ASUS PIKE 2108 User Manual

PIKE 2108

LSISAS RAID card

User Guide

E6319

First Edition V1
January 2011

Copyright © 2011 ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this manual, including the products and software described in it, may be reproduced,
transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form or by any
means, except documentation kept by the purchaser for backup purposes, without the express written
permission of ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. (“ASUS”).

Product warranty or service will not be extended if: (1) the product is repaired, modied or altered, unless
such repair, modication of alteration is authorized in writing by ASUS; or (2) the serial number of the

product is defaced or missing.

ASUS PROVIDES THIS MANUAL “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL ASUS, ITS
DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL,
INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS,
LOSS OF BUSINESS, LOSS OF USE OR DATA, INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS AND THE LIKE),
EVEN IF ASUS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES ARISING FROM ANY
DEFECT OR ERROR IN THIS MANUAL OR PRODUCT.

SPECIFICATIONS AND INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MANUAL ARE FURNISHED FOR
INFORMATIONAL USE ONLY, AND ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE,
AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY ASUS. ASUS ASSUMES NO
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MANUAL, INCLUDING THE PRODUCTS AND SOFTWARE DESCRIBED IN IT.

Products and corporate names appearing in this manual may or may not be registered trademarks or

copyrights of their respective companies, and are used only for identication or explanation and to the
owners’ benet, without intent to infringe.

ii

Contents

About this guide .......................................................................................... v

PIKE 2108 specications summary ......................................................... vii

Chapter 1: Product introduction

1.1 Welcome! ...................................................................................... 1-2

1.2 Package contents ......................................................................... 1-2

1.3 Card layout ................................................................................... 1-3

1.4 System requirements ................................................................... 1-3

1.5 Card installation ........................................................................... 1-4

Chapter 2: RAID conguration

2.1 Setting up RAID ............................................................................ 2-2

2.1.1 RAID denitions .............................................................. 2-2

2.1.2 Installing hard disk drives ................................................ 2-3

2.2 LSI WebBIOS Conguration Utility ............................................. 2-4

2.2.1 Starting the WebBIOS CU............................................... 2-5

2.2.2 WebBIOS CU main screen options ................................. 2-6

2.2.3 Creating a Storage Conguration ................................... 2-8

2.2.4 Viewing and Changing Device Properties ..................... 2-29

2.2.5 Viewing System Event Information ............................... 2-36

2.2.6 Managing Congurations .............................................. 2-37

2.3 MegaRAID Storage Manager ..................................................... 2-41

2.3.1 Hardware and Software Requirements ......................... 2-41

2.3.2 Installing MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on

Microsoft Windows OS .................................................. 2-41

2.3.3 Installing MegaRAID Storage Manager Software

for Linux ........................................................................ 2-45

2.3.4 Linux Error Messages ................................................... 2-46

2.3.5 Starting MegaRAID Storage Manager Software ........... 2-47

2.3.6 MegaRAID Storage Manager Window .......................... 2-49

Chapter 3: Driver installation

3.1 RAID driver installation ............................................................... 3-2

3.2 Windows® Server 2003 OS Driver Installation ........................... 3-4

3.2.1 During Windows® Server 2003 OS installation ............... 3-4

3.2.2 After Windows® Server 2003 OS installation .................. 3-6

iii

Contents

3.3 Windows® Server 2008 OS Driver Installation ........................... 3-9

3.3.1 During Windows® Server 2008 OS installation ............... 3-9

3.3.2 After Windows® Server 2008 OS installation .................3-11

3.4 Red Hat® Enterprise Linux OS 5 Driver Installation ................ 3-13

3.5 SUSE® Linux OS 11 Driver Installation ..................................... 3-15

iv

About this guide

This user guide contains the information you need when installing and conguring

the server management board.

How this guide is organized

This guide contains the following parts:

• Chapter 1: Product introduction

This chapter offers the PIKE 2108 SAS RAID card features and the new
technologies it supports.

• Chapter 2: RAID conguration

This chapter provides instructions on setting up, creating, and conguring

RAID sets using the available utilities.

• Chapter 3: Driver installation

This chapter provides instructions for installing the RAID drivers on different
operating systems.

Where to nd more information

Refer to the following sources for additional information and for product and
software updates.

1. ASUS websites

The ASUS website provides updated information on ASUS hardware and
software products. Refer to the ASUS contact information.

2. Optional documentation

Your product package may include optional documentation, such as warranty

yers, that may have been added by your dealer. These documents are not

part of the standard package.

v

Conventions used in this guide

To make sure that you perform certain tasks properly, take note of the following
symbols used throughout this manual.

DANGER/WARNING: Information to prevent injury to yourself

when trying to complete a task.

CAUTION: Information to prevent damage to the components

when trying to complete a task.

IMPORTANT: Instructions that you MUST follow to complete a

task.

NOTE: Tips and additional information to help you complete a

task.

Typography

Bold text Indicates a menu or an item to select.

Italics

Used to emphasize a word or a phrase.

<Key> Keys enclosed in the less-than and greater-than sign means
that you must press the enclosed key.

Example: <Enter> means that you must press the Enter or
Return key.

<Key1+Key2+Key3> If you must press two or more keys simultaneously, the key
names are linked with a plus sign (+).

Example: <Ctrl+Alt+Del>

Command Means that you must type the command exactly as shown,

then supply the required item or value enclosed in
brackets.

Example: At the DOS prompt, type the command line:
format a:

vi

PIKE 2108 specications summary

Controller LSI SAS 2108 6Gb/s SAS Controller

Interface ASUS PIKE interface

Ports 8 ports

Support Device SAS / SAS II devices

Data transfer rate SATA III and SAS II 6Gb/s per PHY

RAID level • RAID 0 / 1 / 10 / 5 / 50 / 6 / 60

Cache 512MB DDR2 800MHz onboard SDRAM

Battery Backup Support Header reserved for LSI Standard BBU (acquired from

OS support* Windows® XP Professional SP3

Form factor 6.44 in x 1.57 in (1U compatible)

* The exact OS support would base on the OS support list of the motherboard.
** Specications are subject to change without notice.

SATA / SATA II / SATA III devices

• Max. physical Disk qty for RAID: 16

LSI existing distribution channel)

Windows® Server 2003 SP2 Enterprise Edition
Windows® Server 2003 SP2 Standard Edition
Windows® Server 2008 Enterprise Edition SP2
Windows® Server 2008 Enterprise Edition R2
Windows® Server 2008 Standard Edition SP2
Windows® Server 2008 Standard Edition R2
Windows® 7 (Ultimate)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 4.8
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 5.5
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10.3
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.1
Fedora 12
Free BSD 8.1
Cent OS 5.5
ESX4.0 UP1
ESXi4.0

vii

viii

This chapter offers the PIKE 2108 SAS RAID
card features and the new technologies it
supports.

Chapter 1: Product

1

introduction

1.1 Welcome!

Thank you for buying an ASUS® PIKE 2108 SAS RAID card!

The ASUS PIKE 2108 allows you to create RAID 0, 1, 10, 5, 50, 6, and 60 sets
from SATA/SATA II/SATA III/SAS/SAS II hard disk drives connected to the SAS
connectors on the motherboard.

Before you start installing the RAID card, check the items in your package with the
list below.

1.2 Package contents

Check your package for the following items.

Standard Gift Box Pack Standard Bulk Pack

ASUS PIKE 2108 SAS RAID card 1 1

Heatsink for 5U/2U system 1 1

Support CD 1 1

User Guide 1 1

BBU cable* 1 —

SATA cable* 8 —

Packing Quantity 1 pc per carton 3 pcs per carton

• The number of the BBU cable and SATA cable varies with product SKU.

• If any of the above items is damaged or missing, contact your retailer.

1-2 Chapter 1: Product introduction

1.3 Card layout

The illustration below shows the major components of the RAID card.

Front

2

1. ASUS PIKE interface-1: PCI-E Gen2 x8

2. ASUS PIKE interface-2: 8-port SAS signal with SGPIO interface*

2

* The SGPIO interface is used for visibility into drive activity, failure and rebuild

status, so that users could build high-performance and reliable storage
systems. Refer to the motherboard manual for detailed information about using
the SGPIO connectors on the motherboard.

1

1

Rear

2

1

1. SAS RAID card status LED (lights up and blinks to indicate that the card is
working normally)

2. BBU cable connector

1.4 System requirements

Before you install the PIKE 2108 SAS RAID card, check if the system meets the
following requirements:

• Workstation or server motherboard with a PIKE RAID card slot

• SAS or SATA hard disk drives

• Supporting operating system:

Windows® and Linux operating systems (refer to website for details)

• Other requirement:

- Appropriate thermal solution

- Certied power supply module

ASUS PIKE 2108 1-3

1.5 Card installation

Follow the below instructions to install ASUS PIKE 2108 SAS RAID card to your
server system.

For 1U server, install the SAS RAID card to the PIKE RAID card slot on the
motherboard.

It is recommended to install a low-prole form factor PCIe expansion card with
full height bracket, or with low prole bracket to the PCIe riser card to prevent

mechanical interference with the PIKE 2108 card.

For 2U, 5U, or pedestal server, attach the extension heatsink to ASUS PIKE 2108
SAS RAID card, and then install the SAS RAID card to the PIKE RAID card slot on
the motherboard.

Attach the extension heatsink to ASUS PIKE 2108 SAS RAID card

1. Remove the stickers on the back of
the extension heatsink.

2. Attach the extension heatsink to
ASUS PIKE 2108 SAS RAID card.

3. Secure the extension heatsink with
four screws.

1-4 Chapter 1: Product introduction

Install ASUS PIKE 2108 SAS RAID card to the server system

1. Locate the PIKE RAID card slot on
the motherboard.

2. Align the golden ngers of the RAID card with the PIKE RAID card slot. Insert

the RAID card into the PIKE RAID card slot. Ensure the card is completely
inserted into the card slot, and the heatsink latch is completely hooked to the
edge of the card slot.

3. Secure the heatsink to the nearest
screw hole on the motherboard.

DO NOT overtighten the screw,
or the motherboard component
can be damaged.

4. Connect the hard disk drives
to the SAS connectors on the
motherboard.

ASUS PIKE 2108 1-5

Attach the Battery Backup Unit (BBU) cable

If you have a LSI Battery Backup Unit
(BBU), connect the BBU cable to the
BBU connector on the PIKE RAID card.

Align the pin 1 wire (red) of the BBU
cable to the triangle mark on the BBU

connector, and then rmly insert the

cable.

Uninstall ASUS PIKE 2108 SAS RAID card from the server system

1. Disconnect all SAS hard disk
drives from the motherboard.

2. Remove the screw that secures the
RAID card to the motherboard.

3. Release the heatsink latch from

the card slot with a nger, and then

remove the RAID card from the
slot.

1-6 Chapter 1: Product introduction

This chapter provides instructions on setting

up, creating, and conguring RAID sets using

the available utilities.

Chapter 2: RAID

conguration

2

2.1 Setting up RAID

The RAID card supports RAID 0, 1, 10, 5, 50, 6, and 60.

2.1.1 RAID denitions

RAID 0

(Data striping)

data in parallel, interleaved stacks. Two hard disks perform the same work as a
single drive but at a sustained data transfer rate, double that of a single disk alone,
thus improving data access and storage. Use of at least two new identical hard
disk drives is required for this setup.

RAID 1

(Data mirroring)

drive to a second drive. If one drive fails, the disk array management software
directs all applications to the surviving drive as it contains a complete copy of

the data in the other drive. This RAID conguration provides data protection and

increases fault tolerance to the entire system. Use two new drives or use an
existing drive and a new drive for this setup. The new drive must be of the same

size or larger than the existing drive.

RAID 10 is a striped conguration with RAID 1 segments whose segments are
RAID 1 arrays. This conguration has the same fault tolerance as RAID 1, and

has the same overhead for fault-tolerance as mirroring alone. RAID 10 achieves
high input/output rates by striping RAID 1 segments. In some instances, a RAID

10 conguration can sustain multiple simultaneous drive failure. A minimum of four

hard disk drives is required for this setup.

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

disk drives. Among the advantages of RAID 5 conguration include better

HDD performance, fault tolerance, and higher storage capacity. The RAID

5 conguration is best suited for transaction processing, relational database

applications, enterprise resource planning, and other business systems. Use a
minimum of three identical hard disk drives for this setup.

RAID 50 is a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 5. It uses distributed parity and disk
striping and works best with data that requires high reliability, high request rates,
high data transfers, and medium-to-large capacity.

RAID 6 uses distributed parity, with two independent parity blocks per stripe, and
disk striping. A RAID 6 virtual drive can survive the loss of two drives without losing
data. 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.

RAID 60, a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 6, uses distributed parity, with two
independent parity blocks per stripe in each RAID set, and disk striping. A RAID 60
virtual drive can survive the loss of two drives in each of the RAID 6 sets without
losing data. It works best with data that requires high reliability, high request rates,
high data transfers, and medium-to-large capacity.

optimizes two identical hard disk drives to read and write

copies and maintains an identical image of data from one

2-2 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

• Having RAID 0 and RAID 5 virtual disks in the same physical array is notHaving RAID 0 and RAID 5 virtual disks in the same physical array is not
recommended. If a drive in the physical array has to be rebuilt, the RAID 0
virtual disk will cause a failure during the rebuild.

• If you want to boot the system from a hard disk drive included in a created

RAID set, copy rst the RAID driver from the support CD to a oppy disk

before you install an operating system to the selected hard disk drive.

2.1.2 Installing hard disk drives

The RAID card supports SAS for RAID set conguration. For optimal performance,

install identical drives of the same model and capacity when creating a disk array.

To install SAS hard disks for RAID conguration:

1. Install the SAS hard disks into the drive bays following the instructions in the
system user guide.

2. Connect a SAS signal cable to the signal connector at the back of each drive
and to the SAS connector on the motherboard.

3. Connect a power cable to the power connector on each drive.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-3

2.2 LSI WebBIOS Conguration Utility

The LSI WebBIOS Conguration Utility (CU) is an integrated RAID solution that

allows you to create RAID 0, 1, 10, 5, 50, 6, and 60 sets from SATA/SATA II/SATA
III/SAS/SAS II hard disk drives supported by the LSI SAS 2108 controller.

You can also use the WebBIOS CU to do the following tasks:

• Create drive groups and virtual drives for storage congurations

• Delete virtual drives

• Migrate a storage conguration to a different RAID level

• Detect conguration mismatches

• Import a foreign conguration

• Display controller, virtual drive, drive, and change parameters.

• Scan devices connected to the controller

• Initialize virtual drives

• Check congurations for data consistency

• Create a CacheCade™ conguration

• You may use disks of different sizes; however, the size of the smallest disk
determines the “logical” size of each member disk.

• DO NOT combine Serial ATA and SAS disk drives in one volume.

• The RAID setup screens shown in this section are for reference only and
may not exactly match the items on your screen due to the controller
version difference.

2-4 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

2.2.1 Starting the WebBIOS CU

Follow these steps to start the WebBIOS CU and access the main screen.

1. Turn on the system after installing all SAS hard disk drives.

2. During POST, press <Ctrl+H> when the following screen appears

Press <Ctrl+Y> for Preboot CLI: this option is for advanced debug only!

LSI MegaRAID SAS-MFI BIOS
Version 3.19.00 (Build October 19, 2010)
Copyright(C) 2010 LSI Corporation
HA -0 (Bus 12 Dev 0) LSI MegaRAID SAS PCI Express ROMB
FW package: 12.12.0-0033

Battery Status: Not present

PCI SLOT ID LUN VENDOR PRODUCT REVISION CAPACITY

-------- -- --- ------ ------- -------- -------­ 7 LSI LSI MegaRAID SAS PCI Expr 2.120.03-512MB
7 2 0 ATA ST3160812AS E 152627MB
7 3 0 ATA ST3160812AS E 152626MB
7 4 0 ATA ST3160812AS E 152626MB
7 5 0 ATA ST3160812AS E 152627MB
0 Virtual Drive(s) found on the host adapter.

0 Virtual Drive(s) handled by BIOS
Press <Ctrl><H> for WebBIOS or press <Ctrl><Y> for Preboot CLI _

3. The Adapter Selection screen appears. If the system has multiple SAS
adapters, select an adapter.

4. Click Start to continue. The main WebBIOS CU screen appears.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-5

2.2.2 WebBIOS CU main screen options

This is the Physical View screen which displays the drives that are connected to
the controller. To toggle between the physical view and logical view of the storage
devices connected to the controller, click Physical View or Logical View in the
menu on the left. When the Logical View screen is displayed, you can see all the

virtual drives that are congured on this controller.

WebBIOS CU Toolbar Icons

Icon Description

Click this icon to return to the main screen from any other WebBIOS CU screen.

Click this icon to return to the previous screen that you were viewing.

Click this icon to exit the WebBIOS CU program.

Click this icon to display information about the WebBIOS CU version, bus
number, and device number.

2-6 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

Here is a description of the options listed on the left of the main WebBIOS CU
screen:

• Advanced Software Option: Select this to allow you to enable the special

functionality or features that may not be available in the standard conguration

of the controller.

• Controller Selection: Select this to view the Adapter Selection screen, where

you can select a different SAS adapter. You can then view information about

the controller and the devices connected to it, or create a new conguration on

the controller.

• Controller Properties: Select this to view the properties of the currently

selected SAS controller.

• Scan Devices: Select this to have the WebBIOS CU re-scan the physical and

virtual drives for any changes in the drive status or the physical conguration.

The WebBIOS CU displays the results of the scan in the physical and virtual
drive descriptions.

• Virtual Drives: Select this to view the Virtual Drives screen, where you can

change and view virtual drive properties, initialize drives, and perform other

tasks.

• Drives: Select this to view the Drives screen, where you can view drive

properties, and perform other tasks.

• Conguration Wizard: Select this to start the Conguration Wizard and create

a new storage conguration, clear a conguration, or add a conguration.

• Logical View: Select this to toggle between the Physical View and Logical

View screens.

• Events: Select this to view system events in the Event Information screen.

• Exit: Select this to exit the WebBIOS CU and continue with system boot.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-7

2.2.3 Creating a Storage Conguration

This section explains how to use the WebBIOS CU Conguration Wizard to
congure RAID arrays and virtual drives.

The default settings of the conguration items mentioned in this section are

subject to change without notice, but the functions of the items will not be
affected.

Selecting the Conguration with the Conguration Wizard

Follow these steps to start the Conguration Wizard, and select a conguration

option and mode:

1. Click Conguration Wizard on

the WebBIOS main screen. The

rst Conguration Wizard screen

appears, as shown in the right

gure.

2. Select a conguration option.

If you choose the rst or second option, all existing data in the conguration will

be deleted. Make a backup of any data that you want to keep before choosing
these options.

• Clear Conguration: Clears the existing conguration.

• New Conguration: Clears the existing conguration and lets you

create a new conguration.

• Add Conguration: Retains the existing storage conguration and adds

new drives to it (this does not cause any data loss).

3. Click Next. A dialog box warns that you will lose data if you select Clear

Conguration or New Conguration.

4. On the next screen, select a conguration mode:

• Manual Conguration: Allows you to control all attributes of the new

storage conguration.

• Automatic Conguration: Automatically creates an optimal RAID

conguration.

2-8 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

If you select Automatic Conguration, you can choose the redundancy mode:

• Redundancy when possible: Automatically creates an optimal RAID

conguration, providing data redundancy.

• No Redundancy: Automatically creates a non-redundant RAID 0

conguration.

5. Click Next to continue.

Using Automatic Conguration

Follow these instructions to create a conguration with automatic conguration,

either with or without redundancy:

1. When WebBIOS displays the proposed new conguration, review the

information on the screen, and click Accept to accept it. (Or click Back to go

back and change the conguration.)

• RAID 0: If you selected Automatic Conguration and No

Redundancy, WebBIOS creates a RAID 0 conguration.

• RAID 1: If you selected Automatic Conguration and Redundancy

when possible, WebBIOS creates a RAID 1 conguration if only two

disk drives are available.

• RAID 6: If you selected Automatic Conguration and Redundancy

when possible, WebBIOS creates a RAID 6 conguration if three or

more disk drives are available.

2. Click Yes when you are prompted to save the conguration.

3. Click Yes when you are prompted to initialize the new virtual drive(s).

WebBIOS CU begins a background initialization of the virtual drives.

Using Manual Conguration: RAID 0

RAID 0 provides drive striping across all drives in the RAID drive group. RAID
0 does not provide any data redundancy but does offer excellent performance.
RAID 0 is ideal for applications that require high bandwidth but do not require fault
tolerance. RAID 0 also denotes an independent or single drive.

RAID level 0 is not fault-tolerant. If a drive in a RAID 0 drive group fails, the
whole virtual drive (all drives associated with the virtual drive) fails.

When you select Manual Conguration and click Next, the Drive Group Denition
screen appears. You use this screen to select drives to create drive groups.

1. Hold <Ctrl> while selecting two or more ready drives in the Drives panel on
the left until you have selected all desired drives for the drive group.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-9

2. Click Add To Array to move the

drives to a proposed drive group

conguration in the Drive Groups

panel on the right, as shown in the

right gure.

3. Select a preferred Power save
mode. The power save mode can
be Max, Max without cache, Auto,
None, and Controller dened. If
you need to undo the changes, click
the Reclaim button.

4. When you have nished selecting drives for the drive group, click Accept DG.

5. Click Next. The Span Denition screen appears. Select one of the available
drive groups, and then click Add to SPAN.

6. When nish, click Next. The Virtual
Drive Denition screen appears, as
shown in the right gure. You use

this screen to select the RAID level,

strip size, read policy, and other

attributes for the new virtual drives.

7. Change the virtual drive options
from the defaults listed on the
screen as needed.

Here are brief explanations of the

virtual drive options:

• RAID Level: The drop-down menu lists the possible RAID levels for the

virtual drive. Select RAID 0.

• Strip Size: The strip size species the size of the segment written to

each disk in a RAID conguration. You can set the strip size up to 64 KB.
A larger strip size produces higher read performance. If your computer
regularly performs random read requests, choose a smaller strip size.

The default is 64 KB.

• Access Policy: Select the type of data access that is allowed for this

virtual drive:

◊ RW: Allow read/write access. This is the default.

◊ Read Only: Allow read-only access.

◊ Blocked: Do not allow access.

• Read Policy: Specify the read policy for this virtual drive:

◊ Normal: This disables the read ahead capability.

2-10 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

◊ Ahead: This enables read ahead capability, which allows the

controller to read sequentially ahead of requested data and to store
the additional data in cache memory, anticipating that the data will be
needed soon. This speeds up reads for sequential data, but there is
little improvement when accessing random data. This is the default.

• Write Policy: Specify the write policy for this virtual drive:

◊ Write Through: In Write Through mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the drive subsystem has
received all of the data in a transaction.

◊ Always Write Back: In Writeback mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has
received all of the data in a transaction. This setting is recommended
in Standard mode.

◊ Write Back with BBU: In Writeback mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has
received all of the data in a transaction. This setting has to be used
with a Battery Backup Unit (BBU). This is the default.

• IO Policy: The IO Policy applies to reads on a specic virtual drive. It

does not affect the read ahead cache.

◊ Direct: In direct I/O mode, reads are not buffered in cache memory.

Data is transferred to the cache and the host concurrently. If the same
data block is read again, it comes from cache memory.

◊ Cached: In cached I/O mode, all reads are buffered in cache memory.

This is the default.

• Drive Cache: Specify the drive cache policy:

◊ NoChange: Leave the current drive cache policy unchanged. This is

the default.

◊ Enable: Enable the drive cache.

◊ Disable: Disable the drive cache.

• Disable BGI: Specify the background initialization status:

◊ No: Leave background initialization enabled. This means that a new

conguration can be initialized in the background while you use
WebBIOS to do other conguration tasks. This is the default.

◊ Yes: Select Yes if you do not want to allow background initializations

for congurations on this controller.

• Select Size: Specify the size of the virtual drive in terabytes, gigabytes,

megabytes, or kilobytes. Normally, this would be the full size for RAID 0
shown in the Conguration panel on the right. You may specify a smaller
size if you want to create other virtual drives on the same drive group.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-11

8. Click Accept to accept the changes to the virtual drive denition, or click
Reclaim to return to the previous settings.

9. Click Yes to conrm the write policy mode you have chosen.

10. Click Next when you are nished

dening virtual drives. The
conguration preview screen

appears, as shown in the right

gure.

11. Check the information in the

conguration preview.

12. If the virtual drive conguration is

acceptable, click Accept to save the
conguration. Otherwise, click Back
to return to the previous screens

and change the conguration.

13. If you accept the conguration, click Yes at the prompt to save the
conguration.

14. Click Yes at the prompt to start initialization.

Using Manual Conguration: RAID 1

In RAID 1, the RAID controller duplicates all data from one drive to a second
drive. RAID 1 provides complete data redundancy, but at the cost of doubling the
required data storage capacity. It is appropriate for small databases or any other
environment that requires fault tolerance but small capacity.

When you select Manual Conguration and click Next, the Drive Group Denition
screen appears. You use this screen to select drives to create drive groups.

1. Hold <Ctrl> while selecting two ready drives in the Drives panel on the left.

2. Click Add to Array to move the drives to a proposed drive group

conguration in the Drive Groups panel on the right.

3. Select a preferred Power save mode. The power save mode can be Max,
Max without cache, Auto, None, and Controller dened. If you need to
undo the changes, click the Reclaim button.

4. When you have nished selecting drives for the drive group, click Accept DG.

5. Click Next. The Span Denition screen appears Select one of the available
drive groups, and then click Add to SPAN.

6. When nish, click Next. The Virtual Drive Denition screen appears. You
use this screen to select the RAID level, strip size, read policy, and other

attributes for the new virtual drives.

7. Change the virtual drive options from the defaults listed on the screen as
needed.

2-12 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

Here are brief explanations of the virtual drive options:

• RAID Level: The drop-down menu lists the possible RAID levels for the
virtual drive. Select RAID 1.

• Strip Size: The strip size species the size of the segment written to

each disk in a RAID conguration. You can set the strip size up to 64 KB.
A larger strip size produces higher read performance. If your computer
regularly performs random read requests, choose a smaller strip size.

The default is 64 KB.

• Access Policy: Select the type of data access that is allowed for this
virtual drive:

◊ RW: Allow read/write access. This is the default.

◊ Read Only: Allow read-only access.

◊ Blocked: Do not allow access.

• Read Policy: Specify the read policy for this virtual drive:

◊ Normal: This disables the read ahead capability.

◊ Ahead: This enables read ahead capability, which allows the

controller to read sequentially ahead of requested data and to store
the additional data in cache memory, anticipating that the data will be
needed soon. This speeds up reads for sequential data, but there is
little improvement when accessing random data. This is the default.

• Write Policy: Specify the write policy for this virtual drive:

◊ Write Through: In Write Through mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the drive subsystem has
received all of the data in a transaction.

◊ Always Write Back: In Writeback mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has
received all of the data in a transaction. This setting is recommended
in Standard mode.

◊ Write Back with BBU: In Writeback mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has
received all of the data in a transaction. This setting has to be used
with a Battery Backup Unit (BBU). This is the default.

• IO Policy: The IO Policy applies to reads on a specic virtual drive. It
does not affect the read ahead cache.

◊ Direct: In direct I/O mode, reads are not buffered in cache memory.

Data is transferred to the cache and the host concurrently. If the same
data block is read again, it comes from cache memory.

◊ Cached: In cached I/O mode, all reads are buffered in cache memory.

This is the default.

• Drive Cache: Specify the drive cache policy:

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-13

◊ NoChange: Leave the current drive cache policy unchanged. This is

the default.

◊ Enable: Enable the drive cache.

◊ Disable: Disable the drive cache.

• Disable BGI: Specify the background initialization status:

◊ No: Leave background initialization enabled. This means that a new

conguration can be initialized in the background while you use
WebBIOS to do other conguration tasks. This is the default.

◊ Yes: Select Yes if you do not want to allow background initializations

for congurations on this controller.

• Select Size: Specify the size of the virtual drive in terabytes, gigabytes,

megabytes, or kilobytes. Normally, this would be the full size for RAID 1
shown in the Conguration panel on the right. You may specify a smaller
size if you want to create other virtual drives on the same drive group.

8. Click Accept to accept the changes to the virtual drive denition, or click

Reclaim to return to the previous settings.

9. Click Yes to conrm the write policy mode you have chosen.

10. Click Next when you are nished dening virtual disks. The conguration

preview screen appears.

11. Check the information in the conguration preview.

12. If the virtual drive conguration is acceptable, click Accept to save the
conguration. Otherwise, click Back to return to the previous screens and
change the conguration.

13. If you accept the conguration, click Yes at the prompt to save the
conguration.

14. Click Yes at the prompt to start initialization.

Using Manual Conguration: RAID 10

RAID 10, a combination of RAID 1 and RAID 0, has mirrored drives. It breaks
up data into smaller blocks, then stripes the blocks of data to each RAID 1 drive

group. Each RAID 1 drive group then duplicates its data to its other drive. The size
of each block is determined by the strip size parameter. RAID 10 can sustain one

drive failure in each array while maintaining data integrity.

RAID 10 provides both high data transfer rates and complete data redundancy.
It works best for data storage that must have 100 percent redundancy of RAID
1 (mirrored drive groups) and that also needs the enhanced I/O performance of

RAID 0 (striped drive groups); it works well for medium-sized databases or any

environment that requires a higher degree of fault tolerance and moderate to
medium capacity.

2-14 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

When you select Manual Conguration and click Next, the Drive Group Denition
screen appears.

You use the Drive Group Denition screen to select drives to create drive groups.

1. Hold <Ctrl> while selecting two ready drives in the Drives panel on the left.

2. Click Add to Array to move the drives to a proposed two-drive drive group

conguration in the Drive Groups panel on the right.

3. Select a preferred Power save mode. The power save mode can be Max,
Max without cache, Auto, None, and Controller dened. If you need to

undo the changes, click the Reclaim button.

4. Click Accept DG to create a RAID 1 drive group.

An icon for the next drive group displays in the right panel.

5. Click on the icon for the next drive group to select it.

6. Hold <Ctrl> while selecting two more ready drives in the Drives panel to
create a second RAID 1 drive group with two drives.

7. Click Add To Array to move the drives to a second two-drive drive group

conguration in the Drive Groups panel.

If you need to undo the changes, click the Reclaim button.

8. Repeat the previous three steps until you have selected all the drives you
want for the drive groups.

9. After you nish selecting drives for the drive groups, select each drive group

and click Accept DG for each.

10. Click Next. The Span Denition screen appears. This screen displays the
drive group holes you can select to add to a span.

11. Select one of the available drive groups with two drives from the Array With
Free Space drop-down list, and then click Add to SPAN.

12. Select a second drive group from the Array With Free Space drop-down list,
and click Add to SPAN.

Both drive groups display in the right frame under Span.

13. If there are additional drive groups with two drives each, you can add them to
the virtual drive.

14. When nish, click Next. The Virtual Drive Denition screen appears.

You use this screen to select the RAID level, strip size, read policy, and other

attributes for the new virtual drives.

The WebBIOS Conguration Utility displays the maximum available capacity

while creating the RAID 10 drive group. In version 1.03 of the utility, the

maximum size of the RAID 10 drive group is the sum total of the two RAID 1
drive groups. In version 1.1, the maximum size is the size of the smaller drive

group multiplied by two.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-15

15. Change the virtual drive options from the defaults listed on the screen as
needed.

Here are brief explanations of the virtual drive options:

• RAID Level: The drop-down menu lists the possible RAID levels for the

virtual drive. Select RAID 10.

• Strip Size: The strip size species the size of the segment written to

each disk in a RAID conguration. You can set the strip size up to 64 KB.
A larger strip size produces higher read performance. If your computer
regularly performs random read requests, choose a smaller strip size.

The default is 64 KB.

• Access Policy: Select the type of data access that is allowed for this

virtual drive:

◊ RW: Allow read/write access. This is the default.

◊ Read Only: Allow read-only access.

◊ Blocked: Do not allow access.

• Read Policy: Specify the read policy for this virtual drive:

◊ Normal: This disables the read ahead capability.

◊ Ahead: This enables read ahead capability, which allows the

controller to read sequentially ahead of requested data and to store
the additional data in cache memory, anticipating that the data will be
needed soon. This speeds up reads for sequential data, but there is
little improvement when accessing random data. This is the default.

• Write Policy: Specify the write policy for this virtual drive:

◊ Write Through: In Write Through mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the drive subsystem has
received all of the data in a transaction.

◊ Always Write Back: In Writeback mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has
received all of the data in a transaction. This setting is recommended
in Standard mode.

◊ Write Back with BBU: In Writeback mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has
received all of the data in a transaction. This setting has to be used
with a Battery Backup Unit (BBU). This is the default.

• IO Policy: The IO Policy applies to reads on a specic virtual drive. It

does not affect the read ahead cache.

◊ Direct: In direct I/O mode, reads are not buffered in cache memory.

Data is transferred to the cache and the host concurrently. If the same
data block is read again, it comes from cache memory.

◊ Cached: In cached I/O mode, all reads are buffered in cache memory.

This is the default.

2-16 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

• Drive Cache: Specify the drive cache policy:

◊ NoChange: Leave the current drive cache policy unchanged. This is

the default.

◊ Enable: Enable the drive cache.

◊ Disable: Disable the drive cache.

• Disable BGI: Specify the background initialization status:

◊ No: Leave background initialization enabled. This means that a new

conguration can be initialized in the background while you use
WebBIOS to do other conguration tasks. This is the default.

◊ Yes: Select Yes if you do not want to allow background initializations

for congurations on this controller.

• Select Size: Specify the size of the virtual drive in terabytes, gigabytes,

megabytes, or kilobytes. Normally, this would be the full size for RAID 10
shown in the Conguration panel on the right. You may specify a smaller
size if you want to create other virtual drives on the same drive group.

16. Click Accept to accept the changes to the virtual drive denition, or click

Reclaim to to undo the changes.

17. Click Yes to conrm the write policy mode you have chosen.

18. When you are nished dening virtual drives, click Next. The conguration

preview screen appears.

19. Check the information in the conguration preview.

20. If the virtual drive conguration is acceptable, click Accept to save the
conguration. Otherwise, click Cancel to end the operation and return to the

WebBIOS main menu, or click Back to return to the previous screens and

change the conguration.

21. If you accept the conguration, click Yes at the prompt to save the
conguration.

22. Click Yes at the prompt to start initialization.

Using Manual Conguration: RAID 5

RAID 5 uses drive striping at the block level and parity. In RAID 5, the parity
information is written to all drives. It is best suited for networks that perform a
lot of small input/output (I/O) transactions simultaneously. RAID 5 provides data
redundancy, high read rates, and good performance in most environments. It also
provides redundancy with lowest loss of capacity.

RAID 5 provides high data throughput. RAID 5 is useful for transaction processing
applications because each drive can read and write independently. If a drive fails,
the RAID controller uses the parity drive to recreate all missing information. You

can use RAID 5 for ofce automation and online customer service that require

fault tolerance. In addition, RAID 5 is good for any application that has high read
request rates but low write request rates.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-17

When you select Manual Conguration and click Next, the Drive Group Denition
screen appears. You use this screen to select drives to create drive groups.

1. Hold <Ctrl> while you select at least three ready drives in the Drives panel on
the left.

2. Click Add To Arrary to move the drives to a proposed drive group

conguration in the Drive Groups panel on the right.

3. Select a preferred Power save mode. The power save mode can be Max,
Max without cache, Auto, None, and Controller dened. If you need to
undo the changes, click the Reclaim button.

4. When you have nished selecting drives for the drive group, click Accept

DG.

5. Click Next. The Span Denition screen appears. Select one of the available
drive groups, and then click Add to SPAN.

6. When nish, click Next. The Virtual Drive Denition screen appears. You
use this screen to select the RAID level, strip size, read policy, and other

attributes for the new virtual drives.

7. Change the virtual drive options from the defaults listed on the screen as
needed.

Here are brief explanations of the virtual disk options:

• RAID Level: The drop-down menu lists the possible RAID levels for the

virtual drive. Select RAID 5.

• Strip Size: The strip size species the size of the segment written to

each disk in a RAID conguration. You can set the strip size up to 64 KB.
A larger strip size produces higher read performance. If your computer
regularly performs random read requests, choose a smaller strip size.

The default is 64 KB.

• Access Policy: Select the type of data access that is allowed for this

virtual drive:

◊ RW: Allow read/write access. This is the default.

◊ Read Only: Allow read-only access.

◊ Blocked: Do not allow access.

• Read Policy: Specify the read policy for this virtual drive:

◊ Normal: This disables the read ahead capability.

◊ Ahead: This enables read ahead capability, which allows the

controller to read sequentially ahead of requested data and to store
the additional data in cache memory, anticipating that the data will be
needed soon. This speeds up reads for sequential data, but there is
little improvement when accessing random data. This is the default.

• Write Policy: Specify the write policy for this virtual drive:

2-18 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

◊ Write Through: In Write Through mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the drive subsystem has
received all of the data in a transaction.

◊ Always Write Back: In Writeback mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has
received all of the data in a transaction. This setting is recommended
in Standard mode.

◊ Write Back with BBU: In Writeback mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has
received all of the data in a transaction. This setting has to be used
with a Battery Backup Unit (BBU). This is the default.

• IO Policy: The IO Policy applies to reads on a specic virtual drive. It

does not affect the read ahead cache.

◊ Direct: In direct I/O mode, reads are not buffered in cache memory.

Data is transferred to the cache and the host concurrently. If the same
data block is read again, it comes from cache memory.

◊ Cached: In cached I/O mode, all reads are buffered in cache memory.

This is the default.

• Drive Cache: Specify the drive cache policy:

◊ NoChange: Leave the current drive cache policy unchanged. This is

the default.

◊ Enable: Enable the drive cache.

◊ Disable: Disable the drive cache.

• Disable BGI: Specify the background initialization status:

◊ No: Leave background initialization enabled. This means that a new

conguration can be initialized in the background while you use
WebBIOS to do other conguration tasks. This is the default.

◊ Yes: Select Yes if you do not want to allow background initializations

for congurations on this controller.

• Select Size: Specify the size of the virtual drive in terabytes, gigabytes,

megabytes, or kilobytes. Normally, this would be the full size for RAID 5
shown in the Conguration panel on the right. You may specify a smaller
size if you want to create other virtual drives on the same drive group.

8. Click Accept to accept the changes to the virtual drive denition, or click

Reclaim to return to the previous settings.

9. Click Yes to conrm the write policy mode you have chosen.

10. Click Next when you are nished dening virtual drives. The conguration

preview screen appears.

11. Check the information in the conguration preview.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-19

12. If the virtual drive conguration is acceptable, click Accept to save the
conguration. Otherwise, click Back to return to the previous screens and
change the conguration.

13. If you accept the conguration, click Yes at the prompt to save the
conguration.

14. Click Yes at the prompt to start initialization.

Using Manual Conguration: RAID 50

RAID 50 provides the features of both RAID 0 and RAID 5. RAID 50 uses both
distributed parity and drive striping across multiple drive groups. It provides
high data throughput, data redundancy, and very good performance. It is best
implemented on two RAID 5 drive groups with data striped across both drive
groups. Though multiple drive failures can be tolerated, only one drive failure can
be tolerated in each RAID 5 level drive group.

RAID 50 is appropriate when used with data that requires high reliability, high
request rates, high data transfer, and medium to large capacity.

When you select Manual Conguration and click Next, the Drive Group Denition
screen appears. You use this screen to select drives to create drive groups.

1. Hold <Ctrl> while selecting at least three ready drives in the Drives panel on
the left.

2. Click Add To Array to move the drives to a proposed drive group

conguration in the Drive Groups panel on the right.

3. Select a preferred Power save mode. The power save mode can be Max,
Max without cache, Auto, None, and Controller dened. If you need to

undo the changes, click the Reclaim button.

4. Click Accept DG to create a RAID 5 drive group.

An icon for a second drive group displays in the right panel.

5. Click on the icon for the second drive group to select it.

6. Hold <Ctrl> while selecting at least three more ready drives in the Drives
panel to create a second drive group.

7. Click Add To Array to move the drives to a proposed drive group

conguration in the Drive Groups panel on the right.

If you need to undo the changes, click the Reclaim button.

8. After you nish selecting drives for the drive groups, select each drive group

and click Accept DG for each.

9. Click Next. The Span Denition screen appears. This screen displays the
drive group holes you can select to add to a span.

10. Select one of the available drive groups from the Array With Free Space
drop-down list, and then click Add to SPAN.

2-20 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

11. Select a second drive group from the Array With Free Space drop-down list,

and click Add to SPAN.

Both drive groups display in the right frame under Span.

12. When nish, click Next. The Virtual Drive Denition screen appears. You

use this screen to select the RAID level, strip size, read policy, and other

attributes for the new virtual drive(s).

13. If there are additional drive groups with three or more drives each, you can
add them to the virtual drive.

14. Change the virtual drive options from the defaults listed on the screen as
needed.

Here are brief explanations of the virtual drive options:

• RAID Level: The drop-down menu lists the possible RAID levels for the

virtual drive. Select RAID 50.

• Strip Size: The strip size species the size of the segment written to

each disk in a RAID conguration. You can set the strip size up to 64 KB.
A larger strip size produces higher read performance. If your computer
regularly performs random read requests, choose a smaller strip size.

The default is 64 KB.

• Access Policy: Select the type of data access that is allowed for this

virtual drive:

◊ RW: Allow read/write access. This is the default.

◊ Read Only: Allow read-only access.

◊ Blocked: Do not allow access.

• Read Policy: Specify the read policy for this virtual drive:

◊ Normal: This disables the read ahead capability.

◊ Ahead: This enables read ahead capability, which allows the

controller to read sequentially ahead of requested data and to store
the additional data in cache memory, anticipating that the data will be
needed soon. This speeds up reads for sequential data, but there is
little improvement when accessing random data. This is the default.

• Write Policy: Specify the write policy for this virtual drive:

◊ Write Through: In Write Through mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the drive subsystem has
received all of the data in a transaction.

◊ Always Write Back: In Writeback mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has
received all of the data in a transaction. This setting is recommended
in Standard mode.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-21

◊ Write Back with BBU: In Writeback mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has
received all of the data in a transaction. This setting has to be used
with a Battery Backup Unit (BBU). This is the default.

• IO Policy: The IO Policy applies to reads on a specic virtual drive. It

does not affect the read ahead cache.

◊ Direct: In direct I/O mode, reads are not buffered in cache memory.

Data is transferred to the cache and the host concurrently. If the same
data block is read again, it comes from cache memory.

◊ Cached: In cached I/O mode, all reads are buffered in cache memory.

This is the default.

• Drive Cache: Specify the drive cache policy:

◊ NoChange: Leave the current drive cache policy unchanged. This is

the default.

◊ Enable: Enable the drive cache.

◊ Disable: Disable the drive cache.

• Disable BGI: Specify the background initialization status:

◊ No: Leave background initialization enabled. This means that a new

conguration can be initialized in the background while you use
WebBIOS to do other conguration tasks. This is the default.

◊ Yes: Select Yes if you do not want to allow background initializations

for congurations on this controller.

• Select Size: Specify the size of the virtual drive in terabytes, gigabytes,

megabytes, or kilobytes. Normally, this would be the full size for RAID 50
shown in the Conguration panel on the right. You may specify a smaller
size if you want to create other virtual drives on the same drive group.

15. Click Accept to accept the changes to the virtual drive denition, or click

Reclaim to undo the changes.

16. Click Yes to conrm the write policy mode you have chosen.

17. Click Next when you are nished dening virtual drives. The conguration

preview screen appears.

18. Check the information in the conguration preview.

19. If the virtual drive conguration is acceptable, click Accept to save the
conguration. Otherwise, click Cancel to end the operation and return to the

WebBIOS main menu, or click Back to return to the previous screens and

change the conguration.

20. If you accept the conguration, click Yes at the prompt to save the
conguration.

21. Click Yes at the prompt to start initialization.

2-22 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

Using Manual Conguration: RAID 6

RAID 6 is similar to RAID 5 (drive striping and distributed parity), except that
instead of one parity block per stripe, there are two. With two independent parity
blocks, RAID 6 can survive the loss of two drives in a virtual drive without losing
data. Use RAID 6 for data that requires a very high level of protection from loss.

RAID 6 is best suited for networks that perform a lot of small input/output (I/O)
transactions simultaneously. It provides data redundancy, high read rates, and
good performance in most environments.

In the case of a failure of one drive or two drives in a virtual drive, the RAID
controller uses the parity blocks to recreate all of the missing information. If two
drives in a RAID 6 virtual drive fail, two drive rebuilds are required, one for each
drive. These rebuilds do not occur at the same time. The controller rebuilds one
failed drive, and then the other failed drive.

When you select Manual Conguration and click Next, the Drive Group Denition
screen appears. You use this screen to select drives to create drive groups.

1. Hold <Ctrl> while you select at least three ready drives in the Drives panel on
the left.

2. Click Add To Arrary to move the drives to a proposed drive group

conguration in the Drive Groups panel on the right.

3. Select a preferred Power save mode. The power save mode can be Max,
Max without cache, Auto, None, and Controller dened. If you need to
undo the changes, click the Reclaim button.

4. When you have nished selecting drives for the drive group, click Accept

DG.

5. Click Next. The Span Denition screen appears. Select one of the available
drive groups, and then click Add to SPAN.

6. When nish, click Next. The Virtual Drive Denition screen appears. You
use this screen to select the RAID level, strip size, read policy, and other

attributes for the new virtual drives.

7. Change the virtual drive options from the defaults listed on the screen as
needed.

Here are brief explanations of the virtual disk options:

• RAID Level: The drop-down menu lists the possible RAID levels for the

virtual drive. Select RAID 6.

• Strip Size: The strip size species the size of the segment written to

each disk in a RAID conguration. You can set the strip size up to 64 KB.
A larger strip size produces higher read performance. If your computer
regularly performs random read requests, choose a smaller strip size.

The default is 64 KB.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-23

• Access Policy: Select the type of data access that is allowed for this

virtual drive:

◊ RW: Allow read/write access. This is the default.

◊ Read Only: Allow read-only access.

◊ Blocked: Do not allow access.

• Read Policy: Specify the read policy for this virtual drive:

◊ Normal: This disables the read ahead capability.

◊ Ahead: This enables read ahead capability, which allows the

controller to read sequentially ahead of requested data and to store
the additional data in cache memory, anticipating that the data will be
needed soon. This speeds up reads for sequential data, but there is
little improvement when accessing random data. This is the default.

• Write Policy: Specify the write policy for this virtual drive:

◊ Write Through: In Write Through mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the drive subsystem has
received all of the data in a transaction.

◊ Always Write Back: In Writeback mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has
received all of the data in a transaction. This setting is recommended
in Standard mode.

◊ Write Back with BBU: In Writeback mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has
received all of the data in a transaction. This setting has to be used
with a Battery Backup Unit (BBU). This is the default.

• IO Policy: The IO Policy applies to reads on a specic virtual drive. It

does not affect the read ahead cache.

◊ Direct: In direct I/O mode, reads are not buffered in cache memory.

Data is transferred to the cache and the host concurrently. If the same
data block is read again, it comes from cache memory.

◊ Cached: In cached I/O mode, all reads are buffered in cache memory.

This is the default.

• Drive Cache: Specify the drive cache policy:

◊ NoChange: Leave the current drive cache policy unchanged. This is

the default.

◊ Enable: Enable the drive cache.

◊ Disable: Disable the drive cache.

• Disable BGI: Specify the background initialization status:

2-24 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

◊ No: Leave background initialization enabled. This means that a new

conguration can be initialized in the background while you use
WebBIOS to do other conguration tasks. This is the default.

◊ Yes: Select Yes if you do not want to allow background initializations

for congurations on this controller.

• Select Size: Specify the size of the virtual drive in terabytes, gigabytes,

megabytes, or kilobytes. Normally, this would be the full size for RAID 6
shown in the Conguration panel on the right. You may specify a smaller
size if you want to create other virtual drives on the same drive group.

8. Click Accept to accept the changes to the virtual drive denition, or click

Reclaim to return to the previous settings.

9. Click Yes to conrm the write policy mode you have chosen.

10. Click Next when you are nished dening virtual drives. The conguration
preview screen appears.

11. Check the information in the conguration preview.

12. If the virtual drive conguration is acceptable, click Accept to save the
conguration. Otherwise, click Back to return to the previous screens and
change the conguration.

13. If you accept the conguration, click Yes at the prompt to save the
conguration.

14. Click Yes at the prompt to start initialization.

Using Manual Conguration: RAID 60

RAID 60 provides the features of both RAID 0 and RAID 6, and includes both parity
and drive striping across multiple drive groups. RAID 6 supports two independent
parity blocks per 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. Uses RAID 60 for
data that requires a very high level of protection from loss.

RAID 60 can support up to eight spans and tolerate up to 16 drive failures, though
less than total drive capacity is available. Two drive failures can be tolerated in
each RAID 6 level drive group.

RAID 60 is appropriate when used with data that requires high reliability, high
request rates, high data transfer, and medium to large capacity.

When you select Manual Conguration and click Next, the Drive Group Denition
screen appears. You use this screen to select drives to create drive groups.

1. Hold <Ctrl> while selecting at least three ready drives in the Drives panel on
the left.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-25

2. Click Add To Array to move the drives to a proposed drive group

conguration in the Drive Groups panel on the right.

3. Select a preferred Power save mode. The power save mode can be Max,
Max without cache, Auto, None, and Controller dened. If you need to

undo the changes, click the Reclaim button.

4. Click Accept DG to create a RAID 6 drive group.

An icon for a second drive group displays in the right panel.

5. Click on the icon for the second drive group to select it.

6. Hold <Ctrl> while selecting at least three more ready drives in the Drives
panel to create a second drive group.

7. Click Add To Array to move the drives to a proposed drive group

conguration in the Drive Groups panel on the right.

If you need to undo the changes, click the Reclaim button.

8. Choose whether to use drive encryption. After you nish selecting drives for

the drive groups, select each drive group and click Accept DG for each.

9. Click Next. The Span Denition screen appears. This screen displays the
drive group holes you can select to add to a span.

10. Select one of the available drive groups from the Array With Free Space
drop-down list, and then click Add to SPAN.

11. Select a second drive group from the Array With Free Space drop-down list,
and click Add to SPAN.

Both drive groups display in the right frame under Span.

12. When nish, click Next. The Virtual Drive Denition screen appears. You
use this screen to select the RAID level, strip size, read policy, and other

attributes for the new virtual drive(s).

13. If there are additional drive groups with three or more drives each, you can
add them to the virtual drive.

14. Change the virtual drive options from the defaults listed on the screen as
needed.

Here are brief explanations of the virtual drive options:

• RAID Level: The drop-down menu lists the possible RAID levels for the

virtual drive. Select RAID 60.

• Strip Size: The strip size species the size of the segment written to

each disk in a RAID conguration. You can set the strip size up to 64 KB.
A larger strip size produces higher read performance. If your computer
regularly performs random read requests, choose a smaller strip size.

The default is 64 KB.

• Access Policy: Select the type of data access that is allowed for this

virtual drive:

2-26 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

◊ RW: Allow read/write access. This is the default.

◊ Read Only: Allow read-only access.

◊ Blocked: Do not allow access.

• Read Policy: Specify the read policy for this virtual drive:

◊ Normal: This disables the read ahead capability.

◊ Ahead: This enables read ahead capability, which allows the

controller to read sequentially ahead of requested data and to store
the additional data in cache memory, anticipating that the data will be
needed soon. This speeds up reads for sequential data, but there is
little improvement when accessing random data. This is the default.

• Write Policy: Specify the write policy for this virtual drive:

◊ Write Through: In Write Through mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the drive subsystem has
received all of the data in a transaction.

◊ Always Write Back: In Writeback mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has
received all of the data in a transaction. This setting is recommended
in Standard mode.

◊ Write Back with BBU: In Writeback mode the controller sends a data

transfer completion signal to the host when the controller cache has
received all of the data in a transaction. This setting has to be used
with a Battery Backup Unit (BBU). This is the default.

• IO Policy: The IO Policy applies to reads on a specic virtual drive. It

does not affect the read ahead cache.

◊ Direct: In direct I/O mode, reads are not buffered in cache memory.

Data is transferred to the cache and the host concurrently. If the same
data block is read again, it comes from cache memory.

◊ Cached: In cached I/O mode, all reads are buffered in cache memory.

This is the default.

• Drive Cache: Specify the drive cache policy:

◊ NoChange: Leave the current drive cache policy unchanged. This is

the default.

◊ Enable: Enable the drive cache.

◊ Disable: Disable the drive cache.

• Disable BGI: Specify the background initialization status:

◊ No: Leave background initialization enabled. This means that a new

conguration can be initialized in the background while you use
WebBIOS to do other conguration tasks. This is the default.

◊ Yes: Select Yes if you do not want to allow background initializations

for congurations on this controller.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-27

• Select Size: Specify the size of the virtual drive in terabytes, gigabytes,

megabytes, or kilobytes. Normally, this would be the full size for RAID 60
shown in the Conguration panel on the right. You may specify a smaller
size if you want to create other virtual drives on the same drive group.

15. Click Accept to accept the changes to the virtual drive denition, or click

Reclaim to undo the changes.

16. Click Yes to conrm the write policy mode you have chosen.

17. Click Next when you are nished dening virtual drives. The conguration
preview screen appears.

18. Check the information in the conguration preview.

19. If the virtual drive conguration is acceptable, click Accept to save the
conguration. Otherwise, click Cancel to end the operation and return to the

WebBIOS main menu, or click Back to return to the previous screens and

change the conguration.

20. If you accept the conguration, click Yes at the prompt to save the
conguration.

21. Click Yes at the prompt to start initialization.

2-28 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

2.2.4 Viewing and Changing Device Properties

This section explains how you can use the WebBIOS CU to view and change the
properties for controllers, virtual drives, and drives.

WebBIOS allows you to view information
for the LSI SAS controller. To view
the properties for the controller, click
Controller Properties on the main
WebBIOS screen. There are three
Controller Properties screens. The right

gure shows the rst screen.

The information on this screen is read-

only and cannot be modied directly. Most

of this information is self-explanatory. The
screen lists the number of virtual drives

that are already dened on this controller,

plus the number of drives connected to
the controller.

Click Next to view the second Controller
Properties screen, as shown in the right

gure.

Click Next to view the third Controller
Properties screen, as shown in the

following gure.

The following table describes the entries/options listed on the second and third
Controller Properties screen. We recommend that you leave these options at

their default settings to achieve the best performance, unless you have a specic

reason for changing them.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-29

Controller Properties Menu Options

Option Description

Set Factory
Defaults

Cluster Mode

Rebuild Rate

BGI Rate

CC Rate

Reconstruction
Rate

NCQ

Coercion Mode

S.M.A.R.T.
Polling

Use this option to load the default MegaRAID® WebBIOS CU settings.
The default is [No].

Use this option to enable or disable Cluster mode. The default is
[Disabled]. A cluster is a grouping of independent servers that can
access the same data storage and provide services to a common set
of clients. When Cluster mode is disabled, the system operates in
Standard mode.

Use this option to select the rebuild rate for drives connected to the
selected controller. The default is 30 percent. The rebuild rate is the
percentage of system resources dedicated to rebuilding a failed drive.
The higher the number, the more system resources devoted to a
rebuild.

Use this option to select the amount of system resources dedicated

to background initialization of virtual drives connected to the selected

controller. The default is 30 percent.

Use this option to select the amount of system resources dedicated
to consistency checks of virtual drives connected to the selected
contrroller. The default is 30 percent.

Use this option to select the amount of system resources dedicated
to reconstruction of drives connected to the selected controller. The
default is 30 percent.

Native Command Queuing (NCQ) gives an individual drive the ability to

optimize the order in which it executes the read and write commands.

The default is [Enabled].

Drive coercion is a tool for forcing drives of varying capacities to the

same size so they can be used in a drive group. The coercion mode

options are None, 128MB-way, and 1GB-way. The default is 1GB-way.

This option determines how frequently the controller polls for drives
reporting a Predictive Drive Failure (S.M.A.R.T. error). The default is
300 seconds (5 minutes).

2-30 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

Controller Properties Menu Options (Cont.)

Option Description

Patrol Read
Rate

Cache Flush
Interval

Spinup Drive
Count

Spinup Delay

Stop CC On
Error

Maintain PD
Fail History

Controller BIOS

Schedule CC

StopOnError

Disk Activity

Use this option to select the rate for patrol reads for drives connected to
the selected controller. The default is 30 percent. The patrol read rate is
the percentage of system resources dedicated to running a patrol read.

Use this option to control the interval (in seconds) at which the contents

of the onboard data cache are ushed. The default is 4 seconds.

Use this option to control the number of drives that spin up
simultaneously. The default is 4 drives.

Use this option to control the interval (in seconds) between spinup of
drives connected to this controller. The delay prevents a drain on the
system’s power supply that would occur if all drives spun up at the
same time. The default is 2 seconds.

Use this option if you want to stop a consistency check when the
controller BIOS encounters an error. The default is No.

Use this option to maintain the history of all drive failures. The default
is enable.

Use this option to enable or disable the BIOS for the selected controller.
The default is Enabled. If the boot device is on the selected controller,
the BIOS must be enabled. Otherwise, the BIOS should be disabled or
it might not be possible to use a boot device elsewhere.

“Supported” will be displayed if the controller supports consistency
check schedule.

Enable this option if you want the boot process to stop when the
controller BIOS encounters an error during boot-up. The default is
[Enabled].

Enable this option if you want to locate a particular disk. This disk can

be identied with a continuous blinking of green activity LED. This

works only if the disks are installed in an enclosure. The default is
[Disabled].

If you make changes to the options on this screen, click Submit to register them. If
you change your mind, click Reset to return the options to their default values.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-31

Viewing and Changing Virtual Drive Properties

Access the Virtual Drive screen by clicking a virtual drive icon in the right panel

on the WebBIOS CU main screen. The following gure shows the Virtual Drive

screen.

The conguration items in the screen above vary with the existing RAID level.

The Properties panel of this screen displays the virtual drive’s RAID level, state,

capacity, and strip size.

The Policies panel lists the virtual drive policies that were dened when the
storage conguration was created. To change any of these policies, make a

selection from the drop-down menu and click Change.

The Operations panel lists operations that can be performed on the virtual drive.
To perform an operation, select it and click Go. Then choose from the following
options:

• Select Delete to delete this virtual drive.

• Select Locate to make the LEDs ash on the drives used by this virtual drive.

This works only if the drives are installed in a drive enclosure that supports
SAFTE.

• Select Fast or Slow to initialize this virtual drive. A fast initialization quickly

writes zeroes to the rst and last 10-MB regions of the new virtual drive and
then completes the initialization in the background. A slow initialization is not
complete until the entire virtual drive has been initialized with zeroes. It is

seldom necessary to use this option, because the virtual drive was already

initialized when you created it.

Before you run an initialization, back up any data on the virtual drive that you
want to save. All data on the virtual drive is lost when you initialize it.

2-32 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

• Select CC to run a consistency check on this virtual drive.

Before you change a virtual drive conguration, back up any data on the virtual

drive that you want to save.

• Select Adv Opers to set the advanced operations on this virtual drive.

1. Select either Change RAID

Level or Change RAID Level
and Add Drive.

◊ If you select Change RAID

Level, change the RAID level
from the drop-down menu.

◊ If you select Change RAID

Level and Add Drive, change

the RAID level from the drop­down menu and then select
one or more drives to add from
the list of drives.

2. Click Go. When the message appears, conrm that you want to migrate

the RAID level of the virtual drive.

A reconstruction operation begins on the virtual drive. You must wait until

the reconstruction is completed before you perform any other tasks in
the WebBIOS CU.

• Select Expand to increase the size of a virtual drive to occupy the remaining

capacity in a drive group. In addition, you can add drives to the virtual drive in
order to increase capacity.

1. Enter the percentage of the
available capacity that you
want the virtual drive to use.

For example, if there are 100

GB of capacity available and

you want to increase the size

of the virtual drive by 30GB,
select 30 percent.

2. Click Calculate to determine
the capacity of the virtual drive
after expansion. Click Ok.

The virtual drive expands by the selected percentage of the available

capacity.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-33

Viewing Drive Properties

The Drives screen displays the properties of a selected drive and also enables you
to perform operations on the drive.

There are two ways to access the Drive screen:

• On the main menu screen, click on a drive in the right panel under the heading

Physical Drives.

• On the main menu screen, click on Physical Drives in the left panel to display

the Physical Drive screen. Then click on a drive in the right panel. Click on the
Properties button, and click Go. The properties for the selected drive displays.

The below gure shows the Drive screen.

The drive properties are view-only and are self-explanatory. Note that the
properties include the state of the drive. The operations listed at the bottom of the
screen vary depending on the state of the drive. After you select an operation, click
Go to start the operation.

• Select Make Drive Ofine if you want to force the drive ofine.

If you force ofine a good drive that is part of a redundant drive group with a hot
spare, the drive will rebuild to the hot spare drive. The drive you forced ofine

will go into the Uncongured Bad state. Access the BIOS utility to set the drive
to the Uncongured Good state.

• Select Locate to make the LED ash on the drive. This works only if the drive

is installed in a drive enclosure.

• Select Stop Locate to disable the LED ash on the drive.

2-34 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

If the drive state is Uncongured Good, four additional operations appear on this

screen:

• Select Make Global HSP to make a global hot spare, available to all of the

virtual drives.

• Select Enclosure Afnity so if there are drive failures present on a split

backplane conguration, then the hot spare will be used rst on the backplane

side that it resides in.

• Select Make Unconf Bad to make the drive state to become Uncongured

Bad.

• Select Prepare Removal to prepare the drive for removal from the enclosure.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-35

2.2.5 Viewing System Event Information

The SAS controller rmware monitors the activity and performance of all storage
congurations and devices in the system. When an event occurs (such as the

creation of a new virtual drive or the removal of a drive) an event message is
generated and is stored in the controller NVRAM. You can use the WebBIOS CU
to view these event messages. To do this, click Events on the main WebBIOS CU

screen. The Event Information screen appears, as shown in the following gure.

The right side of the screen is blank until you select an event to view. The First

Sequence and Last Sequence elds in the upper left of the screen show you how

many event entries are currently stored.

To view event information, follow these steps:

1. Select an Event Locale from the menu. For example, select Enclosure to

view events relating to the drive enclosure.

2. Select an Event Class: [Informational], [Warning], [Critical], [Fatal], or [Dead].

3. Enter a Start Sequence number, between the First Sequence and Last
Sequence numbers. The higher the number, the more recent the event.

4. Enter the Number of events of this type that you want to view, and click Go.

The rst event in the sequence appears in the right panel.

5. Click Next or Prev to page forward or backward through the sequence of
events.

6. If you want, select different event criteria in the left panel, and click Go again
to view a different sequence of events.

Each event entry includes a timestamp and a description to help you

determine when the event occurred and what it was.

2-36 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

2.2.6 Managing Congurations

This section includes information about maintaining and managing storage

congurations.

Running a Consistency Check

You should periodically run a consistency check on fault-tolerant virtual drives. A

consistency check veries that the redundancy data is correct and available for

RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 arrays. To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the main WebBIOS CU screen, select a virtual drive.

2. When the Virtual Drive screen appears, select CC in the lower left panel, and
click Go.

3. Click Yes to continue. The consistency check begins.

If the WebBIOS CU nds a difference between the data and the parity value on

the redundant drive group, it assumes that the data is accurate and automatically
corrects the parity value. Be sure to back up the data before running a consistency
check if you think the data may be corrupted.

Deleting a Virtual Drive

You can delete any virtual drive on the controller if you want to reuse that space for

a new virtual drive. The WebBIOS CU provides a list of congurable drive groups
where there is a space to congure. If multiple virtual drives are dened on a single

drive group, you can delete a virtual drive without deleting the whole drive group.

Back up any data that you want to keep before you delete the virtual drive.

To delete a virtual drive, follow these steps:

1. On the main WebBIOS CU screen, select a virtual drive.

2. When the Virtual Drive screen appears, select Delete in the bottom panel
under the heading Operations, and click Go.

3. When the message appears, conrm that you want to delete the virtual drive.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-37

Importing or Clearing a Foreign Conguration

A foreign conguration is a storage conguration that already exists on a
replacement set of drives that you install in a computer system. In addition, if one

or more drives are removed from a conguration, by a cable pull or drive removal,
for example, the conguration on those drives is considered a foreign conguration

by the RAID controller.

The WebBIOS CU allows you to import the foreign conguration to the RAID
controller, or to clear the conguration so you can create a new conguration using

these drives.

When you create a new conguration, the WebBIOS CU shows only the
uncongured drives. Drives that have existing congurations, including foreign
congurations, will not appear. To use drives with existing congurations, you
must rst clear the conguration on those drives.

If a foreign conguration is detected during POST, press <C> when the following

screen appears.

Foreign conguration(s) found on adapter
Press any key to continue or ‘C‘ to load the conguration utility,
or ‘F‘ to import foreign conguration(s) and continue.

When the following screen appears, press <Ctrl+H> to enter the WebBIOS CU.

1 Virtual Drive(s) handled by BIOS
Press <Ctrl><H> for WebBIOS or press <Ctrl><Y> for Preboot CLI

If WebBIOS CU detects a foreign conguration, the following screen appears when

enter the WebBIOS CU.

Follow these steps to import or clear a foreign conguration:

1. Click the drop-down list to show the congurations.

The GUID (Global Unique Identier) entries on the drop-down list are OEM

names and will vary from one installation to another.

2-38 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

2. Select a conguration or All Congurations.

3. Perform one of the following steps:

• Click Preview to preview the

foreign congurations. The
Foreign Conguration Preview

screen appears, as shown in

the right gure.

• Click Clear to clear the foreign

congurations and reuse the

drives for another virtual drive.

If you click Cancel, it cancels the

importation or preview of the foreign

conguration.

The right panel shows the virtual drive properties of the foreign conguration.

In this example, there are two RAID1 virtual drives with 67.843GB each. The

left panel shows the drives in the foreign conguration.

4. Click Import to import this foreign conguration(s) and use it on this
controller.

Foreign Configurations in Cable Pull and Disk Removal Scenarios

If one or more drives are removed from a conguration, by a cable pull or
drive removal, for example, the conguration on those drives is considered a
foreign conguration by the RAID controller.

Use the Foreign Conguration Preview screen to import or clear the

foreign conguration in each case.

The following scenarios can occur with cable pulls or physical drive removals.

If you want to import the foreign conguration in any of the following scenarios,

you should have all the drives in the enclosure before you perform the import
operation.

1. Scenario #1: If all of the drives in a conguration are removed

and re-inserted, the controller considers the drives to have foreign

congurations.

Import or clear the foreign conguration. If you select Import, automatic

rebuilds will occur in redundant virtual drives.

Start a consistency check immediately after the rebuild is complete to ensure
data integrity for the virtual drives.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-39

2. Scenario #2: If some of the drives in a conguration are removed

and re-inserted, the controller considers the drives to have foreign

congurations.

Import or clear the foreign conguration. If you select Import, automatic

rebuilds will occur in redundant virtual drives.

Start a consistency check immediately after the rebuild is complete to ensure
data integrity for the virtual drives.

3. Scenario #3: If all the drives in a virtual drive are removed, but at
different times, and re-inserted, the controller considers the drives to

have foreign congurations.

Import or clear the foreign conguration. If you select Import, all drives

that were pulled before the virtual drive became ofine will be imported
and then automatically rebuilt. Automatic rebuilds will occur in redundant
virtual drives.

4. Scenario #4: If the drives in a non-redundant virtual drive are removed,

the controller considers the drives to have foreign congurations.

Import or clear the foreign conguration. No rebuilds will occur after

the import operation because there is no redundant data to rebuild the
drives with.

2-40 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

2.3 MegaRAID Storage Manager

MegaRAID Storage Manager software enables you to congure, monitor, and
maintain storage congurations on LSI SAS controllers. The MegaRAID Storage

Manager graphical user interface (GUI) makes it easy for you to create and

manage storage congurations.

2.3.1 Hardware and Software Requirements

The hardware requirements for 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 and at least 128 Mbytes of system memory (256
Mbytes recommended)

• Disk drive with at least 50 Mbytes available free space

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

2.3.2 Installing MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on

Microsoft Windows OS

Follow these steps if you need to install MegaRAID Storage Manager software on
a system running Microsoft Windows OS:

1. Insert the ASUS PIKE 2108 Support CD in the optical disc drive. The CD

automatically displays the Utilities menu if Autorun is enabled in your
computer.

If Autorun is NOT enabled in your computer, browse the contents of the Support
CD to locate Setup.exe. Double-click Setup.exe to run the Support CD.

2. Click LSI MegaRAID Storage Manager.

3. When the Welcome screen appears, click Next.

If MegaRAID Storage Manager software is already installed on this system,

the Program Maintenance screen appears. Read the screen text and select
Modify, Repair, or Remove.

4. When the next screen appears, read and accept the user license, and click

Next.

The Customer Information screen appears, as shown in the following gure.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-41

5. Enter your user name and 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 version of MegaRAID Storage Manager software to view or change

storage congurations.

– If you select Only for current user, the MegaRAID Storage Manager

shortcuts and associated icons will be available only to the user with this
user name.

6. Click Next to continue.

7. On the next screen, accept the default Destination Folder, or click Change to
select a different destination folder. Click Next to continue.

The Setup Type screen appears, as shown in the following gure.

2-42 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

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

– Normally, you would select Complete if you are installing 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 selected Custom Installation as your setup option, the second Setup

Type screen appears, as shown in the following gure.

If you select Complete as your setup option, the Installation Wizard is ready

to install MSM. To begin installation, click on 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 Client if you are installing MegaRAID Storage Manager software

on a PC that will be used to view and congure servers over a network.

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

– Select Server to install only those components required for remote

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

– Select StandAlone if you will use MegaRAID Storage Manager

software to create and manage storage congurations on a standalone

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

– Select Custom if you want to specify individual program features to

install.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-43

If you select Custom, a window listing the installation features appears, as

shown in the following gure. Select the features you want on this screen.

11. Click Next to proceed.

12. Click Install to install the program.

13. When the nal Conguration Wizard screen appears, click Finish.

If you select Client installation for a PC 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 will appear, as shown in the following gure. The

server screen will not list any servers. You can use this screen to manage
systems remotely.

2-44 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

2.3.3 Installing MegaRAID Storage Manager Software for

Linux

Follow these steps if you need to install MegaRAID Storage Manager software on
a system running Red Hat Linux or SUSE Linux:

1. Copy the MSM_linux_installer...tar.gz le to a temporary folder.

2. Untar the MSM_linux_installer...tar.gz le using the following command:

tar -zxvf MSM_linux_installer...tar.gz

A new disk directory is created.

3. Go to the new disk directory.

4. In the disk directory, nd and read the readme.txt le.

5. To start the installation, enter the following command:

csh install.sh -a

If you select Client installation for a PC 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.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-45

2.3.4 Linux Error Messages

The following messages may appear while you are installing MegaRAID Storage
Manager software on a Linux system:

• More than one copy of MegaRAID Storage Manager software has been

installed.

This message indicates that the user has installed more than one copy of

MegaRAID Storage Manager software. (This can be done by using the rpm-

force command to install the rpm le directly, which is not recommended,
instead of using the install.sh le.) In such cases, the user must uninstall all the
rpm les manually before installing MegaRAID Storage Manager software with

the procedure listed previously.

• The version is already installed.

This message indicates that the version of MegaRAID Storage Manager

software you are trying to install is already installed on the system.

• The installed version is newer.

This message indicates that a version of MegaRAID Storage Manager

software is already installed on the system, and it is a newer version than the
version you are trying to install.

• Exiting installation.

This is the message that appears when the installation is complete.

• RPM installation failed.

This message indicates that the installation failed for some reason. Additional

message text explains the cause of the failure.

2-46 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

2.3.5 Starting MegaRAID Storage Manager Software

Follow these steps to start MegaRAID Storage Manager software and view the
main window:

1. Start the program using the method required for your operating system
environment:

– To start MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a Microsoft Windows

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

If a warning appears stating that Windows Firewall has blocked some features
of the program, click Unblock to allow MegaRAID Storage Manager software to
start. (The Windows Firewall sometimes blocks the operation of programs that
use Java.)

– To start MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a Red Hat Linux

system, select Applications > System Tools > MegaRAID Storage
Manager StartupUI.

– To start MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a SUSE SLES

system, select Start > System > More Programs > MegaRAID Storage
Manager.

2. When the program starts, the select server window appears, as shown in the

following gure.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-47

If the circle in Health column of the corresponding server is orange instead of

green, it means that the server is running in a degraded state—for example,
because a drive used in a virtual drive has failed. If the circle is red, the

storage conguration in the server has failed.

You can click Congure Host if you want to select the display preferences

for the server. You can choose to display only the local server, systems from
a list, or display all of the systems in the network of the local server.

3. Double-click the icon of the server that you want to access. The server login

window appears, as shown in the following gure.

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

– Select Full Access if you need to both view the current conguration

and change the conguration.

– Select View Only if you need to only view and monitor the conguration.

5. 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.

You must enter the root/administrator user name and password to use Full

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

2-48 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

2.3.6 MegaRAID Storage Manager Window

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, total capacity,

congured capacity, uncongured capacity, background operations in progress,

MegaRAID Storage Manager features and their status (enabled or disabled),
and actions you can perform, such as creating a virtual drive and updating the

rmware, as shown in the following gure.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-49

You can click the Physical tab to view the drives connected to the controller or
Logical tab to view the virtual drives connected to the controller.

The following icons in the left panel represent the controllers, drives, and other
devices:

• System

• Controller

• Slot for a drive

• Drive group

• Virtual drive

A red circle to the right of an icon indicates that the device has failed. For example,

this icon indicates that a drive has failed: .

A yellow circle to the right of an icon indicates that a device is running in a
degraded state. For example, this icon indicates that a virtual drive is running in a

degraded state because a drive has failed: .

2-50 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

Properties View Panel

The right panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager window has the Properties
tab that displays information about the selected device. For example, if a controller
icon is selected in the left panel, the Properties tab lists information such as the

controller name, NVRAM size, and device port count.

Event Log Panel

The lower part of the MegaRAID Storage Manager window displays the system
event log entries. New event log entries appear during the session. Each entry has
an ID, a timestamp and date, an error level indicating the severity of the event, and
a brief description of the event.

Menu Bar

Here are brief descriptions of the main selections on the MegaRAID Storage
Manager menu bar.

Manage Menu

The Manage menu has an Exit option for exiting from the MegaRAID
Storage Manager software. It also has a Refresh option for updating the
display in the MegaRAID Storage Manager window. (Refresh is seldom
required; the display normally updates automatically.)
The Manage menu options also include Check Consistency, Initialize, and
Show Progress.

Go To Menu

The Go To menu is available when a controller, physical drive, or virtual disk
is selected in the MegaRAID Storage Manager window. The Go To menu
options vary depending on what type of device is selected in the left panel of
the MegaRAID Storage Manager window. For example, the Scan Foreign
Conguration option is available only when a controller is selected. The
options also vary depending on the current state of the selected device. For
example, if you select an ofine physical drive, the Make Drive Online option
will be available in the Go To menu.

Log Menu

The Log menu includes options for saving and clearing the message log.

Tools Menu

On the Tools menu you can select Congure Alerts to access the Event

Conguration Notication screen, which you can use to set the alert delivery

rules, event severity levels, exceptions, and email settings.

ASUS PIKE 2108 2-51

Help Menu

On the Help menu you can select Help > Contents to view the MegaRAID

Storage Manager online help le. You can select Help > About MegaRAID
Storage Manager to view version information for the MegaRAID Storage

Manager software.

• When you use the MegaRAID Storage Manager online help, you may see a

warning message that Internet Explorer has restricted the le from showing

active content. If this warning appears, click on the active content warning
bar and enable the active content.

• If you are using the Linux operating system, you must install Firefox

Mozilla® for the MegaRAID Storage Manager online help to display.

®

or

2-52 Chapter 2: RAID conguration

This chapter provides instructions for
installing the RAID drivers on different
operating systems.

Chapter 3: Driver

3

installation

3.1 RAID driver installation

After creating the RAID sets for your server system, you are now ready to install
an operating system to the independent hard disk drive or bootable array. This part
provides instructions on how to install or update the RAID card drivers.

The RAID card driver might be included in the Linux OS installation CD, and
could be loaded automatically during OS installation. However, we recommend
using the RAID driver packaged in the RAID card support CD for better
reliability.

Creating a RAID driver disk

You may have to use another system to create the RAID driver disk from the
RAID card support CD or from the Internet.

A oppy disk with the RAID driver is required when installing Windows

®

Server
2003 or Linux operating system on a hard disk drive that is included in a RAID set.
You can create a RAID driver disk in DOS (using the Makedisk application in the
support CD).

To create a RAID driver disk in DOS environment:

1. Place the RAID card support CD in the optical drive.

2. Restart the computer, then enter the BIOS Setup.

3. Select the optical drive as the rst boot priority to boot from the support CD.

Save your changes, then exit the BIOS Setup.

4. Restart the computer.

5. The Makedisk menu appears. SelectThe Makedisk menu appears. Select PIKE 2108 SAS2 card Driver, and press

<Enter> to enter the submenu.

Create Driver Diskette Menu
PIKE 2108 SAS2 card Driver

PIKE 2008/IMR SAS2 card Driver
PIKE 2008 SAS2 card Driver
FreeDOS command prompt

3-2 Chapter 3: Driver installation

6. Use the arrow keys to select the type of RAID driver disk you want to create.

PIKE 2108 SAS2 card Driver
Windows XP 32 bit

Windows XP 64 bit
Windows Server 2003 32 bit
Windows Server 2003 64 bit
Windows Vista 32 bit
Windows Vista 64 bit
Windows Server 2008 32 bit
Windows Server 2008 64 bit
Windows 7 32 bit
Windows 7 64 bit
Windows Server 2008 R2 64 bit
RHEL 3 UP9 32/64 bit
RHEL 4 UP5 32/64 bit
RHEL 4 UP6 32/64 bit
RHEL 4 UP7 32/64 bit
RHEL 4 UP8 32/64 bit
RHEL 5 32/64 bit
RHEL 5 UP2 32/64 bit
RHEL 5 UP3 32/64 bit
RHEL 5 UP4 32/64 bit
RHEL 5 UP5 32/64 bit
SLES 9 SP3 32 bit

7. Place a blank, high-density oppy disk to the oppy disk drive.

8. Press <Enter>.

9. Follow screen instructions to create the driver disk.

ASUS PIKE 2108 3-3

3.2 Windows® Server 2003 OS Driver

Installation

3.2.1 During Windows® Server 2003 OS installation

To install the RAID card driver when installing Windows® Server 2003 OS:

1. Boot the computer using the Windows® Server 2003 OS installation CD. The

Window® Setup starts.

2. Press <F6> when the message “Press F6 if you need to install a third party

SCSI or RAID driver...” appears at the bottom of the screen.

Windows Setup

Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver...

3. The next screen appears. Press <S> to specify an additional device.

Windows Setup

Setup could not determine the type of one or more mass storage devices
installed in your system, or you have chosen to manually specify an adapter.
Currently, Setup will load support for the following mass storage devices(s):

<none>

* To specify additional SCSI adapters, CD-ROM drives, or special
disk controllers for use with Windows, including those for
which you have a device support disk from a mass storage device
manufacturer, press S.

* If you do not have any device support disks from a mass storage
device manufacturer, or do not want to specify additional
mass storage devices for use with Windows, press ENTER.

S=Specify Additional Device ENTER=Continue F3=Exit

3-4 Chapter 3: Driver installation

4. Insert the RAID driver disk you created earlier to the oppy disk drive, then

press <Enter>.

Windows Setup

Please insert the disk labeled

Manufacturer-supplied hardware support disk

into Drive A:

* Press ENTER when ready.

ENTER=Continue ESC=Cancel F3=Exit

5. Select LSI MegaRAID SAS RAID Controller Driver (Server 2003), and then

press <Enter>.

Windows Setup

You have chosen to congure a SCSI Adapter for use with Windows,

using a device support disk provided by an adapter manufacturer.

Select the SCSI Adapter you want from the following list, or press ESC
to return to the previous screen.

LSI MegaRAID SAS RAID Controller Driver (Windows 2000)

LSI MegaRAID SAS RAID Controller Driver (Server 2003 32-bit)

ENTER=Select F3=Exit

6. The Windows® Setup loads the RAID card drivers from the RAID driver disk.
When next screen appears, press <Enter> to continue installation.

7. Setup then proceeds with the OS installation. Follow screen instructions to
continue.

ASUS PIKE 2108 3-5

3.2.2 After Windows® Server 2003 OS installation

To update the RAID card driver after installing Windows® Server 2003 OS:

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer and select Manage from the menu.

2. In the Computer Management window, click the Device Manager item.

3. Double-click RAID Controller under the Other Devices item.

The controller name differs according to the installed SAS RAID card.

4. Click the Driver tab on the top, then click Update Driver.

3-6 Chapter 3: Driver installation

5. Toggle No, Not this time to cancel searching driver from Windows Update,
and then click Next to continue.

6. Toggle Install from a list or specic location (Advanced), then click Next
to continue.

7. Select the Include this location in the search: check box, and then click
Browse.

ASUS PIKE 2108 3-7

7. Insert the SAS RAID card Support CD into the optical drive.

8. Locate the driver in the corresponding folder of the Support CD, and then

click OK to continue.

9. The system automatically updates the driver. After completing driver update,

click Finish to close the wizard.

3-8 Chapter 3: Driver installation

3.3 Windows® Server 2008 OS Driver

Installation

3.3.1 During Windows® Server 2008 OS installation

To install the RAID card driver when installing Windows® Server 2008 OS:

1. Boot the computer using the Windows® Server 2008 OS installation disc.
Follow the screen instructions to start installing Windows Server 2008.

2. When prompted to choose a
type of installation, click Custom
(advanced).

3. Click Load Driver.

4. A message appears, reminding
you to insert the installation media
containing the driver of the SAS
RAID card. If you have only one
optical drive installed in your system,
eject the Windows OS installation
disc and replace with the PIKE
SAS RAID card Support CD into
the optical drive. Click Browse to
continue.

ASUS PIKE 2108 3-9

5. Locate the driver in the
corresponding folder of the Support
CD, and then click OK to continue.

6. Select LSI MegaRAID SAS PCI
Express ROMB and click Next.

7. When the system nishes loading

the RAID driver, replace the SAS
RAID card Support CD with the
Windows Server installation disc.
Select the drive to install Windows
and click Next.

8. Setup then proceeds with the
OS installation. Follow screen
instructions to continue.

3-10 Chapter 3: Driver installation

3.3.2 After Windows® Server 2008 OS installation

To update the RAID card driver after installing Windows® Server 2008 OS:

1. Click Server Manager on the Windows taskbar. In the Server Manager
window, click the “+” sign before Diagnostics and click Device Manager.
Click the “+” sign before Storage controllers, and double-click LSI
MegaRAID SAS Adapter.

The controller name differs according to the installed SAS RAID card.

4. Click the Driver tab on the top, then click Update Driver.

ASUS PIKE 2108 3-11

5. Click Browse my computer for
driver software.

6. Insert the SAS RAID card Support
CD into the optical drive. Click
Browse.

7. In the Browse for Folder
window, locate the driver in the
corresponding folder of the Support
CD, and then click OK to continue.

8. In the Update Driver Software
window, click Next to continue.

9. The system automatically updates
the driver. After completing driver
update, click Close to exit the

wizard.

3-12 Chapter 3: Driver installation

3.4 Red Hat® Enterprise Linux OS 5 Driver
Installation

To install the RAID card driver when installing Red Hat Red Hat® Enterprise OS:

1. Boot the system from the Red Hat® OS installation CD.

2. At the boot:, type linux dd, then press <Enter>.

- To install or upgrade in graphical mode, press the <ENTER> key.

- To install or upgrade in text mode, type: linux text <ENTER>.

- Use the function keys listed below for more information.

[F1-Main] [F2-Options] [F3-General] [F4-Kernel] [F5-Rescue]

boot: linux dd

3. Select Yes using the <Tab> key when asked if you have the driver disk, then

press <Enter>.

Main Menu

Do you have a driver disk?

Yes No

4. Insert the Red Hat® Enterprise RAID driver disk to the USB oppy disk drive,

select OK, then press <Enter>.

Insert Driver Disk

Insert your driver disk into /dev/sda
and press “OK” to continue.

OK

Back

The drivers for the RAID card are installed to the system.

ASUS PIKE 2108 3-13

5. When asked if you will load additional RAID controller drivers, select No, then

press <Enter>.

More Driver Disks?

Do you wish to load any more
driver disks?

Yes No

6. Select Skip and press <Enter> to continue.

CD Found

To begin testing the CD media before
installation press OK.

Choose Skip to skip the media test
and start the installation.

OK

Skip

7. Follow the screen instructions to continue the OS installation.

3-14 Chapter 3: Driver installation

3.5 SUSE® Linux OS 11 Driver Installation

To install the RAID card driver when installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server OS: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server OS:

1. Boot the system from the SUSE OS installation CD.

2. Use the arrow keys to select Installation from the Boot Options menu.

3. Press <F6>, then select Yes from the menu. Press <Enter>.

4. Insert the RAID driver disk to the USB oppy disk drive. Ensure that Installation

from the Boot Options menu is selected, then press <Enter>.

5. When below screen appears, select the USB oppy disk drive (sdx) as the

driver update medium. Select OK, then press <Enter>.

Please choose the Driver Update medium.

sda: USB Floppy

sr0: CD-ROM, ASUS DRW-2014S1T
Other device

OK Back

The drivers for the RAID controller are installed to the system.

ASUS PIKE 2108 3-15

3-16 Chapter 3: Driver installation

ASUS contact information

ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. (Taiwan)

Address 15 Li-Te Road, Peitou, Taipei, Taiwan 11259
Telephone [phone]
Fax [phone]
E-mail [e-mail]
Web site http://www.asus.com.tw

Technical Support

Telephone [phone] (0800-093-456)
Online Support http://support.asus.com/techserv/techserv.aspx

ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. (China)

Address No.508, Chundong Road, Xinzhuang Industrial Zone,
Minhang District, Shanghai, China.
Telephone [phone]
Fax [phone]
Web site http://www.asus.com.cn

Technical Support

Telephone [phone] (800-820-6655)
Online Support http://support.asus.com/techserv/techserv.aspx

ASUS COMPUTER INTERNATIONAL (America)

Address 800 Corporate Way, Fremont, CA 94539, USA
Fax [phone]
Web site http://usa.asus.com

Technical Support

Support fax [phone]
General support [phone]
Online support http://support.asus.com/techserv/techserv.aspx

ASUS COMPUTER GmbH (Germany and Austria)

Address Harkort Str. 21-23, 40880 Ratingen, Germany
Fax [phone]
Web site http://www.asus.de
Online contact http://www.asus.de/sales

Technical Support

Telephone [phone]*
Support Fax [phone]
Online support http://support.asus.com/techserv/techserv.aspx

* EUR 0.14/minute from a German xed landline; EUR 0.42/minute from a mobile phone.

EC Declaration of Conformity

We, the undersigned,

Manufacturer:

ASUSTek COMPUTER INC.

Address, City:

No. 150, LI-TE RD., PEITOU, TAIPEI 112, TAIWAN R.O.C.

Country:

TAIWAN

Authorized representative in Europe:

ASUS COMPUTER GmbH

Address, City: HARKORT STR. 21-23, 40880 RATINGEN

Country:

GERMANY

declare the following apparatus:

Product name : PIKE Card

Model name : PIKE 2108

conform with the essential requirements of the following directives:

2004/108/EC-EMC Directive

EN 55022:2006+A1:2007

EN 61000-3-2:2006

EN 55013:2001+A1:2003+A2:2006

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

EN 61000-3-3:2008

EN 55020:2007

1999/5/EC-R &TTE Directive

EN 300 328 V1.7.1(2006-05)

EN 300 440-1 V1.4.1(2008-05)

EN 300 440-2 V1.2.1(2008-03)

EN 301 511 V9.0.2(2003-03)

EN 301 908-1 V3.2.1(2007-05)

EN 301 908-2 V3.2.1(2007-05)

EN 301 893 V1.4.1(2005-03)

EN 50360:2001

EN 50371:2002

EN 62311:2008

EN 50385:2002

EN 301 489-1 V1.8.1(2008-04)

EN 301 489-3 V1.4.1(2002-08)

EN 301 489-4 V1.3.1(2002-08)

EN 301 489-7 V1.3.1(2005-11)

EN 301 489-9 V1.4.1(2007-11)

EN 301 489-17 V1.3.2(2008-04)

EN 301 489-24 V1.4.1(2007-09)

EN 302 326-2 V1.2.2(2007-06)

EN 302 326-3 V1.3.1(2007-09)

EN 301 357-2 V1.3.1(2006-05)

2006/95/EC-LVD Directive

EN 60950-1:2001+A11:2004

EN 60950-1:2006

EN60065:2002+A1:2006

EN 60950-1:2006+A11:2009

2009/125/EC-ErP Directive

Regulation (EC) No. 1275/2008

EN 62301:2005

Regulation (EC) No. 642/2009

EN 62301:2005

Regulation (EC) No. 278/2009

EN 62301:2005

CE marking

Declaration Date: Oct. 28, 2010

Year to begin affixing CE marking:2010

Position : CEO

Name : Jerry Shen

Signature :

__________

(

EC conformit

y

markin

g)

DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY

Per FCC Part 2 Section 2. 1077(a)

Asus Computer International

Address: 800 Corporate Way, Fremont

, CA 94539.

hereby declares that the product

Product Name : PIKE Card

Conforms to the following specifications:

FCC Part 15, Subpart B, Unintentional Radiators

FCC Part 15, Subpart C, Intentional Radiators

FCC Part 15, Subpart E, Intentional Radiators

Supplementary Information:

This device complies with part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to

the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful

interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received,

including interference that may cause undesired operation.

Signature :

Date : Oct. 29, 2010