Texas Memory Systems RamSam-210 User Manual
TEXAS MEMORY SYSTEMS, INC.
RamSan-210 User’s Manual
Version 1.1
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Any trademarks or registered trademarks used in this document belong to the companies that own them.
Copyright © 2001, Texas Memory Systems, Inc. All rights are reserved. No part of this work may be
reproduced or used in any form or by any means - graphic, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems - without permission of the
copyright owner.
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Table of Contents
Preface................................................................................................................................. 1
Document Overview....................................................................................................... 1
Conventions .................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 1 – Introduction.................................................................................................. 2
1.1 Overview............................................................................................................. 2
1.2 System Components............................................................................................ 2
1.3 Power Requirements ........................................................................................... 3
1.4 Non-Volatility..................................................................................................... 3
Chapter 2 – Installation.................................................................................................... 5
2.1 Electro-Static Discharge Warning ...................................................................... 5
2.2 Battery Warning.................................................................................................. 5
2.3 System Inspection............................................................................................... 5
2.4 Rack Mounting.................................................................................................... 7
2.5 Connecting the Fibre Channel Ports ................................................................... 7
2.6 Connecting the Power Supplies .......................................................................... 7
2.7 Turning on the System........................................................................................ 9
2.8 System Initialization........................................................................................... 9
Chapter 3 – Using the Front Panel................................................................................. 10
3.1 Overview........................................................................................................... 10
3.2 Menu System Layout ........................................................................................ 11
3.3 Ethernet Setup ................................................................................................... 11
3.4 Manual Shutdown............................................................................................. 12
3.5 System Monitoring............................................................................................ 13
Chapter 4 The Management Control Port (MCP) ......................................................... 15
4.1 Connecting to the MCP ..................................................................................... 15
4.1.1 RS232 Serial Port...................................................................................... 15
4.1.2 Ethernet ..................................................................................................... 15
4.2 Connecting using a terminal program............................................................... 15
4.3 Connecting using telnet ..................................................................................... 15
4.4 Logging into the system.................................................................................... 15
4.5 MCP Commands............................................................................................... 16
4.5.1 EXIT.......................................................................................................... 16
4.5.2 HELP......................................................................................................... 16
4.5.3 CONFIGSYS ............................................................................................ 16
4.5.4 FIRMWARE............................................................................................. 16
4.5.5 IPCONFIG................................................................................................ 16
4.5.6 LUNCONFIG............................................................................................ 18
4.5.7 MANAGE................................................................................................. 18
4.5.8 PASSWORD............................................................................................. 18
4.5.9 PERFORMANCE..................................................................................... 19
4.5.10 PORTCONFIG ......................................................................................... 19
4.5.11 POWEROFF ............................................................................................. 19
4.5.12 REBOOT................................................................................................... 19
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4.5.13 RESET ...................................................................................................... 19
4.5.14 STATUS.................................................................................................... 20
Chapter 5 Chapter 5– Hot Swap Components............................................................... 21
5.1 Hot Swapping Power Supplies.......................................................................... 21
5.2 Hot Swapping Disk Drives ............................................................................... 22
5.3 Hot Swapping Fans ........................................................................................... 22
Chapter 6 – Batteries ..................................................................................................... 24
Chapter 7 – Troubleshooting ......................................................................................... 25
Chapter 8 – Specifications............................................................................................. 26
8.1 Physical Characteristics .................................................................................... 26
8.2 Operating Environment..................................................................................... 26
8.3 Non-operating Environment ............................................................................. 26
8.4 Warranty............................................................................................................ 26
Appendix A – RamSan-210 Replacement Parts ............................................................... 27
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Figures
Figure 1 RamSan-210 Layout............................................................................................. 6
Figure 3-2 RamSan-210 Front Panel................................................................................ 10
Figure 5-3 Default LUN configuration ............................................................................. 21
Figure 5-4 Reconfigured LUN mapping ........................................................................... 21
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Preface
Document Overview
This document provides operating procedures for the RamSan-210. It covers installation,
management, and troubling shooting issues.
Conventions
The following textual conventions are used in this document:
Select Front panel button descriptions
Ethernet Setup Front panel text (menu items)
lunconfig Management port (serial/telnet) commands and text.
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Chapter 1 – Introduction
1.1 Overview
The RamSan-210 is a solid-state disk. The system uses SDRAM (memory) as primary
storage. The system is non-volatile because all writes are mirrored to two internal hard
disk drives and stored in memory. All reads occur from memory. This architecture
provides uncompromised performance and security.
The RamSan-210 is designed to be highly available and fault tolerant. The system is
more highly available than RAID or JBOD systems because the primary storage media is
SDRAM. There are no moving parts required to store data on SDRAM. Additionally,
SDRAM has a very high mean time between failures (as high as several hundred years)
according to some studies. The mechanical components in the RamSan-210 are
redundant and hot swappable.
The RamSan-210 is a complement to existing disk drives, JBOD or RAID in performance
sensitive applications. The RamSan-210 appears as another SCSI disk drive that has
been attached to the server. For some applications, the RamSan-210 is the only storage
system that will be required. For applications that store terabytes of data, the RamSan210 will be added to a system that includes RAID or JBOD.
The RamSan-210 can be connected via Fibre Channel to host servers, NAS filers or to
storage network switches and hubs. If you have specific questions about compatibility,
please see or contact Texas Memory Systems directly.
The RamSan-210 can be used in a variety of applications. If your application is slowed
down by hard disk drives, there is a good chance that the RamSan-210 can speed it up.
1.2 System Components
The system components for the RamSan-210 include:
• Main system memory ranging from four gigabytes to thirty-two gigabytes
• Either two or four one gigabit Fibre Channel ports
• Dual, redundant hot-swappable power supplies
• Dual, redundant hot-swappable 10,000 RPM hard drives
• Dual, redundant batteries
• Dual, redundant hot-swappable fans
• Ethernet monitoring port
• Serial monitoring port
• Front panel display for monitoring and configuration
• SNMP based monitoring
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1.3 Power Requirements
The RamSan-210 requires 150 watts of power for a fully loaded system. The RamSan210 includes two power supplies. Only one power supply is needed to run the system.
The power supplies are auto-ranging (they will accept either 110 or 220 power).
Each power supply is connected to an internal battery. The batteries provide at least one
hour of operation after a power failure. The power supplies and the batteries are linked.
In other words, if a power supply is not plugged into the system, its attached battery will
not work. If the power supply is broken its attached battery will not work. If the power
supply is plugged in and functional, the battery should operate properly. In the event one
battery or power supply is disabled, the other functional power supply and battery
combination will be able to handle system operation. Power supply temperature can be
monitored from the system monitoring software.
If power is lost, the system will operate for a user-defined number of minutes before
shutting down. When the system shuts down it will clear the write buffers by writing to
the mirrored internal disk drives.
When power is restored, the RamSan-210 will resume normal operations after restoring
system memory with the data from the disk drives. The system will also begin
recharging the batteries. Battery charge levels can be monitored using the bundled
remote monitoring software.
1.4 Non-Volatility
By utilizing internal hard drives and batteries, the RamSan-210 combines the
performance of SDRAM storage with the non-volatile nature of hard disk drives. The
RamSan -210 is equipped with dual, redundant, hot-swappable hard drives. Each of these
drives is able to operate at about 30 MB/sec during operation. RAID-1 is implemented
on this drive array to provide a redundant configuration for the non-volatile storage. In
order to operate the drives after a power failure occurs, the RamSan-210 contains dual
redundant batteries. When fully functional and fully charged, the batteries are able to
provide about one hour of operation.
The management control port (MCP) monitors the internal disks and batteries for a
failure condition. In such an event, the management card will notify the operator of an
error through the front panel display and over the Ethernet.
The RamSan-210 operates in mirrored write mode. All data written to the RamSan-210
system memory is also automatically mirrored to the internal disk drives. An internal
cache is used to allow for write bursts to occur without incurring a delay for each write.
Since all write operations are synchronous in this mode, there is no need to copy data
from memory to disk when a power failure occurs. The system simply waits a user
selectable amount of time (default of 5 minutes) before the RamSan-210 is powered off.
While writes are made to both disks and memory, all reads are done directly from
memory. Therefore, the RamSan-210 is an excellent solution for applications that are
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read intensive. Statistically, most applications have 80% reads and 20% writes. For
systems that are write intensive, please contact Texas Memory Systems to discuss
configuration alternatives.
The RamSan-210 with two FC32 Fibre Channel controllers should be able to provide
very close to 400MB/second of read performance.
The system will automatically conduct all reads and writes from the disk drives in the
event of a main memory failure (this type of failure is not expected). This fault tolerant
approach is designed into the system in order to provide the ultimate in data availability.
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Chapter 2 – Installation
2.1 Electro-Static Discharge Warning
Important:
Please take full E.S.D. precautions if it is necessary at any time to come into contact with
any circuit boards, components or connectors. The components used in the RamSan-210
and its interfaces can be damaged by electrostatic discharge.
2.2 Battery Warning
The internal batteries in the RamSan-210 are charged with enough voltage to power a
fully loaded system for approximately one hour. However, the batteries may not be fully
charged when you install your system. Therefore, be sure your batteries are fully charged
before you use the system where there is risk of power failure.
2.3 System Inspection
The RamSan-210 should be shipped complete with a packing list. Make sure you have
received all of the components listed.
1. Examine the external chassis for any damage that might have occurred during
shipping.
2. Make sure that both power supplies are locked securely in place and that both
backup drives have not come loose.
3. Inspect the interface plate for any screws that might have loosen during shipping.
4. Inspect both the front and rear fans to make sure they are locked in place.
5. Inspect the front panel screen for damage.
6. Report any meaningful damage to Texas Memory Systems.
Figure 1 shows an overhead view of the layout of the RAM-SAN system components.
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Figure 1 RamSan-210 Layout
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