Adaptec GDTSETUP, User Manual

Page 1: ... KDSWHU 76 783 LQ HWDLO KDSWHU 76 783 Q HWDLO ...

Page 2: ...llers Unlike pure software solutions RAIDYNE is totally independent of the host operating system and can therefore be accessed under MS DOS Windows OS 2 SCO UNIX Interactive UNIX Novell NetWare etc Special RAID drivers are not needed The integration of a RAID Array Drive into the host operating system is carried out with the same drivers used for the inte gration of a single SCSI hard disk All ICP...

Page 3: ...d UNIX drives The firmware automatically transforms each newly installed Logical Drive and Array Drive into a Host Drive This Host Drive is then assigned a Host Drive number which is identical to its Logical Drive or Array Drive number The firmware is capable of running several Host Drives of the most various kinds at the same time An example for MS DOS drive C is a RAID 5 type Host Drive consisti...

Page 4: ... or removable hard disks or other devices behaving like a hard disk SCSI devices other than SCSI hard disks or removable hard disks or devices that do not behave like them are called Not Direct Access Devices They are not configured with GDTSETUP and cannot form cache or Host Drives These SCSI devices are either run through the ASPI interface Advanced SCSI Programming Interface MS DOS Windows Nove...

Page 5: ... carry out the configuration and setup works On the other side loading GDTSETUP from disk i e under MS DOS becomes necessary for tasks like partitioning or enabling a totally disabled GDT BIOS which includes GDTSETUP 6 6S SH HF FL LD DO O H H V V L LQ Q 7 76 6 7 78 83 3 XUVRU NH V n DQG p Used to select a menu option or command If a Microsoft compatible mouse and a mouse driver are installed you c...

Page 6: ...installation entirely on its own giving you for example a fully operational RAID 5 Array Drive with opti mized settings for instance with all SCSI features of a given drive activated After selecting Configure Host Drives and Create new Host Drive GDTSETUP scans the system for ICP Controllers and free hard disks i e drives which are not yet logical drives or Host Drives or part of Array Drives ...

Page 7: ... HWDLO Select with the Space bar the hard disks you want to integrate into the new Host Drive Depending on the number of selected drives in the Choose Type windows all possible Host Drive configurations are high lighted ...

Page 8: ...ss ENTER You may select the desired Host Drive type In our example select RAID5 and press ENTER That s it As you can see from the next picture the RAID5 Array Drive has been fully automatically configured It is in the build state ...

Page 9: ...Press several times F2 to get detailed information on the Array Drive s configuration and components Press several times ESC to leave GDTSETUP A new screen comes up giving you detailed progress information on the build process ...

Page 10: ...cess for the 4GB Array Drive takes approximately 22 minutes If you press ESC GDTSETUP warns you that the array is not yet redundant Pressing again ESC brings up the following screen telling you the system needs a reboot to recognize the new Host Drive s ...

Page 11: ... apply all of the following GDTSETUP choices to The cur rently selected controller is displayed on the lower left side of the screen Below Position the PCI Slot number is displayed The available features of the ICP Controller depend on the firmware installed After a cold boot of the PCI computer the controllers are recognized and initialized in the order of this list ...

Page 12: ... KDSWHU 7 8VHU V 0DQXDO RQILJXUH RQWUROOHU After pressing ENTER and F2 the Advanced Setup allows to select the Configure Controller menu option Press ENTER ...

Page 13: ...ility L LU UP PZ ZD DU UH H 8 8SG SGD DW WH H The firmware the BIOS and the GDTSETUP program of the ICP Controller are stored in a Flash RAM which is part of the ICP Controller hardware In contrast to EPROMs Flash RAMs can be re programmed many times and without the complicated UV light erasing procedure Thus both software modules can be easily updated without having to remove the controller from ...

Page 14: ...y to enter the Ad vanced Setup 4 Select Configure Controller and thereafter Firmware Update Insert the disk with the firmware file into drive A GDTSETUP loaded from the Flash RAM will display a list of the valid files found on the disk If you have loaded GDTSETUP from disk you have to enter the path A first The update process starts as soon as the desired GDT_RPFW file has been selected Strictly o...

Page 15: ...d on the simple idea that the GDT RP Series controller and the subsys tem talk to each other via the SCSI bus The subsystem requires a so called SEP SAF TE Enclosure Processor per channel and an appropriate firmware The GDT RP Series controller includes in its firmware modules which provide a full SAF TE implementation See next pages Configure Physical Devices What are the benefits of intelligent ...

Page 16: ...d the GDT RP Series con troller Some subsystems seem to have a lot of LEDs redundant power supplies etc but are not intelligent at all They stand there and keep all information for themselves The intelligent subsystem can also be integrated into the server enclosure I e there is a backplane which includes the circuitry and mechanical environment to perform the Auto Hot Plug After selecting the Int...

Page 17: ...t Fault Bus IFB on channel A The Fault Bus Module is a small PCB which plugs as a daughter board onto the main PCB of the GDT RP Series controller Once it is installed all further channels are also IFB equipped This screen shows you the states of the Fault Bus and the description of the LED blink codes ...

Page 18: ...trolled and displayed RQILJXUH 3K VLFDO HYLFHV This menu allows you to prepare hard disks and removable hard disks for use with the ICP Controller hierarchy level 1 You can scan the SCSI bus again for a given SCSI ID this may become necessary when another SCSI device is being connected during the operating ses sion ...

Page 19: ...oller Its default setting is ID 7 as explained in chapter B the state of initialization i initialized the SCSI names of the drives the state RW Read Write RO Read only RM Removable the gross capacity if component of a Logical Drive Use the cursor keys n and p to highlight the drive you wish to initialize When a SCSI device is selected with ENTER a new screen is displayed ...

Page 20: ...blocked because of security reasons e g the drive belongs to an Array Drive 6 6 6 6 3 3D DU UD DP PH HW WH HU U Q QL LW WL LD DOL OL H H This option can destroy all data on the hard disk If a hard disk is not yet initialized you have to initialize it first GDTSETUP copies ICP spe cific configuration blocks on the hard disk a primary block and a mirrored secondary block ...

Page 21: ... not allow 10 0 MB s Even if you set the maximum speed to 10 20 or 40 MB s this does not mean that the SCSI device actually supports this transfer rate LVFRQQHFW QDEOHG LVDEOHG The concept of the SCSI bus allows several participants 8 IDs with 8 LUNs each All these participants ought to be able to use the bus in a manner that causes the least reciprocal disturbance or obstruction A participant sho...

Page 22: ...s already formatted and surface tested For new hard disks it is neither necessary nor advisable to perform the Format Disk This procedure is only indicated if you have doubts on the hard disk s condition The time required for the Format Disk of a hard disk depends on the hard disk itself It can take quite a long time up to days Often it seems that nothing happens and that the sys tem hangs no LED ...

Page 23: ...k This option allows the checking of the surfaces of the hard disk media The GDT RP Series Controller writes and reads certain data patterns and checks them for correctness After confirming the security request a progress information is displayed You can interrupt the Check Surface option by pressing ESC ...

Page 24: ...llows you to check the number of media defects the selected hard disk has Grown defects Number of media defects that have occurred in addition to the media de fects the hard disk already had upon delivery Primary defects Number of media defects that the hard disk already had upon delivery ...

Page 25: ...ed with a non recovered error condition that was probably caused by a flaw in the medium or an error in the recorded data This sense key may also be returned if the target is unable to distinguish between a flaw in the medium and a specific hardware failure sense key 4h K HARDWARE ERROR Indicates that the target detected a non recoverable hardware failure for example controller failure device fail...

Page 26: ...mmand s may be issued to read the unwritten data from the buffer K MISCOMPARE Indicates that the source data did not match the data read from the medium K RESERVED H HL LQ QL LW WL LD DOL OL H H L LV VN N This menu option allows you to de initialize a SCSI hard disk which has previously been initialized for use with the ICP Controller By doing so the specific GDT information present on the device ...

Page 27: ... KDSWHU 76 783 LQ HWDLO The next page shows a block diagram of a SAF TE subsystem ...

Page 28: ... KDSWHU 7 8VHU V 0DQXDO ...

Page 29: ...ENTER You can either configure the SAF TE Slots i e the drive bays in the subsystem or view the enclosure s status With the SPACE bar you can assign hard disks to a SAF TE slot Once you have finished the assignment press ENTER to save the new configuration ...

Page 30: ...n this example 2 of the 4 available slots in the subsystem are occupied with hard disks The following screen shows you the enclosure s status Features which are marked with Not available are not implemented in the subsystem SEP ...

Page 31: ...n next As you can see there is already one Logical Drive in the list The drive s name has been assigned automatically and contains the channel description and the SCSI ID after the underscore _ This can serve as a reminder when you install a complex system with many drives naturally you can change the name After having selected a Logical Drive you can carry out various opera tions ...

Page 32: ...st Drive cannot be removed To do so the corresponding Host Drive has to be removed first Unload Drive Unlock the media of the removable hard disk which belongs to the Logical Drive The F2 key gives you a list of all the SCSI devices this Logical Drive consists of If it is a Logical Drive of the type Disk it only consists of one single SCSI device If a Logical Drive consists of more SCSI devices it...

Page 33: ...he SPACE bar pressing the SPACE bar again un does your choice and confirm your choice with ENTER A security request appears If you confirm with Y GDTSETUP allows you to limit the size of the Logical Drive This becomes interesting when you configure later on an Array Drive with several identical Logical Drives and you want to make sure that you get appropriate ...

Page 34: ... wouldn t fit into the Array Drive If you limit the capacity to e g 2000MB from the beginning you can be sure that all future 2GB hard disk will have at least 2000MB and thus can be used as spare hard disk After pressing ENTER the list appears again but with a new entry The F2 key shows the hard disk forming the new Logical Drive ...

Page 35: ...s Logical Drive the first SCSI device is filled first then the second and so on Although it is not advisable Logical Drives of the type Chain can also be components of Array Drives Select the SCSI devices with the SPACE bar and then confirm with ENTER A security request appears If you confirm with Y GDTSETUP allows you to limit the size of the Logical Drive This becomes interesting when you config...

Page 36: ... KDSWHU 7 8VHU V 0DQXDO After pressing ENTER the list appears again but with a new entry The F2 key shows the hard disk forming the new Logical Drive ...

Page 37: ... RAID 1 disk mirroring RAID 4 data striping with dedicated parity drive RAID 5 data striping with striped parity RAID 10 RAID 0 combined with RAID 1 The ICP Controller can manage up to 35 Array Drives with different RAID levels simultane ously Obviously the physically existing number of hard disks will limit the number of par allel used Arrays After pressing ENTER GDTSETUP lists all free Logical D...

Page 38: ...e in the array For a RAID 1 mirroring array this is the Logical Drive which contains the valid data and which should be copied to the second Logical Drive After pressing ENTER GDTSETUP displays a list of possible RAID levels The number of previously selected Logi cal Drives determines the high lighted levels In our case RAID 10 is not selectable since it requires at least 4 Logical Drives ...

Page 39: ...l data are lost GDTSETUP will ask you for the Stripe Size This is the size of the stripes into which the data is divided Valid values are 16KB 32KB 64KB or 128KB The default is 32KB which we leave for this example and therefore press ENTER Note 32KB stripe size is suggested be cause in various performance tests it has proved to be the best value ...

Page 40: ...7 8VHU V 0DQXDO If necessary you can limit the Array Drive s capacity For this example we take the complete capacity The Array Drive has entered the build state i e the parity information is currently generated ...

Page 41: ... KDSWHU 76 783 LQ HWDLO After completion of the build process the Array Drive s state is ready i e fault tolerant If you select the new Array Drive you are offered various menu option ...

Page 42: ...tarts to run Any superfluous prolongation of the TWR because you have to get a replacement hard disk or because you did not realize the failure immediately since you didn t hear the ICP Controller s alarm signal or because nobody checked the file server increases the risk of data loss which will occur if a second hard disk should fail Therefore new redundancy should be created as soon as possible ...

Page 43: ...o expand As soon as the expansion or migration is completed the state changes back to ready Error state If a second hard disk should fail while the Array Drive is in the fail or rebuild state it is not possible to continue the working session without restrictions The Array Drive is still available for I Os but data loss and error messages on the host level are possible The state diagram on the las...

Page 44: ... Migration of the RAID level of a given Array Drive RAID 0 RAID 4 and vice versa RAID 0 RAID 5 and vice versa 2 Expansion of the capacity of a given Array Drive To initiate a migration or expansion with a RAID 4 5 Array Drive the state must be ready The data on the Array Drive remain intact and are not affected by the expansion The additional capacity is introduced as new Host Drive see next pages...

Page 45: ...ith Logical Drives which are free and can be added to the exist ing Array Drive Here we select the first Logical Drive We could have also added the first and the second Logical Drive to expand the Array Drive s capacity in one step from 400MB to 800MB ...

Page 46: ...U 7 8VHU V 0DQXDO After the acknowledgement of the security request the expansion process starts After completion of this process the new capacity is displayed It is added as another Host Drive see next pages ...

Page 47: ...e went into the fail state Another failure would cause data loss Unfortunately you find another Logical Drive which is shortly before failing e g you hear a strange noise from it or it s grown defect counter explodes If you now initiate a hot plug it is very likely that this critical Logical Drive will also fail This would result in a disaster To avoid that problem you can mirror in a first step a...

Page 48: ...XDO In this example the Array Drive is ready Here you can select the RAID 1 Master This is the Logical Drive which data are mirrored to the new Logical Drive Logical Drive DISK_C4 is added as a RAID 1 component to DISK_A6 ...

Page 49: ... Logical Drive to each Logical Drive which is com ponent of a RAID 4 5 Array Drive double redundancy but also double cost 5 5H HS SO OD DF FH H UU UUD D R RP PS SR RQ QH HQ QW W If a Logical Drive of an Array Drive without a Hot Fix drive should fail or is very likely to fail soon you should replace the defective hard disk with a new one as soon as possible ...

Page 50: ...r K Before you replace the failed Logical Drive you have to power off the computer system Then after having installed the replacement hard disk as a new Logical Drive you can add it to the Array Drive After selecting the Logical Drive which needs to be exchanged GDTSETUP offers a list of existing Logical Drives which can be used as replacement units The Array Drive s state is changing into rebuild...

Page 51: ... H 5 5 R RP PS SR RQ QH HQ QW W This option corresponds with the Add RAID 1 Component option It allows you to remove a previously configured RAID 1 combination Press F2 to get details As you can see all Logical Drives have the type Disk again ...

Page 52: ...Drive All the data of the Array Drive will be lost Before you confirm the security request with Y you should be sure about this choice Note if an Array Drive has been removed it can only be rebuilt without data loss if it is re constructed in the exact same order it had been built before and only if the components of ...

Page 53: ...ve is dedicated to one RAID 1 RAID 4 RAID 5 or RAID 10 Array Drive Only drives that meet the following requirements are suitable as Hot Fix drives 1 The Logical Drive that is to become a Hot Fix drive must not be an active component of another Array Drive 2 The Logical Drive that is to become a Hot Fix drive must have a storage capacity greater than or equal to the storage capacity of the smallest...

Page 54: ...Drive is being accessed 2 The controller activates the fail operation mode In this mode the Array Drive remains fully operational The data located on the failed drive is generated by means of the re dundancy information stored on the other drives without causing any decrease in per formance 3 The controller starts the motor of the Hot Fix drive 4 The controller integrates the Hot Fix drive into th...

Page 55: ...nformation is often called parity data The calculation is made with an exclu sive OR function XOR If a Logical Drive of an Array Drive fails its data can be re calculated by means of the data present on the other Logical Drives of the Array Drive and the parity data The Parity Verify function allows you to check the consistency of an Array Drive s parity data Note The diagnosis program GDTMON allo...

Page 56: ... V 0DQXDO X XLO LOG G 5 5H HE EX XLO LOG G 3 3U UR RJ JU UH HVV VV Whenever an Array Drive is in the build or rebuild state you can select this option to get pro gress information and estimates for the required time ...

Page 57: ...rom the following screen there are two Host Drives in the list which belong to the same physical Array Drive Host Drive 4 2 of 2 is the result of a previous capacity expansion If you expanded the capacity of the Array Drive a second time there would be three Host Drives in that list belonging to one and the same Array Drive Since there is currently no operating system which supports growing hard d...

Page 58: ... KDSWHU 7 8VHU V 0DQXDO K KD DQ QJ JH H U UL LY YH H 1 1D DP PH H This command allows you to change the name of a Host Drive The name serves to identify a Host Drive with GDTSETUP ...

Page 59: ...ver the position of the Host Drive from which the operating system is booted and the position of the Host Drive from which GDTSETUP disk version was started both can be the same cannot be changed If you wish to change the position of these drives you have to boot the operating system and GDTSETUP from a floppy disk or use the GDTSETUP version loadable from the Flash RAM of the controller To change...

Page 60: ...H Removing a Host Drive is a serious action All data will be lost after removal If you want to remove a Host Drive belonging to an Array Drive for which several Host Drives exist after capacity expansion or after splitting all other Host Drives will also be removed ...

Page 61: ...f interest to split an existing Host Drive into two or several Host Drives Each Host Drives looks to the operating system just like a single hard disk Since the new Host Drives have smaller capacities GDTSETUP has to write new header in formation on the two Host Drives All data will be lost ...

Page 62: ...unction reverses the Split Host Drive option Only such Host Drives can be merged which belong to the same Array Drive or Logical Drive Since the new Host Drives has a larger capacity GDTSETUP has to write a new header information on the new Host Drives All data will be lost ...

Page 63: ...W WH H 0 0D DV VW WH HU U RR RRW W R RG GH H This option created a valid and consistent master boor record on the selected Host Drive and should be carried out on any new Host Drive on which Windows NT is installed 6DYH QIRUPDWLRQ This main menu saves all relevant configuration information of the selected controller con troller settings Physical Drives Logical Drives Array Drives Host Drives etc i...

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