical Drive screen (see below) appears when you select this option. Select the physical drives that make up the logical drive. Select the RAID type, stripe size, and write policy.
|
|
Reset Configuration |
Select this option to erase the current configuration information from the PERC non-volatile memory. The current RAID configuration becomes invalid after you select this option. Use this option carefully. This option should be used only when configuring a new system. |
|
Display Configuration |
Select this method to display the configuration. You can also display other arrays and logical drives. |
|
Print Configuration |
Select this option to print the current RAID drive configuration. |
Flush Cache
If the PERC system must be powered down rapidly, you must flush the contents of the cache memory to preserve data integrity.
View Log
Select this option to display the PERC event log.
Properties
Select this option to display the adapter properties. A screen like the following appears:
Object Identification
Select this item to turn the object identification feature (bubble help) on or off. This feature identifies icons in the PERC Console screens.
Enable/Disable Sound
Choose this option to enable or disable the onboard tone generator. To silence a sounding alarm, choose Disable Sound and Disable Alarm.
Enable/Disable Alarm Control
Choose this option to enable or disable the audible alarms and warnings.
Exit
Choose this item to leave PERC Console.
The PERC Console Physical Drive menu is shown below:
|
Important PERC 2/DC supports PowerEdge hard disk drives purchased from Dell only, to provide maximum reliability for you. Only Dell PowerEdge hard disk drives have been thoroughly tested with PERC in all types of RAID environments. |
Format
This option has not been implemented.
Properties
Choose this option to display drive properties.
Hot spares are physical drives that are powered up along with the RAID drives and usually placed in a standby state.
Hot spares can be used for RAID levels 1, and 5. To make a drive a hot spare, at least one drive must be available. Click on the drive icon of the drive to be made the hot spare. Select Tools from the menu. Select Make Hotspare from the Tools submenu.
The drive to be made a hot spare must have a the same or a greater capacity than the other drives in the RAID array.
The PERC Console Logical Drive menu is shown below:
Create Array
Choose the Create option to create arrays. You can select the RAID type, stripe size, write policy, read policy, and cache policy.
|
Important The write-back setting for Write Policy is not supported if the cluster mode is enabled. |
Select the array to be created by clicking on ARR0 - ARR7 on the screen. Select the drives to be included in the array by clicking on the device icons displayed in the middle of the screen. You can include SCSI devices from more than one channel in the new array. The Create Logical Drive window appears next.
Select the RAID type, Stripe Size, Write Policy, Read Policy, and Cache Policy, then click on OK. Click on Apply to create a logical drive.
|
Important The write-back setting for Write Policy is not supported if the cluster mode is enabled. |
Physical Drive Type
When you select the icon for a SCSI device from the SCSI channels display, the drive type and the capacity of the selected drive is displayed.
Array Properties
Click on Apply to configure the new array. Verify that the appropriate drives are included in the array and click on OK. You must also initialize these drives.
|
Important Because of drive size differences, PERC 2/DC coerces hard disk drives of nominally different sizes to a common drive size so they can be used in the same logical drive and can be used as replacement drives. For example, a 4 GB drive from one manufacturer may be 4,196 MB and a 4 GB from another manufacturer may be 4,128 MB. These drives will be coerced to a usable size of 4,088 MB each (4095 minus 7 MB used by the controller). The coercion will occur at 200 MB intervals. A 4,396 MB drive size would be coerced to a usable size of 4,288 MB. A 4,500 MB drive would be coerced to a usable size of 4,488 MB. |
Initialize
Choose this option to initialize logical drives. A screen such as the following appears. Choose the logical drives to be initialized and click on the Go button.
|
|
Warning PERC Console allows you to initialize a drive at any time. Make sure that the drive being initialized does not hold live data. All data will be lost. |
You can also initialize a drive by dragging the logical drive icon to the Format icon and dropping it.
Channel Information
Position the cursor on one of the SCSI channels and click on the right mouse button to display information about the SCSI channel, as shown in the following sample screen:
Check Consistency
Choose Check Consistency from the Logical Drive menu to verify the redundancy parity data in logical drives using RAID levels 1 or 5. When you choose Check Consistency, the parameters of the existing logical drives on the current controller appear. The logical drives are listed by number.
A screen such as the following appears. Click on the drive to be checked (D0 - D7) and click on the Go button.
Properties
Choose Properties to display the logical drive properties of the selected logical drive. A screen such as the following appears. Each logical drive can be displayed by selecting the Previous or Next buttons.
The options on the Windows menu have not yet been implemented.
Securing PERC Console under Windows NT
1. Log in as the Administrator.
2. Run File Manager.
3. Select the path containing the PERC Console executable.
4. Pull down the Security menu in File Manager and choose PERMISSIONS.
5. When the permission dialog box appears, assign the LIST permission to all Groups except Administrator, Backup Operators, System, and Creator Owner.
6. In the Permission dialog box, select REPLACE PERMISSIONS ON SUBDIRECTORIES to apply the permissions that you are setting here to the subdirectories as well.
7. After you have set Permissions, choose OK and exit file manager. Now log in as a guest and make sure the permission changes have been saved. If you follow these instructions, only those who are part of the selected groups can delete, copy, move, or execute any PERC Console file.