How to configure the DELL PERC H200 RAID controller

Reviewed on 27 August 2024 • Published on 16 July 2021

Before you start

To complete the actions presented below, you must have:

A Dedibox account logged into the console
A Dedibox dedicated server with a DELL PERC H200 RAID controller

How to install the required packages

We recommend you use the packages provided by HWraid to configure your DELL PERC H200 RAID controller. Install them as follows:

Debian 12 (Bookworm)

sudo echo "deb http://hwraid.le-vert.net/debian bullseye main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install sas2ircu-status

Debian 11 (Bullseye)

sudo echo "deb http://hwraid.le-vert.net/debian bullseye main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install sas2ircu-status

Debian 10 (Buster)

sudo echo "deb http://hwraid.le-vert.net/debian buster main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install sas2ircu-status

Debian 9 (Stretch)

sudo echo "deb http://hwraid.le-vert.net/debian stretch main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install sas2ircu-status

Unbuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa)

sudo echo "deb http://hwraid.le-vert.net/ubuntu focal main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install sas2ircu-status

Unbuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver)

sudo echo "deb http://hwraid.le-vert.net/ubuntu bionic main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install sas2ircu-status

Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus)

sudo echo "deb http://hwraid.le-vert.net/ubuntu xenial main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install sas2ircu-status

How to check the status of the RAID controller

Run the following command to check the status of the DELL PERC H200 RAID controller:

sas2ircu LIST

An output like the following example displays:

  LSI Corporation SAS2 IR Configuration Utility.
  Version 5.00.00.00 (2010.02.09)  
  Copyright (c) 2009 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved. 
  
         Adapter      Vendor  Device                       SubSys  SubSys 
  Index    Type          ID      ID    Pci Address          Ven ID  Dev ID 
  -----  ------------  ------  ------  -----------------    ------  ------ 
   0     SAS2008     1000h    72h   00h:01h:00h:00h      1028h   1f1dh 
  SAS2IRCU: Utility Completed Successfully.

How to check the status of the RAID

Run the following command to check the status of the hardware RAID on your Dell PERC H200:

sas2ircu-status

It displays information about the state of the RAID array:

-- Controller informations --
-- ID | Model
c0 | SAS2008
-- Arrays informations --
-- ID | Type | Size | Status
c0u0 | RAID1 | 1907G | Okay (OKY)
-- Disks informations
-- ID | Model | Status
c0u0p0 | ST32000444SS (9WM3NAR0) | Optimal (OPT)
c0u0p1 | ST32000444SS (9WM3MZL2) | Optimal (OPT)

How to optimize the performance of your hardware RAID

For maximum performance, you can activate the cache of your SATA disks. After creating a virtual disk, the cache of SATA disks is disabled by default. Restore maximum performance by re-enabling the cache using rescue mode.

Note

This step can be performed on Dedibox servers equipped with a DELL PERC H200 RAID controller and SATA hard disk drives.

Boot your server into rescue mode using a 64-bit Ubuntu operating system.

Log into the server using the provided SSH credentials and run the following commands to re-enable the disk cache:

sudo su
echo 'deb http://linux.dell.com/repo/community/deb/latest /' | sudo tee -a  /etc/apt/sources.list.d/linux.dell.com.sources.list
apt-get update && apt-get install -y --force-yes srvadmin-base
service dataeng start
/opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/omconfig storage vdisk  action=changepolicy controller=0 vdisk=0 diskcachepolicy=enabled