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Promise Technology FastTrak TX4310, User Manual

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Promise Technology FastTrak TX4310 User Manual Download Page 115

Chapter 6: Technology

107

 

You can direct WebPAM to expand a logical drive beyond the maximum 
expansion size. However, when expansion is finished, your logical drive will be 
the maximum size listed in the table.
If you require a logical drive larger than the maximum expansion size:
1.

Backup the data from the current logical drive.

2.

Delete the current logical drive.

3.

Create a new logical drive with the desired capacity.

4.

Restore the data to the new logical drive.

Current LD Size

Maximum LD 

Expansion Size

Sector Size

8  to 16 TB

16 TB

4096 bytes

4  to 8 TB

8 TB

2048 bytes

2  to 4 TB

4 TB

1024 bytes

0 to 2 TB

2 TB

512 bytes

Caution

Before you begin logical drive Expansion or RAID Level Migration, 
always back up your important data.

Summary of Contents for FastTrak TX4310

Page 1: ...FASTTRAK TX4310 USER MANUAL Version 1 1 ...

Page 2: ...ay contain technical inaccuracies typographical or other errors Promise Technology 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 Technology provides this publication as is without warranty of any kind either express or i...

Page 3: ...vision reception which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected Consult Promise T...

Page 4: ...FastTrak TX4310 User Manual iv ...

Page 5: ...ate Your Logical Drive 10 WebPAM Installation 14 Utility Server 14 Java Runtime Environment 15 Operating System Support 15 Install WebPAM 15 Chapter 3 Install Drivers 23 Make an Installation Floppy Diskette 24 Windows Server 2003 25 New Installation 25 Existing Installation 26 Confirm Installation 26 Windows XP 27 New Installation 27 Existing Installation 28 Confirm Installation 28 Windows 2000 29...

Page 6: ...45 User Management 46 Add a User 46 Event Notification 47 Delete a User 50 Change a User s Password 50 Change a User s Email Address 51 Change a User s Access Rights 52 Host Management 54 Utility Configuration 55 FastTrak 56 Controller 57 Controller Information 57 Controller Settings 58 Controller Schedule 59 Controller Lock 60 Physical Drives 61 Physical Drive View 61 Media Patrol Schedule 61 Phy...

Page 7: ...tion Redundancy Check 83 Logical Drive Initialization 85 Logical Drive Activation 85 Logical Drive Critical Offline 85 Enclosures 89 Enclosure View 89 Enclosure 89 Spare Drives 91 Spare Drive View 91 Create a Spare Drive 91 Delete a Spare Drive 93 Chapter 6 Technology 95 About FastTrak 95 Adapter BIOS 95 Introduction to RAID 95 RAID 0 Stripe 96 RAID 1 Mirror 97 RAID 5 Block Striping with Distribut...

Page 8: ...xpansion 104 RAID Level Migration 105 Chapter 7 Support 109 Frequently Asked Questions 109 Pre Installation 109 Motherboard Issues 110 System CMOS Issues 110 Drive Issues 111 Operating System Related Issues 113 Installation Issues 114 Post Installation 115 Performance Tips 115 Contact Technical Support 116 Limited Warranty 119 Return Product For Repair 121 Appendix A Partition and Format 123 ...

Page 9: ...r task lists and numerous cross references to help you find the specific information you are looking for Also included are four levels of notices Note A Note provides helpful information such as hints or alternative ways of doing a task Important An Important calls attention to an essential step or point required to complete a task Important items include things often missed Caution A Caution info...

Page 10: ... servers using Serial ATA drives FastTrak TX4310 has four independent data channels to support a maximum of four Serial ATA drives and supports Stripe RAID 0 Identical drives can read and write data in parallel to increase performance Mirror RAID 1 Mirror increases read performance through load balancing and elevator sorting while creating a complete backup of your files Stripe with Parity RAID 5 ...

Page 11: ...PCI bus motherboards automatically backward compatible with 33 MHz PCI slots Allows maximum data transfers of up to 266MB per second 133 MB s in 33 MHz slot over the bus to dramatically reduce the time to save and retrieve large files Supports data stripe RAID 0 mirror RAID 1 data stripe plus parity RAID 5 and mirror stripe RAID 10 Provides dramatic increase in drive performance and or fault toler...

Page 12: ...s through WebPAM Employs the latest Promise PCI Serial ATA ASIC technology Fully supports Serial ATA specifications with 300 MB sec timing and CRC error checking at high speeds Mirror supports automatic background rebuilds Fault tolerance can be restored automatically without rebooting DOS based flash upgrade of BIOS and Firmware Verifies proper file option to backup existing file Download files f...

Page 13: ...ormance Tested compatibility to coexist with motherboards that have integrated IDE controllers Improves system performance and minimizes system conflicts for new and existing installations Compatible with all major SATA generation 1 and SATA generation 2 phase 1 and phase 2 disk drives Promise performs verification testing with major drive manufacturers and development partners Features LBA suppor...

Page 14: ...FastTrak TX4310 User Manual 6 ...

Page 15: ...tems listed below FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller Card Quick Start Guide Four 0 65m 25 6 inch Serial ATA disk drive data cables Two Y power splitter cables CD with Drivers Promise RAID Management WebPAM software and FastTrak TX4310 User Manual If any of the items are missing or appear to be damaged please contact your dealer or distributor immediately Warning The electronic components on the FastT...

Page 16: ...must be PCI 2 2 or 2 3 compliant The 32 bit portion of a 64 bit PCI or PCI X slot 1 Remove the cover of your system Note The FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller card is a PCI Plug n Play PnP device No changes are necessary in the motherboard CMOS BIOS Setup for resources or drive types in most applications Bracket Attaching screw FastTrak TX4310 PCI slots Motherboard System frame ...

Page 17: ...to function better as a single drive The table above shows the number of drives required for each RAID level If you plan to create a mirror RAID 1 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 1 Install the disk drives into the disk drive bays of your system Important If you wish to include y...

Page 18: ...lity to create a logical drive with the attached drives For an explanation of the logical drive concepts see Chapter 5 Caution Use of removable disk drive enclosures other than Promise Technology s SuperSwap is not supported and may result in performance loss or other undesired results Note You can omit this step and create your logical drive using the WebPAM software Port 1 Channel 1 Port 2 Chann...

Page 19: ...nstalled the Promise onboard BIOS will display the following screen below 2 Press the Ctrl F keys to display the FastBuild Utility Main Menu below 3 Press 2 on the Main Menu screen to display the Define LD Menu below 4 Press the arrow keys to highlight an logical drive number you want to define and press Enter to select it ...

Page 20: ...0 1 5 or 10 Stripe Block Size the default 16KB is the only setting 7 Press the arrow keys to move to Disk Assignments Press the spacebar to toggle between N and Y for each available drive Y means this disk drive will be assigned to the logical drive Assign the appropriate number of disk drives to your logical drive Refer to the table under Install the Disk Drives on page 9 A disk drive that is not...

Page 21: ...Press Y to restart the computer You have successfully created a new RAID logical drive Important You must be partition and format your new logical drive before you can use it Use the same method of partitioning and formatting a logical drive as you would any other fixed disk added to your computer system ...

Page 22: ...tTrak RAID Controller card the Host PC Figure 12 WebPAM on a network Important Install the FastTrak software drives for your operating system before installing WebPAM See Chapter 3 Installing Software Drivers on page 23 for instructions Desktop PC with Internet browser Laptop PC with Internet browser The Internet Networked PC with Internet browser Router Firewall Host PC with FastTrak Controller H...

Page 23: ...ke full advantage of all the features of WebPAM Install WebPAM Windows Follow these steps to install WebPAM on your Windows based PC or Server 1 Boot up the PC server and launch Windows If the computer is already running exit all programs 2 Insert the software CD into your CD ROM drive 3 Double click on the Install CD s icon to open it 4 Double click on the Installer icon to launch it right The fi...

Page 24: ...minal After several moments the Terminal window closes and the first WebPAM PRO installation dialog box appears WebPAM Installation for Windows and Linux continued The first WebPAM installation dialog box appears as shown below 5 When the Introduction screen appears above click the Next button ...

Page 25: ... accept the terms of the license agreement radio button Then click the Next button 7 When the Choose Install Folder screen appears above make your selection of a folder for the WebPAM applications you are installing The default folder is C Program Files Promise WebPAM If you want a ...

Page 26: ...follows External SSL Security Applies security to all connections involving the Internet or outside your company firewall Security options are invisible to authorized users Promise Technology provides a default certificate for the server as well as for internal data communication However in some cases it is always better to install and verify your own certificate for the webserver And and if possi...

Page 27: ... the option of choosing Local Monitoring Only If you check this option you can only log into WebPAM from the Host PC You cannot log into WebPAM over a network If you do not check this option you can log into WebPAM from the Host PC or over a network To continue click the Next button ...

Page 28: ...20 10 When the Ready to Install screen appears above click the Install button 11 When the Install Complete screen appears above the installation process is finished Click the Finish button to go to the Promise Registration website ...

Page 29: ...on Go to Chapter 5 WebPAM on page 49 for information about using WebPAM Important Registration of your FastTrak and WebPAM provides useful information that helps Promise Technologies to offer better products and support Please take a few minutes to register Thanks ...

Page 30: ...FastTrak TX4310 User Manual 22 ...

Page 31: ...ting systems that support the FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller card The FastTrak drivers for Windows are included on the CD Drivers and installation instructions for Linux are downloadable from the Promise website at www promise com Important If you wish to include your current bootable drive using the Windows 2000 XP or Server 2003 operating system as part of a bootable Mirrored RAID 1 disk array ...

Page 32: ...y If the display screen does not open click on MyComputer CD Drive D and double click on the Launch exe icon 3 Click on the Windows Driver button The Disk Copy Utility opens 4 Click the Create button in the Utility A confirmation box appears 5 Click the Yes button in the confirmation box The utility prepares your driver installation diskette When the utility is finished it displays a message 6 In ...

Page 33: ... FastTrak driver diskette into drive A and press Enter 4 Choose Windows Promise FastTrak TX4310 tm Controller from the list that appears on screen and then press the Enter 5 Press S to use the driver on the floppy disk and then press Enter to continue with installation 6 The Windows Server 2003 Setup screen will appear again saying Setup will load support for the following mass storage devices The...

Page 34: ...4310 tm 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 Continue anyway 5 When the New Hardware Wizard has finished installing the FastTrak driver click Finish Confirm Installation 1 Right click on the My Computer icon and select Manage f...

Page 35: ...Trak driver diskette into drive A and press Enter 4 Choose Windows Promise FastTrak TX4310 tm Controller from the list that appears on screen and then press the Enter 5 Press S to use the driver on the floppy disk and then press Enter to continue with installation 6 The Windows XP Setup screen will appear again saying Setup will load support for the following mass storage devices The list will inc...

Page 36: ...t 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 Continue anyway 5 When the New Hardware Wizard has finished installing the FastTrak driver click Finish Confirm Installation 1 Right click on the My Computer icon and select Manage from the popup menu 2 From the l...

Page 37: ...ss S to specify an Additional Device s 3 Insert the FastTrak driver diskette into drive A and press Enter 4 Choose Windows Promise FastTrak TX4310 tm Controller from the list that appears on screen then press Enter 5 The Windows 2000 Setup screen will appear again saying Setup will load support for the following mass storage devices The list will include Windows Promise FastTrak TX4310 tm Controll...

Page 38: ...ver then click Next 5 When the Windows 2000 supported SCSI adapter drivers list appears click Have disk 6 Insert the FastTrak driver diskette in drive A 7 Type A Win2000 in the text box Click OK 8 Choose Windows Promise FastTrak TX4310 tm Controller from the list that appears on screen then click Next 9 Click Yes to confirm continue the installation and copy the driver to system 10 Remove the disk...

Page 39: ... Mode The RAID mode level configuration of the logical drive Size The data capacity of the logical drive in MB Megabytes Track Mapping This is the CHS Cylinder Head Sector equivalent of the logical drive geometry as hosted by the FastTrak BIOS int 13h disk services Status Shows one of three logical drive conditions Functional The logical drive is fully operational and no problems are present Criti...

Page 40: ... device For RAID levels 1 5 and 10 at least two or more disk drives in the logical drive have failed For a RAID 0 or JBOD logical drive at least one disk drive has failed Main Menu When the FastTrak BIOS displays on your computer screen press Ctrl F to launch the FastBuild utility and display the Main Menu The Main Menu above has five options Press 1 to view disk drive assignments Press 2 to creat...

Page 41: ... drive belongs In the example above there is one logical drive composed of three disk drives LD 1 2 means logical drive 1 disk drive 2 Unassigned drives are labeled free and are considered hot spares to provide fault tolerance Unassigned drives may also be used to create a new logical drive at any time Extent An extent is a portion of the disk drive The FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller card allows ...

Page 42: ...ou want to define and press Enter to select it The Define LD Menu for the logical drive number you selected will next appear below 3 Choose the RAID Level you want In the Define LD Menu section press the Spacebar to cycle through logical drive types RAID 0 Stripe RAID 1 Mirror RAID 5 Block Striping with Distributed Parity RAID 10 Stripe Mirror JBOD Single Drive See for more information ...

Page 43: ...city for one logical drive or allocating a portion to a second logical drive 7 Choose one of the following Use the full capacity of the disk drives for a single logical drive Go to One Logical Drive below Split the disk drives among two logical drives This option does not apply to JBOD Go to Two Logical Drives on page 35 One Logical Drive Continued from Create Logical Drive step 7 above 1 Press an...

Page 44: ...310 User Manual 36 1 Press Ctrl Y to allocate a portion of the disk drives to the first logical drive 2 Enter the desired capacity in MB for the first logical drive and press Enter The Define LD Menu displays again ...

Page 45: ...ive In this example the disk drive in Channel 4 is not assigned to a logical drive in order to use it as a hot spare drive 5 Press Ctrl Y to save your logical drive configuration 6 Press Esc to exit to the Main Menu Press Esc again to exit the Utility 7 Press Y to restart the computer You have successfully created a new RAID logical drive You must partition and format your new logical drive before...

Page 46: ... belongs to logical drive 1 LD 1 Extent 2 belongs to logical drive 2 LD 2 Under Assignment the disk drive is divided into LD 1 and LD 2 For example LD 1 2 means logical drive 1 disk drive 2 LD 2 3 means logical drive 2 disk drive 3 Note that the combined size of the extents is slightly smaller than the total capacity of the disk drive Unassigned drives are labeled free and are considered hot spare...

Page 47: ...the selected logical drive appears below Caution Deletion of an existing logical drive will result in the loss of all data saved on the logical drive Record all logical drive information including RAID level disk members stripe block size and gigabyte boundary in case you wish to undo a deletion Logical drives may possibly be recovered after deletion by immediately re defining the logical drive wi...

Page 48: ...e deletion The screen returns to the Delete LD Menu Press Esc to return to the Main Menu Controller Configuration From the Main Menu screen press 4 to display the Controller Configuration Options screen below the Controller Configuration Options screen provides diagnostic information ...

Page 49: ...ile disk drives are highly reliable on occasion a disk drive can fail Fault tolerant RAID 1 5 and 10 logical drives go Critical when a disk drive fails Non fault tolerant logical drives RAID 0 and JBOD go Offline when a disk drive fails When you boot your system the FastTrak BIOS screen informs you if there is a critical or offline logical drive Allow your PC to finish booting and use WebPAM to id...

Page 50: ...FastTrak TX4310 User Manual 42 ...

Page 51: ...n WebPAM uses an HTTP connection http Enter the Host PC s IP address 127 0 0 1 or localhost Enter the Port number 8080 Add to launch WebPAM promise Together your entry looks like this http 127 0 0 1 8080 promise or https localhost 8443 promise Secure Connection WebPAM uses a secure HTTP connection https Enter the Host PC s IP address 127 0 0 1 or localhost Enter the Port number 8443 Add to launch ...

Page 52: ...s When the opening screen appears above 1 Type admin in the Login ID field 2 Type admin in the Password field 3 Click the Sign in button This is the default login for the Administrator Each user will have their own Login ID the User ID and password See Add a User on page 46 and Change a User s Password on page 50 for more information The Login ID and Password are case sensitive ...

Page 53: ... There are two ways to log out of WebPAM PRO Close your browser window Click Logout on the WebPAM banner below After logging out you must enter your user name and password to log in again Clicking Logout brings you back to the Login Screen ...

Page 54: ... This could be the User s actual name 5 Type a password into the Password field Use up to 8 letters and numbers but no spaces or other characters 6 Type the same password into the Retype Password field 7 If you plan to set up Event Notification type the user s email address in the Email field Add a User below Event Notification page 47 Delete a User page 50 Change a User s Password page 50 Change ...

Page 55: ...nk 3 Click on the Settings tab Right Meaning Creation Permission to create a logical drive and a spare drive Deletion Permission to delete a logical drive and a spare drive Maintenance Permission to migrate rebuild and synchronize a logical drive to run Media Patrol on a physical drive make controller and physical drive settings Notification Permission to receive notification of events affecting t...

Page 56: ...able space 4 Check the boxes of the notification events that you want to have reported to you via email and popup messages To select events by their severity check one of the four Select Events boxes at the top of the window See the table on the next page 5 Click on the Submit button ...

Page 57: ...build Aborted Rebuild Restarted Rebuild Progress Background Initialization Progress Background Initialization Started Background Initialization Completed Background Initialization Paused Background Initialization Resumed Background Initialization Aborted Migration Started Migration Completed Migration Paused Migration Resumed Migration Aborted Migration Progress Warning Events Disk Unplugged Disk ...

Page 58: ...eck the box to the left of the user you want to delete 4 Click the Delete button 5 In the Confirmation box click the OK button Change a User s Password In WebPAM each user can change his her own password To change a user s password 1 Log into WebPAM under the User name 2 Click on your User ID link 3 Click on the Settings tab ...

Page 59: ... s Email Address In WebPAM each user can change his her own email address or the Administrator can do it To change a user s email address 1 Click on the User ID link for the user whose email address will change 2 Click on the Settings tab Important If a user forgets his her password the Administrator must delete that User and create a new User as described above ...

Page 60: ... Click the Submit button Change a User s Access Rights In WebPAM the Administrator can change a user s access rights To change a user s access rights 1 Log in as the Administrator 2 Click on the User ID link for the user whose access rights will change 3 Click on the Settings tab ...

Page 61: ...ng Creation Permission to create a logical drive and a spare drive Deletion Permission to delete a logical drive and a spare drive Maintenance Permission to migrate rebuild and synchronize a logical drive to run Media Patrol on a physical drive make controller and physical drive settings Notification Permission to receive notification of events affecting the logical drive ...

Page 62: ... actual IP address of the PC or server with the FastTrak card is shown The Information tab displays with information about the Host PC WebPAM Version The version number of the WebPAM software Display Name The display name of the Host PC localhost is the default IP Address 127 0 0 1 is the IP address of the Host PC accessed at the Host PC Other addresses such as 192 168 1 184 refer to a Host PC acc...

Page 63: ...e Utility Configuration icon 2 Enter the Sender s address in the Email Sender field Be sure the sender has an account in your email system See your IT administrator 3 Enter your email server in the Email Server field 4 Keep or change the Email Subject line 5 Type a new interval in seconds in the Event Frame Refresh Time field 30 seconds is the default interval 6 Click the Submit button when you ar...

Page 64: ...er card installed in your system WebPAM will display the FastTrak controller installed in your system To display this screen in Management View click on the FastTrak icon in Tree View If you have multiple FastTrak controller cards in the same system they will appear under the FastTrak icon as Controller 1 Controller 2 and so on ...

Page 65: ...n The Information tab displays with information about the controller Product Name The Promise product name for this controller BIOS Version Version number of the controller s BIOS Driver Version Version number of the controller s software driver Maximum Number of Ports The number of ports on the controller Maximum Physical Drives The maximum number of physical disk drives the controller can suppor...

Page 66: ...o handling read write requests Read write requests are handled at nearly normal speed while the background processes take longer Automatic Rebuild Status When enabled and a hot spare drive is available a critical or degraded logical drive will rebuild itself automatically Automatic Rebuilding applies to RAID 1 and 3 drive RAID 5 logical drives only Buzzer When enabled the FastTrak controller s buz...

Page 67: ...on or Synchronization click on the Logical Drive icon in Tree View then select the appropriate tab in Management View To access or schedule a Media Patrol click on the Physical Drive icon in Tree View then select the Media Patrol tab in Management View Delete a Scheduled Process To delete a scheduled process 1 Click on the Controller icon in Tree View 2 Select the Schedule tab in Management View 3...

Page 68: ...her periods when you want to avoid interruption from other users trying to access the logical drives under this controller To lock the Controller on the Host PC 1 Click on the Controller icon in Tree View 2 Select the Lock tab in Management View 3 From the dropdown menu select a period of time to hold the lock The lock time range is 1 to 30 minutes 4 Click on the Lock button to set the lock The lo...

Page 69: ...ew Media Patrol tab allows you to start Media Patrol on all physical drives You can also run Media Patrol on individual physical drives see page 64 Media Patrol is a routine maintenance procedure that checks the magnetic media on each disk drive sector by sector Media Patrol checks physical drives Physical Drive View below Media Patrol Schedule page 61 Physical Drive Information page 63 Physical D...

Page 70: ...ors If the write operation fails Media Patrol reports the error to your PC s system log and to the physical drive s Bad Sector Log see page 66 This action triggers a BSL update message and an email message if you enabled that notification option see page 47 To schedule Media Patrol 1 Click on the Physical Drive View icon in Tree View 2 Click on the Media Patrol tab in Management View 3 Click on th...

Page 71: ...Version The version number of the firmware on this disk drive Enclosure The model of SuperSwap enclosure in which the disk drive is installed If there is no SuperSwap enclosure the field says None Drive Status The operational of this disk drive Functional means normal Others include Offline Background Activity The current background activity affecting this disk drive Idle means no activity Others ...

Page 72: ... on the Settings tab in Management View 4 Click the Write Cache Enable or Disable radio button 5 Click the NCQ Enable or Disable radio button 6 Click the Submit button Physical Drive Media Patrol The Physical Drive Media Patrol tab allows you to start Media Patrol on an individual physical drive You can also run Media Patrol on all physical drives at the same time see page 61 Media Patrol is a rou...

Page 73: ... BSL update message and an email message if you enabled that notification option see page 47 To start Media Patrol immediately 1 Click on the Physical Drive View icon in Tree View 2 Click on the Physical Drive icon 3 Click on the Media Patrol tab in Management View 4 Click the Start Now button To schedule Media Patrol to run at a later time 1 Click on the Physical Drive View icon in Tree View 2 Cl...

Page 74: ...vidual physical drives To access a physical drive s bad sector log 1 Click on the Physical Drive View icon in Tree View 2 Click on the Physical Drive icon 3 Click on the BSL tab in Management View If any bad sectors are found they are listed here WebPAM informs you by popup and email messages when a bad sector error is logged see page 47 After 10 bad sectors have been discovered on a physical driv...

Page 75: ...ve 1 Click on the Physical Drive View icon in Tree View 2 Click on the Physical Drive icon 3 Click on the Locate Drive tab in Management View 4 Click the Locate Drive button The Management Window will display the message Identified started and the Status LED for this physical drive will flash rapidly on the SuperSwap enclosure If you remove the physical drive the Status LED stops blinking the Acti...

Page 76: ...ical Drive A logical drive is a collection of physical drives in a RAID To create a new logical drive 1 Click on the Logical Drive View icon 2 Click on the Create tab Logical Drive View below Create a Logical Drive page 68 JBOD page 72 Delete a Logical Drive page 72 Logical Drive Information page 73 Logical Drive Settings page 74 Logical Drive Migration and Expansion page 75 Logical Drive Rebuild ...

Page 77: ...01 for information about the advantages and requirements of the available RAID levels and JBOD 4 In the Select Drive Group 5 screen click on the radio button for one of the following Free Drives Select all Free unassigned disk drives Logical Drive Select the Free portion of disk drives whose other portion is assigned to a Logical Drive The available choices depend on the RAID level you selected an...

Page 78: ...pacity check the Use Maximum Capacity box 8 Click on the disk drives to select them Available drives have a black frame Selected drives have a red frame 9 Click the Next button If you selected JBOD click the Finish button on the Select Drives screen This completes the creation process for JBOD 10 Enter a name for the logical drive in the field provided 11 Click the Next button ...

Page 79: ... Initialization Erases all sectors of the physical drives being added to the logical drive None No initialization This choice is not recommended 13 Click the Finish button If there are physical drives available the Select RAID Level screen appears again where you can create an additional logical drive Click on the Logical Drive Icon to see all of the information about your new logical drive ...

Page 80: ...k User Manual for more information on the BIOS JBODs do not have Settings Rebuild Migration Synchronization or other functions that pertain to Logical Drives If you attach a physical drive that was initialized using Windows disk management that drive will be automatically recognized as a JBOD by the FastTrak controller and WebPAM Delete a Logical Drive To delete a logical drive 1 Click on the Logi...

Page 81: ...box click the OK button 6 In the Warning box click the OK button The selected logical drive is deleted Logical Drive Information Logical Drive View provides a list of all logical drives currently on the Host PC To access Logical Drive View 1 Click on the Logical Drive View icon in Tree View 2 Click on the Logical Drive icon of the logical drive you want to see ...

Page 82: ... not apply have grayed tabs Logical Drive Settings Logical Drive Settings allows you to assign a name to a logical drive and to change its controller cache settings To access logical drive settings 1 Click on the Logical Drive View icon in Tree View 2 Click on the Logical Drive icon of the logical drive you want to see 3 Click on the Settings tab in Management View 4 Enter a name in the Assigned N...

Page 83: ...er Migration and Expansion are not available for JBOD For more information see Logical Drive Expansion on page 104 and RAID Level Migration on page 105 You can set up an Migration to begin immediately on demand or schedule a Migration for a time when there is less demand on the RAID system On Demand To migrate a logical drive 1 Click on the Logical Drive View icon in Tree View 2 Click on the Logic...

Page 84: ...ted drives have a red frame 5 Click the Start Now button You can monitor Migration or Expansion progress on the Logical Drive Migration tab Click the respective buttons to pause and resume the Migration Scheduled To schedule a Migration or Expansion 1 Click on the Logical Drive View icon in Tree View 2 Click on the Logical Drive icon of the logical drive you want to migrate or expand ...

Page 85: ... a start time Start time is based on a 24 hour clock 7 Click in Start At field to display a popup calendar 8 Click on the start date in the calendar or enter a date manually 9 Click the Schedule button Cancel a Schedule If you want to cancel the scheduled Migration do the following 1 Click on the Logical Drive View icon in Tree View 2 Click on the Logical Drive icon 3 Click on the Migration tab in...

Page 86: ...a Rebuild for a time when there is less demand on the RAID system Begin automatically when a logical drive goes critical or degraded see Create a Spare Drive on page 91 On Demand To rebuild a logical drive 1 Click on the Logical Drive View icon in Tree View 2 Click on the Logical Drive icon of the logical drive you want to rebuild 3 Click on the Rebuild tab in Management View 4 Select physical dri...

Page 87: ...ild Click the Abort button to stop the Rebuild After an abort click the Restart button to start the Rebuild from the beginning zero percent Scheduled To schedule a Rebuild 1 Click on the Logical Drive View icon in Tree View 2 Click on the Logical Drive icon of the logical drive you want to rebuild 3 Click on the Rebuild tab in Management View ...

Page 88: ...art time is based on a 24 hour clock 7 Click in Start At field to display a popup calendar 8 Click on the start date in the calendar or enter a date manually 9 Click the Schedule button Cancel a Schedule If you want to cancel the scheduled Rebuild do the following 1 Click on the Logical Drive View icon in Tree View 2 Click on the Logical Drive icon 3 Click on the Rebuild tab in Management View 4 C...

Page 89: ...ace the faulty physical drive with a new one See Replace the Failed Disk Drive on page 87 and the FastTrak User Manual and SuperSwap User Manual for more information on replacing a physical drive Synchronize Redundancy Check All Logical Drives The Logical Drive View Synchronization Schedule tab enables you to synchronize all logical drives You can also synchronize an individual logical drive see p...

Page 90: ... Enable radio button 5 Click on the by Day by Week or by Month radio button 6 From the dropdown menus select a start time and a day of the Week or Month if applicable Start time is based on a 24 hour clock 7 Click the Schedule button If you want to cancel the scheduled Synchronization do the following 1 Click on the Logical Drive View icon in Tree View 2 Click on the Synchronization tab in Managem...

Page 91: ... When an logical drive is first created and you select Full Initialization the same action as Synchronization takes place You can set up a Synchronization or Redundancy Check to begin immediately on demand or schedule a Synchronization or Redundancy Check for a time when there is less demand on the RAID system On Demand To Synchronize or Redundancy Check a logical drive 1 Click on the Logical Driv...

Page 92: ...onization tab in Management View 4 In the Policy dropdown menu select Fix if you want Synchronization or Redundancy Check if you do not want to correct inconsistencies 5 Click on the Enable radio button 6 Click on the by Day by Week or by Month radio button 7 From the dropdown menus select a start time and a day of the Week or Month if applicable Start time is based on a 24 hour clock 8 Click the ...

Page 93: ...l drive 1 Click on the Logical Drive View icon in Tree View 2 Click on the Logical Drive icon of the logical drive whose initialization you want to pause 3 Click on the Initialization tab in Management View 4 Click the Pause button The initialization process stops 5 Click the Resume button The initialization resumes from the point where you paused it Logical Drive Activation This feature enables y...

Page 94: ...d The SuperSwap Status LED changes from green to red WebPAM reports the condition in Tree View with popup messages and if Event Notification is set up email messages If you have a RAID 1 or a 3 drive RAID 5 logical drive with a hot spare drive properly configured the logical drive will automatically rebuild itself using the spare drive In the example above amber icons appear over the FastTrak Cont...

Page 95: ...no drive on Port 2 This is the failed drive Replace the Failed Disk Drive Replace the failed disk drive with a new one of equal or greater capacity Then rebuild the logical drive See Install the Disk Drives on page 9 and the SuperSwap User Manual for more information about replacing a disk drive Rebuild Your Logical Drive 1 Click on the Logical Drive View icon in Tree View 2 Click on the Logical D...

Page 96: ...st replaced or an available Free drive 5 Click the Start Now button You can monitor Rebuild progress on the Logical Drive Rebuild tab Click the respective buttons to pause and resume the Rebuild When the Rebuild is finished your logical drive will be Functional again ...

Page 97: ...ost PC To access Enclosure View click on the Logical Drive View icon in Tree View From this window you can click on the links to access information and functions of individual Enclosures Enclosure To access information about an Enclosure 1 Click on the Enclosure View icon in Tree View 2 Click on the Enclosure icon ...

Page 98: ...d other repair operations refer to the SuperSwap User Manual LEDs State Status Activity Enclosure Green Disk drive is present and ready Disk drive is present and ready Normal status Blinking n a Read write activity n a Amber Disk drive is spinning up is critical is rebuilding reports a SMART error n a 1 incident see below Enclosure is critical but still functional Attention required Red Disk drive...

Page 99: ...age 58 and Logical Drive Rebuild on page 78 for more information on how spare drives work Spare Drive View Spare Drive View provides a list of all spare drives currently on the Host PC To access Spare Drive View click on the Spare Drive View icon in Tree View From this screen you can view the current Spare Drives and click on the tabs to access the Create and Delete features Create a Spare Drive T...

Page 100: ...logical drive to which this Spare Drive will be assigned or dedicated 4 Click on a disk drive to select it Available drives have a black frame Selected drives have a red frame Drives with a blue frame are assigned to a logical drive You cannot assign a split drive as a spare drive 5 Click the Create button The new Spare Drive appears under Physical Drive View and Spare Drive View ...

Page 101: ... a spare drive 1 Click on the Logical Drive View icon 2 Select the Delete tab 3 Check the box to the left of the spare drive you want to delete 4 Click the Delete button 5 In the Confirmation box click the OK button The selected spare drive is deleted ...

Page 102: ...FastTrak TX4310 User Manual 94 ...

Page 103: ... bootup press Ctrl F to enter the FastBuild setup to select from menu settings Introduction to RAID RAID Redundant Array of Independent Disks allows multiple hard drives to be combined together into a logical drive The operating system sees the logical drive as a single storage device and treats it as such The RAID software and or controller handle all of the individual drives on its own The benef...

Page 104: ...ntical drives are recommended for performance as well as data storage efficiency The logical drive s data capacity is equal to the number of drive members multiplied by the smallest logical drive member s capacity Figure 1 RAID 0 Stripe interleaves data across multiple drives For example one 100GB and three 120GB drives will form a 400GB 4 x 100GB logical drive instead of 460 GB RAID 0 logical dri...

Page 105: ...e drive will be used as the replacement drive and data will begin to be mirrored to it from the remaining good drive Figure 2 RAID 1 Mirrors identical data to two drives Due to the data redundancy of mirroring the capacity of the logical drive is only the size of the smallest disk drive For example two 100GB disk drives which have a combined capacity of 200GB instead would have 100GB of usable sto...

Page 106: ...formance tuning based on the typical I O request sizes for your system The block size must be set at the time the logical drive is created and cannot be adjusted dynamically RAID 5 makes efficient use of hard drives and is the most versatile RAID Level It works well for file database application and web servers Figure 3 RAID 5 Stripes all drives with data and parity information The capacity of a R...

Page 107: ...riped over a second drive pair Figure 4 RAID 10 takes a data mirror on one drive pair and stripes it over two drive pairs The data capacity is similar to a RAID 1 logical drive with half of the total storage capacity dedicated for redundancy An added plus for using RAID 10 is that in many situations such a logical drive offers double fault tolerance Double fault tolerance may allow your logical dr...

Page 108: ...ws CH indicates channels on the FastTrak Controller card A B indicates which striped pair the drive belongs to 1 2 indicates which part of stripe data Under RAID 10 the array maintains data integrity if any 1 2 combination survives CH1 CH2 CH3 CH4 Drive A1 Drive A2 Drive B1 Drive B2 Event Failed Drives Logical Drive Status Why 1 A1 A2 Functional B1 B2 retain integrity 2 B1 B2 Functional A1 A2 reta...

Page 109: ...zes some advantages disadvantages and applications for each choice RAID 0 Recommended Applications for RAID 0 Image Editing Pre Press Applications Any application requiring high bandwidth Advantages Disadvantages Implements a striped disk logical drive the data is broken down into blocks and each block is written to a separate disk drive I O performance is greatly improved by spreading the I O loa...

Page 110: ...e subsystem design Can increase read performance by processing data requests in parallel since the same data resides on two different drives Very high disk overhead uses only 50 of total capacity Advantages Disadvantages High Read data transaction rate Medium Write data transaction rate Good aggregate transfer rate Disk failure has a medium impact on throughput Advantages Disadvantages Implemented...

Page 111: ...FastBuild utility and in WebPAM Full Initialization erases all the data on the selected disk drives including the MBR Use this function when one or more disk drives has been used in a previous logical drive and you want to remove all data stored on the drive This function is available in WebPAM Hot Spare Drive Any extra drive that is not assigned to an array is designated Free in the View Drive As...

Page 112: ...ack and WriteThru write through A write back cache holds data after an I O operation and tells the controller the data has been written The data is written as soon as the disk drive is no longer busy This action increases availability of the logical drive If the power fails before the data is written to the disk drive the data will be lost The alternative is a write through cache policy which repo...

Page 113: ...xpansion on page 75 Migration takes place on an existing Functional logical drive without disturbing the existing data While the logical drive is migrating you can access the data as before When migration is complete your logical drive will have a different RAID level and or a larger capacity Different types of logical drives use different organizational models and have varying benefits The follow...

Page 114: ...e range limits imposed upon logical drive expansion as shown in the table above For example You can expand a 2 5 TB logical drive up to 4 TB You can only expand a 1 9 TB logical drive up to 2 TB See the table below Important The Target logical drive may require more disk drives than the Source logical drive If the Target logical drive requires an EVEN number of disk drives but the Source logical d...

Page 115: ...xpansion size 1 Backup the data from the current logical drive 2 Delete the current logical drive 3 Create a new logical drive with the desired capacity 4 Restore the data to the new logical drive Current LD Size Maximum LD Expansion Size Sector Size 8 to 16 TB 16 TB 4096 bytes 4 to 8 TB 8 TB 2048 bytes 2 to 4 TB 4 TB 1024 bytes 0 to 2 TB 2 TB 512 bytes Caution Before you begin logical drive Expan...

Page 116: ...FastTrak TX4310 User Manual 108 ...

Page 117: ...hard drives can I use for a FastTrak TX4310 disk array You can use any Serial ATA disk drive s to create disk arrays on the FastTrak Serial ATA RAID Controller card Use matching drives for multiple disk arrays to maximize capacity usage as well as performance Will ACPI work with disk drives on the FastTrak TX4310 Yes Can I use ATAPI devices on the FastTrak TX4310 No The FastTrak 4310 does not supp...

Page 118: ...r a particular PCI slot will be different depending on the motherboard BIOS This setting is usually made in the PCI Configuration and or Plug and Play PnP section of the motherboard BIOS setup Consult your motherboard manual for information that is specific to your motherboard System CMOS Issues Set motherboard CMOS Boot sequence to boot to FastTrak Controller On some Motherboard BIOS it is necess...

Page 119: ...rent controller such as the one integrated on the motherboard Only Single drive striped RAID 0 and mirrored RAID 1 disk array configurations allow the drive s to be accessed individually on another controller Multiple drive striped RAID 0 or mirrored striped RAID 10 drives will not work If I have a problem with one of the drives on the FastTrak Controller how can I low level format it to correct t...

Page 120: ... FastTrak BIOS startup screen for a RAID1 RAID 5 or RAID 10 disk array there is a drive in the disk array that has failed or is not responding The mirrored disk array has lost its fault tolerance but will still perform normal drive reads and writes See Logical Drive Critical Offline on page 85 Disk drives cannot be formed into a disk array Disk drives must support Serial ATA and be free of media d...

Page 121: ... A Partition and Format on page 123 Unable to partition or format disk array See The disk array constantly goes critical or offline during reboot above Cannot rebuild mirrored RAID 1 disk array See The disk array constantly goes critical or offline during reboot above Fatal errors or data corruption are constantly reported when reading or writing to the disk array See The disk array constantly goe...

Page 122: ...ring floppyless installation of Windows The F6 key was not pressed at the appropriate time Reboot the system and press the F6 key when the message Press F6 if you need to install third party SCSI or RAID driver appears in Windows No Hard Drives Found message appears during CD ROM installation of Windows The F6 key was not pressed at the appropriate time Reboot the system and press the F6 key when ...

Page 123: ...er card is installed If you checked the Local Monitoring Only option when you installed WebPAM you can only access WebPAM from the Host PC To obtain network access reinstall WebPAM and be sure you do NOT check the Local Monitoring Only option See Install WebPAM on page 15 Performance Tips Here are some tips that may optimize performance in a RAID 0 striped disk array If you are using an audio vide...

Page 124: ...ormation including motherboard and CPU type hard drive model s SATA ATA ATAPI drives devices and other controllers Technical Support Services United States The Netherlands Promise Online Web Site http www promise com support technical documents drivers utilities etc E mail Support e Support On Line Fax Support 408 228 1097 Attn Technical Support Phone Support 408 228 1400 option 4 If you wish to w...

Page 125: ...many E mail Support e Support On Line Fax Support 0039 06 367 12400 Attn Technical Support Phone Support 0039 06 367 12626 If you wish to write us for support Promise Technology Italy Piazza del Popolo 18 00187 Roma Italia E mail Support e Support On Line Fax Support 886 3 578 2390 Attn Technical Support Phone Support 886 3 578 2395 ext 8811 If you wish to write us for support Promise Technology I...

Page 126: ... On Line Fax Support 86 10 8857 8015 Attn Technical Support Phone Support 86 10 8857 8085 8095 If you wish to write us for support Promise Technology China Room 1205 Tower C Webok Time Center No 17 South Zhong Guan Cun Street Hai Dian District Beijing 100081 China ...

Page 127: ...er or maintenance by anyone other than a Promise or a Promise authorized service center Disclaimer of other warranties This warranty covers only parts and labor and excludes coverage on software items as expressly set above Except as expressly set forth above Promise DISCLAIMS any warranties expressed or implied by statute or otherwise regarding the product including without limitation any warrant...

Page 128: ...medy and regardless of whether Promise has been advised of the possibility of such damages Promise is not an insurer If you desire insurance against such damage you must obtain insurance from another party Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages for consumer products so the above limitation may not apply to you This warranty gives specific legal ...

Page 129: ...eturn ONLY the specific product covered by the warranty do not ship cables manuals diskettes etc with a copy of your proof of purchase to 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 Important Obtai...

Page 130: ...uct s Promise may replace defective parts with new or reconditioned parts or replace the entire unit with a new or reconditioned unit In the event of a replacement the replacement unit will be under warranty for the remainder of the original warranty term from purchase date or 30 days whichever is longer Promise will pay for standard return shipping charges only You will be required to pay for any...

Page 131: ...ork In the example below we show how this is done in Windows A similar procedure is required for Linux PC s However partitioning and formatting in Linux is not automated therefore please refer to your system documentation for the exact procedure 1 From the desktop right click on the My Computer icon and select Manage from the popup menu The Computer Management window opens 2 From the left menu cli...

Page 132: ...rd 4 In the following windows select Disk 1 to Initialize Do not select any disks to Convert Click the Finish button to Initialize the disk array 5 Right click on the Unallocated portion of Disk 1 and select New Partition from the popup menu The New Partition Wizard appears ...

Page 133: ... available drive letter of your choice Choose Format this partition with the following settings File system NTFS Allocation unit size Default Volume label Enter your choice of name Do not check Perform a quick format or Enable file and folder compression 8 Review your selections and click Finish The New Partition Wizard will disappear while partitioning and formatting begin This process will take ...

Page 134: ...FastTrak TX4310 User Manual 126 When formatting is complete your disk array will appear as a hard drive in the Disk Management window above and the My Computer window below ...

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