HighPoint SSD7103 User manual

SSD7103 Linux CentOS7.8 Installation Guide
HighPoint NVMe RAID Controller
SSD7103 Linux CentOS7.8
Installation Guide
Version 1.00
Copyright © 2020 HighPoint Technologies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Last updated on July 28, 2020

SSD7103 Linux CentOS7.8 Installation Guide
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Table of Contents
1 Overview.......................................................................................................................................1
2 Installing Linux CentOS7.8 on SSD7103 controller..................................................................1
Step 1 Prepare Your Hardware for Installation .........................................................................1
Step 2 Check System EFI Settings............................................................................................1
Step 3 Flash UEFI Rom to SSD7103........................................................................................3
Step 4 Create Array...................................................................................................................4
Step 5 Prepare the Driver Diskette............................................................................................5
Step 6 Install Linux CentOS7.8 ................................................................................................5
3 Monitoring the Driver .................................................................................................................8
4 Installing RAID Management Software.....................................................................................8
5 Trouble Shooting..........................................................................................................................8

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1 Overview
The purpose of this document is to provide clear instructions on how to install Linux
CentOS7.8 on the SSD7103 controller.
For CentOS7.8 (kernel: 3.10.0-1127.el7.x86_64)
Mirror link:
https://mirrors.bfsu.edu.cn/centos/7.8.2003/isos/x86_64/CentOS-7-x86_64-DVD-2003.iso
MD5: ef8195f42f30a23f039eef9891d496ae
2 Installing Linux CentOS7.8 on SSD7103 controller
If you would like to install Linux CentOS7.8 onto drives attached to SSD7103 controller,
please perform the following operations:
Step 1 Prepare Your Hardware for Installation
After you attach your NVMe SSD to SSD7103 controller, you can use SSD7103 EFI
Utility to configure your NVMe SSD as RAID arrays, or just use them as single disks.
Before installation, you must remove all the NVMe SSD, which are not physically
attached to SSD7103 controller, from your system.
Note
SSD7103 only support EFI boot. If you have other SCSI adapters installed, you must
make sure the SSD7103 controller EFI will be loaded firstly. If not, try to move it to
another PCI slot. Otherwise you may be unable to boot up your system.
Step 2 Check System EFI Settings
In your system EFI SETUP menu, change Boot Sequence in such a way that the system
will first boot from EFI CDROM, and then from SSD7103 RAID. Refer to your
motherboard EFI manual to see how to set boot sequence.
If your EFI settings do not support such a boot sequence, you can first set it to boot from
EFI CDROM.After you finish installation, set SSD7103 RAID as the first boot device to
boot up the system.
1. Set UEFI setting with SuperMicro X11DPi-NT motherboard as an example:
a. Set ‘Boot mode select’ to ‘UEFI’;

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b. And ‘Advanced->PCIe/PCI/PnP Configuration CPU Slot PCI-E OPROM’ to
‘EFI’. If the SSD7103 has been connected to the motherboard CPU1Slot2 PCI-E
X16, you should set "CPU1Slot2 PCI-E X16 OPROM" to "EFI";
c. Disable ‘Secure Boot’, set ‘Secure Boot’ to ‘Disabled’;
2. Set UEFI setting withASUS PRIME X299 -DELUXE motherboard as an example
a. Set " Boot->CSM->Boot from Storage Devices" to "UEFI driver first";

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b. And " Boot->CSM->Boot Device Control" to "UEFI Only" or "UEFI and Legacy
OPROM";
c. Set " Boot->Secure Boot->OS Type" to "Other OS".
Step 3 Flash UEFI Rom to SSD7103
a. Unzip SSD7103 UEFI package to root dir (/) of a USB flash driver, and insert the
USB flash drive to the motherboard;
b. Booting from the UEFI USB flash and enter the UEFI environment;
c. Command with “SSD7103.nsh”, flash UEFI rom to SSD7103 Controller and
reboot;

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Step 4 Create Array
a. Attach four NVMe SSD to SSD7103 Controller;
Note
Make sure your USB flash partition format is FAT32.
b. Boot, in the presence of the motherboard Log screen, there will be NVMe SSD
information：
c. Enter the motherboard’s Boot List and select start from UEFI USB flash:
d. Command ”Arraycreate.efi” to enter the Utility:
e. Command “create RAID0 ”.
Create RAID0 array with all disks and with maximum capacity.

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f. Command “exit”；
g. For more command usages, refer toAppendixA.
Step 5 Prepare the Driver Diskette
Extract HighPoint_NVMe_CentOS_7u8_x86_64_ vx.x.x_xx_xx_xx.tar.gz to top(/)
directory of an USB flash drive. It will look like:
Step 6 Install Linux CentOS7.8
a. Insert the USB flash drive to the target system.
b. Booting from Installation DVD disc (EFI mode).
c. When the Installation screen appears:
If you want to choose the default system installation, please select "Install CentOS7" to
install, press ‘e’ to edit boot command line option.
Type “inst.dd modprobe.blacklist=nvme” and then press Ctrl+X to start installation.
Press CTRL+X or F10 to start the system.

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d. When following messages show up, type the line number that line with the LABEL of
USB flash drive.
In this example, type 1and press Enter
e. Choose driver disk ISO file, In this example, type 1and press Enter
f. Select drivers to install
a) [ ]/media/DD-2/rpms/x86_64/kmod-redhat-hptnvme-v1.2.13-20_03_25_el7.8.x86_6
4.rpm
In this example, type 1 and press Enter
b) [x]/media/DD-2/rpms/x86_64/kmod-redhat-hptnvme-v1.2.13-20_03_25_el7.8.x86_6
4.rpm
In this example, type c and press Enter
g. After the driver is installed, type c and press Enter to continue the system installation
h. When the installation switches to the graphical installation, select "continue".

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i. Refer to RHEL/CentOS Linux installation guide to continue the installation and when
installation finishes and prompts you to reboot the system:
j. Open source driver needs to be installed after system installation. Run the .bin file to
install the driver package.
Linux open source driver link:
https://highpoint-tech.com/BIOS_Driver/SSD7103/HighPoint_NVMe_G5_Linux_Src_v1
.2.14_2020_04_22.tar.gz
# sh hptnvme_g5_linux_src_vxx.x.x_xx_xx_xx.bin

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k. Follow the prompts to complete the driver installation.
l. After the installation is complete, you can perform system update operations.
3 Monitoring the Driver
Once the driver is running, you can monitor it through the Linux proc file system support.
There is a special file under /proc/scsi/hptnvme /. Through this file you can view driver
status and send control commands to the driver.
Note
The file name is the SCSI host number allocated by OS. If you have no other SCSI cards
installed, it will be 0. In the following sections, we will use x to represent this number.
Using the following command to show driver status:
# cat /proc/scsi/hptnvme /x
This command will show the driver version number, physical device list and logical device
list.
4 Installing RAID Management Software
HighPoint RAID Management Software is used to configure and keep track of your hard
disks and RAID arrays attached to SSD7103 controller.
Please refer to HighPoint RAID Management Software documents for more information.
5 Trouble Shooting
If you do not install the system or update the kernel according to the installation manual,
the system will crash and you will not be able to enter. Please follow the steps below.
a. Select the default kernel (3.10.0-1127.el7.x86_64)and enter the system.

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b. Install Linux open source driver.Run the .bin file to install the driver package.
Linux open source driver link:
https://highpoint-tech.com/BIOS_Driver/SSD7103/HighPoint_NVMe_G5_Linux_Src_v1.2.
14_2020_04_22.tar.gz
# sh hptnvme_g5_linux_src_vxx.x.x_xx_xx_xx.bin
c. The driver installation is complete, and the reboot can enter the system where the new
kernel is located.

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Appendix A
Support command:
help/info/quit/exit/create/delete.
Create Command
Syntax
Create Array Type (RAID0/RAID1/RAID10) Member Disk list
(1/1,1/2|*)Capacity(100|*)
Examples
<<< create RAID0
<<< create RAID0 *
<<< create RAID0 * *
Create RAID0 array with all disks and with maximum capacity.
<<< create RAID1 1/1, 1/3 10
Create RAID1 array with disk 1/1 and 1/3 and with 10GB
capacity.
<<< create RAID10
<<< create RAID10 *
<<< create RAID10 * *
Create RAID10 array with all disks and with maximum
capacity.
Delete Command
Syntax
delete {array ID}
Examples
<<< delete 1
Delete the first array from Logical device list.
<<< delete 2
Delete the second array from Logical device list.
Info Command
Syntax
info
Display physical device list and logical list
Exit Command
Syntax
Q/q/quit/exit
Quit the application
Help Command
Syntax
H/h/help
This is help message.