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ICP ICPCON User Manual

ICP ICPCON User Manual

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1
User's Manual
ICP RAID Console
and
ICP RAID Navigator
st
1
Edition
© Copyright 1998-2000
ICP vortex Computersysteme GmbH
Konrad-Zuse-Str. 9
74172 Neckarsulm - Germany
ICP vortex Corporation
4001 E. Broadway / B-20
Phoenix, AZ 85040, USA
All Rights and Changes Reserved.
01

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Summary of Contents for ICP ICPCON

  • Page 1 User's Manual ICP RAID Console ICP RAID Navigator Edition © Copyright 1998-2000 ICP vortex Computersysteme GmbH Konrad-Zuse-Str. 9 74172 Neckarsulm - Germany ICP vortex Corporation 4001 E. Broadway / B-20 Phoenix, AZ 85040, USA All Rights and Changes Reserved.
  • Page 3 In no event will ICP vortex be liable to the purchaser, or to any user of the ICP vortex product, for any data loss, data corruption, damages, expenses, lost reve-...
  • Page 4 For Europe: +49-(0)7132-9620-900 For the USA: 602-414-0414 or send us a FAX: For Europe: +49-(0)7132-9620-400 For the USA: 602-414-0444 or send us an E-Mail: For Europe: support@vortex.de For the USA: support@icp-vortex.com or check our Website: http://www.icp-vortex.com...

  • Page 5: Important Note

    Important Note Using modern RAID Systems significantly increases data security and availability. Under no circumstances does it relieve you from a careful and daily backup on tape or a similar backup media. This is the only method to protect your valuable data against total loss (e.g., through fire or theft), accidental deletion, or any other destroying impacts.
  • Page 6 If necessary, consult the dealer or an experienced radio/T.V. technician for additional suggestions. The use of a non-shielded interface cable with the referenced device is prohibited. Changes or modifications not expressly approved by ICP vortex Computersysteme GmbH could void the authority to operate the equipment.

  • Page 7: Table Of Contents

    I.1.1 Loading the ICPCON Program Under NetWare..................12 I.1.2 Loading the ICPCON Program Under Solaris 7 ..................13 I.1.3 Loading the ICPCON Program Under Windows NT / 2000..............13 I.1.4 Loading the ICPCON Program Under Windows 95/98................13 I.1.5 Loading ICPCON Under SCO UNIX ......................13 I.1.6 Loading ICPCON Under LINUX......................14...
  • Page 8 I.4.7.7 Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Host Drives, Overwrite Master Boot Code ........42 I.4.7.8 Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Host Drives, Drive Type (Cluster)..........42 II. ICP RAID Navigator............................44 II.1 Introduction ............................44 II.2 The ICP RAID Navigator "Controls"......................45 II.2.1 The Toolbar.............................45 II.2.2 The Status Bar ..........................45 II.2.3 "Window" Menu Commands ......................45 II.2.4 "Help"...
  • Page 9 II.5.15 Remove a RAID 1 Component (Remove a Mirror Drive)..............68 II.5.16 Replace a Logical Drive ........................68 II.5.17 The Different States of an Array Drive ....................68 II.6 The Statistics Window ..........................71 II.7 The Controller Events Window .........................72 II.8 ICP RAID Navigator Help ........................73 II.9 ICP Service and ICP Mail ........................74...
  • Page 11 Chapter I ICP RAID Console ICP RAID Console ICP RAID Console ICP RAID Console ICPCON ICPCON ICPCON ICPCON...

  • Page 12: The Program Icpcon

    (Information on the ICP RAID Navigator can be found in a separate chapter of this User's Manual.). In addition to that ICPCON is also part of the ICP Controller’s Flash-RAM and can be loaded at system boot level by pressing <CTRL><G>.

  • Page 13: Loading The Icpcon Program Under Solaris 7

    ICPCON ENTER I.1.5 Loading ICPCON Under SCO UNIX In order to be able to use the ICPCON program under SCO UNIX (2.x, 4.x and 5.x), it be- comes necessary to substitute the standard terminal entry by a new one: cd /usr/lib/terminfo ENTER tic gdt386.src ENTER...

  • Page 14: Loading Icpcon Under Linux

    ICPCON: './icpcon' In order to be able to compile ICPCON you need the C-compiler and the Kernel sources on your system. The link /usr/src/linux has to point to the Kernel sources which correspond with the currently booted Kernel of your system. This is important for "signature.c" to use the right magic for the communication with the driver.

  • Page 15: Select Interface

    I.2.1 Select Interface „Interface“ represents the method of how ICPCON connects with the ICP Controller. In this example „Win. 9x/NT/2k“ means that this ICPCON is the Windows version and is loaded on a Windows system. If you press ENTER, ICPCON scans this local system for ICP Controllers. Instead of „Win.

  • Page 16: Select Controller

    SPX/IPX protocol). After that you may enter your user name and password. I.2.2 Select Controller After this login procedure ICPCON delivers a list of ICP RAID Controllers which are installed in this server (in this example one GDT7563RN). This list contains information on the con- troller name, the PCI Bus system (0=primary, 1=secondary, etc.) and separated with a slash...

  • Page 17: The Menu Monitor

    After selecting one of the Drives Statistics ICPCON displays a list of all Drives of this level (for this example the Physical Drives, i.e., level 1). In addition to the performance report on the Drives, you are given additional information on each device.

  • Page 18: Menu Monitor: View Events

    Off). The figures for „Cache Hits“ show the how often requests can be serviced out of the cache, i.e., without triggering an immediate Disk IO. By setting the „Sample Rate”, you can choose the interval at which the ICP Controller deliv- ers new measurements. According to the operating system used, the sampling rate can be set to a maximum of 60 seconds.

  • Page 19: Menu Monitor: Save Information

    (3) The Grown Defects counter shows the number of media defects which have occurred since the first time the device was operated with an ICP Controller. A specific hard disk is in a good condition when it has 0 grown defects. When this counter increases, there is defi- nitely something wrong with the device.

  • Page 20: The Menu Express/Advanced Setup

    At the end of this protocol is a chronological listing of boot messages and other events stored in the Flash-RAM of the ICP Controller. If the buffer is full, the oldest events are de- leted first. In the menu „Configure Controller“ the logging buffer can be cleared with „Clear Log Buffer“.
  • Page 21 The disk array is in this state after its first configuration and until you quit ICPCON. If an error should occur while the array is in the build state, the array returns to the idle state (exception: if during build mode the dedicated drive of RAID 4 fails, the mode changes to fail).
  • Page 22 Pressing F4 delivers level by level detailed information on a Host Drive and its components. This may assist to get an easy overview of a specific Host Drive. After pressing F5 the ICP Controller switches the LEDs (if available) of the hard disks belonging to that Host Drive on and off.
  • Page 23 Finish the selection by pressing ENTER. ICPCON displays a security message pointing out that all existing data on the selected hard disks will be destroyed after confirming with Yes. After pressing “Y” the user may limit the capacity per hard disk which will be used for the Host Drive.

  • Page 24: Menu Express Setup: Repair Array Drives

    Drives can be merged which belong to the same Array Drive or Logical Drive. Since the new Host Drives has a larger capacity ICPCON has to write a new header information on the new Host Drives. All data will be lost.
  • Page 25 ID an plugged in again. ICPCON detects the new drive and expects a clearance to build this drive as a replacement into the Array Drive. After that the state of the Array Drive changes into „REBUILD“, i.e. the missing data is re-...

  • Page 26: Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Controller

    The „ERROR“ state of an Array Drive is very critical. There are several procedures in the ICP Controller’s firmware to handle such cases an bring back the Array Drive in operation with- out loosing data. The most suitable procedure for the specific case, should be elaborated with your system administrator or our technical support.

  • Page 27: Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Controller, Firmware Update

    I.4.3.2 Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Controller, Firmware Update The firmware, the BIOS and the ICPCON program of the ICP Controller are stored in a Flash- RAM which is part of the ICP Controller hardware. In contrast to EPROMs, Flash-RAMs can be re-programmed many times and without the complicated UV-light erasing procedure.
  • Page 28 In this example one subsystem is already defined. Naturally, the hard disks with their disk shuttles could be also directly mounted in the server enclosure. The term “Enclosure” in these cases is more a definition set, which includes all hard disks which should be auto hot pluggable.

  • Page 29: Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Controller, Advanced Settings

    The ICP Controller records certain events in a logging buffer which is part of the Flash-RAM. If it is planned to use the ICP Controller in a completely new system, it is sensible to clear all events in this buffer. The Clear Log Buffer function detects possible entries and deletes them.
  • Page 30 This helps to physically identify a specific drive in an array of many drives. If you press F8 you can repair the configuration data of a physical drive. If your ICP Con- troller should ever display during his boot sequence a message like “Detected Primary Con- figuration Data error, using Secondary“...

  • Page 31: Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Phys. Devs., Scsi Parameter /Initialize

    "Enabled" or "On". If the hard disk you have selected is an Ultra 160 device and the ICP Controller has Ultra 160 SCSI channels, F4 “Advanced Configuration“, allows you to configure the so-called “Domain Validation“ (a cyclical check of the correct data transfer at a given rate).

  • Page 32: Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Phys. Devs., Format Disk

    If you leave this configuration form with <ESC> and you have made changes, ICPCON dis- plays a security request. The warning of the destruction of all data implies different evalua- tions, depending on the device's current state and the options you selected: First Initialization of the Device.

  • Page 33: Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Phys. Devs., Lock/Unlock Disk

    I.4.4.6 Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Phys. Devs., Lock/Unlock Disk This option is only high-lighted when you have selected a removable hard disk (e.g., Sy- quest, Iomega). Before you can initialize a cartridge you have to lock it. Before removing it you have to unlock it.
  • Page 34 Disk Array Controller SCSI Channel Temperature Hot Plug Control Door Power Lock Supply Power Supply Status LEDs...

  • Page 35: Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Logical Drives

    To configure and setup an new Logical Drive, select Create new Logical Drive. ICPCON dis- plays a list of free Physical Drives (which are not already part of a Logical drive). If you select one Physical Drive with SPACE and press ENTER, ICPCON suggests to create a SINGLE Drive out of this hard disk.

  • Page 36: Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Array Drives

    If you confirm with <Y>, ICPCON allows you to limit the size of the Logical Drive. This be- comes interesting when you configure later on an Array Drive with several identical Logical Drives and you want to make sure that you get appropriate spare hard disks in the future. It would be bad luck if the new hard disk would have 17508MB, only.

  • Page 37: Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Array Drives, Change Drive Name

    This command allows you to change the name of an Array Drive. The name serves to iden- tify an Array Drive in ICPCON or ICP RAID Navigator. This can be very helpful for configura- tions where several Host Drives of various types are operated by a single controller.

  • Page 38: Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Array Drives, Remove Array Drive

    I.4.6.6 Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Array Drives, Remove Array Drive This command allows you to remove an existing Array Drive. All the data of the Array Drive will be lost ! Before you confirm the security request with <Y>, you should be sure about this choice.

  • Page 39: Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Array Drives, Remove Hot Fix Drive

    Hot Fix drive, because up to that moment, the system is operating without redundancy. Notes: In some literature, Hot Fix drives are also called Hot-Spare drives. You can add or remove Hot Fix drives also with the ICP RAID Navigator. I.4.6.8 Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Array Drives, Remove Hot Fix Drive This option allows you to remove a Hot Fix Drive from an existing Array Drive.

  • Page 40: Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Array Drives, Create New Array Drive

    I.4.6.13 Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Array Drives, Create new Array Drive After pressing ENTER, ICPCON lists all free Logical Drives, which are free (not yet part of Array / Host Drives). The selection bar can be moved with the cursor up/down keys and the Logical Drives can be selected/deselected with the SPACE bar.

  • Page 41: Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Host Drives

    (because you have to get a replacement hard disk, or because you did not realize the failure immediately since you didn't hear the ICP Controller's alarm signal, or because nobody checked the file server) increases the risk of data loss which will occur if a second hard disk should fail.

  • Page 42: Menu Advanced Setup: Configure Host Drives, Change Drive Name

    (both can be the same), cannot be changed. If you wish to change the position of these drives, you have to boot the operating system and ICPCON from a floppy disk or use the ICPCON loadable from the Flash-RAM of the controller. To change the position of a Host Drive in the Host Drive list, highlight the Host Drive and confirm with ENTER.
  • Page 43 Chapter II ICP RAID Navigator ICP RAID Navigator ICP RAID Navigator ICP RAID Navigator...

  • Page 44: Icp Raid Navigator

    II. ICP RAID Navigator II.1 Introduction The ICP RAID Navigator (ICPRNAV) is a powerful tool for setting up, monitoring and main- taining mass storage subsystems based on ICP Controllers. Different to ICP RAID Console the ICP RAID Navigator is a pure GUI-style application, designed for the operation under Windows 95, 98, NT and Windows 2000.

  • Page 45: Ii.2 The Icp Raid Navigator "Controls

    The status bar can be displayed or hidden by selecting Status Bar from the View menu. II.2.3 "Window" Menu Commands These commands allow you to arrange the windows in the ICP RAID Navigator application window or to activate an open window.

  • Page 46: Ii.2.4 "Help" Menu Commands

    II.2.4 "Help" Menu Commands The Help menu offers the following commands to provide you with online help: II.2.5 "File" Menu Commands Here you can end your ICP RAID Navigator session. Shortcuts: Press Alt+F4 or click to close the window. II.2.6 "View" Menu Commands Use the items in this menu to open or close the windows of the main components of the ICP RAID Navigator or change the appearance of the main window.

  • Page 47: Ii.2.7 The "Chart" Menu

    Configuration window. Here you can set the refresh rate for the Physical or the Logical Configuration windows. This is the rate, which is used by the ICP RAID Navigator to update the contents of the physical and logical configura- tion windows.

  • Page 48: Ii.3 Select Controller

    II.4 Physical Configuration Window This window shows the physical configuration of the SCSI or Fibre Channel busses of the selected ICP Controller and the devices connected with these busses. The complete configuration is shown as a tree starting from the left with the ICP Controller.

  • Page 49: Ii.4.1 Controllers

    For optimum performance the write cache should be always On. BIOS The BIOS of the ICP Controller is needed to boot the computer and the operating system from a Host Drive. BIOS Warn- Enables or disables the display of non-critical boot messages of ing Level the ICP Controller during the system boot phase.
  • Page 50 Update the ICP Controller Firmware The firmware, the BIOS and ICPCON of the ICP Controller are stored in a Flash-RAM which is part of the ICP Controller hardware. In contrast to EPROMs, Flash-RAMs can be re- programmed many times and without the complicated UV-light erasing procedure.

  • Page 51: Ii.4.2 I/O Processors

    If the state of an Array Drive changes into error (more than one drive has failed) please con- tact our hotline for further assistance. If no drive failed, you may also check the Controller Events to find out if the CPU of the ICP Controller is overheated.

  • Page 52: Ii.4.3 Direct Access Devices

    Channel Settings Termination The termination for this channel of the ICP Controller can be set to three different states: ON: The termination of the lower (low byte) and upper data lines (high byte) is enabled or disabled depending on the occupied SCSI connectors of this channel.
  • Page 53 Warning: By changing these parameters on a new hard disk or a hard disk, which has been connected with a non ICP Controller, this hard disk will be initialized and all data on this hard disk will be lost.
  • Page 54 (LVD SCSI (low voltage differential) only) Note: The maximum synchronous data transfer rate between a SCSI device and the ICP Controller can be limited. This limitation may become necessary if a particular SCSI cabling does not allow the maximum rate the controller and the drive could achieve. The adjust- ment of the synchronous transfer rate can be done in the SCSI parameters / Initialize menu.
  • Page 55 This function sends a format unit command to the Physical Drive. Everything else is done by the drive itself. The ICP Con- troller stands by to receive a good status back from the drive when it has successfully fin- ished the low level format, thus no progress information can be shown.

  • Page 56: Ii.4.4 Non Direct Access Devices (Raw Devices)

    II.4.4 Non direct access devices (raw devices) Non direct access devices cannot become components of Logical Drives, Array Drives or Host Drives. These devices are either controlled by a software driver (e.g. an ASPI module), the operating system or an application. Non direct access devices cannot be initialized or changed in their SCSI parameters with this program.

  • Page 57: Ii.5 Logical Configuration Window

    Only one server can own a Host Drive at the same time, so a Host Drive configured for clus- tering may either be controlled by the selected ICP Controller (i.e., local mounted) or by a different ICP Controller (i.e., remote mounted).
  • Page 58 Only one server can own a Host Drive at the same time, so a Host Drive configured for clus- tering may either be controlled by the selected ICP Controller (i.e., local mounted) or by a different ICP Controller (i.e., remote mounted).
  • Page 59 RAID 1 Build Ready Fail RAID 0 Logical Drives Logical Drives consist of one or more Physical Drives. Icon Description double click right click opens... opens... Single Disk Logical Drive Information Hot Fix Drive Failed / missing Hot Fix or Single Disk Chaining Drive Physical Drives...

  • Page 60: Ii.5.1 The Host Drive Information Window

    The Host Drive number of the Host Drive. The Host Drives are re- ported to the system one after the other, beginning with the lowest Drive Number. If the corresponding ICP Controller is the first con- troller in the system, the system will boot from the Host Drive with the lowest number.
  • Page 61 Type This is the RAID level of the Array Drive. It can be RAID 0 (data striping, no redundancy), RAID1 (mirroring), RAID 4 (striping with parity drive), RAID 5 (striping with striped parity) or RAID 10 (com- bination of RAID 1 and RAID 0). Status The status of an array can be ready (operational), fail (one drive missing, still operational but not redundant), error (more than one...

  • Page 62: Ii.5.3 The Logical Drive Information Window

    II.5.3 The Logical Drive Information Window Double click on the Logical Drive icon. This window shows information on a Logical Drive. A Logical Drive can be either a single disk, or a chaining group of disks (concatenation), or a stripe set of several disks. Drive No The number of the Logical Drive.

  • Page 63: Ii.5.4 Change The Name Of A Drive

    II.5.4 Change the name of a Drive Click the right mouse button on the drive icon. This menu option opens a dialog where you can enter a new name for the selected drive (up to 7 characters). II.5.5 Remove a Host Drive Click the right mouse button on the Host Drive icon.

  • Page 64: Ii.5.7 Parity Verify

    (gray). While you are selecting Physical Drives for the new Host Drive, more and more pos- sibilities become selectable. You can select a single Physical Drive by clicking on it. If you want to select more than one Physical Drive, simply draw a frame around the Physical Drives, or press the <ctrl> key and then click on all the Physical Drives you want to combine to a new array.

  • Page 65: Ii.5.9 Progress Information

    an Array Drive. The user data on the drives is read, parity information is calculated from this user data and the parity information is written anew. While the parity recalculate is in progress the array is in the build state. During this time the Array Drive is not redundant.

  • Page 66: Ii.5.11 Add A Hot Fix Drive

    If you want to add additional drives to the Array Drive, select them from the box on the left side of the window. It is possible to add more than one drive at the same time. If no Physical Drives are offered, you have to use the Hot Plug: Add Disk function first, to add new drives.

  • Page 67: Ii.5.12 Remove A Hot Fix Drive

    ICP Controller's alarm signal, or because nobody checked the file server) increases the risk of data loss which will occur if a second drive should fail. There- fore, new redundancy should be created as soon as possible and in an entirely automated manner.

  • Page 68: Ii.5.15 Remove A Raid 1 Component (Remove A Mirror Drive)

    Array Drive is without redundancy. The replacement Logical Drive has to have at least the same capacity as the failed one. The replacement is carried out with ICPCON or the ICP RAID Navigator. Before the Logical Drive can be removed, you have to select a new Logical Drive from the box with available Physical Drives which is shown after this option is selected.
  • Page 69 Therefore, under these circumstances the fail state is only temporary and will be eliminated by the controller itself. Whenever an Array Drive enters a fail state, the ICP Controller’s audible alarm is turned on. You can silence the audible alarm in the physical configuration window.
  • Page 70 I/O channel as the defective one. The Array Drive's state is error and normally all data would be lost. The ICP Controllers include some functions, which allow the patch of this Array Drive from the error state into the fail sate. Before the actual patch, the defective drive has to be physically removed from the Array Drive.

  • Page 71: Ii.6 The Statistics Window

    II.6 The Statistics Window The statistics window can display the throughput of Physical, Logical and Host Drives. The vertical axis show the throughput, the horizontal axis the time. You can add drives by drag and drop them from the physical and logical configuration windows into the statistics win- dow.

  • Page 72: Ii.7 The Controller Events Window

    The Load button loads an older event log and displays it. The last two buttons delete the log file and clear the event buffer on the ICP Controller.

  • Page 73: Ii.8 Icp Raid Navigator Help

    II.8 ICP RAID Navigator Help The ICP RAID Navigator includes an online help function. You can either choose the Help menu or the pointer with the question mark to obtain online help on a specific icon or func- tion. There is also an index which allows you to search for certain keywords and/or topics.

  • Page 74: Ii.9 Icp Service And Icp Mail

    Converts ICP messages into standard mails (for Windows 9x/NT, MAPI format) It is recommended to install the ICP Service / ICP CTRLSRV and the ICP Mail tool on each server which is equipped with an ICP Controller. Thus, remote access to ICP Controllers in a network can be easily managed from one or several authorized users.
  • Page 75 In the IOCTLSrv property sheet you can add / remove users which have remote access to the ICP Controller with the ICP RAID Navigator. Passwords are encrypted.
  • Page 76 The ICP Mail tool gathers messages from the ICP Service, generates standard mail mes- sages and sends them to pre-defined workstations. After loading ICPMAIL.EXE and selecting "Settings", you can configure the mailing tool. If you select "Local System" all messages are displayed on the server itself.
  • Page 77 Following is a typical message generated by ICP Mail. The "Mail" option allows the interfacing to a standard mailing system (like Microsoft Out- look or Exchange).

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