easyRAID S8-U4TT Instructions for use

ESC
Enter
easyRAID S8-U4TT
Ultra 320 SCSI to Serial ATA
Disk Array System
&
easyRAID S8-F2TT
Fibre Channel to Serial ATA
Disk Array System
Hardware User Manual

i
Preface
AboutthisManual
This manual is designed to make the disk array system as easy to use as possible. Information
contained in this document has been checked for accuracy, but no guarantee is given that the con-
tents are correct. Information and specifications are subject to change without notice.
CopyrightNotice
© Copyright 2004
All rights reserved. This disk array system and related documentation are protected by copyright
and are distributed under licenses restricting their use, copying, and distribution. No part of this
documentation may be reproduced in any form by any means without prior written authorization
of the company and its licensors, if any.
Conventions
Caution
This symbol is used to remind users to pay attention to important
descriptions regarding usage and maintenance (repair) or additional
important information related to this disk array system.
Note
This symbol is used to remind users of useful information that can make
procedures such as configuration easier to accomplish.

ii
easyRAID S8 Serial ATA Disk Array Systems
Preface – Important Safety Instructions, Care and Handling
ImportantSafetyInstructions,CareandHandling
Before starting, take a few minutes to read this manual.
Read all of these instructions and save this manual for
later reference.
Protect the disk array system from extremely high or low
temperatures. Let the disk array system warm (or cool)
to room temperature before using it.
Protect the disk array system from being bumped or
dropped. Do not place the disk array system on an
unstable cart, stand, or table. It may fall, causing serious
damage to the product.
Keep the disk array system away from magnetic forces.
Do not use the disk array system near water.
Keep the disk array system away from dust, sand, or dirt.
Gaps and openings in the cabinet are provided for venti-
lation. Never block or cover these openings, because
the disk array system may overheat and become unreli-
able. Don’t place the disk array system on a bed, sofa,
rug, or other similar surface.
Do not place the disk array system near or over a radia-
tor or heat register.
Refer to the rating plate for the correct voltage and
ensure that the appliance voltage corresponds to the
supply voltage.
V

easyRAID S8 Serial ATA Disk Array Systems
iii
Preface – Important Safety Instructions, Care and Handling
The appliance must be grounded. The disk array system
is equipped with a 3-wire grounded type of power cord.
This power cord will only fit into a grounded type of
power outlet.
If an extension cord or a power center is used with the
disk array system, make sure that the total current con-
sumption of all products plugged into the wall outlet
does not exceed the ampere rating.
Do not place the disk array system where the cord will
be walked on.
Never push any kind of object into the disk array system
through cabinet gaps and openings, since they may
touch dangerous voltage points and cause a risk of fire
or electric shock.
Unplug the power cord from the wall outlet before clean-
ing. Keep the disk array system dry. Do not use liquid
cleaners, aerosol cleaners, or a wet cloth. Use a damp
cloth for cleaning.
Except as specifically explained in this User Manual, do
not attempt to service the disk array system by yourself.
Opening or removing the covers may expose you to
dangerous voltages.
Unplug this product from the wall outlet and refer servic-
ing to qualified service personnel under the following
conditions.
• If the disk array system has been exposed to
water or any liquid.
• If the disk array system has been dropped or the
cabinet damaged.

iv
easyRAID S8 Serial ATA Disk Array Systems
Preface – Important Safety Instructions, Care and Handling
Placement Notes
• The disk array system LCD panel can be damaged by exposure to
direct sunlight. Limit exposure to subdued or indirect sunlight only.
• The disk array system should be used only in clean environments
that are free from airborne contaminants such as dust, dirt, and
smoke. Excessive moisture or oil particles in the air can also hinder
disk array system performance.
• To reduce the possibility of data errors caused by electromagnetic
interference, locate the disk array system at least five feet away
from electrical appliances and equipment that generates magnetic
fields.
Power Supply Safety Notes
• To avoid electric shocks, do not use an extended power cord or an
outlet that does not match the disk array system plug or leaves the
plug exposed.
• The disk array system has a 3-wire grounded plug. The third pin
connects to ground; do not remove it.
• If the power cord or plug is damaged or worn, unplug it immediately
and contact a qualified service technician for maintenance.
• To avoid fire or electric shocks, do not overload electric power out-
lets.

v
TableofContents
Preface................................................................................................................... i
Chapter1 Overview
Features ................................................................................................................1
Understanding RAID ............................................................................................. 2
Just a Bunch Of Disks ......................................................................................2
RAID Levels ..................................................................................................... 2
Hot Spare Disks ............................................................................................... 5
RAID Combinations ..........................................................................................5
Summary of RAID Levels .................................................................................6
System Requirements ...........................................................................................7
Operating Environment .................................................................................... 7
VT100 Terminal Settings ..................................................................................7
Host Interface ................................................................................................... 8
Hard Disks ........................................................................................................8
Chapter2 BasicConfiguration
Unpacking .............................................................................................................9
Components ........................................................................................................10
Front View ......................................................................................................10
Control Panel ..................................................................................................11
Disk Tray ........................................................................................................12
Rear View ....................................................................................................... 13
Installing Disks ....................................................................................................14
Making Connections ...........................................................................................16
Connecting the Host Interface ........................................................................16
Connecting the RS-232 Cable ........................................................................17
Connecting and Turning on the Power ...........................................................18
Chapter3 Maintenance
Replacing a Disk .................................................................................................19
Replacing a Power Supply ..................................................................................20
Upgrading Memory ............................................................................................. 22
Replacing a Fan ..................................................................................................25
Appendix
Hardware Specifications .....................................................................................29

1
1 Overview
The disk array system uses groups of inexpensive
disks to provide flexibility when balancing data avail-
ability, access rate, and capacity management needs.
High data availability is achieved by using the fault
tolerance features of RAID (Redundant Array of Inex-
pensive Disks); hot spare disks with automatic on-line
rebuild; hot swap disks, and power supplies; indepen-
dent ATA disk controllers; and dual host controllers.
Our confidence in the disk array system is backed by a
three year warranty.
A high data access rate is achieved by combining the
individual data rates of ATA disks in a RAID configu-
ration. ATA disks lack some of the features of SCSI
disks but are just as fast when used with a high perfor-
mance RAID controller. In the disk array system,
RAID is controlled by a high performance CPU,
which transfers data through dual host interfaces at the
maximum possible rate.
Flexible data capacity management is achieved with on-line RAID expansion, RAID capacity
division into slices, and multiple logical RAIDs. Management is performed through front panel
or RS-232 interfaces.
Features
The main features of the disk array system are listed as follows. Refer to the specifications table
on page 29 for more detailed information.
• Operating system independent
• Up to eight JBOD, RAID 0, 1, 3, 5, 0+1, 30, or 50 array groups
• On-line expansion and RAID level migration
• Allows division of array groups into slices, each mapped to a LUN
• Hot spare disk and automatic on-line rebuild
• Up to 8 hot swap ATA disks on independent channels for up to 2 TB (terabytes) capacity
• Two hot swap power supplies – if one fails, the others take over without interruption
• Fast 64-bit RISC CPU based RAID controller with up to 1 GB of cache in an SO-DIMM
• Ultra SCSI (easyRAID S8-U4TT) or fibre channel (easyRAID S8-F2TT) host interfaces
• Audible alarm, disk tray LED, and LCD panel failure indicators
• Configuration via the front panel or RS-232 interfaces
• Real-time clock
ESC
Enter

2
easyRAID S8 Serial ATA Disk Array Systems
1 Overview – Understanding RAID
UnderstandingRAID
Read this section to understand how to balance data availability, access rate, and capacity man-
agement needs.
JustaBunchOfDisks
Just a Bunch Of Disks (JBOD) consists of two or more disks that can be different sizes. Disk 1 is
completely filled, then disk 2, disk 3, and so on until the final disk is full.
The total capacity of JBOD is the sum of the capacities of each disk. Disks are added until the
desired total capacity is reached.
JBOD is used in the following situations:
• Building useful capacity from disks that are too small to be individually useful
• Making capacity management easier, since the user only sees one logical disk
JBOD doesn’t improve data availability or access rate when compared with a single disk.
RAIDLevels
The overall arrangement of disks in RAID is called the RAID level. Read this section to under-
stand RAID levels.
RAID0
In RAID 0, data is divided into pieces and written to all disks in parallel. This process is called
striping because the pieces of data form a stripe across multiple disks. This improves access rate,
but makes availability lower, since there are more disks and failure of a single disk causes failure
of the array. A RAID 0 array is unsuitable for data that can not easily be reproduced, or for data
that must be available for critical system operation.
RAID 0 consists of two or more disks of equal capacity. The total capacity of RAID 0 is the sum
of the capacities of each disk. Disks are added until the desired total capacity is reached.

easyRAID S8 Serial ATA Disk Array Systems
3
1 Overview – Understanding RAID
A RAID 0 array is useful in the following situations:
• Storing program image libraries or run-time libraries for rapid loading. A backup exists
because these libraries are usually supplied on read-only media.
• Storing large tables or other structures of read-only data for rapid application access. This
data should be backed up so that it can be recreated in the event of a failure.
• Capturing data from external sources at very high data transfer rates.
A RAID 0 array is not useful in the following situations:
• Applications that make sequential requests for small amounts of data. These applications
spend most of their I/O time waiting for disks to spin, whether or not they use striped
arrays.
• Applications that make synchronous random requests for small amounts of data.
RAID1
In RAID 1, data is duplicated on two or more disks to provide high access rate and very high data
availability. This process is called mirroring. If a disk fails, the RAID controller directs all
requests to the surviving members.
A RAID 1 array is useful in the following situations:
• Availability requirements are very high
• High access rate is required
• Cost of storage is a secondary issue
Optional

4
easyRAID S8 Serial ATA Disk Array Systems
1 Overview – Understanding RAID
RAID3
In RAID 3, data is divided into pieces; the parity of these pieces is calculated; and the pieces are
written to separate disks in parallel with the writing of the parity to a dedicated disk. This process
is called striping with parity. The parity disk stores redundant information about the data on other
disks. If a single disk fails, then the data on the other disks is used to regenerate the data on the
failed disk. Striping delivers a high access rate and parity delivers good data availability. The sin-
gle parity disk is a bottleneck on sequential writes, since parity must always be written to the sin-
gle parity disk.
RAID 3 consists of two or more disks used for data and one disk used for fault tolerant data. The
total capacity of RAID 3 is the sum of the capacities of each data disk. Add disks until the desired
capacity is reached, then add one more disk for fault tolerance.
RAID 3 is used by the following applications that request large amounts of data sequentially:
• Processing of graphical or video images
• Processing of CAD/CAM files
RAID 3 has the following distinctive features:
• Excellent performance for data transfer characteristics
• Not well suited for transaction processing or other I/O request intensive applications

easyRAID S8 Serial ATA Disk Array Systems
5
1 Overview – Understanding RAID
RAID5
In RAID 5, data is divided into pieces; the parity of these pieces is calculated; and the pieces and
parity are written to separate disks in parallel. The parity is written to a different disk each time.
Parity provides redundant information about the data on other disks. If a single disk fails, then
the data on the other disks is used to regenerate the data on the failed disk. Striping delivers a
high access rate and parity delivers good data availability. The bottleneck caused by the single
parity disk of RAID 3 is not present in RAID 5, since parity is stored on all disks.
RAID 5 consists of two or more disks used for data and one additional disk used for fault tol-
erence. The total capacity of RAID 5 is the sum of the capacities of each data disk. Add disks
until the desired capacity is reached, then add one more disk for fault tolerance.
RAID 5 is best used with applications whose data has the following characteristics:
• The data is worth protecting, but not as much as RAID 1
• High read data rates
• Small proportion of writes to reads
HotSpareDisks
A hot spare disk is a standby disk that is not used for data storage unless a RAID member fails. If
a disk failure occurs, the failed RAID member is replaced by the hot spare disk without user
intervention. This improves data availability, since the RAID is able to tolerate more disk failures
with a hot spare disk.
RAIDCombinations
RAID levels may be combined in the following hierarchies:
• RAID 0+1 is a RAID 1 consisting of RAID 0 members
• RAID 30 is a RAID 0 consisting of RAID 3 members
• RAID 50 is a RAID 0 consisting of RAID 5 members

6
easyRAID S8 Serial ATA Disk Array Systems
1 Overview – Understanding RAID
SummaryofRAIDLevels
The following table summarizes the performance characteristics of each RAID level. A high
availability or access rate number indicates high availability or quick access rate.
Array
Group Availability Access Rate
Capacity
Utilization Description
JBOD 1 1 100% Data is distributed by filling each
disk in turn.
RAID 0 1 5 100% Data is divided into pieces and
written to all disks in parallel.
RAID 1 5 2 50% Data is duplicated on both disks.
RAID 3 3 3 Between 67%
for 3 disks to
94% for 16
disks
Data is divided into pieces; the
parity of these pieces is calcu-
lated; and the pieces are written
to separate disks in parallel with
the writing of the parity to a dedi-
cated disk.
RAID 5 3 3.5 Between 67%
for 3 disks to
94% for 16
disks
Data is divided into pieces; the
parity of these pieces is calcu-
lated; and the pieces and parity
are written to separate disks in
parallel. The parity is written to a
different disk each time.
RAID 0+1 4.5 5 50% RAID 0+1 is a RAID 1 consisting
of RAID 0 members.
RAID 30 4 4 Between67%
for 6 disks to
88% for 16
disks
RAID 30 is a RAID 0 consisting
of RAID 3 members.
RAID 50 4 4.5 Between 67%
for 6 disks to
88% for 16
disks
RAID 50 is a RAID 0 consisting
of RAID 5 members.

easyRAID S8 Serial ATA Disk Array Systems
7
1 Overview – System Requirements
SystemRequirements
Ensure that the following requirements are met before installing the disk array system.
OperatingEnvironment
• 15 cm (6 inches) of space around the disk array system for proper ventilation
• ambient temperature of 5°C to 40°C (40°F to 104°F)
• ambient non-condensing relative humidity of 10% to 85%
• dust, smoke, and oil free environment
• no large magnetic fields, such as those generated by a high voltage power cables and
motors, etc.
• no direct sunlight
• a flat, stable surface capable of supporting the disk array system
VT100TerminalSettings
Refer to the following table for a summary of VT100 terminal settings required to communicate
with the disk array system. Refer to your system manual for instructions on setting up the VT100
terminal settings.
Item Required Setting
Connection Serial Port (COM1 or COM2)
Protocol RS232 (Asynchronous)
Cabling Null Modem cable
Baud Rate 115, 200
Data Bits 8
Stop Bit 1
Parity None

8
easyRAID S8 Serial ATA Disk Array Systems
1 Overview – System Requirements
HostInterface
The disk array system has either dual SCSI interfaces or dual fibre channel interfaces. Refer to
the following sections to understand host interface system requirements.
SmallComputerSystemsInterface
The easyRAID S8-U4TT has dual Ultra320 SCSI interfaces that are compatible with previous
SCSI standards. Refer to the following table to understand SCSI bus requirements.
FibreChannelInterface
The easyRAID S8-F2TT has dual 2 Gbit fibre channel interfaces with SFP connectors for linkage
to a fibre channel switch or host computer interface card. With the correct SFP transceiver and
optical cable, the following transmission distances can be achieved.
HardDisks
Supply the number of serial ATA disks needed for your application. Refer to “Understanding
RAID” on page 2 to determine the number of disks needed.
Note
Subtract the internal cable length (60 cm) from the maximum SCSI bus
length to calculate the maximum external SCSI cable length.
SCSI
Standard
Maximum
SCSI Bus Length
in Meters
Data Rate
in Megabytes
per Second
Maximum
Number of Devices
Ultra320 12 320 15
Ultra160 12 160 15
Ultra2 12 80 15
Ultra Wide 1.5 40 7
Fast Wide 3 20 15
Ultra 1.5 20 7
Component Optical
SFP Transceiver LC Optical
Cable Short Wave Long Wave
Maximum Cable Length 50m 10 Km

9
2 BasicConfiguration
This chapter describes disk array system connections and disk installation.
Unpacking
Contact your supplier if any of the following items are missing or damaged.
Caution
The disk array system is heavy. Be careful when lifting and moving it.
easyRAID S8-F2TT
Fibre Channel to Serial ATA
DiskArraySystem
HardwareUserManual
easyRAID S8-U4TT
&
Ultra320 SCSI to Serial ATA
DiskArraySystem
ESC
Enter
ESC
Enter
Power Cables
Front Panel Keys
User Manual
Disk Array System
RS-232 Cable
Active Terminator
(easyRAID S8-U4TT Only)
Ultra320 SCSI Cable
(easyRAID S8-U4TT Only)

10
easyRAID S8 Serial ATA Disk Array Systems
2 Basic Configuration – Components
Components
FrontView
No. Name Description
1-8 Disk trays 1 to 8 Removable hot swap disk trays.
9Control panel Displays warning, operating, and configuration
information.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

easyRAID S8 Serial ATA Disk Array Systems
11
2 Basic Configuration – Components
ControlPanel
No. Name Description
1LCD panel Displays warning, operating, and configuration
information.
2Up button Moves up in the LCD menus.
3Escape button Returns to the previous LCD menu without making
changes.
4Power-on indicator Indicates the disk array system power is on.
5Power supply fail indicator Indicates a failed power supply.
6Host computer access indicator Indicates data transfer between the disk array sys-
tem and the host computer.
7Down button Moves down in the LCD menus.
8Enter button Selects a menu item or confirms a choice or entry.
1
2
4
5
6
3
7 8

12
easyRAID S8 Serial ATA Disk Array Systems
2 Basic Configuration – Components
DiskTray
No. Name Description
1Disk mounting holes Allows the disk be mounted on the disk tray with the
screws included with the disk.
2Tray lock Prevents unauthorized removal of a disk tray. Opened
with the included disk tray lock key.
3Tray handle Releases the disk tray.
4Power/Error indicator LED Indicates normal operation of the disk when green, or
an error or failure of the disk when red.
5Access indicator LED Indicates that the disk is being accessed.
1
1
25
4
3
Front
Top
Left Right