3ware 9500S Series Users Guide

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User Guide

3ware

Serial ATA RAID Controller

Supports the 9000 Series

PN 720-0114-01 March 2005

©2004-2005 AMCC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the proper written consent of AMCC, 455 West Maude Ave., Sunnyvale, CA

94085.

Trademarks

3ware, Escalade, and 3DM are all registered trademarks of AMCC. The 3ware logo, 3BM, StorSwitch, TwinStor, and R5 Fusion are all trademarks of AMCC. All other trademarks herein are property of their respective owners.

Disclaimer

AMCC assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in this document, nor does AMCC make any commitment to update the information contained herein.

Table of Contents

About This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

How this Guide is Organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Introducing the 3ware 9000 Series Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Product Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

What’s New With the 3ware 9000 Series Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Understanding RAID Concepts and Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Available RAID Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Determining What RAID Level to Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

3ware Tools for Configuration and Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3BM (3ware BIOS Manager) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3DM 2 (3ware Disk Manager) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3ware CLI (Command Line Interface) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Monitoring, Maintenance, and Troubleshooting Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Getting Started with Your 3ware RAID Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

3ware BIOS Manager (3BM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Starting 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Working in the 3BM Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Displaying Advanced Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Getting Help While Using 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Exiting the 3BM Configuration Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Browser Requirements for 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Setting up Mozilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Installing 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Installing 3DM on a Microsoft Windows system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Uninstalling 3DM under Microsoft Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Installing 3DM for Linux or FreeBSD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Uninstalling 3DM under Linux or FreeBSD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Starting 3DM and Logging In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Starting 3DM under Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Starting 3DM under Microsoft Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Viewing 3DM Remotely via a Standard Web Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Logging In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Working with the 3DM Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

3DM Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Viewing Information About Different Controllers in 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Refreshing the Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

3DM Screens and What They're Used For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Setting Up 3DM Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Setting and Changing 3DM Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Managing E-mail Event Notification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Enabling and Disabling Remote Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Setting the Incoming Port # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

www.3ware.com i

Setting the Frequency of Page Refreshes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

3DM 2 Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Controller Summary Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Controller Details Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Unit Information Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Unit Details Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Drive Information Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

SMART Details About Drive at Particular Port Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Controller Settings Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Scheduling Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Maintenance Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Alarms Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Battery Backup Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

3DM 2 Settings Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Configuring Your Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Viewing Information About Different Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Viewing Controller Policies in 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Setting Policies for a Controller through 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Exporting JBOD Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Enabling and Setting Up Staggered Spinup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Disabling Write Cache on Unit Degrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Multi LUN Support and Auto-Carving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Configuring Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Configuring Units in 3DM via the Maintenance Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Configuring Units in 3BM via the main 3BM Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Creating a New Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Creating a Unit through 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Creating a Unit through 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Ordering Units in 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Partitioning and Formatting Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Creating a Hot Spare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Specifying a Hot Spare through 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Specifying a Hot Spare through 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Enabling and Disabling the Unit Write Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Enabling and Disabling the Unit Write Cache through 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Enabling or Disabling the Write Cache through 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Setting Unit Policies through 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Changing An Existing Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

RAID Level Migration (RLM) Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Changing RAID Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Expanding Unit Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Informing the Operating System of Changed Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Deleting a Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Deleting a Unit through 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Deleting a Unit through 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Removing a Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Removing a Unit Through 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Removing a Unit Through 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Moving a Unit from One Controller to Another . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Unlocking Drives Configured on a 9000 Series Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Adding a Drive through 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Removing a Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Rescanning the Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Naming a Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

ii 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Maintaining Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Checking Unit and Drive Status through 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Reviewing Alarms and Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Viewing Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Downloading an Error Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Viewing SMART Data About a Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

About Background Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

About Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Initialization of Different RAID Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Auto Initialization After Power Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

About Rebuilds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

About Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

About Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

About Self-tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Setting Background Task Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Scheduling Background Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Viewing Current Task Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Turning On or Off Use of a Task Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Removing a Task Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Adding a New Task Schedule Slot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Selecting Self-tests to be Performed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Rebuilding Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Rebuilding a Unit Through 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Rebuilding Units through 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Cancelling a Rebuild and Restarting It with a Different Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Verifying Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Verifying a Unit through 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Verifying a Unit through 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Maintaining Your Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Determining the Current Version of Your 3ware Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Updating the Driver and Firmware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Updating the 3ware Driver and Firmware Under Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Using the Update Utility With Multiple Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Updating the 3ware Driver Under Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Updating the 3ware Driver Under Red Hat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Updating the 3ware Driver Under SuSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Updating the 3ware Driver Under FreeBSD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Viewing Battery Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Testing Battery Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Troubleshooting: Problems and Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Before Contacting Customer Supp o rt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Problems in 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Hardware Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Software Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Screen Display Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

AEN Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Appendix A. Compliance and Conformity Statements . . . . . . . . . . 185

Federal Communications Commission Radio Frequency Interference Statement 185

Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Lab (WHQL) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

European Community Conformity Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Appendix B. Warranty, Technical Support and Service . . . . . . . . . . 187

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Limited Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Exclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

State Law Provisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Obtaining Warranty Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

AMCC Technical Support and Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Sales and ordering information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Feedback on this manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

iv 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

About This Guide

3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide provides instructions for configuring and maintaining your 3ware controller.

This guide assumes that you have already installed your controller in your system. If you have not yet done so, see 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller Installation Guide for instructions.

How this Guide is Organized

There are often multiple ways to accomplish the same configuration and maintenance tasks for your 3ware RAID controller. This manual includes instructions for performing tasks using two tools: one at the BIOS level (3ware BIOS Manager, or 3BM) and one that runs in a browser (3ware Disk Manager 2, or 3DM 2). You can also perform many tasks at the command line, using 3ware’s Command Line Interface (CLI). The CLI is described in a separate manual, available from the 3ware software CD and from 3ware’s website: 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller CLI Guide.

Basic information about using the two tools (3BM and 3DM), such as starting the tool, navigating between screens, and so forth, is described in sections about each of those tools: “3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)” on page 27.

Step-by-step instructions for performing specific tasks are organized by tasks throughout other sections of this guide. For example, the instructions for “Creating a New Unit” on page 85 include information about how to create a unit from 3DM, followed by how to create a unit from 3BM.

www.3ware.com 1

“3ware BIOS Manager (3BM)” on page 19 and

About This Guide

Table 1: Sections in this Guide

Section Description

Introduction Provides an overview of product features for

the 3ware 9000 series controllers. Includes system requirements and an introduction to RAID concepts and levels.

Getting Started Provides a summary of the steps required to

install and set up your 3ware RAID controller. 3ware BIOS Manager (3BM) Describes the basics of using 3BM. 3ware Disk Manager 2 (3DM 2) Describes the basics of using 3DM and

includes a reference of all the 3DM pages. Configuring Your Controller Describes how to view details about the

controller, check it’s status, and change

configuration settings that affect the controller

and all associated drives. Configuring Units Describes how to configure new units and

spares, change existing configurations, and set

unit policies. Maintaining Units Describes how to check unit and drive status,

review alarms and errors, schedule background

maintenance tasks, and manually start them,

when necessary or desirable. Includes

explanations of initialization, verify, rebuild, and

self-tests. Maintaining Your Controller Describes how to update the driver, move a unit

from one controller to another, and replace an

existing 3ware controller with a new one. Also

includes information about checking battery

status on a BBU (Battery Backup Unit). Troubleshooting Provides common problems and solutions, and

explains error messages. Glossary Includes definitions for terms used throughout

this guide. Appendices Provides compliance and conformity

statements, warranty information, and tells you

how to contact technical support.

2 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Conventions

The following conventions are used through this guide:

 3BM refers to the 3ware BIOS Manager  3DM refers to the 3ware Disk Manager, version 2.  In the sections that describe using 3DM, current contr oller is used to refer

 Unit refers to one or more disks configured through 3ware to be treated by

 Boldface is used for buttons, fields, and settings that appear on the screen.  Monospace font is used for code and to indicate things you type.

to the controller which is currently selected in this drop-down list.

the operating system as a single drive. Also known as an array. Array and unit are used interchangeably throughout this manual.

www.3ware.com 3

About This Guide

4 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Introducing the 3ware 9000 Series Controller

This chapter includes the following sections:

 “Product Features” on page 5  “What’s New With the 3ware 9000 Series Controller” on page 6  “System Requirements” on page 6  “Understanding RAID Concepts and Levels ” on page 8  “Determining What RAID Level to Use” on page 12

Product Features

The 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA family includes 9500S-4LP, 9500S-8, 9500S-12, 9500S-8MI, 9500S-12MI.

Features of the 3ware 9000 series controllers include:

 Advanced RAID features for greater data protection and management.  Support for battery backup provides added data protection in the event of

a power outage. (Battery Backup unit sold separately)

 Support for RAID units greater than 2 terabytes with 64-bit LBA support.  An enhanced firmware platform allows future upgrades. Anticipated

upgrades include Enclosure Management Services (EMS).

 AMCC’ s remote management software, 3ware Disk Manager 2 (3DM®2)

simplifies storage configuration and management via a web browser.

www.3ware.com 5

Introducing the 3ware 9000 Series Controller

What’s New With the 3ware 9000 Series Controller

Enhancements and changes in version 9.2 of the 9000-series controllers include the following:

 MultiLUN support with auto-carving of units greater than 2 terabytes into

2 terabyte volumes

 RAID Level Migration (RLM) and Online Capacity Expansion (OCE)  Unit naming and unit serial number support

 Improved write performance in writes with multiple concurrent streams

using Stream Fusion technology.

 Extended drive and unit status information.

System Requirements

3ware RAID controllers require the following

 A workstation-class or server-class motherboard which meets the

following criteria:

 PCI slots that comply with PCI 2.2 or above standards.  PCI slot that meets the Plug and Play

Note: For all 3ware 9000 series models, install the card in a 64-bit,

and PC99 specifications.

66 MHz PCI or PCI-X slot for best performance.

 Drives

Depending on the particular model, the 3ware RAID controller may be connected to up to two, four, eight, or twelve SATA drives using the supplied interface cables.

Drives must meet serial ATA 150 (SATA-1)or serial ATA 300 (SATA 2) Gb/s standards. Drives may be of any capacity or physical form factor.

The length of shielded and unshielded interface cables may not exceed 1M (39”) for serial ATA controllers.

 Operating System

3ware RAID controllers may be used with:

 Windows 2000 (SP3 or newer), Windows XP (SP1 or newer),

Windows Server 2003, both 32-bit and 64-bit x64

 Red Hat Linux, 32-bit and 64-bit x86  SuSE Linux, 32-bit and 64-bit x64

6 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

System Requirements

 Other versions of Linux using the open source Linux driver  FreeBSD

 Other Requirements

 Adequate air flow and cooling  Adequate power supply for drives

3DM 2 (3ware Disk Manager) displays information in a browser. It requires the following:

 Internet Explorer 5.5 and later or Mozilla 1.2 or later  JavaScript must be enabled  Cookies must be enabled  For best viewing, screen resolution should be 1024 x 768, with 16-bit

color or more

For a complete listing of features and system requirements, refer to the 9000 Series Datasheet, available from the website at http://w.3ware.com/products/ serial_ata9000.asp.

www.3ware.com 7

Introducing the 3ware 9000 Series Controller

Understanding RAID Concepts and Levels

3ware RAID controllers use a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) to increase your storage system’s performance and provide fault tolerance (protection against data loss).

The following concepts are important to understand when working with a RAID controller:

 Arrays and Units. In the storage industry, the term “array” is used to

describe two or more disk drives that appear to the operating system as a single unit. When you work with 3ware software, “unit” is the term used to refer to an array of disks that is configured and managed through the 3ware software. Single-disk units can also be configured in the 3ware software.

 Mirroring. Mirrored arrays write data to paired drives simultaneously. If

one drive fails, the data is preserved on the paired drive. Mirroring provides data protection through redundancy . In addition, mirroring using a 3ware RAID controller provides improved performance because 3ware’s TwinStor technology reads from both drives simultaneously.

 Striping. Striping across disks allows data to be written and accessed on

more than one drive, at the same time. Striping combines each drive’s capacity into one large volume. Striped disk arrays achieve highest transfer rates and performance at the expense of fault tolerance.

 Distributed Parity. Parity works in combination with striping on RAID 5

and RAID 50. Parity information is written to each of the striped drives, in rotation. Should a failure occur, the data on the failed drive can be reconstructed from the data on the other drives.

 Hot Swap. The process of exchanging a drive without having to shut

down the system. This is useful when you need to exchange a degraded drive or a bad drive in a redundant array.

 Array Roaming. The process of swapping out or swapping in a

configured unit without having to shut down the system. This is useful if you need to move the unit to another controller.

 Disk Roaming. The process of removing a unit from a controller and

putting it back later, either on the same controller, or a different one, and having it recognized as a unit. The disks may be can be attached to different ports than they were originally attached to, without harm to the data. The disks may be attached to the same ports or different ports on the controller.

For definitions of other terms used throughout the documentation, see the “Glossary” on page 179.

8 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Understanding RAID

Available RAID Configurations

The following RAID levels and configurations are available for drives attached to a 3ware RAID controller:

 RAID 0  RAID 1  RAID 5  RAID 10  RAID 50  Single Disk  JBOD  Hot Spare

RAID 0

Provides striping, but no mirroring or redundancy of any kind. Striped disk arrays achieve high transfer rates because they can read and write data on more than one drive simultaneously. The stripe size is configurable in the 3ware BIOS Manager (3BM) and in the 3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2). Requires a minimum of two drives.

When drives are configured in a striped disk array (see Figure 1), large files are distributed across the multiple disks using RAID 0 techniques.

Striped disk arrays give exceptional performance, particularly for data intensive applications such as video editing, computer aided design and geographical information systems.

RAID 0 arrays are not fault tolerant. The loss of any drive results in the loss of all the data in that array, and can even cause a system hang, depending on your operating system. RAID 0 arrays are not recommended for high availability systems unless additional precautions are taken to prevent system hangs and data loss.

Figure 1. RAID 0 Configuration Example

RAID 1

Also known as a mirrored array. Mirroring is done on pairs of drives. Mirrored disk arrays write data to two drives using RAID 1 algorithms (see

www.3ware.com 9

Introducing the 3ware 9000 Series Controller

Figure 2). This gives your system fault tolerance by preserving the data on one drive if the other drive fails. Fault tolerance is a basic requirement for mission critical systems like web and database servers.

3ware uses a patented technology, TwinStor®, on RAID 1 arrays for improved performance during sequential read operations. With TwinStor technology, read performance is twice the speed of a single drive during sequential read operation.

The adaptive algorithms in TwinStor technology boost performance by distinguishing between random and sequential read requests. For the sequential requests generated when accessing large files, both drives are used, with the heads simultaneously reading alternating sections of the file. For the smaller random transactions, the data is read from a single optimal drive head.

Figure 2. RAID 1 Configuration Example

RAID 5

Combines striping data with parity (exclusive OR) to restore data in case of a drive failure. This array type provides performance, fault tolerance, high capacity, and storage efficiency. Requires a minimum of three drives.

Parity information is distributed across all drives rather than being concentrated on a single disk (see

Figure 3). This avoids throughput loss due

to contention for the parity drive.

RAID 5

0 parity

A Blocks

1 parity

B Blocks C Blocks D Blocks

2 parity

Figure 3. RAID 5 Configuration Example

3 parity

4 parity

E Blocks

RAID 10

This array is a combination of RAID 1 with RAID 0. Striped and mirrored arrays for fault tolerance and high performance. Requires a minimum of four drives to use both RAID 0 and RAID 1 techniques.

10 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Understanding RAID

When drives are configured as a striped mirrored array, the disks are configured using both RAID 0 and RAID 1 techniques, thus the name RAID 10 (see

Figure 4). A minimum of four drives are required to use this technique. The first two drives are mirrored as a fault tolerant array using RAID 1. The third and fourth drives are mirrored as a second fault tolerant array using RAID 1. The two mirrored arrays are then grouped as a striped RAID 0 array using a two tier structure. Higher data transfer rates are achieved by leveraging T winS tor and striping the arrays. RAID 10 is av ailable on the four, eight, and twelve port 3ware Serial ATA RAID Controllers.

Figure 4. RAID 10 Configuration Example

RAID 50

This array is a combination of RAID 5 with RAID 0. This array type provides fault tolerance and high performance. Requires a minimum of six drives.

Several combinations are available with RAID 50. For example, on a 12-port controller, you can hav e a grouping of 3, 4, or 6 drives. A grouping of 3 means that the RAID 5 arrays used have 3 disks each; four of these 3-drive RAID 5 arrays are striped together to form the 12-drive RAID 50 array.

Single Disk

A single drive that has been configured as a unit through 3ware software. (3BM, 3DM 2, or CLI). Like disks in other RAID configurations, single d isks contain 3ware Disk Control Block (DCB) information and are seen by the OS as available units.

Single drives are not fault tolerant and therefore not recommended for high availability systems unless additional precautions are take to prevent system hangs and data loss.

JBOD

A JBOD is an unconfigured disk attached to your 3ware RAID controller. JBOD configuration is no longer supported in the 3ware 9000 series. AMCC recommends that you use Single Disk as a replacement for JBOD, to take advantage of advanced features such as caching, OCE, and RLM.

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Introducing the 3ware 9000 Series Controller

JBOD units are not fault tolerant and therefore not recommended for high availability systems unless additional precautions are taken to prevent system hangs and data loss.

Hot Spare

A single drive, available online, so that a redundant array can be automatically rebuilt in case of drive failure.

For additional information about RAID levels, see the article “RAID Primer” on the 3ware website, at: http://www.3ware.com/products/pdf/ RAID_Primer.pdf.

Determining What RAID Level to Use

Select the RAID configuration to use based on the applications to be used on the system, whether performance or data protection is of primary importance, and the number of disk drives available for use.

Review the information under “Understanding RAID Concepts and Levels” on page 8 to determine the type of RAID configuration most appropriate for your needs and use the tables below to determine what RAID levels are available, based on your particular controller model and the number of available drives.

The RAID configurations available to you are determined by the number of ports on your controller, and the number of drives attached to those ports. You can configure all drives in one unit, or you can configure multiple units, if you have enough drives.

Table 2: Possible Configurations Based on Number of Drives

# Drives Possible RAID Configurations

1 Single drive or hot spare 2 RAID 0 or RAID 1 3 RAID 0

RAID 1 with hot spare RAID 5

4 RAID 5 + hot spare

RAID 10 Combination of RAID 0, RAID 1, single disk

5 RAID 5 + hot spare

RAID 10 + hot spare Combination of RAID 0, RAID 1, hot spare, for single disk

12 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Understanding RAID

Table 2: Possible Configurations Based on Number of Drives

# Drives Possible RAID Configurations

6 or more RAID 50

Depending on the number of drives, a RAID 50 may contain from 2 to 4 subunits. For example, with 12 drives, possible RAID 50 configurations include 2 subunits of 6, 3 subunits of 4, or 4 subunits of 3. With 10 drives, a RAID 50 will contain 2 subunits of 5 drives each.

Combination of RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, hot spare, and single disk

Drive Capacity Considerations

The capacity of each drive is limited to the capacity of the smallest drive in the array. The total array capacity is defined as follows:

Table 3: Drive Capacity

RAID Level Capacity

RAID 0 (number of drives) X (capacity of the smallest drive) RAID 1 capacity of the smallest drive RAID 5 (number of drives - 1) X (capacity of the smallest drive)

Storage efficiency increases with the number of disks:

storage efficiency = (number of drives -1)/(number of drives) RAID 10 (number of drives / 2) X (capacity of smallest drive) RAID 50 (number of drives - number of groups of drives) X (capacity of the

smallest drive)

Through drive coercion, the capacity used for each drive is rounded down so that drives from differing manufacturers are more likely to be able to be used as spares for each other. The capacity used for each drive is rounded down to the nearest GB for drives under 45 GB (45,000,000,000), and rounded down to the nearest 5 GBytes for drives over 45 GB. For example, a 44.3 GB drive will be rounded down to 44 GBytes, and a 123 GB drives will be rounded. down to 120 GBytes. For more information, see the discussion of drive coercion under

“Creating a Hot Spare” on page 92.

Support for Over 2 Te rabytes

Windows 2000, Windows XP, Linux 2.4, and FreeBSD 4.x, do not currently recognize unit capacity in excess of 2 TB.

If the combined capacity of the drives to be connected to a unit exceeds 2 Terabytes (TB), you can enable auto-carving when you configure your units.

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Introducing the 3ware 9000 Series Controller

Auto-carving divides the available unit capacity into multiple chunks of 2 TB or smaller that can be addressed by the operating systems as separate volumes.

For more information, see See “Multi LUN Support and Auto-Carving” on page 79.

3ware Tools for Configuration and Management

3ware software tools lets you easily configure the drives attached to your 3ware RAID controller, specifying which drives should be used together as a RAID unit and the type of RAID configuration you want, and designating hot spares for use if a drive degrades.

3ware provides several tools for use in configuring and managing units attached to the 3ware controller:

 3BM (3ware BIOS Manager)  3DM 2 (3ware Disk Manager)  3ware CLI (Command Line Interface)

3BM (3ware BIOS Manager)

3BM is a BIOS level tool for creating, deleting, and maintaining disk arrays, rebuilding arrays, designating hot spares, and setting controller policies. 3BM is the tool most frequently used to configure units immediately after installation of the controller, but can also be used after installation to maintain the controller and associated drives.

For general information about working with 3BM, see “3ware BIOS Manager (3BM)” on page 19.

3DM 2 (3ware Disk Manager)

3DM is a daemon (under Linux) and a service (under Windows) which runs in the background on the controller’s host system, and can be accessed through a web browser to provide ongoing monitoring and administration of the controller and associated drives. 3DM supports hot spare and hot swap for redundant units.

3DM can be used locally (on the system that contains the 9000) or remotely (on a system connected via a network to the system containing the 9000).

For details about working with 3DM, see “3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)” on page 27.

14 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Monitoring, Maintenance,

3DM 2 is the current version of the 3ware Disk Manager. Throughout this manual, it is referred to interchangeably as 3DM and 3DM 2.

3ware CLI (Command Line Interface)

The 3ware CLI provides the functionality available in 3DM through a Command Line Interface. You can view unit status and version information and perform maintenance functions such as adding or removing drives, and reconfiguring RAID units online. You also use it to remotely administer controllers in a system by first logging into the system.

The 3ware CLI is described in 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller CLI Guide.

Monitoring, Maintenance, and Troubleshooting Features

Several 3ware RAID controller features aid in monitoring and troubleshooting your drives.

 SMART Monitoring (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting

Technology) automatically checks a disk drive's health every 24 hours and reports potential problems. This allows you to take proactive steps to prevent impending disk crashes. SMART data is checked on all disk drives (array members, single disks, and hot spares). Monitoring of SMART thresholds can be turned on and off in 3DM. (For details, see “V iewin g SMART Data About a Drive” on page 118.)

 Staggered Spinup allows drives that support this feature to be powered-

up into the standby power management state to minimize in-rush current at power-up and to allow the controller to sequence the spin-up of drives. Both SATAII OOB and ATA spin-up methods are supported. The standby power management state is persistent after power-down and power-up. You can set the number of drives that will spin up at the same time, and the time between staggers in 3BM (the 3ware BIOS Management utility). For details, see

 Verification and Media Scans. The verify task verifies all redundant

units, and checks for media errors on single disks, spares, JBODS and RAID 0 unit members. If the disk drive is part of a redundant unit, error locations that are found and are deemed repairable are rewritten with the redundant data. This forces the drive firmware to reallocate the error sectors accordingly.

“Enabling and Setting Up Staggered Spinup” on page 78.

 Error Correction. Bad sectors can be dynamically repaired through error

correction (Dynamic Sector Repair). Reallocation of blocks will try to be based intelligently on the location of the block in relation to the stripe.

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Introducing the 3ware 9000 Series Controller

 Scheduled Background Tasks. Initialize, rebuild, verify, and self-test

tasks can all be run in the background, at scheduled times. This lets you choose a time for these tasks to be run when it will be least disruptive to your system. You can also define the rate at which background tasks are performed, specifying whether I/O tasks should be given more processing time, or background rebuild and verify tasks should be given more processing time.

 Write Cache. Write cache can be enabled or disabled using 3BM, 3DM2

and CLI. When write cache is enabled, data will be stored in system cache, 3ware controller cache, and drive cache before the data is committed to disk. This allows the system to process multiple write commands at the same time, thus improving performance. However when data is stored in cache, it could be lost if a power failure occurred. With a Battery Backup Unit (BBU) installed, the cache stored on the 3ware controller can be restored. For more information, see Driver Under Windows XP” on page 146.

“Updating the 3ware

16 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Getting Started with Your 3ware RAID Controller

Setting up your 3ware RAID controller involves these main steps:

 Physically Install the Controller and Drives  Configure the RAID Unit and Drives  Install the Drivers and Make the Operating System Aware of the New

Drives

 Set Up Management and Maintenance Features

Once the controller and drives have been physically installed, the order in which you perform these steps depends in part on whether one of the units you configure will act as your boot drive.

Physically Install the Controller and Drives

To install your controller and drives, follow the instructions in 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller Installation Guide. If you do not have a

hardcopy of this manual, you can download it from the 3ware website at http:/ /www.3ware.com/support/userdocs.asp

Configure the RAID Unit and Drives

You may want to review the information under “Understanding RAID Concepts and Levels” on page 8 before configuring your drives. This information will help you choose the appropriate RAID level for your situation.

If you will install the operating system on and boot from a drive managed through the new 3ware RAID controller, use the 3ware BIOS Manager (3BM) to define the configuration. You will find step-by-step instructions in the installation guide, following the instructions for installing the card.

www.3ware.com 17

Getting Started with Your 3ware RAID Controller

Information about using 3BM is also included in this user guide, but the installation guide offers a sequential set of steps for initial installation.

If the operating system is already installed on another drive in your system, you can configure the drives through either 3BM or through 3ware Disk Manager (3DM). If you want to use 3DM for configuration, go ahead and boot to the OS, install the drivers and the 3DM 2 software, and then configure your units. For details about using 3DM, see on page 27.

Note: The ability to configure RAID units, single drives, and hot

spares through 3DM is new with version 2 of 3DM (3DM 2). If you previously used 3DM version 1.x, configuration was not available in that version.

Install the Drivers and Make the Operating System Aware of the New Drives

Complete instructions for installing drivers and completing the installation under Windows, Red Hat Linux, SuSE Linux, and FreeBSD are provided in 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller Installation Guide.

“3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)”

You will also find instructions for updating the driver under “Updating the Driver and Firmware” on page 140.

Set Up Management and Maintenance Features

3ware RAID controllers come with software that include a number of features to help you manage and maintain the controller and your configured units. The default settings for these features allow you to begin using your newly configured units right away. You can review and change these features as a final step in your initial setup, or you can make changes to them later, at your convenience. These features include:

 Controller and unit policies, such as staggered spinup, use of write cache,

and how unconfigured disks (JBODs) are handled

 Email notification of alarms and other events  Schedules for when background tasks will be performed, to minimize the

impact on day-to-day performance during peak usage times.

Details about these features are described in this user guide and can be looked up individually. When you first set up your controller, you may want to review these sections in particular:

 “Configuring Your Controller” on page 73  “Setting Unit Policies through 3DM” on page 97  “Setting Background Task Rate” on page 124  “Scheduling Background Tasks” on page 125

18 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

3ware BIOS Manager (3BM)

This section describes the basics of using 3ware BIOS Manager (3BM), one of the tools you can use to configure and maintain the units connected to your 3ware 9000-series RAID controller.

For information about doing particular tasks in 3BM, refer to the later sections in this guide.

Note: While the basics of working with 3BM for the 9000 series

are similar to working with the 3ware Disk Array Configuration utility for the 7000 and 8000 series, the screens have changed, and some additional features are provided. If you have a 7000- or 8000series controller, the BIOS screens you see will be somewhat different than those shown in this chapter. For instructions specific to the BIOS manager for 3ware 7000- and 8000-series controllers, see the 3ware Escalade ATA User Guide for 7000 & 8000 Series Controllers, available from the 3ware website,

www.3ware.com/support/userdocs.asp

http://

This section is organized into the following topics:

 “Starting 3BM” on page 20  “Working in the 3BM Screens” on page 22  “Displaying Advanced Details” on page 25  “Getting Help While Using 3BM” on page 25  “Exiting the 3BM Configuration Utility” on page 26

www.3ware.com 19

3ware BIOS Manager (3BM)

Starting 3BM

You access 3BM during the start-up process for your computer.

To start 3BM

1 Power up or reboot your system. 2 While the system is starting, watch for a screen similar to Figure 5.

3ware ATA RAID Controller: Escalade 9500S-12 BIOS: BE9X X.XX.XX.XXX Firmware: FE9X X.XX.XX.XXX

Unit 0 - Mirror 111.74GB Port 0 - IC35L120AVVA07-0 115.03 GB Port 1 - IC35L120AVVA07-0 115.03 GB

Following drives will not be exported to OS: Port 2 - IC35L120AVVA07-0 115.03 GB Unconfigured Disk Port 3 - IC35L120AVVA07-0 115.03 GB Unconfigured Disk

----Press <Alt-3> to access 3ware BIOS Manager ----

Figure 5. 3ware BIOS Screen

3 Press Alt-3 immediately to bring up the 3ware BIOS Manager (3BM).

Normally your 3ware configuration remains on-screen for just a few seconds. However, if a unit has degraded, the screen indicates the problem and remains on your screen longer.

4 If you have more than one 9000-series controller in your system, a screen

lists the available boards. (See

Figure 6.) In this case, highlight the board

with which you want to work and press Enter.

Figure 6. 3ware Controller Board Selection Screen

20 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Starting 3BM

You see a screen similar to Figure 7, warning you that changing your disk array configuration may overwrite data on the disks.

If you plan to make changes to your configuration and need to backup data before continuing, press ESC and do so now. Otherwise, press any key to continue.

Figure 7. Warning Message When you Start 3BM

If a 3BM detects a degraded array, a red message box appears, to alert you to the problem. For information about rebuilding a degraded array, see “Rebuilding Units” on page 130

Note: If you have a combination of 7000/8000-series and

9000-series controllers in your system, the 7000/8000-series controllers are not listed on the selection screen shown in Figure 6. Instead, an additional BIOS summary will appear for the 7000/8000-series controller, similar to Figure 5. To access the BIOS utility for the 7000/8000-series board, press Alt-3 when the information for that controller appears, to enter the BIOS software. Although similar to 3BM, some screens and features are different for the 7000/8000-series. For detailed information, see the version of the 3ware Escalade ATA RAID Controller User Guide that supports the 7000 and 8000 series controllers.

If you have two 9000 controllers that have different versions of the BIOS installed, they will also appear in different BIOS summaries, and will launch different versions of 3BM.

www.3ware.com 21

3ware BIOS Manager (3BM)

Working in the 3BM Screens

The main 3BM screen (Figure 8) shows the current configuration for the drives attached to your controller, and a list of any available drives. Unusable and incomplete drives are also shown.

Figure 8. 3BM Main Display

You will see one or more of the following sections in the main 3BM screen:

 Available Drives lists any unconfigured, independent drives (JBODs)

that are not associated with an array, and hot spares. If this section does not appear, there are no available drives.

 Exportable Units lists the existing units, along with the drives contained

in each. These are the units that will be available to the operating system when you boot your computer. If this section does not appear, no units have been configured.

If you have more than one unit, the boot unit is the one at the top of the list. (You can change the order by highlighting a unit and pressing the PgUp or PgDn key.)

 Unusable Arrays lists any RAID configuration missing too many drives

to construct the unit. For example, a RAID 5 unit with two or more drives missing would appear in this list.

 Incomplete Drives and Others lists drives that are remaining from a unit

with missing or failed drives, drives that are not usable, and drives that were part of a unit on a 3ware 7000/8000-series controller, and contain data that needs to be updated before your 3ware 9000 series controller can use them. (If you want to move a unit from a 7/8000 controller to the 9000 controller, you must convert the drives first. For more information, see the

22 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Working in the 3BM Screens

section “Replacing an Existing Controller with a New Controller,” in the 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller Installation Guide.)

When some of the drives are remaining from a unit, you can power down and add the missing drives to complete the unit. To use drives that are listed here in other units, you must first delete them. For more information, see

“Deleting a Unit” on page 103.

If any of the sections are not shown, it means that there are no items of that type connected to the controller.

Table 4 lists how to move around and select information in the 3BM screens. When these commands are available in 3BM, they appear at the bottom of the 3BM screen.

Table 4: Working in 3BM

T o do this Use these keys

Move between units or drives in a list, and between fields, and buttons

Select (or unselect) what is currently highlighted.

A selection may be a drive in a list of drives, a button at the bottom of the screen, or a field in the middle of the screen.

In lists, an asterisk appears to the left of selected drives or units

Display a drop-down list of available choices in a field

Move between choices in a field list Up and Down Arrow Keys Select all available drives Alt+A Highlight one of the primary buttons on

the main screen:

 Create  Delete  Maintain  Rebuild  Policy  BBU

Up and Down Arrow Keys OR Left and Right Arrow Keys OR Tab and Shift+Tab

Enter or the Spacebar

Enter

Alt+C Alt+D Alt+M Alt+R Alt+P Alt-B

Specify (or unspecify) a drive as a hot spare

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3ware BIOS Manager (3BM)

Table 4: Working in 3BM

T o do this Use these keys

Unlock the drives in a unit, so that they can be removed and used with a controller other than a 9000-series controller.

Return to starting values for this session in the 3ware BIOS Manager

Display the Advanced Detail screen, where you can see the software versions (BIOS, Firmware, monitor), serial number, controller and model number, cache memory size, slot # of the 3ware card, and whether or not BBU-support is available.)

Return to the main 3ware BIOS Manager screen, from the Advanced Details screen

Move a highlighted unit up or down in the list of exportable units

(The top-most unit will become the bootable unit, if you install the OS.)

R (Remove)

Note: F6 cannot bring back previous policy settings; they are saved when you exit the Policy screen.

Shift+F5

Any key

Page Up Page Down [Available only when there are multiple units and a unit is highlighted.]

Display context sensitive help F1 or Alt-F1 If you have multiple 3ware controllers in

your system, return to the board selection screen.

Exit the utility and save or abandon all changes.

Exit the utility and save all changes F8

Esc

24 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Displaying Advanced Details

The Advanced Details screen shows you details about your controller, and about the version of associated software installed on your system.

To see the advanced details

 Press Shift+F5 from the main screen.

(Note that the particular versions shown in the screen shot below may not be current.)

Displaying Advanced Details

Figure 9. Advanced Detail Screen

To return to the main screen

 Press any key.

Getting Help While Using 3BM

You can get help with using 3BM while you are in the BIOS manager.

 Press F1 or Alt-F1 at any time.

A description of the basic 3BM tasks appears. When you’re finished using help, press Esc to close the help window.

www.3ware.com 25

3ware BIOS Manager (3BM)

Exiting the 3BM Configuration Utility

When you are ready to exit the 3BM configuration utility , yo u have the option to save the configuration changes you have made, or to discard the changes.

To save your configuration modifications

1 Press the F8 or Esc key.

A list of affected drives appears, and a messages ask you to confirm the configuration.

2Type Y.

The booting process resumes.

To exit without saving changes

1 Press Esc. 2 If you have unsaved changes, 3BM will ask you whether you want to save

the changes and exit, or exit without saving the changes. If you want to exit without saving changes, type N. If you change your mind and want to save the changes, type Y.

Exception: Any changes made to policies are saved when you leave the

Policy screen. Pressing F8 is not required to save those changes. For details about changing policies, see on page 76.

“Setting Policies for a Controller through 3BM”

26 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)

Note: 3DM 2 includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project

for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit (http://www.openssl.org/).

3ware Disk Manager 2 (3DM 2), allows you to view the status of and manage 3ware RAID controllers and associated drives. 3DM runs as a service under Microsoft Windows, and as a daemon under Linux. When it is running, you can use your browser to view status and perform administrative tasks locally or remotely.

3DM 2 can display information about 3ware RAID 7000-, 8000 - and 9000series RAID controllers. However, some version 2 features are only available for 9000-series controllers.

Two levels of access are provided: user and administrator. Users have viewonly access—they can check the status of drives and units—while Administrators can view and make changes, using 3DM to configure RAID units and designate hot spares, and to perform maintenance tasks on RAID units.

In this section overview, information is organized into the following topics:

 “Browser Requirements for 3DM” on page 28  “Installing 3DM” on page 29  “Starting 3DM and Logging In” on page 34  “Wor king with the 3DM Screens” on page 37  “Setting Up 3DM Preferences” on page 41  “3DM 2 Reference” on page 45, which contains information about the

fields and settings on each page in 3DM.

For additional information about doing particular tasks in 3DM, see the remaining sections in this guide

www.3ware.com 27

3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)

Browser Requirements for 3DM

3DM runs in most current web browsers. Tested and supported browsers include:

 Mozilla 1.2 and above  Internet Explorer 5.5 and above

Additional requirements:

 JavaScript must be enabled  Cookies must be enabled  For best viewing, use a screen resolution of 1024 X 768 or greater, and set

colors to 16 bit color or greater.

Note: Because 3DM may be viewed in different browsers, the

format and style of the 3DM browser windows illustrated in this chapter are examples only. (Screenshots were taken in Internet Explorer.) The actual “look” of the windows will depend on the browser, 3DM version and operating system in use.

Setting up Mozilla

Details about accessing all ports, including port 888, by adding a list of ports to /Mozilla/default/all.js

Note: For security reasons, some web browsers do not allow

connections to certain ports including port-1080 and 888. To override this on a per-port basis, the Mozilla release notes recommend to add a comma-separated list of ports to default/all.js (in your Mozilla installation directory). For example, to unblock port 888, use the following line:

pref(“network.security.ports.banned.override”, “888”)

This file is located at:

/usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref/all.js

28 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Installing 3DM

3DM 2 can be installed from the main 3ware CD that came with your 3ware RAID controller. You can also download the current version from the website at http://www.3ware.com/support/download.asp.

3DM must be installed on the system in which the controller is installed. 3DM does not have to be installed on remote systems in order to remotely manage a 3ware controller.

During installation, you will be asked to enter the following preferences for 3DM use. (Each of these preferences can be changed later, from within 3DM.)

 The HTTP port to be used as the listening port  Whether remote access will be allowed  Whether you want email alerts to be sent when errors occur, and who

should receive them

Installing 3DM on a Microsoft Windows system

Installing 3DM

The 3ware RAID controller works with Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. The latest service packs should be installed for any Windows release.

To install 3DM on a Windows system

1 Insert the 3DM CD-ROM and click Install 3DM 2 when the menu

appears. Or, if you downloaded 3DM from the website, find the file setup.exe and

double-click it to launch the setup.

2 If a command window opens, press any key to begin the installation

process.

3 When the License Agreement screen appears, read and agree to the

license information; then let the InstallShield Wizard guide you through the installation process.

4On the 3DM Remote Monitoring and Security Configuration screen

Figure 10), use the settings to specify these things:

(see

 To change the HTTP port that 3DM will use as a listening port, check

the first box. If you do not know which port to use, leave the box unchecked and

use the default port.

 To allow remote administration, uncheck the second checkbox.

When the second checkbox is check ed, only localhost connections are allowed. Internet and Intranet connections are not allowed.

www.3ware.com 29

3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)

(You can change this setting later in 3DM.)

Figure 10. 3DM Remote Monitoring and Security Configuration Display

5 If the 3DM HTTP listening port setup screen appears, enter the HTTP

port you want to use. This screen only appears when you check the first box on the 3DM

Remote Monitoring and Security Configuration screen. (You can change this setting later within 3DM.)

6On the E-mail Notification Preferences screen (see Figure 11) use the

fields to specify initial email settings.

Note: If you do not want email alerts to be sent to anyone,

leave “None” in these fields and click Next to go on to the next screen.

 In the Server field, enter the name or IP address of your email server.

You can get the IP address of your mail server by typing

nslookup <file server name>

T o find the mail server name, ask your system administrator or check the e-mail preferences or setup options on your e-mail client.

 In the Recipients field, enter the e-mail address of the user who

should receive the 3DM e-mail status messages. Y o u may enter multiple e-mail addresses, separating each entry with a

comma (,).

 In the Sender field, enter the email address from which the email

notifications will be sent. This is typically the local host name.

30 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

(You can change these settings later within 3DM.)

SCSI

Figure 11. 3DM E-mail Notification Preferences

Installing 3DM

7 Continue with the installation as prompted, clicking Next to move to the

next screen, and Finish when you reach the last screen. 3DM Installation gives you the option of starting 3DM and opening the

browser window.

8 If you elect to launch the web interface, a Security Alert may appear, as

shown in

Figure 12. Click Yes continue.

You may install the certificate if you do not want to see this alert in the future. To do so, click View Certificate and then click Install Certificate.

Figure 12. Security Alert dialog box

9 When the first 3DM screen appears in your browser, log in as

Administrator and use the default password,

www.3ware.com 31

3ware.

3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)

Notes: You can start 3DM later by choosing 3DM from the Start menu.

If you change, add, or remove an IP address, or change the machine name of the machine on which you have installed 3DM 2, you will need to recreate the security certificate. You can do so by re-installing 3DM 2, or by deleting the file 3dm2.pem and restarting the 3DM 2 service. Under Windows, this file is located in the same directory in which you installed 3DM 2 . Under Linux, the file resides in /etc/3dm2. You may also want to delete the installed/cached security certificate from your browser.

Uninstalling 3DM under Microsoft Windows

Use the Add or Remove Programs control panel to uninstall 3DM.

 From the Startup menu, choose Control Panels > Add or Remove

Programs.

 In the Add or Remove Programs control panel, select 3DM and click

Change/Remove.

Installing 3DM for Linux or FreeBSD

You can install 3DM from the command line, or from a GUI. The steps below describe how to install 3DM from the command line. If you are using a GUI, you can access the CD-ROM and folders from the windows in the GUI.

Note: If you downloaded 3DM_Linux.zip from the website, unzip

the file to root (or to any other working directory) and change Directory (CD) to that directory (for example: the following procedure at step 3, substitutin g your installation directory.

To start the installation

1 Insert the 3ware software installation CD-ROM for Linux into the CD-

ROM drive.

2 Mount the CD-ROM disk:

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt

3 Change the directory and run the install script:

/root). Then start

/mnt with /root or

For Linux:32-bit x86 systems

cd /mnt/packages/3dm2/linux/x86 ./install.3dm

For Linux:64-bit systems

cd /mnt/packages/3dm2/linux/x86_64 ./install.3dm

32 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Installing 3DM

For FreeBSD 32-bit x86 systems:

cd /mnt/packages/3dm2/freebsd/x86 ./install.3dm

To specify initial setup for 3DM 2

During installation, you will be prompted with a series of questions that determine initial 3DM settings. You can change these later, from within 3DM.

(The first question appears for Linux, but not for FreeBSD.)

1 Was RPM used to install the Escalade driver and/or 3DM?

The default answer is no. (“RPM” stands for RedHat Package Manager.)

2 Please enter the location of the help documentation (default

is /usr/local/doc/3dm)

Press Enter to accept the default location and display the next question, or enter the path at which you want the documentation to be installed.

3 Would you like to have e-mail notification enabled (Y/N)?

E-mail notification sends an email message when an event occurs. The default answer to this question is “yes”. If you enable e-mail notification you will be asked to provide additional

information: the name of the mail server, the user name for the person who will send the E-mail notification (typically the local host name) and the user name for the person who will receive the e-mail notification (typically the system administrator).

Please enter the name of your mail server: (default is local host name) Please enter the name of the user you want sending e-mail notification: (default is root) Please enter the name of the user you want receiving e-mail notification: (default is 3ware_admin)

To enter multiple e-mail addresses, separate them by a comma or a semicolon:

4 Please enter the port number you would like to use for web

monitoring (default is 888)

If you do not know what port to use, select the default:

5 Would you like 3DM connection security to limit connections

to localhost only? (default is yes)

If you want to be able to use 3DM for remote administration, change this to No.

6 Change the directory and then eject the CD-ROM disk when finished:

cd /home eject cdrom

www.3ware.com 33

3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)

Uninstalling 3DM under Linux or FreeBSD

To uninstall 3DM for Linux or FreeBSD

1 Insert the 3ware software installation CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive. 2 Mount the CD-ROM disk:

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt

3 Change the directory and run the uninstall script:

(For FreeBSD, replace “linux” with “freebsd” in the path shown in this step.)

For Linux:32-bit x86 systems

cd /mnt/packages/3dm2/linux/x86 ./install.3dm --u

For Linux:64-bit systems

cd /mnt/packages/3dm2/linux/x86_64 ./install.3dm --u

Note that if you downloaded 3DM from the web, replace “/mnt/” in the previous command with “/root/”

4 Eject the CD-ROM disk when finished:

cd /home eject cdrom

Note: If 3DM Linux is reinstalled or restarted, close any open

web browsers before starting 3DM again to close the server socket.

Starting 3DM and Logging In

3DM runs as a service under Windows, and as a daemon under Linux. It is a good idea to leave 3DM running on the system that contains your 3ware

RAID controller. That way email alerts can be sent by 3DM, and administrators can manage the controller remotely , if remote administration is enabled.

You can access the 3DM screens to check status information and manage your 3ware RAID controller by logging in to the 3DM screens in your browser.

34 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Starting 3DM under Linux

3DM should start automatically after installation and upon bootup.

To start 3DM manually

1 Login as root. 1 Afterwards, type:

For Red Hat Linux:

/etc/rc.d/init.d/3dm start

For SuSE Linux:

/etc/rc.d/3dm start

2 Open your browser and enter the URL for your system.

The default URL is https://localhost:888/ for 32-bit versions of Linux.

For 64-bit versions of Linux, use: http://localhost:888/ (Note that 32-bit versions require https, while 64-bit versions require

http—without the “s.”)

Starting 3DM and Logging In

You can also replace “localhost” with the IP address of the computer that contains the 3ware controller. For example: https://<IP address>:888/

Note: If you are using a 64-bit AMD processor with a 64-bit version of

Linux, use “http://” instead of “https://”. The 3DM login screen appears.

Starting 3DM under Microsoft Windows

 From the Start menu, choose Programs > 3ware > 3DM 2.

Your default browse r opens and displays the URL for your local controller.

The default URL is https://localhost:888/. You can also replace “localhost” with the IP address of the computer that

contains the 3ware controller. For example: https://<IP address>:888/

Note: If you close your browser, 3DM continues to run in the

background on the system.

www.3ware.com 35

3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)

Viewing 3DM Remotely via a Standard Web Browser

When remote administration is enabled, you can use 3DM to check status and administer your 3ware RAID controller from a browser on any computer, over an internet connection.

You do not need to install the 3DM software on the remote computer. Remote connections can be enabled or disabled from the 3DM 2 Settings

Page.

 In the address line of your browser, enter the URL or IP of the system

containing the 3ware RAID controller. If you don’t know the URL or IP for the system, you can contact your

network administrator or from a Windows command prompt, type

ipconfig

. From a Linux command prompt, type ifconfig.

Logging In

When you first view 3DM in a browser, you must log in before you can view or change any information.

Two levels of access are provided:

 Users can check the status of the controller, units, and drives attached to

it.

 Administrators can check status, configure, and maintain the equipment.

(Administrator and User status in 3DM is not related to Administrator/User settings in the operating system.)

To log in to 3DM

1 On the 3DM logon screen, select whether you are a User or

Administrator.

2 Enter your password and click Login.

If you are logging in for the first time after installing 3DM, the default password for both User and Administrator is

Note: If you forget the passwords, uninstalling and reinstalling

3ware.

3DM resets the passwords to 3ware.

36 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Working with the 3DM Screens

3DM’s features are organized on a series of pages you view in your browser. After you log in to 3DM, the Summary page shows a list of controllers

installed in the computer at the URL you specified.

Note: If you expect to see a controller that is not listed, it may not

be compatible with the driver that is loaded; a firmware flash upgrade may be required.

Figure 13. 3DM Main Screen

The menu bar across the top of the screen gives you access to other pages in 3DM. You can move between pages by using the menu bar, or by clicking a link on the page.

The main area of the page provides summary or detail information about your 3ware RAID controller and the resources connected to it.

As you work in 3DM, the Messages area just below the menu bar displays information about the results of commands you have selected.

www.3ware.com 37

3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)

3DM Menus

The 3DM menu bar groups access to a number of 3DM pages on menus, and provides direct link access to others.

Figure 14. 3DM Menu Bar

Status information is available from the Information menu. You can view controller, unit, and drive information for a particular controller.

The Management menu gives you access to tasks used for managing controller-level settings (background task rate, unit names, enabling of unit write cache, and policies that affect all units managed by the controller), tasks that can be scheduled (rebuild, verify, and self-test), and maintenance of individual units. Unit configuration can also be done throug h the Management > Maintenance page.

The Monitor menu gives you access to the Alarms page and the BBU page. The Alarms page shows a list of alarms, including the specific alarm message, and the exact date and time it occurred. The BBU page shows the status of a Battery Backup Unit (BBU), if one is installed, and allows you to test the battery.

The 3DM 2 Settings page lets you set preferences, including email notification for alarms, passwords, page refresh frequency, whether remote access is permitted, and the incoming port which 3DM will use for listening.

Help lets you access information about using 3DM, and provides access to an electronic copy of this User Guide.

38 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Working with the 3DM Screens

Viewing Information About Different Controllers in 3DM

If you have more than one controller in the system, you select the one you want to see details about from the drop-down list at the right of the menu bar.

This drop-down is available on all pages that provide controller-specific features.

Note: Throughout these instructions, current controller is used to

refer to the controller which is currently selected in this drop-down list.

Refreshing the Screen

You can refresh the data on the screen at any time by clicking Refresh Page in the menu bar. This causes 3DM to update the information shown with current information from the controller and associated drives.

Automatic refreshes can also be set. For details, see “Setting the Frequency of Page Refreshes” on page 43.

Note: If you click Refresh on the browser window, you will be

taken back to the Summary page.

3DM Screens and What They're Used For

Table 5 shows a list of the pages you work with in 3DM and describes what they are used for. Details about each page and the fields and features on it are provided in the section Table 5 provide links to details about that page.

Table 5: List of 3DM Pages

3DM Page Description

Controller Summary Page

“3DM 2 Reference” on page 45. The page names in

Provides basic information about each 3ware RAID controller in your system. To see this page, click Summary in the menu bar.

Controller Details Page

www.3ware.com 39

Provides detailed information about the current controller. To see this page, choose Information > Controller

Details

from the menu bar.

3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)

Table 5: List of 3DM Pages

3DM Page Description

Unit Information Page Shows a list of the units on the current controll e r an d

Unit Details Page Shows details about a particular unit.

provides summary information about each unit. To see this page, choose Information > Unit

Information

on the Controller Summary.

To see this page, click an ID number on the Unit Information page.

from the menu bar or click an ID number

Drive Information Page

SMART Details About Drive at Particular Port Page

Controller Settings Page

Scheduling Page Lets you view and change the schedule for tasks that

Maintenance Page Lets you configure new units and make changes to

Alarms Page Shows a list of alarms, including the specific alarm

Shows a list of drives on the current controller and provides summary information about each drive. To see this page, choose Information > Drive

Information

Shows the SMART data for a specific drive. To see this page, click the Port # for a drive on the Drive Information page.

Lets you view and change settings that affect the units on the current controller.

To see this page, choose Management > Controller

Settings

affect all units on the current controller. To see this page, choose Management >

Scheduling

existing units. To view this page, choose Management >

Maintenance

message, and the exact date and time it occurred. To view this page, choose Monitor > Alarms on the menu bar.

from the menu bar.

Battery Backup Page Shows the status of a Battery Backup Uni t (BBU ), i f one

is installed, and allows you to test the battery. To view this page, choose Monitor > Battery

Backup

3DM 2 Settings Page Lets you set preferences, including email notification for

alarms, passwords, page refresh frequency, whether remote access is permitted, and the incoming port which 3DM will use for listening. To view this page, click 3DM 2 Settings on the menu bar.

on the menu bar.

40 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Setting Up 3DM Preferences

The 3DM 2 Settings page lets you define preference settings that affect the overall operation of 3DM. Most of these settings are specified initially during installation of 3DM.

On the 3DM 2 Settings page you can perform the following tasks:

 Setting and Changing 3DM Passwords  Managing E-mail Event Notification  Enabling and Disabling Remote Access  Setting the Incoming Port #  Setting the Frequency of Page Refreshes

Setting and Changing 3DM Passwords

3DM provides different access levels for users and administrators. The Administrator access level allows the user to fully configure 3DM. The

User access level allows the user to view pages within 3DM. These passwords work independently of each other.

Setting Up 3DM Preferences

The default password for both the User and Administrator is “3ware”. Passwords are case sensitive. You can only change passwords if you are logged in as Administrator. If you

change the Administrator password, you will be automatically logged out, and must log back in with the new password.

To set or change the password

1 Click 3DM 2 Settings on the 3DM menu bar. 2On the 3DM 2 Settings Page, in the Password section, select the type of

password you want to change: User or Administrator.

3 Type the current password in the Current Password field.

If you are changing the password for the first time, the factory-set default password is

3ware.

4 Enter the new password in the New Password field and again in the

Confirm New Password field.

5 Click the Change Password button to enact the change.

Note: If you forget your password, you can uninstall 3DM and then

reinstall it. This will reset the password to the default password, 3ware.

www.3ware.com 41

3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)

Managing E-mail Event Notification

3DM can notify you when the 3ware RAID controller requires attention, such as when a disk unit becomes degraded and is no longer fault tolerant.

Event notification can only occur while 3DM is running, so it is recommended that 3DM be left running on the system that contains the 3ware RAID controller.

When events occur, notification can be e-mailed to one or more recipients. You can specify the type of events for which notifications will be sent by selecting the severity:

 Information will send e-mails for all alarms  Warning will send e-mail for alarms with severity of Warning and Error

only.

 Error will send e-mail for alarms with severity of Error only.

For more information about events and alarms, see “Viewing Alarms” on page 117.

Event notification is initially set up during 3DM installation, but can be changed on the 3DM 2 Settings page.

To set up event notification

1 Click 3DM 2 Settings on the menu bar. 2In the E-mail Notification section of the 3DM 2 Settings Page, enter or

change the settings you want.

 Enable or Disable all notifications.  Set the severity level of events for which e-mail notifications are sent.  Specify the email address of the sender. This will appear in the

“From” field of the e-mail.

 Enter the e-mail address(es) to which notifications are sent. (Separate

multiple addresses with a comma (,) or a semicolon (;).

 Enter the SMTP server name or IP of your mail server.

3Click Save E-mail Settings.

To send a test message

You can send a test message to make sure you’ve entered the e-mail notification settings correctly.

 Click Send Test Message.

42 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Setting Up 3DM Preferences

Enabling and Disabling Remote Access

When remote access is enabled, a user can connect to 3DM over the internet or an intranet, to check status or administer the controller and associated drives.

If remote access is disabled and a user attempts to connect to 3DM remotely, they will see the following error message: “Remote Access to 3DM has been disabled. Please connect using the local machine by entering “localhost” in the URL bar.”

Remote access can be enabled or disabled on the 3DM 2 Settings page.

To enable or disable remote access

1 Click 3DM 2 Settings on the menu bar. 2In the Remote Access section of the 3DM 2 Settings Page, select either

Enabled or Disabled in the Allow Remote Connections field. The page refreshes, and a message at the top of the screen confirms that

remote access has been enabled or disabled.

Setting the Incoming Port #

You can set the port which 3DM uses to listen for incoming messages. If you are not sure which port would be the best to use, leave this set to the default port of 888.

To set the incoming port

1 Click 3DM 2 Settings on the menu bar. 2In the Incoming Port # section of the 3DM 2 Settings Page, enter the port

number in the Listening Port field.

3Click Change Port.

The page refreshes, and a message at the top of the screen confirms that the listening port has been changed.

Setting the Frequency of Page Refreshes

Since the status of the drives attached to your 3ware RAID controller can change while you are viewing information about them in 3DM, it’ s important to refresh the page information regularly. That way you can be assured that the information you see in 3DM is current.

You can manually refresh the information on a page by clicking Refresh Page in the menu bar. But you can also have 3DM refresh the information on a regular basis.

www.3ware.com 43

3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)

To set the frequency of page refreshes

1 Click 3DM 2 Settings on the menu bar. 2In the Page Refresh section of the 3DM 2 Settings Page, select how often

you want the page to be refreshed in the Minutes Between Refresh field.

Note: If you don’t want 3DM to refresh the screen automatically,

select Never in the Minutes Between Refresh field. You can then refresh manually by clicking Refresh on your web browser.

44 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

3DM 2 Reference

This section includes details about the fields and features available on the pages you work with throughout 3DM 2. It is organized b y page, as t he pages are organized on the 3DM menu bar.

 Controller Summary Page  Controller Details Page  Unit Information Page  Unit Details Page  Drive Information Page  SMART Details About Drive at Particular Port Page  Controller Settings Page  Scheduling Page  Maintenance Page  Alarms Page

3DM 2 Reference

 Battery Backup Page  3DM 2 Settings Page

Controller Summary Page

Figure 15. Controller Summary Page

www.3ware.com 45

3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)

Note: The software version shown in the screenshots in this

manual are preliminary examp les only. For the current released and tested version number, refer to the 9000 release notes.

The Summary page appears after you first logon to 3DM, and when you click the Summary link in the menu bar.

The Summary page provides basic information about each 3ware RAID controller in your system. To see details about the units in a controller, click the link in the ID column.

ID. The ID that the operating system assigns to the controller.

Note: The controller ID you see in 3DM 2 may not match the

number that you see for the same controller in 3DM version 1.x.

Model. The model name of the controller. (The model number is also printed

on a sticker on the outside bracket of the controller.)

Serial #. The serial number of the controller. (The serial number is also

printed on a sticker on the outside bracket of the controller.)

Firmware. The firmware version running on the controller. Driver. The driver version being used to interact with the controller. Status. The overall status of the controller. Possible statuses include OK,

Warning, Error, and No Units. Warning indicates that a background task is currently being performed (rebuilding, migrating, or initializing). Error indicates that a unit is degraded or inoperable. If both Error and Warning conditions exist, the status will appear as Error.

46 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Controller Details Page

3DM 2 Reference

Figure 16. Controller Details Page

The Controller Details page appears when you choose Information > Controller Details from the menu bar.

The Controller Details page provides detailed information about the controller specified in the drop-down list on the menu bar.

You can also open or download an error log from this screen.

Model. The model name of the controller. Serial #. The serial number of the controller. Firmware. The firmware version running on the controller. Driver. The driver version being used to interact with the controller. BIOS. The BIOS version on the controller. Monitor. The Monitor version on the controller.This field appears only for

7000- and 8000-series controllers.)

Boot Loader. Boot Loader version on the controller. This field appears only

for 9000-series controllers.

# of Ports. The number of total ports on the controller, regardless of whether

each currently has a drive connected.

# of Units. The number of units on the controller.

# of Drives. The number of drives connected to the controller. Download Error Log: Click on this link to download the firmware error log

to your computer. This feature is important when contacting AMCC for

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3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)

support with your controller. It will help AMCC identify the problem you encountered.

Unit Information Page

Figure 17. Unit Information Page

The Unit Information page appears when you choose Information > Unit Information from the menu bar, or when you click an ID number on the

Controller Summary page. The Unit Information page shows a list of the units on the controller specified

in the drop-down list on the menu bar and provides summary information about each unit.

To see details about a particular unit, click the link in the Unit # column.

Unit #. The unit number assigned to the unit by the firmware. For 9000-series

controllers, unit numbers are in sequential order.

Name. If a name has been given to this unit, it shows here. If it is empty, no

name has been assigned. You can name your unit in the Unit Names section of the Management > Controller Settings page.

Type. The type of unit, specified during configuration: RAID 0, RAID 1,

RAID 5, RAID 10, RAID 50, Single Disk, JBOD, or Spare. For details about each of the RAID levels, see

“Understanding RAID Concepts and Levels” on

page 8.

Capacity. The logical capacity (size) of the unit.

48 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Note: 3DM 2 displays the capacity (in MBytes or GBytes) the

same way that Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems do: as 1KB = 1024 bytes. Previous versions of 3DM 1.x used the 1KB = 1000 bytes definition. Consequently capacities of units listed under 3DM v 1.x may appear to be larger than they do under 3DM 2.

Status. The operational status of the unit: OK, Rebuilding, Initializing,

Migrating, Verifying, Degraded, or Inoperable (missing drives). When a unit is Rebuilding, Initializing, Migrating, or Verifying, the percentage (%) complete is also shown.

Unit Details Page

3DM 2 Reference

Figure 18. Unit Details Page

The Unit Details page appears when you click an ID number on the Unit Information page. Because it is a sub-page of Unit Information, the page title in the menu bar continues to display “Unit Information” even when you view details of a unit. To return to the list of units, click Unit Information in the menu bar.

The Unit Details page shows details about a particular unit. The specific information shown depends on what type of unit it is. For example, details about a RAID 5 unit made up of three subunits, each of which contains one drive, will include details about the unit and each subunit, as shown in

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Figure 18. However, if the unit is a Single Disk, only information about one disk will be shown.

Details on this page may include all or some of the following information described below .

To see details about a particular drive, click the Port #. You’ll see a list of all drives, with the drive you selected highlighted.

Status. The operational status of the unit or subunit: OK, Rebuilding,

Migrating, Initializing, Verifying, Degraded, or Inoperable (missing drives). When a unit is Rebuilding, Initializing, or Verifying, the percentage (%) complete is also shown.

Capacity. The total capacity of the unit (capacities of subunits are not shown). Type. The type of unit or subunit. RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, RAID

50, Single Disk, Spare, JBOD, or Disk

Volumes. Displays the number of volumes in a unit. This is usually 1. If you

have a unit with more than 2TB and you have enabled the auto-carving policy , you will see the number of volumes into which the unit has been divided. For more information, see

“Multi LUN Support and Auto-Carving” on page 79.

Stripe. The stripe size of the unit, if applicable. Subunits. If the unit has subunits, details of the subunits are shown. Port #. If the T ype is Disk, Single Disk, JB OD, or Spare, the port to which the

drive is connected is shown. For multiple drive units, the port numbers are shown in the subunits section. The port number is a link to the Drive Information page.

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Drive Information Page

3DM 2 Reference

Figure 19. Drive Information Page

The Drive Information page appears when you choose Information > Drive Information from the menu bar, or when you click a port # on the Unit

Details page. If you arrive at this page from the port # hyperlink on the Unit Information page, the line showing the port # you clicked on is highlighted.

The Drive Information page shows a list of drives on the controller specified in the drop-down list on the menu bar, and a summary of each one.

To see the SMART data for a drive, click the link in the Port # column.

Port #. The port to which the drive is connected. Model. The model of the drive. Capacity. The physical capacity of the drive. (Note that the capacity as shown

on 3DM screen is calculated as 1KB = 1024. This amount may differ from the capacity that is printed on the disk drive, where it typically has been calculated as 1K = 1000. Consequently, the capacity of the drive may appear smaller in the 3DM screens. No storage capacity is actually lost; the size has simply been calculated differently for consistency.

Serial #. The serial number of the drive. Firmware. The firmware version of the drive. Unit. The unit the drive belongs to, if applicable.

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Status. The status of the drive: OK, Not Supported, Read Timeout, Read

Failure, Orphan, DCB Data Check, Unsupp DCB, Unconv DCB, Offline JBOD, or Not Present. (In the event of a problem, the status shown for the drive can be useful to customer support.)

Note: In most cases, the status of the drive will not correspond to

the status of the unit, shown on the Unit Information page.

SMART Details About Drive at Particular Port Page

Figure 20. S.M.A.R.T Data Page

The SMART Details page appears when you click a Port # on the Drive Information page.

SMART data is displayed as hex values. Consult your disk drive manufacturer for information on how to interpret the

SMART data. The SMART data meaning varies by disk drive manufacturer and model.

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Controller Settings Page

3DM 2 Reference

Figure 21. Controller Settings Page

The Controller Settings page appears when you choose Management > Controller Settings from the menu bar.

The Controller Settings page lets you view and change settings that affect the units on the controller specified in the drop-down list on the menu bar.

Background Task Rate

The Background Task Rate fields let you change the balance of background tasks and I/O performed by the controller.

9000-series controllers show separate settings for Rebuild/Migrate Rate and Verify Rate, as shown in

Figure 21. The Rebuild/Migrate Rate also applies to initialization. Although the same rate is used for rebuilding, migrating, and initializing, migrating has the highest priority.

7000- and 8000-series controllers show only one setting for Task Rate; it applies to both rebuild and verify rates. Note that this rate is not persistent following a reboot for 7/8000 controllers.

The 5 radio buttons let you set the ratio at which background tasks are performed in comparison to I/O. The furthest left buttons set the firmware to the fastest settings for background tasks settings. This means, maximum

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processing time will be given to background tasks rather than I/O. The furthest right buttons set the firmware to the slowest background rates, giving maximum processing time to I/O.

For additional information, see“Setting Background Task Rate” on page 124.

Unit Policies

For units on 9000-series controllers, you can enable or disable three policies: Write Cache, Auto-verify and Continue on Sour ce Err or During Rebuild. 3DM lists each unit on the controller specified in the drop-down list on the menu bar, and shows you whether the policies are currently enabled or disabled for each unit.

This section does not appear for 7000- and 8000- series controllers.

Unit Write Cache. You can enable or disable write cache for each unit. 3DM

lists each unit on the controller specified in the drop-down list on the menu bar, and shows you whether the write cache is currently enabled or disabled for it.

Write cache is a combination of the physical hard drives’ write cache as well as the controller’s memory, depending on what type of unit you are using.

For 9000-series controllers, a Disable Write Cache on Unit Degrade setting can be set in 3ware BIOS Manager (3BM). You can see if this setting is enabled in the Other Controller Settings field at the bottom of this Controller Settings page. If Disable Write Cache on Unit Degrade is enabled, upon degrade of a unit, the write cache will automatically be disabled, even if you enable write cache in the Unit Write Cache field.

For additional information, see “Enabling and Disabling the Unit Write Cache” on page 95

Auto-verify. The Auto-verify policy causes verify tasks to be performed

automatically , whenever th e controller firmware algorithms determine that a verify task is needed. This feature is designed to make verification of units easier. When you check this box, the controller will run verify tasks as they are required.

If there is no schedule set up for verify tasks, then the controller firmware can initiate a verify task at any time. If a verify time window is scheduled, then the controller will not start a verify task for that unit outside the time window, and may or may not start a verify task for that unit within the time window, depending on whether one is needed.

If Auto-verify is not set and there is no schedule, you must manually specify when you want to run a verify, on the 3DM Management page.

Continue on Source Error During Rebuild. This policy applies only to units

which are redundant. (For units which are not redundant, a check box is not available.) When this policy is set, ECC errors are ignored when they are

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encountered during a rebuild. When this policy is not set, a rebuild will abort upon encountering an ECC error and the unit will be set back to Degraded.

Since this option could result in the loss of some source data in the event of source errors, select this option only if you want to ensure that a rebuild will complete successfully without manually intervention. If the rebuild fails and Continue on Source Error During Rebuild is not selected, then you have the option to start a rebuild manually. It is recommended that a file system check be executed when the rebuild completes.

Note: The policy Continue on Source Error During Rebuild is

equivalent to the “Force continue on source errors” option in 3DM v 1.x and the “ignoreEcc” option in the CLI.

Unit Names

On 9000-series controllers, units can be assigned names. A name can be assigned when the unit is created and can be changed from this screen. For additional information, see

“Naming a Unit” on page 114.

Other Controller Settings

For 9000-series controllers, the Other Controller settings displays information about additional settings, most of which can only be changed in the BIOS (3BM). For more information see

“Setting Policies for a Controller through

3BM” on page 76. This section does not appear for 7000- and 8000- series controllers.

2TB Auto-Carving. Auto-carving can be enabled or disabled by selecting the

appropriate radio button. When this feature is enabled, any unit that is over 2TB will be broken down

into multiple volumes of 2TB each, plus a remainder volume. For example, if the unit is 2.5 TB then it will contain two volumes, with the first volume containing 2TB and the second volume containing 0.5 TB. If the unit is 5.0 TB then it will contain 3 volumes, with the first two volumes containing 2TB each and the last volume containing 1TB.

Number of Drives Per Spin-up. Number of drives that will spin up at the

same time when the controller is powered up. (This setting only applies when the feature is supported by the disk drives and has been enabled in 3BM.)

Delay between Spin-ups. The delay time (in seconds) between drive groups

that spin up at one time on this particular controller.

Export JBOD (Unconfigured) Disks. Indicates whether unconfigured disks

(JBODs) should be exported to the operating system. By default, this setting is disabled more information about this feature, see

and JBOD drives are not exported to the operating system. For

“Exporting JBOD Disks” on page 77.

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Disable Write Cache on Unit Degrade. Indicates whether write cache will

be automatically disabled on a unit if it becomes degraded. After the unit is rebuilt, the write cache will be re-enabled automatically.

For additional information, see “Viewing Controller Policies in 3DM” on page 75.

Scheduling Page

Figure 22. Scheduling Page

For 9000-series controllers, the Scheduling page appears when you choose Management > Scheduling from the menu bar.

The Scheduling page is not available for 7000- and 8000- series controllers. If you want to schedule tasks for one of those controllers, use 3DM Version 1.x.

The Scheduling page lets you view and change the schedule for background tasks that affect all units on the controller specified in the drop-down list on the menu bar, including:

 Rebuild tasks (also applies to initialization and migration tasks)  Verify tasks (also applies to media scans)  Self-tests

You select the type of task for which you want to set the schedule from the drop-down list at the top of the page.

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You can also enable or disable use of the schedule for the selected background tasks by selecting either Follow Schedule or Ignore Schedule. When these schedules are set to be ignored, these tasks can be performed at any time, and are not restricted to the scheduled times.

Note: Scheduling of these tasks is only available on the 9000-

series controllers.

For details about the different background tasks, see “About Background Tasks” on page 119.

About Task Schedules

Each type of task may be scheduled for up to 7 times per week. This limits active initializing, rebuilding, verifying, migrating, and testing of a unit to the times you specify, so that the task does not interfere with peak I/O times.

If all 7 schedule slots are filled, you must first remove one or more schedule times before you can add another.

You may set schedule times whether scheduling is set to be followed or ignored. This is useful if you want to temporarily disable the schedule.

If you remove all the schedule times for a particular background ta sk, initializations, rebuilds, and migrations will run anytime, as they are needed. Verify will only run if started by the CLI or if the Verify Unit button is clicked.

For information about adding and removing schedules, and setting schedules to be followed or ignored, see

“Scheduling Background Tasks” on page 125

About Self-tests

Unlike scheduling of rebuilds and verifies, scheduling of self-tests is always followed. To disable self-tests you either remove all schedule times, or uncheck the tests listed in the Tasks column.

Note: Only the checked tasks will be run during the scheduled

times. If none of the tasks are checked, self-tests will never run, even if you have scheduled time slots set.

Two self-tests can be scheduled:

Upgrade UDMA mode. This test checks the speed at which data transfer to

drives is occurring, to see if the UDMA mode can be increased. (If you are already running at the fastest UDMA mode, then this self-test has no effect.)

The UDMA mode can become dow ngraded in the ev ent that cable CRC errors are encountered, requiring multiple retries to read sectors. In severe cases, the

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UDMA mode may be downgraded from AT A 150 to ATA 133, to ATA 100, to 66, to 33.

This check is also done every time the system is booted.

Check SMART Thresholds. This test checks to see whether SMART

thresholds have been exceeded. The SMART thresholds indicate when a drive is likely to fail, based on the

number of errors that have been recorded through SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology).

If any of the disk drives have detected a “threshold exceeded” condition, then an AEN is logged to the 3DM Alarms page. Moreover, if anything unusual is found during any self-test, it will be logged as an Alarm.

Maintenance Page

Figure 23. Maintenance Page

The Maintenance page appears when you choose Management > Maintenance from the menu bar.

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The Maintenance page lets you perform maintenance tasks on existing units on the current controller (shown in the drop-down list on the menu bar), and lets you create new units by configuring available drives.

Information about the Maintenance page is organized under these headings:

 Rescan Controller  Unit Maintenance  Maintenance Task Buttons  Available Drives

Rescan Controller

Use the Rescan Controller button to have 3DM scan the available drives in the controller and update the list of available drives shown. This is useful in variety of maintenance tasks. For example, if you physically plug in a drive and want the controller to recognize the newly plugged in drive.

Note: If you unplug a drive without first removing it thro ugh 3DM,

Rescan will not recognize it as gone unless the drive was in use or until it is required by the system. Always use the Remove link to remove a drive before unplugging it.

Warning: Physically removing or adding drives which are not in

hotswap carriers can result in a system hang or may even damage the system and the drive.

In 9000-series controllers, rescan checks empty ports for newly plugged in drives. If those drives were previously part of a 3ware RAID configuration and they still have valid DCB (Disk Configuration Block) information on them, the controller tries to piece them back together into a working unit. If a working unit can be formed, it will appear in the Unit Maintenance list when the scan is complete, and the operating system will be notified of the unit. In Linux or FreeBSD, a device node will be associated with each unit created. In Windows the device manager will reflect the changes under the disk drives icon. This process is known as importing drives.

If new drives do not have any data indicating they were previously part of a 3ware RAID configuration, they will appear in the Available Drives list.

In addition, if there is a unit with the status Inoperable before a rescan (for example, a RAID 5 unit missing 2 or more drives), and a rescan finds drives that complete the unit, the inoperable unit will become a valid unit.

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Note: In 8000-series controllers, only JBOD units can be removed

and rescanned while keeping the data intact. Clicking Rescan Controller after removing units other than a JBOD unit (e.g. RAID

5) will cause the drives that make up the unit to be seen as individual available drives; they will not be pieced together to form a unit. This is unlike the 9000 series controllers, which will piece together the unit for you and display the drives as a unit. If you still want to use the drives together as a unit, restart the computer before creating a new unit with those drives. Creating a new unit with those drives will destroy any existing data on them. After you restart, the 8000 will again see the drives as a valid unit.

Unit Maintenance

The Unit Maintenance section of the page lists all existing units on the current controller, and displays summary information about them.

The top row shows information about the unit, while subsequent rows show summary information about each drive in the unit.

Unit Information Unit Number. The unit number assigned to the unit by the firmware. Unit

numbers for 9000 series are in sequential order. Unit numbers for the 7/8000 series will begin with the lowest port number of the unit. Use the checkbox next to the unit to select a unit before clicking one of the task buttons.

# Drives. Number of drives in the unit. Type of Unit. Type of unit: RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, RAID 50,

Single Disk, Spare, or JBOD. If the unit has been given a unique name, it shows beneath the RAID type.

Name of Unit. User-assigned unique name of the unit. The default setting is blank.

Capacity. The usable capacity (size) of the unit. Status. Operational status of the unit: Ok, Rebuilding, Initializing, Verifying,

Migrating, Degraded, or Inoperable (missing drives). When Rebuilding, Initializing, Migrating, or Verifying, the percentage (%) complete is also shown. The percentage complete can be active or paused. To see whether this task is currently active or paused, click on the unit number to display the Unit Information page, which has that information.

Drive Information Port. The port to which the drive is connected. Model. The model of the drive. Capacity. The capacity (size) of the drive.

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Status. The status of the drive: OK, Not Supported, Not Present, and so forth.

If you need help regarding a status displayed here, please contact Technical Support.

Remove Drive. The Remove Drive link removes a drive from the controller

so that you can safely unplug it. In the Unit Maintenance section, this link is only provided for drives that can be safely removed without creating an inoperable unit. (For example, a RAID 5 missing 2 or more drives or a RAID 0 missing 1 or more drives would become inoperable.) If you remove a drive from a redundant unit, the unit will become degraded. Once a unit has become degraded, additional drives cannot be removed without making it inoperable, so no Remove Drive link will display.

Warning: Physically removing drives which are not in hotswap

carriers can result in a system hang or may even damage the system and the drive.

Maintenance Task Buttons

Below the list of units, a row of task buttons lets you preform maintenance and configuration tasks related to the unit. Before clicking one of these buttons, select the appropriate unit.

Verify Unit. Puts the selected unit in verifying mode. If verify scheduling is

enabled on the Scheduling page, the unit will not start actively verifying until the scheduled time, and the status will indicate “Verify-Paused.” (The Unit Details page will indicate whether a unit is actively verifying.) If verify scheduling is not enabled, clicking Verify Unit begins the verification process.

If the unit you selected to verify is a redundant unit, the redundancy of the unit will be verified. For example it will check parity for a RAID 5 or check data consistency for a RAID 1. If the unit you checked is not a redundant unit, verify will do a surface scan of the media. During verification, I/O continues normally. For RAID 0, single disks, JBODs, and spares, there is only a slight performance loss. For redundant units, you can set the background task rate on the Controller Settings page to specify whether more processing time should be given to verifying or to I/O.

While a unit is verifying, the status changes to Verifying and a Stop Verify link appears in the right-most column of the Unit Maintenance table.

Note: If the unit has not previously been initialized and you click

Verify Unit, the initialization process starts. Initialization cannot be halted, so no Stop Verify link appears. (Initialization can be paused, however, through Scheduling. Initialization follows the Rebuild schedule, so turning on scheduling for Rebuild will pause initialization, as well.) For more information about initialization, see “About Initialization” on page 119.

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Rebuild Unit. Replaces a degraded drive in a degraded unit with an available

drive and begins rebuilding the RAID. When you select a degraded unit and click Rebuild Unit, a dialog box listing available drives appears, so that you can select the drive you want to use. If the degraded unit has more than one degraded drives (for example, a RAID 10 where both mirrored pairs each have a degraded drive), you will repeat this process a second time.

If rebuild scheduling is enabled on the Scheduling page, the unit will not start actively rebuilding until the scheduled time, and the status will change to say “Rebuild-Paused.” (The Unit Details page indicates whether a unit is actively rebuilding.) If rebuild scheduling is not enabled, the rebuild process will begin right away.

For more information about rebuilds, see “About Rebuilds” on page 121.

Migrate Unit. Reconfigures a unit while it is on-line. Migration can be used to

change only the RAID level, to expand the capacity by adding additional drives, or to change the stripe size.

Caution: Once migration of a unit is started, it cannot be cancelled.

When you select a unit and click Migrate Unit, a dialog box appears which lists the drives in the unit and any additional available drives. In the dialog box are two drop-down menus, one for choosing the RAID level and one for choosing stripe size.

You can only migrate a unit to a RAID level that will be larger than the original unit. For example, you can migrate from a RAID 5 array with 4 drives to a RAID 0 with four drives but you cannot migrate from a RAID 5 with four drives to a RAID 10 with four drives.

After you have specified changes to the unit, the Unit Maintenance screen reflects your changes and shows the percentage of migration completed.

While the unit is migrating, you can still access the unit as normal but the performance will be lower. You can adjust the I/O rate with the radio buttons on the Controller Settings page.

For more information, see “About Migration” on page 123.

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Remove Unit. Removes a selected unit and allows you to unplug the drives

and move the unit to another controller. the data on the unit remain intact.

Caution: Before you click Remove Unit, make sure the unit you

are removing is unmounted and no I/Os are being issued. (For example, make sure you are not copying files to the unit, and make sure that there are no applications with open files on that unit.)

If a unit is not unmounted and you remove it, it is the equivalent of physically yanking a hard drive out from under the operating sys tem. Resulting behavior depends on which operating system you are using and what kind of I/O is being done, however you will typically see really bad results, bad errors, and most likely a reset of the controller or a system hang.

To unmount a unit under windows, use Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management. In the Comp uter Management window, right-click on the partition and Remove the logical drive letter associated with the unit.

T o unmount a unit under Linux, unmount the mount point to where the RAID unit is mounted. For example, if you want to remove unit 0 and you know that 0 corresponds to /dev/sdb, you should unmount all partitions for sdbx (where x is the number of the parti tion).

umount /dev/sdbx

For FreeBSD, the command would be

umount /dev/twedx

When you click Remove Unit, you will be asked to confirm that you want to proceed. When you confirm the removal, the unit number and information will be removed from 3DM. (Units created in the future can reclaim this unit number.)

The operating system is notified that the unit was removed. In Linux the device node associated with this unit is removed. In Windows the Device Manager will reflect the changes under the disk drives icon.

Information about the unit remains intact on the drives. This allows the drive or drives to be reassembled into a unit again on this controller, or if moved to another controller.

Warning: Physically removing drives which are not in hotswap

carriers can result in a system hang or may even damage the system and the drive.

Delete Unit. Deletes the selected unit and allows you to use the drives to

create another unit. The drives appear in the list of Available Drives.

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Caution: Before you click Delete Unit, make sure the unit you are

removing is unmounted and no I/Os are being issued. If a unit is not unmounted and you delete it, it is the equivalent of physically yanking a hard drive out from under the operating system . Resulting behavior depends on which operating system you are using and what kind of I/O is being done, however you will typically see really bad results, bad errors, and most likely a reset of the controller or a system hang.

Devices can be unmounted through the operating system. For details, see the discussion under Remove Unit, above.

Warning: When a unit is deleted, the data will be permanently

deleted: the drives cannot be reassembled into the same unit. If you want to reassemble the drives on another controller and access the existing data, use Remove Unit instead of Delete Unit.

After deletion, the operating system is notified that the unit was deleted. In Linux the device node associated with this unit is removed. In Windows the Device Manager will reflect the changes under the disk drives icon.

Available Drives (to Create Units)

This section lists the drives on the controller which are not currently configured as part of a unit. The Port number, model, capacity, and status are all displayed, as they are for drives in existing units.

Remove Drive. The Remove Drive link removes a drive from the controller

so that you can safely unplug it. Any drive in the Available Drives list can be removed.

Warning: Physically removing drives which are not in hotswap

carriers can result in a system hang or may even damage the system and the drive.

Create Unit

Use the Create Unit button to create a unit for use on the current controller. Begin by selecting the drives you want to use in the list of Available Drives, and then click Create Unit. You will be prompted to select the unit Type, Stripe size (if applicable), Write Cache, and Auto Verify settings.

A window like the one in Figure 24 shows the drives you selected, and lets you specify configuration settings.

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Figure 24. Configuring a Unit in 3DM

For more detailed instructions, see “Configuring Units in 3DM via the Maintenance Page” on page 84.

Type. The drop-down list lists the possible RAID configurations for the drives

selected in the list of Available Drives. Available configurations may include RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, RAID 50, Single Disk, and Spare Disk. For information about these configurations, see

“Available RAID

Configurations” on page 9. When you are configuring a RAID 50 with twelve drives, an additional field

appears, in which you select the number of drives per subunit—3, 4, or 6.

Figure 25. Configuring a RAID 50 with 12 Drives Stripe. The drop-down list of stripe sizes lists the possible stripe sizes for the

configuration you selected in the RAID level drop-down. The default stripe size of 64KB will give the best performance with

applications that have many sequential reads and writes. A larger stripe size will give better performance with applications that have a lot of random reads

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and writes. In general, the smaller the stripe size, the better the sequential I/O and the worse the random I/O. The larger the stripe size, the worse the sequential I/O and the better the random I/O.

Write Cache, Auto-Verify, and Continue on Source Err or du rin g Rebuild.

These check boxes let you set the policies for the unit. These policies can also be set and changed on the Controller Settings page. For details about these policies, see

Note: If the configuration window disappears while you are

selecting drives, 3DM 2 may have refreshed. Click Create Unit again. If desired, you can reduce the frequency with which information refreshes in 3DM 2, or disable refresh temporarily, on the 3DM 2 Settings page.

Alarms Page

“Unit Policies” on page 54.

Figure 26. Alarms Page

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The Alarms page appears when you click Monitor > Alarms on the menu bar.

This page displays a list of AENs (asynchronous event notifications) received from the controller displayed in the drop-down list in the menu bar.

Up to 1000 alarms can be listed. After the 1000-limit is reached, the oldest alarms are deleted, as new ones occur.

You can sort the alarms by severity or time. To do so, just click the column header.

For 8000 and 9000-series controllers, alarms can be used by either 3DM or CLI, but not both. Whichever issues an alarms command first determines which can see alarm data.

For more information about any of th e alarms that appear on th e Alarms pag e,

“AEN Messages” on page 163.

see

Clear Alarms. The Clear Alarms button removes all alarms shown in the list. Sev. Shows the severity of the event. Three levels are provided:

 Errors are shown next to a red box  Warnings are shown next to a yellow box  Information is shown next to a blue box

Time. The time shown for alarms generated by 7000- and 8000- series

controllers is the time retrieved from the driver by 3DM. The time shown for alarms generated by 9000-series controllers is the time received by the driver from firmware.

Message. The specific text relating to the alarm condition.

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Battery Backup Page

Figure 27. Battery Backup Page

The Battery Backup page appears when you choose Monitor > Battery Backup on the menu bar . Use this page to determine whether a backup battery

is present, see details about it, and perform a battery test.

Battery Backup Unit. Indicates whether the BBU is present. Firmware. Indicates the BBU firmware version. Serial Number. Indicates the BBU serial number. BBU Ready. Indicates if the BBU is able to backup the 3ware RAID

controller or not. If the BBU is “Ready”, write cache can be enabled on the 3ware RAID controller. When the status is not “Ready,” write caching is automatically disabled on all units attached to the controller .

BBU Status. Indicates the status of the BBU. Possibly BBU statuses include

the following:

 OK. The BBU is functioning normally.  Not Present. The BBU was not detected.  No Battery. No battery pack is installed in the BBU.  Testing. A battery capacity test is in process.  Charging.The battery is being charged. Charging of the battery occurs

automatically if the battery voltage falls too low. This normally occurs about once a week to top off the charge level; the process does not change the BBU readiness state.

If the battery is ever discharged through a backup cycle or if the system power is off for more than two weeks, the battery status changes to

68 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

3DM 2 Reference

“Charging” the next time the system is powered on. This indicates the BBU is not able to backup the 3ware RAID controller. When the BBU is in the charging state, write caching is disabled automatically on all units attached to the controller.

 Fault.The BBU detected a fault. This occurs if the voltage or temperature

is outside the acceptable range.

 Error. Other BBU error. Please contact AMCC Technical Support.  Weak Battery. The battery should be replaced soon.The results of a

battery health test or capacity test indicate that the battery is below the warning threshold (48 hours).

 Failed Battery. The battery failed a test and must be replaced. A “Failed

Battery” status is displayed if the battery failed the health test or the battery capacity is below the error threshold (24 hours). The battery must be replaced.

Battery Voltage. Indicates the voltage status of the battery. The BBU

measures and evaluates the battery voltage continuously. If the voltage falls outside the normal range, warning or error level AENs are generated. In the case of a voltage error the BBU status will change to “Fault” and the battery will be disconnected electronically.

Battery Temperature. Indicates the temperature status of the batte r y. The

BBU measures and evaluates the battery pack temperature continuously. If the temperature falls outside the normal range, warning or error level AENs are generated based on the measured temperature. In the case of a temperature error, the BBU status will change to “Fault” and the battery will be disconnected electronically.

Estimated Backup Capacit y. Indicates the estimated backup capacity in

hours. This is the amount of time that the battery backup unit can protect the data in the 3ware RAID controller's cache memory. This field is set to zero at the start of a new test and is updated after the test completes. A capacity of zero will also show if the BBU is disconnected and then reconnected.

Under optimal conditions, a battery can protect for up to 72 hours. However, with a fresh battery, you may see a higher number in this field. As the battery ages, the backup capacity diminishes.

Last Capacity Test. Indicates the date when the last battery test was

completed. To test the battery click the Test Battery Capacity link. For details, see

Battery Installation Date. Indicates when the BBU last detected the battery

“Testing Battery Capacity” on page 157.

pack was removed and replaced.

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3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)

3DM 2 Settings Page

Figure 28. 3DM 2 Settings Page

The 3DM 2 Settings page appears when you click 3DM 2 Settings on the menu bar. Use this page to set preferences, including email notification for alarms, passwords, page refresh frequency, whether remote access is permitted, and the incoming port for 3DM to listen for requests.

The initial settings for most of these preferences are specified during installation of 3DM.

E-mail Notification

Use the fields in this section to set up and manage notifications of events by email.

Send E-mail. This field determines whether e-mail notification is Enabled or

Disabled.

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3DM 2 Reference

Send Severity and Above. Specifies the type of events for which

notifications should be sent. A severity of Information will send e-mails for all alarms, a severity of

Warning will send e-mail for alarms with severity of

Warning and Error. A severity of Error will send e-mail for alarms with severity of Error.

Sender. Enter the email address which will appear in the “From” field. Recipient. The e-mail address to which notifications should be sent. You can

enter multiple addresses, separated by commas (,).

Server (name or IP). If the machine on which you are running 3DM has

access to a name server, you may enter the machine name of the mail server in the Server field. Otherwise, use the IP address.

Save E-mail Settings button. Saves the e-mail notification settings. Send Test Message button. Sends a test message using the saved e-mail

settings.

Password

Use the fields in this section to set the passwords for the User and Administrator. When 3DM is first installed, the default password for both is

3ware.

Change Password For. Select the access level for which you are setting the

password: User or Administrator. Users can only view status information in 3DM, while Administrators can make changes and administer the controller and associated drives.

Current Password. Enter the current password. New Password. Enter the new password. Confirm New Password. Enter the new password a second time, to be sure

you have entered it correctly.

Change Password button. Saves password changes.

Page Refresh

Minutes Between Refresh. Displays how frequently pages in 3DM will be

refreshed with new data from the controller. To change this setting, select another option from the drop-down. If you prefer 3DM to only refresh when you click Refresh Page, select Never.

The Login, Help and Drive SMART data pages do not automatically refresh. All other 3DM pages do.

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3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)

Remote Access

Allow Remote Connections. This field enables or disables the ability for

users and administrators to access 3DM from a remote computer.

Incoming Port #

Listening Port. This field specifies the HTTP: port to be used by 3DM when

listening for communications. The default port setting is 888. If you change this port, make sure the port you specify is not bein g used.

Failure to do so will cause 3DM to stop responding and you will have to restart it by hand.

Change Port button. Saves a new port number.

72 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Configuring Your Controller

This section describes how to view details about the controller, check it’s status, and change configuration settings that affect the controller and all of the drives connected to it. It is organized into the following sections:

 Viewing Information About Different Controllers  Viewing Controller Policies in 3DM  Setting Policies for a Controller through 3BM

Note: Background task rate is also set for all units on a controller.

For information about setting the task rate, see “Setting Background Task Rate” on page 124.

Viewing Information About Different Controllers

If you have more than one controller in your system, you can easily vie w information about each one using 3DM, in the same session. If you are working at the BIOS level, you access 3BM for each controller separately. The following steps tell you how to display information about the controller you want to work with.

To see details about a particular controller in 3DM

1 Start 3DM and log in.

The 3DM Controller Summary page appears, listing all the 3ware controllers installed in your system.

The right-most column of the list shows the status of each controller.

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Configuring Your Controller

Tip: If you are managing controllers remotely, the list of controllers is for

the machine with the IP or URL you entered in the browser address bar. For more information about this page, see “Controller Summary Page” on

page 45.

2 To see details about a particular controller, click the ID link for that

controller. The Controller Details page appears. For more information about this page, see “Controller Details Page” on

page 47.

To see information about a different controller in the 3DM pages

If you have more than one controller in the system, you can switch between them by selecting the one you want to see details about from the Select Controller drop-down list at the right of the menu bar.

This drop-down is available on all pages that provide controller-specific features.

When you select a different controller from this list, the page in view changes, to reflect the details for the controller you selected.

Note: Throughout this manual, the term current controller is used

to refer to the controller currently selected in this drop-down list.

To see information about a controller in 3BM (BIOS)

1 Power up or reboot your system. 2 While the system is starting, watch for a screen showing information

about the controller and units you want to work with. When you have more than one controller installed, information about

each one will be shown, sequentially.

3 Press Alt-3 to bring up the 3ware BIOS Manager (3BM).

Note: If you accidentally bypass display of the controller you

want to work with, press Ctrl-Alt-Del to restart your computer and try again

For details about working with 3BM, see “3ware BIOS Manager (3BM)” on page 19.

74 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Viewing Controller Policies in 3DM

You can view the current state of controller policies in 3DM, in the Other Controller Settings section of the bottom of the

Controller Settings Page.

Changes to these policies can only be made in 3ware BIOS Manager (3BM).

 Number of drives per spinup  Delay between spinup  Export unconfigured disks  Disable write cache on unit degrade  2TB Auto-carve:

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Configuring Your Controller

Setting Policies for a Controller through 3BM

3BM allows you to set policies for all units on the controller. These policies can only be set or changed in 3BM, however you can check the settings for them in 3DM.

 Export JBOD (unconfigured) disks. This setting indicates whether

JBOD disks should be exported to the operating system. JBOD configuration is strongly discouraged for newly added disks on the 9000 series controller, in favor of Single Disk, so by default, this setting is disabled. If you have a JBOD configuration from a 7000/8000 controller that you want to use on the 9000 controller , you should enable this setting.

 Staggered spinup. Spinup allows drives to be powered-up into the

Standby power management state to minimize in-rush current at power-up and to allow the controller to sequence the spin-up of drives. This setting determines whether all of the drives will spin up at the same time or in a staggered fashion.

If staggered spinup is enabled, then compatible drives will be sent a spin up command as defined by the Number of drives per spinup and Delay between spinup settings.

If staggered spinup is disabled, then the spin up command is sent to all of the drives at boot time, resulting in all of the drives spinning up simultaneously.

 Number of drives per spinup. Number of drives that will spin up at the

same time when the controller is powered up, if staggered spinup is enabled.

 Delay between spinup. The delay time (in seconds) between drive

groups that spin up at one time on this particular controller, if staggere d spinup is enabled.

 Disable write cache degraded array. Indicates whether write cache will

be automatically disabled on a unit if it becomes degraded. Selecting Yes will cause the unit write cache and the disk drive write

cache to be disabled if the unit degrades. This setting has no effect on non-redundant arrays. Write cache will be automatically re-enabled when the unit returns to normal.

Selecting No will cause the unit and disk drive write cache to remain enabled (if it is enabled), in the event that the unit degrades.

 Staggered method. Indicates whether the type of staggered spinup is

ATA-6 or SATA OOB (Out Of Band). By default, when Stagg ered Spinup is enabled, the ATA-6 scheme is used. If your drives support the SATA OOB method, select that method here. There is no electronic method for the controller to know if a drive supports this method, so it must be set

76 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Setting Policies for a Controller through 3BM

manually. For staggering to work properly, the drives must support the selected method.

 2TB Auto-Carving. When this feature is enabled, any unit that is over

2TB will be broken down into multiple volumes with 2TB each, plus a remainder volume. For example, if the unit is 2.5 TB then it will contain two volumes, with the first volume containing 2TB and the second volume containing 0.5 TB. If the unit is 5.0 TB then it will contain 3 volumes, with the first two volumes containing 2TB each and the last volume containing 1TB.

This auto-carving feature is sometimes referred to as multi-LUN, where each volume that is created is referred to as a “LUN.”

All of these policies.can be set and changed on the 3BM Policy screen, shown

Figure 29.

Figure 29. 3BM Policy Screen

Exporting JBOD Disks

By default, JBOD disks (unconfigured disks) connected to the 3ware RAID controller are not exported to the operating system. This means that any drives you leave unconfigured are not seen by the operating system, and cannot be used for storage. When Export JBOD Disks is set to No, you make individual disks available for use by configuring them as Single Disks.

If you want unconfigured disks to be available on your computer, you can change this setting.

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Configuring Your Controller

If JBOD disks are not exported to the operating system, they will appear as available drives in 3DM, and can be configured as single disks or spares, and included in other RAID configurations. If you change the policy to allow JBOD disks to be exported to the operating system, they will appear as units in 3DM.

Note: It is recommended that JBODs not be made available to the

operation system. The advantages of working with configured Single Disks over JBOD are:

Single disk media scan will continue where it left off, while

JBOD media scan always must restart from the beginning.

Single disks can take advantage of the controller caching and

configuration is persistent.

Single disks will be able to be migrated to redundant units in the

future (e.g. A single disk will be able to be mirrored to another drive, creating a RAID 1 array).

To enable or disable the export of unconfigured disks

1 At the main 3BM screen, Tab to Policy and press Enter. 2On the Policy Control screen, Tab to Export Unconfigured Disks, press

Enter to display the choices, use the arrow keys to select Yes (to enable), or No (to disable) and press Enter again to choose it.

3 Tab to the OK button and press Enter.

You will notice a short delay as 3BM makes the policy changes.

Note: If you enable the Export JBOD Disks option, the controller

recognizes and displays as JBODs brand new drives, and drives that were previously connected to 7000/8000-series controllers as JBODs. Drives that were previously connected to a 9000-series controller and configured will not be seen as JBODs.

Enabling and Setting Up Staggered Spinup

Four policy settings let you enable or disable spinup of drives, set the number of drives that will spin up at the same time, and set the delay between drive groups that spin up at one time.

Not all drives support staggered spinup. If you enable staggered spinup and have drives that do not support it, the setting will be ignored.

To enable or disable spinup and set the delay between spinups

1 At the main 3BM screen, Tab to Policy and press Enter.

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Setting Policies for a Controller through 3BM

2 On the Policy Control screen, Tab through these fields, making the

choices you want to use:

 Staggered Spinup: Select enabled to enable staggered spinup;

disabled to disable it.

 Number of Drives Per Spinup: Select the number of drives—from 1

to 4, 8, or 12, depending on the number of ports on the controller.

 Delay between spinup: Select the number of seconds—from 1 to 6.  Staggered Method: Select either ATA-6 or SAT A OOB as the type of

staggered spinup you want to use. For staggering to work correctly, the drives must support the selected method.

3 Tab to the OK button and press Enter.

You will notice a short delay as 3BM makes the policy changes.

Disabling Write Cache on Unit Degrade

You can choose whether you want the write cache to be automatically disabled when a unit degrades. This enables some higher level recovery, to cover the case where there is a software RAID layer (using some redundancy) on top of the 3ware RAID configuration. If case of a second drive failure, the software RAID layer can still provide redundancy since no data was lost.

When this setting is set to Yes, it overrides the write cache setting specified for a particular unit.

For more information about enabling and disabling the write cache,

“Enabling and Disabling the Unit Write Cache” on page 95.

see

To disable write cache when a unit degrades

1 At the main 3BM screen, Tab to Policy and press Enter. 2 On the Policy Control screen, Tab to Disable Write Cache on Unit

Degrade.

3 Press Enter to display the choices, use the arrow keys to select Yes, and

press Enter again to select it.

4 Tab to the OK button and press Enter.

You will notice a short delay as 3BM makes the policy changes.

Multi LUN Support and Auto-Carving

Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows XP, and FreeBSD 4.x, do not currently recognize unit capacity in excess of 2 TB. To gain use of the full capacity in units greater than 2 TB, you can enable auto-carving.

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Configuring Your Controller

Auto-carving divides the available unit capacity into multiple chunks of 2 TB or smaller that can be addressed by the operating systems as separate volumes. These chunks are sometimes known as multiple LUNs (logical units), however through the 3ware documentation, they are referred to as volumes. 3ware firmware supports a maximum of 8 volumes per controller, up to a total of 16 TB.

You must turn on the 2TB Auto-Carving policy before creating the unit. Units created with this policy turned off will not be affected. If the policy is turned off later, units that have been carved into volumes will retain their individual volumes; existing data is not affected.

To use auto-carving

1 Enable the 2 TB auto-carving feature. You can do so using 3DM, 3BM, or

the 3ware CLI.

Note: Operating systems without this limitation include Linux 2.6

and FreeBSD 5.x. Microsoft plans to overcome this limitation in Win XP-64bit and Windows 2003, SP 1.

In 3DM, enable 2TB auto-carving at the bottom of the Management > Controller Settings page.

In 3BM, you enable auto-carving on the Policies page. In CLI, use the command tw_cli /cx set autocarve=on. For more

information, see the 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Contro ller CLI Guide.

2 Create a new unit or migrate an existing unit to include the drives you

want to use. With auto-carving enabled, if the combined capacity of the drives exceeds

2 TB, up to 8 individual 2 TB volumes will be created from the unit. For example, a 5 TB unit would become 3 volumes; two 2 TB volumes

and one 1 TB volume.

3 Verify the creation of the volumes through 3DM 2 or the CLI.

In 3DM 2, the number of volumes is shown on the Unit Details page.

4 Verify that the volumes appear in the operating system. They will appear

as additional drives.

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Setting Policies for a Controller through 3BM

Notes:

If you are configuring a unit for primary storage and it will be

greater than 2 TBs, be sure to enable the auto-carve policy before creating the unit.

When volumes have been created through auto-carving, they

cannot be deleted except by deleting the unit.

If you create a bootable unit that has multiple volumes, the first

volume is always used as the boot device.

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Configuring Your Controller

82 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Configuring Units

A unit is any configured disk or array of disks connected to y our 3ware RAID controller.

This section includes instructions for performing the following configuration tasks:

 Creating a New Unit  Creating a Hot Spare  Enabling and Disabling the Unit Write Cache  Setting Unit Policies through 3DM  Changing An Existing Configuration (RAID Level Migration)  Deleting a Unit  Removing a Unit  Adding a Drive through 3DM  Removing a Drive  Rescanning the Controller  Naming a Unit

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Configuring Units

Configuring Units in 3DM via the Maintenance Page

You can configure units via the 3DM web interface or from the BIOS, using 3BM. In 3DM, configuration starts from the Maintenance page ( where you can configure a new unit, designate an available drive as a hot spare, delete a unit, and remove units or drives. You can also have 3DM rescan the controller, if you have added drives or units.

For information about working in 3DM, see “3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)” on page 27.

Figure 30),

Figure 30. 3DM Maintenance Page

Configuring Units in 3BM via the main 3BM Screen

In 3BM, configuration tasks start from the main 3ware BIOS Manager screen shown in existing ones, or perform maintenance tasks.

For information about working in 3BM, see “3ware BIOS Manager (3BM)” on page 19.

84 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Figure 31. From this screen you can configure new units, delete

Figure 31. 3BM Main Display

Creating a New Unit

Whether you create a unit through 3BM or 3DM, when you create a new unit, you specify the following:

 Drives to be included in the unit  Type of configuration  Name for the unit (optional)  Stripe size, if appropriate for the RAID level

You can make some changes to the unit later. For details, see “Changing An Existing Configuration” on page 98.

Drives to be included in the unit

You may include from one to twelve drives in the unit, depending on the number available. (For information about how many drives to select for a given RAID level, see

You may only select available drives that are not currently part of a unit. If you want to use drives that are currently part of a different unit, you must delete that unit, first, to make the drives available. (For details, see a Unit” on page 103.) If drives are listed under “Incomplete Drives and Others,” they must be deleted before they can be used.

Table 2 on page 12.)

“Deleting

If you want to add drives to be used in the unit, see “Adding a Drive through 3DM” on page 110.

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Configuring Units

Type of configuration

Available configuration types include RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, RAID 50, and Single Disk. For information about the different RAID levels, see

“Understanding RAID Concepts and Levels” on page 8.

Note: Creating a unit erases all data on all drives. Although

creating a RA1D 1 (mirror) creates a unit that will have a duplicate of data on both drives after it is put in use, creating a RAID 1 cannot be used to make a backup copy of data that currently exists on a single drive unless you migrate from a RAID 1 to two individual single disks.

Name of the unit (optional)

Units can be given names. These names will be visible in 3DM and CLI.

Stripe size, if appropriate for the RAID level

In general, smaller stripe sizes are better for sequential I/O, such as video, and larger stripe sizes are better for random I/O (such as databases).

Striping size is not applicable for RAID 1, because it is a mirrored array without striping.

Using the default stripe size of 64KB usually gives you the best performance for mixed I/Os. If your application has some specific I/O pattern (purely sequential or purely random), you might want to experiment with smaller or larger stripe size.

Creating a Unit through 3DM

1 In 3DM, choose Management > Maintenance. 2 In the Available Drives list, select the drives you want to include in the

unit by marking the checkbox in front of the Port number for each one. If you are creating single drive units (single disks or hot spares), you can

configure multiple drives at once. (For details about this screen, see “Maintenance Page” on page 58.)

3Click Create Unit. 4 In the dialog box that appears, select the RAID configuration you want. 5 If stripe size applies to the RAID type you select, select a Stripe Size.

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Creating a New Unit

6 Optional: In the Name box, enter a name for the unit (up to 21 characters,

including dashes and underscores). To rename the unit, see

“Naming a

Unit” on page 114

7 If you have 12 drives attached to the controller and selected RAID 50 as

the configuration in step 3, select whether you want 3, 4, or 6 Drives Per Subunit.

8Click Ok.

The new unit will appear in the Unit Maintenance list at the top of the page and the operating system will be notified of the new unit.

In Linux, a device node will now be associated with each unit created. In Windows the device manager will reflect the changes under the disk drives icon.

9 Partition and format the unit. (Steps will vary depending on the operating

system.)

10 Mount the new unit.

Note: For RAID 5 units with 5 or more disks, and RAID 50

units with 10 or 12 disks and only two subunits, initialization of the unit begins immediately. The unit can be used while it is initializing and is fault-tolerant.

11 Partition and format the unit. For details, see “Partitioning and Formatting

Units” on page 91.

Creating a Unit through 3BM

1 At the main 3BM screen, select the drives to be included by highlighting

each one and pressing Enter or Space to select it. When you select a drive, an asterisk appears next to it in the left most

column (see

Tip: If you want to use all available drives, press Alt-A to select them all.

Figure 32).

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Configuring Units

Figure 32. Asterisks Next to Selected Drives

2 After all drives for the unit are selected, Tab to the Create Unit button

and press Enter.

Tip: You can also press Alt-C to choose Create Unit.

3On the 3ware Disk Array screen, make sure that the proper drives are

listed (see

Figure 33 for an example for RAID 5).

Figure 33. Create Disk Array Display, RAID 5 Example

88 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Creating a New Unit

4 Tab to the Select RAID Configuration field and press Enter to display a

list of available configurations for the number of drives you selected.

Figure 34. List of Configuration Choices for Four Drives

5 Use the arrow keys to select the configuration you want and press Enter. 6 (Optional) Tab to the field Array’s Write Cache State and select

whether you want the write cache to be enabled or disabled for this unit.

Note: You can enable or disable the write cache again later without

affecting the configuration. For more information about write cache, see “Enabling and Disabling the Unit Write Cache” on page 95.

7 Tab to the field Stripe Size and select the desired striping size (16, 64, or

256 KB).

Figure 35. Stripe Sizes for a RAID 5

8 (Optional) Tab to the field Continue on source error during rebuild.

Normally this is left disabled, however if you want any rebuilds of this unit to continue in the event of source errors, you can enable it. For more information, see the discussion of the “Overwrite ECC errors” feature in 3DM, under

Note: You can enable or disable this setting later without affecting the

“Controller Settings Page” on page 53.

configuration.

9 Tab to the OK button and press Enter to confirm creation of the unit.

You are returned to the main 3BM screen.

Note: The array is not actually created and no data is overwritten until

you have finished making all your changes and press F8.

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Configuring Units

10 When you are finished making configuration changes, press F8 to save

the changes and exit 3BM. A warning message tells you that all existing data on the drives will be

deleted, and asks you to confirm that you want to proceed.

Figure 36. Confirmation Message when Saving and Exiting

If you made changes to units on more than one controller, the details about changes about to be made may extend beyond one screen. In this case, you use the PgUp and PgDn keys to bring more information into view.

11 Type Y to continue, delete any existing data on the drives, and create the

unit.

Note: For RAID 5 units with 5 or more disks, and RAID 50 units

with 10 or 12 disks configured into two subunits, initialization of the unit begins immediately. You can postpone initialization if you want to begin using the units right away, however initialization from the BIOS is faster than it is under the operating system, so it will be a longer period of time until the unit has optimal performance. For more information, see “Initializing Units” under “Configuring Units” in 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller Installation Guide.

90 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Ordering Units in 3BM

If you configure multiple units in 3BM and you want to install the OS on one of them so that you can boot from that unit, that unit must be the first unit.

You can change the order of the units in 3BM.

To change the order of unit s in 3BM

1 At the main 3BM screen, in the list of exportable units, highlight the unit

you want to move.

2 Press the Page Up key to move the unit up the list; press the Page Down

key to move the unit down the list. Position the unit you want to be bootable at the top of the list of

exportable units.

3 When you are finished working in 3BM, press F8 to save your changes

and exit.

Creating a New Unit

Partitioning and Formatting Units

After you create a unit, whether through 3BM or 3DM, it needs to be formatted, partitioned, and mounted before it can be used.

To partition and format under Windows

1 Boot the system and log in as a system administrator. 2 Partition and format the new arrays or disks using the Administrative

Tools from the Start menu: a Choose Computer Management from the Administrative Tools

menu.

b Select Storage. c Select Disk Management.

4 Follow the steps that appear on-screen to write a signature to the drive. 5 Right-click on the drive and select Create Volume. 6 Follow the steps that appear on-screen to create a volume and to assign a

drive letter.

To partition and format under Linux

1 Boot the system and log in as root. 2 Open a terminal window.

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Configuring Units

3 Partition the unit:

fdisk /dev/sda

If the unit is over 2 TB, use:

parted /dev/sda

4 Create or make the file system:

mkfs /dev/sda1

If you have kernel 2.6.8.1 or higher, for partitions over 4 TB, specify the XFS filesystem when using parted. Use of the -j option to turn on journaling is recommended for large partitions.

For example:

mkfs -j /dev/sda

To partition and format under FreeBSD

1 Boot the system and log in as root. 2 Open a terminal window. 3 Partition the unit:

fdisk -BI /dev/da0;

disklabel /dev/da0 | disklabel -B -R -r da0

4 Create or make the file system:

newfs /dev/da0c

You can also use sysinstall to format and partition the unit.

Creating a Hot Spare

You can designate an available drive as a hot spare. If a redundant unit degrades and a hot spare the size of the degraded disk (or larger) is available, the hot spare will automatically replace the failed drive in the unit without user intervention. When this occurs, an event notification is generated and appears in the list of alarms in 3DM.

It’s a good idea to create a hot spare after you create a redundant unit. In order to replace a failed drive, a hot spare must have the same or larger

storage capacity than the drives it is replacing.

92 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

Creating a Hot Spare

Note: 3ware’s 9000 series RAID controllers use drive coercion so

that drives from differing manufacturers and with slightly different capacities are more likely to be able to be used as spares for each other. Drive coercion slightly decreases the usable capacity of a drive that is used in redundant units.

The capacity used for each drive is rounded down to the nearest GB for drives under 45 GB (45,000,000,000), and rounded down to the nearest 5 GBytes for drives over 45 GB. For example, a 44.3 GB drive will be rounded down to 44 GBytes, and a 123 GB drives will be rounded down to 120 GBytes.

If you have 120 GB drives from different manufacturers, chances are that the capacity varies slightly. For example, one drive might be 122 GB, and the other 123 GB, even though both are sold and marketed as “120 GB drives”. 3ware drive coercion uses the same capacity for both of these drives so that one could replace the other.

Specifying a Hot Spare through 3DM

If you need to add a drive to be used as the hot spare, follow the instructions under

“Adding a Drive through 3DM” on page 110.

To specify a hot spare after the system is booted

1In the Available Drives section of the Maintenance Page, select the drive

by checking the box next to it.

2Click Create Unit. 3 In the dialog box that appears, select the configuration type Spare. 4Click Ok.

You will see the spare appear at the top of the page, under Unit Maintenance.

www.3ware.com 93

Configuring Units

Specifying a Hot Spare through 3BM

1 On the main 3BM screen, in the list of Available Drives, highlight the

drive you want to use.

2Type s to specify that the selected drive will be the hot spare.

You’ll see the words “Hot Spare” appear next to the drive in the Available Drives list.

Figure 37. Hot Spare Indicated

If a hot spare is already enabled, you can disable it by pressing s again.

3 If you are finished making changes in 3BM, press F8 to save the changes

and exit.

Note: If the drive you designated as a spare is not large enough

to replace a failed drive in a fault-tolerant unit, or if there is not a fault-tolerant unit for the spare to support, 3BM will notify you.

94 3ware 9000 Series Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide

3ware 9500S Series Users Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

About This Guide

How this Guide is Organized

Conventions

Introducing the 3ware 9000 Series Controller

Product Features

What’s New With the 3ware 9000 Series Controller

System Requirements

Understanding RAID Concepts and Levels

Available RAID Configurations

RAID 0

RAID 1

RAID 5

RAID 10

RAID 50

Single Disk

JBOD

Hot Spare

Determining What RAID Level to Use

Support for Over 2 Te rabytes

3ware Tools for Configuration and Management

3BM (3ware BIOS Manager)

3DM 2 (3ware Disk Manager)

3ware CLI (Command Line Interface)

Monitoring, Maintenance, and Troubleshooting Features

Getting Started with Your 3ware RAID Controller

Physically Install the Controller and Drives

Configure the RAID Unit and Drives

Install the Drivers and Make the Operating System Aware of the New Drives

Set Up Management and Maintenance Features

3ware BIOS Manager (3BM)

Starting 3BM

Working in the 3BM Screens

Displaying Advanced Details

Getting Help While Using 3BM

Exiting the 3BM Configuration Utility

3ware Disk Manager (3DM 2)

Browser Requirements for 3DM

Setting up Mozilla

Installing 3DM

Installing 3DM on a Microsoft Windows system

Uninstalling 3DM under Microsoft Windows

Installing 3DM for Linux or FreeBSD

Uninstalling 3DM under Linux or FreeBSD

Starting 3DM and Logging In

Starting 3DM under Linux

Starting 3DM under Microsoft Windows

Viewing 3DM Remotely via a Standard Web Browser

Logging In

Working with the 3DM Screens

3DM Menus

Viewing Information About Different Controllers in 3DM

Refreshing the Screen

3DM Screens and What They're Used For

Setting Up 3DM Preferences

Setting and Changing 3DM Passwords

Managing E-mail Event Notification

Enabling and Disabling Remote Access

Setting the Incoming Port #

Setting the Frequency of Page Refreshes

3DM 2 Reference

Controller Summary Page

Controller Details Page

Unit Information Page

Unit Details Page

Drive Information Page

SMART Details About Drive at Particular Port Page

Controller Settings Page

Background Task Rate

Unit Policies

Unit Names

Other Controller Settings

Scheduling Page

About Task Schedules

About Self-tests

Maintenance Page

Rescan Controller