Acer Veriton M661 User manual

Intel Matrix Storage Manager Quick Guide for Acer Selected Veriton PC V1.1
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Acer RAID Ready Systems
With Intel Matrix storage Manager
User's Guide
Acer Incorporated
Version: v1.1
Date: August, 2007
This document contains proprietary technical information, which is the property
of the Acer Incorporated and shall not be disclosed to others in whole or in
part, reproduced, copied, or used as the basis for design, manufacturing, or
sale of apparatus without written permission of Acer Incorporated.

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Revision History
Rev. # Date Explanation of Change Approved by
1.0 2007/08/15 First release
1.1 2007/8/22 Format and spelling enhancement

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................... 4
2.RAID TECHNOLOGY AND SELECTION.................................................................................. 5
RAID0 (STRIPING).............................................................................................................................. 5
RAID1 (MIRRORING)............................................................................................................................ 6
RAID5 (STRIPING WITH PARITY)....................................................................................................... 6
RAID10 (RAID1+0: STRIPING +MIRRORING)............................................................................... 7
3.WARNINGS AND REMINDERS................................................................................................... 9
4.ENABLING THE RAID FUNCTION WITH INTEL MATRIX STORAGE MANAGER CONSOLE
10
5.CONFIGURING RAID0 OR RAID1 ON YOUR RAID READY ACER PC ...................... 17
6.CONFIGURING AN EXISTING HDD AS A RAID0 OR RAID1 VOLUME.................... 18
7.MIGRATING FROM RAID0/1/10 TO RAID5 SYSTEM................................................... 19
8.PRE-INSTALLATION OF THE INTEL® MATRIX STORAGE MANAGER DRIVER...... 20
8.1 BUILD THE RAID DRIVER ON A FLOPPY DISK.......................................................................... 20
8.2 PRE-INSTALLATION USING THE "F6" PROCESS ...................................................................... 20

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1. Introduction
This document will assist customers in evaluating, configuring and enabling
RAID functionality on Acer RAID Ready platforms using the Intel® Matrix Storage
Manager software.
This document also describes RAID volume management such as creating, deleting,
and modifying volumes, common usage models, and any special notes necessary to
enable customers to develop their RAID-compatible products.
Selected high-end Acer desktop systems are configured as Intel RAID Ready
systems.A "RAID Ready" system can be upgraded to RAID0, RAID1, RAID5 or RAID10
using the RAID migration feature built into Intel Matrix Storage Manager 7.5.
This technology enables you to install additional SATA hard drives, and then
migrate a RAID Ready configuration to a RAID0, RAID1, RAID5 or RAID10
configuration.
Before you start to build your RAID system, please do check Section 3 "Warnings
and Reminders" for more detailed information. You can also check the on-line
user's manual for the Intel Matrix Storage manager in Windows for detailed RAID
function execution.

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2. RAID Technology and Selection
RAID (a redundant array of inexpensive disks, also later known as a redundant
array of independent disks) is a system that uses multiple hard drives to share
or replicate data among the drives. Depending on the version chosen, the benefits
of RAID are one or more of the following: greater capacity, reliability,
protection of data, and/or speed compared to a single drive.
RAID0 (striping)
•RAID0 splits data evenly across two or more disks with no parity information
for redundancy.
•Multiple files can be read (and written) simultaneously and transfer time
is improved dramatically, thus increasing throughput.
•RAID0 volume capacity = number of (HDDs) x (capacity of smallest HDD)
•RAID0 can be created with disks of differing sizes, but the storage space
added to the array by each disk is limited to the size of the smallest disk.
For example, if a 120 GB disk is striped together with a 100 GB disk, the
size of the array will be 200 GB.
Block8
Block7
Block6
Block5
Block4
Block3
Block2
Physicaldisk
120 GB
Physical disk
120 GB
Logical disk
240 GB
Physicaldisks Logicaldisks
Block7
Block5
Block3
Block1
Block8
Block6
Block4
Block2
Block1
Disk1
Disk2 RAID 0

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RAID1 (mirroring)
•RAID1 creates an exact copy (or mirror) of a set of data on two or more
disks when reliability is more important than data capacity.
•A classic RAID1 mirrored pair contains two disks, which increases
reliability exponentially over a single disk.
oMirroring allows continued operation of the system in the event of
one drive or array failing.
oRestoration can be performed using the mirrored copy.
oI/O performance may suffer during reconstruction due to the increased
activity between locations.
•RAID1 volume capacity = capacity of smallest HDD
•Such an array can only be as large as the smallest member disk.
Block4
Physical
disks
120 GB
Physical
disks
120 GB
Logical disks
120 GB
Physicaldisks Logicaldisk
Block3
Block1
Block2
Block4
Block3
Block1
Block2 Block4
Block3
Block1
Block2
Disk 1
Disk 2 RAID 1
RAID5 (striping with parity)
•RAID5 uses block-level striping with parity data distributed across all
member disks.
•A RAID5 array can withstand a single disk failure without losing data or
access to data.
•RAID5 is a good all-round system that combines efficient storage with
excellent security and decent performance. It is ideal for file and
application servers.
•RAID5 volume capacity = [(number of HDDs) - 1] x (capacity of smallest HDD)

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Block Cp
BlockB1
BlockA1
Block C1
BlockBp
BlockA2
BlockC2
BlockB2
BlockAp
Physical
disk
120 GB
Physical
disk
120 GB
Logical disks
240 GB
Physical
disks
120 GB
Disk1 Disk2 Disk3
RAID10 (RAID1+0: striping + mirroring)
•A combination of RAID1 and RAID0 — mirroring and striping, but without
parity.
•RAID10 is used for both replicating and sharing data among disks.
•RAID10 is often the primary choice for high-load databases, because the
lack of parity to calculate gives it faster write speeds.
•RAID10 volume capacity = 2 x (capacity of smallest HDD)
Physical
disks
120 GB
BlockA5
BlockA3
BlockA1
BlockA5
BlockA3
BlockA1
BlockA6
BlockA4
BlockA2
Disk1 Disk2 Disk3
BlockA6
BlockA4
BlockA2
Disk4
RAID1 RAID1
RAID0
Physical
disks
120 GB
Physical
disks
120 GB
Logical disks
240 GB
Physical
disks
120 GB
Characteristics/Advantages Disadvantages
RAID0 ¾RAID0 implements a striped
disk array, the data is broken
down into blocks and each
block is written to a separate
disk drive
¾I/O performance is greatly
improved by spreading the I/O
load across many channels and
drives
¾Best performance is achieved
when data is striped across
¾Not a "True" RAID because it is
NOT fault-tolerant
¾The failure of just one drive
will result in all data in an
array being lost
¾Should never be used in
mission-critical
environments

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multiple controllers with
only one drive per controller
¾Very simple design
¾Easy to implement
RAID1 ¾Twice the Read transaction
rate of single disks, same
Write transaction rate as
single disks
¾100 percent redundancy of data
means no rebuild is necessary
in case of a disk failure, just
a copy to the replacement disk
¾Transfer rate per block is
equal to that of a single disk
¾Under certain circumstances,
RAID1 can sustain multiple
simultaneous drive failures
¾Simplest RAID storage
subsystem design
¾Highest disk overhead of all
RAID types (100%) —
inefficient
¾May not support hot-swap of
failed disk when implemented
using software RAID
RAID5 ¾Highest Read data transaction
rate
¾Medium Write data transaction
rate
¾Low ratio of ECC (parity)
disks to data disks means high
efficiency
¾Good aggregate transfer rate
¾Most complex controller
design
¾Difficult to rebuild in the
event of a disk failure (as
compared to RAID 1)
¾Individual block data
transfer rate same as single
disk
RAID10 ¾Very high I/O rates are
achieved by striping RAID1
segments
¾Excellent solution for sites
that would normally use RAID1
¾Very limited scalability at a
very high inherent cost
¾Expensive to maintain

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3. Warnings and reminders
A. Using the Intel®Matrix Storage Console in Windows®is highly recommended.
You may use Intel Matrix Storage manager console in Windows for most RAID
functions. However, using the Intel®Matrix Storage Manager option ROM
(accessed by pressing Ctrl-I when starting your computer) is NOT recommended,
because it will reformat the hard disk and Acer eRecovery Management's
Restore to Factory Defaults function will NOT be usable anymore.
B. Enabling RAID on your system is a time-intensive process and it is important
that your computer stay on during the whole process, or you will risk data
loss. Disable your screen saver and power-management options such as
auto-shutdown, auto-hibernate and auto-standby. Plug your system into an
AC adapter before attempting to enable RAID on your system.
C. Enabling RAID may change how your hard disk drives are ordered, and Acer
eRecovery Management may not function properly if your system does not have
the needed drive ordering.
D. You cannot use Acer eRecovery Management to revert your system to a non-RAID
configuration after enabling the RAID function.
E. The HDD password feature will not function once the RAID function has been
enabled.
F. Before enabling RAID on your system, back up important data and applications
using Acer eRecovery Management or another appropriate backup tool.
G. If you plan to enable RAID0 or Matrix RAID on your system, you cannot return
your system to a non-RAID state without reformatting your system.
H. Please refer to section 8 if you wish to install the RAID function by yourself.
Install Intel®Matrix Storage Drivers are needed prior enabling the RAID
function.

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4. Enabling the RAID function with Intel Matrix Storage Manager Console
1) Select "Intel Matrix Storage" from Start menu -> Intel® Matrix Storage Console
-> Intel Matrix Storage Console
2) The Console will show current SATA HDD connection status