Asrock X79 Extreme11, Z87 Extreme11/ac LSI Mega RAID Storage Manager Guide

Introduction

The MegaRAID® Storage Manager™ software enables you to configure, monitor, and maintain storage configurations on the LSISAS controllers and all the storage-related devices connected to them. The MegaRAID Storage Manager graphical user interface makes it easy for you to create and manage storage configurations. Select the following topics to learn more about the MegaRAID Storage Manager software:

• Configuration

• Monitoring

• Maintenance

• Hardware Requirements

Configuration

The MegaRAID Storage Manager software enables you to configure the controllers, drives, battery backup units, and other storage-related devices installed on a server or on a workstation. The configuration utility simplifies the process of creating drive groups and virtual drives and allows you to easily create new storage configurations and modify the configurations. For more information, see the Configuration topic.

Monitoring

You can create configurations using the following modes:

• Simple configuration specifies a limited number of settings and has the system select drives

for you. This option is the easiest way to create a virtual drive.

• Advanced configuration lets you choose additional settings and customize the creation of

virtual drives. This option provides greater flexibility when creating virtual drives for your specific requirements because you can select the drives and the virtual drive settings when you create a virtual drive. In addition, you can use the advanced configuration procedure to create spanned drive groups.

The Modify Drive Group Wizard enables you to increase the capacity of a virtual drive and to change the RAID level of a drive group.

Note:

The MegaRAID Storage Manager software displays the status of virtual drives, physical drives, and other storage devices on the workstation or on the servers that you are monitoring. The system errors and the events are recorded in an event log file and are displayed on the screen. Special device icons appear on the screen to notify you of drive failures and other situations that require immediate attention. For more information, see the Monitoring Controllers and Its Attached

Devices topic.

The Modify Drive Group Wizard was previously known as the Reconstruction Wizard.

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Maintenance

You can use the MegaRAID Storage Manager software to easily perform system maintenance tasks, such as running patrol read operations, upgrading firmware, and running consistency checks on drive groups that support redundancy. For more information, see the Maintaining and

Managing Storage Configurations topic.

Hardware Requirements

The hardware requirements for the MegaRAID Storage Manager software are as follows:

• PC-compatible computer with an IA-32 (32-bit) Intel Architecture processor or an EM64T

(64-bit) processor; also compatible with SPARC V9 architecture-based systems

• Minimum 256 MB of system memory (512 MB recommended)

• Drive with at least 400 MB of free space available; Solaris 10 SPARC requires a minimum of

640 MB

The supported operating systems for the MegaRAID Storage Manager software are as follows:

• Microsoft

2008R2, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista, and Microsoft Windows 7

Windows® Server 2003, Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Server

• Red Hat Linux 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0

• Solaris 10 x86, SPARC

• SuSE Linux/SLES 9, 10, and 11, with the latest updates and service packs

• VMware ESX 3.5 and above

Refer to your server documentation and to the operating system (OS) documentation for more information on hardware and operating system requirements.

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Installation

You can install the MegaRAID operating systems:

• Microsoft

2008R2, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista, and Microsoft Windows 7

Windows® Server 2003, Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Server

Storage Manager™ software on systems running the following

• Red Hat Linux 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0

• Solaris™ 10 x86, Solaris SPARC

• SuSE Linux/SLES 9, 10, and 11, with latest updates and service packs

• VMware ESX 3.5 and above

Refer to your server documentation and to the operating system documentation for more information on hardware and operating system requirements.

You can use the MegaRAID Storage Manager software to remotely monitor the systems running the VMware ESXi (3.5 and above) operating system.

Note:

Select the following topics for additional information on installation:

Storelib libraries need the capability to be installed with more than one version. All the storelib libraries have been moved to a private location. Please do a clean uninstallation and only then install the MegaRAID Software Manager to avoid any conflicts.

• Installing MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on Microsoft Windows

• Installing MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on RHEL or SLES/SuSE Linux

• Installing and Supporting MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on Solaris 10U5, U6, U7, and

U8 (Both x86 and x64)

• MegaRAID Storage Manager Software Customization

• Uninstalling MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on Linux

• Installing and Supporting MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on VMware

• Uninstalling MegaRAID Storage Manager Software

In addition, you can install and configure a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Agent. For more details, refer to Installing and Configuring an SNMP Agent.

Installing MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on Microsoft Windows

To install the MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003, Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Server 2008R2, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista, or Microsoft Windows 7 operating system, follow these steps:

1. Insert the MegaRAID Storage Manager software installation CD in the CD-ROM drive.

If necessary, find and double-click the setup.exe file to start the installation program.

2. In the Welcome screen that appears, click Next.

If the MegaRAID Storage Manager software is already installed on this system, an upgraded installation occurs.

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3. Read and accept the user license and click Next.

The Customer Information screen appears.

4. Enter your user name and the organization name. In the bottom part of the screen, select an installation option:

– If you select All users, any user with administrative privileges can use this installation of

the MegaRAID Storage Manager software to view or change storage configurations.

– If you select Only for current user, the MegaRAID Storage Manager short-cuts and

associated icons will be available only to the user with this username.

5. Click Next to continue.

6. On the next screen, accept the default Destination Folder, or click Change to select a different destination folder.

7. Click Next to continue.

The Setup Type screen appears.

8. Select one of the setup options. The options are fully explained in the screen text.

– Typically, you would select Complete if you are installing the MegaRAID Storage Manager

software on a server.

–Select Custom Installation if you want to select individual program components.

9. Click Next to continue.

If you select Custom Installation as your setup option, the second Setup Type screen appears.

If you select Complete as your setup option, the Installation Wizard is ready to install the MegaRAID Storage Manager software. To begin installation, click Install on the next screen that appears.

10. Select one of the custom setup options. The options are fully explained in the screen text.

– Select the Client radio button if you are installing the MegaRAID Storage Manager

software on a computer that will be used to view and configure servers over a network. To begin installation, click Install on the next screen that appears.

In the Client mode of installation, the MegaRAID Storage Manager software installs only the client-related components, such as the MegaRAID Storage Manager GUI and the monitor configurator. Use the Client mode if you want to manage and monitor servers remotely. When you install the MegaRAID Storage Manager software in a Client mode on a laptop or on a desktop, you can log in to a specific server by providing the IP address.

–Select the Server radio button to install only those components required for remote server

management. To begin installation, click Install on the next screen that appears.

–Select the StandAlone radio button if you will use the MegaRAID Storage Manager

software to create and manage storage configurations on a stand-alone workstation. To begin installation, click Install on the next screen that appears.

–Select the Local radio button if you want to view only the workstation that has the

MegaRAID Storage Manager software installed. You will not be able to discover other remote servers and other remote servers will also not be able to connect to your workstation. In a local mode installation, you will be using the loopback address instead of the IP address.

– Select the Custom radio button if you want to specify individual program features to

install.

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If you select Custom, a window listing the installation features appears. Select the features you want on this screen.

11. Click Next to proceed.

12. Click Install to install the program.

13. In the final Configuration Wizard screen, click Finish to complete the installation process.

If you select the Client installation for a computer used to monitor servers and if there are no available servers with a registered framework on the local subnet (that is, servers with a complete installation of MegaRAID Storage Manager software), the server screen appears. The server screen does not list any servers. You can use this screen to manage systems remotely.

Prerequisites for Installing MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on RHEL6.0 RC1 x64 Operating System

Before installing the MegaRAID Storage Manager software on the RHEL6.0 x64 system, install the following RPMs. Without these files/RPMs, the MegaRAID Storage Manager software may not be installed properly or may not work as expected.

• libstdc++-4.4.4-13.el6.i686.rpm

• compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-69.i686.rpm

• libXau-1.0.5-1.el6.i686.rpm

• libxcb-1.5-1.el6.i686.rpm

• libX11-1.3-2.el6.i686.rpm

• libXext-1.1-3.el6.i686.rpm

• libXi-1.3-3.el6.i686.rpm

• libXtst-1.0.99.2-3.el6.i686.rpm

The RHEL6.0 RC1 complete operating system installation is required for the MegaRAID Storage Manager software to work. The above mentioned rpm's come as part of RHEL6 RC1 Operating System DVD. These RPM's may need additional dependent RPM's as well. All the dependent RPM's also must be installed on the target system.

Installing MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on RHEL or SLES/SuSE Linux

To install MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a system running Red Hat Linux 3.0/4.0/5.0/

6.0 or SuSE Linux/SLES 9, 10, and 11, follow these steps:

1. Copy the file MSM_linux_installer-11.02.00-00.tar.gz to a temporary folder.

2. Extract the MSM_linux_installer-11.02.00-00.tar.gz file using the following command:

tar -zxvf MSM_linux_installer-11.02.00-00-...tar.gz

This action creates a new disk directory.

3. Go to the new disk directory.

4. In the disk directory, find and read the readme.txt file.

To start the installation, enter the following command:

csh install.sh -a

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If you select the Client installation for a computer used to monitor servers, and if there are no available servers with a registered framework on the local subnet (that is, servers with a complete installation of MegaRAID Storage Manager software), the server screen appears. The server screen does not list any servers. You can use this screen to manage systems remotely.

To install the software using interactive mode, run the command ./install.sh from the installation disk.

To install the product in a non-interactive or silent mode, use the command ./install.sh [-options] [ -ru popup] from the installation disk. The installation options are:

• Complete installation

• Client Component Only

• StandAlone

• Local mode

The -ru popup command removes the pop-up from the installation list.

You also can run a non-interactive installation using the RunRPM.sh command.

The installer offers the following setup options:

• Complete – This option installs all the features of the product.

• Client Components Only – The storelib feature of the product is not installed in this type of

installation. As a result, the resident system can only administer and configure all of the servers in the subnet but it cannot serve as a server.

• StandAlone – Only the networking feature is not installed in this case, so the resident system

is not a part of the network. This implies that the system cannot browse any other MegaRAID Storage Manager servers in the subnet, and the MegaRAID Storage Manager servers cannot recognize it as a server.

• Local mode - This option enables you to view only the workstation that has the MegaRAID

Storage Manager software installed. You will not be able to discover other remote servers and other remote servers will also not be able to connect to your workstation. In a local mode installation, you will be using the loopback address instead of the IP address.

This installation helps you select any of the setup types, but if you run RunRPM.sh, it installs the complete feature.

Uninstalling MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on Linux

To uninstall the MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a system running Linux, follow these steps:

1. Go to /usr/local/MegaRAID Storage Manager.

2. Run ./uninstaller.sh.

This procedure uninstalls the MegaRAID Storage Manager software.

Executing a CIM Plug-in on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

To execute a Common Information Model (CIM) plug-in on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, you must create the following symbolic links:

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1. cd /usr/lib on RHEL 5

2. Search for libcrypto, libssl, and libsysfs libraries as follows:

ls -lrt libcrypto*, ls -lrt libssl*, ls -lrt libsysfs*

3. If the files libcrypto.so.4, libssl.so.4, and libsysfs.so.1 are missing, manually create sym links as follows:

ln -s libcrypto.so libcrypto.so.4

ln -s libssl.so libssl.so.4

ln -s libsysfs.so libsysfs.so.1

See Installing and Supporting MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on VMware for more information about CIM.

Note:

If the ‘.so’ files are not present in the /usr/lib directory, create a link with the existing version of the library. For example, if libcrypto.so.6 is present and libcrypto.so is not, create the link as follows:

ln -s libcrypto.so.6 libcrypto.so.4

On a 64-bit operating system, the system libraries are present in the /usr/lib64 directory by default. However, for supporting CIM Plug-in, make sure that the libraries are also present in /usr/lib by installing the appropriate RPMs.

Installing and Supporting MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on Solaris 10U5, U6, U7, and U8 (Both x86 and x64)

This section documents the installation of MegaRAID Storage Manager software on the Solaris U5, U6, U7, and U8 x86 and x64 operating systems, and Solaris SPARC. This section also includes the following topics:

• Installing MegaRAID Storage Manager Software for Solaris 10 x86

• Uninstalling MegaRAID Storage Manager Software for Solaris 10 x86

• Installing MegaRAID Storage Manager Software for Solaris 10 SPARC

• Uninstalling MegaRAID Storage Manager Software for Solaris 10 SPARC

Installing MegaRAID Storage Manager Software for Solaris 10 x86

Follow these steps to install the MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a system running Solaris 10 x86:

1. Copy the MegaRaidStorageManager-SOLX86-...tar.gz file to a temporary folder.

2. Untar the MegaRaidStorageManager-SOLX86-...tar.gz file using the following command:

tar -zxvf MegaRaidStorageManager-SOLX86-...tar.gz

This step creates a new disk directory.

3. Go to the new disk directory and find and read the readme.txt file.

4. Enter the Bash shell.

5. Run the command ./install.sh present in the disk directory.

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6. When prompted by the installation scripts, select Y to complete the installation.

Uninstalling MegaRAID Storage Manager Software for Solaris 10 x86

Follow these steps to uninstall the MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a system running Solaris 10 x86:

1. Execute the Uninstaller.sh file located in /opt/MegaRaidStorageManager directory.

2. When prompted by the uninstallation scripts, select Y to complete the installation.

Note

: To shut down the MegaRAID Storage Manager Framework service, run the svcadm

disable -t MSMFramework. It is advisable to stop the Monitor service before stopping the MegaRAID Storage Manager Framework service. To stop the Monitor service, run svcadm disable -t MSMMonitor.

To start the Framework service, run svcadm enable MSMFramework.

When the service is in maintenance state, run the svcadm clear MSMFramework command and svcadm clear MSMMonitor command.

To start the monitor service, run svcadm enable MSMMonitor command.

To check the status of the MegaRAID Storage Manager services, run the command svcs -a | grep -i msm.

Installing MegaRAID Storage Manager Software for Solaris 10 SPARC

Follow these steps to install the MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a system running Solaris 10 SPARC:

1. Copy the MegaRaidStorageManager-SOLSPARC-8.10-...tar.gz file to a temporary folder.

2. Untar the MegaRaidStorageManager-SOLSPARC-8.10-...tar.gz file using the following command:

tar -zxvf MegaRaidStorageManager-SOLSPARC-8.10-...tar.gz

This step creates a new disk directory.

3. Go to the new disk directory and read the readme.txt file.

4. Enter the Bash shell.

5. Run the command ./install.sh present in the disk directory.

6. When prompted by the installation scripts, select Y to complete the installation.

Uninstalling MegaRAID Storage Manager Software for Solaris 10 SPARC

Follow these steps to uninstall the MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a system running Solaris 10 SPARC:

1. Execute the Uninstaller.sh file located in /opt/MegaRaidStorageManager directory.

2. When prompted by the uninstallation scripts, select Y to complete the installation.

Note

: To shut down the MegaRAID Storage Manager Framework service, run the svcadm

disable -t MSMFramework. It is advisable to stop the Monitor service before stopping the MegaRAID Storage

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Manager Framework service. To stop the Monitor service, run svcadm disable -t MSMMonitor.

To start the Framework service, run svcadm enable MSMFramework.

When the service is in maintenance state, run the svcadm clear MSMFramework command and svcadm clear MSMMonitor command.

To start the monitor service, run svcadm enable MSMMonitor command.

To check the status of the MegaRAID Storage Manager services, run the command svcs -a | grep -i msm.

MegaRAID Storage Manager Software Customization

You can customize your logo and the splash screen by editing the msm.properties file present in the <installation-directory/MegaRAID Storage Manager> folder.

The msm.properties file has no values for the following keys:

• CHANNELLOGO=

• CHANNELSPLASHSCREEN=

No default values are assigned for these keys, therefore the MegaRAID Storage Manager software uses the default LSI logo and the splash screen.

To customize the logo and the splash screen, enter the logo and the splash screen file name against these entries.

To enter the file names, follow these steps:

1. Open the file msm.properties in the <installation-directory/MegaRAID Storage Manager> folder.

2. Enter the value for the logo file against the key CHANNELLOGO.

3. Enter the value for the splash screen file against the key CHANNELSPLASHSCREEN.

4. Save the file.

5. Place these two images in the <installation-directory/MegaRAID Storage Manager> folder.

6. Start the application.

Following are some important points that you need to keep in mind:

• File names for both entries should not have any spaces. For example, the valid file name

would be: logo_test_1.png or LogoTest1.png or TEST_SPLASH_FILE.jpg.

• The logo image dimensions should not exceed 160 * 85 (width * height).

• The splash screen image dimensions should not exceed 390 * 260 (width * height).

After making these changes, you can view the changes with the new splash screen and the logo in the MegaRAID Storage Manager software when you log in to the MegaRAID Storage Manager software.

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Installing and Supporting MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on VMware

This section documents the installation of the MegaRAID Storage Manager software on VMware ESX (also known as Classic) and VMware ESXi operating systems.

Installing MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on VMware ESX (VMware Classic)

VMware does not support any graphic components and hence you can install only the server component of the MegaRAID Storage Manager software. To install, run the script ./ vmware_install.sh from the installation disk.

The installer prompts you for the following information:

• End user license agreement

• Operating system (VMware 3.5 or VMware 4.x)

• Select the Storelib (Inbox Storelib or Storelib from MSM package)

Uninstalling MegaRAID Storage Manager Software for VMware

To uninstall the server component of the MegaRAID Storage Manager software on VMware, use the Uninstall command in the Program menu or run the script /usr/local/MegaRAID Storage Manager/uninstaller.sh.

You need to keep in mind the following points:

1. A MegaRAID Storage Manager software upgrade is supported in this release. This release can be upgraded by future releases.

2. To shut down the MegaRAID Storage Manager Framework service, run the following command:

/etc/init.d/vivaldiframeworkd stop

It is recommended that you stop the Monitor service before you stop the MegaRAID Storage Manager Framework service. To stop the Monitor service, run the following command:

/etc/init.d/mrmonitor stop

The Linux RPM of the MegaRAID Storage Manager software works under the console with minimal changes. Hardware RAID is currently supported in ESX 4.x.

Important:

There is a known limitation that virtual drives that are created or deleted will not be reflected to the kernel. The workaround is to reboot the server or to run esxcfg-

rescan <vmhba#> from COS shell.

Supporting MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on the VMware ESXi Operating System

This section describes the product requirements needed to support the VMware ESXi operating system. Classic VMware includes a Service Console that is derived from the Linux 2.4 kernel but with reduced functionality.

The MegaRAID Storage Manager server part cannot be installed directly in VMware ESXi. Management is possible only through Common Information Model (CIM) providers. These CIM providers integrated into the ESXi system build an interface between the hardware driver of the LSI MegaRAID controller and remote applications, such as the MegaRAID Storage Manager

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software. Management is performed through the MegaRAID Storage Manager software installed on a remote machine (Linux/Windows).

VMware ESX 4.0 comes with the Small Footprint CIM Broker (CFCB) CIM Object Manager (or CIMOM). A CIMOM manages the communication between providers, which interact with the hardware, and a CIM client, where the administrator manages the system.

SFCB supports Common Manageability Programming Interface (CMPI)-style providers. CMPI defines a common standard used to interface Manageability Instrumentation (providers, instrumentation) to Management Brokers (CIM Object Manager). CMPI standardizes Manageability Instrumentation, which lets you write and build instrumentation once and run it in different CIM environments (on one platform).

Network communication is a key element for a proper communication between the ESXi CIM provider and the LSI management software. Please make sure that the network settings are correct by making the following changes:

• For networks that do not have DNS configured, the “hosts” file in the machine on which the

MegaRAID Storage Manager software is installed must be edited as follows:

1. Add an entry to map the VMware host’s IP address with the host name. This is for the discovery process to happen correctly. In the absence of this entry, the VMware host would be discovered as 0.0.0.0.

2. Add an entry to map its own IP address (not the loop back address) with the Hostname. This is to ensure that the Asynchronous Event Notifications (AENs) are delivered correctly.

• For networks that have DNS configured, perform the following:

1. Provide the correct DNS server IP address when you do the initial configurations for the VMware host.

2. In the hosts file of the machine on which the MegaRAID Storage Manager software is installed, add an entry to map its own IP address (not the loop back address) with the host name, to ensure that the Asynchronous Event Notifications are delivered correctly.

Discovery and login

You can start the MegaRAID Storage Manager software from a remote Windows/ Linux machine that has the MegaRAID Storage Manager software installed in complete mode.

1. On the Host View window that appears, click Configure Hosts. The Configure Host window appears as shown below.

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Figure 1 Configure Host

2. Select Display all the systems in the network of local server.

3. Click Save Settings. A confirmation dialog appears asking you to confirm your settings. Click OK in the confirmation dialog to start the discovery process.

The ESXi server appears in the list of found hosts as shown in the following figure.

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Figure 2 Host ESXi Server Name

4. Double click your ESXi host. The following figure appears.

Figure 3 Login on the Host Server

5. Enter the root account name and password of the ESXi Host in the User Name and Password fields respectively.

6. Click Login.

After you log in, the dashboard view provides an overview of the system and covers the properties of the virtual drives and the physical drives, the total capacity, configured capacity, unconfigured capacity, background operations in progress, the MegaRAID Storage Manager software features and their status (enabled or disabled), and the actions you can perform, such as creating a virtual drive and updating the firmware.

Limitations of Installation and Configuration

For more information about these limitations, see Differences in the MegaRAID Storage Manager

Software for VMware ESXi.

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• No active event notification is available, for example, by pop-up or email.

• No status information is available for the controller.

• Events are collected as long as the MegaRAID Storage Manager software runs on the Client.

• The MegaRAID Storage Manager software responds more slowly.

Differences in the MegaRAID Storage Manager Software for VMware ESXi

The following are some of the differences in the MegaRAID Storage Manager software utility when you manage a VMware ESXi server:

• The following limitations apply to the system information exposed through the application:

– Only the IP address and the host name is displayed.

– The operating system type and the operating system architecture is not displayed.

– No support is available for the controller health information.

• Authentication support.

– The MegaRAID Storage Manager software allows the CIMOM server authentication with

the user ID and the password for VMware.

– Access to VMWare ESXi hosts is controlled based on the user privileges. Only root users

can have 'Full Access' while the non-root users can have only 'View Only' access.

– Multiple root users can simultaneously login using 'Full Access' mode to access the

VMWare ESXi server.

• Event logging.

Event logging support is available for the VMware ESXi operating system, but it works differently than the normal MegaRAID Storage Manager framework mode. The event logging feature for the MegaRAID Storage Manager Client connected to a VMware ESXi system behaves as follows:

– There is no support for retrieving initial logs (the events that occurred before a client logs

in). Only those events that occur after a client logs appear in the event logger dialog.

– System logs are not displayed.

– The “Save log” feature is not supported; however, the “Save Log as Text” is supported.

– The “View Log” option allows you to view the logs saved in a text file on the event logger

dialog.

– The event descriptions might not be identical to a normal MegaRAID Storage Manager

Client because the descriptions come from the firmware through the provider.

– There is no filtering of events, unlike other operating systems because of the lack of

Monitor Service support.

– Refreshing of the MegaRAID Storage Manager GUI after any updates on the firmware is

slower for a client connected to VMware ESXi hosts, compared to one connected to a Windows/Linux/Solaris hosts.

• It takes a while to discover the CIMOM servers. If you start the MegaRAID Storage Manager

client immediately after you install the MegaRAID Storage Manager software (or restart Framework service), you will not be able to discover any hosts in the network.

• VMware ESXi is supported only in a complete installation of the MegaRAID Storage Manager

software; stand-alone, client-only, and server-only modes do not support VMware ESXi management.

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• VMware ESXi is supported on following operating systems:

– Microsoft Windows Server

– Linux RHEL

– SuSE Linux

Uninstalling MegaRAID Storage Manager Software

You can uninstall the MegaRAID Storage Manager software by using the Uninstall command in the Program menu. See the section for your operating system for the MegaRAID Storage Manager software uninstall procedures for your specific operating system.

Installing and Configuring an SNMP Agent

A Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)-based management application can monitor and manage devices through SNMP extension agents. The MegaRAID SNMP sub agent reports the information about the RAID controller, virtual drives, physical devices, enclosures, and other items as per the SNMP request. The SNMP application monitors these devices for issues that might require administrative attention.

This section describes the installation and configuration of the LSI MegaRAID SNMP agent on Linux, Solaris, and Windows operating systems.

Note:

The complete installation of the MegaRAID Storage Manager software installs the SNMP agent. However, you can install the SNMP agent (installer) on a system separately, without the MegaRAID Storage Manager software being installed.

Prerequisite for LSI SNMP Agent RPM Installation

The LSI SNMP agent application depends on the standard SNMP Utils package. Make sure that the SNMP-Util package is present in the system before you install the LSI SNMP agent RPM.

The SNMP-Util package includes the RPM’s net-snmp-libs, net-snmp-utils, and additional dependent RPMs.

Make sure that these RPM are installed from the operating system media before you install the LSI SNMP agent RPM.

Installing and Configuring an SNMP Agent on Linux

This section explains how to install and configure the SAS SNMP Agent for the SuSE Linux and Red Hat Linux operating systems. To do this, perform the following steps:

Note:

This procedure requires that you have Net-SNMP agent installed on the Linux machine.

The RPM has not been created to support -U version. The RPM -U will probably fail with this RPM.

1. Install the LSI SAS SNMP Agent using rpm -ivh <sas rpm>.

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Note: After installation, find the SAS MIB file LSI-AdapterSAS.mib under the /etc/

lsi_mrdsnmp/sas directory.

RPM makes the necessary modification needed in the snmpd.conf file to run the agent.

Note:

Before installation, check whether there is any pass command that starts with

1.3.6.1.4.1.3582 OID in snmpd.conf. If so, delete all of the old pass commands that start with 1.3.6.1.4.1.3582 OID. (This situation could occur if an earlier version of LSI SNMP Agent was installed in the system.)

The snmpd.conf file structure should be the same as lsi_mrdsnmpd.conf. For reference, a sample conf file (lsi_mrdsnmpd.conf) is in the /etc/lsi_mrdsnmp directory.

2. To run an SNMP query from a remote machine, add the IP address of that machine in the

snmpd.conf file, as in the following example:

com2sec snmpclient 172.28.136.112 public

In this example, the IP address of the remote machine is 172.28.136.112.

3. To receive an SNMP trap to a particular machine, add the IP address of that machine in the com2sec section of the snmpd.conf file.

For example, to get a trap in 10.0.0.144, add the following to snmpd.conf.

# sec.name source community

com2sec snmpclient 10.0.0.144 public

4. To run/stop the snmpd daemon, enter the following command:

/etc/init.d/snmpd start/stop

5. To start/stop the SAS SNMP Agent daemon before issuing a SNMP query, enter the following command:

/etc/init.d/lsi_mrdsnmpd start/stop

You can check the status of the SAS SNMP Agent daemon by issuing the following command:

/etc/init.d/lsi_mrdsnmpd status

6. Issue an SNMP query in this format:

snmpwalk -v1 -c public localhost .1.3.6.1.4.1.3582

7. You can get the SNMP trap from a local machine by issuing the following command:

snmptrapd -P -F "%02.2h:%02.2j TRAP%w.%q from %A %v\n"

Note:

To receive a trap in a local machine with Net-SNMP version 5.3, you must modify the snmptrapd.conf file (generally located at /var/net-snmp/snmptrapd.conf). Add "disableAuthorization yes" in snmptrapd.conf and then execute "sudo snmptrapd -P -F "%02.2h:%02.2j TRAP%w.%q from %A %v\n".

It is assumed that snmpd.conf is located at /etc/snmp for Red Hat and /etc for SLES. You can change the file location from /etc/init.d/lsi_mrdsnmpd file.

You can install SNMP without the trap functionality. To do so, set the "TRAPIND" environment variable to "N" before running RPM.

Before you install a new version, you must uninstall all previous versions.

For SLES 10, perform the following steps to run SNMP:

Page 16 Installation

1. Copy /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf to /etc/snmpd.conf.

2. Modify the /etc/init.d/snmpd file and change SNMPDCONF=/etc/snmp/snmpd.conf entry to SNMPDCONF=/etc/snmpd.conf.

3. Run LSI SNMP rpm.

Installing and Configuring an SNMP Agent on Solaris

This section explains how to install and configure the SAS SNMP Agent for the Solaris operating system. To install and configure SNMP for Solaris, perform the procedures described in the following sections:

• Prerequisites

• Installing SNMP on Solaris

• LSI SAS SNMP MIB Location

• Starting, Stopping, and Checking the Status of the LSI SAS SNMP Agent

• Configuring snmpd.conf

• Configuring SNMP Traps

• Uninstalling the SNMP Package

Prerequisites

This package requires that you have the Solaris System Management Agent installed on the Solaris machine.

Installing SNMP on Solaris

To install SNMP for Solaris, perform the following procedure:

1. Unzip the LSI SAS SNMP Agent package.

2. Run the install script by executing the following command:

# ./install.sh

Note:

The installation will exit if there are any existing versions of storelib and sassnmp installed on the Solaris machine. Uninstall the existing version by using the following commands:

# pkgrm storelib (to uninstall storelib library) # pkgrm sassnmp (to uninstall LSI SAS SNMP Agent)

LSI SAS SNMP MIB Location

After you install the LSI SAS SNMP Agent package, the MIB file LSI-AdapterSAS.mib is installed under /etc/lsi_mrdsnmp/sas directory.

Starting, Stopping, and Checking the Status of the LSI SAS SNMP Agent

The following commands are used to start, stop, restart, and check the status of the Solaris System Management Agent (net snmpd) daemon:

• Start: # svcadm enable svc:/application/management/sma:default

• Stop: # svcadm disable svc:/application/management/sma:default

Installation Page 17

• Restart: # svcadm restart svc:/application/management/sma:default

• Status: # svcs svc:/application/management/sma:default

Note:

The following commands are used to start, stop, restart, and check the status of the SAS SNMP Agent daemon:

• Start: #/etc/init.d/lsi_mrdsnmpd start

• Stop: #/etc/init.d/lsi_mrdsnmpd stop

• Restart: #/etc/init.d/lsi_mrdsnmpd restart

• Status: #/etc/init.d/lsi_mrdsnmpd status

Configuring snmpd.conf

By default, the SNMP queries (walk, get) can be executed from any remote machine without any changes to the snmpd.conf file. To quickly add a new community and client access, perform the following steps:

1. Stop the SMA service by executing the following command:

# svcadm disable svc:/application/management/sma:default

2. Add read-only and read-write community names.

a. Add a read-only community name and client/hostname/ipaddress under "SECTION:

Online indicates that the SMA is started. Disabled indicates that the SMA is stopped.

Access Control Setup" in the /etc/sma/snmp/snmpd.conf file, as shown in the following excerpt:

################################################# # SECTION: Access Control Setup #This section defines who is allowed to talk to your # running SNMP Agent. # rocommunity: a SNMPv1/SNMPv2c read-only access # community name # arguments: community # [default|hostname|network/bits] [oid] # rocommunity snmpclient 172.28.157.149 #################################################

b. Add a read-write community name and client/hostname/ipaddress under "SECTION:

Access Control Setup" in the /etc/sma/snmp/snmpd.conf file, as shown in the following excerpt:

################################################# # SECTION: Access Control Setup # This section defines who is allowed to talk to your # running # snmp agent. # rocommunity: a SNMPv1/SNMPv2c read-only access # community name # arguments: community # [default|hostname|network/bits] [oid] # rwcommunity snmpclient 172.28.157.149 #################################################

3. Start the SMA service by using the following command:

Page 18 Installation

# svcadm enable svc:/application/management/sma:default

Note:

Configuring SNMP Traps

To receive SNMP traps, perform the following steps:

1. Stop the LSI SAS SNMP Agent by using the following command:

#/etc/init.d/lsi_mrdsnmpd stop

2. Edit the /etc/lsi_mrdsnmp/sas/sas_TrapDestination.conf file and add the IP address as shown in the following excerpt:

################################################# # Agent Service needs the IP addresses to sent trap # The trap destination may be specified in this file # or using snmpd.conf file. Following indicators can # be set on "TrapDestInd" to instruct the agent to # pick the IPs as the destination. # 1 - IPs only from snmpd.conf # 2 - IPs from this file only # 3 - IPs from both the files ################################################# TrapDestInd 2 #############Trap Destination IP##################

127.0.0.1 public

172.28.157.149 public #################################################

Refer to the command man snmpd.conf for more information about configuring the snmpd.conf file.

3. Start the LSI SAS SNMP Agent by entering the following command:

#/etc/init.d/lsi_mrdsnmpd start

Uninstalling the SNMP Package

The uninstall.sh script is located under the /etc/lsi_mrdsnmp/sas directory. Use the following command to uninstall the package:

# cd /etc/lsi_mrdsnmp/sas # ./uninstall.sh

Installing a SNMP Agent on Windows

This section explains how to install and configure the SAS SNMP Agent for the Windows operating system.

Installing SNMP Agent

Perform the following steps to install the SNMP Agent:

1. Run setup.exe from DISK1.

2. Use the SNMP Manager to retrieve the SAS data (it is assumed that you have compiled LSI- AdapterSAS.mib file already).

Installation Page 19

The LSI-AdapterSAS.mib file is available under %ProgramFiles%\LSI Corporation\SNMPAgent\SAS directory.

3. Use a trap utility to get the traps.

Note:

Before you install the Agent, make sure that the SNMP Service is already installed in the system.

Installing SNMP Service for Windows

If you do not have the SNMP Service installed on your system, perform the following steps to install the SNMP Service for a Windows system:

1. Select Add/Remove Programs from Control Panel.

2. Select Add/Remove Windows Components in the left side of the Add/Remove Programs window.

3. Select Management and Monitoring Tools.

4. Click Next and follow any prompts to complete the installation procedure.

Configuring SNMP Service on the Server Side

Perform the following steps to configure the SNMP Service on the server side.

1. Select Administrative Tools from the Control Panel.

2. Select Services from the Administrative Tools window.

3. Select SNMP Service in the Services window.

4. Open SNMP Service.

5. Click the Security tab and make sure that Accept SNMP Packets from any host is selected.

6. Click the Traps tab, and select the list of host IPs to which you want the traps to be sent with the community name.

Prerequisites to Running MegaRAID Storage Manager Remote Administration

The MegaRAID Storage Manager software requires port 3071 and port 5571 to be open to function. Follow these steps to prepare to run the MegaRAID Storage Manager Remote Administration.

1. Configure the system with a valid IP address.

Make sure that there is no IP address conflict in the sub network.

Ports such as 3071 and 5571 are open and available for the MegaRAID Storage Manager framework communication.

2. Disable the security manager and the firewall.

Configure the multicasting.

Make sure that the Class D multicast IP addresses are registered (at least 229.111.112.12 should be registered for the MegaRAID Storage Manager software to work); if not, create a static route using the following command:

Route add 229.111.112.12 dev eth1

3. Install the MegaRAID Storage Manager software. If the MegaRAID Storage Manager software is already installed, restart the MegaRAID Storage Manager framework.

Page 20 Installation

Startup and Main Windows

This section has the following topics:

• Starting MegaRAID Storage Manager Software

• Logging in to a Server

• MegaRAID Storage Manager Main Menu Window

• Menu Options

Starting MegaRAID Storage Manager Software

You must have administrative privileges to use the MegaRAID® Storage Manager software in either full-access or in view-only mode. Follow these steps to start the MegaRAID Storage Manager software on various platforms.

• To start MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a Microsoft

select Start-> Programs->MegaRAID Storage Manager->StartupUI or double-click the MegaRAID Storage Manager software shortcut on the desktop.

• To start MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a Red Hat

Applications-> System Tools->MegaRAID Storage Manager->StartupUI.

• To start MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a system running SuSE™ Linux/SLES 9

SP1 or SuSE 10, select Start->System->More Programs->MegaRAID Storage Manager.

• To start MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a system running Solaris™ 10, select

Launch-> Applications->Utilities->MegaRAID Storage Manager StartupUI.

If the MegaRAID Storage Manager software is installed in a stand-alone Workstation configuration, enter your user name and password when the login prompt appears.

Logging in to a Server

When you start a client or server installation of the MegaRAID Storage Manager software, the Select Server window appears, as shown in Figure 4. The remote servers appear, along with their IP address, operating system, and health status.

Note:

Windows® system, either

Linux™ system, select

If you have performed a local mode installation, the Server Login window will directly appear for you to login.

Startup and Main Windows Page 21

Figure 4 Select Server Window

The Select Server window shows an icon for each server on which the MegaRAID Storage Manager software is installed. The servers are color-coded with the following definitions:

• Green: The server is operating properly.

• Yellow: The server is running in a partially degraded state (possibly because a drive in a virtual

drive has failed).

• Orange: The server is running in a degraded state.

• Red: The server storage configuration has failed.

To log in to a server, follow these steps:

1. Double-click the icon of the server that you want to access.

The Server Login window appears.

2. Select an access mode from the drop-down menu.

–Select Full Access if you need to both view the current server configuration and change

the configuration.

–Select View Only if you only need to view the server configuration.

3. Enter your user name and password, and click Login.

If the computer is networked, this is the login to the computer itself, not the network login.

Page 22 Startup and Main Windows

If your user name and password are correct for the login mode you have chosen, the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu screen appears.

Note:

4. Double-click the icon of the server that you want to access.

The Server Login window appears.

5. Select an access mode from the drop-down menu.

–Select Full Access if you need to both view the current configuration and change the

–Select View Only if you need to only view and monitor the configuration.

Note:

To access servers on a different subnet, type the IP address of a server in the desired subnet, where the MegaRAID Storage Manager is running, in the box at the bottom of the Server Select screen and click Discover Host.

For the VMware CIMOM, the server button does not denote the health of the server. The button is always green regardless of the health of the system.

The VMware server does not show the system health and the operating system labels. It shows only the host name and the IP address of the server. When connecting to a VMware server on a different subnet, one or more Frameworks have to be running in the subnet to connect to the CIMOM.

configuration.

When connected to VMware system, the Server Login screen shows only one label for access, “Full Access”. Multiple users can have full access to the VMware server.

6. Enter your user name and password, and click Login.

Note:

7. Enter the root/administrator user name and the password to use Full Access mode.

Note:

If your user name and password are correct for the Login mode you have chosen, the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu screen appears.

If the computer is networked, this is the login to the computer itself, not the network login.

In the Linux operating system, if you belong to the root user group, you can log in; you do not have to be a user with the user name "root."

MegaRAID Storage Manager Main Menu Window

These topics describe the panels in the main MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu:

• Dashboard/Physical View/Logical View

• Properties/Graphical View Tabs

•

Event Log Panel

Dashboard/Physical View/Logical View

The left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager window displays the Dashboard view, the Physical view, or the Logical view of the system and the attached devices, depending on which tab is selected.

Startup and Main Windows Page 23

The Dashboard view displays an overview of the system and covers the following features, as shown in the following figure:

• Properties of the virtual drives and the physical drives

• Total capacity, configured capacity, and unconfigured capacity

• Background operations in progress

• MegaRAID Storage Manager software features and their status (enabled or disabled)

• Actions you can perform, such as creating a virtual drive and updating the firmware

• Links to Online Help

Figure 5 Dashboard View

The Physical view displays the hierarchy of physical devices in the system, as shown in Figure 6. At the top of the hierarchy is the system itself, followed by the controller and the backplane. One or more controllers are installed in the system. The controller label identifies the MegaRAID controller, such as the MegaRAID SAS 9260-8i controller, so that you can easily differentiate between multiple controllers. Each controller has one or more ports. Drives and other devices are attached to the ports. The properties for each item appear in the right panel of the screen.

Page 24 Startup and Main Windows

Figure 6 Physical View

The Logical view shows the hierarchy of controllers, virtual drives, the drives, and the drive groups that make up the virtual drives, as shown in the following figure. The properties for these components appear in the right panel.

Startup and Main Windows Page 25

Figure 7 Logical View

Chip Temperature and Controller Temperature

In the physical view and the logical view, you can view the chip temperature and the controller temperature under controller properties for the controller, as shown in the following figure.

You can see the temperature values only for PERC controllers from PERC 7.5 onwards.

Page 26 Startup and Main Windows

Figure 8 Chip and Controller Temperature

Physical Drive Temperatures

The temperature for the physical drive appears in the following figure.

Figure 9 Physical Drive Temperature

Startup and Main Windows Page 27

Shield State

This section describes the Shield state in the MegaRAID Storage Manager software.

Physical devices in the MegaRAID firmware transit between different states. If the firmware detects a problem or a communication loss for a physical drive, it transitions the physical drive to a bad (FAILED/UNCONF BAD) state. To avoid transient failures, an interim state called the Shield state appears before marking the physical drive as a bad state.

The Shield state is an interim state of a physical drive for diagnostic operations. The results of the diagnostic tests determine if the physical drive is good or bad. If any of the diagnostics tests fail, the physical drive will transition to a BAD state (FAILED or UNCONF BAD).

The three possible Shield states are Unconfigured - Shielded, Configured - Shielded, and Hotspare - Shielded.

Shield State Physical View

Follow these steps to view the Shield state under the physical view tab.

1. Click the Physical tab in the device tree.

The icon indicates a Shield State.

The Physical View Shield state is shown in the following figure.

Figure 10 Physical View Shield State

Logical View Shield State

Follow these steps to view the Shield state under the Logical tab.

1. Click the Logical tab in the device tree.

The icon indicates a Shield state.

The Logical View Shield state is shown in the following figure.

Page 28 Startup and Main Windows

Figure 11 Logical View Shield State

Viewing the Physical Drive Properties

Follow these steps to view the Physical properties of the drive in the Shield state.

1. Click the Physical or Logical tab in the device tree.

2. The icon indicates a Shield state.

3. Click the physical drive to view the properties.

The device properties are displayed, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 12 Physical Drive Properties of a Drive in Shield State

The status of the drive must be the Shield type.

Viewing Server Profile of a Drive in Shield State

Follow these steps to view the server properties of the drive in a shield state.

1. Click the Dashboard tab in the device tree.

2. Click the View Server Profile link in the dashboard view.

Startup and Main Windows Page 29

Parity Size

The server profile information is displayed, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 13 Server Profile View of a Drive in Shield State

Parity size is used for storing parity information on RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 50, and RAID 60 virtual drives.

Follow these steps to view the Parity Size.

1. In the Logical view, click the Virtual Drive node.

2. For RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 50, and RAID 60, the parity size is displayed as shown in the following figure.

Figure 14 Parity Size

Page 30 Startup and Main Windows

Mirror Data Size

Mirror data size determines the size used for storing redundant information on RAID 1 and RAID 10 virtual drives.

Follow these steps to view the mirror data size.

1. In the Logical view, click the Virtual Drive node.

Mirror data size is displayed for RAID 1 and RAID 10 Volumes, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 15 Mirror Data Size

Metadata Size

The Parity size and the Mirror data size will not be displayed for RAID 0 and RAID 00 volumes.

The metadata size field displays the total space used for metadata.

Follow these steps to view the metadata size.

1. In the Logical view or the Physical view, click the controller node.

The total space used for metadata is displayed in this field, as shown in the following figure.

Startup and Main Windows Page 31

Figure 16 Metadata Size

NOTE: The size units displayed are as follows:

If the size is less than 1 MB (1024 KB), the size is displayed in KB. If the size is greater than or equal to 1 MB but less than 1 GB (1024 MB), the size is displayed in MB. If the size is greater than or equal to 1 GB, but less than 1 TB (1024 GB), the size is displayed in GB.

Emergency Hotspare

When a drive within a redundant virtual drive fails or is removed, the MegaRAID firmware automatically rebuilds the redundancy of the virtual drive by providing an emergency hotspare (EHSP) drive; even if no commissionable dedicated or global hotspare drive is present.

Emergency Hotspare for Physical Drives

The Emergency Hotspare property determines whether a particular drive is capable of becoming an emergency hotspare. This property is displayed under the controller properties, only if the Global Hotspare for Emergency and the Unconfigured Good for Emergency controller properties are enabled.

Follow these steps to view the Emergency Hotspare property:

1. In the Logical view or Physical view, click the drive for which you want to view hotspare properties.

The emergency hotspare property is displayed under general properties, as shown in the following figure. This property denotes whether a particular drive is capable of becoming a Hotspare.

Page 32 Startup and Main Windows

Figure 17 Emergency Hot Spare - Physical Drive Properties

Emergency Hotspare Property for Controllers

The Emergency Hotspare properties under the controller properties are configured based on enabling or disabling the following properties:

• Global Hotspare for Emergency

• Unconfigured Good for Emergency

• Emergency for SMARTer

Follow these steps to view the emergency hotspare property for controllers:

1. Click the controller node in the device tree.

The emergency hotspare properties are displayed, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 18 Emergency Hot Spare Properties - Controller Properties

Commissioned Hotspare

The commissioned hotspare is used to determine if the online drive has a commissioned hotspare.

Startup and Main Windows Page 33

Follow these steps to check if the drive has commissioned hotspare.

1. Click the online physical drive node in the device tree.

The commissioned hotspare property is displayed, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 19 Commissioned Hotspare

This property is displayed only for online physical drives.

Device Icons

Small icons represent the servers, controllers, and other devices. Here are the icons for the most often represented devices:

• Status

• Server

• Controller

• Backplane

• Enclosure

• Port

• Drive group

• Virtual drive

• Online drive

• Unconfigured good drive

• Foreign unconfigured good drive

• Power save mode

• Dedicated hot spare

• Global hot spare

• Battery backup unit

• Tap e d r i v e

• CD-ROM

• Locked SED

Page 34 Startup and Main Windows

• Unlocked SED

Note:

A red circle to the right of an icon indicates that the device has failed. For example, the red circle indicates that a drive has failed: A yellow circle to the right of an icon indicates that a device is running in a partially degraded state; the data is still safe, but data could be lost if another drive fails. An orange circle to the right of an icon indicates that a device is running in a degraded state.

The MegaRAID Storage Manager software shows the icons for tape drive devices; however, no tape-related operations are supported by the utility. If these operations are required, use a separate backup application.

Properties/Graphical View Tabs

The right panel contains either one tab or two tabs, depending on the kind of device you select in the left panel and depending on your login mode (full-access or view-only).

• The Properties tab displays information about the selected device. For example, if a controller

icon is selected in the left panel, the Properties tab lists the controller name, NVRAM size, device port count, and flash size.

• The Graphical View tab displays information about the temperature, fans, power supplies, and

voltage sensors.To display a graphical view of a drive, click an enclosure icon in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu screen, and click the Graphical View tab.

Event Log Panel

The lower part of the screen displays the event log entries for the selected server or for the standalone workstation. New event log entries appear during the session. Each entry has an ID, an error level indicating the severity of the event, the timestamp and date, and a brief description of the event.

For more information about the Event Log, see Alert Delivery Methods. For more information about the event log entries, see Events and Messages.

Menu Options

The following are brief descriptions of the main selections on the MegaRAID Storage Manager menu bar. Figure 20 shows the menu bar.

Manage Menu – The Manage menu has a Refresh option for updating the display in the MegaRAID Storage Manager window (refresh is seldom required; the display normally updates automatically) and an Exit option to end your session on the MegaRAID Storage Manager software. The Server menu item shows all the servers that were discovered by a scan. In addition, you can perform a check consistency, initialize multiple virtual groups, and show the progress of group operations on virtual drives.

Go To Menu – The Go To menu is available when you select a controller, drive group, physical drive, virtual drive, or battery backup unit in the main menu screen. The menu options vary depending on the type of device selected in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu. The options also vary depending on the current state of the selected device. For example, if you select an offline drive, the Make Drive Online option appears in the Physical Drive menu.

Startup and Main Windows Page 35

Configuration options are also available for you to access the Configuration wizard that you use to perform configuration drive groups and virtual drives. To access the Wizard, select the controller in the left panel, and select Go To->Controller->Create Virtual Drive, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 20 Create Virtual Drive Menu Options

Log Menu – The Log menu includes options for saving and clearing the message log. For more

information, see Alert Delivery Methods and Events and Messages.

Tools Menu – On the Tools menu you can select Tools->Configure Alerts to access the Configure Alerts screen, which you can use to set the alert delivery rules, event severity levels, exceptions, and email settings. For more information, see Configuring Alert Notifications.

Help Menu – On the Help menu you can select Help->Contents to view the MegaRAID Storage Manager online help file. You can select Help->About MegaRAID Storage Manager to view the version information for the MegaRAID Storage Manager software.

Note:

When you use the MegaRAID Storage Manager software online help, you might see a warning message that Internet Explorer has restricted the file from showing active content. If this warning appears, click on the active content warning bar, and enable the active content.

If you are using a Linux operating system, you must install Firefox

or Mozilla® for

the MegaRAID Storage Manager software online help to display.

When connected to the VMWare server, only the IP address and the host name information appear. Additional information, such as the operating system name, version, and architecture do not appear.

Page 36 Startup and Main Windows

Configuration

You can use the MegaRAID Storage Manager software to perform the following configuration tasks:

• Creating a New Configuration

• Creating Hot Spares

• Changing Adjustable Task Rates

• Changing Power Settings

• Changing Virtual Drive Properties

• Changing a Virtual Drive Configuration

• Deleting a Virtual Drive

The MegaRAID Storage Manager software enables you to easily configure the controllers, drives, and other storage-related devices installed on a server or on a workstation. The configuration utility simplifies the process of creating drive groups and virtual drives. You can use the Simple Configuration mode to have the MegaRAID Storage Manager software automatically create the best possible configuration using the available drives. You can use the Advanced Configuration mode to have greater flexibility than simple configuration because you can select the drives and the virtual drive settings when you create a virtual drive. In addition, you can use the advanced configuration procedure to create spanned drive groups.

Note:

When you access the MegaRAID Storage Manager software, select Full Access if you need to view the current configuration and to change the configuration. Select

View Only if you need to only view and monitor the configuration.

Creating a New Configuration

You can use the MegaRAID Storage Manager software to create new storage configurations on systems with LSISAS controllers. You can create configurations using the following modes:

• Simple configuration specifies a limited number of settings and has the system select drives

for you. This option is the easiest way to create a virtual drive.

• Advanced configuration lets you choose additional settings and customize virtual drive

creation. This option provides greater flexibility when creating virtual drives for your specific requirements.

The following subsections define RAID levels and explain how to create simple and advanced storage configurations:

• Understanding RAID Levels

• Creating a Virtual Drive Using Simple Configuration

• Creating a Virtual Drive Using Advanced Configuration

Understanding RAID Levels

RAID means Redundant Array of Independent Disks. When you create storage configurations, you can use several different types of RAID technology, called RAID levels, to create multiple-

Configuration Page 37

drive arrays, or drive groups, on which data will be stored. The computer operating system sees each drive group as a single virtual drive, not as a collection of individual drives.

• A RAID 0 drive group has two or more drives. Data is divided into small blocks (stripes) that

is written successively to all the drives in the drive group. Thus, at the same time the data block #1 is written to drive 1, data block #2 is being written to drive 2, and so on. Using RAID 0 is obviously faster than writing an entire file to one drive, and reading files is faster as well. RAID 0 is a good choice if fast read/write capability is the most important objective. However, RAID 0 drive groups are not fault tolerant and cannot be protected with hot spare drives.

• A RAID 00 drive group is a spanned drive group that creates a striped set from a series of

RAID 0 drive groups.

• A RAID 1 drive group has exactly two drives. Data is written simultaneously to both drives,

so that one drive is a mirror of the other. If one of the drives fails, the data is still protected. A hot spare drive can be used to automatically replace a failed mirrored drive. RAID 1 provides a high level of data protection. However, data writes are slower than with a RAID 0 drive group because all data must always be written to two drives. Also, the two-drive RAID 0 drive group has only one drive of actual capacity.

• A RAID 10 drive group is a spanned drive group that creates a striped set from a series of

mirrored drives. The drive group can sustain multiple drive losses as long as no two drives lost comprise a single pair of one mirror.

• A RAID 5 drive group requires a minimum of three drives. Blocks of data and parity

information are written across all drives. The parity information is used to recover the data if one drive fails in the drive group. A hot spare drive can be used to automatically replace a failed drive. The disadvantage of RAID 5 is a relatively slow write cycle (two reads and two writes are required for each block written). RAID 5 is best suited for networks that perform many small I/O transactions simultaneously. Because each drive contains both data and parity, many writes can take place concurrently.

• A RAID 50 is a spanned drive group in which data is striped across multiple RAID 5 drive

groups. Thus, RAID 50 provides the features of both RAID 0 and RAID 5. RAID 50 breaks up data into smaller blocks, and then stripes the blocks of data to each RAID 5 drive group. A minimum of six drives is required. RAID 50 can sustain one to four drive failures without losing data, if each failed drive is in a different RAID 5 drive group.

Note:

Having virtual drives of different RAID levels, such as RAID 0 and RAID 5, in the same drive group is not allowed. For example, if an existing RAID 5 virtual drive is created out of partial space in an array, the next virtual drive in the array has to be RAID 5 only.

• A RAID 6 drive group, which requires a minimum of three drives, is similar to a RAID 5 drive

group. Blocks of data and parity information are written across all drives. The parity information is used to recover the data if one or two drives fail in the drive group. A hot spare drive can be used to automatically replace a failed drive. RAID 6 provides more data protection than RAID 5; the data is still safe if a second drive fails while the first failed drive is being rebuilt.

• A RAID 60 drive group provides the features of both RAID 0 and RAID 6, and includes both

parity and disk striping across multiple drive groups. RAID 60 provides a high level of data protection through the use of a second parity block in each stripe. A RAID 60 virtual drive can survive the loss of two drives in each of the RAID 6 sets without losing data. RAID 60 is best implemented on two RAID 6 drive groups with data striped across both drive groups. Use RAID 60 for data that requires a very high level of protection from loss.

Page 38 Configuration

Optimum Controller Settings for CacheCade - SSD Caching

• Write Policy: Write Back

• IO Policy: Cached IO

• Read Policy: No Read Ahead

• Stripe Size: 64 KB

Optimum Controller Settings for FastPath

• Write Policy: Write Through

• IO Policy: Direct IO

• Read Policy: No Read Ahead

• Stripe Size: 64 KB

Creating a Virtual Drive Using Simple Configuration

Simple configuration mode is the quickest and easiest way to create a new storage configuration. When you select simple configuration mode, the system creates the best configuration possible using the available drives.

Note:

Follow these steps to create a new storage configuration in a simple configuration mode.

1. Access the Create Virtual Drive dialog by performing either of the following steps:

You cannot create spanned drives using the simple configuration procedure. To create spanned drives, use the advanced configuration procedure described in

Creating a Virtual Drive Using Advanced Configuration.

• Right-click the controller node in the device tree in the left frame of the MegaRAID Storage

Manager main menu screen, and select

• Select the controller node, and select

shown in the following figure.

Figure 21 Virtual Drive Creation Menu

Create Virtual Drive.

Operations->Create Virtual Drive

in the menu bar, as

Configuration Page 39

The dialog for choosing the configuration mode (simple or advanced) appears, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 22 Virtual Drive Creation Mode

2. Select the Simple radio button and click Next.

The Create Virtual Drive - Allocate capacity dialog appears, as shown in the following figure. If unconfigured drives are available, you have the option to use those unconfigured drives. If unconfigured drives are available, the Create Drive Group Settings window appears and you can go to step 4.

Figure 23 Create Virtual Drive

3. Perform either of the two options:

– If a drive group exists, select the radio button to use the free capacity of the existing drive

group and click Next. Continue with step 4.

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The Create Virtual Drive - Drive Group and Virtual Drive Settings window appears, as shown in the following figure. If different types of drives are attached to the controller, such as HDD, SSD, SAS, and SATA, an option is available to allow drive type mixing.

– If unconfigured drives are available, select the radio button to use the unconfigured drives,

and click Next. Continue with step 10.

The Summary window (Figure 25) appears.

Figure 24 Create Drive Group Settings

4. If you want to allow different types of drives in a configuration, select the Use the drive type mixing check box.

Note:

For best results, do not use drive type mixing.

5. Select a RAID level for the virtual drive.

When you use simple configuration, the RAID controller supports RAID levels 1, 5, and 6. In addition, it supports independent drives (configured as RAID 0). The screen text gives a brief description of the RAID level that you select. The RAID levels that you can choose depends on the number of drives available.

6. Select the Assign a hot spare check box if you want to assign a dedicated hot spare to the new virtual drive.

If an unconfigured good drive is available, that drive is assigned as a hot spare. Hot spares are drives that are available to replace failed drives automatically in a redundant virtual drive.

7. Select the Use drive security check box if you want to set a drive security method.

The LSI SafeStore™ Data Security Service encrypts data and provides disk-based key management for your data security solution. This solution protects the data in the event of the theft or loss of drives.

8. Use the drop-down menu in the Virtual drives field to select the number of virtual drives you want to create.

9. Select the capacity for the virtual drives. Each virtual drive has the same capacity.

Configuration Page 41

10. Click Next.

The Create Virtual Drive - Summary window appears, as shown in the following figure. This window shows the selections you made for a simple configuration.

Figure 25 Create Virtual Drive - Summary Window

11. Click Back to return to the previous window to change any selections or click Finish to accept and complete the configuration.

The new virtual drive is created after you click Finish. After the configuration is completed, a dialog box notifies you that the virtual drives were created successfully.

Note:

If you create a large configuration using drives that are in a powersave mode, it could take several minutes to spin up the drives. A progress bar appears as the drives spin up. If any of the selected unconfigured drives fail to spin up, a box appears that identifies the drive or drives.

Creating a Virtual Drive Using Advanced Configuration

The advanced configuration procedure provides an easy way to create a new storage configuration. Advanced configuration gives you greater flexibility than simple configuration because you can select the drives and the virtual drive parameters when you create a virtual drive. In addition, you can use the advanced configuration procedure to create spanned drive groups.

Follow these steps to create a new storage configuration in the advanced configuration mode. This example shows the configuration of a spanned drive group.

1. Access the Create Virtual Drive dialog by performing either of the following steps:

– Right-click on the controller node in the device tree in the left frame of the MegaRAID

Storage Manager main menu screen, and select

Create Virtual Drive.

– Select the controller node, and select Go To->Controller->Create Virtual Drive in the

menu bar, as shown in the following figure.

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Figure 26 Virtual Drive Creation Menu

The dialog for the choosing the configuration mode (simple or advanced) appears, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 27 Virtual Drive Advanced Configuration Mode

2. Click Advanced and press Next.

3. The Create Drive Group Settings window appears, as shown in the following figure.

Configuration Page 43

Figure 28 Create Drive Group Settings

4. Select the following items on the Create Drive Group Settings window:

a. Select the RAID level desired for the drive group from the drop-down menu. To make a

spanned drive, select RAID 10, RAID 50, or RAID 60 in the RAID level field.

Drive Group 0 and Span 0 appear in the Drive groups field when you select RAID 10, RAID 50, or RAID 60.

The RAID controller supports RAID levels 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60. In addition, it supports independent drives (configured as RAID 0 and RAID 00). The screen text gives a brief description of the RAID level you select. The RAID levels you can choose depends on the number of drives available.

b. Scroll down the menu for the Drive security method field if you want to set a drive

security method.

The drive security feature provides the ability to encrypt data and use disk-based key management for your data security solution. This solution provides protection to the data in the event of the theft or loss of drives.

c. Select unconfigured drives from the list of drives, and click Add > to add them to the drive

group.

The selected drives appear under Span 0 below Drive Group 0, as shown in the following figure.

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Figure 29 Span 0 of Drive Group 0

d. Click Create Span to create a second span in the drive group.

e. Select unconfigured drives from the list of drives, and click Add> to add them to the

second drive group.

f. The selected drives appear under Span 1 below Drive Group 0, as shown in the following

figure.

Configuration Page 45

Figure 30 Span 0 and Span 1 of Drive Group 0

g. Click Create Drive Group to make a drive group with the spans.

h. Click Next to complete this step.

The Virtual Drive Settings window appears, as shown in the following figure. The drive group and the default virtual drive settings appear. The options to update the virtual drive or remove the virtual drive are grayed out until you create the virtual drive.

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Figure 31 Virtual Drive Settings Window

5. Change any virtual drive settings, if desired.

See Creating a Virtual Drive Using Simple Configuration for more information about the virtual drive settings.

6. Click Create Virtual Drive.

The new virtual drive appears under the drive group, as shown in the following figure. The options Update Virtual Drive and Remove Virtual Drive are available. Update Virtual Drive allows you to change the virtual drive settings and Remove Virtual Drive allows you to delete the virtual drive.

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Figure 32 New Virtual Drive 0

7. Click Next.

The Create Virtual Drive - Summary window appears, as shown in the following figure. This window shows the selections you made for advanced configuration.

Figure 33 Create Virtual Drive Summary Window

8. Click Back to return to the previous screen to change any selections or click Finish to accept and complete the configuration.

The new storage configuration will be created and initialized.

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Note: If you create a large configuration using drives that are in powersave mode, it could

take several minutes to spin up the drives. A progress bar appears as the drives spin up. If any of the selected unconfigured drives fail to spin up, a box appears that identifies the drive or drives.

After the configuration is completed, a dialog box notifies you that the virtual drives were created successfully. If more drive capacity exists, the dialog box asks whether you want to create more virtual drives. If no more drive capacity exists, you are prompted to close the configuration session.

9. Select Yes or No to indicate whether you want to create additional virtual drives.

If you select Yes, the system takes you to the Create Virtual Drive screen. If you select No, the utility asks whether you want to close the wizard.

10. If you selected No in the previous step, select Yes or No to indicate whether you want to close the wizard.

If you select Yes, the configuration procedure closes. If you select No, the dialog box closes, and you remain on the same page.

Converting JBOD Drives to Unconfigured Good

You can convert JBOD drives to Unconfigured Good using the Create Virtual Drive or the Make Unconfigured Good drive options with a single configuration.

Perform the following steps to configure JBOD to Unconfigured Good drives by using any one of the following options.

1. Perform one of the following steps:

• Right-click the controller node in the device tree in the left frame of the MegaRAID Storage

Manager window and select Create Virtual Drive.

• Select the controller node and select Go To->Controller->Create Virtual Drive.

The Create Virtual Drive - JBOD to Unconfigured Good Conversion wizard appears as shown in the following figure.

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Figure 34 JBOD Drives

The JBOD Drives box displays the available JBOD drives available in the system.

2. Select the drives which you want configured as Unconfigured Good and then click Convert. Clicking on Convert configures the selected JBODs to Unconfigured Good Drives.

Note:

If you do not want to make any JBOD as Unconfigured good drive(s), select the checkbox Do not convert JBOD drives to unconfigured good drives. The MegaRAID Storage Manager application does not change any selected JBODs to unconfigured good drives.

3. Click Next.

The Create Virtual Drive screen appears as shown in Figure 24.

Converting JBOD to Unconfigured Good from the MegaRAID Storage Manager Main Menu

You also can convert JBOD to Unconfigured Good by clicking the Controller->Make Configured Good option from the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu window.

The Make Configured Good dialog appears as shown in the following figure.

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Figure 35 Make Configured Good

1. Select the JBOD drives to be configured as Unconfigured Good.

2. Click OK.

The selected JBOD drives are configured as Unconfigured Good.

Creating Hot Spares

Hot spares are drives that are available to automatically replace failed drives in a redundant virtual drive (RAID 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, 60). There are two kinds of hot spares:

• Dedicated hot spares, which are available for a specified drive group

• Global hot spares, which are available to any drive group defined on the controller

Note:

To c r e a t e a global hot spare, follow these steps:

1. Select the Physical tab in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu screen and click the icon of an unused drive.

For each drive, the screen displays the port number, enclosure number, slot number, drive state, drive capacity, and drive manufacturer.

2. Select either Go To->Physical Drive->Assign Global Hot Spare or Go To->Physical Drive->Assign Dedicated Hot Spare.

3. If you selected Assign Dedicated Hot Spare, select a drive group from the list that appears. The hot spare is dedicated to the drive group that you selected.

If you selected Assign Global Hot Spare, skip this step, and go to the step 4. The hot spare is available to any virtual drive on a specific controller.

4. Click Go to create the global hot spare.

The capacity of the drives you assign as dedicated hot spares should be equal to or greater than the capacity of the other drives in the drive group.

The drive state for the drive changes to dedicated hot spare or global hot spare, depending on your selection.

Configuration Page 51

Changing Adjustable Task Rates

If you want to change the Rebuild rate and other task rates for a controller, you must first log onto the server in Full Access mode. (LSI recommends not changing the adjustable task rates from their defaults.) Follow these steps to set the adjustable task rates:

1. Select a controller icon in the Physical tab or the Logical tab in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu window.

2. Select Go To->Controller->Set Adjustable Task Rates from the menu bar, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 36 Set Adjustable Task Rates Menu

The Set Adjustable Task Rates dialog appears, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 37 Set Adjustable Task Rates Dialog Box

Page 52 Configuration

3. Enter changes, as needed, to any of the task rates:

– Rebuild Rate. Enter a number from 0 to 100 to control the rate at which a rebuild will be

performed on a drive when one is necessary. The higher the number, the faster the rebuild will occur (and the system I/O rate may be slower as a result).

– Patrol Rate. Enter a number from 0 to 100 to control the rate at which patrol reads will

be performed. Patrol read monitors drives to find and resolve potential problems that might cause drive failure. The higher the number, the faster the patrol read will occur (and the system I/O rate may be slower as a result).

– Background Initialization (BGI) Rate. Enter a number from 0 to 100 to control the rate

at which virtual drives are initialized “in the background.” Background initialization establishes mirroring or parity for a RAID virtual drive while allowing full host access to the virtual drive. The higher the number, the faster the initialization will occur (and the system I/O rate may be slower as a result).

– Check Consistency Rate. Enter a number from 0 to 100 to control the rate at which a

consistency check is done. A consistency check scans the consistency data on a fault tolerant virtual drive to determine if the data has become corrupted. The higher the number, the faster the consistency check is performed (and the system I/O rate may be slower as a result).

– Reconstruction Rate. Enter a number from 0 to 100 to control the rate at which

reconstruction of a virtual drive occurs. The higher the number, the faster the reconstruction occurs (and the system I/O rate may be slower as a result).

4. Click Go to accept the new task rates.

5. When the warning message appears, click OK to confirm that you want to change the task rates.

Note:

The Controller Operations tab also has options for disabling or silencing the alarm on the controller. Ordinarily you should leave the alarm enabled so it can warn you of abnormal conditions on the controller. You might need to silence the alarm if, for example, the alarm is malfunctioning and is sounding continuously.

Changing Power Settings

The RAID controller includes Dimmer Switch™ technology that conserves energy by placing certain available online drives into a powersave mode. In a powersave mode, the drives use less energy, and the fan and the enclosure requires less energy to cool and house the drives. Also, this technology helps avoid application time-outs caused by spin-up delays and drive wear caused by excessive spin-up/down cycles.

You can use the Power Settings field in MegaRAID Storage Manager software to choose whether to allow unconfigured drives or hot spares to enter a powersave mode.

Note:

When they are in the powersave mode, unconfigured drives and drives configured as hot spares (dedicated or global) can be spun down. When spun down, the drives stay in powersave mode except for periodic maintenance, including:

The Dimmer Switch technology is enabled by default.

• Periodic background media scans (Patrol Read) to find and correct media defects to avoid

losing data redundancy (hot spare drives only)

• Use of a hot spare to rebuild a degraded drive group (hot spare drives only)

Configuration Page 53

• Update of Disk Data Format (DDF) and other metadata when you make changes to RAID

configurations (hot spare drives and unconfigured drives)

Note:

If your controller does not support this option, the Power Settings field does not appear.

Follow these steps to change the powersave setting.

1. Select a controller icon in the Physical tab or the Logical tab in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu window.

2. Select Go To->Controller->Power Settings from the menu bar.

The Power Settings dialog appears, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 38 Powersave Mode Checkbox

3. Click the Allow unconfigured drives to enter powersave mode check box and then click OK.

The second Power Settings dialog appears, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 39 Spin Down Time Delay Setting

4. Enter the time delay, in minutes, before the unconfigured drives spin down automatically.

After the specified time, the drives spin down automatically.

5. Click OK.

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Your power settings are saved. In the Physical tab of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu window, the nodes for the unconfigured good drives that are spun down appear with -

Powersave after their status.

Changing Power Settings Using the Dimmer Switch Enhancement

Follow these steps to change the power settings using the Dimmer Switch™ enhancement.

1. Select a controller icon in the Physical tab or in the Logical tab in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager window.

2. Select Go To->Controller->Manage Power Settings from the menu bar.

The Manage Power Settings dialog appears as displayed in the following figure.

Figure 40 Manage Power Save Settings

3. Select the Unconfigured Drives check box; the Unconfigured drives will enter the powersave mode.

4. Select the Hot spare Drives check box; the Hot spare drives will enter the powersave mode.

5. Select the Configured Drives check box; the Configured drives will enter the power save mode.

6. Select the Drive standby time (alt+d) using the drop-down selector from the Drive standby time field.

Note:

The Drive Standby time drop-down selector is enabled only if any of the above mentioned check boxes are selected. The drive standby time can be 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1.30 hours, 2 hours through 24 hours.

7. Select the mode from the Select power save mode field.

The mode can be Auto, Max, or Max without cache.

8. Click OK.

The Power-Save settings are saved and the confirmation dialog appears.

Configuration Page 55

9. Click Yes to confirm the changes to the power-save settings.

Power Save Settings - Advanced

You can schedule the drive active time by selecting the Start time and End time in the Power Save Settings - Advanced window.

Perform the following steps to schedule the drive active time.

1. Select the Advanced button.

The Power Save Settings - Advanced dialog appears as shown in the following figure.

Figure 41 Power Save Settings - Advanced

2. Select the Start time and the End time from the Schedule drive active time field.

3. Click OK.

The schedule drive active time is done.

Note:

Select the Do not schedule drive active time check box, if you do not want to schedule the drive active time.

Automatically Spin up Drives

The Dimmer Switch technology also allows the controller to automatically spin up the drives that are in Power-Save mode.

Perform the following steps to arrive at the Manage Power Save Settings screen.

1. Right click on Drive group and select Power Settings.

The Manage Power Save Settings dialog appears, as shown in the following figure.

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Figure 42 Manage Power Save Settings

2. Select the power save mode from the drop-down selector.

The values are Max, Max without cache, Auto, None, and controller defined.

3. Click OK.

Power-Save Mode

You can set the Power-Save mode when you create a virtual drive by using the Select power save mode field in the Create Drive Group - Drive Group Settings dialog, as shown in the

following figure.

Figure 43 Create Drive Group - Drive Group Settings (Automatic Spin Up)

Note:

The Controller Defined option enables the system to inherit the controller PowerSave mode for online drives.

Configuration Page 57

Power Save Mode - SSD Drives

If you select the Max mode or the Max without cache mode in the Select power save mode field in the above displayed figure, select one or more SSD drives, and then click Create Drive Group, a confirmation dialog appears. The dialog states that the Max mode and the Max without cache mode cannot be used for SSD drives and that Controller Defined will be selected as the power save mode.

Changing Virtual Drive Properties

Warning: Do not enable drive caching on a mirrored drive group (RAID 1 or RAID 1E). If you

do, data can be corrupted or lost in the event of a sudden power loss. A warning appears if you try to enable drive caching for a mirrored drive group.

Note:

You can change a virtual drive’s Read Policy, Write Policy, and other properties at any time after the drive is created. To do this change, follow these steps:

1. Select a virtual drive icon in the Physical tab or the Logical tab in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu screen.

2. Select Go To->Virtual Drive->Set Virtual Drive Properties from the menu bar.

The Set Virtual Drive Properties dialog box appears.

3. Change the Disk Cache Policy in the drop-down menu.

The options are Unchanged (unchanged from whatever the current cache policy is), Enabled, and Disabled.

4. Click OK to accept the changes.

For virtual drives with SAS drives only, set the drive write cache policy set to Disabled, by default. For virtual drives with SATA drives only, set the drive write cache policy to Enabled, by default.

Changing a Virtual Drive Configuration

You can use the Modify Drive Group Wizard in the MegaRAID Storage Manager software to change the configuration of a virtual drive by adding drives to the virtual drive, removing drives from it, or changing its RAID level.

Caution:

Note:

Be sure to back up the data on the virtual drive before you change its configuration.

You cannot change the configuration of a RAID 10, or RAID 50, or RAID 60 virtual drive. You cannot change a RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, or RAID 6 configuration if two or more virtual drives are defined on a single drive group. (The Logical tab shows which drive groups and drives are used by each virtual drive.)

Accessing the Modify Drive Group Wizard

Note: The Modify Drive Group Wizard was previously known as the Reconstruction

Wizard.

Perform the following steps to access the Modify Drive Group Wizard options:

1. Click the Logical tab in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu screen.

Page 58 Configuration

2. Select a drive group in the left panel of the window.

3. Either select Go To->Drive Group->Modify Drive Group on the menu bar, or right-click the virtual drive icon to access the Modify Drive Group Wizard.

The following warning appears about rebooting virtual drives containing boot partitions that are undergoing RAID-level migration or capacity expansion operations. Back up your data before you proceed.

Figure 44 Reboot Warning Message

4. Select the Confirm check box, and click Yes.

A warning to back up your data appears, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 45 Warning to Back up Data

5. Select the Confirm check box, and click Yes.

The Modify Drive Group Wizard screen appears, as shown in the following figure.

Configuration Page 59

Figure 46 Modify Drive Group Wizard

The following sections explain the Modify Drive Group Wizard options.

Adding a Drive or Drives to a Configuration

Caution: Be sure to back up the data on the virtual drive before you add a drive to it.

Follow these steps to add a drive or drives to a configuration with the Modify Drive Group Wizard.

1. Click the Logical tab in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu.

2. Select a drive group in the left panel of the window.

3. Either select Go To->Drive Group->Modify Drive Group on the menu bar, or right-click the virtual drive icon to access the Modify Drive Group Wizard.

The Modify Drive Group Wizard appears.

4. Select the RAID level that you want to change (migrate) the drive group to and click Next.

The following dialog appears. It lists the drives you can add and it states whether you have to add a minimum number of drives to change the RAID level from the current level to the new RAID level.

Page 60 Configuration

Figure 47 Add Drive(s) to the Current Configuration Screen

5. Select the check box next to any unconfigured drives that you want to add and click Next.

Note:

The drive or drives you add must have the same capacity as or greater capacity than the drives already in the drive group, or you cannot change the RAID level.

The Summary screen appears. This screen shows the current settings and what the settings will be after the drives are added.

6. Review the configuration information.

Click Back if you need to change any selections.

7. Click Finish to accept the changes.

A confirmation message appears. The message states that this operation cannot be aborted and asks whether you want to continue.

8. Click Yes to accept and complete the addition of the drives to the drive group.

Removing a Drive from a Configuration

Caution: Be sure to back up the data on the virtual drive before you remove a drive from it.

Follow these steps to remove a drive from a RAID 1 configuration or a RAID 1E configuration.

Note:

1. Click the Logical tab in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu screen.

2. Click a drive icon in the left panel of the screen.

This option is not available for RAID 0 configurations.

3. Either select Go To->Physical Drive->Make Drive Offline on the menu bar, or right-click the drive and select Make Drive Offline from the menu.

A confirmation message appears. The message states that this operation cannot be aborted and asks whether you want to continue.

4. Click Yes to accept and complete the removal of the drive from the drive group.

Configuration Page 61

Replacing a Drive

Caution: Make sure to back up the data on the virtual drive before you replace a drive.

Follow these steps to add a replacement drive and to copy the data from the drive that was removed to the replacement drive.

1. Click the Logical tab in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu.

2. Select a drive in the left panel of the window.

3. Either select Go To->Physical Drive->Replace Physical Drive on the menu bar, or right-click

Figure 48 Drive Replacement Window

the virtual drive icon to access the Modify Drive Group Wizard.

The screen with the replacement drive appears, as shown in the following figure.

4. Select a replacement drive.

A confirmation message appears.

5. Click Yes.

This replaces a drive and copies the data to the selected component.

Migrating the RAID Level of a Virtual Drive

As the amount of data and the number of drives in your system increase, you can use RAID-level migration to change a virtual drive from one RAID level to another. You do not have to power down or reboot the system when you make this change.

When you migrate a virtual drive to another RAID level, you can keep the same number of drives, or you can add drives. In some cases, you have to add a certain number of drives to migrate the virtual drive from one RAID level to another. The screen indicates the minimum number of drives you are required to add.

Caution:

Follow these steps to change the RAID level of the virtual drive with the Modify Drive Group Wizard:

1. Click the Logical tab in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu screen.

2. Select a drive group in the left panel of the window.

Be sure to back up the data on the virtual drive before you change the RAID level.

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3. Either select Go To->Drive Group->Modify Drive Group on the menu bar, or right-click the virtual drive icon to access the Modify Drive Group Wizard.

The Modify Drive Group Wizard appears, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 49 Modify Drive Group Wizard

4. On the Modify Drive Group Wizard screen, select the RAID level that you want to change (migrate) the drive group to, and click Next.

The following screen appears. The screen states the number of drives that you have to add to change the RAID level from the current level to a new RAID level that requires more drives.

Figure 50 Add Drive(s) to the Current Configuration Screen

5. Select the check box next to the unconfigured drive or drives to add, and click Next.

Note:

The drive or drives you add must have the same capacity as or greater capacity than the drives already in the drive group, or you cannot change the RAID level.

Configuration Page 63

The Summary screen appears. This screen shows the current settings and what the settings will be after the drives are added.

6. Review the configuration information.

You can click Back if you need to change any selections.

7. Click Finish to accept the changes.

A confirmation message appears. The message states that this operation cannot be aborted and asks whether you want to continue.

8. Click Yes to accept and complete the migration to the new RAID level.

The operation begins on the virtual disk. To monitor the progress of the RAID level change, select Manage->Show Progress in the menu bar.

New Drives Attached to a MegaRAID Controller

When you insert a new drive on a MegaRAID system, if the inserted drive does not contain valid DDF metadata, the drive appears as JBOD for MegaRAID entry-level controllers, such as the SAS 9240-4i/8i. If the drive does contain valid DDF metadata, its drive state is Unconfigured Good.

A new drive in JBOD drive state is exposed to the host operating system as a stand-alone drive. Drives in a JBOD drive state are not part of the RAID configuration because they do not have valid DDF records. The operating system can install and run anything on JBOD drives.

Automatic rebuilds always occur when the drive slot status changes, for example, when you insert a drive or remove a drive, so that a hot spare can be used. However, a new drive in JBOD drive state (without a valid DDF record), does not perform an automatic rebuild.

To start an automatic rebuild on the new JBOD drive, you have to change the drive state from JBOD to Unconfigured Good. (Rebuilds start only on Unconfigured Good drives.) After you set the drive state to Unconfigured Good, the drive state information always remains on the drive, and you can use the drive for configuration.

See Marking a Drive Offline or Missing for the procedure to change a drive to the Unconfigured Good drive state. See Rebuilding a Drive for the procedure to rebuild a drive.

Deleting a Virtual Drive

Warning: Make sure to back up the data on the virtual drive before you delete it, and make

sure that the operating system is not installed on this virtual drive.

You can delete virtual drives to rearrange the storage space. Before you can do this, you must be logged on to the server in Full Access mode. To delete a virtual drive, follow these steps:

1. Back up all of the user data on the virtual drive you intend to delete.

2. On the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu window, select the Logical tab, and click the icon of the virtual drive you want to delete.

3. Select Go To->Virtual Drive->Delete Virtual Drive.

4. When the warning messages appear, click Yes to confirm that you want to delete the virtual drive.

You are asked twice whether you want to delete the virtual disk to avoid deleting the virtual disk by mistake.

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5. When the first warning message appears, click the Confirm check box, and click Yes.

6. When the second warning message appears, click the Confirm check box, and click Yes.

The virtual drive is deleted, and the screen is refreshed.

Configuration Page 65

Page 66 Configuration

Monitoring Controllers and Its Attached Devices

The MegaRAID Storage Manager software enables you to monitor the activity of all the controllers present in the system and the devices attached to them.

When you perform an operation on devices (such as the creation of a new virtual drive) or when devices automatically go from an optimal state to a different state (such as a created virtual drive goes to a degraded state or a Battery Backup Unit goes bad), the MegaRAID Storage Manager software gets those events from the controller and gives a notification to you, using different alert delivery methods.

This section contains the following topics:

• Alert Delivery Methods

• Configuring Alert Notifications

• Monitoring Server Events

• Monitoring Controllers

• Monitoring Drives

• Monitoring Virtual Drives

• Monitoring Enclosures

• Monitoring Rebuilds and Other Processes

Alert Delivery Methods

Based on the severity level (Information, Warning, Critical and Fatal), the default alert delivery methods change. By default, each severity level has one or more alert delivery methods configured for it, as shown in Tab le 1 . To modify these alert delivery methods, see Configuring

Alert Notifications. The different alert delivery methods are as follows:

• Vivaldi Log/MegaRAID Storage Manager Log

• System Log

• Pop-up Notification

• E-mail Notification

Monitoring Controllers and Its Attached Devices Page 67

Table 1 Severity Level and Default Alert Delivery Methods

Default Alert Delivery

Severity Level

Method Meaning

Information Vivaldi log/MegaRAID

Storage Manager log and System log

Warning Vivaldi log/MegaRAID

Storage Manager log and System log

Critical Vivaldi log/MegaRAID

Storage Manager log, System log, and Popup Notification

Fatal Vivaldi log/MegaRAID

Storage Manager log, System log, Popup Notification, and E-mail Notification

Vivaldi Log / MegaRAID Storage Manager Log

By default, all the severity events appear in the Vivaldi log/MegaRAID Storage Manager log and are displayed at the bottom of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu window. Each message that appears in this log has a severity level that indicates the importance of the event (severity), a date and timestamp (when it occurred), and a brief description, as show in the following figure.

Informational message. No user action is necessary.

Some component might be close to a failure point.

A component has failed, but the system has not lost data.

A component has failed, and data loss has occurred or will occur.

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Figure 51 Vivaldi Log

System Log

You can double click on an event to display the same information in a separate window. For a list of all events, see Events and Messages. The status bar at the bottom of the screen indicates whether the log is a MegaRAID Storage Manager server log or a locally stored log file.

When a Vivaldi log/MegaRAID Storage Manager log appears, the Log menu has the following options:

• Save Log: Saves the current log to a .log file.

• Save Log Text: Saves the current log in .txt format.

• Load: Enables you to load a local .log file in the bottom of the MegaRAID Storage Manager

main menu window. If you select the Load menu, you will not be able to view the current log.

• Rollback to Current Log: This menu appears if we have loaded the logs from a local .log

file. Once you select this menu, you can view the current log.

• Clear Log: Clears the current log information, if you have full access (versus view-only

access). You have the option to save the log first.

By default, all the severity events are logged in the local syslog. Based on the operating system you are using, the system log is logged in the following syslog locations:

• In Windows, the system log is logged in Event Viewer -> Application.

• In Linux, the system log is logged in /var/log/messages.

• In Solaris, the system log is logged in /var/adm/messages.

Monitoring Controllers and Its Attached Devices Page 69

Pop-up Notification

By default, fatal and critical events are displaying in a pop-up notification. Pop-up notification is started automatically when you are login in to the operating system. Through this feature, you can view multiple events in a single pop-up window as shown in following figure.

Figure 52 Pop-up Notification

E-mail Notification

By default, fatal events are displayed as e-mail notifications. Based on your configuration, the email notifications are delivered to you as shown in the following figure.

In the e-mail notification, besides the event’s description, the email also contains system information and the controller’s image details. Using this additional information, you can find out the system and the controller on which the fatal error occurred.

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Figure 53 E Mail Notification

Configuring Alert Notifications

The Alert Notification Configuration feature allows you to control and configure the alerts that the MegaRAID Storage Manager software sends when various system events occur.

Select Tools->Configure Alerts on the main menu screen, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 54 Alert Notification Configuration Menu

The Configure Alerts window appears, as shown in the following figure. The window contains three tabs: Alert Settings, Mail Server, and Email. You can use each tab to perform tasks for that particular topic.

Monitoring Controllers and Its Attached Devices Page 71

Figure 55 Configure Alerts

You can select the Alert Settings tab to perform the following actions:

• Edit the alert delivery method for different severity levels.

• Change the method of delivery for each individual event.

• Change the severity level of each individual event.

• Save an .xml backup file of the entire alert configuration.

• Load all the values from a previously saved backup into the dialog to edit or save these values

as the current alert notification configuration.

Note: When you load a saved backup file, all unsaved changes made in the current

session will be lost.

You can select the Mail Server tab to perform the following actions:

• Enter or edit the sender email address.

• Enter the SMTP server name or the IP address.

• Enter the SMTP server authentication related information (user name and password).

Note:

These fields are optional and are filled only when the SMTP server requires authentication.

• Save an .xml backup file of the entire alert configuration.

• Load all of the values from a previously saved backup into the dialog to edit or save these

values as the current alert notification configuration.

Note:

You can select the Email tab to perform the following actions:

When you load a saved backup file, all unsaved changes made in the current session will be lost.

• Add new email addresses for recipients of alert notifications.

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• Send test messages to the recipient email addresses.

• Remove email addresses of recipients of alert notifications.

• Save an .xml backup file of the entire alert configuration.

• Load all of the values from a previously saved backup into the dialog to edit or save these

values as the current alert notification configuration.

Note:

This section also includes the following topics:

When you load a saved backup file, all unsaved changes made in the current session will be lost.

• Editing Alert Delivery Methods

• Changing Alert Delivery Methods for Individual Events

• Changing the Severity Level for Individual Events

• Rollback to Default Individual Event Configuration

• Entering or Editing the Sender Email Address and SMTP Server

• Authenticating the SMTP Server

• Adding Email Addresses of Recipients of Alert Notifications

• Testing Email Addresses of Recipients of Alert Notifications

• Removing Email Addresses of Recipients of Alert Notifications

• Saving Backup Configurations

• Loading Backup Configurations

Editing Alert Delivery Methods

You can edit the default alert delivery methods, such as pop-up, email, system log, or the Vivaldi Log / MegaRAID Storage Manager log to different severity level (Information, Warning, Critical and Fatal).

Perform the following steps to edit the alert delivery methods:

1. On the Configure Alerts window, click the Alerts Setting tab.

2. Under the Alerts Delivery Methods heading, select one of the severity levels.

3. Click Edit. The Edit dialog appears, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 56 Edit Dialog

4. Select the desired alert delivery methods for alert notifications at the event severity level.

5. Click OK to set the delivery methods used for the severity level that you selected.

Monitoring Controllers and Its Attached Devices Page 73

Changing Alert Delivery Methods for Individual Events

You can change the alert delivery options for an event without changing the severity level.

1. On the Configure Alerts window, click the Alerts Setting tab.

The Alerts Setting portion of the window appears.

2. Click Change Individual Events.

The Change Individual Events dialog appears, as shown in the following figure. The dialog shows the events by their ID number, description, and the severity level.

Figure 57 Change Individual Events

3. Click an event in the list to select it.

The current alert delivery methods appear for the selected event under the Alert Delivery Methods heading.

4. Select the desired alert delivery methods for the event.

5. Click OK to return to the Configure Alerts window.

You may click Cancel to discard your current changes and to go back to the Configure Alerts window.

6. In the Configure Alerts window, click OK. This saves all the changes made to the event.

Note:

You can click Restore Defaults to revert back to the default alert delivery method and the default severity level of an individual event. For more information, see

Rollback to Default Individual Event Configuration.

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Changing the Severity Level for Individual Events

To change the event severity level for a specific event, perform the following steps:

Note:

See Ta bl e 1 for details about the severity levels.

1. On the Configure Alerts window, click the Alerts Setting tab.

The Alerts Setting portion of the window appears.

2. Click Change Individual Events. The Change Individual Events dialog appears. The dialog shows the events by their ID number, description, and severity level.

3. Click an event in the list to select it. The current severity appears in the Severity cell for the selected event.

4. Click the Severity cell for the event. The Event Severity drop-down menu appears for that event, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 58 Change Individual Events Severity Level Menu

5. Select a different severity level for the event from the menu.

6. Click OK to return to the Configure Alerts window.

You may click Cancel to discard your current changes and to go back to the Configure Alerts window.

7. In the Configure Alerts window, click OK to save all the changes made to the events.

Rollback to Default Individual Event Configuration

To revert back to the default alert delivery method and the default severity level of an individual event, perform the following steps:

1. On the Configure Alerts window, click the Alerts Setting tab.

The Alerts Setting portion of the window appears.

2. Click Change Individual Events.

The Change Individual Events dialog appears, as shown in Figure 57. The dialog shows the events by their ID number, description, and the severity level.

3. Click Restore Defaults.

The Change Individual Events dialog appears with the default alert delivery method and the default severity level of all individual events.

Monitoring Controllers and Its Attached Devices Page 75

4. Click OK to return to the Configure Alerts window.

5. In the Configure Alerts window, click OK to save all the changes made to the events.

Entering or Editing the Sender Email Address and SMTP Server

You can use the Configure Alerts window to enter or edit the sender e-mail address and the SMTP server.

1. On the Configure Alerts window, click the Mail Server tab.

The Mail Server options appear, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 59 Mail Server Options

2. Enter a sender’s email address in the Sender email address field or edit the existing sender email address.

3. Enter your SMTP server name/IP Address in the SMTP Server field or edit the existing details.

4. If your SMTP server requires authentication for sending an email, then select the This Server requires authentication check box.

5. Click OK.

Authenticating the SMTP Server

You can use the Configure Alerts window to authenticate the SMTP server, providing an extra level of security while sending an e-mail from the MegaRAID Storage Manager server.

To enter or modify the SMTP server authentication information, perform the following steps

1. On the Configure Alerts window, click the Mail Server tab.

The Mail Server options appear, as shown in Figure 59.

Page 76 Monitoring Controllers and Its Attached Devices

2. If your SMTP server requires authentication for sending an email, select the This Server requires authentication check box. If your SMTP server does not require authentication, you

may go directly to step 5.

Note

: The This Server requires authentication check box is selected by default.

3. Enter a user name in the User name field. (Optional - if This Server requires authentication check box is selected).

4. Enter the password in the Password field. (Optional - if This Server requires authentication check box is selected).

5. Click OK.

Adding Email Addresses of Recipients of Alert Notifications

The Email tab in the Configure Alerts window shows the email addresses of the recipients of the alert notifications. The MegaRAID Storage Manager software sends alert notifications to those email addresses. Use the Configure Alerts window to add or remove email addresses of recipients and to send test messages to recipients that you add.

To add email addresses of recipients of the alert notifications, perform the following steps:

1. Click the E-mail tab in the Configure Alerts window.

Figure 60 Adding Email Settings

2. Enter the email address you want to add in the New recipient email address field.

3. Click Add. The new email address appears in the Recipient email addresses field.

Testing Email Addresses of Recipients of Alert Notifications

Use the Email tab in the Configure Alerts window to send test messages to the email addresses that you added for the recipients of alert notifications.

1. Click the Email tab on the Configure Alerts window.

The Email section of the window appears, as shown in the above figure.

Monitoring Controllers and Its Attached Devices Page 77

2. Click an email address in the Recipient email addresses field.

3. Click Test.

4. Confirm whether the test message was sent to the email address.

A pop-up message indicates if the test message sent to the email address was successful. If the MegaRAID Storage Manager software cannot send an email message to the email address, an error message appears.

Removing Email Addresses of Recipients of Alert Notifications

Use the Email tab in the Configure Alerts window to remove email addresses of the recipients of alert notifications.

1. Click the Email tab on the Configure Alerts window.

The Email section of the window appears, as shown in the previous figure.

2. Click an email address in the Recipient email addresses field.

The Remove button, which was grayed out, is now active.

3. Click Remove. The email address is deleted from the list.

Saving Backup Configurations

You can save an .xml backup file of the entire alert configuration. This includes all the settings on the three tabs (Alert Settings, Mail Server, and Email).

1. On the Configure Alerts window, click the Alert Setting tab, Mail Server tab, or the Email tab.

2. Click Save Backup. The drive directory appears.

3. Enter a filename with an .xml extension for the backup configuration (in the format filename.xml).

4. Click Save. The drive directory disappears.

5. Click OK. The backup configuration is saved and the Configure Alerts window closes.

Loading Backup Configurations

You can load all of the values from a previously saved backup into the Configure Alert window (all tabs) to edit or save these values as the current alert notification configuration.

Note:

1. On the Configure Alerts window, click the Alert Setting tab, Mail Server tab, or Email tab.

2. Click Load Backup.

You are prompted to confirm your choice. The drive directory appears from which you can select a backup configuration to load.

If you choose to load a backup configuration and the Configure Alerts window currently contains changes that have not yet been saved as the current alert notification configuration, the changes will be lost. You are prompted to confirm your choice.

3. Select the backup configuration file (it should be in .xml format).

4. Click Open. The drive directory disappears.

5. Click OK. The backup configuration is saved and the Configure Alerts window closes.

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Monitoring Server Events

The MegaRAID Storage Manager software enables you to monitor the activity of MegaRAID Storage Manager users in the network.

When a user logs on/logs off from the application, the event message appears in the log displayed at the bottom of the MegaRAID Storage Manager screen (the Vivaldi log/MegaRAID Storage Manager Log). These event message have a severity level, a date and timestamp (User log on / log off time), and a brief description that contains a user name, client IP address, an access mode (full/view only) and a client system time.

Monitoring Controllers

When the MegaRAID Storage Manager software is running, you can see the status of all the controllers in the left panel. If a controller is operating normally, the controller icon looks like this:

. If a controller has failed, a small red circle appears next to the icon.

To display the complete controller information, click on a controller icon in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu. The controller properties appear in the right panel as shown in the following figure. Most of the information on this tab is self-explanatory.

Figure 61 Controller Properties

• The Rebuild rate, Patrol read rate, Reconstruction rate, Consistency check rate, and BGI rate

(background initialization) are all user selectable. For more information, see Changing

Adjustable Task Rates.

Monitoring Controllers and Its Attached Devices Page 79

• The BBU Present field indicates whether a battery backup unit is installed or not.

• The Alarm Enabled field indicates whether the controller has an alarm to alert the user with

an audible tone when there is an error or a problem on the controller. Options are available for disabling or silencing the alarm by right clicking on a controller icon or by selecting Go To

->Controller menu.

The controller properties are defined in the Glossary.

Monitoring Drives

When the MegaRAID Storage Manager software is running, you can see the status of all the drives in the left panel. If a drive is operating normally, the icon looks like this: . If a drive has failed, a small red circle appears to the right of the icon.

To display the complete drive Information, click on a drive icon in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu. The drive properties appear in the right panel as shown in the following figure. The information on this tab is self-explanatory. There are no user-selectable properties for physical devices. Icons for other storage devices, such as CD-ROM drives and DAT drives, can also appear in the left panel.

Figure 62 Drive Properties

The Power Status property displays the status On when a drive is spun up and displays the status Powersave when a drive is spun down. Note that SSD drives and other drives that never spin down still show On.

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If the drives are in a disk enclosure, you can identify which drive is represented by a disk icon on the left. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click the drive icon in the left panel.

2. Select Go To->Physical Drive->Start Locating Drive tab in the right panel.

The LED on the drive in the enclosure starts blinking to show its location.

Note:

3. To stop the drive light on the enclosure from blinking, select Go To->Physical Drive->Stop

Locating Drive.

Running a Patrol Read

A patrol read periodically verifies all sectors of the drives connected to a controller, including the system reserved area in the RAID configured drives. You can run a patrol read for all RAID levels and for all hot spare drives. A patrol read is initiated only when the controller is idle for a defined period and has no other background activities.

You can set the patrol read properties and start the patrol read operation, or you can start the patrol read without changing the properties.

1. Click a controller icon in the left panel.

2. Select Go To->Controller->Set Patrol Read Properties or right-click on a controller and select Set Patrol Read Properties from the menu.

The Patrol Read - Set properties window appears, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 63 Patrol Read - Set Properties

LEDs on drives that are global hot spares do not blink.

3. Select an operation mode for patrol read from the following options:

– Automatic: Patrol read runs automatically at the time interval you specify on this window.

– Manual: Patrol read runs only when you manually start it, by selecting Start Patrol Read

from the controller options window.

Monitoring Controllers and Its Attached Devices Page 81

– Disabled: Patrol read does not run.

4. (Optional) Specify a maximum count of drives to include in the patrol read.

The count must be a number from 1 to 255.

5. (Optional) Click virtual drives in the list under the heading Virtual Drives to include in the patrol read and click Add > or click Add All >> to include all of the virtual drives.

6. (Optional) Change the frequency at which the patrol read runs.

The default frequency is weekly (168 hours), which is suitable for most configurations. The other options are hourly, daily, and monthly.

Note:

LSI recommends that you leave the patrol read frequency and other patrol read settings at the default values to achieve the best system performance. If you decide to change the values, record the original default values here so you can restore them later, if necessary:

Patrol Read Frequency: ___________________ Continuous Patrolling: Enabled/Disabled Patrol Read Task Rate: ___________________

7. (Optional) Set Patrol Read to run at a specific time.

The default setting for the patrol read is to start when you click OK on this window. To change the default setting so that the patrol read starts at a specific time, follow these steps (otherwise, skip this step and proceed to step 8):

a. Deselect the Perform Patrol Read when I click OK check box.

b. Select the month, year, day, and time to start the patrol read.

8. Click OK to enable your patrol read selections.

Note:

Patrol read does not report on its progress while it is running. The patrol read status is reported only in the event log.

9. Click Go to enable these Patrol Read options.

To start a patrol read without changing the patrol read properties, follow these steps:

1. Click a controller icon in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu screen.

2. Select Go To->Controller->Start Patrol Read in the menu bar or right-click a controller and select Start Patrol Read from the menu.

3. When prompted, click Yes to confirm that you want to start a patrol read.

Patrol Read Task Rates

You have the option to change the patrol read task rate. The task rate determines the amount of system resources that are dedicated to a patrol read when it is running. LSI recommends, however, that you leave the patrol read task rate at its default setting.

If you raise the task rate above the default, the foreground tasks will run more slowly and it may seem that the system is not responding. If you lower the task rate below the default, rebuilds and other background tasks might run very slowly and might not complete within a reasonable time. For more information, about the patrol read task rate, see Changing Adjustable Task Rates

Page 82 Monitoring Controllers and Its Attached Devices

Monitoring Virtual Drives

When the MegaRAID Storage Manager software is running, you can see the status of all virtual drives. If a virtual drive is operating normally, the icon looks like this: . Color-coded circles appear next to the icon to indicate the following:

• Green: The server is operating properly.

• Yellow: The server is running in a partially degraded state (for example, if a drive has failed);

the data is still safe, but data could be lost if another drive fails.

• Orange: The server is running in a degraded state.

• Red: The server storage configuration has failed.

When the Logical tab is selected, the panel on the left shows which drives are used by each virtual drive. The same drive can be used by multiple virtual drives.

To display complete virtual drive information, click the Logical tab in the left panel, and click on a virtual drive icon in the left panel. The properties appear in the right panel as shown in the following figure. The RAID level, strip size, and access policy of the virtual drive are set when the virtual drive is configured.

Figure 64 Virtual Drive Properties

You can change the read policy, write policy, and other virtual drive properties. To change these properties, see Changing Virtual Drive Properties.

Monitoring Controllers and Its Attached Devices Page 83

Note: You can change the Read Policy, Write Policy, and other virtual drive properties by

If the drives in the virtual drive are in a disk enclosure, you can identify them by making their LEDs blink. To identify the drives, follow these steps:

1. Click the virtual drive icon in the left panel.

2. Either select Go To->Virtual Drive->Start Locating Virtual Drive, or right-click a virtual drive and select Start Locating Virtual Drive from the menu.

The LEDs on the drives in the virtual drive start blinking (except for the hot spare drives).

3. To stop the LEDs from blinking, select Go To->Virtual Drive->Stop Locating Virtual Drive or right-click a virtual drive and select Stop Locating Virtual Drive from the menu.

Monitoring Enclosures

When the MegaRAID Storage Manager software is running, you can see the status of all enclosures connected to the server by selecting the Physical tab in the left panel. If an enclosure is operating normally, the icon looks like this: . If an enclosure is not functioning normally—for example, if a fan has failed—an orange, yellow, or red circle appears to the right of the icon.

Information about the enclosure appears in the right panel when you select the Properties tab on the main menu screen. A graphical display of enclosure information appears when you select the Graphical View tab.

selecting the virtual drive icon and then selecting Go To->Virtual Drive ->Set Virtual Drive Properties in the menu bar.

The display in the center of the screen shows how many slots of the enclosure are actually populated by the drives and the lights on the drives show the drive status. The information on the right shows you the status of the temperature sensors, fans, and power supplies in the enclosure.

To view the enclosure properties, in the physical view click on the Enclosure node. The

Enclosure Properties are displayed, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 65 Enclosure Properties

Monitoring Battery Backup Units

When the MegaRAID Storage Manager software is running, you can monitor the status of all of the BBUs connected to controllers in the server. If a BBU is operating normally, the icon looks like this . If a BBU fails, a red dot appears next to the icon.

Page 84 Monitoring Controllers and Its Attached Devices

To show the properties for a BBU, perform the following steps:

1. On the main menu screen, click the Physical tab to open the physical view.

2. Select the BBU icon in the left panel.

The BBU properties appear in the right panel. The BBU properties include the following:

• The number of times the BBU has been recharged (cycle count).

• The full capacity of the BBU, plus the percentage of its current state of charge, and the

estimated time until it will be depleted.

• The current BBU temperature, voltage, current, and remaining capacity.

• If the battery is charging, the estimated time until it is fully charged.

• The battery state, which says if it is in operational state.

• If battery replacement is required.

• The BBU retention time, which gives the total number of hours the battery can support the

current capacity reserve.

The BBU Properties are displayed, as shown in the following two figures.

Figure 66 Battery Backup Unit Properties for iBBU Battery

Figure 67 Battery Backup Unit Properties for TMM-C Battery

Battery Learn Cycle

Learn cycle is a battery calibration operation that is performed by the controller periodically to determine the condition of the battery. You can start battery learn cycles manually or automatically.

Monitoring Controllers and Its Attached Devices Page 85

To choose automatic battery learn cycles, enable automatic learn cycles. To choose manual battery learn cycles, disable automatic learn cycles.

If you enable automatic learn cycles, you can delay the start of the learn cycles for up to 168 hours (7 days). If you disable automatic learn cycles, you can start the learn cycles manually, and you can choose to receive a reminder to start a manual learn cycle.

Setting Learn Cycle Properties

To set the learn cycle properties, perform the following steps:

1. Click the Physical tab to open the Physical view.

2. Select the BBU icon in the left panel.

3. Select Go To->BBU->Set Learn Cycle Properties. The Set Learn Cycle Properties window appears, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 68 Set Learn Cycle Properties

4. Select one of the two automatic learn cycles:

• Select the Enable radio button to enable an automatic learn cycle.

• Select the Disable radio button to disable an automatic learn cycle.

5. You can delay the start of the next learn cycle up to 7 days (168 hours) by specifying the hours in the Delay scheduled learn cycle by field.

6. Select the Remind me when to start a learn cycle check box to receive a reminder to start a manual learn cycle.

Note

: After selecting Disable, if you select Enable, the controller firmware resets the

battery module properties to initiate an immediate battery learn cycle. The Next Learn cycle field (in Figure 66 or Figure 67) will not be updated until the battery relearn is completed. Once the relearning cycle is completed, the value in the Next Learn cycle field will display the new date and the time of the next battery learning cycle.

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Starting a Learn Cycle Manually

To start the learn cycle properties manually, perform the following steps:

1. Click the Physical tab to open the Physical view.

2. Select the BBU icon in the left panel.

3. Select Go To->BBU->Start Learn Cycle.

Another way to start the learn cycle is to right-click the BBU icon and select Start Learn Cycle from the pop-up menu.

Monitoring Rebuilds and Other Processes

The MegaRAID Storage Manager software allows you to monitor the progress of rebuilds and other lengthy processes in the Group Show Progress window. To open this window, follow these steps:

Follow these steps to monitor the progress of these operations.

1. Open the show progress window, by selecting Manage->Show Progress on the menu bar.

Figure 69 Group Show Progress Menu

The Group Show Progress window appears, as shown in the following figure.

Monitoring Controllers and Its Attached Devices Page 87

Figure 70 Group Show Progress Window

The Group Show Progress window displays a percent-complete indicator for drive rebuilds. Rebuilds may take a long time to complete and cannot be aborted. An up-arrow appears above the drive icon while it is being rebuilt.

Operations on virtual drives appear in the left panel of the window, and operations on drives appear in the right panel. The type of operations that appear in this window are as follows:

• Initialization of a virtual drive (see Initializing a Virtual Drive)

• Rebuild (see Rebuilding a Drive)

• Consistency check (see Running a Consistency Check)

A Modify Drive Group process cannot be aborted. To abort any other ongoing process, click the

Abort button next to the status indicator. Click Abort All to abort all ongoing processes. Click Close to close the window.

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Maintaining and Managing Storage Configurations

This section explains how to use the MegaRAID Storage Manager software to maintain and manage storage configurations. You must log on to the server in Full Access mode in order to perform these maintenance and management tasks. This section has the following topics:

• Initializing a Virtual Drive

• Running a Group Initialization

• Running a Consistency Check

• Rebuilding a Drive

• Marking a Drive Offline or Missing

• Removing a Drive

• Upgrading the Firmware

Initializing a Virtual Drive

When you create a new virtual drive with the Configuration Wizard, you can select the Quick Init or Full Init option to initialize the disk immediately. However, you can select No Init if you want to initialize the virtual drive later.

To initialize a virtual drive after the configuration process, follow these steps:

1. Click the Logical tab in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu screen, and click the icon of the virtual drive that you want to initialize.

2. Select Go To->Virtual Drive->Start Initialization. The Initialize dialog appears.

3. Select the virtual drive or drives to initialize.

Caution:

4. Select the Fast Initialization check box if you want to use this option.

Fast Initialization quickly formats the virtual drive by writing zeros to the first few sectors of the drives in the virtual drive. Regular initialization takes longer, depending on the number and the size of the drives in the virtual drive.

If you leave the box unchecked, the MegaRAID Storage Manager software will run a Full Initialization on the virtual drive. For more information, see Changing Virtual Drive Properties.

5. Click Start to start the initialization. You can monitor the progress of the initialization. For more information, see Changing Virtual Drive Properties.

Initialization erases all data on the virtual drive. Make sure to back up any data you want to keep before you initialize. Make sure the operating system is not installed on the virtual drive you are initializing.

Running a Group Initialization

Initialization prepares the storage medium for use. You can run an initialization on multiple drives at one time. Follow these steps to run a group consistency check.

Maintaining and Managing Storage Configurations Page 89

1. Select Manage->Initialize. The Group Initialization dialog appears, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 71 Group Initialization

2. Either check the virtual drives on which to run the initialization on or click Select All to select all the virtual drives.

3. Click Start.

You can monitor the progress of the group initialization. For more information, see Monitoring

Rebuilds and Other Processes.

Running a Consistency Check

You should periodically run a consistency check on fault-tolerant virtual drives (RAID 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, or 60 configurations; RAID 0 does not provide data redundancy). A consistency check scans the virtual drive to determine whether the data has become corrupted and needs to be restored.

For example, in a system with parity, checking consistency means computing the data on one drive and comparing the results to the contents of the parity drive. You must run a consistency check if you suspect that the data on the virtual drive might be corrupted.

Note:

To run a consistency check, first set the consistency check properties and then schedule the consistency check. The following sections explains how to:

Make sure to back up your data before running a consistency check if you think the data might be corrupted.

Page 90 Maintaining and Managing Storage Configurations

• Set the properties – Setting the Consistency Check Settings

• Schedule the check – Scheduling a Consistency Check

• Run the consistency check – Running a Group Consistency Check

Setting the Consistency Check Settings

Follow these steps to set the properties for a consistency check:

1. Click the Physical tab or Logical tab in the main menu window and select a controller.

2. Select Go To->Controller->Set Consistency Check Properties, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 72 Set Consistency Check Properties Option

The Set Consistency Check Properties dialog appears, as shown in the following figure.

Maintaining and Managing Storage Configurations Page 91

Figure 73 Set Consistency Check Properties

3. Choose one of the two options:

– Stop Consistency Check on Error: The RAID controller stops the consistency check

operation if the utility finds an error.

– Continue Consistency Check and Fix Errors: The RAID controller continues the

consistency check if the utility finds an error, and then fixes the error.

4. Click Ok.

Scheduling a Consistency Check

Follow these steps to set the properties for a consistency check:

1. Click the Physical tab or Logical tab in the main menu screen, and select the controller.

2. Select Go To->Controller->Schedule Consistency Check. The Schedule Consistency dialog appears, as shown in the following figure.

Page 92 Maintaining and Managing Storage Configurations

Figure 74 Schedule Consistency Check

3. Perform the following steps to schedule the consistency check:

a. Select how often to run the consistency check from the drop-down menu.

You can click Advanced for more detailed date options.

b. (Optional) Select the Run consistency check continuously check box.

c. Select the month, day, and year on which to start the consistency check.

d. Select the time of day to start the consistency check.

4. Click Ok.

You can monitor the progress of the consistency check. For more information, see Monitoring

Rebuilds and Other Processes.

Running a Group Consistency Check

You can run a consistency check on multiple drives at one time. Follow these steps to run a group consistency check:

1. Select Manage->Check Consistency. The Group Consistency Check dialog appears, as shown in the following figure.

Maintaining and Managing Storage Configurations Page 93

Figure 75 Group Consistency Check

2. Either select the virtual drives on which to run the consistency check on, or click Select All to select all of the virtual drives.

3. Click Start.

You can monitor the progress of the group consistency check. For more information, see

Monitoring Rebuilds and Other Processes.

Scanning for New Drives

You can use the Scan for Foreign Configuration option to find drives with foreign configurations. A foreign configuration is a RAID configuration that already exists on a disks that you install in a computer system. In addition, if one or more drives are removed from a configuration, by a cable pull or drive removal, for example, the configuration on those drives is considered a foreign configuration by the RAID controller. Drives that are foreign are listed on the physical drives list with a special symbol in the MegaRAID Storage Manager software.

The utility allows you to import the existing configuration to the RAID controller or clear the configuration so you can create a new configuration using these drives. You can preview the foreign configuration before you decide whether to import it.

The MegaRAID Storage Manager software normally detects newly installed drives and displays icons for them in the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu window. If for some reason the MegaRAID Storage Manager software does not detect a new drive (or drives), you can use the Scan for Foreign Configuration command to find it.

replacement set of physical

Page 94 Maintaining and Managing Storage Configurations

Follow these steps to scan for a foreign configuration:

1. Select a controller icon in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager window.

2. Select Go To->Controller->Scan for Foreign Configuration.

If the MegaRAID Storage Manager software detects any new drives, it displays a list of them on the screen. If not, it notifies you that no foreign configuration is found.

3. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the drive detection.

Rebuilding a Drive

If a drive in a redundant virtual drive (RAID 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, or 60) fails, the MegaRAID Storage Manager software automatically rebuilds the data on a hot spare drive to prevent data loss. The rebuild is a fully automatic process, so it is not necessary to issue a Rebuild command. You can monitor the progress of drive rebuilds in the Group Show Progress window. To open this window, select Group Operations->Show Progress.

If a single drive in a RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, or RAID 50 virtual drive fails, the system is protected from data loss. A RAID 6 virtual drive can survive two failed drives. A RAID 60 virtual drive can survive two failed drives in each span in the drive group. Data loss is prevented by using parity data in RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 50, and RAID 60, and data redundancy in RAID 1 and RAID 10.

The failed drive must be replaced, and the data on the drive must be rebuilt on a new drive to restore the system to fault tolerance. (Or the data can be rebuilt on the failed drive, if the drive is still operational.) If dedicated hot spares or global hot spare disks are available, the failed drive is rebuilt automatically without any user intervention.

A red circle to the right of the drive icon indicates that a drive has failed. A yellow circle appears to the right of the icon of the virtual drive that uses this drive which indicates that the virtual drive is in a degraded state; the data is still safe, but data could be lost if another drive fails.

Follow these steps to rebuild a drive:

1. Right-click the icon of the failed drive and select Rebuild.

2. Click Yes when the warning message appears. If the drive is still good, a rebuild will start.

You can monitor the progress of the rebuild in the Group Show Progress window by selecting Manage->Show Progress. If the drive cannot be rebuilt, an error message appears. Continue with step 3.

3. Shut down the system, disconnect the power cord, and open the computer case.

4. Replace the failed drive with a new drive of equal capacity.

5. Close the computer case, reconnect the power cord, and restart the computer.

6. Restart the MegaRAID Storage Manager software.

When the new drive spins up, the drive icon changes back to normal status, and the rebuild process begins automatically. You can monitor the progress of the rebuild in the Group Show Progress window by selecting Manage->Show Progress.

If you want to force a drive into Fail status to trigger a rebuild, right-click the drive icon, and select

Make Drive Offline. A red circle appears next to the drive icon. Right-click the icon, and select Rebuild from the pop-up menu. A drive rebuild cannot be aborted.

Maintaining and Managing Storage Configurations Page 95

Note: A drive rebuild is also started if you select Make Drive Online from the pop-up

menu.

New Drives Attached to a MegaRAID Controller

When you insert a new drive on a MegaRAID system and if the inserted drive does not contain valid DDF metadata, the drive displays as JBOD for MegaRAID entry-level controllers, such as the SAS 9240-4i/8i. If the drive does contain valid DDF metadata, its drive state is Unconfigured Good.

A new drive in JBOD drive state is exposed to the host operating system as a stand-alone drive. Drives in JBOD drive state are not part of the RAID configuration because they do not have valid DDF records. The operating system can install and run anything on JBOD drives.

To start an automatic rebuild on the new JBOD drive, you have to change the drive state from JBOD to Unconfigured Good. (Rebuilds start on Unconfigured Good drives only.) After you set the drive state to Unconfigured Good, the drive state information always remains on the drive, and you can use the drive for configuration.

Marking a Drive Offline or Missing

If a drive is currently part of a redundant configuration and you want to use it in another configuration, you can use the MegaRAID Storage Manager commands to remove the drive from the first configuration and change the drive state to Unconfigured Good.

Caution:

To remove the drive from the configuration without harming the data on the virtual drive, follow these steps:

1. In the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu, select Go To->Physical Drive->Make Drive Offline.

The drive status changes to Offline.

2. Select Go To->Physical Drive->Mark Drive as Missing.

The drive status changes to Unconfigured Good.

Caution:

3. If necessary, create a hot spare drive for the virtual drive from which you have removed the drive. For information on creating a hot spare drive, see Creating Hot Spares.

When a hot spare is available, the controller rebuilds the data on the virtual drive. You can now use the removed drive for another configuration. If the MegaRAID Storage Manager software detects that a drive in a virtual drive has failed, it makes the drive offline. If this happens, you must remove the drive and replace it. You cannot make the drive usable for another configuration by using the Mark physical disk as missing and Rescan commands.

After you perform this procedure, all data on that drive is lost.

After you perform this step, the data on this drive is no longer valid.

Page 96 Maintaining and Managing Storage Configurations

Removing a Drive

You may sometimes need to remove a non-failed drive that is connected to the controller. For example, you may need to replace the drive with a larger drive. Follow these steps to remove a drive safely:

1. Click the icon of the drive in the left panel, and click the Operations tab in the right panel.

2. Select Prepare for Removal, and click Go.

3. Wait until the drive spins down and remove it.

If you change your mind, select Undo Prepare for Removal and click Go.

Upgrading the Firmware

The MegaRAID Storage Manager software enables you to easily upgrade the controller firmware. To avoid data loss because of dirty cache on the controller, the utility forces the virtual disks into Write through mode after a firmware upgrade. It is in this mode until the server reboots. In the Write through mode, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host when the disk subsystem has received all the data in a transaction. This way, in case of a power outage, the controller does not discard the dirty cache.

Follow these steps to upgrade the controller firmware:

1. In the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu window, click on the icon of the controller you need to upgrade.

2. On the main menu screen, select Go To->Controller->Update Controller Firmware.

3. Click Browse for the .rom flash update file, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 76 Locate the Controller Firmware File

4. After you locate the file, click Open.

The MegaRAID Storage Manager software displays the version of the existing firmware and the version of the new firmware file. The MegaRAID Storage Manager software does not allow you to overwrite a newer version of the firmware with an older version.

5. When you are prompted to indicate whether you want to upgrade the firmware, click Yes.

The controller is updated with the new firmware code contained in the .rom file.

Maintaining and Managing Storage Configurations Page 97

6. Reboot the system after the new firmware is flashed.

The new firmware does not take effect until reboot.

Page 98 Maintaining and Managing Storage Configurations

Using the MegaRAID Advanced Software

The MegaRAID Storage Manager software supports advanced software features that offer improved performance, data protection, and availability.

Note:

The MegaRAID advanced software includes the following features:

Only certain RAID controllers support advanced software features. Make sure that your RAID controllers support the advanced software features before you use the procedures in this section.

• MegaRAID Recovery

• MegaRAID CacheCade™

• MegaRAID FastPath™

• MegaRAID RAID 6

• MegaRAID RAID 5

This section contains the following topics:

• MegaRAID Software Licensing

• MegaRAID Recovery

• CacheCade - SSD Caching Advanced Software Option

• FastPath Advanced Software

• LSI SafeStore Encryption Services

MegaRAID Software Licensing

The MegaRAID software licensing authorizes you to enable the MegaRAID advanced software features present in the MegaRAID Storage Manager application. You need to obtain the activation key to enable and use the advanced software features present in the controller. You can also implement the rehosting process by configuring the key vault, if you want to transfer the advanced features from one controller to another.

Managing MegaRAID Advanced Software

The MegaRAID Advanced Software wizard allows you to use the advanced software features.

Perform the following steps to enable the activation key to use the advanced features:

1. Select the Physical view or the Logical view tab in the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager window, and click a controller icon.

2. Choose either one of the following options:

a. Select Go To -> Controller -> Manage MegaRAID Advanced Software Options.

b. Click Manage MegaRAID Advanced Software Options from the dashboard under the

feature portlet.

The Manage MegaRAID Advanced Software Options wizard appears.

Using the MegaRAID Advanced Software Page 99

• If none of the advanced software options present in the controller are in a boot mode,

Figure 77 appears.

• If even one of the advanced software options present in the controller is in a boot mode,

Figure 78 appears. You cannot activate any advanced software option from this window as

this is a view-only window.

Figure 77 Manage MegaRAID Advanced Software Options

Page 100 Using the MegaRAID Advanced Software

Asrock X79 Extreme11, Z87 Extreme11/ac LSI Mega RAID Storage Manager Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual