Observe these drive population guidelines for optimum performance:
• When populating drives, add drives to the lowest-numbered bays first.
• Keep an empty drive blanking tray in any unused bays to ensure proper airflow.
• You can mix SAS/SATA hard drives and SAS/SATA SSDs in the same server. However, you cannot
configure a logical volume (virtual drive) that contains a mix of hard drives and SSDs. That is, when
you create a logical volume, it must contain all SAS/SATA hard drives or all SAS/SATA SSDs.
4K Sector Format SAS/SATA Drives Considerations
• You must boot 4K sector format drives in UEFI mode, not legacy mode. See the procedures in this
section.
• Do not configure 4K sector format and 512-byte sector format drives as part of the same RAID volume.
• Operating system support on 4K sector drives is as follows: Windows: Win2012 and Win2012R2; Linux:
RHEL 6.5, 6.6, 6.7, 7.0, 7.2; SLES 11 SP3, and SLES 12. ESXi/Vmware is not supported.
Procedure
PurposeCommand or Action
Step 1
Setting Up UEFI Mode Booting in the BIOS Setup Utility
Step 1 Enter the BIOS setup utility by pressing the F2 key when prompted during bootup.
Step 2 Go to the Boot Options tab.
Step 3 Set UEFI Boot Options to Enabled.
Step 4 Under Boot Option Priorities, set your OS installation media (such as a virtual DVD) as your Boot Option #1.
Step 5 Go to the Advanced tab.
Step 6 Select LOM and PCIe Slot Configuration.
Step 7 Set the PCIe Slot ID: HBA Option ROM to UEFI Only.
Step 8 Press F10 to save changes and exit the BIOS setup utility. Allow the server to reboot.
Step 9 After the OS installs, verify the installation:
a) Enter the BIOS setup utility by pressing the F2 key when prompted during bootup.
b) Go to the Boot Options tab.
c) Under Boot Option Priorities, verify that the OS you installed is listed as your Boot Option #1.
Setting Up UEFI Mode Booting in the Cisco IMC GUI
Step 1 Use a web browser and the IP address of the server to log into the Cisco IMC GUI management interface.
Step 2 Navigate to Server > BIOS.
Step 3 Under Actions, click Configure BIOS.
Cisco UCS C480 M5 Server Installation and Service Guide
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Maintaining the Server
4K Sector Format SAS/SATA Drives Considerations