User guide
Table Of Contents
- Title Page
- Table of Contents
- About this User Guide
- Introducing the 3ware® SATA RAID Controller
- Getting Started with Your 3ware RAID Controller
- First-Time RAID Configuration Using 3BM
- Driver Installation
- Driver Installation Under Windows
- Driver Installation Under Linux
- Obtaining 3ware Linux Drivers
- Driver Installation Under Red Hat Linux or Fedora Core 5
- Materials required
- Creating a Red Hat Linux Driver Diskette
- Installing the 3ware Kernel Driver Module while Installing Red Hat Linux on a New Unit
- Installing the 3ware Kernel Driver Module on a Red Hat or Fedora Core Linux System that Boots From a Different Device
- About Variables In the Kernel Driver Module Installation Instructions
- Driver Installation Under SuSE Linux
- Compiling a 3ware Driver for Linux
- Driver Installation Under FreeBSD
- 3ware BIOS Manager 2 (3BM 2) Introduction
- 3DM 2 (3ware Disk Manager) Introduction
- Configuring Your Controller
- Configuring Units
- Configuring a New Unit
- Creating a Hot Spare
- Naming a Unit
- Setting Unit Policies
- Changing An Existing Configuration by Migrating
- Deleting a Unit
- Removing a Unit
- Moving a Unit from One Controller to Another
- Adding a Drive
- Removing a Drive
- Rescanning the Controller
- Maintaining Units
- Checking Unit and Drive Status through 3DM
- About Degraded Units
- About Inoperable Units
- Alarms, Errors, and Other Events
- Background Tasks
- Scheduling Background Tasks
- Locating a Drive by Blinking Its LED
- Maintaining Your Controller
- Determining the Current Version of Your 3ware Driver
- Updating the Firmware and Driver
- Downloading the Driver and Firmware
- Updating the Firmware Through 3DM 2
- Updating the 3ware Driver and Firmware Under Windows
- Using the Update Utility With Multiple Controllers
- Updating the 3ware Driver Under Windows XP
- Updating the 3ware Driver Under Red Hat or Fedora Core
- Updating the 3ware Driver Under SuSE
- Updating the 3ware Driver Under FreeBSD
- Updating the Firmware Under Linux and FreeBSD
- Viewing Battery Information
- Testing Battery Capacity
- 3DM 2 Reference
- Troubleshooting
- Appendices
- Index

About Degraded Units
www.3ware.com 137
Drive Statuses
The following is a list of drive statuses you may see in 3DM:
•
OK. The drive is fine and is functioning normally.
•
Not Present. No drive is present in this slot.
•
Drive Removed. The drive has been removed.
•
Other. A number of other drive statuses may appear in the event of a
problem. If you have a question about a status shown, contact AMCC
customer support. knowing the exact drive status can help trouble-shoot
the problem.
About Degraded Units
Fault tolerant RAID units provide data redundancy by duplicating
information on multiple drives. These RAID units make it possible to
continue use even if one of the drives in the unit has failed.
• RAID 1 and RAID 10 units each use mirroring to achieve fault tolerance.
Identical data is stored on two or more drives to protect against drive
failure.
• RAID 5, RAID 6, and RAID 50 units achieve fault tolerance by using a
simple (exclusive OR) function to generate the parity data that is
distributed on all drives.
• RAID 6 adds an extra level of protection over RAID 5 by generating a
second parity when data is written. This allows two drives to fail without
compromising data integrity, especially on larger units.
When one of the drives in a fault-tolerant unit fails or is removed or
unplugged, the unit is said to be degraded.
You can still read and write data from a degraded unit, but the unit will not be
fault tolerant until it is rebuilt using the Rebuild feature.
When a RAID unit becomes degraded, it is marked as such, and the drive(s)
that failed are marked as
Not In Use in the 3BM screens and Degraded in the
3DM pages. On the 3ware Sidecar, the LED for failed drives turns red.
You should replace the failed drive and rebuild the unit as soon as it is
convenient to do so. The unit will not be fault tolerant until it has been rebuilt.
Rebuilding can occur automatically, depending on your settings. For more
information, see “Rebuilding Units” on page 150.










