Promise Technology FASTtrak100 LP User Manual

RAID User’s Manual RAID20276-216

8 Creating an Array for Performance NOTE: You can create striped arrays with 1 or 2 drives. To create an array for best performance, follow these ste

9 Creating a Security Array Using An Existing Hard Drive NOTE: In Auto Setup, only two drives can be used for a single Mirrored array. Use this meth

10 7. Once complete, the following screen will appear confirming that your Security array has been created. Press any key to reboot the system Array

11 Using the FastBuild™ Configuration Utility The FastBuildTM Configuration Utility offers several menus to create and manage the drive array. For pu

12 Navigating the FastBuild™ Setup Menu The basic navigation keys are: Arrow keys to highlight through choices, <Space> key to cycle through op

13 Creating Arrays Automatically “Auto Setup <1>” in the Main Menu can automatically help create a disk array. It will assign all available dr

14 Typical Application Usage The user can choose the type of PC usage to be performed in order to optimize the way the system handles data blocks th

15 Deleting An Array “Delete Array <4>” menu allows you to delete disk array assignments. This is not the same as deleting data from the drive

16 Rebuilding A Mirrored Array “Rebuild Array <5>” menu is necessary to recover from an error in the mirrored disk array. An error message will

17 FastBuild (tm) Utility 1.xx (c) 1995-2000 Promise Technology, Inc. [ Rebuild Array Menu ] Array No RAID Mode Total Drv Status Array 2

Copyright Copyright by Promise Technology, Inc. (“Promise”), 2002. No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the

18 Viewing Controller Settings “Controller Configuration <6>” menu allows you to enable or disable the BIOS from halting if it detected an er

19 Installing Drivers This section details driver installation for various operating systems. It includes the driver necessary to identify the Promis

20 Installing the Driver on an Existing Windows 2000 System WARNING: If you wish to use the existing Windows 2000 hard drive that will be configured

21 Windows 95/98/ME Installing the Driver During Windows 95/98/ME Installation The following sections detail the installation of the Windows 95/98/ME

22 11. When Windows informs you that it was not able to find the driver, select “Other Locations…” 12. In the “Select Other Location” dialog box, typ

23 Installing the Driver on an Existing Windows 95/98/ME The following sections detail the installation of the Windows 98/ME driver on an existing Wi

24 DOS/Windows 3.1x Follow the standard procedure of installing DOS onto your hard disk (partition all hard drives with FDISK and format before perfo

25 Windows NT 4.0 Installing the Driver During Windows NT 4.0 Installation 1. Start the system installation by booting from the Windows NT disk. a.

26 Installing the Driver on an Existing Windows NT 4.0 WARNING If you wish to use the existing Windows NT 4.0 hard drive that will be configured in

27 Using The FastCheck™ Monitoring Utility You can monitor the operating status of all configured arrays and drives using the provided FastCheck moni

1 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION...2 WHAT IS THE PROMISE 202

28 Running FastCheck As described in the Installation section, the default is to load the utility during the Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000 startup. It app

29 Using the FastCheck Array Window Once you start FastCheck, the FastCheck Monitoring Utility window will appear. The main pane has three window tab

30 Status: (Functional, Critical, Offline) Functional: Means the array is providing full functionality. Critical: Used only in reference to a Mirr

31 Location: Shows the physical location of the drive. Indicates the IDE channel (1 or 2), and whether the drive on the cable is Master or Slave. T

32 Synchronizing An Array Synchronization is a periodic maintenance procedure for Mirrored (RAID 1, RAID 0+1) arrays to maintain data consistency on

33 4. Once Synchronization is confirmed, the following screen appears. Click “OK” or close the window to proceed. NOTE: During Array Synchronizat

34 Rebuilding An Array This command effectively copies or overwrites data from an existing data drive in the array on to a blank drive. The operation

35 4. Rebuild Wizard Step 2 confirms the target or “Rebuild” disk by Array # and drive ID. 5. Click “Finish” to initiate physical Rebuild, “Bac

36 Using Controller Window Clicking the “Controller” tab will reveal the Controller window. This displays physical information about the data channe

37 Viewing IDE Channel Information Left-clicking on a given Channel icon or # in the left pane will show the Base IO addresses of the channel in the

2 Introduction What is Promise 20276 RAID controller? The Promise 20276 RAID controller provides a cost-effective, high performance RAID solution th

38 Viewing Drive Information Left-clicking on a given drive icon or ID in the left pane will show similar information as the Array Window Drive Info

39 Using Options Window Clicking on the Options tab reveals the Options window. Array administrators can customize the FastCheck Monitoring Utility i

40 Selecting Notification Options This section of the Options window allows users to select how they are notified of a system event. A System Event i

41 Interactive: By checking this option, a window will appear each time an error is detected asking whether you want to Abort, Fix, or Ignore the err

42 Setting Rebuild Options Disable Hot Spare/Auto Rebuild turns off the use of a “hot” spare drive and automatic rebuilding of a mirrored array. Th

43 Creating Password 1. To create a password, click Enable Password in the Preferences section. The “Set Password” window will appear. 2. Type the

44 Understanding Disk Array Concepts About the BIOS The Promise BIOS code extends the standard disk service routine provided through Int13. The BIOS

45 Disk Array Terms Disk Array Description A “disk array” is formed from a group of 2 or more disk drives which appear to the system as a single driv

46 About RAID Levels Striping (RAID 0) Reads and writes sectors of data interleaved between multiple drives. When any disk member fails, it affects t

47 Mirroring (RAID 1) Writes duplicate data on to a pair of drives while reads are performed in parallel. ATA RAID 1 is fault tolerant because each d

3 Keys Features and Benefits The following information is an overview of the major features of the Promise 20276 RAID controller. Advanced Hardware

48 Troubleshooting & Tips This section is used to assist troubleshooting conflicts and installation problems. Also refer to the “README.TXT” fil

49 Unable to partition or format array The Reserve Sector of one of the drives has become corrupted or bad. Removing the Reserve Sector will remedy a

50 Your choices are as follows: Abort: Halts the rebuild process. You may select to retry at a later date. Break ECC on Target Drive: If the erro

51 Your choices are as follows: Abort: Halts the synchronization process. You may select to retry at a later date. Fix the Error Block: The syst

52 Operating System-Related Errors The operating system no longer boots after creating a Mirrored Array with an existing boot drive that uses Windows

53 Optimize Array for “Performance” The FastBuild BIOS Utility auto setup menu allows optimizing the array for A/V Editing. The default Performance

54 Frequently Asked Questions This section lists frequently asked questions involving pre-installation, drive issues, installation, and post-installa

55 Q: Can I take a set of drives belonging to an array in one server and move it to another server? A: Yes. All controllers read arrays the same

56 Post-Installation (Memory Managers, FDISK) Q: Why does my system reboot after the QEMM driver loads from CONFIG.SYS? A: The problem lies in th

4 Compatibility Features Benefits Compliant with PCI IDE Bus Master standard. PCI IDE Bus Master supports Windows XP/2000/98/95 and Windows NT 3.5x/

5 Getting Started This section will help you get started with the hard drive installation. WARNING: Before installing the driver into an existing

6 4. Install the 40-pin connector of the IDE cable into the RAID IDE connector and the other 40-pin connector(s) into the hard drives with the colo

7 Creating A Disk Array Use the FastBuild BIOS utility to create arrays using the attached drives. There are three different scenarios in creating an