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MegaRAID® RAID Controller
Configuration Software Guide
MAN-MR-GENSW
7/20/00
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© Copyright 2001 LSI Logic Corporation
All rights reserved.
LSI Logic Corporation
6145-D Northbelt Parkway
Norcross, GA 30071
This publication contains proprietary information which is protected by copyright. No part of this publication can be
reproduced, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, translated into any language or computer language, or transmitted in
any form whatsoever without the prior written consent of the publisher, LSI Logic Corporation acknowledges the
following trademarks:
Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation
MS-DOS and Microsoft are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Windows and Windows NT are
trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
SCO, UnixWare, and Unix are registered trademarks of the Santa Cruz Operation. Inc.
Novell NetWare is a registered trademark of Novell Corporation.
IBM, AT, VGA, and OS/2 are registered trademarks and XT and CGA are trademarks of International Business Machines
Corporation.
.
Revision History
8/15/97 Initial release.
10/21/97 Updated MegaRAID BIOS description.
1/16/98 Merged FlexRAID and Power Console chapters.
4/8/98 Replaced Power Console with Power Console Plus.
5/12/98 Corrected an error in Chapter 4 Power Console Plus.
7/8/98 Updated screen shots in this manual.
7/24/98 Removed references to Solaris, NextStep, and Banyan drivers.
8/7/98 Added new Enclosure Management in Power Console Plus.
2/4/99 Converted to generic MegaRAID Software Guide.
5/10/99 Revised to include Series 467 MegaRAID Explorer 1500.
5/13/99 Updated Power Console Plus chapter.
8/20/99 Changed defaults (64 MB stripe size, Direct I/O, Normal Read).
7/20/00 Revised material throughout manual and added WebBIOS chapter.
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Table of Contents
1 Overview ...................................................1
In this Manual................................................................... 2
2 MegaRAID Configuration Utility.............5
Starting MegaRAID Configuration Utility....................... 5
MegaRAID Configuration Utility Menu Tree.................. 7
MegaRAID Configuration Utility Menu Tree for
Ultra 160M Cards............................................................. 8
MegaRAID Configuration On Disk .................................9
Configuration Utility Configure Menu............................. 9
Configuration Utility Initialize Menu............................. 10
Configuration Utility Objects Menu............................... 11
Configuration Utility Format Menu ............................... 14
Configuration Utility Rebuild Menu ..............................14
Configuration Utility Check Consistency Menu ............15
Configuration Utility Select Adapter Menu ................... 16
Disable BIOS Menu .......................................................16
Configuring Arrays and Logical Drives......................... 16
Choosing the Configuration Method.............................. 17
Designating Drives as Hot Spares .................................. 18
Using Easy Configuration .............................................. 19
Using New Configuration............................................... 23
Using View/Add Configuration...................................... 26
Initializing Logical Drives.............................................. 29
Using Logical Drives in the Operating System .............. 30
Formatting Physical Drives ............................................ 31
Rebuilding Failed Disk Drives ....................................... 32
Using a Pre-loaded SCSI Drive “As-is” ......................... 33
Exiting MegaRAID Configuration Utility...................... 33
3 WebBIOS Configuration Utility .............35
Starting the MegaRAID WebBIOS Utility on the Host Computer…36
WebBIOS Toolbar Icons ................................................ 38
Adapter Properties.......................................................... 39
Scan Devices ..................................................................40
SCSI Channel Properties ................................................ 40
Logical Drives ................................................................ 42
Physical Drives............................................................... 45
Configuration Wizard..................................................... 46
Adapter Selection ........................................................... 51
Physical View\Logical View.......................................... 52
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Table of Contents,
Continued
4 MegaRAID Manager ...............................55
Overview ........................................................................ 55
Starting MegaRAID Manager ........................................55
MegaRAID Manager Menu Tree ...................................57
MegaRAID Manager Configure Menu........................... 58
MegaRAID Manager Initialize Menu............................. 58
MegaRAID Manager Objects Menu............................... 59
MegaRAID Manager Format Menu ............................... 62
MegaRAID Manager Rebuild Menu.............................. 62
MegaRAID Manager Check Consistency Menu ............ 63
MegaRAID Manager Advanced Menu........................... 64
MegaRAID Manager Select Adapter Menu ................... 65
Configuring Arrays and Logical Drives......................... 65
Choosing the Configuration Method.............................. 66
Designating Drives as Hot Spares .................................. 67
Using Auto Configuration.............................................. 68
Using Easy Configuration .............................................. 69
Using New Configuration............................................... 73
Using View/Add Configuration...................................... 76
Initializing Logical Drives.............................................. 79
Using Logical Drives in the Operating System .............. 80
Formatting Physical Drives ............................................ 81
Rebuilding Failed Disk Drives ....................................... 83
Exiting MegaRAID Manager ......................................... 84
5 Installing Power Console Plus.............85
Installing on a Windows NT V4.x Server and Workstation87
Sample Power Console Plus Network Layout................ 93
Installing an LSI Logic SNMP Agent ............................94
MegaRAID Service Monitor.......................................... 95
Installing and Registering Power Console Plus Components
in a NetWare Server 4.x ................................................. 96
De-registering and Re-registering under Power Console Plus 98
6 Running Power Console Plus ...............99
User Interface Restrictions ........................................... 100
Power Console Plus Toolbox Icons.............................. 101
Power Console Plus Menus.......................................... 105
Configuration Menu ..................................................... 105
Adapter Menu............................................................... 109
Physical Drive Menu .................................................... 114
Logical Drive Menu .....................................................116
Progress Menu.............................................................. 119
Securing Power Console Plus under Windows NT ...... 120
7 Configuring Arrays and Logical Drives121
Step 1 Start Power Console Plus .................................. 121
Step 2 Choose an Adapter ............................................ 122
Step 3 Run the Wizard.................................................. 123
Step 4 Save Configuration and Initialize...................... 128
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Table of Contents,
Continued
8 Assigning Hot Spares..........................129
Global Hot Spares ........................................................ 129
Reclaiming Hot Spares While Running the Wizard..... 129
Reclaiming Hot Spares During Normal Operation....... 129
9 Virtual Sizing and Online Capacity Expansion…131
Location and Enabling.................................................. 131
Theory of Operation ..................................................... 131
MegaRAID Drive Characteristics ................................132
Deleting Logical Drives ............................................... 132
Adding Capacity under Windows NT 3.5x, 4.x and
Windows 2000.............................................................. 133
Adding Capacity under NetWare 3.12 and 4.x............. 135
A MegaRAID Service Monitor .................137
MegaRAID Service Monitor........................................ 138
Event Types.................................................................. 139
Index ................................................................151
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Preface
MegaRAID supports Ultra, Ultra2, Wide, and Ultra160M SCSI channels with data
transfer rates up to 160 MB/s. This manual describes the software that is shipped with the
MegaRAID.
Limited Warranty
Limitations of Liability
The buyer agrees if this product proves to be defective, that LSI Logic Corporation is obligated only
to repair or replace this product at LSI Logic Corporation’s discretion according to the terms and
conditions of the warranty registration card that accompanies this product. LSI Logic Corporation
shall not be liable in tort or contract for any loss or damage, direct, incidental or consequential
resulting from the use of this product. Please see the Warranty Registration Card shipped with this
product for full warranty details.
kind whatsoever, whether direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential (whether arising from the
design or use of this product or the support materials provided with the product). No action or
proceeding against LSI Logic Corporation may be commenced more than two years after the
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Logic Corporation from any and all claims, suits, and liabilities (including attorney’s fees) arising
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provided by LSI Logic Corporation to Licensee.
Technical Support
from
You purchased this product from LSI Logic or
from a certified LSI Logic reseller,
This LSI Logic product was installed as part
of a system manufactured by a company other
than LSI Logic or you purchased an LSI
Logic product from an unauthorized reseller,
LSI Logic Corporation shall in no event be held liable for any loss, expenses, or damages of any
LSI Logic
provides technical support for
LSI Logic
or from an
If… then…
LSI Logic
Call LSI Logic Technical Support at 678-728-
1250. Please be prepared to specify the serial
number of the product.
Call the technical support department of the
computer manufacturer or the unauthorized
reseller. LSI Logic does not provide direct
technical support in this case.
LSI Logic
products purchased directly
-authorized reseller only.
Web Site
We invite you to access our web site at:
http://www.lsillogic.com.
Cont’d
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Preface,
Continued
Disclaimer
This manual describes the operation of the LSI Logic Corporation MegaRAID Disk
Array Controller. Although efforts have been made to assure the accuracy of the
information contained here, LSI Logic Corporation expressly disclaims liability for any
error in this information, and for damages, whether direct, indirect, special, exemplary,
consequential or otherwise, that may result from such error, including but not limited to
the loss of profits resulting from the use or misuse of the manual or information
contained therein (even if LSI Logic Corporation has been advised of the possibility of
such damages). Any questions or comments regarding this document or its contents
should be addressed to LSI Logic Corporation from the address shown on the cover.
LSI Logic Corporation provides this publication “as is” without warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of
merchantability or fitness for a specific purpose.
Some states do not allow disclaimer of express or implied warranties or the limitation or
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may have other rights which vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
This publication could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes
are periodically made to the information herein; these changes will be incorporated in
new editions of the publication. LSI Logic Corporation may make improvements and/or
revisions in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in this publication at any time.
Requests for technical information about LSI Logic Corporation products should be made
to your LSI Logic Corporation authorized reseller or marketing representative.
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1Overview
The basic MegaRAID documentation is contained in three manuals:
• the MegaRAID Hardware Guide for your MegaRAID board
• the MegaRAID Operating System Drivers Guide
• the MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide This manual provides information about MegaRAID
software utility programs. You will not need this manual until after you have
planned your RAID system and have installed the MegaRAID controller.
RAID system planning, installation, and configuration information is provided
in the MegaRAID hardware guide for your MegaRAID board. Read the
MegaRAID hardware guide before you read the MegaRAID Configuration
Software Guide.
MegaRAID Hardware Guide Each MegaRAID board has a MegaRAID hardware guide that
contains information about installing the MegaRAID controller. It also contains
general introductory information about RAID and RAID system planning and
configuration information.
You must read the MegaRAID Hardware Guide before you read the MegaRAID
Configuration Software Guide.
MegaRAID Operating System Drivers Guide This manual provides all the information you will
need to install the appropriate operating system software drivers.
Read this manual after you have installed the MegaRAID card, planned the
RAID system, and configured the system using the MegaRAID software
configuration utilities described in the MegaRAID Configuration Software
Guide
Chapter 1 Overview
1
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In this Manual
This manual is organized as follows:
Chapter Title Turn to
1 Overview page 1
2 MegaRAID BIOS Configuration Utility page 5
3 WebBIOS Configuration Utility page 35
4 MegaRAID Manager page 55
5 Installing Power Console Plus page 85
6 Running Power Console Plus page 99
7 Configuring Arrays and Logical Drives page 121
8 Assigning Hot Spares page 129
9 Virtual Sizing and Online Capacity Expansion page 131
Note:
Some of the features and procedures in this manual apply only to
boards that support Ultra 160M, and 40 logical drives. This will be
noted in the description of the feature or procedure. The Ultra 160M
boards are:
Enterprise 1600 (Series 471)
•
Elite 1600 (Series 493)
•
Express 500 (Series 475)
•
MegaRAID BIOS Configuration Utility
character-based utility than you can run by pressing <Ctrl> <M> when the
computer boots. Use MegaRAID BIOS Configuration Utility to:
• create hotspare drives
• configure physical arrays and logical drives
• initialize one or more logical drives
• individually access controllers, logical drives, and, physical drives
• low-level format hard disk drives
• rebuild failed disk drives
• verify that the redundancy data in logical drives using RAID level 1, 3, or 5
is correct
• select a MegaRAID host adapter to work on
The MegaRAID BIOS Configuration utility is a
Cont’d
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
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In This Manual,
Continued
WebBIOS Configuration Utility
utility that you can run by pressing <Ctrl><H> when the computer boots. Use
WebBIOS Configuration Utility to perform the same functions as the BIOS
Configuration Utility described above.
MegaRAID Manager
MegaRAID Manager is a character-based utility that you can run at any
time. Use MegaRAID Manager to:
• choose a configuration method
• designate drives as hot spares
• create physical arrays
• define logical drives
• initialize logical drives
• use logical drives in your operating system
• rebuild failed disk drives
Power Console Plus
Power Console Plus provides on the fly RAID migration, creating almost
limitless adaptability and expansion of any logical drive while the system
remains operational.
Power Console Plus is an object-oriented GUI utility that configures and
monitors RAID systems locally or over a network with several servers. Power
Console Plus can be executed from any workstation. Power Console Plus allows
you to control and monitor the status of hard disk drives, tape drives, and CDROM drives. Power Console Plus runs under Microsoft Windows NT. Use
Power Console Plus to: choose a configuration method, designate drives as hot
spares, create physical arrays, define and initialize logical drives, and rebuild
failed disk drives.
MegaRAID WebBIOS Configuration Utility is an HTML
Cont’d
Chapter 1 Overview
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In This Manual,
Continued
Power Console Plus, cont’d
• add drives to any OPTIMAL RAID logical drive
• convert from RAID 0 or 1 to RAID 1, 3, or 5 by adding a physical drive
• restripe logical drives
• change from a DEGRADED redundant logical drive to an OPTIMAL
RAID 0 logical drive
• convert a RAID 5 logical drive to a RAID 3 logical drive
• convert a RAID 3 logical drive to a RAID 5 logical drive
• remove any physical drive from a logical drive
• change a RAID 1, 3, or 5 logical drive to a RAID 0 logical drive
Operating System Drivers
The MegaRAID PCI SCSI Disk Array RAID Controller is installed in
any IBM AT®-compatible computer with a PCI local bus. MegaRAID can
operate under MS-DOS® or any DOS-compatible operating system using the
standard AT BIOS INT 13h Hard Disk Drive interface.
To operate with other operating systems, you must install software drivers.
MegaRAID provides software drivers for most common operating systems.
Read the MegaRAID Operating System Drivers Guide for complete information
about all MegaRAID operating system drivers.
Power Console Plus can:
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
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2 MegaRAID BIOS Configuration
Utility
The MegaRAID BIOS Configuration Utility configures disk arrays and logical
drives. Because the utility resides in the MegaRAID BIOS, its operation is
independent of the operating systems on your computer.
In This Chapter
The topics discussed in this chapter include:
starting Configuration Utility
•
MegaRAID Configuration Utility menus
•
choosing a configuration method
•
designating drives as hot spares
•
creating physical arrays
•
defining logical drives
•
initializing logical drives
•
using logical drives in your operating system
•
rebuilding failed disk drives
•
using a pre-loaded SCSI drive as-is
•
Starting MegaRAID Configuration Utility
When the host computer boots, hold the <Ctrl> key and press the <M >key
when the following appears:
Host Adapter-1 Firmware Version x.xx DRAM Size 4 MB
0 Logical Drives found on the Host Adapter
0 Logical Drives handled by BIOS
Press <Ctrl><M> to run MegaRAID BIOS Configuration Utility
For each MegaRAID adapter in the host system, the firmware version, DRAM
size, and the status of logical drives on that adapter is displayed. If you do not
press <Ctrl> <M> within a few seconds of the prompt, the computer continues
the normal boot procedure.
Important
MegaRAID supports one to four SCSI channels, but many of the
screens in this manual show three SCSI channels. The utilities
described in this manual also work with other MegaRAID
models that support one, two, three or four channels.
Chapter 2 MegaRAID Configuration Utility
Cont’d
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Starting MegaRAID Configuration Utility,
When you press <Ctrl> <M>, the following appears:
Continued
Configuration Utility Menu Options
Option Description
Configure Choose this option to configure physical arrays and logical drives.
Initialize Choose this option to initialize one or more logical drives.
Objects Choose this option to individually access controllers, logical drives,
and physical drives.
Format Choose this option to low-level format hard disk drives.
Rebuild Choose this option to rebuild failed disk drives.
Check
Consistency
Select
Adapter
Choose this option to verify that the redundancy data in logical
drives using RAID level 1, 3, or 5 is correct.
Choose this option to select a MegaRAID host adapter to work on.
This menu item appears only if more than one MegaRAID host
adapter is installed in the computer.
The Configuration Utility menu options:
If Using MegaRAID Configuration Utility
To... Use this menu turn to...
configure arrays and logical drives Configure page 16
initialize logical drives Initialize page 29
format a disk drive Format page 31
rebuild a disk drive Rebuild page 32
use a pre-loaded SCSI drive as-is Configure page 33
For information about other functions, see the following menu tree and menu
descriptions.
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
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MegaRAID Configuration Utility Menu Tree
The following is an expansion of the menus in the MegaRAID Configuration
Utility.
The menu items are explained on the following pages.
Chapter 2 MegaRAID Configuration Utility
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MegaRAID Configuration Utility Menu Tree for Ultra 160M Cards
The following is an expansion of the menus in the MegaRAID Configuration
Utility for boards that support Ultra 160M, and 40 logical drives: Enterprise
1600, Elite 1600, and Express 500.
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
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MegaRAID Configuration On Disk
MegaRAID supports Configuration on Disk (drive roaming). Configuration on
Disk saves configuration information both in the MegaRAID NVRAM and on
the disk drives attached to MegaRAID. If MegaRAID is replaced, the new
MegaRAID controller can detect the RAID configuration, maintaining the
integrity of the data on each drive even if the drives have changed channel
and/or target ID.
Note:
It is important that the new controller have no configuration. Make sure that
NVRAM Configuration is cleared before you install SCSI cables.
Adding Configuration on Disk Support
Step Action
1 Press <Ctrl> <M> at the MegaRAID POST screen to run the MegaRAID
Configuration Utility.
2 Select the Configure Menu. Select View/Add Configuration. Select Disk
when asked to use Disk or NVRAM and select Save.
3 Press <Esc> to exit MegaRAID Configuration Utility.
4 Reboot the computer.
Note:
It is important that the new controller have no configuration. Make sure that
NVRAM Configuration is cleared before you install SCSI cables.
Perform the following steps:
Chapter 2 MegaRAID Configuration Utility
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Configuration Utility Configure Menu
Configure
Choose the Configure option to select a method for configuring arrays and
logical drives.
Option Description
Easy Configuration Select this method to perform a basic logical drive
configuration where every physical array you define is
automatically associated with exactly one logical drive.
See page 17 for additional information.
New Configuration Select this method to discard the existing configuration
information and to configure new arrays and logical
drives. In addition to providing the basic logical drive
configuration functions, New Configuration allows you
to associate logical drives with multiple or partial arrays.
See page 17 for additional information.
View/Add
Configuration
Clear Configuration Select this option to erase the current configuration
Select this method to examine the existing configuration
and/or to specify additional arrays and logical drives.
View/Add Configuration provides the same functions
available in New Configuration. See page 17 for
additional information.
information from the MegaRAID controller non-volatile
memory.
Configuration Utility Initialize Menu
Initialize
Choose this option from the Configuration Utility main menu to initialize one or
more logical drives. This action typically follows the configuration of a new
logical drive. See page 29 for additional information.
Warning
Initializing a logical drive destroys all data on the logical drive.
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
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Configuration Utility Objects Menu
Objects
Adapter
Choose the Objects option from the Configuration Utility main menu to access
the controllers, logical drives, physical drives, and SCSI channels individually.
You can also change settings for each object. The Objects menu options are as
follows. Battery Backup appears shown on some Objects menus but you cannot
select this option because MegaRAID does not support this feature.
Choose Adapter from the Objects menu to select a controller (if the computer
has more than one) and to modify parameters. You can install only one
MegaRAID controller, but you can also install other controllers. The menu
options are:
Clear Configuration
•
FlexRAID PowerFail
•
Disk Spin up Timings
•
Chip Set Type
•
Cache Flush Timings
•
Rebuild Rate
•
Alarm Control
•
Factory Defaults
•
Auto Rebuild
•
The Objects/Adapter menu options are:
Option Description
Clear Configuration Choose this option to erase the current configuration from
the controller non-volatile memory.
FlexRAID
PowerFail
Disk Spin up
Timings
Chip Set Type Select the type of chipset used in the motherboard in the
Cache Flush
Timings
Rebuild Rate Choose this option to display and change the rebuild rate for
Alarm Control Choose this option to enable, disable, or silence the onboard
Factory Defaults Choose this option to load the default MegaRAID
Auto Rebuild Choose this option to automatically rebuild drives when
Choose this option to enable the FlexRAID PowerFail
feature. Choose this option to allow drive reconstruction to
continue when the system restarts if a power failure occurs.
Choose this option to set the method and timing for spinning
up the hard disk drives in the computer.
host computer.
Choose this option to set the cache flush interval to once
every 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10 seconds.
drives attached to the selected adapter.
alarm tone generator.
Configuration Utility settings.
they fail.
Cont’d
Chapter 2 MegaRAID Configuration Utility
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Configuration Utility Objects Menu,
Continued
Logical Drive
Logical Drive
View/Update
Choose this option from the Configuration Utility Objects menu to select a
logical drive and to perform the listed actions.
Description
Option
Initialize Initializes the selected logical drive. Do this for every logical
drive that is configured.
Check
Consistency
Parameters
Verifies the correctness of the redundancy data in the selected
logical drive. This option is available only if RAID level 1, 3, or 5
is used. MegaRAID automatically corrects any differences found
in the data.
Displays the properties of the selected logical drive. You can
modify the cache write policy, read policy, and the I/O policy and
can enable Virtual Sizing from this menu.
Cont’d
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
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Configuration Utility Objects Menu,
Continued
Physical Drive
Choose this option from the Configuration Utility Objects menu to select a
physical device and to perform the operations listed in the table below. The
physical hard disk drives in the computer are listed. Move the cursor to the
desired device and press <Enter> to display the following:
Physical Drive
Options
Rebuild Rebuild the selected physical drive.
Format Choose this option to low-level format the selected disk
drive.
Make Online Choose this option to change the state of the selected disk
drive to Online.
Fail Drive Choose this option to change the state of the selected disk
drive to Fail.
Make HotSpare Choose this option to designate the selected disk drive as a
hot spare.
View Drive
Information
Synchronous
Negotiation
SCSI Command
Tagging
Choose this option to display the drive properties for the
selected physical device.
Choose this option to enable or disable synchronous
negotiation for the selected physical device. The default is
Enabled.
Choose this option to set the number of queue tags per
command to Disabled, 2, 3, 4, or Enhanced. The default
setting is Enhanced.
Configuration Utility Objects Menu,
Description
Continued
SCSI Channel
SCSI Transfer Rate The SCSI transfer rates are:
Choose this option from the Configuration Utility Objects menu to select a SCSI
channel on the currently selected controller. You can perform the following
operations on the selected channel.
Channel Options Description
Termination State When set to Enabled, the MegaRAID controller is
terminated. When set to Disabled, it is not. Normally, you
will not need to change this setting. MegaRAID
automatically sets this option.
Fast up to 20 MB/s
Ultra up to 40 MB/s
Ultra-2 up to 80 MB/s
Ultra160M up to 160 MB/s
Normally, you will not have to change this option.
MegaRAID automatically uses the fastest possible data
transfer rate based on the attached SCSI devices.
Enable Auto
Termination
Chapter 2 MegaRAID Configuration Utility
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Configuration Utility Format Menu
Format
Formatting
Choose the Format option from the Configuration Utility main menu to lowlevel format one or more physical drives.
Warning
Formatting a hard drive destroys all data on the drive.
See page 31 for additional information.
Since most SCSI disk drives are low-level formatted at the factory, this step is
usually not necessary. You must format a disk only if:
• the disk drive was not low-level formatted at the factory, or
• an excessive number of media errors have been detected on the disk drive.
You do not have to choose Format to erase existing information on your SCSI
disks, such as a system partition. That information is erased when you initialize
the logical drive(s).
Configuration Utility Rebuild Menu
Rebuild
Choose the Rebuild option from the Configuration Utility main menu to rebuild
one or more failed disk drives. See page 32 for additional information.
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
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Configuration Utility Check Consistency Menu
Check Consistency
RAID levels 1, 3, or 5.
When you choose Check Consistency, the parameters of the existing logical
drives on the current controller and a selection menu listing the logical drives by
number appear. If a discrepancy is found, it is automatically corrected, assuming
always that the data is correct. However, if the failure is a read error on a data
drive, the bad data block is reassigned with the generated data.
Press the arrow keys to choose the desired logical drives. Press the spacebar to
select or deselect a drive for consistency checking. Press <F2> to select or
deselect all the logical drives.
Choose this option to verify the redundancy data in logical drives that use
Press <F10> to begin the consistency check. A progress indicator for each
selected logical drive is displayed.
When the consistency check is finished, press any key to clear the progress
display and press <Esc> to display the main menu.
Chapter 2 MegaRAID Configuration Utility
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Configuration Utility Select Adapter Menu
This menu item appears only if more than one MegaRAID host adapter is
installed in the computer. You can install only one MegaRAID controller, but
you can install other MegaRAID controllers in the computer. The following
appears when you choose the Select Adapter option:
Sel. Adapter
Adapter-1
Adapter-2
Adapter-3
Select the MegaRAID adapter that you want to configure from this menu.
Disable BIOS Menu
Choose this option to disable the BIOS.
Configuring Arrays and Logical Drives
You can configure physical arrays and logical drives with MegaRAID
Configuration Utility using:
• Easy Configuration,
• New Configuration, or
• View/Add Configuration.
Each configuration method requires a different level of user input. The general
flow of operations for array and logical drive configuration is:
Step Action
1 Choose a configuration method.
2 Designate hot spares (optional).
3 Create arrays using the available physical drives.
4 Define logical drive(s) using the space in the arrays.
5 Save the configuration information.
6 Initialize the new logical drives.
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
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Choosing the Configuration Method
Easy Configuration
exactly one logical drive, and you can modify the following parameters:
• RAID level
• stripe size
• cache write policy
• read policy
• I/O policy
If logical drives have already been configured when you select Easy
Configuration, the configuration information is not disturbed. See page 19 for
instructions on Easy Configuration.
New Configuration
• RAID level
• stripe size
• cache write policy
• read policy
• I/O policy
• logical drive size
• spanning of arrays
If you select New Configuration, the existing configuration information on the
selected controller is destroyed when the new configuration is saved. See page
23 for instructions on New Configuration.
In Easy Configuration, each physical array you create is associated with
In New Configuration, you can select the following logical drive parameters:
View/Add Configuration
View/Add Configuration allows you to control the same logical drive
parameters as New Configuration without disturbing the existing configuration
information. You can also choose to enable the Configuration on Disk feature.
See page 26 for additional information.
Reserved Disk Space during Configuration
disk drive is being configured.
Up to 32 KB of disk space is reserved when a hard
Chapter 2 MegaRAID Configuration Utility
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Designating Drives as Hot Spares
Hot Spares
Press <F4>
When you choose any configuration option, a list of all physical devices
Objects Menu
Hot spares are physical drives that are powered up along with the RAID drives
and usually stay in a standby state. If a disk drive used in a RAID logical drive
fails, a hot spare will automatically take its place and the data on the failed drive
is reconstructed on the hot spare. Hot spares can be used for RAID levels 1, 3 5,
10, 30, and 50. Each MegaRAID controller supports up to eight hot spares.
The methods for designating physical drives as hot spares are:
• press <F4> while creating arrays in Easy, New or View/Add Configuration
mode, or
• From the Objects/Physical Drive menu, select a physical drive and press
<Enter>. Select Make HotSpare.
connected to the current controller appears, as shown below:
Press the arrow keys to choose a disk drive that has a READY indicator and
press <F4> to designate the drive as a hot spare. The indicator will change to
HOTSP.
Select Objects from the Management menu, then select Physical Drive. A
physical drive selection screen will appear. Select a disk drive and press <Enter>
to display the action menu for the drive.
Press the arrow keys to select Make HotSpare and press <Enter>. The indicator
for the selected drive changes to HOTSP.
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Using Easy Configuration
In Easy Configuration, each array is associated with exactly one logical drive.
Follow the steps below to create arrays using Easy Configuration. The following
graphics often show 2 or 3 SCSI channels. MegaRAID Explorer supports up to 4
SCSI channels.
Step Action
1 Choose Configure from the MegaRAID Configuration Utility main menu.
2 Choose Easy Configuration from the Configure menu. The array selection menu appears:
Hot key information is displayed at the bottom of the screen. The hot key functions are:
<F2> Display the manufacturer data and error count for the selected
drive.
<F3> Display the logical drives that have been configured.
<F4> Designate the selected drive as a hot spare.
3 Press the arrow keys to choose specific physical drives. Press the spacebar to associate
the selected physical drive with the current array. The indicator for the selected drive
changes from READY to ONLIN A[array number]-[drive number]. For example,
ONLIN A2-3 means disk drive 3 in array 2.
Add physical drives to the current array as desired. Try to use drives of the same capacity
in a specific array. If you use drives with different capacities in an array, all drives in the
array are treated as if they have the capacity of the smallest drive in the array.
The number of physical drives in a specific array determines the RAID levels that can be
implemented with the array.
RAID 0 requires one or more physical drives.
RAID 1 requires exactly two physical drives.
RAID 3 requires at least three physical drives.
RAID 5 requires at least three physical drives.
Chapter 2 MegaRAID Configuration Utility
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Using Easy Configuration,
Step Action
4 Press <Enter> when you are finished creating the current array. The logical drive
configuration screen appears.
The window from the top of the screen shows the logical drive that is currently being
configured as well as any existing logical drives. The column headings are:
LD The logical drive number
RAID The RAID level
Size The logical drive size
#Stripes The number of stripes (physical drives) in the associated physical
array
StrpSz The stripe size
DriveState The state of the logical drive
5 Set the RAID level for the logical drive. Highlight RAID and press <Enter>. The available
RAID levels for the current logical drive are displayed. Select a RAID level and press
<Enter> to confirm. See the MegaRAID Hardware Guide for your board for an
explanation of the RAID levels.
Continued
Cont’d
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
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Using Easy Configuration,
Step Action
6 Set the stripe size, cache write policy, Read policy, and I/O (cache) policy from the
Advanced Menu.
Continued
Stripe size
RAID 1, 3, 5, 10, 30, or 50 logical drive. You can set the stripe size to 2 KB, 4 KB, 8 KB,
16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB. A larger stripe size produces better read performance,
especially if your computer does mostly sequential reads. If you are sure that your
computer does random read requests more often, choose a small stripe size. The default is
64 KB.
Write Policy
In Write-back caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host
when the controller cache has received all the data in a transaction.
In Write-through caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host
when the disk subsystem has received all the data in a transaction. This is the default
setting.
Write-through caching has a data security advantage over write-back caching. Write-back
caching has a performance advantage over write-through caching. You should not use
write-back for any logical drive that is to be used as a Novell NetWare volume.
Read-ahead
Normal specifies that the controller does not use read-ahead for the current logical drive.
This is the default setting.
Read-ahead specifies that the controller uses read-ahead for the current logical drive.
Adaptive specifies that the controller begins using read-ahead if the two most recent disk
accesses occurred in sequential sectors. If all read requests are random, the algorithm
reverts to Normal; however, all requests are still evaluated for possible sequential
operation.
Cache Policy
the Read ahead cache.
Cached I/O specifies that all reads are buffered in cache memory.
Direct I/O specifies that reads are not buffered in cache memory. Direct I/O does not
override the cache policy settings. Data is transferred to cache and the host concurrently.
If the same data block is read again, it comes from cache memory. This is the default
setting.
Press <Esc> to exit the Advanced Menu.
This parameter specifies the size of the segments written to each disk in a
This option sets the caching method to write-back or write-through.
This option enables the SCSI read-ahead feature for the logical drive. You
can set this parameter to Normal, Read-ahead, or Adaptive.
This parameter applies to reads on a specific logical drive. It does not affect
Chapter 2 MegaRAID Configuration Utility
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Using Easy Configuration,
Step Action
7 When you have defined the current logical drive, choose Accept and press <Enter>. The
array selection screen appears if any unconfigured disk drives remain.
8 Repeat steps 3 through 7 to configure another array and logical drive. MegaRAID supports
up to 40 logical drives per controller. If you are finished configuring logical drives, press
<Esc> to exit Easy Configuration. A list of the currently configured logical drives appears:
After you respond to the Save prompt, the Configure menu appears.
9 Initialize the logical drives you have just configured. See Initializing Logical Drives on
page 29.
Continued
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
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Using New Configuration
The New Configuration option allows you to associate logical drives with partial
and/or multiple physical arrays (the latter is called spanning of arrays).
Erases Configuration
Choosing the New Configuration option erases the existing configuration
information on the selected controller.
To use the spanning feature and keep the existing configuration, use View/Add
Configuration (see page 26).
Step Action
1 Choose Configure from the MegaRAID Configuration Utility main menu.
2 Choose New Configuration from the Configure menu. An array selection window is
displayed showing the devices connected to the current controller.
Hot key information appears at the bottom of the screen. The hot key functions are:
<F2> Display the manufacturer data and MegaRAID error count for the selected
drive.
<F3> Display the logical drives that have been configured.
<F4> Designate the selected drive as a hot spare.
<F10> Display the logical drive configuration screen.
3 Press the arrow keys to choose specific physical drives. Press the spacebar to associate
the selected physical drive with the current array. The indicator for the selected drive
changes from READY to ONLIN A[array number]-[drive number]. For example,
ONLIN A2-3 means disk drive 3 in array 2.
Add physical drives to the current array as desired. Try to use drives of the same
capacity in a specific array. If you use drives with different capacities in an array, all the
drives in the array are treated as though they have the capacity of the smallest drive in
the array.
The number of physical drives in a specific array determines the RAID levels that can be
implemented with the array.
RAID 0 requires one or more physical drives per array.
RAID 1 requires 2 physical drives per array.
RAID 3 requires at least three physical drives per array.
RAID 5 requires at least three physical drives per array.
4 Press <Enter> when you are finished creating the current array. To continue defining
arrays, repeat step 3. To begin logical drive configuration, go to step 5.
Chapter 2 MegaRAID Configuration Utility
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Using New Configuration,
Step Action
5 Press <F10> to configure logical drives. The logical drive configuration screen appears, as
shown below:
The window from the top of the screen shows the logical drive that is currently being
configured as well as any existing logical drives. The column headings are:
LD The logical drive number
RAID The RAID level
Size The logical drive size
#Stripes The number of stripes (physical drives) in the associated physical
StrpSz The stripe size
Drive-State The state of the logical drive
6 Set the RAID level for the logical drive. Highlight RAID and press <Enter>. A list of the
available RAID levels for the current logical drive appears. Select a RAID level and press
<Enter> to confirm. See the MegaRAID Hardware Guide for your board for an
explanation of the RAID levels.
7 Set the spanning mode for the current logical drive. Highlight Span and press <Enter>.
The choices are:
CanSpan Array spanning is enabled for the current logical drive. The logical drive can
occupy space in more than one array.
NoSpan Array spanning is disabled for the current logical drive. The logical drive can
occupy space in only one array.
For two arrays to be spannable, they must have the same stripe width (they must contain
the same number of physical drives) and must be consecutively numbered. For example,
assuming Array 2 contains four disk drives, it can be spanned only with Array 1 and/or
Array 3, and only if Arrays 1 and 3 also contain four disk drives. If the two criteria for
spanning are met, MegaRAID automatically allows spanning. If the criteria are not met,
the Span setting makes no difference for the current logical drive. Highlight a spanning
option and press <Enter>.
8 Set the logical drive size. Move the cursor to Size and press <Enter>. By default, the
logical drive size is set to all available space in the array(s) being associated with the
current logical drive, accounting for the Span setting and for partially used array space.
For example, if the previous logical drive used only a part of the space in an array, the
current logical drive size is set to the remaining space by default.
array
Continued
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
24
Cont’d
Page 33
Using New Configuration,
Step Action
9 Open the Advanced menu to set the remaining options.
Continued
Stripe size
Write Policy
In Write-back caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host
when the controller cache has received all the data in a transaction.
In Write-through caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the
host when the disk subsystem has received all the data in a transaction. This is the default
setting.
Write-through caching has a data security advantage over write-back caching, whereas
write-back caching has a performance advantage over write-through caching. You should
not use write-back for any logical drive that is to be used as a Novell NetWare volume.
Read-ahead
Normal specifies that the controller does not use read-ahead for the current logical drive.
This is the default setting.
Read-ahead specifies that the controller uses read-ahead for the current logical drive.
Adaptive specifies that the controller begins using read-ahead if the two most recent disk
accesses occurred in sequential sectors. If all read requests are random, the algorithm
reverts to Normal, however, all requests are still evaluated for possible sequential
operation.
Cache Policy
Cached I/O specifies that all reads are buffered in cache memory.
Direct I/O specifies that reads are not buffered in cache memory. This is the default
setting.
Direct I/O does not override the cache policy settings. Data is transferred to cache and the
host concurrently. If the same data block is read again, it comes from cache memory.
Press <Esc> to exit the Advanced Menu.
This parameter specifies the size of the segments written to each disk in a
RAID 1, 3, 5, 10, 30 or 50 logical drive. You can set the stripe size to 2 KB, 4
KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB. A larger stripe size produces
higher read performance, especially if your computer does mostly sequential
reads. However, if you are sure that your computer does random read requests
more often, select a small stripe size. The default stripe size is 64 MB.
This option sets the caching method to write-back or write-through.
This option enables the SCSI read-ahead feature for the logical drive. You
can set this parameter to Normal, Read-ahead, or Adaptive.
This parameter applies to reads on a specific logical drive. It does not affect
the Read ahead cache.
10 After you define the current logical drive, choose Accept and press <Enter>. If space
remains in the arrays, the next logical drive to be configured appears. Repeat steps 6 to 9
to configure another logical drive. If the array space has been used, a list of the existing
logical drives appears. Press any key to continue and respond to the Save prompt.
11 Initialize the logical drives you have just configured. See Initializing Logical Drives on
page 29.
Chapter 2 MegaRAID Configuration Utility
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Using View/Add Configuration
View/Add Configuration allows you to associate logical drives with partial
and/or multiple physical arrays (this is called spanning of arrays). The existing
configuration is left intact, so you can also use View/Add Configuration simply
to look at the current configuration.
Step Action
1 Choose Configure from the MegaRAID Configuration Utility main menu.
2 Choose View/Add Configuration from the Configure menu. An array selection window is
displayed showing the devices connected to the current controller.
Hot key information appears at the bottom of the screen. The hot key functions are:
<F2> Display the manufacturer data and MegaRAID error count for the selected
drive.
<F3> Display the logical drives that have been configured.
<F4> Designate the selected drive as a hot spare.
<F10> Display the logical drive configuration screen.
3 Press the arrow keys to choose specific physical drives. Press the spacebar to associate the
selected physical drive with the current array. The indicator for the selected drive changes
from READY to ONLINA[array number]-[drive number]. For example, ONLIN A2-3
means disk drive 3 in array 2.
Add physical drives to the current array as desired. Try to use drives of the same capacity
in a specific array. If you use drives with different capacities in an array, all the drives in
the array is treated as if they have the capacity of the smallest drive in the array.
The number of physical drives in a specific array determines the RAID levels that can be
implemented with the array.
RAID 0 requires one or more physical drives per array.
RAID 1 requires 2 physical drives per array.
RAID 3 requires at least three physical drives per array.
RAID 5 requires at least three physical drives per array.
4 Press <Enter> when you are finished creating the current array. To continue defining
arrays, repeat step 3. To begin logical drive configuration, go to step 5.
Cont’d
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
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Using View/Add Configuration,
Step Action
5 Press <F10> to configure logical drives. The logical drive configuration screen appears,
as shown below:
The logical drive that is currently being configured and any existing logical drives are
displayed. The column headings are:
LD The logical drive number
RAID The RAID level
Size The logical drive size
#Stripes The number of stripes (physical drives) in the associated
physical array
StrpSz The stripe size
Drive-State The state of the logical drive
6 Set the RAID level for the logical drive. Highlight RAID and press <Enter>. The
available RAID levels for the current logical drive appear. Select a RAID level and press
<Enter> to confirm. See the MegaRAID Hardware Guide for your board for an
explanation of the RAID levels.
7 Set the spanning mode for the current logical drive. Highlight Span and press <Enter>.
The choices are:
CanSpan Array spanning is enabled for the current logical drive. The logical drive can
occupy space in more than one array.
NoSpan Array spanning is disabled for the current logical drive. The logical drive can
occupy space in only one array.
For two arrays to be spannable, they must have the same stripe width (they must contain
the same number of physical drives) and they must be consecutively numbered. For
example, assuming Array 2 contains four disk drives, it can be spanned only with Array 1
and/or Array 3, and only if Arrays 1 and 3 also contain four disk drives. If the two criteria
for spanning are met, MegaRAID automatically activates spanning. If the criteria are not
met, the Span setting makes no difference for the current logical drive. Highlight a
spanning option and press <Enter>.
Continued
Configuring RAID 10, RAID 30, or RAID 50 Logical Drives
Configure RAID 10 by spanning two contiguous RAID 1 logical drives. The RAID 1
logical drives must have the same stripe size.
Configure RAID 30 by spanning two contiguous RAID 3 logical drives. The RAID 3
logical drives must have the same stripe size.
Configure RAID 50 by spanning two contiguous RAID 5 logical drives. The RAID 5
logical drives must have the same stripe size.
Chapter 2 MegaRAID Configuration Utility
Cont’d
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Using View/Add Configuration,
Step Action
8 Set the logical drive size. Move the cursor to Size and press <Enter>. By default, the
logical drive size is set to all available space in the array(s) being associated with the
current logical drive, accounting for the Span setting and for partially used array space.
For example, if the previous logical drive used only a part of the space in an array, the
current logical drive size is set to the remaining space by default.
9 Open the Advanced menu to set the remaining options.
Continued
Stripe size
Write Policy
In Write-back caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host
when the controller cache has received all the data in a transaction.
In Write-through caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the
host when the disk subsystem has received all the data in a transaction. This is the default
setting.
Write-through caching has a data security advantage over write-back caching, whereas
write-back caching has a performance advantage over write-through caching. You should
not use write-back for any logical drive to be used as a Novell NetWare volume.
Read-ahead
Normal specifies that the controller does not use read-ahead for the current logical drive.
This is the default setting.
Read-ahead specifies that the controller uses read-ahead for the current logical drive.
Adaptive specifies that the controller begins using read-ahead if the two most recent disk
accesses occurred in sequential sectors. If all read requests are random, the algorithm
reverts to Normal, however, all requests are still evaluated for possible sequential
operation.
Cache Policy
Cached I/O specifies that all reads are buffered in cache memory.
Direct I/O specifies that reads are not buffered in cache memory. This is the default
setting.
Direct I/O does not override the cache policy settings. Data is transferred to cache and
the host concurrently. If the same data block is read again, it comes from cache memory.
Press <Esc> to exit the Advanced Menu.
This parameter specifies the size of the segment written to each disk in a
RAID 1, 3, 5, 10, 30 or 50 logical drive. You can set the stripe size to 2 KB, 4
KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB. A larger stripe size produces
higher read performance, especially if your computer does mostly sequential
reads. However, if your computer does random read requests more often,
choose a smaller stripe size. The default is 64 MB.
This parameter specifies the cache write policy. You can set the write
policy to write-back or write-through.
This parameter enables the SCSI read-ahead feature for the logical drive.
You can set this parameter to Normal, Read-ahead, or Adaptive.
This parameter applies to reads on a specific logical drive. It does not
affect the Read ahead cache.
10 After you define the current logical drive, choose Accept and press <Enter>. If space
remains in the arrays, the next logical drive to be configured appears. Repeat steps 6 to 9
to configure another logical drive. If all array space is used, a list of the existing logical
drives appears. Press any key to continue. Respond to the Save prompt.
11 Initialize the logical drives you have just configured. See Initializing Logical Drives on
page 29.
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Initializing Logical Drives
Initialize each new logical drive you configure. You can initialize the logical
drives using:
• Batch Initialization. The Initialize option in the main menu lets you
initialize up to 40 logical drives simultaneously.
• Individual Initialization. The Objects/Logical Drive action menu for an
individual logical drive has an Initialize option.
Batch Initialization
Step Action
1 Choose Initialize from the Configuration Utility main menu. A list of the current logical
drives appears, as shown below:
2 Press the arrow keys to select all drives. Press the spacebar to select the selected logical
drive for initialization. Press <F2> to select/deselect all logical drives.
3 When you are done selecting logical drives, press <F10> and choose Yes from the
confirmation prompt. The progress of the initialization for each drive is shown in bar
graph format.
To initialize logical drives using the batch initialization procedure:
4 When initialization is complete, press any key to continue.
Press <Esc> to display the main menu.
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Initializing Logical Drives,
Continued
Individual Initialization
Step Action
1 Choose the Objects option from the MegaRAID Configuration Utility main menu.
Choose the Logical Drive option from the Objects menu.
2 Select the logical drive to be initialized. The following appears:
3 Choose the Initialize option from the action menu. Initialization progress appears as a bar
graph on the screen.
4 When initialization completes, press any key to display the previous menu.
Using Logical Drives in the Operating System
For information on an operating system other than DOS, see the software
manual accompanying the drivers for that operating system. To use the logical
drive(s) in DOS:
Step Action
1 Exit MegaRAID Configuration Utility and reboot the computer.
2 Run DOS FDISK. Configure one or more partitions using the logical drives.
3 Format the partitions with the FORMAT command.
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
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Formatting Physical Drives
You can do low-level formatting of SCSI drives using Configuration Utility.
Since most SCSI disk drives are low-level formatted at the factory, this step is
usually not necessary. Usually, you must format a disk if:
• the disk drive was not low-level formatted at the factory, or
• an excessive number of media errors have been detected on the disk drive.
Media Errors
Formatting Drives
Check the View Drive Information screen for the drive to be formatted. You can
view this screen by choosing Objects from the Management menu. Select the
Physical Drives option, and choose a device. Press <F2>.
The error count is displayed at the bottom of the properties screen. If you feel
that the number of errors is excessive, you should probably format the disk
drive. If more than 32 media errors were detected, MegaRAID automatically
puts the drive in FAIL state. This occurs even in a degraded RAID set. The
errors are displayed as they occur. In cases such as this, formatting the drive can
clear up the problem.
You do not have to choose Format to erase existing information on your SCSI
disks, such as a DOS partition. That information is erased when you initialize
logical drives.
You can format the physical drives using:
• Individual Formatting. Choose the Format option from Objects on the
Physical Drive action menu for a disk physical drive.
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Rebuilding Failed Disk Drives
If a disk drive fails in an array that is configured as a RAID 1, 3, or 5 logical
drive, you can recover the lost data by rebuilding the drive.
Rebuild Types
Type Description
Automatic
Rebuild
Manual
Rebuild
The rebuild types are:
If you have configured hot spares, MegaRAID automatically tries to use them
to rebuild failed disks. Display the Objects/Physical Drive screen while a
rebuild is in progress. The drive indicator for the hot spare disk drive has
changed to REBLD A[array number]-[drive number], indicating the disk drive
being replaced by the hot spare.
Manual rebuild is necessary if no hot spares with enough capacity to rebuild the
failed drives are available. Select the MegaRAID Configuration Utility main
menu Rebuild option or the Rebuild option on the Objects/Physical Drive
menu.
Manual Rebuild – Rebuilding an Individual Drive
Step Action
1 Choose the Objects option from the MegaRAID Configuration Utility main menu. Choose
Physical Drive from the Objects menu. A device selection window is displayed showing
the devices connected to the current controller.
2 Press the arrow keys to select the physical drive to be rebuilt and press <Enter>. The
following action menu appears:
3 Choose the Rebuild option from the action menu and respond to the confirmation prompt.
Rebuilding can take some time, depending on the drive capacity.
4 When rebuild completes, press any key to display the previous menu.
Manual Rebuild –
Step Action
1 Choose Rebuild from the MegaRAID Configuration Utility main menu. A device selection
window is displayed showing the devices connected to the current controller. The failed
drives have FAIL indicators.
2 Press the arrow keys to select all drives to be rebuilt. Press the spacebar to select the
selected physical drive for rebuild.
3 After selecting the physical drives, press <F10> and select Yes at the confirmation prompt.
The indicators for the selected drives changes to REBLD. Rebuilding can take some time,
depending on the number of drives you have selected and the drive capacities.
4 When rebuild is complete, press any key to continue.
Press <Esc> to display the main menu.
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
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Batch Mode
Page 41
Using a Pre-loaded SCSI Drive “As-is”
Important
To use a pre-loaded system drive in the manner described here, you
must make it the first logical drive defined (for example: LD1) on the
controller it is connected to. This will make the drive ID 0 LUN 0.
If the drive is not a boot device, the logical drive number is not critical.
You may have a SCSI disk drive that is already loaded with software. The drive
may be a boot disk containing an operating system. You can use the MegaRAID
controller as a SCSI adapter for such a drive by performing the following steps:
Step Action
1 Connect the SCSI drive to the channel on the MegaRAID controller, with
proper termination and TID settings.
2 Boot the computer and start Configuration Utility by pressing <Ctrl>
<M>.
3 Choose Easy Configuration from the Configure menu.
4 Press the cursor keys to select the pre-loaded drive.
5 Press the spacebar. The pre-loaded drive should now become an array
element.
6 Press <Enter>. You have now declared the pre-loaded drive as a one-disk
array. Display the logical drive configuration screen.
7 Set the read policy and cache option on the Advanced menu.
8 Exit the Advanced menu. Highlight Accept and press <Enter>.
9 Press <Esc> and choose Yes at the Save prompt.
10 Exit Configuration Utility and reboot.
11 Set the host system to boot from SCSI, if such a setting is available.
Exiting MegaRAID Configuration Utility
Press <Esc> when the MegaRAID Configuration Utility management menu is
displayed to exit MegaRAID Configuration Utility. Choose Yes at the prompt.
You must then reboot the computer. The MegaRAID BIOS message appears
again. Press <Esc> when the BIOS Configuration Utility prompt appears.
Chapter 2 MegaRAID Configuration Utility
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MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
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3 WebBIOS Configuration Utility
The WebBIOS Configuration Utility is ROM-based and is available only on the
following controllers:
• Elite 1600 (Series 493)
• Enterprise 1500 (Series 467)
• Enterprise 1600 (Series 471)
• Express 300 (Series 490)
• Express 500 (Series 475)
You can use this utility in place of or in conjunction with the <Ctrl> <M> BIOS
configuration utility. It has a graphical user interface and makes full use of the
mouse.
Features
The MegaRAID WebBIOS Configuration Utility configures disk arrays and
logical drives. Because the utility resides in the MegaRAID BIOS, its operation
is independent of the operating systems on your computer. The WebBIOS utility
can be used to:
• display adapter properties
• scan devices
• display SCSI channel properties
• define logical drives
• display logical drive properties
• initialize logical drives
• check data for consistency
• configure physical arrays
• select adapters
• display the physical properties
You can use the Configuration Wizard to guide you through the steps required
for configuration of the logical drives and physical arrays.
Chapter 3 WebBIOS Configuration Utility
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Starting the WebBIOS Utility on the Host Computer
When the host computer boots, hold the <Ctrl> key and press the <H> key when
the following appears:
Copyright© AMERICAN MEGATRENDS, INC.
Press <Ctrl><M> to Run Configuration Utility
Or press <Ctrl><H> for WebBIOS
After you press <Ctrl><H>, the Adapter Selection screen displays. You can use
this screen to select the adapter that you want to configure RAID arrays and
logical drives for. Select an adapter and press the Start button to begin the
configuration. If you want to use the BIOS configuration utility instead of
WebBIOS, click on the Control-M button.
36
If there is a configuration mismatch between the disks and the NVRAM (Non-
Note:
volatile Random Access Memory) on the adapter, the Select Configuration
screen displays first. This screen is used to perform custom configuration, auto
configuration with redundancy, or auto configuration without redundancy. Auto
configuration with redundancy is recommended.
See page 46 for information about selecting a configuration, and page 53 for
information about configuration mismatches.
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
Page 45
Starting the MegaRAID WebBIOS Utility on the Host Computer
When the host computer boots, hold the <Ctrl> key and press the <H> key when
the following appears:
Copyright© AMERICAN MEGATRENDS,INC.
Press <Ctrl><M> to Run Configuration Utility
Or press <Ctrl><H> for WebBIOS
Main Screen
When you press <Ctrl> <H> on the host computer, the following displays, as
shown below. The main screen displays a menu of items that you can select to
display information and make changes to the RAID arrays on the remote server.
The screen also displays the current configuration of the physical and logical
drives. From this screen, you can configure and manage the RAID arrays on the
remote server.
Note: If there are multiple adapters, WebBIOS starts from the Adapter Selection
screen. For information about the Adapter Selection screen, see page 51.
Chapter 3 WebBIOS Configuration Utility
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WebBIOS Toolbar Icons
The following icons appear on the toolbar:
Icon Description
Go to Home Page. Click on this icon to return to the main
screen.
Go to Previous Page. Click on this icon to return to the page
you accessed immediately before the current page.
Exit RAID Configuration Utility. Click on this icon to exit
the WebBIOS program.
Adapter Selection. Click on this icon to display the adapters
that you can select.
Scan for Adapters. Click on this icon to scan for adapters
connected to your system.
Adapter Properties. Click on this icon to display the
properties of the adapter, such as the firmware version, BIOS
version, RAM size, and initiator ID.
Configure Adapter. Click on the icon to access the
Configuration Wizard so that you can configure the arrays
and logical drives.
Silence the Alarm. Click on this icon to turn off the sound on
the alarm.
Go to Ctrl-M. Click on this icon to go from the WebBIOS
Configuration Utility to the <Ctrl> <M> MegaRAID
configuration utility that resides in the MegaRAID firmware.
38
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
Page 47
Adapter Properties
The following screen appears when you select Adapter Properties from the
MegaRAID WebBIOS main screen:
The Adapter Properties menu options are:
Option Description
Firmware Version This item displays the firmware version number.
BIOS Version This item displays the BIOS version number.
RAM Size This item displays the size of the random access memory.
Initiator ID Identifying number for the MegaRAID card. You can change the Initiator ID
only when you are in cluster mode. You cannot change the ID while in
standard mode. The ID can be a number from 0 to 15. We recommend that
you use 6 or 7. When you are in standard mode, the ID is always 7.
Rebuild Rate Use this option to select the rebuild rate for drives attached to the selected
adapter.
Spinup Parameters Use this option to set the timing for spinning up the hard disk drives in the
computer. The options are Automatic, 2 per sec, 4 per sec, or 6 per sec.
Flex RAID
PowerFail
Alarm Control Choose this option to enable, disable, or silence the onboard alarm tone
Adapter BIOS Choose this option to enable or disable the BIOS on the adapter.
Cluster Mode Cluster mode allows the controller to operate as part of a cluster. You can
Battery Backup Indicates whether the battery backup is present or absent.
Auto Rebuild Enable this option to automatically rebuild drives when they fail.
Class Emulation
Mode
Set Factory
Defaults
Choose this option to enable or disable the FlexRAID PowerFail feature.
This option allows drive reconstruction to continue when the system restarts
because of a power failure.
generator.
enable or disable cluster mode. When you disable cluster mode, the system
operates in standard mode. In addition, when you enable cluster mode, the
system automatically disables the BIOS.
You can select this option to operate in I2O or mass storage mode.
Enable this option to load the default MegaRAID WebBIOS Configuration
Utility settings.
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Scan Devices
When you select the Scan Devices option, WebBIOS checks the physical and
logical drives to see if there are any changes to the drive status. It displays the
results of the scan on the main screen in the physical and logical drives section.
For example, if a physical drive has failed, the words “Not Responding” display
to the right of the drive name under the Physical Drives heading.
SCSI Channel Properties
A screen such as the following appears when you select SCSI Channel
Properties from the MegaRAID WebBIOS main screen:
Properties
40
The SCSI channel properties under the Properties heading are:
Option Description
Channel Width Displays the number of bits that can pass through the channel
at one time.
Termination Use this option to enable or disable SCSI termination.
SCSI Capabilities Use this option to select Fast, Ultra,Ultra III, or 160M as the
SCSI capability.
Cont’d
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SCSI Channel Properties,
Continued
SCSI Channels
Other Options
The SCSI Channels section of the screen lists the channels on the selected
controller, and the values for the properties.
Click on the Submit button to save changes to the options. Click on the Reset
button to undo any changes and return to the configuration that existed before
you made any changes.
The other options on this screen are:
• Home: Click on Home to return to the main menu screen
• Back: Click on Back to return to the previous screen
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Logical Drives
A screen such as the following appears when you select Logical Drives from the
main screen or click on a logical drive in the list of logical drives on the main
screen:
Initialize
The upper right section of the screen displays the logical drives that currently
exist. Below that section are options to:
• initialize the logical drives
• check consistency
• display the logical drive properties
• boot from a logical drive
After you select a logical drive to boot from, the system will boot from that
logical drive when you reboot. This field is 0-n, where n+1 logical drives are
created on the controller. For example, it would be 0-0 for a user when there is
only one logical drive on the controller. Press Go to perform the selected action
or Reset to delete any changes.
Press Go to perform the selected action or Reset to delete any changes.
You should initialize each new logical drive that you configure. You can use the
Initialize option on the Logical Drives screen to initialize logical drives. Perform
the following actions to initialize a logical drive.
Step Action
1 Select the Logical Drives option from the MegaRAID WebBIOS main
screen.
2 On the Logical Drives screen, select the logical drive to be initialized.
3 Click in the box next to Initialize, then click on Go. The progress of the
initialization appears as a graph on the screen.
4 When initialization completes, click on the Back button to display the
previous menu.
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Cont’d
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Logical Drives,
Continued
Check Consistency
option is available only if RAID level 1, 3 or 5 is selected. MegaRAID
automatically converts any differences found in the data.
After you click on Check Consistency and the Go button, a progress chart
displays on the left side of the screen to show how much of the consistency
check has been completed. There is also an option to abort the check for any or
all logical drives. The following screen shows a consistency check in progress:
Choose this option to verify the correctness of the redundancy data. This
Cont’d
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Logical Drives,
Continued
Properties
Select this option to:
• display the logical drive properties (such as RAID level, logical drive size,
and stripe size)
• display the read, write and I/O policies
• change the read, write and I/O policies
• start initialization
• start a consistency check
The following is an example of the properties screen:
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Physical Drives
A screen such as the following appears when you select Physical Drives from
the main screen.
This screen displays the physical drives for each channel. From this screen, you
can rebuild the physical arrays or view the properties for the physical drive you
select. Select Rebuild or Properties and click on Go to perform these actions.
Press Reset to return to the configuration that existed before you made any
changes.
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Configuration Wizard
A screen such as the following appears when you select Configuration Wizard
on the MegaRAID WebBIOS main screen. Click on Next.
On this screen, you can begin the procedure to clear a configuration, create a
new configuration, or add a configuration. After you select one of the options,
click on Next to go to step 2.
Select Configuration
custom configuration, auto configuration with redundancy, or auto configuration
without redundancy. Auto configuration with redundancy is recommended.
Step 2 displays on the following screen. On this screen, you can choose
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Cont’d
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Configuration Wizard,
Continued
Array Definition
The array definition screen displays next. To add drives to an array, press the
Ctrl key while you select ready drives. Click on Accept Array to add the drives.
To undo the changes, press the Reclaim button. Click on Next to go to Step 4.
The following is an example of an array being added:
Cont’d
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Configuration Wizard,
Continued
Logical Drive Definition
drive to display the following screen for that drive. Use this screen to configure
the logical drive.
Perform the following steps to configure a logical drive.
The Logical Drive definition screen displays next. Click on a logical
Step Action
1 Select the RAID level. Click on the down arrow in the box to the right of RAID Level to
display the possible RAID levels for the logical drive.
2 Select the Stripe Size.
Stripe size
3 Select the Read Policy.
Read-Ahead
Normal specifies that the controller does not use read-ahead for the current logical drive.
Read-ahead specifies that the controller uses read-ahead for the current logical drive. This
is the default setting.
Adaptive specifies that the controller begins using read-ahead if the two most recent disk
accesses occurred in sequential sectors. If all read requests are random, the algorithm
reverts to Normal, however, all requests are still evaluated for possible sequential
operation.
This parameter specifies the size of the segment written to each disk in a RAID
1, 3, 5, 10, 30 or 50 logical drive. You can set the stripe size to 2 KB, 4 KB, 8
KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB. A larger stripe size produces higher read
performance, especially if your computer does mostly sequential reads.
However, if your computer does random read requests more often, choose a
smaller stripe size. The default is 8 KB.
This parameter enables the SCSI read-ahead feature for the logical drive.
You can set this parameter to Normal, Read-ahead, or Adaptive.
Cont’d
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Configuration Wizard,
Step Action
4 Select the Write Policy.
Write Policy
In Write-back caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host
when the controller cache has received all the data in a transaction.
In Write-through caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host
when the disk subsystem has received all the data in a transaction. This is the default
setting.
Write-through caching has a data security advantage over write-back caching, whereas
write-back caching has a performance advantage over write-through caching. You should
not use write-back for any logical drive to be used as a Novell NetWare volume.
5 Select the Cache Policy.
Cache Policy
Cached I/O specifies that all reads are buffered in cache memory. This is the default
setting.
Direct I/O specifies that reads are not buffered in cache memory. Direct I/O does not
override the cache policy settings. Data is transferred to cache and the host concurrently.
If the same data block is read again, it comes from cache memory.
6 Enable or disable the spanning mode for the current logical drive. If enabled, the logical
drive can occupy space in more than one array. If disabled, the logical drive can occupy
space in only one array.
This parameter specifies the cache write policy. You can set the write policy
to write-back or write-through.
the Read ahead cache.
Continued
This parameter applies to reads on a specific logical drive. It does not affect
For two arrays to be spannable, they must have the same stripe width (they must contain
the same number of physical drives) and must be consecutively numbered. For example,
assuming Array 2 contains four disk drives, it can be spanned only with Array 1 and/or
Array 3, and only if Arrays 1 and 3 also contain four disk drives. If the two criteria for
spanning are met, MegaRAID automatically allows spanning. If the criteria are not met,
the Span setting makes no difference for the current logical drive.
7 Select the size of the logical drive in MB.
8 Click on the Accept button to accept the changes or click on the Reset button to delete the
changes and return to the previous settings.
Cont’d
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Configuration Wizard,
Continued
Configuration Preview
Click on Accept to save the configuration or Back to return to the previous
screens and change the configuration.
Step 5 displays a preview of the configuration that you have created.
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Adapter Selection
When you select the Adapter Selection option on the MegaRAID WebBIOS
main screen, the following screen displays a list of the MegaRAID adapters in
the system. You can select an adapter and begin configuration.
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Physical View\Logical View
A screen such as the one below displays when you select Physical View or
Logical View from the WebBIOS main screen. The option toggles between
Physical View and Logical View. For example, if you select Physical View on
the screen below, the option changes to Logical View. If you then select Logical
View, the option changes back to Physical View. That way, you can go back and
forth between physical and logical views.
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Configuration Mismatch
A configuration mismatch occurs when the data in the NVRAM (Non-volatile
Random Access Memory) and the hard disk drives are different. On the
following screen, you can:
• select Create New Configuration to delete the previous configuration and
create a new configuration
• select View Disk Configuration to restore the configuration from the hard
disk
• select View NVRAM Configuration to restore the configuration from the
NVRAM
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4 MegaRAID Manager
Overview
MegaRAID Manager is a character-based, non-GUI utility that configures and
monitors RAID systems. MegaRAID Manager runs under MS-DOS 3.2 or later
and MS-DOS-compatible operating systems, including:
• MS-DOS version 6.xx or later
• Microsoft Windows NT V4.0, and 2000
• Novell NetWare 4.2, and 5.x
• OS/2 Warp Server 4.0, and e-business
• SCO UnixWare 7.x
• SCO Open Server 5.0x
• Sun Solaris 7, and 8 (x86)
• Linux Red Hat v6.2
In This Chapter
The topics discussed in this chapter include:
starting MegaRAID Manager
•
MegaRAID Manager menus
•
choosing a configuration method
•
designating drives as hot spares
•
creating physical arrays
•
defining logical drives
•
initializing logical drives
•
using logical drives in your operating system
•
rebuilding failed disk drives
•
Starting MegaRAID Manager
To start MegaRAID Manager, make sure the program file is in your file path.
Type the command:
In... Type this:
DOS
NetWare
SCO Unix
UnixWare
OS/2
Other See the software guide for the operating system.
MEGACONF
load megamgr
megamgr
megamgr
MEGACONF
Cont’d
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Starting MegaRAID Manager,
The first MegaRAID Manager screen is:
Continued
Main Menu Options
Option Description
Configure Configure arrays and logical drives.
Initialize Initialize one or more logical drives.
Objects Individually access controllers, logical drives, and physical drives.
Format Low-level format hard disk drives.
Rebuild Rebuild failed disk drives.
Check
Consistency
Advanced
Menu
Select
Adapter
The MegaRAID Manager options are:
Verify redundancy data in logical drives using RAID level 1, 3, or 5.
MegaRAID automatically corrects any differences found in the data.
Run the Enclosure Management and Diagnostics functions (the
Diagnostics function is not yet implemented).
Select the adapter you want to configure. This item displays only if
more than one MegaRAID host adapter is installed in the computer.
If Using MegaRAID Manager
configure arrays and logical drives Configure page 65
initialize logical drives Initialize page 79
format a disk drive Format page 81
rebuild a disk drive Rebuild page 83
For information about other functions, see the following menu tree and menu
descriptions.
To... Use this menu Turn to...
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MegaRAID Manager Menu Tree
The menu items are explained on the following pages.
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MegaRAID Manager Configure Menu
Configure
Choose the Configure option to select a method for configuring arrays and
logical drives.
Option Description
Auto
Configuration
Easy
Configuration
New
Configuration
View/Add
Configuration
Clear
Configuration
Select this method to have the MegaRAID controller
automatically configure arrays and logical drives for you. See
page 66 for additional information.
Select this method to perform a basic logical drive
configuration where every physical array you define is
automatically associated with exactly one logical drive.
See page 69 for additional information.
Select this method to discard the existing configuration
information and to configure new arrays and logical drives. In
addition to providing the basic logical drive configuration
functions, New Configuration allows you to associate logical
drives with multiple or partial arrays. See page 73 for
additional information.
Select this method to examine the existing configuration
and/or to specify additional arrays and logical drives.
View/Add Configuration provides the same functions as New
Configuration. See page 76 for additional information.
Select this option to erase the current configuration
information from the MegaRAID controller non-volatile
memory.
MegaRAID Manager Initialize Menu
Initialize
Choose this option from the MegaRAID Manager main menu to initialize one or
more logical drives. This action typically follows the configuration of a new
logical drive. See page 79 for additional information.
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MegaRAID Manager Objects Menu
Objects
Adapter
Choose the Objects option from the MegaRAID Manager main menu to access
the controllers, logical drives, physical drives, and SCSI channels individually,
along with the battery backup. You can also change certain settings for each
object. The Objects menu options are described below.
Choose the Adapter option from the Objects menu to select a MegaRAID
controller if your computer has more than one and to modify parameters. You
can install only one MegaRAID controller, but you can install other MegaRAID
controllers in the computer.
Option Description
Clear
Configuration
View Adapter
Performance
FlexRAID
PowerFail
Disk Spin up
Timings
Alarm Control Choose this option to enable, disable, or silence the onboard
View/Update
Parameters
Adapter Type Displays the type of adapter used. The adapter can be customized.
Choose this option to erase the current configuration from the
controller non-volatile memory.
This option is not yet supported.
Choose this option to allow drive reconstruction to continue when
the system restarts if a power failure occurs. This will reduce the
size of the logical drive by (1 MB times the number of drives in
the logical drive).
Choose this option to set the method and timing for spinning up
the hard disk drives in the computer.
alarm tone generator.
Choose this option to display the firmware version number and
the cache memory size. In addition, you can change the rebuild
rate for the adapter through this option.
Cont’d
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MegaRAID Manager Objects Menu,
Continued
Logical Drive
Logical Drive
Initialize Choose this option to initialize the selected logical drive. This
Check
Consistency
View/Update
Parameters
Physical Drive
Choose this option from the Objects menu to select a logical drive and to
perform the listed actions.
Description
Options
should be done for every logical drive you configure.
Choose this option to verify the correctness of the redundancy data
in the selected logical drive. This option is available only if RAID
level 1, 3, or 5 is used. MegaRAID automatically corrects any
differences found in the data.
Choose this option to display the properties of the selected logical
drive; you can modify the cache write policy, the cache read
policy, virtual sizing, and the I/O policy from this menu. Set the
virtual sizing option to Enabled before adding a physical drive to a
logical drive. After you have created a logical drive set, the
partition of the drive should be as large as the virtual size of the
logical drive.
Choose this option from the Objects menu to select a physical device and to
perform the operations listed below. When you choose this option, the physical
drives in the computer are listed. Move the cursor to the desired device and
press <Enter>. The following appears:
Physical Drive Menu
Physical Drive
Options
Rebuild Choose this option to rebuild the selected disk drive.
Format Choose this option to low-level format the selected hard disk drive.
Make Online Choose this option to change the state of the selected hard disk drive to
Online.
Fail Drive Choose this option to change the state of the selected disk drive to Fail.
Make HotSpare Choose this option to designate the selected disk drive as a hot spare.
60
View Drive
Information
View Rebuild
Progress
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
Choose this option to see the manufacturer data for the selected physical
device.
Choose this option to see the progress of the rebuild process for the selected
disk drive.
Description
Cont’d
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MegaRAID Manager Objects Menu,
Continued
SCSI Channel
Channel Options Description
Termination Status Choose this option to change the type of termination.
Terminate High 8
Disable Termination Choose this option to disable termination on the
Choose this option from the Objects menu to select a SCSI channel on the
currently selected controller. You can perform the following operations on the
selected channel.
Activate Channel Choose this option to activate the selected channel. Be sure
that TermPWR is provided for all active channels.
Choose this option to enable termination on the selected
Bits
Terminate Wide
Channel
View Parameters Choose this option to view the termination and active status
channel for the upper eight bits and disable termination on
the controller for the lower eight bits. This setting is
required if the selected SCSI channel is terminated with 8bit devices at both ends.
Choose this option to enable Wide termination for the
selected channel. This is required if the MegaRAID
controller is at one end of the SCSI bus for the selected
channel.
MegaRAID controller for the selected channel. This option
should be used if the selected SCSI channel is terminated
with Wide devices at both ends.
of the selected channel.
Battery Backup
Choose this option from the Objects menu to view or update parameters for the
battery backup module.
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MegaRAID Manager Format Menu
Format
Choose the Format option from the MegaRAID Manager main menu to lowlevel format one or more physical drives.
See 81 for additional information.
Formatting
Since most SCSI disk drives are low-level formatted at the factory, this step is
usually not necessary. You typically must format a disk if:
• the disk drive was not low-level formatted at the factory, or
• an excessive number of media errors have been detected on the disk drive.
You do not need to use the Format option if you simply want to erase existing
information on your SCSI disks, such as a DOS partition. That information is
erased when you initialize the logical drive(s).
MegaRAID Manager Rebuild Menu
Rebuild
Choose the Rebuild option from the MegaRAID Manager main menu to rebuild
one or more failed disk drives.
See page 83 for additional information.
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MegaRAID Manager Check Consistency Menu
Check Consistency
RAID levels 1, 3, or 5. When you choose Check Consistency, the parameters of
the existing logical drives on the current controller appear. The logical drives are
listed by number. MegaRAID automatically corrects any differences found in
the data.
Press the arrow keys to select the desired logical drives. Press the spacebar to
select or deselect a drive for consistency checking. Press <F2> to select or
deselect all the logical drives.
Press <F10> to begin the consistency check. A progress indicator for each
selected logical drive appears, as shown below:
Choose this option to verify the redundancy data in logical drives using
When the consistency check is finished, press any key to clear the progress
display and press <Esc> to display the main menu.
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MegaRAID Manager Advanced Menu
Reconstruct Logical Drive
option. Choose this option before you add or remove a physical drive.
Enclosure Management
This option is used to monitor an external enclosure containing SCSI
devices. MegaRAID can monitor the fan speed, power supply voltage, and
temperature, appropriate signals from the enclosure.
Beside each SCSI device listing, a diamond-shaped indicator shows the
condition of that device. A green diamond indicates normal operation. A red
diamond indicates failure. If the fan, temperature or power supply goes bad, the
word for the device will change from green to red.
You can select or deselect a logical drive to be recreated using this
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MegaRAID Manager Select Adapter Menu
This menu item appears only if more than one MegaRAID host adapter is
installed in the computer. You can only install one MegaRAID controller, but
you can install other MegaRAID controllers in the computer. The following
appears when you choose the Select Adapter option:
Adapter-1
Adapter-2
Adapter-3
Sel. Adapter
Select the MegaRAID adapter that you want to configure from this menu.
Configuring Arrays and Logical Drives
You can configure physical arrays and logical drives with MegaRAID Manager
using:
• Auto Configuration
• Easy Configuration
• New Configuration
• View/Add Configuration
Each configuration method requires a different level of user input. The general
flow of operations for array and logical drive configuration is:
Step Action
1 Choose a configuration method.
2 Designate hot spares (optional).
3 Create arrays using the available physical drives.
4 Define logical drives using the space in the arrays.
5 Save the configuration information.
6 Initialize the logical drives.
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Choosing the Configuration Method
Automatic Configuration
physical drives connected to it and automatically configures them into arrays
and logical drives.
If logical drives have already been configured when you select Auto
Configuration, the configuration information is not disturbed. See page 68 for
additional information.
Easy Configuration
In Easy Configuration, each physical array you create is associated with
exactly one logical drive, and you can modify the following parameters:
• RAID level
• stripe size
• cache write policy
• read policy
• I/O policy
If logical drives have already been configured when you select Easy
Configuration, the configuration information is not disturbed.
See page 69 for instructions on Easy Configuration.
New Configuration
In New Configuration, you can modify the following logical drive
parameters:
• RAID level
• stripe size
• cache write policy
• read policy
• I/O policy
• logical drive size
• spanning of arrays
In Automatic Configuration, the MegaRAID controller examines the
If you select New Configuration, the existing configuration information on the
selected controller is destroyed when the new configuration is saved. See page
73 for instructions on New Configuration.
View/Add Configuration
View/Add Configuration allows you to control the same logical drive
parameters as New Configuration without disturbing the existing configuration
information. See page 76 for additional information.
Reserved Disk Space during Configuration
hard disk drive is being configured.
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Up to 20.6 MB of disk space is reserved when a
Page 75
Designating Drives as Hot Spares
Hot Spares
Press <F4>
Hot spares are physical drives that are powered up along with the RAID drives
and usually stay in a standby state. If a disk drive used in a RAID logical drive
fails, a hot spare will automatically take its place and the data on the failed drive
is reconstructed on the hot spare. Hot spares can be used for level 1, 3 and 5
RAID. Each MegaRAID controller supports up to eight hot spares. Refer to the
MegaRAID hardware guide for your board for an explanation of hot spares.
The two methods for designating physical drives as hot spares are:
• press <F4> while creating arrays in Easy, New or View/Add Configuration
mode
• highlight a drive using the space bar and press <Enter>. Select Make
HotSpare
When you choose any configuration option in the Configure menu, all physical
devices connected to the current controller appear:
Objects Menu
Press the arrow keys to select a disk drive that has a READY indicator and press
<F4> to designate it as a hot spare. The indicator changes to HOTSP.
Select Objects from the Configure menu, then select Physical Drive. A physical
drive selection screen will appear. Press the spacebar to select a disk drive and
press <Enter> to display the action menu for the drive.
Press the arrow keys to select Make HotSpare and press <Enter>. The indicator
for the selected drive changes to HOTSP.
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Using Auto Configuration
Configuration Guidelines
connected to it and automatically configures them into arrays and logical drives.
MegaRAID uses the following configuration guidelines in the following
sequence:
Step Action
1 Gather drives with the same capacity into groups of five, four, or three.
These groups become arrays associated with RAID level 5 logical drives.
2 Gather pairs of drives with the same capacity together. These pairs
become arrays associated with RAID 1 logical drives.
3 Configure any remaining single disk drives as arrays associated with
RAID 0 logical drives.
Logical Drive Settings
The logical drive settings will be:
The write policy, read policy, and cache policy can be changed after
configuration is complete.
User Actions
Perform the following steps when using auto configuration:
In Auto Configuration, MegaRAID examines the physical drives
Parameter Setting
Stripe size 64 KB
Write Policy Write-through
Read Policy Readahead
Cache Policy Direct I/O
Spanning Off
Step Action
1 Designate hot spares (optional, but if chosen, should be done first).
2 Choose Configure from the MegaRAID Manager main menu.
3 Choose Auto Configuration from the Configure menu and respond to the
confirmation prompt.
The logical drives that result from Auto Configuration are displayed on the
screen with a save prompt. Choose Yes to save the configuration.
4 If you chose Yes at the space prompt, initialize the logical drives. See page
79 for additional information.
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Using Easy Configuration
In Easy Configuration, each array is associated with exactly one logical drive.
Follow the steps below to create arrays using Easy Configuration:
Step Action
1 Choose Configure from the MegaRAID Manager main menu.
2 Choose Easy Configuration from the Configure menu. The array selection menu appears:
The hot key information appears at the bottom of the screen. The hot key functions are:
<F2> Display the manufacturer data and MegaRAID error
count for the selected drive.
<F3> Display the logical drives that have been configured.
<F4> Designate the selected drive as a hot spare.
3 Press the arrow keys to select specific physical drives. Press the spacebar to associate the
selected physical drive with the current array. The indicator for the selected drive changes
from READY to ONLIN A[array number]-[drive number]. For example, ONLIN A2-3
means disk drive 3 in array 2.
Add physical drives to the current array as desired. Try to use drives of the same capacity
in a specific array. If you use drives with different capacities in an array, all the drives in
the array is treated as though they have the capacity of the smallest drive in the array.
The number of physical drives in a specific array determine the RAID levels that can be
implemented with the array.
RAID 0 requires one or more physical drives.
RAID 1 requires 2 physical drives.
RAID 3 requires at least three physical drives.
RAID 5 requires at least three physical drives.
Cont’d
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Using Easy Configuration,
Step Action
4 Press <Enter> when you are finished creating the current array. The logical drive
configuration screen appears.
The window at the top of the screen shows the logical drive that is currently being
configured as well as any existing logical drives. The column headings are:
LD The logical drive number
RAID The RAID level
Size The logical drive size
#Stripes The number of stripes (physical drives) in the associated physical
array
StrpSz The stripe size
Drive-State The state of the logical drive
5 Set the RAID level for the logical drive. Highlight RAID and press <Enter>. The
available RAID levels for the current logical drive are displayed. Select a RAID level and
press <Enter> to confirm. See the MegaRAID Hardware Guide for your board for an
explanation of the RAID levels.
Continued
Cont’d
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Using Easy Configuration,
Step Action
6 Set the stripe size, cache write policy, Read policy, and I/O (cache) policy from the
Advanced Menu.
Continued
Stripe size
A larger stripe size provides better read performance, especially if your computer does
mostly sequential reads. However, if you are sure that your computer does random read
requests more often, choose a small stripe size.
Write policy
In Write-back caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host
when the controller cache has received all the data in a transaction. If WriteBack is
enabled and the system is quickly turned off and then on, MegaRAID may hang when
flushing cache memory. Adapters that contain a battery backup will default to WriteBack
caching. Adapters which contain a battery will default to WriteBack.
In Write-through caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the
host when the disk subsystem has received all the data in a transaction. This is the default
setting.
Write-through caching has a data security advantage over write-back caching, whereas
write-back caching has a performance advantage over write-through caching. You should
not use write-back for any logical drive that is to be used as a Novell NetWare volume.
Read-ahead
Normal specifies that the controller does not use read-ahead for the current logical drive.
Read-ahead specifies that the controller uses read-ahead for the current logical drive.
Adaptive specifies that the controller begins using read-ahead if the two most recent disk
accesses occurred in sequential sectors. If all read requests are random, the algorithm
reverts to Normal; however, all requests are still evaluated for possible sequential
operation.
Cache policy
Cached I/O specifies that all reads are buffered in cache memory.
Direct I/O specifies that reads are not buffered in cache memory. Direct I/O does not
override the cache policy settings. Data is transferred to cache and the host concurrently.
If the same data block is read again, it comes from cache memory. Press <Esc> to exit the
Advanced Menu.
This parameter specifies the size of the segments written to each disk in a
RAID 1, 3, 5, 10, 30, or 50 logical drive. You can set the stripe size to 2 KB, 4
KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB. The default stripe size is 64 MB.
This parameter specifies the cache write policy. You can set the write
policy to Write-back or Write-through. The default is Write-through.
This parameter enables the SCSI read-ahead feature for the logical drive.
You can set this parameter to Normal, Read-ahead, or Adaptive. The default
setting is Normal.
This parameter applies to reads on a specific logical drive. It does not affect
the Read-ahead cache. The default setting is Direct I/O.
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Using Easy Configuration,
Step Action
7 When you are finished defining the current logical drive, select Accept and press <Enter>.
The array selection screen appears if any unconfigured disk drives remain.
8 Repeat steps 3 through 7 to configure another array and logical drive. If you are finished
configuring logical drives, press <Esc> to exit Easy Configuration. A list of the currently
configured logical drives appears:
After you respond to the Save prompt, the Configure menu appears.
9 Initialize the logical drives you have just configured. See Initializing Logical Drives on
page 79.
Continued
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Using New Configuration
The New Configuration option allows you to associate logical drives with partial
and/or multiple physical arrays (the latter is called spanning of arrays).
Erases Configuration
Choose the New Configuration option to erase the existing configuration
information about the selected controller.
To use the spanning feature and keep the existing configuration, use View/Add
Configuration (see page 76).
Step Action
1 Choose Configure from the MegaRAID Manager main menu.
2 Choose New Configuration from the Configure menu. An array selection window is
displayed showing the devices connected to the current controller.
Hot key information appears at the bottom of the screen. The hot key functions are:
<F2> Display the manufacturer data and MegaRAID error
count for the selected drive.
<F3> Display the logical drives that have been configured.
<F4> Designate the selected drive as a hot spare.
<F10> Display the logical drive configuration screen.
3 Press the arrow keys to select specific physical drives. Press the spacebar to associate the
selected physical drive with the current array. The indicator for the selected drive changes
from READY to ONLIN A[array number]-[drive number]. For example, ONLIN A2-3
means disk drive 3 in array 2.
Add physical drives to the current array as desired. Try to use drives of the same capacity
in a specific array. If you use drives with different capacities in an array, all the drives in
the array is treated as though they have the capacity of the smallest drive in the array.
The number of physical drives in a specific array determine the RAID levels that can be
implemented with the array.
RAID 0 requires one or more physical drives per array.
RAID 1 requires 2 physical drives per array.
RAID 3 requires at least three physical drives per array.
RAID 5 requires at least three physical drives per array.
4 Press <Enter> when you are finished creating the current array. To continue defining
arrays, repeat step 3. To begin logical drive configuration, go to step 5.
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Using New Configuration,
Step Action
5 Press <F10> to configure logical drives. The logical drive configuration screen appears, as
shown below:
The window from the top of the screen shows the logical drive that is currently being
configured as well as any existing logical drives. The column headings are:
LD The logical drive number
RAID The RAID level
Size The logical drive size
#Stripes The number of stripes (physical drives) in the associated
StrpSz The stripe size
Drive-State The state of the logical drive
6 Set the RAID level for the logical drive. Highlight RAID and press <Enter>. The available
RAID levels for the current logical drive are listed. Select a RAID level and press <Enter>
to confirm. See the MegaRAID Hardware Guide for an explanation of the RAID levels.
7 Set the spanning mode for the current logical drive. Highlight Span and press <Enter>.
The choices are:
CanSpan Array spanning is enabled for the current logical drive. The logical drive can
occupy space in more than one array.
NoSpan Array spanning is disabled for the current logical drive. The logical drive can
occupy space in only one array.
For two arrays to be spannable, they must have the same stripe width (they must contain
the same number of physical drives) and the arrays must be consecutively numbered. For
example, assuming Array 2 contains four disk drives, it can be spanned only with Array 1
and/or Array 3, and only if Arrays 1 and 3 also contain four disk drives. If the two criteria
for spanning are met, MegaRAID allows spanning. If the criteria are not met, the Span
setting makes no difference for the current logical drive. Highlight the spanning option
and press <Enter>.
Continued
physical array
74
Configuring RAID 10, RAID 30, or RAID 50 Logical Drives
Configure RAID 10 by spanning two contiguous RAID 1 logical drives. The RAID 1
logical drives must have the same stripe size.
Configure RAID 30 by spanning two contiguous RAID 3 logical drives. The RAID 3
logical drives must have the same stripe size.
Configure RAID 50 by spanning two contiguous RAID 5 logical drives. The RAID 5
logical drives must have the same stripe size.
MegaRAID Configuration Software Guide
Cont’d
Page 83
Using New Configuration,
Step Action
8 Set the logical drive size. Move the cursor to Size and press <Enter>. By default, the
logical drive size is set to all available space in the array(s) being associated with the
current logical drive, accounting for the Span setting and for partially used array space. For
example, if the previous logical drive used only a part of the space in an array, the current
logical drive size is set to the remaining space by default.
9 Choose the Advanced menu (see below) to set remaining options.
Continued
Stripe size
1, 3, 5, 10, 30, or 50 logical drive. You can set the stripe size to 2 KB, 4 KB, 8 KB, 16 KB,
32 KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB. The default stripe size is 64 MB.
A larger stripe size produces better read performance, especially if your computer does
mostly sequential reads. If you are sure that your computer does random reads more often,
select a small stripe size.
Write Policy
In Write-back caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host
when the controller cache has received all the data in a transaction. If WriteBack is enabled
and the system is quickly turned off and then on, MegaRAID may hang when flushing cache
memory. Adapters that contain a battery backup will default to WriteBack caching.
In Write-through caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host
when the disk subsystem has received all the data in a transaction. This is the default
setting.
Write-through caching has a data security advantage over write-back caching. Write-back
caching has a performance advantage over write-through caching. You should not use
write-back for any logical drive that is to be used as a Novell NetWare volume.
Read-ahead
Normal specifies that the controller does not use read-ahead for the current logical drive.
This is the default setting.
Read-ahead specifies that the controller uses read-ahead for the current logical drive.
Adaptive specifies that the controller begins using read-ahead if the two most recent disk
accesses occurred in sequential sectors. If all read requests are random, the algorithm
reverts to Normal, however, all requests are still evaluated for possible sequential
operation.
Cache Policy
Cached I/O specifies that all reads are buffered in cache memory.
Direct I/O specifies that reads are not buffered in cache memory. This is the default setting.
Direct I/O does not override the cache policy settings. Data is transferred to cache and the
host concurrently. If the same data block is read again, it comes from cache memory. Press
<Esc> to exit the Advanced Menu.
10 After the current logical drive is defined, select Accept and press <Enter>. If space remains
in the arrays, the next logical drive to be configured appears. Repeat steps 6 to 9 to
configure another logical drive. If all array space has been used, a list of the existing logical
drives appears. Press any key to continue and respond to the Save prompt.
11 Initialize the logical drives you have just configured. See Initializing Logical Drives on
page 79.
This parameter specifies the size of the segment written to each disk in a RAID
This parameter specifies the cache write policy. You can set the write policy
to Write-back or Write-through. The default setting is Write-through.
This parameter specifies that the SCSI read-ahead feature is used for the
logical drive. You can set this parameter to Normal, Read-ahead, or Adaptive. The
default setting is Normal.
This parameter applies to reads on a specific logical drive. It does not affect
the Read-ahead cache. The default setting is Direct I/O.
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Using View/Add Configuration
View/Add Configuration allows you to associate logical drives with partial
and/or multiple physical arrays. This is called array spanning.
The existing configuration is left intact, so you can also use View/Add
Configuration simply to look at the current configuration.
Step Action
1 Choose Configure the MegaRAID Manager main menu.
2 Choose View/Add Configuration from the Configure menu. An array selection window
(shown below) is displayed showing the devices connected to the current controller.
Hot key information appears at the bottom of the screen. The hot key functions are
<F2> Display the manufacturer data and MegaRAID error count for the selected
drive.
<F3> Display the logical drives that have been configured.
<F4> Designate the selected drive as a hot spare.
<F10> Display the logical drive configuration screen.
3 Press the arrow keys to select the physical drives. Press the spacebar to select physical
drives to be associated with the current array. The indicator for the selected drive changes
from READY to ONLIN A[array number]-[drive number]. For example, ONLIN A2-3
means disk drive 3 in array 2.
Add physical drives to the current array as desired. Try to use drives of the same capacity
in a specific array. If you use drives with different capacities in an array, all drives in the
array are treated as if they have the capacity of the smallest drive in the array.
The number of physical drives in a specific array determine the RAID levels that can be
implemented with the array.
RAID 0 requires one or more physical drives per array.
RAID 1 requires 2 physical drives per array.
RAID 3 requires at least three physical drives per array.
RAID 5 requires at least three physical drives per array.
4 Press <Enter> to end the selection process. To continue defining arrays, repeat step 3. To
begin logical drive configuration, go to step 5.
Cont’d
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Using View/Add Configuration,
Step Action
5 Press <F10> to configure logical drives. The logical drive configuration screen appears:
The window at the top of the screen shows the logical drive that is currently being
configured as well as any existing logical drives. The column headings are:
LD The logical drive number
RAID The RAID level
Size The logical drive size
#Stripes The number of stripes (physical drives) in the associated physical
array
StrpSz The stripe size
Drive-State The state of the logical drive
6 Set the RAID level for the logical drive. Highlight RAID and press <Enter>. The
available RAID levels for the current logical drive are displayed. Select a RAID level and
press <Enter> to confirm. See the MegaRAID Hardware Guide for your board for an
explanation of the RAID levels.
7 Set the spanning mode for the current logical drive. Highlight Span and press <Enter>.
The choices are:
Continued
CanSpan Array spanning is enabled for the current logical drive. The drive
can occupy space in more than one array.
NoSpan Array spanning is disabled for the current logical drive. The drive
can occupy space in only one array.
For two arrays to be spannable, they must have the same stripe width (they must contain
the same number of physical drives) and must be consecutively numbered. For example,
assuming Array 2 contains four disk drives, it can be spanned only with Array 1 and/or
Array 3, and only if Arrays 1 and 3 also contain four disk drives. If the two criteria for
spanning are not met, the Span setting makes no difference for the current logical drive.
Highlight a spanning option and press <Enter>.
Configuring RAID 10, RAID 30, or RAID 50 Logical Drives
Configure RAID 10 by spanning two contiguous RAID 1 logical drives. The RAID 1
logical drives must have the same stripe size.
Configure RAID 30 by spanning two contiguous RAID 3 logical drives. The RAID 3
logical drives must have the same stripe size.
Configure RAID 50 by spanning two contiguous RAID 5 logical drives. The RAID 5
logical drives must have the same stripe size.
Cont’d
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Using View/Add Configuration,
Step Action
8 Set the logical drive size. Move the cursor to Size and press <Enter>. By default, the
logical drive size is set to all available space in the array(s) being associated with the
current logical drive, accounting for the Span setting and for partially used array space.
For example: if the previous logical drive used only a part of the space in an array, the
current logical drive size is set to the remaining space by default.
9 Open the Advanced menu to set the remaining options.
Continued
Stripe size
A larger stripe size produces better read performance, especially if your computer does
mostly sequential reads. However, if you are sure that your computer does random reads
more often, select a small stripe size.
Write Policy
In Write-back caching the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host
when the controller cache has received all the data in a transaction. If WriteBack is
enabled and the system is quickly turned off and then on, MegaRAID may hang when
flushing cache memory.
In Write-through caching, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host
when the disk subsystem has received all the data in a transaction. This is the default
setting.
Write-through caching has a data security advantage over write-back caching, whereas
write-back caching has a performance advantage over write-through caching. You should
not use write-back for any logical drive to be used as a Novell NetWare volume.
Read-ahead
Normal specifies that the controller does not use read-ahead for the current logical drive.
This is the default setting.
Read-ahead specifies that the controller uses read-ahead for the current logical drive.
Adaptive specifies that the controller begins using read-ahead if the two most recent disk
accesses occurred in sequential sectors. If all read requests are random, the algorithm
reverts to Normal, however, all requests are still evaluated for possible sequential
operation.
Cache Policy
Cached I/O specifies that all reads are buffered in cache memory.
Direct I/O specifies that reads are not buffered in cache memory. This is the default
setting. Direct I/O does not override the cache policy settings. Data is transferred to cache
and the host concurrently. If the same data block is read again, it comes from cache
memory. Press <Esc> to exit the Advanced Menu.
10 When you are finished defining the current logical drive, select Accept and press <Enter>.
If space remains in the arrays, the next logical drive to be configured appears. Repeat steps
6 to 9 to configure another logical drive. If the array space is used, a list of the existing
logical drives appears. Press any key to continue. Respond to the Save prompt.
11 Initialize the logical drives you have just configured. See Initializing Logical Drives on
page 79.
This parameter sets the size of the segment written to each disk in a RAID 0, 1,
3, or 5 logical drive. You can set the stripe size to 2 KB, 4 KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32
KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB. The default stripe size is 64 MB.
This parameter sets the cache write policy. You can set the write policy to
Write-back or Write-through. The default setting is Write-through.
This parameter enables the SCSI read-ahead feature for the logical drive. Set
this parameter to Normal, Read-ahead, or Adaptive. The default setting is
Normal.
This parameter applies to reads on a specific logical drive. It does not affect
the Read ahead cache. The default setting is Direct I/O.
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Initializing Logical Drives
You should initialize each new logical drive you configure. You can initialize
the logical drives in two ways:
• Batch Initialization. The Initialize option in the main menu lets you
initialize logical drives simultaneously.
• Individual Initialization. The Objects/Logical Drive action menu for an
individual logical drive has an Initialize option.
Batch Initialization
Step Action
1 Choose Initialize from the MegaRAID Manager main menu. A list of the current logical
drives appears, as shown below:
2 Press the arrow keys to select all drives to be initialized. Press the spacebar to select the
selected logical drive for initialization. Press <F2> to select or deselect all the logical
drives.
3 When you have selected the logical drives, press <F10> and choose Yes at the
confirmation prompt. The progress of the initialization for each drive is shown in bar
graph format.
4 When initialization is complete, press any key to continue.
Press <Esc> to display the main menu.
Cont’d
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Initializing Logical Drives,
Continued
Individual Initialization
Step Action
1 Choose the Objects option from the MegaRAID Manager main menu. Choose the Logical
Drive option from the Objects menu, shown below:
2 Select the logical drive to be initialized. The following appears:
3 Choose Initialize from the Action menu. The progress of the initialization appears as a
graph on the screen.
4 When initialization completes, press any key to display the previous menu.
Using Logical Drives in the Operating System
For information on an operating system other than DOS, see the software
manual accompanying the drivers for that operating system. To use the logical
drive(s) in DOS:
Step Action
1 Exit MegaRAID Manager and reboot the computer.
2 Run DOS FDISK and configure one or more partitions using the logical
drives.
3 Format the partitions using the FORMAT command.
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Formatting Physical Drives
You can do low-level formatting of SCSI drives using MegaRAID Manager.
Since most SCSI disk drives are low-level formatted at the factory, this step is
usually not necessary. You typically must format a disk if:
• the disk drive was not low-level formatted at the factory, or
• an excessive number of media errors have been detected on the disk drive.
Media Errors
Formatting Drives
Check the properties screen for the drive you wish to format. You can check this
screen by choosing Objects from the Physical Drive menu, pressing the arrow
keys to select the selected drive and pressing <F2>.
The error count appears at the bottom of the properties screen. If you feel that
the number of errors is excessive, you should probably format the disk drive. If
more than 32 media errors were detected, MegaRAID automatically puts the
drive in FAIL state. In cases such as this, formatting the drive can clear up the
problem.
You do not have to use the Format option to erase existing information on your
SCSI disks, such as a DOS partition. That information is erased when you
initialize logical drives.
You can format the physical drives using:
• Individual Formatting. Choose the Format option from Objects on the
Physical Drive action menu for an individual disk drive.
Cont’d
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Formatting Physical Drives,
Continued
Individual Formatting
Step Action
1 Choose the Objects option from the MegaRAID Manager main menu. Choose the
Physical Drive option from the Objects menu. A device selection window is displayed
showing the devices connected to the current controller, as shown below:
2 Press the arrow keys to select the physical drive to be formatted and press <Enter>. The
following action menu appears:
3 Choose the Format option from the action menu and respond to the confirmation prompt.
Formatting can take some time, depending on the drive capacity.
4 When formatting completes, press any key to display the previous menu.
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Rebuilding Failed Disk Drives
If a disk drive fails in an array configured as a RAID 1, 3, or 5 logical drive, you
can recover the lost data by rebuilding the drive. If a rebuilding spare fails, a
new rebuild is started using a second spare, if available. The capacity of the
second spare must be equal to or greater than the failed drive.
Rebuild Types
Type Description
Automatic
Rebuild
Manual
Rebuild
The rebuild types are:
If you have configured hot spares, MegaRAID automatically tries to use them to
rebuild failed disks. Display the Objects/Physical Drive screen while a rebuild is
in progress. The drive indicator for the hot spare disk drive has changed to
REBLD A[array number]-[drive number], indicating the disk drive being
replaced by the hot spare.
Manual rebuild is necessary if no hot spares with enough capacity to rebuild the
failed drives are available. Select the MegaRAID Manager main menu Rebuild
option or the Rebuild option on the Objects/Physical Drive menu.
Manual Rebuild – Rebuilding an Individual Drive
Step Action
1 Choose the Objects option from the MegaRAID Manager main menu. Choose Physical
Drive from the Objects menu. A window appears that shows the devices connected to the
current controller:
2 Press the arrow keys to select the physical drive to be rebuilt and press <Enter>. The
following action menu appears:
3 Choose the Rebuild option from the action menu and respond to the confirmation prompt.
Rebuilding can take some time, depending on the drive capacity.
4 When rebuild completes, press any key to display the previous menu.
Chapter 4 MegaRAID Manager
Cont’d
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Rebuilding Failed Disk Drives,
Continued
Manual Rebuild –
Step Action
1 Choose Rebuild from the MegaRAID Manager main menu. A device selection window is
displayed showing the devices connected to the current controller. The failed drives have
FAIL indicators.
2 Press the arrow keys to select all drives to be rebuilt. Press the spacebar to select the
selected physical drive for rebuild.
3 After selecting the physical drives, press <F10> and type Yes at the confirmation prompt.
The indicators for the selected drives changes to REBLD. Rebuilding can take some time,
depending on the number of drives you have selected and their capacities.
4 When rebuild is complete, press any key to continue.
Press <Esc> to display the main menu.
Batch Mode
Exiting MegaRAID Manager
To exit MegaRAID Manager, press <Esc> from the main menu and choose Yes
at the prompt. A message appears if uninitialized logical drives remain in the
system.
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5 Installing Power Console Plus
Power Console Plus is an object-oriented GUI utility that lets you efficiently
configure, and monitor a large RAID array of disks locally or over a network
with several servers. This is for servers that support Windows NT and 2000 and
are capable of monitoring and being monitored, and for servers that support
NetWare 4.x and 5.0, which can be monitored, but cannot monitor.
You can use Power Console Plus to control and monitor the status of each
physical drive connected to the MegaRAID controller. You can us it to control
and monitor the status of hard disk drives, tape drives, and CD-ROM drives.
Power Console Plus can be executed from any workstation. It runs under most
Microsoft Windows operating systems, with support for Novell NetWare.
Apart from the standard menu structure, the Power Console Plus user interface
is object-oriented: the picture of an object on the screen truly represents a
physical or logical object. You can right click the mouse on an object to display
a set of options for the selected object.
Features
The Power Console Plus features include:
configuration wizard that guides you through the configuration process
•
a
FlexRAID functionality for seamless online expansion without interrupting server
•
operations
on-the-fly RAID level migration
•
support for SAF-TE (SCSI accessed fault-tolerant enclosure), SNMP, and SMART
•
check consistency can be scheduled to constantly ensure that parity and mirrored
•
data is written correctly
performance monitor
•
enclosure management to monitor temperature, power supply voltage, and fan status
•
virtual sizing for drive migration under Windows NT
•
ability to change logical drive write, read, and cache policies after the logical drive
•
has been configured
ability to save the configuration option
•
ability to spin down physical drives before removal
•
ability to view actual current SCSI transfer rate
•
silent install
•
battery backup support
•
complete system monitoring capability
•
Cont’d
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Overview,
Continued
Windows NT Users
With some older firmware, you must use one logical drive if you have only
one MegaRAID adapter in the host system. Most firmware requires only an
attached device. If you have more than one MegaRAID adapter, make sure at
least one physical drive is attached to each MegaRAID adapter before you access
these MegaRAID adapters from Power Console Plus in Windows NT. You can
alleviate this problem by attaching and configuring at least a non-disk SCSI
device to each MegaRAID adapter. You can configure these logical drives using
MegaRAID Configuration Utility.
Client System Requirements
be running Windows NT or Windows 2000
•
have an Intel Pentium or higher CPU
•
have at least 8 MB of system memory
•
have a network interface
•
have a 3.5” floppy disk drive
•
have at least 2 MB of free hard disk drive space
•
have a mouse or other pointing device
•
must be using the TCP/IP protocol
•
Components
The Power Console Plus package consists of:
Power Console Plus
•
MegaService Monitor
•
SNMP Agent
•
the registration server
•
the RAID server
•
Client systems running Power Console Plus must:
Power Console Plus Client
Power Console Plus. Running Power Console Plus allows this computer to
access any RAID server that is registered in the Registration Server.
Registration Server
The Registration Server contains a database of all computers that have
registered as a RAID Server.
RAID Server
The RAID Server software runs in any server that has one or more MegaRAID
controllers and allows it to register to the Registration Server.
Any computer running Windows NT or Windows 2000 can run
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Installing on a Windows NT V4.x Server and Workstation
Power Console Plus can be installed and registered on a Windows NT, Windows
2000. See the LSI Logic web site (www.lsilogic.com) for additional information
about supporting Novell NetWare as a RAID server. This allows the NetWare
server to be seen and accessed from Windows NT and 2000.
Installation Prerequisites
software:
Step Action
1 Install the proper operating system software and service packs.
2 Install network cards in all computers that will need them.
3 Install a MegaRAID adapter card in the RAID server. Follow the procedures
in the appropriate MegaRAID Hardware Guide.
4 Install the TCP/IP Protocol on all specified systems.
5
The Power Console Plus installation process now prompts you to perform
the following edit.
HOSTS file should look like this:
Complete the following tasks before installing the Power Console Plus
Edit the HOSTS file in c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc. The
The HOSTS file information varies depending on the type of installation:
Enter the IP address and name of all the MegaRAID servers,
including the registration server
Example:
Specify all Sequential IP addresses for the server or servers, and the
workstation. For example:
Server A
Server B
Workstation C
All specified systems must conform to the TCP/IP specification for address
structures.
Press <Enter> after you type all names of the servers. If you do not,
Notepad might not enter the information.
6 Ping all systems by IP address and server name to make sure you have a
proper connection.
Chapter 5 Installing Power Console Plus
123.123.234.1
123.123.234.2
123.123.234.3
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Installing on a Windows NT V4.x Server and Workstation,
Installing the Power Console Plus Software
Step Action
1 Insert the Power Console Plus CD in the CD-ROM drive. You can view the
files in Windows Explorer. In the CD-ROM directory, select the application
folder, as shown below. Double-click on Setup.exe to run the program.
Note:
Power Console Plus requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or
later, and Service Pack 6 or later.
Continued
2 Click on Next when the first screen appears.
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Step Action
The license agreement and README screens appear. Click on Next. Choose
the installation packages from the following screen. You can choose 1, 2, or
all 3 packages:
MegaRAID Registration Server Makes the server a Registration Server.
MegaRAID Server Allow the server to register to the Registration Server.
MegaRAID Client Allows the server to monitor other servers with a
MegaRAID adapter.
Any configuration is valid. Common combinations include:
MegaRAID Ser ver only You cannot monitor a ny other server.
MegaRAID Server and Client Allows you to register into the Registration server. You can
monito r any other server, including the server you’re
MegaRAID Registration Server only Allows other MegaRAID servers to register so they can be
MegaRAID Registration Allows other MegaRAID servers to register so they can be
Server and Client monitored by the MegaRAID client. You can monitor any
MegaRAID Registration Allows other MegaRAID servers to register so they can be
Server, Client, and Server monitored by the MegaRAID client. You can monitor any
MegaRAID Clie nt only Allows you to monitor any M egaRAID server. You do not
currently working on.
monitored by the MegaRAID client. You cannot monitor any
server, including the server you’re currently working on.
server, but not the server you’re currently work ing on.
server, including the server you’re currently working on.
have to have a RAID controlle r installed in this syste m.
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4 The rest of this table is concerned with Power Console Plus installation.
For additional information about SNMP package installation, see page 94.
For additional information about MegaRAID Service Monitor installation, see
page 95.
Click on Install to begin installation.
5 The progress screen for the InstallShield Setup wizard displays.
In this example, all three components are selected. The server includes the following
features:
the server is the primary registration server of the network
•
the server registers to itself so it can be monitored
•
the server can monitor other RAID servers, including itself
•
6 Click on the Next button. Select the destination directory path. The default
destination directory is C:\Program Files\MegaRAID\.
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The default Program Folder Name is MegaRAID.
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7 Set the password as prompted. Verify the password and click on the OK
button.
8 You are prompted to edit the REGSERV.DAT file, and HOST file. Edit
REGSERV.DAT in c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc using the Notepad
program. REGSERV.DAT should look something like this:
When editing REGSERV.DAT, replace the name “localhost” with your
Registration Server name, no matter what configuration you have selected,
even if the Registration Server is the server you are working on.
Press <Enter> after you type the name of the Registration Server. If you do
not, Notepad might not enter the information.
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9
If you have not edited the HOST file yet, edit HOST in
c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc using the Notepad program. HOST should look
like this:
The HOSTS file information varies depending on the type of installation:
Enter the IP address and name of all MegaRAID servers including the
registration server.
Example:
Specify all Sequential IP addresses for the server or servers, and the
workstation. For example:
123.123.234.1
123.123.234.2
123.123.234.3
Server A
Server B
Workstation C
All specified systems must conform to the TCP/IP specification for address
structures.
Press <Enter> after typing all names of the servers. If you do not,
Notepad will not enter the information.
10 Save the file and exit. The following message displays. Reboot your system
for Power Console Plus to take effect.
.
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