Promise Technology FastTrak TX2000 User Manual Download

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Ultra ATA/133 RAID Card

User Manual

Version 1.3

Summary of Contents for FastTrak TX2000

Page 1: ...Ultra ATA 133 RAID Card User Manual Version 1 3 ...

Page 2: ...the content of this manual it is possible that this document may contain technical inaccuracies typographical or other errors Promise Technology Inc assumes no liability for any error in this publication and for damages whether direct indirect incidental consequential or otherwise that may result from such error including but not limited to loss of data or profits Promise provides this publication...

Page 3: ...Y 16 VIEWING DRIVE ASSIGNMENTS 18 MANUALLY CREATING AN ARRAY 19 DELETING AN ARRAY 26 REBUILDING A MIRRORED ARRAY 27 VIEWING CONTROLLER SETTINGS 29 INSTALLING DRIVERS 30 WINDOWS XP 30 WINDOWS 2000 32 WINDOWS NT4 34 WINDOWS ME 36 WINDOWS 95 98 38 DOS WINDOWS 3 1X 41 UNDERSTANDING DISK ARRAY CONCEPTS 43 ABOUT FASTTRAK TX2000 DISK ARRAY ADAPTER 43 ABOUT ADAPTER BIOS 43 FASTBUILD AUTO MENU SETUP 43 RES...

Page 4: ...FastTrak TX2000 User Manual INSTALLATION ISSUES 60 POST INSTALLATION 60 CONTACTING TECHNICAL SUPPORT 61 LIMITED WARRANTY 63 RETURNING PRODUCT FOR REPAIR 65 ...

Page 5: ...older 133MB Of course the FastTrak TX2000 is backward compatible with standard 33MHz PCI slots The FastTrak TX2000 offers two independent data channels to support a maximum of four Ultra ATA drives FastTrak TX2000 supports striping RAID 0 mirroring RAID 1 striping mirroring RAID 0 1 or spanning JBOD operation respectively With striping identical drives can read and write data in parallel to increa...

Page 6: ...ility offers local and remote management and monitoring of all FastTrak arrays that exist anywhere on a network Windows based GUI provides email notification of all major events alarms memory cache management logging for NT 2000 servers array maintenance rebuild and access to all components in array server controller data channels individual drives and enclosure For information on using PAM refer ...

Page 7: ...h drive uses a separate data channel PCI Plug n Play PCI Interrupt sharing and coexists with mainboard IDE controllers Easy to install support four ATA drives on the FastTrak TX2000 while still supporting 4 devices on motherboard ATA controller Supports concurrent IDE channel operation Drive workload is distributed in parallel between members of the array Supports IDE bus master operation Allows m...

Page 8: ...s Improves system performance of new and existing installations including mainboards with Intel chipsets Compatible with Ultra ATA 133 Ultra ATA 100 Ultra ATA 66 Ultra ATA 33 EIDE and Fast ATA 2 drives supporting multi word DMA Works with newest and current IDE drive specifications Promise engineers experienced with IDE devices perform verification testing with major drive manufacturers and develo...

Page 9: ...iver floppy diskette Promise Array Management PAM utility floppy diskettes PAM User Manual Two internal 80 wire 40 pin Ultra ATA 133 hard drive cables 18 length If ANY of the contents are missing or appear to be damaged please contact your dealer or distributor immediately WARNING Before installing the adapter into an existing system backup any necessary data Failure to follow this accepted PC pra...

Page 10: ... figure below 1 Remove the cover of your system 2 Remove the inside slot cover of an available 32 bit PCI slot on the motherboard 3 Install the FastTrak TX2000 controller card into the open slot see Figure 1 below 4 Attach your system case s 2 or 4 pin LED cable to the LED connector on the FastTrak TX2000 controller card see Figure 2 on page 8 Make sure that pin 1 on the connector is aligned with ...

Page 11: ...y The drives matched performance allows the array to function better as a single drive 1 Promise recommends using identical drives as part of a FastTrak TX2000 array If striping for performance use up to four new drives If mirroring for protection you can use two new drives OR use an existing drive and a new drive the new drive must be the same size or larger than the existing drive 2 Configure th...

Page 12: ...attach one cable to each of the IDE connectors on the FastTrak TX2000 controller card The colored edge of the cable s indicates pin 1 see below and the blue cable connector must be attached to the FastTrak TX2000 connector IDE 2 Figure 2 NOTE You must use an 80 wire 40 pin cable when connecting an Ultra ATA 133 hard drive to the FastTrak TX2000 controller card The FastTrak TX2000 package contains ...

Page 13: ...address are automatically determined by the system PnP BIOS To customize IRQ settings enter the Motherboard BIOS s Advanced PCI setup and follow the manufacturer s procedures If the system has limited IRQ resources the FastTrak TX2000 card can be set for the same IRQ as other PCI cards if those cards support PCI interrupt sharing If you wish to boot from a FastTrak TX2000 drive array AND continue ...

Page 14: ...board BIOS will display the following screen FastTrak TX2000 tm BIOS Version 1 xx Build xxxx c 1995 2001 Promise Technology Inc All Rights Reserved No array defined Press Ctrl F to enter FastBuild tm Utility Or press ESC key to continue booting the system 2 Press Ctrl F keys to display the FastBuild tm Utility Main Menu 3 Press 1 to display the Auto Setup Menu below This is the fastest and easiest...

Page 15: ... feature called Gigabyte Boundary will automatically be set to ON For a description of the Gigabyte Boundary feature see page 20 To create an array for data protection using new hard drives follow these steps 1 Using the Spacebar choose Security under the Optimize Array for section 2 Press Ctrl Y keys to Save your selection 3 The window below will appear Do you want the disk image to be duplicated...

Page 16: ...Using the Spacebar choose Security under the Optimize Array for section 2 Press Ctrl Y keys to Save your selection The window below will appear Do you want the disk image to be duplicated to another Yes No Y Create and Duplicate N Create Only 3 Press Y for the Create and Duplicate option The window below will appear asking you to select the Source drive to use FastBuild will copy all data from the...

Page 17: ...screen will appear confirming that your Security array has been created Press any key to reboot the system Array has been created Press Any Key to Reboot 8 Proceed to the Installing Driver chapter on page 30 to install the FastTrak TX2000 driver and or operating system ...

Page 18: ...en showing the card s BIOS version and status of the array FastTrak TX2000 tm BIOS Version 1 xx Build xxxx c 1995 2001 Promise Technology Inc All Rights Reserved ID MODE SIZE TRACK MAPPING STATUS 1 2 0 Stripe16126M 611 128 32 Functional Press Ctrl F to enter FastBuild tm Utility The array status consists of three possible conditions Functional Critical Offline Functional The array is operational C...

Page 19: ...To create a new array automatically follow the steps under Creating Arrays Automatically on page 16 Promise recommends this option for most users To manually create an array or define an array as bootable follow the steps under Manually Creating Arrays on page 19 You will need to manually create an array if you wish to modify block size To view drives assigned to arrays see Viewing Drive Assignmen...

Page 20: ...C Exit Ctrl Y Save Optimize Array For Select whether you want Performance RAID 0 Security RAID 1 or RAID 0 1 or Capacity Spanning under the Optimize Array for setting Performance RAID 0 Striping Supports the maximum performance The storage capacity equals the number of drives times the capacity of the smallest drive in the disk array NOTE FastTrak TX2000 permits striped arrays using 1 2 3 or 4 dri...

Page 21: ... possible FastTrak TX2000 begins to perform an automatic data rebuild on the spare drive in the background without the need to restart the system At a later time the failed drive can be physically removed from the FastTrak TX2000 card and an extra drive added in its place to function as the spare drive NOTE Due to IDE limitations when drives are in a Master Slave configuration if the drive that fa...

Page 22: ...d array provided the free drive s capacity is equal to or larger than the smallest array member Unassigned drives are not accessible by the OS The menu also displays the data transfer mode that relates to speed used by each drive U5 refers to 100MB sec transfers U4 refers to 66MB sec transfers etc FastBuild tm Utility 1 xx c 1995 2001 Promise Technology Inc View Drive Assignments Channel ID Drive ...

Page 23: ...tal Drv Capacity MB Status Array 1 Stripe 2 16126 Functional Array 2 Array 3 Array 4 Keys Available Note Bootable Array Up Down ESC Exit Enter Select Space Change Boot Drive 1 To manually create an array from the Define Array Menu use the arrow keys to highlight the array number you wish to define and press Enter to select 2 The Define Array Definition Menu will next appear that allows drive assig...

Page 24: ...ticular use of the array In general a larger block size is better when handling large data transfers such as in A V editing or graphics while a smaller block size is better when handling e mail and other common server data The default is 64K Gigabyte Boundary The Gigabyte Boundary feature is designed for mirrored arrays RAID 1 or RAID 0 1 in which a drive has failed and the user cannot replace the...

Page 25: ...nitial Define Array Menu screen will appear with the arrays defined From there you may ESC to exit and return to the Main Menu of FastBuild b If you selected a Mirroring array for two drives there is an additional window that appears as described in order to create the array To do this you will use either two brand new drives or one drive that contains existing data that you wish to mirror Creatin...

Page 26: ...age 30 to this drive while it is still attached to your existing hard drive controller 1 After assigning the drives to a Mirroring array press Ctrl Y keys to Save your selection The window below will appear Do you want the disk image to be duplicated to another Yes No Y Create and Duplicate N Create Only NOTE The Gigabyte Boundary feature is automatically disabled when creating a mirrored array RA...

Page 27: ... appear Start to duplicate the image Do you want to continue Yes No Y Continue N Abort 5 Select Y to continue If you choose N you will be returned to step 1 6 Once Y is selected the following progress screen will appear The process will take a few minutes Please Wait While Duplicating The Image 10 Complete 7 Once mirroring is complete the following screen will appear confirming that your Security ...

Page 28: ...ight the array that you want to boot from using the Up Down keys 3 Press the Space bar key 4 An asterisk will appear next to the array number indicating it as bootable The system will now recognize this array as the first array seen 5 The system will then use this bootable array as the fixed boot C drive NOTE The bootable array must contain your configured operating system Creating a Hot Spare Dri...

Page 29: ...FastTrak TX2000 Saves Array Information All disk array data is saved into the reserved sector on each array member Promise suggests that users record their disk array information for future reference Another feature of the FastTrak TX2000 disk array system is to recognize drive members even if drives are moved between different FastTrak TX2000 card connectors Since each drive s array data identifi...

Page 30: ...6 Functional Array 2 Mirror 2 8063 Functional Array 3 Array 4 Keys Available Up Down ESC Exit Del Delete 1 To delete an array highlight the Array you wish to delete and press the Del key 2 The View Array Definition menu will appear see below showing which drives are assigned to this array FastBuild tm Utility 1 xx c 1995 2001 Promise Technology Inc Define Array Menu Array No RAID Mode Total Drv Ca...

Page 31: ...tBuild Main Menu 3 Select submenu Define Array 3 4 Select the failed array and identify the Channel and ID of the failed drive 5 Power off and physically remove the failed drive 6 Replace the drive with an identical model 7 Reboot the system and enter the FastBuild Main Menu 8 Select the 5 Rebuild Array option The following screen will appear FastBuild tm Utility 1 xx c 1995 2001 Promise Technolog...

Page 32: ... Slave QUANTUMCR8 4A 8063 Keys Available Up Down ESC Exit Enter Select 11 Under Select Drive for Rebuild highlight the replacement drive 12 Press Enter and confirm that the data will be copied on to the selected drive All data on the replacement drive will be written over with mirrored information from the array drive A progress bar will appear as below Please Wait While Duplicating The Image 10 C...

Page 33: ... Keys Available Space Change Option ESC Exit Halting FastTrak BIOS On Bootup Errors The Adapter Configuration Options section allows you to enable or disable FastTrak TX2000 to Halt operation at the BIOS startup screen should an error be detected This is the only option that can be changed on this screen Viewing FastTrak System Resources The System Resources Configuration section of this submenu d...

Page 34: ...d to install third party SCSI or RAID driver appears 2 When the Windows XP Setup window is generated press S to Specify an Additional Device s 3 Insert the Promise Technology driver diskette into drive A and press Enter key 4 Choose WinXP Promise FastTrak TX2000 tm Series Controller from the list that appears on screen and then press the Enter key 5 Press S to use the driver on the floppy disk and...

Page 35: ...d 1 In the A drive insert the FastTrak TX2000 driver diskette 2 Choose Install the software automatically and press the Enter key 3 Choose WinXP Promise FastTrak TX2000 tm Series Controller from the list that appears on screen and then press the Enter key 4 If using a driver that has not been digitally signed by Microsoft you will be asked if you want to continue the installation Click on Continue...

Page 36: ...en the Windows 2000 Setup window is generated press S to Specify an Additional Device s 3 Insert the Promise Technology driver diskette into drive A and press Enter key 4 Choose Win2000 Promise FastTrak TX2000 tm Series Controller from the list that appears on screen and then press the Enter key 5 The Windows 2000 Setup screen will appear again saying Setup will load support for the following mass...

Page 37: ...drivers for this device so that I can choose a specific driver Click on Next 3 In the Install Drivers dialog box press Have disk 4 When the Install From Disk appears insert the Promise Technology FastTrak TX2000 diskette in drive A 5 Type A Win2000 in the text box Press Enter 6 Choose Win2000 Promise FastTrak TX2000 tm Series Controller from the list that appears on screen and then press the Enter...

Page 38: ...ce s 3 Press O to select Other and press the Enter key 4 Insert the Promise Technology FastTrak TX2000 driver diskette into drive A and press the Enter key 5 Choose WinNT Promise FastTrak TX2000 tm Series Controller from the list that appears on screen and then press the Enter key 6 The Windows NT Setup screen will appear again saying Setup will load support for the following mass storage devices ...

Page 39: ...e Disk 6 When the Install From Disk appears insert the FastTrak TX2000 Driver diskette in drive A 7 Type A NT4 in the text box window then choose OK 8 When the Install Driver dialog box appears select WinNT Promise FastTrak TX2000 tm Series Controller and then press OK 9 When the Select SCSI Adapter Option dialog box appears press Install 10 After a successful installation the SCSI Adapter Setup b...

Page 40: ...on 5 In the System window choose the Device Manager tab 6 In the hierarchical display under Other Devices is a listing for PCI RAID Controller Choose it and then press the Properties button 7 Choose the Driver tab in the Properties window choose Update Driver and then press Next 8 Choose Search for a better driver than the one your device is using now recommended then press Next 9 Choose Specify L...

Page 41: ... one your device is using now 4 Click on Next and from the generated choices choose Specify a location 5 Insert the FastTrak TX2000 Driver diskette in drive A 6 Type A WIN9x ME in the text box that appears 7 Click on Next A message informing you that Windows Millennium has found Win9x ME Promise FastTrak TX2000 tm Series Controller should appear 8 Click on Next and then on Finish 9 Choose Yes when...

Page 42: ... the Properties window choose Update Driver and then press Next 9 Choose Search for a better driver than the one your device is using now recommended then press Next 10 Choose Specify Location and then type A WIN9x ME in the text box 11 Insert the FastTrak TX2000 Driver diskette into the A drive 12 Press the Next button A message informing you that Windows 98 has found Win9x ME Promise FastTrak TX...

Page 43: ...nable to find the drivers press Other Locations 12 In the Select Other Location dialog box type A WIN9x ME 13 Press the Next button A message informing you that Windows 95 has found Win9x ME Promise FastTrak TX2000 tm Series Controller should appear 14 Press Finish If Windows can t find the FastTrak MPD file type A WIN9x ME in the Copy files from text box 15 Choose Yes when asked if you wish to re...

Page 44: ...ies Controller 8 Click on Next and then on Finish 9 Choose Yes when asked if you want to restart your computer Be sure to eject the diskette from drive A Windows 95 1 After installing the FastTrak TX2000 controller card and configuring the hard drives power up the system and boot Windows 2 The Update Device Drive Wizard will appear informing you that it has found a PCI Mass Storage Controller 3 In...

Page 45: ...ow the standard procedure of installing DOS on to your hard disk partition all hard drives with FDISK and format before performing the following procedure 1 Insert Disk 1 of your DOS installation diskettes into drive A 2 Type A SETUP at the A prompt 3 Continue with normal DOS installation procedure and refer to your DOS manual for additional details NOTE The FastTrak TX2000 BIOS supports both DOS ...

Page 46: ...FastTrak TX2000 Series User Manual 42 ...

Page 47: ...o enter the FastBuildTM setup to select from menu settings FastBuild Auto Menu Setup This setup utility is used to build and manage FastTrak TX2000 disk arrays The utility is menu driven and features the 1 Auto Setup option that uses a simple interactive setup process Once the array is built all the array members store the configuration information in the drive s reserved area See Chapter 4 which ...

Page 48: ...er of a specific disk array has coded in its reserved sector configuration information that identifies the drive as a member All disk members in a formed disk array are recognized as a single physical drive to the system Disk Array Types For most installations the FastBuildTM setup 1 Auto Setup option will configure your system There are four disk array types in three categories that can be instal...

Page 49: ...ay type is for high performance systems Identical drives are recommended for performance as well as data storage efficiency The disk array data capacity is equal to the number of drive members times the smallest member capacity For example one 100 GB and three 120 GB drives will form a 400 GB 4 x 100 GB disk array Stripe Size a value can be set from 1KB to 1024KB sector size The size can directly ...

Page 50: ... that have a combined capacity of 200 GB would have 100 GB of usable storage With drives of different capacities there may be unused capacity on the larger drive Using a Spare Drive Under a RAID 1 setup an extra hot spare drive a third drive on FastTrak TX2000 can be attached to the FastTrak TX2000 and not assigned to the array Such a drive will be activated to replace a failed drive that is part ...

Page 51: ... of RAID 0 1 is dual fault tolerance In some cases two drives can fail simultaneously and still maintain the integrity of data There are six combinations in which two drives can fail FastTrak TX2000 protects the data array in four of those cases depending on drive type some drives do not permit the Slave drive to continue to function if the Master drive fails Assume the drives are configured as fo...

Page 52: ... A1 B1 Offline B2 A2 contain only half of array data 6 B2 A2 Offline A1 B1 contain only half of array data Spanning JBOD A Spanning disk array also aptly named as JBOD for Just a Bunch of Drives is equal to the sum of all drives when the drives used are of different capacities Spanning stores data on to a drive until it is full then proceeds to store files onto the next drive in the array There ar...

Page 53: ... to a particular slot You can tell the motherboard to use IRQ 10 for PCI slot 1 IRQ 11 for PCI slot 2 etc 2 Listing which IRQs are available to be assigned to the PCI slots This BIOS has an option where you specify 1st Available IRQ 2nd Available IRQ etc The BIOS then scans the PCI slots for PCI cards and assigns these IRQs in the order that it finds the PCI cards 3 Excluding an IRQ from being use...

Page 54: ...s lost its fault tolerance but will still perform normal drive reads and writes Operation aborted because FastBuild encountered an error as follows Location Channel 2 Master Drive Array Status Critical Please retry using Promise Array Management utility to recover all data Reboot the system by pressing the ENTER key Try powering the system off and on to reset the drive Also confirm that cables are...

Page 55: ... corrupt or bad Removing the Reserve Sector will remedy any issue related directly to a Bad Reserve Sector WARNING Before removing the Reserve Sector of the drive s backup any existing data Removal of the reserve sector of any drive permanently deletes all existing data on the hard drive For Mirrored arrays RAID 1 you should remove the Reserve Sector from the mirrored drive first this will appear ...

Page 56: ...install of the Operating System This restores the MBR and OS boot record This requires repartitioning and formatting the drive For Windows 98 you can perform the DOS Command SYS C from a bootable floppy or CD ROM to restore the operating system boot record and transfer the system files to the boot drive If this does not work the Windows 98 registry may have become corrupted during the boot process...

Page 57: ...T 2000 or XP The F6 key was not pressed at the appropriate time Reboot the system and press the F6 key when the message Setup is inspecting your computer s hardware configuration appears in Windows NT4 or the message Press F6 if you need to install third party SCSI or RAID driver appears in Windows 2000 and XP ...

Page 58: ...s how much time is allocated to service each PCI slot Promise recommends a value of 64 An optimal value is neither too high nor too low and will vary from system to system Optimize Array for Performance The Promise FastBuild BIOS Utility autosetup menu allows optimizing the array for A V Editing The default Performance setting Striping selects a Stripe Block size of 64 This larger block size is re...

Page 59: ...y back of AVI files A setting of Less for PCI Bus utilization reduces the time which FastTrak TX2000 occupies on the PCI bus and frees that time for use by other PCI devices and will remove the glitch dropout effect on playback Once a bus setting has been selected click the Apply button to implement changes immediately No reboot is required ...

Page 60: ...FastTrak TX2000 Series User Manual 56 NOTES ...

Page 61: ...oller does not support ATAPI devices Q Will the FastTrak TX2000 work with 66MHz PCI bus speed A Yes the FastTrak TX2000 are designed to accommodate the newer PCI bus speed and are backward compatible with 33MHz speeds Q How can I change the resources that the FastTrak uses A The FastTrak TX2000 is fully PnP This means all the resources that it uses are given to it by the PnP BIOS on the motherboar...

Page 62: ...in the array A RAID 0 array consisting of four HDDs will transfer at about three times the speed of the slowest HDD in the array RAID 1 mirror For capacity The FastTrak TX2000 array will be as big as the smallest HDD in the array The larger HDD will simply be truncated The truncated space on the bigger HDD will then be unusable For sustained data transfers The FastTrak TX2000 array will write data...

Page 63: ...ives as LBA not CHS Q If I have a problem with one of the drives on the FastTrak TX2000 how can I low level format it to correct the problem A Do NOT do this Low level formatting IDE drives is unnecessary and generally does not correct problems that might be experienced during use Errors such as bad sectors or ECC CRC failure are best remedied by completely replacing the drive For this reason driv...

Page 64: ...k TX2000 first rather than IDE an IDE controller built onto the motherboard or one which effectively replaces it If there are multiple SCSI add in controllers in the system then the boot sequence among them will be determined exclusively by their PCI slot priority PCI slot 1 will be first slot 2 second etc Put the FastTrak TX2000 controller in the PCI slot where it will be accessed ahead of other ...

Page 65: ... BIOS and driver version numbers A description of the problem situation System configuration information including motherboard and CPU type hard drive model s IDE ATAPI drives devices and other controllers Technical Support Services Promise OnlineTM Web Site http www promise com tech documents drivers utilities etc Promise US E mail Support support promise com Fax Technical Support 408 228 6401 At...

Page 66: ...com tw Fax Technical Support 886 3 578 23 90 Attention Technical Support Phone Technical Support 886 3 578 23 95 9 00 6 00pm Taiwan Time If you wish to write us for support Promise Technology Inc Attn Technical Support 2F No 30 Industry E Rd IX Science Based Industrial Park Hsinchu Taiwan R O C Promise China E mail Support support china promise com Fax Technical Support 86 0 10 6872 3940 Attention...

Page 67: ...pose quality merchantability non infringement or otherwise Promise makes no warranty or representation concerning the suitability of any product for use with any other item You assume full responsibility for selecting products and for ensuring that the products selected are compatible and appropriate for use with other goods with which they will be used Promise does not warrant that any product is...

Page 68: ... warranty gives specific legal rights and you may also have other rights that vary from state to state This limited warranty is governed by the State of California Your Responsibility You are responsible for determining whether the product is appropriate for your use and will interface with your equipment without malfunction or damage You are also responsible for backing up your data before instal...

Page 69: ...ess Drive Milpitas CA 95035 Other Countries Return the product to your dealer or retailer Contact them for instructions before shipping the product You must follow the packaging guidelines for returning products Use the original shipping carton and packaging Include a summary of the product s problem s Write an attention line on the box with the RMA number Include a copy of proof of purchase You a...

Page 70: ...FastTrak TX2000 Series User Manual 66 ...

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