Page 1 TX4310 ANUAL Version 1.1...
Page 2 You should back up all data before installing any drive controller or storage peripheral. Promise Technology is not responsible for any loss of data resulting from the use, disuse or misuse of this or any other Promise Technology product. Notice...
Page 3 Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected. • Consult Promise Technology, Inc. or an experienced radio/TV technician for help. This device complies with Part 5 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the...
Page 4 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual...
Page 5: Table Of Contents
Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ........1 About This Manual .
Page 6 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Chapter 4: FastBuild™ Utility ......31 FastTrak BIOS .........31 Main Menu .
Page 7 Contents Chapter 5: WebPAM, continued Logical Drives .........68 Logical Drive View .
Page 8 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Chapter 6: Technology, continued Other Logical Drive Features ......103 Stripe Block Size .
Page 9: Chapter 1: Introduction
• Key Features and Benefits (page 3) • Specifications (page 5) Thank you for purchasing one of Promise Technology’s FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller card. About This Manual This User Manual describes how to setup, use and maintain the FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller card.
Page 10: Product Overview
PC users wanting to continually protect valuable data on their PC. Should a drive that is part of a mirrored or parity disk array fail, FastTrak TX4310 uses the mirrored drive or the parity to assume all data handling. When a new replacement drive is later installed, FastTrak TX4310 rebuilds data to the new drive from the mirrored driveor parity to restore fault tolerance.
Page 11: Webpam Software
Chapter 1: Introduction FastTrak TX4310 bootable BIOS supports individual drives larger than 137 GB. With FAT32 and NTFS partitioning, the disk array can be addressed as one large single volume. WebPAM Software The Web-based Promise Array Management (WebPAM) RAID management software offers local management and monitoring of FastTrak disk arrays.
Page 12 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Advanced Hardware Design Features Benefits Supports online disk array Add disk drives to the disk array without expansion affecting data availability. Supports online disk array Change RAID level without affecting data migration availability. Supports Hot Spare drive Uses any free disk to replace a failing disk in a disk array automatically.
Page 13: Specifications
Chapter 1: Introduction Compatibility Features Benefits Complies with Serial ATA II: Provides enclosure and drive monitoring Extensions to Serial ATA 1.0a compatibility. Specification Compliant with PCI Bus Provides 32-bit I/O and, Bus Master, and Serial Master standard. PCI Bus ATA performance for optimal system Master support performance.
Page 14 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual...
Page 15: Chapter 2: Installation
Create Your Logical Drive (page 10)) • WebPAM Installation (page 14) This Chapter is designed to quickly get your FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller card up and running. If you plan to run the WebPAM software, you must also install the driver appropriate to your operating system.
Page 16: Install The Fasttrak Card
CMOS/BIOS Setup for resources or drive types in most applications. Install the FastTrak Card The FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller card fits into any available PCI slot on your PC's motherboard (below): • 32-bit PCI slot (must be PCI 2.2 or 2.3 compliant) •...
Page 17: Install The Disk Drives
The FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller card supports only Serial ATA disk drives. For optimal performance, install disk drives of the same model and capacity. The drives’...
Page 18: Create Your Logical Drive
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Caution Use of removable disk drive enclosures other than Promise Technology’s SuperSwap is not supported and may result in performance loss or other undesired results. Port 1 / Individual LED Aggregate LED Channel 1 Connectors Connectors...
Page 19 Chapter 2: Installation Boot your system. If this is the first time you have booted with the FastTrak card and drives installed, the Promise onboard BIOS will display the following screen (below). Press the Ctrl-F keys to display the FastBuild Utility Main Menu (below). Press 2 on the Main Menu screen to display the Define LD Menu (below).
Page 20 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual The Define LD Menu for the logical drive number you selected will next appear (below). Choose the RAID Level you want. In the Define LD Menu section, press the Spacebar to cycle through logical drive types: •...
Page 21 Chapter 2: Installation 10. Press Esc to exit to the Main Menu. Press Esc again to exit the Utility. 11. Press Y to restart the computer. You have successfully created a new RAID logical drive. Important You must be partition and format your new logical drive before you can use it.
Page 22: Webpam Installation
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual WebPAM Installation Important Install the FastTrak software drives for your operating system before installing WebPAM. See “Chapter 3: Installing Software Drivers” on page 23 for instructions. WebPAM installation software will install two major components: • Utility Server – WebPAM RAID monitoring and Networking software •...
Page 23: Java Runtime Environment
Chapter 2: Installation Java Runtime Environment If you are planning to use other applications that rely on JRE or JDK, always install them first before you install WebPAM. WebPAM will use the existing JRE rather than installing a second one. WebPAM will install JRE 1.4 on your system unless you already have JRE or JDK versions 1.3.0 or 1.4.
Page 24 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual When the Run or Display? dialog box appears, click Run in Terminal. After several moments, the Terminal window closes and the first WebPAM PRO installation dialog box appears. WebPAM Installation for Windows and Linux, continued The first WebPAM installation dialog box appears, as shown below.
Page 25 Chapter 2: Installation When the License Agreement appears (above), click the “I accept the terms of the license agreement” radio button. Then click the Next button. When the Choose Install Folder screen appears (above), make your selection of a folder for the WebPAM applications you are installing. The default folder is C:\Program Files\Promise\WebPAM\.
Page 26 Internet or outside your company firewall. Security options are invisible to authorized users. Promise Technology provides a default certificate for the server as well as for internal data communication. However, in some cases it is always better to install and verify your own certificate for the webserver. And, and if possible, verify certificate by certificate authority like Verisign or Thwate.
Page 27 Chapter 2: Installation When the Select Options screen appears (above), you have the option of choosing Local Monitoring Only. • If you check this option, you can only log into WebPAM from the Host PC. You cannot log into WebPAM over a network. •...
Page 28 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual 10. When the Ready to Install screen appears (above), click the Install button. 11. When the Install Complete screen appears (above), the installation process is finished. Click the Finish button to go to the Promise Registration website.
Page 29 Chapter 2: Installation Important Registration of your FastTrak and WebPAM provides useful information that helps Promise Technologies to offer better products and support. Please take a few minutes to register. Thanks! This completes the WebPAM installation. Go to “Chapter 5: WebPAM” on page 49 for information about using WebPAM.
Page 30 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual...
Page 31: Chapter 3: Install Drivers
Confirm, page 30 Following are driver installation procedures for the Windows operating systems that support the FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller card. The FastTrak drivers for Windows are included on the CD. Drivers and installation instructions for Linux are downloadable from the Promise website at www.promise.com.
Page 32: Make An Installation Floppy Diskette
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Make an Installation Floppy Diskette This procedure requires one write-enabled blank 3.5-inch diskette. Place your blank diskette in the appropriate drive. Insert the Promise CD into your CD-ROM drive. The display screen should open automatically. If the display screen does not open, click on MyComputer > CD Drive D: and double-click on the Launch.exe icon.
Page 33: Windows Server 2003
Chapter 3: Install Drivers Windows Server 2003 New Installation The following details the installation of the FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller drivers while installing Windows Server 2003. Start the installation: • Floppy Install: Boot the computer with the Windows Server 2003 installation diskettes.
Page 34: Existing Installation
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Existing Installation After installing the FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller card and rebooting your system, Windows Server 2003 setup will show a “Found New Hardware” dialog box. Under Windows 2003, “RAID Controller” will be displayed. Insert the FastTrak driver diskette into the A:\ drive.
Page 35: Windows Xp
Chapter 3: Install Drivers Windows XP New Installation The following details the installation of the FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller drivers while installing Windows XP. Start the installation: • Floppy Install: Boot the computer with the Windows XP installation diskettes. •...
Page 36: Existing Installation
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Existing Installation After installing the FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller card and rebooting your system, Windows XP setup will show a “Found New Hardware” dialog box. Insert the FastTrak driver diskette into the A:\ drive. Choose Install the software automatically and press the Enter key.
Page 37: Windows 2000
Chapter 3: Install Drivers Windows 2000 New Installation The following details the installation of the FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller drivers while installing Windows 2000. Start the installation: • Floppy Install: Boot the computer with the Windows 2000 installation diskettes. •...
Page 38: Existing Installation
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Existing Installation After installing the FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller card and rebooting your system, Windows 2000 setup will show a “New Hardware Found” dialog box. Under Windows 2000, “PCI Mass Storage Controller” will be displayed. Choose Add New Hardware Wizard from the list, and then press Enter.
Page 39: Chapter 4: Fastbuild™ Utility
• Create a Logical Drive (page 34) FastTrak BIOS The FastTrak BIOS is a built-in component of the FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller card. When the FastTrak BIOS loads during bootup, it displays pertinent information about the RAID logical drives that it finds. At this point, you can press Ctrl-F to enter the FastBuild Configuration Utility.
Page 40: Main Menu
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual hot spare drive, the logical drive will rebuild automatically. You must identify and replace the failed disk drive. Offline – The logical drive is no longer operational and the FastBuild utility cannot rebuild it. You must identify and replace the failed drive(s). Then you can create a new logical drive and copy your data to it from the last tape backup or other device.
Page 41: View Drive Assignments
Unassigned drives may also be used to create a new logical drive at any time. Extent – An extent is a portion of the disk drive. The FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller card allows you to split the capacity of a disk drives between two logical drives.
Page 42: Create A Logical Drive
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Create a Logical Drive From the Main Menu screen, press 2 to display the Define LD Menu (below). Press the arrow keys to highlight an logical drive number you want to define and press Enter to select it.
Page 43 Chapter 4: FastBuild™ Utility Press the arrow keys to move to the next option. Option choices depend on the RAID Level you selected. • Initialize logical drive, zero the disk drives. RAID 1, 5 or 10 only. • Stripe Block Size, the default 64KB is best for most applications. Press the arrow keys to move to Disk Assignments.
Page 44 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Press Ctrl-Y to allocate a portion of the disk drives to the first logical drive. Enter the desired capacity in MB for the first logical drive and press Enter. The Define LD Menu displays again.
Page 45 Chapter 4: FastBuild™ Utility Press the up and down arrow keys to select an available logical drive number and press Enter. Choose the RAID level and options for the second logical drive. Note that the disk drives in Channels 1, 2 and 3 reflect smaller capacities because a portion of their original capacity belongs to a different logical drive.
Page 46 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual View Drive Assignments, Split Disk Drives After you create two logical drives from the same set of disk drives, press 1 on the Main Menu screen to see the View Drive Assignments screen (below). In this example, observe how each of the disk drives in Channels 1, 2 and 3 are split between two logical drives.
Page 47: Delete Logical Drive
Chapter 4: FastBuild™ Utility Delete Logical Drive Caution Deletion of an existing logical drive will result in the loss of all data saved on the logical drive. Record all logical drive information, including RAID level, disk members, stripe block size and gigabyte boundary, in case you wish to undo a deletion.
Page 48: Controller Configuration
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Press Ctrl-Y to confirm and complete logical drive deletion. The screen returns to the Delete LD Menu. Press Esc to return to the Main Menu. Controller Configuration From the Main Menu screen, press 4 to display the Controller Configuration Options screen (below).
Page 49: System Resources
Chapter 4: FastBuild™ Utility System Resources The information in the System Resources section might be helpful for troubleshooting purposes: • The system IRQ used by the FastTrak card • ATA IO Address • XOR and HDMA IO Address • Sequence Control IO Address •...
Page 50 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual...
Page 51: Chapter 5: Webpam
Chapter 5: WebPAM • Log-in to WebPAM (page 43) • Controller (page 57) • Log-out of WebPAM (page 45) • Physical Drives (page 61) • User Management (page 46) • Logical Drives (page 68) • Host Management (page 54) • Enclosures (page 89) •...
Page 52 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Note that the IP address shown above applies to a log-in at the Host PC. When you log in over a network, you will enter the Host PC’s actual IP address. When the opening screen appears (above): Type admin in the Login ID field.
Page 53: Log-Out Of Webpam
Chapter 5: WebPAM Log-out of WebPAM There are two ways to log out of WebPAM PRO: • Close your browser window • Click Logout on the WebPAM banner (below) After logging out, you must enter your user name and password to log in again. Clicking Logout brings you back to the Login Screen.
Page 54: User Management
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual User Management • Add a User (below) • Change a User’s Password (page 50) • Event Notification (page 47) • Change a User’s Email Address (page 51) • Delete a User (page 50) • Change a User’s Access Rights...
Page 55: Event Notification
Chapter 5: WebPAM 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 Permission to migrate, rebuild and synchronize a logical drive;...
Page 56 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual The image above was shortened to fit into the available space. 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 57 Chapter 5: WebPAM Event Notification Severity Levels Information Events Information Events, continued Redundancy Check Resumed Disk Plugged In Redundancy Check Aborted Disk BSL Update Redundancy Check Progress Disk BSL Cleared Rebuild Started Disk Error Fixed Rebuild Completed Disk Patrol Progress Rebuild Paused Disk Media Patrol Started Rebuild Resumed...
Page 58: Delete A User
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Delete a User In Tree View, click on the User Management icon. Click on the Delete tab. 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.
Page 59: Change A User's Email Address
Chapter 5: WebPAM 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/her password, the Administrator must delete that User and create a new User, as described above. Change a User’s Email Address In WebPAM, each user can change his/her own email address or the Administrator can do it.
Page 60: Change A User's Access Rights
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Type a new email address in the Email field. Click the Submit button. Change a User’s Access Rights In WebPAM, the Administrator can change a user’s access rights. To change a user’s access rights: Log in as the Administrator.
Page 61 Chapter 5: WebPAM 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 Permission to migrate, rebuild and synchronize a logical drive;...
Page 62: Host Management
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Host Management This function provides information only. There are no user settings. To access Host Management: Under Administrative Tools in Tree View, click on the Host Management icon. Under Host List, click on the link to the host you want to see.
Page 63: Utility Configuration
Chapter 5: WebPAM Utility Configuration Use this function to make email settings for WebPAM and also to set the refresh interval for the Event Frame. Under Administrative Tools in Tree View, click on the Utility Configuration icon. Enter the Sender’s address in the Email Sender field. Be sure the sender has an account in your email system.
Page 64: Fasttrak
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual FastTrak The FastTrak–Information tab displays a photograph of the FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller card installed in your system. WebPAM will display the FastTrak controller installed in your system. To display this screen in Management View, click on the FastTrak icon in Tree View.
Page 65: Controller
Chapter 5: WebPAM Controller • Controller Information (below) • Controller Settings (page 58) • Controller Schedule (page 59) • Controller Lock (page 60) The term Controller refers to the device that controls your RAID. To access the controller, click on the Controller icon in Tree View.
Page 66: Controller Settings
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Controller Settings Click on the Settings tab to access controller settings. • Rates – Allocates system resources between the background process (such as Rebuild, Media Patrol, Expansion/Migration, Initialization and Synchronization) and the data read/write activity. A High setting assigns most of the system resources to background processes.
Page 67: Controller Schedule
Chapter 5: WebPAM Choose an interval from the dropdown menu. The range is 0 to 120 seconds. A setting of 0 seconds disables the polling function. Controller Schedule Click on the Schedule tab to access scheduled background processes (such as Rebuild, Media Patrol, Expansion/Migration, Initialization and Synchronization).
Page 68: Controller Lock
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Go to its function tab under the Physical Drive icon or Logical Drive icon. Under Schedule, click the Disable radio button. Controller Lock The Lock tab displays lock status and enables you to lock or unlock a subsystem controller.
Page 69: Physical Drives
Chapter 5: WebPAM Physical Drives • Physical Drive View (below) • Physical Drive Media Patrol (page 64) • Media Patrol Schedule (page 61) • Physical Drive Bad Sector Log • Physical Drive Information (page 66) (page 63) • Locate a Physical Drive (page 67) •...
Page 70 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual assigned to logical drives, spare drives and currently unassigned physical drives that were once part of a logical drive or a spare. Media Patrol does not check new physical drives that have never been configured nor physical drives assigned as JBOD.
Page 71: Physical Drive Information
Chapter 5: WebPAM Physical Drive Information To access information about a physical drive: Click on the Physical Drive View icon in Tree View. Click on the Physical Drive icon. The information tab displays the following information: • Drive Model – The disk drive manufacturer’s model name or number. •...
Page 72: Physical Drive Settings
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual • S.M.A.R.T. Status – SMART, an acronym for Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology, is a feature of the disk drive software. When this feature is supported, the drive will pass SMART information to the FastTrak controller when it polls the physical drives.
Page 73 Chapter 5: WebPAM Patrol encounters a suspect sector, it will attempt to regenerate the data and write to the suspect sector. If the write operation is successful, Media Patrol continues checking other sectors. If the write operation fails, Media Patrol reports the error to your PC's system log and to the physical drive's Bad Sector Log (see page 66).
Page 74: Physical Drive Bad Sector Log
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual 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. To cancel the scheduled Media Patrol operation: Click on the Physical Drive View icon in Tree View.
Page 75: Locate A Physical Drive
Chapter 5: WebPAM Backup your data, replace the physical drive, create a new logical drive and copy your data to it. See “Logical Drive Rebuild” on page 78 and “Logical Drive Critical / Offline” on page 85. See the FastTrak User Manual and SuperSwap User Manual for more information about replacing a physical drive.
Page 76: Logical Drives
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Logical Drives • Logical Drive View (below) • Logical Drive Rebuild (page 78) • Create a Logical Drive (page 68) • Synchronize/Redundancy Check All Logical Drives (page 81) • JBOD (page 72) • Logical Drive Synchronization/ •...
Page 77 Chapter 5: WebPAM Select the radio button beside the RAID level you want for your logical drive. WebPAM displays the RAID levels you can use with the available disk drives. You can also select JBOD on this screen. See “Choosing a RAID Level” on page 101 for information about the advantages and requirements of the available RAID levels and JBOD.
Page 78 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual If you want to create a logical drive with unused capacity, enter the assigned (used) capacity in the Logical Drive Size field. To use the maximum capacity, check the Use Maximum Capacity box. Click on the disk drives to select them.
Page 79 Chapter 5: WebPAM 12. Select an Initialization policy from the dropdown menu. • Fast Initialization – Erases the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the physical drives being added to the logical drive. • Full Initialization – Erases all sectors of the physical drives being added to the logical drive.
Page 80: Jbod
FastTrak TX4310 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 A: Partition and Format” on page 123 for more information. JBOD In WebPAM, JBOD is created, managed and deleted the same as a logical drive.
Page 81: Logical Drive Information
Chapter 5: WebPAM Select the Delete tab. Check the box to the left of the logical drive you want to delete. Click the Submit button. In the Confirmation box, click the OK button. In the Warning box, click the OK button. The selected logical drive is deleted.
Page 82: Logical Drive Settings
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual From this screen, you can click on the links to access the Settings, Drive Mapping, Migration, Rebuild, Synchronization, Initialization and Activation features. The features that apply to this logical drive have blue tabs. Features that do not apply have grayed tabs.
Page 83: Logical Drive Migration And Expansion
Chapter 5: WebPAM Logical Drive Migration and Expansion The Logical Drive–Migration tab enables you to migrate or expand a logical drive. Migration is the process of changing the RAID level of an existing logical drive. Expansion is the process of adding more physical drives to a logical drive while keeping the same RAID level.
Page 84 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual If the Migration or Expansion requires additional physical drives, click on a free physical drive to select it. Available drives have a black frame. Selected drives have a red frame. Click the Start Now button. You can monitor Migration or Expansion progress on the Logical Drive Migration tab.
Page 85 Chapter 5: WebPAM Click on the Migration tab in Management View. Click on a free physical drive to select it. Available drives have a black frame. Selected drives have a red frame. Click on the Enable radio button. From the dropdown menus, select a start time. Start time is based on a 24-hour clock.
Page 86: Logical Drive Rebuild
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Logical Drive Rebuild Rebuild refers to the process of repairing a logical drive by reconstruction the data on one of its physical drives.This feature only applies to logical drives with redundancy, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10.
Page 87 Chapter 5: WebPAM You can monitor Rebuild progress on the Logical Drive Rebuild tab. Click the respective buttons to pause and resume the Rebuild. Click the Abort button to stop the Rebuild. After an abort, click the Restart button to start the Rebuild from the beginning (zero percent). Scheduled To schedule a Rebuild: Click on the Logical Drive View...
Page 88 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Select the physical drive you want to rebuild. Available drives have a black frame. Selected drives have a red frame. Click on the Enable radio button. From the dropdown menus, select a start time. Start time is based on a 24-hour clock.
Page 89: Synchronize/Redundancy Check All Logical Drives
Chapter 5: WebPAM Automatic Rebuild Automatic rebuilding of a logical drive is possible under the following conditions: • The logical drive is a RAID 1 or a 3-drive RAID 5. See “Create a Logical Drive” on page 68. • There is a spare drive present in the RAID system. See “Create a Spare Drive”...
Page 90 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Click on the Synchronization Schedule tab in Management View. In the Policy dropdown menu, select Fix if you want Synchronization or Redundancy Check if you do not want to correct inconsistencies. Click on the Enable radio button.
Page 91: Logical Drive Synchronization/Redundancy Check
Chapter 5: WebPAM Logical Drive Synchronization/Redundancy Check Synchronization refers to an automated process of checking and correcting data and parity. Unlike a Rebuild, Synchronization is a maintenance operation. You can also synchronize all logical drives at the same time, see page 81. Redundancy Check is an automated process of checking data and parity but it only reports and does not correct, any inconsistencies that it finds.
Page 92 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual You can monitor Migration progress on the Logical Drive Migration tab. Click the respective buttons to pause, resume or abort the Synchronization or Redundancy Check. Scheduled To schedule a Synchronization or Redundancy Check: Click on the Logical Drive View icon in Tree View.
Page 93: Logical Drive Initialization
Chapter 5: WebPAM Click on the Synchronization tab in Management View. Click on the Disable radio button. Logical Drive Initialization When logical drive is first created, you can select one of three choices for initialization: • Quick Initialization – Erases the reserve and master boot sectors of the physical drives being added to the logical drive.
Page 94 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual A non-fault tolerant logical drive—RAID 0—goes offline when a disk drive is removed or fails. Since the logical drive is not fault tolerant, the data stored in the disk array is no longer accessible. If one disk drive fails, all of the data on the logical drive is lost. You must replace the failed drive.
Page 95 Chapter 5: WebPAM Identify the Failed Disk Drive Click on the Physical Drive View icon in the WebPAM user interface. Look for a missing physical drive. A drive that used to be present but is suddenly absent is the failed disk drive. No drive on Port 2 Port 1...
Page 96 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Select the physical drive you just replaced or an available Free drive. Click the Start Now button. You can monitor Rebuild progress on the Logical Drive Rebuild tab. Click the respective buttons to pause and resume the Rebuild. When the Rebuild is...
Page 97: Enclosures
Chapter 5: WebPAM Enclosures Enclosure View Enclosure View provides a list of all enclosures currently on the Host PC. To access Enclosure View, click on the Logical Drive View icon in Tree View. From this window, you can click on the links to access information and functions of individual Enclosures.
Page 98 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual The information tab displays the following information: • Enclosure Type – The manufacturer’s model name or number. • Fan Speed – The RPM of the enclosure’s cooling fans. • Temperature – The internal temperature of the enclosure. Each reading reflects a separate measurement.
Page 99: Spare Drives
Chapter 5: WebPAM Spare Drives 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. You can also set the Controller to rebuild a logical drive from a Free disk drive. See “Controller Settings”...
Page 100 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual From the Logical Drive dropdown menu, select • Global Spare – This Spare Drive can be used by any qualified Logical Drive. • Logical Drive – The name of the logical drive to which this Spare Drive will be assigned or dedicated.
Page 101: Delete A Spare Drive
Chapter 5: WebPAM Delete a Spare Drive To delete a spare drive: Click on the Logical Drive View icon. Select the Delete tab. Check the box to the left of the spare drive you want to delete. Click the Delete button. In the Confirmation box, click the OK button.
Page 102 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual...
Page 103: Chapter 6: Technology
• Other Logical Drive Features (page 103) About FastTrak FastTrak TX4310 RAID controller card features concurrent data channel operation and onboard BIOS. The channels on the FastTrak card support concurrent operation that allows for overlapped I/O under multi-tasking operating systems and sharing the workload between multiple drives.
Page 104: Raid 0 - Stripe
Figure 1. RAID 0 Stripe interleaves data across multiple drives For example, one 100GB and three 120GB drives will form a 400GB (4 x 100GB) logical drive instead of 460 GB. RAID 0 logical drives on the FastTrak TX4310 consist of one or more disk drives.
Page 105: Raid 1 - Mirror
RAID 1 logical drives on the FastTrak TX4310 consist of two disk drives. When two drives do not offer sufficient data capacity, consider a RAID 10 logical...
Page 106: Raid 5 - Block Striping With Distributed Parity
GB disk drives will have a capacity of 300 GB. A logical drive with two 120 GB disk drives and one 100 GB disk drive will have a capacity of 200 GB. RAID 5 logical drives on the FastTrak TX4310 consist of 3 or 4 disk drives.
Page 107: Raid 10 - Mirror / Stripe
Double fault tolerance may allow your logical drive to continue to operate depending on which two disk drives fail. RAID 10 logical drives on the FastTrak TX4310 consist of 4 disk drives.
Page 108 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual About Dual Data Redundancy One unique (though rarely occurring) feature of RAID 10 is dual fault tolerance. In some cases, two drives can fail simultaneously and still maintain the integrity of data. There are six combinations in which two drives can fail. The FastTrak TX4310 protects your data array in four of those cases.
Page 109: Jbod - Single Drive
Chapter 6: Technology JBOD – Single Drive An alternative to RAID, JBOD capacity is equal to the size of the disk drive itself. JBOD appears in the User Interface as one individual drive. There are no performance or fault-tolerance features. When one disk fails, all data on that disk is lost.
Page 110: Raid 1
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual RAID 1 Advantages Disadvantages Simplest RAID storage subsystem Very high disk overhead - uses only design 50% of total capacity Can increase read performance by processing data requests in parallel since the same data resides on two...
Page 111: Jbod
Applications were low-cost operation critical Other Logical Drive Features Stripe Block Size Stripe Block size is set to 16 KB for the FastTrak TX4310 RAID controller card. Initialization Fast Initialization erases the Master Boot Record (MBR) in all of the selected disk drives.
Page 112: Cache Settings
Logical Drive Expansion To expand a logical drive is to increase the number of disk drives. The FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller card supports logical drive expansion. However, you must use the WebPAM software to access this function. See “Logical Drive Migration and Expansion” on page 75.
Page 113: Raid Level Migration
3 or 4 2, 3 or 4 RAID Level Migration To migrate a logical drive is to change its RAID level. The FastTrak TX4310 RAID controller card supports RAID Level Migration. You must use the WebPAM software to access this function.
Page 114 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Important • The Target logical drive may require more disk drives than the Source logical drive • If the Target logical drive requires an EVEN number of disk drives but the Source logical drive has an ODD number, ADD a disk drive as part of the migration process •...
Page 115 Chapter 6: Technology Maximum LD Current LD Size Sector Size Expansion Size 8 to 16 TB 16 TB 4096 bytes 4 to 8 TB 8 TB 2048 bytes 2 to 4 TB 4 TB 1024 bytes 0 to 2 TB 2 TB 512 bytes You can direct WebPAM to expand a logical drive beyond the maximum...
Page 116 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual...
Page 117: Chapter 7: Support
Pre-Installation (Speed, Device Types, Capacity, Cabling) What kind of hard drives can I use for a FastTrak TX4310 disk array? You can use any Serial ATA disk drive(s) to create disk arrays on the FastTrak Serial ATA RAID Controller card. Use matching drives for multiple- disk arrays to maximize capacity usage as well as performance.
Page 118: Motherboard Issues
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual you to control the assignment of these resources, you may be able to remedy the problem by: • Changing the IRQ assignments to the PCI slots in the motherboard BIOS during boot up. • Reset the configuration data in your CMOS. This is usually an option in the PnP section of your CMOS.
Page 119: Drive Issues
FastTrak controllers read the disk arrays the same way so you can move them from one controller to another. Can I take a drive used in a FastTrak TX4310 disk array and access it directly with a different controller, such as the one integrated on the...
Page 120 BIOS and/or OS drivers, not by your system BIOS. How do I partition/format my FastTrak TX4310 disk array? The FastTrak TX4310 represents the disk array as a single disk drive to your system. Therefore, anything that you can do to a single disk drive you can do to a FastTrak disk array.
Page 121: Operating System-Related Issues
Chapter 7: Support The disk array constantly goes critical or offline during reboot This condition may occur when the Master Boot Record (MBR) of one of the drives has become corrupt or bad. Removing (erasing) the MBR will remedy any issue related directly to a bad MBR. Warning Before removing the MBR of the drive(s), backup any existing data.
Page 122: Installation Issues
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual controller that loads the original Master Boot Record (MBR) and then has a problem translating it or the Operating System boot record. Promise recommends a clean install of the Operating System. This action restores the MBR and OS boot record. This action requires partitioning and formatting the drive.
Page 123: Post-Installation
Chapter 7: Support How can I change the boot sequence between a PCI SCSI card and the FastTrak disk array? Since all PCI devices are PnP, it is difficult to determine which device is addressed first. Some newer motherboard BIOSes have advanced options that identify devices and allow you to select which device will be assigned resources first.
Page 124: Contact Technical Support
FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Contact Technical Support Promise Technical Support provides several support options for Promise users to access information and updates. We encourage you to use one of our electronic services, which provide product information updates for the most efficient service and support.
Page 125 +49 (0) 2 31 56 76 48 - 29 Attn: Technical Support Phone Technical Support +49 (0) 2 31 56 76 48 - 10 If you wish to write us for Promise Technology Germany support: Europaplatz 9 44269 Dortmund, Germany Italy...
Page 126 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual China E-mail Support e-Support On-Line Fax Support +86-10-8857-8015 Attn: Technical Support Phone Support +86-10-8857-8085/8095 If you wish to write us for Promise Technology China support: Room 1205, Tower C Webok Time Center, No.17 South Zhong Guan Cun Street...
Page 127: Limited Warranty
Chapter 7: Support Limited Warranty Promise Technology, Inc. (“Promise”) warrants that for three (3) years from the time of the delivery of the product to the original end user: the product will conform to Promise’s specifications; the product will be free from defects in material and workmanship under normal use and service.
Page 128 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual No other document, statement or representation may be relied on to vary the terms of this limited warranty. Promise’s sole responsibility with respect to any product is to do one of the following: replace the product with a conforming unit of the same or superior product;...
Page 129: Return Product For Repair
Return ONLY the specific product covered by the warranty (do not ship cables, manuals, diskettes, etc.), with a copy of your proof of purchase to: USA and Canada: Promise Technology, Inc. Customer Service Dept. Attn.: RMA # ______ 47654 Kato Road...
Page 130 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual You are responsible for the cost of insurance and shipment of the product to Promise. Note that damage incurred due to improper transport or packaging is not covered under the Limited Warranty. When repairing returned product(s), Promise may replace defective parts with new or reconditioned parts, or replace the entire unit with a new or reconditioned unit.
Page 131: Appendix A: Partition And Format
Appendix A: Partition and Format In order for your operating system to recognize and work with the disk drives attached to your FastTrak TX4310 RAID controller card, 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 132 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Click the Next button to start the Wizard. In the following windows, select Disk 1 to Initialize. Do not select any disks to Convert. Click the Finish button to Initialize the disk array. Right-click on the Unallocated portion of Disk 1 and select New Partition...
Page 133 Appendix A: Partition and Format Click the Next button to start the wizard. In the following windows, do the following actions. Click Next to move to the next window. • Select Primary Partition • Specify the maximum available partition size in MB •...
Page 134 FastTrak TX4310 User Manual When formatting is complete, your disk array will appear as a hard drive in the Disk Management window (above) and the My Computer window (below).

Promise Technology FastTrak TX4310 User Manual

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Installation

Chapter 3: Install Drivers

Chapter 4: Fastbuild™ Utility

Chapter 5: Webpam

Chapter 6: Technology

Chapter 7: Support

Appendix A: Partition and Format

Quick Links

Need help?

Questions and answers

Related Manuals for Promise Technology FastTrak TX4310

Summary of Contents for Promise Technology FastTrak TX4310

Table of Contents