Foxconn 975X7AA-8EKRS2H User Manual

RAID User Guide

Edition

V1.0

Trademarks

All brand or product names mentioned are trademarks or registered trade-

marks of their respective holders.

Contents

1. Introduction.............................................................................1

2. Installing Hard Disks...............................................................2

3. BIOS Configuration.................................................................3

4. RAID Configuration Utility........................................................3

1) Intel Matrix Storage Manager Option ROM Utility...........................3

2) Silicon Image BIOS RAID Configuration Utility.............................14

3) VASSTEK BIOS RAID Configuration (optional)............................22

5. Installing Operating System with RAID..................................23

6. Installing RAID Driver............................................................24

7. Creating a RAID driver disk................................................... 24

RAID User’s Guide

RAID Configurations

1. Introduction

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a method of combining two hard disk drives into one logical unit. The advantage of an Array is to provide better performance or data fault tolerance. The motherboard comes with the Intel ICH7R, the Silicon Image Sil3132 and the VASSTEK VSC6110 RAIDm1 RAID controllers that allow you to configure Serial ATA and IDE hard disk drives as RAID sets. The following RAID configurations are provided for users.

RAID 0 (Striping)

RAID 0 reads and writes sectors of data interleaved between multiple drives. If any disk member fails, it affects the entire array. The disk array data capacity is equal to the number of drive members times the capacity of the smallest member. The striping block size can be set from 4KB to 128KB. RAID 0 does not support fault tolerance.

RAID 1 (Mirroring)

RAID 1 writes duplicate data onto a pair of drives and reads both sets of data in parallel. If one of the mirrored drives suffers a mechanical failure or does not respond, the remaining drive will continue to function. Due to redundancy, the drive capacity of the array is the capacity of the smallest drive. Under a RAID 1 setup, an extra drive called the “spare drive” can be attached. Such a drive will be activated to replace a failed drive that is part of a mirrored array. Due to the fault tolerance, if any RAID 1 drive fails, data access will not be affected as long as there are other working drives in the array.

RAID 5

RAID 5 Provides data striping at the byte level and also stripe error correction information. This results in excellent performance and good fault tolerance. Level

5 is one of the most popular implementations of RAID.

RAID 10 (0+1)

RAID 10 is a combination of striping and mirroring. This configuration provides optimal speed and reliability, but you need four SATA hard disks.

JBOD (Spanning)

JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks) combines drives into larger logical volumes. Itprovides no fault tolerance, nor does it provide any improvements in performancecompared to the independent use of its constituent drives.

RAID User’s Guide

Intel Matrix Storage

The Intel Matrix Storage technology creates two partitions on each hard disk drive to create a virtual RAID 0 and RAID 1 sets. This technology also allows you to change the hard disk drive partition size without losing any data. You only need two SATA hard disks to utilize this function.

RAIDm1

RAIDm1 (Reliable Access In a Disk by Mirror 1) is a new creative concept engi-

neered by VASSTEK. It provides RAID 1 robust and mature technology in one hard

disk to provide real-time data protection advantage.

2. Installing Hard Disks

Installing Parallel ATA hard disks

STEP 1: Refer to the hard disk documentation to set the jumpers of each hard disk

as master or slave.

STEP 2:Install the hard disks into the drive bays.

STEP 3: Connect the hard disk signal cables.

STEP 4: Connect a 4-pin power cable to the power connector on each drive.

Installing Serial ATA hard disks

STEP 1:Install SATA hard disks into the drive bays.

STEP 2:Connect one end of the SATA data cable to the motherboard’s one of

SATA connectors.

STEP 3: Connect the other end of the SATA data cable to one SATA hard disk.

Notes:

1. SATA_1/SATA_2/SATA_3/SATA_4 supports a RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 con-

figuration with the Intel ICH7R RAID controller.

2. SATA_5 can combine with an external Serial ATA port multiplier to

configure RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 and JBOD set through the onboard Silicon

Image 3132 SATA RAID controller.

3. VASRAID provides two modes for RIDE, RAIDm1 mode and ATA mode,

these 2 modes are set for Master device. For slave device, it is always

at ATA mode.

RAID User’s Guide

3. BIOS Configuration

A.Enter the BIOS setup program by pressing the <Del> key during the POST

(Power-On Self Test ).

B.Setting ICH7R RAID item in BIOS

1) Select the OnChip IDE Device item form Integrated Peripherals menu.

2) Switch the SATA Mode option to [RAID].

C. Setting Sil3132 RAID item in BIOS

1) Select the Onboard Device item form Integrated Peripherals menu.

2) Switch the Sil3132 SATA Controller option to [RAID Mode].

D. Setting RAIDm1 item in BIOS

1) Select the Onboard Device item form Integrated Peripherals menu.

2) Switch the PATA RAID VSC6110 option to [Enabled].

E.Save the BIOS setting and exit the BIOS setup program.

4. RAID Configuration Utility

1) Intel Matrix Storage Manager Option ROM Utility

A.Setting RAID 0

a.When the system powers on, the following information will appear on screen:

Press the <Ctrl-I> to enter Configuration Utility.

At this moment, press <Ctrl>+<I> to enter Main Menu:

RAID User’s Guide

b.Choose Create RAID Volume and press <Enter> to enter. Press <Tab> to

switch to RAID Level item, and then use Up and Down arrow keys to select

RAID0 (Stripe), pressing <Enter> confirms.

c.Using up or down arrow key to select the hard disks you want to set RAID 0 from

Disks item, <Space> key to confirm and <Enter> key to finish the selection.

RAID User’s Guide

d.Use Up and Down arrow keys to select desired strip size when enter Strip Size

menu. The available values range from 4KB to 128KB. The strip value should

be based on the planned drive usage. Some suggested selections are listed

below. The default selection is 128KB.

16K_Best for sequential transfer

64K_Good general purpose strip size

128K_Best performance for most desktops and workstations

e.Press the <Enter> key after the Create Volume prompt appears to create the

array. Press the <Y> key after the prompt to confirm this selection.

f.Select option 4. Exit in main menu and press the <Enter> key to exit the RAID

configuration utility. Press <Y> key to confirm the exit.

RAID User’s Guide

B.Setting RAID1

a.Select RAID1 (Mirror) by using Up and Down arrow keys in RAID Level item.

Press the <Enter> key to make selecting.

b.Using up or down arrow key to select the hard disks you want to set RAID 1 from

Disks item, <Space> key to confirm and <Enter> key to finish the selection.

c.Press the <Enter> key after the Create Volume prompt appears to create the

array. Press the <Y> key after the prompt to confirm this selection.

RAID User’s Guide

d.Select option 4. Exit in main menu and press the <Enter> key to exit the RAID

configuration utility. Press <Y> key to confirm the exit.

C.Setting RAID5

a.Select RAID5 (Parity) by using Up and Down arrow keys in RAID Level item.

Press the <Enter> key to make selecting.

b.Using up or down arrow key to select the hard disks you want to set RAID 5 from

Disks item, <Space> key to confirm and <Enter> key to finish the selection.

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