PIKE 2008/IMR LSISAS RAID card User Guide
E5905 First Edition V1 November 2010 Copyright © 2010 ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this manual, including the products and software described in it, may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form or by any means, except documentation kept by the purchaser for backup purposes, without the express written permission of ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. (“ASUS”).
Contents Contents....................................................................................................... iii About this guide.......................................................................................... iv PIKE 2008/IMR specifications summary.................................................... vi Chapter 1: Product introduction 1.1 Welcome!....................................................................................... 1-2 1.3 Card layout...........................
About this guide This user guide contains the information you need when installing and configuring the server management board. How this guide is organized This guide contains the following parts: • • • Chapter 1: Product introduction This chapter offers the PIKE 2008/IMR SAS RAID card features and the new technologies it supports. Chapter 2: RAID configuration This chapter provides instructions on setting up, creating, and configuring RAID sets using the available utilities.
Conventions used in this guide To make sure that you perform certain tasks properly, take note of the following symbols used throughout this manual. DANGER/WARNING: Information to prevent injury to yourself when trying to complete a task. CAUTION: Information to prevent damage to the components when trying to complete a task. IMPORTANT: Instructions that you MUST follow to complete a task. NOTE: Tips and additional information to help you complete a task.
PIKE 2008/IMR specifications summary Controller LSISAS2008 Interface ASUS PIKE interface Ports 8 ports Support device SAS/SAS II devices SATA/SATA II/SATA III devices Data transfer rate SATA III and SAS II 6Gb/s per PHY RAID level RAID 0/RAID 1/RAID 10/RAID 5/RAID 50 OS support* Windows® XP Professional SP3 Windows® Server 2003 SP2 Enterprise Edition Windows® Server 2003 SP2 Standard Edition Windows® Server 2008 Enterprise Edition SP2 Windows® Server 2008 Enterprise Edition R2 Windows® Server 2
This chapter offers the PIKE 2008/IMR SAS RAID card features and the new technologies it supports.
1.1 Welcome! Thank you for buying an ASUS® PIKE 2008/IMR SAS RAID card! The ASUS PIKE 2008/IMR allows you to create RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, RAID 5, and RAID 50 sets from SATA/SATA II/SATA III/SAS/SAS II hard disk drives connected to the SAS connectors on the motherboard. Before you start installing the RAID card, check the items in your package with the list below. 1.2 Package contents Check your package for the following items.
1.3 Card layout The illustration below shows the major components of the RAID card. 2 2 1 1 3 1. ASUS PIKE interface-1: PCI-E x8 3. SAS RAID card status LED (lights up and blinks to indicate that the card is working normally) 2. ASUS PIKE interface-2: 8-port SAS signal with SGPIO interface* * The SGPIO interface is used for visibility into drive activity, failure and rebuild status, so that users could build high-performatnce and reliable storage systems.
1.5 Card installation Follow the below instructions to install the RAID card on your motherboard. For 2U, 5U, or pedestal server To install ASUS PIKE 2008/IMR SAS RAID card on a 2U, 5U, or pedestal server 1-4 1. Locate the PIKE RAID card slot on the motherboard. 2. Align the golden fingers of the RAID card with the PIKE RAID card slot. 3. Insert the RAID card into the PIKE RAID card slot.
4. Secure the heatsink to the nearest screw hole on the motherboard. DO NOT overtighten the screw, or the motherboard component can be damaged. 5. Connect the hard disk drives to the SAS connectors on the motherboard. To uninstall ASUS PIKE 2008/IMR SAS RAID card from a 2U, 5U, or pedestal server 1. Disconnect all SAS hard disk drives from the motherboard. 2. Remove the screw that secures the RAID card to the motherboard. 3.
For 1U server You have to remove the outer heatsink of ASUS PIKE 2008/IMR SAS RAID card to install the card in a 1U server. To install ASUS PIKE 2008/IMR SAS RAID card on a 1U server 1. Remove the two screws that secure the heatsink bracket on the back of the SAS RAID card. Heatsink bracket 2. Remove the two screws that secure the outer heatsink on the front of the SAS RAID card. DO NOT remove the inner heatsink from the SAS RAID card. 3. 1-6 Locate the PIKE RAID card slot on the motherboard.
4. Align the golden fingers of the RAID card with the PIKE RAID card slot. 5. Insert the RAID card into the PIKE RAID card slot. Ensure the card is completely inserted into the card slot. 6. Connect the hard disk drives to the SAS connectors on the motherboard.
1-8 Chapter 1: Product introduction
This chapter provides instructions on setting up, creating, and configuring RAID sets using the available utilities.
2.1 Setting up RAID The RAID card supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, RAID 5, and RAID 50. 2.1.1 RAID definitions RAID 0 (Data striping) optimizes two identical hard disk drives to read and write data in parallel, interleaved stacks. Two hard disks perform the same work as a single drive but at a sustained data transfer rate, double that of a single disk alone, thus improving data access and storage. Use of at least two new identical hard disk drives is required for this setup.
2.1.2 Installing hard disk drives The RAID card supports SAS for RAID set configuration. For optimal performance, install identical drives of the same model and capacity when creating a disk array. To install SAS hard disks for RAID configuration: 1. 2. 3. Install the SAS hard disks into the drive bays following the instructions in the system user guide. Connect a SAS signal cable to the signal connector at the back of each drive and to the SAS connector on the motherboard.
2.2 LSI WebBIOS Configuration Utility The LSI WebBIOS Configuration Utility (CU) is an integrated RAID solution that allows you to create RAID 0, 1, 10, 5, and 50 sets from SATA/SATA II/SATA III/SAS/ SAS II hard disk drives supported by the LSI SAS 2008 controller.
2.2.1 Starting the WebBIOS CU Follow these steps to start the WebBIOS CU and access the main screen. 1. 2. Turn on the system after installing all SAS hard disk drives. During POST, press when the following screen appears Press for Preboot CLI: this option is for advanced debug only! LSI MegaRAID SAS-MFI BIOS Version 4.15.00 (Build June 03, 2010) Copyright(C) 2010 LSI Corporation HA -0 (Bus 4 Dev 0) LSI MegaRAID ROMB FW package: 20.7.
2.2.2 WebBIOS CU main screen options This is the Physical View screen which displays the drives that are connected to the controller. To toggle between the physical view and logical view of the storage devices connected to the controller, click Physical View or Logical View in the menu on the left. When the Logical View screen is displayed, you can see all the virtual drives that are configured on this controller.
Here is a description of the options listed on the left of the main WebBIOS CU screen: • • • • • • • • • • Manage Advanced Software Option: Select this to allow you to enable the special functionality or features that may not be available in the standard configuration of the controller. Controller Selection: Select this to view the Adapter Selection screen, where you can select a different SAS adapter.
2.2.3 Creating a Storage Configuration This section explains how to use the WebBIOS CU Configuration Wizard to configure RAID arrays and virtual drives. Selecting the Configuration with the Configuration Wizard Follow these steps to start the Configuration Wizard, and select a configuration option and mode: Click Configuration Wizard on the WebBIOS main screen. The first Configuration Wizard screen appears, as shown in the right figure. 1. 2. Select a configuration option.
Using Automatic Configuration Follow these instructions to create a configuration with automatic configuration, either with or without redundancy: 1. When WebBIOS displays the proposed new configuration, review the information on the screen, and click Accept to accept it. (Or click Back to go back and change the configuration.) • RAID 0: If you selected Automatic Configuration and No Redundancy, WebBIOS creates a RAID 0 configuration.
3. 4. 5. 6. When you have finished selecting drives for the drive group, click Accept DG. Click Next. The Span Definition screen appears. Select one of the available drive groups, and then click Add to SPAN. When finish, click Next. The Virtual Drive Definition screen appears, as shown in the right figure. You use this screen to select the RAID level, strip size, read policy, and other attributes for the new virtual drives.
• Drive Cache: Specify the drive cache policy: ◊ NoChange: Leave the current drive cache policy unchanged. This is the default. ◊ Enable: Enable the drive cache. • • 7. 8. 9. ◊ Disable: Disable the drive cache. Disable BGI: Specify the background initialization status: ◊ No: Leave background initialization enabled. This means that a new configuration can be initialized in the background while you use WebBIOS to do other configuration tasks. This is the default.
Using Manual Configuration: RAID 1 In RAID 1, the RAID controller duplicates all data from one drive to a second drive. RAID 1 provides complete data redundancy, but at the cost of doubling the required data storage capacity. It is appropriate for small databases or any other environment that requires fault tolerance but small capacity. When you select Manual Configuration and click Next, the Drive Group Definition screen appears. You use this screen to select drives to create drive groups. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
• • IO Policy: The IO Policy applies to reads on a specific virtual drive. It does not affect the read ahead cache. ◊ Direct: In Direct I/O mode, reads are not buffered in cache memory. Data is transferred to the cache and the host concurrently. If the same data block is read again, it comes from cache memory. This is the default. Drive Cache: Specify the drive cache policy: ◊ NoChange: Leave the current drive cache policy unchanged. This is the default. ◊ Enable: Enable the drive cache. • • 7. 8. 9.
Using Manual Configuration: RAID 5 RAID 5 uses drive striping at the block level and parity. In RAID 5, the parity information is written to all drives. It is best suited for networks that perform a lot of small input/output (I/O) transactions simultaneously. RAID 5 provides data redundancy, high read rates, and good performance in most environments. It also provides redundancy with lowest loss of capacity. RAID 5 provides high data throughput.
• Read Policy: Specify the read policy for this virtual drive: • Write Policy: Specify the write policy for this virtual drive: • • ◊ Normal: This disables the read ahead capability. This is the default. ◊ Write Through: In Writethrough mode the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host when the disk subsystem has received all the data in a transaction. This is the default. IO Policy: The IO Policy applies to reads on a specific virtual drive.
Using Manual Configuration: RAID 10 RAID 10, a combination of RAID 1 and RAID 0, has mirrored drives. It breaks up data into smaller blocks, then stripes the blocks of data to each RAID 1 drive group. Each RAID 1 drive group then duplicates its data to its other drive. The size of each block is determined by the strip size parameter. RAID 10 can sustain one drive failure in each array while maintaining data integrity. RAID 10 provides both high data transfer rates and complete data redundancy.
11. Hold while selecting a second drive group with two drives, and click Add to SPAN. Both drive groups display in the right frame under Span. 12. If there are additional drive groups with two drives each, you can add them to the virtual drive. 13. When finish, click Next. The Virtual Drive Definition screen appears. You use this screen to select the RAID level, strip size, read policy, and other attributes for the new virtual drives. 14.
• • IO Policy: The IO Policy applies to reads on a specific virtual drive. It does not affect the read ahead cache. ◊ Direct: In Direct I/O mode, reads are not buffered in cache memory. Data is transferred to the cache and the host concurrently. If the same data block is read again, it comes from cache memory. This is the default. Drive Cache: Specify the drive cache policy: ◊ NoChange: Leave the current drive cache policy unchanged. This is the default. ◊ Enable: Enable the drive cache.
Using Manual Configuration: RAID 50 RAID 50 provides the features of both RAID 0 and RAID 5. RAID 50 uses both distributed parity and drive striping across multiple drive groups. It provides high data throughput, data redundancy, and very good performance. It is best implemented on two RAID 5 drive groups with data striped across both drive groups. Though multiple drive failures can be tolerated, only one drive failure can be tolerated in each RAID 5 level drive group.
12. Hold while selecting two drive groups with three or more drives each in the Configuration panel on the right. 13. Change the virtual drive options from the defaults listed on the screen as needed. Here are brief explanations of the virtual drive options: • • • RAID Level: The drop-down menu lists the possible RAID levels for the virtual drive. Select RAID 50. Strip Size: The strip size specifies the size of the segment written to each disk in a RAID configuration.
• • Disable BGI: Specify the background initialization status: ◊ No: Leave background initialization enabled. This means that a new configuration can be initialized in the background while you use WebBIOS to do other configuration tasks. This is the default. ◊ Yes: Select Yes if you do not want to allow background initializations for configurations on this controller. Select Size: Specify the size of the virtual drive in megabytes.
2.2.4 Viewing and Changing Device Properties This section explains how you can use the WebBIOS CU to view and change the properties for controllers, virtual drives, and drives. WebBIOS allows you to view information for the LSI SAS controller. To view the properties for the controller, click Controller Properties on the main WebBIOS screen. There are three Controller Properties screens. The following figure shows the first screen.
Click Next to view the third Controller Properties screen, as shown in the following figure. The following table describes the entries/options listed on the second and third Controller Properties screen. We recommend that you leave these options at their default settings to achieve the best performance, unless you have a specific reason for changing them.
Controller Properties Menu Options 2-24 Option Description Set Factory Defaults Use this option to load the default MegaRAID® WebBIOS CU settings. The default is [No]. Cluster Mode Use this option to enable or disable Cluster mode. The default is [Disabled]. A cluster is a grouping of independent servers that can access the same data storage and provide services to a common set of clients. When Cluster mode is disabled, the system operates in Standard mode.
Controller Properties Menu Options (Cont.) Option Description Alarm Control Select this option to enable, disable, or silence the onboard alarm tone generator on the controller. The default is [Disabled]. Patrol Read Rate Use this option to select the rate for patrol reads for drives connected to the selected controller. The default is 30 percent. The patrol read rate is the percentage of system resources dedicated to running a patrol read.
Viewing and Changing Virtual Drive Properties Access the Virtual Drive screen by clicking a virtual drive icon in the right panel on the WebBIOS CU main screen. The following figure shows the Virtual Drive screen. The Properties panel of this screen displays the virtual drive’s RAID level, state, capacity, and strip size. The Policies panel lists the virtual drive policies that were defined when the storage configuration was created.
• Select CC to run a consistency check on this virtual drive. Before you change a virtual drive configuration, back up any data on the virtual drive that you want to save. Viewing Drive Properties The Drives screen displays the properties of a selected drive and also enables you to perform operations on the drive. There are two ways to access the Drive screen: • • On the main menu screen, click on a drive in the right panel under the heading Physical Drives.
• Select Locate to make the LED flash on the drive. This works only if the drive is installed in a drive enclosure. • Select Stop Locate to disable the LED flash on the drive. If the drive state is Unconfigured Good, four additional operations appear on this screen: 2-28 • Select Make Global HSP to make a global hot spare, available to all of the virtual drives.
2.2.5 Viewing System Event Information The SAS controller firmware monitors the activity and performance of all storage configurations and devices in the system. When an event occurs (such as the creation of a new virtual drive or the removal of a drive) an event message is generated and is stored in the controller NVRAM. You can use the WebBIOS CU to view these event messages. To do this, click Events on the main WebBIOS CU screen. The Event Information screen appears, as shown in the following figure.
2.2.6 Managing Configurations This section includes information about maintaining and managing storage configurations. Running a Consistency Check You should periodically run a consistency check on fault-tolerant virtual drives. A consistency check verifies that the redundancy data is correct and available for RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 arrays. To do this, follow these steps: 1. 2. 3. On the main WebBIOS CU screen, select a virtual drive.
Importing or Clearing a Foreign Configuration A foreign configuration is a storage configuration that already exists on a replacement set of drives that you install in a computer system. In addition, if one or more drives are removed from a configuration, by a cable pull or drive removal, for example, the configuration on those drives is considered a foreign configuration by the RAID controller.
2. 3. Select a configuration or All Configurations. Perform one of the following steps: • Click Preview to preview the foreign configurations. The Foreign Configuration Preview screen appears, as shown in the right figure. • Click Clear to clear the foreign configurations and reuse the drives for another virtual drive. If you click Cancel, it cancels the importation or preview of the foreign configuration. 4. The right panel shows the virtual drive properties of the foreign configuration.
2. Scenario #2: If some of the drives in a configuration are removed and re-inserted, the controller considers the drives to have foreign configurations. Import or clear the foreign configuration. If you select Import, automatic rebuilds will occur in redundant virtual drives. Start a consistency check immediately after the rebuild is complete to ensure data integrity for the virtual drives. 3. 4.
2.3 MegaRAID Storage Manager MegaRAID Storage Manager software enables you to configure, monitor, and maintain storage configurations on LSI SAS controllers. The MegaRAID Storage Manager graphical user interface (GUI) makes it easy for you to create and manage storage configurations. 2.3.
4. Enter your user name and organization name. In the bottom part of the screen, select an installation option: – – 5. 6. If you select All users, any user with administrative privileges can use this version of MegaRAID Storage Manager software to view or change storage configurations. If you select Only for current user, the MegaRAID Storage Manager shortcuts and associated icons will be available only to the user with this user name. Click Next to continue.
7. Select one of the Setup options. The options are fully explained in the screen text. – – 8. Normally, you would select Complete if you are installing MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a server. Select Custom Installation if you want to select individual program components. Click Next to continue. If you selected Custom Installation as your setup option, the second Setup Type screen appears, as shown in the following figure.
If you select Custom, a window listing the installation features appears, as shown in the following figure. Select the features you want on this screen. 10. Click Next to proceed. 11. Click Install to install the program. 12. When the final Configuration Wizard screen appears, click Finish.
2.3.3 Installing MegaRAID Storage Manager Software for Linux Follow these steps if you need to install MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a system running Red Hat Linux or SUSE Linux: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Copy the MSM_linux_installer...tar.gz file to a temporary folder. Untar the MSM_linux_installer...tar.gz file using the following command: tar -zxvf MSM_linux_installer...tar.gz A new disk directory is created. Go to the new disk directory. In the disk directory, find and read the readme.txt file.
2.3.4 Linux Error Messages The following messages may appear while you are installing MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a Linux system: • • • • • More than one copy of MegaRAID Storage Manager software has been installed. This message indicates that the user has installed more than one copy of MegaRAID Storage Manager software. (This can be done by using the rpmforce command to install the rpm file directly, which is not recommended, instead of using the install.sh file.
2.3.5 Starting MegaRAID Storage Manager Software Follow these steps to start MegaRAID Storage Manager software and view the main window: 1. Start the program using the method required for your operating system environment: – To start MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a Microsoft Windows system, select Start > All Programs > MegaRAID Storage Manager > StartupUI, or double-click the MegaRAID Storage Manager shortcut on the desktop.
If the circle in Health column of the corresponding server is orange instead of green, it means that the server is running in a degraded state—for example, because a drive used in a virtual drive has failed. If the circle is red, the storage configuration in the server has failed. You can click Configure Host if you want to select the display preferences for the server. You can choose to display only the local server, systems from a list, or display all of the systems in the network of the local server. 3.
2.3.6 MegaRAID Storage Manager Window After you log in, the dashboard view provides an overview of the system and covers the properties of the virtual drives and the physical drives, total capacity, configured capacity, unconfigured capacity, background operations in progress, MegaRAID Storage Manager features and their status (enabled or disabled), and actions you can perform, such as creating a virtual drive and updating the firmware, as shown in the following figure.
You can click the Physical tab to view the drives connected to the controller or Logical tab to view the virtual drives connected to the controller. The following icons in the left panel represent the controllers, drives, and other devices: • System • Controller • Slot for a drive • Drive group • Virtual drive A red circle to the right of an icon indicates that the device has failed. For example, this icon indicates that a drive has failed: .
Properties View Panel The right panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager window has the Properties tab that displays information about the selected device. For example, if a controller icon is selected in the left panel, the Properties tab lists information such as the controller name, NVRAM size, and device port count. Event Log Panel The lower part of the MegaRAID Storage Manager window displays the system event log entries. New event log entries appear during the session.
Help Menu On the Help menu you can select Help > Contents to view the MegaRAID Storage Manager online help file. You can select Help > About MegaRAID Storage Manager to view version information for the MegaRAID Storage Manager software. • When you use the MegaRAID Storage Manager online help, you may see a warning message that Internet Explorer has restricted the file from showing active content. If this warning appears, click on the active content warning bar and enable the active content.
2-46 Chapter 2: RAID configuration
This chapter provides instructions for installing the RAID drivers on different operating systems.
3.1 RAID driver installation After creating the RAID sets for your server system, you are now ready to install an operating system to the independent hard disk drive or bootable array. This part provides instructions on how to install or update the RAID card drivers. The RAID card driver might be included in the Linux OS installation CD, and could be loaded automatically during OS installation. However, we recommend using the RAID driver packaged in the RAID card support CD for better reliability. 3.1.
6. Use the arrow keys to select the type of RAID driver disk you want to create.
3.1.2 Windows® Server 2003 OS During Windows® Server 2003 OS installation To install the RAID card driver when installing Windows® Server 2003 OS: 1. 2. Boot the computer using the Windows® Server 2003 OS installation CD. The Window® Setup starts. Press when the message “Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver...” appears at the bottom of the screen. Windows Setup Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver... 3. The next screen appears.
4. Insert the RAID driver disk you created earlier to the floppy disk drive, then press . Windows Setup Please insert the disk labeled Manufacturer-supplied hardware support disk into Drive A: * Press ENTER when ready. ENTER=Continue 5. ESC=Cancel F3=Exit Select LSI Fusion-MPT SAS Driver (Server 2003 32-bit), then press . Windows Setup You have chosen to configure a SCSI Adapter for use with Windows, using a device support disk provided by an adapter manufacturer.
After Windows® Server 2003 OS installation To update the RAID card driver after installing Windows® Server 2003 OS: 1. 2. 3. Right-click the My Computer icon on the desktop and select Properties from the menu. Click the Hardware tab on the top, then click the Device Manager button. Double-click the LSI MRSASRoMB-8i item. The controller name differs according to the installed SAS RAID card. LSI MRSASRoMB-8i 4. Click the Driver tab on the top, then click Update Driver.
5. Toggle Install from a list or specific location (Advanced), then click Next to continue. LSI Adapter, SAS2 2008 Falcon -StorPort 6. Toggle Don’t search. I will choose the driver to install, then click Next to continue. 7. Insert the RAID driver disk you created earlier to the floppy disk drive. 8. Highlight LSI Adapter, SAS2 2008 Falcon -StorPort, then click Have Disk.
9. Select from the drop-down menu and locate the driver. 10. Click Next to start updating the driver. LSI Adapter, SAS2 2008 Falcon -StorPort 11. After completing driver update, click Finish to close the wizard.
3.1.3 Red Hat® Enterprise Linux OS 5 To install the RAID card driver when installing�������� Red Hat® Enterprise OS: 1. 2. Boot the system from the Red Hat® OS installation CD. At the boot:, type linux dd, then press . - To install or upgrade in graphical mode, press the key. - To install or upgrade in text mode, type: linux text . - Use the function keys listed below for more information. [F1-Main] [F2-Options] [F3-General] [F4-Kernel] [F5-Rescue] boot: linux dd 3.
5. When asked if you will load additional RAID controller drivers, select No, then press . More Driver Disks? Do you wish to load any more driver disks? Yes 6. No Select Skip and press to continue. CD Found To begin testing the CD media before installation press OK. Choose Skip to skip the media test and start the installation. OK 7. 3-10 Skip Follow the screen instructions to continue the OS installation.
3.1.4 SUSE Linux OS 11 To install the RAID card driver when installing��������������������������������� SUSE Linux Enterprise Server OS: 1. Boot the system from the SUSE OS installation CD. 3. Press , then select Yes from the menu. Press . 4. Insert the RAID driver disk to the USB floppy disk drive. Enure that Installation from the Boot Options menu is selected, then press . 5. When below screen appears, select the USB floppy disk drive (sdx) as the driver update medium.
3-12 Chapter 3: Driver installation
