Promise Technology SX4300 manual

F AST T RAK SX4300, SX8300 U SER M ANUAL Ve r s i o n 1 . 1[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X 8300 User Manual ii Copyright © 2006 Promise T echnolo gy , Inc. All Right s Res erved. Copyri ght by Prom ise T echnology , Inc. (Promi se T echnology ). No p art of this manual may be reproduc ed or t ransmitte d in an y form with out the express ed, written permiss ion of Prom ise T echnolog y . T rademark s Promise , and t[...]

Notices iii Radio Frequency Inte rfere n ce S t atem ent This equ ipmen t has be en teste d and fou nd to compl y with the limit s fo r a Class B digit al devic e, purs uant t o Par t 15 of t he FC C Rule s. The se lim it s are d esi gned t o provi de reas onable protec ti on agai nst har mful int erfere nce in a r es identi al inst allation. This [...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X 8300 User Manual iv[...]

v Content s Chapter 1: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 About Th is Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Product Ove rview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 XOR Acce leration . . . . . . . . . . . . [...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual vi Chapter 4: Install ing Sof tware D rivers, co ntinu ed Windows 2000 Install D river Durin g New OS I nstallation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1 Install D river in an Exis ting Sys tem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1 Confirm Ins tallation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [...]

1 Chapter 1: Introductio n • About This Man ual, belo w • Product O verview (p age 2) • Web P AM Mana gement Sof tware (p age 3) Thank y ou for purc hasin g one of Pro mise T echnology ’s F astT rak SX4300 or SX8300 R AID controll ers. About This Manu al This U ser Manu al desc ribes ho w to s etu p, use and main tain t he F a stTrak RA ID [...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 2 Product Over view FastT rak SX4300 and SX8300 a re Serial A T A RAID co ntrollers. When u sed with Web P AM sof tware, t he FastT rak RAID Control lers of fer a f eature-ri ch, secure and vers atile en terprise -wide A T A RAID solution . In additi on, the Fa stT ra k SX Series s upport s RAID e xpans ion. T [...]

Chapter 1: Introduction 3 WebP AM Management Software he W eb-Bas ed Promi se Array Managem ent (W ebP AM) sof tware o ffe rs local and remote m anage ment and monit oring o f all Fast T rak logical drives th at exi st anywh ere on a n etwork. Bro wser-based GUI pro vides em ail noti fication o f all major e vents /alarms , memory c ache man ageme [...]

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5 Chapter 2: Inst allation • Pac kag e l ists, bel ow • Ins talli ng t he F ast Trak Card (page 6) • Ins talli ng t he Di sk D riv es (page 7) • Create a Logica l Drive (pag e 9) SX4300 When yo u rece ive th e FastT rak SX4300 card , the p ackag e should cont ain the items l isted below: • FastT rak SX4300 RAI D Controll er Card • Quick[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 6 Installi ng the FastTrak Card The FastT rak RAID Cont rol ler card fit s into any av ail abl e 3.3 -vo lt PC I-X s lot . Y ou cannot plug th e FastT rak card into a 5-vo lt PCI sl ot. 1. Remove th e cov er of your syst em. 2. R emove the inside sl ot cover of an av ailabl e PCI-X slot on the moth erboard . Wa[...]

Chapter 2: Installation 7 3. In st all the Fas tT rak c ard into th e open slot (abo ve). 4. Fa sten t he Fast T rak c ard bracke t to the system case (ab ove). 5. Attach you r sys tem c ase’s 2- o r 4-p in LE D cab le t o th e LED conn ect or on t he FastT rak card (see the Figures b elow). Installi ng the Disk Drives The Fas tT rak SX-Seri es R[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 8 2. Att ach one Serial A T A dat a cable t o each di sk dri ve. Then a tta ch the oth er ends of the ca bles to th e connec tors on th e FastT rak card (a bove). Cau tio n Use of re movable disk dri ve enclo sures other than Promise T echnolo gy’s SuperSwa p is not s upported a nd ma y result i n performanc [...]

Chapter 2: Installation 9 3. Att ach th e Y -cable p ower splitt ers to eac h of the di sk drive s. Create a Logical Drive Y ou will n ow use the onboard FastBuild BIOS u tility to c reate a lo gical dri ve with the att ache d drives. Even if y ou pla n to use th e Web P AM sof tware to m anage your logic al driv e, you can sti ll cre ate yo ur fir[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 10 3. Pre ss 2 on t he Main M enu scre en to d isplay t he Defin e LD Me nu (below ). 4. Pre ss the a rrow key s to hi ghligh t an logi cal d rive num ber you want to define and pr ess Enter to selec t it. The De fine LD Menu f or the logi cal d rive nu mber you selec ted wil l next appear (b elow). 5. C hoose [...]

Chapter 2: Installation 11 6. Pre ss the arr ow keys to move to the next opti on. Optio n choice s dep end on the RAID Level you sele cted. • Initiali ze logic al dri ve, zero t he disk d rives. R AID 1, 5, or 10 o nly . • S tripe Block Size , the d efault 64KB i s best fo r most ap plication s. • Gigaby te Boundar y , allows use of slightl y[...]

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13 Chapter 3: FastBuild™ U tility FastT r ak BIOS This sec tion ex plain s the in formation th at you c an obt ain fro m the Fas tT ra k BIOS. When the FastT rak BIOS loa ds during bootup, it displ ays perti nent inform ation about th e RAID logi cal driv es tha t it finds. At this point, yo u can pres s Ctrl-F to enter the FastBu ild Conf igurat[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 14 hot sp are d rive, the l ogica l drive w ill rebui ld aut omatical ly . Y ou must i dentify and r eplace th e failed d isk d rive. Offline – The logic al drive is no lon ger ope rationa l and the FastBui ld utility cannot rebuild it. Y ou mu st identi fy and replace th e fail ed drive(s ). Then you can cre[...]

Chapter 3: FastBuild™ Utility 15 V iew Drive Assignments From the Main Menu s creen, pre ss 1 to s ee the Vi ew Drive Assign ments screen (below). This sc reen repo rts disk driv e assig ment s and p rovides t he foll owing i nformat ion: Channel: ID – Shows th e Fast T rak Cont roller c hannel ID (SX4300, 1 throug h 4; SX8300, 1 through 8) to [...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 16 Create a Logical Drive 1. Fr om the M ai n M enu sc ree n, p ress 2 t o di sp lay the Defi ne LD Me nu (bel ow ). 2. Pre ss the a rrow key s to hi ghligh t an logi cal d rive num ber you want to define and pr ess Enter to selec t it. The De fine LD Menu f or the logi cal d rive nu mber you selec ted wil l ne[...]

Chapter 3: FastBuild™ Utility 17 4. Pre ss the arr ow keys to move to the next opti on. Optio n choice s dep end on the RAID Level you sele cted. • Initiali ze logic al dri ve, zero t he disk d rives. R AID 1, 5, or 10 o nly . • S tripe Block Size , the d efault 64KB i s best fo r most ap plication s. • Gigaby te Boundar y , allows use of s[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 18 T wo Logical Drives Contin ued from Cr eate Lo gical D rive step 7, above. 1. Pre ss Ctrl- Y to all ocate a po rtion o f the disk drive s to the fi rst lo gical dri ve. 2. En ter the d esired cap acity in MB fo r the first logical drive and press Ente r . The De fine LD Menu d isplays again. 3. Pre ss the up[...]

Chapter 3: FastBuild™ Utility 19 4. C hoose th e RAI D level an d optio ns for the secon d logica l driv e. Note th at the dis k drives in Cha nnels 1, 2 and 3 reflect sm aller ca pac ities becaus e a po rtion of their origi nal c apaci ty bel ongs to a dif ferent logical drive . In this example the di sk drive in Chan nel 4 is n ot ass igned to [...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 20 View Drive Assignments, Split Disk Drives Aft er you cre ate two l ogical d rives from the sam e set of d isk d rives, pre ss 1 on the Mai n Menu s creen to s ee the View Drive As signme nts sc reen (b elow). In this example , obse rve how e ach of th e disk drives i n Chann els 1, 2 a nd 3 a re split betwe [...]

Chapter 3: FastBuild™ Utility 21 Delete Logical Dri ve T o del ete a logi cal d riv e: 1. Fr om the M ain M enu screen , pres s 3 t o dis play the D elete LD Menu (below). 2. H ighligh t the lo gical dri ve yo u wish to delete and pre ss the Del key o r Alt-D . The De lete LD Menu f or the sel ected log ical d rive appe ars (be low). Cau tio n De[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 22 3. Pre ss Ctrl- Y to confirm and com plete log ical driv e del etion. The scr een returns to the Delete LD Menu. Pres s Esc to return to the Main Menu. Controller C onfiguration From the Main Menu s creen, pre ss 4 to d ispla y the Co ntroller C onfigurat ion Option s screen (below). the Co ntroller C onfigu[...]

Chapter 3: FastBuild™ Utility 23 Halt On Error The Ha lt On Error f unction c auses th e FastT rak controlle r to sto p the boot process at the FastT rak BIOS screen when th ere is a p roblem with your l ogica l drive . For exam ple, a di sk dri ve failure causes your log ical d rive to go critical . Depen ding on th e Halt O n Error setti ng, on[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 24 When yo u boot your sys tem, the F astT rak BIOS screen i nforms y ou if there is a critica l or of fline logical d rive. I f you ena bled th e Halt On E rror opti on, your system will sto p booti ng at this point . 1. Pres s Ct rl -F to acc ess t h e Fa stBui l d ut ility . 2. Fr om the Main Menu sc reen, p[...]

Chapter 3: FastBuild™ Utility 25 In the D efine LD Menu s creen, co mpare the num ber of dri ves ass igned to th e logica l drive (T otal Drv ) with the disk dri ves lis ted under D rive Ass ignment s. In the ab ove e xample, t hree drive s are ass igned but only two appe ar . The missi ng di sk driv e is the fai le d driv e. Th e dis k dri ve on[...]

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27 Chapter 4: Inst alling Sof tware Drivers Follow ing are driver inst allation proc edures for the FastT rak SX4300 and SX8300 RAID Co ntro lle r c ards . Dow n loa d th e l ate st d riv ers from th e Pro mi se T echnology websi te at www .promise.c om . Procedure Page Number Windows Server 20 03 Inst all Driver Du ring New OS Inst allation . . . [...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 28 Windows Server 2003 Inst all Dri ver During New OS Inst allation 1. S tart the in sta llation: Boot from th e CD-RO M. Press F 6 af ter the message “Press F6 if you ne ed to i nstal l third p arty SCSI or RAID driver” app ears. 2. W hen the Windows Se tup wind ow is g enerated, p ress S to s pecify a n A[...]

Chapter 4: Installing Software Drivers 29 4. U nder Sele ct the device d river you want to i nstal l, cli ck Have Disk... 5. Un der Inst all from Di sk, type A:wnet wnet and click OK. 6. U nder Sele ct the device d river you want to i nstal l, cli ck Next . 7. If a warnin g abou t Window s Logo te sting app ears, cli ck Cont i nue Any way . 8. Und[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 30 Note: If you need to speci fy any ad dition al devic es to be i nstal led, do so at this tim e. Once all d evice s are spe cifie d, continu e to th e next step. 6. Fr om the Windows Setup sc reen, p ress the En ter . Setup will n ow load all device files and then contin ue the Win dows XP i nstal lation . No[...]

Chapter 4: Installing Software Drivers 31 3. Clic k on t he Sy s tem ico n . 4. C hoose th e Hardw are ta b, and t hen cl ick the Device Mana ger button. 5. Cl ick th e + in fron t of SCSI c ontrollers . WinXP Promis e FastT rak SX4300/ 8300 (tm ) Control ler should appea r . Windows 2000 Inst all Dri ver During New OS Inst allation 1. S tart the i[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 32 2. In sert the Pro mise Fas tT rak Dri ver diske tte in the A: drive . 3. Under Install Hardware Device Drivers, select Sea rch fo r a s uitab l e dr iver... and cl ick Ne xt . 4. U nder Loc ate Dri ver Fi les, unc heck Flo ppy d isk drives and CD-ROM d rives . Check Specify a Loc ation and click Next. 5. Un[...]

Chapter 4: Installing Software Drivers 33 7. Sc roll down to th e Promise FastT rak SX4300/830 0 (tm) Co ntroller and clic k OK . 8. W hen the Insta ller di splays P romise Fa stT rak SX4300/8300 (tm) Contr oller has bee n foun d, click Done . 9. Cont inu e wi th th e i nstall ati on nor mal ly . Note: Check the rea dme file , include d with th e d[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 34 3. W hen the boot: prom pt app ears on th e bottom o f the scre en, typ e acpi=oldb oot into the lower in put box. 4. Pre ss the le ft Al t key and insert th e FastT rak driver diskette into th e floppy drive . 5. Fini s h th e in stall ati on n ormal ly . Inst all Dri ver in a n Existing Sy stem 1. In sert [...]

35 Chapter 5: Con cept s • About FastT rak, below • Introduc tion to RAID, b elow • Choos ing a RA ID Level (page 41) • Other Lo gical Drive F eatures (p age 43) About FastTrak FastT rak SX4300 and SX8300 a re high pe rforman ce RAID Con troller card s that featur e concurr ent dat a chan nel op eration an d onbo ard BIOS . The chan nels on[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 36 RAID 0 – Stripe When a l ogica l drive is strip ed, the rea d and wr ite blo cks of da ta are interle aved betwee n the sec tors of multiple disk dri ves. Perfo rmanc e is incr eased , since th e worklo ad is ba lanced be tween d rives or “members” t hat form the logi cal dri ve. Identic al driv es are[...]

Chapter 5: Concept s 37 RAID 1 – Mirror When a l ogica l drive is mirrored, identi cal dat a is w ritten t o a pai r of dis k drives , while reads are perform ed in p aralle l. The read s are p erforme d using e levat or seek an d load bala ncing tec hniques where the wo rkload is distribute d in the most ef fi ci ent m an ner . Whiche ver driv e[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 38 RAID 5 – Block Striping with Dis tributed Parity RAID lev el 5 o rganizes dat a across the disk drives o f the lo gical dri ve, and distribu tes p arity i nformation across the disk drives al ong with the dat a blo cks. This org aniza tion allo ws inc reased per formanc e by ac cessing multi ple disk drive[...]

Chapter 5: Concept s 39 RAID 10 – Mirror / S tripe Mirror/S tripe combin es both o f the RAID 0 and RAID 1 lo gical driv e types . It can increas e performa nce by re ading an d writing data in p arallel while protec ting dat a with d uplicati on. At leas t four di sk drive s are nee ded for RAID 10 to b e ins talled . With a fo ur-disk- drive lo[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 40 • A/B ind icates wh ich s triped p air the drive bel ongs to. • 1/2 indi cates which p art of stripe dat a. Under RA ID 10, the array m aint ains da ta int egrity if any 1, 2 combin ation survi ve s. JBOD – Single Drive An altern ative to RAID, JBOD cap acity i s equal to the s ize of the di sk driv e [...]

Chapter 5: Concept s 41 Choosing a RAID Level There are seve ral issue s to cons ider wh en choos ing the RAID Leve l for y our Fast T rak log ical driv e. The followi ng discu ssion s ummariz es so me advan tag es, disadv ant ages and appli cation s for ea ch choi ce. RAID 0 Recomm ended Applicati ons for RA ID 0 •I m a g e E d i t i n g • Pre[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 42 RAID 5 Recomm ended Applicati ons for RA ID 5 • Fil e an d Ap pl ic a tio n ser ver s • WWW , E-mail, and News se rvers • Int rane t se rver s • Most v ersatile RAI D level RAID 10 Recomm ended Applicati ons for R AID 10 • Imaging appli cations • Dat abase serve rs • General fileserv er JBOD Re[...]

Chapter 5: Concept s 43 Other Logical Drive Features St ripe Block Siz e The cho ices are 32K, 64K and 12 8K. 64K is t he default . This selectio n will directly affe ct perfo rmance. T here are two issue s to con sider wh en selec ting th e strip e bloc k size. • Choos e a stri pe blo ck si ze equ al to or small er th an the small est ca che b u[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 44 S pare Dri ves are a utomat ically a dded to an arra y once a disk me mber o f the array ha s been detected as failed . T o restore fa ult tolera nce as q uickly a s possib le, the FastT ra k Contro ller perform s an auto matic da ta rebuild on the spare drive in the backgro und with out the need to re sta r[...]

Chapter 5: Concept s 45 RAID Level Migration To migr at e a logical d rive is to do on e or bot h of the following : • Chang e it s RAID level • Increas e the n umber of d isk driv es (some times ca lled Exp ans ion) The Fas tT rak SX43 00 and SX8300 RAI D Cont roller card s support RAID Le vel Migrati on. Howev er , you mu st us e th e W ebP A[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 46 Ranges of Disk Array Exp ansion There are limit ations to how large y ou can ex pand a logi cal dr ive, depe nding on the siz e of your current logical drive. The curre nt SCSI an d Fibre C hannel HBA c ards and PC Operat ing System s support a 10-byt e LBA forma t. This m eans t hat a logi cal dri ve can h [...]

Chapter 5: Concept s 47 As a res ult, the re are ra nge limi ts imposed upon logi cal d rive exp ansion as shown in the t able above. Fo r exampl e: • Y ou can exp an d a 2.5 TB lo gical drive up to 4 TB • Y ou can onl y exp and a 1 .9 TB lo gical dri ve up to 2 TB See the t abl e below . Y ou can dire ct W ebP AM PRO or the CLU to ex pa nd a l[...]

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49 Chapter 6: T roublesh ooting & Tip s This se ction is us ed to a ssis t with tro ubles hootin g conf lict s and FastT rak SX430 0 or SX8300 inst allation problems . Also refe r to the README.TXT file on the FastT rak driver and utili ty diskette for more recent in formation as well as the Prom iseO nli ne se rvi c e s lis ted in C h apt er 7[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 50 System loc ks up d uring boot up or w hen Wind ows st art s There ma y be a possibl e IRQ con flict with a n ISA ca rd. Identify what IRQs are used by ISA card s, ent er the Moth erboard PC I Setup, an d reserve the IRQ for use wi th ISA. PCI s lots cannot s hare IRQs with I SA cards. Misce llaneous proble m[...]

Chapter 6: Troubleshooting & Tips 51 Powerin g the system off and on once to re set the drive. Als o confirm th at cables are properl y att ached a nd the drive is receivin g power . If the dri ve still appea rs to have failed , refer to th e Rebuil ding a lo gical dri ve option i n the W ebP AM software a s deta iled in th e Web P AM User Manu[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 52 For W ind ow s 20 00, X P an d 2 003 Serv er , Prom is e reco mmen ds a clea n inst all of the Opera ting Syste m. This a ction res tores the MBR and OS boo t record. T his req uires rep artit ioning and forma tting t he drive. Promise W indows driv er does not ap pear in De vice Mana ger Wind ows ma y alrea[...]

53 Chapter 7: Sup port • Frequ entl y Ask ed Qu es tio ns, below • Con tact T e chni cal Supp ort , page 57 • Limited W arranty , page 59 • Ret urn Pro d uc t f or Repair, page 6 1 Frequently Asked Questions This se ction list s freque ntly ask ed que stions i nvolvin g pre-in st allati on, drive issues , inst allati on, and p ost-ins talla[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 54 How can I change the resou rces that the F astT rak uses? The Fast T rak SX4300 and SX83 00 are f ully Pn P . This me ans all th e resourc es that it uses are given to it by th e PnP BIOS on the m otherboard. The Fast T rak Controll er support s IRQ s haring , but this feature only w orks when AL L the con c[...]

Chapter 7: Support 55 I alrea dy have an array on a n older Fa stT rak controll er . Can I move tha t array to my new Fa stT rak SX4300 or SX8 300 contr oller? Y es. All F astT rak controlle rs read the arrays the sam e way a nd can be moved from one c ontroller t o anoth er . Can I t ake a drive u sed in a FastT rak SX Series logical drive and acc[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 56 How do I p artition/format my FastT rak SX Series RAID log ical drive? The Fast T rak Controll er represen ts the logic al drive as a sin gle disk drive to your sy stem . Therefore, anyth ing that y ou can do to a s ingle dis k drive y ou can do to a Fas tT rak l ogica l drive. For e xamp le, you s hou ld us[...]

Chapter 7: Support 57 Contact T echni cal Support Promise T echnica l Support provi des seve ral support op tions for Promise users to acces s informa tion and u pdates . We e ncourage you to use one o f our e lectronic servic es, whi ch prov ide p roduct inform ation u pdates for the most ef ficien t serv ice and sup port. If you dec ide t o co nt[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 58 Germany It aly Ta i w a n E-mail Support support-de @p rom ise-e me a.com Fax T echnical Sup port +49 (0) 2 31 56 76 48 - 29 Attn: T echnic al Supp ort Phone T echnical Su pport +49 (0) 2 31 56 76 48 - 10 If you wish to write us for su pport : Promise T echnolog y German y Europapl atz 9 44269 Do rtmund, Ger[...]

Chapter 7: Support 59 China Limited Warranty Promise T echnology , Inc. (“Promise ”) warrants that for th ree (3) yea rs from the time of the del ivery of the produc t to the original end user: a) the pr od uc t wi ll c onfor m to Prom ise’s sp eci fic ati ons; b) th e produc t will be free from defe ct s in mate rial and workman ship un der [...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 60 Except a s expres sly set forth ab ove, Promi se DISCLAIMS a ny warra nties, express ed or i mplied, by st atute or otherwis e, rega rding the p roduct , incl uding, withou t limit ation , any wa rranties fo r fitness for any pu rpose, quality , mercha ntabil ity , non-infring ement, or otherwis e. Promi se [...]

Chapter 7: Support 61 Return Product For Repair If you s uspect a produc t is not wo rking properly , or if you have any question s about y our prod uct, cont act ou r T echnical Sup port S taff through on e of ou r T echnical Servi ces, mak ing sure to provide the follo wing in formation: • Product m odel and serial number (re quired ) • Retur[...]

FastTrak SX4300, S X8300 User M anual 62 Y ou are respo nsible fo r the c ost of ins urance an d shipm ent of the p roduct to Promise . Note that d amage incurred d ue to i mproper tra nsport or p acka ging is not cov ered under the Li mited W arranty . When rep airing returned pro duct(s), Pro mise ma y repl ace defec tive p arts with new or recon[...]