Asrock ALIVENF6G-DVI, ALIVENF5-VSTA, ALIVENF6G-VSTA, 939NF6G-VSTA, ALIVENF7G-HD720P R3.0 User Manual

NVIDIA RAID Installation Guide

1. NVIDIA BIOS RAID Installation Guide ……………….. 2

1.1 Introduction to RAID ……………………………………. 2

1.2 RAID Configurations Precautions …………………….. 3

1.3 Create Disk Array ………………………………………. 4

2. NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide ……………….. 8

2.1 NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide for Windows
2000 / XP / XP 64-bit Users …………………………… 8

2.2 NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide for Windows
Vista / Vista 64-bit Users ……………………………… 18

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1. NVIDIA BIOS RAID Installation Guide

NVIDIA BIOS RAID Installation Guide is an instruction for you to configure RAID

functions by using NVIDIA RAID Utility under BIOS environment. After you make a

SATA / SATAII driver diskette, press <F2> to enter BIOS setup to set the option to

RAID mode by following the detailed instruction of the “User Manual” in our support CD

or “Quick Installation Guide”, you can start to use NVIDIA RAID Utility to configure

RAID.

This section includes examples of using NVRAID RAID Utility for creating RAID arrays.

If your motherboard is equipped with two SATA / SATAII ports, you may choose to use

RAID 0, RAID 1, or JBOD function with your motherboard. If your motherboard is

equipped with four SATA / SATAII ports, you may choose to use RAID 0, RAID 1,

RAID 0+1, JBOD, or RAID 5 function with your motherboard according to the SATA /

SATAII HDDs amount you install. Please refer to the RAID functions your motherboard

provides in advance and follow the instruction in this section to create RAID arrays.

NOTE:

The connector naming on our motherboard is different with NVIDIA utility naming. Please refer to the below table for

detailed information.

SATAII_1 (port 1.0) --> Means controller 1 's first port.

SATAII_2 (port 1.1) --> Means controller 1 's second port.

SATAII_3 (port 2.0) --> Means controller 2 's first port.

SATAII_4 (port 2.1) --> Means controller 2 's second port.

1.1 Introduction to RAID

The term “RAID” stands for “Redundant Array of Independent Disks”, which is a

method combining two or more hard disk drives into one logical unit. For optimal

performance, please install identical drives of the same model and capacity when

creating a RAID set.

RAID 0 (Data Striping)

RAID 0 is called data striping that optimizes two identical hard disk drives to read and

write data in parallel, interleaved stacks. It will improve data access and storage since

it will double the data transfer rate of a single disk alone while the two hard disks

perform the same work as a single drive but at a sustained data transfer rate.

WARNING!!

Although RAID 0 function can improve the access performance, it does not provide any fault

tolerance. Hot-Plug any HDDs of the RAID 0 Disk will cause data damage or data loss.

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RAID 1 (Data Mirroring)

RAID 1 is called data mirroring that copies and maintains an identical image of data

from one drive to a second drive. It provides data protection and increases fault

tolerance to the entire system since the disk array management software will direct

all applications to the surviving drive as it contains a complete copy of the data in

the other drive if one drive fails.

RAID 0+1 (Stripe Mirroring)

RAID 0 drives can be mirrored using RAID 1 techniques, resulting in a RAID 0+1

solution for improved performance plus resiliency. The controller combines the

performance of data striping (RAID 0) and the fault tolerance of disk mirroring

(RAID 1). Data is striped across multiple drives and duplicated on another set of

drives.

JBOD (Spanning)

A spanning disk array is equal to the sum of all drives. Spanning stores data onto a

drive until it is full then proceeds to store files onto the next drive in the array. When

any member disk fails, it will affect the entire array. JBOD is not really a RAID, and it

does not support fault tolerance.

RAID 5

RAID 5 stripes both data and parity information across three or more hard disk drives.

Among the advantages of RAID 5configuration include better HDD performance, fault

tolerance, and higher storage capacity. The RAID 5 configuration is best suited for

transaction processing, relational database applications, enterprise resource planning,

and other business systems. Use a minimum of three identical hard disk drives for this

setup.

1.2 RAID Configurations Precautions

1. Please use two new drives if you are creating a RAID 0 (striping) array for

performance. It is recommended to use two SATA drives of the same size. If

you use two drives of different sizes, the smaller capacity hard disk will be

the base storage size for each drive. For example, if one hard disk has an

80GB storage capacity and the other hard disk has 60GB, the maximum

storage capacity for the 80GB-drive becomes 60GB, and the total storage

capacity for this RAID 0 set is 120GB.

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2. You may use two new drives, or use an existing drive and a new drive to

create a RAID 1 (mirroring) array for data protection (the new drive must be

of the same size or larger than the existing drive). If you use two drives of

different sizes, the smaller capacity hard disk will be the base storage size.

For example, if one hard disk has an 80GB storage capacity and the other

hard disk has 60GB, the maximum storage capacity for the RAID 1 set is

60GB.

3. Please verify the status of your hard disks before you set up your new RAID
array.

WARNING!!

Please backup your data first before you create RAID functions. In the process you

create RAID, the system will ask if you want to “Clear Disk Data” or not. It is

recommended to select “Yes”, and then your future data building will operate under a

clean environment.

1.3 Create Disk Array

Power on your system. After adjusting the system BIOS to RAID mode, the below

window appears.

After rebooting your computer, wait until you see the RAID software prompting you to

press <F10>. The RAID prompt appears as a part of the system POST and boot

process prior to loading the OS. You have a few seconds to press <F10> before the

window disappears.

After you press <F10>, the NVIDIA RAID Utility - Define a New Array window

appears. By default, RAID Mode is set to Mirroring, but please set it to Striping if you

want to create RAID 0. And the Striping Block is set to Optimal as default. We take

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RAID 0 for example to show you how to use NVRAID RAID Utility to create RAID 0

(Striping). If you plan to use NVRAID RAID Utility to create other RAID arrays, the

operation procedures are similar to the steps of creating RAID 0.

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Striping block size is given in kilobytes, and affect how data is arranged on the disk. It

is recommended to leave this value at the default Optimal, which is 64KB, but the

values can be between 8KB and 128KB (8, 16, 32, 64, and 128KB). Then, you have to

assign the disks. The disks that you enabled from the RAID Config BIOS setup page

appear in the Free Disks block. These are the drives that are available for use as RAID

array disk,

A. Tab to the Free Disks section. The first disk in the list is selected.

B. Move it from the Free Disks block to the Array Disks block by pressing the

right-arrow key.

C. Continue pressing the right-arrow key until all the disks that you want to use

as RAID array disks appear in the Array Disks block.

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After assigning your RAID array disks, press <F7> to save your changes of RAID array

disks.

Depending on the platform used, the system can have one or more channels. In a

typical system there is usually one adapter and multiple channels, and each channel

has a slave and a master. The adapter / channel / master / slave status of each hard

disk is given in the Loc (location) columns of the Free Disks and Array Disks lists. For

example:

1 . 0 . M

1: Channel - Typically, channel 0 is used for Parallel ATA drives while channel 1

is used for Serial ATA drives.

0: Controller
M: M means Master, S means Slave

Seri al ATA

1 . 0 . M Channel 1, controller 0, Master

1 . 1 . M Channel 1, controller 1, Master

Finally, the Array List window appears, where you can review the RAID arrays that

you have set up.

Healthy NVIDIA STRIPING 74.53G

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2. NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide

NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide is an instruction for you to configure RAID
functions by using NVIDIAMAN under Windows environment. Please read this guide
carefully and follow the instructions below to configure and manage RAID functions.
For Windows 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit and Windows Vista / Vista 64-bit, there are different
installation procedures. Please follow the instructions below according to the OS you
install.

2.1 NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide for Windows 2000 /

XP / XP 64-bit Users

A. Enter NVRAIDMAN

RAID driver is built in NVIDIA ALL in one driver provided in our support CD. After you

finish the driver installation, you can create, delete, or rebuild any RAID array. Please
enter NVRAIDMAN by clicking on Start → Programs → NVIDIA Corporation →
Mediashield → Mediashield. (There is also a “Mediashield” shortcut on the desktop.)

Then, the below screen appears.

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B. Creating RAID Arrays

This section includes examples of using NVRAIDMAN for creating RAID arrays. If your

motherboard is equipped with two SATA / SATAII ports, you may choose to use RAID

0, RAID 1, or JBOD function with your motherboard. If your motherboard is equipped

with four SATA / SATAII ports, you may choose to use RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1,

JBOD, or RAID 5 function with your motherboard according to the SATA / SATAII

HDDs amount you install. Please refer to the RAID functions your motherboard

provides in advance and follow the instruction in this section to create RAID arrays.

The RAID items which may be mentioned in this section are as below:

- RAID 0: Striping

- RAID 1: Mirroring

- RAID 0+1: Stripe Mirroring

- JBOD: Spanning

- RAID 5

In this section, we take RAID 0 for example to show you how to use NVRAIDMAN to

create RAID 0 (Striping). If you plan to use NVRAIDMAN to create other RAID arrays,

the operation procedures are similar to the steps of creating RAID 0. Please do the

following:

A. Go to the system BIOS and make sure that the drives that you want to use are

RAID enabled.

B. Boot to Windows and launch the NVRAIDMAN application.

C. Create Array and the following screen will appear.

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D. Click Next and the following screen shot will appear.

E. Click the RAID Mode list arrow and select Striping, and leave the “Stripe Size”

with its default value as shown in the following screen shot.

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F. Click Next, and the following screen shot will appear.

G. Select the two disks that you want to include in the stripe set.

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To create a striped array with more disks, select additional disks from the list.

H. Click Next and the following screen shot will appear.

I. Click Finish and the following screen shot will appear.

The RAID 0 is created successfully.

C. Initializing NVRAID Array Disks

Now that the two-disk array has been created, it needs to be partitioned and formatted.

A. Click on Start → Settings → Control Panel.

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B. Double click on Administrative Tools.
C. Double click on Computer Management.
D. Click on Disk Management. The following screen is displayed.

E. The 153.38 GB is for the two disk striped array that was created earlier. To create

a partition on it, right click on the Unallocated partition and select New Partition.

F. Follow the Wizard for setting up and formatting the partition. Once that is done,

you can start using the newly created stripped array.

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D. Deleting a RAID Array

NVRAIDMAN can be used to delete an Array. To delete an Array, please do the

following.

A. Launch the NVRAIDMAN application and right click on the RAID array that you

want to delete (assuming that you have a RAID array already created) as shown

in the following screen shot.

The above screen shot shows that there is a Mirrored array that will be deleted. After

the “Delete Array...” has been selected, the following screen shot appear.

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B. Click Next and the following screen shot will appear.

C. Click Finish and the array will be deleted and the following screen shot will appear

showing all the free disks.

A similar process can be applied to delete any array created by NVIDIA RAID.

E. Rebuilding a RAID Array

Rebuilding is the process of restoring data to a hard drive from other drives in the array.

This applies only to fault tolerant arrays such as RAID 1, RAID 0+1, as well as a RAID

5. For example, assuming you have a three disk RAID 5 array, and one of the drives

fail, then you need to replace the failed drive with a new one, and rebuild the array to

re-generate the lost data on the newly added drive. After creating a mirrored array, you

can rebuild the array using the following steps:

A. Go to Windows and run the NVIDIA RAID Management utility.

B. Right-click on Mirroring. Then the popup menu appears.

C. From the popup menu, click Rebuild Array. The NVIDIA Rebuild Array Wizard

appears.

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D. Click Next. The Disk Selection page appears.

E. Select the drive that you want to rebuild by clicking it from the list, then click Next.

The Completing the NVIDIA Rebuild Array page appears.

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F. Click Finish.

F. More About Rebuilding Arrays

Rebuilding Occurs in the Background

The rebuilding process takes some time to complete, and occurs in the background so

as not to affect the performance of the system.

Rebuilding Applies Only to RAID 1, RAID 0+1, or RAID 5 Arrays

Rebuilding an array works only when using RAID 1, RAID 0+1, or RAID 5. Rebuilding

does not apply to RAID 0 and JBOD arrays.

Rebuilding applies to a degraded fault tolerant array

You can rebuild a degraded mirrored array using any available Free Disk or Dedicated

Disk.

G. Synchronizing a RAID Array

Synchronizing an array will force a rebuild of redundancy or parity. The operation is

applicable to any fault tolerant array such as RAID 1, 0+1 and RAID 5. For RAID1 and

RAID 0+1, “sync” results in copying the data to the redundancy disk. For RAID 5,

“sync” results in rebuilding the parity. To sync an array, do the following (This example

assumes you have already created a fault tolerant array such as RAID 1):

A. Right click on “Mirroring” and select “Synchronize Array”. Then the Synchronize

Array Wizard Welcome screen appears.

B. Click on “Next” and then click “Finish” at the Wizard Completion screen. The

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NVRAIDMAN window indicates that the array is synchronizing.

C. The synchronization process will start and it will be completed in a short period of

time.

2.2 NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide for Windows Vista /

Vista 64-bit Users

A. Enter Storage

RAID driver is built in NVIDIA ALL in one driver provided in our support CD. After you

finish the driver installation, you can create, delete, or rebuild any RAID array. Please
enter Storage by clicking on Start → Programs → NVIDIA Corporation → Storage.

(There is also a “Storage” shortcut on the desktop.)

Then, the below screen appears.

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Click “Create array”. Then you can start to build up RAID.

B. Creating RAID Arrays

Click Next and the following screen shot will appear.

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Select a configuration that best suits your storage needs. It is recommended to select

“Custom”. Click Next.

Then, select the type of RAID array to create. You need to choose the RAID Mode first

and click Next. Here we take Striping (RAID 0) for example to show you how to use

Storage to create Striping (RAID 0). If you plan to use Storage to create other RAID

arrays, the operation procedures are similar to the steps of creating Striping (RAID 0).

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After you decide the RAID Mode, you are allowed to select the Stripe Size. The default

value of this item is 64K. Then click Next.

Select the disks to add to the new RAID array, and click Next.

Select the disk with data to preserve, and click Next.

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Click Next to confirm that you agree to use the default settings for RAID configurations.

Click Finish to complete the steps of creating RAID array.

C. Initializing NVRAID Array Disks

Now that the two-disk array has been created, it needs to be partitioned and formatted.
A. Click on Start → Settings → Control Panel.

B. Double click on Administrative Tools.
C. Double click on Computer Management.
D. Click on Disk Management. The following screen is displayed.

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Right-click on the unallocated partition and select New Simple Volume. Follow the

Wizard for setting up and formatting the partition. Once that is done, you can start

using the newly created stripped array.

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