Sonnet Fusion RAID Storage Systems User manual

Configuration Tool and Utilities v3.21
Operation Manual
for Fusion RAID Storage Systems

1.0 ATTO Configuration Tool Overview............................................................................................. 1
About the Configuration Tool
Configuration Tool Launch
ATTO Configuration Tool Navigation
1.1 NVRAM Settings........................................................................................................................7
SAS Address
Boot Driver
Heartbeat
Device Wait Time
Device Wait Count
Spinup Delay
1.2 RAID Settings...........................................................................................................................9
Preliminary Configuration Steps
DVRAID RAID Group Setup
Custom RAID Group Setup
Mac OS Drive Formatting
Windows Drive Formatting
Hot Spares Usage
RAID Group Management Overview
RAID Group Capacity Expansion
RAID Level Migration
RAID Group Deletion
RAID Group Rebuilding
1.3 Drive and RAID Group Monitoring............................................................................................17
Basic Drive Information
Detailed Drive Information
RAID Group Information
Individual Drive Identification
S.M.A.R.T. Data Monitoring
S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring Enabling and Disabling
S.M.A.R.T. Status Checking
S.M.A.R.T. Attribute Filtering
S.M.A.R.T. Notifications
Contents

Contents
1.4 Notifications......................................................................................................... 21
Basic Alerts
Logging
E-Mail Alert
1.5 Diagnose and Replace a Faulted Drive................................................................................ 23
Faulted Drive Identification
Faulted Drive Replacement
1.6 Configuration Tool Troubleshooting..........................................................................................25
Messages from NVRAM Tab Actions
An error occurred loading NVRAM data.
Warning: NVRAM could not be read, defaults returned.
An error occurred updating the NVRAM.
Feature bounds checking
Messages from Flash Tab Actions
This is not a flash file, or it is corrupt.
This HBA is not compatible with the selected flash file.
A valid file was not selected.
An error occurred reading from the flash file, the file may be corrupt.
An error occurred updating the flash.
The card has been prepared for firmware updating…
2.0 Windows Only - ATTO Disk Benchmark..................................................................................... 27
Benchmark Fields
Radio Button Group
Multiple Benchmark Testing
2.1 ATTO Disk Benchmark Troubleshooting.....................................................................................29
Appendix A - CLI ASCII-Based Interface........................................................................................... i
CLI Error Messages
CLI Summary
CLI Command Explanations
Appendix B - Quick Format Instructions........................................................................................ xii
Mac OS Users’ Instructions
Windows Users’ Instructions

1
About the Configuration Tool
The ATTO Configuration Tool is a utility program that displays
information about installed controllers, drivers and drives, and
provides a mechanism to configure installed controllers.
This program executes under:
• Mac OS X 10.4 or later
• Windows Vista /XP/Server 2003/2000
• Linux 2.6 kernel, x86 and x64
Note: Java version 1.5 or later must be installed.
The ATTO Configuration Tool displays:
• The name of the Sonnet RAID controller (listed as an ExpressSAS
Rxxx adapter)
• Information about the drivers controlling the Sonnet RAID
controller, including version information for both the currently
executing driver and the flash image
• Information about drives attached to the Sonnet RAID controller
You may use the Configuration Tool to:
• Manage RAID groups
• Configure RAID Event notifications
• Modify the RAID controller’s NVRAM settings
• Revert to default factory settings
• Update the RAID controller’s flash image
• Update firmware on huge disk arrays
The factory settings on your Sonnet RAID controller should
provide excellent performance for a wide range of applications.
However, some applications may benefit from modification of
the controller’s NVRAM settings that tune the controller for a
specific performance range.
Configuration Tool Launch
1. Locate the application icon in the folder created during
installation.
2. Double-click the ATTO Configuration icon to start the
application.
Note: The Sonnet RAID controller is designed to operate properly using
factory settings. Entering invalid or incorrect NVRAM settings
may cause your Sonnet RAID controller to function incorrectly.
The main screen has three panes: Device Listing, Configuration
Options and Status. See Figure 1 on page 3.
ATTO Configuration Tool Navigation
The Device Listing pane at the left of the window lists all devices
(controllers and drives) currently connected to the system.
Expand the device tree to reveal additional detail on connected
devices.
The Configuration Options pane provides information and
options for a device highlighted in the device listing.
If you highlight a device in the Device Listing pane, tabs and
panes are displayed for that device.
The following chart specifies the tabs that are displayed for the
indicated device type.
Tree Node Tab(s) Displayed
Controller Basic Info, Flash, RAID, RAID CLI, Advanced
Channel NVRAM, PCI Info
RAID Groups Basic Info, Flash
Local Host Basic Info, Notifications
The following tabs are displayed in the Configuration Options
pane when you select a specific controller in the Device Listing
pane.
• The Basic Info tab provides information about the Sonnet
RAID controller when it is highlighted in the Device Listing
pane, or the computer if localhost is highlighted. You cannot
make changes from these screens. See Figure 2 on page 3 and
Figure 3 on page 4.
• The Flash tab provides information about the current flash
version programmed on the highlighted controller. See Figure
4on page 4.
Click the Browse button at the bottom of the tab to search for
new flash files on your system such as FlashBundle_2007_02_
27.R380.
Once you’ve selected the flash file, click the Update button to
automatically update your Sonnet RAID controller.
• The RAID tab provides information about attached drives,
their RAID group and hot spare associations, and their
operating status. See Figure 5 on page 5.
• The RAID CLI tab provides access to the command line
interface, which, as an alternative to application menu-based
commands,enablestheuseofASCII-basedcommandstocontrol
configuration and diagnostic tasks. See Figure 6 on page 5.
1.0 ATTO Configuration Tool Overview
WARNING: Back up system data when installing or
changing hardware configurations.
Support Note: In the Device Listing pane of the ATTO
Configuration Tool window, the Sonnet RAID controller is
identified as an ExpressSAS Rxxx.

2
1.0 ATTO Configuration Tool Overview
ATTO Configuration Tool Navigation (continued)
• The Advanced tab does not function with the Sonnet RAID
controller; clicking this tab merely displays a message.
• When you select a specific channel under the Sonnet RAID
controller in the Device Listing pane, the NVRAM tab displays
the NVRAM parameters applicable to the Sonnet RAID
controller and channel selected. Refer to NVRAM Settings on
page 7, and Configuration Tool Troubleshooting on page 25
for information about NVRAM settings.
• The Sonnet RAID controller’s information is displayed in the
PCI Info tab. See Figure 7 on page 6.
• The current status of the Configuration Tool is represented in
the Status pane at the bottom of the window.
About window
The About window, displayed when About is selected from the
Help menu, lists the ATTO Configuration Tool’s version number.
See Figure 8 on page 6.

3
Figure 1
Figure 2
1.0 ATTO Configuration Tool Overview
Opening Screen
Basic Info tab when Local Host chosen in the Device Listing pane

4
Figure 3
Figure 4
1.0 ATTO Configuration Tool Overview
Basic Info tab when the Sonnet RAID controller is chosen in the Device Listing pane
Flash tab when the Sonnet RAID controller is chosen in the Device Listing pane

5
Figure 6
1.0 ATTO Configuration Tool Overview
RAID CLI tab when the Sonnet RAID controller is chosen in the Device Listing pane
Figure 5
RAID tab when the Sonnet RAID controller is chosen in the Device Listing pane

6
Figure 7
PCI Info tab
1.0 ATTO Configuration Tool Overview
Figure 8
About Configuration Tool window

7
1.1 NVRAM Settings
The settings in the NVRAM tab vary depending upon the operating
system.
The Sonnet RAID controller is designed to operate properly using
factory settings. Entering invalid or incorrect settings when using
an NVRAM configuration utility such as the ATTO Configuration
Tool may cause your controller to function incorrectly. See
Figure 9 on page 8.
Use caution when making changes to NVRAM settings and only
make changes to those with which you are familiar. Once you
have made the desired changes, click Commit to save the changes.
Click Save to name and save an NVRAM configuration. Click Load
to load a saved NVRAM configuration. Changes do not take effect
until you reboot the system.
If you do not want to make any changes, you may choose one of
the following
•
Defaults: restores the controller to factory default settings. The
Commit button must be clicked to save any changes.
•
Restore: reverts to the NVRAM settings saved the last time the
Commit button was used. Clicking Commit is not necessary.
SAS Address
Read only
Displays the SAS address assigned to the controller. The value
cannot be modified.
Boot Driver (Windows only)
Choices: enabled, scan only, disabled
Default: disabled
If enabled and disk drives are detected during the bus scan, the
BIOS driver remains resident. If disabled, the BIOS starts, resets
the controller chip and unloads the driver.
If Scan Only is selected, the BIOS driver scans the bus and displays
the devices attached, then unloads itself after a brief delay.
Heartbeat
Choices: enabled, disabled
Default: enabled
When enabled, the Sonnet RAID controller‘s firmware is required
to respond to periodic activity. If the firmware does not respond,
the system driver resets the firmware on the controller.
WARNING: Back up system data when installing or
changing hardware configurations.
Device Wait Time
Choices: 1–255 seconds
Default: 3
Specifies the number of seconds that the driver waits for devices
to appear.
Device Wait Count
Choices: 1–255 devices
Default: 1
Specifies the number of devices that must appear in order to cancel
the Device Wait Time period.
Spinup Delay
Choices: 0-20 seconds
Default: 0
Specifies the number of seconds each SAS port waits for disk drives
to spin up.
Support Note: The SAS address is a globally-unique
identifier assigned to devices such as the Sonnet RAID
controller, and is similar to an Ethernet adapter’s MAC address.

8
Figure 9
1.1 NVRAM Settings
NVRAM settings tab

9
1.2 RAID Settings
The ATTO Configuration Tool provides the capability to configure disk
storage into RAID groups or Hot Spare drives.
Note: Even an individual JBOD disk is considered to be a RAID group.
Use the ATTO Configuration Tool to set up RAID groups on your
Sonnet RAID controller in one of the following RAID levels:
• JBOD
• RAID Level 0
• RAID Level 1
• RAID Level 4
• RAID Level 5
• RAID Level 6
• RAID Level 10
• DVRAID
DVRAID RAID groups may be set up automatically by the ATTO
Configuration Tool. All other RAID configurations require
customized input.
Each RAID group may be divided into one or more partitions;
each partition appears to the host operating system as a virtual
disk.
You may use the command line interface pane from the RAID
CLI tab in the ATTO Configuration Tool to set up or modify
various parameters (Refer to Appendix A). However, the menu-
based procedures listed in this chapter are the preferred
procedures for setting up RAID configurations for the Sonnet
RAID controller.
Preliminary Configuration Steps
1. Launch the ATTO Configuration Tool application.
2. The Configuration Tool main screen appears. See Figure 10
on page 12 for an overview of the screen. In the Device
Listing pane on the left side of the window, click ExpressSAS
Rxxx under localhost.
3. Click the RAID tab; attached drives are displayed in the top
pane, while RAID groups and Hot Spares are displayed in the
bottom pane.
DVRAID RAID Group Setup
The DVRAID wizard automatically sets up a DVRAID RAID
group using all available drives attached to the Sonnet RAID
controller. If you do not want all available drives set up in a
DVRAID RAID group, either remove the drives from the drive
enclosure, or select Custom RAID setup.
1. After completing Preliminary Configuration Steps on this
page, select RAID Management > Create Group > DVRAID
Setup from the application menu.
2. A dialog window will pop up, asking whether you want
to perform an Express Setup Operation of DVRAID; click
Yes. The ATTO Configuration Tool automatically uses all
unassigned drives to create a DVRAID RAID group. While the
RAID group is being created, a message box displays and the
panes display the RAID groups.
3. The RAID group must still be formatted by your computer’s
operating system software before it becomes available for use.
For Mac users, use Disk Utility; for Windows users, use Disk
Management. For more information on drive formatting, see
Mac OS Drive Formatting or Windows Drive Formatting on
page 11.
4. After formatting, RAID groups may be used during the setup
operation, but performance is limited until setup is complete.
Support Note: In the Device Listing pane of the ATTO
Configuration Tool window, the Sonnet RAID controller is
identified as an ExpressSAS Rxxx.
WARNING: After selecting the DVRAID, RAID 4, RAID 5,
or RAID 6 option, configuration of a set of eight 1TB
drives can take up to 4 hours (or up to 2 hours with 500GB
drives).
Windows Support Note: In order to create RAID
volumes larger than 2TB under Windows, you must do one
of the following: Select the 4KB sector size when creating
a custom RAID group (not DVRAID). -OR- Use the software
configuration tools included with the Fusion storage to create
volumes up to 2TB, concatenate (link together in a virtual chain)
the volumes, and then format as NTFS. -OR- Use GPT formatting.
Note that drives and volumes with GPT formatting are not visible
to any version of Windows XP Professional, nor to the 32-bit
version of Windows Server 2003 SP1.
Support Note: DVRAID is a customized, protected
RAID 4 configuration. It is optimized for increased digital
video playback performance when compared to that obtained
from a RAID 5 configuration. DVRAID’s write performance is
decreased in order to accomplish this optimization.
Support Note: In Fusion RAID systems shipped from
Sonnet with hard drives installed, the drives are formatted
Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and configured as a single RAID
5 RAID group. If you need to change the configuration, use the
ATTO Configuration Tool and the operating system software tools
to reformat and reconfigure the drives. See page xii for Quick
Format instructions for Mac OS and Windows users.

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1.2 RAID Settings
Custom RAID Group Setup
1. After completing Preliminary Configuration Steps on page 9,
select RAID Management > Create Group > Customized
from the application menu.
2. Select the first set of options to configure the new RAID
group. See Figure 11 on page 12.
•
Name: name the RAID group or use the one assigned by
the Configuration Tool. The name must be unique and no
more than 14 characters.
•
Level: select a RAID group level from the drop-down box.
• Interleave: select an interleave value. The default value is
64 KB.
• Mirror Count: select the number of mirror groups when
RAID 1 or RAID 10 RAID groups are created.
• Initialize: select Advanced or Express.
3. Click Next. Select the drives in the top pane and drag them
into the device area in the bottom pane. See Figure 12 on
page 13.
4. Click Next. Select the next set of options to configure the
new RAID group. See Figure 13 on page 13.
•
Sector Size: select a sector size from the drop down box.
The default is 512 bytes.
• Speed Read: select Always, Adaptive, or Never. The default
is Adaptive.
•
Rebuild Priority: select High, Same, or Low. The default is
Low.
•
Auto Rebuild: on or off.
5. If you want the RAID group to be presented as one virtual
disk (partition), click Finish. If you want more than one
virtual disk (partition), click Next (see Figure 14 on page 14),
and then select one of the following options:
• leave as one partition
• partition by count
• partition by size
If you choose to split the RAID group by count or capacity,
you must enter additional information.
6. If you have not already done so, click Finish.
7. A confirmation dialog box asks you to approve the
configuration you have chosen. Click Yes. See Figure 15 on
page 14.
8. Every RAID group must be formatted by your computer’s
operating system software before it becomes available for use; Mac
users will use Disk Utility, while Windows users will use Disk
Management. For more information on drive formatting, see
Mac OS Drive Formatting or Windows Drive Formatting on
page 11.
Support Note: The interleave value of 128KB offers the
best performance for most SATA drives.
Support Note: When the Advanced Initialize option is
selected, parity blocks are calculated and the RAID group
is thoroughly scanned and subjected to a complete Write/Verify
operation to map out any bad blocks on the drives before the
RAID group is made available for use.
When the Express Initialize option is chosen, drives are not
scanned and subjected to the Write/Verify operation, but parity
blocks are calculated and the RAID group may be used during
the initialization.
Windows Support Note: Choosing the 4K sector size
enables the creation and use of RAID volumes larger than
2TB on systems running Windows XP 32-bit.
Support Note: For the Speed Read option, select Always
if you expect to work with large sequential files (video, for
example), Never if you expect most of the files are smaller in size
(general storage, database, etc.), or Adaptive if you expect mixed
use or don't know.
Support Note: Descriptions of basic RAID levels can be
found on the Wikipedia.org Web site at the following
address: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID#Standard_levels

11
Mac OS Drive Formatting
1. Depending on how you configure your setup, a Disk Insertion
window stating that there is an unreadable volume will
appear at some point during the RAID group creation process;
click Initialize, and then Disk Utility will open.
2. In the Disk Utility window, each RAID group you created
using the ATTO Configuration Tool will appear as a single
volume. Select the volume, and then click the Erase tab at the
top of the window.
3. Click the Erase button; a window will appear asking you to
approve your choice; click Erase.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each remaining unformatted RAID
group, and then close Disk Utility.
5. Depending on how you configured the RAID groups, the
volumes may already be mounted and present on the desktop.
If you created a DVRAID, RAID 4, RAID 5, or RAID 6 RAID
group, configuration will take much longer. You may check
on the process by double-clicking the volume name in the
lower pane of the ATTO Configuration Tool window.
Windows Drive Formatting
1. Select Computer Management From the Windows Start
menu. If Computer Management is not available in the Start
Menu, select Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools.
In the Administrative Tools window, double-click Computer
Management.
2. In the Computer Management window, click Storage on the
left, and then double-click Disk Management.
3. When the Initialize Disk window appears, click OK.
4. In the Disk Management window, each RAID group you
created will appear (listed as “unallocated”) as a single volume.
Right-click where the word “unallocated” appears, and then
select New Simple Volume.
5. When the Welcome to the New Simple Volume Wizard window
appears, click next to start the process.
6. Follow the remaining steps to complete the process.
Note: If you do not select the quick format option, formatting will take
much longer to complete.
7. Repeat steps 4–6 for each remaining “unallocated” disk.
1.2 RAID Settings
8. Depending on how you configured the RAID groups, the
volumes may already be available to the system. If you
created a DVRAID, RAID 4, RAID 5, or RAID 6 RAID group,
configuration will take much longer. You may check on the
process by double-clicking the volume name in the lower
pane of the ATTO Configuration Tool window.
9. Once all the RAID groups have been formatted, they are
ready to use.

12
Figure 10
Figure 11
1.2 RAID Settings
Configuration Tool main screen with the RAID tab selected
Select the options to create new, custom RAID groups

13
Figure 12
Figure 13
1.2 RAID Settings
RAID group drives selected
Select more options to create new, custom RAID groups

14
Figure 14
Figure 15
1.2 RAID Settings
Select the number of partitions for the new RAID group
Confirm the custom RAID group options

15
1.2 RAID Settings
Hot Spares Usage
If a drive in a RAID group becomes degraded or faulted, your
RAID group will lose some redundancy until a new member
(drive) is rebuilt into it. You can automate this procedure by
designating one or more drives as Hot Spares. You may set up a
pool of Hot Spare drives of different sizes appropriate for your
RAID groups.
If the Sonnet RAID controller detects a faulted drive in a RAID
group with a designated Hot Spare:
• The controller searches the Hot Spare pool for the smallest drive
of sufficient capacity to substitute for the faulted drive.
• The faulted drive is replaced with the drive from the Hot Spare
pool.
• The Sonnet RAID controller begins an automatic rebuild of the
RAID groups.
Select RAID Management > New Hot Spare (or Delete Hot Spare)
from the application menu, and then follow the instructions on
the screen.
RAID Group Management Overview
The ATTO Configuration Tool interface may be used to replace
a failed drive, add capacity to a RAID group, or change a RAID
group’s current RAID level configuration to a new one.
The ATTO Configuration Tool interface guides you step by step
through many procedures which allow you to modify your
storage and RAID configurations. Read all notes and cautions
carefully as you go to ensure the best performance and use of
your storage. Many of these procedures are only available with
drives that are not currently part of a RAID group, are not
designated as a Hot Spare, or were offline when you initially set
up RAID configurations.
RAID Group Capacity Expansion
Select RAID Management > Expand Capacity from the
application menu, and then follow the instructions on the screen.
Depending on the RAID configuration, you may need to add more
than one drive at a time.
RAID Level Migration
Changing a RAID group from one RAID level to another is called
migration. The following migration levels are supported:
• JBOD to RAID Level 0
• JBOD to RAID Level 1
• RAID Level 0 to RAID Level 10
• RAID Level 1 to RAID 10
• N-way mirroring: add additional redundancy to RAID Level 1
Select RAID Management > Migrate RAID Level from the
application menu, and then follow the instructions on the
screen.
RAID Group Deletion
You may delete a group using the ATTO Configuration Tool.
Select RAID Management > Delete Group from the application
menu, and then follow the instructions on the screen.
RAID Group Rebuilding
If a RAID group becomes compromised, you must rebuild it.
Select RAID Management > Rebuild Group from the application
menu, and then follow the instructions on the screen.
You may pause the RAID group rebuild process by selecting
the RAID group in the lower pane, and then selecting RAID
Management > Pause Rebuild from the application menu. To
restart the rebuild, select the RAID group in the bottom pane,
and then select RAID Management > Resume Rebuild from the
application menu.
Support Note: Hard drives in the Hot Spare pool
should be of appropriate capacity to the RAID group so
that smaller drives are not replaced by much larger Hot Spare
drives.
WARNING: Data can be compromised or lost when
deleting storage or rearranging storage configurations.
Support Note: An unallocated drive or unallocated
storage is storage which is not part of a RAID group, not
designated as a Hot Spare or was offline when you initially set up
a RAID configuration using the ATTO Configuration Tool interface.
WARNING: Data can be compromised or lost when
deleting storage or rearranging storage configurations.
Support Note: A RAID group rebuild may take up to
eight hours to complete, depending on the operating
system, drive capacities, and RAID configuration.
WARNING: Adding drives to an existing RAID group may
adversely impact performance. You cannot reverse this
operation unless you delete the RAID group.

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