Storage Center

System Management
Access Management
User Groups
Disk Folder
Disk Disk Disk Disk
Disk Disk Disk Disk
Disk Disk Disk Disk

Volume Folder
LUN LUN LUN LUN

Server Folder

2
Dell Storage Center User Types
Administrator
Volume Manager Reporter
Disk Folder Volume Folder Volume Folder
Disk Disk Disk Disk
Disk Disk Disk Disk LUN LUN LUN LUN LUN LUN LUN LUN
Disk Disk Disk Disk

Volume Folder
LUN LUN LUN LUN
Create Server Folder

Server Folder
Server Folder

View Only
Access
Create
USER TYPE DISK FOLDER SERVER VOLUME MAPPING USER USER GROUP
Administrator Create Create Create Create Create Create
Volume
Access Access Create Create
Manager
Reporter View View View View
3
User Best Practices

AD

4
LDAP/AD Enhancements

5
Automatic Discovery

1 2

3 4

6
Configure Directory Services Manually

1 2

3 4

7
Storage Center Web Based Graphical User Interface

SSL Security Enabled

Java plug-in

8
Management Tools • Enterprise Manager
• Web GUI
• Customer Portal
• Knowledge Center
• vSphere Client Plug-in

vSphere
Plug-in Dell
SupportAssist

9
The Customer Portal
Username

Get news, alerts and

access important links

Read blogs and

add us to your social
network

Read customer stories or

watch customer videos

10
For assistance contact CMLcustomerportal@dell.com
Dell Knowledge Center

Subscribe to CSTA (Copilot Support Technical Alerts)

to receive important information and updates

11
Storage Center Manager Viewers

12
The vSphere
Plug-In
vSphere Client Plug-In (Home)

14
vSphere Client Plug-In (System Properties)

15
vSphere Client Plug-In (Storage Summary)

16
vSphere Client Plug-In (SC Settings)

17
vSphere Client Plug-In (SC View)

18
SupportAssist –
Enterprise Manager
SupportAssist Requirements
• Support tool that collects and stores diagnostic data
and transmits it to Dell Technical Support.
• No user data; only diagnostic information.
• TCP ports 80, 22, 443 and 8443 outbound only
communication.
• Firewall configuration changes

SupportAssist Firewall Settings

Hostname Public IP Address TCP Port
web1.compellent.com 76.164.8.136 443
web2.compellent.com 76.164.8.160 and 76.164.8.161 443
stor.g2.ph.dell.com 143.166.135.120 443
stor.g3.ph.dell.com 143.166.135.19 443

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Data Collector Properties

21
Dell SupportAssist

 Enable SupportAssist
 Send IO Usage, Storage Usage or Replication Usage Information
 Select how frequently Enterprise Manager sends data
 Perform a manual send

22
Dell SupportAssist (cont.)

23
Dell Storage Center Licenses

24
Disk Drive Sparing

25
Identifying a Failed Drive

26
Replacing a Failed Disk Drive

27
Replacing a Failed Disk Drive (cont.)

28
Replacing a Failed Disk Drive (cont.)

29
Replacing a Failed Disk Drive (cont.)

30
Replacing a Failed Disk Drive (cont.)

31
Configuring RAID 6 and RAID 10 DM

Dell recommends running Dual Redundant on any tier that

contains an individual drive capacity over 900GB
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Core: Datapage Sizes

If an application
writes small IO to
disk, the writes
can take up more
space using 2MB
pages

4MB

2MB

512KB

33
Datapage Size Configuration

34
Datapage Size Configuration (cont.)

35
Datapage Size Configuration (cont.)

36
Lab 18: Datapage Sizes

Volume 1 2MB 2MB 2MB

Volume 2 512KB 512KB 512KB

37
Controller Failover
Leader
Role

Hard Drives
0 1 2 3
4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11

• Automatic Failover
• No disruption to data traffic
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Controller Failover Alerts
60281 is the Leader.
Ports are balanced.

60281 is down.
61650 becomes the Leader.
Ports are “Unbalanced”.

Notification in
61650 Summary screen

39
Rebalancing Ports
60281 is returned to service.
Both controllers are now functional
but the ports are unbalanced.

Ports are now “Balanced”

40
Changing Displayed Port Names

<Enter a Friendly Name Here>

41
Uninterruptible Power Supplies

42
Configure Simple Network Management Protocol
(SNMP) Properties

43
Configure Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) Properties

44
Updating the Dell Storage Center Software

A new Storage Center is

configured to automatically check
for updates by default
45
Storage Center Update Status
To configure the update process, in Enterprise Manager go to
Storage viewer > Summary > Edit Settings > Dell SupportAssist

46
Updating the SC with EM

47
Shutdown/Restarting a Controller

48
Shutdown/Restart a Storage System

49
Enterprise
Manager Viewers
Viewers List

• Storage
• Servers
• Replications & Live
Volumes
• Monitoring
• Threshold Alerts
• Chargeback
• Reports

Requires License

51
Monitoring Viewer

52
Reports Viewer

Report Types
• Storage Center Summary
• Disk Class
• Alerts
• Volume Storage
• Replications

53
Scheduling Automated Reports

54
Reports Viewer

55
Viewing Reports
Tabs

Print or Save

56
Lab 19:
Enterprise Manager Reports

Administrator

Volume
57
Threshold Alerts

58
Configuring Definitions and Queries

Threshold
Definitions run
continuously
59
Threshold Queries

Threshold
Queries
only run on
demand

60
Viewing Threshold Alerts

61
Hardware Tab – Threshold Alerts

62
Lab 20:
Enterprise Manager Threshold Alerts

63
Volume Advisor
• Used In:
– Placing new volumes
– Migrating existing volumes from one collocated
Storage Center to another

• Based on a scoring engine for collocated

Storage Centers
– Each Storage Center is scored
– Higher scores receive volume placement priority
– Scores are not visible or customizable

Requirements
• Storage Centers must be located at the same site
• Storage Centers must be on the same SCOS Data Center

?
version
• Duplicate Tier 1 drive type
• Live Volume licensed across systems
• For volume migration, identical server definitions

64
Volume Placement Using Volume Advisor

65
Creating a Volume Using Server Viewer
• Volumes are created through the Server Viewer only

• Same option is not available from the Storage Viewer

66
Recommend a Storage Center
• Create a Volume Wizard walk-through
• Enterprise Manager can recommend the “best” Storage Center to place the volume
based on an algorithm measuring:
– Average CPU utilization (last 14 days)
– % Full total disk space
– % Full Tier 1
– Average FE IO/sec (last 14 days)
– Total # of volumes

67
Moving an Existing Volume in EM

68
Threshold Definitions That Support Volume Advisor
Four types of threshold definitions can trigger an alert and a
recommendation to move one or more volumes.

Type Alert Object Type Alert Definition

IO Usage Storage Center FE IO / Sec

IO Usage Volume Latency

IO Usage Controller CPU Usage

Storage Storage Center Percent Used

69
Creating a Threshold Definition
• Threshold Alerts monitor if a volume exceeds certain criteria
– Available today

• Administrator can now receive a recommendation to move the volume to a

Storage Center based on:
– Storage Space Full
– Tier One Full
– Volume Latency

70
Volume Movement Recommendations
Right clicking on the alert gives the option to “Recommend Storage Center”

• The admin is provided

with:
1. Recommended
Storage Center name
2. The option to convert
the volume to a Live
Volume for movement

71
Volume Moved via Live Volume
New York Data Center

72
Chargeback

73
Configuring Chargeback

74
Creating Departments

75
Departments: Adding Volumes and Folders

76
Creating a Chargeback Report

77
Viewing a Chargeback Report

78
Lab 21: Enterprise Manager Chargeback

79
Section Review

User Group 1
Disk Folder
Disk Disk Disk Disk
Disk Disk Disk Disk
Disk Disk Disk Disk

Server Folders Volume Folder

LUN LUN LUN LUN

80
Review Questions
1. In a dual controller system, if a controller fails and is then brought back into service,
what should be done?
Rebalance the Local Ports

2. During a firmware update of the Storage Center, if the “Service Affecting” message is
“Yes”, what does this indicate?
An outage needs to be scheduled so the system can be brought offline

3. What is the best practice when designating hot spare disk drives?
One hot spare per drive size and/or type per enclosure

85
Review Questions
4. When visiting the Knowledge Center, what is the advantage of the CSTA (Copilot
Support Technical Alerts)?
Receive important alerts and updates from SupportAssist

5. What are the three levels of users that the Dell Storage Center supports?
Administrator
Volume Manager
Reporter

6. What process sends important log information to support??

SupportAssist

7. To more easily identify a specific drive in a Storage Center so it can be located

physically in the rack, what can the administrator do?
Beacon the drive

86
Review Questions
8. What is the purpose of assigning specific system resources to specific user groups??
To allow users to access only pre-defined resources

9. When performing a firmware update in a dual controller system, which controller is

updated?
Both controllers are updated then reset sequentially to maintain service in a dual
controller configuration

10. What automated reports are available?

Storage Center Summary
Disk Class
Alerts
Volume Storage
Replication

87
Review Questions
11. From what option can you globally generate an Automated Report every week?
Edit Data Collector Settings->Automated Reports->Generate Reports Now ->Create
Weekly Report

12. What is the difference between threshold definitions and threshold queries?
Threshold definitions run continuously
Threshold queries run on demand

13. What feature in Enterprise Manager allows users to assign costs to storage?
Chargeback

88
Additional Resources
Dell Tech Center – Best Practices, Technical Reports and Videos
http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/storage/w/wiki/5018.compellent-technical-content

Dell Support – General Product Support

http://www.dell.com/support

Knowledge Center – Registration Required

https://customer.compellent.com

For customer support call: 866-EZSTORE (866.397.8673)

Email at: dell_online_storage@dell.com

Follow us at www.Twitter.com/LearnDell

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