HP Compaq 8000 Elite, Compaq 8000f Elite, Compaq 8080 Elite, Compaq 8100 Elite, Compaq 8180 Elite User Manual

Technical white paper

AHCI and RAID on

HP Compaq Elite 8000, 8100, 8200, and 8300 Business PCs

Table of contents
Introduction	3
Basics of AHCI and RAID Technology	4
Definitions	4
Benefits of AHCI	5
BIOS / Software / Hardware
Considerations	5
BIOS Interface	5
Software Drivers	5
Hardware	8
Limitations	8
Changing AHCI to IDE Mode through
the HP Replicated Setup Utility	8
Basic RAID Types	8
RAID 0 with two hard drives (Striped)	8
RAID 1 with two hard drives (Mirror))	10
RAID 5 with three hard drives	11
Intel Matrix RAID Technology	12
Configurations	13
Recommended configurations	13
Other supported configurations	14
Unsupported configurations	14
Configuring RAID on non-factory
preinstalled configurations	15
Enabling RAID through F10 System
BIOS	15
Accessing RAID Option ROM	16
Configuring RAID Volume using the
Option ROM	16
Notes for operating system
installation	18

Intel Rapid Storage Technology
software installation	19
Using the Intel Rapid Storage Console
interface to Configure RAID	20
RAID migrations using Intel Rapid
Storage Console	21
Configuring Intel Rapid Storage
Console for Email notifications (HP
Elite 8200 and 8300 Business PCs
only)	25
Installation	26
Degradation	28

2

Introduction

This white paper covers the Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) and Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) drive technologies that are provided on the HP Compaq Elite 8000, 8100, 8200, and 8300 (hereafter referred to as the 8000-series) Business PC products. This white paper provides a basic overview of AHCI and RAID technology, supported factory configurations of HP Elite 8000-series Business PCs, other supported RAID configurations, and basic instructions on how to migrate non-RAID to RAID configurations in the field. HP also provides a Smart IV Hard Drive technical white paper for Smart IV Technology on HP Business Desktop Hard Drives on www.hp.com. The HP Compaq Elite 8300 also supports disk caching, which is described in a separate white paper “Configuring HP Elite 8300 Systems for Intel Smart Response Technology” available on www.hp.com .

AHCI is a hardware mechanism that allows software to communicate with Serial ATA (SATA) devices. It is enumerated as a PCI device and it transfers data between system memory and SATA devices.

The HP Elite dc7900 Business PC was the first HP business PC to have AHCI as the default SATA emulation mode in BIOS. All previous HP business PCs that supported SATA were in IDE (legacy) SATA emulation mode by default.

HP Elite 8000-series Business PC products provide support for AHCI in single and multiple drive configurations.

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) employs two or more drives in combination for fault tolerance and performance. Initially used with servers, desktop PCs are increasingly using RAID by adding a RAID controller and extra IDE or SCSI disks.

HP Elite 8000-series Business PCs take advantage of Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) technology and the integration of RAID support into select Intel chipsets. Table 1 lists the HP business PC platforms and associated Intel chipsets that provide native RAID support.

Table 1: HP Elite 8000-series Business PCs and Intel chipsets with RAID support

HP business PC	Intel chipset	Chipset components
Elite 8000	Q45 Express	2; Q45	GMCH & 82801 ICH10
Elite 8100	Q57 Express/5 Series	1; Q57	PCH-D0
Elite 8200	Q67 Express/6 series	1; Q67 PCH-D0
Elite 8300	Q77 Express/7 series	1; Q77 PCH-D0

3

Basics of AHCI and RAID Technology

Definitions

Table 2: Basic AHCI and RAID Definitions

Acronym or term	Description
AHCI	Advanced Host Controller Interface, a specification for hardware and software, is a register interface for
	SATA, intended to add higher speed, NCQ and other features.
ATA	Advanced Technology Attachment.
BIOS	Basic Input/Output System, also known as system ROM.
Chipset	Term used to define a collection of integrated components required to make a PC function.
HDD	Hard disk drive

ICH

IDE

INF

The Input/Output Controller Hub. This component includes the mass storage controller. ICH is part of the Intel Q45 Chipset

Integrated Drive Electronics

Information file (.inf) used by Microsoft® operating systems that support the Plug & Play feature. When installing a driver, this file provides the operating system needed, information about driver filenames, driver components, and supported hardware.

	Migration	Term used to describe the movement of data from one configuration or usage model to another.
	NCQ	Native Command Queuing.
	OS	Operating system
		Piece or software module inside the System BIOS which provides extended support for a particular piece
	Option ROM	of hardware. The RAID Option ROM provides boot support for RAID volumes as well as a user interface
		for managing and configuring the system's RAID volumes.
	PCH	Platform Controller Hub. This component includes the mass storage controller. PCH is part of the Intel
		Q57/Q67/Q77 chipset
	PCI	Peripheral Components Interface.
	PCIe	PCI express. A serial version of PCI.
	PnP	Plug and Play
	RAID	Redundant Array of Independent Disks.
	ROM	Read Only Memory.
	SATA	Serial ATA
	Strip	Set of data on a single hard drive in a RAID 0 volume.
	Stripe	Group of all strips going horizontally across all the hard drive members of a RAID volume.
	UEFI	Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. Specification defining firmware (BIOS and/or option ROM) that
		initializes hardware subsystems before the OS boot process.

4

Benefits of AHCI

AHCI provides several benefits:

•Elimination of master/slave handling

•Native Command Queuing (NCQ)

•Hot-plugging

AHCI mode eliminates the master/slave topology for cabling SATA hard drives. Hardware and software that emulate IDE still have some limitations with the master/slave topology that came from the Parallel ATA (PATA) mass storage implementation. With AHCI mode, there is no need to worry about cabling considerations, other than the boot drive should be on the lowest numbered SATA port (dark blue connector). SATA ports are independent of each other and are not tied together by master/slave relationship.

Native Command Queuing (NCQ) is technology that allows a SATA device to internally optimize the order of command execution for increased performance. Commands sent to a NCQ-capable SATA device are placed in an internal queue where they can be dynamically and intelligently re-ordered and tracked.

Hot-plugging is the ability to insert a SATA device into a running system and have the operating system recognize the device. AHCI is required for eSATA hot-plug functionality. Refer to the “Using eSATA on HP Compaq Business PCs” white paper for more information about eSATA hot-plugging.

BIOS / Software / Hardware Considerations

BIOS Interface

SATA Emulation Mode

SATA emulation mode can be set in F10 Setup by selecting Storage > Storage Options > SATA Emulation. SATA emulation mode is set to AHCI by default. This is a change from previous HP Compaq dc7xxx Business PCs, which had a default SATA emulation mode of IDE (legacy).

RAID SATA emulation mode includes AHCI functionality. Customers purchasing a RAID system do not need to make any changes in F10 Setup.

BIOS Support for _GTF in ACPI Mode

The system BIOS supports the Get Task File (_GTF) ACPI control method while in AHCI mode. However, a Registry key is required to enable the port(s). See the GTF Support section for more information.

Software Drivers

AHCI Driver

In addition to setting the SATA emulation mode of AHCI or RAID in F10 Setup (See BIOS Interface section for more information), an AHCI driver is required for AHCI support.

The Windows Vista™ or Windows 7 image that ships with the HP Elite 8000-series Business PC has the Intel AHCI driver (iastor.sys) pre-loaded. The system can be freely switched between IDE to AHCI.

NOTE: In order to reuse a hard drive from a RAID configuration in AHCI mode, it is necessary to remove RAID metadata from the drive. This can be accomplished using low level system format or Option ROM interface.

For customers who do not use the pre-installed HP image, there are several scenarios for using AHCI:

New operating system installation

A fresh installation of Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, while in AHCI mode, is the most straightforward way of installing the AHCI driver.

Windows XP requires adding the Intel AHCI driver with the F6 option during installation. Windows Vista and Windows 7 have native AHCI support, so either the native AHCI driver will be used or the Intel AHCI driver can be added.

An existing Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 image using the native AHCI driver can be updated to use the Intel AHCI driver (iastor.sys). The driver can be downloaded from www.hp.com.

5

Enhancing existing Vista or Windows 7 images from IDE mode or native AHCI mode

Vista and Windows 7 have a native AHCI driver. If Vista or Windows 7 was installed while in IDE mode, a registry change will allow users to gracefully switch to AHCI mode using the Microsoft driver. See the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976/en-us .

Corporate IT may be able to update an existing Vista or Window 7 image that was created in IDE mode to use the Intel AHCI driver. The process requires inserting the Intel AHCI drivers into the image in a pre-installation environment using the appropriate OS Tools.

Required software to insert the Intel AHCI driver:

•Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) CD

•Windows OPK (OEM Preinstallation Kit) CD

•PKGMGR.EXE (Package Manager)

The OPK CD is not available for general download. It must be obtained through a Microsoft authorized distributor. PKGMGR.EXE is a tool that installs, uninstalls, configures, and updates features and packages for Vista and Windows 7.

For more information and instructions on OPK or PKGMGR.EXE, go to http://www.hp.com.

The process is as follows:

1.Boot into WinPE.

2.Run PKGMGR.EXE from OPK A sample command line is:

pkgmgr.exe /o:"C:\;C:\Windows" /n:"C:\AddAHCI\HP-AHCI.xml"

Where C:\AddAHCI\HP-AHCI.xml contains:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>

<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3" xmlns:wcm="http:// schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State">

<settings pass="offlineServicing">

<component name="Microsoft-Windows-PnpCustomizationsNonWinPE" processorArchitecture="x86"

publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS">

<DriverPaths>

<PathAndCredentials wcm:keyValue="1"> <Path>C:\AddAHCI</Path>

</PathAndCredentials>

</DriverPaths>

</component>

</settings>

</unattend>

3.Reboot the computer.

4.Enter F10 Setup and change SATA Emulation mode to AHCI.

5.Reboot the computer into the OS.

An existing Vista or Windows 7 image using the native AHCI driver can be updated to use the Intel AHCI driver (iastor.sys). The driver can be downloaded from www.hp.com.

NOTE: Be careful when moving an image to computer with a different chipset. The Device ID of the AHCI controller must match what is in the INF or the AHCI driver will fail and the computer will not boot.

6

Enhancing existing Windows XP images from IDE Mode

Corporate IT may be able to update an existing Windows XP image to be AHCI-compatible that was created in IDE mode. The process requires inserting the AHCI drivers into the image in a pre-installation environment. Once that is done, the system can be switched to AHCI mode safely.

Required software to insert the AHCI driver:

•Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) CD

•Windows OPK (OEM Preinstallation Kit) CD

•MSDINST.EXE (Mass Storage Device Installer)

The OPK CD is not available for general download. It must be obtained through a Microsoft authorized distributor. MSDINST.EXE is a tool designed to insert mass storage drivers into an offline Microsoft Windows XP image.

For more information and instructions about OPK or MSDINST.EXE go to http://www.microsoft.com.

The process to update an existing Windows XP image to be AHCI compatible is as follows:

1.Boot into WinPE.

2.Run MSDINST.EXE from OPK.

MSDINST.EXE is executed from a command line where the location for the .inf file containing the PnP ID of the RAID/AHCI SATA controller of the target system and location of the Windows directory are specified.

For example: Newmsd.inf has the PnP IDs and it is in the C:\AddAHCI directory. C:\Windows is the location of the Windows directory. The command line is:

msdinst.exe c:\AddAHCI\newmsd.inf c:\windows /force

Newmsd.inf contents:

[SysprepMassStorage]

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2822&CC_0104 = C:\Compaq\MSD\Intel\iaStor.inf PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_3A02&CC_0106 = c:\Compaq\MSD\Intel\iaahci.inf PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_3A22&CC_0106 = c:\Compaq\MSD\Intel\iaahci.inf PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_3B22&CC_0106 = c:\Compaq\MSD\Intel\iaahci.inf PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1C02&CC_0106 = c:\Compaq\MSD\Intel\iaahci.inf PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1E02&CC_0106 = c:\Compaq\MSD\Intel\iaahci.inf

…where:

Dev 2822 is the device ID for Intel(R) Desktop/Workstation/Server Express Chipset SATA Controller Dev 3A02 is the device ID for Intel(R) ICH10D/DO SATA AHCI Controller

Dev 3A22 is the device ID for Intel(R) ICH10R SATA AHCI Controller Dev 2B22 is the device ID for Intel(R) PCH SATA AHCI Controller.

Dev 1C02 is the device ID for Intel(R) Desktop/Workstation/Server Express Chipset SATA AHCI Controller. DEV 1E02 is the device ID for Intel(R) 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family SATA RAID Controller.

3.Reboot the computer.

4.Enter F10 Setup and change SATA Emulation mode to AHCI.

5.Reboot the computer into Windows XP.

_GTF Support (HP 8100 and 8200 Business PCs only)

HP Elite 8000 and 8100 Business PCs support _GTF (Get Task File) AHCI control method when in AHCI mode. The Intel AHCI driver needs a registry key to enable _GTF for each port. This registry key has been added with the Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 image that ships with HP Elite 8100 and 8200 Business PCs.

For customers using their own image, the following key is required:

HKLM\System\CCS\Services\iaStor\Parameters\Port[X]

name:GTF

value: 0=disabled 1=enabled

…where [X] represents the physical AHCI port of the connected drive to be _GTF enabled. To enable _GTF support for all ports, set this value under each port (Port0, Port1...PortN).

7

Hardware

The HP Elite 8000-series Business PCs uses Intel chipsets that support an AHCI capable Host Bus Adapter (HBA). This HBA supports ATA and ATAPI devices in both PIO and DMA modes with NCQ as long as the device supports NCQ.

All hard drives shipped with the HP Elite 8000-series Business PCs are NCQ capable.

Limitations

NCQ functionality requires both HBA and hard drive to support it. Non-NCQ capable hard drives will not see any performance benefits even though the HBA is NCQ capable.

Hot-plugging is not possible in an operating system without an AHCI driver that supports hot-plugging, such as DOS, Windows 9x, Windows NT4.0, and older versions of Linux.

Changing AHCI to IDE Mode through the HP Replicated Setup Utility

Multiple AHCI systems can be reverted back to IDE mode using the HP Replicated Setup Utility. This utility allows for system BIOS settings to be replicated and distributed throughout an enterprise. The procedures and information about how to obtain the Replicated Setup Utility are described in the HP white paper “UEFI BIOS Tools for HP Business Desktops” available at http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02932801.pdf .

Basic RAID Types

This section provides a brief explanation of the supported RAID configurations for HP Elite 8000-series Business PCs.

RAID 0 with two hard drives (Striped)

Even though HP supports RAID 0, it is not the recommended configuration for business PC users. Lack of redundancy causes less than half the reliability of a single hard drive system since the Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) of RAID 0 is equal to the MTBF of an individual drive, divided by the number of drives.

Table 3: RAID 0 with two hard drives (Striped)

First disk	Second disk
Data Segment 1	Data Segment 2
Data Segment 3	Data Segment 4
Data Segment 5	Data Segment 6
Data Segment 7	Data Segment 8
Data Segment 9	Data Segment 10
Data Segment 11	Data Segment 12
Data Segment 13	Data Segment 14
Data Segment 15	Data Segment 16

In the previous table, each “Data Segment n” represents a group of data, known as a strip. In this case, each row represents a stripe. RAID 0 represented in the table above shows how information is segmented, made into chunks or strips, and stored across the stripes of the hard drive members of this RAID volume.

To better illustrate the concept of RAID 0 and striping, Figure 1 shows how a sequence of data “ABCD...” is stored in a RAID 0 mode. In this example, each letter represents a segment or strip. The graphic shows how the various pieces of the information go to different hard drives. If any segment of RAID 0 fails, all information from all members is lost.

8

Figure 1: Performance - RAID 0 with two hard drives

At a higher reliability cost with faster performance, the HP Compaq Elite 8000-series Business PC Convertible Minitower also allows for RAID 0 with three hard drives. RAID 0 with two or three hard drives is a supported configuration.

RAID 0 with three hard drives is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Performance - RAID 0 with three hard drives

9