Dell PowerVault MD3200 Deployment Manual

Also see for PowerVault MD3200 Series: Manual Update Rack Installation Instructions Owner's manual Support Matrix

Contents

Dell PowerVault MD3200 Deployment Manual Manual pdf 8 page image

8 Introduction• Display resolution of 1024x768 with 16 million colors (1280x1024 32-bitrecommended).• Microsoft Windows, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or SUSE Linux EnterpriseServer.NOTE: Supported operating systems include both native and guest operatingsystems.NOTE: Supported hypervisors include Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer,and VMware ESX and ESXi. For information about the supported versions, seetheSupport Matrix at dell.com/support/manuals.• Administrator or equivalent permissions.Introduction to Storage ArraysAn enclosure containing physical disks accessed through RAID controllermodules is called a storage array. A storage array includes various hardwarecomponents, such as physical disks, RAID controller modules, fans, andpower supplies, gathered into enclosures.One or more host servers attached to the storage array can access the data onthe storage array. You can also establish multiple physical paths between thehost(s) and the storage array so that loss of any single path (for example,through failure of a host server port) does not result in loss of access to dataon the storage array.The storage array is managed by MDSM running on a:• Host server—On a host server system, MDSM and the storage arraycommunicate management requests and event information usingSAS connections.• Management station—On a management station, MDSM communicateswith the storage array either through an Ethernet connection to thestorage array management port or through an Ethernet connection to ahost server. The Ethernet connection passes management informationbetween the management station and the storage array using SASconnections.Using MDSM, you can configure the physical disks in the storage array intological components called disk groups and then divide the disk groups intovirtual disks. Disk groups are created in the unconfigured capacity of a storagearray. Virtual disks are created in the free capacity of a disk group.