HighPoint RocketRAID 264x User manual

RocketRAID 264x
SAS/SATAII HostAdapter
User’s Guide
Revision:1.0
Date:October2008
HighPointTechnologies, Inc.
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Copyright
Copyright © 2008 HighPoint Technologies, Inc. This document contains materials
protected by International Copyright Laws. All rights reserved. No part of this
manual may be reproduced, transmitted or transcribed in any form and for any
purpose without the express written permission of HighPoint Technologies, Inc.
Trademarks
Companies and products mentioned in this manual are for identification purpose only.
Product names or brand names appearing in this manual may or may not be registered
trademarks or copyrights of their respective owners. Backup your important data
before using HighPoint’s products and use at your own risk. In no event shall
HighPoint be liable for any loss of profits, or for direct, indirect, special, incidental or
consequential damages arising from any defect or error in HighPoint’s products or
manuals. Information in this manual is subject to change without notice and does not
represent a commitment on the part of HighPoint.
Notice
Reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the information in this manual is
accurate. HighPoint assumes no liability for technical inaccuracies, typographical, or
other errors contained herein.
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Table of Contents
CONGRATULATIONS
Specifications and Features ..........................................................................................6
1 - RocketRAID 264x (2640X4, 2640X1 and 2642) HostAdapter layout ........................9
2 - LED Connections ...................................................................................................10
3 - Hardware Installation .............................................................................................12
4 - Verifying Installation ..............................................................................................13
ROCKETRAIDBIOSUTILITY
1- BIOSCommand Overview ......................................................................................14
2 - Creating RAIDArrays ............................................................................................15
3 - DeletingArrays ......................................................................................................18
4 -Adding/Remove Spare Disks .................................................................................19
5 - Settings ..................................................................................................................20
Table of Contents
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HIGHPOINTRAIDMANAGEMENTANDDE-
VICEDRIVERCD
1 - Creating a Driver Diskette ......................................................................................21
2 - Device Driver Installation ......................................................................................22
3 - HighPoint RAID Management Utilities (HRM) ......................................................27
4 - Mac OS X Driver and RAID Management Installation ..........................................30

CUSTOMER SUPPORT
Troubleshooting Checklist .........................................................................................32
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Table of Contents
CONTACTUS........................................................................................................33

HighPoint Technologies, Inc.
HighPoint Technologies, long recognized as a leader in mass storage technologies
specializes in the design and manufacturer of HBA (Host Bus Adapters) and
HighPoint RAID IP (Intellectual Property). HighPoint provides a broad range of
scalable hardware HBA’s that meet the storage requirements from Enterprise to SMB
(Small Medium Sized Business) to PC enthusiast.
The HighPoint RAID IPincludes TerabyteArchitecture™ for (Performance, Protec-
tion and Prevention).
TerabyteStream™ - leverages the built-in Intel Xscale XOR Engine to deliver unprec-
edented RAID 5 and 6 performances.
TerabyteGuard™ - prevents data lose and increases data reliability with advanced
hard drive inspection features utilizing bad sector repair and remapping.
TerabyteSaver™ - optimizes data protection with a battery backup and with write
journaling thus preventing data loss.
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Congratulations
Congratulations
You have purchased one of the highest performing and most cost effective 4 channel
SAS RAID controllers available. The RocketRAID 264x offers the flexibility to support
both the highest performing SAS 15,000 RPM hard drives, and larger capacity cost
sensitive SATA hard drives in homogeneous and heterogeneous storage
environments. The RocketRAID 264x has the versatility to meet the bandwidth
requirements for high performance applications like video capture and editing, CAD/
CAM and digital graphics.
Remember to visit the HighPoint websites at http://www.highpoint-tech.com and
http://www.hptmac.com. There you can find information on all of HighPoint’s prod-
ucts with FAQ’s, online manuals, BIOS and driver updates.
Specifications and Features
HostAdapterArchitecture
•PCI-Expressx1(RR2640X1),x4(RR2640X4,RR2642)-CompatiblewithPCI-
Expressx8, x16 slots.
•SAS/SATA3Gb/s Device Ports: 4 Internal (2640X1/X4) or 2 Internal/2External
(RR2642)
•Directly supports up to 4 3Gb/s SAS or SATA hard drives
•NCQ (Native Command Queuing)
•LowProfile
•RoHScompliant
Advanced RAID Features
•Supports RAID 0,1,5,10 and JBOD
•Multiple RAID array support
•Multiple logical drive support
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Congratulations
•BIOS booting support
•OnlineArray roaming
•Automatic hard drive (insert / remove) detection
•Automatic RAID rebuild
•64bit LBA support greater than 2TB per volume
Array Monitors,Alerts and Indicators
•Hard Drive LED Indicators (Activity and Failed)
•EmailNotification
•Alarm/Buzzer alerts for drive/array failure
•SAF-TE (I2C) and SGPIO enclosure management
RAID Management
•Online Capacity Expansion (OCE) and Online RAID Level Migration (ORLM)
•Quick and Background initialization for instant RAID configuration
•Write Back and Write Through support
•API library for customization
•CLI(CommandLine Interface)
•Web GUI RAID management (local and remote monitoring)
•SHI (Drive analysis driven from S.M.A.R.T)
OperatingSystem Support
•Windows XP, 2003, Vista, 2008 (32 and 64-bit versions)
•Linux (Fedora Core, Red Hat Enterprise / CentOS, SuSE, Debian, Ubuntu)
•Mac OS X 10.5.x and above
•FreeBSD
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Congratulations
Physical Specifications
RR2640X4/RR2640X1Size:(87.8mmX64.3mm)3.45”Lx2.53”W
RR2642Size:(79.4mmX67.5mm)3.13”Lx2.66”W
EMI: FCC Part 15 Class B and CE
ThermalandAtmosphericCharacteristics:
Work Temperature Range: +5 C ~+ 55 C
Relative Humidity Range: 5% ~ 60% non condensing
Storage Temperature: ~20 ~ 80 C MTBF: 920,585 Hours
Electrical Characteristics:
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Congratulations
1 – RocketRAID 264x (2640X4, 2640X1 and 2642) Host
Adapter layout
RocketRAID 2640X4
Port1-Port4
Port1 – Port4 represent the RocketRAID 2640X4’s 4 Internal SAS channels.
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Port1-Port4
Port1 – Port4 represent the RocketRAID 2640X1’s 4 Internal SAS channels.
RocketRAID 2640X1

Congratulations
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Port1-Port4
Port1,Port2 represent the RocketRAID 2642’s 2 External SAS channels.
Port3,Port4 represent the RocketRAID 2642’s 2 Internal SAS channels .
2 – LED Connections
LED connectors (Drive-activity/Drive-failure): LED support is discussed in greater
detail in the LED Connection section. The RocketRAID 264x host adapter has 2 LED
connectors that are used to indicate the activity and failure status of hard drives
attached to the card’s 4 SATA/SAS channels.
RocketRAID 2642
J1, J2 (RR2640X4 and RR2640X1)
J1 provides LED support for DriveActivity, while J1 supports Drive Failure.
A1, F1 (RR2642)
A1 provides LED support for DriveActivity, while F1 supports Drive Failure.

Congratulations
BEEP1-Speaker
Alarm (speaker): this speaker emits an audible alarm in the case of Drive/array failure.
J7 (RR2640X4 and RR2640X1)
This jumper supports the SAF-TE interface (I2C).
J1 (RR2642)
This jumper supports the SAF-TE interface (I2C).
J3 (RR2640X4 and RR2640X1)
This jumper is SGPIO signal. The following diagram describes the connector pin
definitions.
J8 (RR2642)
This jumper is SGPIO signal. The following diagram describes the connector pin
definitions.
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Congratulations
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3 – Hardware Installation
Note: Make sure the system is powered-off before installing the RocketRAID host
adapter.
The RocketRAID 264x include both standard and low-profile brackets. It may be
necessary to attach the low-profile bracket in place of the standard bracket, depend-
ing upon the chassis design. Open the system chassis and locate an unused PCI-
Express slot.
1. Remove the PCI slot/bracket cover.
2. Gently insert the RocketRAID card into the PCI-Express slot, and secure the
bracket to the system chassis.

Congratulations
3. After installing the adapter, attach hard drives to the host adapter using the
appropriate data cable. These host adapters can support up to 4 3Gb/s SAS or
SATA hard drives directly.
Note: Many server-level chassis include hard-disk hot-swap bays. For these
system chassis, cables are attached to the chassis backplane, rather than
directly to each individual hard disk. Consult the chassis’s manual for proper
installation procedures.
4. Close and secure the system chassis.
4 - Verifying Installation
Once the host adapter and hard disks have been installed into the chassis, boot-up
the system to verify that the hardware is properly recognized.
1. Power on the system. If the system detects the presence of the adapter, the
RocketRAID 264x BIOS Utility will be displayed during bootup.
2. Press Ctrl+H to access the RocketRAID 264x adapter’s BIOS Utility.
The BIOS Utility will display information about hard disks attached to the adapter.
Make sure all attached disks are detected by this utility. If any of the hard disks are
not detected, power down the system and check the power and cable connections.
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RocketRAID BIOS Utility
RocketRAID BIOS Utility
The RocketRAID 264x card will display its BIOS screen during the system’s boot
process.
Press Control + H when prompted, to access the BIOS settings Menu.
1 - BIOS Settings Overview
The RocketRAID 264x BIOS utility is an interface that provides management com-
mands and controller related settings.
Using the BIOS Utility
The following keys utilized by the RocketRAID 264x BIOS utility:
Alt – press Alt to highlight the tool bar.
Arrow keys – use these to move between different menu items
Enter – Open the selected toolbar command/execute the selected command.
Esc – move back to the previous menu, cancel the selected operation, or exit the BIOS
Utility.
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RocketRAID BIOS Utility
BIOSCommands
Create - this command is used to open the RAID Creation menu.
Delete - this command will delete the selected RAID array.
Add/Remove Spare - this command is used to assign hard disks to function as spare
disks. The controller is capable of using spare disks to automatically rebuild broken or
faulted RAID arrays.
Settings - this command opens the settings menu (selecting the boot disk/array,
staggered drive spinup)
View – this command is used to select between two views: Devices (HARD DISKS),
andArrays (configured RAID arrays).
Initialize - this command is used to prepare disks for use with RAID arrays. Disks
must be initialized before they can be used to create arrays.
2 - Creating RAID Arrays
InitializingDisks:
Before creating a RAID array, the disks must be initialized. Disk initialization writes
necessary RAID configuration information to the hard disks. Select the Initialize
command from the toolbar, and press ENTER.
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RocketRAID BIOS Utility
Highlight the target disks using the arrow keys, then select using Enter. Anumeral
will be displayed before each selected disk. Once all target disks have been selected,
press ESC. The utility will display a warning, and ask you to press Y (yes) to initialize,
or N (no) to cancel. Once initialized, these disks can be used to create RAID arrays.
Warning: Initialization will destroy all pre- existing data on the selected hard
disks. Only initialize disks that do not contain critical data.
CreatingArrays:
Select Create from the toolbar and press Enter.
1. Use the arrow keys to select the RAID level and press ENTER.
2. Use the arrow keys to highlight the Array Name option and press Enter. The
array name dialogue box will appear. Use the keyboard to input a new Array
Name, and press the Enter key.
Note: the Array Name command is optional – it is not necessary to name the array.
The array can be named at a later time, and the name of the array can be changed
at any time. On the Create menu, use the arrow keys to highlight the Select Devices
item and press Enter. A device list will appear, and display all available hard disk
drives.
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RocketRAID BIOS Utility
3. Highlight the target disks that you want to use, and press Enter to select them.A
numeral will be displayed before each selected disk. This number designates disk
order. After all of the disks have been selected and press the ESC key to return to
the Create Menu.
4. Next, Use the ? arrow key to highlight the Capacity (GB) option and press Enter.
The total available capacity will be displayed. Press ENTER if you wish to use all
available space. If you wish to reserve disk space for additional arrays/single
disks, use the keyboard to input the amount of space (in GB) you wish to set
aside for this particular array, and press Enter.
Note: Multiple arrays can be created using the same set of hard disk drives. The
Capacity option allows you to set aside disk space that be used to create another
array, set as a spare disk, or partitioned to act as a single disk (by the operating
system).
5. For redundant RAID arrays (RAID 1, 5, 10), select the Cache Policy:
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Write Back – utilizes disk cache (higher performing)
Write Through – writes directly to the disks (may reduce the risk of data loss during
a critical failure, but at the cost of lower performance)

RocketRAID BIOS Utility
3 – Deleting Arrays
Highlight the Delete command from the toolbar, and press Enter.
The BIOS utility will display a list of available RAID arrays. Select the array you wish
to delete, and press Enter.
6. Sector Size – Also known as “Variable Sector Size”. Use this option if you are
using an older 32-bit Windows operating system. This allows older operating
systems to support volumes over 2TB in size. Do not use if the operating system
already supports large volumes (such as GPT).
7. To complete the creation procedure, use the arrow key to highlight the Start
Creation item and press Enter. Press the Y(yes) key to create the array, or N (no)
key to cancel the creation process.
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RocketRAID BIOS Utility
The utility will display a warning message. Press Y(yes) to delete the array, or select
N(no) to cancel.
Warning: all data stored on the array will be lost – do not delete if the array contains
criticaldata.
4 - Adding/Remove Spare Disks
This Add/Remove Spare command is used to assign a hard disk to act as a Spare
Disk. Spare Disks are used to automatically rebuild Redundant RAID arrays (RAID 1,
5, 10) in the case of disk failure.As with creating RAID arrays, disks must be initial-
ized before they can be used as spares. To set a hard disk to act as a Spare Disk, use
the arrow keys to select the target disk from the list of initialized disks, and press
Enter. To remove the Spare Disk setting from a hard disk, highlight the spare disk, and
press Enter.
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RocketRAID BIOS Utility
5 - Settings
To access the Settings menu, highlight the Settings command from the toolbar, and
press Enter.
Generally, single disks are designated to act as spares (disks that are not configured
into RAID arrays).
However, in some instances, disks that are members of RAID arrays may also be
designated to act as a spare. If the disks in question are part of a RAID array that did
not utilize the full available capacity at the time of creation, these disks may be used
as spares. For example: a RAID 0 array was created between two 200GB hard disks,
but only 200GB of space (out of a grand total of 400GB), was assigned to that array. In
this example, 200GB of disk space remains unallocated. This unallocated space would
allow these disks to be set as spares for a separate redundant array that falls into the
same capacity range (200GB).
Select Boot Device – select which disk or array will act as the boot disk, if the
motherboard BIOS instructs the card to act as the boot device.
Staggered Drive Spinup – This option is disabled by default. Enabling this setting
will instruct the card to power up the hard disks, sequentially (one disk approximately
every 2 seconds). Not all disk support this setting – consult the disk documentation
for more information.
Warning: Western Digital hard disks do not support this setting. Enabling this
setting is not recommended. If enabled, these disks may not be detected by non-
RAID controllers.
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