Silicon Image SATA RAID FOR SILICON IMAGE, Manual

Page 1: ...SATARaid Serial ATA RAID Management Software 09 26 03 Silicon Image Inc 1060 East Arques Ave Sunnyvale CA 94085 408 616 4000 www siliconimage com ...

Page 2: ... any patent accompany the sale of any such product s or information Silicon Image Inc products are not designed or intended for use in Life Support Systems A Life Support System is a product or system intended to support or sustain life which if it fails can be reasonably expected to result in significant personal injury or death If Buyer or any of its direct or indirect customers applies any prod...

Page 3: ...gical Drive Information 18 7 Allocating Partitions 19 Windows XP 2000 19 Windows NT 24 Windows 98 Me 27 8 SATARaid GUI Overview 32 Devices and Information Windows 32 Event Viewer and Events Windows 34 SATARaid Toolbar and Menu Commands 34 RAID Management 35 System View 35 Configure SATARaid 35 Send Configuration 35 Save Configuration 35 Copy Configuration 35 SATARaid Help 35 Exit 35 About SATARaid...

Page 4: ...f the RAID Sets SATARaid Features RAID 0 RAID 1 and RAID 10 Sets are supported Under Win 2000 and XP only RAID Sets can be created and deleted without exiting Windows Hot Spare and On line Mirror Rebuilding System GUI Monitoring Utility Displays Logs Alerts Users to Vital RAID Set Information Manages RAID Set Functions configures rebuilds etc RAID Set Accommodates Multiple Size HDDs HDDs Function ...

Page 5: ...ipe one is written to disk one stripe two to disk two and so forth RAID 0 sets can be comprised of two three or four drives Strip 2 Strip 5 Strip 8 Strip 11 Strip 0 Strip 3 Strip 6 Strip 9 Strip 1 Strip 4 Strip 7 Strip 10 Disk Mirroring RAID 1 Disk mirroring creates an identical twin for a selected disk by having the data simultaneously written to two disks This redundancy provides instantaneous p...

Page 6: ...ll open a Driver Installation Wizard Click on the Next buttons until the wizard prompts for the location of the driver Insert the Silicon Image SATA host adapter driver CD into the computer s CD ROM drive and click on the Browse button Select the directory on the CD in which the driver resides and click OK Click the Next button A window will be displayed to verify proper installation of the host a...

Page 7: ... The computer must have an Internet connection set up before installation can proceed Save the installer file to a known location such as the My Documents folder Using Windows Explorer or by clicking on the My Computer icon on the desktop select the installation file and open it The installation will begin The installer program will download the needed files from the Internet When a window appears...

Page 8: ...Copyright 2003 Silicon Image Inc SATARaid User s Manual 8 Choose the Typical setup type and click Next When the installation completes click Finish Restart the computer when prompted ...

Page 9: ...clicking on the My Computer icon on the desktop display the contents of the CD ROM The SATARaid GUI Installation program is named Java SATARaid exe Select this file and open it The installation will begin Click the Next button when the Welcome window appears Click the Next button to install the SATARaid program in the default directory recommended An alternate directory may be selected if desired ...

Page 10: ...Copyright 2003 Silicon Image Inc SATARaid User s Manual 10 Click the Finish button to complete the installation ...

Page 11: ... be created and managed by either the BIOS utility or the SATARaid GUI See section 10 RAID Set Management Under Windows 2000 XP for information on configuring RAID Sets using the SATARaid GUI During bootup a screen similar to that below will appear for about 5 seconds Press CTRL S or the F4 key to enter the BIOS RAID utility The RAID Utility menu screen will be displayed A brief description of eac...

Page 12: ...ow Level Format allows a single drive to have its data completely wiped out Drives assigned to Sets or allocated as spares cannot be low level formatted Logical Drive Info shows the current configuration of each RAID set allocated spare and unallocated physical drive attached to the SATA host adapter These operations are detailed in the pages that follow Help Window This window displays context se...

Page 13: ...elect Create RAID Set 2 Choose a RAID 0 Striped a RAID 1 Mirrored or a RAID 10 combination set 3 Select Automatically or Manually configuration of the RAID Set 4 If manual configuration is selected the chunk size of Striped Sets can be selected For Mirrored Sets the Source and Target drives can be selected 5 The message Are You Sure will display before completing the configuration Answer N to abor...

Page 14: ...4 Deleting RAID Sets 1 To remove one or more RAID sets select Delete RAID Set 2 Select the desired set and press Enter 3 Press Y when asked Are You Sure 4 The drives will be returned to the selection of logical drives from which a new RAID set can be created ...

Page 15: ...ing of data from an existing drive to a replacement drive that has been installed in a RAID 1 set after the failure of one of the members 1 Select Rebuild RAID1 set 2 Select the desired set and press Enter 3 Press Y when asked Are You Sure 4 The set will be rebuilt The status of the rebuild is displayed in the MAIN MENU window ...

Page 16: ...conflicting metadata specifically in reference to the drive connection information If so this will prohibit the RAID set from being either created or rebuilt In order for the RAID set to function properly this old metadata must be first overwritten with the new metadata To correct this select Resolve Conflict and the correct metadata including the correct drive connection information will automati...

Page 17: ... may become drive E Be aware of this when performing a conflict resolution To maintain the same drive lettering the SATA cables connected to the drives may need to be swapped or in the case of a SATA based removable drive unit the order of the drives within the chassis made need to be changed Press Y to accept the change and resolve the conflict 4 The conflict will be resolved The RAID Set will ap...

Page 18: ... formatting the drive under Windows is usually sufficient to prepare the drive for use Logical Drive Information This menu item allows the display of the assignment of physical drives within a logical set RAID set RAID 1 spare or unassigned It is a display only function Use the up and down arrow keys to scroll between the drives in the Logical Drive Properties window Press the ESC key when done vi...

Page 19: ...efining the partitions is accomplished by booting the system to a DOS prompt and using the FDISK utility Formatting and naming of the partitions is performed under Windows Windows XP 2000 Before creating any partitions RAID sets must first be created using the BIOS RAID Utility or the SATARaid GUI Once the sets have been created allow the system to load Windows Once Windows is running open the Dis...

Page 20: ...disk reports as Dynamic right click on the icon of that disk and click on Convert to Basic Disk Within seconds the disk should report as Basic Creating the Partitions In the Report of physical connection of disks RAID Sets section the order in which the drives are displayed corresponds directly to the order the Sets appear in the BIOS Therefore the first Unallocated Partition represents Set 1 and ...

Page 21: ...e partition size Since this is a Striped RAID set utilizing 2 disk drives the size of the partition will be approximately twice the size of the smallest single disk drive Click Next 5 The fourth window designates the drive letter of the partition Change the drive letter if desired Click Next ...

Page 22: ...ure the Format this partition radio button is selected Name the volume as desired suggestions are generic names such as STRIPED SET or something specific to use such as FINANCIAL CRITICAL MISCELLANEOUS etc It is recommended to use the default NTFS for the file system Click Next 7 The last window is a summary window listing all of the selections made After verifying that everything is correct click...

Page 23: ... the status will change to Healthy and the name and drive letter will be updated Once the disk reports Healthy it appears in the listing in System Listing section with all of its pertinent information as well Repeat the above procedure as needed for any other partitions Close the Data Management window by clicking on the small boxed X in the top right corner of the window Click on the My Computer ...

Page 24: ...ce the sets have been created allow the system to load Windows Once Windows is running open the Disk Management window located at Control Panel Administrative Tools Computer Management Storage Disk Management A window similar to the following should appear This Write Signature window may appear first If so answer YES for each disk reported with no signature found ...

Page 25: ...ions Creating the Partitions 1 If any disk in the RAID set appears to be formatted right click on that partition Section 2 and select Delete 2 Once all disks are reporting as Free Space right click on each partition and select Create 3 A Create Primary Partition window should now appear Click OK 4 Click Confirm 5 Repeat this step for each disk 6 Now right click on the first disk and select Mark Ac...

Page 26: ...e Default Allocation Size d Select an appropriate name for Volume Label e Select Quick Format 15 Click on Start The drive will be formatted 16 Repeat this procedure for any remaining drives 17 Close Disk Administrator and open My Computer icon should be on Desktop 18 The new disks should now appear in the My Computer window 19 Close all windows and applications and Restart the computer ...

Page 27: ...ility Instead after creating RAID sets using the BIOS RAID utility and booting Windows the partitions must be created using the FDISK program To invoke FDISK from within Windows 1 Click on the START button 2 Select Run 3 Type fdisk in the Open box 4 Click OK The following window will likely appear Press Enter The FDISK Options window will appear ...

Page 28: ...xed drive needs to be changed Select 5 and press Enter A screen similar to the following will appear Enter the disk number to partition and press Enter FDISK will return to the Options screen With the Current fixed drive set at the disk needing to be partitioned Select 1 and press Enter to create the partition on the drive The following window will appear ...

Page 29: ...ion FDISK will scan the drive and the following window will appear Press Enter to confirm use of the entire drive capacity for the partition While the partition is being created a progress indication appears at the bottom of the screen Once the percentage counter reaches 100 the following window will appear ...

Page 30: ...partitioned When all drives have been partitioned return to the FDISK Options menu then press Esc to exit FDISK The computer will need to be rebooted After restarting the computer and booting Windows double click on the My Computer icon Right click on each new drive and select Format Select Full Format enter the Label name for the drive or RAID set if desired and click OK ...

Page 31: ...SATARaid User s Manual Copyright 2003 Silicon Image Inc 31 The following window will likely appear Click OK to proceed Repeat for each new drive The new drives are now ready to be used ...

Page 32: ...onitors the system s RAID Set in the background It runs minimized in the System Tray To open the main window click the icon located on the taskbar The main window will display Devices and Information Windows The Devices window identifies the computer running SATARaid SATA host adapters SATA devices and configured RAID sets Selecting each component in the configuration tree displays in the Informat...

Page 33: ... of this window B reports the device identification corresponding with the information in the BIOS and the state of each device The State of the destination drive that is being rebuilt may report as Rebuild for a long period of time depending on the size of the disk SMART and Configuration information is displayed by selecting the Smart Configuration tab C Also in this section is a selection for a...

Page 34: ...es to be seen for example SATARaid Toolbar and Menu Commands The Toolbar buttons from Left to Right are A RAID Management B System View C Configure SATARaid D Send Configuration E Save Configuration F Copy Configuration G SATARaid Help All options available via the Command Menu are replicated on the toolbar except Exit and About SATARaid The Menu commands are shown below File Advanced Help Save Co...

Page 35: ... command allows the configuration of the SATARaid program to be viewed and changed SATARaid configuration is documented in detail in the next section of this manual Send Configuration This command allows the SATARaid configuration file to be emailed to the address selected during configuration This function is used most frequently when contacting the system administrator for technical support Save...

Page 36: ... Image Inc SATARaid User s Manual 36 About SATARaid This command is displayed only on the command menu Choosing this command displays a dialog box with more information about the SATARaid program including the revision level ...

Page 37: ...ayed when SATARaid configuration is opened is for Event Table configuration This setting determines which events are displayed in the Event Table The messages logged for the various settings are as follows Error Level The following messages are logged Errors Warning Level The following messages are logged Warnings Errors Information Level The following messages are logged Informational Warnings Er...

Page 38: ...ID sets are subject to heavy activity the Event Time interval should be increased The SMTP tab allows the server name to be set for all SATARaid email related functions These include sending of configuration files and automatic notification This entry must include the full name and of server and the top level domain for example mail mycompany com or smtp mymailserver com Contact the System Adminis...

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Page 40: ...ail tab in the SATARaid Configuration Menu and enter the default e mail address and subject line for the party receiving the configuration data The default address and subject can be overridden prior sending the email When different types of events occur SATARaid can send notices to assigned individual e mail addresses Select the Notification tab and enter the e mail addresses of all parties to wh...

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Page 42: ...age to be sent to those in the Notification email list see Notification on previous page Error Level The following events will be sent Errors Warning Level The following events will be sent Warnings Errors Information Level The following events will be sent Informational Warnings Errors Disable All No event logs will be sent ...

Page 43: ...The log file is a text file and can be viewed with any text viewer such as Notepad or with the Event Property page of SATARaid Use the Log File tab to set location and the desired filename for the log file The Audio tab is used to select audio alerts in response to events Each event can use a different audio alert and each can be individually disabled ...

Page 44: ...with audio alerts and email notification Use the slider control to set the event level for popups to occur Error Level The following events will trigger a popup window Errors Warning Level The following events will trigger a popup window Warnings Errors Information Level The following events will trigger a popup window Informational Warnings Errors Disable All No events will trigger a popup window...

Page 45: ...is section Menu selections that are available depend on the number of drives available and whether any RAID sets currently exist The commands available from within the Wizard are Create RAID Set is used to create a new RAID 0 1 or 10 Set Delete RAID Set is used to delete a RAID Set or to deallocate a spare RAID 1 drive Modify RAID Set allows certain parameters of the RAID Set such as rebuild rate ...

Page 46: ...ould be based upon factors including performance data security and number of drives available It is best to carefully consider the long term role of the system and plan the data storage strategy appropriately Creating a RAID 1 Set The following example shows the creation of a RAID 1 Set with Duplication 1 Start the RAID Wizard Select Create RAID Set and click Next 2 Choose the type of RAID set to ...

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Page 48: ...Copyright 2003 Silicon Image Inc SATARaid User s Manual 48 3 The following message may be displayed Click OK to acknowledge 4 Select the Source and Target disks for the Set and click Next ...

Page 49: ... Click Finish A moving bar will appear in the window while the operation is in progress Once the window closes the operation is complete When the window closes the new RAID Set will appear in the SATARaid window under RAID Sets After allocating any other RAID sets you will need to create and format the new partitions See Section 7 Allocating Partitions for instructions ...

Page 50: ...D 0 set must contain at least two members Add as many members as desired Click Next 3 An acknowledgement window will appear Click Finish A moving bar will appear in the window while the operation is in progress Once the window closes the operation is complete When the window closes the new RAID Set will appear in the SATARaid window under RAID Sets After allocating any other RAID sets you will nee...

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Page 52: ...e second device Click the up arrow under the Second mirror members section to add the third device to the RAID Set Repeat for the fourth device A RAID 10 set must contain at least four members When done adding members click Next 3 An acknowledgement window will appear Click Finish A moving bar will appear in the window while the operation is in progress Once the window closes the operation is comp...

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Page 54: ...ID Sets For various reasons it may be necessary or desired to delete an existing RAID Set The following example shows the deletion of an existing RAID 0 Set 1 Start the RAID Wizard Select Delete RAID Set and click Next 2 Select the type of set to be deleted and click Next ...

Page 55: ...ilicon Image Inc 55 3 Select the set to be deleted and click Next 4 An acknowledgement window will appear Click Finish A moving bar will appear in the window while the operation is in progress Once the window closes the operation is complete ...

Page 56: ... various settings related to a RAID Set to be adjusted The following example shows the modification of the rebuild rate of a RAID 1 Set 1 Start the RAID Wizard Select Modify RAID Set and click Next 2 Select the operation to be performed and click Next Only operations that are valid for the selected set will be displayed ...

Page 57: ...SATARaid User s Manual Copyright 2003 Silicon Image Inc 57 3 Select the set on which the operation is to be applied and click Next 4 Change the setting as desired Click Next ...

Page 58: ...ilicon Image Inc SATARaid User s Manual 58 5 An acknowledgement window will appear Click Finish A moving bar will appear in the window while the operation is in progress Once the window closes the operation is complete ...

Page 59: ...The following example shows modification of a RAID 1 Set by adding a member 1 Start the RAID Wizard Select Modify RAID Set and click Next 2 Select the operation to be performed and click Next Only operations that are valid for the selected set will be displayed ...

Page 60: ...ct the set on which the operation is to be applied Select the device to be added Click Next 4 An acknowledgement window will appear Click Finish A moving bar will appear in the window while the operation is in progress Once the window closes the operation is complete ...

Page 61: ...e Inc 61 5 Return to the SATARaid Main Window In the Devices window select the RAID Set to which you have added the device Select the Members tab for the RAID Set in the Information window From here the progress of the RAID Set rebuild can be monitored ...

Page 62: ...uickly added to an existing RAD 1 set in the event of a catastrophic failure The following example shows the creation of a RAID 1 spare drive 1 Start the RAID Wizard Select Create Spare Drive For RAID 1 and click Next 2 Select the disk to be used to create the spare Click Select The drive will be displayed in the Spare Disks window Click Next ...

Page 63: ...Manual Copyright 2003 Silicon Image Inc 63 3 An acknowledgement window will appear Click Finish A moving bar will appear in the window while the operation is in progress Once the window closes the operation is complete ...

Page 64: ...e For various reasons it may be desired or necessary to deallocate a RAID 1 spare drive The following example shows the deletion of a spare RAID 1 drive 1 Start the RAID Wizard Select Delete Spare Drive and click Next 2 Select the drive to be deallocated and click Deselect then click Next ...

Page 65: ...Manual Copyright 2003 Silicon Image Inc 65 3 An acknowledgement window will appear Click Finish A moving bar will appear in the window while the operation is in progress Once the window closes the operation is complete ...