Exsys EX-3516 Reference manual

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Thank you for purchasing this 4-Port SATA3 RAID/HyperDuo PCIe Card
It is designed to support up to 4 SATA3 ports in RAID 0 and RAID 1,
RAID 0+1 modes and HyperDuo modes for SSD (Solid State Drive) and
hard drive combination It supports SATA3 SSD and hard drives with up
to 6 0Gbps data rate It is an ideal solution to add new SATA3 SSD and
hard drives for your system
Features:
Supports 1-lane 5 0Gb/s PCI Express Gen 2 Data Transfer Rate
Built-in 4 Internal SATA3 Ports
Supports RAID 0,1, 0+1 and HyperDuo (Safe or Capacity) Modes
Supports Windows based RAID GUI (Marvell Storage Utility, MSU)
Supports SATA3 transfer rate up to 6 0Gb/s (600Mbytes/sec)
Supports RAID 1 Rebuild by BIOS Setup Utility
Supports Windows 2003, 2008, XP, Vista and Win 7
EX-3516
4-Port SATA3 RAID/HyperDuo
PCIe( 2) Card
1. Introduction
2. Board Layout
JP1 BIOS
Enable/Disable
Jumper
J1: SATA3 Ports
UP: Port 1
Down: Port 0
J2:
LED
Connector
J3: SATA3 Ports
UP: Port 3
Down: Port 2

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The JP1 can be used to disable the BIOS on the card for some critical
applications, please leave the jumper at “ENA” all the time
JP1: BIOS Enable/Disable Jumper
1 Power down the computer, remove the computer cover
2 Choose an unused PCI Express bus slot (2, 4, 8 or 16 lane), unscrew and
remove the slot cover
3 Place the SATA3 RAID PCIe Card into the slot Carefully press the board
into the slot until it seats firmly
4 Secure the SATA3 RAID PCIe Card with the slot cover screw
5 Install the SATA cables from the SATA connectors to your SATA devices
6 Carefully reinstall the computer cover Insert and tighten the computer
cover screws
7 Power up the PC and observe the monitor The BIOS lists all Serial ATA
devices attached to the SATA3 RAID/HyperDuo PCIe Card For example:
4. Ha
rdware Installation
BIOS Enabled:
Jumper Installed at “ENA”
(Default)
BIOS Disabled:
Jumper Installed at “DIS”
3. Jumper Settings
DIS ENA
DIS ENA

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If the information displayed on your monitor is correct (the installed
devices are listed with the correct device name, etc ), congratulations!
You have successfully installed the SATA3 RAID/HyperDuo PCIe Card in
your computer If you want to configure your RAID drives, press and hold
the 2 keys, Ctrl and M, to enter the BIOS Setup Utility for this card You can
configure the SATA RAID or HyperDuo modes in the BIOS Setup
5.1 RAID Modes
This chapter will help you to know the RAID and HyperDuo modes
supported by the SATA3 RAID/HyperDuo PCIe Card
5.2 Non-RAID mode (Single Disk Mode)
This mode is the Single Disk mode Each disk drive will be treated as
one disk volume in the operating system
5.3 Striping (RAID 0)
Read and write sectors of data interleaved between multiple drives
When any disk member fails, it affects the entire array Performance is
better than a single drive since the workload is balanced between
the array members This array type is for high performance systems
Identical drives are recommended (but not necessary, if the sizes
differ, it will truncate the bigger drive so the sizes match, it will cause a
waste) for performance as well as data storage efficiency The disk
array data capacity is equal to the number of drive members times
the smallest member capacity
5. RAID and HyperDuo Modes

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5.4 Mirroring (RAID 1)
Writes duplicate data on to a pair of drives while reads are performed
in parallel The RAID controller performs reads using advanced data
handling techniques that distribute the workload in a more efficient
manner than using a single drive When a read request is made, the
RAID controller selects the drive positioned closest to the requested
data, then looks to the “idle” drive to perform the next read access If
one of the mirrored drives suffers a mechanical or did not respond,
the remaining drive will continue to function
5.5 Striping/Mirroring (RAID 0+1, or RAID 10)
A combination of both above array types It can increase
performance by reading and writing data in parallel while
protecting data with duplication With a four-drive disk array,
Write data Streams
… … 4, 3, 2, 1
1
3
:
:
2
4
:
:
Read data Streams
… 4, 3, 2, 1
Stripe member 1
Stripe member 2
Write data Streams
… … 4, 3, 2, 1
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
Read data Streams
… 4, 3, 2, 1
Mirror member 1 (Original)
Mirror member 2
(Mirror)
1
2

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two pairs of drives are striped Each pair mirrors the data on
the other pair of striped drives The data capacity is similar to a
standard mirroring array with half of total capacity dedicated
for redundancy
5.6 HyperDuo
The HyperDuo mode in combination with a SATA HDD and a SSD,
offering a breakthrough embedded technology for new-generation
6Gb/s SATA controllers, enabling 80 percent of the performance of a
solid state drive (SSD) at one-third the cost Configured with one hard
drive and one SSD, HyperDuo uses intelligent algorithms to
automatically migrate hot data to the SSD, while enabling all data to
be safely stored on a larger capacity SATA HDD
HyperDuo enables two modes: Safe Mode and Capacity Mode Both
modes automatically identify LBA ranges across both the SSD and
HDD so that the user experience is exactly the same By allowing
consumers to view the same single drive volume (eg Data (D:) ) as
they do today, HyperDuo requires no behavioral changes by
consumers to maximize simplicity and eliminates user error
5.6.1 HyperDuo: Safe Mode
Safe Mode provides optimal data protection by mirroring data from
the SSD to the hard disk for maximum resiliency

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5.6.2 HyperDuo: Capacity Mode
Capacity Mode augments SSD and HDD capacity for the most
cost-effective configuration
Turn on your computer and press <Ctrl> and <M> keys to enter BIOS
Setup during the POST (Power-On Self-Test) Please check the Help
field at the bottom of the screen for proper operations
6. Configuring a SATA Disk Array

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6.1 Create a Disk Array:
Under Free Physical Disks, use the <Space> key to select the hard
drives to be included in the RAID array The selected hard drive will
be marked with an asterisk (*) After selecting the hard drives, press
<Enter> to proceed
To further configure the disk array, use the up or down arrow key to
move the selection bar to select an item in the right block of the
screen and press <Enter> Set the required items in sequence and
press <Enter> after each step:
1 RAID Level: Select a RAID level Options include RAID 0 (Stripe)
and RAID 1 (Mirror)
2 Stripe Size: Select the stripe block size Options include 32 KB and
64 KB
3 Gigabyte Rounding: Select whether to permit the installation of a
replacement drive that is smaller than the failed drive when
performing a RAID 1 rebuild Options include None, 1G, and 10G
4 Quick Init: Select whether to quickly erase old data on the hard
drives when creating the array
5 VD Name: Enter an array name with 1~10 letters (letters cannot
be special characters)
6 Ne t: After completing the settings above, move to Ne t and
press <Enter> to begin creating the array When prompted to
confirm whether to create this array, press <Y> to confirm or <N>
to cancel

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7 When completed, you can see the new array under
Topology\Virtual Disks
8 Save the Settings and E it. After you complete the RAID
configuration and before you exit the configuration screen, be
sure to press <F10> in the main screen Press <Y> to confirm or <N>
to cancel
9 Now, you may proceed to create the SATA driver diskette (for
AHCI mode) and the installation of the SATA driver and operating
system
6.2 Delete the Disk Array:
To deleted the existing array, select the array on the main menu
(example: VD 0: New_VD) and press <Enter> to display the Delete
option Press <Enter> When prompted, press <Y> to confirm or <N> to
cancel
With the Marvell Storage Utility (RAID GUI), you can setup a disk array
or view the current array status in the operating system Before
installing the MSU utility, you have to install the drivers first, the
Windows Hardware Installing Wizard will invoke the drivers when you
first time power up the system with the RAID card installed in the PCIe
slot, you need to insert the supplied driver CD (folders as the following
picture), and browse to the correct folder to complete the
installation
Please follow the following steps:
1 While Windows Hardware Wizard asking for the drivers, browse to
the correct folder \SATA3\88SE9230\Drivers\amd64 (or i386 for
32-bit Windows) to install the RAID drivers
7. Installing RAID Drivers and GUI (MSU)
For 64-bit Windows
Platforms
For 32-bit Windows
Platforms

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2 Reboot the system to let the drivers take effect
3 Run the RAID GUI installer
(\SATA3\88SE9230\Utility\MRUSetup.e e) to install the RAID Utility
Note: After the installation, you must login the utility with the
same account name and password that you use to login the
operating system If you did not set the account password before,
click Login to enter the Marvell Storage Utility (MSU) directly
Note: Please refer to the manual file of Marvell Storage Utility
(MSU) on the CD (in the same folder as the drivers) for more detail
operations

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Q: What should I do if my disk array is broken?
If a disk array is broken, please don’t open the computer case
immediately to correct the problem before you backup all your
important data It’s because you are most likely to make a mistake in
this abnormal condition
PLEASE BACKUP YOUR DATA FIRST!
If your array is in RAID 1 mode or HyperDuo Safe mode, that means
your system is still running in the critical condition instead of dead If
you backup your data by removable drives or network solution, you
will have a copy of up-to-date data away from this computer Then
you are safe to correct the RAID problems even you open the
computer case or change the hardware settings Some people
destroyed the data on the good drive by accident mistake when
they are changing drive or cables or modes And they lost their
important data since they did NOT backup them first! For RAID 0
mode, please always backup the data since you will lost all data
when the array is broken
Some broken array is caused by the connection problems To see if it
is the problem, please power off your computer and check the cable
connections between the RAID card and SSD or hard drives Or
change a new power or SATA cable, then power on the computer
again These may bring the broken array back to normal if the root
cause is the connection problem
If the above actions don’t work, then it may be the SSD or hard drive
problem Please replace the defect drive with a good one The RAID
card then will detect the new drive and rebuild the broken array
(RAID 1) Please note that you cannot rebuild a broken RAID 0 in any
case
8. Troubleshooting Tips