nStor NexStor 4700F Series User manual

USER'S GUIDE
NexStor®4700F Series
RAID STORAGE SYSTEMS
4700F.book Page 1 Wednesday, April 6, 2005 11:05 AM

4700F.book Page 2 Wednesday, April 6, 2005 11:05 AM

USER'S GUIDE
NexStor®4700F Series
RAID STORAGE SYSTEMS
4700F.book Page 3 Wednesday, April 6, 2005 11:05 AM

nStor Corporation, Inc.
Restricted Rights and Liability
No part of this manual may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, in whole or part, without prior written permission from
nStor Corporation, Inc.
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.
For Regulatory information, see Appendix C.
Copyright
nStor
Corporation
, Inc.
6190 Corte Del Cedro Road
Carlsbad, CA 92009
Copyright © 2005 nStor Corporation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
nStor, StorView, NexStor, the NexStor logo, the StorView logo, and the nStor logo are trademarks or registered
trademarks of nStor Corporation, Inc.
Other company and product names herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
companies.
Agency Notes
WARNING: Drives and controller/adapter cards described in this manual should only be installed in UL-listed and CSA
certified computers that give specific instructions on the installation and removal of accessory cards (refer to your
computer installation manual for proper instructions).
ATTENTION: Les lecteurs et cartes contrôleurs décrits ici ne doivent être montés que sur des ordinateurs homologués (UL et
CSA) et livrés avec des manuels contenant les instructions d’installation et de retrait des accessoires. Reportez-
vous au manuel d’installation de votre ordinateur.
SERVICE NOTE: Remove the power cables prior to servicing this equipment.
!
4700F.book Page 4 Wednesday, April 6, 2005 11:05 AM

i
Contents
About this Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Typographical Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Customer Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
1 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
At-a-Glance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Front Bezel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Power System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Standard AC Hot Swappable Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Optional DC Hot Swappable Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Cooling Fan Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
RAID Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
SFF Transceiver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Battery Backup Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Embedded SES Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Control and Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Status Indicator LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Drive LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Audible Alarm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2 Topology and Operating Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Simplex Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Operating Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Direct Attach Connection - Single Host (Single HBA) . . . . . . . . . 18
Direct Attach Connection - Single Host (Dual HBA) . . . . . . . . . . 18
Clustered Connection - Dual Hosts (Single HBA) . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
SAN Connection - Multiple Hosts (Switch) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
LUN Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Alternate Path Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4700F.book Page i Wednesday, April 6, 2005 11:05 AM

Table of Contents
ii
A Word about Clustering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Minimizing Downtime for Maximum Data Availability . . . . . . . . 21
How Available are Clusters? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Application of Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3 Setup and Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Storage System Detailed Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Installing the Enclosure into the Rack Cabinet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Installing the Enclosure into the Tower Stand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Completing the Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Cabling the DC Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Before You Continue... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Special Note for Microsoft Windows 2000/2003 Installations . . . . 36
Operating Mode Configuration and Cabling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Simplex Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Direct Attach Connection - Single Host (Single HBA) . . . . . . . . 37
Direct Attach Connection - Single Host (Dual HBAs) . . . . . . . . 38
Clustered Connection - Dual Hosts (Single HBA) . . . . . . . . . . . 39
SAN Connection - Multiple Hosts (Switch). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Powering On the Storage System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Powering Off the Storage System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4 Managing and Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Enclosure Component Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Status Indicator LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Power-On LED. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Channel Status LED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Power Supply Status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Fan Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Drive LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Drive Status LEDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Drive Activity LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Drive Carrier LitePipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Audible Alarm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
LED Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
VT-100 Interface Enclosure Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Updating Controller Firmware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
5 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
General Enclosure Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Logical Drive and OS Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4700F.book Page ii Wednesday, April 6, 2005 11:05 AM

Table of Contents
iii
Problems During Bootup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Common Fibre Loop/Bus Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Common Problems and Interpreting the LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Terminal and COM Port Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
6 Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Removing the Front Bezel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Replacing the Cooling Fans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Replacing an AC Power Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Replacing a DC Power Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Replacing a Disk Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Replacing a RAID Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Replacing the Backup Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Replacing the Enclosure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
A Technical Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
B Port Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
RS-232 Service Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Null-Modem Cable Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
DC Power Supply Connector Pinout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
C Regulatory Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Compliance Information Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
FCC Class A Radio Frequency Interference Statement . . . . . . . . . 86
Class A Taiwanese Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Class A Japanese Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
CE Notice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
AC Power Cord Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4700F.book Page iii Wednesday, April 6, 2005 11:05 AM

Table of Contents
iv
4700F.book Page iv Wednesday, April 6, 2005 11:05 AM

v
Preface
About this Manual
Welcome
Congratulations on the purchase of your new NexStor
®
4700F Series RAID
Storage System from nStor Corporation. This NexStor series is a low cost-high
capacity, fault-tolerant advanced data protection serial technology RAID storage
system .
It’s unique 2U design is optimized to fit in the compact space of today’s data
center rack environments or as a deskside tower system.
The enclosure design supports up to twelve hot pluggable 1-inch high Serial
Advanced Technology Architecture (SATA) disk drives in a 2U (3.5-inch) form
factor. Component redundancy is provided through a hot pluggable cooling fan
module and a redundant N+1 power system with dual hot pluggable independent
power supplies reducing single points of failure. Use of hot swappable
components allows the storage system to maintain continuous operation without
interruption to normal service with the loss or replacement of a component.
The single FC-SATA RAID Controller provides a low-cost RAID solution
supporting RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 10 and 50, up to 1GB of battery-backed cache,
and dual 2Gb FC ports.
4700F.book Page v Wednesday, April 6, 2005 11:05 AM

About this Manual
Welcome
vi
The base system includes a single power supply with an optional second power
supply for an N+1 power system. It also includes an easy-to-use graphical
web-based storage management software suite (StorView) and a menu-driven
intuitive terminal type interface, power cord, null-model cable, and a rackmount
rail kit.
Available in two models:
NexStor 4711F : 512MB Cache Memory with a Backup Battery
NexStor 4712F : 1GB Cache Memory with a Backup Battery
This user’s guide is your complete documentation for an understanding of the
components and technology used in the topologies, and how to set up the
storage system hardware, cable the storage system, add components, replace
parts, and diagnose/repair your system.
Refer to the software guide included with your system. The documentation is
provided on a CD-ROM included with your system.
4700F.book Page vi Wednesday, April 6, 2005 11:05 AM