Configuration : Changing Power Settings

Changing Power Settings

The RAID controller includes Dimmer Switch® technology that conserves energy by placing certain unused drives into Power-Save mode. In Power-Save mode, the drives use less energy, and the fan and the enclosure require less energy to cool and house the drives, respectively. Also, this technology helps avoid application timeouts caused by spin-up delays and drive wear caused by excessive spin-up/down cycles.

You can use the Power Settings field in the MegaRAID Storage Manager software to choose whether to allow unconfigured drives or Commissioned Hotspares to enter Power-Save mode.

NOTE  The Dimmer Switch technology is enabled by default.

When they are in the Power-Save mode, unconfigured drives and drives configured as Commissioned Hotspares (dedicated or global) can be spun down. When spun down, the drives stay in Power-Save mode except for periodic maintenance, which includes the following:

*

Periodic background media scans (Patrol Read) to find and correct media defects to avoid losing data redundancy (hot spare drives only)

*

Use of a Commissioned Hotspare to rebuild a degraded drive group (Commissioned Hotspare drives only)

*

Update of disk data format (DDF) and other metadata when you make changes to RAID configurations (Commissioned Hotspare drives and unconfigured drives)

NOTE  If your controller does not support this option, the Power Settings field does not appear.

Follow these steps to change the power-save setting.

1.

Select a controller icon in the Physical tab or the Logical tab in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager window.

2.

Select Go To > Controller > Manage Power Settings from the menu bar.

The Manage Power Save Settings dialog appears.

Figure 63. Manage Power Save Settings

3.

Select the Unconfigured Drives check box to let the controller enable the unconfigured drives to enter the Power-Save mode.

4.

Select the Hot spare Drives check box to let the controller enable the Hot spare drives to enter the Power-Save mode.

5.

Select the drive standby time (Alt+D) using the drop-down list from the Drive standby time field.

NOTE  The Drive Standby time drop-down list is enabled only if any of the check boxes above it are checked. The drive standby time can be 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1.30 hours, or 2 hours through 24 hours.

6.

Click OK.

The Power-Save settings are saved. After you click OK, a confirmation dialog appears prompting you to save your changes.

If you do not specify the Power-Save settings in the Manage Power Save Settings dialog, a confirmation dialog appears. The confirmation dialog mentions that the system does not have power savings for any of the drives, and asks if you would like to proceed.