Cisco UCS C-Series Integrated Management Controller GUI Configuration Guide for C220 M4, C240 M4, C460 M4, and C3160 M3 Servers, Release 3.0

Self Encrypting Drives (Full Disk Encryption)

Cisco IMC supports self encrypting drives (SED). A special hardware in the drives encrypts incoming data and decrypts outgoing data in real-time. This feature is also called Full Disk Encryption (FDE).

The data on the drive is encrypted on its way into the drive and decrypted on its way out. However, if you lock the drive, no security key is required to retrieve the data.

When a drive is locked, an encryption key is created and stored internally. All data stored on this drive is encrypted using that key, and stored in encrypted form. Once you store the data in this manner, a security key is required in order to un-encrypt and fetch the data from the drive. Unlocking a drive deletes that encryption key and renders the stored data unusable. This is called a Secure Erase. The FDE comprises a key ID and a security key.

The FDE feature supports the following operations:

Enable and disable security on a controller
Create a secure virtual drive
Secure a non-secure drive group
Unlock foreign configuration drives
Enable security on a physical drive (JBOD)
Clear secure SED drives
Clear secure foreign configuration

Scenarios to consider While Configuring Controller Security in a Dual SIOC Environment

Note

Dual SIOC connectivity is available only on some servers.

Controller security can be enabled, disabled, or modified independently. However, local and remote key management applies to all the controllers on the server. Therefore security action involving switching the key management modes must be performed with caution. In a scenario where both controllers are secure, and you decide to move one of the controllers to a different mode, you need to perform the same operation on the other controller as well.

Consider the following two scenarios:

Scenario 1—Key management is set to remote; both controllers are secure and use remote key management. If you now wish to switch to local key management, switch the key management for each controller and disable remote key management.
Scenario 2—Key management is set to local; both controllers are secure and use local key management. If you now wish to switch to remote key management, enable remote key management and switch the key management for each controller.

If you do not modify the controller security method on any one of the controllers, it renders the secure key management in an unsupported configuration state.

Enabling Controller Security
Modifying Controller Security
Disabling Controller Security
Switching Controller Security Between Local and Remote Key Management

Enabling Controller Security

This option is available only on some C-series servers.

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.

Step 2

In the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.

Step 3

In the Controller Info area, click Enable Drive Security.

Step 4

In the Enable Drive Security dialog box, update the following fields:

Name

Description

Controller Security field

Indicates that the controller is disabled.

Key Management field

Indicates whether the key is remotely managed or locally managed. This can be one of the following:

Remote Key Management radio button— Controller security key is configured or managed using the remote KMIP server.

Note

If you choose this option, you do not have to specify the existing security key but you have to provide the key ID and the security key for local management.

Local Key Management radio button— Controller security is configured locally.

Security Key Identifier field

The current key ID.

Security Key field

Security key used to enable controller security. If you wish to change the current security key, enter the new key here.

Note

Once you change the security key, a Secure Key Verification pop-up window appears where you need to enter the current security key to verify it.

Confirm Security Key field

Re-enter the security key.

Suggest button

Suggests the security key or key ID that can be assigned.

Step 5

Click Save.

This enables controller security.

Modifying Controller Security

This option is available only on some C-series servers.

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.
You must have first enabled controller security to modify it.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.

Step 2

In the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.

Step 3

In the Controller Info area, click Modify Drive Security.

Step 4

In the Modify Drive Security dialog box, update the following fields:

Name

Description

Controller Security field

Indicates whether or not controller security is enabled. This can be one of the following:

True— Controller security is enabled.
False— Controller security is disabled.

Key Management field

Indicates whether the key is remotely managed or locally managed. This can be one of the following:

Remote Key Management radio button— Controller security key is configured or managed using the remote KMIP server.

Note

If you choose this option, you do not have to specify the existing security key but you have to provide the key ID and the security key for local management.

Local Key Management radio button— Controller security is configured locally.

Security Key Identifier field

The current key ID.

Security Key field

Security key used to enable controller security. If you wish to change the current security key, enter the new key here.

Note

Once you change the security key, a Secure Key Verification pop-up window appears where you need to enter the current security key to verify it.

Confirm Security Key field

Re-enter the security key.

Suggest button

Suggests the security key or key ID that can be assigned.

Save button

Saves the data.

Cancel button

Cancels the action.

Step 5

Click Save.

This modifies the controller security settings.

Disabling Controller Security

This option is available only on some C-series servers.

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.
You must have first enabled controller security to disable it.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.
Step 2	In the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.
Step 3	In the Controller Info area, click Disable Drive Security.
Step 4	Click OK in the confirmation pop-up window. This disables controller security.

Switching Controller Security Between Local and Remote Key Management

This task allows you to switch controller security from local management to remote management, and from remote to local management.

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.

Step 2

In the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.

Step 3

In the Controller Info area, to switch the controller security from remote to local management, click Switch to Local Key Management.

Note

When you switch from remote to local key management, ensure that you disable KMIP secure key management first.

Step 4

(Optional) Similarly, if you want to switch the controller security from local to remote management, click Switch to Remote Key Management.

Step 5

Click OK to confirm.

Creating Virtual Drive from Unused Physical Drives

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.

Step 2

In the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.

Step 3

In the Actions area, click Create Virtual Drive from Unused Physical Drives.

The Create Virtual Drive from Unused Physical Drives dialog box displays.

Step 4

In the Create Virtual Drive from Unused Physical Drives dialog box, select the RAID level for the new virtual drives:

This can be one of the following:

Raid 0—Simple striping.
Raid 1—Simple mirroring.
Raid 5—Striping with parity.
Raid 6—Striping with two parity drives.
Raid 10—Spanned mirroring.
Raid 50—Spanned striping with parity.
Raid 60—Spanned striping with two parity drives.

Step 5

In the Create Drive Groups area, choose one or more physical drives to include in the group.

Use the >> button to add the drives to the Drive Groups table. Use the << button to remove physical drives from the drive group.

Note

The size of the smallest physical drive in the drive group defines the maximum size used for all the physical drives. To ensure maximum use of space for all physical drives, it is recommended that the size of all the drives in the drive group are similar.
Cisco IMC manages only RAID controllers and not HBAs attached to the server.
You must have multiple drive groups available to create virtual drives for certain RAID levels. While creating drives for these RAID levels, the create drive option is available only if the required number of drives are selected.

Step 6

In the Virtual Drive Properties area, update the following properties:

Name	Description
Virtual Drive Name field	The name of the new virtual drive you want to create.
Read Policy drop-down list	The read-ahead cache mode.
Cache Policy drop-down list	The cache policy used for buffering reads.
Strip Size drop-down list	The size of each strip, in KB.
Write Policy drop-down list	This can be one of the following Write Through— Data is written through the cache and to the physical drives. Performance is improved, because subsequent reads of that data can be satisfied from the cache. Write Back— Data is stored in the cache, and is only written to the physical drives when space in the cache is needed. Virtual drives requesting this policy fall back to Write Through caching when the BBU cannot guarantee the safety of the cache in the event of a power failure. Write Back Bad BBU—With this policy, write caching remains Write Back even if the battery backup unit is defective or discharged.
Disk Cache Policy drop-down list	This can be one of the following Unchanged— The disk cache policy is unchanged. Enabled— Allows IO caching on the disk. Disabled— Disallows disk caching.
Access Policy drop-down list	This can be one of the following Read Write— Enables host to perform read-write on the VD. Read Only— Host can only read from the VD. Blocked— Host can neither read nor write to the VD.
Size field	The size of the virtual drive you want to create. Enter a value and select one of the following units: MB GB TB

Step 7

Click the Generate XML API Request button to generate an API request.

Step 8

Click Close.

Step 9

Click Create Virtual Drive.

Creating Virtual Drive from an Existing Drive Group

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.

Step 2

In the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.

Step 3

In the Actions area, click Create Virtual Drive from an Existing Virtual Drive Group.

The Create Virtual Drive from an Existing Virtual Drive Group dialog box displays.

Step 4

In the Create Virtual Drive from an Existing Virtual Drive Group dialog box, select the virtual drive whose drive group you want to use to create a new virtual drive.

Step 5

In the Virtual Drive Properties area, update the following properties:

Name	Description
Virtual Drive Name field	The name of the new virtual drive you want to create.
Read Policy drop-down list	The read-ahead cache mode.
Cache Policy drop-down list	The cache policy used for buffering reads.
Strip Size drop-down list	The size of each strip, in KB.
Write Policy drop-down list	This can be one of the following Write Through— Data is written through the cache and to the physical drives. Performance is improved, because subsequent reads of that data can be satisfied from the cache. Write Back— Data is stored in the cache, and is only written to the physical drives when space in the cache is needed. Virtual drives requesting this policy fall back to Write Through caching when the BBU cannot guarantee the safety of the cache in the event of a power failure. Write Back Bad BBU—With this policy, write caching remains Write Back even if the battery backup unit is defective or discharged.
Disk Cache Policy drop-down list	This can be one of the following Unchanged— The disk cache policy is unchanged. Enabled— Allows IO caching on the disk. Disabled— Disallows disk caching.
Access Policy drop-down list	This can be one of the following Read Write— Enables host to perform read-write on the VD. Read Only— Host can only read from the VD. Blocked— Host can neither read nor write to the VD.
Size field	The size of the virtual drive you want to create. Enter a value and select one of the following units: MB GB TB

Step 6

Click the Generate XML API Request button to generate an API request.

Step 7

Click Close.

Step 8

Click Create Virtual Drive.

Setting a Virtual Drive to Transport Ready State

You can move a virtual drive from one MegaRAID controller to another using the Set Transport Ready feature. This allows all the pending IOs of the virtual drive to complete their activities, hide the virtual drive from the operating system, flush cache, pause all the background operations, and save the current progress in disk data format, allowing you to move the drive. When you move a virtual drive, all other drives belonging to the same drive group inherit the same change as the moved drive.

When the last configured physical drive on the group is removed from the current controller, the drive group becomes foreign and all foreign configuration rules apply to the group. However, the Transport Ready feature does not change any foreign configuration behavior.

You can also clear a virtual drive from the Transport Ready state. This makes the virtual drive available to the operating systems.

Following restrictions apply to a transport ready virtual drive:

Only a maximum of 16 transport ready drive groups are currently supported.
This feature is not supported on high availability.
A virtual drive cannot be set as transport ready under these conditions:
- When a virtual drive of a drive group is being reconstructed
- When a virtual drive of a drive group contains a pinned cache
- When a virtual drive of a drive group is marked as cacheable or associated with a cachecade virtual drive
- If a virtual drive is a cachecade virtual drive
- If a virtual drive is offline
- If a virtual drive is a bootable virtual drive

Setting a Virtual Drive as Transport Ready

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.
The virtual drive must be in optimal state to enable transport ready.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.

Step 2

On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA Controller.

Step 3

On the Work pane, click the Virtual Drive Info tab.

Step 4

In the Virtual Drives area, choose the drive that you want set as transport ready.

Step 5

In the Actions area, click Set Transport Ready.

The Set Transport Ready dialog box displays.

Step 6

Update the following properties in the dialog box:

Name	Description
Initialize Type drop-down list	Allows you to select the initialization type using which you can set the selected virtual drive as transport ready. This can be one of the following: Exlude All— Excludes all the dedicated hot spare drives. Include All— Includes any exclusively available or shared dedicated hot spare drives. Include Dedicated Hot Spare Drive— Includes exclusive dedicated hot spare drives.
Set Transport Ready button	Sets the selected virtual drive as transport ready.
Cancel button	Cancels the action.

Note

When you set a virtual drive to transport ready all the physical drives associated with it are displayed as Ready to Remove.

Clearing a Virtual Drive from Transport Ready State

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.
The virtual drive must be transport ready.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.
Step 2	On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.
Step 3	On the Work pane, click the Virtual Drive Info tab.
Step 4	In the Virtual Drives area, choose the drive to set as transport ready.
Step 5	In the Actions area, click Clear Transport Ready. This reverts the selected transport ready virtual drive to its original optimal state.

Importing Foreign Configuration

When one or more physical drives that have previously been configured with a different controller are inserted into a server, they are identified as foreign configurations. You can import these foreign configurations to a controller.

Important:

You cannot import a foreign configuration in the following two scenarios:

When the secure virtual drive was created on server 1 (from which you want to import the configuration) using the remote key, and on server 2 (to which you want to import) using the local key.
When server 2 is configured with another KMIP server, which is not a part of the server 1 KMIP server cluster.

In order to import the foreign configuration in these scenarios, change the controller security on server 2 from local key management to remote key management, and use the same KMIP server from the same cluster where the server 1 KMIP is configured.

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.

Step 2

In the RAID controller area, the Controller Info tab displays by default.

Step 3

In the Actions area, click Import Foreign Config.

Note

If KMIP is not enabled, a Secure Key Verification dialog box is displayed, prompting you to enter a security key to initiate the foreign configuration import process.

If KMIP is enabled, the Secure Key Verification dialog box is displayed with the following note: "If drive security has been enabled via remote key management, specifying Security key is optional. Click on verify to start foreign configuration import."

This allows you to click Verify without entering the Security Key, and initiate import.

Step 4

Click OK to confirm.

Clearing Foreign Configuration

Important:

This task clears all foreign configuration on the controller. Also, all configuration information from all physical drives hosting foreign configuration is deleted. This action cannot be reverted.

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.
Step 2	On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller. In the RAID Controller area, the Controller Info tab displays by default.
Step 3	In the Actions area, click Clear Foreign Config.
Step 4	Click OK to confirm.

Clearing a Boot Drive

Important:

This task clears the boot drive configuration on the controller. This action cannot be reverted.

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.
Step 2	On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller. In the RAID Controller area, the Controller Info tab displays by default.
Step 3	In the Actions area, click Clear Boot Drive.
Step 4	Click OK to confirm.

Enabling JBOD Mode

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.
Step 2	On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.
Step 3	In the RAID Controller area, click the Physical Drive Info tab.
Step 4	In the Physical Drives area, select an unconfigured good drive.
Step 5	In the Actions area, click Enable JBOD.
Step 6	Click Ok to confirm.

Disabling a JBOD

Note

This option is available only on some UCS C-Series servers.

Before You Begin

JBOD option must be enabled for the selected controller.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.
Step 2	On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.
Step 3	In the RAID Controller area, click the Physical Drive Info tab.
Step 4	In the Physical Drives area, select a JBOD drive.
Step 5	In the Actions area, click Disable JBOD.
Step 6	Click Ok to confirm.

Retrieving Storage Firmware Logs for a Controller

This task retrieves the storage firmware logs for the controller and places it in the /var/log location. This ensures that this log data is available when Technical Support Data is requested.

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.
Step 2	In the working area, the Controller Info tab displays by default.
Step 3	In the Actions area, click Get Storage Firmware Log.
Step 4	Click OK to confirm. Important: Retrieving storage firmware logs for a controller could take up to 2-4 minutes. Until this process is complete, do not initiate exporting technical support data.

Clearing Controller Configuration

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.
Step 2	In the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.
Step 3	In the Controller Info area, click Clear All Configuration.
Step 4	Click OK to confirm. This clears the existing controller configuration.

Restoring Storage Controller to Factory Defaults

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.
Step 2	In the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.
Step 3	In the Controller Info area, click Set Factory Defaults.
Step 4	Click OK to confirm. This restores the controller configuration to factory defaults.

Preparing a Drive for Removal

Note

You can perform this task only on physical drives that display the Unconfigured Good status.

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.
Step 2	On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.
Step 3	In the RAID Controller area, click the Physical Drive Info tab.
Step 4	In the Physical Drives area, select the drive you want to remove.
Step 5	In the Actions area, click Prepare for Removal.
Step 6	Click OK to confirm.

Undo Preparing a Drive for Removal

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.
Step 2	On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.
Step 3	On the RAID Controller area, click the Physical Drive Info tab.
Step 4	In the Physical Drives area, select a drive with a status of Ready to Remove.
Step 5	In the Actions area, click Undo Prepare for Removal.
Step 6	Click OK to confirm.

Making a Dedicated Hot Spare

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Storage tab.

Step 2

On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.

Step 3

On the RAID Controller area, click the Physical Drive Info tab.

Step 4

In the Physical Drives area, select an unconfigured good drive you want to make a dedicated hot spare.

Step 5

In the Actions area, click Make Dedicated Hot Spare.

The Make Dedicated Hot Spare dialog box displays.

Step 6

In the Virtual Drive Details area, update the following properties:

Name	Description
Virtual Drive Number drop-down list	Select the virtual drive to which you want to dedicate the physical drive as hot spare.
Virtual Drive Name field	The name of the selected virtual drive.
Make Dedicated Hot Spare button	Creates the dedicated hot spare.
Cancel button	Closes the dialog box without saving any changes made while the dialog box was open.

Step 7

Click Make Dedicated Hot Spare to confirm.

Making a Global Hot Spare

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage tab.
Step 2	On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.
Step 3	In the RAID Controller area, click the Physical Drive Info tab.
Step 4	In the Physical Drives area, select an unconfigured good drive you want to make a global hot spare.
Step 5	In the Actions area, click Make Global Hot Spare.

Removing a Drive from Hot Spare Pools

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.
Step 2	On the Storage tab, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID controller.
Step 3	On the Work pane, click the Physical Drive Info tab.
Step 4	In the Physical Drives area, select the global or dedicated hot spare you want to remove from the hot spare pools.
Step 5	In the Actions area, click Remove From Hot Spare Pools.

Toggling Physical Drive Status

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.
The controller must support the JBOD mode and the JBOD mode must be enabled.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage tab.
Step 2	On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.
Step 3	In the RAID Controller area, click the Physical Drive Info tab.
Step 4	In the Physical Drives area, select the drive you want to set as unconfigured good.
Step 5	In the Actions area, click Set State as Unconfigured Good.
Step 6	Click OK to confirm that the JBOD mode be disabled. The Set State as JBOD option is enabled.
Step 7	To enable the JBOD mode for the physical drive, click Set State as JBOD.
Step 8	Click OK to confirm. The Set State as Unconfigured Good option is enabled.

Setting a Physical Drive as a Controller Boot Drive

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.
The controller must support the JBOD mode and the JBOD mode must be enabled.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.
Step 2	On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.
Step 3	In the RAID Controller area, click the Physical Drive Info tab.
Step 4	In the Physical Drives area, select the drive you want to set as boot drive for the controller.
Step 5	In the Actions area, click Set as Boot Drive.
Step 6	Click OK to confirm.

Initializing a Virtual Drive

All data on a virtual drive is lost when you initialize the drive. Before you run an initialization, back up any data on the virtual drive that you want to save.

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.

Step 2

On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.

Step 3

In the RAID Controller area, click the Virtual Drive Info tab.

Step 4

In the Virtual Drives area, choose the drive that you want to initialize.

Step 5

In the Actions area, click Initialize.

The Initialize Virtual Drive dialog box displays.

Step 6

Choose the type of initialization you want to use for the virtual drive.

This can be one of the following:

Fast Initialize—This option allows you to start writing data to the virtual drive immediately.
Full Initialize—A complete initialization is done on the new configuration. You cannot write data to the new virtual drive until the initialization is complete.

Step 7

Click Initialize VD to initialize the drive, or Cancel to close the dialog box without making any changes.

Step 8

To view the status of the task running on the drive, in the Operations area, click Refresh.

The following details are displayed:

Name	Description
Operation	Name of the operation that is in progress on the drive.
Progress in %	Progress of the operation, in percentage complete.
Elapsed Time in secs	The number of seconds that have elapsed since the operation began.

Set as Boot Drive

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.
Step 2	On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.
Step 3	In the RAID Controller area, click the Virtual Drive Info tab.
Step 4	In the Virtual Drives area, choose the drive from which the controller must boot.
Step 5	In the Actions area, click Set as Boot Drive.
Step 6	Click OK to confirm.

Editing a Virtual Drive

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.

Step 2

On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.

Step 3

In the RAID Controller area, click the Virtual Drive Info tab.

Step 4

In the Virtual Drives area, click Edit Virtual Drive.

Step 5

Review the instructions, and then click OK. The Edit Virtual Drive dialog box displays before prompting you to take a backup of your data.

Step 6

From the Select RAID Level to migrate drop-down list, choose a RAID level.

See the following table for RAID migration criteria:

Name

Description

Select RAID Level to migrate drop-down list

Select the RAID level to which you want to migrate. Migrations are allowed for the following RAID levels:

RAID 0 to RAID 1
RAID 0 to RAID 5
RAID 0 to RAID 6
RAID 1 to RAID 0
RAID 1 to RAID 5
RAID 1 to RAID 6
RAID 5 to RAID 0
RAID 6 to RAID 0
RAID 6 to RAID 5

When you are migrating from one raid level to another, the data arms of the new RAID level should be equal to or greater than the existing one.

In case of RAID 6, the data arms will be number of drives minus two, as RAID 6 has double distributed parity. For example, when you create RAID 6 with eight drives, the number of data arms will be 8 – 2 = 6. In this case, if you are migrating from RAID 6 to RAID 0, RAID 0 must have a minimum of six drives. If you select lesser number of drives then Edit or Save button will be disabled.

If you are adding, you can migrate to RAID 0 as you will not be deleting any drives.

Note

RAID level migration is not supported in the following cases:

When there are multiple virtual drives in a RAID group.
With a combination of SSD/HDD RAID groups.

Step 7

From the Write Policy drop-down list in the Virtual Drive Properties area, choose one of the following:

Write Through— Data is written through the cache and to the physical drives. Performance is improved, because subsequent reads of that data can be satisfied from the cache.
Write Back— Data is stored in the cache, and is only written to the physical drives when space in the cache is needed. Virtual drives requesting this policy fall back to Write Through caching when the BBU cannot guarantee the safety of the cache in the event of a power failure.
Write Back Bad BBU—With this policy, write caching remains Write Back even if the battery backup unit is defective or discharged.

Step 8

Click Save Changes.

Deleting a Virtual Drive

Important:

This task deletes a virtual drive, including the drives that run the booted operating system. So back up any data that you want to retain before you delete a virtual drive.

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.
Step 2	On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.
Step 3	In the RAID Controller area, click the Virtual Drive Info tab.
Step 4	In the Virtual Drives area, select the virtual drive you want to delete.
Step 5	In the Actions area, click Delete Virtual Drive.
Step 6	Click OK to confirm.

Hiding a Virtual Drive

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.
Step 2	On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.
Step 3	On the RAID Controller area, click the Virtual Drive Info tab.
Step 4	In the Virtual Drives area, select the virtual drive you want to hide.
Step 5	In the Actions area, click Hide Drive.
Step 6	Click OK to confirm.

Starting Learn Cycles for a Battery Backup Unit

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.
Step 2	On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.
Step 3	In the RAID Controller area, click the Battery Backup Unit tab.
Step 4	From the Actions pane, click Start Learn Cycle. A dialog prompts you to confirm the task.
Step 5	Click OK.

Viewing Storage Controller Logs

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Storage menu.

Step 2

On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID or HBA controller.

Step 3

In the RAID Controller area, click Storage Log tab and review the following information:

Name

Description

Time column

The date and time the event occurred.

Severity column

The event severity. This can be one of the following:

Emergency
Alert
Critical
Error
Warning
Notice
Informational
Debug

Description column

A description of the event.

Viewing SSD Smart Information for MegaRAID Controllers

You can view smart information for a solid state drive. Complete these steps:

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Storage tab.

Step 2

On the Storage menu, click the appropriate LSI MegaRAID Controller.

Step 3

On the Work pane, click the Physical Drive Info tab.

Step 4

In the Smart Information area, review the following information:

Name	Description
Power Cycle Count field	Number of power cycles that the drive went through from the time it was manufactured.
Power on Hours field	Total number of hours that the drive is in the 'Power On' mode.
Percentage Life Left field	The number of write cycles remaining in a solid state drive (SSD). For instance, if an SSD is capable of 100 write cycles during its life time, and it has completed 15 writes, then the percentage of life left in the drive is 85%. Each percentage range is represented in a different color. For instance, green for 75% to 100% and red for 1 to 25%.
Wear Status in Days field	The number of days an SSD has gone through with the write cycles. SSD vendors provide a finite number of writes per day on the SSD, based on which, you can calculate the total number of years the SSD would continue to work.
Operating Temperature field	The current temperature of the drive at which the selected SSD operates at the time of selection.
Percentage Reserved Capacity Consumed field	The total capacity (out of the percentage reserved for it) consumed by the SSD.
Time of Last Refresh field	Time period since the drive was last refreshed.

Cisco Flexible Flash

Some C-Series Rack-Mount Servers support an internal Secure Digital (SD) memory card for storage of server software tools and utilities. The SD card is hosted by the Cisco Flexible Flash storage adapter.

The SD storage is available to Cisco IMC as a single hypervisor (HV) partition configuration. Prior versions had four virtual USB drives. Three were preloaded with Cisco UCS Server Configuration Utility, Cisco drivers and Cisco Host Upgrade Utility, and the fourth as user-installed hypervisor. A single HV partition configuration is also created when you upgrade to the latest version of Cisco IMC or downgrade to the prior version, and reset the configuration.

For information about the Cisco software utilities and packages, see the Cisco UCS C-Series Servers Documentation Roadmap at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/go/unifiedcomputing/c-series-doc

Card Management Feature in the Cisco Flexible Flash Controller

The Cisco Flexible Flash controller supports management of both single and two SD cards as a RAID-1 pair. With the introduction of card management, you can perform the following tasks:

Note

If you want to upgrade from version 1.4(5e) to 1.5(4) or higher versions, you must first upgrade to version1.5(2) and then upgrade to a higher version of Cisco IMC.
Reset the Cisco Flexible Flash controller to load the latest Flex Flash firmware after every Cisco IMC firmware upgrade.

Action	Description
Reset Cisco Flex Flash	Allows you to reset the controller.
Reset Partition Defaults	Allows you to reset the configuration in the selected slot to the default configuration.
Synchronize Card Configuration	Allows you to retain the configuration for an SD card that supports firmware version 253 and later.
Configure Operational Profile	Allows you to configure the SD cards on the selected Cisco Flexible Flash controller.

RAID Partition Enumeration

Non-RAID partitions are always enumerated from the primary card and the enumeration does not depend on the status of the primary card.

Following is the behavior of the RAID partition enumeration when there are two cards in the Cisco Flexible Flash controller:

Scenario

Behavior

Single card

RAID partitions are enumerated if the card is healthy, and if the mode is either Primary or Secondary-active.

Dual paired cards

RAID partitions are enumerated if one of the cards is healthy.

When only one card is healthy, all read/write operations occur on this healthy card. You must use UCS SCU to synchronize the two RAID partitions.

Dual unpaired cards

If this scenario is detected when the server is restarting, then neither one of the RAID partitions is enumerated.

If this scenario is detected when the server is running, when a user connects a new SD card, then the cards are not managed by the Cisco Flexible Flash controller. This does not affect the host enumeration. You must pair the cards to manage them. You can pair the cards using the Reset Partition Defaults or Synchronize Card Configuration options.

Upgrading from Single Card to Dual Card Mirroring with FlexFlash

You can upgrade from a single card mirroring to dual card mirroring with FlexFlash in one of the following methods:

Add an empty FlexFlash card to the server, and then upgrade its firmware to the latest version.
Upgrade the FlexFlash firmware to the latest version and then add an empty card to the server.

Prior to using either of these methods, you must keep in mind the following guidelines:

To create RAID1 mirroring, the empty card that you want to add to the server must be of the exact size of the card that is already in the server. Identical card size is a must to set up RAID1 mirroring.
Ensure that the card with valid data in the Hypervisor partition is marked as the primary healthy card. You can determine this state either in the Cisco IMC GUI or from the Cisco IMC CLI. To mark the state of the card as primary healthy, you can either use the Reset Configuration option in the Cisco IMC GUI or run the reset-config command in the Cisco IMC CLI. When you reset the configuration of a particular card, the secondary card is marked as secondary active unhealthy.
In a Degraded RAID health state all read-write transactions are done on the healthy card. In this scenario, data mirroring does not occur. Data mirroring occurs only in the Healthy RAID state.
Data mirroring is only applicable to RAID partitions. In the C-series servers, only Hypervisor partitions operate in the RAID mode.
If you have not configured SD cards for use with prior versions, then upgrading to the latest version loads the latest 253 firmware and enumerates all four partitions to the host.

While upgrading versions of the FlexFlash, you may see the following error message:

Unable to communicate with Flexible Flash controller: operation ffCardsGet, status CY_AS_ERROR_INVALID_RESPONSE”

In addition, the card status may be shown as missing. This error occurs because you accidently switched to an alternate release or a prior version, such as 1.4(x). In this scenario, you can either revert to the latest version, or you can switch back to the FlexFlash 1.4(x) configuration. If you choose to revert to the latest Cisco IMC version, then the Cisco FlexFlash configuration remains intact. If you choose to switch back to the prior version configuration, you must reset the Flexflash configuration. In this scenario, you must be aware of the following:

If multiple cards are present, and you revert to a prior version, then the second card cannot be discovered or managed.
If the card type is SD253, then you must run the reset-config command twice from the Cisco IMC CLI - once to reload the old firmware on the controller and to migrate SD253 to SD247 type, and the second time to start the enumeration.

Configuring the Flexible Flash Controller Properties

After you upgrade to the latest verison of Cisco IMC or downgrade to a prior version, and reset the configuration, the server will access HV partition only.

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.
Cisco Flexible Flash must be supported by your platform.

Note

This task results in the host re-scanning all the virtual drives, and a loss of virtual drive connectivity. We recommend that you configure the Cisco Flexible Flash controller properties before using any virtual drives, or power down the host prior to starting this task

Configuring the Flexible Flash Controller Firmware Mode

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.
Cisco Flexible Flash must be supported by your platform.

Note

This task results in the host re-scanning all the virtual drives, and a loss of virtual drive connectivity. We recommend that you configure the Cisco Flexible Flash controller properties before using any virtual drives, or power down the host prior to starting this task.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage tab.
Step 2	On the Storage tab, click Cisco FlexFlash.
Step 3	In the Actions area, click Configure Firmware Mode.
Step 4	Click OK in the confirmation box. Switches the controller firmware mode from the current firmware mode to the other.

Configuring the Flexible Flash Controller Cards

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.
Cisco Flexible Flash must be supported by your platform.

Note

This task results in the host re-scanning all the virtual drives, and a loss of virtual drive connectivity. We recommend that you configure the Cisco Flexible Flash controller properties before using any virtual drives, or power down the host prior to starting this task.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Storage tab.

Step 2

On the Storage tab, click Cisco FlexFlash.

Step 3

In the Actions area, click Configure Cards. Configure Cards dialog box appears.

Step 4

In the Configure Cards dialog box, update the following fields:

Name

Description

Mirror radio button

Enter the following:

Mirror Partition Name field—The name that you want to assign to the partition.

Auto Sync checkbox—If selected, data from the selected primary card will sync automatically with the secondary card.

Note

There must be two cards for you to choose this option.
If this option is selected, data on the secondary card is erased and overwritten by the data on the primary card.
The status of this is displayed under the Physical Driver Info tab.

Select Primary Card drop-down—Slot that you want to set as the primary card. This can be one of the following:
- Slot1
- Slot2

Util radio button

Select this option to configure the card in Util mode. When you configure the cards in the Util mode, the following situations occur:

The card in the selected slot creates four partitions that has a partition each for the utilities: SCU, HUU, Drivers and one partition that can be used by the user and the card is marked healthy.
The card in the other slot, if it exists, creates a single partition and the card is marked healthy.
The card read/write error counts and read/write threshold are set to 0.
Host connectivity could be disrupted.
The configured cards will be paired.

Enter the following:

User Partition Name field—The name that you want to assign to the fourth partition of the Util card.
Non Util Card Partition Name field—The name that you want to assign to the single partition on the second card, if it exists.
Select Util Card drop-down—Slot that you want to set for Util. This can be one of the following:
- Slot1
- Slot2
- None—Applicable only when the server has one SD card.

Step 5

Click Save.

The cards are configured in the chosen mode.

Booting from the Flexible Flash Card

You can specify a bootable virtual drive on the Cisco Flexible Flash card that overrides the default boot priority the next time that the server is restarted, regardless of the default boot order defined for the server. The specified boot device is used only once. After the server has rebooted, this setting is ignored. You can choose a bootable virtual drive only if a Cisco Flexible Flash card is available. Otherwise, the server uses a default boot order.

Note

Before you reboot the server, ensure that the virtual drive that you select is enabled on the Cisco Flexible Flash card. Go to the Storage tab, choose the card, and then go to the Virtual Drive Info subtab.

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.
Cisco Flexible Flash must be supported by your platform.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Server tab.
Step 2	On the Server tab, click BIOS.
Step 3	In the Actions area, click Configure Boot Override Priority. The Boot Override Priority dialog box appears.
Step 4	From the Boot Override Priority drop-down list, choose a virtual drive to boot from.
Step 5	Click Apply.

Resetting the Flexible Flash Controller

In normal operation, it should not be necessary to reset the Cisco Flexible Flash. We recommend that you perform this procedure only when explicitly directed to do so by a technical support representative.

Note

This operation will disrupt traffic to the virtual drives on the Cisco Flexible Flash controller.

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.
Cisco Flexible Flash must be supported by your platform.

Procedure

Step 1	On the Storage Adapters pane, click Cisco FlexFlash.
Step 2	In the Cisco FlexFlash pane, click the Controller Info tab.
Step 3	In the Actions area, click Reset FlexFlash Controller.
Step 4	Click OK to confirm.

Enabling Virtual Drives

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.
Cisco Flexible Flash must be supported by your platform.

Note

This task results in the host re-scanning all the virtual drives, and a loss of virtual drive connectivity. We recommend that you configure the Cisco Flexible Flash controller properties before using any virtual drives.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage tab.
Step 2	On the Storage tab, click Cisco FlexFlash.
Step 3	Click the Virtual Drive Info tab.
Step 4	In the Virtual Drive Info tab, click Enable/Disable Virtual Drive(s).
Step 5	In the Enable/Disable VD(s) dialog box, select the virtual drives that you want to enable.
Step 6	Click Save. The selected virtual drives are enabled to the host.

Erasing Virtual Drives

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.
Cisco Flexible Flash must be supported by your platform.

Note

This task results in the host re-scanning all the virtual drives, and a loss of virtual drive connectivity. We recommend that you configure the Cisco Flexible Flash controller properties before using any virtual drives.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage tab.
Step 2	On the Storage tab, click Cisco FlexFlash.
Step 3	Click the Virtual Drive Info tab.
Step 4	In the Virtual Drive Info tab, click Erase Virtual Drive(s).
Step 5	In the Erase Virtual Drive(s) dialog box, select the virtual drives that you want to erase.
Step 6	Click Save. Data on the selected virtual drives is erased.

Syncing Virtual Drives

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.
Cisco Flexible Flash must be supported by your platform.
Cards must be in mirror mode.

Note

This task results in the host re-scanning all the virtual drives, and a loss of virtual drive connectivity. We recommend that you configure the Cisco Flexible Flash controller properties before using any virtual drives.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage tab.
Step 2	On the Storage tab, click Cisco FlexFlash.
Step 3	Click the Virtual Drive Info tab.
Step 4	In the Virtual Drive Info tab, click Sync Virtual Drive.
Step 5	Click OK in the confirmation dialog box. Syncs the virtual drive hypervisor with the primary card.

Adding an ISO Image Configuration

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.
Cisco Flexible Flash must be supported by your platform.
The cards must be configured in Util mode.

Note

This task results in the host re-scanning all the virtual drives, and a loss of virtual drive connectivity. We recommend that you configure the Cisco Flexible Flash controller properties before using any virtual drives, or power down the host prior to starting this task.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Storage tab.

Step 2

On the Storage tab, click Cisco FlexFlash.

Step 3

Click the Virtual Drive Info tab.

Step 4

In the Virtual Drive Info tab, select the virtual drive for which you want to add an image, click Add Image.

Step 5

In the Add Image dialog box, update the following fields:

Name	Description
Volume field	The identity of the image mounted for mapping. This can be one of the following: SCU HUU Drivers
Mount Type drop-down list	The type of mapping. This can be one of the following: NFS—Network File System. CIFS—Common Internet File System.
Remote Share field	The URL of the image to be mapped. The format depends on the selected Mount Type: NFS—Use `serverip:/share path`. CIFS—Use `//serverip/share path`.
Remote File field	The name and location of the .iso file in the remote share. Following are the example of remote share files: NFS — `/softwares/ucs-cxx-scu-3.1.9.iso` CIFS — `/softwares/ucs-cxx-scu-3.1.9.iso`
Mount Options field	Industry-standard mount options entered in a comma separated list. The options vary depending on the selected Mount Type. If you are using NFS, leave the field blank or enter one or more of the following: `ro` `rw` `nolock` `noexec` `soft` `port=VALUE` `timeo=VALUE` `retry=VALUE` If you are using CIFS, leave the field blank or enter one or more of the following: `soft` `nounix` `noserverino`
User Name field	The username for the specified Mount Type, if required.
Password field	The password for the selected username, if required.

Step 6

Click Save.

Updating an ISO Image

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.
Cisco Flexible Flash must be supported by your platform.
This task is available only when the cards are configured in Util mode.

Note

This task results in the host re-scanning all the virtual drives, and a loss of virtual drive connectivity. We recommend that you configure the Cisco Flexible Flash controller properties before using any virtual drives, or power down the host prior to starting this task.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Storage tab.

Step 2

On the Storage tab, click Cisco FlexFlash.

Step 3

Click the Virtual Drive Info tab.

Step 4

In the Virtual Drive Info tab, select the virtual drive on which you want to update the image, click Update Image.

Note

SCU and HUU update may take up to an hour and the drivers update may take up to five hours.

Unmapping an ISO Image

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.
Cisco Flexible Flash must be supported by your platform.

Note

This task results in the host re-scanning all the virtual drives, and a loss of virtual drive connectivity. We recommend that you configure the Cisco Flexible Flash controller properties before using any virtual drives, or power down the host prior to starting this task.

Procedure

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the Storage tab.
Step 2	On the Storage tab, click Cisco FlexFlash.
Step 3	Click the Virtual Drive Info tab.
Step 4	In the Virtual Drive Info tab, select the virtual drive for which you want to un map the image, click Unmap Image.

Resetting the Cisco Flexible Flash Card Configuration

When you reset the configuration of the slots in the Cisco Flexible Flash card, the following situations occur:

The card in the selected slot is marked as primary healthy.
The card in the other slot is marked as secondary-active unhealthy.
One RAID partition is created.
The card read/write error counts and read/write threshold are set to 0.
Host connectivity could be disrupted.

If you upgrade to the latest version and select reset configuration option, a single hypervisor (HV) partition is created, and the existing four partition configurations are erased. This may also result in data loss. You can retrieve the lost data only if you have not done any data writes into HV partition, and downgrade to prior version.

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1

On the Storage Adapters pane, click Cisco FlexFlash.

Step 2

In the Cisco FlexFlash pane, click the Controller Info tab.

Step 3

In the Actions area, click Reset Partition Defaults.

Step 4

In the Reset Partition Defaults dialog box, update the following fields:

Name

Description

Slot radio button

Select the slot for which you want to mark the card as primary healthy.

The card in the other slot, if any, is marked as secondary-active unhealthy.

Reset Partition Defaults button

Resets the configuration of the selected slot.

Cancel button

Closes the dialog box without making any changes.

Step 5

Click Yes.

Retaining Configuration of the Cisco Flexible Flash Cards

You can retain the configuration for an FlexFlash that supports firmware version 253 and later card in the following situations:

There are two unpaired FlexFlash
The server is operating from a single FlexFlash, and an unpaired FlexFlash is in the other slot.
One FlexFlash supports firmware version 253, and the other FlexFlash is unpartitioned.

When you retain the configuration, the following situations occur:

The configuration for the FlexFlash in the selected slot is copied to the other card.
The card in the selected slot is marked as primary healthy.
The card in the secondary slot is marked as secondary-active unhealthy.

Before You Begin

You must log in with admin privileges to perform this task.

Procedure

Step 1

On the Storage Adapters pane, click Cisco FlexFlash.

Step 2

In the Cisco FlexFlash pane, click the Controller Info tab.

Step 3

In the Actions area, click Synchronize Card Configuration.

Step 4

In the Synchronize Card Configuration dialog box, update the following fields:

Name	Description
Slot radio button	Select the slot for which you want the configuration retained. The configuration is copied from the selected slot to the card in the other slot, and the card in the selected slot is marked as primary healthy.
Synchronize Card Configuration button	Copies the configuration from the selected card only if the selected card is of type SD253 and has single HV configuration.
Cancel button	Closes the dialog box without making any changes.

Step 5

Click Yes.

Bias-Free Language

Results

Chapter: Managing Storage Adapters

Managing Storage Adapters

Self Encrypting Drives (Full Disk Encryption)

Enabling Controller Security

Modifying Controller Security

Disabling Controller Security

Switching Controller Security Between Local and Remote Key Management

Creating Virtual Drive from Unused Physical Drives

Creating Virtual Drive from an Existing Drive Group

Setting a Virtual Drive to Transport Ready State

Setting a Virtual Drive as Transport Ready

Clearing a Virtual Drive from Transport Ready State

Importing Foreign Configuration

Clearing Foreign Configuration

Clearing a Boot Drive

Enabling JBOD Mode

Disabling a JBOD

Retrieving Storage Firmware Logs for a Controller

Clearing Controller Configuration

Restoring Storage Controller to Factory Defaults

Preparing a Drive for Removal

Undo Preparing a Drive for Removal

Making a Dedicated Hot Spare

Making a Global Hot Spare

Removing a Drive from Hot Spare Pools

Toggling Physical Drive Status

Setting a Physical Drive as a Controller Boot Drive

Initializing a Virtual Drive

Set as Boot Drive

Editing a Virtual Drive

Deleting a Virtual Drive

Hiding a Virtual Drive

Starting Learn Cycles for a Battery Backup Unit

Viewing Storage Controller Logs

Viewing SSD Smart Information for MegaRAID Controllers

Cisco Flexible Flash

Card Management Feature in the Cisco Flexible Flash Controller

RAID Partition Enumeration

Upgrading from Single Card to Dual Card Mirroring with FlexFlash

Configuring the Flexible Flash Controller Properties

Configuring the Flexible Flash Controller Firmware Mode

Configuring the Flexible Flash Controller Cards

Booting from the Flexible Flash Card

Resetting the Flexible Flash Controller

Enabling Virtual Drives

Erasing Virtual Drives

Syncing Virtual Drives

Adding an ISO Image Configuration

Updating an ISO Image

Unmapping an ISO Image

Resetting the Cisco Flexible Flash Card Configuration

Retaining Configuration of the Cisco Flexible Flash Cards

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