NEC Promise SuperTrak EX8350 User Manual Download Page 1

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User’s Guide

Express 5800 120Lh

Promise SuperTrak EX8350

Disk Array Controller (SATA2)

Summary of Contents for Promise SuperTrak EX8350

Page 1: ... User s Guide Express 5800 120Lh Promise SuperTrak EX8350 Disk Array Controller SATA2 ...

Page 2: ...This page is deliberately left empty ...

Page 3: ...nted by NEC Computers S A S To allow for design and specification improvements the information in this document is subject to change at any time without notice Reproduction of this document or portions thereof with out prior written approval of NEC Computers S A S is prohibited Trademarks Adobe and Adobe Acrobat are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated Microsoft Microsoft Windows Wi...

Page 4: ... guide thoroughly before handling it In addition refer to this manual when you want to know how to use it or some malfunction occurs Always keep the manual at hand so that you can see it as soon as possible if necessary For the server in which the disk array controller is installed refer to the User s Guide of the server Read Notes on Use carefully before handling the disk array controller ...

Page 5: ... presence of a hazard that may cause minor personal injury including burns or property damage Precautions against hazards are presented with the following symbols The individual symbols are defined as follows Attention This symbol indicates the presence of a hazard An image in the symbol illustrates the hazard type Example Precaution against electric shock Prohibited Action This symbol indicates p...

Page 6: ...ndicates that improper use may cause fumes or fire Prohibited Actions Indicates a general prohibited action that cannot be specifically identified Do not disassemble repair or modify the server Otherwise an electric shock or fire may be caused Mandatory Action Unplug the power cord of the server Otherwise an electric shock or fire may be caused Indicates a mandatory action that cannot be specifica...

Page 7: ...product in such facilities equipment or control systems Do not use the server if any smoke odour or noise is present If smoke odour or noise is present immediately turn off the server and disconnect the power plug from the AC outlet then contact your service representative Using the server in such conditions may cause a fire Keep needles or metal objects away from the server Do not insert needles ...

Page 8: ... any damaged cable Make sure the cable condition before connection Using the damaged connector bent connector pin or dirty connector may cause a fire due to short circuit Do not hold the power plug with a wet hand Do not disconnect connect the plug while your hands are wet Failure to follow this warning may cause an electric shock Do not pull the cable when disconnecting the power cord When discon...

Page 9: ... cable Do not step on the cable Do not place any object on the cable Do not use the server with loose cable connections Do not use any damaged cable connector Make sure the cable is securely locked with screw Do not use or store the product in the place where corrosive gases exist Make sure not to locate or use the server in the place where corrosive gases sulphur dioxide hydrogen sulphide nitroge...

Page 10: ...llation Always connect the DC cable and or interface cable firmly An incompletely connected cable may cause a contact failure resulting in smoking or fire During Operation CAUTION Avoid contact with the server during thunderstorms Disconnect the power plug from the outlet when a thunderstorm is approaching If it starts thundering before you disconnect the power plug do not touch any part of the se...

Page 11: ...ety symbols see SAFETY INDICATIONS provided earlier Notice Items to be observed or points to be noted when operating the product Check Items to be checked when operating the product Tips Information useful or convenient for you In the Package The carton contains various accessories as well as the product itself See the packing list to make sure that you have everything and that individual componen...

Page 12: ... applications must be transferred and no backup copies must be retained Software applications must be uninstalled before transferring the product Disposal Dispose of the product according to all national laws and regulations Notice It is the user s responsibility to completely erase or modify all the data stored in storage device such as hard disk backup data cartridge floppy disk or any other med...

Page 13: ...dia Patrol and Synchronization 16 2 Specification 17 3 Disk Array Controller Features 18 Features of disk array controller 18 4 Names and Functions of Sections 19 5 Hardware Setup 21 5 1 Preparing for Setup 21 5 2 Selecting and Installing Bracket 22 5 3 Installing the Disk Array Controller 22 5 4 Connecting LED and SATA Cables 24 LED cable connection table 24 5 5 Installing Additional HDD Cage 25 ...

Page 14: ...n Menu 42 2 3 Controller Selection 43 2 4 Controller Information 44 2 5 Physical Drive Management 45 2 6 Logical Drive Management 47 2 7 Background Activity 50 2 8 Exiting SuperBuild Utility 51 3 Creating Logical Drive 52 3 1 Job Flow of Creation of Logical Drives 52 3 2 Logical Drive Creation Procedure 53 4 Deleting Logical Drive 57 4 1 Logical Drive Deletion Procedure 57 Chapter 6 Operation and ...

Page 15: ...ard 1 2 Installing WebPAM Install the Web based Promise Array Manager called WebPAM hereafter management utility which manages the disk array controller on OS The installation of WebPAM allows you to perform the following operations Events and errors occurred on array system can be registered in the event log and used effectively for troubleshooting and diagnosis WebPAM event information can be mo...

Page 16: ... of Disk Array Controller The recommended scheduling interval is once per week Depending on the operation status of your system the scheduling interval should be at least once per month Check To use the Media Patrol and Synchronization WebPAM must be installed By shipping default the media patrol is scheduled to be executed on every Wednesday at 0 00 for all the HDDs You may change the schedule ac...

Page 17: ...5 or 10 Maximum number of cards installed in server 1 Maximum number of connectable HDDs Depending on the server 1 HDD connected per port Maximum number of logical drives 4 With full height PCI bracket 121 width x 180 length x 22 height mm Outer dimension With low profile PCI bracket 81 width x 180 length x 22 height mm Weight Approx 0 12 kg Operating voltage 3 3 V Power consumption max 20 3 W 3 3...

Page 18: ...0 MB sec Installation of 128 MB SDRAM Up to 8 SATA HDDs connectable per board 1 HDD connectable per port Support of RAID levels 0 1 5 and 10 Operation in WriteBack mode enabled by connection of additional battery Report monitoring with use of ESMPRO enabled by installation of WebPAM Automatic detection of fault drive Replacement of defected HDD enabled without system shutdown hot swap Warning by b...

Page 19: ...19 4 Names and Functions of Sections This section describes the sections on the card Front view 2 1 3 7 6 4 Rear view ...

Page 20: ...the card REV XXX 3 Additional battery connector The connector allows the card to be connected to an additional battery 4 I2C connector The connector is connected with an I2C cable 6 HDD LED connector The connector allows the card to be connected to the motherboard in the server in order to light the DISC ACCESS lamp on the server 7 PCI connector PCI Express supported The connector allows the card ...

Page 21: ... the installation on the PCI or PCI Express slot depending on the type of the server Before the installation check the limitation following the User s Guide of the server HDDs to be connected to the card should have the same specification Contact your service representative for HDDs which can be connected to the card The card may coexist with other PCI boards including disk array controller mirror...

Page 22: ...g the Disk Array Controller 1 Locate the PCI or PCI Express slot in which the disk array controller will be installed and remove the additional slot cover Notice Keep the removed additional slot cover for future use The removed screw will be used to install the card Do not lose them The card does not support the PCI hot plug feature Before installing or removing the card from the server always pow...

Page 23: ... an additional battery to the card install the battery in the same procedure Notice When the card cannot be inserted into the PCI or PCI Express slot well pull it out once and insert it again Note that the card may be damaged if excess force is given to it For details of how to install the additional battery refer to the User s Guide of the Battery Backup Unit ...

Page 24: ... cable Connect the red cable to this pin This is not used for a single line LED cable Connect the black cable to this pin HDD LED connector LED cable connection table LED cable coming with server 2 line cable 1 line cable Pin 1 Connected with black cable Connected with black cable HDD LED connector Pin 2 Connected with red cable Not used Notice Depending on the type of the server the LED cable has...

Page 25: ...he card to the cage through the I2C cable coming with the card Connect the 3 pin connector white of the I2C cable to the I2C connector on the card and the 4 pin connector black to the backplane of the server or the additional HDD cage For the mating connector on the additional HDD card or the server refer to the User s Guide of the additional HDD cage or the server I2C cable To additional HDD cage...

Page 26: ...they may not be disordered Cable clamp Bottom plate of chassis of server Check Before attaching the cable clamp on the server wipe the area where the cable clamp will be attached with dry cloth Some servers require their accessories to be used instead of the cable clamp coming with the card For details refer to the User s Guides of the servers 2 Cable forming Release the lock of the cable clamp Bu...

Page 27: ...re than one HDD as if it were a single HDD The host computer accesses to more than one HDD configuring an array logical drive in parallel Some RAID levels can recover data from remaining data and parity by using rebuild feature if an error occurs in an HDD This can provide high reliability for the system 1 2 RAID Levels The record mode enabling the RAID feature includes several levels Among the le...

Page 28: ...et to a single hot spare disk LD x x HDDs assigned to logical drive Spare Hot spare disk Spare LD 1 3 LD 1 1 LD 1 2 Disk array controller Logical drive 1 Channel 1 Port 1 Channel 3 Port 3 Channel 2 Port 2 Channel 4 Port 4 1 4 Parity The parity means redundant data A single set of redundant data is created from the data saved in more than one HDD The created redundant data is used for data recovery...

Page 29: ...ecified logical disk is defected Check To assign a hot spare disk WebPAM the management utility of the card must be installed Tips For standby rebuild or rebuild using hot spare disks see Chapter 3 Disk Array Controller Features Free disk A free disk non configured disk not assigned to a logical drive and hot spare disk can substitute for defected HDD in the similar way as a global spare In the co...

Page 30: ... RAID 0 data to be recorded is distributed to HDDs The mode is called striping In the figure below data is recorded in stripe 1 disk 1 stripe 2 disk 2 and stripe 3 disk 3 in the order Because RAID0 allows all HDDs to be accessed collectively it can provide the best disk access performance Notice RAID 0 does not have data redundancy If a HDD is defected the data saved in the HDD cannot be recovered...

Page 31: ...same as the capacity of a single HDD If any one of the HDDs configuring a logical drive is defected data is still available without problems Disk array controller Disk 1 Disk 2 Disk 3 Stripe 2 Parity 3 4 Stripe 5 Parity 1 2 Stripe 3 Stripe 6 Stripe 1 Stripe 4 Parity 5 6 2 5 RAID10 Data is distributed to HDDs by striping and the stripes are recorded by mirroring Therefore RAID10 can realize the dis...

Page 32: ...build Automatic rebuild by using hot spare disks In the configuration including hot spare disks the rebuild is performed automatically if a hard disk drive assigned to a logical drive is defected Hot swap rebuild Automatic rebuild by hot swapping defected HDD Notice Note the following for the rebuild The HDD to be used for rebuild should have the same capacity number of revolutions and standard as...

Page 33: ... from the interrupted point at the completion of the access Thus the media patrol can hardly decrease the system performance Notice Note the following for the media patrol In an environment of frequent HDD accesses media patrol cannot be advanced well In such environment it is recommended to use synchronization for preventive maintenance instead of media patrol To enable media patrol WebPAM must b...

Page 34: ...a patrol the synchronization continues its operation at a certain rate if targeting logical drives are accessed Therefore considerable load may be applied to the system during synchronization to decrease in the processing rate In an environment of frequent accesses preventive maintenance using synchronization is recommended because media patrol cannot be advanced Notice Note the following for the ...

Page 35: ...State Description OFF Does not access to HDD DISK ACCESS lamp green Blink Accesses to HDD now Notice While the disk array controller does not access to the HDDs the DISK ACCESS lamps may blink frequently This does not indicate the occurrence of a failure It is caused by routine monitoring accessed by ESMPRO or the disk array controller itself or periodical accesses from OS In addition due to the n...

Page 36: ...he occurrence of a failure It is caused by routine monitoring accesses by ESMPRO or the disk array controller itself or periodical accesses from OS In addition due to the nature of the disk array controller the blinking period against a single access is rather long Such accesses may cause frequent blinks to occur Check Some servers cannot be connected with additional HDD cages or can only be conne...

Page 37: ...their status Creating and deleting logical drive Setting RAID level Setting stripe block size Setting Initialize Setting Write Cache mode Split function Indicating configuration information and status of logical drives Indicating progress pausing and restarting background task Performing rebuild synchronization Split Function The SATA2 disk array controller supports the split function which can di...

Page 38: ...atrol even if it is in free status Logical drive configuration using split function The disk array controller can make various logical drive configurations under the support of the split function However note that some configurations may cause faults to occur Examples of recommended and unsupported configurations of logical drives are described below See the examples before creating logical drives...

Page 39: ...erent RAID levels 2 LD2 2 40GB LD2 1 40GB LD1 1 80GB LD1 2 80GB L LD3 1 40GB LD1 3 80GB RAID5 LD size 240GB RAID1 LD size 40GB LD3 2 40GB LD1 4 80GB HDD 1 120GB HDD 2 120GB HDD 3 120GB Disk array controller HDD 4 120GB RAID1 LD size 40GB 2 3 Configuration of logical drives created by the different number of HDDs HDD 1 120GB HDD 2 120GB HDD 3 120GB HDD 4 120GB Free 40GB LD2 3 40GB LD2 2 40GB LD2 1 ...

Page 40: ...RAID1 LD size 40GB LD1 4 80GB Disk array controller HDD 1 120GB HDD 2 120GB HDD 3 80GB HDD 4 80GB 2 5 Configuration of logical drives created by different HDDs Disk array controller LD1 2 60GB LD1 3 60GB LD1 1 60GB Free 60GB LD1 1 60GB LD1 2 60GB LD1 3 60GB RAID5 LD size 120GB RAID5 LD size 120GB Free 60GB HDD 1 120GB HDD 2 120GB HDD 3 120GB HDD 4 120GB ...

Page 41: ...age with no logical drive defined SuperTrak EX16350 16300 8350 8300 SATAII 300 BIOS Version x x xxxx xx c xxxx xxxx Promise Technology Inc All rights reserved Controller 1 No Logical Drive is defined Press Ctrl S to enter SuperBuild tm Configuration Utility or Press Esc or Space to Continue Notice During POST do not press any keys having no relation to the operation such as Pause ...

Page 42: ... versions Physical Drive Management You can view the HDD information and status of assignment to logical drives Logical Drive Management You can create or delete the logical drive In addition the configuration and the status of existing logical drives can be viewed Background Activity You can view the progress pause or restart the background task for logical drive e g rebuild or full initializatio...

Page 43: ...ain Menu Controller Selection a screen as shown below is displayed This menu is used to select a target controller if one or more controller is installed The Express5800 series server can contain only one controller therefore this menu is not used ...

Page 44: ... and assigned status on PCI bus Tips This menu is for information only Vendor Model Indicates vendor name and model name Memory Type Memory Size Indicates the type and size of memory installed Firmware Version BIOS Version Indicates firmware and BIOS versions PCI Func Address PCI Base Address Indicates assignment on PCI bus Controller Speed Indicates transfer rate of SATA2 bus ...

Page 45: ...HDDs connected on this menu Tips This menu is for information only ID Indicates the port number Port 1 to Port 8 of connected HDD Model Number Indicates the vendor model name of HDD Capacity Indicates the capacity of HDD Selecting a desired HDD and pressing Enter key opens the Physical Drive Information screen which shows the detailed information of the selected HDD ...

Page 46: ... in Physical Drive Management screen because the space required for management area is excluded 1 Spare xxxGB Indicates that this HDD is assigned to hot spare disk xxxGB indicates the capacity assigned 1 Assigned to LD X M xxxGB X indicates the logical drive number explained later The HDD is assigned as M th HDD in logical drive X xxxGB is the assigned capacity 1 Assigned to LD X M xxxGB 2 Assigne...

Page 47: ...tus One of the HDDs configuring the logical drive is in offline status The rebuild process should be performed as soon as possible because the redundancy is lost If any other HDD fails in this state the data cannot be restored Offline The logical drive is in offline status Two or more HDDs are in offline status The data processing is disabled for the logical drive in offline status Rebuild The log...

Page 48: ...set Physical Drive ID Indicates assignment of HDD The number of numerals indicates the number of HDDs configuring the logical drive Each number indicates the port number If any of HDDs is in offline state or disconnected is indicated instead of numerals If the logical drive is in offline status is indicated Example 1 Physical Drive ID 4 1 2 3 When sorted in ascending order of port number LD x 1 Po...

Page 49: ...is in offline status The rebuild process should be performed as soon as possible because the redundancy is lost If any other HDD fails in this state the data cannot be restored Offline The logical drive is in offline status Two or more HDDs are in offline status The data processing is disabled for the logical drive in offline status Rebuild Running The logical drive is being rebuilt Initialize Run...

Page 50: ...ization is in progress or in halt status Synchron Indicates that synchronization is in progress or in halt status Status Indicates the status of background task currently being executed If no background task is being executed the status of logical drive is displayed instead Status Description Ok Indicates that the logical drive is in online status There is no running background task Critical Indic...

Page 51: ...on process that has been paused Synchronize Select this menu to execute synchronization or restart synchronization that has been paused Migration Unavailable in this controller 2 8 Exiting SuperBuild Utility 1 Press the Esc key several times to return to the Main Menu 2 If you press F10 on the Main Menu the message asking you whether SuperBuild Utility may be terminated appears Exit Configuration ...

Page 52: ...art SuperBuild Utility Are there existing logical drives Yes Are logical drives added No Delete logical drives Create logical drives Reboot the server End creation of logical drives No Yes z Logical Drive Management Create Step 1 2 1 Checking connection of HDD 2 Selecting HDD Step 2 2 1 Setting RAID level 2 Setting logical drive name 3 Setting stripe size 4 Setting capacity 5 Setting initializatio...

Page 53: ...ogical Drive Creation Procedure 1 Start SuperBuild Utility 2 Select Main Menu Logical Drive Management 3 Use an arrow key or to move cursor to Create and press Enter key The Create Step 1 2 screen is displayed ...

Page 54: ...HDDs of different capacities are connected contact your service representative If a new HDD or a HDD replaced for maintenance is connected and Status is not Free contact your service representative 5 Use an arrow key or to move cursor to HDD to be used for logical drive and press the Space key to select it The selected HDD is preceded by an asterisk and displayed in yellow When you have selected a...

Page 55: ...llowable for the selected HDD and RAID level view only Capacity Specify the logical drive capacity Enter the value not exceeding the Capacity Free To enter a numeric character always use the standard keyboard Entering a numeric character from the numeric keyboard will not be accepted If no value is entered the maximum allowable capacity is set Init Mode Select the mode to initialize HDD at creatio...

Page 56: ...When the configuration data is successfully saved the screen returns to Logical Drive Management Check the status of the logical drive you have created If you are going to create another logical drive select Create and repeat Steps 3 through 7 described above 9 When you have configured all logical drives exit from SuperBuild Utility and restart the server 10 On the POST screen make sure that Ok is...

Page 57: ...Deleting Logical Drive This section describes the deletion of a logical drive on SuperBuild Utility 4 1 Logical Drive Deletion Procedure 1 Start SuperBuild Utility 2 Select Main Menu Logical Drive Management ...

Page 58: ... select one or more logical drives 4 Move the cursor to Delete and press the Enter key The confirmation message appears at the bottom left of the screen Press the Y key to delete the selected logical drive Press any other key than the Y key e g Esc key to cancel 5 If the target logical drive is not displayed on Logical Drive Management screen the deletion procedure is completed ...

Page 59: ...s allow subsequent defects of HDDs to be found and repaired as soon as possible Both features can be performed regularly by using the scheduling function of WebPAM For details on the media patrol and synchronization see Chapter 3 Disk Array Controller Features The recommended scheduling interval is once per week Depending on the operation status of your system the scheduling interval should be at ...

Page 60: ...lly Check The disk array controller does not store the configuration information within it Instead it records and stores the configuration information in HDDs 3 2 Rebuild Feature When a HDD is defected the rebuild feature recovers the data in the defected HDD The feature is available for redundant logical drives in the RAID1 RAID5 or RAID10 level See Chapter 3 Features of Disk Array Controller for...

Page 61: ... 4 Remove the screw fixing the card and remove the card from the server Notice If an additional battery is connected remove the additional battery from the server before removing the card Connect the removed additional battery to the card installed after the replacement following the Additional DAC Battery User s Guide Always write down the position of the PCI slot from which the card has been rem...

Page 62: ...act your service representative Are HDDs inserted to the end of the additional HDD cage when the cage is used Install the HDDs in the additional HDD cage correctly Are SATA cables connected to the disk array controller HDDs and or additional HDD cage correctly Connect the cables correctly If OS is not recognized despite the above actions one or more HDDs may be defected Contact your service repres...

Page 63: ...cted correctly Connect cables correctly Additional battery is not recognized Is the additional battery connected correctly Connect the additional battery correctly Is the additional battery charged enough The additional battery may not be recognized if it is not charged at all Turn on the power of the server and leave it for six hours or longer Then start the additional battery to check whether it...

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