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3-9

Safety Information and Technical Specifications

4. Select Yes at the prompt and press Enter.

The CU displays a bar graph showing the initialization progress.

5. When initialization completes, press Esc to return to the previous menu. 

If you press Esc while initialization is in progress, the Stop, Continue, and Abort 
options are available, as explained earlier in this section.

3-3 Setting the Hard Disk Write Cache and Read Ahead 

Policies

You can use the MegaRAID BIOS CU to set the hard disk drive Write Cache and 
Read Ahead settings. Any read or write cache policy changes apply to all logical 
drives on an array. In other words, if two logical drives are defined on a single array 
and you change the Read Ahead setting on one logical drive, the change will also 
apply to the other logical drive on the array.

The Disk Write Cache and Read Ahead policies can be set to On or Off.

• When the disk Write Cache is On, a write transaction is considered to be complete 

when all the data has been written to the disk cache. When disk Write Cache 
is Off, the write transaction is complete only when the data has been written to 
the disk. 

• When disk Read Ahead is On, extra data is read sequentially ahead of the data 

that is actually requested and is stored in a cache. If the additional read-ahead 
data is then requested, it can be read faster from the cache than from the disk 
directly. 

Note: When the disk Write Cache is On, there is a danger that data could be lost 
if the power fails before the cached data is written to disk.

Follow  these  steps  to  view  or  change  the  logical  drive  Write  Cache  or  Read 
Ahead settings: 

1. From the Management Menu, select Objects→ Logical Drive→Logical Drive n→ 

View/Update Parameters.

2.  Use  the  arrow  key  to  move  the  cursor  to  Disk  WC  or  Read Ahead  and  press 

Enter.

Summary of Contents for AOC-USAS-L8i

Page 1: ...A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C 1 3 AF AE AD AC AB AA Y W V T R P N M L K J U H G F E D C B A 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 4 A C A C A C A C A C A C...

Page 2: ...UCT OR DOCUMENTATION EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES IN PARTICULAR THE VENDOR SHALL NOT HAVE LIABILITY FOR ANY HARDWARE SOFTWARE OR DATA STORED OR USED WITH THE PRODUCT INCLUDING TH...

Page 3: ...ns 2 3 LED INDICATORS 2 4 Front Pane LEDs 2 4 RAID Minimum Drive Requirements 2 5 Chapter 3 Driver Installation 3 1 Performing a Quick Con guration 3 1 3 2 Con guring Arrays and Logic Drives 3 2 Start...

Page 4: ...torage Manager Window and Menus 5 1 Starting MegaRAID Storage Manager Software 5 1 5 2 MegaRAID Storage Manager Window 5 4 Physical Logical View Panel 5 5 Properties Operations Graphical View Panel 5...

Page 5: ...v Safety Information and Technical Speci cations 6 6 Saving a Storage Con guration to Disk 6 16 6 7 Clearing a Storage Con guration from a Controller 6 16 6 8 Adding a Saved Storage Con guration 6 17...

Page 6: ...vi Add on Card User s Guide Notes...

Page 7: ...UIO Form Factor Dual Internal ipass cable ports Multiple LED Activity Failure indicators Operating Systems Supported The AOC USAS L8i add on card supports the following Operating Systems OS Windows 20...

Page 8: ...s SuperMicro Computer B V Het Sterrenbeeld 28 5215 ML s Hertogenbosch The Netherlands Tel 31 0 73 6400390 Fax 31 0 73 6416525 Email sales supermicro nl General Information support supermicro nl Techni...

Page 9: ...card by its edges only do not touch its components periph eral chips memory modules or gold contacts When handling chips or modules avoid touching their pins Put the card and peripherals back into th...

Page 10: ...1 2 Add on Card User s Guide Notes...

Page 11: ...V T R P N M L K J U H G F E D C B A 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 4 A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C PCB EDGE A C A C PCB ED...

Page 12: ...ors The Internal SAS ports connect to the backplane allowing the motherboard to ac cess the hard drives and RAID capabilities Each connector supports up to 4 hard drives allowing the add on card to su...

Page 13: ...to change the function of the connector Pin 1 is identi ed with a square solder pad on the printed circuit board Note On two pin jumpers Closed means the jumper is on and Open means the jumper is off...

Page 14: ...WER LEDS LNP0 LNP7 A0 A7 1 3 1 4 A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C A C 1 3 AF AE AD AC AB AA Y W V T R P N M L K J U H G F E D C B A 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 1...

Page 15: ...chnical Speci cations RAID Minimum Drive Requirements RAID Minimum Hard Drives RAID 0 2 RAID 1 2 RAID 10 4 2 RAID 1 Arrays Use the following chart to determine the minimum number of hard drives needed...

Page 16: ...2 6 Add on Card User s Guide Notes...

Page 17: ...re the best performance select the optimal RAID level for the logical drive you create Important It is recommended that you do not use both SAS and SATA drives in the same array Using different drive...

Page 18: ...a speci c array determines the possible RAID levels that you can implement with the array RAID 0 requires from one to eight physical drives RAID 1 requires two physical drives RAID 10 requires four si...

Page 19: ...ng Easy Con guration 1 Select Con guration Easy Con guration from the Management Menu A list of available READY physical drives appears 2 Use the arrow keys to select the physical drives to include in...

Page 20: ...r 12 Save the con guration when prompted and press any key to return to the Management Menu 13 Initialize the new logical drive s See Section 3 Initializing Logical Drives for detailed instructions Us...

Page 21: ...ive its status changes from READY to ONLIN A array num ber drive number For example ONLIN A00 01 means array 0 disk drive 1 4 To create a global hotspare drive highlight a READY disk drive and press F...

Page 22: ...y 14 Save the con guration when prompted and press any key to the Management Menu 15 Initialize the new logical drive s See Section 3 2 Initializing Logical Drives for detailed instructions Creating a...

Page 23: ...h the Mega RAID BIOS CU If the Fast Init property is enabled fast initialization will be used In fast initialization the MegaRAID BIOS CU quickly writes zeroes to the rst and last 8 Mbyte regions of t...

Page 24: ...nabled the initialization resumes where it left off when you restart it instead of starting over from 0 percent Continue The initialization continues normally Abort The initialization is completely ab...

Page 25: ...rive on the array The Disk Write Cache and Read Ahead policies can be set to On or Off When the disk Write Cache is On a write transaction is considered to be complete when all the data has been writt...

Page 26: ...the de ned size of the array Follow these steps to rebuild a drive 1 Select Rebuild from the Management Menu 2 When the list of drives appears highlight the FAIL drive that you want to rebuild and pr...

Page 27: ...build continues normally Abort The rebuild is completely aborted and the disk drive remains in the FAIL state If you restart the rebuild it begins at 0 percent 3 5 Hot Plug Support The MegaRAID BIOS C...

Page 28: ...of Array Not Complete Press ESC followed by the hot plug message If a consistency check is in progress when you insert or remove a drive the CU will display the message CC Not Completed Press ESC foll...

Page 29: ...d continues If you press N the program aborts the consistency check The same message appears if the program nds a hard media error on the target drive If you press Esc while a Check Consistency is run...

Page 30: ...t The following list of adapter properties appears 1 The Disk coercion property can be accessed only when no con guration is pres ent for the adapter Otherwise an error message will appear 3 If you wa...

Page 31: ...isk Capacity Product ID and Revision No These properties are view only 3 8 Forcing Drives Online or Of ine The MegaRAID BIOS CU enables you to force drives online or of ine You may want to force a dri...

Page 32: ...ting a Logical Drive Caution Before you delete a logical drive be sure to back up all the data you want to keep The MegaRAID BIOS CU allows you to delete any single logical drive de ned in the con gur...

Page 33: ...edded MegaRAID Software The MegaRAID Storage Manager graphical user interface GUI makes it easy for you to create and manage storage con gurations Note MegaRAID Storage Manager software can be used to...

Page 34: ...lures and other events that require immediate attention Maintaining Storage Con gurations You can use MegaRAID Storage Manager software to perform system maintenance tasks such as running consistency...

Page 35: ...a system running Microsoft Windows 2000 Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or Microsoft Windows XP 1 Insert the MegaRAID Storage Manager software installation CD in the CD ROM drive If necessary nd and dou...

Page 36: ...tware to view or change storage con gura tions If you select Only for current user the MegaRAID Storage Manager shortcuts and associated icons will be available only to the user with this user name 5...

Page 37: ...Client if you are installing MegaRAID Storage Manager software on a PC that will be used to view and con gure servers over a network Select Server to install only those components required for remote...

Page 38: ...unning Red Hat Linux or SUSE Linux 1 Copy the SSM_linux_installer tar gz le to a temporary folder 2 Untar the SSM_linux_installer tar gz le using the following command tar zxvf SSM_linux_installer tar...

Page 39: ...st uninstall all the rpm les manually before installing MegaRAID Storage Manager software with the procedure listed previously The version is already installed This message indicates that the version...

Page 40: ...4 8 Add on Card User s Guide Notes...

Page 41: ...Manager software on a Microsoft Windows system select Start Programs MegaRAID Storage Manager StartupUI or double click the MegaRAID Storage Manager shortcut on the desktop Note If a warning appears s...

Page 42: ...er has failed Note To access servers on a different subnet type in the box at the bottom of the screen the IP address of a server in the desired subnet where MegaRAID Storage Manager software is runni...

Page 43: ...lect View Only if you need to only view and monitor the con guration 4 Enter your user name and password and click Login Note If the computer is networked this is the login to the computer itself not...

Page 44: ...r s Guide 5 2 MegaRAID Storage Manager Window This section describes the MegaRAID Storage Manager window which is shown in Figure 5 3 The following topics describe the panels and menu options that app...

Page 45: ...controller has one or more ports Disk drives and other devices are attached to the ports The Logical view shows the hierarchy of controllers virtual disks and disk groups that are de ned on the system...

Page 46: ...t panel Some types of devices such as arrays and ports do not have operations associated with them The Graphical View tab can be selected in the right panel if a physical drive or virtual disk is sele...

Page 47: ...of the MegaRAID Storage Manager window The options also vary depending on the current state of the selected device For example if you select an of ine physical drive the Make Drive Online option appe...

Page 48: ...nager software online help le You can select Help About to view version information for the MegaRAID Storage Manager software Note When you use the MegaRAID Storage Manager software online help you ma...

Page 49: ...cause unpredict able behavior decreased performance an increased error count and decreased MTBF Note You cannot create or modify a storage con guration unless you are logged on with administrator pri...

Page 50: ...anual Con guration gives you the greatest level of control in creating a new virtual disk Guided Con guration asks you a few simple questions about what kind of con gu ration you want and then automat...

Page 51: ...tion modes of the Con guration Wizard You should change these parameters only if you have a speci c reason for doing so It is usually best to leave them at their default settings Stripe Size A stripe...

Page 52: ...ysical disks Figure 7 2 Auto Con guration Screen Follow these steps to create a new storage con guration in Auto Con guration mode 1 Select a redundancy option from the drop down menu at the bottom of...

Page 53: ...to switch to Manual Con guration mode so you can modify the suggested Auto Con guration When you click Modify the Virtual Disk Creation screen appears Select the new virtual disk and click Reclaim The...

Page 54: ...ration only if redundancy RAID 1 is pos sible Redundancy when possible Create a redundant con guration if possible Other wise create a non redundant con guration No Redundancy Create a non redundant c...

Page 55: ...cond Guided Con guration Screen 5 Change the default volume parameters in this window if needed In the top sec tion of the window you can specify the number of virtual disks to create You can also cho...

Page 56: ...ow button to move the selected drives to the right panel Note MegaRAID Storage Manager software will not allow you to select the disk drive on which the operating system is installed or any other driv...

Page 57: ...not want to use the entire available capacity for the new virtual disk 7 Optional Change the other Virtual Disk Properties if necessary 8 Click Accept to accept the con guration of the new virtual dis...

Page 58: ...tton to move the selected drives to the right panel Note MegaRAID Storage Manager software will not allow you to select the disk drive on which the operating system is installed or any other drives th...

Page 59: ...Optional Set Size in MB to a lower number if you do not want to use the entire available capacity for the new virtual disk 9 Optional Change the other Virtual Disk Properties if necessary 10 Click Ac...

Page 60: ...click Remove HotSpare 6 Click Next The next Con guration Wizard window appears as shown in Figure 6 6 The Arrays with Free Space menu lists the new arrays that you just de ned plus any existing arrays...

Page 61: ...e Make sure the capacity of the hotspare drive is equal to or larger than the capacity of the disks in the array and that it is the same type of drive SAS or SATA Note The hotspare drive will rebuild...

Page 62: ...can restore them later if necessary Rebuild Rate ____________ Background Initialization BGI Rate ____________ Check Consistency Rate ____________ 1 Select the Physical View tab in the left panel of th...

Page 63: ...arameters Note Only the Disk Write Cache and Read Ahead functions are supported in Em bedded MegaRAID Software 4 Click Go to accept the changes 6 5 Deleting a Virtual Disk Caution Be sure to back up t...

Page 64: ...w Con guration option to add a new storage con guration while keeping the existing con guration Alternatively you can clear the existing storage con guration from a controller and then create a totall...

Page 65: ...er and size of the physical disks connected to the controller are exactly the same as when the con guration was saved To add a saved con guration follow these steps 1 Select a controller icon in the l...

Page 66: ...6 18 Add on Card User s Guide Notes...

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