Areca ARC-1883x operation manual

12Gb/s SAS RAID Cards

ARC-1883 Series

(PCIe 3.0 to 12Gb/s SAS RAID Controllers)

User Manual

Version: 1.4

Issue Date: July, 2016

Copyright and Trademarks

The information regarding 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.

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.

Manufacturer’s Declaration for CE Certication

We conrm ARC-1883 has been tested and found compliant with the

requirements in the council directive relating to the EMC Directive
2004/108/EC. Regarding to the electromagnetic compatibility, the fol­lowing standards were applied:

EN 55022: 2006, Class B
EN 61000-3-2: 2006
EN 61000-3-3: 1995+A1: 2001+A2: 2005

EN 55024:1998+A1:2001=A2:2003

IEC61000-4-2: 2001
IEC61000-4-3: 2006
IEC61000-4-4: 2004
IEC61000-4-5: 2005
IEC61000-4-6: 2006

IEC61000-4-8: 2001

IEC61000-4-11: 2004

Contents

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

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

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

2. Hardware Installation ............................................... 16

2.1 Before You First Installing................................................. 16

2.2 Board Layout .................................................................. 16

2.3 Installation ..................................................................... 22

2.4 SAS Cables .................................................................... 31

2.4.1 Mini SAS HD SFF-8643 to 4xSATA Cable ....................... 31

2.4.2 Mini SAS HD SFF-8643 to 4xSFF-8482 Cable .................. 32

2.4.3 Mini SAS HD SFF-8643 Cable ....................................... 32

2.4.4 Mini SAS HD SFF-8644 Cable ...................................... 33

2.5 LED Cables ..................................................................... 33

2.6 Hot-plug Drive Replacement .............................................37

2.6.1 Recognizing a Drive Failure .......................................... 37

2.6.2 Replacing a Failed Drive .............................................. 37

2.7 Summary of the installation .............................................. 38

3. McBIOS RAID Manager .............................................. 41

3.1 Starting the McBIOS RAID Manager ................................... 41

3.2 McBIOS RAID manager .................................................... 42

3.3 Conguring Raid Sets and Volume Sets .............................. 43

3.4 Designating Drives as Hot Spares ...................................... 43

3.5 Using Quick Volume /Raid Setup Conguration .................... 44

3.6 Using Raid Set/Volume Set Function Method ....................... 45

3.7 Main Menu .................................................................... 47

3.7.1 Quick Volume/Raid Setup ............................................ 48

3.7.2 Raid Set Function ....................................................... 52

3.7.2.1 Create Raid Set .................................................... 53

3.7.2.2 Delete Raid Set ..................................................... 54

3.7.2.3 Expand Raid Set .................................................... 55

3.7.2.4 Ofine Raid Set ..................................................... 56

3.7.2.5 Activate Raid Set ...................................................57

3.7.2.6 Create Hot Spare ................................................... 58

3.7.2.7 Delete Hot Spare ................................................... 58

3.7.2.8 Rescue Raid Set ...................................................59

3.7.2.9 Raid Set Information .............................................. 60

3.7.3 Volume Set Function ................................................... 60

3.7.3.1 Create Volume Set (0/1/10/3/5/6) ........................... 61

• Volume Name ................................................................ 63

• Capacity ....................................................................... 64

• Stripe Size .................................................................... 66

• SCSI ID ........................................................................ 67

• Cache Mode .................................................................. 68

• Write Protect ................................................................. 68

• Tag Queuing .................................................................. 69

3.7.3.2 Create Raid30/50/60 (Volume Set 30/50/60) ............. 69

3.7.3.3 Delete Volume Set .................................................70

3.7.3.4 Modify Volume Set ................................................. 71

3.7.3.5 Check Volume Set ..................................................73

3.7.3.6 Stop Volume Check ................................................ 73

3.7.3.7 Display Volume Set Info. ........................................ 73

3.7.4 Physical Drives ........................................................... 74

3.7.4.1 View Drive Information .......................................... 75

3.7.4.2 Create Pass-Through Disk ....................................... 75

3.7.4.3 Modify Pass-Through Disk ....................................... 76

3.7.4.4 Delete Pass-Through Disk ....................................... 76

3.7.4.5 Set Disk To Be Failed .............................................. 76

3.7.4.7 Identify Selected Drive ........................................... 77

3.7.4.6 Activate Failed Disk ................................................ 77

3.7.4.8 Identify Enclosure .................................................. 78

3.7.5 Raid System Function .................................................78

3.7.5.1 Mute The Alert Beeper ............................................ 79

3.7.5.2 Alert Beeper Setting ............................................... 79

3.7.5.3 Change Password .................................................. 80

3.7.5.4 JBOD/RAID Function .............................................. 81

3.7.5.5 Background Task Priority ........................................ 82

3.7.5.6 SATA NCQ Support ................................................. 82

3.7.5.7 HDD Read Ahead Cache .......................................... 83

3.7.5.8 Volume Data Read Ahead ........................................ 84

3.7.5.9 Hdd Queue Depth Setting ....................................... 84

3.7.5.10 Empty HDD Slot LED ............................................ 85

3.7.5.11 Controller Fan Detection .......................................86

3.7.5.12 Auto Activate Raid Set .......................................... 86

3.7.5.13 Disk Write Cache Mode ......................................... 87

3.7.5.14 Write Same Support ............................................. 87

3.7.5.15 Capacity Truncation .............................................. 88

3.7.6 More System Functions ............................................... 89

3.7.6.1 Smart Option For HDD............................................ 89

3.7.6.2 Smart Polling Interval.............................................90

3.7.6.3 Hot Plugged Disk For Rebuilding ..............................91

3.7.7 HDD Power Management ............................................. 92

3.7.7.1 Stagger Power On .................................................. 92

3.7.7.2 Time to Hdd Low Power Idle ................................... 93

3.7.7.3 Time To Low RPM Mode ......................................... 94

3.7.7.4 Time To Spin Down Idle Hdd .................................. 94

3.7.8 Ethernet Conguration ............................................... 95

3.7.8.1 DHCP Function ...................................................... 95

3.7.8.2 Local IP address .................................................... 96

3.7.8.3 HTTP Port Number ................................................. 97

3.7.8.4 Telnet Port Number ................................................ 97

3.7.8.5 SMTP Port Number ................................................. 98

3.7.8.6 Ethernet Address ................................................... 98

3.7.9 Alert By Mail Cong ................................................... 99

3.7.10 View System Events .................................................. 99

3.7.11 Clear Events Buffer ................................................. 100

3.7.12 Hardware Monitor ................................................... 100

3.7.13 System Information ................................................ 101

4. Driver Installation ................................................... 102

4.1 Creating the Driver Diskettes .......................................... 102

4.2 Driver Installation for Windows ....................................... 104

4.2.1 Installing Windows on a RAID Volume ......................... 104

4.2.2 Installing Controller on an Existing Windows ............... 105

4.2.3 Uninstall controller from Windows .............................. 107

4.3 Driver Installation for Linux ............................................ 107

4.4 Driver Installation for FreeBSD ........................................ 108

4.5 Driver Installation for Solaris .......................................... 109

4.6 Driver Installation for Mac OS X ...................................... 109

4.6.1 Installation Procedures .............................................. 109

4.6.2 Making Volume Sets Available to Mac OS X .................. 112

5. ArcHTTP Proxy Server Installation .......................... 114

5.1 For Windows................................................................. 115

5.2 For Linux ..................................................................... 116

5.3 For FreeBSD ................................................................. 118

5.4 For Solaris 10 .............................................................. 118

5.5 For Mac OS X ................................................................ 119

5.6 ArcHTTP Conguration ................................................... 119

6. Web Browser-based Conguration ......................... 124

6.1 Start-up McRAID Storage Manager ................................. 124

• Start-up from Windows/Mac Local Administration ........ 125

• Start-up from Local Administration ............................. 125

• Start-up from Ethernet Port (Out-of-Band) .................. 126

6.2 McRAID Storage Manager ............................................... 127

6.3 Main Menu .................................................................. 128

6.4 Quick Function .............................................................. 128

6.5.1 Create Raid Set ....................................................... 129

6.5.2 Delete Raid Set ........................................................ 130

6.5.3 Expand Raid Set ....................................................... 130

6.5.4 Ofine Raid Set ........................................................ 131

6.5.5 Rename Raid Set ...................................................... 132

6.5.6 Activate Incomplete Raid Set ..................................... 132

6.5.7 Create Hot Spare ..................................................... 133

6.5.8 Delete Hot Spare ...................................................... 134

6.5.9 Rescue Raid Set ....................................................... 134

6.6 Volume Set Functions .................................................... 135

6.6.1 Create Volume Set (0/1/10/3/5/6) ............................. 135

6.6.2 Create Raid30/50/60 (Volume Set 30/50/60) ............... 140

6.6.3 Delete Volume Set .................................................... 141

6.6.4 Modify Volume Set .................................................... 141

6.6.4.1 Volume Growth ................................................... 142

6.6.4.2 Volume Set Migration ........................................... 143

6.6.4.3 Volume Write Protection ....................................... 143

6.6.5 Check Volume Set .................................................... 144

6.6.6 Schedule Volume Check ............................................ 144

6.6.7 Stop Volume Set Check ............................................. 145

6.6.8 Download Volume Key File ......................................... 145

6.7 Physical Drive .............................................................. 146

6.7.1 Create Pass-Through Disk .......................................... 146

6.7.2 Modify Pass-Through Disk .......................................... 146

6.7.3 Delete Pass-Through Disk .......................................... 147

6.7.4 Clone Disk ............................................................... 147

6.7.4.1 Clone And Replace ............................................... 148

6.7.4.2 Clone Only ......................................................... 149

6.7.5 Abort Cloning ........................................................... 149

6.7.6 Set Disk To Be Failed ................................................ 149

6.7.7 Activate Failed Disk .................................................. 149

6.7.8 Identify Enclosure .................................................... 150

6.7.9 Identify Drive .......................................................... 150

6.8 System Controls ........................................................... 151

6.8.1 System Cong ......................................................... 151

• System Beeper Setting ................................................. 151

• Background Task Priority ............................................... 151

• JBOD/RAID Conguration .............................................. 151

• SATA NCQ Support ....................................................... 152

• HDD Read Ahead Cache ................................................ 152

• Volume Data Read Ahead ............................................. 152

• HDD Queue Depth ....................................................... 152

• Empty HDD Slot LED .................................................... 152

• CPU Fan Detection ........................................................ 153

• SES2 Support .............................................................. 153

• Max Command Length .................................................. 153

• Auto Activate Incomplete Raid ....................................... 153

• Disk Write Cache Mode ................................................. 153

• Write Same For Initialization .......................................... 154

• Hot Plugged Disk For Rebuilding ..................................... 154

• PCIE Gen3 .................................................................. 154

• Disk Capacity Truncation Mode ....................................... 154

• Smart Option For HDD .................................................. 155

• Smart Polling Interval ................................................... 155

6.8.2 Advanced Conguration ............................................. 156

6.8.3 HDD Power Management ........................................... 161

6.8.3.1 Stagger Power On Control ..................................... 161

6.8.3.2 Time to Hdd Low Power Idle ................................. 162

6.8.3.3 Time To Hdd Low RPM Mode ................................. 162

6.8.3.4 Time To Spin Down Idle HDD ................................. 162

6.8.3.5 SATA Power Up In Standby ................................... 162

6.8.4 Ethernet Conguration ............................................. 163

6.8.5 Alert By Mail Conguration ....................................... 164

6.8.6 SNMP Conguration .................................................. 165

6.8.7 NTP Conguration .................................................... 165

6.8.8 View Events/Mute Beeper .......................................... 166

6.8.9 Generate Test Event ................................................. 167

6.8.10 Clear Events Buffer ................................................. 167

6.8.11 Modify Password ..................................................... 167

6.8.12 Update Firmware ................................................... 168

6.9 Information .................................................................. 169

6.9.1 Raid Set Hierarchy .................................................... 169

6.9.1.1 Hdd Xfer Speed ................................................... 169

6.9.2 SAS Chip Information ............................................... 170

6.9.3 System Information .................................................. 171

6.9.4 Hardware Monitor ..................................................... 171

Appendix A ................................................................. 172

Upgrading Flash ROM Update Process .................................... 172

Appendix B .................................................................. 176

Flash-based Backup Module (ARC-1883-BAT/CAP) ................... 176

Appendix C .................................................................. 181

Battery Backup Module (ARC-6120BA-T121-12G) .................... 181

Appendix D .................................................................. 185

SNMP Operation & Installation .............................................. 185

Appendix E .................................................................. 196

Event Notication Congurations ........................................ 196

A. Device Event .............................................................. 196

B. Volume Event ............................................................. 197

C. RAID Set Event .......................................................... 197

D. Hardware Monitor Event .............................................. 198

Appendix F .................................................................. 199

RAID Concept .................................................................... 199

RAID Set ......................................................................... 199

Volume Set ...................................................................... 199

Ease of Use Features ......................................................... 200

• Foreground Availability/Background Initialization .............. 200

• Online Array Roaming ................................................... 200

• Online Capacity Expansion ............................................. 200

• Online Volume Expansion .............................................. 203

High availability .................................................................. 203

• Global/Local Hot Spares .................................................. 203

• Hot-Swap Disk Drive Support ........................................... 204

• Auto Declare Hot-Spare ................................................. 204

• Auto Rebuilding ............................................................. 205

• Adjustable Rebuild Priority ............................................... 205

High Reliability ................................................................... 206

• Hard Drive Failure Prediction ............................................ 206

• Auto Reassign Sector ...................................................... 206

• Consistency Check ......................................................... 207

Data Protection .................................................................. 208

• Battery Backup ............................................................. 208

• Recovery ROM ............................................................... 208

Appendix G .................................................................. 209

Understanding RAID .......................................................... 209

RAID 0 ............................................................................ 209

RAID 1 ............................................................................ 210

RAID 10(1E) .................................................................... 211

RAID 3 ............................................................................ 211

RAID 5 ............................................................................ 212

RAID 6 ............................................................................ 213

RAID x0 .......................................................................... 213

JBOD .............................................................................. 214

Single Disk (Pass-Through Disk) ......................................... 214

INTRODUCTION

1. Introduction

This section presents a brief overview of the 12Gb/s SAS RAID control-

ler, ARC-1883 series. (PCIe 3.0 to 12Gb/s SAS RAID controllers)

1.1 Overview

The 12Gb/s SAS interface supports both 12Gb/s SAS disk drives
for data-intensive applications and 6Gb/s SATA drives for low-cost

bulk storage of reference data. The ARC-1883 family includes 8
ports low prole as well as 12/16/24 internal ports with additional
4 external ports models. The ARC-1883LP/1883i/1883x support
eight 12Gb/s SAS ports via one internal & one external/two inter­nal/two external Mini SAS HD connector. The ARC-1883ix-12/16/24

attaches directly to SATA/SAS midplanes with 3/4/6 Mini SAS HD
SFF-8643 internal connector or increase capacity using one addi­tional Mini SAS HD SFF-8644 external connector. When used with
12Gb/s SAS expanders, the controller can provide up to (256) de­vices through one or more 12Gb/s SAS JBODs, making it an ideal
solution for enterprise-class storage applications that called for

maximum conguration exibility.

ARC-1883i/LP/x 12Gb/s RAID controllers are low-prole PCIe cards,

ideal for 1U and 2U rack-mount systems. These controllers utilize
the same RAID kernel that has been eld-proven in existing exter­nal RAID controller products, allowing Areca to quickly bring stable
and reliable PCIe 3.0 12Gb/s SAS RAID controllers to the market.

Unparalleled Performance for 12Gb/s SAS

The 12Gb/s SAS RAID controllers raise the standard to higher per­formance levels with several enhancements including new high per-

formance 1.2 GHz dual core ROC processor, a DDR3-1866 memory

architecture and high performance PCIe 3.0 interface bus intercon-

nection. The low prole controllers by default support on-board 2G
of ECC DDR3-1866 SDRAM memory. ARC-1883ix-12/16/24 RAID

controllers each include one 240-pin DIMM socket with default 2GB

DDR3-1866, single rank, 1Rx8, upgrade to 8GB or 8GB DDR3­1600, dual rank, 2Rx8, ECC SDRAM. The 12Gb/s SAS is designed

for backward compatibility with 6Gb/s and 3Gb/s SAS/SATA hard

10

INTRODUCTION

drives. Regardless of the drive speed, 12Gb/s SAS RAID controllers

will provide maximum read/write performance improvements for

the most performance-hungry database and IT applications.

The ARC-1883ix includes one 12Gb/s SAS expander that incorpo­rates the latest enhancements in SAS along with new LSI DataBolt
bandwidth optimizer technology. This is designed to help facilitate
the industry transition to 12Gb/s SAS-enabled systems by allow-

ing users to take advantage of 12Gb/s speeds while utilizing exist­ing 6Gb/s drives and backplanes. Using DataBolt, the ARC-1883ix

buffers 6Gb/s data and then transfers it out to the host at 12Gb/s
speeds in order to match the bandwidth between faster hosts and
slower SAS or SATA devices

Unsurpassed Data Availability

Designed and leveraged with Areca’s existing high performance
RAID solution, ARC-1883 provides superior levels performance
and enterprise level data protection for the most demanding next-

generation server and storage environments. It supports the hard­ware RAID 6 engine to allow two HDDs failures without impact the

existing data and performance. It allows users to hot swap drive in
the event of a drive failure with zero downtime. The optional ash-

based backup module provides power to transfer the cache data

from the SDRAM memory to the NAND ash memory if it contains
data not yet written to the drives when power is lost. ARC-1883

also supports traditional Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery backup mod­ule (BBM) to protect cached data on RAID adapters. Board-level
hardware encryption manages any kinds of drives attached to ARC-

1883 controller cards for higher levels of security. API code sup­ports for third-party Enterprise Key Management systems to easy

integrate and manage encryption function.

Maximum Interoperability

The 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller support broad operating system

including Windows, Linux (Open Source), FreeBSD (Open Source),

Solaris (Open Source), Mac, VMware and more, along with key
system monitoring features such as enclosure management (SES­2, SMP, & SGPIO) and SNMP function. Our products and technology

are based on extensive testing and validation process; leverage

11

INTRODUCTION

ARC-1880/1882 series controller eld-proven compatibility with

operating systems, motherboards, applications and device drivers.

Easy RAID Management

The controllers contain an embedded McBIOS RAID manager that
can access via hot key at M/B BIOS boot-up screen. This pre-boot
McBIOS RAID manager can use to simplify the setup and manage-

ment of RAID controller. The controller rmware also contains a

browser-based McRAID storage manager which can be accessed

through the Ethernet port or ArcHTTP proxy server in Windows,
Linux, FreeBSD and more environments. The McRAID storage
manager allows local and remote for all storage conguration and

management needs from standard web browser. The ArcSAP quick
manager can scan for multiple RAID units in the local and remote

systems and provide an effective mechanism to congure and

monitor your RAID units.

1.2 Features

Controller Architecture

• Dual core RAID-on-Chip (ROC) 1.2GHz processor

• PCIe 3.0 x8 lane host interface

• 2GB on-board DDR3-1866 SDRAM with ECC (ARC-1883i/LP/x)

• One 240-pin DIMM socket for 2GB(default) DDR3-1866, 1RX8,
ECC module (ARC-1883ix-12/16/24)

- up to 4GB or 8GB DDR3-1866, 1RX8, Unbuffered/Registered

ECC module or

- up to 4GB or 8GB DDR3-1600, 2RX8, Unbuffered/Registered

ECC module

• Write-through or write-back cache support

• Support up to 4/8/12/16/24 internal or 4/8 external 12Gb/s SAS

ports

• Multi-adapter support for large storage requirements

• BIOS boot array support for greater fault tolerance

• Supports up to 256 SATA or SAS devices using SAS expanders

• Boot support for the uEFI host BIOS

• DataBolt™ Bandwidth Optimizer for balance faster host and
slower SAS or SATA devices. (for ARC-1883ix)

• Redundant ash image for controller availability

12

INTRODUCTION

• Support ash-based or battery backup module (FBM/BBM) ready

(optional)

• RoHS compliant

RAID Features

• RAID level 0, 1, 10(1E), 3, 5, 6, 30, 50, 60, Single Disk or JBOD

• Multiple RAID 0 and RAID 10(1E) support (RAID 00 and

RAID100)

• Multiple RAID selection

• Congurable stripe size up to 1024KB

• Support HDD rmware update

• Online array roaming

• Online RAID level/stripe size migration

• Online capacity expansion and RAID level migration simultane-

ously

• Online volume set growth

• Instant availability and background initialization

• Support global and dedicated hot spare

• Automatic drive insertion/removal detection and rebuilding

• Support for native 4K and 512 byte sector SAS and SATA devices

• Multiple pairs SSD/HDD disk clone function

• SSD automatic monitor clone (AMC) support

• Controller level hardware encryption support

• Support intelligent power management to save energy and ex-

tend service life

Monitors/Notication

• System status indication through global HDD activity/fault con-

nector, individual activity/fault connector, LCD/I2C connector
and alarm buzzer

• SMTP support for email notication

• SNMP support for remote manager

• Enclosure management (SES-2, SMP and SGPIO) ready

RAID Management

• Field-upgradeable rmware in ash ROM

In-Band Manager

• Hot key "boot-up" McBIOS RAID manager via M/B BIOS

• Web browser-based McRAID storage manager via ArcHTTP proxy

server for all operating systems

• Support Command Line Interface (CLI)

13

INTRODUCTION

• API library for customer to write manager utility

• Single Admin Portal (ArcSAP) quick manager utility

Out-of-Band Manager

• Firmware-embedded web browser-based McRAID storage man­ ager, SMTP manager, SNMP agent and Telnet function via
Ethernet port

• API library for customer to write manager utility

• Support push button and LCD display panel (optional)

Operating System

• Windows 10/8/Server 2012/7/2008/Vista/XP/2003

• Linux

• FreeBSD

• VMware (Driver 6.x support CLI in-band management utility)

• Solaris 10/11 x86/x86_64

• Mac OS X 10.4.x or higher

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

12Gb/s SAS RAID Controllers

Model Name ARC-1883i ARC-1883LP ARC-1883x

I/O Processor Dual Core RAID-on-Chip 1.2GHz

Form Factor (H x L)

Host Bus Type PCIe 3.0 x 8 Lanes

Driver Connector 2xSFF-8643 1xSFF-8643

Drive Support Up to 256 12Gb/s SAS or 6Gb/s and 3Gb/s SAS/SATA HDDs

FBM/BBM Support ARC-1883-CAP / ARC-1883-BAT / ARC-6120BA-T121-12G

RAID Level 0, 1, 1E, 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50, 60, Single Disk, JBOD

On-Board Cache 2GB on-board DDR3-1866 SDRAM

Low Prole: 64.4 x 169.5 mm

2xSFF-8644

1xSFF-8644

Management Port In-Band: PCIe

Out-of-Band: BIOS, LCD, LAN Port

Enclosure Ready Individual Activity/Faulty Header, SGPIO, SMP, SES-2

14

INTRODUCTION

12Gb/s SAS RAID Controllers

Model Name ARC-1883ix-12 ARC-1883ix-16 ARC-1883ix-24

I/O Processor Dual Core RAID-on-Chip 1.2GHz

Form Factor (H x L)

Host Bus Type PCIe 3.0 x 8 Lanes

Driver Connector 3xSFF-8643

1xSFF-8644

Drive Support Up to 256 12Gb/s SAS or 6Gb/s and 3Gb/s SAS/SATA HDDs

FBM/BBM Support ARC-1883-CAP (support cache 2GB)/

ARC-1883-BAT (support cache 2GB, 4GB or 8GB)/

RAID Level 0, 1, 1E, 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50, 60, Single Disk, JBOD

On-Board Cache One 240-pin DIMM socket for 2GB(default) DDR3-1866, 1RX8,

ECC module

- up to 4GB or 8GB DDR3-1866, 1RX8, Unbuffered/Registered

ECC module or

- up to 4GB or 8GB DDR3-1600, 2RX8, Unbuffered/Registered

ECC module

Management Port In-Band: PCIe

Enclosure Ready Individual Activity/Faulty Header, SGPIO, SMP, SES-2

Full Height: 98.4 x 254 mm

4xSFF-8643
1xSFF-8644

ARC-6120BA-T121-12G

Out-of-Band: BIOS, LCD, LAN Port

6xSFF-8643
1xSFF-8644

15

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

2. Hardware Installation

This section describes the procedures for installing the 12Gb/s SAS RAID
controllers.

2.1 Before You First Installing

Thanks for purchasing the 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller as your
RAID data storage subsystem. This user manual gives simple

step-by-step instructions for installing and conguring the 12Gb/s

SAS RAID controller. To ensure personal safety and to protect your
equipment and data, reading the following information package list
carefully before you begin installing.

Package Contents

If your package is missing any of the items listed below, con­tact your local dealers before you install. (Disk drives and disk

mounting brackets are not included)

• 1 x 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller in an ESD-protective bag

• 1 x Installation CD – containing driver, relative software, an
electronic version of this manual and other related manual

• 1 x User manual

• Adapter convert two 4 pin peripheral power cables into a PCI-E
power cable (ARC-1883ix only)

• 1 x Low-prole bracket

Note:

Low-prole bracket has included on the low prole board

shipping package.

2.2 Board Layout

The controller can support a family included 8 ports models as well
as industry-rst 8/12/16/24 internal ports with additional 4 exter-

nal ports. This section provides the board layout and connector/
jumper for the 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller.

16

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-1, ARC-1883ix-12/16/24 Top View

Connector Type Description

1. (J1) Flash-based/Battery Backup Module Connector 14-pin box header

2. (J2) I2C/LCD Connector 7-pin header

3. (J3) Global Fault/Activity LED 4-pin header

4. (J4) PCI-E Power Connector 6-pin header

5. (J5) Manufacture Purpose Port 12-pin header

6. (J6) Ethernet Port RJ45

7. (J7) Individaul Fault LED Header 24-pin header

8. (COM1) RS232 Port for CLI to congure the expander

functions on the RAID controller (*1)

9. (CN1) Mini SAS HD 25-28 Ports (External) SFF-8644

10. (SCN1) Mini SAS HD 1-8 Ports (Internal) SFF-8643

11. (SCN2) Mini SAS HD 9-16 Ports (Internal) SFF-8643

12. (SCN3) Mini SAS HD 17-24 Ports (Internal) SFF-8643

RJ11 connector

Table 2-1, ARC-1883ix-12/16/24 Connectors

Note:

You can download the ARC1882ix_1883ix Expander-CLI.PDF

manual from “http://www.areca.com.tw/support/main.htm” to

view and set expander conguration.

17

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-2, ARC-1883i Top View

Connector Type Description

1. (J1) Manufacture Purpose Port 12-pin header

2. (J2) Flash-based/Battery Backup Module Connector 14-pin box header

3. (J3) I2C/LCD Connector 7-pin header

4. (J4) Global Fault/Activity LED 4-pin header

5. (J5) Individual Activity (HDD) LED Header 4-pin header

6. (J6) Individual Fault LED Header 4-pin header

7. (J7) Ethernet Port RJ45

8. (SCN1) Mini SAS HD 1-4 Ports (Internal) SFF-8643

9. (SCN2) Mini SAS HD 5-8 Ports (Internal) SFF-8643

18

Table 2-2, ARC-1883i Connectors

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-3, ARC-1883LP Top View

Connector Type Description

1. (J1) Manufacture Purpose Port 12-pin box header

2. (J2) Flash-based/Battery Backup Module Connector 14-pin header

3. (J3) Global Fault/Activity LED 4-pin header

4. (J4) Individual Fault/Activity LED Header 8-pin header

5. (J5) I2C/LCD Connector 7-pin header

6. (SCN1) Mini SAS HD 5-8 Ports (External) SFF-8644

7. (SCN2) Mini SAS HD 1-4 Ports (Internal) SFF-8643

8. (J6) Ethernet Port RJ45

Table 2-3, ARC-1883LP Connectors

19

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-4, ARC-1883x Top View

Connector Type Description

1. (J2) Flash-based/Battery Backup Module Connector 14-pin box header

2. (J3) I2C/LCD Connector 7-pin header

3. (J4) Ethernet Port RJ45

4. (SCN1) Mini SAS HD 5-8 Ports (External) SFF-8644

5. (SCN2) Mini SAS HD 1-4 Ports (External) SFF-8644

Table 2-4, ARC-1883x Connectors

The following table describes the ARC-1883ix external port Mini
SAS HD SFF-8644 link/activity LED behavior.

LED Status

Link LED
(Green light)

Activity LED
(Blue light)

When the link LED is lit that indicates the link LED is connected.

The activity LED is lit that indicates the adapter is active.

20

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 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller can be installed in an universal
PCIe slot and requires a motherboard that:

ARC-1883 series 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller requires:

• Comply with the PCIe 3.0 x8 lanes
It can work on the PCIe 3.0 x1, x4, x8, and x16 signal with x8 or
x16 mechanical slot M/B.

• Backward-compatibe with PCIe 1.0/2.0

Installation Tools

The following items may be needed to assist with installing the

12Gb/s SAS RAID controller into an available PCIe expansion slot.

• Small screwdriver

• Host system hardware manuals and manuals for the disk or

enclosure being installed

Personal Safety Instructions

Use the following safety instructions to help you protect your
computer system from potential damage and to ensure your own
personal safety.

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

mat.

• Before opening the system cover, turn off power switches and

unplug the 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 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller. To avoid damage

21

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

caused by electrostatic discharge, observe the following precau­tions:

• Do not remove the 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller from its anti-

static packaging until you are ready to install it into a computer
case.

• Handle the 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller by its edges or by the

metal mounting brackets at its each end.

• Before you handle the 12Gb/s SAS 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.

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.

2.3 Installation

Use the instructions below to install a 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller.

Step 1. Unpack

Unpack and remove the 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller 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. For the instructions, please see the computer system
documentation.

Step 3. Check Memory Module (ARC-1883ix only)

Be sure of the cache memory module is present and seated rmly
in the 240-pin DIMM socket for ARC1883ix-12/16/24 models. The

22

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

physical memory conguration for ARC-1883ix series is one 240-
pin DIMM socket for 2GB(default) up to 8GB DDR3-1866, 1Rx8,
ECC module or 8GB, DDR3-1600, 2Rx8, ECC module.

Step 4. Install the 12Gb/s SAS RAID Controllers

To install the 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller, remove the mounting

screw and existing bracket from the rear panel behind the selected
PCIe 3.0 slot. Align the gold-ngered edge on the card with the
selected PCIe 3.0 slot. Press down gently but rmly to ensure that

the card is properly seated in the slot, as shown in Figure 2-5.

Then, screw the bracket into the computer chassis. ARC-1883
series controllers require a PCIe 3.0 x8 slot for better performance.

Figure 2-5, Insert into a PCIe Slot

Step 5. Mount the Drives

You can connect the SAS/SATA drives to the controller through
direct cable and backplane solutions. In the direct connection, SAS/
SATA drives are directly connected to 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller
PHY port with SAS/SATA cables. The 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller

can support up to 28 PHY ports. Remove the front bezel from the

computer chassis and install the cages or SAS/SATA drives in the
computer chassis. Loading drives to the drive tray if cages are

23

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

installed. Be sure that the power is connected to either the cage
backplane or the individual drives.

In the backplane solution, SAS/SATA drives are directly connected

to 12Gb/s SAS system backplane or through an expander board.

The number of SAS/SATA drives is limited to the number of slots
available on the backplane. Some backplanes support daisy chain

expansion to the next backplanes. The 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller
can support daisy-chain up to 8 enclosures. The maximum drive
no. is 256 devices through 8 enclosures. The following gure shows
how to connect the external Mini SAS HD SFF-8644 cable from the
12Gb/s SAS RAID controller that has external connectors to the
external drive boxes or drive enclosures.

Figure 2-6, Connecting to Drive Enclosure

The following table shows the maximum number of 12Gb/s SAS

RAID controller supported:

Disks/Enclosure Expander Disks/Controller Volume

Max No. 128 12 256 128

Note:

The maximum no. is 32 disk drives included in a single RAID

set.

24

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Step 6. Install SAS Cable

This section describes how to cable a controller to the drive or
backplane.

Figure 2-7, Connecting to HDD

Figure 2-8, Connecting to Backplane

25

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Step 7. Connect Power to the Controller (ARC-1883ix only)

There is a 6-pin PCI-E connector on the ARC-1883ix labelled J4.

You must plug in a PSU’s PCI-E cable at all times to supply enough
stable power for the controller.

Figure 2-9, Connect Direct from Power Supply

If your power supply doesn’t have a 6 pin PCI-E power cable then
you can use the adapter to convert two 4 pin peripheral power
cables into a PCI-E power cable. If you use an adapter then be sure
to plug the 4 pin peripheral power connectors into separate power
cables coming from the power supply.

26

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-10, Connect through HDD/CD Cable

Step 8. Install the LED Cable (Optional)

The preferred I/O connector for server backplanes is the Mini SAS

HD SFF-8643 connector. This connector has eight signal pins to
support four SAS/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 sensing drive locate
status. See SFF 8485 for the specication of the SGPIO bus. For

backplane without enclosure SGPIO support, please refer to section

2.5 LED cables for fault/activity LED cable installation.

LED Management: The backplane may contain LEDs to indicate
drive status. Light from the LEDs could be transmitted to the out­side of server by using light pipes mounted on the SAS drive tray.
A small microcontroller on the backplane, connected via the SGPIO
bus to a 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller, could control the LEDs. Activ­ity: blinking 5 times/second and Fault: lit

27

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Drive Locate: The location of a drive may be detected by sensing
the voltage level of one of the pre-charge pins before and after a
drive is installed.

The following signals dene the SGPIO assignments for the Mini
SAS HD SFF-8643 in the 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller.

Pin Description Pin Description

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

SideBand2 Ground SideBand3 Ground

SideBand4 SDataOut (Serial data

output bit stream)

SideBand6 Reserved SideBand7 Reserved

SideBand5 SDataIn (Serial data input bit

The Mini SAS HD SFF-8643 to 4xSATA with sideband cable follows
the SFF-8448 specication. The SFF-8448 sideband signals cable

is reserved for the backplane with header on it. The following

signal denes the sideband connector which can work with Areca
sideband cable on its Mini SAS HD SFF-8643 to 4xSATA cable.

stream)

stream)

The sideband header is located at backplane. For SGPIO to work

properly, please connect the 8-pin sideband cable to the sideband

header as shown above.

Step 9. Adding a FBM/BBM Backup Module (Optional)

Please refer to Appendix B and Appendix C of the user manual for
installing the ash-based/battery backup module (FBM/BBM) in

your 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller.

Step 10. Re-check Fault LED Cable Connections (Optional)

Be sure that the proper failed drive channel information is dis­played by the fault LEDs. An improper connection will light the

28

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

wrong LED which causes the user to hot swap the wrong drive. This
could result in failure and loss of system data.

Step 11. 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 12. Install the Controller Driver

For a new system:

• Driver installation usually takes places as part of operating sys-

tem installation. Please refer to Chapter 4 “Diver Installation” of
the user manual for the detailed installation procedure.

In an existing system:

• To install the controller driver into the existing operating system.

For the detailed installation procedure, please refer to the Chap­ ter 4 “Driver Installation” of the user manual.

Step 13. Install ArcHTTP Proxy Server

The 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller rmware has embedded the
web-browser McRAID storage manager. ArcHTTP proxy server will

launch the web-browser McRAID storage manager. It provides all of
the creation, management and monitor 12Gb/s SAS RAID control­ler status. Please refer to the Chapter 5 of the user manual for the

detail ArcHTTP Proxy Server Installation. For SNMP agent function,
please refer to Appendix D of the user manual.

Step 14. Congure Volume Set

The controller congures RAID functionality through the McBIOS

RAID manager. Please refer to Chapter 3 of the user manual, Mc­BIOS RAID Manager, for the detail. The RAID controller can also

be congured through the McRAID storage manager with ArcHTTP
proxy server installed or through on-board LAN port and LCD mod-

ule (refer to LCD manual). For McRAID storage manager option,
please refer to Chapter 6 of the user manual, Web Browser-Based

Conguration.

29

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Step 15. Determining the Boot Sequences

For PC system:
12Gb/s SAS 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 of motherboard BIOS and change
the device boot sequence so that the new RAID controller heads
the list. If the system BIOS setup does not allow this change, your

system may be not congurable to allow the 12Gb/s SAS RAID

controller to act as a second boot device.

For Intel-based Mac system:
Areca controller has supported the EFI BIOS on the PCIe 3.0
12Gb/s SAS RAID controller. You have other alternatively to add
volumes on the Intel-based Mac bootable device listing. You can
follow the following procedures to add 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller
on the Mac bootable device listing.

1. Set the BIOS selection in System Controls: Advance Congura-

tion to “EFI” option for Intel-based MacPro boot.

2. Download OS X Mavericks and DiskMaker X. Follow the Disk­ Maker X to make a bootable OS X Mavericks USB install drive.

3. Restart your Mac and after you hear the chime sound, press
the Option (Alt) key until you see the option to choose the

ash drive to boot from.

4. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete Areca Volume
Upgrade and Clean Install of OS X Mavericks. Power up the
Intel-based Mac and Areca volume will be added in the
bootable device automatically.

30

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

2.4 SAS Cables

You can connect the end devices to each other through direct

cables or through the SAS expander/backplane connections. The
12Gb/s SAS RAID controller supports daisy-chain expansion up to 8
enclosures. The following is an example of some internal SAS/SATA
cables and an external SAS cable.

2.4.1 Mini SAS HD SFF-8643 to 4xSATA Cable

The Mini SAS HD SFF-8643 to 4xSATA cables are used for connec­tion between the 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller internal connectors
and connectors on the SAS/SATA disk drives or SAS/SATA con­nector backplane. The 12Gb/s SAS controllers have 1-6 Mini SAS

HD SFF-8643 internal connectors, each of them can support up to

four SAS/SATA drives.

These controllers can be installed in a server RAID enclosure
with standard SATA connectors backplane. The following diagram

shows the picture of Mini SAS HD SFF-8643 to 4xSATA cables.

Backplane with SGPIO header can leverage the SGPIO function on
the 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller through the sideband cable.

The SFF-8448 sideband signals cable is reserved for the back­plane with header on it.

Figure 2-11, SFF-8643 to 4xSATA Cable

31

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

2.4.2 Mini SAS HD SFF-8643 to 4xSFF-8482 Cable

These controllers can be installed in a server RAID enclosure with
out a backplane. The kind of cable will attach directly to the SAS
disk drives. The following diagram shows the picture of Mini SAS

HD SFF-8643 to 4xSFF-8482 cables.

Figure 2-12, SFF-8643 to 4xSFF-8482 Cable

2.4.3 Mini SAS HD SFF-8643 Cable

The 12Gb/s SAS RAID controllers have 1-6 Mini SAS HD SFF-8643

connectors, each of them can support up to four SAS/SATA sig­nals. These controllers can be installed in a server RAID enclosure

with Mini SAS HD SFF-8643 internal connectors backplane. This

Mini SAS HD cable has eight signal pins to support four SAS/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 sensing drive Locate status.

Figure 2-13, Mini SAS HD SFF-8643 Cable

32

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

2.4.4 Mini SAS HD SFF-8644 Cable

The Mini SAS HD SFF-8644 cables are used for connection be­tween the 12Gb/s SAS controller external connectors and con­nectors on the external drive boxes or drive expanders (JBOD).
The 12Gb/s SAS controller has Mini SAS HD SFF-8644 external

connector, each of them can support up to four SAS/SATA sig­nals.

Figure 2-14, Mini SAS HD SFF-8644 Cable

2.5 LED Cables

There is no SGPIO supported in the most of old version SATA
backplane. The 12Gb/s SAS controller also provides two kinds of
alternative LED cable header to support the fault/activity status
for those backplanes. The global indicator connector is used by the
server global indicator LED.

The following electronics schematic is the 12Gb/s SAS RAID con­troller logical of fault/activity header. The signal for each pin is
cathode (-) side. The following diagrams and descriptions describe
each type of indicator connector.

33

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

1. Individual Activity/Fault LED and Global Indicator Con­ nector

Most of the backplane has supported the HDD activity from the
HDD. The 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller also provides the fault
activity for fault LED. Connect the cables for the drive fault LEDs
between the backplane of the cage and the respective connector
on the 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller.

The following table is the fault LED signal behavior.

LED Normal Status Problem Indication

Fault LED 1. When the fault LED is lit,

there is no disk present.

2. When the fault LED is not
lit, then disk is present
and status is normal.

If the system will use only a single global indicator, attach the
LED to the two pins of the global activity/fault connector. The
global fault pin pair connector is the overall fault signal. This
signal will light up in any disk drive failure.

1. When the fault LED is blinking
(2 times/sec), that disk drive
has failed and should be hot
swapped immediately.

2. When the activity LED is lit and
fault LED is fast blinking (10
times/sec) there is rebuilding
activity on that disk drive.

34

Figure 2-15,

ARC-1883ix-12/16/24

LED Indicator Connector

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-16, ARC-1883i LED
Indicator Connector

Figure 2-17, ARC-1883LP LED
Indicator Connector

Figure 2-18, ARC-1883x LED
Indicator Connector

35

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.

2. Areca Serial Bus Connector

The serial bus connector can add optional accessories to add
RAID controller more functions. You can connect this interface to
Areca LCD module for information, status indication, or menus
or Card LED indicator for status message. This interface can
also cascade to another Areca serial bus accessories for the
additional status display.

The following picture and table are the serial bus signal name
description for LCD & fault/activity LED.

36

Pin Description Pin Description

1 Power (+5V) 2 GND

3 LCD Module Interrupt 4 Protect Key

5 LCD Module Serial Data 6 Fault/Activity Clock

7 Fault/Activity Serial Data 8 LCD Module Clock

You can use one optional LCD front panel and keypad function
to simply create the RAID volume. The LCD status panel also
informs you of the disk array’s current operating status at

a glance. The LCD conguration is described in a separate
manual: RAID Card_LCD manual. The LCD housed in a 5¼-inch

half-height or 3.5-inch canister.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-19, Connect to LCD Status Panel

2.6 Hot-plug Drive Replacement

The RAID controller supports the ability of performing a hot-swap
drive replacement without powering down the system. A disk can
be disconnected, removed, or replaced with a different disk without
taking the system off-line. The RAID rebuilding will be processed
automatically in the background. When a disk is hot swap, the
RAID controller may no longer be fault tolerant. Fault tolerance will
be lost until the hot swap drive is subsequently replaced and the
rebuild operation is completed.

2.6.1 Recognizing a Drive Failure

A drive failure can be identied in one of the following ways:

1. An error status message lists failed drives in the event log.

2. A fault LED illuminates on the front of RAID subsystem if

failed drives are inside.

2.6.2 Replacing a Failed Drive

With RAID subsystem drive tray, you can replace a defective
physical drive while your computer is still operating. When a new
drive has been installed, data reconstruction will be automatically
started to rebuild the contents of the disk drive. The controller

always uses the smallest hotspare that “ts”. If a hotspare is used
and the defective drive is exchanged on-line, the new inserted

HDD will automatically assign as a hotspare HDD.

37

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Note:

The capacity of the replacement drives must be at least as
large as the capacity of the other drives in the raid set. Drives

of insufcient capacity will be failed immediately by the RAID

controller without starting the “Automatic Data Rebuild”.

2.7 Summary of the installation

The ow chart below describes the installation procedures for

12Gb/s SAS RAID controllers. These procedures include hard-

ware installation, the creation and conguration of a RAID volume

through the McBIOS/McRAID manager, OS installation and installa­tion of 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller software.

The table below shows the software components that congure and

monitor the 12Gb/s SAS RAID controllers.

Conguration Utility Operating System Supported

McBIOS RAID Manager OS-Independent

McRAID Storage Manager
(Via Ethernet port)

McRAID Storage Manager

(Via ArcHTTP proxy server)

ArcHTTP Proxy Server

CLI Utility

SNMP Manager Console Integration Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris

SAP Monitor (Single Admin Portal to scan
for multiple RAID units in the network,

via ArcHTTP proxy server)

OS-Independent

Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and

Mac OS X

Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and

Mac OS X

Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and

Mac OS X

Windows

38

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

McRAID Storage Manager

Before launching the rmware-embedded web browser, McRAID
storage manager through the PCIe bus, 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 of the user manual.

ArcHTTP Proxy Server

ArcHTTP has to be installed for GUI RAID console (MRAID
storage manager) to run. It is used to launch the web browser
McRAID storage manager. It also runs as a service or daemon
in the background that allows capturing of events for mail and

SNMP traps notication. If you need additional information about
installation and start-up of this function, see the ArcHTTP Proxy

Server Installation section in Chapter 5 of the user manual.

CLI Utility

CLI (Command Line Interface) lets you set up and manage
RAID controller through a command line interface. CLI
performs many tasks at the command line. You can download
CLI manual from Areca website or software CD <CDROM>\
DOCS directory.

SNMP Manager Console Integration

There are two ways to transport SNMP data on the 12Gb/s SAS
RAID controller: in-band PCIe host bus interface or out-of-band
built-in LAN interface. Enter the “SNMP Tarp IP Address” option on

the rmware-embedded SNMP conguration function for user to

select the SNMP data agent-side communication from the out-of­band built-in LAN interface. To use in-band PCIe host bus interface,
keep blank on the “SNMP Tarp IP Address” option.

• Out of Band-Using LAN Port Interface

Out-of-band interface refers to transport SNMP data of 12Gb/s
SAS controllers from a remote station connected to the control­ler through a network cable. Before launching the SNMP manager

on the client, you need rstly to enable the rmware-embedded

39

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

SNMP agent function and no additional agent software inquired
on your server system. If you need additional information about

installation and start-up this function, see the section 6.8.4
“SNMP Conguration” of the user manual.

• In-Band-Using PCIe Host Bus Interface

In-band interface refers to management of the SNMP data of
12Gb/s SAS controllers from a PCIe host bus. In-band interface
is simpler than out-of-band interface for it requires less hard-

ware in its conguration. Since the 12 Gb/s SAS RAID controller
is already installed in the host system, no extra connection is

necessary. Just load the necessary in-band Areca SNMP extension
agent for the controllers. Before launching the SNMP agent in

the sever, you need rst to enable the rmware-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 D of the user manual.

Single Admin Portal (ArcSAP) Monitor

This utility can scan for multiple RAID units in the local and remote

systems and provide an effective mechanism to congure and

monitor your RAID units. For additional information, see the utility
manual (ArcSAP) in the packaged CD or download it from the web
site http://www.areca.com.tw.

40

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3. McBIOS RAID Manager

The system mainboard BIOS automatically congures the following

SAS RAID controller parameters at power-up:

• I/O Port Address,

• Interrupt Channel (IRQ) and

• Controller ROM Base Address.

Use McBIOS RAID manager to further congure the SAS RAID control-

ler to suit your server hardware and operating system.

3.1 Starting the McBIOS RAID Manager

This section explains how to use the McBIOS RAID manager to
congure your RAID system. The McBIOS RAID manager is de-

signed to be user-friendly. It is a menu-driven program, residing

in the rmware, which allows you to scroll through various menus
and sub-menus and select among the predetermined conguration

options.

When starting a system with a SAS RAID controller installed, it will
display the following message on the monitor during the start-up
sequence (after the system BIOS startup screen but before the
operating system boots):

ARC-1883 PCIEx8/8G RAID Controller - DRAM: 2048(MB) / #Channels: 8

BIOS: V1.23A / Date: 2014-01-02 - F/W: V1.52 / Date: 2014-01-31

Bus/Dev/Fun= 4/0/0, I/0-Port=28000000h, IRQ=11, BIOS=C800 : 0h
ID-LUN=00-0, Vol=”Areca ARC-1883-VOL#000R001”, Size=3.6 (TB)
ID-LUN=00-1, Vol=”Areca ARC-1883-VOL#001R001”, Size=3.6 (TB)
ID-LUN=00-2, Vol=”Areca ARC-1883-VOL#002R001”, Size=3.6 (TB)
RAID controller BIOS not installed

Press <Tab/F6> to enter SETUP menu. 9 second(s) left <ESC to Skip>..

The McBIOS RAID manager message remains on your screen for

about nine seconds, giving you time to start the conguration

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 RAID manager window appears showing a
selection dialog box listing the SAS RAID controllers that are in­stalled in the system.

41

BIOS CONFIGURATION

The legend at the bottom of the screen shows you what keys are
enabled for the windows.

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Setup <V1.40, 2006/08/8>

Select An Adapter To Congure

( 001/ 0/0) I/O=28000000h, IRQ = 9

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, **** Press F10 (Tab) to Reboot ****

Use the Up and Down arrow keys to select the controller you want

to congure. While the desired controller is highlighted, press the

Enter key to enter the main menu of the McBIOS RAID manager.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Verify Password

Note:

The manufacture
default password
is set to 0000;
this password can
be modified by
selecting Change

Password in the
Raid System
Function section.

3.2 McBIOS RAID manager

The McBIOS RAID manager is rmware-based and is used to con­gure RAID sets and volume sets. Because the utility resides in
the SAS 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,

42

BIOS CONFIGURATION

• 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 manu-

ally 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.

3.4 Designating Drives as Hot Spares

Any unused disk drive that is not part of a RAID set can be desig-

nated 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 Enter key to select a disk drive, and press Yes in the “Cre­ate Hot Spare” to designate it as a hot spare.

43

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 created

is associated with exactly one volume set. You will only be able to

modify the default RAID level, stripe size and 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 Default Setting

Volume Name ARC-1883-VOL#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

completed. 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 recommended that you use 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 10(1E) requires at least 3 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.

44

BIOS CONFIGURATION

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

desired RAID level and pressing the Enter ke y.
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, 10(1E), 5 or 6 volume

set. You can set the stripe size to 4 KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, 128
KB, 256KB, 512KB, or 1024KB. A larger stripe size provides better read

performance, especially when the computer performs mostly sequential
reads. However, if the computer performs random read requests more
often, choose a smaller stripe size.

5 When you are nished dening the volume set, press the Yes key to con-

rm the “Quick Volume And Raid Set Setup” function.

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

tion or selected the Background (Instant Available) or No Init (To Rescue
Volume). 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
“Foreground Initialization”, the initialization proceeds must be completed
before the volume set ready for system accesses. In “No Init”, there is no
initialization on this volume.

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.

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 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.

45

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 ke y.

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

SATA drives connected to the SAS 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 recommended that you use 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 10(1E) requires at least 3 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.
RAID 30 requires at least 6 physical drives.
RAID 50 requires at least 6 physical drives.

RAID 60 requires at least 8 physical drives.

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

Enter 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 key
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 ke y.

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

Press the Yes key to conrm the selection.

46

BIOS CONFIGURATION

10 Choosing Foreground (Fast Completion) Press Enter key to dene fast

initialization or selected the Background (Instant Available) or No Init
(To Rescue Volume). 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 “Foreground Initialization”, the initialization
proceeds must be completed before the volume set ready for system
accesses. In “No Init”, there is no initialization on this volume.

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.

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.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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.

47

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Option Description

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

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

Hdd Power Management Manage HDD power based on usage patterns

Ethernet Conguration LAN port setting

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

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 ve

minutes.

Create a default conguration based on the number

of physical disk installed

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.

48

BIOS CONFIGURATION

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; all

possible RAID level will be displayed on the screen.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Quick Volume/Raid Setup
Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Total 5 Drives

Raid 0
Raid 1 + 0
Raid 1 + 0 + Spare
Raid 3
Raid 5
Raid 3 + Spare
Raid 5 + Spare
Raid 6

Raid 6 + Spare

If volume capacity will exceed 2TB, controller will show the

“Greater Two TB Volume Support” sub-menu.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Greater Two TB Volume Support

Total 5 Drives

Raid 0

Raid 0

Raid 1 + 0
Raid 1 + 0 + Spare
Raid 3
Raid 5
Raid 3 + Spare
Raid 5 + Spare
Raid 6
Raid 6 + Spare

No
Use 64bit LBA
Use 4K Block

No

• No
When this option is enabled, it keeps the volume size with max.

2TB limitation.

49

BIOS CONFIGURATION

For any hard disk drives working in the 4K native mode in the
Raid set, the volume set directly sets and exposes 4KB sector

size to the operating system.

• Use 64bit LBA
This option use 16 bytes CDB instead of 10 bytes. The maximum

volume capacity up to 512TB. For any hard disk drives working

in the 4K native mode in the Raid set, the volume set directly
sets and exposes 4KB sector size to the operating system. This

option works on different OS which supports 16 bytes CDB.
Such as:
Windows 2003 with SP1 or later

Linux kernel 2.6.x or later

• Use 4K Block

This option uses 16 bytes CDB and changes the sector size from
default 512 bytes to 4k bytes. Windows XP only supports maxi­mum volume capacity is up to 16TB.

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. use the UP and DOWN arrow
key to set capacity of the volume set and press 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.

50

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Available Capacity : 2400.0GB

Total 5 Drives

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

Raid 6

Raid 6
Raid 6 +Spare

Selected Capacity: 2400.0GB

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Stripe Size This parameter sets the size of the stripe written to
each disk in a RAID 0, 1, 1E, 10, 5, or 6 logical drive. You can

set the stripe size to 4 KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, 128 KB,
256KB, 512KB, or 1024KB.

Warning:

Roaming the stripe size 256K/512K/1024K Raid Set to rm­ware version older than 1.52 will cause data corruption.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Available Capacity : 2400.0GB

Total 5 Drives

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

Raid 6

Raid 6
Raid 6 +Spare

Selected Capacity: 2400.0GB

Select Strip Size

4K
8K
16K
32K

64K

128K
256K
512K

1024K

A larger stripe size produces better-read performance, especially
if your computer does mostly sequential reads. However, if you
are sure that your computer performs random reads more often,
select a smaller stripe size.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Total 5 Drives

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

Raid 6

Raid 6
Raid 6 +Spare

Available Capacity : 2400.0GB

Select Strip Size

Selected Capacity: 2400.0GB

Create Vol/Raid Set

Yes

4K
8K
16K
32K

64K

128K

No

256K
512K

1024K

51

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Press 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 and “No Init (To Rescue Volume)” for

recovering the missing RAID set conguration.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Available Capacity : 2400.0GB

Total 5 Drives

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

Raid 6

Raid 6
Raid 6 +Spare

Selected Capacity: 2400.0GB

Select Strip Size

Initialization Mode

Foreground (Faster Completeion)

Background (Instant Available)

No Init (To Rescue Volume)

4K
8K
16K
32K

64K

128K

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.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

52

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.2.1 Create Raid Set

The following is the RAID set features for the SAS RAID control­ler.

1. Up to 32 disk drives can be included in a single RAID set.

2. Up to 128 RAID sets can be created per controller, but RAID

level 30 50 and 60 only can support eight sub-RAID set.

To dene a RAID set, follow the procedures 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 IDE Drive For Raid Set” window is displayed show
ing the SAS/SATA drives connected to the current controller.
Press the UP and DOWN arrow keys to select specic physi-
cal 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 SAS/SATA drives for RAID set, press Esc
key. A “Create Raid Set Conrmation” screen will appear, select
the Yes option to conrm it.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Raid Set Function

[*]E#1Solt#1 : 400.1GB : Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Create Raid Set

[ ]E#1Solt#2 : 500.1GB : HDS725050KLA360

Delete Raid Set

[ ]E#1Solt#3 : 500.1GB : ST3500630NS

Expand Raid Set

[ ]E#1Solt#4 : 400.1GB : Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Ofine Raid Set

[ ]E#1Solt#5 : 400.1GB : Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Activate Raid Set

[ ]E#1Solt#6 : 400.1GB : Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Create Hot Spare

[ ]E#1Solt#7 : 500.1GB : HDS725050KL360

Delete Hot Spare

[ ]E#1Solt#8 : 500.1GB : ST3500630NS

Rescue Raid Set
Raid Set Information

Select IDE Drives For Raid Set

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. #.

5. Repeat steps 3 to dene another RAID sets.

53

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Note:

To create RAID 30/50/60 volume, you need create multiple

RAID sets (up to 8 RAID sets) rst with the same disk

numbers on each RAID set. The max no. disk drives per
volume set:

32 for RAID 0/1/10/3/5/6 and 128 for RAID 30/50/60.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Raid Set Function

[*]E#1Solt#1 : 400.1GB : Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Create Raid Set

[ ]E#1Solt#2 : 500.1GB : HDS725050KLA360

Delete Raid Set

[ ]E#1Solt#3 : 500.1GB : ST3500630NS

Expand Raid Set

[ ]E#1Solt#4 : 400.1GB : Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Ofine Raid Set

[ ]E#1Solt#5 : 400.1GB : Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Activate Raid Set

[ ]E#1Solt#6 : 400.1GB : Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Create Hot Spare

[ ]E#1Solt#7 : 500.1GB : HDS725050KL360

Delete Hot Spare

[ ]E#1Solt#8 : 500.1GB : ST3500630NS

Rescue Raid Set
Raid Set Information

Select IDE Drives For Raid Set

Edit The Raid Set Name

R

aid Set # 000

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 you want to delete in the “Select Raid

Set To Delete” screen. Then “Delete Raid Set” dialog box will

appear, press the Yes to delete it. Warning, data on RAID set
will be lost if this option is used. But for deleting RAID set with
the Raid 30/50/60 volume, rstly, you need to delete the vol-
umes belonging those RAID sets.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Raid Set Function

Raid Set # 000 :3/3 Disk: Normal

Raid Set # 000 :3/3 Disk: Normal

Create Raid Set

Raid Set # 001 :9/9 Disk: Normal

Delete Raid Set

Raid Set # 003 :8/8 Disk: Normal

Expand Raid Set

Raid Set # 004 :3/3 Disk: Normal

Ofine Raid Set

Raid Set # 005 :3/3 Disk: Normal

Activate Raid Set

Raid Set # 006 :3/3 Disk: Normal

Create Hot Spare

Raid Set # 007 :3/3 Disk: Normal

Delete Hot Spare
Rescue Raid Set
Raid Set Information

Select Raid Set to Delete

Are you Sure?

Select Raid Set To Delete

Yes

Raid Set # 000

No

54

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.2.3 Expand Raid Set

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Raid Set Function

Create Raid Set
Delete Raid Set

Expand Raid Set

Expand Raid Set

Ofine Raid Set

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

Select IDE Drives For Raid Set Expansion

Raid Set # 000 :3/3 Disk: Normal

Raid Set # 000 :3/3 Disk: Normal
Raid Set # 001 :9/9 Disk: Normal
Raid Set # 003 :8/8 Disk: Normal
Raid Set # 004 :3/3 Disk: Normal
Raid Set # 005 :3/3 Disk: Normal
Raid Set # 006 :3/3 Disk: Normal
Raid Set # 007 :3/3 Disk: Normal

Select Raid Set To Expansion

Are you Sure?

Raid Set # 000

Yes

No

Instead of deleting a RAID set and recreating it with additional

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:

1. Select the “Expand Raid Set” option. If there is an available

disk, then the “Select SAS/SATA Drives For Raid Set

Expansion” screen appears.

2. Select the target RAID set by clicking on the appropriate
radius button. Select the target disk by clicking on the

appropriate check box.

3. Press the Yes key to start the expansion on the RAID set.

The new additional capacity can be utilized by one or more
volume sets. The volume sets associated with this RAID set
appear for you to have chance to modify RAID level or stripe
size. Follow the instruction presented in the “Modify Volume Set

” 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

can not stop it. The process must be completed.

55

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Note:

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.

3. RAID 30/50/60 doesn't support the "Expand Raid Set".

4. RAID set expansion is a quite critical process, we
strongly recommend customer backup data before ex
pand. Unexpected accident may cause serious data cor-

ruption.

• Migrating

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Raid Set Function

Create Raid Set
Delete Raid Set
Expand Raid Set

Ofine Raid Set

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

Raid Set information

The Raid Set Information

Raid Set Name : Raid Set # 00
Member Disks : 2
Raid State : Migrating
Total Capacity : 800.0GB
Free Capacity : 800.0GB
Min Member Disk Size : 400.0GB
Member Disk Channels : .E1S1.E1S2.

Migration occurs when a disk is added to a RAID set. Migrating
state is displayed in the RAID state area of “The Raid Set
Information” screen when a disk is being added to a RAID set.
Migrating state is also displayed in the associated volume state
area of the “Volume Set Information” which belongs this RAID
set.

3.7.2.4 Ofine Raid Set

This function is for customer being able to unmount and re­mount a multi-disk volume. All Hdds of the selected RAID set

will be put into ofine state and spun down and fault LED will be

in fast blinking mode. User can remove those Hdds and insert
those Hdds on the others controller empty slots without needing
power down the controller to perform the online array roaming.

56

BIOS CONFIGURATION

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Raid Set Function

Create Raid Set
Delete Raid Set
Expand Raid Set

Select Raid Set To Ofine

Ofine Raid Set

Ofine Raid Set

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

Ofine Raid Set

Are you Sure?

Yes

Yes

Raid Set # 000

es

No

No

3.7.2.5 Activate Raid Set

The following screen is used to activate the RAID set 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 user wants
to continue to work while the SAS RAID controller is powered
on, the user can use the “Activate Incomplete Raid Set” option
to active the RAID set. After user selects this function, the RAID
state will change to “Degraded Mode” and start to work.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Raid Set Function

Create Raid Set
Delete Raid Set
Expand Raid Set

Ofine Raid Set

Activate Raid Set

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

Select Raid Set To Activate

Raid Set # 000

57

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.2.6 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 screen.

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” gives you the ability to dene a global

or dedicated hot spare. Unlike “Global Hot Spare” which can be
used with any RAID sets, “Dedicated Hot Spare” can only be

used with a specic RAID set or Enclosure. When a disk drive

fails in the RAID set or enclosure with a dedicated hot spare is
pre-set, data on the disk drive is rebuild automatically on the
dedicated hot spare disk.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Raid Set Function

Raid Set

[*]E#1Solt#01 : 400.1GB : Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Delete Raid Set

[ ]E#1Solt#02 : 500.1GB : HDS725050KLA360

Expand Raid Set

[ ]E#1Solt#03 : 500.1GB : ST3500630NS

Ofine Raid Set

[ ]E#1Solt#04 : 400.1GB : Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Activate Raid Set

[ ]E#1Solt#05 : 400.1GB : Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Create Hot Spare

Create Hot Spare

[ ]E#1Solt#06 : 400.1GB : Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Delete Hot Spare

[ ]E#1Solt#07 : 500.1GB : HDS725050KL360

Rescue Raid Set

[ ]E#1Solt#08 : 500.1GB : ST3500630NS

Raid Set Information

Select Drives For HotSpare

Select Hot Spare Type

Global

Dedicated To RaidSet
Dedicated To Enclosure

3.7.2.7 Delete Hot Spare

Select the target hot spare disk to delete by clicking on the ap-

propriate check box.

Press the Enter key to select a hot spare disk drive, and press
Yes in the “Delete Hot Spare” screen to delete the hot spare.

58

BIOS CONFIGURATION

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Raid Set Function

Raid Set
Delete Raid Set
Expand Raid Set

Ofine Raid Set

Select The HotSpare Device To Be Deleted

Activate Raid Set
Create Hot Spare

[ ]E#1Solt#3 : 500.1GB : ST3500630NS

[*]E#1Solt#3 : 500.1GB : ST3500630NS

Delete Hot Spare

Delete Hot Spare
Rescue Raid Set
Raid Set Information

Delete HotSpare?

Yes

No

3.7.2.8 Rescue Raid Set

When the system is powered off in the RAID set update/creation
period, it possibly could disappear due to this abnormal condi­tion. The “RESCUE” function can recover the missing RAID set
information. The RAID controller uses the time as the RAID set
signature. The RAID set may have different time after the RAID
set is recovered. The “SIGANT” function can regenerate the sig-

nature for the RAID set.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Raid Set Function

Raid Set
Delete Raid Set
Expand Raid Set

Ofine Raid Set

Activate Raid Set
Create Hot Spare
Delete Hot Spare

Rescue Raid Set

Rescue Raid Set
Raid Set Information

Enter the Operation Key

Note:

Please contact us to make sure if you need to use rescue

function. Improperly usage may cause conguration

corruption.

59

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.2.9 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 appear. You can only view information for the
RAID set in this screen.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Raid Set Function

The Raid Set Information

Raid Set

Raid Set Name : Raid Set #000

Select Raid Set To Display

Delete Raid Set

Member Disks : 20

Expand Raid Set

Raid Set # 000 :3/3 Disk: Normal

Raid Set # 000 :3/3 Disk: Normal

Raid State : Normal

Ofine Raid Set

Raid Set # 001 :9/9 Disk: Normal

Raid Power State : Operating

Activate Raid Set

Raid Set # 003 :8/8 Disk: Normal

Total Capacity : 5800.0GB

Create Hot Spare

Raid Set # 004 :3/3 Disk: Normal

Free Capacity : 5600.0GB

Delete Hot Spare

Raid Set # 005 :3/3 Disk: Normal

Min Member Disk Size : 290.0GB

Rescue Raid Set

Raid Set # 006 :3/3 Disk: Normal

Supported Volumes : 128

Raid Set Information

Raid Set Information

Raid Set # 007 :3/3 Disk: Normal

Member Disk Channels : .E3S1.E3S2.E3S3.
E3S4.E3S5.E3S6.E3S7.

3.7.3 Volume Set Function

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

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.

60

BIOS CONFIGURATION

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

The following is the volume set features for the SAS RAID control­ler.

1. Volume sets of different RAID levels may coexist on the same
RAID set and up to 128 volume sets per controller.

2. Up to 128 volume sets can be created in a RAID set.

3. The maximum addressable size of a single volume set is not

limited to 2TB, because the controller is capable of 64-bit LBA
mode. However the operating system itself may not be capable
of addressing more than 2TB.

See Areca website ftp://ftp.areca.com.tw/RaidCards/Docu-

ments/Manual_Spec/ Over2TB_050721.ZIP le for details.

3.7.3.1 Create Volume Set (0/1/10/3/5/6)

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Volume Set Functions

Create Volume Set

Creat Volume Set
Create Raid30/50/60
Delete Volume Set
Modify Volume Set
Check Volume Set
Stop Volume Check
Display Volume Info.

61

BIOS CONFIGURATION

To create a volume set, follow the below 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” appears. This screen

displays the existing arranged RAID sets. Select the RAID set

number and press the Enter key. The “Volume Creation”
dialog is displayed in the screen.

4. The new create volume set attribute allows user to select the
Volume Name, Raid level, Capacity, Strip Size, SCSI Channel/
SCSI ID/SCSI Lun, Cache Mode, Write protect and Tagged
Command Queuing.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Volume Creation

Volume Set Functions

Create Volume From Raid Set

Volume Name : ARC-1883-VOL# 001

Create Volume Set

Creat Volume Set

Raid Level : 6

Raid Set # 000 :3/3 Disk: Normal

Create Raid30/50/60

Raid Set # 000 :3/3 Disk: Normal

Capacity : 5039.9GB

Delete Volume Set

Raid Set # 001 :9/9 Disk: Normal

Stripe Size : 64K

Modify Volume Set

Raid Set # 003 :8/8 Disk: Normal

SCSI Channel : 0

Check Volume Set

Raid Set # 004 :3/3 Disk: Normal

SCSI ID : 0

Stop Volume Check

Raid Set # 005 :3/3 Disk: Normal

SCSI LUN : 1

Display Volume Info.

Raid Set # 006 :3/3 Disk: Normal

Cache Mode : Write Back

Raid Set # 007 :3/3 Disk: Normal

Write Protect : Disabled
Tag Queuing : Enabled

5. After completed the modication of the volume set, press the

Esc key to conrm it. An “Initialization Mode” screen appears.

• Initialization Mode

• Select “Foreground (Faster Completion)” for faster initializa-

tion of the selected volume set.

• Select “Background (Instant Available)” for normal initial-

ization of the selected volume set.

62

• Select “No Init (To Rescue Volume)” for no initialization of

the selected volume.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Volume Set Functions

Create Volume Set

Creat Volume Set
Create Raid30/50/60
Delete Volume Set
Modify Volume Set
Check Volume Set
Stop Volume Check
Display Volume Info.

Volume Creation

Volume Name : Volume Set # 000

Raid Level : 6
Capacity : 5039.9GB
Stripe Size : 64K
SCSI Channel : 0

Create Volume From Raid Set

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

Initialization Mode

Raid Set # 00

Foreground (Faster Completion)

Background (Instant Available)

No Init (To Rescue Volume)

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.

Note:

Controller starts to initialize the volume in two conditions

1. Stay in controller bios manager or

2. Boot into OS and the controller driver loaded.

• Volume Name

The default volume name will always appear as ARC-1883­VOL #. You can rename the volume set providing it does not
exceed the 15 characters limit.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

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

Volume Set Function

Volume Set Functions

Physical Drives

Create Volume Set

Creat Volume Set

Raid System Function

Create Raid30/50/60

More System Functions

Delete Volume Set

Hdd Power Management

Modify Volume Set

Ethernet Conguration

Check Volume Set

Alert By Mail Cong

Stop Volume Check

View System Events

Display Volume Info.

Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Volume Creation

Volume Name : ARC-1883-VOL# 000

Raid Level : 6
Capacity : 5039.9GB
Stripe Size : 64K
SCSI Channel : 0
SCSI ID : 0

Create Volume From Raid Set

SCSI LUN : 0
Cache Mode : Write Back
Write Protect : Disabled
Tag Queuing : Enabled

Edit The Volume Name

A

Raid Set # 00

RC-1883-VOL# 00

63

BIOS CONFIGURATION

• Raid Level
Set the “Raid Level” for the volume set. Highlight “Raid
Level” and press the Enter key. The available RAID levels for
the current volume set are displayed. Select a RAID level
and press the Enter key to conrm.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Volume Creation

Volume Name : ARC-1883-VOL # 000

Raid Level : 6

Raid Level : 5
Capacity : 5039.9GB
Stripe Size : 64K
SCSI Channel : 0
SCSI ID : 0
SCSI LUN : 1
Cache Mode : Write Back
Write Protect : Disabled
Tag Queuing : Enabled

Select Raid Level

0

0 + 1

3

5

6

• Capacity

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 vol
ume set must be less than or equal to the total capacity of
the RAID set on which it resides.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

64

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function

Volume Set Function

Volume Set Functions

Physical Drives

Create Volume Set

Creat Volume Set

Raid System Function

Create Raid30/50/60

More System Functions

Delete Volume Set

Hdd Power Management

Modify Volume Set

Ethernet Conguration

Check Volume Set

Alert By Mail Cong

Stop Volume Check

View System Events

Display Volume Info.

Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Volume Creation

Volume Name : ARC-1883-VOL# 000

Raid Level : 6

Capacity : 5039.9GB

Capacity : 51GB
Stripe Size : 64K

Create Volume From Raid Set

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

Available Capacity : 2400.0GB

Raid Set # 00

Selected Capacity : 2400.0GB

BIOS CONFIGURATION

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

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Total 5 Drives

Raid 0

Raid 0

Raid 1 + 0
Raid 1 + 0 + Spare
Raid 3
Raid 5
Raid 3 + Spare
Raid 5 + Spare
Raid 6
Raid 6 + Spare

Greater Two TB Volume Support

No
Use 64bit LBA
Use 4K Block

No

• No

When this option is enabled, it keeps the volume size with

max. 2TB limitation.
For any hard disk drives working in the 4K native mode in
the Raid set, the volume set directly sets and exposes 4KB

sector size to the operating system.

• Use 64bit LBA

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

maximum volume capacity up to 512TB. For any hard disk
drives working in the 4K native mode in the Raid set, the
volume set directly sets and exposes 4KB sector size to the

operating system. This option works on different OS which
supports 16 bytes CDB. Such as:
Windows 2003 with SP1 or later

Linux kernel 2.6.x or later

• Use 4K Block

This option uses 16 bytes CDB and changes the sector size
from default 512 bytes to 4k bytes. Windows XP only sup-

ports maximum volume capacity is up to 16TB.

65

BIOS CONFIGURATION

• Stripe Size

This parameter sets the size of segment written to each disk
in a RAID 0, 1, 1E, 10, 5, 6, 50 or 60 logical drive. You can

set the stripe size to 4 KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, 128
KB, 256KB, 512KB, or 1024KB.

Warning:

Roaming the stripe size 256K/512K/1024K Raid Set to
rmware version older than 1.52 will cause data corrup-

tion.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Volume Set Functions

Create Volume Set

Creat Volume Set
Create Raid30/50/60
Delete Volume Set
Modify Volume Set
Check Volume Set
Stop Volume Check
Display Volume Info.

Volume Creation

Volume Name : ARC-1883-VOL#000
Raid Level : 6
Capacity : 5039.9GB

Stripe Size : 64K

Stripe Size : 64K

Create Volume From Raid Set

SCSI Channel : 0

Raid Set # 00

SCSI ID : 0
SCSI LUN : 1
Cache Mode : Write Back
Write Protect : Disabled
Tag Queuing : Enabled

The SAS RAID controller function simulates a external 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.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Volume Set Functions

Create Volume Set

Creat Volume Set
Create Raid30/50/60
Delete Volume Set
Modify Volume Set
Check Volume Set
Stop Volume Check
Display Volume Info.

Volume Creation

Volume Name : ARC-1883-VOL#000
Raid Level : 6
Capacity : 5039.9GB

Create Volume From Raid Set

Stripe Size : 64K

Raid Set # 00

SCSI Channel : 0

SCSI Channel : 0
SCSI ID : 0
SCSI LUN : 1
Cache Mode : Write Back
Write Protect : Disabled
Tag Queuing : Enabled

66

BIOS CONFIGURATION

• SCSI ID

Each device attached to the SAS RAID controller, as well as
the SAS RAID controller itself, must be assigned a unique
SCSI ID number. A SCSI channel can connect up to 15 de­ vices. It is necessary to assign a SCSI ID to each device from
a list of available SCSI IDs.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Volume Set Functions

Create Volume Set

Creat Volume Set
Create Raid30/50/60
Delete Volume Set
Modify Volume Set
Check Volume Set
Stop Volume Check
Display Volume Info.

Volume Creation

Volume Name : ARC-1883-VOL#000
Raid Level : 6
Capacity : 5039.9GB

Create Volume From Raid Set

Stripe Size : 64K

Raid Set # 00

SCSI Channel : 0

SCSI ID : 0

SCSI ID : 0
SCSI LUN : 1
Cache Mode : Write Back
Write Protect : Disabled
Tag Queuing : Enabled

• SCSI LUN

Each SCSI ID can support up to 8 LUNs. Most SAS controllers

treat each LUN as if it were a SAS disk.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Volume Set Functions

Create Volume Set

Creat Volume Set
Create Raid30/50/60
Delete Volume Set
Modify Volume Set
Check Volume Set
Stop Volume Check
Display Volume Info.

Volume Creation

Volume Name : ARC-1883-VOL#000
Raid Level : 6
Capacity : 5039.9GB

Create Volume From Raid Set

Stripe Size : 64K

Raid Set # 00

SCSI Channel : 0
SCSI ID : 0

SCSI LUN : 1

SCSI LUN : 0
Cache Mode : Write Back
Write Protect : Disabled
Tag Queuing : Enabled

67

BIOS CONFIGURATION

• Cache Mode

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

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

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

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Volume Set Functions

Create Volume Set

Creat Volume Set
Create Raid30/50/60
Delete Volume Set
Modify Volume Set
Check Volume Set
Stop Volume Check
Display Volume Info.

Volume Creation

Volume Name : ARC-1883-VOL#000
Raid Level : 6
Capacity : 5039.9GB

Create Volume From Raid Set

Stripe Size : 64K

Raid Set # 00

SCSI Channel : 0
SCSI ID : 0
SCSI LUN : 1

Cache Mode : : Write Back

Cache Mode : Write Back
Write Protect : Disabled
Tag Queuing : Enabled

• Write Protect

When “Write Protect” is enabled on the “Create Volume Set”,
host commands fail if they are issued to a volume in that
RAID controller and attempt to modify a volume’s data or at­ tributes. “Write Protection” is used primarily for customer-
initiated disaster recovery testing.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

68

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Volume Set Functions

Create Volume Set

Creat Volume Set
Create Raid30/50/60
Delete Volume Set
Modify Volume Set
Check Volume Set
Stop Volume Check
Display Volume Info.

Volume Creation

Volume Name : ARC-1883-VOL#000
Raid Level : 6
Capacity : 5039.9GB

Create Volume From Raid Set

Stripe Size : 64K

Raid Set # 00

SCSI Channel : 0
SCSI ID : 0
SCSI LUN : 1
Cache Mode : Write Back

Write Protect : Disabled

Write Protect : Disabled
Tag Queuing : Enabled

BIOS CONFIGURATION

• Tag Queuing

This option, when enabled, can enhance overall system
performance under multi-tasking operating systems. The
Command Tag (Drive Channel) function controls the SAS
command tag queuing support for each drive channel. This
function should normally remain enabled. Disabled this func­ tion only when using older drives that do not support com­ mand tag queuing. Tagged Command Queuing (TCQ) is a
technology built into SAS hard drives. It allows the RAID con­ troller to send multiple read and write requests to a hard
drive. This function should normally remain “Enabled”. “Dis­ abled” this function only when using SAS drives that do not
support command tag queuing.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Volume Set Functions

Create Volume Set

Creat Volume Set
Create Raid30/50/60
Delete Volume Set
Modify Volume Set
Check Volume Set
Stop Volume Check
Display Volume Info.

Volume Creation

Volume Name : ARC-1883-VOL#000
Raid Level : 6
Capacity : 5039.9GB

Create Volume From Raid Set

Stripe Size : 64K

Raid Set # 00

SCSI Channel : 0
SCSI ID : 0
SCSI LUN : 1
Cache Mode : Write Back
Write Protect : Disabled

Tag Queuing : Enabled

Tag Queuing : Enabled

3.7.3.2 Create Raid30/50/60 (Volume Set

30/50/60)

To create 30/50/60 volume set from RAID set group, move
the cursor bar to the main menu and click on the “Create Raid
30/50/60” link. The “Select The Raid Set To Create Volume On
It” screen will show all RAID set number. Tick on the RAID set
numbers (same number of disk per RAID set) that you want to
create and then click on it.

The created new volume set attribute option allows users to
select the Volume Name, Capacity, Raid Level, Strip Size, SCSI
ID/LUN, Cache Mode, Write protect and Tagged Command
Queuing. The detailed description of those parameters can refer
to section 3.7.3.1. User can modify the default values in this

screen; the modication procedures are in section 3.7.3.4.

69

BIOS CONFIGURATION

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

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

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Volume Set Functions

Create Raid 30/50/60 Free(Capacity)

Create Volume Set

Create Raid30/50/60

Creat Raid30/50/60

[*] Raid Set # 000 3000.0GB (3000.0GB)

[*] Raid Set # 000 3000.0GB (3000.0GB)

Delete Volume Set

[*] Raid Set # 001 1000.0GB (8000.0GB)

Modify Volume Set

[ ] Raid Set # 003 150.0GB ( 240.0GB)

Check Volume Set

[ ] Raid Set # 004 150.0GB ( 240.0GB)

Stop Volume Check

[ ] Raid Set # 005 150.0GB ( 240.0GB)

Display Volume Info.

[ ] Raid Set # 006 150.0GB ( 240.0GB)
[ ] Raid Set # 007 150.0GB ( 240.0GB)

Note:

Raid Level 30 50 and 60 can support up to eight RAID sets
(four pairs).

3.7.3.3 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 the Enter key to delete
it.

70

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

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

Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Volume Set Functions

Create Volume Set
Create Raid30/50/60

Delete Volume Set

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

Select Volume To Delete

ARC-1883-VOL#004 (Raid 30/50/60 Vol)

ARC-1883-VOL#009 (Raid 30/50/60 Vol)
ARC-1883-VOL#014 (Raid 30/50/60 Vol)
ARC-1883-VOL#002 (Raid Set # 001)
ARC-1883-VOL#003 (Raid Set # 002)

Delete Volume Set

Yes

No

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.3.4 Modify Volume Set

Use this option to modify volume set conguration. To modify

volume set values from RAID set system function, move the
cursor bar to 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. But user can only modify the last volume set
capacity.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Volume Set Functions

Create Volume Set
Create Raid30/50/60
Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Modify Volume Set
Check Volume Set
Stop Volume Check
Display Volume Info.

Volume Modication

Volume Set Name : ARC-1883-VOL # 000
Raid Level : 1+0

Select Volume To Modify

Capacity : 100.0GB
Stripe Size : 64K

ARC-1880-VOL#004 (Raid 30/50/60 Vol)

SCSI Channel : 0

ARC-1880-VOL#009 (Raid 30/50/60 Vol)

SCSI ID : 0

ARC-1880-VOL#014 (Raid 30/50/60 Vol)

SCSI LUN : 0

ARC-1880-VOL#002 (Raid Set # 001)

Cache Mode : Write-Back

ARC-1880-VOL#003 (Raid Set # 002)

Write Protect : Disabled
Tag Queuing : Enabled

3.7.3.4.1 Volume Growth

Use “Expand Raid Set” function to add disk to a RAID set. The

additional capacity can be used to enlarge the last volume set
size or to create another volume set. The “Modify Volume Set”

function can support the “Volume Modication” function. To
expand the last volume set capacity, move the cursor bar to
the “Capacity” item and entry the capacity size. When nished

the above action, press the ESC key and select the Yes option

to complete the action. The last volume set starts to expand its

capacity.

71

BIOS CONFIGURATION

To expand an existing volume noticed:

• Only the last volume can expand capacity.

• When expand volume capacity, you can’t modify stripe size or

modify RAID revel simultaneously.

• You can expand volume capacity, but can’t reduce volume
capacity size.

• After volume expansion, the volume capacity can not be
decreased.

For greater 2TB expansion:

• If your system installed in the volume, don't expand the
volume capacity greater 2TB, currently OS can’t support boot
up from a greater 2TB capacity device.

• Expand over 2TB used 64bit LBA mode. Please make sure
your OS supports 64bit LBA before expand it.

3.7.3.4.2 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 state is displayed in the
volume state area of the “Volume Set Information” screen.

72

Note:

Power failure may damage the migration data. Please
backup the RAID data before you start the migration func­tion.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.3.5 Check Volume Set

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, move
the cursor bar to 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 En-
ter key to select it. After completed the selection, the conrma-
tion screen appears, press Yes to start the check.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

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

Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Volume Set Functions

Create Volume Set
Create Raid30/50/60
Delete Volume Set
Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

Check Volume Set
Stop Volume Check
Display Volume Info.

Select Volume To Check

ARC-1883-VOL#004 (Raid 30/50/60 Vol)

ARC-1883-VOL#009 (Raid 30/50/60 Vol)
ARC-1883-VOL#014 (Raid 30/50/60 Vol)
ARC-1883-VOL#002 (Raid Set # 001)
ARC-1883-VOL#003 (Raid Set # 002)

Check The Volume ?

Yes

No

3.7.3.6 Stop Volume Check

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

3.7.3.7 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” screen will be shown. You can only
view the information of this volume set in this screen, but can
not modify it.

73

BIOS CONFIGURATION

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

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

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Volume Set Functions

Create Volume Set
Create Raid30/50/60
Delete Volume Set
Modify Volume Set
Check Volume Set
Stop Volume Check
Display Volume Info.

Display Volume Info.

The Volume Set Information

Volume Set Name : ARC-1883-VOL # 004
Raid Set Name : Raid Set # 02
Volume Capacity : 1200.0GB
Volume State : Migration

ARC-1880-VOL#004 (Raid 30/50/60 Vol)

ARC-1880-VOL#009 (Raid 30/50/60 Vol)

SCSI CH/ID/Lun : 0/0/4

VOL#003R30Vo14-1(Raid Set # 002)

Raid Level : 5

VOL#003R30Vo14-2(Raid Set # 003)

Stripe Size : 64K

VOL#003R30Vo14-3(Raid Set # 004)

Block Size : 512 Bytes
Member Disk : 5
Cache Attribute : Write-Back
Write Protect : Disabled
Tag Queuing : Enabled

Select Volume To Display

3.7.4 Physical Drives

Choose this option from the main menu to select a physical disk
and perform the operations listed above. Move the cursor bar to
an item, then press Enter key to select the desired function.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

74

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.4.1 View Drive Information

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

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

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

3.7.4.2 Create Pass-Through Disk

A pass-through disk is not controlled by the SAS 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 SAS RAID controller rmware.

The SCSI Channel/SCSI ID/SCSI LUN, Write Protect, Cache

Mode, and Tag Queuing must be specied to create a

pass-through disk.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function

Physical Drive Information

Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Select The Drive

Physical Drive Information

Physical Drives

E#1Solt#02 : 500.1GB : RaidSet Member: HDS725050KLA360

E#1Solt#2 : 500.1GB : HDS725050KLA360

Raid System Function

E#1Solt#03 : 500.1GB : RaidSet Member: ST3500630NS

More System Functions

E#1Solt#04 : 400.1GB : RaidSet Member: Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Hdd Power Management

E#1Solt#05 : 400.1GB : RaidSet Member: Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Ethernet Conguration

E#1Solt#06 : 400.1GB : RaidSet Member: Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Alert By Mail Cong

E#1Solt#07 : 500.1GB : RaidSet Member: HDS725050KL360

View System Events

E#1Solt#08 : 500.1GB : RaidSet Member: ST3500630NS

Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Physical Drive Function

Select The Drive

View Drive Information

E#1Solt#7 : 500.1GB : Free : HDS725050KLA360

Create Pass-Through

E#1Solt#2 : 500.1GB : Up..360

Modify Pass-Through Disk

E#1Solt#8 : 500.1GB : Free : ST3500630NS

Delete Pass-Through Disk

E#1Solt#9 : 400.1GB : Free : Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Identify Selected Drive

E#1Solt#10 : 400.1GB : Free : Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Identify Enclosure

E#1Solt#11 : 400.1GB : Free : Hitachi HDT725040VLA360
E#1Solt#12 : 500.1GB : Free : HDS725050KL360

E#2 Solt# - SAS

Model Name : ST380013AS
Serial Number : 5JV944ZF
Firmware Rev. : A600
Disk Capacity : 80.0 GB
Current SAS : 3G
Supported SAS : 3G
Device State : RaidSet Member
Timeout Count : 0
Media Errors : 0
Rotation Speed : 15015
SMART State : O.K.

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Pass-Through Disk Attribute

SCSI Channel : 0

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

Create Pass-Through

Yes

No

75

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.4.3 Modify Pass-Through Disk

Use this option to modify “Pass-Through Disk Attributes”. To
select and modify a pass-through disk from the pool of pass­through disks, move the “Modify Pass-Through Drive” option and
then press the Enter key. The “Physical Drive Function” menu
will show all pass-through drive number options. Move the
cursor bar to the desired number 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.

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 “Delete Pass-Through Drive” item,
then press the Enter key. The “Delete Pass-Through conrma-
tion” screen will appear; select Yes to delete it.

76

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function

Physical Drive Information

Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Physical Drive Function

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

Delete Pass-Through

Identify Selected Drive
Identify Enclosure

Delete Pass-Through

Select The Drive

E#1Slot#2 : 500.1GB Pass Through HDS725050KL360

Are you Sure?

Yes

Yes

No

No

3.7.4.5 Set Disk To Be Failed

It sets a normal working disk as “failed” so that users can test
some of the features and functions.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Physical Drive Function

View Drive Information
Create Pass-Through Disk
Modify Pass-Through Disk
Delete Pass-Through Disk
Set Disk To Be Failed

Set Disk To Be Failed

Activate Failed Disk
Identify Selected Drive
Identify Enclosure

Delete Pass-Through

Select The Drive

E#1Slot#2 : 500.1GB Pass Through HDS725050KL360

Are you Sure?

Yes

Yes

No

No

3.7.4.6 Activate Failed Disk

It forces the current “failed” disk in the system to be back on­line. “Activate Failed Disk” function has no effect on the removed
disks, because a “removed” disk does not give the controller a
chance to mark it as “failure”.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Physical Drive Function

View Drive Information
Create Pass-Through Disk
Modify Pass-Through Disk
Delete Pass-Through Disk
Set Disk To Be Failed

Activate Failed Disk

Activate Failed Disk
Identify Selected Drive
Identify Enclosure

Delete Pass-Through

Select The Drive

E#1Slot#2 : 500.1GB Pass Through HDS725050KL360

Are you Sure?

Yes

Yes

No

No

3.7.4.7 Identify Selected Drive

To prevent removing the wrong drive, the selected disk fault LED
indicator will light for physically locating the selected disk when
the “Identify Selected Device” is selected.

77

BIOS CONFIGURATION

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup
Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function

Physical Drive Information

Physical Drives
Raid System Function
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Physical Drive function

Select The Drive

E#1Solt#02 : 500.1GB : RaidSet Member: HDS725050KLA360

View Drive Information

E#1Solt#2 : 500.1GB : HDS725050KLA360

Create Pass-Through Disk

E#1Solt#03 : 500.1GB : RaidSet Member: ST3500630NS

Modify Pass-Through Disk

E#1Solt#04 : 400.1GB : RaidSet Member: Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Delete Pass-Through Disk

E#1Solt#05 : 400.1GB : RaidSet Member: Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Identify Selected Drive

Identify Selected Drive

E#1Solt#06 : 400.1GB : RaidSet Member: Hitachi HDT725040VLA360

Identify Enclosure

E#1Solt#07 : 500.1GB : RaidSet Member: HDS725050KL360
E#1Solt#08 : 500.1GB : RaidSet Member: ST3500630NS

Please Check The Device’s LED

3.7.4.8 Identify Enclosure

To prevent removing the wrong enclosure, the selected Areca

expander enclosure all disks fault LED indicator will light for

physically locating the selected enclosure when the “Identify
Enclosure” is selected. This function will also light the enclosure

LED indicator, if it is existed.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function

Physical Drive Information

Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Physical Drive Function

View Drive Information
Create Pass-Through Disk
Modify Pass-Through Disk
Delete Pass-Through Disk
Set Disk To Be Failed
Activate Failed Disk
Identify Selected Drive

Identify Enclosure

Identify Enclosure

Select The Enclosure

Enclosure#1 : ARECA SAS RAID Adapter V1.0

Enclosure#2 : Areca x28-05.75.1.37 000
Enclosure#3 : Areca x28-05.75.1.37 000
Enclosure#4 : Areca x28-05.75.1.37 000
Enclosure#5 : Areca x28-05.75.1.37 000

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
multiple items. Move the cursor bar to an item, and then press
Enter key to select the desired function.

78

BIOS CONFIGURATION

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

3.7.5.1 Mute The Alert Beeper

The “Mute The Alert Beeper” function item is used to control the
SAS 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.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid System Function

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
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper

Mute The Alert Beeper
Alert Beeper Setting
Change Password
JBOD/RAID Function
Background Task Priority
SATA NCQ Support
HDD Read Ahead Cache
Volume Data Read Ahead
Hdd Queue Depth Setting
Empty HDD Slot LED
Controller Fan Detection
Auto Activate Raid Set
Disk Write Cache Mode
Write Same Support
Capacity Truncation

Mute Alert Beeper

Yes

No

3.7.5.2 Alert Beeper Setting

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

79

BIOS CONFIGURATION

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

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

Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper

Alert Beeper Setting

Alert Beeper Setting
Change Password
JBOD/RAID Function
Background Task Priority
SATA NCQ Support
HDD Read Ahead Cache
Volume Data Read Ahead
Hdd Queue Depth Setting
Empty HDD Slot LED
Controller Fan Detection
Auto Activate Raid Set
Disk Write Cache Mode
Write Same Support
Capacity Truncation

Alert Beeper Setting

Disabled

Enabled

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 cor­rect 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 5 minutes. 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. Do not use spaces when you enter
the password, If spaces are used, it will lock out the user. To dis­able the password, only press Enter key 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.

80

BIOS CONFIGURATION

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper
Alert Beeper Setting
Change Password

Change Password

JBOD/RAID Function
Background Task Priority
SATA NCQ Support
HDD Read Ahead Cache
Volume Data Read Ahead
Hdd Queue Depth Setting
Empty HDD Slot LED
Controller Fan Detection
Auto Activate Raid Set
Disk Write Cache Mode
Write Same Support
Capacity Truncation

Enter New Password

3.7.5.4 JBOD/RAID Function

JBOD is an acronym for “Just a Bunch Of Disk”. A group of hard

disks in a RAID box are not set up as any type of RAID congur-

ation. All drives are available to the operating system as an
individual disk. JBOD does not provide data redundancy. User
needs to delete the RAID set, when you want to change the
option from the RAID to the JBOD function.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

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

JBOD/RAID Function
Background Task Priority
SATA NCQ Support
HDD Read Ahead Cache
Volume Data Read Ahead
Hdd Queue Depth Setting
Empty HDD Slot LED
Controller Fan Detection
Auto Activate Raid Set
Disk Write Cache Mode
Write Same Support
Capacity Truncation

JBOD/RAID Function

RAID

JBOD

81

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
SAS RAID controller allows the user to choose the rebuild prior­ity (UltraLow, Low, Normal, High) to balance volume set access
and rebuild tasks appropriately.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

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

Background Task Priority
SATA NCQ Support
HDD Read Ahead Cache
Volume Data Read Ahead
Hdd Queue Depth Setting
Empty HDD Slot LED
Controller Fan Detection
Auto Activate Raid Set
Disk Write Cache Mode
Write Same Support
Capacity Truncation

Background Task Priority

UltraLow(5%)

Low(20%)

Medium(50%)
High(80%)

3.7.5.6 SATA NCQ Support

RAID controller supports both SAS and SATA disk drives. The
SATA NCQ 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 dynami­cally rescheduled or re-ordered, along with the necessary track­ing mechanisms for outstanding and completed portions of the
workload. The SAS RAID controller allows the user to select the
SATA NCQ support: “Enabled” or “Disabled”.

82

BIOS CONFIGURATION

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

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

SATA NCQ Support

SATA NCQ Support
HDD Read Ahead Cache
Volume Data Read Ahead
Hdd Queue Depth Setting
Empty HDD Slot LED
Controller Fan Detection
Auto Activate Raid Set
Disk Write Cache Mode
Write Same Support
Capacity Truncation

SATA NCQ Support

Enabled

Disabled

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.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

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
SATA NCQ Support

HDD Read Ahead Cache

HDD Read Ahead Cache
Volume Data Read Ahead
Hdd Queue Depth Setting
Empty HDD Slot LED
Controller Fan Detection
Auto Activate Raid Set
Disk Write Cache Mode
Write Same Support
Capacity Truncation

HDD Read Ahead Cache

Enabled

Enabled
Disable Maxtor
Disabled

83

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.5.8 Volume Data Read Ahead

The volume read data ahead parameter species the controller
rmware algorithms which process the read ahead data blocks
from the disk. The "Data Read Ahead" parameter is normal by
default. To modify the value, you must set it from the "Raid
System Function" using the 'Volume Data Read Ahead" option.
The default "Normal" option satises the performance require­ments for a typical volume. The "Disabled" value implies no read
ahead. The most efcient value for the controllers depends on
your application. The "Aggressive" value is optimal for sequential

access but it degrades random access.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

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

Raid System Function

Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

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
SATA NCQ Support
HDD Read Ahead Cache

Volume Data Read Ahead

Volume Data Read Ahead
Hdd Queue Depth Setting
Empty HDD Slot LED
Controller Fan Detection
Auto Activate Raid Set
Disk Write Cache Mode
Write Same Support
Capacity Truncation

Volume Data Read Ahead

Normal

Enabled
Aggressive
Conservative
Disabled

3.7.5.9 Hdd Queue Depth Setting

This parameter is adjusted the queue depth capacity of NCQ
(SAS HDD) or Tagged Command Queuing (SAS HDD) which
transmits multiple commands to a single target without waiting
for the initial command to complete.

84

BIOS CONFIGURATION

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

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
SATA NCQ Support
HDD Read Ahead Cache
Volume Data Read Ahead

Hdd Queue Depth Setting

Hdd Queue Depth Setting
Empty HDD Slot LED
Controller Fan Detection
Auto Activate Raid Set
Disk Write Cache Mode
Write Same Support
Capacity Truncation

HDD Queue Depth

1
2
4
8

16

16
32

3.7.5.10 Empty HDD Slot LED

The rmware has added the "Empty HDD Slot LED" option to
setup the fault LED light "ON "or "OFF" when there is no HDD

installed. When each slot has a power LED for the HDD installed

identify, user can set this option to "OFF". Choose option "ON",

the SAS RAID controller will light the fault LED; if no HDD

installed.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

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
SATA NCQ Support
HDD Read Ahead Cache
Volume Data Read Ahead
Hdd Queue Depth Setting

Empty HDD Slot LED

Empty HDD Slot LED
Controller Fan Detection
Auto Activate Raid Set
Disk Write Cache Mode
Write Same Support
Capacity Truncation

Empty Slot Led

ON

ON

OFF

85

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.5.11 Controller Fan Detection

The ARC-1883ix series incorporate one big passive heatsink at­taching a active cooling fan that allows the hot devices such as a

ROC and expander chip to keep cool. In addition, newer systems
already have enough air ow blowing over the controller. If the

systems have provided enough adequate cooling for ROC and

expander chip, user can remove the attaching fan on the big

passive heat sink.

The “Controller Fan Detection” function is available in the rm­ware for detecting the cooling fan function on the ROC which
uses the active cooling fan. When using the passive heatsink
on the controller, disable the “Controller Fan Detection” func­tion through this McBIOS RAID manager setting. The following
screen shot shows how to change the McBIOS RAID manager
setting to disable the warning beeper function.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

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
SATA NCQ Support
HDD Read Ahead Cache
Volume Data Read Ahead
Hdd Queue Depth Setting
Empty HDD Slot LED
Controller Fan Detection

Controller Fan Dectection

Auto Activate Raid Set
Disk Write Cache Mode
Write Same Support
Capacity Truncation

Controller Fan Detection

Enabled

Disabled

3.7.5.12 Auto Activate Raid Set

When some of the disk drives are removed in power off state
or boot up stage, the RAID set state will change to “Incomplete
State”. But if a user wants to automatically continue to work
while the SAS RAID controller is powered on, then user can set
the “Auto Activate Raid Set” option to “Enabled”. The RAID state
will change to “Degraded Mode” while it powers on.

86

BIOS CONFIGURATION

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

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
SATA NCQ Support
HDD Read Ahead Cache
Volume Data Read Ahead
Hdd Queue Depth Setting
Empty HDD Slot LED
Controller Fan Detection

Auto Activate Raid Set

Auto Activate Raid Set
Disk Write Cache Mode
Write Same Support
Capacity Truncation

Auto Activate Raid When Power on

Disabled

Enabled

3.7.5.13 Disk Write Cache Mode

User can set the “Disk Write Cache Mode” to Auto, Enabled, or
Disabled. “Enabled” increases speed, “Disabled” increases reli­ability.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

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
SATA NCQ Support
HDD Read Ahead Cache
Volume Data Read Ahead
Hdd Queue Depth Setting
Empty HDD Slot LED
Controller Fan Detection
Auto Activate Raid Set
Disk Write Cache Mode

Disk Write Cache Mode

Write Same Support
Capacity Truncation

Auto

Disk Write Cache Mode

Auto

Disabled

Enabled

3.7.5.14 Write Same Support

Drives that support the Write Same feature (SCT) can write to
multiple drive sectors at once, improving initialization time. To
take advantage of this feature, all the drives in the unit must
support Write Same. User can set the “SAS And SATA”, “SAS
Only”, “SATA Only” or “Disabled” for the controller initialization.

87

BIOS CONFIGURATION

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

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
SATA NCQ Support
HDD Read Ahead Cache
Volume Data Read Ahead
Hdd Queue Depth Setting
Empty HDD Slot LED
Controller Fan Detection
Auto Activate Raid Set
Disk Write Cache Mode

Write Same Support

Write Same Support
Capacity Truncation

Write Same Support

SAS And SATA

SAS Only

SAS Only

SATA Only

Disabled

3.7.5.15 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 capac­ity 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 Disabled.

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. “Mul­tiples Of 10G” truncates the number under tens. This makes the
same capacity for both of these drives so that one could replace
the other.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

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
SATA NCQ Support
HDD Read Ahead Cache
Volume Data Read Ahead
Hdd Queue Depth Setting
Empty HDD Slot LED
Controller Fan Detection
Auto Activate Raid Set
Disk Write Cache Mode
Write Same Support
Capacity Truncation

Capacity Truncation

Truncate Disk Capacity

To Multiples of 10G
To Multiples of 1G

To Multiples of 1G

Disabled

88

BIOS CONFIGURATION

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.
“Multiples Of 1G” truncates the fractional part. This makes the
same capacity for both of these drives so that one could replace
the other.

Disabled: It does not truncate the capacity.

3.7.6 More System Functions

To set the “More System Functions”, move the cursor bar to the
main menu and select the “More System Functions” item and then
press Enter key. The “More System Functions” menu will show
multiple items. Move the cursor bar to an item, then press Enter
key to select the desired function.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

More System Functions

More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

3.7.6.1 Smart Option For HDD

This option is used to increases the reliability of SSDs/HDDs by
automatically copying data from a drive with potential to fail to
a designated hot spare or newly inserted drive. The options are:

“Failed The Drive”, “Failed The Drive If Hot Spare Exist”, and

“Alert Only”. The default is “Alert Only”.

“Failed The Drive”- controllers kill off the SMART fail drive imme­diately.

“Failed The Drive If Hot Spare Exist” – controllers kill off the
SMART fail disk if hot spare dive is existed.

89

BIOS CONFIGURATION

“Alert Only” – it will trigger alert when there happens a SMART

fail drive.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

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

3.7.6.2 Smart Polling Interval

Besides the scheduled volume check, user can dene the Smart

Pulling Interval to pull the SMART status of each disk. The de­fault is “on demand”.

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function

More System Functions

More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

More System Functions

Smart Option For HDD

Smart Option For HDD
Smart Polling Interval
Hot Plugged Disk For Rebuilding

90

User can schedule every certain period of time interval to pull

the SMART status of each disk. When SMART pulling is executed,

disk activity will be temporally halted until the SMART parameter
reading is nished. That is why you don’t want to set the Inter­val too frequent. What to use is up to the users to decide based

on their applications and experiment results.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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

More System Functions

More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

More System Functions

Smart Option For HDD

Smart Polling Interval

Smart Polling Interval
Hot Plugged Disk For Rebuilding

Smart Polling Interval

On Demand

On Demand
30 Seconds
1 Minute
5 Minutes
10 Minutes
20 Minutes
30 Minutes
1 Hour
2 Hours
3 Hours
6 Hours
12 Hours

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.6.3 Hot Plugged Disk For Rebuilding

It denes if the RAID array volume should start rebuilding or

not when detects a disk is inserted/re-inserted during online.
The options are: “Blank Disk Only”, “Always”, and “Disable”. The
default is “Blank Disk Only”.

“Blank Disk Only”-it will trigger the rebuilding if and only if the
inserted disk has not been in the RAID array before, which has
no RAID signature on it. So when a previously removed disk is
self re-inserted, it won’t trigger the degraded RAID array to re­build, and so that the administrator has a chance to identify this
mis-behaving disk and replaces it.

“Always” – it is what it was before. Whenever a disk is inserted/
re-inserted whether new or previously existed, it always trigger

a rebuilding for the Degraded RAID set/Volume.

“Disable” – it will not trigger rebuilding regardless what sort of

disk plugging in.When “Disable” and/or “Blank Disk Only” is se-

lected, the re-inserted/previously removed disk will be identied
as a disk in a separate RAID set with duplicated RAIDset#

and with all the rest of RAID members missing.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function

More System Functions

More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

More System Functions

Smart Option For HDD
Smart Polling Interval

Hot Plugged Disk For Rebuilding

Hot Plugged Disk For Rebuilding

Hot Plugged Disk For Rebuilding

Blank Disk Only

Blank Disk Only
Always
Disabled

91

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.7 HDD Power Management

Areca has automated the ability to manage HDD power based
on usage patterns. The “HDD Power Management” allows you to
choose a “Stagger Power On Control”, “Low Power Idle”, “Low
RPM” and completely “Spins Down Idle HDD”. It is designed to
reduce power consumption and heat generation on idle drives.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

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

Hdd Power Management

Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

3.7.7.1 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. The SAS/SATA drives
have support stagger spin-up capabilities to boost reliability.
Stagger 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.

92

BIOS CONFIGURATION

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 0.4 to 6 seconds per step which
powers up one group of drives.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup
Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Hdd Power Management

Stagger Power On

Stagger Power On
Time To Low Power Idle
Time To Low RPM Mode
Time To Spin Down Hdd

Stagger Power On

0.4

0.7

1.0

1.5
.
.

6.0

3.7.7.2 Time to Hdd Low Power Idle

This option delivers lower power consumption by automatically
unloading recording heads during the setting idle time. The val­ues can be selected “Disabled” or within the range 2 to 7 min­utes.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

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

Hdd Power Management

Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Hdd Power Management

Stagger Power On

Time To Low Power Idle

Time To Low Power Idle
Time To Low RPM Mode
Time To Spin Down Hdd

Low Power Idle

Disabled

Disabled
2
3
4
5
6
7

93

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.7.3 Time To Low RPM Mode

This function can automatically spin disks at lower RPM if there
have not been used during the setting idle time. The values can
be selected “Disabled” or within the range 10 to 60 minutes.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

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

Hdd Power Management

Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Hdd Power Management

Stagger Power On
Time To Low Power Idle

Time To Low RPM Mode

Time To Low RPM Mode
Time To Spin Down Hdd

Low RPM Mode

Disabled

Disabled
10
20
30
40
50
60

3.7.7.4 Time To Spin Down Idle Hdd

This function can automatically spin down the drive if it hasn’t
been accessed for a certain amount of time. This value is used
by the drive to determine how long to wait (with no disk activity,
before turning off the spindle motor to save power). The values
can be selected “Disabled” or within the range 1 to 60 minutes.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

94

Main Menu

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

Hdd Power Management

Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Hdd Power Management

Stagger Power On
Time To Low Power Idle
Time To Low RPM Mode
Time To Spin Down Hdd

Time To Spin Down Hdd

Spin Down Hdd

Disabled

Disabled
1
3
5
10
15
20
30
40
60

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.8 Ethernet Conguration

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.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 an item, and then press
Enter key to select the desired function.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup
Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

3.7.8.1 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

work necessary to administer a large IP network. To manually

congure the IP address of the controller, 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 neces-

95

BIOS CONFIGURATION

sary to manually enter a static IP address that does not conict

with other devices on the network.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup
Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Ethernet Conguration

DHCP Function : Enable

DHCP Function : Enable

Local IP Address : 192.168.001.100
HTTP Port Number : 80
Telent Port Number : 23
SMTP Port Number : 25
EtherNet Address : 00. 04. D9.7F .FF. FF

Select DHCP Setting

Disabled

Enabled

3.7.8.2 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 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.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup
Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Ethernet Conguration

DHCP Function : Enable

Local IP Address : 192.168.001.100

Local IP Address : 192.168.001.100
HTTP Port Number : 80
Telent Port Number : 23
SMTP Port Number : 25
EtherNet Address : 00. 04. D9.7F .FF. FF

Edit The Local IP Address

1

92.168.001.100

96

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.8.3 HTTP Port Number

To manually congure the “HTTP Port Number” of the controller,

move the cursor bar to “HTTP Port Number” item, then press the
Enter key to show the default address setting in the RAID con­troller. Then You can reassign the default “HTTP Port Number” of
the controller.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup
Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Ethernet Conguration

DHCP Function : Enable
Local IP Address : 192.168.001.100

HTTP Port Number : 80

HTTP Port Number : 80
Telnet Port Number : 23
SMTP Port Number : 25
EtherNet Address : 00. 04. D9.7F .FF. FF

Edit The HTTP Port Number

0

0080

3.7.8.4 Telnet Port Number

To manually congure the “Telnet Port Number” of the controller,

move the cursor bar to “Telnet Port Number” item, then press
the Enter key to show the default address setting in the RAID
controller. You can then reassign the default “Telnet Port Num­ber” of the controller.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup
Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Ethernet Conguration

DHCP Function : Enable
Local IP Address : 192.168.001.100
HTTP Port Number : 80

Telnet Port Number : 23

Telent Port Number : 23
SMTP Port Number : 25
EtherNet Address : 00. 04. D9.7F .FF. FF

Edit The Telent Port Number

0

0023

97

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.8.5 SMTP Port Number

To manually congure the “SMTP Port Number” of the control­ler, move the cursor bar to the main menu “Ethernet Congu-

ration” function item and then press Enter key. The “Ethernet

Conguration” menu appears on the screen. Move the cursor

bar to “SMTP Port Number” item, then press Enter key to show
the default address setting in the RAID controller. You can then
reassign the default “SMTP Port Number” of the controller.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup
Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration

Ethernet Conguration

Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Ethernet Conguration

DHCP Function : Enable
Local IP Address : 192.168.001.100
HTTP Port Number : 80
Telnet Port Number : 23

SMTP Port Number : 25

SMTP Port Number : 25
EtherNet Address : 00. 04. D9.7F .FF. FF

Edit The SMTP Port Number

0

0025

3.7.8.6 Ethernet Address

Each Ethernet port has its unique Mac address, which is also
factory assigned. Usually, Ethernet address is used to uniquely
identify a port in the Ethernet network.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): 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
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Ethernet Conguration

DHCP Function : Enable
Local IP Address : 192.168.001.100
HTTP Port Number : 80
Telnet Port Number : 23
SMTP Port Number : 25

EtherNet Address : 00.04.D9.7F.FF.FF

EtherNet Address : 00.04.D9.7F.FF.FF

98

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.9 Alert By Mail Cong

To congure the 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller e-mail function, move

the cursor bar to the main menu and click on the “Alert By Mail

Cong” link. The “Alert By Mail Cong” menu will show all items.
Move the cursor bar to the “Alert By Mail Cong” item, then select

the desired function.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration

Alert By Mail Cong

Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

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

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Alert By Mail Cong

SMTP Server IP Addr : 000.000.000.000

SMTP Server IP Addr : 000.000.000.000
Mail Sender Name :
Mail Sender Address :
Mail Account :
Mail Account Passwd :

EventNotication1 : Enter
EventNotication2 : Enter
EventNotication3 : Enter
EventNotication4 : Enter

3.7.10 View System Events

To view the SAS RAID controller’s system events information,
move the cursor bar to the main menu and select the “View Sys­tem Events” link, then press the Enter key. The SAS RAID con­troller’s events screen appear.

Choose this option to view the system events information: Timer,
Device, Event type, Elapsed Time, and Errors. The RAID controller
does not have a build-in real time clock. The time information is
the relative time from the SAS RAID controller powered on.

99

BIOS CONFIGURATION

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Time Device Event Type ElapseTime Errors

2010-4-8 12:00:00 ARC-1883-VO#001 Raid Powered On
2010-4-8 12:00:00 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2010-4-8 12:00:00 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2010-4-7 12:00:00 RS232 Terminal VT100 Log In
2010-4-7 12:00:00 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On
2010-4-7 12:00:00 ARC-1883-VO#001 Start Initialize

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
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration

View System Function

View System Events
Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

3.7.11 Clear Events Buffer

Use this feature to clear the entire events buffer.

I/O Port Addr : 28000000h, F2(Tab): Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup
Raid Set Function
Volume Set Function
Physical Drives
Raid System Function
More System Functions
Hdd Power Management

Ethernet Conguration
Alert By Mail Cong

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Clear Event Buffer
Hardware Monitor
System information

Clear Event Buffer?

Yes

No

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

3.7.12 Hardware Monitor

To view the RAID controller’s hardware monitor information, move
the cursor bar to the main menu and click on the “Hardware
Monitor” link. The “Controller H/W Monitor” screen appears. The
“Controller H/W Monitor” provides the CPU temperature, control­ler temperature and voltage of the SAS RAID controller.

100