Ezquest B12560 User manual

SteelVine Studio RAID eSATA
User's Guide
Version 2.6
Document Number: MAN-002000-000

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SteelVine Manager User’s Guide
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Contents
About this guide.................................................................................................................................................1
Audience ......................................................................................................................................................1
1Introducing the SteelVine Storage Appliance..................................................................................2
Product overview ...............................................................................................................................................2
How the SteelVine Storage Appliance operates ...........................................................................................3
SteelVine storage policies................................................................................................................................4
2Installing the SteelVine Storage Appliance......................................................................................6
Prerequisites ......................................................................................................................................................6
Hardware ......................................................................................................................................................6
Software........................................................................................................................................................6
Install the SteelVine hardware .........................................................................................................................7
Install the SV-HBA3124 card and driver ..................................................................................................7
Connect the host to the SteelVine Storage Appliance ..........................................................................7
MS Windows ..........................................................................................................................................................8
Mac OS X................................................................................................................................................................9
3Getting Started....................................................................................................................................11
Start the SteelVine Manager...........................................................................................................................11
Start the SteelVine Manager....................................................................................................................11
MS Windows ........................................................................................................................................................11
Mac OS X..............................................................................................................................................................12
A Look at the SteelVine Status Window.......................................................................................................14
4Basic Configuration ...........................................................................................................................16
A Look at the Basic Configuration Wizard...................................................................................................16
Configure Volumes..........................................................................................................................................18
5Advanced Configuration ...................................................................................................................21

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Why Advanced Configuration?......................................................................................................................21
A Look at the Advanced Configuration Wizard...........................................................................................22
Configure Multiple Volumes...........................................................................................................................25
Manage Configuration Files ...........................................................................................................................34
Import a configuration file .......................................................................................................................34
Save a configuration file ..........................................................................................................................35
6Partitioning Configured Volumes ....................................................................................................36
Partition a Volume ...........................................................................................................................................36
MS Windows ..............................................................................................................................................36
Mac OS X ....................................................................................................................................................41
7Administering the SteelVine.............................................................................................................43
Change Password............................................................................................................................................43
Manage Client Connection to the Daemon ..................................................................................................44
Prerequisites..............................................................................................................................................44
Set up a remote connection ....................................................................................................................44
8Configure SAFE Volume Rebuild Storage Policy..........................................................................45
When is a rebuild necessary?.................................................................................................................45
What happens during a rebuild? ............................................................................................................45
Configure a rebuild ...................................................................................................................................46
9Email Notification...............................................................................................................................48
Setting-up Email Notification .........................................................................................................................49
Receiving an Email Notification.....................................................................................................................51
10 Install New Firmware & Software ..............................................................................................52
Firmware Update..............................................................................................................................................52
Install New SteelVine Manager Software......................................................................................................54
Uninstall Current Software ......................................................................................................................54

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MS Windows ........................................................................................................................................................54
Mac OS X..............................................................................................................................................................55
Install new software..................................................................................................................................55
11 Editing the UserConfig.xml........................................................................................................56
Creating a Splash Screen ...............................................................................................................................58
12 Monitor and Troubleshooting....................................................................................................59
Monitor the SteelVine Storage Appliance ....................................................................................................59
Monitor drive status..................................................................................................................................59
Monitor temperature .................................................................................................................................60
Monitor fan status.....................................................................................................................................60
Review Event Logs ..........................................................................................................................................61
Front Panel LED Indicators ............................................................................................................................62
Troubleshooting...............................................................................................................................................63

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Figures
Figure 1: Basic SteelVine operation...............................................................................................................3
Figure 2: LEDs..................................................................................................................................................62
Tables
Table 1 Sections of the Status Window........................................................................................................14
Table 2 File Menu on the Status Window .....................................................................................................15
Table 3 Edit Menu on the Status Window ....................................................................................................15
Table 4 Toolbar on the Status Window.........................................................................................................15
Table 5 Sections of the Basic Configuration Wizard..................................................................................17
Table 6 Toolbar on the Basic Configuration Wizard...................................................................................17
Table 7 Command Buttons on the Basic Configuration Wizard...............................................................17
Table 8 Basic Storage Policy Options ..........................................................................................................19
Table 9 Sections of the Advanced Configuration Wizard..........................................................................23
Table 10 Toolbar Buttons on the Advanced Configuration Wizard..........................................................23
Table 11 Command Buttons on the Advanced Configuration Wizard .....................................................24
Table 12 Drive Status ......................................................................................................................................59
Table 13 Temperature Status .........................................................................................................................60
Table 14 Fan Status .........................................................................................................................................60
Table 15 Status Indicators for 0 and 1 LEDs ...............................................................................................62
Table 16 Status Indicators for ! and OK LEDs.............................................................................................62

About this guide
This guide describes how to configure the SteelVine Storage Appliance for the optimum allocation of available
disk storage space for your applications.
Note: The SteelVine Manager User’s Guide presents screens captured in MS Windows. If a dialog
appears differently on the Macintosh vs. MS Windows operating systems, the Mac OS X images
are presented in addition to the MS Windows images.
Audience
This guide provides the information needed to pre-configure the SteelVine for the end-user so that it can be sold
as a ready-to-use storage device. Experienced end-users may configure the SteelVine Storage Appliance on an
exception basis.

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1 Introducing the SteelVine
Storage Appliance
This chapter introduces the SteelVine Storage Appliance through a product overview, a description of system-
level function, and definition of the SteelVine storage policies.
Product overview
The SteelVine Storage Appliance is powered by Silicon Image’s industry-leading Serial Advanced
Technology Attachment (SATA). SATA is an interface between desktop computers/servers and attached hard
disk drives. SATA supersedes the Parallel Ultra ATA/100 interface, improving performance from 100 MB/sec
to a data transfer rate of 150 MB/sec with SATA Generation 1 (gen1) and 300 MB/sec with SATA Gen2.
Populated with five SATA drives, the SteelVine Storage Appliance stores as much as 2.5 terabytes of data.
The SteelVine Storage Appliance is coupled with a processing architecture that provides enhanced data
protection, high-performance storage, and plug-and-play functionality. The SteelVine Storage Appliance is a
simple and affordable solution that transparently replicates data, eliminating a vulnerability that is too often
overlooked or considered too expensive to solve. Volumes can be created with mirrored drives, providing
automated data protection along with notifications when a drive needs replacement.
The SteelVine Storage Appliance is available from leading storage partners in preconfigured user set-ups or it
can be set up on site. The end-user does not need to be an experienced storage network administrator to
understand and configure the SteelVine Storage Appliance, nor does he need prior knowledge of physical disk
drives or storage concepts. The SteelVine Manager can be run at any time to monitor or reconfigure the Storage
Appliance. The SteelVine Manager’s monitoring function allows preventive maintenance and enables
troubleshooting by using environment-control feedback. The guided configuration utility helps the end-user set
up and maintain the best possible configuration for his/her organization.
For demanding performance applications such as video or audio editing, digital imaging, sophisticated data
manipulation, or just the fastest gaming platform in town, the SteelVine Storage Appliance can be
preconfigured as a striped disk array, simultaneously accessing multiple drives for blazing fast disk
performance.
The industry-approved external SATA connector assures a robust and reliable interconnect and extends the
reach of your SteelVine Storage Appliance.

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How the SteelVine Storage Appliance operates
The SteelVine architecture (Figure 1) supports configuration and management of multiple storage devices
connected to a single host. Its built-in features include RAID configuration, disk rebuild, and virtualization
capabilities. Disk virtualization uses the SteelVine’s innovative SteelVine processor technology to map the
physical drives to virtual drives for optimal storage.
Figure 1: Basic SteelVine operation
In its basic form, the SteelVine Storage Appliance supports individual mapping of a hard disk drive to a
corresponding volume or virtual drive.
Using complex mapping options, the physical drives can be concatenated and mapped to virtual drives in
several ways to implement FAST, SAFE, or BIG storage policies, as described in the next section. Depending
on the end-user’s choice, the data is written to one or more disks sequentially or simultaneously.
The SteelVine Manager User’s Guide assumes that end-users are using the SV-HBA3124-4 host bus adapter
and driver, which provide port multiplier support as a SATA host. Refer to “Install the SteelVine hardware” for
more information on running the SteelVine Storage Appliance with other hosts that may not support port
multipliers.
Big
Safe
FAST
SteelVine
Virtual Drives
Physical Drives
striping
mirroring
concatenation

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SteelVine storage policies
The following terms represent SteelVine configuration options, or storage policies, for mapping physical to
virtual drives. The end-user can choose from these policies when s/he configures the volumes (virtual drives)
using the Basic Configuration Wizard or the Advanced Configuration Wizard.
JBOD A storage policy that grants the host computer direct access to a physical disk drive. With
JBOD (just a bunch of disks), the number of available virtual drives is equal to the number of
physical drives. JBOD is also called the bypass mode because the host bypasses the SteelVine
virtualization engine to access the drive directly.
SAFE A storage policy in which all data are stored in duplicate on separate hard disk drives to
protect against data loss due to drive failure. At least two hard disk drives mirror each other at
all times, equivalent to RAID 1. Every write operation goes to both drives. SAFE provides
the highest level of data protection, but halves the amount of storage space because all data
must be stored twice.
To implement the SAFE storage policy, the Basic Configuration Wizard creates two volumes.
Each volume consists of two hard disk drives that mirror each other. The remaining hard disk
drive is specified as a Hot Spare for both volumes.
BIG A storage policy configuration in which multiple physical hard disk drives are concatenated
and treated as one large volume. This configuration allows the end-user to increase logical
volume size beyond the capacity of individual hard disk drives. BIG provides the maximum
amount of storage space, but no additional performance or data redundancy.
The Basic Configuration Wizard implements the BIG storage policy by concatenating all the
hard disk drives into a single volume.
FAST A storage policy in which I/O processing is balanced evenly in a method known as striping,
equivalent to RAID 0. Striping increases storage operation speed as each portion of data is
divided into segments that are written to different disks simultaneously. FAST offers the best
performance in terms of speed, but has no redundancy of data.
To implement the FAST storage policy, the Basic Configuration Wizard creates a single
volume of up to five hard disk drives in a striped format.
SAFE and BIG A storage policy in which one-half of the available storage space is concatenated. The other
half mirrors the first half to provide full data redundancy.
To implement the SAFE and BIG storage policy, the Basic Configuration Wizard creates a
volume consisting of four hard disk drives and designates the remaining drive as a Hot Spare.
SAFE and FAST A storage policy in which an array of stripes is created. Each stripe consists of two mirrored
drives. SAFE and FAST provides the I/O load balancing features of striping and the added
reliability of mirrored data, equivalent to RAID 1+0. Data are written to mirrored disks in a
striped format.
To implement the SAFE and FAST storage policy, the Basic Configuration Wizard creates a
virtual drive consisting of four hard disk drives and designates the remaining drive as a Hot
Spare.
Hot Spare One or more hard disk drives are unused during normal operation and are configured to be a
spare. If an active drive in a SAFE volume fails, the data on the remaining hard disk drive is
duplicated onto the Hot Spare to regain redundancy. All SAFE volumes can have a
designated Hot Spare (SAFE, SAFE and FAST, and SAFE and BIG).

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Volume A virtual drive comprised of one or more physical hard disk drives. Once the end-user creates
a volume, the operating system uses and maintains the volume as if it were a single hard disk
drive. This allows software to overcome size restrictions imposed by physical disk drives.
Daemon Component of the SteelVine Manager responsible for status tracking and SAFE volume
rebuilds. See “Manager Client Connection to the Daemon” for further details regarding the
daemon.

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2 Installing the SteelVine
Storage Appliance
This chapter describes how to install the SteelVine Storage Appliance and SteelVine Manager software.
Prerequisites
The SteelVine installation has the following hardware and software prerequisites for the host computer(s) that
will be connected to the SteelVine Storage Appliances.
Hardware
•For x86 platforms: An Intel PIII 500MHz equivalent or faster
•For Mac platforms: A Mac G4 500MHz or faster
•CD-ROM drive
•64 MB of RAM minimum
•250 MB of free hard disk space
•Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution with 256 colors
•Mouse or compatible pointing device
•External SATA cable connection between the SteelVine Storage Appliance and the host computer
Software
•For x86 platforms: Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003 with the
latest Service Pack installed.
•For Mac platforms: Mac OS X with the latest set of patches installed.
•SV-HBA3124 CD

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Install the SteelVine hardware
In order to run the SteelVine Manager, first install the Silicon Image SV-HBA3124 host controller (card and
driver) or another SATA host controller with port multiplier (PM) support. The host controller provides a
software and hardware link between the host computer and the SteelVine Storage Appliance.
The SV-HBA3124 board uses the SiI3124-2 SATA II controller with port multiplier support. You can use the
SteelVine Storage Appliance with any SATA host controller with port multiplier support. In addition to the
SV-HBA3124 host card, the following Silicon Image controllers provide port multiplier support:
•SiI3124-2
•SiI3124-4
•SiI3132
Install the SV-HBA3124 card and driver
1. Turn off the host computer.
2. Install the SV-HBA3124 card into a PCI-X or PCI slot. Refer to the SV-HBA3124 Quick Installation
Guide included on your SV-HBA3124 CD for details.
3. Insert the CD into the CD-ROM drive.
4. Click the SV3124 Setup icon in the Windows or Mac directory and follow the Installation Wizard to
complete the installation. Refer to the SV-HBA3124 User’s Guide for details.
5. Check www.steelvine.com for updated software and manuals. Upgrade the driver software if needed.
Connect the host to the SteelVine Storage Appliance
The SteelVine Storage Appliance houses five configurable hard disk drives. After installing the SV-HBA3124
card and drivers, connect the host computer to the SteelVine Storage Appliance. Take a moment to verify that
the host computer sees the SteelVine hard disk drives.

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MS Windows
1. Plug the SteelVine Storage Appliance into an AC power outlet and turn the SteelVine power switch to
ON.
2. Attach the SteelVine Storage Appliance to the SV-HBA3124 on the host computer with an external
SATA cable.
3. Right-click the My Computer icon on your desktop and select Manage from the pop-up menu.
4. Click Disk Management under Storage to view the disk drives.
5. If an Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard dialog appears, click Cancel to close the Wizard and
proceed to Disk Management.
6. Verify that all five drives are visible in their preconfigured and unallocated state. If the host does not
see the SteelVine hard disk drives, refer to the Troubleshooting section for corrective actions.
The Status window provides details of the volume allocation. A sixth disk appears without capacity in
the list to represent the SteelVine processor. Do not initialize or partition this SteelVine disk.
Note: Do not initialize or partition the sixth, SteelVine disk.
Windows recognizes five 152.50GB hard disk drives for a SteelVine Storage Appliance in
JBOD (Bypass mode) populated with five 160GB hard disk drives.
Do not
initialize or
partition the
sixth (last)
SteelVine disk.

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Mac OS X
1. Plug the SteelVine Storage Appliance into an AC power outlet and turn the SteelVine power switch to
ON.
2. Attach the SteelVine Storage Appliance to the SV-HBA3124 with an external SATA cable.
3. A warning appears. Because the SteelVine ships with empty drives, Mac OS X does not identify a
recognizable file system. Click Ignore as many times as needed to dismiss the message boxes.
Note: This warning will show up every time you reboot the Mac system. This pop-up
warning will be displayed for the config drive. Ignore this as functionally it has no impact.
4. Launch Disk Utility from the Application > Utilities folder to view the disk drives.

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5. Verify that all five drives are visible in their pre-configured and unallocated state. If the host does not
recognize the SteelVine hard disk drives, refer to the Troubleshooting section for corrective actions.
A “320.0 KB Config Disk Media” disk appears in the list of hard disk drives to represent the SteelVine
processor. Do not initialize or partition the “320.0 KB Config Disk Media” disk.
Note: Do not initialize or partition the “320.0 KB Config Disk Media” drive.
Mac OS X recognizes five 152.7 GB hard disk drives for an SteelVine Storage Appliance in
JBOD (bypass mode) populated with five 160GB hard disk drives.
The SteelVine Manager searches for an active daemon and launches a daemon process if the daemon is
not active. This application also launches the SteelVine Manager to display the information captured
by the daemon.
The daemon launch script is also added to the Library/StartupItems/SteelVineDaemon directory to
launch the daemon every time Mac OS is started.
Note: The daemon has “root user” privileges.
Check www.steelvine.com for updated software and manuals. Install a new version of the SteelVine Manager if
needed. See the “Quick Install Guide” for details.
Do not initialize
or partition the
320.0KB Config
Disk Media

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3 Getting Started
This chapter explains how to start the SteelVine Manager and describes the Status window.
Start the SteelVine Manager
The SteelVine Manager starts with the Status window visible so the end-user can monitor the SteelVine Storage
Appliances connected to the host computer. Access the Basic Configuration Wizard from the Status window.
From there, the end-user can optionally use the Advanced Configuration Wizard to create multiple volumes
(virtual drives) on each hard disk drive.
Start the SteelVine Manager
MS Windows
1. Select the Start > All Programs > SteelVine > SteelVine Manager icon to start the Manager.
2. Monitor the status of SteelVine Storage Appliances on the Status window.

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3. Select menu options or click toolbar buttons and follow the instructions in the remainder of this guide
to configure SteelVine Storage Appliances. When prompted, enter the administrative password. The
default password is admin. The end-user can customize the password. See “Change password” for
details.
Mac OS X
1. Launch the Finder and locate the SteelVine program within the Applications > Utilities > SteelVine
folder. Click the SteelVine icon to start the SteelVine Manager.
2. If the launch sequence does not find an active daemon, a warning appears. Click OK.
3. Enter the administrator password and click OK.

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4. A notice appears as the launch sequence attempts to start the daemon. Click OK.
If the daemon fails to start, an error appears. Follow the recommendations in the error message to
correct the problem.
5. Monitor the status of SteelVine Storage Appliances on the Status window.
6. Select menu options or click toolbar buttons and follow the instructions in the remainder of this guide
to configure SteelVine Storage Appliances. When prompted, enter the administrative password. The
default password is admin. You end-user can customize your password. See “Change password” for
details.

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A Look at the SteelVine Status Window
The Status window displays a separate tab for each SteelVine Storage Appliance attached to the host computer.
Table 1 Sections of the Status Window
Status Cells
Description
System Status section
Temp
Indicates the current temperature of the SteelVine Storage Appliance.
Fan Speed
Indicates the system fan status. Use this data to monitor possible malfunctions.
Drive Status section
Box Status
Shows the drive status: Normal, Rebuilding, Unplugged, Needs Rebuild, New
Drive, Wrong Slot.
Drive S/N
Shows the unique serial number assigned by the disk manufacturer.
Exp. S/N
Shows the expected serial number of the hard disk drive. The daemon compares
the Expected and actual Drive serial numbers to detect when a drive’s status
changes.
Capacity Information section
Policy
Shows the storage policy configured for each volume.
Total
Shows the combined capacity of the volume.
Drive #
Shows capacity information for each hard disk drive.
Capacity
Shows the full amount of storage space (in GB) available on each hard disk drive.
Volume
Shows the total volume capacity and the drive capacities assigned to each volume.
System
Status
Drive
Status
Capacity
Information
Serial
Number