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

Chapter 9. Maintaining Units
142 3ware Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide
Background Tasks
Background tasks are maintenance tasks that help maintain the integrity of
your drives and data. These tasks include
• Initialization of units
• Verification of units
• Rebuilds when units have become degraded
• Migration of an on-line RAID from one RAID configuration to another
• Self-tests
You can set up your system so that these tasks occur as they are needed, or
you can create schedules so that they occur during non-peak times.
Background tasks can have an effect on performance, so using a schedule can
minimize the impact.
This section includes the following topics related to background tasks:
• About Initialization
• About Verification
• Starting a Verify Manually
• Rebuilding Units
• Cancelling a Rebuild and Restarting It with a Different Drive
• Setting Background Task Rate
• Background Task Prioritization
• Scheduling Background Tasks
• Viewing Current Task Schedules
• Turning On or Off Use of a Task Schedule
• Removing a Task Schedule
• Adding a New Task Schedule Slot
• Selecting Self-tests to be Performed
Although the migration of a unit is handled as a background task, initiating it
is similar to creating a new unit. For details, see “Changing An Existing
Configuration by Migrating” on page 115.










