i g s e In . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c q f e e IDE RAID n RController T oHost A C Manual A I User D V N Preliminary Revision 0.2 November 11, 2002 VIA TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Copyright Notice: Copyright © 2002 VIA Technologies Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, optical, chemical, manual or otherwise without the prior written permission of VIA Technologies Incorporated. The material in this document is for information only and is subject to change without notice.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Revision History Document Release 0.1 0.2 Date 11/4/02 11/11/02 Revision Initial internal release Added VIA cover page, revision history, header and footer Corrected typos and grammatical errors i g s e In Initials JC AT . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c e nf e q T o R A C A I D V N Preliminary Revision 0.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Table of Contents Revision History.................................................................................................................................................i Table of Contents...............................................................................................................................................i Introduction ..................................................................................
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect INTRODUCTION This section gives a brief introduction on the RAID-related background knowledge and a brief introduction on the VIA IDE RAID Host Controller. For users wishing to install their VIA IDE RAID driver and RAID software, please proceed to the Driver and RAID Software Installation section. RAID Basics . c RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a method of combining two or more hard disk drives into one logical unit.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect RAID 0+1 (Striping/Mirroring) RAID 0+1 is a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 1 array types. A minimum of four drives needs to be installed. With a four-drive array, there must be two pairs of RAID 0 drives. Each pair mirrors the data on the other pair of striping drives. The data capacity is two times the smallest drive. In a four-drive array, a single drive failure will cause the whole array to become, in essence, a RAID Level 0 array.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect JBOD (Spanning) A spanning disk array is equal to the sum of the all drives in the array. Spanning stores data on to a drive until it is full then proceeds to store files onto the next drive in the array. When any disk member fails, the failure affects the entire array. JBOD is not really a RAID and does not support fault tolerance.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect INSTALLING THE HARD DRIVES Hard disk drives must be Ultra ATA/133, Ultra ATA/100, Ultra ATA/66, Ultra ATA/33, or ATA-3 compatible to operate with the VT6410 IDE RAID controller. For optimal performance, it is recommended to install all identical drives of the same model and capacity. 1. Striping (RAID 0) and JBOD require at least two drives and has a limit of four drives. Mirroring (RAID 1) requires two drives.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect BIOS CONFIGURATION UTILITY Enter BIOS Configuration Utility When the system powers on, the following information will appear on screen. Press the ‘Tab’ key to enter BIOS configuration utility. i g s e In . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c e nf e q T o R A C A I D V N The main interface of BIOS configuration utility is as below: Preliminary Revision 0.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Create Disk Array 1. Use the arrow keys to navigate the menu. Select Create Array and press to call out the list of creation steps. i g s e In . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c e nf e q T o R A C A I D V N Preliminary Revision 0.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect 2. Select Array Mode and press . A list of array modes will appear. Highlight the target array mode that you want to create, and press to confirm the selection. If RAID 1 or RAID 0/1 is selected, an option list will popup and enable the users to select Create only or Create and duplicate. Create only will allow BIOS to only create an array. The data on the mirroring drive may be different from the source drive.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect 4. If RAID 0 or RAID 0+1 was selected in step 2, the block size of the array can also be selected. Use the arrow key to highlight Block Size and press . Then select a block size from the popup menu. The block size can be 4KB to 64KB. i g 5. 6. s e In . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c e nf e q T o R A C A I D V N Use the arrow key to highlight Start Create Process and press .
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Delete Disk Array A RAID can be deleted after it has been created. To delete a RAID, use the following steps: 1. 2. Select Delete Array and press . The channel column will be activated. Select the member of an array that is to be deleted and press . A warning message will display. Press Y to delete or press N to cancel. i g s e In .
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Create and Delete Spare Hard Drive If a RAID 1 array is created and there are drives that do not belong to other arrays, the one that has a capacity which is equal to or greater than the array capacity cab be selected as a spare drive for the RAID 1 array. Select Create/Delete Spare and press and he channel column will be activated. Select the drive that you want to use as a spare drive and press .
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Select Boot Array User can select a disk array as boot device if user wants to boot operating system from an array. Boot disk array cannot be selected if the operating system does not boot from the disk array. Highlight the Select Boot Array item, then press and the channel column will be activated. Then highlight the target disk array and press .
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect View Serial Number of Hard Drive Highlight Serial Number View and press . Use arrow key to select a drive, the selected drive’s serial number can be viewed in the last column. The serial number is assigned by the disk drive manufacturer. View Array Status Press the F1 key to show the array status on the screen. If there are no disk arrays then nothing will be displayed on the screen. i g s e In .
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Duplicate Critical RAID 1/0+1 Array When booting up the system, BIOS will detect if the RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 array has any inconsistencies between user data and backup data. If BIOS detects any inconsistencies, then the status of the disk array will be marked as critical and BIOS will prompt the user to duplicate the RAID 1 or 0+1 to make the backup data consistent with the user data. i g s e In .
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Rebuild Broken RAID 0/0+1 array When booting up the system, BIOS will detect if any member disk drives of RAID has failed or is absent. If BIOS detects any disk drive failures or missing disk drives, the status of the array will be marked as broken. If BIOS detects a broken RAID 1 array but there is a spare hard drive available for rebuilding the broken array, the spare hard drive will automatically become the mirroring drive.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect 2. 3. Destroy the Mirroring Relationship This item cancels the data mirroring relationship of the broken array. For broken RAID 1 arrays, the data on the surviving disk will remain after the destroy operation. For broken RAID 0+1 arrays, all data on the array will be lost after destroy operation.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect DRIVER AND RAID SOFTWARE INSTALLATION Microsoft Windows driver Installation 1. After Windows has finished booting up, the system will automatically find the newly installed adapter and prompt the Found New Hardware Wizard window. Click Cancel to skip it. i g 2. s e In . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c e nf e q T o R A C A I D V N Insert the RAID driver and software installation CD or diskettes.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect 3. Confirm the follow-up dialogue windows to finish the installation. i g 4. s e In . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c e nf e q T o R A C A I D V N When the installation is completed, click Finish to restart the system. Preliminary Revision 0.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Verify Installation 1. 2. 3. Right-click on My Computer and the select Properties from the popup menu. From the popup window, click on Hardware, then click on Device Manager. Expand the SCSI and RAID controllers tree as shown below. If the VIA IDE RAID Host Controller does not exist or there is a “?” or “!” marking on the device icon, then the driver has not been installed correctly and needs to be reinstalled. i g s e In .
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect RAID SOFTWARE Installation The RAID software is installed simultaneously with driver installation. i g s e In . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c e nf e q T o R A C A I D V N Preliminary Revision 0.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Getting Start After installing the GUI software, it will be automatically started every time Windows is started. An icon system tray of the tool bar to indicate that GUI software is currently running. Double click on the system tray icon to launch the main interface of the utility. i g s e In will appear in the . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c e nf e q T o R A C A I D V N Preliminary Revision 0.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect The main interface is divided into two windows and the toolbar above contain the main functions. Click on these toolbar buttons to execute specific functions. The left windowpane displays the controller and disk drives and the right windowpane displays the details of the controller or disk drives.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect View Online Help Click on to launch the Help Topics. It is recommended that you read through the help articles before using RAID utility. i g s e In . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c e nf e q T o R A C A I D V N Preliminary Revision 0.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect View Controller and Device Status Click on or button to determine the viewing type of left windowpane. There are two viewing types: By controllers and by device. Click on the object in the left windowpane to display the status of the object in the right windowpane. i g s e In . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c e nf e q T o R A C A I D V N Preliminary Revision 0.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Create Disk Array 1. The following four buttons are used to create a disk array depending on users’ preference: RAID 0, and displayed. RAID 1, Span, RAID 0+1. Click on the RAID button you want to create, the Select Array Creating Method will be i g s e In . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c e nf e q T o R A C A I D V N Auto: The utility will arrange the available hard disk drives to be the disk arrays.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect 2. Click on “Auto” to launch the creating array window. If you select Custom, the available disks window lists the available disk drives that can be used to create the array. Select a disk drive and click on the right arrow button to add the specified disk drive to the array. Disk drives can be removed from the array by selecting an array disk and clicking on the left arrow button to remove the drive from the array. i g s e In .
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect 3. A warning message will pop up after clicking on Create. Click Yes to finish the creation of disk array, or No to cancel. 4. A message box will popup to prompt the user to restart the computer. Click Yes to restart the computer or click No to skip restarting. The new disk array setting will take effect only after restarting. i g s e In .
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Delete Disk Array 1. Select the disk array that you want to delete from the left windowpane. Click on Remove Array will popup. i g 2. s e In . A warning message . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c e nf e q T o R A C A I D V N Click Yes to delete the specified disk array or click No to cancel. Preliminary Revision 0.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect 3. A message box will popup to prompt the user to restart the computer. Click Yes to restart the computer or click No to skip restarting. The new setting will take effect only after restarting. In . c Warning: Deleting a disk array will destroy all the data on the disk array except RAID 1 arrays. When a RAID array is deleted, the data on these two hard disk drives will still remain and become two normal disk drives.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Add and Remove Spare Disk Drive Add Spare Disk Drive A spare disk drive can be added when a RAID 1 array is created. The capacity of the spare disk drive must be greater than or equal to the capacity of the RAID 1 array. If there is no spare disk drive in a RAID 1 array, user can add a spare disk drive after RAID 1 array is created by clicking on 1. 2. . i g 3. . c .
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect 4. A message box will popup to prompt the user to restart the computer. Click Yes to restart the computer or click No to skip restarting. The new setting will take effect only after restarting. Note: The spare disk drive in the RAID 1 array can be accessed by the operating system. i g s e In . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c e nf e q T o R A C A I D V N Preliminary Revision 0.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Remove Spare Disk Drive Spare disk drives can be removed from a specified RAID 1 and changed into normal hard disk drives. 1. 2. 3. Select the RAID 1 array that you want to remove spare disk drive in the left windowpane and click on message will popup. In . A warning . c Click Yes to finish removing spare disk, or No to cancel. A message box will popup to prompt the user to restart the computer.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Check All Disks You can check whether the disk drives are working normally at any time by clicking on a dialog window will pop up to show the status of each disk. See picture below. i g s e In . After the disk check is completed, .
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect View Event Log The RAID software records important events into a log file, such as disk array creation, disk array removal, disk failure, synchronization…etc. 1. Click on to display the event log. There are three types of log items: Information i g s e In , Warning , and Error . . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c e nf e q T o R A C A I D V N Preliminary Revision 0.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect 2. To view the details of a log item, you can double click on the log item, select the log item and press , or select the log item and click on Operation->View Detail in the menu bar. The following dialog will appear. i g Click on 3. or s e In . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c e nf e q T o R A C A I D V N to browse the next or previous log item.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Verify Mirror Disk The data on the mirror disk must be the same with its corresponding source disk to provide fault tolerance for RAID 1 or RAID 0+1. 1. Select a RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 array. Right-click the selected RAID, then a shortcut menu will be shown. Click on Verify Mirror to verify whether the source and mirror are identical. i g s e In .
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect 2. 3. After executing the “verify mirror” command, a dialog box will show the verifying process. You can pause or cancel this process at any time. It may take a long time to verify the source and mirror disk if the capacity of the RAID is large. i g s e In .
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Synchronize Mirror Disk RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 arrays must be synchronized when the data on the mirror disk is not identical with its corresponding source disk. Sometimes the data on the mirror disk may be newer than the data on the source disk. For example, the source disk is absent and the mirror disk runs in the tolerance mode.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect 2. After synchronization has started, a dialog box will show the process. You can pause or cancel this process at any time. A message will pop up when the synchronization is finished. i g s e In . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c e nf e q T o R A C A I D V N Preliminary Revision 0.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Disk Error Detection The RAID software will pop up an error message if a disk drive fails or is missing. Duplicate Critical RAID 1/0+1 Array s e In . c When booting up the system, the RAID utility will detect if there are any inconsistencies between the source and mirror disk drives of the RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 arrays.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect You can click Yes to synchronize now or click No to synchronize later. i g s e In . c l a After synchronization has started, a dialog box will show the process. You can pause or cancel this process at any time. If you cancel the synchronization process, the RAID will be on the “need-sync” condition. You should synchronize again to guarantee that the data between source and mirror disk drives is identical.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Rebuild Broken RAID 0/0+1 array After booting up the system, the RAID utility will detect if any member disk drives of the RAID 0 or 0+1 array has failed or is absent. If the RAID utility detects any disk drive failures or missing disk drives, the status of the array will be marked as broken.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect 2. Another dialog box will pop up. If the source or mirror disk drive is only unplugged, click Cancel to stop rebuilding. Shut down system. Plug in the absent disk drive and then reboot system. If the original disk drive is broken, plug in a new disk drive and then reboot system. Click Next to proceed to the next step. i g 3. s e In .
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect i g 4. s e In . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c e nf e q T o R A C A I D V N A warning message will pop up. If you want to rebuild the RAID using the disk driver that you selected in the previous step, click Next. Warning: All of the data on the selected disk drive will be lost. Preliminary Revision 0.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect 5. 6. Reboot the system i g s e In . c l a o i l d t o e n r n i e h id u c e nf e q T o R A C A I D V N This RAID is marked as a critical RAID. The RAID software will duplicate this critical RAID 1/0+1 process. Preliminary Revision 0.
Technologies, Inc. VT6410 User Manual – IDE RAID Controller We Connect Icon View All icon types and their meanings are listed below. You can check the meaning of a specific icon here. The real status of an array or a disk drive is described on “Array status” or “Device status” in the right windowpane.
