AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Revison 1.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual The information in this User’s Manual has been carefully reviewed and is believed to be accurate. The vendor assumes no responsibility for any inaccuracies that may be contained in this document, makes no commitment to update or to keep current the information in this manual, or to notify any person or organization of the updates. Please Note: For the most up-to-date version of this manual, please see our web site at www.supermicro.com. Super Micro Computer, Inc.
Table of Contents Table of Contents Chapter 1 Safety Guidelines .......................................................... 1-1 1-1 ESD Safety Guidelines ..................................................................... 1-1 1-2 General Safety Guidelines ............................................................... 1-1 1-3 An Important Note to Users ............................................................. 1-1 Chapter 2 Connectors, Jumpers and Indicators ...............
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Viewing and Changing Adapter Properties ........................................... 4-12 Viewing and Changing Virtual Drive Properties .................................... 4-13 Viewing Physical Drive Properties ........................................................ 4-13 4-8 Forcing Drives Online or Offline .................................................... 4-13 4-9 Configuring a Bootable Virtual Drive ............................................
Table of Contents 6-7 Deleting a Virtual Disk .................................................................... 6-20 6-8 Saving a Storage Configuration to Disk ....................................... 6-21 6-9 Clearing a Storage Configuration from a Controller .................. 6-21 6-10 Adding a Saved Storage Configuration ..................................... 6-22 Chapter 7 Integrated Mirroring and Integrated Mirroring Enhanced .........................................................................
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual 8-4 Integrated Striping Firmware ........................................................... 8-3 Metadata Support.................................................................................... 8-3 SMART Support ...................................................................................... 8-3 Disk Write Caching ................................................................................. 8-3 8-5 Fusion-MPT Support.....................................
Preface About this Manual This manual is written for system integrators, PC technicians and knowledgeable PC users who intend to integrate SuperMicro's AOC-USAS-L8i add-on card to their system.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Contacting SuperMicro Headquarters Address: Super Micro Computer, Inc. 980 Rock Ave. San Jose, CA 95131 U.S.A. Tel: +1 (408) 503-8000 Fax: +1 (408) 503-8008 Email: marketing@supermicro.com (General Information) support@supermicro.com (Technical Support) Web Site: www.supermicro.com Europe Address: Super Micro Computer B.V.
Chapter 1 Safety Guidelines To avoid personal injury and property damage, carefully follow all the safety steps listed below when accessing your system or handling the components. 1-1 ESD Safety Guidelines Electric Static Discharge (ESD) can damage electronic components. To prevent damage to your system, it is important to handle it very carefully. The following measures are generally sufficient to protect your equipment from ESD. • Use a grounded wrist strap designed to prevent static discharge.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Notes 1-2
Chapter 2 Connectors, Jumpers and Indicators 2-1 Front Connectors and Pin Definitions Connectors are used to attach the add-on card to the system’s mainboard. Figure 2-1. AOC-USAS-L8i Add On Card Front Connectors and Jumpers 1 1 2 Table 2-1 lists the add-on card’s front connectors. Table 2-1.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Internal SAS Connectors The Internal SAS ports (SFF-8087 connector) connect to the backplane allowing the motherboard to access the hard drives and RAID capabilities. Each connector supports up to four hard drives allowing the add-on card to support a maximum of eight. (SAS 0-3 and SAS 4-7). Use a single port SAS "ipass" cable (SuperMicro order number CBL-0108L-02).
Chapter 2: Connectors, Jumpers and Indicators 2-2 Front Jumper Locations and Pin Definitions Figure 2-2. Jumper Locations SWR5 To modify the operation of the backplane, jumpers can be used to choose between optional settings. Jumpers create shorts between two pins to change the function of the connector. Pin 1 is identified with a square solder pad on the printed circuit board. Figure 2-2 shows jumper locations for the add-on card, while Table 2-3 lists the add-on card’s pin definitions.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Table 2-3. SWR5 Jumper Settings Jumper Jumper Settings SWR5 2-3 1-2: Enabled 3: Disabled Note Leave disabled when operating in IR or IT mode. Enable for SR mode operation. Default setting is disabled for IT mode (see Chapter 3). LED Indicators Figure 2-3. LED Indicators Power LEDS LNP0 - LNP7 A0 - A7 LED2 LED1 Figure displays LED indicators on the add-on card, while table lists the individual LEDs, their state and their specification. Table 2-4.
Chapter 2: Connectors, Jumpers and Indicators Table 2-4.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Notes 2-6
Chapter 3 RAID Modes, Firmware and Drivers To change RAID modes from the AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card’s default IT Mode, you need to flash your system’s BIOS with a Firmware download and install drivers for the RAID mode to your operating system. 3-1 RAID Modes There are three RAID modes that are supported by the AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card: • IT Mode (Initiator and Target Mode): This is the default mode for the AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual 3-2 Getting Firmware Downloads Firmware for RAID modes can only be obtained through contacting SuperMicro Technical Support for instructions and assistance to obtain firmware downloads. Each of the RAID modes requires a different firmware download. Make sure the firmware download corresponds to the RAID mode (IT, IR or SR) that you wish to use before installing it. 3-3 Flashing Firmware Follow the procedure below to flash firmware to the BIOS.
Chapter 3: RAID Modes, Firmware and Drivers 3-5 Activating RAID Modes in OPROM BIOS RAID modes can be activated by pressing keyboard keys in the OPROM BIOS setup. Press CTRL-C for IT or IR mode and CTRL-M for SR mode to activate your system for one of these modes.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Notes 3-4
Chapter 4 MegaRAID BIOS Configuration Utility The LSI™ MegaRAID® BIOS Configuration Utility (CU) is used to configure disk arrays and virtual drives and to do other configuration tasks in a pre-boot environment. This utility is primarily used for SR Mode configurations for the AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Starting the MegaRAID BIOS CU Follow these steps to start the MegaRAID BIOS CU: 1. During boot-up, wait for the following message to appear on the screen: Press Ctrl-M to run LSI Software RAID Setup Utility 2. When you see this message, hold down the CTRL key while pressing the M-KEY. The RAID CONFIGURATION UTILITY MANAGEMENT MENU screen appears, as shown in Figure 4-1. Figure 4-1.
Chapter 4: MegaRAID BIOS Configuration Utility 2. Use the arrow keys to select the physical drives you want to include in the array. a. Press the SPACEBAR to add each selected physical drive to the new array. When you select a physical drive, its status changes from READY to ONLIN A[array number]-[drive number]. For example, ONLIN A00-01 means array 0, disk drive 1. b. To create a global hotspare drive, highlight a READY disk drive and press F4. Then select YES from the pop-up menu. c.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual 4. Highlight RAID and press ENTER. The available RAID levels for the current virtual drive are displayed. 5. Select a RAID level for the virtual drive and press ENTER. 6. (Optional) Change the drive’s default Write Cache and Read Ahead policies (see Section 4-3: "Setting the Hard Disk Write Cache and Read Ahead Policies" on page 4-8). 7. When you have finished defining the current virtual drive, select ACCEPT and press ENTER. 8.
Chapter 4: MegaRAID BIOS Configuration Utility 4. To create a global hotspare drive, highlight a READY disk drive and press F4. Then select YES from the pop-up menu. Make sure the capacity of the hotspare drive is equal to or larger than the capacity of the disks in the array and that it is the same type of drive (SAS or SATA). NOTE: The hotspare drive will rebuild a failed drive even if it is SAS and the failed drive is SATA, or vice versa.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Creating a Global Hotspare Drive The MegaRAID BIOS CU enables you to create global hotspare drives (dedicated hotspare drives are not supported). A hotspare drive can automatically replace a failed drive in a redundant RAID 1 or RAID 10 array, to protect against data loss. WARNING: When you select disk drive for a global hotspare, be sure it is the same type of drive (either SAS or SATA) as the drives in the arrays that it will protect.
Chapter 4: MegaRAID BIOS Configuration Utility This section explains the two methods of initializing a virtual drive with the MegaRAID BIOS CU. If the FAST INIT property is enabled, fast initialization is used. In fast initialization, the MegaRAID BIOS CU quickly writes zeroes to the first and last 8 Mbyte regions of the new virtual drive. If the FAST INIT property is not enabled, the MegaRAID BIOS CU performs a complete initialization on the virtual drive.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Figure 4-3. Virtual Drives List Screen 2. Select a virtual drive, if there is more than one configured, and press ENTER. 3. Select INITIALIZE from the submenu and press ENTER. 4. Select YES at the prompt and press ENTER. The CU displays a bar graph showing the initialization progress. 5. When initialization completes, press ESC to return to the previous menu.
Chapter 4: MegaRAID BIOS Configuration Utility • When the disk Write Cache is ON, a write transaction is considered to be complete when all the data has been written to the disk cache. When disk Write Cache is OFF, the write transaction is complete only when the data has been written to the disk. • When disk Read Ahead is ON, extra data is read sequentially ahead of the data that is actually requested and is stored in a cache.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Rebuilding of Drive X Completed Successfully. Press Esc. (X = the ID of the rebuilt drive.) 4. Press ESC to display the MANAGEMENT menu. The state of the rebuilt disk drive changes from FAIL to ONLIN. If the CU detects a media error on the source drive during rebuild, it initiates a sector read for that block.
Chapter 4: MegaRAID BIOS Configuration Utility If the Rebuild was not affected by this hot plug event, it continues to rebuild from where it left off, provided that AUTO RESUME is enabled; otherwise, the Rebuild starts over from the beginning. If the rebuilding array was affected by the hot plug event, the Rebuild aborts and the array status changes based on the hot plug operation.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual If you press Y, the program skips the bad block and continues. If you press N, the program aborts the consistency check. The same message appears if the program finds a hard media error on the target drive. If you press ESC while a Check Consistency is running, the following options are displayed: • Stop: (Available only if AutoResume is enabled on the adapter by selecting: MANAGEMENT MENU? J OBJECTS? J ADAPTER? J AUTORESUME.
Chapter 4: MegaRAID BIOS Configuration Utility Table 4-1. List of Adapter Properties Property Options Default Auto Resume Enable, Disable When enabled you can stop a consistency check, rebuild, or initialization and resume it later where it left off, instead of aborting it and starting over Enable Disk Coerciona None, 128MB, 1GB 1GB a. The Disk Coercion property can be accessed only when no configuration is present for the adapter. Otherwise, an error message appears. 3.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Notes To force a drive online or offline, follow these steps: 1. On the MANAGEMENT menu, select OBJECTS J PHYSICAL DRIVE. 2. Highlight a physical drive that is a member of an array and press ENTER. 3. Select FORCE OFFLINE or FORCE ONLINE from the menu. If the drive was online, its status changes to FAIL. If it was offline, its status changes to ONLIN. 4-9 Configuring a Bootable Virtual Drive The default boot virtual drive is LD 0.
Chapter 4: MegaRAID BIOS Configuration Utility To clear a storage configuration, follow these steps: 1. On the MANAGEMENT menu, select CONFIGURE J CLEAR CONFIGURATION. 2. When the message appears, select YES to confirm. All virtual drives are deleted from the configuration.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Notes 4-16
Chapter 5 MegaRAID Overview and Installation This chapter explains provides and overview of MegaRAID Storage Manager software, and instructions on how to install (or reinstall) the software on your workstation or server for the supported operating systems, which include: Microsoft Windows, Red Hat Linux, and SUSE Linux. 5.3.1 Installing MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on Microsoft Windows.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual 5-2 Hardware and Software Requirements The hardware requirements for MegaRAID Storage Manager software are as follows: • PC-compatible computer with an IA-32 (32-bit) Intel Architecture processor or an EM64T (64-bit) processor and at least 128 Mbytes of system memory (256 Mbytes recommended) • Hard disk drive with at least 50 Mbytes available free space The supported operating systems for the MegaRAID Storage Manager software are as follows: • Microsoft Windows
Chapter 5: MegaRAID Overview and Installation Figure 5-1. Customer Information Screen 4. Enter your user name and organization name, and in the bottom part of the screen, select an installation option: • 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.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Figure 5-2. Setup Type Screen 6. Select one of the Setup options. The options are fully explained in the screen text. • Select COMPLETE if you are installing MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a server. • Select CLIENT if you are installing MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a PC that is used to view and configure servers over a network. • Select SERVER to install only those components required for remote server management.
Chapter 5: MegaRAID Overview and Installation For example, to connect to a remote framework on server 192.168.0.10, add the IP address to the end of startupui.bat as shown in this example: start JRE\bin\javaw -classpath .;GUI.jar GUI.VivaldiStartupDialog ajsgyqkj=71244 192.168.0.10 Be sure to include a space in front of the IP address, as shown in the above example.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual • The version is already installed. This message indicates that the version of MegaRAID Storage Manager software you are trying to install is already installed on the system. • The installed version is newer. This message indicates that a version of MegaRAID Storage Manager software is already installed on the system, and it is a newer version than the version you are trying to install. • Exiting installation.
Chapter 6 MegaRAID Window and Menus The MegaRAID Storage Manager software is a configuration and monitoring utility used with the Embedded MegaRAID Software. This chapter provides instruction on its use and features. 6-1 Starting MegaRAID Storage Manager Software Follow these steps to start MegaRAID Storage Manager software and view the main window: 1.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Figure 6-1. Select Server Window If the circle in the server icon is yellow instead of green, it means that the server is running in a degraded state–for example, because a disk drive used in a virtual disk has failed. If the circle is red, the storage configuration in the server has failed.
Chapter 6: MegaRAID Window and Menus Figure 6-2. Server Login Window 3. Select an access mode from the drop-down menu. • Select FULL ACCESS if you need to both view the current configuration and change the configuration. • Select VIEW ONLY if you need to only view and monitor the configuration. 4. Enter your user name and password, and click LOGIN. NOTE: If the computer is net worked, this is the login to the computer itself, not the network login.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual 6-2 MegaRAID Storage Manager Window This section describes the MEGARAID STORAGE MANAGER window (Figure 6-3). Figure 6-3. Storage Manager Window The following sections describe the panels and menu options that appear in this window. Physical/Logical View Panel The left panel of the MEGARAID STORAGE MANAGER window displays either the Physical view or the Logical view of the system and the devices in it, depending on which tab is selected.
Chapter 6: MegaRAID Window and Menus The following icons in the left panel represent the controllers, disk drives, and other devices: • System • Controller • Port • Array • Virtual disk • Physical drive A red circle to the right of an icon indicates that the device has failed. A yellow circle to the right of an icon indicates that a device is running in a degraded state.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual File Menu The FILE menu has an EXIT option for exiting from the MEGARAID STORAGE MANAGER software. It also has a RESCAN option for updating the display in the MEGARAID STORAGE MANAGER window. (RESCAN is seldom required; the display normally updates automatically.) Operations Menu The OPERATIONS menu is available when a controller, physical drive, or logical drive is selected in the MEGARAID STORAGE MANAGER window.
Chapter 6: MegaRAID Window and Menus WARNING: It is recommended that you do not use both SAS and SATA drives in the same array. Using different drive interfaces in this way could cause unpredictable behavior, decreased performance, an increased error count, and decreased MTBF. NOTE: You cannot create or modify a storage configuration unless you are logged on with administrator privileges.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual The menu lists three configuration modes: • Auto Configuration automatically creates an optimal configuration from the available disk drives. • Manual Configuration gives you the greatest level of control in creating a new virtual disk. • Guided Configuration asks you a few simple questions about what kind of configuration you want and then automatically creates it from the available disk drives.
Chapter 6: MegaRAID Window and Menus Figure 6-5. Auto Configuration Screen Follow these steps to create a new storage configuration in Auto Configuration mode: 1. Select a redundancy option from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the AUTO CONFIGURATION screen: • No Redundancy: The new configuration will have no data redundancy (RAID 0). If a physical disk in the configuration fails, all data will be lost.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual 3. (Optional) Click MODIFY if you want to switch to Manual Configuration mode so you can modify the suggested Auto Configuration. When you click MODIFY, the VIRTUAL DISK CREATION screen appears. In this screen do the following: a. Select the new virtual disk, and click RECLAIM. b. Select the new array from the ARRAYS WITH FREE SPACE list, and change the virtual disk parameters as needed. 4. Click FINISH.
Chapter 6: MegaRAID Window and Menus Follow these steps to create a new storage configuration in Guided Configuration mode: 1. Select a redundancy option at the top of the GUIDED CONFIGURATION screen: • Redundancy Only: This option creates a configuration only if redundancy (RAID 1 or RAID 5) is possible. • Redundancy When Possible: This option creates a redundant configuration if possible. Otherwise, this creates a non-redundant configuration.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual 4. Click NEXT to continue to the next screen (see Figure 6-7). Figure 6-7. Second Guided Configuration Screen 5. Change the default volume parameters in this screen, if needed. In the top section of the window you can specify the number of virtual disks to create. You can also choose to use less than the full capacity of this array for the virtual disk(s).
Chapter 6: MegaRAID Window and Menus Using Manual Configuration: RAID 0 Follow these steps to create a RAID 0 storage configuration using the Manual Configuration mode of the Configuration Wizard. Figure 6-8 shows the first screen that appears when you select MANUAL CONFIGURATION. Figure 6-8. Manual Configuration – First Manual Configuration Screen 1. In this first screen, select two or more available drives in the left panel.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual 3. Click NEXT. The DEFINING A VIRTUAL DISK screen of the Configuration Wizard appears, as shown in Figure 6-9. Figure 6-9. Defining a Virtual Disk Screen The ARRAYS menu lists the new array that you just defined, plus any existing arrays with holes (free space) that could be used for a new configuration. 4. From the ARRAYS menu, select the array to use for the new virtual disk. 5. In the right VIRTUAL DISK PROPERTIES panel, select RAID 0 as the RAID level. 6.
Chapter 6: MegaRAID Window and Menus NOTE: Click the RECLAIM button if you want to undo a virtual disk that you just defined. 9. Click NEXT to continue with the next configuration step. The VIRTUAL DISK SUMMARY screen appears. 10. Review the configuration shown in the VIRTUAL DISK SUMMARY screen. If you want to change something, click BACK and change the configuration parameters. 11.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual 9. Click NEXT to continue with the next configuration step. The VIRTUAL DISK SUMMARY screen appears. 10. Review the configuration shown in the screen. If you want to change something, click BACK and change the configuration parameters. 11. Click FINISH to accept the configuration and start the initialization process (unless you selected NO INITIALIZATION earlier).
Chapter 6: MegaRAID Window and Menus 9. Click NEXT to continue with the next configuration step. The VIRTUAL DISK SUMMARY screen appears. 10. Review the configuration shown in the VIRTUAL DISK SUMMARY screen. If you want to change something, click BACK and change the configuration parameters. 11. Click FINISH to accept the configuration and start the initialization process (unless you selected NO INITIALIZATION earlier).
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual 6-4 Adding or Deleting a Hotspare Disks Hotspares are disk drives that are available to automatically replace failed drives in a RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10 virtual disk. Each virtual disk can have one dedicated hotspare. For more information, see the software Help file for more information. To add a global hotspare disk, follow these steps: 1. In the left panel of the MEGARAID STORAGE MANAGER window, right click the icon of any unused disk drive. 2.
Chapter 6: MegaRAID Window and Menus Make sure the capacity of the hotspare drive is equal to or larger than the capacity of the disks in the array and that it is the same type of drive (SAS or SATA). NOTE: The hotspare drive will rebuild a failed drive even if it is SAS and the array drives are SATA, or vice versa. Once the rebuild is complete, it is recommended that you replace the new array member with a drive of the same type. To remove a global hotspare disk, follow these steps: 1.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Each task rate can be set from 0 to 100. The higher the number, the faster the activity will run in the background, possibly impacting other system tasks. 4. Click GO to accept the new task rates. 5. When the warning message appears, click OK to confirm that you want to change the task rates. 6-6 Changing Virtual Disk Properties You can change a virtual disk’s READ POLICY, WRITE POLICY, and other properties at any time after the virtual disk is created.
Chapter 6: MegaRAID Window and Menus 6-8 Saving a Storage Configuration to Disk You can save an existing controller configuration to a file so you can apply it to another controller. To save a configuration file, follow these steps: 1. Select a controller icon from the left panel of the MEGARAID STORAGE MANAGER window. 2. On the menu bar, select OPERATIONS J ADVANCED OPERATIONS J CONFIGURATION J SAVE CONFIGURATION. The SAVE dialog box appears. 3.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual 6-10 Adding a Saved Storage Configuration When you replace a controller, or when you want to duplicate an existing storage configuration on a new controller, you can add a saved configuration to the controller. WARNING: When you add a saved configuration to a replacement controller, be sure that the number and size of the physical disks connected to the controller are exactly the same as when the configuration was saved.
Chapter 7 Integrated Mirroring and Integrated Mirroring Enhanced This chapter provides an overview of the Integrated Mirroring (IM) and Integrated Mirroring Enhanced (IME) features. The chapter also explains how to create Integrated Mirroring (IM) and Integrated Mirroring Enhanced (IME) volumes using the SAS BIOS Configuration Utility (SAS BIOS CU), which is used to setup IR Mode.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual 7-2 IM and IME Features IM and IME support the following features: • Configurations of one or two IM or IME volumes on the same SAS controller. IM volumes have two mirrored disks; IME volumes have three to ten mirrored disks. Two volumes can have up to 12 disks total. (Requires Integrated RAID firmware v1.20.00 or above.) • One or two global hot spare disks per controller, to automatically replace failed disks in IM/IME volumes.
Chapter 7: Integrated Mirroring and Integrated Mirroring Enhanced Figure 7-1. Typical Integrated Mirroring Implementation IM Volume Primary Mirror SAS NVSRAM (For Write Journaling ) LSI Fusion -MPT Controller Memory Bus Flash (For Configuration ) The advantage of an IM/IME volume is that there is always a second, mirrored copy of the data. The disadvantage is that writes take longer because data must be written twice. On the other hand, performance is actually improved during reads.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Figure 7-3. Integrated Mirroring Enhanced with Three Disks Logical View Physical View Mirrored Stripe 1 Mirrored Stripe 1 Mirrored Stripe 2 Mirrored Stripe 3 Mirrored Stripe 3 Mirrored Stripe 1 Mirrored Stripe 2 Mirrored Stripe 4 Mirrored Stripe 5 Mirrored Stripe 2 Mirrored Stripe 3 Mirrored Stripe 4 + + Mirrored Stripe 6 Mirrored Stripe 6 Mirrored Stripe 4 ... ... Mirrored Stripe 5 ...
Chapter 7: Integrated Mirroring and Integrated Mirroring Enhanced Following a hot swap event, the firmware readies the new physical disk by spinning it up and verifying that it has enough capacity for the mirrored volume. The firmware resynchronizes all hot-swapped disks that have been removed, even if the same disk is re-inserted. In a two-disk mirrored volume, the firmware marks the hot-swapped disk as the secondary disk and marks the other mirrored disk as the primary disk.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual 7-5 Fusion-MPT Support The BIOS uses the LSI Fusion-MPT® interface to communicate to the SAS controller and firmware to enable IM and IME volumes. This includes reading the Fusion-MPT configuration to access the parameters that are used to define behavior between the SAS controller and the devices connected to it. The Fusion-MPT drivers for all supported operating systems implement the Fusion-MPT interface to communicate with the controller and firmware.
Chapter 7: Integrated Mirroring and Integrated Mirroring Enhanced • An IM volume must have two drives. An IME volume can have three to ten drives. In addition, one or two hot spares can be created for the IM/IME volume(s). NOTE: If a disk in an IM/IME volume fails, it is rebuilt on the global hot spare if one is available. It is recommended that you always use hot spares with IM/IME volumes. Creating an IM Volume Follow these steps to create an IM volume with the SAS BIOS CU: 1.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual 2. Press ENTER to go to the ADAPTER PROPERTIES screen, as shown in Figure 7-5 below: Figure 7-5.
Chapter 7: Integrated Mirroring and Integrated Mirroring Enhanced 3. On the ADAPTER PROPERTIES screen, use the arrow keys to select RAID PROPERTIES on the screen and press ENTER. The SELECT NEW ARRAY TYPE screen appears (Figure 7-6). Figure 7-6.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual 4. In the SELECT NEW ARRAY TYPE screen (Figure 7-6), select CREATE IM VOLUME. The CREATE NEW ARRAY screen appears (Figure 7-7). This screen shows a list of disks available to be added to a volume. Figure 7-7. Create New Array Screen 5. In the CREATE NEW ARRAY screen move the cursor to the RAID Disk column and select a disk. To add the disk to the volume, change the NO to YES by pressing the + key, - key, or SPACE bar.
Chapter 7: Integrated Mirroring and Integrated Mirroring Enhanced 8. When the volume has been fully configured, press C and then SAVE CHANGES. Then exit this menu to commit the changes. The SAS BIOS CU pauses while the array is being created. Creating an IME Volume Follow these steps to create an IME volume with the SAS BIOS CU: 1. On the ADAPTER LIST screen, use the arrow keys to select an SAS adapter. 2. Press ENTER to go to the ADAPTER PROPERTIES screen (Figure 7-5). 3.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual 3. On the ADAPTER PROPERTIES screen, use the arrow keys to select RAID PROPERTIES and press ENTER. 4. Continue with step 4 of "Creating an IM Volume" on page 7-7 or step 4 of "Creating an IME Volume" on page 7-11 to create a second volume. 7-8 Managing Hot Spares You can create one or two global hot spare disks to protect the IM or IME volumes on a SAS controller. Usually, you create global hot spares at the same time you create the IM/IME volume.
Chapter 7: Integrated Mirroring and Integrated Mirroring Enhanced If SATA disks are used for the IM/IME volume(s), the hot spare disk must also be a SATA disk. If SAS disks are used, the hot spare disk must also be a SAS disk. An error message appears if the selected disk is not the same type as the disks used in the IM/IME volumes. 5. [Optional] Select a second hot spare disk. 6. Select SAVE CHANGES then exit this menu to commit the changes.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Follow these steps to force the synchronization of a selected array: 1. Select SYNCHRONIZE ARRAY on the MANAGE ARRAY screen (Figure 7-8). 2. Press Y to start the synchronization, or N to cancel it. Activating an Array An array can become inactive if, for example, it is removed from one controller or computer and moved to another one. The Activate Array option allows you to reactivate an inactive array that has been added to a system.
Chapter 7: Integrated Mirroring and Integrated Mirroring Enhanced Locating Drives in a Volume You can use the SAS BIOS CU to locate and identify a specific physical disk drive by flashing the drive’s LED. You can also use the SAS BIOS CU to flash the LEDs of all the disk drives in a RAID volume. There are several ways to do this: • When you are creating an IM or IME volume, and a disk drive is set to Yes as part of the volume, the LED on the disk drive is flashing.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Notes 7-16
Chapter 8 Integrated Striping This chapter provides an overview of the LSI Integrated Striping™ (IS) feature and explains how to create Integrated Striping (IS) volumes using the SAS BIOS Configuration Utility (SAS BIOS CU), which is used to setup IR Mode. 8-1 Introduction The Integrated Striping (IS) feature is used for applications that require the faster performance and increased storage capacity of striping.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual • 8-3 SES status LED support for drives used in IS volumes IS Description The IS feature writes data across multiple disks instead of onto one disk. This is accomplished by partitioning each disk’s storage space into 64-KB stripes. These stripes are interleaved round-robin, so that the combined storage space is composed alternately of stripes from each disk.
Chapter 8: Integrated Striping 8-4 Integrated Striping Firmware This section describes features of the Integrated RAID firmware. Metadata Support The firmware supports metadata, which describes the IS logical drive configuration stored on each member disk. When the firmware is initialized, each member disk is queried to read the stored metadata to verify the configuration.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual The supported stripe size is 64 kilobytes. Refer to Section 8-2: "IS Features" on page 8-1 for more information about Integrated Striping volumes. 8-7 Creating IS Volumes The SAS BIOS CU is part of the Fusion-MPT BIOS. When the BIOS loads during boot and you see the message about the Configuration Utility, press Ctrl-C to start it. After you do this, the message changes to: Please wait, invoking SAS Configuration Utility...
Chapter 8: Integrated Striping Creating IS Volumes 1. On the ADAPTER LIST screen of the SAS BIOS CU, use the arrow keys to select a SAS adapter. 2. Press ENTER to go to the ADAPTER PROPERTIES screen (Figure 8-3). Figure 8-3. Adapter Properties Screen 3. On the ADAPTER PROPERTIES screen, use the arrow keys to select RAID PROPERTIES and press ENTER.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual 4. When you are prompted to select a volume type, select CREATE IS VOLUME. The CREATE NEW ARRAY screen (Figure 8-4) that appears shows a list of disks that can be added to a volume. Figure 8-4. Create New Array Screen 5. Move the cursor to the RAID DISK column. To add a disk to the volume, change the NO to YES by pressing the + key, - key, or SPACE bar. As disks are added, the ARRAY SIZE field changes to reflect the size of the new volume. 6.
Chapter 8: Integrated Striping 8-8 Creating a Second IS Volume SAS controllers allow you to configure two IS volumes, or an IS volume and an IM/IME volume. If one volume is already configured, and if there are available disk drives, there are two ways to add a second volume. The first way to add a second volume is as follows: 1. In the configuration utility, select an adapter from the ADAPTER LIST screen and then select the RAID PROPERTIES option. This displays the current volume. 2.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Follow these steps to activate a selected array. 1. Select ACTIVATE ARRAY on the MANAGE ARRAY screen. 2. Press Y to proceed with the activation, or press N to abandon it. After a pause, the array will become active. Deleting an Array WARNING: Before deleting an array, be sure to back up all data on the array that you want to keep. Follow these steps to delete a selected array: 1. Select DELETE ARRAY on the MANAGE ARRAY screen. 2.
Chapter 8: Integrated Striping Selecting a Boot Disk You can select a boot disk in the SAS TOPOLOGY screen. This disk is then moved to scan ID 0 on the next boot, and remains at this position. This makes it easier to set BIOS boot device options and to keep the boot device constant during device additions and removals. There can be only one boot disk. Follow these steps to select a boot disk: 1. In the SAS BIOS CU, select an adapter from the ADAPTER LIST. 2. Select the SAS TOPOLOGY option.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Notes 8-10
Chapter 9 Using the CFGGEN IR Configuration Utility This Chapter describes how to use the CFGGEN IR Configuration Utility to create Integrated Mirroring (IM), Integrated Mirroring Enhanced (IME), and Integrated Striping (IS) volumes on SAS controllers. CFGGEN is a command line utility that runs in the DOS, Linux, EFI, and Windows Pre-Installation (WinPE) environments. CFGGEN is a minimally interactive program that can be executed from a command line prompt or a shell script.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual WARNING: The modules mptbase.o, mptscsih.o and mptctl.o must be loaded into the Linux kernel before CFGGEN will function correctly. They can be loaded using the Linux modprobe command. • 9-2 WinPE – CFGGEN runs in Windows Pre-Installation Environment (WinPE) and is statically compiled with the LSI MptLib Library (MptLib.lib).
Chapter 9: Using the CFGGEN IR Configuration Utility • Text surrounded by <> must be replaced with a required parameter. • Text surrounded by [ ] may be replaced by an optional parameter. • Parameters surrounded by {} must be entered one or more times, as is appropriate for the command being executed. • The command line definition characters <>, [ ], and {} must not be entered on the command line.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual The following rules must be observed when creating IM, IME, and IS volumes and hot spare disks: 1. All disks that are part of a volume, including global hot spares, must be on the same SAS controller. 2. A maximum of two IM, IME, or IS volumes per controller can be created. 3. The total number of disks in a volume cannot exceed ten, and the total number of disks combined for two volumes cannot exceed twelve.
Chapter 9: Using the CFGGEN IR Configuration Utility DEFAULTS Command NOTE: This command is called DELETE in the EFI version of CFGGEN. The DEFAULTS (DELETE) command deletes any IM, IME, and IS volumes and hot spare drives created by the CREATE and HOTSPARE commands. No other controller configuration parameters are changed.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Program Return Value – 0x00 SUCCESS: command completed successfully. 0x01 FAILURE: bad command line arguments or operational failure. Sample Output – The following example shows a sample output of the CREATE command when used to create an IM configuration.
Chapter 9: Using the CFGGEN IR Configuration Utility Manufacturer Model Number Firmware Revision Serial No Drive Type Target on SCSI ID 8 Enclosure # Slot # Device is a Hard disk SCSI ID State Size (in MB)/(in sectors) Manufacturer Model Number Firmware Revision Serial No Drive Type Target on SCSI ID 9 Enclosure # Slot # Device is a Hard disk SCSI ID State Size (in MB)/(in sectors) Manufacturer Model Number Firmware Revision Serial No Drive Type Target on SCSI ID 10 Enclosure # Slot # Device is a Hard disk
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual • Inactive, Okay (OKY) – Volume is inactive and drives are functioning properly. User data is protected if the current RAID level is RAID 1 (IM) or RAID 1E (IME). • Inactive, Degraded (DGD) – Volume is inactive and the user’s data is not fully protected due to a configuration change or drive failure; a data resync or rebuild may be in progress. Physical drive status values are as follows: • Online (ONL) – Drive is operational and is part of a logical drive.
Chapter 9: Using the CFGGEN IR Configuration Utility • noprompt – Suppresses display of warnings and prompts. Program Return Value – 0x00 SUCCESS: command completed successfully. 0x01 FAILURE: command failed. HOTSPARE Command The HOTSPARE command creates a hot spare disk drive. One or two hot spare disk can be created per controller. The capacity of a hot spare disk must be greater than or equal to the capacity of the smallest disk in the logical drive.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual Parameters – • – Number of the SAS controller targeted by this command. Program Return Value – 0x00 SUCCESS: command completed successfully. 0x01 FAILURE: command failed. Sample Output – Here is an example of the status information returned when a volume resynchronization is in progress: Background command progress status for controller 0...
Chapter 9: Using the CFGGEN IR Configuration Utility The SETOFFLINE command makes a physical disk in a volume offline. A physical disk that is taken offline changes its state to Failed (FLD), but the disk is still associated with the volume and therefore cannot be addressed by normal I/O requests. If a new disk replaces an offline disk, the new disk is automatically brought online. Otherwise, the disk remains offline until explicitly brought online by SETONLINE command.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual When a disk drive is added to an IM, IME, or IS volume, its entire storage capacity may or may not be used, depending on drive capacity and volume capacity. For example, if you add a 36-GB disk drive to a volume that only uses 9-GB of capacity on each disk drive, the remaining 27-GB of capacity on the disk drive are unusable. When AUTO creates an IM volume, the first disk found is assigned as the primary disk drive.
Chapter 9: Using the CFGGEN IR Configuration Utility DISABLEIR Command (EFI Version Only) The DISABLEIR command, which is currently supported only in the EFI version of CFGGEN, disables Integrated RAID functionality on the supported SAS controller chips. This is done by setting the MPI_IOUNITPAGE1_DISABLE_IR bit in the IO Unit 1 MPT Configuration Page.
AOC-USAS-L8i Add-on Card User’s Manual LIST Command (EFI Version Only) The LIST command, which is currently supported only in the EFI version of CFGGEN, displays a list of all controllers present in the system, along with their corresponding controller #. Command Line – cfggen list Parameters – None Program Return Value – 0x00 SUCCESS: command completed successfully. 0x01 FAILURE: bad command line arguments or operational failure.
Disclaimer The products sold by Supermicro are not intended for and will not be used in life support systems, medical equipment, nuclear facilities or systems, aircraft, aircraft devices, aircraft/emergency communication devices or other critical systems whose failure to perform be reasonably expected to result in significant injury or loss of life or catastrophic property damage.
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