Page 1 RAIDX PERT ANUAL Version 2.1...
Page 2 RAIDXpert User Manual Copyright © 2010 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Copyright by Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD). No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the expressed, written permission of AMD. Trademarks AMD and the AMD are registered in U.S.
Page 3: Table Of Contents
Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ........1 RAIDXpert Components .
Page 4 RAIDXpert User Manual Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing, cont. User Management ........35 Adding a User .
Page 5 Contents Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing, cont. Spare Drives ......... .89 Viewing Spare Drives .
Page 6 RAIDXpert User Manual...
Page 7: Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter includes the following topics: • RAIDXpert Components (page 2) • Operating System Support (page 3) • Browser Support (page 3) • About This Manual (page 3) The AMD RAIDXpert software offers local and remote management and monitoring of all logical drives on the AMD Chipset SATA Controller wherever they exist on the network.
Page 8: Raidxpert Components
RAIDXpert User Manual RAIDXpert Components The RAIDXpert installation software installs two major components: • RAIDXpert management and networking software • Java Runtime Environment (in a private folder) RAIDXpert Software The RAIDXpert software installs on the PC with the AMD Chipset SATA Controller (the “Host PC”).
Page 9: Operating System Support
Chapter 1: Introduction Operating System Support On the Host PC with the AMD Chipset SATA Controller, where you install RAIDXpert, AMD recommends 32-bit or 64-bit versions of: • Windows 7 • Red Hat Enterprise 4.8 • Windows Vista • Red Hat Enterprise 5.4 •...
Page 10 RAIDXpert User Manual Important Important calls attention to an essential step or point required to complete a task. Important items include things often missed. Caution A Caution informs you of possible equipment damage or loss of data and how to avoid them. Warning A Warning notifies you of probable equipment damage or loss of data, or the possibility of physical injury, and how to avoid them.
Page 11: Chapter 2: Installation
Chapter 2: Installation This chapter includes the following topic: • Windows (below) • Windows with RAID Ready Backup (below) • Linux (page 6) On Windows PCs and Servers, you can install the RAIDXpert software with or without the RAID Ready Backup feature. RAID Ready Backup enables you to create and maintain a mirror of your RAID Ready logical drive.
Page 12: Linux
RAIDXpert User Manual Linux Follow these steps to install RAIDXpert on your Linux-based PC or Server. Boot the PC or server, log in as root, and launch the Linux GUI. If the computer is already running, exit all programs. If you are not logged in as root, log out, then log in again as root.
Page 13 Chapter 2: Installation When the Welcome screen appears, click the Next button. When the License Agreement screen appears, click the “I accept the terms of the license agreement” option to proceed with installation. Then click the Next button to continue. Note: If you leave the “I do not accept the terms of the license”...
Page 14 RAIDXpert User Manual When the Choose Install Folder screen appears, make your selection of a folder for the RAIDXpert applications you are installing. For example, the Windows default folder is: C:\Program Files\AMD\RAIDXpert If you want a different folder, type its location or click the Browse... button and select a new location.
Page 15 Chapter 2: Installation Click the Next button when you have made your choice. When the Ready to Install screen appears, click the Install button to continue.
Page 16 RAIDXpert User Manual When the Install Complete screen appears, click the Finish button. This completes the RAIDXpert installation. Go to “Chapter 3: Setup” on page 11...
Page 17: Chapter 3: Setup
Chapter 3: Setup This chapter includes the following topics: • Logging into RAIDXpert (below) • Choosing a Language (page 14) • Accessing the Host PC (page 14) • Making the Recommended Initial Settings (page 15) • Creating a New Logical Drive (page 18) •...
Page 18 RAIDXpert User Manual Secure Connection: • RAIDXpert uses a secure HTTP connection ....https:// • Enter the Host PC’s IP address ... . 127.0.0.1 or localhost •...
Page 19 Chapter 3: Setup Note Make a Bookmark (Netscape Navigator) or set a Favorite (Internet Explorer) of the Login Screen so you can access it easily next time. After sign-in, the RAIDXpert opening screen appears.
Page 20: Choosing A Language
RAIDXpert User Manual Choosing a Language RAIDXpert can display in multiple languages. To choose your language: Click the currently displayed language in the RAIDXpert banner. A list of available languages displays. Click the language you prefer. The RAIDXpert GUI displays in the language selected. Notes •...
Page 21: Making The Recommended Initial Settings
Chapter 3: Setup Making the Recommended Initial Settings These settings are recommended and now is the best time to make them. You can change them later as necessary. Administrator’s Settings To make the Administrator’s password and notification settings: In Tree View, under Administrative Tools, click User Management. In the Management Window, click the admin link.
Page 22 RAIDXpert User Manual If you want to change the default password, type the new password into the New Password field. Use up to 8 letters and numbers but no spaces or other characters. Type the same password into the Retype Password field. If you plan to set up Event Notification, type the Administrator’s email address in the Email field.
Page 23 Chapter 3: Setup Utility Configuration If you plan to set up Event Notification, you must make these settings. In Tree View, under Administrative Tools, click Utility Configuration. Enter the Sender’s address in the Email Sender field. Be sure the sender has an account in your email system. See your IT administrator.
Page 24: Creating A New Logical Drive
RAIDXpert User Manual Creating a New Logical Drive A logical drive is a collection of physical drives in a RAID. To create a new logical drive: Click Logical Drive View in Tree View. Click the Create tab in Management View. The Select RAID Level screen appears.
Page 25 Chapter 3: Setup The Select Drives screen appears. If you want to split the capacity of your physical drives between two logical drives, enter the capacity for the first logical drive in the Logical Drive Size field. Or, to use the maximum capacity of the physical drives, check the Use Maximum Capacity box.
Page 26 RAIDXpert User Manual The Assign a Name screen appears. Accept the default name or enter a new name for the logical drive in the field provided. 10. Click the Next button. The Final Settings screen appears. 11. RAID 0, 5, and 10. Choose a Stripe Block Size from the dropdown menu. The choices are 64 and 128 KB.
Page 27 Chapter 3: Setup 14. Click the Finish button. If there are physical drives available, the Select RAID Level screen appears again, where you can create an additional logical drive. Click the Logical Drive in Tree View to see all of the information about your new logical drive.
Page 28: Logging Out Of Raidxpert
RAIDXpert User Manual Before you can use your new logical drive, you must partition and format the logical drive using your PC’s operating system. See “Appendix B: Partition and Format” on page 111 for more information. Logging out of RAIDXpert There are two ways to log out of RAIDXpert: •...
Page 29: Connecting To Raidxpert From The Internet
Chapter 3: Setup Connecting to RAIDXpert from the Internet The above instructions cover connections between the Host PC and other PCs using RAIDXpert over your company network. It is also possible to connect to a Host PC from the Internet. Your MIS Administrator can tell you how to access your network from outside the firewall.
Page 30 RAIDXpert User Manual...
Page 31: Chapter 4: Raidxpert User Interface
Chapter 4: RAIDXpert User Interface • Banner (page 26) • Tree View (page 26) • Management Window (page 28) • Event Frame (page 29) This chapter describes RAIDXpert’s Graphic User Interface (GUI). You should understand that RAIDXpert is software running on your Internet Browser. RAIDXpert adds a graphic user interface to make RAID management functions easier to understand and perform.
Page 32: Banner
RAIDXpert User Manual Banner The RAIDXpert banner appears at the top of your browser window when you are running RAIDXpert. Figure 2. The RAIDXpert Banner The RAIDXpert banner enables you to do the following actions: • Select the language in which RAIDXpert displays from the dropdown menu. •...
Page 33 Chapter 4: RAIDXpert User Interface A Host PC’s RAID system is made up of: • Administrative Tools – User and Host Management, and Utility Configuration • User Management – Create and Delete Users, Passwords, and Permissions • Host Management – Information on Host PCs •...
Page 34: Management Window
RAIDXpert User Manual Management Window The purpose of the Management Window is to monitor and manage your RAID system. The Management Window appears in the right frame of the browser window. What appears in the Management Window depends on which item you click in Tree View.
Page 35: Event Frame
Chapter 4: RAIDXpert User Interface A full discussion of these and other RAID monitoring and management functions is included in “Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing” on page 31. Event Frame The purpose of the Event Frame is to maintain a log of all events related to your RAID system.
Page 36: Current Event
RAIDXpert User Manual On the Event Frame, you can also: • Clear the events • Save the events an text file • Display events by severity • Display events by date and time • Filter the events Current Event You can view the current event in the top right corner RAIDXpert window above the Banner.
Page 37: Chapter 5: Monitoring And Managing
Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing • Logging into RAIDXpert (below) • Choosing a Language (page 34) • User Management (page 35) • Host Management (page 44) • Utility Configuration (page 45) • Controller (page 48) • Physical Drives (page 53) •...
Page 38 RAIDXpert User Manual Together, your entry looks like this: https://127.0.0.1:8443/amd or https://localhost:8443/amd Note that the IP address shown above applies to a log-in at the Host PC. When you log in over a network, enter the Host PC’s actual IP address or hostname.
Page 39 Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing After sign-in, the RAIDXpert opening screen appears.
Page 40: Choosing A Language
RAIDXpert User Manual Choosing a Language RAIDXpert can display in multiple languages. To choose your language: Click the currently displayed language in the RAIDXpert banner. A list of available languages displays. Click the language you prefer. The RAIDXpert GUI displays in the language selected. Notes •...
Page 41: Chapter 5: Monitoring And Managing, Cont
Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing User Management • Adding a User (below) • Setting up Email Event Notification (page 36) • Deleting a User (page 39) • Changing a User’s Password (page 40) • Changing a User’s Email Address (page 41) •...
Page 42: Setting Up Email Event Notification
RAIDXpert User Manual If you plan to set up Event Notification, type the user’s email address in the Email field. Under Host User Rights, check the boxes to select rights for this user. Right Meaning Creation Permission to create a logical drive and a spare drive Deletion Permission to delete a logical drive and a spare drive Maintenance...
Page 43 Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing The image above was shortened to fit on the page. Check the boxes of the notification events that you want to have reported to you via email and popup messages. To select events by their severity, check one of the four Select Events boxes at the top of the window.
Page 44 RAIDXpert User Manual Event Notification Severity Levels Warning Events Error Events Disk Unplugged Array Offline Disk Timeout Background Initialization Aborted with Task Error Error Disk Media Patrol Aborted with Error Synchronization Aborted with Error Bad Block Remapped Redundancy Check Aborted with Error Disk Pre Fail Redundancy Check Inconsistency Array Critical...
Page 45: Deleting A User
Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing Event Notification Severity Levels, continued Information Events Information Events Rebuild Started Disk Plugged In Rebuild Completed Disk BSL Update Rebuild Paused Disk BSL Cleared Rebuild Resumed Disk Error Fixed Rebuild Aborted Disk BSL Accessed Rebuild Restarted Disk Patrol Progress Rebuild Progress Disk Media Patrol Started...
Page 46: Changing A User's Password
RAIDXpert User Manual Check the box to the left of the user you want to delete. Click the Delete button. In the Confirmation box, click the OK button. Changing a User’s Password In RAIDXpert, each user can change his or her own password. To change a user’s password: Log into RAIDXpert under your User name.
Page 47: Changing A User's Email Address
Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing Type a new password in the New Password field. Retype the new password in the Retype Password field. Click the Submit button. Important If a user forgets his or her password, the Administrator must delete that User account and create a new one, as described above.
Page 48: Changing A User's Access Rights
RAIDXpert User Manual Click the Settings tab. Type a new email address in the Email field. Click the Submit button. Changing a User’s Access Rights In RAIDXpert, the Administrator can change a user’s access rights. To change a user’s access rights: Log in as the Administrator.
Page 49 Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing Under Host User Rights, check the boxes to select rights for this user. Uncheck the boxes of rights to be deleted. Right Meaning Creation Permission to create a logical drive and a spare drive Deletion Permission to delete a logical drive and a spare drive Maintenance Permission to migrate, rebuild, and synchronize a logical...
Page 50: Host Management
RAIDXpert User Manual Host Management This function provides information only. There are no user settings. To access Host Management: Click Host Management in Tree View. Host information displays in Management View. Under Host List, click the IP Address link to the host you want to see. The Information tab displays with information about the Host PC.
Page 51: Utility Configuration
Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing Utility Configuration • Making Utility Configuration Settings (page 45) • Choosing Utility Configuration Options (page 46) Making Utility Configuration Settings Use this function to make email settings for RAIDXpert and also to set the refresh interval for the Event Frame.
Page 52: Choosing Utility Configuration Options
RAIDXpert User Manual Choosing Utility Configuration Options Backup Prompt This feature makes a copy of your RAID Ready logical drive onto a separate disk drive. Because a RAID Ready consists of only one physical drive, there is no redundancy to protect against drive failure. The Backup feature provides that protection.
Page 53 Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing System Event Notification An example of a System Event Notification message. These messages display on the top right corner of the Host PC’s desktop, whether or not RAIDXpert is running at the time. This feature makes it easy to monitor your RAID system without having to keep a browser window open and dedicated to the RAID.
Page 54: Controller
RAIDXpert User Manual Controller • Viewing Controller Information (below) • Making Controller Settings (page 49) • Viewing Controller Scheduled Activities (page 50) • Locking the Controller (page 51) The term Controller refers to the device that controls your RAID. Viewing Controller Information To view controller information, click Controller in Tree View.
Page 55: Making Controller Settings
Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing Making Controller Settings To make controller settings: Click Controller in Tree View. Click the Settings tab in Management View. Click the Enable or Disable options for each feature. • Rates – Allocates system resources between the background activity such as Rebuild, Media Patrol, Migration/Expansion, Initialization, and Synchronization, and the data read/write activity.
Page 56: Viewing Controller Scheduled Activities
RAIDXpert User Manual When enabled, and a hot spare drive is not available, a critical or degraded logical drive will rebuild itself automatically when you replace the failed physical drive with a new one. See page 84. • Automatic Rebuild Policy – Selects which physical drive to use as a hot spare: •...
Page 57: Locking The Controller
Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing The Schedule tab displays all scheduled background activity, such as Media Patrol, Migration, Rebuild, Synchronization, Redundancy Check, and Initialization. Adding a Scheduled Activity To add a schedule for these activities, see: • “Running Media Patrol – One Physical Drive” on page 58 •...
Page 58 RAIDXpert User Manual To lock the Controller on the Host PC: Click Controller in Tree View. Click the Lock tab in Management View. From the dropdown menu, select a period of time to hold the lock. The lock time range is 1 to 30 minutes. Click the Lock button to set the lock.
Page 59: Physical Drives
Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing Physical Drives • Viewing Physical Drives (below) • Merging a Physical Drive (page 54) • Scheduling Media Patrol – All Physical Drives (page 54) • Viewing Physical Drive Information (page 55) • Making Physical Drive Settings (page 57) •...
Page 60: Merging A Physical Drive
RAIDXpert User Manual Merging a Physical Drive A physical drive is logically split when its capacity is divided between two assignments, such as two different logical drives. When the logical drives are deleted, the split remains. The action of merging a physical drive reunites the two portions of a split drive back into a single physical drive.
Page 61: Viewing Physical Drive Information
Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing Click the Enable option. Click the by Day, by Week or by Month option. From the dropdown menus, select a start time and a day of the Week or Month, if applicable. Start time is based on a 24-hour clock. Click the Schedule button.
Page 62 RAIDXpert User Manual The Information tab displays the following information: • Drive Model – The physical drive manufacturer’s model name or number. • Serial Number – The serial number of this physical drive. • Firmware Version – The version number of the firmware on this physical drive.
Page 63: Making Physical Drive Settings
Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing • S.M.A.R.T. Status – SMART, an acronym for Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology, is a feature of the physical drive software. When this feature is supported, the drive will pass SMART information to the SATA controller when it polls the physical drives.
Page 64: Running Media Patrol - One Physical Drive
RAIDXpert User Manual Running Media Patrol – One Physical Drive The Physical Drive–Media Patrol tab allows you to start Media Patrol on an individual physical drive. You can also run Media Patrol on all physical drives at the same time, see page 54. For more information, see “Media Patrol”...
Page 65: Viewing The Physical Drive Bad Sector Log
Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing Canceling a Schedule To cancel the scheduled Media Patrol operation: Click Physical Drive View in Tree View. Click the Physical Drive whose schedule you want to cancel. Click the Media Patrol tab in Management View. Click the Disable option.
Page 66: Deleting Physical Drive Backup Information
RAIDXpert User Manual If any bad sectors are found, they are listed here. RAIDXpert informs you by popup and email messages when a bad sector error is logged (see page 36). After 10 bad sectors have been discovered on a physical drive, RAIDXpert issues a warning to replace the drive.
Page 67 Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing Note If your backup drive is present in your RAIDXpert system when you delete the corresponding RAID Ready logical drive, the backup drive is deleted at the same time. In that situation, you do not need to delete backup information separately. To delete backup information from a physical drive: Click Physical Drive View in Tree View.
Page 68: Logical Drives
RAIDXpert User Manual Logical Drives • Viewing Logical Drives (below) • Creating a Logical Drive (page 62) • Deleting a Logical Drive (page 67) • Viewing Logical Drive Information (page 68) • Making Logical Drive Settings (page 68) • Backing up a RAID Ready Logical Drive (page 68) •...
Page 69 Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing Select the option beside the RAID level you want for your logical drive. RAIDXpert displays the RAID levels you can use with the available physical drives. See page 101 for information about the available RAID levels. In the Select Drive Type screen, click the option for one of the following: •...
Page 70 RAIDXpert User Manual If you want to split the capacity of your physical drives between two logical drives, enter the capacity for the first logical drive in the Logical Drive Size field. Or, to use the maximum capacity of the physical drives, check the Use Maximum Capacity box.
Page 71 Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing The Assign a Name screen appears. Accept the default name or enter a new name for the logical drive in the field provided. 10. Click the Next button. The Final Settings screen appears. 11. RAID 0, 5, and 10. Choose a Stripe Block Size from the dropdown menu. The choices are 64 and 128 KB.
Page 72 RAIDXpert User Manual 14. Click the Finish button. If there are physical drives available, the Select RAID Level screen appears again, where you can create an additional logical drive. Click the Logical Drive in Tree View to see all of the information about your new logical drive.
Page 73: Deleting A Logical Drive
Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing Before you can use your new logical drive, you must partition and format the logical drive using your PC’s operating system. See “Appendix B: Partition and Format” on page 111 for more information. Deleting a Logical Drive Warning When you delete a logical drive, you delete all data on the logical drive.
Page 74: Viewing Logical Drive Information
RAIDXpert User Manual Viewing Logical Drive Information Logical Drive View provides a list of all logical drives currently on the Host PC. To access Logical Drive View: Click Logical Drive View in Tree View. Click the Logical Drive you want to view. From this screen, you can click the links to access the Settings, Migration, Rebuild, Synchronization, Initialization, and Activation features.
Page 75 Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing If you write data to your RAID Ready drive without the backup drive in your system, RAIDXpert will automatically update the data on the backup drive when you insert it the next time. You can set up your RAID Ready backup drive in one of two ways: •...
Page 76 RAIDXpert User Manual Click the Backup tab to monitor the progress of the backup operation. Backup Drive Features There is no pause or resume button for the backup. However, if you reboot your system with the backup drive still attached, the backup function will continue automatically after the reboot is completed.
Page 77: Migrating A Logical Drive
Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing Migrating a Logical Drive The Logical Drive–Migration tab enables you to: • Change the RAID level of an existing logical drive • Add physical drives to a logical drive while keeping the same RAID level. This action is also called Expansion You can change the RAID level of a logical drive with certain combinations of RAID level and number of physical drives, as described in the table below.
Page 78 RAIDXpert User Manual You can add physical drives to an existing logical drive while keeping the same RAID level for: • RAID 0 • RAID 5 • JBOD RAIDXpert supports up to six physical drives for these logical drives. For more information, see “Migration”...
Page 79 Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing You can monitor Migration progress on the Logical Drive Migration tab. Click the respective buttons to pause and resume the Migration. Scheduled To schedule a Migration: Click Logical Drive View in Tree View. Click the Logical Drive you want to migrate. Click the Migration tab in Management View.
Page 80: Rebuilding A Logical Drive
RAIDXpert User Manual Canceling a Schedule If you want to cancel the scheduled Migration, do the following: Click Logical Drive View in Tree View. Click the Logical Drive whose schedule you want to cancel. Click the Migration tab in Management View. Click the Disable option.
Page 81 Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing You can set up a Rebuild to: • Begin immediately (on demand) • Schedule a Rebuild for a time when there is less demand on the RAID system • Begin automatically when a logical drive goes critical. See page 77. On Demand To rebuild a logical drive: Click Logical Drive View in Tree View.
Page 82 RAIDXpert User Manual Scheduled To schedule a Rebuild: Click Logical Drive View in Tree View. Click the Logical Drive you want to rebuild. Click the Rebuild tab in Management View. Click a Single Disk (unassigned physical drive) to use as a replacement drive.
Page 83 Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing Canceling a Schedule If you want to cancel the scheduled Rebuild, do the following: Click Logical Drive View in Tree View. Click the Logical Drive whose schedule you want to cancel. Click the Rebuild tab in Management View. Click the Disable option.
Page 84: Synchronizing All Logical Drives
RAIDXpert User Manual and automatic rebuild in its user interface as well as via popup messages. Depending on your Event Notification settings (see page 36), RAIDXpert can also notify you via email message. When the automatic rebuild operation is completed, you must remove and replace the faulty physical drive with a new one.
Page 85: Synchronizing One Logical Drive
Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing Canceling a Schedule If you want to cancel the scheduled Synchronization, do the following: Click Logical Drive View in Tree View. Click the Synchronization Schedule tab in Management View. Click the Disable option. Synchronizing One Logical Drive The Logical Drive Synchronization tab enables you to synchronize an individual logical drive.
Page 86 RAIDXpert User Manual Note You cannot start a Redundancy Check until all other background activities are finished. They include: Rebuild, Full Initialization, Migration, Expansion, and Synchronization (with Fix option). Any of these tasks can take a long time, depending on the size of your physical drives.
Page 87 Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing Scheduled To schedule a Synchronization or Redundancy Check: Click Logical Drive View in Tree View. Click the Logical Drive you want to synchronize. Click the Synchronization tab in Management View. In the Policy dropdown menu, choose: •...
Page 88: Initializing A Logical Drive
RAIDXpert User Manual Canceling a Schedule If you want to cancel the scheduled Synchronization or Redundancy Check, do the following: Click Logical Drive View in Tree View. Click the Logical Drive whose schedule you want to cancel. Click the Synchronization tab in Management View. Click the Disable option.
Page 89: Logical Drive Activation
Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing To initialize a logical drive: Click Logical Drive View in Tree View. Click the Logical Drive whose initialization you want to view, pause, resume, or abort. Click the Initialization tab in Management View. Optional. Click the Pause, Resume, or Abort button. Optional, Abort only.
Page 90: Managing A Critical Or Offline Logical Drive
RAIDXpert User Manual In a few moments, the logical drive status goes from Offline to Critical. Critical status allows you to access your data and rebuild the logical drive. See “Rebuilding a Logical Drive” on page 74. Managing a Critical or Offline Logical Drive A fault-tolerant logical drive—RAID 1, 5, or 10—goes Critical when a physical drive is removed or fails.
Page 91 Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing one physical drive, disappears from the interface if the physical drive is removed or fails. Since these logical drives are not fault tolerant, the data stored in the logical drive is no longer accessible. If one physical drive fails, all of the data on the logical drive is lost. You must replace the failed drive.
Page 92 RAIDXpert User Manual In this example, the Status is Critical and Background activity is Idle. This condition indicates that there is no automatic rebuild, so you must take action to restore the logical drive: Identify the failed physical drive. Replace the failed physical drive. Rebuild your logical drive.
Page 93 Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing Replacing the Failed Physical Drive Replace the failed physical drive with a new one of equal or greater capacity. Then rebuild the logical drive. See your system User Manual for more information about replacing a physical drive. Rebuilding Your Logical Drive These instructions describe a manual rebuild.
Page 94 RAIDXpert User Manual You can monitor Rebuild progress on the Rebuild tab. Click the respective buttons to pause and resume the Rebuild. When the Rebuild is finished, your logical drive will be Functional again.
Page 95: Spare Drives
Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing Spare Drives • Viewing Spare Drives (below) • Creating a Spare Drive (page 89) • Deleting a Spare Drive (page 90) A spare drive is a physical drive designated to function as a hot spare drive. A hot spare drive automatically replaces a failed physical drive.
Page 96: Deleting A Spare Drive
RAIDXpert User Manual Click a Single Disk (unassigned physical drive) to use as a spare drive. Available drives have a white frame. Selected drives have a red frame. Drives with a blue frame are assigned to a logical drive. You cannot select for a spare drive a split physical drive, where part of the physical drive currently supports a logical drive.
Page 97 Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing In the Confirmation box, click the OK button. The selected spare drive is deleted.
Page 98 RAIDXpert User Manual...
Page 99: Chapter 6: Technology Background
Chapter 6: Technology Background • Physical and Logical Drive Support (page 93) • Port Multiplier (page 93) • Introduction to RAID (page 94) • Choosing a RAID Level (page 101) • Choosing Stripe Block Size (page 103) • Gigabyte Boundary (page 103) •...
Page 100: Introduction To Raid
RAIDXpert User Manual Introduction to RAID RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) allows multiple physical drives to be combined together in a logical drive. The operating system sees the logical drive as a single storage device, and treats it as such. The RAID software and/or controller handle all of the individual drives on its own.
Page 101: Raid 0 - Stripe
Chapter 6: Technology Background RAID 0 – Stripe When a logical drive is striped, the read and write blocks of data are interleaved between the sectors of multiple physical drives. Performance is increased, since the workload is balanced between drives or “members” that form the logical drive. Identical drives are recommended for performance as well as data storage efficiency.
Page 102: Raid 1 - Mirror
RAIDXpert User Manual RAID 1 – Mirror When a logical drive is mirrored, identical data is written to a pair of physical drives, while reads are performed in parallel. The reads are performed using elevator seek and load balancing techniques where the workload is distributed in the most efficient manner.
Page 103: Raid 5 - Block Striping With Distributed Parity
Chapter 6: Technology Background RAID 5 – Block Striping with Distributed Parity RAID 5 stripes data and distributes parity information across the physical drives along with the data blocks. This organization increases performance by accessing multiple physical drives simultaneously for each operation, as well as fault tolerance by providing parity data.
Page 104: Raid 10 - Mirror/Stripe
RAIDXpert User Manual RAID 10 – Mirror/Stripe RAID 10 combines the properties of RAID 0 and RAID 1 logical drives. RAID 10 increases performance by reading and writing data in parallel while protecting data with duplication. Four physical drives are required for RAID 10. One drive pair is mirrored together then striped over a second drive pair.
Page 105: Raid Ready - Single Drive
Chapter 6: Technology Background RAID Ready – Single Drive RAID Ready arranges individual physical drives the same as if they were attached to the PC’s motherboard controller. The advantage is that the AMD Chipset SATA Controller can accommodate up to 10 physical drives, more than most PC motherboards.
Page 106: Jbod - Concatenation
RAIDXpert User Manual JBOD – Concatenation JBOD stands for “Just a Bunch of Disks” and normally refers to one or more physical drives working independently. The AMD Chipset SATA Controller offers the added feature of concatenation, where the capacity of multiple drives is added together.
Page 107: Choosing A Raid Level
Chapter 6: Technology Background Choosing a RAID Level There are several issues to consider when choosing the RAID Level for your logical drive. The following discussion summarizes some advantages, disadvantages, and applications for each choice. RAID 0 Advantages Disadvantages Data is broken down into blocks and Not a true RAID because it is not fault- each block is written to a separate tolerant...
Page 108: Raid 5
RAIDXpert User Manual RAID 5 Advantages Disadvantages High Read data transaction rate Disk failure has a medium impact on throughput Medium Write data transaction rate Good aggregate transfer rate Recommended Applications for RAID 5: • File and Application servers • WWW, E-mail, and News servers •...
Page 109: Jbod
Chapter 6: Technology Background JBOD Advantages Disadvantages Enables you to manage multiple The failure of just one drive will result in physical drives from a single controller all data in all drives being lost Not suitable for mission critical environments Recommended Applications for JBOD: •...
Page 110: Initialization
RAIDXpert User Manual Initialization Initialization is the process of setting all of the data bits on all of the physical drives to zero. This has the effect of erasing any existing data from the drives. This action is especially helpful in creating accurate parity in logical drives with more than four drives.
Page 111: Partition And Format The Logical Drive
Chapter 6: Technology Background Partition and Format the Logical Drive Like any other type of fixed disk media in your system, a RAID logical drive must also be partitioned and formatted before use. Use the same method of partitioning and formatting on a logical drive as you would any other fixed disk. See “Appendix B: Partition and Format”...
Page 112: Ranges Of Logical Drive Migration
RAIDXpert User Manual You can add physical drives to an existing logical drive while keeping the same RAID level for: • RAID 0 • RAID 5 • JBOD RAIDXpert supports up to six physical drives for these logical drives. Important •...
Page 113: Media Patrol
Chapter 6: Technology Background For example: • You can migrate a 2.5 TB logical drive up to 4 TB • You can only migrate a 1.9 TB logical drive up to 2 TB See the chart below. Maximum LD Current LD Size Sector Size Migration Size 8 to 16 TB...
Page 114 RAIDXpert User Manual To schedule or run Media Patrol, see “Scheduling Media Patrol – All Physical Drives” on page 54 or “Running Media Patrol – One Physical Drive” on page 58. See also “Setting up Email Event Notification” on page 36 and “Viewing the Physical Drive Bad Sector Log”...
Page 115: Appendix A: Frequently Asked Questions
Appendix A: Frequently Asked Questions I tried to log into RAIDXpert but my browser showed the message “cannot be displayed.” What is the problem? The browser decided prematurely that RAIDXpert was not responding. Click the Refresh button. This action usually brings up the login screen. I can access the Host PC over my company’s intranet.
Page 116 RAIDXpert User Manual Why do the Rebuild, Synchronize, and Migrate operations take so long compared to moving data? When data is moved, the operation consists of reading, writing, and checking one or more files. Rebuild, Synchronize, and Migrate involve reading, writing, and checking all the logical block addresses or individual data blocks on each physical drive.
Page 117: Appendix B: Partition And Format
Appendix B: Partition and Format In order for your operating system to recognize and work with the physical drives attached to your AMD Chipset SATA Controller, the drives must be partitioned and formatted. • If your drives were previously partitioned and formatted they are ready to use and you can skip this procedure •...
Page 118 RAIDXpert User Manual Click the Next button to start the Wizard. In the following windows, choose Disk 1 to Initialize. Do not choose any disks to Convert. Click the Finish button to Initialize the logical drive. Right-click the Unallocated portion of Disk 1 and choose New Partition... from the popup menu.
Page 119 Appendix A: Partition and Format Click the Next button to start the wizard. In the following windows, do the following actions. • Choose Primary Partition • Specify the maximum available partition size in MB • Assign the available drive letter of your choice •...
Page 120 RAIDXpert User Manual When formatting is complete, your logical drive will appear as a hard disk drive in the Disk Management window (above) and the My Computer window (below).

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AMD Xpert 98 - Inc. Xpert 98 8MB PCI User Manual

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Installation

Chapter 3: Setup

Chapter 4: Raidxpert User Interface

Chapter 5: Monitoring and Managing

Chapter 6: Technology Background

Appendix A: Frequently Asked Questions

Appendix B: Partition and Format

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