Partners SurfRAID TRITON Mini User manual

SurfRAID TRITON Mini User’s Manual
Support - 800-550-3005
Ultra320/SATA - Storage Systems

Copyright
Copyright© 2005 Partners Data Systems, Inc. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior written consent.
Trademarks
All products and trade names used in this document are trademarks or regis-
tered trademarks of their respective holders.
Changes
The material in this documents is for information only and is subject to change
without notice.

FCC Compliance Statement
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a
Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC rules. These limits are
designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in
residential installations. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate ra-
dio frequency energy, and if not installed and used in accordance with the
instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. How-
ever, there is not guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular
installation. If this equipment does cause interference to radio or television
equipment reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off
and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or
more of the following measures:
1.Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.
2.Move the equipment away from the receiver.
3.Plug the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which
the receiver is powered.
4.Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/television technician for help.
All external connections should be made using shielded cables.

About This Manual
This manual covers everything you need to know in learning how to install or
configure your SurfRAID TRITON Mini system. This manual also assumes
that you know the basic concepts of RAID technology. It includes the follow-
ing information :
Chapter 1 Introduction
Introduces you to SurfRAID TRITON Mini’s features and general technol-
ogy concepts.
Chapter 2 Getting Started
Helps user to identify parts of the SurfRAID TRITON Mini and prepare the
hardware for configuration.
Chapter 3 Configuring
Quick Setup
Provides a simple way to setup your SurfRAID TRITON Mini.
Customizing Setup
Provides step-by-step instructions to help you to do setup or re-configure
your SurfRAID TRITON Mini.
Chapter 4 Array Maintenance
Updating Firmware
Provides step-by-step instructions to help you to update the firmware to the
latest version.

Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Key Features.....................................................................................................
1.2 RAID Concepts.................................................................................................
1.3 SCSI Concepts.................................................................................................
1.3.1 Multiple SCSI Format Support..................................................................
1.3.2 Host SCSI ID Selection..............................................................................
1.3.3 Terminators..................................................................................................
1.4 Array Definition..................................................................................................
1.4.1 RAID set........................................................................................................
1.4.2 Volume Set...................................................................................................
1.4.3 Easy of Use features..................................................................................
1.4.4 High Availability............................................................................................
Chapter 2 Getting Started
2.1 Unpacking the SurfRAID TRITON Mini........................................................
2.2 Identifying Parts of the SurfRAID TRITON Mini...........................................
2.2.1 Front View.....................................................................................................
2.2.2 Front Panel..............................................................................................
2.2.3 Rear View.....................................................................................................
2.3 Connecting to Host..........................................................................................
2.4 SCSI Termination.............................................................................................
2.5 Install Hard Drives..............................................................................
2.6 Powering-on the SurfRAID TRITON Mini........................................................
2.7 Connecting UPS...................................................................................................
2.8 Connecting to PC or Terminal............................................................................
Chapter 3 Configuring
3.1 Configuring through a Terminal..............................................................................
3.2 Configuring the SurfRAID TRITON Mini Using the LCD Panel............................
3.3 Menu Diagram.......................................................................................................
3.4 Web browser-based Remote RAID management via R-Link ethernet.......
3.5 Quick Create.....................................................................................................
3.6 RAID Set Functions......................................................................................
3.6.1 Create RAID Set..........................................................................................
3.6.2 Delete RAID Set............................................................................................
3.6.3 Expand RAID Set...........................................................................................
1-2
1-3
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1-15
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3-19
3-20

3.6.4 Activate Incomplete RAID Set...................................................................
3.6.5 Create Hot Spare........................................................................................
3.6.6 Delete Hot Spare.........................................................................................
3.6.7 Rescue RAID Set..........................................................................................
3.7 Volume Set Function....................................................................................
3.7.1 Create Volume Set......................................................................................
3.7.2 Delete Volume Set......................................................................................
3.7.3 Modify Volume Set........................................................................................
3.7.3.1 Volume Expansion.......................................................................
3.7.4 Volume Set Migration..................................................................................
3.7.5 Check Volume Set........................................................................................
3.7.6 Stop Volume Set Check..............................................................................
3.8 Physical Drive..........................................................................................................
3.8.1 Create Pass-Through Disk........................................................................
3.8.2 Modify Pass-Through Disk.........................................................................
3.8.3 Delete Pass-Through Disk........................................................................
3.8.4 Identify Selected Drive.................................................................................
3.9 System Configuration...........................................................................................
3.9.1 System Configuration.................................................................................
3.9.2 U320 SCSI Target Configuration...............................................................
3.9.3 Ethernet Config................................................................................................
3.9.4 Alert By Mail Config......................................................................................
3.9.5 SNMP Configuration.........................................................................................
3.9.6 View Events.....................................................................................................
3.9.7 Generate Test Events.................................................................................
3.9.8 Clear Events Buffer......................................................................................
3.9.9 Modify Password..........................................................................................
3.9.10 Upgrade Firmware.........................................................................................
3.10 Information Menu....................................................................................................
3.10.1 RAIDSet Hierarchy.....................................................................................
3.10.2 System Information ..................................................................................
3.10.3 Hardware Monitor......................................................................................
3.11 Creating a new RAID or Reconfiguring an Existing RAID..............................
Chapter 4 Array Maintenance
4.1 Upgrading the Firmware...................................................................................
Appendix A Technical Specification...................................................
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3-25
3-26
3-26
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4-1
A-1

Introduction 1-1
Chapter 1
Introduction
The SurfRAID TRITON Mini is an Ultra 320 LVD SCSI-to-Serial ATA II RAID
(Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks) disk array. It consists of a RAID
disk array controller and four (4) disk trays.
The SurfRAID TRITON Mini is “Host Independent” supporting RAID levels 0,
1, 3, 5, 0+1 and JBOD. Regardless of the RAID level that the SurfRAID TRI-
TON Mini is configured for, each RAID array consists of a set of disks which
to the user appears to be a single large disk capacity.
One unique feature of these RAID levels is that data is spread across sepa-
rate disks as a result of the redundant manner in which data is stored in a
RAID array. If a disk in the RAID array fails, the SurfRAID TRITON Mini con-
tinues to function without any risk of data loss. This is because redundant
information is stored separately from the data. The redundant information can
be used to reconstruct any data that was stored on a failed disk. In other
words, the SurfRAID TRITON Mini can tolerate the failure of a drive without
losing data while operating independently of each other.
The SurfRAID TRITON Mini is also equipped with an environment controller
which is capable of accurately monitoring the internal environment, such as
its power supplies, fans, temperatures and voltages. Its modular design al-
lows hot-swapping of hard drives without interrupting the SurfRAID TRITON
Mini’s operation.

Introduction
1-2
1.1 Key Features
SurfRAID TRITON Mini Features:
vFeatures an Intel 80321 64 bit RISC I/O processor
v128MB cache memory
vUltra 320 SCSI LVD host port
vSupports up to four (4) 1" hot-swappable Serial ATA II hard drives
v250W power supply with PFC
vHigh quality advanced cooling fans
vLocal audible event notification alarm
vSupports password protection and UPS connection
vBuilt-in R-Link LAN port interface for remote management & event
notification
vReal time drive activity and status indicators
RAID Function Features:
vSupports RAID levels 0, 1, 0+1, 3, 5 and JBOD
vSupports hot spare and automatic hot rebuild
vAllows online capacity expansion within the enclosure
vTagged command queuing for 256 commands, allows for overlapping
data streams
vTransparent data protection for all popular operating systems
vBad block auto-remapping
vSupports multiple array enclosures per host connection
vMultiple RAID selection
vArray roaming
vOnline RAID level migration

Introduction 1-3
1.2 RAID Concepts
RAID Fundamentals
The basic idea of RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is to combine
multiple inexpensive disk drives into an array of disk drives to obtain performance,
capacity and reliability that exceeds that of a single large drive. The array of
drives appears to the host computer as a single logical drive.
Five types of array architectures, RAID 1 through RAID 5, were originally defined,
each provides disk fault-tolerance with different compromises in features and
performance. In addition to these five redundant array architectures, it has become
popular to refer to a non-redundant array of disk drives as a RAID 0 array.
Disk Striping
Fundamental to RAID technology is striping. This is a method of combining
multiple drives into one logical storage unit. Striping partitions the storage
space of each drive into stripes, which can be as small as one sector (512
bytes) or as large as several megabytes. These stripes are then interleaved
in a rotating sequence, so that the combined space is composed alternately
of stripes from each drive. The specific type of operating environment deter-
mines whether large or small stripes should be used.
Most operating systems today support concurrent disk I/O operations across
multiple drives. However, in order to maximize throughput for the array, the I/O
load must be balanced across all the drives so that each drive can be kept busy
as much as possible. In a multiple drive system without striping, the disk I/O load
is never perfectly balanced. Some drives will contain data files that are frequently
accessed and some drives will rarely be accessed.

Introduction
1-4
By striping the drives in the array with stripes large enough so that each record
falls entirely within one stripe, most records can be evenly distributed across all
drives. This keeps all drives in the array busy during heavy load situations. This
situation allows all drives to work concurrently on different I/O operations, and
thus maximize the number of simultaneous I/O operations that can be performed
by the array.
Definition of RAID Levels
RAID 0 is typically defined as a group of striped disk drives without parity or data
redundancy. RAID 0 arrays can be configured with large stripes for multi-user
environments or small stripes for single-user systems that access long sequential
records. RAID 0 arrays deliver the best data storage efficiency and performance
of any array type. The disadvantage is that if one drive in a RAID 0 array fails, the
entire array fails.

Introduction 1-5
RAID 1, also known as disk mirroring, is simply a pair of disk drives that store
duplicate data but appear to the computer as a single drive. Although striping is
not used within a single mirrored drive pair, multiple RAID 1 arrays can be striped
together to create a single large array consisting of pairs of mirrored drives. All
writes must go to both drives of a mirrored pair so that the information on the
drives is kept identical. However, each individual drive can perform simultaneous,
independent read operations. Mirroring thus doubles the read performance of a
single non-mirrored drive and while the write performance is unchanged. RAID 1
delivers the best performance of any redundant array type. In addition, there is
less performance degradation during drive failure than in RAID 5 arrays.

Introduction
1-6
RAID 3 sector-stripes data across groups of drives, but one drive in the group is
dedicated to storing parity information. RAID 3 relies on the embedded ECC in
each sector for error detection. In the case of drive failure, data recovery is
accomplished by calculating the exclusive OR (XOR) of the information recorded
on the remaining drives. Records typically span all drives, which optimizes the
disk transfer rate. Because each I/O request accesses every drive in the array,
RAID 3 arrays can satisfy only one I/O request at a time. RAID 3 delivers the
best performance for single-user, single-tasking environments with long records.
Synchronized-spindle drives are required for RAID 3 arrays in order to avoid
performance degradation with short records. RAID 5 arrays with small stripes
can yield similar performance to RAID 3 arrays.

Introduction 1-7
Under RAID 5 parity information is distributed across all the drives. Since there
is no dedicated parity drive, all drives contain data and read operations can be
overlapped on every drive in the array. Write operations will typically access one
data drive and one parity drive. However, because different records store their
parity on different drives, write operations can usually be overlapped.

Introduction
1-8
Dual-level RAID achieves a balance between the increased data availability
inherent in RAID 1 and RAID 5 and the increased read performance inherent in
disk striping (RAID 0). These arrays are sometimes referred to as RAID 0+1 or
RAID 10 and RAID 0+5 or RAID 50.
In summary:
vRAID 0 is the fastest and most efficient array type but offers no fault-
tolerance. RAID 0 requires a minimum of two drives.
vRAID 1 is the best choice for performance-critical, fault-tolerant
environments. RAID 1 is the only choice for fault-tolerance if no more than
two drives are used.
vRAID 3 can be used to speed up data transfer and provide fault-tolerance
in single-user environments that access long sequential records. However,
RAID 3 does not allow overlapping of multiple I/O operations and requires
synchronized-spindle drives to avoid performance degradation with short
records. RAID 5 with a small stripe size offers similar performance.
vRAID 5 combines efficient, fault-tolerant data storage with good
performance characteristics. However, write performance and performance
during drive failure is slower than with RAID 1. Rebuild operations also
require more time than with RAID 1 because parity information is also
reconstructed. At least three drives are required for RAID 5 arrays.

Introduction 1-9
RAID Management
The SurfRAID TRITON Mini can implement several different levels of RAID
technology. RAID levels supported by the SurfRAID TRITON Mini are shown
below.
RAID
Level Description Min
Drives
0
1
3
5
0 + 1
Block striping is provide, which yields higher performance than with
individual drives. There is no redundancy.
Drives are paired and mirrored. All data is 100% duplicated on an
equivalent drive. Fully redundant.
Data is striped across several physical drives. Parity protection is used
for data redundancy.
Data is striped across several physical drives. Parity protection is used
for data redundancy.
Combination of RAID levels 0 and 1. This level provides striping and
redundancy through mirroring.
2
3
3
4
2

Introduction
1-10
1.3 SCSI Concepts
Before configuring the SurfRAID TRITON Mini, you must first understand
some basic SCSI concepts so that the SurfRAID TRITON Mini and SCSI
devices will function properly.
1.3.1 Multiple SCSI Format Support
The SurfRAID TRITON Mini support the SCSI interface standards listed be-
low. Note that the data bit and cable length restrictions must be followed.
SCSI Type
SCSI-1
Fast SCSI
Fast Wide SCSI
Ultra SCSI
Ultra Wide SCSI
Ultra 2 SCSI
Ultra 2 Wide SCSI
Ultra 160 Wide LVD
Ultra 320 SCSI LVD
Data Bit
8 Bits
8 Bits
16 Bits
8 Bits
16 Bits
8 Bits
16 Bits
16 Bits
16 Bits
Data Rate
5 MB/Sec
10 MB/Sec
20 MB/Sec
20 MB/Sec
40 MB/Sec
40 MB/Sec
80 MB/Sec
160MB/Sec
320MB/Sec
Cable Length
6 m
3 m
3 m
1.5 m
1.5 m
12 m
12 m
12 m
12 m
1.3.2 Host SCSI ID Selection
A SCSI ID is an identifier assigned to SCSI devices which enables them to
communicate with a computer when they are attached to a host adapter via
the SCSI bus. Each SCSI device, and the host adapter itself, must have a
SCSI ID number (Ultra 320 Wide SCSI = 0 to 15). The ID defines each SCSI
device on the SCSI bus. If there is more than one SCSI adapter in the Sur-
fRAID TRITON Mini, each adapter forms a separate SCSI bus. SCSI IDs can
be reused as long as the ID is assigned to a device on a separate SCSI bus.
Refer to the documentation that came with your peripheral device to deter-
mine the ID and how to change it. The SurfRAID TRITON Mini must be
assigned a unique SCSI ID ranging from 0 to 15. The default value is ID 0.

Introduction 1-11
1.3.3 Terminators
Based on SCSI specifications, the SCSI bus must be terminated at both
ends, meaning the devices that are connected to the ends of the SCSI bus
must have their bus terminators enabled. Devices connected in the middle of
the SCSI bus must have their terminators disabled. Proper termination allows
data and SCSI commands to be transmitted reliably on the SCSI bus. The
host adapter and the SCSI devices attached to it must be properly termi-
nated, or they will not work reliably.
Termination means that terminators are installed in the devices at each end
of the bus. Some SCSI devices require you to manually insert or remove the
terminators. Other devices have built-in terminators that are enabled or dis-
abled via switches or software commands. Refer to the device’s documenta-
tion on how to enable or disable termination.

Introduction
1-12
1.4 Array Definition
1.4.1 RAID Set
A RAID Set is a group of disks containing one or more Volume Sets. It is
impossible to have multiple RAID Sets on the same disks.
A Volume Set must be created either on an existing RAID Set or on a group
of available individual disks (disks that are not yet a part of an RAID Set). If
there are pre-existing RAID Sets with available capacity and enough disks for
the desired RAID level, then the Volume Set will be created in the existing
RAID Set of the user’s choice. If physical disks of different capacity are
grouped together in a RAID Set, then the capacity of the smallest disk will
become the effective capacity of all the disks in the RAID Set.
1.4.2 Volume Set
A Volume Set is seen by the host system as a single logical device. It is
organized in a RAID level with one or more physical disks. RAID level refers
to the level of data performance and protection of a Volume Set. A Volume
Set capacity can consume all or a portion of the disk capacity available in a
RAID Set. Multiple Volume Sets can exist on a group of disks in a RAID Set.
Additional Volume Sets created in a specified RAID Set will reside on all the
physical disks in the RAID Set. Thus each Volume Set on the RAID Set will
have its data spread evenly across all the disks in the RAID Set. Volume
Sets of different RAID levels may coexist on the same RAID Set.
In the illustration below, Volume 1 can be assigned a RAID 5 level of opera-
tion while Volume 0 might be assigned a RAID 0+1 level of operation.

Introduction 1-13
1.4.3 Easy of Use features
1.4.3.1 Instant Availability/Background Initialization
RAID 0 and RAID 1 Volume Sets can be used immediately after the creation.
But the RAID 3 and 5 Volume Sets must be initialized to generate the parity.
In the Normal Initialization, the initialization proceeds as a background task,
the Volume Set is fully accessible for system reads and writes. The operating
system can instantly access to the newly created arrays without requiring a
reboot and waiting the initialization complete. Furthermore, the RAID Volume
Set is also protected against a single disk failure while initialing. In Fast Initial-
ization, the initialization proceeds must be completed before the Volume Set
ready for system accesses.
1.4.3.2 Array Roaming
The SurfRAID TRITON Mini stores configuration information both in NVRAM
and on the disk drives It can protect the configuration settings in the case of
a disk drive or controller failure. Array roaming allows the administrators the
ability to move a complete RAID Set to another system without losing RAID
configuration and data on that RAID Set. If a server fails to work, the RAID
Set disk drives can be moved to another server and inserted in any order.