Intel AFCSASRISER User manual

Intel® RAID Software User’s Guide:
•Intel
®Embedded Server RAID
Technology 2
•Intel
®IT/IR RAID
•Intel
®Integrated Server RAID
•Intel
®RAID Controllers using the
Intel®RAID Software Stack 3
Revision 17.0
November, 2011
Intel Order Number: D29305-017

ii Intel® RAID Software User’s Guide
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rights reserved.

Intel® RAID Software User’s Guide iii
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Overview .................................................................................................. 1
Supported Hardware ..............................................................................................................1
Software .................................................................................................................................3
RAID Terminology .................................................................................................................4
Fault Tolerance ..............................................................................................................4
Enclosure Management .................................................................................................6
Performance ..................................................................................................................6
Chapter 2: RAID Levels .............................................................................................. 9
Summary of RAID Levels ......................................................................................................9
Selecting a RAID Level ........................................................................................................10
RAID 0 - Data Striping .................................................................................................10
RAID 1 - Disk Mirroring/Disk Duplexing .......................................................................11
RAID 5 - Data Striping with Striped Parity ...................................................................11
RAID 6 - Distributed Parity and Disk Striping ..............................................................12
RAID IME .....................................................................................................................13
RAID 10 - Combination of RAID 1 and RAID 0 ...........................................................14
RAID 50 - Combination of RAID 5 and RAID 0 ...........................................................15
RAID 60 - Combination of RAID 0 and RAID 6 ...........................................................16
RAID Configuration Strategies .............................................................................................19
Maximizing Fault Tolerance .........................................................................................19
Maximizing Performance .............................................................................................20
Maximizing Storage Capacity ......................................................................................21
RAID Availability ..................................................................................................................23
RAID Availability Concept ............................................................................................23
Spare Drives ................................................................................................................23
Rebuilding ....................................................................................................................23
Copyback .....................................................................................................................23
Configuration Planning ................................................................................................24
Dimmer Switch Feature ...............................................................................................24
Number of Physical Disks ............................................................................................25
MegaRAID Fast Path ...................................................................................................25
4K Sector Drive Support ..............................................................................................25
Larger than 2TB Drive Support ....................................................................................25
Power Save settings ....................................................................................................26
Array Purpose ..............................................................................................................26
Chapter 3: RAID Utilities .......................................................................................... 27
Intel®Embedded Server RAID Technology 2 BIOS Configuration Utility ............................27
LSI MPT* SAS BIOS Configuration Utility ...........................................................................27
Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 Configuration Utility for Intelligent RAID ................................28

iv Intel® RAID Software User’s Guide
Intel®RAID Web Console 2 Configuration and Monitoring Utility ....................................... 29
Drive Hierarchy within the RAID Firmware .................................................................. 30
Intel®Intelligent RAID Controller Features .......................................................................... 30
Enterprise Features ..................................................................................................... 30
Fault Tolerant Features ............................................................................................... 31
Cache Options and Settings ....................................................................................... 32
Background Tasks ...................................................................................................... 32
Error Handling ............................................................................................................. 33
Audible Alarm .............................................................................................................. 33
Chapter 4: Intel®RAID Drivers ................................................................................35
RAID Driver Installation for Microsoft Windows* ................................................................. 35
Installation in a New Microsoft Windows* Operating System ...................................... 35
Installation in an Existing Microsoft Windows* Operating System .............................. 36
RAID Driver Installation for Red Hat* Enterprise Linux ....................................................... 36
RAID Driver Installation for SuSE* Linux ............................................................................. 37
RAID Driver Installation for Novell NetWare* ...................................................................... 37
Installation in a New Novell Netware* System ............................................................ 37
Installation in an Existing Novell Netware* System ..................................................... 38
RAID Driver Installation for Solaris* 10 ............................................................................... 38
Installation in a New Solaris* System .......................................................................... 38
Installation in an Existing Solaris* System .................................................................. 38
Chapter 5: Intel®Embedded Server RAID BIOS Configuration Utility .................39
Creating, Adding or Modifying a Virtual Drive Configuration ............................................... 40
Setting the Write Cache and Read Ahead Policies ............................................................. 42
Working with a Global Hot-spare Drive ............................................................................... 42
Adding a Hot-spare Drive ............................................................................................ 42
Removing a Hot-spare Drive ....................................................................................... 43
Rebuilding a Drive ............................................................................................................... 43
Auto Rebuild and Auto Resume .................................................................................. 43
Checking Data Consistency ................................................................................................ 44
Viewing and Changing Device Properties ........................................................................... 44
Forcing a Drive Online or Offline ......................................................................................... 45
Configuring a Bootable Virtual Drive ................................................................................... 45
Deleting (Clearing) a Storage Configuration ....................................................................... 45
Chapter 6: Intel®IT/IR RAID Configuration ............................................................47
IM and IME Configuration Overview .................................................................................... 47
Features ...................................................................................................................... 47
Creating IM and IME Volumes ............................................................................................ 48
Creating an IM Volume ............................................................................................... 49
Creating an IME Volume ............................................................................................. 50
Creating a Second IM or IME Volume ................................................................................. 51
Managing Hot Spares .......................................................................................................... 51
Other Configuration Tasks .................................................................................................. 53

Intel® RAID Software User’s Guide v
Viewing Volume Properties .........................................................................................53
Synchronizing an Array ...............................................................................................53
Activating an Array ......................................................................................................53
Deleting an Array .........................................................................................................54
Locating a Drive or Multiple Drives in a Volume ..........................................................54
Selecting a Boot Disk ..................................................................................................55
IS Configuration Overview ...................................................................................................55
Creating IS Volumes ............................................................................................................56
Creating a Second IS Volume .............................................................................................57
Other Configuration Tasks ...................................................................................................58
Viewing IS Volume Properties .....................................................................................58
Activating an Array ......................................................................................................58
Deleting an Array .........................................................................................................58
Locating a Disk Drive, or Multiple Disk Drives in a Volume .........................................59
Selecting a Boot Disk ..................................................................................................59
Chapter 7: Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 Utility ...................................................... 61
Quick Configuration Steps ...................................................................................................61
Detailed Configuration Steps using the Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 .................................62
Start the Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 Utility ...............................................................62
Screen and Option Descriptions ..................................................................................62
Setting Up a RAID Array Using the Configuration Wizard ...................................................68
Creating RAID 0, 1, 5, or 6 using Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 (detailed) ..........................71
Creating RAID 10, RAID 50, and RAID 60 using Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 ..................75
Setting Drive Parameters .....................................................................................................80
Creating a Hot Spare ...........................................................................................................81
Viewing Event Details ..........................................................................................................84
Chapter 8: Intel®RAID Web Console 2 ................................................................... 87
Configuration Functions .......................................................................................................87
Monitoring Functions ...........................................................................................................87
Maintenance Functions ........................................................................................................88
Hardware and Software Requirements ................................................................................88
Installing the Intel®RAID Web Console 2 on a Microsoft Windows* Operating System .....88
Installing the Intel®RAID Web Console 2 on Linux or SuSE* Linux Enterprise Server ......90
Intel®RAID Web Console 2 Support and Installation on VMWare ......................................90
Installing Intel®RAID Web Console 2 for VMWare Classic ........................................90
Uninstalling Intel®RAID Web Console 2 for VMWare .................................................90
Installing Intel®RAID Web Console 2 Support on the VMWare ESX .........................91
Starting the Intel®RAID Web Console 2 .............................................................................96
Intel®RAID Web Console 2 Screens ..................................................................................96
Physical/Virtual View Panel .........................................................................................99
Properties/Operations/Graphical View Panel ............................................................100
Event Log Panel ........................................................................................................101
Menu Bar/Manage Menu ...........................................................................................102

vi Intel® RAID Software User’s Guide
Menu Bar/Go To Menu .............................................................................................. 102
File Menu/Log Menu ................................................................................................. 102
File Menu/Tool Menu ................................................................................................ 102
File Menu/Help Menu ................................................................................................ 102
Drive Configuration Tasks ................................................................................................. 102
Create Virtual Drive ................................................................................................... 103
Creating a Virtual Drive Using Simple Configuration ......................................................... 103
Creating a Virtual Drive Using Advanced Configuration .................................................... 107
Creating a Spanned Disk Group ....................................................................................... 114
Creating Hot Spares .......................................................................................................... 115
Setting Adjustable Task Rates .......................................................................................... 117
Adding a Drive to a Virtual Disk ......................................................................................... 118
Removing a Drive or Changing the RAID Level
of a Virtual Disk ......................................................................................................... 121
Changing Virtual Disk Properties ...................................................................................... 122
Deleting a Virtual Disk ....................................................................................................... 123
Managing Configurations .................................................................................................. 124
Saving a Configuration to Disk .................................................................................. 124
Clearing a Configuration from a Controller ................................................................ 126
Adding a Configuration from a File ............................................................................ 127
Monitoring System Events and Devices ............................................................................ 128
Monitoring System Events ........................................................................................ 128
Monitoring Controllers ............................................................................................... 129
Monitoring Disk Drives and Other Physical Devices ................................................. 130
Monitoring Virtual Disks ............................................................................................ 133
Monitoring Enclosures ............................................................................................... 133
Monitoring Battery Backup Units ............................................................................... 134
Battery Learn Cycle ................................................................................................... 135
Monitoring Rebuilds and Other Processes ................................................................ 137
Maintaining and Managing Storage Configurations .......................................................... 138
Initializing a Virtual Disk ............................................................................................ 138
Running a Consistency Check .................................................................................. 139
Scanning for New Drives ........................................................................................... 140
Rebuilding a Drive ..................................................................................................... 140
Removing a Drive ...................................................................................................... 141
Flashing the Firmware ............................................................................................... 142
Enabling RAID Premium Features ................................................................................... 142
Enabling Full Disk Encryption feature ....................................................................... 142
Enabling Snapshot feature ........................................................................................ 151
Enabling Super Sized Cache .................................................................................... 161
Appendix A: Creating a Virtual Drive Using Advanced Configuration ..............165
Appendix B: Events and Messages ......................................................................173

Intel® RAID Software User’s Guide vii
List of Figures
Figure 1. RAID 0 - Data Striping.............................................................................................. 10
Figure 2. RAID 1 - Disk Mirroring/Disk Duplexing ................................................................... 11
Figure 3. RAID 5 - Data Striping with Striped Parity................................................................ 12
Figure 4. Example of Distributed Parity across Two Blocks in a Stripe (RAID 6).................... 13
Figure 5. Integrated Mirroring Enhanced with Three Disks..................................................... 14
Figure 6. RAID 10 - Combination of RAID 1 and RAID 0........................................................ 15
Figure 7. RAID 50 - Combination of RAID 5 and RAID 0........................................................ 16
Figure 8. RAID 60 Level Virtual Drive ..................................................................................... 18
Figure 9. Intel®Embedded Server RAID BIOS Configuration Utility Screen .......................... 40
Figure 10. Adapter Properties Screen..................................................................................... 49
Figure 11. Create New Array Screen ...................................................................................... 50
Figure 12. Manage Array Screen ............................................................................................ 52
Figure 13. Adapter Properties Screen..................................................................................... 56
Figure 14. Create New Array Screen ...................................................................................... 57
Figure 15. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 Menu........................................................................ 63
Figure 16. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 - Controller Selection ............................................... 64
Figure 17. Controller Properties .............................................................................................. 64
Figure 18. Additional Controller Properties ............................................................................. 65
Figure 19. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 - Configuration Types .............................................. 68
Figure 20. Selecting Configuration.......................................................................................... 69
Figure 21. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 - Configuration Methods .......................................... 70
Figure 22. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 - Add Physical Drives to Array ................................. 71
Figure 23. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 - Set Array Properties .............................................. 72
Figure 24. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 - Confirm Configuration............................................ 73
Figure 25. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 - Initialization Speed Setting .................................... 74
Figure 26. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 – Multiple Disk Groups for RAID 10, 50, or 60......... 75
Figure 27. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 – Spanning Multiple Arrays...................................... 76
Figure 28. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 – Viewing Completed Settings................................. 77
Figure 29. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 – Initialization Settings ............................................. 78
Figure 30. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 – RAID 10 Final Screen ........................................... 78
Figure 31. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 – RAID 10 Properties Screen .................................. 79
Figure 32. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 – RAID 50 Properties Screen .................................. 79
Figure 33. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 – Choosing a Hot Spare Drive................................. 81
Figure 34. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 – Setting a Hot Spare Drive..................................... 82
Figure 35. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 – Viewing Hot Spare ................................................ 82
Figure 36. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 – Main Screen showing Hot Spare Drive................. 83
Figure 37. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 – Event Information Screen ..................................... 84
Figure 38. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 – Selecting Events to View ...................................... 85
Figure 39. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 – Viewing an Event .................................................. 85
Figure 40. Intel®RAID Web Console 2 – Customer Information Screen ................................ 89
Figure 41. Setup Type Screen ................................................................................................ 89
Figure 42. Intel®RAID Web Console 2 – Select Server Screen ............................................. 96

viii Intel® RAID Software User’s Guide
Figure 43. Intel®RAID Web Console 2 – Login Screen ......................................................... 97
Figure 44. Intel®RAID Web console 2 dashboard ................................................................. 98
Figure 45. Intel®RAID Web Console 2 – Main Screen .......................................................... 99
Figure 46. Intel®RAID Web Console 2 – Operations Tab.................................................... 100
Figure 47. Intel®RAID Web Console 2 – Graphical Tab (Optional feature)......................... 101
Figure 48. Virtual Drive Creation Menu................................................................................. 104
Figure 49. Virtual Drive Creation Mode................................................................................. 104
Figure 50. Create Virtual Drive Screen................................................................................. 105
Figure 51. Create Virtual Drive - Summary Window............................................................. 106
Figure 52. Option to Create Additional Virtual Drives ........................................................... 106
Figure 53. Option to Close the Configuration Wizard ........................................................... 107
Figure 54. Virtual Drive Creation Menu................................................................................. 108
Figure 55. Virtual Drive Creation Mode................................................................................. 108
Figure 56. Create Drive Group Settings Screen ................................................................... 109
Figure 57. Span 0 of Drive Group 0...................................................................................... 110
Figure 58. Span 0 and Span 1 of Drive Group 0................................................................... 110
Figure 59. Virtual Drive Settings Window ............................................................................. 111
Figure 60. New Virtual Drive 0.............................................................................................. 112
Figure 61. Create Virtual Drive Summary Window ............................................................... 112
Figure 62. Option to Create Additional Virtual Drives ........................................................... 113
Figure 63. Option to Close the Configuration Wizard ........................................................... 113
Figure 64. Assign Global Hotspare....................................................................................... 115
Figure 65. Assign Dedicated Hotspare ................................................................................. 116
Figure 66. Select Hotspare Drive.......................................................................................... 116
Figure 67. Set Adjustable Task Rates .................................................................................. 117
Figure 68. Starting Modify Drive Group ................................................................................ 119
Figure 69. Select RAID level to migrate................................................................................ 119
Figure 70. Selecting Drives to Add ....................................................................................... 120
Figure 71. Changing RAID Level .......................................................................................... 120
Figure 72. Selecting Drives to Remove ................................................................................ 121
Figure 73. Changing RAID Level .......................................................................................... 122
Figure 74. Set Virtual Disk Properties................................................................................... 123
Figure 75. Save Configuration to File ................................................................................... 124
Figure 76. Save Configuration Dialog Box............................................................................ 125
Figure 77. Clear Configuration.............................................................................................. 126
Figure 78. Add Saved Configuration..................................................................................... 127
Figure 79. Event Information Window................................................................................... 128
Figure 80. Controller Information .......................................................................................... 129
Figure 81. Physical Drive Information................................................................................... 130
Figure 82. Locating a Physical Drive .................................................................................... 131
Figure 83. Patrol Read Configuration ................................................................................... 132
Figure 84. Virtual Drive Properties........................................................................................ 133
Figure 85. Enclosure Information.......................................................................................... 134
Figure 86. Battery Backup Unit Information.......................................................................... 135
Figure 87. Battery Backup Unit Operations .......................................................................... 136
Figure 88. Group Show Progress Window............................................................................ 137
Figure 89. Selecting Initialize................................................................................................ 138

Intel® RAID Software User’s Guide ix
Figure 90. Group Consistency Check Window...................................................................... 139
Figure 91. Scan for Foreign Configuration ............................................................................ 140
Figure 92. Preparing Drive for Removal................................................................................ 141
Figure 93. Check Controller Security status.......................................................................... 143
Figure 94. Check Drive Security status................................................................................. 144
Figure 95. Enable Drive Security........................................................................................... 144
Figure 96. Start Security Wizard ........................................................................................... 145
Figure 97. Enter Security Key Identifier................................................................................. 145
Figure 98. Enter Security Key ............................................................................................... 146
Figure 99. Enter Pass Phrase ............................................................................................... 147
Figure 100. Confirm Enable Drive Security........................................................................... 147
Figure 101. Check Drive Security Enabled status................................................................. 148
Figure 102. Select Full Disk Encryption ................................................................................ 148
Figure 103. Create RAID Virtual Drive with FDE enabled..................................................... 149
Figure 104. Instant Secure Erase.......................................................................................... 150
Figure 105. Confirm Secure Erase........................................................................................ 150
Figure 106. Enable MegaRAID Recovery ............................................................................. 152
Figure 107. Enter the Capacity for Snapshot Respository .................................................... 152
Figure 108. Confirm Enable Snapshot .................................................................................. 153
Figure 109. Snapshot Base is shown.................................................................................... 154
Figure 110. Enter Snapshot Name........................................................................................ 154
Figure 111. Create Snapshot ................................................................................................ 155
Figure 112. Create View........................................................................................................ 155
Figure 113. Set MegaRAID Recovery Properties.................................................................. 156
Figure 114. Disable MegaRAID Recovery ............................................................................ 157
Figure 115. Confirm Disable Snapshots................................................................................ 157
Figure 116. Adapter Selection............................................................................................... 158
Figure 117. Selecting Snapshot Base................................................................................... 158
Figure 118. Selecting Advanced Operations......................................................................... 159
Figure 119. Selecting Rollback.............................................................................................. 159
Figure 120. Selecting a snapshot.......................................................................................... 160
Figure 121. Confirm Page ..................................................................................................... 160
Figure 122. Rollback operation is done................................................................................. 161
Figure 123. Create SSC from Dashboard ............................................................................. 162
Figure 124. Create SSC Drive Group.................................................................................... 162
Figure 125. Create SSCD name ........................................................................................... 163
Figure 126. SSC Summary ................................................................................................... 163
Figure 127. SSCD status shown ........................................................................................... 164
Figure 128. Delete SSCD...................................................................................................... 164
Figure 129. Virtual Drive Creation Menu............................................................................... 165
Figure 130. Virtual Drive Creation Mode............................................................................... 166
Figure 131. Create Drive Group Settings Screen.................................................................. 167
Figure 132. Span 0 of Drive Group 0 .................................................................................... 168
Figure 133. Span 0 and Span 1 of Drive Group 0................................................................. 169
Figure 134. Virtual Drive Settings Window............................................................................ 170
Figure 135. New Virtual Drive 0 ............................................................................................ 171
Figure 136. Create Virtual Drive Summary Window.............................................................. 171

xIntel® RAID Software User’s Guide
Figure 137. Option to Create Additional Virtual Drives ......................................................... 172
Figure 138. Option to Close the Configuration Wizard ......................................................... 172

Intel® RAID Software User’s Guide xi
List of Tables
Table 1. RAID 0 Overview .......................................................................................................10
Table 2. RAID 1 Overview .......................................................................................................11
Table 3. RAID 5 Overview .......................................................................................................12
Table 4. RAID 6 Overview .......................................................................................................12
Table 5. RAID 1E Overview ....................................................................................................14
Table 6. RAID 10 Overview .....................................................................................................15
Table 7. RAID 50 Overview .....................................................................................................16
Table 8. RAID 60 Overview .....................................................................................................17
Table 9. RAID Levels and Fault Tolerance .............................................................................19
Table 10. RAID Levels and Performance................................................................................ 20
Table 11. RAID Levels and Capacity ...................................................................................... 22
Table 12. Factors to Consider for Array Configuration ............................................................26
Table 13. Intel®RAID BIOS Console 2 Toolbar Icon Descriptions .........................................62
Table 14. MFI Messages .......................................................................................................174

xii Intel® RAID Software User’s Guide

Intel®RAID Software User’s Guide 1
1Overview
The software described in this document is designed for use with Intel®RAID controllers, and
with on-serverboard RAID solutions that use the Intel®RAID Software Stack 3 (driver
package names begin with “ir3”), Embedded Server RAID Technology 2 (driver package
names begin with ESRT2) or Intel®IT/IR RAID.
Supported Hardware
This manual covers the software stack that is shared by multiple Intel®server products:
•Intel®Embedded Server RAID Technology 2 (ESRT2) on the Intel®Enterprise South
Bridge 2 (ESB2) in the chipset, the Intel®I/O Controller Hub 9R (ICH9R), the Intel®
3420 PCH chipset, Intel®C200 series chipset and Intel®C600 series chipset used in the
following:
—Intel
®Server Board S1200BTL/S1200BTS
—Intel
®Server Boards based on the Intel®S5000 and S7000 chipsets
—Intel
®Server Boards based on the Intel®5500/5520 chipset with the Intel®I/O
Controller Hub 10R (ICH10R)
—Intel
®Server Boards that include the LSI* 1064e SAS (Serially attached SCSI)
controller and some that include the LSI* 1068 SAS controller
—Intel
®Server Boards S3420GP
—Intel
®Server Boards S3200SH and X38ML
—Intel
®SAS Entry RAID Module AXX4SASMOD (when the module is in
ESRTII mode)
—Intel
®RAID Controller SASMF8I
Intel®Embedded Server RAID Technology 2 provides driver based RAID modes 0,1,
and 10 with an optional RAID 5 mode provided by Intel®RAID C600 Upgrade Key
RKSATA4R5, RKSATA8R5, RKSAS4R5 or RKSAS8R5.
Intel®Embedded Server RAID Technology 2 provides driver-based RAID modes 0, 1,
and 10 with an optional RAID 5 mode provided by the Intel®RAID Activation Key
AXXRAKSW5 on the ESB2 and LSI* 1064e on some models of Intel®server boards.
ESB2 supports SATA only.
LSI* SAS 1064e and 1068 provide SATA (Serial ATA) and SAS support. Not all 1068
SAS boards provide Intel®Embedded Server RAID Technology 2 modes.
Intel®Embedded Server RAID Technology 2 must be enabled in the server system BIOS
before it is available. Intel®Embedded Server RAID Technology 2 is limited to a
maximum of eight drives including hot spare(s). Expander devices are not yet supported
by ESRT2.
•Intel®IT/IR RAID solutions with below Intel®IT/IR RAID controllers:
—Intel
®RAID Controller SASWT4I
—Intel
®RAID Controller SASUC8I

2Intel®RAID Software User’s Guide
—Intel
®RAID SAS Riser Controller AFCSASRISER in Intel®Server System
S7000FC4UR without Intel®SAS RAID Activation Key AXXRAKSAS2 installed.
—Intel
®RAID SAS Riser Controller AFCSASRISER in Intel®Server System
S7000FC4UR without Intel®SAS RAID Activation Key AXXRAKSAS2 installed
—Intel
®SAS Entry RAID Module AXX4SASMOD
—Intel
®6G SAS PCIe Gen2 RAID Module RMS2LL080 and RMS2LL040
•Intel®Integrated RAID Technology on the Intel®ROMB solutions. Server boards and
systems include:
—Intel
®Server Board S5000PSL (Product code: S5000PSLROMB)
—Intel
®Server System SR1550AL (Product code: SR1550ALSAS)
—Intel
®Server System SR2500 (Product code: SR2500LX)
—Intel
®Server System SR4850HW4s
—Intel
®Server System SR6850HW4s
—Intel
®Server System S7000FC4UR with a SAS riser card
—Intel
®Server Boards S3420GP, S5520HC/S5500HCV, S5520UR, S5520SC, and
S5500WB12V/S5500WB with the Intel®Integrated RAID Controller
SROMBSASMR
Systems using the Intel®RAID Controller SROMBSAS18E provide XOR RAID modes
0, 1, 5, 10, and 50 when the optional Intel®RAID Activation Key AXXRAK18E and a
DDR2 400 MHz ECC DIMM are installed.
Systems using the Intel®RAID Controller SROMBSASFC or SROMBSASMP2
require the optional Intel®RAID Activation Key AXXRAKSAS2 and a DDR2 667
MHz ECC DIMM to provide RAID modes 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60.
The Intel®Integrated RAID Controller SROMBSASMR has a specially designed
connector that only fits Intel®Server Boards S5520HC/S5500HCV, S5520UR,
S5520SC, and S5500WB12V/S5500WB.
Note: This manual does not include the software RAID modes provided by the SAS riser
card on the Intel®Server System S7000FC4UR. This manual does not include the
RAID modes provided by the FALSASMP2 without Intel®RAID Activation Key
AXXRAKSAS2.
•Intel®Intelligent RAID used on the discrete Intel®RAID controllers RS25AB080,
RS25SB008, RS25DB080, RS25NB008, RS2VB080, RS2VB040, RT3WB080,
RS2SG244, RS2WG160, RMS2MH080, RMS2AF080, RMS2AF040, RS2BL080,
RS2BL040, RS2BL080DE, RS2BL080SNGL, RS2PI008, RS2PI008DE, RS2MB044,
RS2WC080, RS2WC040, SROMBSASMR, SRCSATAWB, SRCSASRB, SRCSASJV,
SRCSABB8I, SRCSASLS4I, SRCSASPH16I, SROMBSASFC, SROMBSASMP2,
SROMBSAS18E, SRCSAS18E and SRCSAS144E.
— The first generation SAS controllers (SRCSAS18E, SRCSAS144E,
SROMBSAS18E) provide XOR RAID modes 0, 1, 5, 10, and 50
— The second generation SAS controller (including SRCSATAWB, SRCSASRB,
SRCSASJV, SRCSABB8I, SRCSASLS4I, SRCSASPH16I, SROMBSASFC,
SROMBSASMP2, SROMBSASMR) provides XOR RAID modes 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50,
and 60.
—TheIntel
®6G SAS PCIe Gen 2 RAID Controllers (including RS25AB080,
RS25SB008, RS25DB080, RS25NB008, RS2VB080, RS2VB040, RT3WB080,
RS2SG244, RS2WG160, RS2BL080, RS2BL080SNGL, RS2BL080DE,

Intel®RAID Software User’s Guide 3
RS2BL040, RS2PI008, RS2PI008DE, RS2MB044, RS2WC080, RS2WC040,
RMS2MH080, RMS2AF080 and RMS2AF040) support SAS 2.0 new features with
XOR RAID modes 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60. (RS2WC080 and RS2WC040 are entry
level hardware RAID controllers and do not support RAID 6 and 60; RMS2AF080
and RMS2AF040 are entry level hardware RAID controllers and do not support
RAID 10, 6 and 60.)
For more details, refer to the Technical Product Specification (TPS) or Hardware
User's Guide (HWUG) for the RAID controllers.
Note: The Intel®RAID Controllers RMS2AF080, RMS2AF040, RS2WC080, and RS2WC040 only support
strip sizes of 8KB, 16KB, 32KB, and 64KB. Also, their Cache Policy only supports Write Through,
Direct I/O, and Normal RAID (No Read Ahead). For more details,refer to their Hardware User's
Guide (HWUG).
This manual does not include information about native SATA or SAS-only modes of the RAID
controllers.
Two versions of the Intel®RAID Controller RS2BL080 are available - RS2BL080, RS2BL080DE.
All features on RS2BL080 are supported on RS2BL080DE. In addition, RS2BL080DE provides one
more feature of FDE (Full Disk Encryption) that RS2BL080 doesn't support.
Two versions of the Intel®RAID Controller RS2PI008 are available - RS2PI008, RS2PI008DE.
All features on RS2PI008 are supported on RS2PI008DE. In addition, RS2PI008DE provides one
more feature of FDE (Full Disk Encryption) that RS2PI008 doesn't support.
Caution: Some levels of RAID are designed to increase the availability of data and some to provide data
redundancy. However, installing a RAID controller is not a substitute for a reliable backup strategy.
It is highly recommended you back up data regularly via a tape drive or other backup strategy to
guard against data loss. It is especially important to back up all data before working on any system
components and before installing or changing the RAID controller or configuration.
Software
Intel®Embedded Server RAID Technology 2, Intel®IT/IR RAID and Intel®Integrated Server
RAID controllers include a set of software tools to configure and manage RAID systems.
These include:
•Intel®RAID controller software and utilities: The firmware installed on the RAID
controller provides pre-operating system configuration.
—ForIntel
®Embedded Server RAID Technology 2, press <Ctrl> + <E> during the
server boot to enter the BIOS configuration utility.
—ForIntel
®IT/IR RAID, press <Ctrl> + <C> during the server boot to enter the LSI
MPT* SAS BIOS Configuration Utility
—ForIntel
®Integrated Server RAID, press <Ctrl> + <G> during the server boot to
enter the RAID BIOS Console II.
•Intel®RAID Controller Drivers: Intel provides software drivers for the following
operating systems.
— Microsoft Windows 2000*, Microsoft Windows XP*, and Microsoft Windows
Server 2003* (32-bit and 64-bit editions)
— Red Hat* Enterprise Linux 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0 (with service packs; X86 and X86-64)

4Intel®RAID Software User’s Guide
— SuSE* Linux Enterprise Server 9.0, SuSE* Linux Enterprise Server 10, and SuSE*
Linux Enterprise Server 11(with service packs; X86 and X86-64)
— VMWare* ESX 4i
Note: Only the combinations of controller, driver, and Intel®Server Board or System
listed in the Tested Hardware and Operating System List (THOL) were tested.
Check the supported operating system list for both your RAID controller and your
server board to verify operating system support and compatibility.
•Intel®RAID Web Console 2: A full-featured graphical user interface (GUI) utility is
provided to monitor, manage, and update the RAID configuration.
RAID Terminology
RAID is a group of physical disks put together to provide increased I/O (Input/Output)
performance (by allowing multiple, simultaneous disk access), fault tolerance, and reliability
(by reconstructing failed drives from remaining data). The physical drive group is called an
array, and the partitioned sets are called virtual disks. A virtual disk can consist of a part of one
or more physical arrays, and one or more entire arrays.
Using two or more configured RAID arrays in a larger virtual disk is called spanning. It is
represented by a double digit in the RAID mode/type (10, 50, 60).
Running more than one array on a given physical drive or set of drives is called a sliced
configuration.
The only drive that the operating system works with is the virtual disk, which is also called a
virtual drive. The virtual drive is used by the operating system as a single drive (lettered
storage device in Microsoft Windows*).
The RAID controller is the mastermind that must configure the physical array and the virtual
disks, and initialize them for use, check them for data consistency, allocate the data between
the physical drives, and rebuild a failed array to maintain data redundancy. The features
available per controller are highlighted later in this document and in the hardware guide for the
RAID controller.
The common terms used when describing RAID functions and features can be grouped into
two areas: fault tolerance (data protection and redundancy) and performance.
Fault Tolerance
Fault tolerance describes a state in which even with a drive failure, the data on the virtual drive
is still complete and the system is available after the failure and during repair of the array.
Most RAID modes are able to endure a physical disk failure without compromising data
integrity or processing capability of the virtual drive.
RAID mode 0 is not fault tolerant. With RAID 0, if a drive fails, then the data is no longer
complete and no longer available. Backplane fault tolerance can be achieved by a spanned
array where the arrays are on different backplanes.
True fault tolerance includes the automatic ability to restore the RAID array to redundancy so
that another drive failure will not destroy its usability.

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Hot Spare
True fault tolerance requires the availability of a spare disk that the controller can add to the
array and use to rebuild the array with the data from the failed drive. This spare disk is called a
hot spare. It must be a part of the array before a disk failure occurs. A hot-spare drive is a
physical drive that is maintained by the RAID controller but not actually used for data storage
in the array unless another drive fails. Upon failure of one of the array’s physical drives, the
hot-spare drive is used to hold the recreated data and restore data redundancy.
Hot-spare drives can be global (available to any array on a controller) or dedicated (only
usable by one array). There can be more than one hot spare per array and the drive of the
closest capacity is used. If both dedicated and global hot-spare drives are available, then the
dedicated drive is used first. If the hot swap rebuild fails, then that hot spare is also marked
failed. Since RAID 0 is not redundant, there is no hot spare value.
If a hot-spare drive is not an option, then it is possible to perform a hot or cold swap of the
failed drive to provide the new drive for rebuild after the drive failure. A swap is the manual
substitution of a replacement drive in a disk subsystem. If a swap is performed while the
system is running, it is a hot swap. A hot swap can only be performed if the backplane and
enclosure support it. If the system does not support hot-swap drives, then the system must be
powered down before the drive swap occurs. This is a cold swap.
In all cases (hot spare, hot swap, or cold swap), the replacement drive must be at least as large
as the drive it replaces. In all three cases, the failed drive is removed from the array. If using a
hot spare, then the failed drive can remain in the system. When a hot spare is available and an
automatic rebuild starts, the failed drive may be automatically removed from the array before
the utilities detect the failure. Only the event logs show what happened.
If the system is shut down during the rebuild, all rebuilds should automatically restart
on reboot.
Note: If running a sliced configuration (RAID 0, RAID 5, and RAID 6 on the same set of physical drives),
then the rebuild of the spare will not occur until the RAID 0 array is deleted.
On Intel®RAID Controller RS2WC080 and RS2WC040, if Virtual Drive is in degrade mode
due to failed physical drive, auto rebuild is not supported for hot-plugged drive until a manual
selection is made by users. As part of JBOD implementation for Intel®RAID Controller
RS2WC080 and RS2WC040, all new drives that are hot-plugged will automatically become
JBOD. Users need to manually move the JBOD drive to Unconfigured Good and auto rebuild
starts after that. For more details, refer to Hardware User's Guide (HWUG) for
above controllers.
Data Redundancy
Data redundancy is provided by mirroring or by disk striping with parity stripes.
•Disk mirroring is found only in RAID 1 and 10. With mirroring, the same data
simultaneously writes to two disks. If one disk fails, the contents of the other disk can be
used to run the system and reconstruct the failed array. This provides 100% data
redundancy but uses the most drive capacity, since 50% of the total capacity is available.
Until a failure occurs, both mirrored disks contain the same data at all times. Either drive
can act as the operational drive.
•Parity is the ability to recreate data by using a mathematical calculation derived from
multiple data sets. Parity is basically a checksum of all the data known as the

6Intel®RAID Software User’s Guide
“ABCsum”. When drive A fails, the controller uses the ABCsum to calculates what
remains on drives B+C. The remainder must be recreated onto new drive A.
Parity can be dedicated (all parity stripes are placed on the same drive) or distributed
(parity stripes are spread across multiple drives). Calculating and writing parity slows
the write process but provides redundancy in a much smaller space than mirroring.
Parity checking is also used to detect errors in the data during consistency checks and
patrol reads.
RAID 5 uses distributed parity and RAID 6 uses dual distributed parity (two different
sets of parity are calculated and written to different drives each time.) RAID modes 1
and 5 can survive a single disk failure, although performance may be degraded,
especially during the rebuild. RAID modes 10 and 50 can survive multiple disk failures
across the spans, but only one failure per array. RAID mode 6 can survive up to two disk
failures. RAID mode 60 can sustain up to two failures per array.
Data protection is also provided by running calculations on the drives to make sure data is
consistent and that drives are good. The controller uses consistency checks, background
initialization, and patrol reads. You should include these in regular maintenance schedules.
•The consistency check operation verifies that data in the array matches the redundancy
data (parity or checksum). This is not provided in RAID 0 in which there is no
fault tolerance.
•Background initialization is a consistency check that is forced five minutes after the
creation of a virtual disk. Background initialization also checks for media errors on
physical drives and ensures that striped data segments are the same on all physical drives
in an array.
•Patrol read checks for physical disk errors that could lead to drive failure. These checks
usually include an attempt at corrective action. Patrol read can be enabled or disabled
with automatic or manual activation. This process starts only when the RAID controller
is idle for a defined period of time and no other background tasks are active, although a
patrol read check can continue to run during heavy I/O processes.
Enclosure Management
Enclosure management is the intelligent monitoring of the disk subsystem by software or
hardware usually within a disk enclosure. It increases the ability for the user to respond to a
drive or power supply failure by monitoring those sub systems.
Performance
Performance improvements come from multiple areas including disk striping and disk
spanning, accessing multiple disks simultaneously, and setting the percentage of processing
capability to use for a task.
Disk Striping
Disk striping writes data across all of the physical disks in the array into fixed size partitions or
stripes. In most cases, the stripe size is user-defined. Stripes do not provide redundancy but
improve performance since striping allows multiple physical drives to be accessed at the same
time. These stripes are interleaved in a repeated sequential manner and the controller knows
where data is stored. The same stripe size should be kept across RAID arrays.
Terms used with strip sizing are listed below.

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•Strip size: One disk section
•Stripe size: Total of one set of strips across all data disks, not including parity stripes
•Stripe width: The number of disks involved
Disk Spanning
Disk spanning allows more than one array to be combined into a single virtual drive. The
spanned arrays must have the same stripe size and must be contiguous. Spanning alone does
not provide redundancy but RAID modes 10, 50, and 60 all have redundancy provided in their
pre-spanned arrays through RAID 1, 5, or 6.
Note: Spanning two contiguous RAID 0 drives does not produce a new RAID level or add fault tolerance.
It does increase the size of the virtual volume and improves performance by doubling the number of
spindles. Spanning for RAID 10, RAID 50, and RAID 60 requires two to eight arrays of RAID 1, 5,
or 6 with the same stripe size and that always uses the entire drive.
CPU Usage
Resource allocation provides the user with the option to set the amount of compute cycles to
devote to various tasks, including the rate of rebuilds, initialization, consistency checks, and
patrol read. Setting resource to 100% gives total priority to the rebuild. Setting it at 0% means
the rebuild will only occur if the system is not doing anything else. The default rebuild rate
is 30%.

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