DELL Tutorial: Create RAID Using PERC 6/i Integrated BIOS Configuration Utility

by Ramesh Natarajan on May 4, 2009

Disk space is never enough. On an on-going basis system administrators will be getting request to increase the disk space on a server.

In this article, let us review how to add new physical disks and create a virtual disk with a RAID configuration on an DELL PowerEdge Server using PERC 6/i Integrated BIOS Configuration Utility.

The new DELL Servers has the ability to create RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10 using the hardware controller.


Assume the scenario where the server came with 2 physical hard drives configured in RAID-1. This Logical Volume is where the operating system is installed and you got a request to expand disk space on this server. So, you have purchased additional disks and would like to configure a RAID setup. In this example, 4 additional disks are configured as RAID-5 on a DELL PowerEdge 2950 server. The same steps works on other DELL PowerEdge servers as long as you have the same PERC BIOS Configuration Utility.

If you are using an old server that uses PERC/CERC BIOS Configuration Utility, please refer to the article we wrote earlier about how to create RAID on DELL Servers using PERC/CERC BIOS Configuration Utility (with screenshots).

1. Launch PERC 6/i Integrated BIOS Configuration Utility

First, insert all new disks in the empty slots. If there are already disks on slot 0 and slot 1, start inserting the new disks from slot 2. In this example, the new 4 disks are inserted from slot-2 to slot-5.

After the disks are inserted, reboot the server. When the server is starting up, press Ctrl-R to launch the PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller BIOS. Press Ctrl-R when it is displaying the following message on the console.

Fig: Press Ctrl-R to Launch DELL PowerEdge 2950 III Expandable RAID Controller

This will launch the PERC 6/i Integrated BIOS Configuration Utility. This utility will have the following three TABs on the top.

• VD Mgmt – Virtual Disk Management, which will be selected by default.
• PD Mgmt – Physical Disk Management
• Ctrl Mgmt – Controller Management

2. Create New Virtual Disk

From the Virtual Disk Management, use arrow key and select ‘Controller 0′. Press F2 to show available operations for the ‘Controller 0′.  This will display a pop-up menu with following choices.  Select ‘Create New VD’.

• Create New VD
• Clear Config
• Foreign Config
• Manage Preserved Cache

Fig: Create New Virtual Disk on DELL PowerEdge 1950 III Server

This will display the Virtual Disk Management screen with ‘Create New VD’ Panel. Following are the various sections displayed in this screen:

• RAID Level
• PD Per Scan
• Physical Disks Section
• Basic Settings
  • VD Size
  • VD Name
• Advanced Settings
  • Stripe Element Size
  • Read Policy
  • Write Policy
  • Force WB with no battery
  • Initialize
  • Configure HotSpare

3. Choose RAID Level for the Virtual Disk

Press Enter on the RAID option, which will display the following RAID choices. In this example, I choose RAID-5 as shown in the Fig below.

• RAID-0
• RAID-1
• RAID-5
• RAID-6
• RAID-10

Fig: Select RAID Level in Create VD Screen for DELL PowerEdge 2970 Server

4. Select the Physical Disks for the Virtual Disk Group (RAID Group)

After selecting the RAID Level, press TAB and jump to Physical Disks section. This section will display all available disks that are not configured yet.  Every physical disks will display Drive ID and Size.

Press space bar to select the disks. i.e the check-box in front of the physical disk will be selected. Once you’ve selected one disk, it will automatically jump to the next available disk.  Keep pressing space bar until all available physical disks are selected as shown below.

Fig: Select All available Physical Disk in Create VD Screen for DELL PowerEdge R900 Server

5. Set Virtual Disk Group Basic Settings

Since I have selected 4 disks (each 139G) for RAID-5, the total usable space would be around 3x139G, which is approximately 418176MB. This total size is calculated and displayed automatically in the VD Size under basic settings. You can also assign a name to the VD. I’ve left VD Name field blank.

Fig: Enter Basic Settings in Create VD Screen for DELL PowerEdge R805 Server

6. Set Virtual Disk Group Advanced Settings

I recommend leaving all the advanced settings to the default values.

• Stripe Element Size – Default value is 64KB
• Read Policy – Default value is No Read Ahead
• Write Policy – Default Value is “Write Back”
• By default, following values are not checked. i.e check-box not selected
  • Force WB with no battery
  • Initialize
  • Configure HotSpare

Fig: Enter Advanced Settings in Create VD Screen for DELL PowerEdge R905 Server

7. New Virtual Disk (Logical Disk Group) Created with selected RAID Level

Press TAB to jump to OK and press enter.  You’ll get the following warning message. Click OK to continue. This will successfully create the new Virtual Disk with RAID-5 configuration.

Warning Message: It is recommended that all newly created logical drives be initialized unless you are attempting to recreate a previous configuration and recover data as initialization is a destructive process.

8. Create New VD Full Screen with All Details

When you’ve entered all the above values, the whole Create New Virtual Disk Screen will look as shown below.

Fig: Create New VD Full Screen for DELL PowerEdge R200 Server

9. New Virtual Disk – Initialization Progress

Once the VD is created, you’ll see a new ‘Disk Group 1′ under ‘Controller 0′. There will be a progress bar next to the ‘Virtual Disk 1′ showing the progress of the initialization.

Fig: Virtual Disk Initialization Progress for DELL PowerEdge R300 Server

10. View Disk Group and Virtual Disk Properties

Expanding Disk Group 1 will display the following sub-items.

• Virtual Disks
  • Virtual Disk 1
• Physical Disks
  • slot# : status : size
  • 02: Online: 139392MB
  • 03: Online: 139392MB
  • 04: Online: 139392MB
  • 05: Online: 139392MB
• Space Allocation
  • Virtual Disk 1

Use arrow key and highlight the Virtual Disk 1, which will display the following properties of both Virtual Disk and Disk Group on the right side.

Virtual Disk 1 Properties:

• RAID Level: 5
• RAID Status: Optimal (This will display degraded if any one of the disk in RAID5 failed)
• Size: 408G
• Operation: None. (During initialization process, this will display the status accordingly)

Disk Group 1 Properties:

• VD Count: 1 (This is number of virtual disks in the disk group 1)
• PD Count: 4 (This is the total number of physical disks that are part of this disk group)
• Space Available: 0.000MB (The total number of free space available to create a new Virtual Disk in this disk group)
• Free Segment: 0
• Dedicated HS: 0

Fig: Virtual Disk and Disk Group Properties for DELL PowerEdge R710 Server

The new disk configuration is now complete and available at the OS Level. Make sure to format and partition this new Virtual Disk at the OS level before mounting it.

Migrasi System

Migrasi itu gampang ternyata......

 Dalam suatu organisasi atau perusahaan sering terjadi   yang namanya  migrasi system operasi untuk itu pembahasan kali ini tentang  bagaimana step by step atau langkah migrasi domain controller atau Migrasi Windows Server 2003 ke Windows Server 2008  R2 (skenario dapat dilihat pada gambar disamping),  sebenarnya tidak begitu sulit, ada beberapa cara pemindahan AD dari Windows Server 2003 ke Windows Server 2008 R2, yaitu :

1. Dengan menggunakan Migration tools dari Microsoft (yang biasa digunakan memindahkan user dan  object lainnya dalam AD ke domain baru)

2. Dengan menjadikan Windows Server 2008 R2 Additional Domain kemudian kita memindahkan  FSMO (Flexible Single Master of Operator) roles dari Windows Server 2003 ke Windows Server 2008 R2.

Bagi yang belum mengetahui apa itu FSMO roles,  sedikit akan dijelaskan. FSMO roles terdiri dari 5 bagian :

1. Schema Master yang menyimpan seluruh class dan atribut didalam active directory, terletak pada : start, run, ketik regsvr32 schmmgmt.dll. kemudian Start, run, ketik mmc dan enter. klik file,  add remove snap-in, klik Active Directory Schema, add.

2. Domain Naming yang menyimpan seluruh penamaan domain dalam AD serta penambahan dan penghapusan domain didalam forest, terletak pada : start, administrative tool, Active Directory Domains and Trusts. klik kanan pada AD Domains and Trusts, pilih Operations Master.

3. RID Master menyimpan ID unique (SID) dari sebuah object (user atau komputer), terletak pada : Start, Administrative tools, Active Directory user and computer, klik kanan pada nama domainnya example.co.id, klik operations master.

4. PDC Emulator untuk sinkronisasi waktu dan bisa seolah-olah menjadi PDC pada versi Windows yang lama, seperti seolah-olah menjadi Windows NT PDC, terletak pada : Start, Administrative tools àActive Directory user and computer, klik kanan pada nama domainnya example.co.id, klik operations master.

5. Infrastructure Master untuk mendistribusikan perubahan dalam satu domain controller ke DC lain menyimpan perubahan terakhir pada objek, terletak pada : Start, Administrative tools, Active Directory user and computer, klik kanan pada nama domainnya example.co.id, klik operations master.

Bagaimana cara Migrasi dari AD Windows Server 2003 ke Windows Server 2008? Berikut sbs nya………

Setelah installasi Windows Server 2008 R2,  kemudian joinkan Windows Server 2008 ke domain Windows Server 2003. Start, klik kanan pada computer, lalu properties.

Lakukan Active Directory Preparation pada Windows Server 2003, sebelum menjadikan windows server 2008 sebagai ADC (Additional Domain Controller) pada domain yang sudah ada, karena pada Windows Server 2003 perlu mengenal Active Directory yang ada pada Windows Server 2008, jadi perlu melakukan yang namanya Active Directory Preparation (adprep) pada Windows Server 2003.

Masukkan CD Windows Server 2008 R2 ke dalam Domain Controller Windows Server 2003, kemudian ketik pada command prompt   d:\support\adprep (pindahkan pada drive yang berisi adprep windows server 2008 R2).  Lakukan persiapkan AD Preparation untuk forest, ketik sekali lagi : adprep32.exe  /forestprep lalu enter.

 

Ketik huruf ‘c’ dan enter untuk melanjutkan.

Tunggu beberapa saat…..dan hasilnya terlihat pada gambar dibawah bahwa Adprep telah sukses ter-update pada forest wide informasi.

Next step mempersiapkan AD Preparation untuk domain, tapi sebelumnya harus menaikkan Domain Functional Level ke minimum Windows Server 2000 native atau Windows Server 2003.  Ketik dsa.msc pada menu Start, Run dan klik tab Ok.

Proses Active Directory Services sedang berlangsung, proses ini dapat memakan beberapa menit bahkan beberapa jam tergantung dari environment dan pilihan yang dipilih, proses akan langsung restart begitu selesai.

Pindahkan 5 FSMO roles dari Windows Server 2003 ke Windows Server 2008.

Untuk memastikan bahwa proses berjalan dan tidak ada kendala, login pada Windows Server 2008 R2 (DC yang baru)  masuk ke command prompt ketik ‘dcdiag’, pastikan domain controller yang baru ‘passed test’.

Menghapus DNS Server

Untuk menghapus DNS Server pada Windows Server 2003, Start, Control Panel, Add Or Remove Programs.

Lalu pilih Add/Remove Windows, Networking Services, Pilih Domain Name System (DNS) (hilangkan tanda pada DNS nya), kemudian klik Ok (2x), klik next.

Tunggu beberapa saat hingga akhirnya proses menghapus DNS Server selesai, klik finish untuk melanjutkan.

Disjoin Domain

Untuk disjoin Windows server 2003 menjadi workgroup dari Windows Server 2008 R2 yang baru, langkah – langkahnya adalah sebagai berikut  :

Klik kanan My Computer, Properties, Klik tab computer name,  Klik Change, pilih workgroup, klik Ok.

Untuk sementara sampai disini dulu, nanti kita ketemu lagi dalam jam dan gelombang yang sama.....

Salam,