nStor Corporation Ultra S2S User manual

Ultra S2S RAID Controller
with AdminiStor PC Utilities
™

nStor Corporation, Inc.
© 1997-1998 nStor Corporation, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Second Edition
nStor Corporation, Inc. shall not be liable for any damages or for the loss of any information resulting from the
performance or use of the information contained herein. Your rights to the software are governed by the license
agreement included with any accompanying software. nStor Corporation reserves the right to periodically revise this
manual without notice.
Product features and specifications described are subject to change without notice.
This manual may not be reproduced in whole or part, without prior written permission from nStor Corporation, Inc.
nStor Corporation, Inc.
450 Technology Park
Lake Mary, Florida 32746
nStor, AdminiStor, and the nStor logo are trademarks of nStor Corporation, Inc.
Mylex, DAC960, RAIDfx, and MORE are trademarks or registered trademarks of Mylex Corporation.
Other company and product names herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
companies.

i
Contents
Preface
v
Where to Find Answers vi
Features vii
1 Introduction 1
Ultra S2S RAID Controller Components 1
Processor 2
SCSI Bus 2
Memory and DRAM Cache 2
Controller Firmware 3
SCSI Functions 3
Dual Active Controllers 7
Drive Organization 8
Drive Groups 8
Logical Units (LUNs) 8
Drive Management 8
Cache Management 12
RAID Management 13
Supported RAID Levels 13
2 Installation
17
Supported Application 17
Quick Start 18
Setup 19

Contents
ii
Cabling Configuration 22
Simplex Configuration 23
Duplex (Dual-Active) Configuration 25
Clustering (Dual Host) Configuration 35
3 Configuration
37
Method 1 – Using AdminiStor PC Utilities 37
Installing the AdminiStor PC Utilities 38
Starting AdminiStor PC Utilities 38
Configuring the Array 40
Option 1 – Automatic Configuration 50
Option 2 - New Configuration 52
Initializing the System Drives 62
Method 2– Using the VT100 Mode 66
Connecting the Terminal 66
Configuring the Controllers Parameters 66
Configuring the Array 70
Initializing the Array 74
Relinquish Partner (Dual-Active only) 76
VT100 Menu Functions 77
4 Administering the Array
79
Overview 79
Increasing Array Capacity 80
Manual Configuration 84
Initializing the System Drives 94
Rebuilding Drives 96
Running a Consistency Check 98
Using Kill Partner and Relinquish Partner 99
Kill Partner 99
Relinquish Partner 100
5 Maintenance
101
Overview 101
Get New Drives 101
Bad Block Table 102
Rebuild BBT 102
Write Back BBT 102
Error Counts 103

Contents
iii
Change Disk State 104
Drive Size File 105
Firmware 106
Customize 106
Download 106
Save Accel File 107
Controller Information 107
A Technical Information
109
Specifications 109
Index 111

Contents
iv

v
Preface
Congratulations on the purchase of your new Ultra S2S RAID Controller from
nStor Corporation. The Ultra S2S RAID Controller brings high-performance
transfer rates and fault-tolerant RAID operations in an Ultra SCSI environment
to the nStor CR8e disk array subsystem attached to any computing platform
equipped with a standard Ultra SCSI host adapter. The Ultra S2S RAID
Controller is a intelligent caching controller that supports standard RAID levels:
0, 1, 0+1, 3, and 5 for multiple-drive arrays, and JBOD (just a bunch of drives)
for single drive control.
This generation of RAID controller allows continuous access to data in the event
of a disk drive failure. It also provides continuous access to the data in the event
of a controller failure and this capability is achieved with a dual-active controller
system which uses two Ultra S2S RAID Controllers sharing access to the same
array of disk drives. In the event of one controller failure, operations are assumed
by the surviving controller through a process called fail-over. Once the failed
controller is replaced, the new controller resumes processing array operations in a
fail-back process. During fail-over and fail-back, write cache coherency is
maintained within the disk drives.
New product enhancements include online RAID expansion (MORE
™
) which
allows the addition of one or more drives to a RAID set while the controller is
online with the host system. Also, depending upon the choice of RAID
configurations, the Ultra S2S RAID Controller appears to the operating system as
one or more logical units, allowing maximized application performance.

Preface
Where to Find Answers
vi
The programmable LUN mapping feature allows flexible specification of the LUN
to system drive mappings. Specific LUN ID (or multiple LUN IDs) can be
assigned to any system drive on each channel or use a default setting. Ownership
of a system drive can be assigned to any combination of controller/channel,
known as System Drive Affinity.
The Ultra S2S RAID Controller now supports an optional battery backup module
for maintaining memory content in case of an AC power failure. Its principle
purpose is to provide ride-through during a power glitch, however, the battery
backup module is capable of sustaining memory content for hours at a time,
depending on the type and size of installed controller memory.
Another new feature is Drive Sizing. Previously when a drive failed it was
required to be replaced with a drive of equivalent size. If a larger capacity drive
was used, its capacity was defined as that of the smallest drive in the array. With
Drive Sizing, the user can specify how much of the drive’s total capacity should
be used. This permits the user to make various size drives and make them appear
to all be the same size from the perspective of the Ultra S2S RAID Controller.
Registering Your Product
Registering your product allows nStor to continue providing the highest quality
technical support while keeping you informed about product developments.
To register your product, complete and fax the Plan Registration/Upgrade Form
found in the Product Registration kit.
Where to Find Answers
When you have questions about your nStor products, there are several places you
can look to find answers. Refer to the following:
In this guide This user’s guide provides detailed information for
installing and using the Ultra S2S RAID Controller, the
S2S Interface card (Single-ended and Differential), and
the AdminiStor PC Utilities software. The manual
assumes that the reader is already familiar with the
operating system environments where the controller
will be installed.

Preface
Features
vii
Features
Enhanced SCSI Performance
■
Ultra SCSI channels provide data transfers up to 40MB/second
■
System Drive Affinity allows assignment of drives to a particular system
controller including a duplex system
■ Tagged-command queuing to the host allows processing of up to 64
simultaneous data requests
■
User-defined performance tuning through selectable cache write policy and
variable stripe width
■
Disconnect/reconnect for SCSI bus optimization
■
Configuration stored on disk and controller NVRAM (if the controller is
replaced, disk and controller automatically reconfigure upon startup)
Resource Guide Use this manual to locate telephone numbers for
customer service and technical support, technical
support email address, instructions to obtain an RMA
number, and conditions of the limited warranty.
Feature Card User’s Guide
Use this manual for information on installing,
configuring, and using the nStor Ultra Extender and
Differential Converter cards.
CR8e User’s Guide Use this manual for procedures to install and use the
nStor CR8e disk array subsystem.
Battery Backup Module
documentation
Use this document for information on how to install
and use the nStor Ultra S2S RAID Controller – Battery
Backup Module.
AdminiStor Agent User’s
Guides
Use one of these manuals to install and use the nStor
SNMP-based network RAID subsystem management
software (NetWare, Windows NT, Solaris, and/or SGI).
On the software
diskettes
Review the README files for last minute information
about the release of the software products.
On the web site Refer to the nStor web site for the latest information on
products and product upgrades. (www.nstor.com)
On the ftp site Refer to the nStor ftp site for Adobe Acrobat versions of
all product user guides, addendums, and flyers.
(www.nstor.com)

Preface
Features
viii
Managed RAID/SCSI Disk Arrays
■
Multiple RAID level support
■
Online expansion allows drive(s) to be added with existing logical drives
■
Array configuration and management without special software or drivers
■
Support for all popular operating system environments (works
independent from the OS)
■
Connect up to 15 physical drives per drive channel
■
Drives can be grouped and managed as a single very large array, as multiple
large capacity drive groups, or as individual disk drives
■
Industry standard Fast-20/Wide SCSI-3 (Ultra Wide) interface
Flexible User Interface
■
Software utility (AdminiStor PC Utilities) provides DOS-level control
through a PC running ASPI drivers or Windows NT Pass-Through
■
Serial communications permits array control through a standard VT100 (or
equivalent) terminal
Automates RAID Functions
■
Automatic failed-drive detection
■
Supports AEMI protocols for automatic rebuild of the array using a
stand-by (hot spare) disk after a drive failure
■
Transparent drive rebuild permits automatic rebuild of failed drives during
normal operation without having to take the array off-line
■
Automatic error detection/correction of parity errors and bad blocks
■
Automatic sector re-mapping recovers defective media and corrects data
errors
■
Supports SAF-TE protocol for integrated monitoring of enclosure power
supplies, fans, and temperature
Continuous Operations
■ Each controller in a dual-active configuration monitors the status of its
partner controller
■ Failure of one controller in a dual-active configuration automatically
initiates a process whereby the surviving controller handles operations for
both controllers