3ware 9690SA SAS/SATA RAID Software

3ware

®

SAS/SATA RAID Software
User Guide

Supports the 9690SA Models

PN 720-0175-00
September 2007

User Guide

Copyright

©2004-2007 Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC). All rights
reserved. This publication may be copied or reproduced for reference
purposes only. All other purposes require the express written consent of
AMCC, 215 Moffett Park Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089. AMCC shall not be
responsible or liable for, and shall be held harmless against, any and all
damages, claims, and/or disputes that arise from the copying or reproduction
of this publication.

Trademarks

3ware®, Escalade®, 3DM®, and TwinStor® are all registered trademarks of
AMCC. The 3ware logo, 3BM, Multi-Lane, StorSave, StorSwitch,
StreamFusion, and R5 Fusion are all trademarks of AMCC. PowerPC and the
PowerPC logo are trademarks of International Business Machines
Corporation. Linux® is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the
United States, other countries, or both. Windows® is a registered trademark
of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. Firefox® is
a registered trademark of the Mozilla Foundation. PCI Express® is a
registered trademark of PCI-SIG®. All other trademarks herein are property
of their respective owners.

Disclaimer

While every attempt is made to make this document as accurate as possible,
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 User Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

How this User Guide is Organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vii

Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Screenshots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Using the 3ware HTML Bookshelf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Chapter 1. Introducing the 3ware® SAS/SATA RAID Controller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

What’s New with 9690SA Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Understanding RAID Concepts and Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

RAID Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Available RAID Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Determining What RAID Level to Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Using Drive Capacity Efficiently . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Support for Over 2 Terabytes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

3ware Tools for Configuration and Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Monitoring, Maintenance, and Troubleshooting Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Chapter 2. Getting Started with Your 3ware RAID Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Chapter 3. First-Time RAID Configuration Using 3BM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Basic Steps for Creating a Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Specifying a Hot Spare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Making Drives Visible to the Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Checking the Motherboard Boot Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

What Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Chapter 4. Driver Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Driver Installation Under Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Materials Required . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Creating a 3ware Driver Diskette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Installing the 3ware Driver and Windows on a New Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Installing the Driver on a System that Boots from a Different Device . . . . . . . . . . 34

Making Units Managed by a 3ware Controller Available to Windows . . . . . . . . . . 37

Driver Installation Under Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Obtaining 3ware Linux Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Driver Installation Under Red Hat Linux or Fedora Core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Driver Installation Under SuSE Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Compiling a 3ware Driver for Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Chapter 5. 3ware BIOS Manager (3BM) Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Starting 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Exiting the 3BM Configuration Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Working in the 3BM Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Adjusting BIOS Loading Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Displaying Information About the Controller and Related Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Getting Help While Using 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Chapter 6. 3DM 2 (3ware Disk Manager) Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Browser Requirements for 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Installing 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Starting 3DM and Logging In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

www.3ware.com iii

Logging In to the 3DM Web Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Starting the 3DM Daemon under Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Starting the 3DM Process under Microsoft Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Viewing 3DM Remotely Using a Web Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Working with the 3DM Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

3DM Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Viewing Information Abou t D ifferent Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Refreshing the Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

3DM Screens and What They're Used For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Setting Up 3DM Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Setting and Changing 3DM Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Managing E-mail Event Notification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Enabling and Disabling Remote Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Setting the Listening Port # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Setting the Frequency of Page Refreshes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Chapter 7. Configuring Your Controller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72

Viewing Information About a Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

About Controller Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Viewing Controller Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Setting the Auto Rebuild Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Using Auto-Carving for Multi LUN Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Setting the Size of Volumes Created with Auto-Carving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Enabling and Setting Up Staggered Spin-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Viewing Information About a Phy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Changing the Phy Link Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Chapter 8. Configuring Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85

Configuring a New Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Configuration Options When Creating a Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Creating a Unit through 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Creating a Unit through 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Ordering Units in 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Partitioning, Formatting, and Mounting Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Creating a Hot Spare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Specifying a Hot Spare through 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Specifying a Hot Spare through 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Naming a Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Setting Unit Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Enabling and Disabling the Unit Write Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Setting Auto Verify for a Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Setting Continue on Source Error During Rebuild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Enabling and Disabling Queuing for a Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Setting the StorSave Profile for a Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Changing An Existing Configuration by Migrating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

RAID Level Migration (RLM) Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Changing RAID Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111

Expanding Unit Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Informing the Operating System of Changed Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Deleting a Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Deleting a Unit through 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Deleting a Unit through 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Removing a Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Removing a Unit Through 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Removing a Unit Through 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Moving a Unit from One Controller to Another . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

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Moving Units from an Earlier 9000 Series to a 9690SA Controller . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Adding a Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Removing a Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Rescanning the Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Chapter 9. Maintaining Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125

Checking Unit and Drive Status through 3DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Viewing a List of Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Enclosure Drive LED Status Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Unit Statuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Drive Statuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

About Degraded Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

About Inoperable Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Locating a Drive by Blinking Its LED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Alarms, Errors, and Other Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Viewing Alarms, Errors, and Other Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Using the Alert Utility Under Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Downloading an Error Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Viewing SMART Data About a Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Background Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

About Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

About Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Starting a Verify Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Rebuilding Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Cancelling a Rebuild and Restarting It with a Different Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Setting Background Task Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Background Task Prioritization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Scheduling Background Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Viewing Current Task Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Turning On or Off Use of a Task Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Removing a Task Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Adding a New Task Schedule Slot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Selecting Self-tests to be Performed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Chapter 10. Maintaining Your Controller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .156

Determining the Current Version of Your 3ware Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Updating the Firmware and Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Downloading the Driver and F i rmw are . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Updating the Firmware Through 3DM 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Updating the 3ware Driver and Firmware Under Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Using the Update Utility With Multiple Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Updating the 3ware Driver Under Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Updating the 3ware Driver Under Red Hat or Fedora Core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Updating the 3ware Driver Under SuSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Updating the Firmware Under Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Viewing Battery Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Testing Battery Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Chapter 11. Managing an Enclosure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .179

Viewing a List of Enclosures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Checking Enclosure Component Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Fan Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Temp Sensor Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Power Supply Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Slot Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Locating a Specific Enclosure Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

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Downloading an Enclosure Diagnostic Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Chapter 12. 3DM 2 Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .186

Controller Summary page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Controller Details page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Unit Information page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Unit Details page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Drive Information page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Drive Details window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Controller Phy Summary page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Controller Settings page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Scheduling page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Maintenance page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Alarms page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Battery Backup page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Enclosure Summary page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Enclosure Details page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

3DM 2 Settings page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Chapter 13. Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .222

Web Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Before Contacting Customer Su pp o rt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Basic Troubleshooting: Check This First . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Command Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Problems and Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Enclosure-Related Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Hardware Installation Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Software Installation Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Problems in 3DM and 3BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Error and Notification Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Error and Notification Message Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .269

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .270

Software Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .277

Installing Software from a Graphical User Interface (GUI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Installing Software on Linux from the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Uninstalling Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Uninstalling 3DM under Microsoft Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Uninstalling 3DM under Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Compliance and Conformity Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .287

FCC Radio Frequency Interference Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Lab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

European Community Conformity Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Warranty, Technical Support, and Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .289

Limited Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Warranty Service and RMA Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

AMCC Technical Support and Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Sales and ordering information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Feedback on this manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .292

vi 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

About this User Guide

This document, 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5,
provides instructions for configuring and maintaining RAID units on 3ware
9690SA series RAID controllers.

This guide assumes that you have already installed your controller and drives
in your system and any enclosures, if you have th em. If you have n ot yet done
so, see the installation guide that came with your controller . If y ou do not have
the printed copy, a PDF of the installation guide is available on your 3ware
CD, or you can download it from: http://www.3ware.com/support/

userdocs.asp. (Note that there are different installation guides for different

3ware RAID controller models.)
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:

• 3ware BIOS Manager (3BM), which runs at the BIOS level

• 3ware Disk Manager 2 (3DM 2), which runs in a browser

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:
3ware SAS/SATA RAID Controller CLI Guide. Information from both this
Users Guide and the CLI Guide are also available in the 3ware HTML
Bookshelf, available in the 3ware Documentation folder and on your 3ware
CD. (For more information, see “Using the 3ware HTML Bookshelf” on
page ix.)

How this User Guide is Organized

Table 1: Chapters and Appendices in this Guide

Chapter/Appendix Description

1. Introduction Provides an overview of product features for the
3ware 9690SA controller models. Includes system
requirements and an introduction to RAID concepts
and levels.

vii 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Table 1: Chapters and Appendices in this Guide

Chapter/Appendix Description

2. Getting Started Provides a summary of the process you should follow
to get started using your 3ware RAID controller.

3. First-Time RAID

Configuration Using
3BM

4. Driver Installation Describes how to install drivers for the 3ware

5. 3ware BIOS Manager

(3BM)

Provides step-by-step instructions for configuring
RAID units if you have just installed the controller.

controller if you have just installed and configured it.
Describes the basics of using 3BM.

6. 3ware Disk Manager 2

(3DM 2)

7. Configuring Your

Controller

8. Configuring Units Describes how to configure new units and hot spares,

9. Maintaining Units Describes how to check unit and dri v e status, review

10. Maintaining Your

Controller

11. Managing an

Enclosure

12. 3DM 2 Reference Describes the features and functions on each of the

13. Troubleshooting Provides common problems and solutions, and

A. Glossary Includes definitions for terms used throughout this

Describes the basics of using 3DM. Also includes
information about installing and uninstalling 3DM, and
how to start the 3DM process manually, if required.

Describes how to view details about the controller,
check its status, and change configuration settings
that affect the controller and all associated drives.

change existing configurations, and set unit policies.

alarms and errors, schedule background maintenance
tasks, and manually start them, when necessary or
desirable. Includes explanations of initialization,
verify, rebuild, and self-tests.

Describes how to update the driver, and move a unit
from one controller to another. Also includes
information about checking battery status on a BBU
(Battery Backup Unit).

Describes how to view details about an enclosure,
check the status of enclosure components, and locate
specific enclosure components by blinking an
associated LED.

pages in 3DM.

explains error messages.

guide.

B. Software Installation Provides instructions for installing software

management tools (3DM 2, CLI, tw_update) and
documentation.

C. Compliance and

Conformity Statements

D. Warranty, Technical

Support, and Service

Provides compliance and conformity statement.

Provides warranty information and tells you how to
contact technical support.

viii 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Conventions

The following conventions are used throughout this guide:

• 3BM refers to the 3ware BIOS Manager.

• 3DM and 3DM 2 both refer to the 3ware Disk Manager, version 2.

• In the sections that describe using 3DM, current controller 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.

•

Screenshots

The screenshots in this documentation are examples only, and may not exactly
reflect the operating system and browser you are using. 3ware software works
on a number of different operating systems, including Microsoft Windows®
and Linux®, and runs in a number of different browsers. In addition, the
version numbers shown in screenshots for drivers, firmware, and software
may not match your version. For the current released and tested version
number, see the latest release notes.

Conventions

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

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

Monospace font is used for code and to indicate things you type.

In addition, the fields and columns in 3DM 2 vary for different models of
3ware RAID controllers. If you have multiple controllers of different models,
you may notice some differences when switching between them in 3DM. For
example, when displaying information about the 9690SA controllers, 3DM
displays “VPorts” (for virtual port) on some screens while for earlier
controllers the label is “port.”

Using the 3ware HTML Bookshelf

The 3ware HTML Bookshelf is an HTML version of this user guide and the
CLI Guide, combined as one resource. It is available on your 3ware CD, in the
/doc/3wareHTMLBookshelf folder. It can also be installed along with the
software, as described in “Software Installation” on page 277.

To make use of the 3ware HTML Bookshelf

1 To launch the bookshelf at the opening page, do one of the following:

• For Windows, from the Start menu, choose Programs > AMCC >

Bookshelf shortcut.

www.3ware.com ix

• Navigate to the 3wareHTMLBookshelf folder on the 3ware CD and

Click the Show Navigation
button to display the Table of
Contents

double click the file index.html.

• For Linux, open a browser window to the following location:

/opt/AMCC/Documentation/index.html

When you use either of these methods, a navigation panel at the left
automatically opens. It includes a Table of Contents, Index, and Search.

You can also open the bookshelf by double-clicking any other html file in
the 3wareHTMLBookshelf folder. When you open an individual file, the
navigation pane does not automatically open. In this case, you can display
the navigation pane by clicking the

Figure 1. Navigation Button in the 3ware HTML Bookshelf Window

Show Navigation button at the left.

Note: The 3ware HTML Bookshelf is created as a set of HTML documents

that are often displayed from a website. When installed on your personal
computer, some browsers flag them as “active content,” and require your
approval before displaying the content.

If you see messages similar to the following, you must confirm the display of
active content in order to see the pages.

x 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Introducing the 3ware® SAS/ SATA RAID Controller

AMCC 3ware RAID controllers deliver full-featured, true hardware RAID to
servers and workstations. AMCC's RAID controllers offer Serial Attached
SCSI (SAS) and Serial ATA (SATA) interfaces. Combined with an advanc ed
RAID management feature-set that includes web-based, command-based, and
API (application programming interface) software components, AMCC
controllers provide compelling RAID solutions.

This section introduces the features and concepts of AMCC 3ware RAID
controllers. It is organized into the following topics:

• What’s New with 9690SA Models

• System Requirements

• Understanding RAID Concepts and Levels

• 3ware Tools for Configuration and Management

• Monitoring, Maintenance, and Troubleshooting Features

1

What’s New with 9690SA Models

The 9690SA models in 3ware’s 9000 series of RAID controllers have the
following features and benefits:

• Dual-ported SAS drive support

• Ability to have SAS and/or SATA drives on the same controller

• Connectivity with up to 128 single-ported drives or 64 dual-ported drives

• Up to 32 drives in a unit

• Up to 32 active units

• Support for storage enclosures

• Simultaneous RAID 6 parity generation to maximize RAID 6

performance

• 8th-generation StorSwitch™ non-blocking switch fabric for maximum

controller output

www.3ware.com 1

Chapter 1. Introducing the 3ware® SAS/SATA RAID Controller

• StreamFusion™ optimizes RAID 5 and RAID 6 disk accesses to

maximize application performance under heavy loads

• StorSave™ BBU with write journaling optimizes data protection and

performance

• RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and Single Disk

• PCI Express® x8 connectivity

• If you have a supported enclosure, the drive Locate feature allows you to

easily identify a drive in the enclosure by blinking the LED associated
with it. Depending on your enclosure, you may also be able to identify
fans, power supplies, and temperature controls.

System Requirements

3ware 9690SA model RAID controllers have the following requirements:

Motherboard and Slot Requirements

A workstation-class or server-class motherboard, with an available PCI
Express x8 or x16 slot that complies with PCI 1.1 or later.

A list of motherboards that have been tested is available at

http://www.3ware.com/products/sys_compatibility.asp

Drive Requirements

The 3ware 9690SA RAID controller may be connected to up to 128 SAS and /
or SATA drives. If all drives are SAS drives and connections are made to both
ports of each SAS drive from the controller (for redundancy and
performance), then a maximum of 64 drives may be used. A maximum of 32
drives are allowed per RAID unit and up to 32 active RAID units per
controller. You cannot mix SAS and SATA drives in the same unit.

Drives and drive enclosures must meet SAS (3.0 Gbps) and SATA (1.5 or 3.0
Gbps) standards.

A list of drives that have been tested is available at

http://www.3ware.com/products/sys_compatibility.asp

Drives may be of any capacity or physical form factor.
The length of internal unshielded interface cables may not exceed 1M (39”)

and a maximum of 6M (234”) for external shielded cables.

2 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

System Requirements

Enclosure Requirements

Enclosure management features in 3ware software are available for supported
enclosures with expanders that provide SCSI Enclosure Services 2 (SES-2).

Note: SAFTE (SCSI Accessed Fault Tolerant Enclosure) is not supported at

this time.
A list of supported enclosures is available at

http://www.3ware.com/products/sys_compatibility.asp

Cascading of enclosures is limited to 4 enclosures based on the same
expander. Enclosures may contain cascaded expanders internally.

Operating System

3ware RAID controllers may be used with:

• Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, both 32-bit and 64-bit x86

• Red Hat Linux, 32-bit and 64-bit x86

• SuSE Linux, 32-bit and 64-bit x86

• Fedora Core, 32-bit and 64-bit x86

• Other versions of Linux, 32-bit and 64-bit x86, using the open source

Linux 2.4 or 2.6 kernel driver

For the latest driver versions for all operating systems, see the current Release
Notes at http://www.3ware.com/support/.

Other Requirements

• Adequate air flow and cooling

• Adequate power supply for drives

• 3DM 2 (3ware Disk Manager) displays information in a browser. It

requires one of the following browsers:

• Internet Explorer 5.5 and later

• Mozilla Firefox 1.2 and later

• Netscape 7 and later

In addition:

• JavaScript must be enabled

• Cookies must be enabled

• For best viewing, screen resolution should be 1024 x 768 or greater,

with 16-bit color or greater.

For a complete listing of features and system requirements, refer to the 3ware
SATA RAID Controller datasheets, available from the website at http://

www.3ware.com/products.

www.3ware.com 3

Chapter 1. Introducing the 3ware® SAS/SATA RAID Controller

Understanding RAID Concepts and Levels

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

This section organizes information about RAID concepts and configuration
levels into the following topics:

• “RAID Concepts” on page 4

• “Available RAID Configurations” on page 5

• “Determining What RAID Level to Use” on page 11

RAID Concepts

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 working with a 3ware RAID controller, “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 (RAID 1) 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 (RAID 0) achieve
highest transfer rates and performance at the expense of fault tolerance.

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

•

RAID 6, 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 defective
drive in a redundant unit.

4 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

• Array 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 attached to different ports
than they were originally attached to, without harm to the data.

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

Available RAID Configurations

RAID is a method of combining several hard drives into one unit. It offers
fault tolerance and higher throughput levels than a single hard drive or group
of independent hard drives. RAID levels 0, 1, 10 and 5 are th e most popular.
AMCC's 3ware controllers support RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and Single Disk.
The information below provides a more in-depth explanation of the different
RAID levels.

For how to configure RAID units, see “Configuring a New Unit” on page 85.

Understanding RAID Concepts and Levels

RAID 0

RAID 0 provides improved performance, but no fault tolerance. Since the
data is striped across more than one disk, RAID 0 disk arrays achieve high
transfer rates because they can read and write data on more than one drive
simultaneously. The stripe size is configurable during unit creation. RAID 0
requires a minimum of two drives.

When drives are configured in a striped disk array (see Figure 2), 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.

www.3ware.com 5

Chapter 1. Introducing the 3ware® SAS/SATA RAID Controller

Figure 2. RAID 0 Configuration Example

RAID 1

RAID 1 provides fault tolerance and a speed advantage over non-RAID disks.
RAID 1 is also known as a mirrored array. Mirroring is done on pairs of
drives. Mirrored disk arrays write the same data to two different drives using
RAID 1 algorithms (see Figure 3). 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 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 3. RAID 1 Configuration Example

RAID 5

RAID 5 provides performance, fault tolerance, high capacity, and storage
efficiency. It requires a minimum of three drives and combines striping data
with parity (exclusive OR) to restore data in case of a drive failure.
Performance and efficiency increase as the number of drives in a unit
increases.

Parity information is distributed across all of the drives in a unit rather than
being concentrated on a single disk (see Figure 4). This avoids throughput
loss due to contention for the parity drive.

6 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Understanding RAID Concepts and Levels

RAID 5 is able to tolerate 1 drive failure in the unit.

Figure 4. RAID 5 Configuration Example

RAID 6

RAID 6 requires a 3ware 9650SE or 9690SA RAID controller.
RAID 6 provides greater redundancy and fault tolerance than RAID 5. It is

similar to RAID 5, but has two blocks of parity information (P+Q) distributed
across all the drives of a unit, instead of the single block of RAID 5.

Due to the two parities, a RAID 6 unit can tolerate two hard drives failing
simultaneously. This also means that a RAID 6 unit may be in two different
states at the same time. For example, one sub-unit can be degraded, while
another may be rebuilding, or one sub-unit may be initializing, while another
is verifying.

AMCC 3ware’s implementation of RAID 6 requires a minimum of five
drives. Performance and storage efficiency also increase as the number of
drives increase.

www.3ware.com 7

Chapter 1. Introducing the 3ware® SAS/SATA RAID Controller

Figure 5. RAID 6 Configuration Example

RAID 10

RAID 10 is a combination of striped and mirrored arrays for fault tolerance
and high performance.

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 6). 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 TwinStor and striping the arrays.

In addition, RAID 10 arrays offer a higher degree of fault tolerance than
RAID 1 and RAID 5, since the array can sustain multiple drive failures
without data loss. For example, in a twelve-drive RAID 10 array, up to six
drives can fail (half of each mirrored pair) and the array will continue to
function. Please note that if both halves of a mirrored pair in the RAID 10
array fail, then all of the data will be lost.

8 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Understanding RAID Concepts and Levels

Figure 6. RAID 10 Configuration Example

RAID 50

RAID 50 is a combination of RAID 5 with RAID 0. This array type provides
fault tolerance and high performance. RAID 50 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. On a 16-port
controller, you can have a grouping of 4 or 8 drives.

No more than four RAID 5 subunits are allowed in a RAID 50 unit. For
example, a 24-drive RAID 50 unit may have groups of 12, 8, or 6 drives, but
not groups of 4 or 3.

In addition, RAID 50 arrays offer a higher degree of fault tolerance than
RAID 1 and RAID 5, since the array can sustain multiple drive failures
without data loss. For example, in a twelve-drive RAID 50 array, up to one
drive in each RAID 5 set can fail and the array will continue to function.
Please note that if two or more drives in a RAID 5 set fail, then all of the data
will be lost.

www.3ware.com 9

Chapter 1. Introducing the 3ware® SAS/SATA RAID Controller

Figure 7. RAID 50 Configuration Example

Single Disk

A single drive can be configured as a unit through 3ware software. (3BM,
3DM 2, or CLI). Like disks in other RAID configurations, single disks
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 taken to prevent system
hangs and data loss.

Hot Spare

A hot spare is a single drive, available online, so that a redundant unit can be
automatically rebuilt in case of drive failure.

10 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Understanding RAID Concepts and Levels

Determining What RAID Level to Use

Your choice of which type of RAID unit (array) to create will depend on your
needs. You may wish to maximize speed of access, total amount of storage, or
redundant protection of data. Each type of RAID unit offers a different blend
of these characteristics.

The following table provides a brief summary of RAID type characteristics.

Table 2: RAID Configuration Types

RAID Type Description

RAID 0 Provides performance, but no fault tolerance.
RAID 1 Provides fault tolerance and a read speed advantage over non-

RAID disks.

RAID 5 This type of unit provides performance, fault tolerance, and high

storage efficiency. RAID 5 units can tolerate one drive failing
before losing data.

RAID 6 Provides very high fault tolerance with the ability to protect

against two consecutive drive failures. Performance and
efficiency increase with higher numbers of drives.

RAID 10 A combinatio n of striped and mirrored un its for fault tolerance

and high performance.

RAID 50 A combination of RAID 5 and RAID 0. It provides high fault

tolerance and performance.

Single Disk Not a RAID type, but supported as a configuration.

Provides for maximum disk capacity with no redundancy.

You can create one or more units, depending on the number of drives you
have installed.

Table 3: Possible Configurations Based on Number of Drives

# Drives Possible RAID Configurations

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

RAID 1 with hot spare
RAID 5

4 RAID 5 with hot spare

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

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Chapter 1. Introducing the 3ware® SAS/SATA RAID Controller

Table 3: Possible Configurations Based on Number of Drives

# Drives Possible RAID Configurations

5RAID 6

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

6 or more RAID 6

RAID 6 with hot spare
RAID 50
Combination of RAID 0, 1, 5, 6,10, hot spare, single disk

Using Drive Capacity Efficiently

To make the most efficient use of drive capacity, it is advisable to use drives
of the same capacity in a unit. This is because the capacity of each drive is
limited to the capacity of the smallest drive in the unit.

The total unit capacity is defined as follows:

Table 4: Drive Capacity

RAID Level Capacity

Single Disk Capacity of the drive
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 6 (number of drives - 2) x (capacity of the smallest drive)
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 bytes), and rounded
down to the nearest 5 GB for drives over 45 GB. For example, a 44.3 GB
drive will be rounded down to 44 GB, and a 123 GB drive will be rounded

12 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

3ware Tools for Configuration and Management

down to 120 GB. For more information, see the discussion of drive coercion
under “Creating a Hot Spare” on page 97.

Note: All drives in a unit must be of the same type, either SAS or SATA.

Support for Over 2 Terabytes

Windows XP (32-bit), Windows 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit without SP1) and
Linux 2.4 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.

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. The carve size is adjustable from 1024 GB to 2048 GB (default)
prior to unit creation.

If a unit over 2 TB was created prior to enabling the auto-carve option, its
capacity visible to the operating system will still be 2TB; no additional
capacity will be registered. To change this, the unit has to be recreated.

For more information, see “Using Auto-Carving for Multi LUN Support” on
page 78.

You may also want to refer to Knowledgease article # 13431, at
http://www.3ware.com/kb/article.aspx?id=13431.

3ware Tools for Configuration and
Management

3ware software tools let 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 the following tools for use in configuring and managing units
attached to the 3ware controller:

• 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

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Chapter 1. Introducing the 3ware® SAS/SATA RAID Controller

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 Chapter 5, “3ware
BIOS Manager (3BM) Introduction.”

• 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. It can be used
locally (on the system that contains the 9690SA) or remotely (on a system
connected via a network to the system containing the 9690SA).

For details about working with 3DM, see “3DM 2 (3ware Disk Manager)
Introduction” on page 58.

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

• 3ware Alert Utility (WinAVAlarm)

The 3ware Alert Utility for Windows runs on the system in which the
3ware RAID controller is installed and provides direct notification by
popup message and audio alarm when events occur. This utility can be
configured to specify the type of events that should generate these
notifications. For details, see “Using the Alert Utility Under W indows” on
page 134.

• 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 can also use
it to remotely administer controllers in a system.

The 3ware CLI is described in 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Controller CLI
Guide and in the 3ware HTML Bookshelf.

Monitoring, Maintenance, and Troubleshooting Feat ures

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

14 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Monitoring, Maintenance, and Troub leshooting Features

SMART thresholds can be turned on and off in 3DM. See, “Selecting
Self-tests to be Performed” on page 154 This feature does not apply to
SAS drives. (For details, see “Viewing SMART Data About a Drive” on
page 136.)

•

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).
This feature does not apply to drives that are attached to an expan der. For
details, see “Enabling and Setting Up Staggered Spin-up” on page 80.

•

Verification and Media Scans. The verify task verifies all redundant

units, and checks for media errors on single disks, spares 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. (For more information, see “About Verification” on
page 141.)

•

Error Correction. Bad sectors can be dynamically repaired through error

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

•

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. (For more information, see “Scheduling Background
Tasks” on page 150.)

•

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

3DM 2 and CLI. When write cache is enabled, data will be stored in
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 occurs. With a Battery Backup
Unit (BBU) installed, the data stored on the 3ware controller can be
restored. (For more information, see “Enabling and Disabling the Unit
Write Cache” on page 102.)

•

StorSave™ Profiles allow you to set the level of protection versus

performance that is desired for a unit when write cache is enabled. (For
more information, see “Setting the StorSave Profile for a Unit” on
page 106.)

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Chapter 1. Introducing the 3ware® SAS/SATA RAID Controller

• Enclosure Services. Drives, fans, temperature sensors, and power

supplies in supported enclosures can be identified by flashing LEDs so
that you can quickly identify which component needs to be checked or
replaced. For more information, see “Managing an Enclosure” on
page 179.

Auto Rebuild. For times when you do not have a spare available, setting

•

the Auto Rebuild policy allows rebuilds to occur with an available drive
or with a failed drive. (For more information, see “Setting the Auto
Rebuild Policy” on page 77.)

16 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Getting Started with Your 3ware RAID Controller

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

• Physically Install the RAID Controller and Drives

• Configure a RAID Unit

• Install the Driver 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.

2

Tip: When you are first setting up your system, you may want to review

“System Requirements” on page 2.

Physically Install the RAID Controller and Drives

To install your controller, follow the instructions in the installation guide that
came with your 3ware controller. If you do not have a hardcopy of the
installation manual, it is available in the “doc” folder on your 3ware CD, or
you can download it from the 3ware website at http://www.3ware.com/

support/userdocs.asp.

For drive installation, see the instructions that came with your enclosure. If
you are installing drives in a computer case, follow the manufacturer’s
instructions.

Configure a RAID Unit

If you would like more information about what RAID level to choose for your
situation, review the information under “Understanding RAID Concepts and
Levels” on page 4. Then turn to “Configuring a New Unit” on page 85.

If you want to 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 for initial

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Chapter 2. Getting Started with Your 3ware RAID Controller

installation in. Chapter 3, “First-Time RAID Configuration Using 3BM.”
Additional information about configuration is also included in the later
chapters of this user guide.

If the operating system is already installed on another drive in your system,
you can configure units through 3BM, through 3ware Disk Manager (3DM),
or through the Command Line Interface (CLI). If you want to use 3DM or the
CLI for configuration, go ahead and boot to the operating system, install the
driver and the 3DM 2 software, and then configure your units. You may want
to refer to the following information:

• Chapter 6, “3DM 2 (3ware Disk Manager) Introduction”

• Chapter 8, “Configuring Units”

• 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Controller CLI Guide, available from the CD-

ROM, the 3ware HTML Bookshelf and from the website http://

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

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

Instructions for installing drivers are available in “Driver Installation” on
page 31.

You will also find instructions for updating the driver under “Downloading
the Driver and Firmware” on page 158.

Set Up Management and Maintenance Features

3ware RAID controllers 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 Auto Rebuild, Auto Verify, use of

write cache, use of queuing mode, and selection of a StorSave profile.

• 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. (Background
tasks include rebuild, verify, initialize, migrate, and self-test.)

Details about these features are described in this documentation. When you
first set up your controller, you may want to review these sections in
particular:

• “Configuring Your Controller” on page 72

• “Setting Unit Policies” on page 100

• “Setting Background Task Rate” on page 149

18 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Initial Settings for Policies and Background Tasks

The table below lists the default settings for policies and background tasks.
These settings are used if you do not explicitly change the policy settings.

Table 5: Default Settings for Policies and Background Tasks

Policy Default Value Where to Change

Controller-Level Settings
(For details, see “Configuring Your Controller” on page 72

Auto-Rebuild Enabled 3BM, 3DM, CLI
Auto-Carving Disabled 3BM, 3DM, CLI
Auto-Detect Enabled CLI
Carve Size or Factor 2048 GB 3BM, 3DM, CLI
Drives Per Spinup 1 3BM, CLI
Delay Between Spinup 6 seconds 3BM, CLI
Export Unconfigured (JBOD)

Disks
Staggered Method ATA-6 3BM
Staggered Spinup Enabled 3BM

Unit-Level Settings
(For details, see “Setting Unit Policies” on page 100)

Auto Verify Disabled 3DM, CLI
Continue on Source Error

During Rebuild
Boot Volume Size Blank 3BM
Queuing (NCQ) Enabled 3BM, 3DM, CLI
StorSave Profile Protection 3BM, 3DM, CLI
Write Cache Enabled 3BM, 3DM, CLI

Background Task Settings
(For details, see “Scheduling Background Tasks” on page 150 and “Setting
Background Task Rate” on page 149)

Verify Task Schedules

Disabled 3BM, CLI

Disabled 3BM, 3DM, CLI

Daily,

starting at 12:00 am

3DM, CLI

and running for 24 hours

Follow Verify Task Schedule No 3DM, CLI
Rebuild Task Schedules

starting at 12:00 am

Daily,

3DM, CLI

and running for 24 hours

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Chapter 2. Getting Started with Your 3ware RAID Controller

Table 5: Default Settings for Policies and Background Tasks

Policy Default Value Where to Change

Follow Rebuild T ask
Schedule

Self-test Task Schedules

a

No 3DM, CLI

Daily, starting at 12:00 am

3DM, CLI

and running for 24 hours

Follow Self-test Task
Schedule

Yes 3DM, CLI

a. Although the default Self-test Task Schedule is for 24 hours, self-test

tasks are run only at the beginning of that time period and take just a few
minutes. For more information about task schedules, see “Scheduling
Background Tasks” on page 150.

20 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

3

First-Time RAID Configuration Using 3BM

If you will install the operating system on and boot from a unit managed
through the new 3ware RAID controller, follow the steps in this chapter to use
the 3ware BIOS Manager (3BM) to configure the unit and install the driver.

If the operating system is already installed on another drive in your system,
you can use the steps below or you can configure units through 3DM or the
CLI.

You can create one or more units on a single controller, depending on the
number of drives that the specific 3ware RAID controller supports and the
number of drives attached. (For more information, see “Determining What
RAID Level to Use” on page 11.)

Basic Steps for Creating a Unit

The process of configuring your RAID units includes these main steps, which
are detailed in the step-by-step example:

• Launch 3BM (3ware BIOS Manager)

• Select the drives to be included and indicate that you want to create a unit

• Select the desired RAID configuration

• Set other parameters, depending on the type of RAID configuration

• Confirm the unit configuration

• Save your changes and finish up

Note: If the capacity of the unit you create will exceed 2TB and you are using

Windows XP (32-bit), Windows 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit without SP1) or Linux 2.4,
you will need to enable auto-carving. Before creating your unit, follow the
instructions under “Using Auto-Carving for Multi LUN Support” on page 78.

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Chapter 3. First-Time RAID Configuration Using 3BM

----Press <Alt-3> to access 3ware BIOS Manager ---­3ware ATA RAID Controller: 9690SA-4I4E
BIOS: BE9X X.XX.XX.XXX Firmware: FE9X X.XX.XX.XXX
BBU Status: Not Present
Number of online units: 1, available drives: 0, hot spare: 0, offline units:0

Available drives:

SATA - SAMSUNG HD160JJ 149.04 GB Phy 0

Exportable Units:Œ

3drive 64K RAID5 298.00 GB (Zygote3) DEGRADED
SATA - SAMSUNG HD160JJ 149.04 GB (Phy 3)
SATA - SAMSUNG HD160JJ 149.04 GB (Phy 1)

To launch 3BM

1 Power up or reboot your system.

While the system is starting, watch for a screen similar to Figure 8.

Figure 8. 3ware BIOS Screen

2 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.

3 If you plan to make changes to your config uration and need to backup

data before continuing, press ESC and do so now. Otherwise, press any
key to continue.

Figure 9. Warning Message When you Start 3BM

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

lists the available boards. (See Figure 10.) In this case, highlight the board
with which you want to work and press Enter.

22 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

If you have more than 2 boards, you will only see two at first (only two
can be processed at a time). After you exit from 3BM, you will have an
opportunity to access the BIOS again, to access the next boards.

Basic Steps fo r Creating a Unit

Figure 10. 3ware Controller Board Selection Screen

You will see a screen similar to Figure 9, warning you that changing your
disk array configuration may overwrite data on the disks.

To select the drives and create a unit

1 Select the drives to be included by highlighting each one and pressing

Enter to select it, or select all at once by selecting the heading above
them.

When you select a drive, an asterisk appears next to it in the left-most
column (see Figure 11).

You may include from one to thirty-two drives in the unit, depending on
the number available.

Figure 11. Asterisks Next to Selected Drives

2 After all drives for the unit are selected, use the Tab to move to the

Create Unit button and press Enter.
The Create Disk Array screen appears (see Figure 12).

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Chapter 3. First-Time RAID Configuration Using 3BM

3 Make sure that the proper drives are listed.

Figure 12. Create Disk Array Display

To name the unit and select the desired RAID configuration

1 (Optional) Press Enter in the Array Name field and type a name for the

unit. Then press Enter again to accept the name.

2 Use the arrow keys or press Tab to move to the RAID Configuration

field and press Enter to display the available RAID levels for the number
of drives you selected.

Figure 13. List of Configuration Choices for Four Drives

3 Use the arrow keys to highlight the desired RAID configuration and

press Enter.
For information about the different RAID levels and when to use each,

see “Understanding RAID Concepts and Levels” on page 4.

4 Use the arrow keys or press Tab to move to the field Stripe Size and

select the desired stripe size (16KB, 64KB, or 256KB).

Notes:

Striping size is not applicable for RAID 1, because it is a mirrored unit
without striping.

For RAID 6, only stripe size of 64KB is supported.

In general, use smaller stripe sizes for sequential access (such as video
access) and larger stripe sizes for random access (such as a database).

24 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Basic Steps fo r Creating a Unit

Figure 14. Stripe Sizes for a RAID 5

To set other policies for the unit

While creating a unit through 3BM, you can set several policies that effect the
unit (Write Cache, Drive Queuing Mode, and Continue on Error When
Rebuild), and you can select a StorSave profile.

Each of these policies is already set to a default value, so you do not have to
change them. In addition, you can change each of these policies later without
affecting the configuration.

1 Use the arrow keys or press Tab to move to the field you want to change.
2 Press Enter to see the available options.
3 Use the arrow keys to select the option you want and press Enter to

choose it.
For details about these parameters, see:

• “Enabling and Disabling the Unit Write Cache” on page 102

• “Enabling and Disabling Queuing for a Unit” on page 105

• “Setting the StorSave Profile for a Unit” on page 106

• “Setting Continue on Source Error During Rebuild” on page 104

To create a boot unit of a particular size

You can specify a portion of the unit you create to be used as a boot volume, if
desired. This is useful if you will be installing your operating system onto the
unit and want to have a designated volume for the OS. The remainder of the
unit will be created as a separate volume.

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Chapter 3. First-Time RAID Configuration Using 3BM

Note: Setting a Boot Volume Size is optional. In addition, if you specify a boot

volume, you do not have to install your operating system onto it. For more
information about creating a boot volume, see “Boot volume size” on page 88. If the
size of your array is 2TB or greater, you may also want to review the information
about carving the unit into multiple volumes. For details, see “Using Auto-Carving
for Multi LUN Support” on page 78.

1 Use the arrow keys or press Tab to move to the Boot Volume Size field.
2 Press Enter to display a text box.
3 Enter the size in Gigabytes that should be assigned to the boot volume.
4 Press Enter again to accept the size.

To confirm unit configuration

1 Press Tab to select the OK button and press Enter to confirm creation of

the unit.
Or, if you want to cancel the creation of the unit, tab to Cancel and press

Enter.

2 If you leave the Unit Write Cache field enabled and do not have a BBU

installed, 3BM will ask you to confirm that you want to enable write
cache.

The unit is not actually created and no data is overwritten until you have
finished making all your changes and press F8.

3 If the volume summary screen appears, review the information and press

any key to continue.
Multiple volumes will be created if you entered a Boot Volume Size of

greater than zero (0), or if auto-carving is enabled and the combined size
of the drives in your unit is large enough to divide it into multiple
volumes. For more information about auto-carving, see “Using Auto­Carving for Multi LUN Support” on page 78.

26 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Basic Steps fo r Creating a Unit

Figure 15. Summary of Volumes to be Created

To finish up and save your changes

1 If you have additional drives, you can go ahead and configure an

additional RAID unit or designate a hot spare. Then continue on with
these steps. (For details about hot spares, see page 29.)

2 If you configured more than one unit, and you plan to install the operating

system on one of them, make that unit be the first unit (Unit 0) in the list
of Exportable Units.

To move a unit up in the list, highlight it and press the Page Up key.
You will also want to make sure that the controller is the boot device for

your computer . After finalizing the configuration below, be sure to follow
the steps under “Checking the Motherboard Boot Sequence” on page 30.

3 When you are finished configuring units, press F8 to save the changes

and exit 3BM.
A warning message asks you to confirm that all existing data on the drives

will be deleted.

Figure 16. Confirmation Message when Saving and Exiting

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Chapter 3. First-Time RAID Configuration Using 3BM

4Type Y to continue, delete any existing data on the drives, and create the

unit.
Depending on the RAID configuration you are creating, initialization of

the unit may begin immediately. (RAID 6 units and some RAID 5 and
RAID 50 units begin immediate initialization.) The initialization process
can take several hours, depending on the size of your drives.

5 If you want to use a RAID configuration which has started initializing,

you can press Esc to cancel the progress box. (Before doing this, be sure
to read “Trade-offs to cancelling initialization,” below.)

You can then exit 3BM and boot to the operating system before the
process of writing zeroes to the drives is complete. Once you have booted
to the operating system, background initialization of the unit will begin
after a delay of up to ten minutes.

Trade-offs to cancelling initialization:

• Performance of these units will be lower until initialization is

complete.

• When initializing is done after booting to the operating system,
the process of initializing takes longer than it does if initialization
is done by writing zeroes to the unit in the BIOS. Consequently, it
will be a longer period of time until the performance of the unit is
fully optimal. Data remains intact when initialization is done in the
operating system.

For complete information about initialization of RAID units, see “About
Initialization” on page 137.

6 If you are finished creating RAID units, be sure to check the boot

sequence for your system, as described under “Checking the Motherboard
Boot Sequence” on page 30.

28 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Specifying a Hot Spare

You can designate one of the Available Drives as a ho t spare in 3BM. If a hot
spare is specified and a redundant unit degrades, an event notification will be
generated. If the hot spare is of the same type (SAS or SATA) and of adequate
size, it will automatically replace the failed drive without user intervention.

To specify a hot spare

1 In the list of Available Drives, highlight the drive 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 17. Hot Spare Indicated

Specifying a Hot Spare

If a hot spare is already enabled, you can disable it by following the same
process.

Note: In order to replace a failed drive in a degraded unit, a hot spare drive

must have the same or larger storage capacity than the failed drive.

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Chapter 3. First-Time RAID Configuration Using 3BM

Making Drives Visible to the Operating System

By default, if you leave individual drives unconfigured, they will not be
available to the operating system. If you want to be able to use individual
drives, configure them as single-disk units.

Checking the Motherboard Boot Sequence

Using your computer’s Setup utility, ensure that it shows the appropriate boot
device.

After installing the 3ware controller in your system, go into the BIOS for your
computer system to check and change the boot order. This is necessary
because most systems automatically change the boot order when they detect a
newly installed controller and device. Refer to the documentation for your
system for information about starting the system BIOS.

What Ne xt?

• If the OS is already installed on a unit connected to the system, be

sure that device precedes the 3ware RAID controller in the boot sequence.
If you have other disks installed on the motherboard, the 3ware RAID
controller should precede them in boot order.

• If you will install your OS on a disk or unit attached to the 3ware
RAID controller, specify the controller as the boot device. (Note that if

you configured more than one unit, the drive(s) specified as Unit 0 will be
treated as the boot disk.)

The final steps in setting up your RAID units are to load the 3ware driver and
make the units available to your operating system. For details, turn to
Chapter 4, “Driver Installation.”

After installing the driver, in order to maintain your RAID units, you may also
want to install 3ware’s browser-based Disk Management tool, 3DM 2, or the
3ware Command Line Interface (CLI). For more information, see
Appendix B, “Software Installation” on page 277.

30 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Driver Installation

This chapter provides details about how to install the driver for your 3ware
RAID controller and make the units available to your operating system.

• If the unit you have created will be your system's boot device, you install
the driver for the controller as you install the operating system.

• If the operating system is already installed on a unit connected to another
controller or to the motherboard, you start the operating system and then
install the driver.

Details for both situations are described in this chapter. Driver information is
organized by operating system:

• “Driver Installation Under Windows” on page 32

• “Driver Installation Under Linux” on page 38

4

Note: If you are working with a system that already has a 3ware RAID controller

installed, and want to update the driver or firmware for your 3ware RAID controller
to a newer version, see “Updating the Firmware and Driver” on page 157.

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Chapter 4. Driver Installation

Driver Installation Under Windows

Note: Before installing the 3ware driver, you must have already physically installed

your 3ware RAID controller in the system.
Consult the installation guide that came with your controller for how to do this. You

can download that guide from: http://www.3ware.com/support/userdocs.asp.

The 3ware RAID controller can be used with Windows XP (SP1 or newer),
and Windows Server 2003. Windows 2003 64-bit for AMD Opteron or Intel
EM64T is also supported. It is recommended that you upgrade to the latest
service pack available.

A drive or unit managed by the 3ware RAID controller may be configured to
be your system’s boot device. Or, you can use units managed by the 3ware
controller for secondary storage and boot from another device, such as a disk
attached to the motherboard, or other bootable media.

This section contains instructions for how to:

• Create a driver diskette for the 3ware RAID controller.

• Install the 3ware driver and Windows on a new drive or unit.

• Install the 3ware driver when Windows is already installed on a different

device.

Note: You must have administrator privileges for your system to install the

Windows operating system and the 3ware driver.

Materials Required

• 3ware software CD-ROM

• Microsoft Windows XP or Server 2003 installation CD-ROM. (Not

required if Windows is already installed on another drive.).

• Floppy diskette, to create a driver diskette.
If you are installing Windows onto the RAID unit you are creating, you

must create a 3ware driver diskette. If Windows is already installed on
another device, you may install the 3ware driver from either the 3ware
software CD-ROM or from a diskette.

32 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Creating a 3ware Driver Diskette

If you are installing Windows on a new unit or drive managed by the 3ware
RAID controller, you must create a 3ware driver diskette.

To create a driver diskette

1 Insert the AMCC 3ware software CD into your Windows system.

Driver Installation Under Windows

Autorun should start the 3ware menu program. If it does not, open

Computer

2 When the License screen appears, review and agree to the license in order

to continue.

3 When the AMCC 3ware Menu appears, click Driver Disk Images.
4 In the AMCC 3ware Driver Disk Images menu, click the appropriate

button to create the driver diskette that you need.
Note that there are both 32-bit and 64-bit drivers available for Windows.

Be sure to select the correct one.

5 When the confirm message appears, insert a blank diskette into a floppy

drive and click the Yes button to begin the process.

, select the CD, right-click and choose AutoPlay.

Installing the 3ware Driver and Windows on aNewUnit

If you want to install Windows on a new drive configuration managed by the
3ware RAID controller, follow the instructions in this section.

If Windows is already installed on another drive, turn to “Installing the Driver
on a System that Boots from a Different Device” on page 34.

My

To install Windows and the 3ware driver

1 Boot from the Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003 CD and press F6

when you see the message: “Press F6 if you need to install a 3rd party
SCSI or RAID driver” at the bottom of the display.

2 When you see the message: “Setup could not determine the type of one or

more mass storage devices or you have chosen to manually specify an
adapter…”

Type S to specify that you have an additional 3ware RAID controller.

3 Insert the 3ware driver diskette and press Enter.

www.3ware.com 33

Chapter 4. Driver Installation

4 When a box with AMCC 3ware 9000 Series RAID Controller appears,

5Type S if you have additional devices to add. Otherwise, press Enter.
6 If the “Digital Signature Not Found” message appears, click Yes to

7 Continue with the normal Windows installation at this point. There are no

8 Follow the instructions under “Making Units Managed by a 3ware

press Enter to select it.

continue the installation.
(If there are multiple controllers in the system, you will see this message

once for each controller.)

instructions after installing the driver that are specific to 3ware. If you
need additional instructions, refer to the Windows XP, or Windows Server
2003 documentation supplied by Microsoft.

Controller Available to Windows” on page 37.

Installing the Driver on a System that Boots from a Different Device

If you are installing the 3ware RAID controller on a system that already has
the operating system installed on another drive, follow the instructions in this
section, depending on the version of Windows installed on your system:

To install the 3ware driver under Windows XP or 2003

When you start Windows after installing a 3ware RAID controller, Windows
recognizes it as a Plug and Play device, and brings up the Found New
Hardware W izard. This wizard guides you in installing the 3ware driver (see
Figure 18). Note that you will see screens for the installation of two drivers
during this process.

34 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Driver Installation Under Windows

Figure 18. Found New Hardware Wizard, Windows XP and 2003

1 Click the Next button and respond to the questions the Wizard displays.
2 When the Wizard prompts you to select a device driver, click Have Disk,

and then indicate that it is on the CD or floppy.

3 If the “Digital Signature Not Found” message appears, click Yes to

continue the installation.

4 When the Completing the Found New Hardware Wizard screen appears

(Figure 19), click Finish.

Figure 19. Completing Found New Hardware Wizard

5 If the “Completing” screen similar to the one above indicates that you

should restart your computer, do so now.

6 When the Welcome to the Found New Hardware Wizard screen appears

again (Figure 20), click Next and follow the prompts on the screen to
install the second driver.

www.3ware.com 35

Chapter 4. Driver Installation

7 When the second Completing the Found New Hardware screen appears,

Figure 20. Welcome to the Found New Hardware Wizard

click Finish.

Figure 21. Completing Found New Hardware Wizard

After the driver has been installed, continue with the instructions below under
“Making Units Managed by a 3ware Controller Available to Windows” on
page 37.

36 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Driver Installation Under Windows

Making Units Managed by a 3ware Controller Available to Windows

After the 3ware driver has been installed, you need to partition and format the
new units or disks.

1 Remove the driver diskette or CD, reboot the system, and log in as the

system administrator.

2Use Disk Administrator to partition and format the new units or disks:

From the Start menu, choose Programs>Administrative Tools >
Computer Management.

In the Computer Management window, under Storage, select Disk

Management.

Figure 22. Computer Management Screen

3 Follow the steps that appear on the screen to write a signature to the drive.
4 Right-click on the drive and select Create Volume.
5 Follow the steps the appear on-screen to create a volume and to assign a

drive letter.

www.3ware.com 37

Chapter 4. Driver Installation

Driver Installation Under Linux

Note: Before installing the 3ware driver, you must have already installed your

3ware RAID controller in the system. Consult the installation guide that came with
your controller for how to do this. You can download that guide from: http://

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

A drive or unit managed by the 3ware RAID controller may be configured to
be your system's boot device. Or, you can use units managed by the 3ware
controller for secondary storage and boot from another device, such as a disk
attached to the motherboard, or other bootable media.

These steps assume that you do not have a 3ware 9000 Series card installed in
the system already. If you already do and you wish to add a 9690SA to that
same system, you will need to upgrade the 3ware driver, 3DM 2, and/or CLI
with the current version.

The steps you follow to install the driver and make your RAID unit available
depend on which version of Linux you are using, and whether it will be your
boot device. This chapter provides step-by-step inst ructions for the following:

• Red Hat / Fedora Core Linux Installation

• “Installing the 3ware Kernel Driver Module while Installing Red Hat

Linux on a New Unit” on page 41

• “Installing the 3ware Kernel Driver Module on a Red Hat or Fedora

Core Linux System that Boots From a Different Device” on page 42

• SuSE Linux Installation

• “Installing the 3ware Kernel Driver Module while Installing SuSE

Linux on a New Unit” on page 46

• “Installing the 3ware Kernel Driver Module on a SuSE Linux System

that Boots from a Different Device” on page 46

The 9.4.1 code set from the 3ware website provides compiled drivers for these
versions of Linux:

• Fedora Core 6 for AMD and Intel Platforms (32-bit & 64-bit)

• RedHat Workstation 5 for AMD and Intel Platforms (32-bit & 64-bit)

• openSuSE 10.2 for AMD and Intel Platforms (32-bit & 64-bit)

• SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10.0 for AMD and Intel Platforms (32-bit

& 64-bit)

If you are using an unsupported Linux distribution or kernel for which there is
not a driver available from the 3ware download page, see the following article
in the 3ware knowledgebase:
http://www.3ware.com/kb/article.aspx?id=14546. You can also contact

38 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

3ware Technical Support, or email your driver request to
[e-mail].

For information about how to compile a driver from the 3ware driver source,
see the links appended to knowledgebase article 14546 (http://

www.3ware.com/kb/article.aspx?id=14546).

Obtaining 3ware Linux Drivers

Obtain the 3ware driver for Linux from one of these two sources:

•

3ware software CD-ROM. Compiled and tested drivers for Red Hat,

SuSE, and Fedora Core Linux are included on this CD.

3ware web site. You can download the latest compiled and tested driver

•

for supported Linux distributions from the 3ware web site at

http://www.3ware.com/support/index.asp. Included in these downloads is

the Linux driver source, which you can use to compile the latest driver for
RedHat, SuSE, and other similar distributions, running similar kernel
strings.

Driver Installation Under Linux

Be Sure to Use the Correct Drivers

Warning: Be sure to use the correct driver for your processor. It is possible to load

the wrong driver onto a system, however when you boot such systems, they will not
work.

For Red Hat and SuSE, AMCC offers the following drivers:

• x86 32-bit for Intel x86 and AMD Athlon

• x86_64 64-bit for AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon (EM64T)

www.3ware.com 39

Chapter 4. Driver Installation

Determining the Current Version of your 3ware Driver

If you already have a 3ware controller installed, you can check the current
driver version, using either 3DM 2 or the CLI. (For details, see “Viewing
Information About a Controller” on page 72.)

You can also check it using the following method:

If you have a 2.4 kernel or earlier,

cat /proc/scsi/3w-9xxx/*

where the asterisk (*) represents SCSI host ID and 9xxx represents the
family of the controller. For example:

cat /proc/scsi/3w-9xxx/0

If you have a 2.6 kernel with sysfs, type the following command:

cat /sys/class/scsi_host/<hostid>/stats

where <hostid> is usually host0, unless other SCSI devices are available,
in which case it may be host1 or higher.

If you have a 2.6 kernel without sysfs, type the following command:

dmesg | grep 3w

type the following command:

Driver Installation Under Red Hat Linux or Fedora Core

Materials required

• 3ware software CD-ROM

• Floppy diskette, if you need to create a driver install diskette.

• Red Hat Linux installation DVD or CD-ROM. (Not required if Red Hat

Linux is already installed on another drive.)

Creating a Red Hat Linux Driver Diskette

If you are installing Linux on the new drive or unit managed by the 3ware
RAID controller, you must create a 3ware driver install diskette. If Linux is
already installed on another device, you may install the 3ware ke rnel driver
module from the 3ware software CD-ROM.

To create a Red Hat Linux driver install diskette

1 Insert the AMCC 3ware software CD into your Linux system. A GUI

such as X windows is required to load the 3ware menu.
To manually mount the cd, type:

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt

40 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Driver Installation Under Linux

To start autorun, type:

/mnt/autorun

When it starts, you will be asked to agree to the AMCC software license.
To continue, click

Agree.

2 When the AMCC 3ware Menu appears, click the Driver Disk Images

button.

3 In the AMCC 3ware Driver Disk Images menu, click the button for the

driver disk you want to create.
A confirmation window opens.

4 Insert a blank diskette into a drive and click the Yes button to begin

creating the driver floppy diskette.

Note: If you need to create a Linux driver diskette for a Linux distribution other that

what is available on the menu, see 3ware knowledgebase article 14546 http://

www.3ware.com/kb/article.aspx?id=14546

Installing the 3ware Kernel Driver Module while Installing Red Hat Linux on a New Unit

Note: If Red Hat Linux is already installed and bootable on another drive, turn to

“Installing the 3ware Kernel Driver Module on a Red Hat or Fedora Core Linux
System that Boots From a Different Device” on page 42.

Note: We have tested some older systems where a drive connected to the

motherboard interfered with using a drive or unit managed by the 3ware RAID
controller as a boot device. Disconnecting the drive while installing Linux will
eliminate this problem. After Linux is installed, the drive can be reconnected.

To install the 3ware kernel driver module while installing Red Hat
or Fedora Core Linux on a new unit

1 Boot with the Red Hat or Fedora Core DVD or CD:

a Insert the Red Hat DVD or CD-ROM disk into your computer.
b Make sure the boot order in your motherboard’ s BIOS is correct; then

start or reboot your computer.

c When the Welcome to Red Hat display appears, type:

linux dd

A number of files will load and then a message will prompt you to
insert your driver install disk.

www.3ware.com 41

Chapter 4. Driver Installation

4 Install the 3ware kernel driver module, using the driver install diskette:

Insert the driver install diskette containing the 3ware driver for Red Hat
and press Enter.

The system automatically reports:

5 When prompted, select the proper language and keyboard types for your

locality.

6 If asked for what type of media, select Local CD-ROM since you are

installing from the Red Hat CD-ROM.

7 After installation completes, remove media (CD and floppy disks).
8 Click reboot button to finish installation.

Loading 3w-9xxx

Installing the 3ware Kernel Driver Module on a Red Hat or Fedora Core Linux System that Boots From a Different Device

The steps for installing the 3ware kernel driver module vary slightly,
depending on your specific installation requirements. Select the appropriate
set of steps below, based on whether:

• You want to update the RAM disk

• You prefer to load the driver manually or from a script, instead of

updating the RAM disk

About V ariables In the Kernel Driver Module Installation Instructions

These conventions are used for variable text for kernel strings and module
names in the instructions on the following pages.

Kernel String Conventions

<kernel string> refers to the kernel version.
The kernel string will have different endings, depending on the kernel you are

using.

• For an SMP kernel (multi-processor), the kernel string will end in smp.
For example:

• For an Enterprise kernel, the kernel string will end in enterprise. For
example:

• For a Bigmem kernel, the kernel string will end in bigmem. For example:

2.6.16-bigmem

42 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

2.6.16-smp.

2.6.16-enterprise

Driver Installation Under Linux

• For a Hugemem kernel, the kernel string will end in hugmem. For
example:

2.6.16-hugmem

Module Naming Conventions

3w-9xxx.* refers to the specific kernel driver module you will copy in the
examples shown in steps 3 and 4. The name of the kernel driver module you
will copy (
always copy it to a file named

3w-9xxx.*) varies, depending on the kernel; however you will

3w-9xxx.ko for 2.6 kernels. Depending on the

supported release, not all modules may be required or available.
The available kernel driver module files are:

• For UP kernels:

3w-9xxx.ko

• For SMP kernels: 3w-9xxx.smp

• For Enterprise kernels: 3w-9xxx.ent

• For Bigmem kernels:

• For Hugemem kernels:

• For IA32E kernels:

3w-9xxx.big

3w-9xxx.hug

3w-9xxx.i32

To install the 3ware driver and update the RAM disk

1 Log in as root and open a console window.
2 Mount the CD which contains the 3ware kernel driver module.

To mount the CD, type:

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt and press Enter.

3 Copy the kernel driver module:

For Redhat Linux Intel x86 and AMD, type:

cp /mnt/packages/drivers/linux/redhat/<version>/x86/
3w-9xxx.<ko, smp, or hug> /lib/modules/

drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.ko

<kernel string>/kernel/

For Fedora Core on Intel x86 and AMD, type:

cp /mnt/packages/drivers/linux/fedora/<version>/x86/
3w-9xxx.<ko, smp, or hug> /lib/modules/

drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.ko

<kernel string>/kernel/

If prompted to overwrite, type y.
For Redhat Linux on AMD Opteron and Intel EM64T, type:

cp /mnt/cdrom/packages/drivers/linux/redhat/<version>/
x86_64/3w-9xxx.<ko or smp> /lib/modules/

kernel/drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.ko

<kernel string>/

For Fedora Core on AMD Opteron and Intel EM64T, type:

cp /mnt/packages/drivers/linux/fedora/<version>/x86_64/
3w-9xxx.<ko or smp> /lib/modules/

drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.ko

www.3ware.com 43

<kernel string>/kernel/

Chapter 4. Driver Installation

If prompted to overwrite, type y.

4 For 2.6 Kernels, add the following line to

alias scsi_hostadapter 3w-9xxx.ko

/etc/modprobe.conf

5 Update the modules.dep file, by issuing the following command:

/sbin/depmod -a

6 Run mkinitrd by entering the following:

/sbin/mkinitrd -v -f /boot/initrd-<kernel string>.img

<kernel string>
where <kernel string> is the /lib/modules directory from which to copy

the 3w-9xxx driver. Example:

/sbin/mkinitrd -v -f /boot/initrd-2.6.18-14.img 2.6.18-14

7 If you are using the GRUB boot loader, skip to Step 8.

If you are using the LILO boot loader, run LILO to update the boot record
on disk by typing the following:

/sbin/lilo

The output should be similar to:

Added linux *

8Reboot.

The 3ware kernel driver module will be loaded from the ram disk
automatically at boot time.

To install the 3ware kernel driver module and load the module
manually instead of using a RAM disk

1 Log in as root and open a console window.
2 Mount the CD which contains the 3war e kernel driver module.

To mount the CD, type:

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt and press Enter.

3 Copy the kernel driver module.

For Redhat Linux on Intel x86 and AMD x86, type:

cp /mnt/packages/drivers/linux/redhat/<version>/x86/
3w-9xxx.<ko, smp, or hug> /lib/modules/

drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.ko

<kernel string>/kernel/

For Fedora Core on Intel x86 and AMD x86, type:

cp /mnt/packages/drivers/linux/fedora/<version>/x86/3w-9xxx.
<ko, smp, or hug> /lib/modules/

scsi/3w-9xxx.ko

<kernel string>/kernel/drivers/

If prompted to overwrite, type y.
For Redhat Linux on AMD Opteron and EM64T, type:

44 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Driver Installation Under Linux

cp /mnt/packages/drivers/linux/redhat/<version>/x86_64/
3w-9xxx.<ko or smp> /lib/modules/

drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.ko

<kernel string>/kernel/

For Fedora Core on AMD Opteron and EM64T, type:

cp /mnt/packages/drivers/linux/fedora/<version>/x86_64/
3w-9xxx.<ko or smp> /lib/modules/

drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.ko

<kernel string>/kernel/

If prompted to overwrite, type y.

4 Add the following line to

alias scsi_hostadapter 3w-9xxx

/etc/modprobe.conf:

5 Update the modules.dep file, by issuing the following command:

/sbin/depmod -a

6 Load the kernel driver module manually. Type:

modprobe sd_mod
insmod /lib/modules/
9xxxx.ko

<kernel string>/kernel/drivers/scsi/3w-

You can also incorporate the insmod command into a startup script.

Driver Installation Under SuSE Linux

Materials required

• 3ware software CD-ROM

• Floppy diskette, if you need to make a driver install diskette.

• SuSE Linux Installation CD-ROM/DVD (Not required if SuSE Linux is

already installed on another drive.)

Creating a SuSE Linux Driver Diskette

If you are installing Linux on the new drive or unit managed by the 3ware
RAID controller, you must create a 3ware driver install diskette. If Linux is
already installed on another device, you may install the 3ware ke rnel driver
module from the 3ware software CD-ROM.

To create a driver install diskette

1 Insert the 3ware software CD into your Linux system. A GUI such as X

windows is required to load the 3ware menu..
To manually mount the cd, type:

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt

www.3ware.com 45

Chapter 4. Driver Installation

2 When the 3ware Menu appears, click Driver Disk Images.
3 In the 3ware Driver Disk Images menu, click the button for the driver disk

4 Insert a blank diskette into a drive and click the Yes button to begin

Note: If you need to create a Linux driver diskette for a Linux distribution other that

what is available on the menu, see 3ware knowledgebase article 14546

http://www.3ware.com/KB/article.aspx?id=14546

Installing the 3ware Kernel Driver Module while Installing SuSE Linux on a New Unit

Note: If SuSE Linux is already installed on another drive, turn to “Installing the

3ware Kernel Driver Module on a SuSE Linux System that Boots from a Different
Device” on page 46.

To start autorun, type:

/mnt/autorun

you want to create.
A confirmation window opens.

copying the driver to the floppy diskette.

1 Boot directly from the SuSE installation CD #1 or DVD.
2 When installing SuSE, press either the F6 key or the F3 key, depending on

the version.
You will then be prompted to insert the driver install disk.

3 Insert the 3ware Linux driver installation diskette.
4 Click OK and continue with the installation.

Installing the 3ware Kernel Driver Module on a SuSE Linux System that Boots from a Different Device

1 Log in as root.
2 Edit

/etc/sysconfig/kernel and make sure the file contains the

following line:

INITRD_MODULES="reiserfs 3w-9xxx"

46 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Driver Installation Under Linux

Note: Other modules may be listed before or after 3w-9xxx,

depending on the installation. You may see entries like reiserfs,
ext3 or scsi_mod. If present, leave them (ensuring there is a space

between each module name), since the system needs them to boot
properly.

Note about variables: In the instruction below, replace <kernel

string> with the kernel version you are using (i.e. 2. 6, etc. ).
In addition, replace 3w-9xxx.* with the appropriate module file for your

kernel. The available module files are:
For UP kernels

For SMP kernels: 3w-9xxx.smp
For BigSMP (high memory ) kernels: 3w-9xxx.big

: 3w-9xxx.ko

3 If you are using SuSE 9.1 or earlier, after the existing 3w-xxx entry, add

3w-9xxx to the file /lib/modules/<kernel string>/modules.dep

4 Mount the CD-ROM and copy and install the appropriate kernel driver

module for your system.

Note: The AMD 64-bit driver is also used for 64-bit Intel Xeon.

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt

Copy the kernel driver module:

For openSuSE and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 32-bit (x86), type:

cp /mnt/packages/drivers/linux/suse/<version>/x86/
3w-9xxx.<ko, smp, or big>
/lib/modules/<kernel string>/kernel/drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.ko

For openSuSE and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 64-bit (x86_64),
type:

cp /mnt/packages/drivers/linux/suse/<version>/x86_64/
3w-9xxx.<ko, smp, or big>
/lib/modules/<kernel string>/kernel/drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.ko

If prompted to overwrite, type y.

5 To load the kernel driver module, type:

modprobe sd_mod

insmod /lib/modules/<kernel string>/kernel/drivers/scsi/3w­9xxxx.ko

www.3ware.com 47

Chapter 4. Driver Installation

6Type:

7Type:

8 If you are using the GRUB boot loader, you are finished.

Note: If the kernel driver module installation fails, confirm that the

correct driver was installed from the CD-ROM. If a driver is not
available for your system, you will need to compile your own driver.
For more information, see 3ware knowledgebase article 14546 http://

www.3ware.com/kb/article.aspx?id=14546.

/sbin/depmod -a

/sbin/mkinitrd

If you are using the LILO boot loader, run LILO to update the boot record
on disk by typing the following:

/sbin/lilo

The output should be similar to:

Added linux *

Compiling a 3ware Driver for Linux

If you are using a Linux distribution for which there is not a compiled driver
available from 3ware, you can copy the source from the 3ware software CD or
download the source from the 3ware website and compile a new driver. For
more information, see 3ware knowledgebase article 14546

http://www.3ware.com/KB/article.aspx?id=14546.

48 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

3ware BIOS Manager (3BM)

----Press <Alt-3> to access 3ware BIOS Manager ---­3ware ATA RAID Controller: 9690SA-4I4E
BIOS: BE9X X.XX.XX.XXX Firmware: FE9X X.XX.XX.XXX
BBU Status: Not Present
Number of online units: 1, available drives: 0, hot spare: 0, offline units:0

Available drives:

SATA - SAMSUNG HD160JJ 149.04 GB Phy 0

Exportable Units:Œ

3drive 64K RAID5 298.00 GB (Zygote3) DEGRADED
SATA - SAMSUNG HD160JJ 149.04 GB (Phy 3)
SATA - SAMSUNG HD160JJ 149.04 GB (Phy 1)

Introduction

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 RAID controller. It is organized into the following topics:

• Starting 3BM

• Exiting the 3BM Configuration Utility

• Working in the 3BM Screens

• Adjusting BIOS Loading Settings

• Displaying Information About the Controller and Related Devices

• Getting Help While Using 3BM

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

5

Starting 3BM

You access 3BM during the start-up process for your computer.
1 Power up or reboot your system.
2 While the system is starting, watch for a screen similar to the 3ware BIOS

screen below.

Figure 23. 3ware BIOS Screen

www.3ware.com 49

Chapter 5. 3ware BIOS Manager (3BM) Introduction

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 plan to make changes to your config uration and need to backup

data before continuing, press
key to continue.

Figure 24. Warning Message When you Start 3BM

ESC and do so now. Otherwise, press any

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

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

lists the available boards (see Figure 25). In this case, highlight the board
with which you want to work and press

Enter.

If you have more than 2 boards, you will only see two at first (only two
can be processed at a time). After you exit from 3BM, you will have an
opportunity to access the BIOS again, to access the next boards.

50 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Exiting the 3BM Configuration Utility

Figure 25. AMCC Boards Selection Screen

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

Exiting the 3BM Configuration Utility

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

To save your configuration modifications

1 Press the

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

2Type

The booting process resumes.

To exit without saving changes

1 Press
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
If you change your mind and want to save the changes, type

Exception: Changes made to controller policies are saved when you leave the

Policy screen. Pressing
changing policies, see “Setting the Auto Rebuild Policy” on page 77.

F8 or Esc key.

Y.

Esc.

N.

F8 is not required to save those changes. For more about

Y.

www.3ware.com 51

Chapter 5. 3ware BIOS Manager (3BM) Introduction

Working in the 3BM Screens

The main 3BM screen (Figure 26) 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 26. 3BM Main Display

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

•

Available Drives lists any unconfigured drives that are not associated

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

Direct Attached lists the drives directly attached to the controller.
Enclosure lists the drives attached through an enclosure.

•

Exportable Units lists the existing units and the drives contained in each

unit. 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 and drives that are not usable.
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 114.

52 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Working in the 3BM Screens

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

Table 6 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 6: Working in 3BM

T o do this Use these keys

Move between units or drives in a list,
between fields, and between 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
In the list of units, expand a selected unit

to see any subunits and drives in the unit,
or contract it to see only the heading
again.

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

Enter or the Spacebar

Enter

Shift+

In the list of available drives these keys
also work to show or hide the drives in
each enclosure.

Highlight one of the primary buttons on
the main screen:

• Create Unit

• Delete Unit

• Maintain Unit

• Settings

• Information

-

Alt+C
Alt+D
Alt+M
Alt+S
Alt+I

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Chapter 5. 3ware BIOS Manager (3BM) Introduction

Table 6: Working in 3BM

T o do this Use these keys

Specify (or unspecify) a drive as a hot
spare

Blink the LED associated with a drive F4, from the Drive Information screen

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

Rescan the controller and update the
status of units and drives

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.)

Display context sensitive help F1 or Alt-F1

S

(requires use of a supported
enclosure)

F6

Note: F6 cannot bring back previous

policy settings; they are saved when
you exit the Policy screen.

Alt+R

Any key

Page Up
Page Down
(Available only when there are

multiple units and a unit is
highlighted.)

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

Esc

Adjusting BIOS Loading Settings

3BM includes a few settings that let you customize the behavior of the BIOS
for the selected controller. You can access these settings by selecting

> BIOS Settings

Power-On Self Test (POST) Display Options

Display Control. Specifies what level of detail to display on the start-up

screen.

from the main 3BM screen.

Settings

54 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Adjusting BIOS Loading Settings

• Full displays all available information about the items attached to the
controller, including available drives, hot spares, and configured units.

Unit Only displays only configured units.

•

•

Summary displays a one-sentence description of the items attached to the

controller.

Array View. Specifies what level of information to show about configured

units on the start-up screen.

•

Expanded lists each unit and shows the specific drives that make up the

unit.

•

Collapsed lists only the configured units.

Pause Time. Sets the number of seconds that BIOS loading will pause to

displaying the RAID configuration before continuing to bo ot the operating
system. You can set a pause time of up to 10 seconds. The default is 6
seconds.

Full Screen Control. When you have many drives attached to a controller

and choose to display the Full level of detail, the information can extend
beyond a screens’ worth. The Full Screen Control setting lets you specify
whether to wait for a keystroke when the screen is full, before displaying
additional information. This option can be either

No Key or Wait Key.

BIOS Loading Options

Load Control. This setting is enabled by default. It allows you to boot from

RAID units or drives managed by the controller . If this setting is disabled, you
will only be able to boot from hard drives or peripheral devices (such as CD­ROM or floppy) that are not managed by the controller. You may wish to
disable this setting if you have multiple controllers in a "headless" system
with no monitor or keyboard.

Note: During the boot process, you can also bypass loading of the BIOS for all

controllers for one time only by pressing
from a non-3ware device without having to change the system’s boot order.

Alt-B. This is useful to temporarily boot

Changing BIOS Settings

You can change these BIOS settings from the one screen in 3BM.

To change the BIOS Settings

1 On the main 3BM screen,
2 On the pop-up menu, select

Tab to Settings and press Enter.

BIOS and press Enter.

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Chapter 5. 3ware BIOS Manager (3BM) Introduction

The BIOS Options Settings screen appears.

Figure 27. BIOS Option Settings Screen

3 Tab through the optio ns and make the desired changes.

Tab to OK and press Enter to return to the main screen.

4

Displaying Information About the Controller and Related Devices

The 3BM Information menu gives you access to detailed information about
the controller, BBU, drives, enclosures, and phys.

To see information about the controller or a related device

1 On the main 3BM screen,

A pop-up menu appears, listing the available information screens.

2 On the pop-up menu, select the item about which you want to see details

and press

Enter.

Tab to Information and press Enter.

56 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Getting Help While Using 3BM

Figure 28. Controller Information Screen

A page appears showing details about selected item.
For more about how to use these pages, see the following topics:

• “Viewing Information About a Controller” on page 72

• “Viewing Battery Information” on page 175

• “Viewing a List of Drives” on page 127

• “Viewing a List of Enclosures” on page 180

• “Viewing Information About a Phy” on page 81

To return to the main screen

• Press

Enter.

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 57

6

3DM 2 (3ware Disk Manager) Introduction

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 manage and view the status of
your 3ware RAID controllers and associated drives.

There are two parts to 3DM: a process, that runs in the background on the
computer where you have installed your 3ware controller, and a web
application that can be used to access it. 3DM runs as a service under
Microsoft Windows, and as a daemon under Linux. When the 3DM process is
running, you can use your browser to go to 3DM application pages, where
you can view status information about the controller and RAID units, create
RAID units, and perform other administrative and maintenance tasks locally
or remotely.

T wo levels of access to 3DM are provided: user and administrator . Users have
view-only access, and can check the status of drives and units. 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, information is organized into the following topics:

• Browser Requirements for 3DM

• Installing 3DM

• Starting 3DM and Logging In

• Working with the 3DM Screens

• Setting Up 3DM Preferences

For details about the settings and fields on each of the 3DM 2 screens, see
“3DM 2 Reference” on page 186.

For additional information about managing and maintaining 3ware controllers
using 3DM, see the remaining chapters in this guide.

58 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Browser Requirements for 3DM

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

• Internet Explorer 5.5 and above

• Mozilla Firefox

• Netscape 7 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 documentation are examples only. The
actual “look” of the windows will depend on the browser, 3DM version, and
operating system you use.

Browser Requirements for 3DM

Setting up Mozilla Firefox

Before setting up Mozilla Firefox, remember to download and install the
latest available version of Mozilla Firefox. After installing the latest version,
you may need to follow the instruction in the note below to have Mozilla
Firefox working correctly with 3DM2.

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 adding a comma-separated list of ports to
default/all.js (in your Mozilla installation directory). For example, to unblock port
888, add the following line:

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

This file is located at:

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

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Chapter 6. 3DM 2 (3ware Disk Manager) Introduction

Installing 3DM

3DM 2 can be installed from the 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. Details about the installation

are described in Appendix B, “Software Installation” on page 277.
3DM must be installed on the system in which the controller is installed. 3DM

does not have to be installed on a remote system in order to remotely manage
the 3ware controller; you simply enter the correct URL into a browser on the
remote system. You will need to enable remote access first, however.

Starting 3DM and Logging In

3DM runs as a service under Windows, and as a daemon under Linux.
Normally after installation, the 3DM process starts automatically when you
start your system.

It is a good idea to leave the 3DM process 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.

When 3DM is running in the background on your computer, you can access
the 3DM web application through your browser to check status information
and manage your 3ware RAID controller.

If you want to check the status of a controller from a different computer, see
“Viewing 3DM Remotely Using a Web Browser” on page 62.

Logging In to the 3DM Web Application

When the 3DM process is running in the background, you can log into the
3DM application pages using a brows er.

Two levels of access are provided:

• Users can check the status of the controller, units, and attached drives.

• Administrators can check status, configure, and maintain the units and

drives on the 3ware controller.

Note: Administrator and User status in 3DM is not related to Administrator/User

settings in the operating system.

60 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Starting 3DM and Logging In

To log in to the 3DM web application

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

The default URL is https://localhost:888/
If remote access is enabled, 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 receive a page not found message, make sure you

entered the URL correctly by specifying https, not http. If you did,
3DM may not be running in the background. Y ou can start it manually.

2 The first time you start 3DM, when the security certificate message

displays, click

View Certificate and accept the certificate so that you do

not see the security message each time you start 3DM.

Figure 29. Security Certificate Message from Browser

(You can also click Yes or Continue, in which case you will see this
message the next time you start 3DM.)

3 When the 3DM logon screen appears, select whether you are a

Administrator.

4 Enter your password and click

Login.

User or

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 3DM

resets the passwords to 3ware

www.3ware.com 61

.

3ware.

Chapter 6. 3DM 2 (3ware Disk Manager) Introduction

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

background on the system.

Starting the 3DM Daemon under Linux

3DM should start automatically after installation and upon bootup. If it does
not, use the steps below to start it.

To start the 3DM daemon manually

1 Login as root on the machine on which 3DM is installed.
2 Afterwards, type:

/etc/init.d/3dm2 start

Starting the 3DM Process under Microsoft Windows

3DM should start automatically after installation and upon bootup. If it does
not, use the steps below to start it.

To start the 3DM process manually

1 On the system on which 3DM is installed, login as Administrator.
2 Open

Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services>3DM2 and select

Start/Play icon.

the

Viewing 3DM Remotely Using a Web Browser

When remote administration is enabled on the 3DM 2 Settings page, you can
use 3DM to check status and administer your 3ware RAID controller from a
browser on any computer, over an internet connectio n.

You do not need to install the 3DM software on the remote computer.

To connect to 3DM2 through your web browser

• In the address line of your browser, enter the URL or IP of the system
containing the 3ware RAID controller.

If you do not 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.

62 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Note: When using 3DM to access a remote system, and auto logout

System name and operating system.

Online Help

Address of the
system to which
you are
connected.

Menu bar

Message bar

List of
controllers on
the system

Time of last
page refresh

Version of 3DM

is enabled, the time on the local system must match the time on the
file server. If the time varies by more than 30 minutes, it will not be
possible to remotely monitor the system (you will not be able to log
in). If you are in a different time zone, you must first change the time
of the local system to match the time of the remote system.

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.

Working with the 3DM Screens

Figure 30. 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 63

Chapter 6. 3DM 2 (3ware Disk Manager) Introduction

Tip: If you have a question about something you see on the scre en, just clic k the

Help button in the menu bar.

3DM Menus

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

Figure 31. 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 polices such as enabling
of unit write cache, and controller settings 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 through
the

Management > Maintenance page.

The

Monitor menu gives you access to the Alarms page, the BBU page, and

the Enclosure Summary page. The

Alarms page shows a list of alarms,

including the specific alarm message, and the exact date and time it occurred.

BBU page shows the status of a Battery Backup Unit (BBU), if one is

The
installed, and allows you to test the battery. The

Enclosure Summary page

provides lists the enclosures connected to the controller and lets you drill
down for more detailed status information about each.

3DM 2 Settings page lets you set preferences, including email

The
notification for alarms, passwords, page refresh frequency, whether remote
access is permitted, and the communication port which 3DM will use for
listening.

Help lets you access information about using 3DM. The Help is context-

sensitive, so you first see information about the page you now have in view. A
Table of Contents and Index are available to help you find other information.

64 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Working with the 3DM Screens

Viewing Information About Different Controllers

If you have more than one 3ware RAID 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.

Figure 32. 3DM Controller Selection Drop-down

Note: Throughout these instructions, the term current controller is used to refer to

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

Note: The fields and columns in 3DM 2 vary for different models of 3ware RAID

controllers. If you have multiple controllers of different models, you may notice
some differences when switching between them in 3DM. For example, when
displaying information about the 9690SA controllers, 3DM displays “VPort” (for
virtual port) on some pages while for earlier controllers the label is “port.”

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 70.

Note: If you click Refresh on the browser window instead of on the 3DM menu bar,

you will be taken back to the Summary page.

www.3ware.com 65

Chapter 6. 3DM 2 (3ware Disk Manager) Introduction

3DM Screens and What They're Used For

The table below 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 Chapter 12, “3DM 2 Reference”. The page
names in the table provide links to details about that page.

In addition, the step-by-step instructions provided in the chapters on
configuring and maintaining your RAID controller and units explain how to
do particular tasks in 3DM.

Table 7: List of 3DM Pages

3DM Page Description

Controller
Summary page

Controller Details
page

Unit Information
page

Unit Details page Shows details about a particular unit.

Drive Information
page

Drive Details
window

Provides basic information about each 3ware RAID controller
in your system.

To see this page, click Summary in the menu bar.
Provides detailed information about the current controller.

To see this page, choose Information > Controller Details
from the menu bar.

Shows a list of the units on the current controller and provides
summary information about each unit.

To see this page, choose Information > Unit Information
from the menu bar or click an ID number on the Controller
Summary.

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

Shows a list of drives on the current controller and provides
summary information about each drive.

To see this page, choose Information > Drive Information
from the menu bar.

Shows the SMART data for a specific drive, and shows
additional detail information for the drive.

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

Controller Phy
Summary page

Shows the properties of controller phys.
There are two ways to access this page. If you have a direct-

attached drive you can access this page from the Information
> Drive Information page by clicking the phy ID for the drive.
If all drives are connected via expanders, navigate to the
Management > Controller Settings page. Under Other
Controller Settings click the # link for Number of Controller
Phys.

66 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Table 7: List of 3DM Pages

3DM Page Description

Working with the 3DM Screens

Controller
Settings page

Scheduling page Lets you view and change the schedule for tasks that affect all

Maintenance
page

Alarms page Shows a list of alarms, including the specific alarm message,

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

Controller-level settings that can be changed include
background task rate, Auto Rebuild, Auto-Carving, and Carve
Size. Some additional policies are shown that can only be
changed in the BIOS or CLI.

Unit-level settings include specifying the StorSave Profile and
enabling or disabling the Write Cache, Auto-Verify, Continue
on Error During Rebuild, and Queuing.

To see this page, choose
Settings from the menu bar.

units on the current controller.
To see this page, choose Management > Scheduling from

the menu bar.
Lets you configure new units and make changes to existing

units.
To view this page, choose Management > Maintenance from

the menu bar.

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

bar.

Management > Controller

Battery Backup
page

Enclosure
Summary page

Enclosure Details
page

3DM 2 Settings
page

Shows the status of a Battery Backup Unit (BBU), if one is
installed, and allows you to test the battery.

To view this page, choose Monitor > Battery Backup on the
menu bar.

Lists the enclosures attached to your 3ware controller.
To view this page, choose Monitor > Enclosure Support on

the menu bar.
Shows details about a particular enclosure, including status

information. You can also use this page to blink the LED for a
particular drive.

To view this page, click the ID number of the Enclosure on the
Enclosure Summary 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.

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Chapter 6. 3DM 2 (3ware Disk Manager) Introduction

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 Listening 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.

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
2 On the 3DM 2 Settings page, in the

3 Type the current password in the

3DM 2 Settings on the 3DM menu bar.

password you want to change:

User or Administrator.

Password section, select the type of

Current Password field.

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

4 Enter the new password in the

Confirm New Password field.

5 Click the

3ware.

New Password field and again in the

Change Password button to enact the change.

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

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

3ware

.

68 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

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.

E-mail event notification can only occur while 3DM is running, so it is
recommended that the 3DM process be left running in the background 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 events

•

Warning will send e-mail for events with severity of Warning and Error.
Error will send e-mail for events with severity of Error only.

•

Setting Up 3DM Preferences

Events are listed on the 3DM

Alarms page.

Event notification can be set up during 3DM installation, and 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 the mail server for the computer

where the 3ware controller is installed.

• If your email server requires authentication, enter the Mail Server

Login and Password.

3 Click

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

www.3ware.com 69

Send Test Message.

Chapter 6. 3DM 2 (3ware Disk Manager) Introduction

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. (See “Viewing 3DM Remotely Using a Web Browser” on page 62.)

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
2In the

3DM 2 Settings on the menu bar.

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 Listening 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 listening port

1 Click
2In the

3 Click

3DM 2 Settings on the menu bar.

Listening Port # section of the 3DM 2 Settings page, enter the port

number in the

Change Port.

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

Listening Port field.

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 is important
to refresh the page information regularly. That way you can be assured that
the information you see in 3DM is current.

70 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Setting Up 3DM Preferences

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.

To set the frequency of page refreshes

1 Click
2In the

3DM 2 Settings on the menu bar.

Page Refresh section of the 3DM 2 Settings page, select how often

you want the page to be refreshed in the

Note: If you do not want 3DM to refresh the screen automatically ,

Never in the Minutes Between Refresh field. You can

select
then refresh manually by clicking Refresh on your web browser.

Minutes Between Refresh field.

www.3ware.com 71

7

Configuring Your Controller

This section describes how to view details about the controller, check its
status, and change configuration settings that affect the controller and all of
the drives connected to it. It is organized into the following sections:

• V iewing Information About a Controller

• About Controller Policies

• V iewi ng Controller Policies

• Setting the Auto Rebuild Policy

• Using Auto-Carving for Multi LUN Support

• Setting the Size of Volumes Created with Auto-Carving

• Enabling and Setting Up Staggered Spin-up

• V iewing Information About a Phy

• Changing the Phy Link Speed

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 149.

Viewing Information About a Controller

You can check the controller model, serial number, firmware and driver
versions, and the status of the 3ware RAID controller in your computer.

If you have more than one controller in your system, you can easily vie w
information about each one using 3DM. If you are working at the BIOS level,
you access 3BM for each controller separately.

To see details about a controller in 3DM

1 Start 3DM and log in as an administrator.

The 3DM Unit Information page appears, listing all the 3ware controllers
installed in your system.

The right-most column of the list shows the status of each controller.

72 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Viewing Information About a Controller

Figure 33. Controller Summary Page

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.

2 To see more details about a particular controller, click the ID link for that

controller to display the Unit Information page.

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 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 documentation, 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

4

Tab to Information and press Enter.

Ctrl-Alt-Del to restart your computer and try again

www.3ware.com 73

Chapter 7. Configuring Your Controller

5 On the pop-up menu, select Controller and press Enter.

The Controller Information page displays.

Figure 34. Controller Information page

About Controller Policies

The following policies affect all units and drives on a controller and can be
adjusted as appropriate for your equipment. Controller policies are shown at
the bottom of the Controller Settings page in 3DM (Figure 35) and on the
Policy Control screen in 3BM (Figure 36).

•

Auto Rebuild. Determines whether the Auto Rebuild policy is enabled or

disabled. When disabled, degraded units can only be rebuilt with
designated spares. When enabled, the controller firmware will
automatically attempt to rebuild a degraded unit if there is no spare, using
either an available drive or a failed drive.

Auto-Carving. Determines whether the auto-carving policy is enabled or

•

disabled. When it is enabled, any unit larger than a specified size (known
as the carve size) is broken into multiple volumes that can be addressed
by the operating system as separate volumes. The default carve size is 2
TB.

This auto-carving feature is sometimes referred to as multi-LUN, where
each volume that is created is referred to as a “LUN.”

•

Carve Size. (Referred to as Carving Factor in 3BM) Sets the size for

dividing up units into volumes when Auto-Carving is enabled. This
setting can be between 1024 GB and 2048 GB.

Staggered spin-up. Spin-up 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. Compatible
drives are sent a spin up command based on the settings specified with the
policies

74 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Number of drives per spin-up and Delay between spin-up

Viewing Controller Policies

settings. This policy does not apply to drives attached to an expander.

These policies can only be set using 3BM or the CLI.

•

Number of drives per spin-up. Number of drives that will spin up at

the same time when the controller is powered up, if staggered spin-up
is enabled. From 1 to x, depending on the number of ports on the
controller.

•

Delay between spin-up. The delay time (in seconds) between drive

groups that spin up at one time on this particular controller, if
staggered spin-up is enabled.

It is possible to enable or disable automatic detection of drives on the
controller’s ports for staggered spinup during hot swapping of drives. This
feature is only available in the CLI using the autodetect=on|off command.
For more information, see3ware SAS/SATA RAID Controller CLI Guide.

• Export unconfigured disks (JBOD). This setting is disabled by default.

Some additional policies can be set at the unit level. For more information,
see “Setting Unit Policies” on page 100.

Viewing Controller Policies

You can view the current state of controller policies in 3DM, in the Other

Controller Settings

Figure 35). Only the Auto Rebuild, Auto-Carving, and Carve Size policies
can be changed on this page. The other policies can be changed in 3BM or
through the CLI. For a summary of the initial default settings, see Table 5,
“Default Settings for Policies and Background Tasks,” on page 19.

To view controller policies in 3DM

• Choose

Management > Controller Settings from the menu bar.

The policies that appear under Other Controller Settings vary, depending
on the controller model you are using.

section at the bottom of the Controller Settings page (See

www.3ware.com 75

Chapter 7. Configuring Your Controller

Figure 35. 3DM Controller Settings Page

To view controller polices in 3BM

You can also view and change these controller polices in 3BM, as shown in
Figure 36.

1 On the main 3BM screen,

Tab to Settings and press Enter.

2 On the pop-up menu, select Controller Policies and press Enter.

The Policy Control screen displays.

Figure 36. 3BM Policy Control Screen

76 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Setting the Auto Rebuild Policy

The Auto Rebuild policy determines how the controller firmware will attempt
to rebuild degraded units.

When Auto Rebuild is disabled, only spares will be automatically used to
rebuild degraded units. When Auto Rebuild is enabled, the firmware will
select drives to use for automatically rebuilding a degraded unit using the
following priority order.

• Smallest usable spare.

• Smallest usable unconfigured (available) drive.

• Smallest usable failed drive.

Enabling Auto Rebuild allows you to add a drive to the controller and have it
be available for a rebuild, without having to specify it as a spare.

With Auto Rebuild enabled, if you accidentally disconnect a drive (causing
the controller to see it as a failed drive) and then reconnect it, the controller
will automatically try to use it again.

Setting the Auto Rebuild Policy

You can enable or disable the Auto-Rebuild policy through 3DM or 3BM.

To enable Auto Rebuild through 3DM

1 Choose

Management > Controller Settings from the menu bar in 3DM.

2 In the Other Controller Settings section at the bottom of the screen, select

Enabled option for Auto Rebuild.

the
The page refreshes, and a message at the top confirms the change you

have made.

To enable Auto-Rebuild through 3BM

1 On the main 3BM screen,
2 On the pop-up menu, select
3 On the Policy Settings page,

to display the options, select

Tab to OK and press Enter to select it.

4

Tab to Settings and press Enter.

Controller Policies and press Enter.

Tab to the Auto-Rebuild field, press Enter
Enable and press Enter again to select it.

The policy is enabled immediately.

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Chapter 7. Configuring Your Controller

Using Auto-Carving for Multi LUN Support

When the Auto-Carving policy is on, any unit larger than a specified size
(known as the carve size) is created as multiple volumes that can be addressed
by the operating system as separate volumes. These chunks are sometimes
known as multiple LUNs (logical units). However, throughout the 3ware
documentation, they are referred to as volumes.

For example, using the default carve size of 2 TB, 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 2 TB each and the last volume
containing 1TB. (
or CLI, the first volume will be the size specified for the Boot Volume, and
then the carve size will be applied to the remainder of the unit. For more
information, see “Boot volume size” on page 88.)

Each volume can be treated as an individual disk with its own file system. The
default carve size is 2 TB; you can change this to a setting in the range of
1TB to 2 TB (1024 GB to 2048 GB). 3ware firmware supports a maximum of
8 volumes per controller, up to a total of 16 TB.

Note: If a specific Boot Volume was also specified in 3BM

If you are migrating a unit to a size that is larger than the ca rve siz e and auto­carving is on, multiple volumes will be created.

Note: Carving a unit into mutliple volumes can have an impact on performance.

The main use of auto-carving is to gain use of the full capacity in units greater
than 2 TB. This is because Windows 2003 (

32-bit and 64-bit without SP1) and

Windows XP (32-bit), do not currently recognize unit capacity in excess of 2
TB. For more information see, http://www.3ware.com/kb/

article.aspx?id=13431.

Note: Operating systems without this limitation include Linux 2.6, Windows XP

(64bit), and Windows 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit with SP1 or newer).
Even though the Linux 2.6 kernel supports partitions larger than 2 TB, the installers

for SuSE and Redhat do not. Turn auto-carving on to prevent the installation from
failing.

You must turn on the Auto-Carving policy before creating the unit. Units
created with this policy turned off will not be affected by a change to the
policy. If the policy is turned off later, units that have been carved into
volumes will retain their individual volumes; existing data is not affected.

78 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Using Auto-Carving for Multi LUN Support

To use auto-carving

1 Enable the auto-carving feature. You can do so using 3DM or 3BM.

In 3DM, enable Auto-Carving at the bottom of the

Controller Settings

In 3BM, you enable Auto-Carving on the

page.

Settings > Controller Policies

Management >

page.

Figure 37. Auto-Carve policy in 3BM

2 Create a new unit or migrate an existing unit to include the drives you

want to use.
If the combined capacity of the drives exceeds the carve size, a number of

volumes will be created.

3 Verify the crea tion of the volumes.

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.

Notes:

• If you are configuring a unit for primary storage and it will be greater than 2 TB,

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 can be
used as the boot device.

• Changing the auto-carve policy does not affect existing units.

www.3ware.com 79

Chapter 7. Configuring Your Controller

Setting the Size of Volumes Created with Auto-Carving

If you create units over 2 TB in size and use auto-carving to divide them into
multiple volumes, you can control the size of the volumes to be created by
setting the carve size (referred to as carving factor in 3BM) to use. The carve
size can be between 1TB (1024 GB) and 2 TB (2048 GB); the default is
2TB.

When you change this policy, it applies to units you create in the future.
Existing units will not be affected.

To set the carve size in 3DM

1 Choose
2 In the Other Controller Settings section at the bottom of the screen, in the

Carve Size field, enter the size you want (between 1024 GB and

2048 GB) to use and click
The page refreshes, and a message at the top confirms the change you

have made.

To set the carve size (carving factor) in 3BM

1 On the main 3BM screen,
2 On the pop-up menu, select
3 On the Policy Settings page,

to display the text entry box, enter the size you want (between 1024 GB
and 2048 GB) and press

Tab to OK and press Enter to select it.

4

The policy is enabled immediately.

Management > Controller Settings from the menu bar in 3DM.

Submit.

Tab to Settings and press Enter.

Controller Policies and press Enter.

Tab to the Carving Factor field, press Enter

Enter again to accept it.

Enabling and Setting Up Staggered Spin-up

You can set the number of SAS and SATA drives that will spin up at the same
time and the delay time between drive group spinups. This does not apply to
SAS or SATA drives that are attached to an expander.

Three policy settings let you 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 SAT A drives support stagg ered spinup. If you en able staggered spinup
and have drives that do not support it, the setting will be ignored. You can
change these settings in 3BM or using the CLI.

80 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Viewing Information About a Phy

It is possible to enable or disable automatic detection of drives on the controller’s
ports for staggered spinup during hot swapping of drives. This feature is only
available in the CLI using the autodetect=on|off command. For more information,
see /cx set autodetect=on|off disk=<p:-p>|all 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Controller CLI
Guide.

Note: Some hard drives require that the power management jumper (PM2) be set

to enable staggered spinup, in order for the SATA OOB option to be used. For more
information, see the knowledgebase article 14889, at

http://www.3ware.com/KB/article.aspx?id=14889

To enable or disable spinup and set the delay between spinups

1 At the main 3BM screen,

Tab to Policy and press Enter.

2 On the Policy

Control screen, Tab through these fields, making the

choices you want to use:

•

Staggered Spinup: Choose enabled or disabled.

•

Number of Drives Per Spinup: Select the number of drives,

depending on the number of ports on the controller.

Delay between spinup: Select the number of seconds—from 1 to 6.

•

3

Tab to the OK button and press Enter.

You will notice a short delay as 3BM makes the policy changes.

Viewing Information About a Phy

The 3ware 9690SA RAID controller has 8 phy transceivers (phys) that
receive and transmit the serial data stream between the controller and drives
and other devices in the SAS domain.

Phys are associated with the SAS ports on the controller. Multiple phys can be
associated with one SAS port, which is then called a “wide port.” In the
9690SA, there are two wide ports and each wide port has 4 phys.

You can check the phy properties on the Controller Phy Summary page.

To see information for a phy in 3DM

1 Select the controller for which you wish to view phy information from the

drop-down list on the menu bar.

2 If you have a direct-attached drive you can access the Controller Phy

Summary page from the
clicking the phy ID for the drive. Otherwise, navigate to the

> Controller Settings

www.3ware.com 81

Information > Drive Information page by

Management

page.

Chapter 7. Configuring Your Controller

3Under Other Controller Settings click the # link for Number of

Controller Phys

Figure 38. Phy Summary Page

For details about the columns on this page, see “Controller Phy Summary
page” on page 197.

.

To see information for a phy in 3BM

1 On the main 3BM screen,

Tab to Information and press Enter.

2 On the pop-up menu, select Phys and press Enter.
3 On the Controller Phy Information page, use the arrow keys to select the

Phy you want to see details about. The information displays on the right.

Figure 39. Controller Phy Information page

82 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Changing the Phy Link Speed

You can change the link speed between the controller and an expander or
between the controller and a drive that is directly connected to the controller.
Typically, the phy link speed is set to Auto. If desired for compatibility,
troubleshooting or performance analysis, you can specify a specific link speed
(1.5 or 3.0 Gbps).

To change the phy link speed in 3DM

1 On the Controller Phy Summary page, identify the phy device for which

you wish to change the link speed. Direct-attached drives are identified by
their VPort ID.

Changing the Phy Link Speed

2In the

Link Control drop-down menu, select the desired speed: 3 Gbps,

1.5 Gbps, or Auto.
The link speed is now reset.
For details about the information displayed on this screen, see “Controller

Phy Summary page” on page 197.

Figure 40. Controller Phy Summary page

To change the phy link speed in 3BM

1 On the main 3BM screen,

Tab to Settings and press Enter.

2 On the pop-up menu, select Phy Policies and press Enter.
3 On the Controller Phy Policies page, use the arrow keys to select the Phy

for which you want to set the link speed.

4 Press

www.3ware.com 83

Enter to display a popup of the possible settings, select the one you

want, and press

Enter again.

Chapter 7. Configuring Your Controller

Figure 41. Controller Phy Policies page

84 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Configuring Units

This section includes information and procedures on configuring units
attached to your 3ware RAID controller. It is organized into the following
topics:

• Configuring a New Unit

• Creating a Hot Spare

• Naming a Unit

• Setting Unit Policies

• Changing An Existing Configuration by Migrating

(RAID Level Migration or Online Capacity Expansion)

• Deleting a Unit

• Removing a Unit

• Moving a Unit from One Controller to Another

• Adding a Drive

• Removing a Drive

• Rescanning the Controller

8

Configuring a New Unit

When you configure a new unit, you specify some details related to the type
of RAID configuration that you want, and others that enable or disable
features.

This section first provides an overview of the different settings you can
specify during configuration and then provides step-by-step instructions for
creating a unit through both 3DM and 3BM.

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Chapter 8. Configuring Units

Configuration Options When Creating a Unit

This section provides an overview of the choices you have when configuring
a new unit. For step-by-step instructions, see “Creating a Unit through 3DM”
on page 89 and “Creating a Unit through 3BM” on page 91.

When you configure a new unit, you specify the following:

• Drives to be included in the unit

• Type of configuration (RAID Level)

• Name of the unit (optional)

• Stripe size, if appropriate for the RAID level

• Unit policies that affect how the unit will be handled

• Boot volume size (optional; can only be specified in 3BM or CLI)

You can make some types of changes to the RAID configuration later, and
you can change the unit name and the unit policies. For details, see “Changing
An Existing Configuration by Migrating” on page 109 and “Setting Unit
Policies” on page 100.

Note: If you will install the operating system on and boot from a unit managed

through the new 3ware RAID controller, see Chapter 3, “First-Time RAID
Configuration Using 3BM.”

Drives to be included in the unit

You may include from one to thirty-two drives in the unit, depending on the
number of drives available and the model of the controller you have. (For
information about how many drives to select for a given RAID level, see
“Determining What RAID Level to Use” on page 11.)

When creating units on the 9690SA controller, you cannot mix SAS and
SATA drives in the same unit.

Available drives are those that are not currently part of a unit. If you want to
use drives that are currently part of a different unit, you must first delete that
unit to make the drives available. (For details, see “Deleting a Unit” on
page 114.) If drives are listed under “Incomplete Drives and Others,” they
must be deleted before they can be used.

If you want to add drives to be used in the unit, see “Adding a Drive” on
page 122.

86 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Configuring a New Unit

Type of configuration (RAID Level)

Available configuration types include RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6,
RAID 10, RAID 50, and Single Disk. For information about the different
RAID levels, see “Understanding RAID Concepts and Levels” on page 4.

Warning: Creating a unit erases all data on all drives.

Name of the unit (optional)

Units can be given names. These names will be visible in 3DM and 3BM.

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 a smaller or
larger stripe size.

Unit policies

Several unit policies are set when you create a new unit:

• Write Cache (enabled, by default)

• Unit Queuing (enabled, by default)

• Auto Verify (disabled, by default)

• Continue on Source Error During Rebuild (disabled, by default)

• StorSave Profile (Protection, by default)

The particular policies that you can adjust when you create the unit vary,
depending on which program you are using: 3DM, 3BM, or the CLI.

• In 3DM and the CLI, you can enable/disable all unit policies.

• In 3BM, you can specify all policies except Auto-Verify

You can change all of these policies after the unit has been created.

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Chapter 8. Configuring Units

For a summary of what these policies do, see the discussion under “Setting
Unit Policies” on page 100. For how to adjust each one, see the procedures
later in this chapter.

Boot volume size

When you create a unit through 3BM (or through the CLI), you can create a
special volume to function as the boot volume. You specify the size you want
this volume to be. This is useful if you will be installing an operating system
onto the unit, and want it to be installed in one volume and have a separate
volume for data.

This is an optional feature. You do not have to create a boot volume if you
plan to install the operating system on the unit.

If you are creating a very large unit (2 TB or greater) and have enabled the
Auto-Carving policy, the boot volume will be created in addition to any
volumes created through auto-carving. For more information about auto­carving, see “Using Auto-Carving for Multi LUN Support” on page 78.

This feature can only be specified in 3BM and CLI.

88 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

Creating a Unit through 3DM

In 3DM, creating a unit starts from the Management > Maintenance page
(Figure 42).

Figure 42. 3DM Maintenance Page

Configuring a New Unit

To create a unit

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 VPort numb er for each one.
(This will be a port number if you are using a controller other than the
9690SA)

All drives in a unit must be of the same type—either SAS or SATA.
Although the best practice is to create a unit from drives in the same

enclosure, you can create a unit with drives from different enclosures.

3 Click

Create Unit.

A window similar to the one below shows the drives you selected, and
lets you specify configuration settings.

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Chapter 8. Configuring Units

4In the Type field, select the RAID configuration you want.

Figure 43. Configuring a Unit in 3DM

5 If stripe size applies to the RAID type you select, select a

Stripe Size.

(Stripe size does not apply to RAID 1.)

6 Optional: In the

Name box, enter a name for the unit (up to 21 characters,

including dashes and underscores).

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, as shown here.

Figure 44. Configuring a RAID 50 with 12 Drives

8 Make changes to the unit policies, as desired. You can enable or disable

Write Cache, Auto Verify, and Continue on Source Error During

the

Rebuild

. You can also set the StorSave policy.

For details about these settings, see “Setting Unit Policies” on page 100.

9 Click

90 3ware SAS/SATA RAID Software User Guide, Version 9.5

OK.