Areca ARC-1120, ARC-1160, ARC-1130, ARC-1170, ARC-1110ML User Manual

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ARC-1110/1120/1130/1160/1170

( 4/8/12/16/24-port PCI-X SATA RAID Adapter )

ARC-1110ML/1120ML/1130ML/1160ML

( 4/8-port Innband connector and 12/16-port Multi-lane

connector PCI-X SATA RAID Adapter )

ARC-1210/1220/1230/1260/1280

( 4/8/12/16/24-port PCI-Express SATA RAID Adapter )

ARC-1230ML/1260ML/1280ML

(12/16/24-port PCI-Express SATA RAID Adapter)

SATA RAID Cards

USER Manual

Version: 3.2 Issue Date: August, 2006

Microsoft WHQL Windows Hardware Compatibility Test

ARECA is committed to submitting products to the Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL), which is required for participation in the Windows Logo Program. Successful passage of the WHQL tests results in both the “Designed for Windows” logo for qualifying ARECA PCI-X and PCI-Express SATA RAID controllers and a listing on the Microsoft Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).

The information of the products in this manual is subject to change without prior notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of the vendor, who assumes no liability or responsibility for any errors that may appear in this manual. All brands and trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. This manual contains materials protected under International Copyright Conventions. All rights reserved. No part of this manual may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without the written permission of the manufacturer and the author. All inquiries should be addressed to ARECA Technology Corp.

FCC STATEMENT

This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation.

Contents

1. Introduction .............................................................. 10

1.1 Overview ....................................................................... 10

1.2 Features ........................................................................ 12

1.3 RAID Concept ................................................................. 15

1.3.1 RAID Set ................................................................... 15

1.3.2 Volume Set ................................................................15

1.3.3 Ease of Use Features ................................................. 16

1.3.3.1 Instant Availability/Background Initialization ............ 16

1.3.3.2 Array Roaming ..................................................... 16

1.3.3.3 Online Capacity Expansion ..................................... 17

1.3.3.4 Online RAID Level and Stripe Size Migration ............. 19

1.3.3.5 Online Volume Expansion ........................................ 19

1.4 High availability .............................................................. 20

1.4.1 Global Hot Spares ...................................................... 20

1.4.2 Hot-Swap Disk Drive Support ....................................... 21

1.4.3 Auto Declare Hot-Spare .............................................. 21

1.4.4 Auto Rebuilding ......................................................... 21

1.4.5 Adjustable Rebuild Priority ........................................... 22

1.5 High Reliability ................................................................23

1.5.1 Hard Drive Failure Prediction ........................................ 23

1.5.2 Auto Reassign Sector .................................................. 23

1.5.3 Consistency Check ...................................................... 24

1.6 Data Protection ............................................................... 24

1.6.1 BATTERY BACKUP ...................................................... 24

1.6.2 RECOVERY ROM ......................................................... 25

1.7 Understanding RAID ........................................................ 25

1.7.1 RAID 0 ...................................................................... 25

1.7.2 RAID 1 ...................................................................... 26

1.7.3 RAID 1E .................................................................... 27

1.7.4 RAID 3 ...................................................................... 27

1.7.5 RAID 5 ...................................................................... 28

1.7.6 RAID 6 ...................................................................... 29

2. Hardware Installation ............................................... 31

2.1 Before Your begin Installation ........................................... 31

2.2 Board Layout .................................................................. 32

2.3 Installation ..................................................................... 37

3. McBIOS RAID Manager .............................................. 53

3.1 Starting the McBIOS RAID Manager ................................... 53

3.2 McBIOS Conguration manager ......................................... 54

3.3 Conguring Raid Sets and Volume Sets .............................. 55

3.4 Designating Drives as Hot Spares ...................................... 55

3.5 Using Quick Volume /Raid Setup Conguration .................... 56

3.6 Using RAID Set/Volume Set Function Method ...................... 57

3.7 Main Menu .................................................................... 59

3.7.1 Quick Volume/RAID Setup ........................................... 60

3.7.2 Raid Set Function ....................................................... 63

3.7.2.1 Create Raid Set .................................................... 64

3.7.2.2 Delete Raid Set ..................................................... 65

3.7.2.3 Expand Raid Set .................................................... 65

• Migrating ...................................................................... 66

3.7.2.4 Activate Incomplete Raid Set ................................... 67

3.7.2.5 Create Hot Spare ................................................... 68

3.7.2.6 Delete Hot Spare ................................................... 68

3.7.2.7 Raid Set Information .............................................. 69

3.7.3 Volume Set Function ................................................... 69

3.7.3.1 Create Volume Set ................................................. 70

• Volume Name ................................................................ 72

• Raid Level ..................................................................... 72

• Capacity ....................................................................... 73

• Strip Size ...................................................................... 74

• SCSI Channel ................................................................ 75

• SCSI ID ........................................................................ 75

• SCSI LUN ...................................................................... 76

• Cache Mode .................................................................. 76

• Tag Queuing .................................................................. 77

3.7.3.2 Delete Volume Set ................................................. 77

3.7.3.3 Modify Volume Set ................................................. 78

• Volume Growth .............................................................. 79

• Volume Set Migration ...................................................... 79

3.7.3.4 Check Volume Set .................................................. 80

3.7.3.5 Stop Volume Set Check .......................................... 80

3.7.3.6 Display Volume Set Info. ........................................ 81

3.7.4 Physical Drives ........................................................... 82

3.7.4.1 View Drive Information .......................................... 82

3.7.4.2 Create Pass-Through Disk ....................................... 83

3.7.4.3 Modify a Pass-Through Disk ..................................... 83

3.7.4.4 Delete Pass-Through Disk .......................................84

3.7.4.5 Identify Selected Drive ........................................... 84

3.7.5 Raid System Function ................................................. 85

3.7.5.1 Mute The Alert Beeper ........................................... 85

3.7.5.2 Alert Beeper Setting ............................................... 86

3.7.5.3 Change Password .................................................. 86

3.7.5.4 JBOD/RAID Function .............................................. 87

3.7.5.5 Background Task Priority ........................................ 88

3.7.5.6 Maximum SATA Mode ............................................. 88

3.7.5.7 HDD Read Ahead Cache ......................................... 89

3.7.5.8 Stagger Power On .................................................. 89

3.7.5.9 Empty HDD slot HDD .............................................90

3.7.5.10 HDD SMART Status Polling .................................... 91

3.7.5.11 Controller Fan Detection ....................................... 91

3.7.5.12 Disk Write Cache Mode ......................................... 92

3.7.5.13 Capacity Truncation .............................................. 92

3.7.6 Ethernet Conguration (12/16/24-port) ......................... 93

3.7.6.1 DHCP Function ...................................................... 94

3.7.6.2 Local IP address .................................................... 95

3.7.6.3 Ethernet Address ................................................... 96

3.7.7 View System Events ................................................... 96

3.7.8 Clear Events Buffer ..................................................... 97

3.7.9 Hardware Monitor ....................................................... 97

3.7.10 System Information .................................................. 97

4. Driver Installation ..................................................... 99

4.1 Creating the Driver Diskettes ............................................ 99

4.2 Driver Installation for Windows ....................................... 100

4.2.1 New Storage Device Drivers in Windows Server 2003 .... 100

4.2.2 Install Windows 2000/XP/2003 on a SATA RAID Volume 101

4.2.2.1 Installation procedures ......................................... 101

4.2.2.2 Making Volume Sets Available to Windows System ... 102

4.2.3 Installing controller into an existing Windows 2000/XP/2003

Installation ...................................................................... 103

4.2.3.1 Making Volume Sets Available to Windows System ... 104

4.2.4 Uninstall controller from Windows 2000/XP/2003 .......... 105

4.3 Driver Installation for Linux ............................................ 106

4.4 Driver Installation for FreeBSD ........................................ 106

4.5 Driver Installation for Solaris .......................................... 107

4.6 Driver Installation for Mac X ........................................... 107

5. ArcHttp Proxy Server Installation ........................... 108

5.1 For Windows................................................................. 109

5.2 For Linux ..................................................................... 110

5.3 For FreeBSD ................................................................. 111

5.4 For Solaris 10 X86 ......................................................... 111

5.5 For Mac OS 10.X ........................................................... 111

5.6 Email Notication .......................................................... 111

5.6.1 Start-up Mail Conguration for Local8Administration ..... 111

5.6.1.1 For Windows ....................................................... 111

5.6.1.2 For Linux/FreeBSD ............................................... 112

5.6.2 Start-up Mail Conguration for RemoteAdministration .... 112

• SMTP Server Conguration ............................................ 113

• Mail Address Congurations ........................................... 113

• Event Notication Congurations .................................... 113

A. Device Event .............................................................. 114

B. Volume Event ............................................................. 114

C. RaidSet Event ............................................................ 115

D. Hardware Event .......................................................... 115

6. Web Browser-based Conguration ......................... 116

6.1 Start-up McRAID Storage Manager ................................. 116

• Another method to start-up McRAID Storage Manager from

Windows Local Administration .......................................... 117

6.1.1 Through Ethernet port (Out-of-Band) ......................... 118

6.2 SATA RAID controller McRAID Storage Manager ................. 119

6.3 Main Menu .................................................................. 120

6.4 Quick Function .............................................................. 120

6.5 RaidSet Functions ......................................................... 121

6.5.1 Create Raid Set ....................................................... 121

6.5.2 Delete Raid Set ........................................................ 122

6.5.3 Expand Raid Set ....................................................... 123

6.5.4 Activate Incomplete Raid Set ..................................... 123

6.5.5 Create Hot Spare ..................................................... 124

6.5.6 Delete Hot Spare ...................................................... 124

6.5.7 Rescue Raid Set ....................................................... 124

6.6 Volume Set Functions .................................................... 125

6.6.1 Create Volume Set ................................................... 125

• Volume Name .............................................................. 126

• Raid Level .................................................................. 126

• Capacity ..................................................................... 126

• Greater Two TB Volume Support ..................................... 126

• Initialization Mode ........................................................ 127

• Strip Size .................................................................... 127

• Cache Mode ................................................................ 127

• SCSI Channel/SCSI ID/SCSI Lun .................................... 127

• Tag Queuing ................................................................ 127

6.6.2 Delete Volume Set .................................................... 128

6.6.3 Modify Volume Set .................................................... 128

6.6.3.1 Volume Set Migration ........................................... 128

6.6.4 Check Volume Set .................................................... 129

6.6.5 Stop VolumeSet Check .............................................. 130

6.7 Physical Drive .............................................................. 130

6.7.1 Create Pass-Through Disk .......................................... 130

6.7.2 Modify Pass-Through Disk .......................................... 131

6.7.3 Delete Pass-Through Disk .......................................... 132

6.8 System Controls ........................................................... 133

6.8.1 System Cong ......................................................... 133

• System Beeper Setting ................................................. 133

• Background Task Priority ............................................... 133

• JBOD/RAID Conguration .............................................. 133

• Maximun SATA Supported ............................................. 133

• HDD Read Ahead Cache ................................................ 133

• Stagger Power on ........................................................ 134

• Empty HDD Slot LED .................................................... 135

• HDD SMART Status Polling............................................. 135

• Disk Write Cache Mode ................................................. 136

• Disk Capacity Truncation Mode ....................................... 136

6.8.2 Ethernet Conguration (12/16/24-port) ....................... 137

6.8.3 Alert by Mail Conguration (12/16/24-port) ................ 138

6.8.4 SNMP Conguration (12/16/24-port) ........................... 139

• SNMP Trap Congurations ............................................. 140

• SNMP System Congurations ......................................... 140

• SNMP Trap Notication Congurations ............................. 140

6.8.5 NTP Conguration (12/16/24-port) ............................. 140

• NTP Sever Address ....................................................... 140

• Time Zone ................................................................... 141

• Automatic Daylight Saving............................................. 141

6.8.6 View Events/Mute Beeper .......................................... 141

6.8.7 Generate Test Event ................................................. 141

6.8.8 Clear Events Buffer ................................................... 142

6.8.9 Modify Password ...................................................... 142

6.8.10 Update Firmware ................................................... 143

6.9 Information .................................................................. 143

6.9.1 RaidSet Hierarchy ..................................................... 143

6.9.2 System Information .................................................. 143

6.9.3 Hardware Monitor ..................................................... 145

Appendix A ................................................................. 146

Upgrading Flash ROM Update Process .................................... 146

Upgrading Firmware Through McRAID Storage Manager ........... 146

Upgrading Entire Flash ROM ImageThrough Arcash DOS Utility 147

Appendix B .................................................................. 150

Battery Backup Module (ARC-1620-BAT) ................................ 150

BBM Components ........................................................... 150

BBM Specications .......................................................... 150

Installation .................................................................... 151

Battery Backup Capacity .................................................. 151

Operation ...................................................................... 152

Changing the Battery Backup Module ................................ 152

Appendix C .................................................................. 153

SNMP Operation & Denition ................................................ 153

Appendix D .................................................................. 160

General Troubleshooting Tips ............................................... 160

Appendix E .................................................................. 164

Technical Support ............................................................... 164

Glossary ...................................................................... 165

2TB .............................................................................. 165

Array ............................................................................ 165

ATA .............................................................................. 165

Auto Reassign Sector ..................................................... 165

Battery Backup Module .................................................... 166

BIOS ............................................................................ 166

Cache ........................................................................... 166

Consistency Check .......................................................... 166

Driver ........................................................................... 166

Hot Spare ...................................................................... 167

Hardware RAID versus Software RAID .............................. 167

Hot Swap ...................................................................... 167

NVRAM .......................................................................... 167

Parity ............................................................................ 167

PCI Express .................................................................. 167

PCI-X ........................................................................... 168

RAID ............................................................................ 168

Rebuild ......................................................................... 168

SATA (Serial ATA) ........................................................... 168

SMART .......................................................................... 169

SNMP ............................................................................ 169

Volume Set .................................................................... 169

Write-back ..................................................................... 169

Write-through ................................................................ 169

XOR-Engine ................................................................... 170

INTRODUCTION

1. Introduction

This section presents a brief overview of the SATA RAID Series controller cards, ARC-1110/1110ML/1120/1120ML/1130/1130ML/1160/ 1160ML/1170 (4/8/12/16/24-port PCI-X SATA RAID Controllers) and ARC-1210/1220/1230/1230/1230ML/1260/1260ML/1280/1280ML (4/8/12/16/24-port PCI-Express SATA RAID Controllers).

1.1 Overview

The ARC-11xx and ARC-12xx Series of high-performance Serial ATA RAID controllers support a maximum of 4, 8, 12, 16, or 24 SATAII peripheral devices (depending on model) on a single controller card. The ARC-11xx Series are for the PCI-X bus and the ARC-12xx Series are for the PCI-Express bus. When properly congured, these SATA controllers can provide non-stop service with a high degree of fault tolerance through the use Of RAID technology and can also provide advanced array management features.

The 4 and 8 port SATA RAID controllers are low-prole PCI cards, ideal for 1U and 2U rack-mount systems. These cards utilize the same RAID kernel that has been eld-proven in existing external RAID controller products, allowing Areca to quickly bring stable and reliable RAID controllers to the market.

Unparalleled Performance

Areca RAID controllers provide reliable data protection for desktops, workstations, and servers. These cards set the standard with enhancements that include a high-performance Intel I/O Processor, a new DDR333 memory architecture, and a high performance PCI bus interconnection. SATA RAID 8/12/16/24-port controllers with the Areca RAID 6 engine built-in can offer extreme-availability RAID 6 functionality. This engine can concurrently computes two parity blocks with performance very similar to RAID 5. The controllers by default support 256MB of ECC DDR333 SDRAM memory. The 12/16/24 port controllers support one DDR333 SODIMM socket that allows for upgrading up to 1GB of memory. The 12/16/24 port controllers support one DDR2-533 DIMM socket that allows for upgrading up to 2GB of memory. The controllers use Marvell

INTRODUCTION

4/8 channel SATA PCI-X controller chips, which can simultaneously communicate with the host system and read or write data on multiple drives.

Unsurpassed Data Availability

As storage capacity requirements continue to rapidly increase, users require greater levels of disk drive fault tolerance, which can be implemented without doubling the investment in disk drives. RAID 1 (mirroring) provides high fault tolerance. However, half of the drive capacity of the array is lost to mirroring, making it too costly for most users to implement on large volume sets due to dobuling the number of drives required. Users want the protection of RAID 1 or better with an implementation cost comparable to RAID 5. RAID 6 can offer fault tolerance greater than RAID 1 or RAID 5 but only consumes the capacity of 2 disk drives for distributed parity data. The 8/12/16/24-port RAID controllers provide RAID 6 functionality to meet these demanding requirements.

The 4/8/12/16/24-port controllers also provide RAID levels 0, 1, 1E, 3, 5, and JBOD congurations. Its high data availability and protection is derived from the following capabilities: Online RAID Capacity Expansion, Array Roaming, Online RAID Level / Stripe Size Migration, Dynamic Volume Set Expansion, Global Online Spare, Automatic Drive Failure Detection, Automatic Failed Drive Rebuilding, Disk Hot-Swap, Online Background Rebuilding and Instant Availability/Background Initialization. During the controller rmware ash upgrade process, it is possible that an error results in corruption of the controller rmware. This could result in the device becoming non-functional. However, with our Redundant Flash image feature, the controller will revert back to the last known version of rmware and continue operating. This reduces the risk of system failure due to rmware crashes.

Easy RAID Management

The SATA RAID controller utilizes built-in rmware with an embedded terminal emulation that can access via hot key at BIOS bootup screen. This pre-boot manager utility can be used to simplify the setup and management of the RAID controller. The controller rmware also contains a HTTP browser-based program that can be

INTRODUCTION

accessed through the ArcHttp Proxy Server function in Windows, Linux and FreeBSD environments. This Web browser-based RAID management utility allows both local and remote creation and modication RAID sets, volume sets, and monitoring of RAID status from standard web browsers.

1.2 Features

Adapter Architecture

• Intel IOP 331 I/O processor (ARC-11xx series)

• Intel IOP 332/IOP 333 I/O processor (ARC-12xx series)

• Intel 81341 I/O processor (ARC-12x0ML/1280)

• 64-bit/133MHz PCI-X Bus compatible

• PCI Express X8 compatible

• 256MB on-board DDR333 SDRAM with ECC protection (4/8-port)

• One SODIMM Socket with default 256 MB of DDR333 SDRAM with ECC protection, upgrade to 1GB (12, 16 and 24-port cards only)

• One DIMM Socket with default 256 MB of DDR2-533 SDRAM with ECC protection, upgrade to 2GB(ARC-12xxML, ARC-1280)

• An ECC or non-ECC SDRAM module using X8 or X16 devices

• Support up to 4/8/12/16/24 SATA ll drives

• Write-through or write-back cache support

• Multi-adapter support for large storage requirements

• BIOS boot support for greater fault tolerance

• BIOS PnP (plug and play) and BBS (BIOS boot specication) support

• Supports extreme performance Intel RAID 6 functionality

• NVRAM for RAID event & transaction log

• Battery backup module (BBM) ready (Depend on mother board)

RAID Features

• RAID level 0, 1, 1E, 3, 5, 6 (R6 engine inside) and JBOD

• Multiple RAID selection

• Array roaming

• Online RAID level/stripe size migration

• Online capacity expansion RAID level migration simultaneously

• Online Volume set growth

• Instant availability and background initialization

• Automatic drive insertion / removal detection and rebuilding

• Greater than 2TB per volume set for 64-bit LBA

INTRODUCTION

• Redundant ash image for adapter availability

• Support S.M.A.R.T, NCQ and OOB Staggered Spin-up Capable drives

Monitors/Notication

• System status indication through LED/LCD connector, HDD activity/fault connector, and alarm buzzer

• SMTP support for email notication

• SNMP agent supports for remote SNMP Manager

• I2C Enclosure Management Ready (IOP 331/332/333)

• I2C & SGPIO Enclosure Management Ready (81341)

RAID Management

• Field-upgradeable rmware in ash ROM

• Ethernet port support on 12/16/24-port

In-Band Manager

• Hot key boot-up McBIOS RAID manager via BIOS

• Support controller’s API library, allowing customer to write cus tom AP

• Support Command Line Interface (CLI)

• Browser-based management utility via ArcHttp Proxy Server

• Single Admin Portal (SAP) monitor utility

• Disk Stress Test (DST) utility for production in Windows

Out-of-Band Manager

• Firmware-embedded Browser-based RAID manager, SMTP manager, SNMP agent and Telnet function via Ethernet port (for 12/16/24-port Adapter)

• Support controller’s API library for customer to write its own AP (for 12/16/24-port Adapter)

• Push Button and LCD display panel

Operating System

• Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003

• Red Hat Linux

• SuSE Linux

• FreeBSD

• Novell Netware 6.5

• Solaris 10 X86/X86_64

• SCO Unixware 7.X.X

• Mac OS 10.X (no_bootable)

(For latest supported OS listing visit http://www.areca.com.tw)

INTRODUCTION

Internal PCI-X RAID Card Comparison (ARC-11XXML)

1110ML 1120ML 1130ML 1160ML

RAID processor IOP331

Host Bus Type PCI-X 133MHz

RAID 6 support N/A YES YES YES

Cache Memory 256MB 256MB One SODIMM One SODIMM

Drive Support 4 * SATA ll 8 * SATA ll 12 * SATA ll 16 * SATA ll

Disk Connector Innband Innband Multi-lane Multi-lane

Internal PCI-Express RAID Card Comparison (ARC-12XX)

1210 1220 1230 1260

RAID processor IOP333

Host Bus Type PCI-Express X8

RAID 6 support N/A YES YES YES

Cache Memory 256MB 256MB One SODIMM One SODIMM

Drive Support 4 * SATA ll 8 * SATA ll 12 * SATA ll 16 * SATA ll

Disk Connector SATA SATA SATA SATA

IOP332

Internal PCI-X RAID Card Comparison (ARC-11XX)

1110 1120 1130 1160 1170

RAID processor IOP331

Host Bus Type PCI-X 133MHz

RAID 6 support N/A YES YES YES YES

Cache Memory 256MB 256MB One SO-

DIMM

One SO-

DIMM

One SO-

DIMM

Drive Support 4 * SATA ll 8 * SATA ll 12 * SATA ll 16 * SATA ll 24 * SATA ll

Disk Connector SATA SATA SATA SATA SATA

INTRODUCTION

1.3 RAID Concept

1.3.1 RAID Set

A RAID Set is a group of disks connected to a RAID controller. A RAID Set contains one or more Volume Sets. The RAID Set itself does not dene the RAID level (0, 1, 1E, 3, 5, 6, etc); the RAID level is dened within each Volume Set. So, Volume Sets are contained within RAID Sets and the RAID Level is dened within the Volume Set. If physical disks of different capacities are grouped together in a RAID Set, then the capacity of the smallest disk will become the effective capacity of all the disks in the RAID Set.

1.3.2 Volume Set

Each Volume Set is seen by the host system as a single logical device (in other words, a single large virtual hard disk). A Volume Set will use a specic RAID level, which will require one or more physical disks (depending on the RAID level used). RAID level refers to the level of performance and data protection of a Volume Set. The capacity of a Volume Set can consume all or a portion of the available disk capacity in a RAID Set. Multiple Volume Sets can exist in a Raid Set.

For the SATA RAID controller, a volume set must be created either on an existing RAID Set or on a group of available individual disks (disks that are about to become part of a raid set). If there are pre-existing RAID Sets with available capacity and enough disks

Internal PCI-Express RAID Card Comparison (ARC-12XX)

1230ML 1260ML 1280ML 1280

RAID processor IOP341

Host Bus Type PCI-Express X8

RAID 6 support YES YES YES YES

Cache Memory One DDR2 DIMM (Default 256MB, Upgrade to 2GB)

Drive Support 12 * SATA ll 16 * SATA ll 24 * SATA ll 24 * SATA ll

Disk Connector 3*Min SAS 4i 4*Min SAS 4i 6*Min SAS 4i 24*SATA

INTRODUCTION

for the desired RAID level, then the volume set can be created in the existing raid set of the user’s choice.

In the illustration, Volume 1 can be assigned a RAID 5 level of operation while Volume 0 might be assigned a RAID 10 level of operation. Alterantively, the Free Space can be used to create Volume 2, which could then be set to use RAID Level 5.

1.3.3 Ease of Use Features

1.3.3.1 Instant Availability/Background Initialization

RAID 0 and RAID 1 volume sets can be used immediately after creation because they do not create parity data. However, RAID 3, 5 and 6 volume sets must be initialized to generate parity information. In Normal Initialization, the initialization proceeds as a background task, and the volume set is fully accessible for system reads and writes. The operating system can instantly access the newly created arrays without requiring a reboot and without waiting for initialization to complete. Furthermore, the RAID volume set is protected against a single disk failure while initialing. If using Fast Initialization, the initialization process must be completed before the volume set is ready for system accesses.

1.3.3.2 Array Roaming

The ARC-11xx/12xx RAID adapters store RAID conguration information on the disk drives. The adapters therefor protect

INTRODUCTION

the conguration settings in the event of controller failure. Array roaming allows the administrators the ability to move a completele raid set to another system without losing RAID conguration information or data on that raid set. So, if a server fails, the raid set disk drives can be moved to another server with an identical

RAID card and the disks can be inserted in any order.

1.3.3.3 Online Capacity Expansion

Online Capacity Expansion makes it possible to add one or more physical drives to a volume set without interrupting server operation, eliminating the need to backup and restore after reconguration of the raid set. When disks are added to a raid set, unused capacity is added to the end of the raid set. Then, data on the existing volume sets (residing on the newly expanded raid set) is redistributed evenly across all the disks. A contiguous block of unused capacity is made available on the raid set. The unused capacity can be used to create additional volume sets.

A disk, to be added to a Raid set, must be in normal mode (not failed), free (not spare, in a raid set, or passed through to host) and must have at least the same capacity as the smallest disk capacity already in the Raid set.

Capacity expansion is only permitted to proceed if all volumes on the Raid set are in the normal status. During the expansion process, the volume sets being expanded can be accessed by the host system. In addition, the volume sets with RAID levels 1, 1E, 3, 5 or 6 are protected against data loss in the event of disk failure(s). In the case of disk failure, the volume set transitions from “migrating” state to “migrating+degraded“ state. When the expansion is completed, the volume set would then transition to “degraded” mode. If a global hot spare is present, then it further transitions to the “rebuilding” state.

INTRODUCTION

The RAID subsystem controller redistributes the original volume set over the original and newly added disks, using the same fault-tolerance conguration. The unused capacity on the expand raid set can then be used to create an additional volume set, with a different fault tolerance setting (if required by the user.)

The RAID subsystem controller redistributes the original volume set over the original and newly added disks, using the same fault-tolerance conguration. The unused capacity on the expand raid set can then be used to create an additional volume sets, with a different fault tolerance setting if user need to change.

The expansion process is illustrated as following gure.

INTRODUCTION

1.3.3.4 Online RAID Level and Stripe Size Migration

For those who wish to later upgrade to any RAID capabilities, a system with Areca online RAID level/stripe size migration allows a simplied upgrade to any supported RAID level without having to reinstall the operating system.

ARC-11xx/12xx can migrate both the RAID level and stripe size of an existing volume set, while the server is online and the volume set is in use. Online RAID level/stripe size migration can prove helpful during performance tuning activities as well as when additional physical disks are added to the SATA RAID controller. For example, in a system using two drives in RAID level 1, it is possible to add a single drive and add capacity and retain fault tolerance. (Normally, expanding a RAID level 1 array would require the addition of two disks). A third disk can be added to the existing RAID logical drive and the array can then be migrated from RAID level 1 to 5. The result would be parity fault tolerance and double the available capacity without taking the system down. A forth disk could be added to migrate to RAID level 6. It is only possible to migrate to a higher RAID level by adding a disk; disks in an existing array can’t be recongured for a higher RAID level without adding a disk.

Online migration is only permitted to begin If all volume to be migrated are in the normal mode. During the migration process, the volume sets being migrated are accessed by the host system. In addition, the volume sets with RAID levels 1, 1E, 3, 5 or 6 are protected against data loss in the event of disk failure(s). In the case of disk failure, the volume set transitions from migrating state to (migrating+degraded) state. When the migration is completed, the volume set transitions to degraded mode. If a global hot spare is present, then it further transitions to rebuilding state.

1.3.3.5 Online Volume Expansion

Performing a volume expansion on the controller is the process of growing only the size of the lastest volume. A more exible option is for the array to concatenate an additional drive into the RAID set and then expand the volumes on the y. This happens

INTRODUCTION

transparently while the volumes are online, but, at the end of the process, the operating system will detect free space at after the existing volume; the free space will not automatically be incorporated into the existing operating system partition.

Windows, NetWare and other advanced operating systems support volume expansion, which enables you to incorporate the additional free space within the volume into the operating system partition. The operating system partition is extended to incorporate the free space so it can be used by the operating system without creating a new operating system partition.

You can use the Diskpart.exe command line utility, included with Windows Server 2003 or the Windows 2000 Resource Kit, to extend an existing partition into free space in the Dynamic disk.

Third-party software vendors have created utilities that can be used to repartition disks without data loss. Most of these utilities work ofine. Partition Magic is one such utility.

1.4 High availability

1.4.1 Global Hot Spares

A Global Hot Spare is an unused online available drive, which is ready for replacing the failure disk. The Global Hot Spares is one of the most important features that ARC-11xx/12xx RAID adapters provide to deliver a high degree of fault-tolerance. A global Hot Spare is a spare physical drive that has been marked as a global hot spare and therefore is not a member of any Raid set. If a disk drive used in a RAID Volume Set fails, then the Global Hot spare will automatically take its place and he data previously located on the failed drive is reconstructed on the Global Hot spare.

For this feature to work properly, the global hot spare must have at least the same capacity as the drive it replaces. Global Hot spares only work with RAID level 1, 1E, 3, 5, or 6 volume set. You can congure up to three Global hot spares with ARC-11xx/12xx.

The Create Hot Spare option gives you the ability to dene a

INTRODUCTION

global hot spare disk drive. To effectively use the global hot spare feature, you must always maintain at least one drive that is marked as a global spare.

Important:

The hot spare must have at least the same capacity as the drive it replaces.

1.4.2 Hot-Swap Disk Drive Support

The SATA RAID controller includes a protection circuit that supports the replacement of SATA hard disk drives without having to shut down or reboot the system. A removable hard drive tray can deliver “hot swappable” fault-tolerant RAID solutions at prices much less than the cost of conventional SCSI hard disk SATA RAID controllers. This feature provides advanced fault tolerant RAID protection and “online” drive replacement.

1.4.3 Auto Declare Hot-Spare

If a disk drive is brought online into a system operating in degraded mode, ARC-11xx/12xx RAID adapters will automatically declare the new disk as a spare and begin rebuilding the degraded volume. The Auto Declare Hot-Spare function requires that the smallest drive contained within the volume set in which the failure occurred.

In the normal status, the newly installed drive will be recongured an online free disk. But, the newly-installed drive is automatically assigned as a hot spare if any hot spare disk was used to rebuild and without new installed drive replaced it. In this condition, the Auto Declare Hot-Spare status will disappeared if the RAID subsystem has since powered off/on.

The Hot-Swap function can be used to rebuild disk drives in arrays with data redundancy such as RAID level 1, 1E, 3, 5, and 6.

INTRODUCTION

1.4.4 Auto Rebuilding

If a hot spare is available, the rebuild starts automatically when a drive fails. ARC-11xx/12xx RAID adapters automatically and transparently rebuild failed drives in the background at user-denable rebuild rates.

If a hot spare is not available, the failed disk drive must be replaced with a new disk drive so that the data on the failed drive can be automatically rebuilt and so that fault tolerance can be maintained.

The ARC-11xx/12xx RAID adapters will automatically restart the system and the rebuild process if the system is shut down or powered off abnormally during a reconstruction procedure condition.

When a disk is Hot Swapped, although the system is functionally operational, the system may no longer be fault tolerant. Fault tolerance will be lost until the removed drive is replaced and the rebuild operation is completed.

During the automatic rebuild process, system activity will continue as normal, however, the system performance and fault tolerance will be affected.

1.4.5 Adjustable Rebuild Priority

Rebuilding a degraded volume incurs a load on the RAID subsystem. The ARC-11xx/12xx RAID adapters allow the user to select the rebuild priority to balance volume access and rebuild tasks appropriately. The Background Task Priority is a relative indication of how much time the controller devotes to a background operation, such as rebuilding or migrating.

The RAID subsystem allows user to choose the task priority (Ultra Low (5%), Low (20%), Medium (50%), High (80%)) to balance volume set access and background tasks appropriately. For high array performance, specify an Ultra Low value. Like volume initialization, after a volume rebuilds, it does not require a system reboot.

INTRODUCTION

1.5 High Reliability

1.5.1 Hard Drive Failure Prediction

In an effort to help users avoid data loss, disk manufacturers are now incorporating logic into their drives that acts as an "early warning system" for pending drive problems. This system is called SMART. The disk integrated controller works with multiple sensors to monitor various aspects of the drive's performance, determines from this information if the drive is behaving normally or not, and makes available status information to RAID controller rmware that probes the drive and look at it. S.M.A.R.T. can often predict a problem before failure occurs. Areca controllers will recognize a S.M.A.R.T. error code and notify the administer of an impending hard drive failure.

1.5.2 Auto Reassign Sector

Under normal operation, even initially defect-free drive media can develop defects. This is a common phenomenon. The bit density and rotational speed of disks is increasing every year, and so is the potential of problems. Usually a drive can internally remap bad sectors without external help using cyclic redundancy check (CRC) checksums stored at the end of each sector.

SATA drives perform automatic defect re-assignment for both read and write errors. Writes are always completed - if a location to be written is found to be defective, the drive will automatically relocate that write command to a new location and map out the defective location. If there is a recoverable read error, the correct data will be transferred to the host and that location will be tested by the drive to be certain the location is not defective. If it is found to have a defect, data will be automatically relocated, and the defective location is mapped out to prevent future write attempts.

In the event of an unrecoverable read error, the error will be reported to the host and the location agged as potentially defective. A subsequent write to that location will initiate a sector test and relocation should that location have a defect. Auto Reassign

INTRODUCTION

Sector does not affect disk subsystem performance because it runs as a background task. Auto Reassign Sector discontinues when the operating system makes a request.

1.5.3 Consistency Check

A consistency check is a process that veries the integrity of redundant data. For example, performing a consistency check of a mirrored drive assures that the data on both drives of the mirrored pair is exactly the same. To verify RAID 3, 5 or 6 redundancy, a consistency check reads all associated data blocks, computes parity, reads parity, and veries that the computed parity matches the read parity. Consistency checks are very important because they detect and correct parity errors or bad disk blocks in the drive. A consistency check forces every block on a volume to be read, and any bad blocks are marked; those blocks are not used again. This is critical and important because a bad disk block can prevent a disk rebuild from completing. We strongly recommend that you run consistency checks on a regular basis—at least once per week. Note that consistency checks degrade performance, so you should run them when the system load can tolerate it.

1.6 Data Protection

1.6.1 BATTERY BACKUP

Areca controllers are armed with a Battery Backup Module (BBM). While a Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) protects most servers from power uctuations or failures, a BBM provides an additional level of protection. In the event of a power failure, a BBM supplies power to retain data in the RAID controller’s cache, thereby permitting any potentially dirty data in the cache to be ushed out to secondary storage when power is restored.

The batteries in the BBM are recharged continuously through a trickle-charging process whenever the system power is on. The batteries protect data in a failed server for up to three or four days, depending on the size of the memory module. Under normal operating conditions, the batteries last for three years before

INTRODUCTION

replacement is necessary.

1.6.2 RECOVERY ROM

The RAID subsystem rmware is stored on the controller ash ROM and is executed by the I/O processor. The rmware can also be updated through the PCI-X/PCIe bus port or Ethernet port (if equipped) without the need to replace any hardware chips. During the controller rmware upgrade ash process, it is possible for a problem to occur resulting in corruption of the controller rmware. With our Redundant Flash image feature, the controller will revert back to the last known version of rmware and continue operating. This reduces the risk of system failure due to rmware crash.

1.7 Understanding RAID

RAID is an acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. It is an array of multiple independent hard disk drives that provides high performance and fault tolerance. The SATA RAID controller implements several levels of the Berkeley RAID technology. An appropriate RAID level is selected when the volume sets are dened or created. This decision should be based on the desired disk capacity, data availability (fault tolerance or redundancy), and disk performance. The following section discusses the RAID levels supported by the SATA RAID controller.

The SATA RAID controller makes the RAID implementation and the disks’ physical conguration transparent to the host operating stem. This means that the host operating system drivers and software utilities are not affected, regardless of the RAID level selected. Correct installation of the disk array and the controller requires a proper understanding of RAID technology and the concepts.

1.7.1 RAID 0

RAID 0, also referred to as striping, writes stripes of data across multiple disk drives instead of just one disk drive. RAID 0 does not provide any data redundancy, but does offer the best high-

INTRODUCTION

speed data throughput. RAID 0 breaks up data into smaller blocks and then writes a block to each drive in the array. Disk striping enhances performance because multiple drives are accessed simultaneously; the reliability of RAID Level 0 is less because the entire array will fail if any one disk drive fails, due to a lack of redundancy.

1.7.2 RAID 1

RAID 1 is also known as “disk mirroring”; data written to one disk drive is simultaneously written to another disk drive. Read performance may be enhanced if the array controller can, in parallel, accesses both members of a mirrored pair. During writes, there will be a minor performance penalty when compared to writing to a single disk. If one drive fails, all data (and software applications) are preserved on the other drive. RAID 1 offers extremely high data reliability, but at the cost of doubling the required data storage capacity.

INTRODUCTION

1.7.3 RAID 1E

RAID 1E is a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 1, combing stripping with disk mirroring. RAID Level 10 combines the fast performance of Level 0 with the data redundancy of Leve1 1. In this conguration, data is distributed across several disk drives, similar to Level 0, which are then duplicated to another set of drive for data protection. RAID 1E has been traditionally implemented using an even number of disks, some hybrids can use an odd number of disks as well. Illustration is an example of a hybrid RAID 1E array comprised of ve disks; A, B, C, D and E. In this conguration, each strip is mirrored on an adjacent disk with wrap-around. In fact this scheme - or a slightly modied version of it - is often referred to as RAID 1E and was originally proposed by IBM. When the number of disks comprising a RAID 1E is even, the striping pattern is identical to that of a traditional RAID 1E, with each disk being mirrored by exactly one other unique disk. Therefore, all the characteristics for a traditional RAID 1E apply to a RAID 1E when the latter has an even number of disks. Areca RAID 1E offers a little more exibility in choosing the number of disks that can be used to constitute an array. The number can be even or odd.

1.7.4 RAID 3

RAID 3 provides disk striping and complete data redundancy though a dedicated parity drive. RAID 3 breaks up data into smaller blocks, calculates parity by performing an exclusive-or on the blocks, and then writes the blocks to all but one drive in

INTRODUCTION

1.7.5 RAID 5

RAID 5 is sometimes called striping with parity at byte level. In RAID 5, the parity information is written to all of the drives in the controllers rather than being concentrated on a dedicated parity disk. If one drive in the system fails, the parity information can be used to reconstruct the data from that drive. All drives in the array system can be used for seek operations at the same time, greatly increasing the performance of the RAID system. This relieves the write bottleneck that characterizes RAID 4, and is the primary reason that RAID 5 is more often implemented in RAID arrays.

the array. The parity data created during the exclusive-or is then written to the last drive in the array. If a single drive fails, data is still available by computing the exclusive-or of the contents corresponding strips of the surviving member disk. RAID 3 is best for applications that require very fast data- transfer rates or long data blocks.

INTRODUCTION

1.7.6 RAID 6

RAID 6 provides the highest reliability, but is not yet widely used. It is similar to RAID 5, but it performs two different parity computations or the same computation on overlapping subsets of the data. RAID 6 can offer fault tolerance greater than RAID 1 or RAID 5 but only consumes the capacity of 2 disk drives for distributed parity data. RAID 6 is an extension of RAID 5 but uses a second, independent distributed parity scheme. Data is striped on a block level across a set of drives, and then a second set of parity is calculated and written across all of the drives.

Summary of RAID Levels

The SATA RAID controller supports RAID Levels 0, 1, 1E, 3, 5 and 6. The table below provides a summary of RAID levels.

Features and Performance

RAID

Level

Description Min.

Drives

Data

Reliability

Data

Transfer

Rate

I/O Request

Rates

0 Also known as stripping

Data distributed across multiple drives in the array. There is no data protection.

1 No data

Protection

Very High Very High for

Both Reads and Writes

1 Also known as mirroring

All data replicated on N separated disks. N is almost always 2. This is a high availability solution, but due to the 100% duplication, it is also a costly solution. Half of drive capacity in array devoted to mirroring.

2 Lower

than RAID 6; Higher than RAID 3, 5

Reads are

higher than a single disk;

Writes similar to a single disk

Reads are twice as fast as a single disk;

Write are similar to a single disk.

INTRODUCTION

1E Also known Block-Interleaved Parity.

Data and parity information is subdivided and distributed across all disks. Parity must be the equal to the smallest disk capacity in the array. Parity information normally stored on a dedicated parity disk.

3 Lower

than RAID 6; Higher than RAID 3, 5

Transfer rates more similar

to RAID

1 than RAID 0

Reads are twice as fast as a single disk;

Writes are similar to a single disk.

3 Also known Bit-Interleaved Parity.

Data and parity information is subdivided and distributed across all disks. Parity data consumes the capacity of 1 disk drive. Parity information normally stored on a dedicated parity disk.

3 Lower

than RAID 1, 1E, 6;

Higher than a single drive

Reads are

similar to RAID 0;

Writes are slower than a single disk

Reads are close to being twice as fast as a single disk;

Writes are similar to a single disk.

5 Also known Block-Interleaved Distributed

Parity. Data and parity information is subdivided and distributed across all disk. Parity data consumes the capacity of 2 disk drive.

3 Lower

than RAID 1, 1E, 6;

Higher than a single drive

Reads are

similar to RAID 0;

Writes are slower than a single disk

Reads are similar to RAID 0;

Writes are slower than a single disk.

6 RAID 6 provides the highest reliability. Sim-

ilar to RAID 5, but does two different parity computations. RAID 6 offers fault tolerance greater that RAID 1 or RAID 5. Parity data consumes the capacity of 2 disk drives.

4 highest

reliability

Reads are

similar to RAID 0;

Writes are slower than a single disk

Reads are similar to RAID 0;

Writes are slower than a single disk.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

2. Hardware Installation

This section describes the procedures for installing the ARC-11xx/12xx series controllers.

2.1 Before Your begin Installation

Thanks for purchasing the SATA RAID Controller as your RAID data storage and management system. This user guide gives simple step-by-step instructions for installing and conguring the SATA RAID Controller. To ensure personal safety and to protect your equipment and data, carefully read the information following the package content list before you begin installing.

Package Contents

If your package is missing any of the items listed below, contact your local dealer before proceeding with installation (disk drives and disk mounting brackets are not included):

ARC-11xx Series SATA RAID Controller

• 1 x PCI-X SATA RAID Controller in an ESD-protective bag

• 4/8/12/16/24 x SATA interface cables (one per port)

• 1 x Installation CD

• 1 x User Manual

ARC-11xxML/12xxML Series SATA RAID Controller

• 1 x PCI-X SATA RAID Controller in an ESD-protective bag

• 1 x Installation CD

• 1 x User Manual

ARC-12xx Series SATA RAID Controller

• 1 x PCI-Express SATA RAID Controller in an ESD-protective bag

• 4/8/12/16/24 x SATA interface cables (one per port)

• 1 x Installation CD

• 1 x User Manual

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

2.2 Board Layout

Follow the instructions below to install a PCI RAID Card into your PC / Server.

Figure 2-1, ARC-1110/1120 (4/8-port PCI-X SATA RAID Controller)

Figure 2-2, ARC-1210/1220 (4/8-port PCI-Express SATA RAID Controller)

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-3, ARC-1110ML/1120ML (4/8-port PCI-X SATA RAID Controller)

Figure 2-4, ARC-1130/1160 (12/16-port PCI-X SATA RAID Controller)

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-5, ARC-1130ML/1160ML (12/16-port PCI-X SATA RAID Controller)

Figure 2-6, ARC-1230/1260 (12/16-port PCI-EXpress SATA RAID Controller)

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-7, ARC-1170 (24-port PCI-X SATA RAID Controller)

Figure 2-8, ARC-1280 (24-port PCI-Express SATA RAID Controller)

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Tools Required

An ESD grounding strap or mat is required. Also required are standard hand tools to open your system’s case.

System Requirement

The controller can be installed in a universal PCI slot and requires a motherboard that: ARC-11xx series required one of the following:

• Complies with the PCI Revision 2.3 32/64-bit 33/66MHz, 3.3V.

• Complies with the PCI-X 32/64-bit 66/100/133 MHz, 3.3V. ARC-12xx series requires:

• Complies with the PCI-Express X8 The SATA RAID controller may be connected to up to 4, 8, 12, 16, or 24 SATA ll hard drives using the supplied cables. Optional cables are required to connect any drive activity LEDs and fault LEDs on the enclosure to the PCI SATA RAID controller.

Installation Tools

The following items may be needed to assist with installing the

Figure 2-9, ARC-1230ML/1260ML/1280ML (12/16/24-port PCI-Express SATA RAID Controller)

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

SATA RAID adapter into an available PCI expansion slot.

• Small screwdriver

• Host system hardware manuals and manuals for the disk or enclosure being installed.

Personal Safety Information

To ensure personal safety as well as the safety of the equipment:

• Always wear a grounding strap or work on an ESD-protective mat.

• Before opening the system cabinet, turn off power switches and unplug the power cords. Do not reconnect the power cords until you have replaced the covers.

Warning:

High voltages may be found inside computer equipment. Before installing any of the hardware in this package or removing the protective covers of any computer equipment, turn off power switches and disconnect power cords. Do not reconnect the power cords until you have replaced the covers.

Electrostatic Discharge

Static electricity can cause serious damage to the electronic components on this SATA RAID adapter. To avoid damage caused by electrostatic discharge, observe the following precautions:

• Don’t remove the SATA RAID controller from its anti-static packaging until you are ready to install it into a computer case.

• Handle the SATA RAID Controller by its edges or by the metal mounting brackets at its each end.

• Before you handle the SATA RAID controller in any way, touch a grounded, anti-static surface, such as an unpainted portion of the system chassis, for a few seconds to discharge any built-up static electricity.

2.3 Installation

Follow the instructions below to install a PCI RAID Card into your PC / Server.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Step 1. Unpack

Unpack and remove the PCI RAID card from the package. Inspect it carefully, if anything is missing or damaged, contact your local dealer.

Step 2. Power PC/Server Off

Turn off computer and remove the AC power cord. Remove the system’s cover. See the computer system documentation for instruction.

Step 3. Install the PCI RAID Cards

To install the SATA RAID adapter, remove the mounting screw and existing bracket from the rear panel behind the selected PCI slot. Align the gold-ngered edge on the card with the selected PCI expansion slot. Press down gently but rmly to ensure that the card is properly seated in the slot, as shown in Figure 2-10. Next, screw the bracket into the computer chassis. 11xx cards can t in both PCI (32-bit/3.3V) and PCI-X slots. It can get the best performance installed in a 64-bit/133MHz PCI-X slot. 12xx cards require a PCIExpress 8X slot.

Figure 2-10, Insert PCI RAID Card into a PCI slot

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Step 5 Connect the SATA cable

Model ARC-11XX and ARC-12XX cards have dual-layer SATA internal connectors. If you have not already connected your SATA cables, use the cables included with your kit to connect the controller to the SATA hard drives. The cable connectors are all identical, so it does not matter which end you connect to your controller, SATA hard drive, or cage backplane SATA connector.

Figure 2-12, SATA Cable

Figure 2-11, Mount Cages & Drives

Step 4. Mount the Cages or Drives

Remove the front bezel from the computer chassis and install the Cages or SATA Drives in the computer chassis. Loading drives to the drive tray if cages are installed. Be sure that the power is connected to either the Cage backplane or the individual drives.

Note:

The SATA cable connectors must match your HDD cage. For example: Channel 1 of RAID Card connects to channel 1 of HDD cage, channel 2 of RAID Card connects to channel 2 of HDD cage, and follow this rule.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Step 5-3. Connect the Min SAS 4i to 4*SATA cable

Model ARC-1230ML/1260ML/1280ML have Min SAS 4i (SFF-8087) internal connectors, each of them can support up to four SATA drives. These adapters can be installed in a server RAID enclosure with a standard SATA connector backplane. Min SAS 4i to SATA cables are included in the ARC-1230ML/1260ML/1280ML package. The following diagram shows the picture of MinSAS 4i to 4*SATA cables. Unpack and remove the PCI RAID cards. Inspect it carefully. If anything is missing or damaged, contact your local dealer.

Figure 2-13, Multi-Lance Cable

Step 5-2. Connect the Multi-lance cable

Model ARC-11XXML has multi-lance internal connectors, each of them can support up to four SATA drives. These adapters can be installed in a server RAID enclosure with a Multi-lance connector (SFF-8470) backplane. Multi-lance cables are not included in the ARC-11XXML package. If you have not already connected your Multi-lance cables, use the cables included with your enclosure to connect your controller to the Multi-lance connector backplane. The type of cable will depend on what enclosure you have. The following diagram shows the picture of Multi-lane cable. Unpack and remove the PCI RAID cards. Inspect it carefully. If anything is missing or damaged, contact your local dealer.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-14, Min SAS 4i to 4*SATA

Step 5-4. Connect the Min SAS 4i to Multi-lance cable

Model ARC-1230ML/1260ML/1280ML have Min SAS 4i internal connectors, each of them can support up to four SATA drives. These adapters can be installed in a server RAID enclosure with a Multilance connector (SFF-8470) backplane. Multi-lance cables are not included in the ARC-12XXML package. If you have not already connected your Min SAS 4i to Multilance cables, buy the Min SAS 4i to Multi-lance cables to t your enclosure. And connect your controller to the Multi-lance connector backplane. The type of cable will depend on what enclosure you have. The following diagram shows the picture of Min SAS 4i to Multi-lance cable. Unpack and remove the PCI RAID cards. Inspect it carefully. If anything is missing or damaged, contact your local dealer.

Figure 2-15, Min SAS 4i to Multi-lance

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Step 6 Install the LED cable (optional)

ARC-1XXX Series Fault/Activity Header Intelligent Electronics Schematic

The intelligent LED controller outputs a low-level pulse to determine if status LEDs are attached to pin sets 1 and 2. This allows automatic controller conguration of the LED output. If the logical level is different between the st 2 sets of the HDD LED header (LED attached to Set 1 but not Set 2), the controller will assign the rst HDD LED header as the global indicator connector. Otherwise, each LED output will show only individual drive status.

The SATA RAID controller provides three kinds of LED status connectors.

A: Global indicator connector, which lights when any drive is active. B: Individual LED indicator connector, for each drive channel. C: I2C connector, for SATA proprietary backplane enclosure. D: SGPIO connector for SAS Backplane enclosure

The following diagrams and description describes each type of connector.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Note:

A cable for the global indicator comes with your computer system. Cables for the individual drive LEDs may come with a drive cage, or you may need to purchase them.

Figure 2-16, ARC1110/1120/1210/1220 global LED connection for Computer Case.

Figure 2-17, ARC1130/1160/1230/1260 global LED connection for Computer Case.

A: Global Indicator Connector

If the system will use only a single global activity indicator, attach the LED to the rst two pins of the connector. The following diagrams show the connector and pin locations.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-20, ARC-1230ML/ 1260ML/1280ML global LED connection for Computer Case.

Figure 2-19, ARC-1280 global LED connection for Computer Case.

Figure 2-18, ARC-1170 global LED connection for Computer Case.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

LED Normal Status Problem Indication

Disk Activity When the activity LED is illu-

minated, there is I/O activity on that disk drive. When the LED is dark, there is no activity on that disk drive.

N/A

Fault LED When the fault LED is solid

illuminated, there is no disk present.

When the Red LED is slow blinking (2 times/sec), that disk drive has failed and should be hot-swapped immediately. When the Blue LED is illuminated and Red LED is fast blinking (10 times/sec) there is rebuilding activity on that disk drive.

B: Individual LED indicator connector

Connect the cables for the drive activity LEDs and fault LEDs between the backplane of the cage and the respective connector on the SATA RAID controller. The following describes the fault/activity LED.

Figure 2-21, ARC1110/1120/1210/1220 Individual LED indicators connector, for each channel drive.

Figure 2-22, ARC1130/1160/1230/1260 Individual LED indicators connector, for each channel drive.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-23, ARC-1170 Individual LED indicators connector, for each channel drive.

Figure 2-24, ARC-1280 Individual LED indicators connector, for each channel drive.

Figure 2-25, ARC-1230ML/ 1260ML/1280ML Individual LED indicators connector, for each channel drive.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

C: I2C Connector

You can also connect the I2C interface to a proprietary SATA backplane enclosure. This can reduce the number of activity LED and/or fault LED cables. The I2C interface can also cascade to another SATA backplane enclosure for the additional channel status display.

Figure 2-26, Activity/Fault LED I2C connector connected between SATA RAID Controller & SATA HDD Cage backplane.

Figure 2-27, Activity/Fault LED I2C connector connected between SATA RAID Controller & 4 SATA HDD backplane.

Note:

Ci-Design has supported this feature in its 4-port 12-6336-05A SATA ll backplane.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

PIN Description PIN Description

1 power (+5V) 2 GND

3 LCD Module Interrupt 4 Fault/Activity Interrupt

5 LCD Module Serial Data 6 Fault/Activity clock

7 Fault/Activity Serial Data 8 LCD Module clock

The following is the I2C signal name description for LCD & Fault/Activity LED.

D: SGPIO Connector

The preferred I/O connector for server backplanes is the Min SAS 4i internal serial-attachment connector. This connector has eight signal pins to support four SATA drives and six pins for the SGPIO (Serial General Purpose Input/Output) side-band signals. The SGPIO bus is used for efcient LED management and for sensing drive Locate status. See SFF 8485 for the specication of the SGPIO bus.

The number of drives supported can be increased, by a factor of four, by adding similar backplane to maximum of 24 drives (6 backplanes)

LED Management: The backplane may contain LEDs to indicate drive status. Light from the LEDs could be transmitted to the outside of the server by using light pipes mounted on the SAS drive tray. A small microcontroller on the backplane, connected via the SGPIO bus to a ARC-1230ML/1260ML/1280ML SATA RAID controller, could control the LEDs. Activity: blinking 5 Times/Second Fault: solid illuminated

Drive Locate Circuitry: The locate of a drive may be detected by sensing the voltage level of one of the pre-charge pins before and

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

after a drive is installed. Fault (red) blinking 2 Times/Second.

The following signal denes the SGPIO assignments for the Min SAS 4i connector in ARC-1230ML/1260ML/1280ML.

Step 7. Re-check the SATA HDD LED and Fault LED Cable connections

Be sure that the proper failed drive channel information is displayed by the Fault and HDD Activity LEDs. An improper connection will will tell the user to ‘‘Hot Swap’’ the wrong drive. This can result in removing the wrong disk (one that is functioning properly) from the controller. This can result in failure and loss of system data.

Step 8. Power up the System

Thoroughly check the installation, reinstall the computer cover, and reconnect the power cord cables. Turn on the power switch at the rear of the computer (if equipped) and then press the power button at the front of the host computer.

Step 9. Congure volume set

The adapter congures RAID functionality through the McBIOS RAID manager. Please reference Chapter 3, McBIOS RAID Man- ager, for the detail regarding conguration. The RAID controller can also be congured through the McRAID storage manager software utility after ArcHttp proxy server is installed. For this option, please reference Chapter 6, Web Browser-Based Conguration.

Step 10. Install the controller driver

For a new system:

PIN Description PIN Description

SideBand0 SClock (Clock Signal) SideBand1 SLoad (Last clock of a bit

stream)

SideBand2 Ground SideBand3 Ground

SideBand4 SDataOut (Serial data

output bit stream)

SideBand5 SDataIn (Serial data input bit

stream)

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

• Driver installation usually takes places as part of operating system installation. Please reference the Chapter 4 Diver Installation for the detail installation procedure.

In an existing system:

• Install the controller driver into the existing operating system. Please reference the Chapter 4, Driver Installation, for the detailed installation procedure.

Step 11. Install ArcHttp proxy Server

The SATA RAID controller rmware has embedded the web-browser RAID manager. ArcHttp Proxy driver will enable it. The Browserbased RAID manager provides all of the creation, management, and monitor SATA RAID controller status. Please reference the Chapter 5 for the detail ArcHtt proxy server installation. For SNMP agent function, please reference Appendix C.

Step 12. Determining the Boot sequences

The SATA RAID controller is a bootable controller. If your system already contains a bootable device with an installed operating system, you can set up your system to boot a second operating system from the new controller. To add a second bootable controller, you may need to enter Setup and change the device boot sequence so that the SATA RAID controller heads the list. If the system BIOS Setup does not allow this change, your system may not be congurable to allow the SATA RAID controller to act as a second boot device.

Summary of the installation

The ow chart below describes the installation procedures for SATA

Note:

Look for newest release versions of drivers for Linux and FreeBSD:

• See the Driver Library at http://www.areca.com.tw

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Conguration Utility Operating System supported

McBIOS RAID Manager OS-Independent

McRAID Storage Manager (Via Archttp proxy server)

Windows 2000/XP/2003, Linux, FreeBSD, NetWare, Unixware, Solaris and Mac

SAP Monitor (Single Admin portal to scan for multiple RAID units in the network, Via ArcHttp Proxy Server)

Windows 2000/XP/2003

SNMP Manager Console Integration Windows 2000/XP/2003, Linux

FreeBSD

RAID controller. These procedures included hardware installation, the creation and conguration of a RAID volume through the McBIOS, OS installation and installation of SATA RAID controller software. The software components congure and monitor the SATA RAID controller via ArcHttp Proxy Server.

McRAID Storage Manager

Before launching the Firmware-embedded web server, McRAID Storage manager, you need rst to install the ArcHttp Proxy Server on your server system. If you need additional information about installation and start-up of this function, see the McRAID Storage Manager section in Chapter 6.

SNMP Manager Console Integration

• Out of Band-Using Ethernet port (12/16/24-port Adapter)

Before launching the Firmware-embedded SNMP agent in the

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

sever, you need rst to enable the Fireware-embedded SNMP agent function and install the SNMP extension agent software on your server system. If you need additional information about installation and start-up this function, see the section 6.9.4 SNMP Conguration (12/16/24-port)

• In-Band-Using PCI-X/PCIe Bus (4/8/12/16/24-port Adapter)

Before launching the SNMP agent in the sever, you need rst to enable the reware-embedded SNMP community conguration and install Areca SNMP extension agent in your server system. If you need additional information about installation and start-up the function, see the SNMP operation & Installation section in the Appendix C

Single Admin Portal (SAP) Monitor

This utility can scan for multiple RAID units on the network and monitor the controller set status. It also includes a disk stress test utility to identify marginal spec disks before the RAID unit is put into a production environment.

For additional information, see the Utility manual in the packaged CD-ROM or download it from the web site http://www.areca.

com.tw.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3. McBIOS RAID Manager

The system mainboard BIOS automatically congures the following SATA RAID controller parameters at power-up:

• I/O Port Address

• Interrupt channel (IRQ)

• Adapter ROM Base Address

Use McBIOS to further congure the SATA RAID adapter to suit your server hardware and operating system.

3.1 Starting the McBIOS RAID Manager

This section explains how to use the McBIOS Setup Utility to congure your RAID system. The BIOS Setup Utility is designed to be user-friendly. It is a menu-driven program, residing in the rmware, which allows you to scroll through various menus and submenus and select among the predetermined conguration options.

When starting a system with an SATA RAID controller installed, it will display the following message on the monitor during the startup sequence (after the system bios startup screen but before the operating system boots):

The McBIOS conguration manager message remains on your screen for about nine seconds, giving you time to start the congure menu by pressing Tab or F6. If you do not wish to enter conguration menu, press <ESC> to skip conguration immediately. When activated, the McBIOS window appears showing a selection dialog box listing the SATA RAID controllers that are installed in the system. The legend at the bottom of the screen shows you what keys are enabled for the windows.

I/O-Port=F3000000h, IRQ=11, BIOS ROM mapped at D000:0h No BIOS disk Found, RAID Controller BIOS not installed! Press <Tab/F6> to enter SETUP menu. 9 second(s) left <ESC to Skip>..

ARC-1xxx RAID Ctrl - DRAM: 128(MB) / #Channels: 8

BIOS: V1.00 / Date: 2004-5-13 - F/W: V1.31 / Date: 2004-5-31

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller Setup <V1.0, 2004/05/20>

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ** Select & Press F10 to Reboot**

Select An Adapter To Congure

( 3/14/ 0)I/O=DD200000h, IRQ = 9

Use the Up and Down arrow keys to select the adapter you want to congure. While the desired adapter is highlighted, press the <Enter> key to enter the Main Menu of the McBIOS Conguration Utility.

3.2 McBIOS Conguration manager

The McBIOS conguration utility is rmware-based and is used to congure raid sets and volume sets. Because the utility resides in the SATA RAID controller rmware, operation is independent of any operating systems on your computer. This utility can be used to:

• Create raid sets,

• Expand raid sets,

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Verify Password

Note:

T h e m a n u f a c t u r e default password is se t t o 00 0 0; thi s p a s s w o r d c a n b e modied by selecting

Change Password in the Raid System Function section.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.4 Designating Drives as Hot Spares

Any unused disk drive that is not part of a RAID Set can be designated as a Hot Spare. The Quick Volume/Raid Setup conguration will add the spare disk drive and automatically display the appropriate raid level from which the user can select. For the Raid Set Function conguration option, the user can use the Create Hot Spare option to dene the hot spare disk drive.

When a Hot Spare disk drive is being created using the Create Hot Spare option (in the Raid Set Function), all unused physical devices connected to the current controller appear: Choose the target disk by selecting the appropriate check box. Press the Enter key to select a disk drive, and press Yes in the Create Hot Spare to designate it as a hot spare.

• Add physical drives,

• Dene volume sets,

• Modify volume sets,

• Modify RAID level/stripe size,

• Dene pass-through disk drives,

• Modify system functions, and

• Designate drives as hot spares.

3.3 Conguring Raid Sets and Volume Sets

You can congure RAID sets and volume sets with McBIOS RAID manager automatically using Quick Volume/Raid Setup or manually using Raid Set/Volume Set Function. Each conguration method requires a different level of user input. The general ow of operations for RAID Set and Volume Set conguration is:

Step Action

1 Designate hot spares/pass-through drives (optional).

2 Choose a conguration method.

3 Create RAID sets using the available physical drives.

4 Dene Volume Sets using the space available in the RAID Set.

5 Initialize the Volume Sets and use Volume Sets (as logical drives) in the

host OS.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.5 Using Quick Volume /Raid Setup Con-

guration

Quick Volume / Raid Setup Conguration collects all available drives and includes them in a RAID Set. The RAID Set you create is associated with exactly one Volume Set. You will only be able to modify the default RAID level, the stripe size, and the capacity of the new Volume Set. Designating drives as Hot Spares is also possible in the raid level selection option. The Volume Set default settings will be:

Parameter Setting

Volume Name Volume Set # 00

SCSI Channel/SCSI ID/SCSI LUN 0/0/0

Cache Mode Write Back

Tag Queuing Yes

The default setting values can be changed after conguration is complete. Follow the steps below to create arrays using the RAID Set / Volume Set method:

Step Action

1 Choose Quick Volume /Raid Setup from the main menu. The available

RAID levels with hot spare for the current volume set drive are displayed.

2 It is recommend that you drives of the same capacity in a specic array.

If you use drives with different capacities in an array, all drives in the raid set will be set to the capacity of the smallest drive in the raid set. The numbers of physical drives in a specic array determines which RAID levels that can be implemented in the array. RAID 0 requires 1 or more physical drives. RAID 1 requires at least 2 physical drives. RAID 1+Spare requires at least 3 physical drives. RAID (1+0) requires at least 4 physical drives. RAID 3 requires at least 3 physical drives. RAID 5 requires at least 3 physical drives. RAID 3 +Spare requires at least 4 physical drives. RAID 5 + Spare requires at least 4 physical drives. RAID 6 requires at least 4 physical drives. RAID 6 + Spare requires at least 5 physical drives. Highlight the desired RAID level for the volume set and press the Enter key to conrm.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.6 Using RAID Set/Volume Set Function Method

In Raid Set Function, you can use the Create Raid Set Function to generate a new RAID Set. In Volume Set Function, you can use the Create Volume Set function to generate an associated volume set and and conguration parameters.

If the current controller has unused physical devices connected, you can choose the Create Hot Spare option in the Raid Set Function to dene a global hot spare. Select this method to congure new raid sets and volume sets. The Raid Set/Volume Set Function conguration option allows you to associate volume sets with partial and full RAID Sets.

3 The capacity for the current volume set is entered after highlighting the

desired RAID level and pressing the Enter key. The capacity for the current volume set is displayed. Use the UP and

DOWN arrow keys to set the capacity of the volume set and press the Enter key to conrm. The available stripe sizes for the current volume

set are then displayed.

4 Use the UP and DOWN arrow keys to select the current volume set

stripe size and press the Enter key to conrm. This parameter species the size of the stripes written to each disk in a RAID 0, 1, 5 or 6 Volume Set. You can set the stripe size to 4 KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB. A larger stripe size provides better read performance, especially when the computer preforms mostly sequential reads. However, if the computer preforms random read requests more often, choose a smaller stripe size.

5 When you are nished dening the volume set, press the Enter key to

conrm the Quick Volume And Raid Set Setup function.

6 Foreground (Fast Completion) Press Enter key to dene fast initialization

or Selected the Background (Instant Available). In the background Initialization, the initialization proceeds as a background task, the volume set is fully accessible for system reads and writes. The operating system can instantly access to the newly created arrays without requiring a reboot and waiting the initialization complete. In Fast Initialization, the initialization proceeds must be completed before the volume set ready for system accesses.

7 Initialize the volume set you have just congured.

8 If you need to add additional volume set, using main menu Create Vol-

ume Set function.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Step Action

1 To setup the Hot Spare (option), choose RAID Set Function from the

main menu. Select the Create Hot Spare and press the Enter key to dene the Hot Spare.

2 Choose RAID Set Function from the main menu. Select Create RAID Set

and press the Enter key.

3 The “Select a Drive For Raid Set” window is displayed showing the SATA

drives connected to the SATA RAID controller.

4 Press the UP and DOWN arrow keys to select specic physical drives.

Press the Enter key to associate the selected physical drive with the current RAID Set. It is recommend that you drives of the same capacity in a specic array. If you use drives with different capacities in an array, all drives in the raid set will be set to the capacity of the smallest drive in the raid set. The numbers of physical drives in a specic array determines which RAID levels that can be implemented in the array. RAID 0 requires 1 or more physical drives. RAID 1 requires at least 2 physical drives. RAID (1+0) requires at least 4 physical drives. RAID 3 requires at least 3 physical drives. RAID 5 requires at least 3 physical drives. RAID 6 requires at least 4 physical drives.

5 After adding the desired physical drives to the current RAID Set, press

Yes to conrm the “Create Raid Set” function.

6 An “Edit The Raid Set Name” dialog box appears. Enter 1 to 15 alphanu-

meric characters to dene a unique identier for this new raid set. The default raid set name will always appear as Raid Set. #. Press Enter to nish the name editing.

7 Press the Enter key when you are nished creating the current RAID

Set. To continue dening another RAID set, repeat step 3. To begin volume set conguration, go to step 8.

8 Choose the Volume Set Function from the Main menu. Select Create

Volume Set and press the Enter key.

9 Choose a RAID set from the “Create Volume From Raid Set” window.

Press the Enter key to conrm the selection.

10 Choosing Foreground (Fast Completion) or Background (Instant Avail-

ability) initiation: during Background Initialization, the initialization proceeds as a background task and the volume set is fully accessible for system reads and writes. The operating system can instantly access the newly created arrays without requiring a reboot and waiting for initialization complete. In Fast Initialization, the initialization must be completed before the volume set is ready for system accesses. In Fast Initialization, initiation is completed more quickly but volume access by the operating system is delayed.

11 If space remains in the raid set, the next volume set can be congured.

Repeat steps 8 to 10 to congure another volume set.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7 Main Menu

The main menu shows all functions that are available for executing actions, which is accomplished by clicking on the appropriate link.

Note:

A user can use this method to examine the existing conguration. The “modify volume set conguration” method provides the same functions as the “create volume set conguration” method. In the volume set function, you can use “modify volume set” to change all volume set parameters except for capacity (size).

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Verify Password

Note:

The manufacture default password is set to 0000; this password can be modied by selecting

Change Password in the Raid System Function section.

Option Description

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Create a default conguration based on the number

of physical disk installed

Raid Set Function Create a customized raid set

Volume Set Function Create a customized volume set

Physical Drives View individual disk information

Raid System Function Setup the RAID system conguration

Ethernet Conguration Ethernet LAN setting (ARC-1x30/1x60/1x70 only)

View System Events Record all system events in the buffer

Clear Event Buffer Clear all information in the event buffer

Hardware Monitor Show the hardware system environment status

System Information View the controller system information

BIOS CONFIGURATION

This password option allows user to set or clear the raid controller’s password protection feature. Once the password has been set, the user can only monitor and congure the raid controller by providing the correct password. The password is used to protect the internal RAID controller from unauthorized entry. The controller will prompt for the password only when entering the Main menu from the initial screen. The RAID controller will automatically return to the initial screen when it does not receive any command in twenty seconds.

3.7.1 Quick Volume/RAID Setup

“Quick Volume/RAID Setup” is the fastest way to prepare a RAID Set and Volume Set. It requires only a few keystrokes to complete. Although disk drives of different capacity may be used in the RAID Set, it will use the capacity of the smallest disk drive as the capacity of all disk drives in the RAID Set. The “Quick Volume/RAID Setup” option creates a RAID set with the following properties:

1. All of the physical drives are contained in one RAID set.

2. The RAID level, hot spare, capacity, and stripe size options are selected during the conguration process.

3. When a single volume set is created, it can consume all or a portion of the available disk capacity in this RAID set.

4. If you need to add an additional volume set, use the main menu “Create Volume Set” function.

The total number of physical drives in a specic RAID Set determine the RAID levels that can be implemented within the RAID Set. Select Quick Volume/RAID Setup from the main menu;

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Total 4 Drives

Raid 0 Raid 1 + 0 Raid 1 + 0 + Spare Raid 3 Raid 5 Raid 3 + Spare Raid 5 + Spare

Raid 6

BIOS CONFIGURATION

all possible RAID level will be displayed on the screen.

If volume capacity will exceed 2TB, controller will show the Greater 2 TB volume Support sub-menu.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Total 4 Drives

Raid 0 Raid 1 + 0 Raid 1 + 0 + Spare Raid 3 Raid 5 Raid 3 + Spare Raid 5 + Spare

Raid 6

Greater Two TB Volume Support

No Use 64bit LBA For Windows

For Windows

• No It keeps the volume size with max. 2TB limitation.

• LBA 64

This option use 16 bytes CDB instead of 10 bytes. The maximum volume capacity up to 512TB.

This option works on different OS which supports 16 bytes CDB. such as : Windows 2003 with SP1 Linux kernel 2.6.x or latter

• For Windows

It change the sector size from default 512 Bytes to 4k Bytes. the maximum volume capacity up to 16TB.

This option works under Windows platform only. And it CAN NOT be converted to Dynamic Disk, because 4k sector size is not a standard format.

For more details please download PDF le from ftp://ftp.areca.

com.tw/RaidCards/Documents/Manual_Spec/Over2TB_

050721.zip

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Stripe size This parameter sets the size of the stripe written to each disk in a RAID 0, 1, 5, or 6 logical drive. You can set the stripe size to 4 KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB. A larger stripe size produces better-read performance, especially if your computer does mostly sequential reads. However, if you

A single volume set is created and consumes all or a portion of the disk capacity available in this raid set. Dene the capacity of volume set in the Available Capacity popup. The default value for the volume set, which is 100% of the available capacity, is displayed in the selected capacity. To enter a value less than the available capacity, type the new value and press the Enter key to accept this value. If the Volume Set uses only part of the RAID Set capacity, you can use the Create Volume Set option in the main menu to dene additional volume sets.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Total 4 Drives

Raid 0 Raid 1 + 0 Raid 1 + 0 + Spare Raid 3 Raid 5 Raid 3 + Spare Raid 5 + Spare

Raid 6

Available Capacity : 160.1GB

Selected Capacity : 160.1GB

Select Strip Size

4K 8K 16K 32K

128K

64K

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Total 4 Drives

Raid 0 Raid 1 + 0 Raid 1 + 0 + Spare Raid 3 Raid 5 Raid 3 + Spare Raid 5 + Spare

Raid 6

Available Capacity : 160.1GB

Selected Capacity : 160.1GB

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.2 Raid Set Function

Manual Conguration gives complete control of the RAID Set setting, but it will take longer to congure than “Quick Volume/Raid Setup” conguration. Select “Raid Set Function” to manually congure the raid set for the rst time or delete existing RAID Sets and recongure the RAID Set.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Total 4 Drives

Raid 0 Raid 1 + 0 Raid 1 + 0 + Spare Raid 3 Raid 5 Raid 3 + Spare Raid 5 + Spare

Raid 6

Available Capacity : 160.1GB

Selected Capacity : 160.1GB

Select Strip Size

4K 8K 16K 32K

128K

64K

Create Vol/Raid Set

Yes

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Create Vol/Raid Set

Yes

Main Menu

Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Total 4 Drives

Raid 0 Raid 1 + 0 Raid 1 + 0 + Spare Raid 3 Raid 5 Raid 3 + Spare Raid 5 + Spare

Raid 6

Available Capacity : 160.1GB

Selected Capacity : 160.1GB

Select Strip Size

4K 8K 16K 32K

128K

64K

Initialization Mode

Background (Instant Available)

Foreground (Faster Completeion)

are sure that your computer performs random reads more often, select a smaller stripe size. Press the Yes key in the Create Vol/Raid Set dialog box, the raid set and volume set will start to initialize it.

Select Foreground (Faster Completion) or Background (Instant Available) for initialization.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid Set Function

3.7.2.1 Create Raid Set

To dene a RAID Set, follow the procedure below:

1. Select “Raid Set Function” from the main menu.

2. Select “Create Raid Set “ from the “Raid Set Function” dialog box.

3. A “Select SATA Drive For Raid Set” window is displayed showing the SATA drives connected to the current controller. Press the UP and DOWN arrow keys to select specic physical drives. Press the Enter key to associate the selected physical drive with the current RAID Set. Repeat this step; the user can add as many disk drives as are available to a single RAID Set.

When nished selecting SATA drives For Raid Set, press the Esc key. A Create Raid Set conrmation screen appears, select the Yes option to conrm it.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid Set Function

Delete Raid Set Expand Raid Set Activate Raid Set Create Hot Spare Delete Hot Spare Raid Set Information

Create Raid Set

Select IDE Drives For Raid Set

[ ]Ch04| 80.0GBST380013AS [ ]Ch05| 80.0GBST380013AS [ ]Ch08| 80.0GBST380013AS

[*]Ch01| 80.0GBST380013AS

BIOS CONFIGURATION

4. An “Edit The Raid Set Name” dialog box appears. Enter 1 to 15 alphanumeric characters to dene a unique identier for the RAID Set. The default RAID Set name will always appear as Raid Set. #.

3.7.2.2 Delete Raid Set

To completely erase and recongure a raid set, you must rst delete it and re-create the raid set. To delete a raid set, select the raid set number that user want to delete in the Select Raid Set to Delete screen. The Delete Raid Set dialog box appears, then press Yes key to delete it. Warning, data on RAID set will be lost if this option is used.

3.7.2.3 Expand Raid Set

Instead of deleting a raid set and recreating it with additional

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid Set Function

Delete Raid Set Expand Raid Set Activate Raid Set Create Hot Spare Delete Hot Spare Raid Set Information

Create Raid Set

Select IDE Drives For Raid Set

[ ]Ch04| 80.0GBST380013AS [ ]Ch05| 80.0GBST380013AS [ ]Ch08| 80.0GBST380013AS

[*]Ch01| 80.0GBST380013AS

Edit The Raid Set Name

aid Set # 00

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid Set Function

Create Raid Set

Expand Raid Set Activate Raid Set Create Hot Spare Delete Hot Spare Raid Set Information

Delete Raid Set

Select Raid Set To Delete

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Are you Sure?

Yes

BIOS CONFIGURATION

disk drives, the Expand Raid Set function allows the users to add disk drives to the raid set that have already been created. To expand a raid set: Select the Expand Raid Set option. If there is an available disk, then the Select SATA Drives For Raid Set Expansion screen appears. Select the target Raid Set by clicking on the appropriate radio button. Select the target disk by clicking on the appropriate check box. Press the Yes key to start expansion of the raid set. The new additional capacity can be utilized by one or more volume sets. Follow the instruction presented in the Volume Set Function to modify the volume sets; operation system specic utilities may be required to expand operating system partitions.

Note:

1. Once the Expand Raid Set process has started, user cannot stop it. The process must be completed.

2. If a disk drive fails during raid set expansion and a hot spare is available, an auto rebuild operation will occur after the raid set expansion completes.

• Migrating

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Expand Raid Set

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid Set Function

Create Raid Set Delete Raid Set Expand Raid Set Activate Raid Set Create Hot Spare Delete Hot Spare Raid Set Information

Exp

Select Drives For Raid Set Expansion

[ ]Ch08| 80.0GBST380013AS

[*]Ch05| 80.0GBST380013AS

Are you Sure?

Yes

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Migration occurs when a disk is added to a Raid Set. Migration status is displayed in the raid status area of the Raid Set information screen when a disk is being added to a raid set. Migrating status is also displayed in the associated volume status area of the Volume Set Information when a disk is added to a raid set.

3.7.2.4 Activate Incomplete Raid Set

The following screen is shows Raid Set Information after one of its disk drive was removed in the power off state.

When one of the disk drives is removed in power off state, the raid set state will change to Incomplete State. If a user wants to continue to work while the SATA RAID controller is powered on, the user can use the Activate Raid Set option to active the raid set. After user selects this function, the Raid State will change to Degraded Mode.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid Set Function

Create Raid Set Delete Raid Set Expand Raid Set Activate Raid Set Create Hot Spare Delete Hot Spare

Raid Set Information

The Raid Set Information

Raid Set Name : Raid Set # 00 Member Disks : 4 Raid State : Migrating Total Capacity : 160.1GB Free Capacity : 144.1GB Min Member Disk Size : 40.0GB Member Disk Channels : 1234

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid Set Function

Create Raid Set Delete Raid Set Expand Raid Set Activate Raid Set Create Hot Spare Delete Hot Spare

Raid Set Information

Active Raid Set

The Raid Set Information

Raid Set Name : Raid Set # 00 Member Disks : 4 Raid State : Migrating Total Capacity : 160.1GB Free Capacity : 144.1GB Min Member Disk Size : 40.0GB Member Disk Channels : 1234

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.2.5 Create Hot Spare

When you choose the Create Hot Spare option in the Raid Set Function, all unused physical devices connected to the current controller will result in the following: Select the target disk by clicking on the appropriate check box. Press the Enter key to select a disk drive and press Yes in the Create Hot Spare to designate it as a hot spare. The create Hot Spare option gives you the ability to dene a global hot spare.

3.7.2.6 Delete Hot Spare

Select the target Hot Spare disk to delete by clicking on the appropriate check box. Press the Enter keys to select a disk drive, and press Yes in the ‘Delete Hot Spare’ window to delete the hot spare.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid Set Function

Create Raid Set Delete Raid Set Expand Raid Set Activate Raid Set Create Hot Spare Delete Hot Spare Raid Set Information

Create Hot Spare

Select Drives For HotSpare, Max 3 HotSpare Supported

[ ]Ch08| 80.0GBST380013AS

[*]Ch05| 80.0GBST380013AS

Are you Sure?

Yes

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Delete Raid Set

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid Set Function

Create Raid Set Delete Raid Set Expand Raid Set Activate Raid Set Create Hot Spare Delete Hot Spare Raid Set Information

Delete Hot Spare

Select The HotSpare Device To be Deleted

[ ]Ch08| 80.0GBST380013AS

[*]Ch05| 80.0GBST380013AS

Are you Sure?

Yes

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.2.7 Raid Set Information

To display Raid Set information, move the cursor bar to the desired Raid Set number, then press the Enter key. The Raid Set Information will display. You can only view information for the Raid Set in this screen.

3.7.3 Volume Set Function

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set Modify Volume Set Check Volume Set StopVolume Check Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

A Volume Set is seen by the host system as a single logical device; it is organized in a RAID level within the controller utilizing one or more physical disks. RAID level refers to the level of data performance and protection of a Volume Set. A Volume Set can consume all of the capacity or a portion of the available disk capacity of a Raid Set. Multiple Volume Sets can exist on a Raid Set. If multiple Volume Sets reside on a specied Raid Set, all

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid Set Function

Create Raid Set Delete Raid Set Expand Raid Set Activate Raid Set Create Hot Spare Delete Hot Spare

Raid Set Information

The Raid Set Information

Raid Set Name : Raid Set # 00 Member Disks : 4 Raid State : Normal Total Capacity : 320.1GB Free Capacity : 320.1GB Min Member Disk Size : 80.0GB Member Disk Channels : 1458

BIOS CONFIGURATION

volume sets will reside on all physical disks in the Raid Set. Thus each Volume Set on the Raid Set will have its data spread evenly across all the disks in the Raid Set rather than one volume set using some of the available disks and another volume set using other disks.

3.7.3.1 Create Volume Set

1. Volume sets of different RAID levels may coexist on the same raid set.

2. Up to 16 volume sets in a raid set can be created by the SATA RAID controller.

3. The maximum addressable size of a single volume set is not limited to 2 TB as with other cards that support only 32-bit mode. To create a volume set, follow the following steps:

1. Select the Volume Set Function from the Main menu.

2. Choose the Create Volume Set from Volume Set Functions dialog box screen.

3. The Create Volume From Raid Set dialog box appears. This screen displays the existing arranged raid sets. Select the raid set number and press the Enter key. The Volume Creation dialogue is displayed in the screen.

4. A window with a summary of the current volume set’s settings. The “Volume Creation” option allows user to select the Volume name, capacity, RAID level, strip size, Disk Info, Cache mode and tag queuing. The user can modify the default values in this screen; the modication procedures are in section

3.5.3.3.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set Modify Volume Set Check Volume Set StopVolume Check Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

BIOS CONFIGURATION

5. After completing the modication of the volume set, press the Esc key to conrm it. An Initialization screen is presented.

• Select Foreground (Faster Completion) for Faster Initialization of the selected volume set.

• Select Background (Instant Available) for Normal Initialization of the selected volume set.

6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 to create additional volume sets.

7. The initialization percentage of volume set will be displayed at the button line.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set Modify Volume Set Check Volume Set StopVolume Check Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Volume Creation

Raid Level : 5 Capacity : 160.1GB Stripe Size : 64K SCSI Channel : 0 SCSI ID : 0 SCSI LUN : 0 Cache Mode : Write Back Tag Queuing : Enabled

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set Modify Volume Set Check Volume Set StopVolume Check Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Volume Creation

Raid Level : 5 Capacity : 160.1GB Stripe Size : 64K SCSI Channel : 0 SCSI ID : 0 SCSI LUN : 0 Cache Mode : Write Back Tag Queuing : Enabled

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00

Initialization Mode

Background (Instant Available)

Foreground (Faster Completion)

BIOS CONFIGURATION

The default volume name will always appear as Volume Set #. You can rename the volume set providing it does not exceed the 15 characters limit.

• Raid Level

• Volume Name

Set the RAID level for the Volume Set. Highlight Raid Level and press <Enter>. The available RAID levels for the current Volume Set are displayed. Select a RAID level and press the Enter key to conrm.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set Modify Volume Set Check Volume Set StopVolume Check Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Volume Creation

Raid Level : 5 Capacity : 160.1GB Stripe Size : 64K SCSI Channel : 0 SCSI ID : 0 SCSI LUN : 0 Cache Mode : Write Back Tag Queuing : Enabled

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00

Edit The Volume Name

olume Set # 00

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set Modify Volume Set Check Volume Set StopVolume Check Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Volume Creation

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00 Raid Level : 5 Capacity : 160.1GB Stripe Size : 64K SCSI Channel : 0 SCSI ID : 0 SCSI LUN : 0 Cache Mode : Write Back Tag Queuing : Enabled

Raid Level : 5

Select Raid Level

0 + 1

BIOS CONFIGURATION

The maximum available volume size is the default value for the rst setting. Enter the appropriate volume size to t your application. The capacity value can be increased or decreased by the UP and DOWN arrow keys. The capacity of each volume set must be less than or equal to the total capacity of the raid set on which it resides.

If volume capacity will exceed 2TB, controller will show the Greater 2 TB volume Support sub-menu.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set Modify Volume Set Check Volume Set StopVolume Check Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Volume Creation

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00 Raid Level : 5 Capacity : 160.1GB Stripe Size : 64K SCSI Channel : 0 SCSI ID : 0 SCSI LUN : 0 Cache Mode : Write Back Tag Queuing : Enabled

Capacity : 160.1GB

Available Capacity : 160.1GB

Selected Capacity : 160.1GB

• Capacity

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Total 4 Drives

Raid 0 Raid 1 + 0 Raid 1 + 0 + Spare Raid 3 Raid 5 Raid 3 + Spare Raid 5 + Spare

Raid 6

Greater Two TB Volume Support

No Use 64bit LBA For Windows

For Windows

BIOS CONFIGURATION

• Strip Size

This parameter sets the size of the segment written to each disk in a RAID 0, 1, 5, or 6 logical drive. You can set the stripe size to 4 KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set Modify Volume Set Check Volume Set StopVolume Check Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Volume Creation

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00 Raid Level : 5 Capacity : 160.1GB Stripe Size : 64K SCSI Channel : 0 SCSI ID : 0 SCSI LUN : 0 Cache Mode : Write Back Tag Queuing : Enabled

Stripe Size : 64K

• No

It keeps the volume size with max. 2TB limitation.

• LBA 64

This option use 16 bytes CDB instead of 10 bytes. The maximum

volume capacity up to 512TB.

This option works on different OS which supports 16 bytes CDB.

such as :

Windows 2003 with SP1

Linux kernel 2.6.x or latter

• For Windows

It change the sector size from default 512 Bytes to 4k Byetes. the

maximum volume capacity up to 16TB.

This option works under Windows platform only. And it CAN NOT

be converted to Dynamic Disk, because 4k sector size is not a

standard format.

For more details please download PDF file from ftp://ftp.

are ca .c om .t w/ Ra id Ca rd s/ Do cu ments/Manual_Spec/

Over2TB_050721.zip

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set Modify Volume Set Check Volume Set StopVolume Check Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Volume Creation

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00 Raid Level : 5 Capacity : 160.1GB Stripe Size : 64K SCSI Channel : 0 SCSI ID : 0 SCSI LUN : 0 Cache Mode : Write Back Tag Queuing : Enabled

SCSI Channel : 0

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set Modify Volume Set Check Volume Set StopVolume Check Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Volume Creation

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00 Raid Level : 5 Capacity : 160.1GB Stripe Size : 64K SCSI Channel : 0 SCSI ID : 0 SCSI LUN : 0 Cache Mode : Write Back Tag Queuing : Enabled

SCSI ID : 0

• SCSI Channel

The SATA RAID controller function simulates a SCSI RAID controller. The host bus represents the SCSI channel. Choose the SCSI Channel. A “Select SCSI Channel” dialog box appears; select the channel number and press the Enter key to conrm it.

• SCSI ID

Each device attached to the SATA card, as well as the card itself, must be assigned a unique SCSI ID number. A SCSI channel can connect up to 15 devices. It is necessar to assign a SCSI ID to each device from a list of available SCSI IDs.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set Modify Volume Set Check Volume Set StopVolume Check Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Volume Creation

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00 Raid Level : 5 Capacity : 160.1GB Stripe Size : 64K SCSI Channel : 0 SCSI ID : 0 SCSI LUN : 0 Cache Mode : Write Back Tag Queuing : Enabled

SCSI LUN : 0

• SCSI LUN

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set Modify Volume Set Check Volume Set StopVolume Check Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Volume Creation

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00 Raid Level : 5 Capacity : 160.1GB Stripe Size : 64K SCSI Channel : 0 SCSI ID : 0 SCSI LUN : 0 Cache Mode : Write Back Tag Queuing : Enabled

Cache Mode : Write Back

Each SCSI ID can support up to 8 LUNs. Most SCSI controllers treat each LUN as if it were a SCSI disk.

• Cache Mode

User can set the cache mode to either “Write-Through Cache” or “Write-Back Cache”.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set Modify Volume Set Check Volume Set StopVolume Check Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Volume Creation

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00 Raid Level : 5 Capacity : 160.1GB Stripe Size : 64K SCSI Channel : 0 SCSI ID : 0 SCSI LUN : 0 Cache Mode : Write Back Tag Queuing : Enabled

Tag Queuing : Enabled

3.7.3.2 Delete Volume Set

To delete Volume set from a Raid Set, move the cursor bar to the Volume Set Functions menu and select the Delete Volume Set item, then press the Enter key. The “Volume Set Functions” menu will show all Raid Set # items. Move the cursor bar to a RAID Set number, then press the Enter key to show all Volume Sets within that Raid Set. Move the cursor to the Volume Set number that is to be deleted and press Enter to delete it.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Create Volume Set

Modify Volume Set Check Volume Set StopVolume Check Display Volume Info.

Delete Volume Set

Delete Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Select Volume To Delete

Volume Set # 00

Delete Volume Set

Yes

• Tag Queuing

This option, when enabled, can enhance overall system performance under multi-tasking operating systems. The Command Tag (Drive Channel) function controls the SCSI command tag queuing support for each drive channel. This function should normally remain enabled. Disable this function only when using older drives that do not support command tag queuing.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.3.3 Modify Volume Set

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set Modify Volume Set Check Volume Set StopVolume Check Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Use this option to modify Volume Set set conguration. To modify Volume Set values from Raid Set system function, move the cursor bar to the “Volume Set Functions” menu and select the “Modify Volume Set” item, then press the Enter key. The “Volume Set Functions” menu will show all Raid Set items. Move the cursor bar to a Raid Set number item, then press the Enter key to show all Volume Set items. Select the Volume Set from the list to be changed, press the Enter key to modify it.

As shown, volume information can be modied at this screen. Choose this option to display the properties of the selected Volume Set; all values can be modied except the capacity.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Create Volume Set Delete Volume Set t Check Volume Set StopVolume Check Display Volume Info.

Modify Volume Set

Modify Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Select Volume To Modify

Volume Set # 00

Volume Modication

Raid Level : 6 Capacity : 160.1GB Stripe Size : 64K SCSI Channel : 0 SCSI ID : 0 SCSI LUN : 0 Cache Mode : Write Back Tag Queuing : Enabled

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Create Volume Set Delete Volume Set Modify Volume Set Check Volume Set StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Display Volume Info in Raid

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Select Volume To Display

Volume Set # 00

The Volume Set Information

Volume Set Name : Volume Set # 00 Raid Set Name : Raid Set # 00 Volume Capacity : 160.1GB Volume State : Migration SCSI CH/Id/Lun : 0/0/0 RAID Level : 6 Stripe Size : 64K Member Disk : 4 Cache Attribute : Write-Back Tag Queuing : Enabled

• Volume Growth

Use this option to expand a raid set when a disk is added to the system. The additional capacity can be used to enlarge the volume set size or to create another volume set. The “modify volume set function” can support the “volume set expansion” function. To expand the volume set capacity from the “raid set system function”, move the cursor bar to the “volume set volume capacity” item and entry the capacity size. Select “Conrm The Operation” and select on the “Submit” button to complete the action. The volume set start to expand.

• Volume Set Migration

Migrating occurs when a volume set is migrating from one RAID level to another, when a Volume set strip size changes, or when a disk is added to a Raid Set. Migration status is displayed in the volume status area of the “Volume Set Information” screen when moving from one RAID level to another, when a Volume set strip size changes, or when a disk is added to a Raid Set.

Note:

When you expand a volume capacity to greater than 2TB . Volume will used LBA64 mode by default, so please make sure of your system support LBA64.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Use this option to verify the correctness of the redundant data in a volume set. For example, in a system with a dedicated parity disk drive, a volume set check entails computing the parity of the data disk drives and comparing those results to the contents of the dedicated parity disk drive. To check Volume Set from Raid Set system function, move the cursor bar to the Volume Set Functions menu and select the Check Volume Set item, then press the Enter key. The Volume Set Functions menu will show all Raid Set number items. Move the cursor bar to an Raid Set number item and then press the Enter key to show all Volume Set items. Select the Volume Set to be checked from the list and press Enter to select it. After completing the selection, the conrmation screen appears, presses Yes to start the check.

3.7.3.5 Stop Volume Set Check

Use this option to stop all of the Check Volume Set operations.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Create Volume Set Delete Volume Set Modify Volume Set

StopVolume Check Display Volume Info.

Check Volume Set

Check Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Select Volume To Check

Volume Set # 00

Check The Volume ?

Yes

3.7.3.4 Check Volume Set

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.3.6 Display Volume Set Info.

To display Volume Set information, move the cursor bar to the desired Volume Set number and then press the Enter key. The Volume Set Information will be shown. You can only view the information of this Volume Set in this screen, not modify it.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Create Volume Set Delete Volume Set Modify Volume Set Check Volume Set StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Volume Set Function

Create Volume Set Delete Volume Set Modify Volume Set Check Volume Set StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Display Volume Info in Raid

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Select Volume To Display

Volume Set # 00

The Volume Set Information

Volume Set Name : Volume Set # 00 Raid Set Name : Raid Set # 00 Volume Capacity : 160.1GB Volume State : Normal SCSI CH/Id/Lun : 0/0/0 RAID Level : 6 Stripe Size : 64K Member Disk : 4 Cache Attribute : Write-Back Tag Queuing : Enabled

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.4 Physical Drives

Choose this option from the Main Menu to select a physical disk and perform the operations listed above.

3.7.4.1 View Drive Information

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Physical Drive Information

Create Pass-Through Disk Modify Pass-Through Disk Delete Pass-Through Disk Identify Selected Drive

View Drive Information

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Physical Drive Information

Create Pass-Through Disk Modify Pass-Through Disk Delete Pass-Through Disk Identify Selected Drive

View Drive Information

Select IDE Drives For Raid Set

Ch01| 80.0GB|RaidSet Member|ST380013AS

Ch01

Model Name : ST380013AS Serial Number : 5JV944ZF Firmware Rev. : 3.18 Disk Capacity : 80.0 GB PIO Mode : Mode 4 Current UDMA : SATA150(6) Supported UDMA : SATA150(6) Device State : RaidSet Member Timeout Count : 0 Media Errors : 0 SMART Read Error Rate : 200 (51) SMART Spinup Time : 173 (21) SMART Reallocation Count : 200 (140) SMART Seek Error Rate : 200 (51) SMART Spinup Retries : 100 (51) SMART Calibration Retries : 100 (51)

BIOS CONFIGURATION

When you choose this option, the physical disks connected to the SATA RAID controller are listed. Move the cursor to the desired drive and press Enter to view drive information.

3.7.4.2 Create Pass-Through Disk

A Pass-Through Disk is not controlled by the SATA RAID controller rmware and thus cannot be a part of a Volume Set. The disk is available directly to the operating system as an individual disk. It is typically used on a system where the operating system is on a disk not controlled by the SATA RAID controller rmware. The SCSI Channel, SCSI ID, SCSI LUN, Cache Mode, and Tag Queuing must be specied to create a pass-through disk.

3.7.4.3 Modify a Pass-Through Disk

Use this option to modify Pass-Through Disk Attributes. To select and modify a Pass-Through Disk from the pool of Pass-Through Disks, move the cursor bar to the Physical Drive Function menu and select the “Modify Pass-Through Drive” option and then press the Enter key. The Physical Drive Function menu will show all Raid Pass-Through Drive number options. Move the cursor bar to the desired item and then press the Enter key to show all Pass-Through Disk Attributes. Select the parameter from the list to be changed and them press the Enter key to modify it.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Physical Drive Information

View Drive Information

Modify Pass-Through Disk Delete Pass-Through Disk Identify Selected Drive

Create Pass-Throught

Select The Drive

Ch04| 80.0GB| Free |ST380013AS

Ch01| 80.0GB| Free |ST380013AS

Pass-Through Disk Attribute

SCSI ID : 0 SCSI LUN : 0 Cache Mode : Write Back Tag Queuing : Enabled

SCSI Channel : 0

Create Pass-Through

Yes

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.4.4 Delete Pass-Through Disk

To delete a Pass-through drive from the Pass-through drive pool, move the cursor bar to the Physical Drive Function menu and select the Delete Pass-Through Drive item, then press the Enter key. The Delete Pass-Through conrmation screen will appear; select Yes to delete it.

3.7.4.5 Identify Selected Drive

To prevent removing the wrong drive, the selected disk HDD LED Indicator will light for physically locating the selected disk when the Identify Selected Device is selected.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Physical Drive Information

View Drive Information Create Pass-Through Disk Modify Pass-Through Disk

Identify Selected Drive

Delete Pass-Through

Select The Drive

Ch01| 80.0GB| Pass Through |ST380013AS

Delete Pass-Through

Yes

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Physical Drive Information

View Drive Information Create Pass-Through Disk Modify Pass-Through Disk Delete Pass-Through Disk

Identify Selected Drive

Select The Drive

Ch01| 80.0GB|RaidSet Member|ST380013AS

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.5 Raid System Function

To set the raid system function, move the cursor bar to the main menu and select the “Raid System Function” item and then press Enter key. The Raid System Function menu will show mul- tiple items. Move the cursor bar to an item, then press Enter key to select the desired function.

3.7.5.1 Mute The Alert Beeper

The Mute The Alert Beeper function item is used to control the SATA RAID controller Beeper. Select yes and press the Enter key in the dialog box to turn the beeper off temporarily. The beeper will still activate on the next event.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid System Function

Alert Beeper Setting Change Password JBOD/RAID Function Background Task Priority Maximum SATA Mode HDD Read Ahead Cache Stagger Power on Empty HDD slot LED HDD SMART Status Polling Controller Fan Detection Disk Write Cache Mode Capacity Truncation

Mute The Alert Beeper

Mute Alert Beeper

Yes

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid System Function

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.5.2 Alert Beeper Setting

The Alert Beeper function item is used to Disabled or Enable the SATA RAID controller alarm tone generator. Select “Disabled” and press the Enter key in the dialog box to turn the beeper off.

3.7.5.3 Change Password

The manufacture default password is set to 0000. The

password option allows user to set or clear the password protection feature. Once the password has been set, the user can monitor and congure the controller only by providing the cor-

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper Alert Beeper Setting Change Password JBOD/RAID Function Background Task Priority Maximum SATA Mode HDD Read Ahead Cache Stagger Power on Empty HDD slot LED HDD SMART Status Polling Controller Fan Detection Disk Write Cache Mode Capacity Truncation

Alert Beeper Setting

Enabled

Disabled

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid System Function

Change Password

Enter New Password

BIOS CONFIGURATION

rect password. This feature is used to protect the internal RAID system from unauthorized access. The controller will check the password only when entering the Main menu from the initial screen. The system will automatically go back to the initial screen if it does not receive any command in 20 seconds. To set or change the password, move the cursor to “Raid System Function” screen, press the “Change Password” item. The “Enter New Password” screen will appear. To disable the password, only press Enter in both the “Enter New Password” and “Re-Enter New Password” column. The existing password will be cleared. No password checking will occur when entering the main menu.

3.7.5.4 JBOD/RAID Function

JBOD is an acronym for “just a Bunch Of Disks”. It represents a volume set that is created by the concatenation of partitions on the disk. The operating system can see all disks when the JBOD option is selected. It is necessary to delete any RAID set(s) on any disk(s) if switching from a RAID to a JBOD conguration.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper Alert Beeper Setting Change Password JBOD/RAID Function Background Task Priority Maximum SATA Mode HDD Read Ahead Cache STagger Power on Empty HDD slot LED HDD SMART Status Polling Controller Fan Detection Disk Write Cache Mode Capacity Truncation

JBOD/RAID Function

JBOD

RAID

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.5.5 Background Task Priority

The “Background Task Priority” is a relative indication of how much time the controller devotes to a rebuild operation. The SATA RAID controller allows the user to choose the rebuild priority (ultralow, low, normal, high) to balance volume set access and rebuild tasks appropriately.

3.7.5.6 Maximum SATA Mode

The Controller can support up to SATA ll, which runs up to 300MB/s, twice as fast as SATA150. NCQ is a command protocol in Serial ATA that can only be implemented on native Serial ATA hard drives. It allows multiple commands to be outstanding within a drive at the same time. Drives that support NCQ have an internal queue where outstanding commands can be dynami-

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid System Function

Background Task Priority

Raid Rebuild Priority

UltraLow(5%)

Medium(50%) High(80%)

Low(20%)

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid System Function

Maximum SATA Mode

SATA150 SATA150+NCQ SATA300 SATA300+NCQ

SATA150+NCQ

BIOS CONFIGURATION

cally rescheduled or re-ordered, along with the necessary tracking mechanisms for outstanding and completed portions of the workload. The RAID Controller allows the user to choose the SATA Mode: SATA150, SATA150+NCQ, SATA300, SATA300+NCQ.

3.7.5.7 HDD Read Ahead Cache

Allow Read Ahead (Default: Enabled)—When Enabled, the drive’ s read ahead cache algorithm is used, providing maximum performance under most circumstances.

3.7.5.8 Stagger Power On

In a PC system with only one or two drives, the power can supply enough power to spin up both drives simultaneously. But in systems with more than two drives, the startup current from spinning up the drives all at once can overload the power supply, causing damage to the power supply, disk drives and other system components. This damage can be avoided by allowing the host to stagger the spin-up of the drives. New SATA drives have support staggered spin-up capabilities to boost reliability. Staggered spin-up is a very useful feature for managing multiple disk drives in a storage subsystem. It gives the host the ability to spin up the disk drives sequentially or in groups, allowing the drives to come ready at the optimum time without straining the system power supply. Staggering drive spin-up in a multiple drive environment also avoids the extra cost of a power supply designed to meet short-term startup power demand as well as steady state conditions.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper Alert Beeper Setting Change Password JBOD/RAID Function Background Task Priority Maximum SATA Mode HDD Read Aead Cache Stagger Power on Empty HDD slot LED HDD SMART Status Polling Controller Fan Detection Disk Write Cache Mode Capacity Truncation

HDD Read Ahead Cache

Enabled Disable Maxtor Disabled

Enabled

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.5.9 Empty HDD slot HDD

From firmware version 1.39 date: 04/01/2006 or later, the

rmware has added the "Empty HDD Slot LED" option to setup the Failed LED light "ON "or "OFF". When each slot has a power LED for the HDD installed identify, user can set this option to "OFF". Choose this option "ON", the failed LED light will ash red light; if no HDD installed.

Areca has supported the xed value staggered power up function in its previous version rmware. But from rmware version

1.39, Areca RAID controller has included the option for customer to select the disk drives sequentially stagger power up value. The values can be selected from 0.4ms to 6ms per step which powers up one drive.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper Alert Beeper Setting Change Password JBOD/RAID Function Background Task Priority Maximum SATA Mode HDD Read Aead Cache STagger Power on Empty HDD slot LED HDD SMART Status Polling Controller Fan Detection Disk Write Cache Mode Capacity Truncation

Stagger Power On

0.4

0.7

1.0

1.5 . .

6.0

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid System Function

Empty HDD slot HDD

Empty HDD slot LED

On OFF

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper Alert Beeper Setting Change Password JBOD/RAID Function Background Task Priority Maximum SATA Mode HDD Read Ahead Cache Stagger Power on HDD SMART Status Polling Controller Fan Detection Disk Write Cache Mode Capacity Truncation

HDD SMART Status Polling

Disabled

Enabled

3.7.5.10 HDD SMART Status Polling

An external RAID enclosure has the hardware monitor in the dedicated backplane that can report HDD temperature status to the controller. However, PCI cards do not use backplanes if the drives are internal to the main server chassis. The type of enclosure cannot report the HDD temperature to the controller. For this reason, HDD SMART Status Polling was added to enable scanning of the HDD temperature function in the version 1.36 date: 2005-05-19 (and later). It is necessary to enable “HDD SMART Status Polling” function before SMART information is accessible. This function is disabled by default. The following screen shot shows how to change the BIOS setting to enable the Polling function.

3.7.5.11 Controller Fan Detection

Included in the product box is a field replaceable passive heatsink to be used only if there is enough airow to adequately cool the passive heat sink. The “Controller Fan Detection” function is available in the version 1.36 date: 2005-05-19 and later for preventing the Buzzer warning. When using the passive heatsink, disable the “Controller Fan Detection” function through this BIOS setting. The following screen shot shows how to change the BIOS setting to disable the beeper function. (This function is not available

in the Web Browser setting.)

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid System Function

Controller Fan Detection

Disabled

Enabled

3.7.5.12 Disk Write Cache Mode

User can set the “Disk Write Cache Mode” to Auto, Enabled, or Disabled. Enabled increases speed, Disabled increases reliability.

3.7.5.13 Capacity Truncation

ARECA RAID controllers use drive truncation so that drives from different vendors are more likely to be usable as spares for one another. Drive truncation slightly decreases the usable capac-

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid System Function

Disk Write Cache Mode

Auto Enabled Disabled

Enabled

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid System Function

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

ity of a drive that is used in redundant units. The controller provides three truncation modes in the system conguration: Multiples Of 10G, Multiples Of 1G, and No Truncation. Multiples Of 10G: If you have 120 GB drives from different vendors; chances are that the capacity varies slightly. For example, one drive might be 123.5 GB, and the other 120 GB. Areca drive Truncation mode Multiples Of 10G uses the same capacity for both of these drives so that one could replace the other.

Multiples Of 1G: If you have 123 GB drives from different vendors; chances are that the capacity varies slightly. For example, one drive might be 123.5 GB, and the other 123.4 GB. Areca drive Truncation mode Multiples Of 1G uses the same capacity for both of these drives so that one could replace the other.

No Truncation: It does not truncate the capacity. Within the subsystem, the SCSI chip acts as a target and 5 SATA ll buses are connected to the drive.

3.7.6 Ethernet Conguration (12/16/24-port)

Use this feature to set the controller Ethernet port conguration. It is not necessary to create reserved disk space on any hard disk for the Ethernet port and HTTP service to function; these functions are built into the controller rmware.

Raid System Function

Capacity Truncation

Truncate Disk Capacity

To Multiples of 10G To Multiples of 1G Disabled

To Multiples of 1G

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Ethernet Conguration

3.7.6.1 DHCP Function

DHCP (Dynamic Host Conguration Protocol) allows network administrators centrally manage and automate the assignment of IP (Internet Protocol) addresses on a computer network. When using the TCP/IP protocol (Internet protocol), it is necessary for a computer to have a unique IP address in order to communicate to other computer systems. Without DHCP, the IP address must be entered manually at each computer system. DHCP lets a network administrator supervise and distribute IP addresses from a central point. The purpose of DHCP is to provide the automatic (dynamic) allocation of IP client congurations for a specic time period (called a lease period) and to minimize the

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Ethernet Conguration

DHCP Function : Enable Local IP Address : 192.168.001.100 Ethernet Address : 00.04.D9.7F.FF.FF

DHCP Function : Enable

Select DHCP Setting

Enabled

Disabled

BIOS CONFIGURATION

work necessary to administer a large IP network. To manually congure the IP address of the controller, move the cursor bar to the Main menu “Ethernet Conguration Function” item and then press the Enter key. The “Ethernet Conguration” menu appears on the screen. Move the cursor bar to DHCP Function item, then press Enter key to show the DHCP setting. Select the “Disabled’ or ‘Enabled” option to enable or disable the DHCP function. If DHCP is disabled, it will be necessary to manually enter a static IP address that does not conict with other devices on the network.

3.7.6.2 Local IP address

If you intend to set up your client computers manually (no DHCP), make sure that the assigned IP address is in the same range as the default router address and that it is unique to your private network. However, it is highly recommend to use DHCP if that option is available on your network. An IP address allocation scheme will reduce the time it takes to set-up client computers and eliminate the possibilities of administrative errors and duplicate addresses. To manually congure the IP address of the controller, move the cursor bar to the Main menu Ethernet Conguration Function item and then press the Enter key. The Ethernet Conguration menu appears on the screen. Move the cursor bar to Local IP Address item, then press the Enter key to show the default address setting in the RAID controller. You can then reassign the static IP address of the controller.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Ethernet Conguration

DHCP Function : Enable Local IP Address : 192.168.001.100 Ethernet Address : 00.04.D9.7F.FF.FF

Local IP Address : 192.168.001.100

Edit The local IP Address

92.168.001.100

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Ethernet Conguration

DHCP Function : Enable Local IP Address : 192.168.001.100 Ethernet Address : 00.04.D9.7F.FF.FF

Ethernet Address : 00.04.D9.7F.FF.FF

3.7.6.3 Ethernet Address

A MAC address stands for “Media Access Control” address and is unique to every single ethernet device. On an Ethernet LAN, it’s the same as your Ethernet address. When you’re connected to a local network from the RAID controller Ethernet port, a correspondence table relates your IP address to the RAID controller’s physical (MAC) address on the LAN.

3.7.7 View System Events

To view the SATA RAID controller’s information, move the cursor bar to the main menu and select the “View Events” link, then press the Enter key. The SATA RAID controller’s events screen appear.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

Raid System Function

Time Device Event Type ElapseTime Errors

2004-1-1 12:00:00 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On 2004-1-1 12:00:00 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On 2004-1-1 12:00:00 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Choose this option to view the system events information: Timer, Device, Event type, Elapsed Time, and Errors. The RAID system does not have a real time clock. The Time information is the relative time from the SATA RAID controller powered on.

3.7.8 Clear Events Buffer

Use this feature to clear the entire events buffer.

3.7.9 Hardware Monitor

To view the RAID controller’s hardware monitor information, move the mouse cursor to the main menu and click the “Hardware Monitor” link. The Hardware Information screen appears.

The Hardware Monitor Information provides the temperature and fan speed (I/O Processor fan) of the PCI SATA RAID controller.

3.7.10 System Information

Choose this option to display Main processor, CPU Instruction cache and data cache size, rmware version, serial number, controller model name, and the cache memory size. To check the system information, move the cursor bar to System Information

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

System Information

The Hardware Monitor

Fan Speed (RPM) : 2178 Battery Status : Not Installed HDD #1 Temp. : -HDD #2 Temp. : -HDD #3 Temp. : 48 HDD #4 Temp. : -HDD #5 Temp. : -HDD #6 Temp. : 49 HDD #7 Temp. : -HDD #8 Temp. : --

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Raid Set Function Volume Set Function Physical Drives Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events Clear Event Buffer Hardware Monitor System information

System Information

The System Information

Main Processor : 500MHz IOP331 CPU ICache Size : 32KB CPU DCache Size : 32KB/Write Back System Memory : 128MB/333MHz Firmware Version : V1.31 2004-5-31 BOOT ROM Version : V1.34 2004-9-29 Serial Number : 1100-2116-6633 Controller Name : ARC-1120

item, then press Enter key. All relevant controller information will be displayed.

DRIVER INSTALLATION

4. Driver Installation

This chapter describes how to install the SATA RAID controller driver to your operating system. The installation procedures use the following terminology:

Installing operating system on the SATA Volume

If you have a new drive conguration without an operating system and want to install operating system on a disk drive managed by the SATA RAID Controller. The driver installation is a part of the operating system installation.

Installing SATA RAID controller into an existing operating system

The computer has an existing operating system installed and the SATA RAID controller is being installed as a secondary controller.

Have all required system hardware and software components on hand before proceeding with the setup and installation. Materials required:

• Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/2003, or Linux, or FreeBSD installation CD-ROM

• SATA RAID Controller Diver CD-ROM

• SATA RAID controller

4.1 Creating the Driver Diskettes

The CD-ROM disc shipped with the SATA RAID controller is a selfbooting CD. In order to created driver diskettes for Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD installation drivers, your system is required to support booting from the CD-ROM.

If you do not have the CD-ROM disc with the package, contact your local dealer or you can also download the latest version drivers for Windows 2000/XP/2003, Linux, and freeBSD from the ARECA web site at http://www.areca.com.tw

The following steps are required to create the Driver diskettes:

DRIVER INSTALLATION

100

1. The computer system BIOS must be set to boot-up from the CDROM.

2. Insert the SATA Controller Driver CD disc into the CD-ROM drive.

3. The system will boot-up from CD-ROM Drive; to create the driver diskettes, select the “SATA RAID controller Driver Diskette Make Utility”, and a screen with several choices will be displayed.

4. Move the highlight bar to the “Create Driver Disk” entry and press Enter.

5. The screen queries the SATA RAID controller support driver database and displays a list of available drivers. Move the highlight bar to the correct driver entry and press Enter to select.

6. The next screen will show “Please insert a formatted dis- kette into drive A:!! Press any key to continue”. Insert the formatted diskette in drive “A” and press any key to continue.

7. The window will display the driver building message: ”Now is writing to Cylinder…” as it copies the image le from the CDROM to Driver Diskette.

8. The “Write Complete !!” message will display when the driver diskette ready.

The driver diskette is now made. Proceed to the following instruction for installation procedures.

4.2 Driver Installation for Windows

The SATA RAID controller can be used with Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. Windows 2003 64bit for AMD Opteron is also supported. The SATA RAID controllers support SCSI Miniport and StorPort Drivers for Windows Server

2003.

4.2.1 New Storage Device Drivers in Windows Server 2003

Areca ARC-1120, ARC-1160, ARC-1130, ARC-1170, ARC-1110ML User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual