Dell PowerEdge VRTX - Manual (Page 5)

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Prerequisites
To upgrade the PowerEdge VRTX to support fault tolerant Shared PERC 8, you must ensure that:
• All data is backed up from the shared storage drives according to the steps required for the specific
operating system.
CAUTION: The upgrade procedure is complex and can put your data at risk if mistakes are
made. It is imperative that critical data is backed up prior to starting the procedure.
• The contents of the upgrade kit are checked.
The upgrade kit includes the Upgrading PowerEdge VRTX to Support Fault Tolerant Shared PERC 8
document, the Shared PERC 8 card, the upper backplane expander board, and cables for both the
backplane expander boards. The cables included in your upgrade kit may be different based on the
type of hard drive backplane.
Figure 1. Contents of the Upgrade Kit for a 3.5 inch (x12) Hard Drive Backplane
1. upper backplane expander board 2. upgrade guide
3. SAS cables 4. Shared PERC 8 card
• The PowerEdge VRTX nodes have the supported operating systems installed.
See the latest operating system matrix for the PowerEdge VRTX system at dell.com/ossupport.
• A management station is set up and connected to the PowerEdge VRTX CMC web interface.
• The system status and the storage status are displayed as healthy in the CMC GUI.
If there are issues with either the system or the storage, resolve the issues before performing the
upgrade procedure. For more information, see the CMC User Guide at dell.com/support/manuals.
• All required drivers and firmware are available.
These include the operating system-specific Shared PERC 8 device driver, the shared hard drive
firmware, the Chassis Management Controller (CMC) firmware, the Shared PERC 8 firmware, the
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