SATARAID5™ Management Software User’s Guide Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Copyright © 2006, Silicon Image, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, or translated into any language or computer format, in any form or by any means without prior written permission of: Silicon Image, Inc. 1060 East Arques Ave. Sunnyvale CA 94085 Silicon Image, the Silicon Image logo and SATARAID5 are the trademarks or registered trademarks of Silicon Image, Inc.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Contents 1 Welcome ......................................................................................................................................... 1 SATARAID5 Features.................................................................................................................................. 2 Data Security .........................................................................................................................................
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Create RAID Group..............................................................................................................................................20 Rebuild RAID Group ...........................................................................................................................................21 Delete RAID Group............................................................................................................................
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Define a Volume on Mac OS X ................................................................................................................. 50 Define a Volume/Partition on Linux ........................................................................................................ 52 Appendix A Managing the BIOS .............................................................. 53 Control Panel Method .........................................................
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 1 Welcome Silicon Image’s SATARAID5TM product consists of a Serial-ATA controller, RAID controller BIOS, RAID controller driver, and RAID Management Software. A Silicon Image controller provides the necessary hardware for SATARAID5. The SiI3114, SiI3124, SiI3132 and SiI3531 controllers support SATARAID5 components. SATA Gen Host BUS Channels Description A single-chip PCI to 4-port Serial ATA (SATA) Generation I host controller.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 SATARAID5 Features Data Security SATARAID5 provides our highest commitment to data security through the use of RAID architecture to back up and protect data. RAID levels 1, 5, and 10 provide data security. SATARAID5 supports sophisticated sparing support so that hardware failure risk can be minimized by automatically regenerating the failed disk’s data on a backup disk.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 2 Revision 1.40 Using the SATARAID5 Manager This section explains how to use the SATARAID5 Manager graphical user interface (GUI) to create and manage RAID groups. Please install the SATARAID5 Manager software as explained in the SATARAID5 Quick Installation Guide for your computer’s operating system before you perform these tasks. Refer to Appendix A for information about managing the Flash BIOS of the RAID controller on a Windows system.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 When you start the SATARAID5 Manager GUI, the following divided window appears. Note: All of the SATARAID5 Manager screen illustrations are shown for Microsoft Windows. The outer frame and buttons may appear slightly different on other operating system platforms. The number of channels shown in this screen will vary according to the type of RAID controller that is installed in your system. The Legacy Support menu item is not available on Macintosh systems.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Creating RAID Groups Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) technology allows one or more disks to be combined into a logical volume, which provides greater performance and/or protection than standard disk drives. These volumes, known as RAID Groups, appear like regular disk drives to the operating system and can be partitioned, formatted and used just like any other disk. The RAID complexity is hidden within the driver.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Disk Mirroring (RAID 1) Disk mirroring creates an identical twin for a selected disk by having the data simultaneously written to two disks. This redundancy provides instantaneous protection from a single disk failure. If a read failure occurs on one drive, the system reads the data from the other drive. RAID 1 sets are typically comprised of two drives, and a third drive can be allocated as a spare in case one of the drives in the set fails.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 In exchange for low overhead necessary to implement protection, Parity RAID degrades performance for all write operations. The parity calculations for Parity RAID may result in write performance that is somewhat slower than the write performance to a single disk. Concatenated The Concatenated mode combines multiple disks or segments of disks into a single large volume.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 • The yellow segments define the high-security volume. • The green segments represent the middle-security volume. • The light blue segments represent the unprotected volume. Figure 1 Dividing disks into segments Creating a RAID Group When creating a RAID Group, you can use the available capacity on any hard disk that is connected to your system. You can include disk devices that have never before been used to store data.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Create RAID Group dialog (for Contiguous, Concatenated and Striped configurations) 2. Revision 1.40 Create RAID Group dialog (for Mirrored, Mirrored/Striped and Parity RAID configurations) Enter values in all fields and click Create to create the RAID Group. Field Definition RAID Group Label Enter an identifiable name for the RAID group. This value can be any string (up to 8 characters including blank spaces) to help users identify this volume.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Field Definition Rebuild Priority Select a value to identify how quickly the controller should rebuild data on a disk after a hardware failure. A value of 1 is the lowest priority and will take the longest to rebuild. A value of 10 is the highest priority and will rebuild the fastest, but may require more CPU resources, which might affect the computer’s performance. This parameter is not used for Contiguous (JBOD), Concatenated, and Striped configurations.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Note: Depending on the manufacturer and capacity of the hard drives that you are using, a small amount of the total disk capacity (less than the amount of one chunk size) may not be available, especially if you have selected one of the larger chunk sizes. 6. Refer to Chapter 4, Allocating Partitions for information about how to define partitions and volumes for the RAID Groups you created.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Additional SATARAID5 Manager Menu Options This section documents the options available in the SATARAID5 Manager menus. Note: All of the SATARAID5 Manager screen illustrations are shown for Microsoft Windows. The frame and buttons may appear slightly different on other operating system platforms. The number of channels shown in this screen will vary according to the type of RAID controller that is installed in your system.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 File Menu Options Configuration This menu option displays a tabbed dialog box to customize the settings for the Log File location and name, Popup notification messages, and Advanced Options: • The Log File tab allows you to define the location and name of the log file. The log file is used to store event information received from all Silicon Image RAID drivers.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 • Revision 1.40 The Popup tab allows you to define the type of events to trigger notification messages in popup windows. Use the slider control to select an event level. Select: • Informational to display Informational, Warning, and Error events in a popup window. • Warning to display Warning and Error events in a popup window. • Error to display Error events in a popup window. • Disabled to turn off popup notification messages.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 • Revision 1.40 The Advanced Options tab allows you to enable the following advanced features. Feature Explanation Legacy (Bootable) Support Enables the Legacy Support menu to support RAID functions for legacy RAID groups (available on Windows and Linux platforms only). See Legacy Support menu options.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Device Menu Options Create Spare This menu option displays a dialog box to create a spare disk drive. Enter values for the following parameters. Parameter Description Spare Type Choose one of: • Global if the spare drive is for all RAID groups in the system. • Dedicated if the spare drive is dedicated to a specified RAID group. Capacity If you selected Global for the Spare Type, select from a list of spare drive sizes.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Delete Spare This menu option displays a dialog box to select (highlight) one or more spare drives to delete. This item is only selectable when one or more spare exists. Delete Member This menu option displays a dialog box to select (highlight) RAID group members to delete. Because RAID 0 is not fault tolerant, RAID 0 members are not shown in the list. Note: Deleting members will demote the RAID group to a non-fault-tolerant RAID group.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Delete Orphan This menu option displays a dialog box to select (highlight) orphan segments to delete. An orphan segment is part of a RAID group that cannot access other segments within the same RAID group. When a member of a RAID group fails in a severe manner (such as a loss of power or a complete hard disk failure), it becomes an orphan. This item is only selectable when one or more orphan segments exist.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 To proceed with the conversion to Pass-Thru mode, click Yes. Otherwise, click No to return to the Make Pass-Thru dialog. Note: After you create a Pass-Thru device, be sure to delete any partition information that may have been associated with that device. Device Summary This menu option displays the Device Summary window to show all physical devices’ segments. The Capacity field indicates the number of 512-byte blocks that are available on the device.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 • Options > Sorting displays a dialog box to sort the rows based on the selected field. • Options > Fields displays a dialog box to choose which fields will be shown in the Device Summary window. RAID Group Menu Options Create RAID Group This primary menu option is described in Creating a RAID Group.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Rebuild RAID Group This menu option displays a dialog box to choose a replacement segment to rebuild a reduced RAID group. Delete RAID Group This menu option displays a dialog box to select (highlight) RAID groups to delete. Note: After you delete a RAID Group, be sure to delete any partition information that may have been associated with that RAID Group.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 RAID Group Summary This menu option displays a dialog box to show the group ID, label, configuration, and status for all RAID groups. The RAID Group Summary window has its own menu bar. • File > Exit closes the RAID Group Summary window. • Options > Sorting displays a dialog box to sort items in the RAID Group list.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 • Revision 1.40 Options > Fields displays a dialog box to choose which fields will be shown in the RAID Group Summary window.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Window Menu Options Task Manager This menu option displays the Task Manager window, which lists all RAID and disk management tasks that have been started or finished. You can set the priority any RAID and disk management operations, such as RAID group creation, rebuild, and test. The Task Manager window has its own menu bar. • File > Open will be activated in a future release. • File > Save will be activated in a future release.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 • Options > Fields displays a dialog box to choose which fields will be shown in the task list. • Task > Modify lets you modify parameters of the selected task items. The following is an example of changing rebuild priority for a rebuild task. • Task > Suspend lets you suspend the selected task items. • Task > Resume lets you resume previously suspended task items.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 • Task > Cancel lets you cancel the selected tasks, after confirming the cancellation. This option does not permanently delete the tasks. • Task > Delete lets you delete the selected tasks, after confirming the deletion. Event Log This menu option displays the Event Log window, which lists SATA device-related events that occur while the SATARAID5 software is running.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 The Event Log window has its own menu bar. • File > Exit closes the Event Log window. • Options > Sorting displays a dialog box to choose up to three fields to sort items in the Event Log window. • Options > Fields displays a dialog box to choose which fields will be shown in the Event Log window.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Resources This menu option displays the Resource Information window. This feature is for debugging purpose only. Legacy Support Menu On Windows and Linux platforms, you can create and manage Legacy RAID sets and JBOD using the SATARAID5 GUI or the BIOS RAID utility. Previous RAID drivers that do not support RAID 5 functionality are known as “Legacy” drivers and are being replaced with the SATARAID5 software.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Create Legacy RAID Group This menu option is disabled if new RAID groups exist. If enabled, this menu option displays a dialog box to create a legacy RAID group. Enter values for the following parameters. Parameter Description RAID Group Select a group ID from the available ID list. The maximum number of Legacy RAID Groups is limited to the number of hard drives that are connected to the RAID controller.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Rebuild Legacy RAID Group This menu option displays a dialog box to choose a replacement segment to rebuild a non-fault tolerant legacy RAID group. Delete Legacy RAID Group This menu option displays a dialog box to select (highlight) legacy RAID groups to delete. This option is disabled if no legacy RAID groups exist.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Convert Legacy RAID Group This menu option displays a dialog box to select (highlight) legacy RAID groups to convert to new RAID groups of the same RAID type (configuration). This option is disabled if no legacy RAID groups exist. Create Legacy Spare This menu option displays a dialog box to create a legacy spare drive. This option is disabled if new RAID groups exist.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Convert Legacy Spare This menu option displays a dialog box to select (highlight) legacy spare drives to convert to new spare drives. This option is disabled if no legacy spare drives exist.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Help Menu Options Help Topics This menu option is not currently available. About This menu option displays information about the SATARAID5 software, including its version, operating system and Java Run-Time Environment version.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 3 Revision 1.40 Managing Legacy RAID Groups with the BIOS RAID Utility On Windows and Linux platforms with RAID controllers that have two or more ports, you can create and manage legacy RAID sets and JBOD using the BIOS RAID utility or the SATARAID5 GUI. You can create and manage new RAID groups only from the SATARAID5 Manager GUI. Utility Overview During the system boot-up process and before the Operating System loads, the following message appears for about 5 seconds.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 The RAID Configuration Utility screen is divided into four main sections and a command line. • The Main Menu section in the upper left lists actions to be performed. Select: • Create RAID Group to create a new legacy RAID Set or allocate legacy spare drives. • Delete RAID Group to delete a legacy RAID Set or de-allocate a legacy spare drive. • Rebuild RAID 1 Set to initiate the rebuild of a RAID 1 set after replacing a drive in the Group.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Reserved Logical Drives and RAID Set Sizes When you create a RAID set, spare drive, or JBOD on a physical drive, the BIOS RAID utility saves metadata for the configuration in a reserved area of the physical drive. That metadata is not deleted when a RAID set or drive is deleted. After a set or drive is deleted, the BIOS RAID utility recognizes the physical drive as a reserved logical drive and does not report the drive to the system BIOS.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Creating RAID Groups (Sets) Select from RAID0, RAID1, and JBOD configurations when creating a new RAID group. Select a RAID level based on factors such as performance, data security, and number of drives available. Consider the longterm role of the system and plan the data storage strategy appropriately. 1. Select Create RAID set from the Main Menu section of the RAID Configuration Utility screen. 2.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 3. Revision 1.40 Select Auto configuration or Manual configuration of the RAID Set and press Enter. • If you select Auto configuration, the BIOS RAID utility selects RAID member drives automatically and sets the chunk (stripe) size for striped sets to 64KB. • If you select Manual configuration, select the chunk size for Striped Sets or select the Source and Target drives for mirrored sets.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 4. Select the size of the RAID set with the ↑ and ↓ keys and press Enter. 5. When the Are You Sure? confirmation prompt appears, respond Y to complete the RAID Set configuration. Note: If you have excess capacity left on the hard drives after creating a RAID set in the BIOS RAID utility, you can later go to the SATARAID5 Manager GUI to create additional logical drives that fully utilize the capacity of all hard drives.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Creating a JBOD Configuration The BIOS RAID utility does not report non-RAID drives to the system BIOS. If a non-RAID boot drive or data drive is desired, create a JBOD so the BIOS RAID utility will report the drive to the system BIOS. 1. Select Create RAID set from the Main Menu section of the RAID Configuration Utility screen. 2. Select JBOD and press Enter. 3. Select JBOD drive from the Physical Drive list and press Enter. 4.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Additional BIOS RAID Main Menu Options This section documents additional actions you can perform by selecting menu options in the Main Menu section of the RAID Configuration Utility screen. Delete RAID Set Use the Delete RAID set menu option to remove a RAID set, spare drive, or JBOD. 1. Select Delete RAID set from the Main Menu section of the RAID Configuration Utility screen. 2. Select the item to delete from the Logical Drive list and press Enter. 3.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Rebuild RAID1 Set Rebuilding a RAID1 set copies data from an existing drive to a replacement drive that has been installed in a RAID1 set. Take this action if any member of the RAID1 set fails. 1. Select Rebuild Raid1 set from the Main Menu section of the RAID Configuration Utility screen. 2. Select the RAID1 set to rebuild from the Logical Drive list and press Enter. 3.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Resolve Conflicts When a RAID set is created, metadata of drive-connection information, including the channel on the host adapter to which it is connected, is written to the disk. If a newly installed replacement disk was previously part of a RAID set or was used in another system, the replacement disk may have conflicting drive-connection metadata. This prohibits the RAID set from being created or rebuilt.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Note: The Low Level Format actions are typically not required, because formatting the drive under Windows is sufficient to prepare the drive for use. Logical Drive Info The Logical Drive Info menu option displays the assignment of physical drives within a logical set (RAID set, RAID 1 spare, or unassigned). • Use the up and down arrow keys to scroll between the drives in the Logical Drive list.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 4 Revision 1.40 Allocating Partitions After you create RAID groups using the SATARAID5 Manager or BIOS Utility, define partitions on the RAID group and format them for use. Define a Partition on MS-Windows Use the Disk Management utility that is part of the XP, 2000, and Windows Server 2003 operating systems to define and format partitions on a Microsoft Windows host computer. 1.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 The Disk Management utility has three main sections to the right of the navigation tree: • System listing of all formatted and available disks/RAID Groups (labeled 1 in the image). • Report of physical connections for disks/RAID Groups (labeled 2 in the image). Every disk should display Basic, a Disk Size value (available disk space is reported here), and Online. Instead of Basic, a disk may be marked Unknown, Dynamic, or Not Initialized.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 5. Select Primary partition and click Next. 6. Click Next to accept the designated partition size. Because this example is a Striped RAID set with two disk drives, the size of the partition is approximately twice the size of the smallest disk drive.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 7. Accept the default drive letter assigned to the partition or select a different drive letter if desired. Click Next. 8. Make sure the Format this partition with the following settings radio button is selected. Keep the default of NTFS for the file system and Default for the allocation unit size. Enter a meaningful volume label (name), such as STRIPED SET, FINANCIAL, CRITICAL, and so on. Click Next.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 9. Revision 1.40 Verify the selections are correct and click Finish. The status of the newly created partition changes to Formatting and the percentage complete is displayed. Depending upon the size of the partition, the format process may take several minutes. When complete, the status changes to Healthy and the name and drive letter are updated. The partitioned disk appears in the System Listing section with all of its pertinent information as well. 10.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 11. When you are finished, close the Disk Management utility by clicking the X in the top right corner of the window. The new disks are now available for use. Define a Volume on Mac OS X After using the SATARAID5 Manager to create one or more RAID Groups, you can use the Disk Utility to define and format volumes on a Mac OS X computer system. 1.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 4. Click on the “Erase” item along the top menu bar. The following dialog appears: 5. Select the type of Volume Format from the drop-down list in the middle of the page and enter a volume name in place of Untitled (in this example, the name “my volume” is entered). Finally, click on the Erase button.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 6. 7. Revision 1.40 To proceed with the formatting operation, click on the Erase button. After the volume is formatted, an icon for the volume will appear on your desktop, and you can begin using that volume. When you are finished creating volumes, close the Disk Utility. Define a Volume/Partition on Linux Reload the SATARAID5 driver to show the newly created SATARAID5 volume.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Appendix A Managing the BIOS When the SATARAID5 driver software is installed on a Windows system, a Control Panel applet is also installed that allows you to update and view information about the RAID controller hardware and its Flash BIOS. You can access the Flash BIOS information using either of the methods described below. Third-party motherboard and host bus adapter manufacturers provide product-level qualification.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 This dialog box displays information about the current Flash BIOS and allows you to download an updated Flash BIOS version onto the RAID controller. To download a new Flash BIOS version, enter the filename or click on the Browse… button to navigate to it, and then click on the Program Flash button. The progress bar will show the download status. Do not interrupt the download before it completes.
Document Number: MAN-000SR5-000 Revision 1.40 Click on the Flash BIOS tab to display the following dialog box: This dialog box displays information about the current Flash BIOS and allows you to download an updated Flash BIOS version onto the RAID controller. To download a new Flash BIOS version, enter the filename or click on the Browse… button to navigate to it, and then click on the Program Flash button. The progress bar will show the download status. Do not interrupt the download before it completes.
