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Sans Digital ES208X12HP Installation Manual

12g raid controller card
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Summary of Contents for Sans Digital ES208X12HP

  • Page 2 Copyright ©2014 This guide and any accompanying software and firmware are copyrighted. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored on a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without prior written consent except for copies retained by the purchaser for backup purposes.

  • Page 3: Regulatory Information

    Regulatory information For Europe This drive is in conformity with the EMC directive. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Statement This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC Rules. Those limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation.

  • Page 4: Table Of Contents

    Table of Contents Introduction ..................................7 1.1. Overview................................. 7 Unparalleled Performance for 12Gb/s SAS ........................7 Unsurpassed Data Availability ............................7 Maximum Interoperability ............................. 7 Easy RAID Management ..............................7 1.2. Features .................................. 8 Controller Architecture ..............................8 Hardware Installation ..............................9 2.1.
  • Page 5 3.5. Using Quick Volume/Raid Setup Configuration ....................18 3.6. Using Raid Set/Volume Set Function Method ...................... 19 3.7. Main Menu ................................20 Driver Installation ................................. 53 4.1. Driver Installation for Windows ........................... 54 4.2. Driver Installation for Linux ..........................56 4.3.
  • Page 6 B-1 Overview .................................. 100 B-2 FBM Components..............................100 B-3 FBM Outline ................................101 B-4 Status of FBM ................................101 B-5 Installation ................................102 B-6 Flash-based Backup Capacity ........................... 103 B-7 Operation ................................. 103 B-8 FBM Functionality Test Procedure: .......................... 103 B-9 FBM Specifications ..............................
  • Page 7 RAID 0 ..................................... 121 RAID 1 ..................................... 122 RAID 10(1E) ..................................122 RAID 3 ..................................... 123 RAID 5 ..................................... 123 RAID 6 ..................................... 123 RAID x0 ................................... 124 JBOD ....................................124 Single Disk (Pass-Through Disk) ............................124 Summary of RAID Levels ..............................124...

  • Page 8: Introduction

    12Gb/s speeds while utilizing existing 6Gb/s drives and backplanes. Using DataBolt, the Sans Digital SAS Expander buffers 6Gb/s data and then transfers it out to the host at 12Gb/s speeds in order to match the bandwidth between faster hosts and slower SAS or SATA devices Unsurpassed Data Availability Designed and leveraged with Sans Digital’s existing high performance RAID solution, the RAID controller provides...

  • Page 9: Features

    Ethernet port or ArcHTTP proxy server in Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and more environments. The McRAID storage manager allows local and remote for all storage configuration and management needs from standard web browser. The Single Admin Portal (SAP) monitor utility can support one application to scan multiple Sans Digital RAID units in the network.

  • Page 10: Hardware Installation

    SMTP support for email notification • SNMP support for remote manager • Enclosure management (SES-2, SMP and SGPIO) ready • 1.2.3. RAID Management Field-upgradeable firmware in flash ROM • In-Band Manager • Hot key "boot-up" McBIOS RAID manager via M/B BIOS •...

  • Page 11: Board Layout

    1 x User manual • 1 x Low-profile bracket • 2.2. Board Layout This section provides the board layout and connector/ jumper for the 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller. Connector Type Description Flash-based/Backup Module Connector 14-pin box header I2C/LCD Connector 7-pin header Ethernet Port RJ45 SCN1...

  • Page 12: Personal Safety Instructions

    Host system hardware manuals and manuals for the disk or enclosure being installed • Personal Safety Instructions Use the following safety instructions to help you protect your computer system from potential damage and to ensure your own personal safety. Always wear a grounding strap or work on an ESD-protective mat. •...
  • Page 13 2.4.4. Install SAS Cable Connect the external mini-SAS HD (SFF-8644) to mini-SAS HD (SFF-8644) cable from the controller’s external port to the external storage. Please note: SAS Expander model only require to connect one cables, that includes: • o MobileSTOR Tower SAS Expander models o AccuSTOR Rackmount SAS Expander models o EliteSTOR Rackmount SAS Expander models Direct connect / Passive backpane model require to connect one cables per every 4 drives, that...
  • Page 14 Driver installation usually takes places as part of operating system installation. Please refer to • Chapter 4 “Diver Installation” of the user manual for the detailed installation procedure. In an existing system: To install the controller driver into the existing operating system. For the detailed installation •...

  • Page 15: Hot-Plug Drive Replacement

    Follow the on-screen prompts to complete Volume Upgrade and Clean Install of OS X Mavericks. Power up the Intel-based Mac and volume will be added in the bootable device automatically. 2.5. Hot-plug Drive Replacement The RAID controller supports the ability of performing a hot-swap drive replacement without powering down the system.

  • Page 16: Mcraid Storage Manager

    CLI (Command Line Interface) lets you set up and manage RAID controller through a command line interface. CLI performs many tasks at the command line. You can download CLI manual from Sans Digital website or software CD <CDROM>\ DOCS directory.

  • Page 17: Snmp Manager Console Integration

    Since the 12 Gb/s SAS RAID controller is already installed in the host system, no extra connection is necessary. Just load the necessary in-band Sans Digital SNMP extension agent for the controllers. Before launching the SNMP agent in the sever, you need first to enable the firmware-embedded SNMP community configuration and install Sans Digital SNMP extension agent in your server system.
  • Page 18 When starting a system with a SAS RAID controller installed, it will display the following message on the monitor during the start-up sequence (after the system BIOS startup screen but before the operating system boots): The McBIOS RAID manager message remains on your screen for about nine seconds, giving you time to start the configuration menu by pressing Tab or F6.

  • Page 19: Mcbios Raid Manager

    3.2. McBIOS RAID manager The McBIOS RAID manager is firmware-based and is used to configure RAID sets and volume sets. Because the utility resides in the SAS RAID controller firmware, operation is independent of any operating systems on your computer. This utility can be used to: Create RAID sets, •...

  • Page 20: Using Raid Set/Volume Set Function Method

    3.6. Using Raid Set/Volume Set Function Method In “Raid Set Function”, you can use the “Create Raid Set” function to generate a new RAID set. In “Volume Set Function”, you can use the “Create Volume Set” function to generate an associated volume set and configuration parameters.

  • Page 21: Main Menu

    waiting the initialization complete. In “Foreground Initialization”, the initialization proceeds must be completed before the volume set ready for system accesses. In “No Init”, there is no initialization on this volume. 10. If space remains in the RAID set, the next volume set can be configured. Repeat steps 8 to 10 to configure another volume set.
  • Page 22 3.7.1. Quick Volume/Raid Setup “Quick Volume/Raid Setup” is the fastest way to prepare a RAID set and volume set. It requires only a few keystrokes to complete. Although disk drives of different capacity may be used in the RAID set, it will use the capacity of the smallest disk drive as the capacity of all disk drives in the RAID set.
  • Page 23 Use 4K Block - It changes the sector size from default 512 bytes to 4k bytes. The maximum • volume capacity is up to 16TB. This option works under Windows platform only. And it cannot be converted to “Dynamic Disk”, because 4k sector size is not a standard format. A single volume set is created and consumes all or a portion of the disk capacity available in this RAID set.
  • Page 24 Press Yes key in the “Create Vol/Raid Set” dialog box, the RAID set and volume set will start to initialize it. Select “Foreground (Faster Completion)” or “Background (Instant Available)” for initialization and “No Init (To Rescue Volume)” for recovering the missing RAID set configuration. 3.7.2.
  • Page 25 3. A “Select IDE Drive For Raid Set” window is displayed showing the SAS/SATA drives connected to the current controller. Press the UP and DOWN arrow keys to select specific physical drives. Press the Enter key to associate the selected physical drive with the current RAID set.
  • Page 26 RAID set expansion completes. RAID 30/50/60 does not support the “Expand RAID Set”. • RAID set expansion is a critical process, Sans Digital strongly recommend customer • backup data before expand. Unexpected accident may cause unrecoverable data corruption.
  • Page 27 3.7.2.4. Offline Raid Set This function is for customer being able to unmount and remount a multi-disk volume. All Hdds of the selected RAID set will be put into offline state and spun down and fault LED will be in fast blinking mode.
  • Page 28 1. Select the target disk by clicking on the appropriate check box. 2. Press the Enter key to select a disk drive and press Yes in the “Create Hot Spare” to designate it as a hot spare. The “Create Hot Spare” gives you the ability to define a global or dedicated hot spare. Unlike “Global Hot Spare”...
  • Page 29 Note: Contact us to make sure if you need to use rescue function. Improperly usage may cause configuration and data corruption. 3.7.2.9. Raid Set Information To display RAID set information, move the cursor bar to the desired RAID set number, then press the Enter key.
  • Page 30 2. Choose the “Create Volume Set” from “Volume Set Functions” dialog box screen. 3. The “Create Volume From Raid Set” appears. This screen displays the existing arranged RAID sets. Select the RAID set number and press the Enter key. The “Volume Creation” dialog is displayed in the screen.
  • Page 31 Raid Level • Set the “Raid Level” for the volume set. Highlight “RAID Level” and press the Enter key. The available RAID levels for the current volume set are displayed. Select a RAID level and press the Enter key to confirm. Capacity •...
  • Page 32 No - It keeps the volume size with max. 2TB limitation. • Use 64bit LBA - This option use 16 bytes CDB instead of 10 bytes. The maximum volume • capacity up to 512TB. This option works on different OS which supports 16 bytes CDB. Such as: Windows 2003 with SP1 or later, Linux kernel 2.6.x or later Use 4K Block - It changes the sector size from default 512 bytes to 4k bytes.
  • Page 33 SCSI ID • Each device attached to the SAS RAID controller, as well as the SAS RAID controller itself, must be assigned a unique SCSI ID number. A SCSI channel can connect up to 15 devices. It is necessary to assign a SCSI ID to each device from a list of available SCSI IDs. SCSI LUN •...
  • Page 34 Write Protect • When “Write Protect” is enabled on the “Create Volume Set”, host commands fail if they are issued to a volume in that RAID controller and attempt to modify a volume’s data or attributes. “Write Protection” is used primarily for customer-initiated disaster recovery testing. IO Mode •...
  • Page 35 Tag Queuing • This option, when enabled, can enhance overall system performance under multi-tasking operating systems. The Command Tag (Drive Channel) function controls the SAS command tag queuing support for each drive channel. This function should normally remain enabled. Disabled this function only when using older drives that do not support command tag queuing.
  • Page 36 Note: RAID level 30/50/60 can support up to eight RAID sets (four pairs). 3.7.3.3. Delete Volume Set To delete volume set from a RAID set, move the cursor bar to the “Volume Set Functions” menu and select the “Delete Volume Set” item, then press the Enter key. The “Volume Set Functions” menu will show all Raid Set # items.
  • Page 37 To expand an existing volume noticed: Only the last volume can expand capacity. When expand volume capacity, you can’t • modify stripe size or modify RAID revel simultaneously. You can expand volume capacity, but can’t reduce volume capacity size. • After volume expansion, the volume capacity cannot be decreased.
  • Page 38 3.7.3.7. Display Volume Set Info. To display volume set information, move the cursor bar to the desired volume set number and then press the Enter key. The “Volume Set Information” screen will be shown. You can only view the information of this volume set in this screen, but cannot modify it. 3.7.4.
  • Page 39 It is typically used on a system where the operating system is on a disk not controlled by the SAS RAID controller firmware. The SCSI Channel/SCSI ID/SCSI LUN, Write Protect, Cache Mode, and Tag Queuing must be specified to create a pass-through disk. 3.7.4.3.
  • Page 40 3.7.4.8. Identify Enclosure (Only support in SAS Expander models) To prevent removing the wrong enclosure, the selected Sans Digital expander enclosure all disks fault LED indicator will light for physically locating the selected enclosure when the “Identify Enclosure” is selected. This function will also light the enclosure LED indicator.
  • Page 41 3.7.5. Raid System Function To set the “Raid System Function”, move the cursor bar to the main menu and select the “Raid System Function” item and then press Enter key. The “Raid System Function” menu will show multiple items. Move the cursor bar to an item, and then press Enter key to select the desired function. 3.7.5.1.
  • Page 42 configure the controller only by providing the correct password. This feature is used to protect the internal RAID system from unauthorized access. The controller will check the password only when entering the main menu from the initial screen. The system will automatically go back to the initial screen if it does not receive any command in 5 minutes.
  • Page 43 3.7.5.6. SATA NCQ Support RAID controller supports both SAS and SATA disk drives. The SATA NCQ allows multiple commands to be outstanding within a drive at the same time. Drives that support NCQ have an internal queue where outstanding commands can be dynamically rescheduled or re-ordered, along with the necessary tracking mechanisms for outstanding and completed portions of the workload.
  • Page 44 3.7.5.9. Hdd Queue Depth Setting This parameter is adjusted the queue depth capacity of NCQ (SAS HDD) or Tagged Command Queuing (SAS HDD) which transmits multiple commands to a single target without waiting for the initial command to complete. 3.7.5.10. Empty HDD Slot LED (Only support in SAS Expander models) Use "Empty HDD Slot LED"...
  • Page 45 enough adequate cooling for ROC and expander chip, user can remove the attaching fan on the big passive heat sink. The “Controller Fan Detection” function is available in the firmware for detecting the cooling fan function on the ROC which uses the active cooling fan. When using the passive heatsink on the controller, disable the “Controller Fan Detection”...
  • Page 46 3.7.5.14. Write Same Support Drives that support the Write Same feature (SCT) can write to multiple drive sectors at once, improving initialization time. To take advantage of this feature, all the drives in the unit must support Write Same. User can set the “SAS And SATA”, “SAS Only”, “SATA Only” or “Disabled” for the controller initialization.
  • Page 47 Multiples Of 1G: If you have 123 GB drives from different vendors; chances are that the • capacity varies slightly. For example, one drive might be 123.5 GB, and the other 123.4 GB. “Multiples Of 1G” truncates the fractional part. This makes the same capacity for both of these drives so that one could replace the other.
  • Page 48 3.7.6.2. Smart Polling Interval Besides the scheduled volume check, user can define the Smart Pulling Interval to pull the SMART status of each disk. The default is “on demand”. User can schedule every certain period of time interval to pull the SMART status of each disk. When SMART pulling is executed, disk activity will be temporally halted until the SMART parameter reading is finished.
  • Page 49 3.7.7.1. Stagger Power On In a PC system with only one or two drives, the power can supply enough power to spin up both drives simultaneously. But in systems with more than two drives, the startup current from spinning up the drives all at once can overload the power supply, causing damage to the power supply, disk drives and other system components.
  • Page 50 3.7.7.4. Time To Spin Down Idle Hdd This function can automatically spin down the drive if it hasn’t been accessed for a certain amount of time. This value is used by the drive to determine how long to wait (with no disk activity, before turning off the spindle motor to save power).
  • Page 51 must be entered manually at each computer system. DHCP lets a network administrator supervise and distribute IP addresses from a central point. The purpose of DHCP is to provide the automatic (dynamic) allocation of IP client configurations for a specific time period (called a lease period) and to minimize the work necessary to administer a large IP network.
  • Page 52 3.7.8.4. Telnet Port Number To manually configure the “Telnet Port Number” of the controller, move the cursor bar to “Telnet Port Number” item, then press the Enter key to show the default address setting in the RAID controller. You can then reassign the default “Telnet Port Number” of the controller. 3.7.8.5.
  • Page 53 3.7.9. Alert By Mail Config To configure the 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller e-mail function, move the cursor bar to the main menu and click on the “Alert By Mail Config” link. The “Alert By Mail Config” menu will show all items. Move the cursor bar to the “Alert By Mail Config”...

  • Page 54: Driver Installation

    3.7.12. Hardware Monitor To view the RAID controller’s hardware monitor information, move the cursor bar to the main menu and click on the “Hardware Monitor” link. The “Controller H/W Monitor” screen appears. The “Controller H/W Monitor” provides the CPU temperature, controller temperature and voltage of the SAS RAID controller.

  • Page 55: Driver Installation For Windows

    If you have a new drive configuration without an operating system and want to install operating system on a disk drive managed by the SAS RAID controller. The driver installation is a part of the operating system installation. Installing SAS RAID controller into an existing operating system •...
  • Page 56 9. Click on “Next” again to accept the default partition configuration, or refer to your Windows documentation to configure partitions manually. From this point on, simply follow the Microsoft Windows installation procedure. Follow the on-screen instructions, responding as needed, to complete the installation. After the installation is completed, reboot the system to load the new driver/operating system.

  • Page 57: Driver Installation For Linux

    Manager. If you are using a Linux distribution for which there is not a compiled driver available from Sans Digital, you can copy the source from the SAS software CD or download the source from the Sans Digital website and compile a new...

  • Page 58: Driver Installation For Freebsd

    Compiled and tested drivers for Red Hat and SuSE Linux are included on the shipped CD. You can download updated versions of compiled and tested drivers for RedHat or SuSE Linux from the Sans Digital web site at http://www.sansdigital.com. Included in these downloads is the Linux driver source, which can be used to compile the updated version driver for RedHat, SuSE and other versions of Linux.
  • Page 59 To follow the process to install driver & utility on Intel-based Mac as below: 1. Insert the Sans Digital Software CD that came with your Sans Digital SAS RAID controller. 2. Double-click on the “install_mraid.zip” file that resides at <CDROM>\packages\MacOS to add the installer on the Finder.

  • Page 60: Making Volume Sets Available To Mac Os X

    When you double-click on the “ArcHTTP64”, it shows all RAID storages available on the system and create an individual RAID storage icon located on left column of the “ArcHTTP Configurations” screen. Locate “RAID Controller Web Management” and launch the selected McRAID storage manager. Enter RAID storage default User Name “admin”...

  • Page 61: Archttp Proxy Server Installation

    If you’re not sure which format to use, choose Mac OS X Extended (Journaled). 1. When a message asks you to confirm you want to partition the disk, click on the “Partition” button. This may take a couple of minutes, depending on the size of the drives in your RAID storage.

  • Page 62: For Windows

    McBIOS RAID Manager OS-Independent McRAID Storage Manager Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, (Via ArcHTTP proxy server) Solaris and Mac OS X SAP Monitor (Single Admin Windows Portal to scan for multiple RAID units in the network, Via ArcHTTP proxy server) The HTTP management software (ArcHTTP) runs as a service or daemon, and have it automatically start the proxy for all controllers found.

  • Page 63: For Linux

    The “RAID Controller” icon bar window start appearing in the taskbar, double-click to launch the ArcHTTP Configuration screen. Or click on the “Start” button in the Windows task bar and then click on the “Program”, select the “McRAID” and run “ ArcHTTP proxy server”. The ArcHTTP Configurations dialog box appears. It shows all RAID adapters available on the system and creates an individual adapter icon located on left column of the “ArcHTTP Configurations”...
  • Page 64 2. You must have administrative level permissions to install SAS RAID controller ArcHTTP proxy server software. This procedure assumes that the SAS RAID hardware and driver are installed and operational in your system.The following details are the installation procedure of the SAS RAID controller for Linux ArcHTTP proxy server software.

  • Page 65: For Freebsd

    5.3. For FreeBSD You must have administrative level permissions to install SAS RAID software. This procedure assumes that the SAS RAID hardware and FreeBSD are installed and operational in your system. The following installation procedure explains how to install the SAS RAID software for FreeBSD. 1.
  • Page 66 General Configuration: Binding IP: Restrict ArcHTTP proxy server to bind only single interface (If more than • one physical network in the server). HTTP Port#: Value 1~65535 • Display HTTP Connection Information To Console: Select “Yes" to show Http send bytes and receive bytes •...
  • Page 67 7. Mail Address: Enter the receiver's e-mail address. This is the address you want the e-mail alerts sent to. Ex: admin@sansdigital.com. 8. According to your requirement, set the corresponding event level: Disable Event Notification: No event notification will be sent. •...

  • Page 68: Web Browser-Based Configuration

    “SNMP Operation & Installation”. The MIBs file resides at: <CD-ROM>\packages\SNMP_MIBs on the software CD. 4. Note: After you confirm and submit configurations, you can use “Generate Test Event” feature to make sure these settings are correct. Rescan Device Configuration: The ArcHTTP scans the RAID controllers on the system and creates an •...

  • Page 69: Start-Up Mcraid Storage Manager

    Create RAID set • Expand RAID set • Define volume set • Add physical drive • Modify volume set • Modify RAID level/stripe size • Define pass-through disk drives • Modify system function • Update firmware • Designate drives as hot spares •...

  • Page 70: Mcraid Storage Manager

    2. When connection is established, the "System Login" screen appears. The SAS RAID controller default user name is “admin” and the password is “0000”. Start-up from Ethernet Port (Out-of-Band): The SAS RAID controller also offers an alternative out-of-band • method for McRAID storage manager. User can access the built- in configuration without running the ArcHttp proxy server on the host system.

  • Page 71: Main Menu

    To display drive information, move the mouse cursor to the desired physical drive number, then click on it. • The drive information will be displayed. 6.3. Main Menu The main menu shows all available functions, accessible by clicking on the appropriate link. Individual Description Category...

  • Page 72: Raid Set Functions

    6.5. RAID Set Functions Use the “Raid Set Function” and “Volume Set Function” if you prefer to customize your volume set. Manual configuration can provide full control of the RAID set settings, but it will take longer to complete than the “Quick Volume/Raid Setup”...
  • Page 73 RAID set expansion completes. RAID 30/50/60 does not support the “Expand RAID Set”. • RAID set expansion is a critical process, Sans Digital strongly recommend customer backup data • before expand. Unexpected accident may cause unrecoverable data corruption.
  • Page 74 User can remove those Hdds and insert new Hdds on those empty slots without needing power down the controller to perform the online array roaming. 6.5.5. Rename Raid Set The default RAID set name will always appear as “Raid Set #” when it is first created by the controller. The "Rename Raid Set"...
  • Page 75 box. Click on the “Confirm The Operation” check box and click on the “Submit” button in the screen to create the hot spares. The “Create Hot Spare” gives you the ability to define a global or dedicated hot spare. Unlike “Global Hot Spare” which can be used with any RAID sets, “Dedicated Hot Spare” can only be used with a specific RAID set or Enclosure.

  • Page 76: Volume Set Functions

    6.6. Volume Set Functions A volume set is seen by the host system as a single logical device. It is organized in a RAID level with one or more physical disks. RAID level refers to the level of data performance and protection of a volume set. A volume set capacity can consume all or a portion of the disk capacity available in a RAID set.
  • Page 77 The maximum volume size is the default initial setting. Enter the appropriate volume size to fit your application. Greater Two TB Volume Support • If volume capacity will exceed 2TB, controller will show the "Greater Two TB Volume Support" sub-menu. Greater Two TB Volume Support option: "No", "64bit LBA" and "4K Block". o No - It keeps the volume size with max.
  • Page 78 Data saved in the volume will be hidden by algorithm developed by Sans Digital. With this scramble process, no one can see and access into the hidden volume data without access key. The RAID adapters support 128- and 256-bit encryption keys using AES (a key size of 128, or 256 bits), or password (a variable key size).
  • Page 79 “Disabled” is used only when using SAS drives that do not support command tag queuing. Tagged Command Queuing (TCQ) is a technology built into SAS hard drives. It allows the RAID controller to send multiple read and write requests to a hard drive. This function should normally remain “Enabled”.
  • Page 80 6.6.3. Delete Volume Set To delete a volume from RAID set, move the cursor bar to the main menu and click on the “Delete Volume Set” link. The “Select The Raid Set To Delete” screen will show all RAID set numbers. Click on a RAID set number and the “Confirm The Operation”...
  • Page 81 After volume expansion, the volume capacity can't be decreased. • For greater 2TB expansion: If your system installed in the volume, don't expand the volume capacity greater 2TB, • currently OS can’t support boot up from a greater 2TB capacity device. Expand over 2TB used LBA64 mode.
  • Page 82 3. Click on “Confirm the Operation” and click on the “Submit” button. Use this option to verify the correctness of the redundant data in a volume set. For example, in a system with dedicated parity, volume set check means computing the parity of the data disk drives and comparing the results to the contents of the dedicated parity disk drive.

  • Page 83: Physical Drive

    3. Click “Confirm The Operation” and press the “Submit” button. 4. After the key file download is completed, a bar indicator will show “Key File Has Been Downloaded Successfully”. 6.7. Physical Drive Choose this option to select a physical disk from the main menu and then perform the operations listed below. 6.7.1.
  • Page 84 6.7.3. Delete Pass-Through Disk To delete a pass-through drive from the pass-through drive pool, move the mouse cursor bar to the main menus and click on the “Delete Pass Through” link. After you complete the selection, mark the check box for “Confirm The Operation” and click on the “Submit” button to complete the delete action. 6.7.4.
  • Page 85 6.7.4.1. Clone And Replace You can enlarge your logical drives by copying and replacing all member drives with drives of higher capacity. The existing data in the logical drives is copied onto the new drives, and then the original members are marked as “Offlined”. 6.7.4.2.

  • Page 86: System Controls

    6.7.8. Identify Enclosure To prevent removing the wrong enclosure, the selected Sans Digital expander enclosure all disks fault LED indicator will light for physically locating the selected enclosure when the “Identify Enclosure” is selected. This function will also light up the enclosure LED indicator, if it is existed.
  • Page 87 Background Task Priority • The “Background Task Priority” is a relative indication of how much time the controller devotes to a rebuild operation. The SAS RAID controller allows the user to choose the rebuild priority (UltraLow, Low, Medium and High) to balance volume set access and rebuild tasks appropriately. For high array formance, specify a “Low”...
  • Page 88 CPU Fan Detection • The RAID controller card incorporate one big passive heatsink attaching a active cooling fan that allows the hot devices such as a ROC and expander chip to keep cool. In addition, newer systems already have enough air flow blowing over the controller. If the systems have provided enough adequate cooling for ROC and expander chip, user can remove the attaching fan on the big passive heat sink.
  • Page 89 o “Blank Disk Only”-it will trigger the rebuilding if and only if the inserted disk has not been in the RAID array before, which has no RAID signature on it. So when a previously removed disk is self re-inserted, it won’t trigger the degraded RAID array to rebuild, and so that the administrator has a chance to identify this mis-behaving disk and replaces it.
  • Page 90 o “Alert Only” – it will trigger alert when there happens a SMART failed drive. Smart Polling Interval • Besides the scheduled volume check, user can define the Smart Pulling Interval to pull the SMART status of each disk. The default is “on demand”. User can schedule every certain period of time interval to pull the SMART status of each disk.
  • Page 91 Normally you should not need to modify this value. There are two selections, either 2 retry or 3 retry. Buffer Threshold • This new feature there are 3 options; 25%, 50%, 75%. The percentage represents how much data should be kept in resident cache memory (how full cache should get) before controller starts to flush data onto the hard drives.
  • Page 92 It combines the “Legacy BIOS”, “UEFI BIOS” and “EFI BIOS” into a single BIOS, and provides BIOS option in the GUI. In the previous version, Sans Digital provided separate BIOS files for each, and need to manually flash it in. Now flashing BIOS for different BIOS type is no longer needed, just make the BIOS selection in System Controls: Advance Configuration: BIOS Option.
  • Page 93 6.8.3.1. Stagger Power On Control In a PC system with only one or two drives, the power can supply enough power to spin up both drives simultaneously. But in systems with more than two drives, the startup current from spinning up the drives all at once can overload the power supply, causing damage to the power supply, disk drives and other system components.
  • Page 94 6.8.4. Ethernet Configuration Use this feature to set the controller Ethernet port configuration. A customer doesn’t need to create a reserved space on the arrays before the Ethernet port and HTTP service are working. The firmware-embedded web browser-based RAID manager can access it from any standard internet browser or from any host computer either directly connected or via a LAN or WAN with no software or patches required.
  • Page 95 6.8.6. SNMP Configuration Please refer to Appendix D of SNMP Operation & Installation. 6.8.7. NTP Configuration The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is used to synchronize the time of a computer client or server to another server or reference time source, such as a radio or satellite receiver or modem. It provides accuracies typically within a millisecond on LANs and up to a few tens of milliseconds on WANs relative to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) via a Global Positioning Service (GPS) receiver, for example: Note: NTP feature works through onboard Ethernet port.
  • Page 96 Time Zone conveniently runs in the system tray and allows you to easily view the date and time in various locations around the world. You can also quickly and easily add your own personal locations to customize time zone the way you want. Automatic Daylight Saving •...

  • Page 97: Information

    6.8.11. Modify Password To set or change the SAS RAID controller password, select “System Controls” from the menu and click on the “Modify Password” link. The “Modify System Password” screen appears. The manufacture default password is set to 0000. The password option allows user to set or clear the SAS RAID controller’s password protection feature. Once the password has been set, the user can only monitor and configure the SAS RAID controller by providing the correct password.
  • Page 98 6.9.2. SAS Chip Information To view the SAS RAID controller’s SAS controller and attached expander chip information, move the mouse cursor to the main menu and click on the “SAS Chip Information” link. The SAS RAID controller “SAS Chip Information” screen appears. User can click on ROC controller and SAS expander # item on the “SAS Chip Information”...

  • Page 99: Overview

    Ethernet port McRAID storage manager or nflash DOS utility. New releases of the firmware are available in the form of a DOS file on the shipped CD or Sans Digital website. The files available at the FTP site for each model contain the following files in each version: NNNN.BIN: Software Binary Code ( “NNNN”...

  • Page 100: Upgrading Firmware Through Nflash Dos Utility

    A-3 Upgrading Firmware Through nflash DOS Utility Sans Digital now offers an alternative means communication for the SAS RAID controller – Upgrade the all files (BIOS, BOOT, FIRM and MBR0) without necessary system starting up to running the ArcHTTP proxy server. The nflash utility program is a DOS application, which runs in the DOS operating system.

  • Page 101: Upgrading Firmware Through Cli

    the <CD-ROM>\Firmware directory. You can run the <nflash> to get more detailed information about the command usage. Typical output looks as below: A-4 Upgrading Firmware Through CLI This Command Line Interface (CLI) provides you to configure and manage the 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller components in Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and more environments.

  • Page 102: B-3 Fbm Outline

    B-3 FBM Outline The following figures provide the upper and top view of the FBM using supercap and battery. 1. FBM with SuperCap Top View Upper View 2. FBM with Battery Top View Upper View B-4 Status of FBM The following table provides the LED status of the FBM. D2 (Blue) Status D14 (Blue)

  • Page 103: B-5 Installation

    Restore Slow Flash 1Hz Calibration Slow Flash 1Hz Normal Off (Battery) Need Replace Function LED1 (Green) LED2 (Green) NAND Flash R/W Flash Flash Note: The FBM status will be shown on the web browser of “Hardware Monitor Information” screen. B-5 Installation 1.

  • Page 104: B-6 Flash-Based Backup Capacity

    B-6 Flash-based Backup Capacity The FBM backup capacity is defined as the maximum duration of a power failure for which data in the cache memory can be written into the flash on AC-SAN-1883FBM. The FBM can support up to 2GB memory chips that installed on the 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller.

  • Page 105: C-3 Status Of Bbm

    C-3 Status of BBM D7 (Green): light when BBM activated • D8 (Green): light when BBM normal • D9 (RED): light when BBM charging • Note: The BBM status will be shown on the web browser of “Hardware Monitor Information” screen. C-4 Installation 1.

  • Page 106: C-6 Operation

    C-6 Operation 1. Battery conditioning is automatic. There are no manual procedures for battery conditioning or preconditioning to be performed by the user. 2. In order to make sure of all the capacity is available for your battery cells, allow the battery cell to be fully charged when installed for the first time.

  • Page 107: Appendix D

    o Temperature: -40O C to 60O C o Humidity: 45-85%, non-condensing Electrical • o Input Voltage: +3.6VDC o On Board Battery Capacity: 1880mAH (1 x 1880mAH) Appendix D SNMP Operation & Installation D-1 Overview The McRAID storage manager includes a firmware-embedded Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent and SNMP Extension Agent for the RAID controller.

  • Page 108: D-3 Snmp Installation

    CD or download from http://www.sansdigital.com Each RAID controller needs to have its own MIBs file. Sans Digital provide 4 adapters MIBs file for users. User can request it if more controllers install on one system. Note: 1.
  • Page 109 Do not check mark the option: “SNMP Through PCI”. • Make sure you have the latest driver and ArcHTTP, from this URL • “http://www.sansdigital.com”. ArcHTTP supports sending “traps” only, do not support the “get” command. • 2. Service Method-2: using Onboard NIC. Pay attention to below setting: Do not check mark the option: “SNMP Through PCI”.
  • Page 110 Please refer to Appendix E of Event Notification Configurations. D-3-3 Using In-band PCI + SNMP Extension Agent Installation By using the IP address assigned to the operating- RAID controller using Sans Digital SNMP extension agent through PCIe host bus interface.
  • Page 111 The SNMP extension agent on the device is able to return meaningful, highly useful information to the SNMP manager. The Sans Digital RAID controllers have supported the extension agent for Windows, Linux and FreeBSD. This section is the detail procedures for those extension agent installations.
  • Page 112 5. When you reach the installation page, click on the “Install” button to continue. 6. A Progress bar appears that measures the progress of the SNMP extension agent setup. When this screen completes, you have completed the Sans Digital SNMP extension agent setup.
  • Page 113 Level 1 is the highest level, and covers events the need immediate attention (and action) from the administrator. D-3-4-2 Linux You must have administrative level permission to install Sans Digital RAID software. This procedure assumes that the Sans Digital RAID hardware and Linux are installed and operational...

  • Page 114: Appendix E

    The old version agent has to modify the open source project, integrate the changes from Sans Digital manually, then take the modified binaries and manually deploy them. Users need to change source code from the linux distribution and then maintain it by themselves.
  • Page 115 Device Urgent HDD SMART failure Replace HDD Failed(SMART) PassThrough Disk Inform Pass Through Disk created Created PassThrough Disk Inform Pass Through Disk modified Modified PassThrough Disk Inform Pass Through Disk deleted Deleted B. Volume Event Event Level Meaning Action Start Initialize Warning Volume initialization has started...

  • Page 116: Appendix F

    Rebuild RaidSet Warning Raidset rebuilding RaidSet Degraded Urgent Raidset degraded Replace HDD D. Hardware Monitor Event Event Level Meaning Action DRAM 1-Bit ECC Urgent DRAM 1-Bit ECC error Check DRAM DRAM Fatal Error Urgent DRAM fatal error Check the DRAM module and replace with new encountered one if required.

  • Page 117: Ease Of Use Features

    RAID set to another system without losing RAID configuration information or data on that RAID set. Therefore, if a server fails, the RAID set disk drives can be moved to another server with an Sans Digital RAID controllers and the disks can be inserted in any order. Online Capacity Expansion •...
  • Page 118 A disk, to be added to a RAID set, must be in normal mode (not failed), free (not spare, in a RAID set, or passed through to host) and must have at least the same capacity as the smallest disk capacity already in the RAID set.

  • Page 119: High Availability

    the system down. A forth disk could be added to migrate to RAID level 6. It is only possible to migrate to a higher RAID level by adding a disk; disks in an existing array can’t be reconfigured for a higher RAID level without adding a disk.
  • Page 120 Hot-Swap Disk Drive Support • The RAID controller chip includes a protection circuit that supports the replacement of SAS/SATA hard disk drives without having to shut down or reboot the system. A removable hard drive tray can deliver “hot swappable” fault-tolerant RAID solutions. This feature provides advanced fault tolerant RAID protection and “online”...

  • Page 121: High Reliability

    specify an Ultra Low value. Like volume initialization, after a volume rebuilds, it does not require a system reboot. High Reliability Hard Drive Failure Prediction • In an effort to help users avoid data loss, disk manufacturers are now incorporating logic into their drives that acts as an "early warning system"...

  • Page 122: Data Protection

    Data Protection Battery Backup • The RAID controllers are armed with a Battery Backup Module (BBM). While an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) protects most servers from power fluctuations or failures, a BBM provides an additional level of protection. In the event of a power failure, a BBM supplies power to retain data in the RAID controller’s cache, thereby permitting any potentially dirty data in the cache to be flushed out to secondary storage when power is restored.

  • Page 123: Raid

    Illustration is an example of a hybrid RAID 10(1E) array comprised of five disks; A, B, C, D and E. In this configuration, each strip is mirrored on an adjacent disk with wrap-around. Sans Digital RAID 10 offers a little more...

  • Page 124: Raid

    RAID 3 RAID 3 provides disk striping and complete data redundancy though a dedicated parity drive. RAID 3 breaks up data into smaller blocks, calculates parity by performing an exclusive-or on the blocks, and then writes the blocks to all but one drive in the array.

  • Page 125: Jbod

    RAID x0 RAID level-x0 refers to RAID level 00, 100, 30, 50 and 60. RAID x0 is a combination multiple RAID x volume sets with RAID 0 (striping). Striping helps to increase capacity and performance without adding disks to each RAID x array. The operating system uses the spanned volume in the same way as a regular volume.
  • Page 126 RAID Level Comparsion RAID Level Description Disks Data Requirement Availability (Minimum) Also known as striping. Data distributed across multiple drives in the No data array. There is no data protection. Protection Also known as mirroring. All data replicated on 2 separated disks. N is Up to one almost always 2.

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