47
Chapter 5: Disk Array Concepts
About FastTrak TX4000
FastTrak TX4000 is a high performance Ultra ATA RAID controller card that
features concurrent data channel operation and onboard BIOS. The channels on
the FastTrak TX4000 support concurrent operation that allows for overlapped
I/O under multi-tasking operating systems and sharing the workload between
multiple drives.
About Adapter BIOS
The FastTrak TX4000 card contains a BIOS code that extends the standard disk
service routine provided through Int13. The BIOS is bootable for DOS and other
operating systems that rely on the system BIOS for drive operation. When the
FastTrak TX4000 BIOS appears during boot up, press Ctrl-F to enter the
FastBuild setup to select from menu settings.
FastBuild Auto Menu Setup
This setup utility is used to build and manage FastTrak TX4000 disk arrays. The
utility is menu driven and features the Auto Setup (1) 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 3, which
provides descriptions of individual functions.
Reserve Sector
Array configuration data about the drive member and other members in the disk
array are saved on a special location on the disk drives called the
reserve
sector
. If any member of the array becomes corrupt or lost, the redundant
configuration data on the other members can be used for rebuilds.
Disk array members do not have a memory of their drive positions. This allows
drives to be placed on different FastTrak TX4000 connectors or cards within the
system without reconfiguring or rebuilding.
