Acer RAID-Ready System - Intel Matrix Storage Manager

Acer Raid-Ready System with Intel® Matrix Storage Manager 8.
5

Acer RAID‐Ready System
With Intel® Matrix Storage Manager 8.5

Acer Incorporated

Quick Guide

Version: 1.0
Date: Aug, 2008

This document contains proprietary technical information, which is the property of the Acer Incorporated and shall not be
disclosed to others in whole or in part, reproduced, copied, or used as the basis for design, manufacturing, or sale of
apparatus without written permission of Acer Incorporated.
The information in this document, including products and software versions, is current as of the Release Date above. This
document is subject to change without notice.

Acer Raid-Ready System with Intel® Matrix Storage Manager 8.5
Revision History

Rev. # Date Explanation of Change Approved by
1.0 Aug 25, 2008 First release to public

- I-
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 2
2. WARNINGS AND REMINDERS ...................................................................................................... 3
3. COMMON RAID SETUP PROCEDURES .......................................................................................... 4
Configuring RAID0 or RAID1 on your Raid‐Ready Acer PC ............................................................... 4
Configuring an existing HDD as a RAID0 or RAID1 volume ............................................................ 14
Migrating from RAID0/1/10 to RAID5 system ................................................................................. 15
4. PRE‐INSTALLATION OF THE INTEL® MATRIX STORAGE MANAGER DRIVER .................................. 16
Build the RAID driver on a floppy disk ............................................................................................ 16
Pre‐Installation using the "F6" process .......................................................................................... 16
5. HDD PASSWORD SUPPORT WITH RAID VOLUMES ..................................................................... 18
HDD password usage scenarios ...................................................................................................... 19
6. APPENDIX: RAID TECHNOLOGY AND SELECTION ....................................................................... 20
Overview of RAID levels .................................................................................................................. 20
Comparison of RAID levels .............................................................................................................. 23
- 1-
1. Introduction
The Intel Matrix Storage Console is a Windows® ‐based application that represents the user interface
for all Intel® Matrix Storage Manager (IMSM) components. IMSM improves storage subsystem
performance and reliability on your computer.

This document will assist you in evaluating, configuring and enabling RAID functionality on Acer
Raid‐Ready platforms using Intel® Matrix Storage Manager software. This document also describes
RAID volume management such as creating, deleting and modifying volumes and outlines common
usage models.

Selected high‐end Acer desktop systems are configured as Intel® Raid‐Ready systems. A Raid‐Ready
system can be upgraded to RAID0, RAID1, RAID5 or RAID10 using the RAID migration feature built into
Intel® Matrix Storage Manager 8.5. This technology enables you to install additional SATA hard drives,
and then migrate a Raid‐Ready configuration to a RAID0, RAID1, RAID5 or RAID10 configuration.

Before you begin building your RAID system please check Warnings and Reminders (section 2) for
more detailed information. You can also check the online user's manual for Intel® Matrix Storage
Manager in Windows® for a detailed description of RAID functionality.
- 2-
2. Warnings and Reminders
1. You may use Intel® Matrix Storage Console in Windows® for most RAID functions.
However, using the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager option ROM (accessed by pressing
Ctrl‐I when starting your computer) is NOT recommended, because it will reformat the
hard disk and Acer eRecovery Management's Restore to Factory Defaults function will
NOT be usable anymore.
2. Enabling RAID on your system is a time‐intensive process and it is important that your
computer stay on during the whole process, or you will risk data loss. Disable your
screen saver and power‐management options such as auto‐shutdown, auto‐hibernate
and auto‐standby. Plug your system into an AC adapter before attempting to enable
RAID on your system.
3. Enabling RAID may change how your hard disk drives are ordered, and Acer eRecovery
Management may not function properly if your system does not have the needed drive
ordering.
4. You cannot use Acer eRecovery Management to revert your system to a non‐RAID
configuration after enabling the RAID function.
5. The HDD password feature will not function once the RAID function has been enabled.
6. Before enabling RAID on your system, back up important data and applications using
Acer eRecovery Management or another appropriate backup tool.
7. If you plan to enable RAID0 or Matrix RAID on your system, you cannot return your
system to a non‐RAID state without reformatting your system.
8. Please refer to section 8 if you wish to install the RAID function by yourself and be sure
to install the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager drivers prior to enabling the RAID function.

- 3-
3. Common RAID Setup Procedures
Configuring RAID0 or RAID1 on your Raid‐Ready Acer PC

Selected high‐end Acer desktop computer systems are configured as Intel® RAID‐Ready
systems. You can use the following steps to migrate from a single‐drive non‐RAID
configuration to a two‐drive RAID0 or RAID1 configuration. To prepare for this, you will need
to install another SATA hard drive with a capacity equal to or greater than the capacity of the
hard drive being used as the source hard drive.

1. Note the serial number of the hard drive already in the system; you will need it to select
the source hard drive for the migration.
2. Install the second SATA hard drive to an available SATA port.
3. Boot Windows®, then install the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager software. If it is not
already installed (it is pre‐installed in Acer Raid‐Ready systems), use the setup package
obtained from a CD‐ROM or from the Internet. This will install the necessary Intel® Matrix
Storage Manager and start menu links.
4. Open the Intel® Matrix Storage Console from the Start Menu and activate Advanced
Mode under the View menu. Then select Create RAID Volume from Existing Hard Drive
from the Actions menu.
5. The Create RAID Volume from Existing Hard Drive Wizard will be activated. Follow the
instructions as prompted. It is important to understand what will occur during the
migration process because all data on the destination hard drive will be lost.
6. After the migration is complete, reboot the system. If you migrate to a RAID0 volume, use
Disk Management from Windows in order to partition and format the empty space
created when the two hard drive capacities are combined. You may also use third‐party
software to extend any existing partitions within the RAID volume.

- 4-
Follow the steps below:

1) Select Intel® Matrix Storage Console from the Start menu.
- 5-
2) The Manager will show current SATA HDD connection status.

3) Select Actions to create a RAID Volume.
- 6-

4) Follow the wizard by clicking click Next

5) Select the RAID type you want to build up.

- 7-

6) Select the SATA HDDs you want to build up the RAID volume on.

7) To build a RAID0/1 volume requires at least two SATA HDDs.

- 8-
8) Select the source HDD first.

9) Select a Member HDD. (The Member HDD should be the same size or larger than the
Source HDD.)

- 9-

10) Specify the RAID Volume size.

11) Click Finish to complete setup.

- 10-

12) System will start to build the RAID volume.

13) After the Migration is Complete, you will see the message below instructing you to
reboot the system.
- 11-

14) You can check the RAID volume status after the RAID build is complete.

- 12-
15) For more information, refer to the online user manual: Select Help > Contents and
Index.

- 13-

16) Click on a link to refer to the information you want.

Configuring an existing HDD as a RAID0 or RAID1 volume

If you are booting from a single SATA hard drive that contains program or personal data, you
may use the migration feature to use this hard drive as the source hard drive for a migration.
After the migration is completed, you will have a two‐HDD RAID0 volume where data is
striped or a two‐HDD RAID1 volume where the data is mirrored across the two SATA hard
drives. To do this, the ICH9 I/O Controller must be enabled in the BIOS and you must have the
Intel® Matrix Storage Manager software installed (Acer systems enable the RAID controller
and have the Matrix storage Manager software pre‐installed by default).

Launch Intel® Matrix Storage Manager and do the following:

1. Note the serial number of the SATA hard drive that is already installed. You will need this
to select it as the source hard drive when initiating the migration.
2. Physically attach the second SATA hard drive to an available SATA port.
3. Boot to Windows®, install the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager software, if not already
installed (it is pre‐installed in Acer Raid‐Ready systems), use the setup package obtained
- 14-
from the CD‐ROM or from the Internet. This will install the necessary Intel® Matrix
Storage Manager and start menu links.
4. Open the Intel® Matrix Storage Console from the Start Menu.
5. Select Create RAID Volume from Existing Hard Drive from the Actions menu. This will
activate the Create RAID Volume from the Existing Hard Drive Wizard. Follow the
instructions as prompted. It is important to understand what will occur during the
migration process because all data on the destination hard drive will be lost.
6. After the migration is complete, reboot the system.

Migrating from RAID0/1/10 to RAID5 system

RAID level migration allows an existing RAID configuration which supports levels 0, 1 or 10 to
be migrated to RAID5. The following migrations are possible:

¾ 2‐drive RAID1 to 3‐ or 4‐drive RAID5
¾ 2‐drive RAID0 to 3‐ or 4‐drive RAID5
¾ 3‐drive RAID0 to 4‐drive RAID5
¾ 4‐drive RAID10 to 4‐drive RAID5

Note: In order for the migration to complete successfully, the minimum SATA hard drive
requirements for the new RAID5 configuration have to be met.

Please follow the steps below to migrate to RAID5:

1. Boot the system to Windows®.
2. Start the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager application:
Start Menu > All Programs > Intel® Matrix Storage Manager > Intel® Matrix Storage
Console.
3. Click the View menu and select the Advanced Mode option.
4. Choose the RAID volume you want to migrate. Right‐click and select Modify Volume.
5. The Modify RAID Volume Wizard will be displayed. The wizard will walk you through the
procedure to migrate to RAID5.
6. After the migration starts, the Information tab shows the migration progress in the
Status field.
7. When the Status field indicates Normal, the migration is complete.
- 15-
4. Pre‐Installation of the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager Driver
This section is for users who want to install the operating system themselves. Since Acer
systems are Raid‐Ready by default, you may need to follow the steps below to pre‐install the
RAID driver.

The Intel® Matrix Storage Manager driver must be installed before installing Windows XP® on
a RAID volume, or when in AHCI mode. The Intel® Matrix Storage Manager AHCI driver can
also be installed over the Windows Vista® native AHCI driver.

Build the RAID driver on a floppy disk

You can download the RAID driver from the Acer website or from an Acer Resource CD. The
driver file is named "f6flpy32." Once the buildup is complete, remove the floppy disk and
prepare for Windows® installation.

1. On a system running Windows®, download the application f6flpy32.exe (for 32‐bit
operating systems) or f6flpy64.exe (for 64‐bit operating systems) to your local drive.
2. Double click on the application. A dialog box prompting you to Insert floppy to write
will appear.
3. Insert a blank floppy into the floppy drive (or CD/DVD or USB) and click OK to proceed.
4. The application will perform the following tasks:
a. Format the disk.
b. Write data to the disk
c. Verify data on the disk.
5. After the task is done, About Self‐Extractor for WinImage will be displayed. Click OK to
exit.
6. Now your floppy disk will have the valid Intel® Matrix Storage Manager Driver which can
be used for installation using the F6 process.

Pre‐Installation using the "F6" process

1. When installing Windows XP® and older operating systems, the user may encounter a
message stating Setup could not determine the type of one or more mass storage
devices installed in your system. If this is the case, then the user is ready to supply the
driver. If this is not the case, press F6 when prompted at the beginning of Windows
setup.
2. Press the 'S' key to select Specify Additional Device.
- 16-
3. The user will be prompted to insert a floppy disk containing the manufacturer‐supplied
driver into the A: drive.
4. For Windows Vista®: During the operating system installation, after selecting the
location to install Vista click the Load Driver button to install a third party SCSI or RAID
driver.
5. When prompted, insert the floppy disk or media (Floppy, CD/DVD or USB) containing
the RAID driver and press Enter.
6. Review the list of available SCSI Adapters. This list should include Intel® 82801HEM SATA
RAID Controller(ICH9M‐E) when the system is in RAID mode and Intel® 82801HEM SATA
AHCI Controller(ICH9M‐E) or Intel® 82801HBM SATA AHCI Controller(ICH9M) when the
system is in AHCI mode.
7. Select the appropriate Intel RAID controller and press ENTER.
8. The next screen should confirm that the user has selected the Intel® RAID controller.
Press ENTER again to continue.
9. After successfully installing the Intel® Matrix Storage Console driver, Windows setup
should continue.
10. Leave the disk in the floppy drive until the system reboots itself. Windows® setup will
need to copy the files from the floppy again after the RAID volume is formatted and
Windows setup starts copying files.

- 17-
5. HDD password support with RAID volumes
Intel® Matrix Storage Manager 8.5 supports password protected HDDs to be RAID array
member disks and pass‐thru disks. The IMSM product will rely on the BIOS implementing
most of the ATA Security support. There is a whitepaper available called "Implementing Intel®
Matrix Storage Manager Compatible Support for ATA Security in BIOS" available on CDI that
describes the necessary BIOS design for compatibility with the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager.
Intel® Matrix Storage Manager will handle the RAID and unannounced removal and insertion
of a Serial ATA hard drive while the system is powered on, even for password protected disks.
- 18-

HDD password usage scenarios

If at least one unlocked member disk and one locked member disk (with relevant data for the
volume) are connected, then a RAID volume will be designated as Locked.

Scenario Action Result Comments

RAID1 Volume Remove Disk 1 Volume becomes The user had authority to access Disk

Disk 1 – Locked (locked disk) unlocked and 2 which has the same data as Disk 1;
Disk 2 ‐ Unlocked Degraded. by removing the locked drive the
Volume – Locked User can rebuild user can access Disk 2.
(Both disks have volume unto a new

relevant data) unlocked disk.
RAID1 Volume None N/A The user has access to Disk 2
Disk 1 – Locked because the data on Disk 1 is old and
Disk 2 – Unlocked irrelevant.
Volume – Degraded
Disk 1 has old data
and caused the
volume to go
Degraded.
RAID5 Volume Remove Disk 1 Volume becomes The user had authority to access Disk
Disk 1 – Locked (locked disk) unlocked and 2 and Disk 3 which has all the data
Disk 2 – Unlocked Degraded. needed to rebuild the volume, by
Disk 3 – Unlocked User can rebuild removing the locked drive the user
Volume – Locked volume onto a new can access Disk 2 and Disk 3 as a
(All disks have unlocked disk. Degraded Volume.
relevant data to
Volume)
IRRT Volume User connects The recovery drive Similar situation to a user leaving a
Master Disk – Locked laptop to docking can be connected to laptop unlocked and unattended.
Recovery Disk ‐ station and a new laptop and
Locked unlocks Recovery the information can
(external port disk and Master be used to rebuild
docking station) Disk and boots. an IRRT volume if
Volume – Locked Then user takes the power was
(Both disks have the laptop from maintained,
relevant data) the docking because the drive is
station and leaves still in an unlocked
the external drive state.
connected to
power
- 19-
6. Appendix: RAID Technology and Selection
RAID (a redundant array of inexpensive disks, also later known as a redundant array of
independent disks) is a system that uses multiple hard drives to share or replicate data among
the drives. Depending on the version chosen, the benefits of RAID are one or more of the
following: greater capacity, reliability, protection of data, and/or speed compared to a single
drive.

Overview of RAID levels

RAID0 (striping)
¾ RAID0 splits data evenly across two or more disks with no parity information for
redundancy.
¾ Multiple files can be read (and written) simultaneously and transfer time is improved
dramatically, thus increasing throughput.
¾ RAID0 volume capacity = number of (HDDs) x (capacity of smallest HDD)
¾ RAID0 can be created with disks of differing sizes, but the storage space added to the array
by each disk is limited to the size of the smallest disk. For example, if a 120 GB disk is striped
together with a 100 GB disk, the size of the array will be 200 GB.

D is k 1
B lo c k 1 B lo c k 1
B lo c k 3
B lo c k 2
B lo c k 7
B lo c k 4
D is k 2
R A ID 0 B lo c k 5
B lo c k 2
B lo c k 6
B lo c k 4
B lo c k 7
B lo c k 6
B lo c k 8
B lo c k 8
P h y s ic a l d is k s L o g ic a l d is k s
P h y s ic a l d is k P h y s ic a l d is k L o g ic a l d is k
120 GB 120 GB 240 GB

RAID1 (mirroring)
¾ RAID1 creates an exact copy (or mirror) of a set of data on two or more disks when
reliability is more important than data capacity.
¾ A classic RAID1 mirrored pair contains two disks, which increases reliability exponentially
over a single disk.
- 20-
¾ Mirroring allows continued operation of the system in the event of one drive or array
failing.
¾ Restoration can be performed using the mirrored copy.
¾ I/O performance may suffer during reconstruction due to the increased activity between
locations.
¾ RAID1 volume capacity = capacity of smallest HDD
¾ Such an array can only be as large as the smallest member disk.

D is k 1
B lo c k 1
B lo c k 2
B lo c k 4
B lo c k 2
D is k 2
R A ID 1
B lo c k 3
B lo c k 2
B lo c k 3
B lo c k 4
L o g ic a l d is k
P h y s ic a l d is k s
P h y s ic a l P h y s ic a l L o g ic a l d is k s
d is k s d is k s 120 GB
120 GB 120 GB

RAID5 (striping with parity)
¾ RAID5 uses block‐level striping with parity data distributed across all member disks.
¾ A RAID5 array can withstand a single disk failure without losing data or access to data.
¾ RAID5 is a good all‐round system that combines efficient storage with excellent security and
decent performance. It is ideal for file and application servers.
¾ RAID5 volume capacity = [(number of HDDs) ‐ 1] x (capacity of smallest HDD)

Disk 1 Disk 2 Disk 3
Block A1 Block A2 Block Ap
Block B1 Block Bp Block B2

Block Cp Block C1 Block C2
Physical Physical Physical Logical disks

disks disk disk 240 GB
120 GB 120 GB 120 GB

RAID10 (RAID1+0: striping + mirroring)
¾ A combination of RAID1 and RAID0 — mirroring and striping, but without parity.
- 21-
¾ RAID10 is used for both replicating and sharing data among disks.
¾ RAID10 is often the primary choice for high‐load databases, because the lack of parity to
calculate gives it faster write speeds.
¾ RAID10 volume capacity = 2 x (capacity of smallest HDD)

RAID 0
RAID 1 RAID 1
Disk 1 Disk 2 Disk 3 Disk 4

Block A1 Block A1 Block A2 Block A2

Physical Physical Physical Physical Logical disks

disks disks disks disks 240 GB
120 GB 120 GB 120 GB 120 GB

- 22-
Comparison of RAID levels

Characteristics/Advantages Disadvantages
RAID0 ¾ RAID0 implements a striped disk array, the ¾ Not a "True" RAID because it is NOT
data is broken down into blocks and each fault‐tolerant
block is written to a separate disk drive ¾ The failure of just one drive will result in
¾ I/O performance is greatly improved by all data in an array being lost
spreading the I/O load across many ¾ Should never be used in mission‐critical
channels and drives environments
¾ Best performance is achieved when data
is striped across multiple controllers with
only one drive per controller
¾ Very simple design
¾ Easy to implement
RAID1 ¾ Twice the Read transaction rate of single ¾ Highest disk overhead of all RAID types

disks, same Write transaction rate as (100%) — inefficient
single disks ¾ May not support hot‐swap of failed disk
¾ 100 percent redundancy of data means no when implemented using software RAID
rebuild is necessary in case of a disk
failure, just a copy to the replacement
disk
¾ Transfer rate per block is equal to that of a
single disk
¾ Under certain circumstances, RAID1 can
sustain multiple simultaneous drive
failures
¾ Simplest RAID storage subsystem design
RAID5 ¾ Highest Read data transaction rate ¾ Most complex controller design
¾ Medium Write data transaction rate ¾ Difficult to rebuild in the event of a disk
¾ Low ratio of ECC (parity) disks to data failure (as compared to RAID 1)
disks means high efficiency ¾ Individual block data transfer rate same as
¾ Good aggregate transfer rate single disk
RAID10 ¾ Very high I/O rates are achieved by ¾ Very limited scalability at a very high
striping RAID1 segments inherent cost
¾ Excellent solution for sites that would ¾ Expensive to maintain
normally use RAID1

- 23-

Acer RAID-Ready System - Intel Matrix Storage Manager

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Descrizione originale:

Titolo originale

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Acer RAID-Ready System - Intel Matrix Storage Manager

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Acer Raid-Ready System with Intel® Matrix Storage Manager 8.

Block B1 Block Bp Block B2

Physical Physical Physical Logical disks

Disk 1 Disk 2 Disk 3 Disk 4

Block A3 Block A3 Block A4 Block A4

Physical Physical Physical Physical Logical disks

RAID1 ¾ Twice the Read transaction rate of single ¾ Highest disk overhead of all RAID types

Potrebbero piacerti anche