Areca Arc 1120 Users Manual

ARC-1130 to the manual b0faf85a-b977-4678-8921-06a0b155993a

2015-02-05

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ARC-1110/1120/1130/1160/1170

( 4/8/12/16/24-port PCI-X SATA RAID Controllers )

ARC-1110ML/1120ML/1130ML/1160ML

( 4/8-port Innband connector and 12/16-port Multi-lane

connector PCI-X SATA RAID Controllers )

ARC-1210/1220/1230/1260/1280

( 4/8/12/16/24-port PCI-Express SATA RAID Controllers )

ARC-1231ML/1261ML/1280ML

(12/16/24-port PCI-Express SATA RAID Controllers)

SATA RAID Cards

USER Manual

Version: 3.3

Issue Date: November, 2006

Microsoft WHQL Windows Hardware Compatibility

Test

ARECA is committed to submitting products to the Microsoft Windows

Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL), which is required for participation in the

Windows Logo Program. Successful passage of the WHQL tests results

in both the “Designed for Windows” logo for qualifying ARECA PCI-X and

PCI-Express SATA RAID controllers and a listing on the Microsoft Hard-

ware Compatibility List (HCL).

The information of the products in this manual is subject to change

without prior notice and does not represent a commitment on the part

of the vendor, who assumes no liability or responsibility for any errors

that may appear in this manual. All brands and trademarks are the

properties of their respective owners. This manual contains materials

protected under International Copyright Conventions. All rights

reserved. No part of this manual may be reproduced in any form or by

any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without

the written permission of the manufacturer and the author. All inquiries

should be addressed to ARECA Technology Corp.

FCC 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 interfer-

ence in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses, and

can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in ac-

cordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio

communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will

not occur in a particular installation.

Contents

1. Introduction .............................................................. 10

1.1 Overview ....................................................................... 10

1.2 Features ........................................................................ 12

1.3 RAID Concept ................................................................. 15

1.3.1 RAID Set ................................................................... 15

1.3.2 Volume Set ................................................................ 15

1.3.3 Ease of Use Features ................................................. 16

1.3.3.1 Foreground Availability/Background Initialization ....... 16

1.3.3.2 Array Roaming ..................................................... 16

1.3.3.3 Online Capacity Expansion ..................................... 17

1.3.3.4 Online RAID Level and Stripe Size Migration ............. 19

1.3.3.5 Online Volume Expansion ........................................ 19

1.4 High availability .............................................................. 20

1.4.1 Global Hot Spares ...................................................... 20

1.4.2 Hot-Swap Disk Drive Support ....................................... 21

1.4.3 Auto Declare Hot-Spare .............................................. 21

1.4.4 Auto Rebuilding ......................................................... 21

1.4.5 Adjustable Rebuild Priority ........................................... 22

1.5.1 Hard Drive Failure Prediction ........................................ 23

1.5.2 Auto Reassign Sector .................................................. 23

1.5.3 Consistency Check ...................................................... 24

1.6 Data Protection ............................................................... 24

1.6.1 BATTERY BACKUP ...................................................... 24

1.6.2 RECOVERY ROM ......................................................... 25

1.7 Understanding RAID ........................................................ 25

1.7.1 RAID 0 ...................................................................... 25

1.7.2 RAID 1 ...................................................................... 26

1.7.3 RAID 1E .................................................................... 27

1.7.4 RAID 3 ...................................................................... 27

1.7.5 RAID 5 ...................................................................... 28

1.7.6 RAID 6 ...................................................................... 29

2. Hardware Installation ............................................... 32

2.1 Before Your begin Installation ........................................... 32

2.2 Board Layout .................................................................. 33

2.3 Installation ..................................................................... 39

3. McBIOS RAID Manager .............................................. 56

3.1 Starting the McBIOS RAID Manager ................................... 56

3.2 McBIOS Conguration manager ......................................... 57

3.3 Conguring Raid Sets and Volume Sets .............................. 58

3.4 Designating Drives as Hot Spares ...................................... 58

3.5 Using Quick Volume /Raid Setup Conguration .................... 59

3.6 Using RAID Set/Volume Set Function Method ...................... 60

3.7 Main Menu .................................................................... 62

3.7.1 Quick Volume/RAID Setup ........................................... 63

3.7.2 Raid Set Function ....................................................... 66

3.7.2.1 Create Raid Set .................................................... 67

3.7.2.2 Delete Raid Set ..................................................... 68

3.7.2.3 Expand Raid Set .................................................... 68

• Migrating ...................................................................... 69

3.7.2.4 Activate Incomplete Raid Set ................................... 70

3.7.2.5 Create Hot Spare ................................................... 71

3.7.2.6 Delete Hot Spare ................................................... 71

3.7.2.7 Raid Set Information .............................................. 72

3.7.3 Volume Set Function ................................................... 72

3.7.3.1 Create Volume Set ................................................. 73

• Volume Name ................................................................ 75

• Raid Level ..................................................................... 75

• Capacity ....................................................................... 76

• Strip Size ...................................................................... 77

• SCSI Channel ................................................................ 78

• SCSI ID ........................................................................ 78

• SCSI LUN ...................................................................... 79

• Cache Mode .................................................................. 79

3.7.3.2 Delete Volume Set ................................................. 80

• Tag Queuing .................................................................. 80

3.7.3.3 Modify Volume Set ................................................. 81

• Volume Growth .............................................................. 82

• Volume Set Migration ...................................................... 83

3.7.3.4 Check Volume Set .................................................. 83

3.7.3.5 Stop Volume Set Check .......................................... 83

3.7.3.6 Display Volume Set Info. ........................................ 84

3.7.4 Physical Drives ........................................................... 85

3.7.4.1 View Drive Information .......................................... 85

3.7.4.2 Create Pass-Through Disk ....................................... 86

3.7.4.3 Modify a Pass-Through Disk ..................................... 86

3.7.4.4 Delete Pass-Through Disk ....................................... 87

3.7.4.5 Identify Selected Drive ........................................... 87

3.7.5 Raid System Function ................................................. 88

3.7.5.1 Mute The Alert Beeper ........................................... 88

3.7.5.2 Alert Beeper Setting ............................................... 89

3.7.5.3 Change Password .................................................. 89

3.7.5.4 JBOD/RAID Function .............................................. 90

3.7.5.5 Background Task Priority ........................................ 91

3.7.5.6 Maximum SATA Mode ............................................. 91

3.7.5.7 HDD Read Ahead Cache ......................................... 92

3.7.5.8 Stagger Power On .................................................. 92

3.7.5.9 Empty HDD slot HDD ............................................. 93

3.7.5.10 HDD SMART Status Polling .................................... 94

3.7.5.11 Controller Fan Detection ....................................... 94

3.7.5.12 Disk Write Cache Mode ......................................... 95

3.7.5.13 Capacity Truncation .............................................. 95

3.7.6 Ethernet Conguration (12/16/24-port) ......................... 96

3.7.6.1 DHCP Function ...................................................... 97

3.7.6.2 Local IP address .................................................... 98

3.7.6.3 Ethernet Address ................................................... 99

3.7.7 View System Events ................................................... 99

3.7.8 Clear Events Buffer ................................................... 100

3.7.9 Hardware Monitor ..................................................... 100

3.7.10 System Information ................................................ 100

4. Driver Installation ................................................... 102

4.1 Creating the Driver Diskettes .......................................... 102

4.2 Driver Installation for Windows ....................................... 103

4.2.1 New Storage Device Drivers in Windows Server 2003 .... 103

4.2.2 Install Windows 2000/XP/2003 on a SATA RAID Volume 104

4.2.2.1 Installation procedures ......................................... 104

4.2.2.2 Making Volume Sets Available to Windows System ... 105

4.2.3 Installing controller into an existing Windows 2000/XP/2003

Installation ...................................................................... 106

4.2.3.1 Making Volume Sets Available to Windows System ... 107

4.2.4 Uninstall controller from Windows 2000/XP/2003 .......... 108

4.3 Driver Installation for Linux ............................................ 109

4.4 Driver Installation for FreeBSD ........................................ 109

4.5 Driver Installation for Solaris 10 ...................................... 110

4.6 Driver Installation for Mac 10.x ....................................... 110

4.7 Driver Installation for UnixWare 7.1.4 .............................. 111

4.8 Driver Installation for NetWare 6.5 .................................. 111

5. ArcHttp Proxy Server Installation ........................... 112

5.1 For Windows................................................................. 113

5.2 For Linux ..................................................................... 114

5.3 For FreeBSD ................................................................. 115

5.4 For Solaris 10 x86 ......................................................... 116

5.5 For Mac OS 10.x ........................................................... 116

5.6 ArcHttp Conguration .................................................... 117

6. Web Browser-based Conguration ......................... 121

6.1 Start-up McRAID Storage Manager ................................. 121

• Another method to start-up McRAID Storage Manager from

Windows Local Administration .......................................... 122

6.1.1 Through Ethernet port (Out-of-Band) ......................... 123

6.2 SATA RAID controller McRAID Storage Manager ................. 124

6.3 Main Menu .................................................................. 125

6.4 Quick Function .............................................................. 125

6.5 RaidSet Functions ......................................................... 126

6.5.1 Create Raid Set ....................................................... 126

6.5.2 Delete Raid Set ........................................................ 127

6.5.3 Expand Raid Set ....................................................... 128

6.5.4 Activate Incomplete Raid Set ..................................... 128

6.5.5 Create Hot Spare ..................................................... 129

6.5.6 Delete Hot Spare ...................................................... 129

6.5.7 Rescue Raid Set ....................................................... 129

6.6 Volume Set Functions .................................................... 130

6.6.1 Create Volume Set ................................................... 130

• Volume Name .............................................................. 131

• Raid Level .................................................................. 131

• Capacity ..................................................................... 131

• Greater Two TB Volume Support ..................................... 131

• Initialization Mode ........................................................ 132

• Strip Size .................................................................... 132

• Cache Mode ................................................................ 132

• SCSI Channel/SCSI ID/SCSI Lun .................................... 132

• Tag Queuing ................................................................ 132

6.6.2 Delete Volume Set .................................................... 133

6.6.3 Modify Volume Set .................................................... 133

6.6.3.1 Volume Set Migration ........................................... 134

6.6.4 Check Volume Set .................................................... 135

6.6.5 Stop VolumeSet Check .............................................. 135

6.7 Physical Drive .............................................................. 135

6.7.1 Create Pass-Through Disk .......................................... 136

6.7.2 Modify Pass-Through Disk .......................................... 136

6.7.3 Delete Pass-Through Disk .......................................... 137

6.8 System Controls ........................................................... 138

6.8.1 System Cong ......................................................... 138

• System Beeper Setting ................................................. 138

• Background Task Priority ............................................... 138

• JBOD/RAID Conguration .............................................. 138

• Maximun SATA Supported ............................................. 138

• HDD Read Ahead Cache ................................................ 138

• Stagger Power on ........................................................ 139

• Empty HDD Slot LED .................................................... 140

• HDD SMART Status Polling............................................. 140

• Disk Write Cache Mode ................................................. 141

• Disk Capacity Truncation Mode ....................................... 141

6.8.2 Ethernet Conguration (12/16/24-port) ....................... 142

6.8.3 Alert by Mail Conguration (12/16/24-port) ................ 143

6.8.4 SNMP Conguration (12/16/24-port) ........................... 144

• SNMP Trap Congurations ............................................. 145

• SNMP System Congurations ......................................... 145

• SNMP Trap Notication Congurations ............................. 145

6.8.5 NTP Conguration (12/16/24-port) ............................. 145

• NTP Sever Address ....................................................... 145

• Time Zone ................................................................... 146

• Automatic Daylight Saving............................................. 146

6.8.6 View Events/Mute Beeper .......................................... 146

6.8.7 Generate Test Event ................................................. 146

6.8.8 Clear Events Buffer ................................................... 147

6.8.9 Modify Password ...................................................... 147

6.8.10 Update Firmware ................................................... 148

6.9 Information .................................................................. 148

6.9.1 RaidSet Hierarchy ..................................................... 148

6.9.2 System Information .................................................. 148

Appendix A ................................................................. 151

Upgrading Flash ROM Update Process .................................... 151

Upgrading Firmware Through McRAID Storage Manager ........... 151

Upgrading Entire Flash ROM ImageThrough Arcash DOS Utility 153

Appendix B .................................................................. 156

Battery Backup Module (ARC-6120-BAT) ................................ 156

BBM Components ........................................................... 156

BBM Specications .......................................................... 156

Installation .................................................................... 157

Battery Backup Capacity .................................................. 157

Operation ...................................................................... 158

Changing the Battery Backup Module ................................ 158

Status of BBM ................................................................ 158

Appendix C .................................................................. 159

SNMP Operation & Denition ................................................ 159

Appendix D .................................................................. 166

Event Notication Congurations ........................................ 166

A. Device Event .............................................................. 166

B. Volume Event ............................................................. 167

C. RAID Set Event .......................................................... 167

D. Hardware Event .......................................................... 168

Appendix E .................................................................. 169

General Troubleshooting Tips ............................................... 169

Appendix F .................................................................. 173

Technical Support ............................................................... 173

Glossary ...................................................................... 174

2TB .............................................................................. 174

Array ............................................................................ 174

ATA .............................................................................. 174

Auto Reassign Sector ..................................................... 174

Battery Backup Module .................................................... 175

BIOS ............................................................................ 175

Cache ........................................................................... 175

Consistency Check .......................................................... 175

Driver ........................................................................... 175

Hot Spare ...................................................................... 176

Hardware RAID versus Software RAID .............................. 176

Hot Swap ...................................................................... 176

NVRAM .......................................................................... 176

Parity ............................................................................ 176

PCI Express .................................................................. 176

PCI-X ........................................................................... 177

RAID ............................................................................ 177

Rebuild ......................................................................... 177

SATA (Serial ATA) ........................................................... 177

SMART .......................................................................... 178

SNMP ............................................................................ 178

Volume Set .................................................................... 178

Write-back ..................................................................... 178

Write-through ................................................................ 178

XOR-Engine ................................................................... 179

INTRODUCTION

1. Introduction

This section presents a brief overview of the SATA RAID Series

controller, ARC-1110/1110ML/1120/1120ML/1130/1130ML/1160/

1160ML/1170 (4/8/12/16/24-port PCI-X SATA RAID Controllers) and

ARC-1210/1220/1230/1230/1231ML/1260/1261ML/1280/1280ML

(4/8/12/16/24-port PCI-Express SATA RAID Controllers).

1.1 Overview

The ARC-11xx and ARC-12xx Series of high-performance Serial ATA

RAID controllers support a maximum of 4, 8, 12, 16, or 24 SATA

II peripheral devices (depending on model) on a single controller.

The ARC-11xx series for the PCI-X bus and the ARC-12xx Series

for the PCI-Express bus. When properly congured, these SATA

controllers provide non-stop service with a high degree of fault

tolerance through the use of RAID technology and can also provide

advanced array management features.

The 4 and 8 port SATA RAID controllers are low-prole PCI cards,

ideal for 1U and 2U rack-mount systems. These controllers utilize

the same RAID kernel that has been eld-proven in Areca existing

external RAID controllers, allowing Areca to quickly bring stable

and reliable RAID controllers to the market.

Unparalleled Performance

The SATA RAID controllers provide reliable data protection for

desktops, workstations, and servers. These cards set the stan-

dard with enhancements that include a high-performance Intel I/O

Processor, a new memory architecture, and a high performance PCI

bus interconnection. The 8/12/16/24-port controllers with the RAID

6 engine built-in can offer extreme-availability RAID 6 functionality.

This engine can concurrently compute two parity blocks with per-

formance very similar to RAID 5. The controllers by default support

256MB of ECC SDRAM memory. The 12/16/24 port controllers sup-

port one DDR333 SODIMM socket that allows for upgrading up to

1GB of memory. The 12/16/24 port controllers support one DDR2-

533 DIMM socket that allows for upgrading up to 2GB of memory.

The controllers use Marvell 4/8 channel SATA PCI-X controller

INTRODUCTION

chips, which can simultaneously communicate with the I/O proces-

sor and read or write data on multiple drives.

Unsurpassed Data Availability

As storage capacity requirements continue to rapidly increase, us-

ers require greater levels of disk drive fault tolerance, which can be

implemented without doubling the investment in disk drives. RAID

1 (mirroring) provides high fault tolerance. However, half of the

drive capacity of the array is lost to mirroring, making it too costly

for most users to implement on large volume sets due to dobuling

the number of drives required. Users want the protection of RAID 1

or better with an implementation cost comparable to RAID 5. RAID

6 can offer fault tolerance greater than RAID 1 or RAID 5 but only

consumes the capacity of 2 disk drives for distributed parity data.

The 8/12/16/24-port RAID controllers provide RAID 6 functionality

to meet these demanding requirements.

The SATA RAID controllers also provide RAID levels 0, 1, 1E, 3, 5

or JBOD congurations. Its high data availability and protection is

derived from the following capabilities: Online RAID Capacity Ex-

pansion, Array Roaming, Online RAID Level / Stripe Size Migration,

Dynamic Volume Set Expansion, Global Online Spare, Automatic

Drive Failure Detection, Automatic Failed Drive Rebuilding, Disk

Hot-Swap, Online Background Rebuilding and Instant Availabil-

ity/Background Initialization. During the controller rmware ash

upgrade process, it is possible that an error results in corruption of

the controller rmware. This could result in the device becoming

non-functional. However, with our Redundant Flash image feature,

the controller will revert back to the last known version of rmware

and continue operating. This reduces the risk of system failure due

to rmware crashes.

Easy RAID Management

The SATA RAID controller utilizes built-in rmware with an embed-

ded terminal emulation that can access via hot key at BIOS boot-

up screen. This pre-boot manager utility can be used to simplify

the setup and management of the RAID controller. The controller

rmware also contains a ArcHttp browser-based program that can

be accessed through the ArcHttp proxy server function in Windows,

INTRODUCTION

Linux, FreeBSD and more environments. This Web browser-based

RAID management utility allows both local and remote creation and

modication RAID sets, volume sets, and monitoring of RAID status

from standard web browsers.

1.2 Features

Adapter Architecture

• Intel IOP 331 I/O processor (ARC-11xx series)

• Intel IOP 332/IOP 333 I/O processor (ARC-12xx series)

• Intel IOP341 I/O processor (ARC-12x1ML/ARC-1280ML/1280)

• 64-bit/133MHz PCI-X Bus compatible

• PCI Express X8 compatible

• 256MB on-board DDR333 SDRAM with ECC protection (4/8-port)

• One SODIMM Socket with default 256 MB of DDR333 SDRAM

with ECC protection, upgrade to 1GB (12, 16 and 24-port cards

only)

• One DIMM Socket with default 256 MB of DDR2-533 SDRAM

with ECC protection, upgrade to 2GB(ARC-12xxML, ARC-1280)

• An ECC or non-ECC SDRAM module using X8 or X16 devices

• Support up to 4/8/12/16/24 SATA ll drives

• Write-through or write-back cache support

• Multi-adapter support for large storage requirements

• BIOS boot support for greater fault tolerance

• BIOS PnP (plug and play) and BBS (BIOS boot specication)

support

• Supports extreme performance Intel RAID 6 functionality

• NVRAM for RAID event & transaction log

• Battery backup module (BBM) ready (Depend on mother

board)

RAID Features

• RAID level 0, 1, 1E, 3, 5, 6 (R6 engine inside) and JBOD

• Multiple RAID selection

• Array roaming

• Online RAID level/stripe size migration

• Online capacity expansion & RAID level migration simultaneously

• Online volume set growth

• Instant availability and background initialization

• Automatic drive insertion / removal detection and rebuilding

• Greater than 2TB per volume set for 64-bit LBA

INTRODUCTION

• Redundant ash image for adapter availability

• Support S.M.A.R.T, NCQ and OOB staggered spin-up capable

drives

Monitors/Notication

• System status indication through LED/LCD connector, HDD

activity/fault connector, and alarm buzzer

• SMTP support for email notication

• SNMP agent supports for remote SNMP Manager

• I2C Enclosure Management Ready (IOP331/332/333)

• I2C & SGPIO Enclosure Management Ready (IOP341)

RAID Management

• Field-upgradeable rmware in ash ROM

• Ethernet port support on 12/16/24-port

In-Band Manager

• Hot key boot-up McBIOS RAID manager via BIOS

• Support controller’s API library, allowing customer to write its

own AP

• Support Command Line Interface (CLI)

• Browser-based management utility via ArcHttp proxy server

• Single Admin Portal (SAP) monitor utility

• Disk Stress Test (DST) utility for production in Windows

Out-of-Band Manager

• Firmware-embedded browser-based RAID manager, SMTP

manager, SNMP agent and Telnet function via Ethernet port

(for 12/16/24-port Adapter)

• Support controller’s API library for customer to write its own

AP (for 12/16/24-port Adapter)

• Push Button and LCD display panel (option)

Operating System

• Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003

• Red Hat Linux

• SuSE Linux

• FreeBSD

• Novell Netware 6.5

• Solaris 10 X86/X86_64

• SCO Unixware 7.1.4

• Mac OS 10.X (no_bootable)

(For latest supported OS listing visit http://www.areca.com.tw)

INTRODUCTION

PCI-X RAID Card Comparison (ARC-11XXML)

1110ML 1120ML 1130ML 1160ML

RAID processor IOP331

Host Bus Type PCI-X 133MHz

RAID 6 support N/A YES YES YES

Cache Memory 256MB 256MB One SODIMM One SODIMM

Drive Support 4 * SATA ll 8 * SATA ll 12 * SATA ll 16 * SATA ll

Disk Connector Innband Innband Multi-lane Multi-lane

Internal PCI-Express RAID Card Comparison (ARC-12XX)

1210 1220 1230 1260

RAID processor IOP333

Host Bus Type PCI-Express X8

RAID 6 support N/A YES YES YES

Cache Memory 256MB 256MB One SODIMM One SODIMM

Drive Support 4 * SATA ll 8 * SATA ll 12 * SATA ll 16 * SATA ll

Disk Connector SATA SATA SATA SATA

IOP332

Internal PCI-X RAID Card Comparison (ARC-11XX)

1110 1120 1130 1160 1170

RAID processor IOP331

Host Bus Type PCI-X 133MHz

RAID 6 support N/A YES YES YES YES

Cache Memory 256MB 256MB One SO-

DIMM

One SO-

DIMM

One SO-

DIMM

Drive Support 4 * SATA ll 8 * SATA ll 12 * SATA ll 16 * SATA ll 24 * SATA ll

Disk Connector SATA SATA SATA SATA SATA

INTRODUCTION

1.3 RAID Concept

1.3.1 RAID Set

A RAID set is a group of disks connected to a RAID controller. A

RAID set contains one or more volume sets. The RAID set itself

does not dene the RAID level (0, 1, 1E, 3, 5, 6, etc); the RAID

level is dened within each volume set. Therefore, volume sets are

contained within RAID sets and RAID Level is dened within the

volume set. If physical disks of different capacities 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.

1.3.2 Volume Set

Each volume set is seen by the host system as a single logical de-

vice (in other words, a single large virtual hard disk). A volume set

will use a specic RAID level, which will require one or more physi-

cal disks (depending on the RAID level used). RAID level refers to

the level of performance and data protection of a volume set. The

capacity of a volume set can consume all or a portion of the avail-

able disk capacity in a RAID set. Multiple volume sets can exist in a

RAID set.

For the SATA RAID controller, a volume set must be created either

on an existing RAID set or on a group of available individual disks

(disks that are about to become part of a RAID set). If there are

pre-existing RAID sets with available capacity and enough disks for

the desired RAID level, then the volume set can be created in the

existing RAID set of the user’s choice.

Internal PCI-Express RAID Card Comparison (ARC-12XX)

1231ML 1261ML 1280ML 1280

RAID processor IOP341

Host Bus Type PCI-Express X8

RAID 6 support YES YES YES YES

Cache Memory One DDR2 DIMM (Default 256MB, Upgrade to 2GB)

Drive Support 12 * SATA ll 16 * SATA ll 24 * SATA ll 24 * SATA ll

Disk Connector 3*Min SAS 4i 4*Min SAS 4i 6*Min SAS 4i 24*SATA

INTRODUCTION

In the illustration, volume 1 can be assigned a RAID level 5 of

operation while volume 0 might be assigned a RAID level 1E of

operation. Alterantively, the free space can be used to create vol-

ume 2, which could then be set to use RAID level 5.

1.3.3 Ease of Use Features

1.3.3.1 Foreground Availability/Background Initial-

ization

RAID 0 and RAID 1 volume sets can be used immediately af-

ter creation because they do not create parity data. However,

RAID 3, 5 and 6 volume sets must be initialized to generate

parity information. In Backgorund Initialization, the initializa-

tion proceeds as a background task, and the volume set is fully

accessible for system reads and writes. The operating system

can instantly access the newly created arrays without requir-

ing a reboot and without waiting for initialization to complete.

Furthermore, the volume set is protected against disk failures

while initialing. If using Foreground Initialization, the initializa-

tion process must be completed before the volume set is ready

for system accesses.

1.3.3.2 Array Roaming

The SATA RAID controllers store RAID conguration information

on the disk drives. The controller therefore protect the congu-

ration settings in the event of controller failure. Array roaming

allows the administrators the ability to move a completele RAID

set to another system without losing RAID conguration infor-

INTRODUCTION

mation or data on that RAID set. Therefore, if a server fails, the

RAID set disk drives can be moved to another server with an

Areca RAID controller and the disks can be inserted in any order.

1.3.3.3 Online Capacity Expansion

Online Capacity Expansion makes it possible to add one or more

physical drives to a volume set without interrupting server op-

eration, eliminating the need to backup and restore after recon-

guration of the RAID set. When disks are added to a RAID set,

unused capacity is added to the end of the RAID set. Then, data

on the existing volume sets (residing on the newly expanded

RAID set) is redistributed evenly across all the disks. A contigu-

ous block of unused capacity is made available on the RAID set.

The unused capacity can be used to create additional volume

sets.

A disk, to be added to a RAID set, must be in normal mode (not

failed), free (not spare, in a RAID set, or passed through to

host) and must have at least the same capacity as the smallest

disk capacity already in the RAID set.

Capacity expansion is only permitted to proceed if all volumes

on the RAID set are in the normal status. During the expansion

process, the volume sets being expanded can be accessed by

the host system. In addition, the volume sets with RAID level 1,

1E, 3, 5 or 6 are protected against data loss in the event of disk

failure(s). In the case of disk failure, the volume set transitions

from “migrating” state to “migrating+degraded“ state. When the

expansion is completed, the volume set would then transition to

“degraded” mode. If a global hot spare is present, then it further

transitions to the “rebuilding” state.

INTRODUCTION

The SATA RAID controller redistributes the original volume set

over the original and newly added disks, using the same fault-

tolerance conguration. The unused capacity on the expand

RAID set can then be used to create an additional volume set,

with a different fault tolerance setting (if required by the user.)

The SATA RAID controller redistributes the original volume set

over the original and newly added disks, using the same fault-

tolerance conguration. The unused capacity on the expand raid

set can then be used to create an additional volume sets, with a

different fault tolerance setting if user need to change.

The expansion process is illustrated as following gure.

INTRODUCTION

1.3.3.4 Online RAID Level and Stripe Size Migration

For those who wish to later upgrade to any RAID capabilities, a

system with Areca online RAID level/stripe size migration allows

a simplied upgrade to any supported RAID level without having

to reinstall the operating system.

The SATA RAID controllers can migrate both the RAID level and

stripe size of an existing volume set, while the server is on-

line and the volume set is in use. Online RAID level/stripe size

migration can prove helpful during performance tuning activities

as well as when additional physical disks are added to the SATA

RAID controller. For example, in a system using two drives in

RAID level 1, it is possible to add a single drive and add capac-

ity and retain fault tolerance. (Normally, expanding a RAID level

1 array would require the addition of two disks). A third disk

can be added to the existing RAID logical drive and the volume

set can then be migrated from RAID level 1 to 5. The result

would be parity fault tolerance and double the available capacity

without taking the system down. A forth disk could be added to

migrate to RAID level 6. It is only possible to migrate to a higher

RAID level by adding a disk; disks in an existing array can’t be

recongured for a higher RAID level without adding a disk.

Online migration is only permitted to begin, It all volumes to be

migrated are in the normal mode. During the migration process,

the volume sets being migrated are accessed by the host sys-

tem. In addition, the volume sets with RAID level 1, 1E, 3, 5 or

6 are protected against data loss in the event of disk failure(s).

In the case of disk failure, the volume set transitions from mi-

grating state to (migrating+degraded) state. When the migra-

tion is completed, the volume set transitions to degraded mode.

If a global hot spare is present, then it further transitions to

rebuilding state.

1.3.3.5 Online Volume Expansion

Performing a volume expansion on the controller is the process

of growing only the size of the lastest volume. A more exible

option is for the array to concatenate an additional drive into the

RAID set and then expand the volumes on the y. This happens

INTRODUCTION

transparently while the volumes are online, but, at the end of

the process, the operating system will detect free space at after

the existing volume.

Windows, NetWare and other advanced operating systems sup-

port volume expansion, which enables you to incorporate the

additional free space within the volume into the operating sys-

tem partition. The operating system partition is extended to

incorporate the free space so it can be used by the operating

system without creating a new operating system partition.

You can use the Diskpart.exe command line utility, included with

Windows Server 2003 or the Windows 2000 Resource Kit, to ex-

tend an existing partition into free space in the dynamic disk.

Third-party software vendors have created utilities that can be

used to repartition disks without data loss. Most of these utilities

work ofine. Partition Magic is one such utility.

1.4 High availability

1.4.1 Global Hot Spares

A Global Hot Spare is an unused online available drive, which is

ready for replacing the failure disk. The Global Hot Spare is one

of the most important features that SATA RAID controllers provide

to deliver a high degree of fault-tolerance. A Global Hot Spare

is a spare physical drive that has been marked as a global hot

spare and therefore is not a member of any RAID set. If a disk

drive used in a volume set fails, then the Global Hot Spare will

automatically take its place and he data previously located on the

failed drive is reconstructed on the Global Hot Spare.

For this feature to work properly, the global hot spare must have

at least the same capacity as the drive it replaces. Global Hot

Spares only work with RAID level 1, 1E, 3, 5, or 6 volume set.

You can congure up to three global hot spares with ARC-11xx/

12xx.

The Create Hot Spare option gives you the ability to dene a

INTRODUCTION

global hot spare disk drive. To effectively use the global hot

spare feature, you must always maintain at least one drive that

is marked as a global spare.

Important:

The hot spare must have at least the same capacity as the

drive it replaces.

1.4.2 Hot-Swap Disk Drive Support

The SATA controller chip includes a protection circuit that supports

the replacement of SATA hard disk drives without having to shut

down or reboot the system. A removable hard drive tray can de-

liver “hot swappable” fault-tolerant RAID solutions at prices much

less than the cost of conventional SCSI hard disk RAID control-

lers. This feature provides advanced fault tolerant RAID protection

and “online” drive replacement.

1.4.3 Auto Declare Hot-Spare

If a disk drive is brought online into a system operating in de-

graded mode, The SATA RAID controllers will automatically de-

clare the new disk as a spare and begin rebuilding the degraded

volume. The Auto Declare Hot-Spare function requires that the

smallest drive contained within the volume set in which the failure

occurred.

In the normal status, the newly installed drive will be recongured

an online free disk. But, the newly-installed drive is automatically

assigned as a hot spare if any hot spare disk was used to rebuild

and without new installed drive replaced it. In this condition, the

Auto Declare Hot-Spare status will disappeared if the RAID sub-

system has since powered off/on.

The Hot-Swap function can be used to rebuild disk drives in arrays

with data redundancy such as RAID level 1, 1E, 3, 5, and 6.

INTRODUCTION

1.4.4 Auto Rebuilding

If a hot spare is available, the rebuild starts automatically when

a drive fails. The SATA RAID controllers automatically and trans-

parently rebuild failed drives in the background at user-denable

rebuild rates.

If a hot spare is not available, the failed disk drive must be re-

placed with a new disk drive so that the data on the failed drive

can be automatically rebuilt and so that fault tolerance can be

maintained.

The SATA RAID controllers will automatically restart the system

and the rebuild process if the system is shut down or powered off

abnormally during a reconstruction procedure condition.

When a disk is hot swapped, although the system is functionally

operational, the system may no longer be fault tolerant. Fault

tolerance will be lost until the removed drive is replaced and the

rebuild operation is completed.

During the automatic rebuild process, system activity will contin-

ue as normal, however, the system performance and fault toler-

ance will be affected.

1.4.5 Adjustable Rebuild Priority

Rebuilding a degraded volume incurs a load on the RAID sub-

system. The SATA RAID controllers allow the user to select the

rebuild priority to balance volume access and rebuild tasks ap-

propriately. The Background Task Priority is a relative indication of

how much time the controller devotes to a background operation,

such as rebuilding or migrating.

The SATA RAID controller allows user to choose the task priority

(Ultra Low (5%), Low (20%), Medium (50%), High (80%)) to bal-

ance volume set access and background tasks appropriately. For

high array performance, specify an Ultra Low value. Like volume

initialization, after a volume rebuilds, it does not require a system

reboot.

INTRODUCTION

1.5 High Reliability

1.5.1 Hard Drive Failure Prediction

In an effort to help users avoid data loss, disk manufacturers are

now incorporating logic into their drives that acts as an "early

warning system" for pending drive problems. This system is called

S.M.A.R.T. The disk integrated controller works with multiple

sensors to monitor various aspects of the drive's performance,

determines from this information if the drive is behaving normally

or not, and makes available status information to RAID controller

rmware that probes the drive and look at it.

The SMART can often predict a problem before failure occurs.

The controllers will recognize a SMART error code and notify the

administer of an impending hard drive failure.

1.5.2 Auto Reassign Sector

Under normal operation, even initially defect-free drive media can

develop defects. This is a common phenomenon. The bit density

and rotational speed of disks is increasing every year, and so is

the potential of problems. Usually a drive can internally remap

bad sectors without external help using cyclic redundancy check

(CRC) checksums stored at the end of each sector.

SATA drives perform automatic defect re-assignment for both

read and write errors. Writes are always completed - if a location

to be written is found to be defective, the drive will automatically

relocate that write command to a new location and map out the

defective location. If there is a recoverable read error, the cor-

rect data will be transferred to the host and that location will be

tested by the drive to be certain the location is not defective. If

it is found to have a defect, data will be automatically relocated,

and the defective location is mapped out to prevent future write

attempts.

In the event of an unrecoverable read error, the error will be

reported to the host and the location agged as potentially defec-

tive. A subsequent write to that location will initiate a sector test

and relocation should that location have a defect. Auto Reassign

Sector does not affect disk subsystem performance because it

INTRODUCTION

runs as a background task. Auto Reassign Sector discontinues

when the operating system makes a request.

1.5.3 Consistency Check

A consistency check is a process that veries the integrity of

redundant data. For example, performing a consistency check

of a mirrored drive assures that the data on both drives of the

mirrored pair is exactly the same. To verify RAID 3, 5 or 6 redun-

dancy, a consistency check reads all associated data blocks, com-

putes parity, reads parity, and veries that the computed parity

matches the read parity.

Consistency checks are very important because they detect and

correct parity errors or bad disk blocks in the drive. A consistency

check forces every block on a volume to be read, and any bad

blocks are marked; those blocks are not used again. This is criti-

cal and important because a bad disk block can prevent a disk

rebuild from completing. We strongly recommend that you run

consistency checks on a regular basis—at least once per week.

Note that consistency checks degrade performance, so you should

run them when the system load can tolerate it.

1.6 Data Protection

1.6.1 BATTERY BACKUP

The SATA RAID controllers are armed with a Battery Backup Mod-

ule (BBM). While a Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) protects

most servers from power uctuations or failures, a BBM provides

an additional level of protection. In the event of a power failure, a

BBM supplies power to retain data in the RAID controller’s cache,

thereby permitting any potentially dirty data in the cache to be

ushed out to secondary storage when power is restored.

The batteries in the BBM are recharged continuously through a

trickle-charging process whenever the system power is on. The

batteries protect data in a failed server for up to three or four

days, depending on the size of the memory module. Under nor-

mal operating conditions, the batteries last for three years before

replacement is necessary.

INTRODUCTION

1.6.2 RECOVERY ROM

The SATA RAID controller rmware is stored on the ash ROM and

is executed by the I/O processor. The rmware can also be updat-

ed through the PCI-X/PCIe bus port or Ethernet port (if equipped)

without the need to replace any hardware chips. During the con-

troller rmware upgrade ash process, it is possible for a problem

to occur resulting in corruption of the controller rmware. With

our Redundant Flash Image feature, the controller will revert back

to the last known version of rmware and continue operating.

This reduces the risk of system failure due to rmware crash.

1.7 Understanding RAID

RAID is an acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. It

is an array of multiple independent hard disk drives that provides

high performance and fault tolerance. The SATA RAID control-

ler implements several levels of the Berkeley RAID technology.

An appropriate RAID level is selected when the volume sets are

dened or created. This decision should be based on the desired

disk capacity, data availability (fault tolerance or redundancy),

and disk performance. The following section discusses the RAID

levels supported by the SATA RAID controller.

The SATA RAID controller makes the RAID implementation and

the disks’ physical conguration transparent to the host operating

system. This means that the host operating system drivers and

software utilities are not affected, regardless of the RAID level

selected. Correct installation of the disk array and the control-

ler requires a proper understanding of RAID technology and the

concepts.

1.7.1 RAID 0

RAID 0, also referred to as striping, writes stripes of data across

multiple disk drives instead of just one disk drive. RAID 0 does

not provide any data redundancy, but does offer the best high-

speed data throughput. RAID 0 breaks up data into smaller blocks

and then writes a block to each drive in the array. Disk strip-

ing enhances performance because multiple drives are accessed

INTRODUCTION

simultaneously; the reliability of RAID Level 0 is less because the

entire array will fail if any one disk drive fails, due to a lack of

redundancy.

1.7.2 RAID 1

RAID 1 is also known as “disk mirroring”; data written to one disk

drive is simultaneously written to another disk drive. Read per-

formance may be enhanced if the array controller can, in parallel,

accesses both members of a mirrored pair. During writes, there

will be a minor performance penalty when compared to writing

to a single disk. If one drive fails, all data (and software applica-

tions) are preserved on the other drive. RAID 1 offers extremely

high data reliability, but at the cost of doubling the required data

storage capacity.

INTRODUCTION

1.7.3 RAID 1E

RAID 1E is a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 1, combing strip-

ping with disk mirroring. RAID Level 1E combines the fast per-

formance of Level 0 with the data redundancy of Leve1 1. In

this conguration, data is distributed across several disk drives,

similar to Level 0, which are then duplicated to another set of

drive for data protection. RAID 1E has been traditionally imple-

mented using an even number of disks, some hybrids can use an

odd number of disks as well. Illustration is an example of a hy-

brid RAID 1E array comprised of ve disks; A, B, C, D and E. In

this conguration, each strip is mirrored on an adjacent disk with

wrap-around. In fact this scheme - or a slightly modied version

of it - is often referred to as RAID 1E and was originally proposed

by IBM. When the number of disks comprising a RAID 1E is even,

the striping pattern is identical to that of a traditional RAID 1E,

with each disk being mirrored by exactly one other unique disk.

Therefore, all the characteristics for a traditional RAID 1E apply

to a RAID 1E when the latter has an even number of disks. Areca

RAID 1E offers a little more exibility in choosing the number of

disks that can be used to constitute an array. The number can be

even or odd.

1.7.4 RAID 3

RAID 3 provides disk striping and complete data redundancy

though a dedicated parity drive. RAID 3 breaks up data into

smaller blocks, calculates parity by performing an exclusive-or

on the blocks, and then writes the blocks to all but one drive in

INTRODUCTION

1.7.5 RAID 5

RAID 5 is sometimes called striping with parity at byte level. In

RAID 5, the parity information is written to all of the drives in the

controllers rather than being concentrated on a dedicated parity

disk. If one drive in the system fails, the parity information can

be used to reconstruct the data from that drive. All drives in the

array system can be used for seek operations at the same time,

greatly increasing the performance of the RAID system. This

relieves the write bottleneck that characterizes RAID 4, and is the

primary reason that RAID 5 is more often implemented in RAID

arrays.

the array. The parity data created during the exclusive-or is then

written to the last drive in the array. If a single drive fails, data is

still available by computing the exclusive-or of the contents cor-

responding strips of the surviving member disk. RAID 3 is best

for applications that require very fast data- transfer rates or long

data blocks.

INTRODUCTION

1.7.6 RAID 6

RAID 6 provides the highest reliability, but is not yet widely used.

It is similar to RAID 5, but it performs two different parity com-

putations or the same computation on overlapping subsets of

the data. RAID 6 can offer fault tolerance greater than RAID 1 or

RAID 5 but only consumes the capacity of 2 disk drives for dis-

tributed parity data. RAID 6 is an extension of RAID 5 but uses a

second, independent distributed parity scheme. Data is striped on

a block level across a set of drives, and then a second set of par-

ity is calculated and written across all of the drives.

Summary of RAID Levels

The SATA RAID controller supports RAID Level 0, 1, 1E, 3, 5 and 6.

The table below provides a summary of RAID levels.

Features and Performance

RAID

Level

Description Min.

Drives

Data

Reli-

ability

Data

Transfer

Rate

I/O Request

Rates

0 Also known as stripping

Data distributed across multiple

drives in the array. There is no

data protection.

1No data

Protec-

tion

Very

High

Very High for

Both Reads

and Writes

INTRODUCTION

1Also known as mirroring

All data replicated on N sepa-

rated disks.

N is almost always 2.

This is a high availability solu-

tion, but due to the 100%

duplication, it is also a costly

solution. Half of drive capacity in

array devoted to mirroring.

2Lower

than

RAID 6;

Higher

than

RAID

3, 5

Reads

are

higher

than a

single

disk;

Writes

similar

to a

single

disk

Reads are

twice as fast

as a single

disk;

Write are

similar to a

single disk.

1E Also known Block-Interleaved

Parity.

Data and parity information

is subdivided and distributed

across all disks. Parity must be

the equal to the smallest disk

capacity in the array. Parity

information normally stored on a

dedicated parity disk.

3 Lower

than

RAID 6;

Higher

than

RAID

3, 5

Transfer

rates

similar

to RAID

1 than

RAID 0

Reads are

twice as fast

as a single

disk;

Writes are

similar to a

single disk.

3 Also known Bit-Interleaved Par-

ity.

Data and parity information

is subdivided and distributed

across all disks. Parity data

consumes the capacity of 1

disk drive. Parity information

normally stored on a dedicated

parity disk.

3 Lower

than

RAID 1,

1E, 6;

Higher

than a

single

drive

Reads

are

similar

RAID

Writes

are

slower

than a

single

disk

Reads are

close to being

twice as fast

as a single

disk;

Writes are

similar to a

single disk.

5 Also known Block-Interleaved

Distributed Parity.

Data and parity information

is subdivided and distributed

across all disk. Parity data con-

sumes the capacity of 2 disk

drive.

3 Lower

than

RAID 1,

1E, 6;

Higher

than a

single

drive

Reads

are

similar

RAID 0;

Writes

are

slower

than a

single

disk

Reads are

similar to

RAID 0;

Writes are

slower than a

single disk.

INTRODUCTION

6RAID 6 provides the highest

reliability. Similar to RAID 5, but

does two different parity com-

putations. RAID 6 offers fault

tolerance greater that RAID 1 or

RAID 5. Parity data consumes

the capacity of 2 disk drives.

4highest

reliabil-

ity

Reads

are

similar

RAID 0;

Writes

are

slower

than a

single

disk

Reads are

similar to

RAID 0;

Writes are

slower than a

single disk.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

2. Hardware Installation

This section describes the procedures for installing the SATA RAID con-

trollers.

2.1 Before Your begin Installation

Thanks for purchasing the SATA RAID Controller as your RAID data

storage and management system. This user guide gives simple

step-by-step instructions for installing and conguring the SATA

RAID Controller. To ensure personal safety and to protect your

equipment and data, carefully read the information following the

package content list before you begin installing.

Package Contents

If your package is missing any of the items listed below, contact

your local dealer before proceeding with installation (disk drives

and disk mounting brackets are not included):

ARC-11xx Series SATA RAID Controller

• 1 x PCI-X SATA RAID Controller in an ESD-protective bag

• 4/8/12/16/24 x SATA interface cables (one per port)

• 1 x Installation CD

• 1 x User Manual

ARC-11xxML/12xxML Series SATA RAID Controller

• 1 x PCI-X SATA RAID Controller in an ESD-protective bag

• 1 x Installation CD

• 1 x User Manual

ARC-12xx Series SATA RAID Controller

• 1 x PCI-Express SATA RAID Controller in an ESD-protective bag

• 4/8/12/16/24 x SATA interface cables (one per port)

• 1 x Installation CD

• 1 x User Manual

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

2.2 Board Layout

Follow the instructions below to install a PCI RAID Card into your

PC / Server.

Figure 2-1, ARC-1110/1120 (4/8-port PCI-X SATA RAID Controller)

Figure 2-2, ARC-1210/1220 (4/8-port PCI-Express SATA RAID Con-

troller)

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-3, ARC-1110ML/1120ML (4/8-port PCI-X SATA RAID Con-

troller)

Figure 2-4, ARC-1210ML/1220ML (4-port PCI Express SAS RAID

Controller)

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-6, ARC-1130ML/1160ML (12/16-port PCI-X SATA RAID

Controller)

Figure 2-5, ARC-1130/1160 (12/16-port PCI-X SATA RAID Control-

ler)

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-7, ARC-1230/1260 (12/16-port PCI-EXpress SATA RAID

Controller)

Figure 2-8, ARC-1170 (24-port PCI-X SATA RAID Controller)

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-9, ARC-1280 (24-port PCI-Express SATA RAID Controller)

Figure 2-10, ARC-1231ML/1261ML/1280ML (12/16/24-port PCI-Ex-

press SATA RAID Controller)

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Tools Required

An ESD grounding strap or mat is required. Also required are stan-

dard hand tools to open your system’s case.

System Requirement

The controller can be installed in a universal PCI slot and requires

a motherboard that:

ARC-11xx series required one of the following:

• Complies with the PCI Revision 2.3 32/64-bit 33/66MHz, 3.3V.

• Complies with the PCI-X 32/64-bit 66/100/133 MHz, 3.3V.

ARC-12xx series requires:

• Complies with the PCI-Express X8

The SATA RAID controller may be connected to up to 4, 8, 12, 16,

or 24 SATA ll hard drives using the supplied cables.

Optional cables are required to connect any drive activity LEDs and

fault LEDs on the enclosure to the SATA RAID controller.

Installation Tools

The following items may be needed to assist with installing the

SATA RAID controller into an available PCI expansion slot.

• Small screwdriver

• Host system hardware manuals and manuals for the disk or

enclosure being installed.

Personal Safety Information

To ensure personal safety as well as the safety of the equipment:

• Always wear a grounding strap or work on an ESD-protective

mat.

• Before opening the system cabinet, turn off power switches and

unplug the power cords. Do not reconnect the power cords until

you have replaced the covers.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Warning:

High voltages may be found inside computer equipment. Be-

fore installing any of the hardware in this package or remov-

ing the protective covers of any computer equipment, turn

off power switches and disconnect power cords. Do not re-

connect the power cords until you have replaced the covers.

electricity.

2.3 Installation

Follow the instructions below to install a SATA RAID controller into

your PC / Server.

Step 1. Unpack

Unpack and remove the SATA RAID controller from the package.

Inspect it carefully, if anything is missing or damaged, contact your

local dealer.

Step 2. Power PC/Server Off

Turn off computer and remove the AC power cord. Remove the

system’s cover. See the computer system documentation for in-

struction.

Electrostatic Discharge

Static electricity can cause serious damage to the electronic com-

ponents on this SATA RAID controller. To avoid damage caused by

electrostatic discharge, observe the following precautions:

• Don’t remove the SATA RAID controller from its anti-static pack-

aging until you are ready to install it into a computer case.

• Handle the SATA RAID Controller by its edges or by the metal

mounting brackets at its each end.

• Before you handle the SATA RAID controller in any way, touch a

grounded, anti-static surface, such as an unpainted portion of the

system chassis, for a few seconds to discharge any built-up static

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Step 3. Install the PCI RAID Cards

To install the SATA RAID controller remove the mounting screw

and existing bracket from the rear panel behind the selected PCI

slot. Align the gold-ngered edge on the card with the selected

PCI expansion slot. Press down gently but rmly to ensure that the

card is properly seated in the slot, as shown in Figure 2-11. Next,

screw the bracket into the computer chassis. ARC-11xx controllers

can t in both PCI (32-bit/3.3V) and PCI-X slots. It can get the best

performance installed in a 64-bit/133MHz PCI-X slot. ARC-12xx

controllers require a PCI-Express 8X slot.

Figure 2-11, Insert SATA RAID controller into a PCI-X slot

Step 4. Mount the Cages or Drives

Remove the front bezel from the computer chassis and install the

Cages or SATA Drives in the computer chassis. Loading drives to

the drive tray if cages are installed. Be sure that the power is con-

nected to either the Cage backplane or the individual drives.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Step 5 Connect the SATA cable

Model ARC-11XX and ARC-12XX controllers have dual-layer SATA

internal connectors. If you have not already connected your SATA

cables, use the cables included with your kit to connect the control-

ler to the SATA hard drives.

The cable connectors are all identical, so it does not matter which

end you connect to your controller, SATA hard drive, or cage back-

plane SATA connector.

Figure 2-13, SATA Cable

Figure 2-12, Mount Cages & Drives

Note:

The SATA cable connectors must match your HDD cage.

For example: Channel 1 of RAID Card connects to channel 1

of HDD cage, channel 2 of RAID Card connects to channel 2

of HDD cage, and follow this rule.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Step 5-3. Connect the Min SAS 4i to 4*SATA cable

Model ARC-1231ML/1261ML/1280ML have Min SAS 4i (SFF-8087)

internal connectors, each of them can support up to four SATA

drives. These adapters can be installed in a server RAID enclosure

with a standard SATA connector backplane. Min SAS 4i to SATA

cables are included in the ARC-1231ML/1261ML/1280ML package.

The following diagram shows the picture of MinSAS 4i to 4*SATA

cables.

Unpack and remove the PCI RAID cards. Inspect it carefully. If

anything is missing or damaged, contact your local dealer.

Figure 2-14, Multi-Lance Cable

Step 5-2. Connect the Multi-lance cable

Model ARC-11XXML has multi-lance internal connectors, each of

them can support up to four SATA drives. These adapters can be

installed in a server RAID enclosure with a Multi-lance connector

(SFF-8470) backplane. Multi-lance cables are not included in the

ARC-11XXML package.

If you have not already connected your Multi-lance cables, use the

cables included with your enclosure to connect your controller to

the Multi-lance connector backplane. The type of cable will depend

on what enclosure you have. The following diagram shows one ex-

ample picture of Multi-lane cable.

Unpack and remove the PCI RAID cards. Inspect it carefully. If any-

thing is missing or damaged, contact your local dealer.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

For Sideband cable signal Please refer to page 51 for SGPIO bus.

Step 5-4. Connect the Min SAS 4i to Multi-lance cable

Model ARC-1231ML/1261ML/1280ML have Min SAS 4i internal

connectors, each of them can support up to four SATA drives. These

controllers can be installed in a server RAID enclosure with a Multi-

lance connector (SFF-8470) backplane. Multi-lance cables are not

included in the ARC-12XXML package.

If you have not already connected your Min SAS 4i to Multi-

lance cables, buy the Min SAS 4i to Multi-lance cables to t your

enclosure. And connect your controller to the Multi-lance connector

backplane. The type of cable will depend on what enclosure you

have. The following diagram shows one example picture of Min SAS

4i to Multi-lance cable.

Unpack and remove the PCI RAID cards. Inspect it carefully. If

anything is missing or damaged, contact your local dealer.

Figure 2-16, Min SAS 4i to Multi-lance

Figure 2-15, Min SAS 4i to 4*SATA

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Step 5-5. Connect the Min SAS 4i to Min SAS 4i cable

Model ARC-1230ML/1260ML/1280ML have Min SAS 4i internal

connectors, each of them can support up to four SATA drives.

These adapters can be installed in a server RAID enclosure with a

Min SAS 4i internal connector backplane. Min SAS 4i cables are not

included in the ARC-12XXML package.

This Min SAS 4i cable has eight signal pins to support four SATA

drives and six pins for the SGPIO (Serial General Purpose Input/

Output) side-band signals. The SGPIO bus is used for efcient LED

management and for sensing drive Locate status. Please see page

51 for the details of the SGPIO bus.

Unpack and remove the PCI RAID cards. Inspect it carefully. If

anything is missing or damaged, contact your local dealer.

Step 6 Install the LED cable (optional)

ARC-1XXX Series Fault/Activity Header Intelligent Electronics

Schematic.

Figure 2-17, Min SAS 4i to Min SAS 4i

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

The intelligent LED controller outputs a low-level pulse to deter-

mine if status LEDs are attached to pin sets 1 and 2. This allows

automatic controller conguration of the LED output. If the logi-

cal level is different between the st 2 sets of the HDD LED header

(LED attached to Set 1 but not Set 2), the controller will assign the

rst HDD LED header as the global indicator connector. Otherwise,

each LED output will show only individual drive status.

The SATA RAID controller provides four kinds of LED status connec-

tors.

A: Global indicator connector, which lights when any drive is active.

B: Individual LED indicator connector, for each drive channel.

C: I2C connector, for SATA proprietary backplane enclosure.

D: SGPIO connector for SAS Backplane enclosure

The following diagrams and description describes each type of con-

nector.

Note:

A cable for the global indicator comes with your computer

system. Cables for the individual drive LEDs may come with

a drive cage, or you may need to purchase them.

A: Global Indicator Connector

If the system will use only a single global indicator, attach the

global indicator cable to the two pins HDD LED connector. The fol-

lowing diagrams show the connector and pin locations.

Figure 2-18, ARC-

1110/1120/1210/1220

global LED connection

for Computer Case.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-19, ARC-

1130/1160/1230/1260

global LED connection

for Computer Case.

Figure 2-21, ARC-1280

global LED connection for

Computer Case.

Figure 2-20, ARC-1170

global LED connection

for Computer Case.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-22, ARC-1231ML/

1261ML/1280ML global LED

connection for Computer

Case.

B: Individual LED indicator connector

Connect the cables for the drive activity LEDs and fault LEDs be-

tween the backplane of the cage and the respective connector on

the SATA RAID controller. The following describes the fault/activ-

ity LED.

LED Normal Status Problem Indication

Activity LED When the activity LED is illu-

minated, there is I/O activity

on that disk drive. When the

LED is dark, there is no activ-

ity on that disk drive.

N/A

Fault LED When the fault LED is solid

illuminated, there is no disk

present.

When the fault LED is off,

that disk is present and sta-

tus is normal.

When the Red LED is slow blinking

(2 times/sec), that disk drive has

failed and should be hot-swapped

immediately. When the activity

LED is illuminated and Red LED is

fast blinking (10 times/sec) there

is rebuilding activity on that disk

drive.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-23, ARC-

1110/1120/1210/1220

Individual LED indica-

tors connector, for each

channel drive.

Figure 2-24, ARC-

1130/1160/1230/1260

Individual LED indica-

tors connector, for each

channel drive.

Figure 2-25, ARC-1170

Individual LED indicators

connector, for each chan-

nel drive.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-26, ARC-1280

Individual LED indicators

connector, for each chan-

nel drive.

Figure 2-27, ARC-1231ML/

1261ML/1280ML Individual

LED indicators connector, for

each channel drive.

C: I2C Connector

You can also connect the I2C interface to a proprietary SATA

backplane enclosure. This can reduce the number of activity LED

and/or fault LED cables. The I2C interface can also cascade to an-

other SATA backplane enclosure for the additional channel status

display.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Figure 2-28, Activity/Fault LED I2C connector connected between

SATA RAID Controller & SATA HDD Cage backplane.

Figure 2-29, Activity/Fault LED I2C connector connected between

SATA RAID Controller & 4 SATA HDD backplane.

Note:

Ci-Design has supported this feature in its 4-port 12-6336-

05A SATA ll backplane.

The following is the I2C signal name description for LCD & Fault/Ac-

tivity LED.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

PIN Description PIN Description

1power (+5V) 2 GND

3 LCD Module Interrupt 4 Fault/Activity Interrupt

5 LCD Module Serial Data 6 Fault/Activity clock

7Fault/Activity Serial Data 8 LCD Module clock

D: SGPIO bus

The preferred I/O connector for server backplanes is the Min SAS

4i internal serial-attachment connector. This connector has eight

signal pins to support four SATA drives and six pins for the SGPIO

(Serial General Purpose Input/Output) side-band signals. The

SGPIO bus is used for efcient LED management and for sens-

ing drive Locate status. See SFF 8485 for the specication of the

SGPIO bus.

The number of drives supported can be increased, by a factor of

four, by adding similar backplane to maximum of 24 drives (6

backplanes)

LED Management: The backplane may contain LEDs to indicate

drive status. Light from the LEDs could be transmitted to the out-

side of the server by using light pipes mounted on the SAS drive

tray. A small EPLP microcontroller on the backplane, connected via

the SGPIO bus to a ARC-1231ML/1261ML/1280ML SATA RAID con-

troller, could control the LEDs. Activity: blinking 5 Times/Second

Fault: solid illuminated

Drive Locate Circuitry: The locate of a drive may be detected by

sensing the voltage level of one of the pre-charge pins before and

after a drive is installed. Fault (red) blinking 2 Times/Second.

The following signal denes the SGPIO assignments for the Min

SAS 4i connector in ARC-1231ML/1261ML/1280ML.

PIN Description PIN Description

SideBand0 SClock (Clock Signal) SideBand1 SLoad (Last clock of a bit

stream)

SideBand2 Ground SideBand3 Ground

SideBand4 SDataOut (Serial data

output bit stream)

SideBand5 SDataIn (Serial data input bit

stream)

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

The following signal denes the sideband connector which can

work with Areca sideband cable.

The sideband header is located at backplane. For SGPIO to

work properly, please connect Areca 8-pin sideband cable to the

sideband header as shown above. See the table for pin denitions.

Step 7. Re-check the SATA HDD LED and Fault LED Cable

connections

Be sure that the proper failed drive channel information is displayed

by the Fault and HDD Activity LEDs. An improper connection will

tell the user to ‘‘Hot Swap’’ the wrong drive. This will remove the

wrong disk (one that is functioning properly) from the controller.

This can result in failure and loss of system data.

Step 8. Power up the System

Thoroughly check the installation, reinstall the computer cover, and

reconnect the power cord cables. Turn on the power switch at the

rear of the computer (if equipped) and then press the power button

at the front of the host computer.

Step 9. Congure volume set

The SATA RAID controller congures RAID functionality through the

McBIOS RAID manager. Please refer to Chapter 3, McBIOS RAID

manager, for the detail regarding conguration. The RAID controller

can also be congured through the McRAID storage manager soft-

ware utility with ArcHttp proxy server installed through on-board

Lan port or LCD module. For this option, please reference Chapter

6, Web Browser-Based Conguration or LCD conguration menu.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Step 10. Install the controller driver

For a new system:

• Driver installation usually takes places as part of operating sys-

tem installation. Please reference the Chapter 4 Diver Installation

for the detail installation procedure.

In an existing system:

• Install the controller driver into the existing operating system.

Please reference the Chapter 4, Driver Installation, for the detailed

installation procedure.

Note:

Look for newest release versions of drivers please download

from http://www.areca.com.tw

Step 11. Install ArcHttp proxy Server

The SATA RAID controller rmware has embedded the web-browser

RAID manager. ArcHttp proxy driver will enable it. The browser-

based RAID manager provides all of the creation, management,

and monitor SATA RAID controller status. Please refer to the

Chapter 5 for the detail ArcHttp proxy server installation. For SNMP

agent function, please refer to Appendix C.

Step 12. Determining the Boot sequences

The SATA RAID controller is a bootable controller. If your system

already contains a bootable device with an installed operating sys-

tem, you can set up your system to boot a second operating sys-

tem from the new controller. To add a second bootable controller,

you may need to enter setup and change the device boot sequence

so that the SATA RAID controller heads the list. If the system BIOS

setup does not allow this change, your system may not be con-

gurable to allow the SATA RAID controller to act as a second boot

device.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Summary of the installation

The ow chart below describes the installation procedures for

SATA RAID controller. These procedures include hardware installa-

tion, the creation and conguration of a RAID volume through the

McBIOS, OS installation and installation of SATA RAID controller

software.

The software components congure and monitor the SATA RAID

controller via ArcHttp Proxy Server.

Conguration Utility Operating System supported

McBIOS RAID Manager OS-Independent

McRAID Storage Manager

(Via Archttp proxy server)

Windows 2000/XP/2003, Linux, Free-

BSD, NetWare, UnixWare, Solaris and

Mac

SAP Monitor (Single Admin portal to

scan for multiple RAID units in the net-

work, Via ArcHttp proxy server)

Windows 2000/XP/2003

SNMP Manager Console Integration Windows 2000/XP/2003, Linux and

FreeBSD

McRAID Storage Manager

Before launching the rmware-embedded web server, McRAID stor-

age manager, you can to install the ArcHttp proxy server on your

server system or through on-board Lan-port (if equipped). If you

need additional information about installation and start-up of this

function, see the McRAID Storage Manager section in Chapter 6.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

SNMP Manager Console Integration

• Out of Band-Using Ethernet port (12/16/24-port Control-

ler)

Before launching the rmware-embedded SNMP agent in the

sever, you need rst to enable the reware-embedded SNMP

agent function on your SATA RAID controller. If you need

additional information about installation and start-up this

function, see the section 6.8.4 SNMP Conguration (12/16/24-

port)

• In-Band-Using PCI-X/PCIe Bus (4/8/12/16/24-port

Controller)

Before launching the SNMP agent in the sever, you need rst to

enable the reware-embedded SNMP community conguration

and install Areca SNMP extension agent in your server system.

If you need additional information about installation and start-up

the function, see the SNMP Operation & Installation section in the

Appendix C

Single Admin Portal (SAP) Monitor

This utility can scan for multiple RAID units on the network and

monitor the controller set status. It also includes a disk stress test

utility to identify marginal spec disks before the RAID unit is put

into a production environment.

For additional information, see the utility manual in the packaged

CD-ROM or download it from the web site http://www.arec.com.tw

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3. McBIOS RAID Manager

The system mainboard BIOS automatically congures the following

SATA RAID controller parameters at power-up:

• I/O Port Address

• Interrupt channel (IRQ)

• Adapter ROM Base Address

Use McBIOS to further congure the SATA RAID controller to suit your

server hardware and operating system.

3.1 Starting the McBIOS RAID Manager

This section explains how to use the McBIOS Setup Utility to con-

gure your RAID system. The BIOS Setup Utility is designed to be

user-friendly. It is a menu-driven program, residing in the rm-

ware, which allows you to scroll through various menus and sub-

menus and select among the predetermined conguration options.

When starting a system with an SATA RAID controller installed, it

will display the following message on the monitor during the start-

up sequence (after the system bios startup screen but before the

operating system boots):

The McBIOS conguration manager message remains on your

screen for about nine seconds, giving you time to start the cong-

ure menu by pressing Tab or F6. If you do not wish to enter con-

guration menu, press <ESC> to skip conguration immediately.

When activated, the McBIOS window appears showing a selection

dialog box listing the SATA RAID controllers that are installed in the

system.

The legend at the bottom of the screen shows you what keys are

enabled for the windows.

I/O-Port=F3000000h, IRQ=11, BIOS ROM mapped at D000:0h

No BIOS disk Found, RAID Controller BIOS not installed!

Press <Tab/F6> to enter SETUP menu. 9 second(s) left <ESC to Skip>..

ARC-1xxx RAID Ctrl - DRAM: 128(MB) / #Channels: 8

BIOS: V1.00 / Date: 2004-5-13 - F/W: V1.31 / Date: 2004-5-31

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller Setup <V1.0, 2004/05/20>

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ** Select & Press F10 to Reboot**

Select An Adapter To Congure

( 3/14/ 0)I/O=DD200000h, IRQ = 9

Use the Up and Down arrow keys to select the adapter you want

to congure. While the desired adapter is highlighted, press the

<Enter> key to enter the Main Menu of the McBIOS Conguration

Utility.

3.2 McBIOS Conguration manager

The McBIOS conguration utility is rmware-based and is used to

congure raid sets and volume sets. Because the utility resides in

the SATA RAID controller rmware, operation is independent of any

operating systems on your computer. This utility can be used to:

• Create RAID sets,

• Expand RAID sets,

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Verify Password

Note:

The manufacture

default password is

set to 0000; this

password can be

modied by selecting

Change Password

in the Raid System

Function section.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.4 Designating Drives as Hot Spares

Any unused disk drive that is not part of a RAID set can be desig-

nated as a Hot Spare. The “Quick Volume/Raid Setup” conguration

will add the spare disk drive and automatically display the appro-

priate raid level from which the user can select. For the “Raid Set

Function conguration” option, the user can use the “Create Hot

Spare” option to dene the hot spare disk drive.

When a Hot Spare disk drive is being created using the “Create Hot

Spare” option (in the Raid Set Function), all unused physical de-

vices connected to the current controller appear:

Choose the target disk by selecting the appropriate check box.

Press the Enter key to select a disk drive, and press Yes in the

Create Hot Spare to designate it as a hot spare.

• Add physical drives,

• Dene volume sets,

• Modify volume sets,

• Modify RAID level/stripe size,

• Dene pass-through disk drives,

• Modify system functions, and

• Designate drives as hot spares.

3.3 Conguring Raid Sets and Volume Sets

You can congure RAID sets and volume sets with McBIOS RAID

manager automatically using Quick Volume/Raid Setup or manually

using Raid Set/Volume Set Function. Each conguration method re-

quires a different level of user input. The general ow of operations

for RAID set and volume set conguration is:

Step Action

1Designate hot spares/pass-through drives (optional).

2Choose a conguration method.

3 Create RAID sets using the available physical drives.

4Dene volume sets using the space available in the RAID Set.

5 Initialize the volume sets and use volume sets (as logical drives) in the

host OS.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.5 Using Quick Volume /Raid Setup Con-

guration

Quick Volume / Raid Setup Conguration collects all available

drives and includes them in a RAID set. The RAID set you create

is associated with exactly one volume set. You will only be able

to modify the default RAID level, the stripe size, and the capacity

of the new volume set. Designating drives as Hot Spares is also

possible in the raid level selection option. The volume set default

settings will be:

Parameter Setting

Volume Name Volume Set # 00

SCSI Channel/SCSI ID/SCSI LUN 0/0/0

Cache Mode Write Back

Tag Queuing Yes

The default setting values can be changed after conguration is

complete. Follow the steps below to create arrays using the RAID

Set / Volume Set method:

Step Action

1Choose Quick Volume /Raid Setup from the main menu. The available

RAID levels with hot spare for the current volume set drive are displayed.

2It is recommend that you drives of the same capacity in a specic array.

If you use drives with different capacities in an array, all drives in the

raid set will be set to the capacity of the smallest drive in the raid set.

The numbers of physical drives in a specic array determines which RAID

levels that can be implemented in the array.

RAID 0 requires 1 or more physical drives.

RAID 1 requires at least 2 physical drives.

RAID 1+Spare requires at least 3 physical drives.

RAID 1E requires at least 4 physical drives.

RAID 3 requires at least 3 physical drives.

RAID 5 requires at least 3 physical drives.

RAID 3 +Spare requires at least 4 physical drives.

RAID 5 + Spare requires at least 4 physical drives.

RAID 6 requires at least 4 physical drives.

RAID 6 + Spare requires at least 5 physical drives.

Highlight the desired RAID level for the volume set and press the Enter

key to conrm.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.6 Using RAID Set/Volume Set Function

Method

In “Raid Set Function”, you can use the “Create Raid Set Function”

to generate a new RAID set. In “Volume Set Function”, you can

use the “Create Volume Set function” to generate an associated

volume set and and conguration parameters.

If the current controller has unused physical devices connected,

you can choose the “Create Hot Spare” option in the “Raid Set

Function” to dene a global hot spare. Select this method to con-

gure new raid sets and volume sets. The “Raid Set/Volume Set

Function” conguration option allows you to associate volume sets

with partial and full RAID sets.

3 The capacity for the current volume set is entered after highlighting the

desired RAID level and pressing the Enter key.

The capacity for the current volume set is displayed. Use the UP and

DOWN arrow keys to set the capacity of the volume set and press the

Enter key to conrm. The available stripe sizes for the current volume

set are then displayed.

4Use the UP and DOWN arrow keys to select the current volume set

stripe size and press the Enter key to conrm. This parameter species

the size of the stripes written to each disk in a RAID 0, 1, 5 or 6 Volume

Set. You can set the stripe size to 4 KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, or

128 KB. A larger stripe size provides better read performance, especially

when the computer preforms mostly sequential reads. However, if the

computer preforms random read requests more often, choose a smaller

stripe size.

5 When you are nished dening the volume set, press the Enter key to

conrm the Quick Volume And Raid Set Setup function.

6Foreground (Fast Completion) Press Enter key to dene fast initialization

or Selected the Background (Instant Available). In the background Ini-

tialization, 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. In Fast Initialization, the

initialization proceeds must be completed before the volume set ready

for system accesses.

7Initialize the volume set you have just congured.

8If you need to add additional volume set, using main menu Create Vol-

ume Set function.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Step Action

1To setup the Hot Spare (option), choose RAID Set Function from the

main menu. Select the Create Hot Spare and press the Enter key to

dene the Hot Spare.

2Choose RAID Set Function from the main menu. Select Create RAID Set

and press the Enter key.

3 The “Select a Drive For Raid Set” window is displayed showing the SATA

drives connected to the SATA RAID controller.

4Press the UP and DOWN arrow keys to select specic physical drives.

Press the Enter key to associate the selected physical drive with the cur-

rent RAID set.

It is recommend that you drives of the same capacity in a specic array.

If you use drives with different capacities in an array, all drives in the

raid set will be set to the capacity of the smallest drive in the raid set.

The numbers of physical drives in a specic array determines which RAID

levels that can be implemented in the array.

RAID 0 requires 1 or more physical drives.

RAID 1 requires at least 2 physical drives.

RAID (1+0) requires at least 4 physical drives.

RAID 3 requires at least 3 physical drives.

RAID 5 requires at least 3 physical drives.

RAID 6 requires at least 4 physical drives.

5 After adding the desired physical drives to the current RAID set, press

Yes to conrm the “Create Raid Set” function.

6An “Edit The Raid Set Name” dialog box appears. Enter 1 to 15 alphanu-

meric characters to dene a unique identier for this new raid set. The

default raid set name will always appear as Raid Set. #. Press Enter to

nish the name editing.

7Press the Enter key when you are nished creating the current RAID

Set. To continue dening another RAID set, repeat step 3. To begin vol-

ume set conguration, go to step 8.

8Choose the Volume Set Function from the Main menu. Select Create

Volume Set and press the Enter key.

9Choose a RAID set from the “Create Volume From Raid Set” window.

Press the Enter key to conrm the selection.

10 Choosing Foreground (Fast Completion) or Background (Instant Avail-

ability) initiation: during Background Initialization, the initialization

proceeds as a background task and the volume set is fully accessible for

system reads and writes. The operating system can instantly access the

newly created arrays without requiring a reboot and waiting for initializa-

tion complete. In Fast Initialization, the initialization must be completed

before the volume set is ready for system accesses. In Fast Initialization,

initiation is completed more quickly but volume access by the operating

system is delayed.

11 If space remains in the raid set, the next volume set can be congured.

Repeat steps 8 to 10 to congure another volume set.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7 Main Menu

The main menu shows all functions that are available for executing

actions, which is accomplished by clicking on the appropriate link.

Note:

A user can use this method to examine the existing congura-

tion. The “modify volume set conguration” method provides

the same functions as the “create volume set conguration”

method. In the volume set function, you can use “modify

volume set” to change all volume set parameters except for

capacity (size).

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Verify Password

Note:

The manufacture

default password is

set to 0000; this

password can be

modied by selecting

Change Password

in the Raid System

Function section.

Option Description

Quick Volume/Raid Setup Create a default conguration based on the number

of physical disk installed

Raid Set Function Create a customized RAID set

Volume Set Function Create a customized volume set

Physical Drives View individual disk information

Raid System Function Setup the RAID system conguration

Ethernet Conguration Ethernet LAN setting (ARC-1x30/1x60/1x70 only)

View System Events Record all system events in the buffer

Clear Event Buffer Clear all information in the event buffer

Hardware Monitor Show the hardware system environment status

System Information View the controller system information

BIOS CONFIGURATION

This password option allows user to set or clear the raid controller’s

password protection feature. Once the password has been set, the

user can only monitor and congure the raid controller by providing

the correct password. The password is used to protect the internal

RAID controller from unauthorized entry. The controller will prompt

for the password only when entering the Main menu from the initial

screen. The SATA RAID controller will automatically return to the

initial screen when it does not receive any command in twenty

seconds.

3.7.1 Quick Volume/RAID Setup

“Quick Volume/RAID Setup” is the fastest way to prepare a RAID

set and volume set. It requires only a few keystrokes to com-

plete. Although disk drives of different capacity may be used in

the RAID set, it will use the capacity of the smallest disk drive as

the capacity of all disk drives in the RAID set. The “Quick Vol-

ume/RAID Setup” option creates a RAID set with the following

properties:

1. All of the physical drives are contained in one RAID set.

2. The RAID level, hot spare, capacity, and stripe size options

are selected during the conguration process.

3. When a single volume set is created, it can consume all or a

portion of the available disk capacity in this RAID set.

4. If you need to add an additional volume set, use the main

menu “Create Volume Set” function.

The total number of physical drives in a specic RAID set deter-

mine the RAID levels that can be implemented within the RAID

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Total 4 Drives

Raid 0

Raid 1 + 0

Raid 1 + 0 + Spare

Raid 3

Raid 5

Raid 3 + Spare

Raid 5 + Spare

Raid 6

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Set. Select “Quick Volume/RAID Setup” from the main menu;

all possible RAID level will be displayed on the screen.

If volume capacity will exceed 2TB, controller will show the

“Greater 2 TB volume Support” sub-menu.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Total 4 Drives

Raid 0

Raid 1 + 0

Raid 1 + 0 + Spare

Raid 3

Raid 5

Raid 3 + Spare

Raid 5 + Spare

Raid 6

Greater Two TB Volume Support

Use 64bit LBA

For Windows

• No

It keeps the volume size with max. 2TB limitation.

• LBA 64

This option use 16 bytes CDB instead of 10 bytes. The maximum

volume capacity up to 512TB.

This option works on different OS which supports 16 bytes CDB.

such as :

Windows 2003 with SP1

Linux kernel 2.6.x or latter

• For Windows

It change the sector size from default 512 Bytes to 4k Bytes. the

maximum volume capacity up to 16TB.

This option works under Windows platform only. And it CAN NOT

be converted to Dynamic Disk, because 4k sector size is not a

standard format.

For more details please download PDF le from ftp://ftp.areca.

com.tw/RaidCards/Documents/Manual_Spec/Over2TB_

050721.zip

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Stripe size This parameter sets the size of the stripe written to

each disk in a RAID 0, 1, 5, or 6 logical drive. You can set the

stripe size to 4 KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB.

A larger stripe size produces better-read performance, especially

if your computer does mostly sequential reads. However, if you

A single volume set is created and consumes all or a portion of

the disk capacity available in this raid set. Dene the capacity

of volume set in the Available Capacity popup. The default value

for the volume set, which is 100% of the available capacity, is

displayed in the selected capacity. To enter a value less than the

available capacity, type the new value and press the Enter key

to accept this value. If the volume set uses only part of the RAID

Set capacity, you can use the “Create Volume Set” option in the

main menu to dene additional volume sets.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Total 4 Drives

Raid 0

Raid 1 + 0

Raid 1 + 0 + Spare

Raid 3

Raid 5

Raid 3 + Spare

Raid 5 + Spare

Raid 6

Available Capacity : 160.1GB

Selected Capacity : 160.1GB

Select Strip Size

16K

32K

128K

64K

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Total 4 Drives

Raid 0

Raid 1 + 0

Raid 1 + 0 + Spare

Raid 3

Raid 5

Raid 3 + Spare

Raid 5 + Spare

Raid 6

Available Capacity : 160.1GB

Selected Capacity : 160.1GB

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.2 Raid Set Function

Manual Conguration gives complete control of the RAID set set-

ting, but it will take longer to congure than “Quick Volume/Raid

Setup” conguration. Select “Raid Set Function” to manually con-

gure the raid set for the rst time or delete existing RAID sets

and recongure the RAID set.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Total 4 Drives

Raid 0

Raid 1 + 0

Raid 1 + 0 +

Spare

Raid 3

Raid 5

Raid 3 + Spare

Raid 5 + Spare

Raid 6

Available Capacity : 160.1GB

Selected Capacity : 160.1GB

Select Strip Size

16K

32K

128K

64K

Create Vol/Raid Set

Yes

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Create Vol/Raid Set

Yes

Main Menu

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Total 4 Drives

Raid 0

Raid 1 + 0

Raid 1 + 0 + Spare

Raid 3

Raid 5

Raid 3 + Spare

Raid 5 + Spare

Raid 6

Available Capacity : 160.1GB

Selected Capacity : 160.1GB

Select Strip Size

16K

32K

128K

64K

Initialization Mode

Background (Instant Available)

Foreground (Faster Completeion)

are sure that your computer performs random reads more often,

select a smaller stripe size.

Press the Yes key in the “Create Vol/Raid” Set dialog box, the

RAID set and volume set will start to initialize it.

Select “Foreground (Faster Completion)” or “Background (Instant

Available)” for initialization.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid Set Function

3.7.2.1 Create Raid Set

To dene a RAID set, follow the procedure below:

1. Select “Raid Set Function” from the main menu.

2. Select “Create Raid Set “ from the “Raid Set Function” dialog

box.

3. A “Select SATA Drive For Raid set” window is displayed

showing the SATA drives connected to the current controller.

Press the UP and DOWN arrow keys to select specic physical

drives. Press the Enter key to associate the selected physical

drive with the current RAID Set. Repeat this step; the user can

add as many disk drives as are available to a single RAID set.

When nished selecting SATA drives for RAID set, press the Esc

key. A Create Raid Set conrmation screen appears, select the

Yes option to conrm it.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

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Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid Set Function

Delete Raid Set

Expand Raid Set

Activate Raid Set

Create Hot Spare

Delete Hot Spare

Raid Set Information

Create Raid Set

Select IDE Drives For Raid Set

[ ]Ch04| 80.0GBST380013AS

[ ]Ch05| 80.0GBST380013AS

[ ]Ch08| 80.0GBST380013AS

[*]Ch01| 80.0GBST380013AS

BIOS CONFIGURATION

4. An “Edit The Raid Set Name” dialog box appears. Enter 1 to

15 alphanumeric characters to dene a unique identier for the

RAID Set. The default RAID set name will always appear as Raid

Set. #.

3.7.2.2 Delete Raid Set

To completely erase and recongure a RAID set, you must rst

delete it and re-create the raid set. To delete a raid set, select

the raid set number that user want to delete in the “Select Raid

Set to Delete” screen. The “Delete Raid Set” dialog box appears,

then press Yes key to delete it. Warning, data on RAID set will

be lost if this option is used.

3.7.2.3 Expand Raid Set

Instead of deleting a RAID set and recreating it with additional

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid Set Function

Delete Raid Set

Expand Raid Set

Activate Raid Set

Create Hot Spare

Delete Hot Spare

Raid Set Information

Create Raid Set

Select IDE Drives For Raid Set

[ ]Ch04| 80.0GBST380013AS

[ ]Ch05| 80.0GBST380013AS

[ ]Ch08| 80.0GBST380013AS

[*]Ch01| 80.0GBST380013AS

Edit The Raid Set Name

aid Set # 00

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid Set Function

Create Raid Set

Expand Raid Set

Activate Raid Set

Create Hot Spare

Delete Hot Spare

Raid Set Information

Delete Raid Set

Select Raid Set To Delete

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00 Are you Sure?

Yes

BIOS CONFIGURATION

disk drives, the “Expand Raid Set” function allows the users to

add disk drives to the RAID set that have already been created.

To expand a raid set:

Select the “Expand Raid Set” option. If there is an available

disk, then the “Select SATA Drives For Raid Set Expansion”

screen appears.

Select the target RAID set by clicking on the appropriate radio

button. Select the target disk by clicking on the appropriate

check box.

Press the Yes key to start expansion of the RAID set.

The new additional capacity can be utilized by one or more

volume sets. Follow the instruction presented in the volume set

Function to modify the volume sets; operation system specic

utilities may be required to expand operating system partitions.

Note:

1. Once the Expand Raid Set process has started, user

cannot stop it. The process must be completed.

2. If a disk drive fails during raid set expansion and a hot

spare is available, an auto rebuild operation will occur after

the RAID set expansion completes.

• Migrating

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Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Expand Raid Set

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid Set Function

Create Raid Set

Delete Raid Set

Expand Raid Set

Activate Raid Set

Create Hot Spare

Delete Hot Spare

Raid Set Information

Exp Select Drives For Raid Set Expansion

[ ]Ch08| 80.0GBST380013AS

[*]Ch05| 80.0GBST380013AS

Are you Sure?

Yes

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Migration occurs when a disk is added to a RAID set. Migration

status is displayed in the raid status area of the Raid set infor-

mation screen when a disk is being added to a Raid set. Migrat-

ing status is also displayed in the associated volume status area

of the Volume Set Information when a disk is added to a RAID

set.

3.7.2.4 Activate Incomplete Raid Set

The following screen is shows “Raid Set Information” after one

of its disk drive was removed in the power off state.

When one of the disk drives is removed in power off state, the

Raid set state will change to Incomplete State. If a user wants

to continue to work while the SATA RAID controller is powered

on, the user can use the “Activate Raid Set” option to active the

RAID set. After user selects this function, the Raid State will

change to Degraded Mode.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid Set Function

Create Raid Set

Delete Raid Set

Expand Raid Set

Activate Raid Set

Create Hot Spare

Delete Hot Spare

Raid Set Information

The Raid Set Information

Raid Set Name : Raid Set # 00

Member Disks : 4

Raid State : Migrating

Total Capacity : 160.1GB

Free Capacity : 144.1GB

Min Member Disk Size : 40.0GB

Member Disk Channels : 1234

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid Set Function

Create Raid Set

Delete Raid Set

Expand Raid Set

Activate Raid Set

Create Hot Spare

Delete Hot Spare

Raid Set Information

Active Raid Set

The Raid Set Information

Raid Set Name : Raid Set # 00

Member Disks : 4

Raid State : Migrating

Total Capacity : 160.1GB

Free Capacity : 144.1GB

Min Member Disk Size : 40.0GB

Member Disk Channels : 1234

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.2.5 Create Hot Spare

When you choose the “Create Hot Spare” option in the Raid Set

Function, all unused physical devices connected to the current

controller will result in the following:

Select the target disk by clicking on the appropriate check box.

Press the Enter key to select a disk drive and press Yes in the

“Create Hot Spare” to designate it as a hot spare.

The create Hot Spare option gives you the ability to dene a

global hot spare.

3.7.2.6 Delete Hot Spare

Select the target Hot Spare disk to delete by clicking on the ap-

propriate check box.

Press the Enter keys to select a disk drive, and press Yes in the

“Delete Hot Spare” window to delete the hot spare.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid Set Function

Create Raid Set

Delete Raid Set

Expand Raid Set

Activate Raid Set

Create Hot Spare

Delete Hot Spare

Raid Set Information

Create Hot Spare

Select Drives For HotSpare, Max 3 HotSpare Supported

[ ]Ch08| 80.0GBST380013AS

[*]Ch05| 80.0GBST380013ASAre you Sure?

Yes

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Delete Raid Set

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid Set Function

Create Raid Set

Delete Raid Set

Expand Raid Set

Activate Raid Set

Create Hot Spare

Delete Hot Spare

Raid Set Information

Delete Hot Spare

Select The HotSpare Device To be Deleted

[ ]Ch08| 80.0GBST380013AS

[*]Ch05| 80.0GBST380013ASAre you Sure?

Yes

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.2.7 Raid Set Information

To display Raid Set information, move the cursor bar to the de-

sired RAID set number, then press the Enter key. The “Raid Set

Information” will display.

You can only view information for the RAID set in this screen.

3.7.3 Volume Set Function

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

A volume set is seen by the host system as a single logical de-

vice; it is organized in a RAID level within the controller utiliz-

ing one or more physical disks. RAID level refers to the level of

data performance and protection of a volume set. A volume set

can consume all of the capacity or a portion of the available disk

capacity of a RAID set. Multiple volume sets can exist on a RAID

set. If multiple volume sets reside on a specied RAID set, all

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid Set Function

Create Raid Set

Delete Raid Set

Expand Raid Set

Activate Raid Set

Create Hot Spare

Delete Hot Spare

Raid Set Information

The Raid Set Information

Raid Set Name : Raid Set # 00

Member Disks : 4

Raid State : Normal

Total Capacity : 320.1GB

Free Capacity : 320.1GB

Min Member Disk Size : 80.0GB

Member Disk Channels : 1458

BIOS CONFIGURATION

volume sets will reside on all 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 rather than one volume set

using some of the available disks and another volume set using

other disks.

3.7.3.1 Create Volume Set

1. Volume sets of different RAID levels may coexist on the same

raid set.

2. Up to 16 volume sets in a RAID set can be created by the

SATA RAID controller.

3. The maximum addressable size of a single volume set is not

limited to 2 TB as with other cards that support only 32-bit

mode.

To create a volume set, follow the following steps:

1. Select the “Volume Set Function” from the Main menu.

2. Choose the “Create Volume Set” from “Volume Set Functions”

dialog box screen.

3. The “Create Volume From RAID Set” dialog box appears. This

screen displays the existing arranged RAID sets. Select the RAID

set number and press the Enter key. The “Volume Creation”

dialogue is displayed in the screen.

4. A window with a summary of the current volume set’s set-

tings. The “Volume Creation” option allows user to select the

volume name, capacity, RAID level, strip size, Disk Info, Cache

mode and tag queuing. The user can modify the default val-

ues in this screen; the modication procedures are in section

3.5.3.3.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

BIOS CONFIGURATION

5. After completing the modication of the volume set, press the

Esc key to conrm it. An “Initialization” screen is presented.

• Select Foreground (Faster Completion) for Faster Initializa-

tion of the selected volume set.

• Select Background (Instant Available) for Normal Initializa-

tion of the selected volume set.

6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 to create additional volume sets.

7. The initialization percentage of volume set will be displayed at

the button line.

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ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Volume Creation

Raid Level : 5

Capacity : 160.1GB

Stripe Size : 64K

SCSI Channel : 0

SCSI ID : 0

SCSI LUN : 0

Cache Mode : Write Back

Tag Queuing : Enabled

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Volume Creation

Raid Level : 5

Capacity : 160.1GB

Stripe Size : 64K

SCSI Channel : 0

SCSI ID : 0

SCSI LUN : 0

Cache Mode : Write Back

Tag Queuing : Enabled

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00

Initialization Mode

Background (Instant Available)

Foreground (Faster Completion)

BIOS CONFIGURATION

The default volume name will always appear as Volume Set #.

You can rename the volume set providing it does not exceed

the 15 characters limit.

• Raid Level

• Volume Name

Set the RAID level for the volume set. Highlight Raid Level and

press <Enter>.

The available RAID levels for the current volume set are dis-

played. Select a RAID level and press the Enter key to conrm.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Volume Creation

Raid Level : 5

Capacity : 160.1GB

Stripe Size : 64K

SCSI Channel : 0

SCSI ID : 0

SCSI LUN : 0

Cache Mode : Write Back

Tag Queuing : Enabled

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00

Edit The Volume Name

olume Set # 00

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Volume Creation

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00

Raid Level : 5

Capacity : 160.1GB

Stripe Size : 64K

SCSI Channel : 0

SCSI ID : 0

SCSI LUN : 0

Cache Mode : Write Back

Tag Queuing : Enabled

Raid Level : 5

Select Raid Level

0 + 1

BIOS CONFIGURATION

The maximum available volume size is the default value for the

rst setting. Enter the appropriate volume size to t your ap-

plication. The capacity value can be increased or decreased by

the UP and DOWN arrow keys. The capacity of each volume

set must be less than or equal to the total capacity of the RAID

set on which it resides.

If volume capacity will exceed 2TB, controller will show the

Greater 2 TB volume Support sub-menu.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Volume Creation

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00

Raid Level : 5

Capacity : 160.1GB

Stripe Size : 64K

SCSI Channel : 0

SCSI ID : 0

SCSI LUN : 0

Cache Mode : Write Back

Tag Queuing : Enabled

Capacity : 160.1GB

Available Capacity : 160.1GB

Selected Capacity : 160.1GB

• Capacity

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Total 4 Drives

Raid 0

Raid 1 + 0

Raid 1 + 0 + Spare

Raid 3

Raid 5

Raid 3 + Spare

Raid 5 + Spare

Raid 6

Greater Two TB Volume Support

Use 64bit LBA

For Windows

BIOS CONFIGURATION

• Strip Size

This parameter sets the size of the segment written to each

disk in a RAID 0, 1, 5, or 6 logical drive. You can set the stripe

size to 4 KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Volume Creation

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00

Raid Level : 5

Capacity : 160.1GB

Stripe Size : 64K

SCSI Channel : 0

SCSI ID : 0

SCSI LUN : 0

Cache Mode : Write Back

Tag Queuing : Enabled

Stripe Size : 64K

• No

It keeps the volume size with max. 2TB limitation.

• LBA 64

This option use 16 bytes CDB instead of 10 bytes. The maximum

volume capacity up to 512TB.

This option works on different OS which supports 16 bytes CDB.

such as :

Windows 2003 with SP1

Linux kernel 2.6.x or latter

• For Windows

It change the sector size from default 512 Bytes to 4k Byetes. the

maximum volume capacity up to 16TB.

This option works under Windows platform only. And it CAN NOT

be converted to Dynamic Disk, because 4k sector size is not a

standard format.

For more details please download PDF file from ftp://ftp.

areca.com.tw/RaidCards/Documents/Manual_Spec/

Over2TB_050721.zip

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Volume Creation

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00

Raid Level : 5

Capacity : 160.1GB

Stripe Size : 64K

SCSI Channel : 0

SCSI ID : 0

SCSI LUN : 0

Cache Mode : Write Back

Tag Queuing : Enabled

SCSI Channel : 0

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Volume Creation

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00

Raid Level : 5

Capacity : 160.1GB

Stripe Size : 64K

SCSI Channel : 0

SCSI ID : 0

SCSI LUN : 0

Cache Mode : Write Back

Tag Queuing : Enabled

SCSI ID : 0

• SCSI Channel

The SATA RAID controller function simulates a SCSI RAID con-

troller. The host bus represents the SCSI channel. Choose the

SCSI Channel. A “Select SCSI Channel” dialog box appears; se-

lect the channel number and press the Enter key to conrm it.

• SCSI ID

Each device attached to the SATA card, as well as the card

itself, must be assigned a unique SCSI ID number. A SCSI

channel can connect up to 15 devices. It is necessar to assign a

SCSI ID to each device from a list of available SCSI IDs.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Volume Creation

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00

Raid Level : 5

Capacity : 160.1GB

Stripe Size : 64K

SCSI Channel : 0

SCSI ID : 0

SCSI LUN : 0

Cache Mode : Write Back

Tag Queuing : Enabled

SCSI LUN : 0

• SCSI LUN

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Volume Creation

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00

Raid Level : 5

Capacity : 160.1GB

Stripe Size : 64K

SCSI Channel : 0

SCSI ID : 0

SCSI LUN : 0

Cache Mode : Write Back

Tag Queuing : Enabled

Cache Mode : Write Back

Each SCSI ID can support up to 8 LUNs. Most SCSI controllers

treat each LUN as if it were a SCSI disk.

• Cache Mode

User can set the cache mode to either “Write-Through Cache”

or “Write-Back Cache”.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Create Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Volume Creation

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00

Raid Level : 5

Capacity : 160.1GB

Stripe Size : 64K

SCSI Channel : 0

SCSI ID : 0

SCSI LUN : 0

Cache Mode : Write Back

Tag Queuing : Enabled

3.7.3.2 Delete Volume Set

To delete volume set from a RAID set, move the cursor bar to

the “Volume Set Functions” menu and select the “Delete Volume

Set” item, then press the Enter key. The “Volume Set Func-

tions” menu will show all Raid Set # items. Move the cursor

bar to a RAID set number, then press the Enter key to show all

volume sets within that Raid Set. Move the cursor to the volume

set number that is to be deleted and press Enter to delete it.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Create Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Delete Volume Set

Delete Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Select Volume To Delete

Volume Set # 00

Delete Volume Set

Yes

• Tag Queuing

This option, when enabled, can enhance overall system perfor-

mance under multi-tasking operating systems. The Command

Tag (Drive Channel) function controls the SCSI command tag

queuing support for each drive channel. This function should

normally remain enabled. Disable this function only when using

older drives that do not support command tag queuing.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.3.3 Modify Volume Set

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Create Volume Set

Use this option to modify volume set conguration. To modify

volume set values from RAID set system function, move the

cursor bar to the “Volume Set Functions” menu and select the

“Modify Volume Set” item, then press the Enter key. The “Vol-

ume Set Functions” menu will show all RAID set items. Move the

cursor bar to a RAID set number item, then press the Enter key

to show all volume set items. Select the volume set from the

list to be changed, press the Enter key to modify it.

As shown, volume information can be modied at this screen.

Choose this option to display the properties of the selected vol-

ume set; all values can be modied except the capacity.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Create Volume Set

Delete Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Modify Volume Set

Modify Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Select Volume To Modify

Volume Set # 00

Volume Modication

Raid Level : 6

Capacity : 160.1GB

Stripe Size : 64K

SCSI Channel : 0

SCSI ID : 0

SCSI LUN : 0

Cache Mode : Write Back

Tag Queuing : Enabled

Volume Name : Volume Set # 00

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Create Volume Set

Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Display Volume Info in Raid

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Select Volume To Display

Volume Set # 00

The Volume Set Information

Volume Set Name : Volume Set # 00

Raid Set Name : Raid Set # 00

Volume Capacity : 160.1GB

Volume State : Migration

SCSI CH/Id/Lun : 0/0/0

RAID Level : 6

Stripe Size : 64K

Member Disk : 4

Cache Attribute : Write-Back

Tag Queuing : Enabled

• Volume Growth

Use this option to expand a raid set when a disk is added to

the system. The additional capacity can be used to enlarge the

volume set size or to create another volume set. The “Modify

Volume Set Function” can support the “volume set expansion”

function. To expand the volume set capacity from the “Raid Set

System Function”, move the cursor bar to the “Volume Set Vol-

ume Capacity” item and entry the capacity size. Select “Conrm

The Operation” and select on the “Submit” button to complete

the action. The volume set starts to expand.

To Expand an existing volume noticed:

• Only the last volume can expand capacity.

• When expand volume capacity, you can’t modify stripe size or

modify raid revel simultaneously.

• You can expand volume capacity, but can’t reduce volume

capacity size.

For Greater 2TB expansion:

• If your system installed in the volume, don't expanded the

volume capacity greater 2TB, currently OS can’t support boot

up from a greater 2TB capacity device.

• Expanded over 2TB used LBA64 mode. Please make sure your

OS supports LBA 64 before expand it.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

• Volume Set Migration

Migrating occurs when a volume set is migrating from one RAID

level to another, when a volume set strip size changes, or when

a disk is added to a RAID set. Migration status is displayed in

the volume status area of the “Volume Set Information” screen

when moving from one RAID level to another, when a volume

set strip size changes, or when a disk is added to a RAID set.

3.7.3.4 Check Volume Set

Use this option to verify the correctness of the redundant data in

a volume set. For example, in a system with a dedicated parity

disk drive, a volume set check entails computing the parity of

the data disk drives and comparing those results to the contents

of the dedicated parity disk drive. To check volume set from

“Raid Set System Function”, move the cursor bar to the “Volume

Set Functions” menu and select the “Check Volume Set” item,

then press the Enter key. The “Volume Set Functions” menu

will show all Raid Set number items. Move the cursor bar to an

Raid Set number item and then press the Enter key to show all

Volume Set items. Select the volume set to be checked from the

list and press Enter to select it. After completing the selection,

the conrmation screen appears, presses Yes to start the check.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Create Volume Set

Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Check Volume Set

Check Volume From Raid Set

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Select Volume To Check

Volume Set # 00

Check The Volume ?

Yes

3.7.3.5 Stop Volume Set Check

Use this option to stop all of the “Check Volume Set” operations.

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.3.6 Display Volume Set Info.

To display volume set information, move the cursor bar to the

desired volume set number and then press the Enter key. The

“Volume Set Information” will be shown. You can only view the

information of this volume set in this screen, not modify it.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Create Volume Set

Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Volume Set Function

Create Volume Set

Delete Volume Set

Modify Volume Set

Check Volume Set

StopVolume Check

Display Volume Info.

Display Volume Info in Raid

Raid Set # 01

Raid Set # 00

Select Volume To Display

Volume Set # 00

The Volume Set Information

Volume Set Name : Volume Set # 00

Raid Set Name : Raid Set # 00

Volume Capacity : 160.1GB

Volume State : Normal

SCSI CH/Id/Lun : 0/0/0

RAID Level : 6

Stripe Size : 64K

Member Disk : 4

Cache Attribute : Write-Back

Tag Queuing : Enabled

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.4 Physical Drives

Choose this option from the Main Menu to select a physical disk

and perform the operations listed above.

3.7.4.1 View Drive Information

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Physical Drive Information

Create Pass-Through Disk

Modify Pass-Through Disk

Delete Pass-Through Disk

Identify Selected Drive

View Drive Information

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Physical Drive Information

Create Pass-Through Disk

Modify Pass-Through Disk

Delete Pass-Through Disk

Identify Selected Drive

View Drive Information

Select IDE Drives For Raid Set

Ch04| 80.0GB|RaidSet Member|ST380013AS

Ch05| 80.0GB|RaidSet Member|ST380013AS

Ch08| 80.0GB|RaidSet Member|ST380013AS

Ch01| 80.0GB|RaidSet Member|ST380013AS

Ch01

Model Name : ST380013AS

Serial Number : 5JV944ZF

Firmware Rev. : 3.18

Disk Capacity : 80.0 GB

PIO Mode : Mode 4

Current UDMA : SATA150(6)

Supported UDMA : SATA150(6)

Device State : RaidSet Member

Timeout Count : 0

Media Errors : 0

SMART Read Error Rate : 200 (51)

SMART Spinup Time : 173 (21)

SMART Reallocation Count : 200 (140)

SMART Seek Error Rate : 200 (51)

SMART Spinup Retries : 100 (51)

SMART Calibration Retries : 100 (51)

BIOS CONFIGURATION

When you choose this option, the physical disks connected to

the SATA RAID controller are listed. Move the cursor to the de-

sired drive and press Enter to view drive information.

3.7.4.2 Create Pass-Through Disk

A Pass-Through Disk is not controlled by the SATA RAID con-

troller rmware and thus cannot be a part of a volume set. The

disk is available directly to the operating system as an individual

disk. It is typically used on a system where the operating sys-

tem is on a disk not controlled by the SATA RAID controller rm-

ware. The SCSI Channel, SCSI ID, SCSI LUN, Cache Mode, and

Tag Queuing must be specied to create a pass-through disk.

3.7.4.3 Modify a Pass-Through Disk

Use this option to modify Pass-Through Disk Attributes. To select

and modify a Pass-Through Disk from the pool of Pass-Through

Disks, move the cursor bar to the “Physical Drive Function”

menu and select the “Modify Pass-Through Drive” option and

then press the Enter key. The “Physical Drive Function” menu

will show all Raid Pass-Through Drive number options. Move the

cursor bar to the desired item and then press the Enter key

to show all Pass-Through Disk Attributes. Select the parameter

from the list to be changed and them press the Enter key to

modify it.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Physical Drive Information

View Drive Information

Modify Pass-Through Disk

Delete Pass-Through Disk

Identify Selected Drive

Create Pass-Throught

Select The Drive

Ch04| 80.0GB| Free |ST380013AS

Ch01| 80.0GB| Free |ST380013AS

Pass-Through Disk Attribute

SCSI ID : 0

SCSI LUN : 0

Cache Mode : Write Back

Tag Queuing : Enabled

SCSI Channel : 0

Create Pass-Through

Yes

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.4.4 Delete Pass-Through Disk

To delete a Pass-through drive from the Pass-through drive pool,

move the cursor bar to the “Physical Drive Function” menu and

select the “Delete Pass-Through Drive” item, then press the

Enter key. The “Delete Pass-Through conrmation” screen will

appear; select Yes to delete it.

3.7.4.5 Identify Selected Drive

To prevent removing the wrong drive, the selected disk HDD

LED Indicator will light for physically locating the selected disk

when the “Identify Selected Device” is selected.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Physical Drive Information

View Drive Information

Create Pass-Through Disk

Modify Pass-Through Disk

Identify Selected Drive

Delete Pass-Through

Select The Drive

Ch01| 80.0GB| Pass Through |ST380013AS

Delete Pass-Through

Yes

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Physical Drive Information

View Drive Information

Create Pass-Through Disk

Modify Pass-Through Disk

Delete Pass-Through Disk

Identify Selected Drive

Select The Drive

Ch04| 80.0GB|RaidSet Member|ST380013AS

Ch05| 80.0GB|RaidSet Member|ST380013AS

Ch08| 80.0GB| Pass Throught |ST380013AS

Ch01| 80.0GB|RaidSet Member|ST380013AS

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.5 Raid System Function

To set the raid system function, move the cursor bar to the main

menu and select the “Raid System Function” item and then press

Enter key. The “Raid System Function” menu will show multiple

items. Move the cursor bar to an item, then press Enter key to

select the desired function.

3.7.5.1 Mute The Alert Beeper

The “Mute The Alert Beeper” function item is used to control the

SATA RAID controller Beeper. Select yes and press the Enter

key in the dialog box to turn the beeper off temporarily. The

beeper will still activate on the next event.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid System Function

Alert Beeper Setting

Change Password

JBOD/RAID Function

Background Task Priority

Maximum SATA Mode

HDD Read Ahead Cache

Stagger Power on

Empty HDD slot LED

HDD SMART Status Polling

Controller Fan Detection

Disk Write Cache Mode

Capacity Truncation

Mute The Alert Beeper

Mute Alert Beeper

Yes

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid System Function

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.5.2 Alert Beeper Setting

The “Alert Beeper Setting” item is used to Disabled or Enable the

SATA RAID controller alarm tone generator. Select “Disabled”

and press the Enter key in the dialog box to turn the beeper off.

3.7.5.3 Change Password

The manufacture default password is set to 0000. The

password option allows user to set or clear the password pro-

tection feature. Once the password has been set, the user can

monitor and congure the controller only by providing the cor-

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper

Alert Beeper Setting

Change Password

JBOD/RAID Function

Background Task Priority

Maximum SATA Mode

HDD Read Ahead Cache

Stagger Power on

Empty HDD slot LED

HDD SMART Status Polling

Controller Fan Detection

Disk Write Cache Mode

Capacity Truncation

Alert Beeper Setting

Enabled

Disabled

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper

Alert Beeper Setting

Change Password

JBOD/RAID Function

Background Task Priority

Maximum SATA Mode

HDD Read Ahead Cache

Stagger Power on

Empty HDD slot LED

HDD SMART Status Polling

Controller Fan Detection

Disk Write Cache Mode

Capacity Truncation

Change Password

Enter New Password

BIOS CONFIGURATION

rect password. This feature is used to protect the internal RAID

system from unauthorized access. The controller will check the

password only when entering the Main menu from the initial

screen. The system will automatically go back to the initial

screen if it does not receive any command in 20 seconds.

To set or change the password, move the cursor to “Raid System

Function” screen, press the “Change Password” item. The “Enter

New Password” screen will appear.

To disable the password, only press Enter in both the “Enter

New Password” and “Re-Enter New Password” column. The ex-

isting password will be cleared. No password checking will occur

when entering the main menu.

3.7.5.4 JBOD/RAID Function

JBOD is an acronym for “just a Bunch Of Disks”. It represents

a volume set that is created by the concatenation of partitions

on the disk. The operating system can see all disks when the

JBOD option is selected. It is necessary to delete any RAID

set(s) on any disk(s) if switching from a RAID to a JBOD con-

guration.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper

Alert Beeper Setting

Change Password

JBOD/RAID Function

Background Task Priority

Maximum SATA Mode

HDD Read Ahead Cache

STagger Power on

Empty HDD slot LED

HDD SMART Status Polling

Controller Fan Detection

Disk Write Cache Mode

Capacity Truncation

JBOD/RAID Function

JBOD

RAID

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.5.5 Background Task Priority

The “Background Task Priority” is a relative indication of how

much time the controller devotes to a rebuild operation. The

SATA RAID controller allows the user to choose the rebuild prior-

ity (ultralow, low, normal, high) to balance volume set access

and rebuild tasks appropriately.

3.7.5.6 Maximum SATA Mode

The SATA RAID controller can support up to SATA ll, which runs

up to 300MB/s, twice as fast as SATA150. NCQ is a command

protocol in Serial ATA that can only be implemented on na-

tive Serial ATA hard drives. It allows multiple commands to be

outstanding within a drive at the same time. Drives that support

NCQ have an internal queue where outstanding commands can

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper

Alert Beeper Setting

Change Password

JBOD/RAID Function

Background Task Priority

Maximum SATA Mode

HDD Read Ahead Cache

Stagger Power on

Empty HDD slot LED

HDD SMART Status Polling

Controller Fan Detection

Disk Write Cache Mode

Capacity Truncation

Background Task Priority

Raid Rebuild Priority

UltraLow(5%)

Medium(50%)

High(80%)

Low(20%)

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper

Alert Beeper Setting

Change Password

JBOD/RAID Function

Background Task Priority

Maximum SATA Mode

HDD Read Ahead Cache

Stagger Power on

Empty HDD slot LED

HDD SMART Status Polling

Controller Fan Detection

Disk Write Cache Mode

Capacity Truncation

Maximum SATA Mode

SATA150

SATA150+NCQ

SATA300

SATA300+NCQ

SATA150+NCQ

BIOS CONFIGURATION

be dynamically rescheduled or re-ordered, along with the neces-

sary tracking mechanisms for outstanding and completed por-

tions of the workload. The SATA RAID controller allows the user

to choose the SATA Mode: SATA150, SATA150+NCQ, SATA300,

SATA300+NCQ.

3.7.5.7 HDD Read Ahead Cache

Allow Read Ahead (Default: Enabled)—When Enabled, the drive’

s read ahead cache algorithm is used, providing maximum

performance under most circumstances.

3.7.5.8 Stagger Power On

In a PC system with only one or two drives, the power can sup-

ply enough power to spin up both drives simultaneously. But in

systems with more than two drives, the startup current from

spinning up the drives all at once can overload the power sup-

ply, causing damage to the power supply, disk drives and other

system components. This damage can be avoided by allowing

the host to stagger the spin-up of the drives. New SATA drives

have support staggered spin-up capabilities to boost reliability.

Staggered spin-up is a very useful feature for managing multiple

disk drives in a storage subsystem. It gives the host the abil-

ity to spin up the disk drives sequentially or in groups, allowing

the drives to come ready at the optimum time without straining

the system power supply. Staggering drive spin-up in a multiple

drive environment also avoids the extra cost of a power supply

designed to meet short-term startup power demand as well as

steady state conditions.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper

Alert Beeper Setting

Change Password

JBOD/RAID Function

Background Task Priority

Maximum SATA Mode

HDD Read Aead Cache

Stagger Power on

Empty HDD slot LED

HDD SMART Status Polling

Controller Fan Detection

Disk Write Cache Mode

Capacity Truncation

HDD Read Ahead Cache

Enabled

Disable Maxtor

Disabled

Enabled

BIOS CONFIGURATION

3.7.5.9 Empty HDD slot HDD

From firmware version 1.39 date: 04/01/2006 and later, the

rmware has added the "Empty HDD Slot LED" option to setup

the Failed LED light "ON "or "OFF". When each slot has a power

LED for the HDD installed identify, user can set this option to

"OFF". Choose this option "ON", the failed LED light will ash

red light; if no HDD installed.

Areca has supported the xed value staggered power up func-

tion in its previous version rmware. But from rmware version

1.39 and later, SATA RAID controller has included the option for

customer to select the disk drives sequentially stagger power up

value. The values can be selected from 0.4ms to 6ms per step

which powers up one drive.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper

Alert Beeper Setting

Change Password

JBOD/RAID Function

Background Task Priority

Maximum SATA Mode

HDD Read Aead Cache

STagger Power on

Empty HDD slot LED

HDD SMART Status Polling

Controller Fan Detection

Disk Write Cache Mode

Capacity Truncation

Stagger Power On

0.4

0.7

1.0

1.5

6.0

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper

Alert Beeper Setting

Change Password

JBOD/RAID Function

Background Task Priority

Maximum SATA Mode

HDD Read Aead Cache

STagger Power on

Empty HDD slot LED

HDD SMART Status Polling

Controller Fan Detection

Disk Write Cache Mode

Capacity Truncation

Empty HDD slot HDD

Empty HDD slot LED

OFF

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper

Alert Beeper Setting

Change Password

JBOD/RAID Function

Background Task Priority

Maximum SATA Mode

HDD Read Ahead Cache

Stagger Power on

HDD SMART Status Polling

Controller Fan Detection

Disk Write Cache Mode

Capacity Truncation

HDD SMART Status Polling

Disabled

Enabled

3.7.5.10 HDD SMART Status Polling

An external RAID enclosure has the hardware monitor in the

dedicated backplane that can report HDD temperature status

to the controller. However, PCI cards do not use backplanes if

the drives are internal to the main server chassis. The type of

enclosure cannot report the HDD temperature to the controller.

For this reason, HDD SMART Status Polling was added to enable

scanning of the HDD temperature function in the version 1.36

date: 2005-05-19 (and later). It is necessary to enable “HDD

SMART Status Polling” function before SMART information is

accessible. This function is disabled by default.

The following screen shot shows how to change the BIOS setting

to enable the Polling function.

3.7.5.11 Controller Fan Detection

Included in the product box is a field replaceable passive

heatsink to be used only if there is enough airow to adequately

cool the passive heat sink.

The “Controller Fan Detection” function is available in the

version 1.36 date: 2005-05-19 and later for preventing the

Buzzer warning. When using the passive heatsink, disable the

“Controller Fan Detection” function through this BIOS setting.

The following screen shot shows how to change the BIOS setting

to disable the beeper function. (This function is not available

in the Web Browser setting.)

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper

Alert Beeper Setting

Change Password

JBOD/RAID Function

Background Task Priority

Maximum SATA Mode

HDD Read Ahead Cache

Stagger Power on

Empty HDD slot LED

HDD SMART Status Polling

Controller Fan Detection

Disk Write Cache Mode

Capacity Truncation

Controller Fan Detection

Disabled

Enabled

3.7.5.12 Disk Write Cache Mode

User can set the “Disk Write Cache Mode” to Auto, Enabled, or

Disabled. Enabled increases speed, Disabled increases reliabil-

ity.

3.7.5.13 Capacity Truncation

SATA RAID controllers use drive truncation so that drives from

different vendors are more likely to be usable as spares for one

another. Drive truncation slightly decreases the usable capac-

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper

Alert Beeper Setting

Change Password

JBOD/RAID Function

Background Task Priority

Maximum SATA Mode

HDD Read Ahead Cache

Stagger Power on

Empty HDD slot LED

HDD SMART Status Polling

Controller Fan Detection

Disk Write Cache Mode

Capacity Truncation

Disk Write Cache Mode

Auto

Enabled

Disabled

Enabled

BIOS CONFIGURATION

ity of a drive that is used in redundant units. The controller

provides three truncation modes in the system conguration:

Multiples Of 10G, Multiples Of 1G, and No Truncation.

Multiples Of 10G: If you have 120 GB drives from different

vendors; chances are that the capacity varies slightly. For exam-

ple, one drive might be 123.5 GB, and the other 120 GB. Areca

drive Truncation mode Multiples Of 10G uses the same capac-

ity for both of these drives so that one could replace the other.

Multiples Of 1G: If you have 123 GB drives from different ven-

dors; chances are that the capacity varies slightly. For example,

one drive might be 123.5 GB, and the other 123.4 GB. Areca

drive Truncation mode Multiples Of 1G uses the same capacity

for both of these drives so that one could replace the other.

No Truncation: It does not truncate the capacity.

3.7.6 Ethernet Conguration (12/16/24-port)

Use this feature to set the controller Ethernet port conguration.

It is not necessary to create reserved disk space on any hard disk

for the Ethernet port and HTTP service to function; these func-

tions are built into the controller rmware.

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid System Function

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Raid System Function

Mute The Alert Beeper

Alert Beeper Setting

Change Password

JBOD/RAID Function

Background Task Priority

Maximum SATA Mode

HDD Read Ahead Cache

Stagger Power on

Empty HDD slot LED

HDD SMART Status Polling

Controller Fan Detection

Disk Write Cache Mode

Capacity Truncation

Truncate Disk Capacity

To Multiples of 10G

To Multiples of 1G

Disabled

To Multiples of 1G

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Ethernet Conguration

3.7.6.1 DHCP Function

DHCP (Dynamic Host Conguration Protocol) allows network ad-

ministrators centrally manage and automate the assignment of

IP (Internet Protocol) addresses on a computer network. When

using the TCP/IP protocol (Internet protocol), it is necessary for

a computer to have a unique IP address in order to communi-

cate to other computer systems. Without DHCP, the IP address

must be entered manually at each computer system. DHCP lets

a network administrator supervise and distribute IP addresses

from a central point. The purpose of DHCP is to provide the

automatic (dynamic) allocation of IP client congurations for a

specic time period (called a lease period) and to minimize the

work necessary to administer a large IP network. To manually

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Ethernet Conguration

DHCP Function : Enable

Local IP Address : 192.168.001.100

Ethernet Address : 00.04.D9.7F.FF.FF

DHCP Function : Enable

Select DHCP Setting

Enabled

Disabled

BIOS CONFIGURATION

congure the IP address of the controller, move the cursor bar

to the Main menu “Ethernet Conguration Function” item and

then press the Enter key. The “Ethernet Conguration” menu

appears on the screen. Move the cursor bar to DHCP Function

item, then press Enter key to show the DHCP setting. Select

the “Disabled’ or ‘Enabled” option to enable or disable the DHCP

function. If DHCP is disabled, it will be necessary to manually

enter a static IP address that does not conict with other de-

vices on the network.

3.7.6.2 Local IP address

If you intend to set up your client computers manually (no

DHCP), make sure that the assigned IP address is in the same

range as the default router address and that it is unique to your

private network. However, it is highly recommend to use DHCP

if that option is available on your network. An IP address alloca-

tion scheme will reduce the time it takes to set-up client com-

puters and eliminate the possibilities of administrative errors

and duplicate addresses. To manually congure the IP address

of the controller, move the cursor bar to the Main menu Ethernet

Conguration Function item and then press the Enter key. The

Ethernet Conguration menu appears on the screen. Move the

cursor bar to Local IP Address item, then press the Enter key

to show the default address setting in the SATA RAID controller.

You can then reassign the static IP address of the controller.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Ethernet Conguration

DHCP Function : Enable

Local IP Address : 192.168.001.100

Ethernet Address : 00.04.D9.7F.FF.FF

Local IP Address : 192.168.001.100

Edit The local IP Address

92.168.001.100

BIOS CONFIGURATION

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Ethernet Conguration

DHCP Function : Enable

Local IP Address : 192.168.001.100

Ethernet Address : 00.04.D9.7F.FF.FF

3.7.6.3 Ethernet Address

A MAC address stands for “Media Access Control” address and is

unique to every single ethernet device. On an Ethernet LAN, it’s

the same as your Ethernet address. When you’re connected to

a local network from the SATA RAID controller Ethernet port, a

correspondence table relates your IP address to the SATA RAID

controller’s physical (MAC) address on the LAN.

3.7.7 View System Events

To view the SATA RAID controller’s information, move the cur-

sor bar to the main menu and select the “View Events” link, then

press the Enter key. The SATA RAID controller’s events screen

appear.

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

Raid System Function

Time Device Event Type ElapseTime Errors

2004-1-1 12:00:00 H/W Monitor Raid Powered On

BIOS CONFIGURATION

100

Choose this option to view the system events information: Timer,

Device, Event type, Elapsed Time, and Errors. The RAID system

does not have a real time clock. The Time information is the rela-

tive time from the SATA RAID controller powered on.

3.7.8 Clear Events Buffer

Use this feature to clear the entire events buffer.

3.7.9 Hardware Monitor

To view the RAID controller’s hardware monitor information, move

the mouse cursor to the main menu and click the “Hardware

Monitor” link. The Hardware Information screen appears.

The Hardware Monitor Information provides the temperature and

fan speed (I/O Processor fan) of the SATA RAID controller.

3.7.10 System Information

Choose this option to display Main processor, CPU Instruction

cache and data cache size, rmware version, serial number,

controller model name, and the cache memory size. To check the

system information, move the cursor bar to “System Information”

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

System Information

The Hardware Monitor

Fan Speed (RPM) : 2178

Battery Status : Not Installed

HDD #1 Temp. : --

HDD #2 Temp. : --

HDD #3 Temp. : 48

HDD #4 Temp. : --

HDD #5 Temp. : --

HDD #6 Temp. : 49

HDD #7 Temp. : --

HDD #8 Temp. : --

BIOS CONFIGURATION

101

Controller I/O Port:F3000000h, F2: Select Controller, F10: Reboot System

ArrowKey Or AZ:Move Cursor, Enter: Select, ESC: Escape, L:Line Draw, X: Redraw

Areca Technology Corporation RAID Controller

Main Menu

Quick Volume/Raid Setup

Raid Set Function

Volume Set Function

Physical Drives

Raid System Function

Ethernet Conguration

View System Events

Clear Event Buffer

Hardware Monitor

System information

System Information

The System Information

Main Processor : 500MHz IOP331

CPU ICache Size : 32KB

CPU DCache Size : 32KB/Write Back

System Memory : 128MB/333MHz

Firmware Version : V1.31 2004-5-31

BOOT ROM Version : V1.34 2004-9-29

Serial Number : 1100-2116-6633

Controller Name : ARC-1120

item, then press Enter key. All relevant controller information

will be displayed.

DRIVER INSTALLATION

102

4. Driver Installation

This chapter describes how to install the SATA RAID controller driver to

your operating system. The installation procedures use the following

terminology:

Installing operating system on the SATA Volume

If you have a new drive conguration without an operating system

and want to install operating system on a disk drive managed by the

SATA RAID Controller. The driver installation is a part of the operat-

ing system installation.

Installing SATA RAID controller into an existing operating

system

The computer has an existing operating system installed and the

SATA RAID controller is being installed as a secondary controller.

Have all required system hardware and software components on

hand before proceeding with the setup and installation.

Materials required:

• Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/2003, Linux, FreeBSD or more installa-

tion

CD-ROM

• SATA RAID Controller Diver CD-ROM

• SATA RAID controller

4.1 Creating the Driver Diskettes

The CD-ROM disc shipped with the SATA RAID controller is a self-

booting CD. In order to created driver diskettes for Windows,

Linux, FreeBSD or more installation drivers, your system is re-

quired to support booting from the CD-ROM.

If you do not have the CD-ROM disc with the package, contact your

local dealer or you can also download the latest version drivers for

Windows 2000/XP/2003, Linux, freeBSD and more from the ARECA

web site at http://www.areca.com.tw

DRIVER INSTALLATION

103

The following steps are required to create the driver diskettes:

1. The computer system BIOS must be set to boot-up from the CD-

ROM.

2. Insert the SATA Controller Driver CD disc into the CD-ROM drive.

3. The system will boot-up from CD-ROM Drive; to create the driv-

er diskettes, select the “SATA RAID controller Driver Diskette

Make Utility”, and a screen with several choices will be displayed.

4. Move the highlight bar to the “Create Driver Disk” entry and

press Enter.

5. The screen queries the SATA RAID controller support driver

database and displays a list of available drivers. Move the highlight

bar to the correct driver entry and press Enter to select.

6. The next screen will show “Please insert a formatted dis-

kette into drive A:!! Press any key to continue”. Insert the

formatted diskette in drive “A” and press any key to continue.

7. The window will display the driver building message: ”Now is

writing to Cylinder…” as it copies the image le from the CD-

ROM to Driver Diskette.

8. The “Write Complete !!” message will display when the driver

diskette ready.

The driver diskette is now made. Proceed to the following instruc-

tion for installation procedures.

4.2 Driver Installation for Windows

The SATA RAID controller can be used with Microsoft Windows

2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. Windows 2003 64-

bit for AMD Opteron is also supported. The SATA RAID controllers

support SCSI Miniport and StorPort Drivers for Windows Server

2003.

4.2.1 New Storage Device Drivers in Windows

Server 2003

DRIVER INSTALLATION

104

The Storport driver is new to Windows Server 2003. Storport im-

plements a new architecture designed for better performance with

RAID systems and in Storage Area Network (SAN) environments.

Storport delivers higher I/O throughput, enhanced manageability,

and an improved miniport interface. Storport better utilizes faster

adapters through the use of reduced Delay Procedure Call (DPC)

and improved queue management.

4.2.2 Install Windows 2000/XP/2003 on a SATA

RAID Volume

The following instructions explain how to install the SATA RAID

controller Driver. For completed details on installing Windows, see

the Windows User’s Manual.

4.2.2.1 Installation procedures

The following procedures detail installing the SATA RAID control-

ler driver while installing Windows 2000/XP/2003. Have your

bootable Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/2003 CD-ROM and follow

the required procedure below to install SATA RAID controller:

1. Make sure you follow the instructions in Chapter 2 “Hard-

ware Installation” to install the controller and connect the disk

drives or enclosure.

2. Start the system and then press Tab+F6 to access the McBI-

OS RAID manager. Use the McBIOS manager to create the RAID

set and volume set to which you will install Windows. For de-

tails, see Chapter 3 “McBIOS RAID manager”. Once a volume

set is created and congured, continue with next step to install

the operating system.

3. Insert the Windows setup CD and reboot the system to begin

the Windows installation.

Note:

The computer system BIOS must support bootable from

CD-ROM.

DRIVER INSTALLATION

105

4. Press F6 as soon as the Windows screen shows ”Setup is

inspecting your Computer’s hardware Conguration”. A

message stating “Press F6 to specify thrid-party RAID con-

troller” will display during this time. This must be done or else

the Windows installer will not prompt for the driver for from the

SATA RAID controller and the driver diskette will not be recog-

nized.

5. The next screen will show: “Setup could not determine the

type of one or more mass storage device installed in your

system. ”Selected “specify additional SCSI adapter” by pressing

6. Window will prompt to place the “Manufacturer-supplied

hardware support disk” into oppy drive A: Insert the SATA

RAID series driver diskette in drive “A:” and press Enter.

7. Window will check the oppy; select the correct card and

CPU type for your hardware from the listing and press Enter to

install it.

8. After Windows scans the hardware and nds the controller, it

will display:

“Setup will load support for the following Mass Storage

devices:”

“Windows 2K, XP,2K3 (ARC1XX0) SATA PCI-X (or PCI-

Express) RAID Controller”. Press Enter to continue and copy

the driver les. From this point on, simply follow the Microsoft

Windows installation procedure. Follow the on-screen instruc-

tions, responding as needed, to complete the installation.

9. After the installation is completed, reboot the system to load

the new drivers / operating system.

10. See Chapter 5 in this manual to customize your RAID vol-

ume sets using Storage manager.

4.2.2.2 Making Volume Sets Available to Windows

System

When you reboot the system, log in as a system administrator.

DRIVER INSTALLATION

106

Continue with the following steps to make any additional volume

sets or pass-through disks accessible to Windows. This proce-

dure assumes that the SATA RAID controller hardware, driver,

and Windows are installed and operational in your system.

1. Partition and format the new volume set or disks using Disk

Administrator:

a. Choose Administrative Tools from the Start menu.

b. Choose Computer Management from the Administrative Tools

menu.

c. Select Storage.

d. Select Disk Management.

2. Follow the on-screen prompts to write a signature to the

drive.

3. Right click on the disk drive and select “Create Volume” from

the menu.

4. Follow the on-screen prompts to create a volume set and to

give a disk drive letter.

4.2.3 Installing controller into an existing Win-

dows 2000/XP/2003 Installation

In this scenario, you are installing the controller in an existing

Windows system. To install the driver:

1. Follow the instructions in Chapter 2, the Hardware Installa-

tion Chapter, to install the controller and connect the disk drives

or enclosure.

2. Start the system and then press Tab+F6 to enter the Mc-

BIOS-based conguration utility. Use the conguration utility

to create the raid set and volume set. For details, see Chapter

3, McBIOS RAID Manager. Once a volume set is created and

congured, continue with installation of the driver.

3. Re-Boot Windows and the OS will recognize the SATA RAID

Controller and launche the “Found New Hardware Wizard”,

DRIVER INSTALLATION

107

which guides you in installing the SATA RAID driver.

4. The “Upgrade Device Driver Wizard” will pop-up and

provide a choice of how to proceed. Choose “Display a list of

known drivers for this device, so that you can choose a

specic driver.” and click on Next.

5. When the next screen queries the user about utilizing the cur-

rently installed driver, click on the Have Disk button.

6. When the “Install From Disk” dialog appears, insert the

SATA RAID controller driver diskette or the shipping CD-ROM

and type-in or browse to the correct path for the “Copy manu-

facturer’s les from:” dialog box.

7. After specifying the driver location, the previous dialog box

will appear showing the selected driver to be installed. Click the

Next button.

8. The “Digital Signature Not Found” screen will appear. Click

on Yes to continue the installation.

9. Windows automatically copies the appropriate driver les and

rebuilds its driver database.

10. The “Found New Hardware Wizard” summary screen ap-

pears; click the Finish button.

11. The “System Settings Change” dialog box appears. Re-

move the diskette from the drive and click Yes to restart the

computer to load the new drivers.

12. See Chapter 5 in this manual for information on customizing

your RAID volumes using Storage manager.

4.2.3.1 Making Volume Sets Available to Windows

System

When you reboot the system, log in as a system administrator.

The following steps show how to make any new disk arrays or

independent disks accessible to Windows 2000/XP/2003. This

DRIVER INSTALLATION

108

procedure assumes that the SATA RAID controller hardware,

driver, and Windows are installed and operational in your sys-

tem.

1. Partition and format the new arrays or disks using Disk Ad-

ministrator:

a. Choose Administrative Tools from the Start menu.

b. Choose Computer Management from the Administrative Tools

menu.

c. Select Storage.

d. Select Disk Management.

2. Follow the on-screen prompts to write a signature to the

drive.

3. Right click on the drive and select Create Volume from the

menu.

4. Follow the on-screen prompts to create a volume set and to

assign a disk drive letter.

4.2.4 Uninstall controller from Windows 2000/

XP/2003

To remove the SATA RAID controller driver from the Windows sys-

tem, follow the instructions below.

1. Ensure that you have closed all applications and are logged in

with administrative rights.

2. Open Control Panel and start the Add/Remove Program

icon and uninstall and software for the SATA RAID controller.

3. Go to Control Panel and select System. Select the Hardware

tab and then click the Device Manager Button. In Device Man-

ager, expand the “SCSI and RAID Controllers” section. Right

click on the ARECA SATA RAID Adapter and select “uninstall”.

4. Click Yes to conrm removing the SATA RAID driver. The

prompt to restart the system will then be displayed.

DRIVER INSTALLATION

109

4.3 Driver Installation for Linux

This chapter describes how to install the SATA RAID controller

driver to Red Hat Linux, and SuSE Linux. Before installing the SATA

RAID driver to the Linux, complete the following actions:

1. Install and congure the controller and hard disk drives accord-

ing to the instructions in Chapter 2 Hardware Installation.

2. Start the system and then press Tab+F6 to enter the McBIOS

RAID manager conguration utility. Use the BIOS conguration

utility to create the RAID set and volume set. For details, see

Chapter 3, McBIOS RAID Manager.

If you are using a Linux distribution for which there is not a com-

piled driver available from ARECA, you can copy the source from

the SATA software CD or download the source from the ARECA

website and compile a new driver.

Compiled and tested drivers for Red Hat and SuSE Linux are in-

cluded on the shipped CD. You can download updated versions of

compiled and tested drivers for Red Hat or SuSE Linux from the

ARECA web site at http://www.areca.com.tw. Included in these

downloads is the Linux driver source, which can be used to compile

the updated version driver for RedHat, SuSE and other versions of

Linux.

Please refer to the “readme.txt” le on the included ARECA CD-

ROM or website to make driver diskette and to install driver to the

system.

4.4 Driver Installation for FreeBSD

This chapter describes how to install the SATA RAID controller

driver to FreeBSD. Before installing the SATA RAID driver to Free-

BSD, complete following actions:

1. Install and congure the controller and hard disk drives accord-

ing to the instructions in Chapter 2, Hardware Installation.

2. Start the system and then press Tab+F6 to enter the McBIOS

RAID Manager conguration utility. Use the BIOS conguration

DRIVER INSTALLATION

110

utility to create the raid set and volume set. For details, see Chap-

ter 3, McBIOS RAID Manager.

The supplied CD-ROM that came with the SATA RAID controller

includes compiled and tested drivers for FreeBSD 4.x (4.2 and on-

wards) and 5.x (5.2 and onwards). To check if a more current ver-

sion driver is available, please see the ARECA web site at http://

www.areca.com.tw.

Please refer to the “readme.txt” le on the SATA RAID controller

software CD-ROM or website to make driver diskette and to install

driver to the system.

4.5 Driver Installation for Solaris 10

Please refer to the “readme.txt” le on the software CD-ROM or a

manual from website: http://www.areca.com.tw

4.6 Driver Installation for Mac 10.x

The Mac driver was installed by running (double-click on ArcMSR-

1.3.1.pkg icon) ArcMSR-1.3.1.pkg from the Desktop. Installation

successful and card recognized in system proler.

DRIVER INSTALLATION

111

4.7 Driver Installation for UnixWare 7.1.4

Please refer to the “readme.txt” le on the software CD-ROM or a

manual from website: http://www.areca.com.tw

4.8 Driver Installation for NetWare 6.5

Please refer to the “readme.txt” le on the software CD-ROM or a

manual from website: http://www.areca.com.tw

ARCHTTP PROXY SERVER INSTALLATION

112

5. ArcHttp Proxy Server Installation

Overview

After hardware installation, the SATA disk drives connected to the SATA

RAID controller must be congured and the volume set units initialized

before they are ready to use.

The user interface for these tasks can be accessed through the built-in

conguration and administration utility that resides in the controller’s

rmware. It provides complete control and management of the con-

troller and disk arrays, eliminating the need for additional hardware or

software.

In addition, a software utility to congure the SATA RAID is provided

on the CD-ROM delivered with SATA controller. This CD-ROM contains

the software utility that can monitor, test, and support the SATA RAID

controller. The software utility and McRAID storage manager can con-

gure and monitor the SATA RAID controller via ArcHttp Proxy Server.

The following table outlines their functions:

From version 1.6 and later, the HTTP management software (ArcHttp)

runs as a service or daemon, and have it automatically start the proxy

for all controllers found. This way the controller can be managed re-

motely without having to sign in the server. The HTTP management

software (ArcHttp) also has integrated the General Conguration, Mail

Conguration and SNMP Conguration. Those can be congured in lo-

cal or remote standard web browser.

Conguration Utility Operating System supported

McBIOS RAID Manager OS-Independent

McRAID Storage Manager

(Via Archttp proxy server)

Windows 2000/XP/2003, Linux, FreeBSD

NetWare, UnixwWare, Solaris and Mac

SAP Monitor (Single Admin portal to

scan for multiple RAID units in the net-

work, Via ArcHttp Proxy Server)

Windows 2000/XP/2003

Note:

If your controller have onboard LAN port, you don't need to install

ArcHttp proxy Server, you can use McRAID Storage Manager

directly.

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ARCHTTP PROXY SERVER INSTALLATION

5.1 For Windows

You must have administrative level permissions to install SATA

RAID software. This procedure assumes that the SATA RAID hard-

ware and Windows are installed and operational in your system.

Screen captures in this section are taken from a Windows XP instal-

lation. If you are running another version of Windows, your instala-

tion screen may look different, but the ArcHttp proxy server instal-

lation is essentially the same.

1. Insert the RAID subsystem CD in the CD-ROM drive.

2. Run the setup.exe le that resides at: <CD-ROM>\PACKAGES\

Windows\http\setup.exe on the CD-ROM.

3. The screen shows Preparing to install.

Follow the on-screen prompts to complete ArcHttp Proxy Server

software installation.

A program bar appears that measures the progress of the

ArcHttp setup. When this screen complete, you have completed

the ArcHttp Proxy Server software setup.

4. After a successful installation, the Setup Complete dialog box

is displayed.

Click the Finish button to complete the installation.

ARCHTTP PROXY SERVER INSTALLATION

114

5.2 For Linux

You must have administrative level permissions to install SATA

RAID software. This procedure assumes that the SATA RAID hard-

ware and Linux are installed and operational in your system.

The following details the Linux installation procedure of the SATA

RAID controller software.

1. Insert the SATA RAID controller CD in the CD-ROM drive.

2. Copy <CD-ROM>\PACKAGES\Linux\http directory to local

(Ex:/usr/local/sbin)

3. Setting up the "archttpsrv.conf" of ArcHttp conguration.

For example: General Conguration, Mail Conguration, SNMP

Conguration.

Click on the start button in the Windows 2000/XP task bar and

then click Program, select the McRAID and run “ ArcHttp proxy

server”. The ArcHttp dialog box appears.

1. When you select “Controller#01(PCI)” then click “Start”

button. Then web broswer appears.

2. If you select “Cfg Assistant” then click “Start” button.

The ArcHttp Conguration apperas. (please refer to section 5.6

ArcHttp Conguration)

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ARCHTTP PROXY SERVER INSTALLATION

Usage: ./archttp32 (TCP_PORT) or ./archttp64 (TCP_PORT). It

depends on your OS version.

Parameters: TCP_PORT value= 1~65535 (If TCP_PORT assigned,

Archttp will start from this port. Otherwise, it will use the setting

in archttpsrv.conf )

4. Runing the ArcHttp le then ArcHttp screen appears.

Areca HTTP proxy server V1.80.240 for Areca RAID controllers.

Controller(s) list

--------------------------------------------

Controller[1](PCI) : Listen to port[81].

Cfg Assistant : Listen to port[82].

--------------------------------------------

##############################

Press CTRL-C to exit program!!

##############################

3. See the next chapter detailing the McRAID Storage Manager to

customize your RAID volume set.

For Mozilla user:

Because our management need Java support, so user may

need upgrade to version 1.6 or later.

5.3 For FreeBSD

You must have administrative level permissions to install SATA RAID

software. This procedure assumes that the SATA RAID hardware

and FreeBSD are installed and operational in your system.

The following details FreeBSD installation procedure of the SATA

RAID controller software.

1. Insert the RAID subsystem CD in the CD-ROM drive.

2. Copy <CD-ROM>\PACKAGES\FreeBSD\http directory to local

The next following step is the same with Linux. Please see section

5.2 For Linux.

ARCHTTP PROXY SERVER INSTALLATION

116

5.4 For Solaris 10 x86

You must have administrative level permissions to install SATA

RAID software. This procedure assumes that the SATA RAID

hardware and FreeBSD are installed and operational in your

system.

The following details Solaris installation procedure of the SATA

RAID controller software.

1. Insert the RAID subsystem CD in the CD-ROM drive.

2. Copy <CD-ROM>\PACKAGES\Solaris\http directory to local

The next following step is the same with Linux. Please see section

5.2 For Linux.

5.5 For Mac OS 10.x

The McRAID manager interface can be accessed through the built-

in conguration and administration utility that resides in the con-

troller’s rmware. It provides complete control and management of

the controller and disk arrays, eliminating the need for additional

hardware or software.

The ArcHttp proxy server is provided on the CD-ROM delivered

with SATA card or download from the www.areca.com.tw. The

rmware embedded McRAID storage manager can congure and

monitor the SATA RAID controller via ArcHttp Proxy Server.

1. Login as root. Copy the ArcHttp le to a local directory.

(1). Insert the SATA RAID controller CD in the CD-ROM drive.

(2). Copy <CD-ROM>\PACKAGES\Mac\http directory to local.

(1). Download from the www.areca.com.tw or from the email

attachment.

2. You must have administrative level permissions to install SATA

RAID controller ArcHttp software. This procedure assumes that the

SATA RAID hardware and Mac driver are installed and operational

in your system.

The following details are the installation procedure of the SATA

RAID controller for Mac ArcHttp software.

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ARCHTTP PROXY SERVER INSTALLATION

(1).Run the archttp64 using Terminal.app by using the following

command:

Usage: sudo ./archttp64 (TCP_PORT).

Parameters: TCP_PORT value= 1~65535 (If TCP_PORT assigned,

Archttp will start from this port. Otherwise, it will use the setting

in the archttpsrv.conf or default 81). This is the port address

assigning for the rst adapter.

Such as: sudo ./archttp64 1553

(2). Archttp server console started, Controller card detected then

ArcHttp proxy server screen appears.

Areca HTTP proxy server V1.80.240 for Areca RAID controllers.

Controller(s) list

--------------------------------------------

Controller[1](PCI) : Listen to port[1553].

Cfg Assistant : Listen to port[1554].

Binding IP:[0.0.0.0]

Note: IP[0.0.0.0] stands for any ip bound to this host.

--------------------------------------------

##############################

Press CTRL-C to exit program!!

##############################

Controller [1] Http: New client [9] accepted

Controller [1] Http: New Recv 243 bytes

Controller [1] Http: Send [174] bytes back to the client

5.6 ArcHttp Conguration

The ArcHttp proxy server will automatically assign one additional

port for setup its conguration. If you want to change the "archttp-

srv.conf" setting up of ArcHttp conguration, For example: General

conguration, Mail Conguration, and SNMP Conguration, please

start Web Browser by entering http://[Computer IP Address]:[cfg

port number]

ARCHTTP PROXY SERVER INSTALLATION

118

The ArcHttp conguration starts.

• General Conguration

Binding IP 0.0.0.0: You can choose either local adminstration or

remote adminstration to connect web browser.

Binding IP 127.0.0.1: Using local adminstration to connect web

browser.

Binding IP 192.166.0.44: Using remote adminstration to connect

web browser.

HTTP Port#: Value 1~65535

Display HTTP Connection Information To Console: Select “Yes’ to

show Http send bytes and receive bytes information in the console.

Scanning PCI Device: Select “Yes” for ARC-1XXX series adapter

Scanning RS-232 Device: No

Scanning Inband Device: No

• Mail Conguration

When you open the mail conguration page, you will see following

settings:

SMTP server IP Address: enter the SMTP server IP address which is

not MCRAID manager IP. Ex: 192.168.0.2

Sender Name: enter the sender name that will be shown in the out-

going mail. Ex: RaidController_1

Mail address: enter the sender email that will be shown in the out-

going mail, but don’t type IP to replace domain name.

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ARCHTTP PROXY SERVER INSTALLATION

Ex: RaidController_1@areca.com.tw

Account: enter the valid account if your SMTP mail server need au-

thentication.

Password: enter the valid password if your SMTP mail server need

authentication.

MailTo Name: enter the alert receiver name that will be shown in

the outgoing mail.

Mail Address: enter the alert receiver mail address.

Ex: admin@areca.com.tw

• SNMP Trap Conguration

Please refer to 6.8.4 SNMP conguration(12/16/24-port) section.

Note:

Please make sure you have completed mail address before

you submit mail congurations.

ARCHTTP PROXY SERVER INSTALLATION

120

Note:

Event Notication Table refer to Appendix D.

After you conrm and submit congurations, you can use

Generate Test Event feature to make sure these settings are

correct.

Congure Conguration and submit. After ArcHttp congurations

have successfully submitted, the Archttp console restarts again.

121

WEB BROWSER-BASED CONFIGURATION

6. Web Browser-based Conguration

Before using the McRAID rmware-based browser utility, do the ini-

tial setup and installation of this product. If you need to boot up the

operating system from a RAID volume set, you must rst create a

RAID volume by using McBIOS RAID Storage Manager. Please refer

to section 3.3 Using Quick Volume /Raid Setup Conguration for

information on creating this initial volume set.

The McRAID storage manager is rmware-based utility, which is ac-

cessible via the browser installed on your operating system.The Web

Browser-based McRAID Storage Manager is a HTML-based application,

which utilizes the browser (IE, Netscape and Mozilla etc) installed on

your monitor station.

It can be accessed through the In-Band PCI-X/PCIe bus or Out-of-Band

ethernet port. The In-Band method via archttp proxy server to launch

the Web Browser-based McRAID Storage Manager. The rmware-em-

bedded Web Browser-based McRAID storage manager allows local

or remote to access it from any standard internet browser via a LAN

or WAN with no software or patches required. The rmware contains

SMTP manager monitors all system events and user can select either

single or multiple user notications to be sent via LAN with “Plain Eng-

lish” e-mails. The rmware-embedded SNMP agent allows remote to

monitor events via LAN with no SNMP agent required.

• Create RAID set,

• Expand RAID set,

• Dene volume set,

• Add physical drive ,

• Modify volume set,

• Modify RAID level/stripe size,

• Dene pass-through disk drives,

• Modify system function,

• Update rmware, and

• Designate drives as hot spares.

6.1 Start-up McRAID Storage Manager

With the McRAID Storage Manager, you can locally manage a sys-

tem containing a SATA RAID controller that has Windows or Linux

WEB BROWSER-BASED CONFIGURATION

122

and a supported browser. A locally managed system requires all

of the following components:

• A supported Web browser, which should already be installed on

the system.

• Install ArcHttp proxy server on the SATA RAID system. (Refer to

Chapter 5, Archttp Proxy Server Installation)

• Remote and managed systems must have a TCP/IP connection.

Note:

For windows, if there is no volume set created by the MC-

BIOS manager, Archttp program can not nd raid card. It

will show "0 controllers found". From the version 1.71 of the

Archttp and the version 1.20.00.13 of the driver, users no

longer need to have a "valid raid volume" created in order to

managed controller.

To congure the internal SATA RAID controller. You need to know

its IP Address.

(1). Launch your McRAID Storage Manager by entering http://

[Computer IP Address]:[port number] in the web browser.

(2). When connection is established, the System Login screen

appears. The SATA RAID controller default User Name is “admin”

and the Password is “0000”

• Another method to start-up McRAID Storage Man-

ager from Windows Local Administration

Screen captures in this section are taken from a Windows XP

installation. If you are running another version of Windows, your

screens may look different, but the ArcHttp proxy server installa-

tion is essentially the same.

1. To start the McRAID Storage Manager for browser-based

management, selecting Controller#01(PCI) and then click the

Start Button.

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WEB BROWSER-BASED CONFIGURATION

The “Enter Network Password” dialog screen appears, type the

User Name and Password. The RAID subsystem controller de-

fault User Name is “admin” and the Password is “0000”. After

entering the user name and password, press Enter to access the

McRAID Storage Manager.

Areca now offers an alternative means of communication for the

PCI-X/PCIe RAID Adapter – McRAID Web Browser-based RAID

Management program. User can access the built-in conguration

without needing system starting up running the ArcHttp proxy.

The Web Browser-based RAID Management program is an HTML-

based application, which utilizes the browser installed on your

remote system.

To ensure proper communications between the PCI-X/PCIe RAID

controller and Web browser-based RAID management, Please

connect the RAID controller Ethernet LAN port to any LAN switch

port.

6.1.1 Through Ethernet port (Out-of-Band)

WEB BROWSER-BASED CONFIGURATION

124

6.2 SATA RAID controller McRAID Storage

Manager

The McRAID Storage Manager current conguration screen displays

the current conguration of your SATA RAID controller. It displays

the Raid Set List, Volume Set List, and Physical Disk List. The raid

set information, volume set information, and drive information can

also be viewed by clicking on the “Raid Set Hierarchy” screen. The

current conguration can also be viewed by clicking on “Raid Set

Hierarchy” in the menu.

Note:

You can nd controller Ethernet port IP address in System

Information.

The controller has embedded the TCP/IP & Web Browser-based

RAID manager in the rmware. User can remote manage the

RAID controller without adding any user specic software (plat-

form independent) via standard web browsers directly connected

to the 10/100 Ethernet RJ45 LAN port.

To congure External RAID subsystem on a remote machine, you

need to know its IP Address. The IP address will default show in

BIOS conguration of Ethernet conguration option. Launch your

rmware-embedded TCP/IP & Web Browser-based RAID manager

by entering http://[IP Address] in the web browser.

125

WEB BROWSER-BASED CONFIGURATION

To display raid set information, move the mouse cursor to the

desired raid set number, then click it. The raid set Information will

display. To display volume set information, move the mouse cur-

sor to the desired Volume Set number, then click it. The volume

set Information will display. To display drive information, move the

mouse cursor to the desired physical drive number, then click it.

The drive Information will display.

6.3 Main Menu

The Main Menu shows all available functions, accessible by clicking

on the appropriate link.

Individual Category Description

Quick Function Create a default conguration, which is based

on the number of physical disks installed; it can

modify the volume set Capacity, Raid Level, and

Stripe Size.

RaidSet Functions Create a customized raid set.

VolumeSet Functions Create customized volume sets and modify the

existed volume sets parameter.

Physical Drives Create pass through disks and modify the existing

pass through drives parameters. Also provides the

function to identify disk drives (blinking LED).

System Controls Setting the raid system conguration.

Information Viewing the controller information. The Raid Set

Hierarchy can be viewed through the RaidSet

Hierarchy item.

6.4 Quick Function

WEB BROWSER-BASED CONFIGURATION

126

The number of physical drives in the SATA RAID controller deter-

mines the RAID levels that can be implemented with the RAID set.

You can create a raid set associated with exactly one volume set.

The user can change the RAID level, stripe size, and capacity. A hot

spare option is also created depending upon the existing congura-

tion.

Click the “Conrm The Operation” check box and click on the Sub-

mit button in the Quick Create screen, the RAID set and volume set

will start to initialize.

Note:

In Quick Create, your volume set is automatically congured

based on the number of disks in your system. Use the Raid

Set Function and Volume Set Function if you prefer to cus-

tomize your system.

Note:

If volume capacity will exceed 2TB, controller will show the

Greater 2 TB volume Support sub-menu. Greater Two TB

Volume Support No, 64bit LBA and For Windows.

For more details please download PDF le from ftp://ftp.

areca.com.tw/RaidCards/Documents/Manual_Spec/

Over2TB_050721.zip

6.5 RaidSet Functions

Use the “Raid Set Function” and “Volume Set Function” if you

prefer to customize your system. Manual conguration can provide

full control of the RAID set settings, but it will take longer to com-

plete than the “Quick Volume/Raid Setup” conguration. Select the

“Raid Set Function” to manually congure the RAID set for the rst

time or delete and recongure existing RAID sets. (A RAID set is a

group of disks containing one or more volume sets.)

6.5.1 Create Raid Set

To create a raid set, click on the “Delete Raid Set” link. A “Select

127

WEB BROWSER-BASED CONFIGURATION

The Drive For RAID Set” screen is displayed showing the drive(s)

connected to the current controller. Click on the selected physi-

cal drives within the current raid set. Enter 1 to 15 alphanumeric

characters to dene a unique identier for a raid set. The default

raid set name will always appear as “Raid Set. #”.

Click the “Conrm The Operation” check box and click on the

“Submit” button on the screen; the RAID set will start to initialize.

6.5.2 Delete Raid Set

To delete a RAID set, click on the “Deleted Raid Set” link. The

“Select The RAID SET To Delete” screen is displayed showing

all existing RAID sets in the current controller. Click the RAID set

number you which to delete in the select column on the delete

screen.

Click the “Conrm The Operation” check box and click on the

“Submit” button in the screen to delete it.

WEB BROWSER-BASED CONFIGURATION

128

6.5.3 Expand Raid Set

Use this option to expand a RAID set when a disk is added to your

system. This function becomes active when at least one drive is

available.

To expand a raid set, click on the “Expand Raid Set” link. Select

the target RAID set to be expanded. Click the available disk and

the “Conrm The Operation” check box and then click on the

“Submit” button on the screen to add disks to the RAID set.

6.5.4 Activate Incomplete Raid Set

If one of the disk drives is removed in power off state, the raid

set state will change to “Incomplete State” If the user wants to

continue to power-on the SATA RAID controller, the user can use

the “Activate Raid Set” option to active the RAID set. After the

user completes this function, the Raid State will change to De-

graded Mode.

129

WEB BROWSER-BASED CONFIGURATION

To activate the incomplete the RAID set, click on the “Activate

Raid Set” link. A “Select The RAID SET To Activate” screen is

displayed showing all raid sets existing on the current controller.

Click the RAID set number to activate in the select column.

Click on the “Submit” button on the screen to activate the raid

set that had a disk removed (or failed) in the power off state. The

SATA RAID controller will continue to work in degraded mode.

6.5.5 Create Hot Spare

When you choose the “Create Hot Spare” option in the “Raid Set

Function”, all unused physical devices connected to the current

controller appear. Select the target disk by clicking on the ap-

propriate check box. Click the “Conrm The Operation” check

box and click the “Submit” button in the screen to create the hot

spares.

The “Create Hot Spare” option gives you the ability to dene a

global hot spare.

6.5.6 Delete Hot Spare

Select the target Hot Spare disk to delete by clicking on the ap-

propriate check box.

Click the “Conrm The Operation” check box and click the “Sub-

mit” button on the screen to delete the hot spares.

6.5.7 Rescue Raid Set

When the system is powered off in the RAID set update/creation

period, it possibly could disappear due to this abnormal condition.

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The “RESCUE” function can recover the missing RAID set infor-

mation. The RAID controller uses the time as the RAID set signa-

ture. The RAID set may have different time after the RAID set is

recovered. The “SIGANT” function can regenerate the signature

for the RAID set.

6.6 Volume Set Functions

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 specied 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.

6.6.1 Create Volume Set

1. Volume sets of different RAID levels may coexist on the same

raid set.

2. Up to 16 volume sets can be created by the SATA RAID control-

ler.

3. The maximum addressable size of a single volume set is not

limited to 2 TB because the controller is capable of 64-bit mode.

However, the operating system itself may not be capable of ad-

dressing more than 2 TB. See the Areaca website for details.

To create a volume set on a raid set, move the cursor bar to the

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main menu and click on the “Create Volume Set” link. The “Select

The Raid Set To Create On It” screen will show all RAID set num-

bers. Click the RAID set number that to be used and then click

the “Submit” button.

The “create new volume set” option allows users to select the Vol-

ume name, capacity, RAID level, strip size, SCSI ID/LUN, Cache

mode, and tag queuing.

• Volume Name

The default volume name will always appear as “Volume Set.

#”. You can rename the volume set providing it does not exceed

the 15 characters limit.

• Raid Level

Set the RAID level for the volume set. Highlight the desired

Raid Level and press Enter.

The available RAID levels for the current volume set are

displayed. Select a RAID level and press "Enter" to conrm.

• Capacity

The maximum volume size is the default initial setting. Enter

the appropriate volume size to t your application.

• Greater Two TB Volume Support

If volume capacity will exceed 2TB, controller will show the

"Greater 2 TB volume Support" sub-menu. Greater Two TB

Volume Support No, 64bit LBA and For Windows options.

For more details please download PDF le from ftp://ftp.

areca.com.tw/RaidCards/Documents/Manual_Spec/

Over2TB_050721.zip

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132

• Initialization Mode

Press “Enter” key to dene fast initialization or Selected the

Background (Instant Available). When background 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. when

Fast Initialization, the initialization proceeds must be completed

before the volume set ready for system accesses.

• Strip Size

This parameter sets the size of the stripe written to each disk in

a RAID level 0, 1, 1E, 5 or 6 logical drive. You can set the stripe

size to 4 KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, or 128 KB.

A larger stripe size produces better read performance, espe-

cially if your computer does mostly sequential reads. However,

if you are sure that your computer does random reads more

often, select a smaller stripe size.

Note: RAID level 3 can’t modify strip size.

• Cache Mode

The SATA RAID controller supports Write-Through Cache and

Write-Back Cache.

• SCSI Channel/SCSI ID/SCSI Lun

SCSI Channel: The SATA RAID controller function is simulated

as a SCSI RAID controller. The host bus is represented as a

SCSI channel. Choose the SCSI Channel.

SCSI ID: Each SCSI device attached to the SCSI card, as well

as the card itself, must be assigned a unique SCSI ID number.

A SCSI channel can connect up to 15 devices. The SATA RAID

controller is a large SCSI device. Assign an ID from a list of

SCSI IDs.

SCSI LUN: Each SCSI ID can support up to 8 LUNs. Most SCSI

controllers treat each LUN like a SCSI disk.

• Tag Queuing

The Enabled option is useful for enhancing overall system

performance under multi-tasking operating systems. The Com-

mand Tag (Drive Channel) function controls the SCSI com-

mand tag queuing support for each drive channel. This func-

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tion should normally remain enabled. Disable this function only

when using older SCSI drives that do not support command tag

queuing

6.6.2 Delete Volume Set

To delete a volume set from RAID set, move the cursor bar to the

main menu and click on the “Delete Volume Set” link. The “Select

The Raid Set To Delete” screen will show all RAID set numbers.

Click a raid set number and the “Conrm The Operation” check

box and then click the “Submit” button to show all volume set

items in the selected raid set. Click a volume set number and the

“Conrm The Operation” check box and then click the “Submit”

button to delete the volume set.

6.6.3 Modify Volume Set

To modify a volume set from a raid set:

(1). Click on the “Modify Volume Set” link.

(2). Click the volume set check box from the list that you wish to

modify. Click the “Submit” button. The following screen appears.

Use this option to modify the volume set conguration. To modify

volume set attributes from “Raid Set System” function, move

the cursor bar to the volume set attribute menu and click it. The

“modify value” screen appears. Move the cursor to an attribute

item and then click the attribute to modify the value. After you

complete the modication, click the “Conrm The Operation”

check box and click the “Submit” button to complete the action.

The user can modify all values except capacity.

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134

To Expand an existing volume noticed:

• Only the last volume can expand capacity.

• When expand volume capacity, you can’t modify stripe size or

modify raid revel simultaneously.

• You can expand volume capacity, but can’t reduce volume

capacity size.

For Greater 2TB expansion:

• If your system installed in the volume, don't expanded the

volume capacity greater 2TB, currently OS can’t support boot

up from a greater 2TB capacity device.

• Expanded over 2TB used LBA64 mode. Please make sure your

OS supports LBA 64 before expand it.

6.6.3.1 Volume Set Migration

Migrating occurs when a volume set is migrating from one RAID

level to another, a volume set strip size changes, or when a disk

is added to a raid set. Migration status is displayed in the vol-

ume status area of the RaidSet Hierarchy screen when one RAID

level to another, a volume set strip size changes or when a disk

is added to a RAID set.

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6.6.5 Stop VolumeSet Check

Use this option to stop the “Check Volume Set function”.

6.7 Physical Drive

Choose this option to select a physical disk from the Main Menu

and then perform the operations listed below.

6.6.4 Check Volume Set

To check a volume set from a raid set:

(1). Click on the “Check Volume Set” link.

(2). Click on the volume set from the list that you wish to check.

Tick on “Conrm The Operation” and click on the “Submit” button.

Use this option to verify the correctness of the redundant data in

a volume set. For example, in a system with dedicated parity, vol-

ume set check means computing the parity of the data disk drives

and comparing the results to the contents of the dedicated parity

disk drive. The checking percentage can also be viewed by click-

ing on RaidSet Hierarchy in the main menu.

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136

6.7.1 Create Pass-Through Disk

To create pass-through disk, move the mouse cursor to the main

menu and click on the “Create Pass-Through” link. The “rela-

tive setting function” screen appears. A pass-through disk is not

controlled by the SATA RAID controller rmware, it cannot be a

part of a volume set. The disk is available to the operating system

as an individual disk. It is typically used on a system where the

operating system is on a disk not controlled by the RAID rm-

ware. The user can also select the cache mode, Tagged Command

Queuing, SCSI channel/SCSI_ID/SCSI_LUN for this volume.

6.7.2 Modify Pass-Through Disk

Use this option to modify the “Pass-Through Disk Attribute”. The

user can modify the cache mode, Tagged Command Queuing,

and SCSI channel/ID/LUN on an existing pass through disk.

To modify the pass-through drive attribute from the pass-through

drive pool, move the mouse cursor bar and click on the “Modify

Pass-Through” link. The “Select The Pass Through Disk For Modi-

cation” screen appears mark the checkbox for the Pass-Through

Disk from the pass-through drive pool and click on the “Submit”

button to select drive.

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When the “Enter Pass-Through Disk Attribute” screen appears,

modify the drive attribute values, as you want.

After you complete the selection, mark the checkbox for “Conrm

The Operation” and click on the “Submit” button to complete the

selection action.

6.7.3 Delete Pass-Through Disk

To delete a pass-through drive from the pass-through drive pool,

move the mouse cursor bar to the main menus and click the “De-

lete Pass Through” link.

After you complete the selection, mark the checkbox for “Conrm

The Operation” and click the “Submit” button to complete the

delete action.

6.7.4 Identify Selected Drive

To prevent removal of the wrong drive, the selected disk LED will

light so as to physically locate the intended disk when “Identify

Selected Drive” is selected.

To identify the selected drive from the drives pool, click “Identify

Selected Drive”. The “Select The IDE Device For Identication”

screen appears mark the checkbox for the IDE device from the

drive pool and select the Flash method. After completing the se-

lection, click on the “Submit” button to identify selected drive.

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138

6.8 System Controls

6.8.1 System Cong

To set the raid system function, move the cursor to the main

menu and click the “Raid System Function” link. The “Raid System

Function” menu will show all items, then select the desired func-

tion.

• System Beeper Setting

The Alert Beeper function item is used to Disabled or Enable the

SATA RAID controller alarm tone generator.

• Background Task Priority

The Raid Rebuild Priority is a relative indication of how much

time the controller devotes to a rebuild operation. The SATA

RAID controller allows the user to choose the rebuild priority

(ultraLow, Low, Normal, High) to balance volume set access

and rebuild tasks appropriately. For high array performance,

specify a Low value.

• JBOD/RAID Conguration

JBOD is an acronym for “Just a Bunch Of Disks”. It repre-

sents a volume set that is created by the concatenation of par-

titions on the disk. The OS can see all disks when this option is

selected. It is necessary to delete a RAID set if the disks in that

set are to be convereted to JBOD mode.

• Maximun SATA Supported

The SATA RAID controller can support up to SATA ll, which runs

up to 300MB/s. NCQ is a command protocol in Serial ATA that

can only be implemented on native Serial ATA hard drives. It

allows multiple commands to be outstanding within a drive at

the same time. Drives that support NCQ have an internal queue

where outstanding commands can be dynamically rescheduled

or re-ordered, along with the necessary tracking mechanisms

for outstanding and completed portions of the workload. The

RAID subsystem allows user to choose the SATA Mode (slowest

to fastest): SATA150, SATA150+NCQ, SATA300, SATA300+NCQ.

• HDD Read Ahead Cache

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WEB BROWSER-BASED CONFIGURATION

Allow Read Ahead (Default: Enabled)—When Enabled, the drive’

s read ahead cache algorithm is used, providing maximum

performance under most circumstances.

• Stagger Power on

In a PC system with only one or two drives, the power can

supply enough power to spin up both drives simultaneously. But

in systems with more than two drives, the startup current from

spinning up the drives all at once can overload the power supply,

causing damage to the power supply, disk drives and other

system components. This damage can be avoided by allowing

the host to stagger the spin-up of the drives. New SATA drives

have support staggered spin-up capabilities to boost reliability.

Staggered spin-up is a very useful feature for managing multiple

disk drives in a storage subsystem. It gives the host the ability

to spin up the disk drives sequentially or in groups, allowing

the drives to come ready at the optimum time without straining

the system power supply. Staggering drive spin-up in a multiple

drive environment also avoids the extra cost of a power supply

designed to meet short-term startup power demand as well as

steady state conditions.

Areca has supported the xed value staggered power up function

in its previous version firmware. But from firmware version

1.39 and later, SATA RAID controller has included the option for

customer to select the disk drives sequentially stagger power up

value. The values can be selected from 0.4ms to 6ms per step

which powers up one drive.

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140

• Empty HDD Slot LED

From rmware version 1.39 date: 04/01/2006 and later, the

rmware has added the "Empty HDD Slot LED" option to setup

the Failed LED light "ON "or "OFF". When each slot has a power

LED for the HDD installed identify, user can set this option to

"OFF". Choose this option "ON", the failed LED light will ash

red light; if no HDD installed.

• HDD SMART Status Polling

An external RAID enclosure has the hardware monitor in the

dedicated backplane that can report HDD temperature status

to the controller. However, PCI type controllers do not use

backplanes if the drives are internal to the main server chassis.

The type of enclosure cannot report the HDD temperature to

the controller. For this reason, HDD SMART Status Polling was

added to enable scanning of the HDD temperature function in

the version 1.36 date: 2005-05-19 (and later). It is necessary

to enable “HDD SMART Status Polling” function before SMART

information is accessible. This function is disabled by default.

The following screen shot shows how to change the BIOS setting

to enable the Polling function.

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WEB BROWSER-BASED CONFIGURATION

• Disk Write Cache Mode

A user can set the “Disk Write Cache Mode” to: Auto, Enabled,

or Disabled.

• Disk Capacity Truncation Mode

SATA RAID controllers use drive truncation so that drives from

differing vendors are more likely to be able to be used as spares

for each other. Drive truncation slightly decreases the usable

capacity of a drive that is used in redundant units.

The controller provides three truncation modes in the system

conguration: Multiples Of 10G, Multiples Of 1G, and No

Truncation.

Multiples Of 10G: If you have 120 GB drives from different

vendors; chances are that the capacity varies slightly. For exam-

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142

ple, one drive might be 123.5 GB, and the other 120 GB. Areca

drive Truncation mode Multiples Of 10G uses the same capac-

ity for both of these drives so that one could replace the other.

Multiples Of 1G: If you have 123 GB drives from different ven-

dors; chances are that the capacity varies slightly. For example,

one drive might be 123.5 GB, and the other 123.4 GB. Areca

drive Truncation mode Multiples Of 1G uses the same capacity

for both of these drives so that one could replace the other.

No Truncation: It does not truncate the capacity.

6.8.2 Ethernet Conguration (12/16/24-port)

Use this feature to set the controller Ethernet port conguration.

A customer doesn’t need to create a reserved space on the arrays

before the Ethernet port and HTTP service are working. The rm-

ware-embedded Web Browser-based RAID manager can access

it from any standard internet browser or from any host computer

either directly connected or via a LAN or WAN with no software or

patches required.

DHCP (Dynamic Host Conguration Protocol) is a protocol that

lets network administrators manage centrally and automate the

assignment of IP (Internet Protocol) congurations on a computer

network. When using the Internet’s set of protocols (TCP/IP), in

order for a computer system to communicate to another com-

puter system, it needs a unique IP address. Without DHCP, the

IP address must be entered manually at each computer system.

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DHCP lets a network administrator supervise and distribute IP

addresses from a central point. The purpose of DHCP is to provide

the automatic (dynamic) allocation of IP client congurations for

a specic time period (called a lease period) and to eliminate the

work necessary to administer a large IP network.

To congure the raid controller Ethernet port, move the cursor bar

to the main menu and click on the System Controls link. The Sys-

tem Controls menu will show all items. Move the cursor bar to the

EtherNet Cong item, then press Enter key to select the desired

function.

6.8.3 Alert by Mail Conguration (12/16/24-

port)

To congure the SATA RAID controller e-mail function, move the

cursor bar to the main menu and click on the “System Controls”

link. The System Controls menu will show all items. Move the cur-

sor bar to the “Alert By Mail Cong” item, then select the desired

function. This function can only be set via web-based congura-

tion.

The rmware contains a SMTP manager monitoring all system

events. Single or multiple user notications to be sent via “Plain

English” e-mails with no software required.

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144

6.8.4 SNMP Conguration (12/16/24-port)

To congure the raid controller SNMP function, click on the “Sys-

tem Controls” link. The System Controls menu will show available

items. Select the “SNMP Conguration” item. This function can

only set via web-based conguration.

The rmware SNMP Agent Manager monitors all system events

and the SNMP function becomes functional with no Agent soft-

ware required.

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• SNMP Trap Congurations

Enter the SNMP Trap IP Address.

• SNMP System Congurations

About community, please refer to page 161 of SNMP commu-

nity name. The system Contact, Name and Location that will

be shown in the outgoing SNMP Trap.

• SNMP Trap Notication Congurations

Please refer to Appendix D of Event Notication table.

6.8.5 NTP Conguration (12/16/24-port)

The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is used to synchronize the time

of a computer client or server to another server or reference time

source, such as a radio or satellite receiver or modem. It provides

accuracies typically within a millisecond on LANs and up to a few

tens of milliseconds on WANs relative to Coordinated Universal

Time (UTC) via a Global Positioning Service (GPS) receiver, for

example:

• NTP Sever Address

The most important factor in providing accurate, reliable time is

the selection of NTP servers to be used in the conguration le.

Typical NTP congurations utilize multiple redundant servers and

diverse network paths in order to achieve high accuracy and re-

liability. Our NTP conguration supports two existing public NTP

synchronization subnets.

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146

• Time Zone

Time Zone conveniently runs in the system tray and allows you

to easily view the date and time in various locations around the

world. You can also quickly and easily add your own personal

locations to customize Time Zone the way you want.

• Automatic Daylight Saving

Automatic Daylight Saving will normally attempt to automati-

cally adjust the system clock for daylight saving changes based

on the computer time zone. This tweak allows you to disable the

automatic adjustment.

6.8.6 View Events/Mute Beeper

To view the SATA RAID controller’s information, click on the “Sys-

tem Information” link. The SATA Raid controller events Informa-

tion screen appears.

Choose this option to view the system events information: Timer,

Device, Event type, Elapse Time and Errors. The RAID system

does not have a built-in real time clock. The Time information is

the relative time from the SATA RAID controller power on.

6.8.7 Generate Test Event

Use this feature is to generate events for testing purposes.

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6.8.8 Clear Events Buffer

Use this feature to clear the entire events buffer information.

6.8.9 Modify Password

To set or change the SATA RAID controller password, select “Raid

System Function” from the menu and click on the “Change Pass-

word” link. The Modify System Password screen appears.

The manufacture default password is set to 0000. The pass-

word option allows user to set or clear the SATA RAID controller’s

password protection feature. Once the password has been set,

the user can only monitor and congure the SATA RAID controller

by providing the correct password.

The password is used to protect the SATA RAID controller from

unauthorized entry. The controller will check the password only

when entering the Main menu from the initial screen. The SATA

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148

6.9 Information

6.9.1 RaidSet Hierarchy

Use this feature to view the SATA RAID controller current raid

set, current volume set and physical disk conguration. Please

reference the this chapter “Conguring Raid Sets and Volume

Sets”

RAID controller will automatically go back to the initial screen

when it does not receive any command in ten seconds.

To disable the password, leave the elds blank. Once the user

conrms the operation and clicks the Submit button, the existing

password will be cleared. Then, no password checking will occur

when entering the main menu from the starting screen.

6.8.10 Update Firmware

Please reference the appendix A rmware utility.

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WEB BROWSER-BASED CONFIGURATION

6.9.2 System Information

To view the SATA RAID controller’s information, move the mouse

cursor to the main menu and click on the “System Information”

link. The “SATA RAID controller Information” screen appears.

Use this feature to view the SATA RAID controller’s information.

The controller name, rmware version, serial number, main pro-

cessor, CPU data/Instruction cache size and system memory size/

speed appear in this screen.

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150

6.9.3 Hardware Monitor

To view the RAID controller’s hardware monitor information, move

the mouse cursor to the main menu and click the “Hardware

Monitor” link. The “Hardware Information” screen appears.

The “Hardware Monitor Information” provides the temperature,

and fan speed (I/O Processor fan) of the SATA RAID controller.

151

APPENDIX

Appendix A

Upgrading Flash ROM Update Process

Since the SATA RAID controller features ash rmware, it is not

necessary to change the hardware ash chip in order to upgrade

the RAID rmware. The user can simply re-program the old rm-

ware through the In-Band PCI-X/PCIe bus or Out-of-Band Enther-

net port McRAID Storage manager. New releases of the rmware

are available in the form of a DOS le on the shipped CD or Areca’s

web site. The les available at the FTP site for each model contain

the following les in each version:

ARCXXXNNN.BIN Software Binary Code (where “XXXX” refers to

the model name and “NNNN” refers to the software code type)

ARCXXXBIOS.BIN :→ PCI card BIOS for system board using

ARCXXXBOOT.BIN :→ RAID controller hardware initialization

ARCXXXFIRM.BIN :→ RAID kernel program

ARCXXXMBR0.BIN:→ Master Boot Record for supporting Dual Flash

Image in the SATA ll RAID controller

README.TXT contains the history information of the software code

change in the main directory. Read this le rst to make sure you

are upgrading to the proper binary le. Select the right le for the

upgrade. Normally, user upgrades the ARCXXXBIOS.BIN for system

M/B compatibility and ARCXXXFIRM.BIN for RAID function up-

grades.

Note:

Please update all Binary Code (BIOS, BOOT and FIRM) before

you reboot system. Otherwise, a mixed rmware package

may hang the controller.

Upgrading Firmware Through McRAID

Storage Manager

Get the new version rmware for your SAS RAID controller. For

example, download the bin le from your OEM’s web site onto the C:

drive

APPENDIX

152

1. To upgrade the SAS RAID controller rmware, move the mouse

cursor to “Upgrade Firmware” link. The “Upgrade The Raid System

Firmware” screen appears.

2. Click Browse. Look in the location to which the Firmware upgrade

software was downloaded. Select the File name and click “Open”.

3. Click “Conrm The Operation” and press the “Submit” button.

4. The Web Browser begins to download the rmware binary to the

controller and start to update the ash ROM.

5. After the rmware upgrade is complete, a bar indicator will show

“Firmware Has Been Updated Successfully”

6. After the new rmware completes downloading, nd a chance to

restart the controller/computer for the new rmware to take effect.

The Web Browser-based McRAID Storage Manager can be accessed

through the In-Band PCI-X/PCIe bus or Out-of-Band Lan port.

The In-Band method uses the ArcHttp proxy server to launch the

McRAID Storage Manager. The Out-of-Band method allows local or

remote to access the McRAID Storage Manager from any standard

internet browser via a LAN or WAN with no software or patches

required.

Controller with onboard Lan port, you can directly plug an

Ethernet cable to the controller Lan port, then enter the McBIOS

management to congure the network setting. After network

setting congured and saved, you can nd the current IP address

in the System Information page.

153

APPENDIX

From a remote pc, you can directly open a web browser and enter

the IP address. Then enter user name and password to login and

start your management. You can nd the rmware update feature

in the browser console, System Controls.

Upgrading Entire Flash ROM ImageThrough

Arcash DOS Utility

Areca now offers an alternative means of communication for the

PCI-X/PCIe SATA RAID controller – Upgrade the entire Flash ROM

image. User can upgrade the entire Flash ROM image without

needing system starting up running the ArcHttp proxy. The

Arcash utility program is a DOS application, which runs in the

DOS operating system. To ensure proper communications between

the PCI-X/PCIe SATA RAID controller and upgrade DOS utility,

Please make a bootable DOS oppy diskette from other Windows

operating system and boot up the system from this bootable DOS

oppy diskette.

New releases Flash ROM image is available in the form of a DOS

le. The le available for each model contains the following format

in each version:

ARCXXXROM.BIN:→ Flash ROM Image Binary Code (where “XXXX”

refers to the model name)

Normally, Areca strongly recommends customer uses the McRAID

manager to upgrade the rmware. ARCXXXROM.BIN doesn't

include in the shipped CD and Areca’s web site. It is for customer’s

emergency recover purpose only.

• Hardware Setup

To ensure proper communications between the RAID adapter

and the DOS arcash utility program, Short the Mode 0 Flash

jumper cap in the manufacture port to enter the upgrading entire

ash ROM function. Please be sure of removing the cap after you

completed the ash ROM image. This way let the Adapter work in

the normal mode.

APPENDIX

154

• Mode 0 Flash Jumper function:

Short: Causes cpu core to be held in rest (mode 0). Arcash utility

can upgrade the entire Flash ROM image.

Open: This is the normal default board operation.

The jumper name for each adapter to upgrade entire ash ROM im-

age as following:

ARC-1110/1120/1210/1220/1170 for 4/8/24 ports → J3

ARC-1130(ML)/1160(ML)/1230/1260 for 12/16 ports → J7

ARC-1230ML/1260ML/1280ML/1280 for 12/16/24 ports → J2

• Starting the Arcash Utility

Arcash utility provides an on-line table of contents, providing brief

descriptions of the help sub-commands. You can use the <arcash>

/? to get detail information about the command. Typical output

looks as below:

Note:

The Mode 0 Flash jumper is a 2x5 connector without housing,

located on the left of card near bracket. The header size is

0.65mm and pitch size is 2.54mm.

155

APPENDIX

• Flash Procedure

1. Power off system and remove power cable.

2. Take RAID controller out.

3. Set a Close Cap on the J3/J7 2x5 connector.

4. Plug RAID controller back to M/B.

5. Reconnect power cable and boot up from DOS.

6. Flash controller.

7. After ash procedure compeleted, then power off system.

8. Remove power cable then take Raid controller out and remove

the close cap.

9. Plug Raid controller back to M/B, connect power cable, and

power on your system.

APPENDIX

156

Appendix B

Battery Backup Module (ARC-6120-BAT)

The SATA RAID controller operates using cache memory. The bat-

tery Backup Module is an add-on module that provides power to

the SATA RAID controller cache memory in the event of a power

failure. The Battery Backup Module monitors the write back cache

on the SATA RAID controller, and provides power to the cache

memory if it contains data not yet written to the hard drives when

power failure occurs.

BBM Components

BBM Specications

Mechanical

• Module Dimension (W x H x D)

37.3 x 13 x 81.6 mm

• BBM Connector

2 * 6 box header

Environmental

• Operating Temperature

Temperature: -25O C to +60O C

• Humidity: 45-85%, non-condensing

• Storage Temperature

Temperature: -40O C to 85O C

157

APPENDIX

• Humidity: 45-85%, non-condensing

Electrical

• Input Voltage

+3.6VDC

• On Board Battery Capacity

1000mAH (1*1000mAH)

Installation

1. Make sure all power to the system is disconnected.

2. Connector J1 is available for the optional battery backup

module. Connect the BBM cable to the 12-pin battery connector

on the controller.

3. Integrators may provide pre-drilled holes in their cabinet for

securing the BBM using its three mounting positions.

Battery Backup Capacity

Battery backup capacity is dened as the maximum duration

of a power failure for which data in the cache memory can be

maintained by the battery. The BBM’s backup capacity varied

with the memory chips that installed on the SATA RAID control-

ler.

APPENDIX

158

Operation

1. Battery conditioning is automatic. There are no manual pro-

cedures for battery conditioning or preconditioning to be per-

formed by the user.

2. In order to make sure of all the capacity is available for your

battery cells, allow the battery cell to be fully charged when

installed for the rst time. The rst time charge of a battery cell

takes about 24 hours to complete.

Changing the Battery Backup Module

At some point, the LI-ION battery will no longer accept a charge

properly. LI-ION battery life expectancy is anywhere from ap-

proximately 1 to 5 years.

1. Shutdown the operating system properly. Make sure that

cache memory has been ushed.

2. Disconnect the battery backup module cable from J2 on the

SATA RAID controller.

3. Disconnect the battery pack cable from JP2 on the Battery

Backup Module.

4. Install a new battery pack and connect the new battery pack

to JP2.

5. Connect the Battery Backup Module to J2 on the SATA RAID

controller.

6. Disable the write-back function from the BIOS or Utility.

Status of BBM

• D13 (Green) : lights when BBM activated

• D14 (Green) : lights when BBM charging

• D15 (Green) : lights when BBM normal

Capacity Memory Type Battery Backup duration (Hours)

128MB DDR Low Power (18mA) 56

159

APPENDIX

Appendix C

SNMP Operation & Denition

Overview

The McRAID manager includes a rmware-embedded Simple Net-

work Management Protocol (SNMP) agent and SNMP Extension

Agent for the SATA RAID controller. An SNMP-based management

application (also known as an SNMP manager) can monitor the disk

array. An example of An SNMP management application is Hewlett-

Packard’s Open View. The SNMP Extension Agent can be used to

augment the SATA RAID controller if you are already running an

SNMP management application at your site.

SNMP Denition

SNMP, an IP-based protocol, has a set of commands for getting the

status of target devices. The SNMP management platform is called

the SNMP manager, and the managed devices have the SNMP

agent loaded. Management data is organized in a hierarchical data

structure called the management Information Base (MIB). These

MIBs are dened and sanctioned by various industry associa-

tions. The objective is for all vendors to create products in compli-

ance with these MIBs so that inter-vendor interoperability can be

achieved. If a vendor wishes to include additional device informa-

tion that is not specied in a standard MIB, then that is usually

done through MIB extensions.

APPENDIX

160

MIB Compilation and Denition File creation

Before the manager application accesses the SATA RAID controller,

it is necessary to integrate the MIB into the management applica-

tion’s database of events and status indicator codes. This process

is known as compiling the MIB into the application. This process

is highly vendor-specic and should be well-covered in the User’s

Guide of your SNMP application. Ensure the compilation process

successfully integrates the contents of the ARECARAID.MIB le into

the traps database.

SNMP Installation

The installation of the SNMP manager is accomplished in several

phases:

• Starting the Firmware-embedded SNMP community congura-

tion.

• Installing the SNMP Extension Agent on the server

• Installing the SNMP Manager software on the client

• Placing a copy of the management information base (MIB) in a

directory which is accessible to the management application

• Compiling the MIB description le with the management appli

cation

161

APPENDIX

Starting the SNMP function setting

• Community Name

Community name acts as a password to screen accesses to the

SNMP agent of a particular network device. Type in the community

names of the SNMP agent. Before access is granted to a request

station, this station must incorporate a valid community name into

its request; otherwise, the SNMP agent will deny access to the

system.

Most network devices use “public” as default of their community

names. This value is case-sensitive.

SNMP Extension Agent Installation for Windows

You must have administrative level permission to install SATA RAID

software. This procedure assumes that the SATA RAID hardware

and Windows are both installed and operational in your system.

To enable the SNMP agent for Windows, congure Windows for

TCP/IP and SNMP services. The ARECA SNMP Extension Agent le

is ARCSNMP.DLL.

Screen captures in this section are taken from a Windows XP instal-

lation. If you are running another version of Windows, your screens

may look different, but the ARECA SNMP Extension Agent installa-

tion is essentially the same.

1. Insert the SATA RAID controller CD in the CD-ROM drive.

2. Run the setup.exe le that resides at: <CD-ROM>\packages\

APPENDIX

162

windows\http\setup.exe on the CD-ROM. (If SNMP service was

not installed, please install SNMP service rst.)

3. Click on the Setup le then the Welcome screen appears.

4. Click the Setup le and then the “install the program” screen

appears. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete ARECA SNMP

Extension Agent installation.

163

APPENDIX

5. A Progress bar appears that measures the progress of the

ARECA SNMP Extension Agent setup. When this screen complete,

you have completed the ARECA SNMP Extension Agent setup.

6. After a successful installation, the “Setup Complete” dialog box

of the installation program is displayed. Click the Finish button

to complete the installation.

Starting SNMP Trap Notication Congruations

To start SNMP Trap Notication Congruations, There have two

methods. First, double-click on the Areca Raid Controller.

Second, you may also use the Taskbar Start/programs/Areca

Technology Corp/ArcSnmpConf menus shown below.

APPENDIX

164

SNMP community Congurations

Please refer to the community name in this appendix.

SNMP Trap Notication Congruations

The Community Name should be the same as rmware-

embedded SNMP Community. The SNMP Trap Notication

Congruations include level 1: serious, level 2: error, level 3:

Warning and level 4: Information. The level 4 covers notication

events such as initialization of the controller and initiation of the

rebuilding process; Level 3 includes events which require the

issuance of warning messages; Level 2 covers notication events

which once have happen; Level 1 is the highest level, and covers

events the need immediate attention (and action) from the

administrator.

SNMP Extension Agent Installation for Linux

You must have administrative level permission to install SATA

RAID software. This procedure assumes that the SATA RAID

165

APPENDIX

hardware and Linux are installed and operational in your system.

For the SNMP Extension Agent Installation for Linux procedure,

please refer to <CD-ROM>\packages\Linux\SNMP\Readme

or download from areca.com.tw

SNMP Extension Agent Installation for FreeBSD

You must have administrative level permission to install SATA

RAID software. This procedure assumes that the SATA RAID

hardware and FreeBSD are installed and operational in your

system. For the SNMP Extension Agent Installation for FreeBSD

procedure please refer to <CD-ROM>\packages\FreeBSD\

SNMP\Readme or download from areca.com.tw

APPENDIX

166

Appendix D

Event Notication Congurations

The controller classies disk array events into four levels depending

on their severity. These include level 1: Urgent, level 2: serious, level

3: Warning and level 4: Information. The level 4 covers noticational

events such as initialization of the controller and initiation of the

rebuilding process; Level 2 covers notication events which once have

happen; Level 3 includes events which require the issuance of warning

messages; Level 1 is the highest level, and covers events the need

immediate attention (and action) from the administrator. The following

lists sample events for each level:

Event Level Meaning Action

Device Inserted Warning HDD inserted

Device Removed Warning HDD removed

Reading Error Warning HDD reading error Keep Watching HDD status,

maybe it is caused by noise or

HDD unstable.

Writing Error Warning HDD writing error Keep Watching HDD status,

maybe it is caused by noise or

HDD unstable.

ATA Ecc Error Warning HDD ECC error Keep Watching HDD status,

maybe it is caused by noise or

HDD unstable.

Change ATA

Mode

Warning HDD change ATA

mode

Check HDD connection.

Time Out Error Warning HDD Time out Keep Watching HDD status,

maybe it is caused by noise or

HDD unstable.

Device Failed Urgent HDD failure Replace HDD

PCI Parity Error Serious PCI Parity error If only happen once, it maybe

caused by noise. If always

happen, please check power

supply or contact to us.

Device

Failed(SMART)

Urgent HDD SMART failure Replace HDD

A. Device Event

167

APPENDIX

Event Level Meaning Action

Start Initialize Warning Volume initialization has started

Start Rebuilding Warning Volume rebuilding has started

Start Migrating Warning Volume migration has started

Start Checking Warning Volume parity checking has started

Complete Init Warning Volume initialization completed

Complete Rebuild Warning Volume rebuilding completed

Complete Migrate Warning Volume migration completed

Complete Check Warning Volume parity checking completed

Create Volume Warning New Volume Created

Delete Volume Warning Volume deleted

Modify Volume Warning Volume Modied

Volume Degraded Urgent Volume degraded Replace HDD

Volume Failed Urgent Volume failure

Failed Volume

Revived

Urgent Failed Volume revived

B. Volume Event

C. RAID Set Event

Event Level Meaning Action

Create RaidSet Warning New Raidset created

Delete RaidSet Warning Raidset deleted

Expand RaidSet Warning Raidset expanded

Rebuild RaidSet Warning Raidset rebuilding

RaidSet

Degraded

Urgent Raidset degraded Replace HDD

PassThrough Disk

Created

Inform Pass Through Disk

Created

PassThrough Disk

Modied

Inform Pass Through Disk

Modied

PassThrough Disk

Deleted

Inform Pass Through Disk

Deleted

APPENDIX

168

D. Hardware Event

Event Level Meaning Action

DRAM 1-Bit ECC Urgent DRAM 1-Bit ECC

error.

Check DRAM

DRAM Fatal Error Urgent DRAM fatal error

encountered.

Check the DRAM module and

replace with new one if required.

Raid Powered On Warning Raid Power On

Test Event Urgent Test Event

Note:

It depends on models, not every model will encounter all events.

169

APPENDIX

Appendix E

General Troubleshooting Tips

Most of controller errors are traceable to external factors, such as

conicts with other installed cards, motherboard incompatibility,

bad or incorrectly congured drives, loose cables, improper control-

ler installation, or other installation errors.

To troubleshoot SATA RAID controller problems, try simplifying your

hardware conguration by removing some other devices from the

system and then adding them back one at a time.

Look for the latest information on SATA RAID Controllers as well

as the newest drivers on the ARECA web site at http://www.areca.

com.tw. The following general guidelines are for some specic er-

ror conditions:

Q1: The BIOS Message of the SATA RAID controller never

appears on the screen

Answer:

(1). Ensure the controller is inserted correctly into the PCI slot.

(2). Ensure 3.3 volts are being supplied to the PCI slot.

(3). Check the cabling between the SATA drives or enclosure the

SATA RAID controller.

Q2: How many SATA RAID controllers can be installed into a

computer system?

Answer:

Up to 4 RAID controllers in a system are supported.

Q3: The boot device cannot found

Answer:

Enter the system BIOS setup utility Per manufacture directions and

congure it so that the RAID card volume set is once again select-

ed as the primary boot device (or rst in the boot device list)

APPENDIX

170

Q4: What PCI slots are supported by the SATA RAID

controllers?

Answer:

For all PCI-X SATA RAID controllers, install card in a 64-bit/133MHz

PCI-X for the best performance. It also can be used in 64-bit / 66

MHz slots, 32-bit/66MHz PCI slots as well as 32-bit/33MHz slots.

All PCI-X SATA RAID controllers can not work with 5V PCI slot.

PCI-Express SATA RAID controllers require an x8 or x16 slots. The

card can function in x4 or x1 signal slots if those slots are open at

the end to accept larger x8 cards, but performance will be reduced

in these slower slots.

Check the Areca FAQ website for motherboard a compatibility list.

Q5: What is the difference between RAID 6 and RAID 5?

Answer:

RAID 6 allows two drives to fail simultaneously without downtime

or data loss. However, RAID 5 only allows one drive to fail. RAID 6

thus provides a much higher level of fault tolerance than RAID 5. It

is a perfect solution when data is mission-critical.

Due to this higher level of protection, users can set up larger RAID

volumes, spanning up to 56 physical drives. With the ARECA RAID

6 engine, RAID 6 and RAID 5 have similar performance in the SATA

RAID controller.

Q6: What products support RAID 6?

Answer:

RAID 6 is available on controller models with the RAID 6 engine

installed.

Q7: What operating systems are supported?

Answer:

The SATA RAID controllers support Microsoft® Windows® Server

2003, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Red Hat Linux, SuSE Linux, and

FreeBSD. For specic OS versions, see http://www.areca.com.

tw for more information.

171

APPENDIX

Q8: Will ARECA submit the Linux code to kernel.org?

Answer:

Yes. ARECA Serial ATA ll RAID the lastest driver has been integrated

directly into the Linux kernel 2.6.17-rc3-mm1 (and later), allowing

future versions of Linux operating systems to support Areca’s entire

fam-ily PCI-X and PCI-Express series of high performance SATA ll

RAID controllers.

Q9: What is the warranty period?

Answer:

Like all ARECA External RAID controllers, the PCI-X or PCI-Express

SATA RAID controller is backed by a 3-year warranty.

Q10: Which O/S (Operating System) will support X86 64-bit

processors?

Answer:

The following O/S vendors have announced product support for

AMD64 and Intel EM64T. Contact each vendor for more details. The

following is our currently supported OS and version for 64-bit pro-

cessor. We will support others shortly after other versions release.

Microsoft:

Production support will be available in:

• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

• Windows Server 2003 64-Bit Edition

Red Hat:

Production support will be available in:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 update 2

SuSE:

Production support will be available in:

• SLES9

FreeBSD:

Production support will be available in:

• FreeBSD 5.3

APPENDIX

172

Q11: Is it possible to write software that will run on Intel’s

processors with Intel® EM64T, and AMD’s 64-bit capable

processors?

Answer:

Yes, in most cases. Even though the hardware microarchitecture

for each company’s processor is different, the operating system

and software ported to one processor will likely run on the other

processor due to the close similarity of the instruction set architec-

tures. However, Intel processors support additional features, like

the SSE3 instructions and Hyper-Threading Technology, which are

not supported on non-Intel platforms. As such, we believe devel-

opers will achieve maximum performance and stability by design-

ing specically for Intel architectures and by taking advantage of

Intel’s breadth of software tools and enabling services.

Q12: How will Intel® EM64T work and what software is

there to take advantage of 64-bit extensions?

Answer:

Platforms with Intel® EM64T/AMD64 can be run in three basic

ways (note: a 64-bit capable BIOS is required for all three scenari-

os):

1. 32-bit O/S and 32-bit applications (Legacy Mode): No software

changes are required, however the user gets no benet from

Intel® EM64T or AMD64.

2. 64-bit O/S and 32-bit applications (Compatibility Mode): This

usage requires all 64-bit device drivers. In this mode, the O/S

will see the 64-bit extensions, but the 32-bit application will

not. Existing 32-bit applications do not need to be recompiled,

and may or may not benet from the 64-bit extensions. The

application will likely need to be recertied by the vendor to

run on the new 64-bit extended O/S.

3. 64-bit O/S and 64-bit applications (64-bit Mode): This usage

requires 64-bit device drivers. It also requires applications to

be modied for 64-bit operation and then recompiled and vali-

dated.

• For more FAQs, please visit knowledgebase of Areca

website at: http://faq.areca.com.tw/modules/smartfaq/

173

APPENDIX

Appendix F

Technical Support

Areca Technical Support provides several options for Areca users

to access information and updates. We encourage you to use one

of our electric services, which provide product information updates

for the most efcient service and support. If you decide to contact

us, please have the information such as Product model and serial

number, BIOS and driver version, and a description of the problem

at http://www.areca.com.tw/support/index/question.htm.

All technical support questions will receive a response from our

support team.

GLOSSARY

174

Glossary

2TB

The 32-bit le systems have a maximum limitation of 2 TB per volume

set. 64-bit versions remove this limitation. so, if you are building large

warehouses, you should consider 64-bit versions.

Array

An array is a logical disk comprised of multiple physical hard disks.

The number of hard disks in an array is dictated by the type of the

array and the number of spares that may be assigned to it. (Arrays

are also sometimes referred to as containers). Furthermore, whether

an array can be built using part of the space on a disk (as opposed to

being forced to use the whole disk) depends upon the implementation.

Arrays are typically used to provide data redundancy and/or enhanced

I/O performance.

ATA

Acronym for “AT Bus Attachment” - a standard interface to IDE hard

disks. Western Digital’s IDE disk interface was standardized by ANSI to

form the ATA specication using a 16-bit ISA bus.

Auto Reassign Sector

SATA drives perform automatic defect re-assignment for both read and

write errors. Writes are always completed - if a location to be writ-

ten is found to be defective, the drive will automatically relocate that

write command to a new location and map out the defective location.

If there is a recoverable read error, the correct data will be transferred

to the host and that location will be tested by the drive to be certain

the location is not defective - if it is found to have a defect, it will be

automatically relocated to a new location and the defective location

mapped out. In the event of an unrecoverable read error, the error will

be reported to the host and the location agged as potentially defec-

tive. A subsequent write to that location will initiate a sector test and

relocation should that location have a defect.

175

GLOSSARY

Battery Backup Module

Many modern RAID controllers are armed with a battery backup Mod-

ule (BBM). While an UPS protects most servers from power uctua-

tions or failures, a BBM provides an additional level of protection. In

the event of a power failure, a BBM supplies power to retain data in

the RAID controller’s cache, thereby permitting any potentially dirty

data in the cache to be ushed out to secondary storage when power

is restored.

BIOS

(Basic Input/Output System) software is stored on a chip and provides

an interface between the operating system and the hardware. Usually

the BIOS is built into a ROM chip installed on the motherboard so that

the BIOS will always available and not affected by disk failure.

Cache

Controller memory used to speed up data transfer to and from a disk.

Consistency Check

In RAID, check consistency veries the correctness of redundant data

in an array. For example, in a system with dedicated parity, checking

consistency means computing the parity of the data drives and com-

paring the results to the contents of the dedicated parity drive.

Driver

It is a piece of software – that is often executed in kernel mode – that

controls a hardware device. Typically drivers provide an interface by

which applications can use the device in a uniform and hardware-inde-

pendent manner.

Hot Spare

An extra physical disk drive in a RAID conguration that controller can

use to automatically rebuild a system drive when another drive fails.

The hot spare drive must have at least as mush capacity as the largest

disk drive in the array or the rebuild may not start.

GLOSSARY

176

Hot Spare

An extra physical disk drive in a RAID conguration that a controller

can use to automatically rebuild a system drive when another drive

fails. The hot spare drive must have at least as mush capacity as the

largest disk drive in the array or the rebuild will not start.

Hardware RAID versus Software RAID

Beyond the different types of RAID, there are two implementation

forms: hardware-based and software-based. Hardware-based RAID

is obviously implemented at a physical level, whereas software-based

RAID is done using the operating system. It is always optimal to have

RAID done at a physical (hardware) level.

Hot Swap

To pull out a component from a system and plug in a new one while

the power is still on and the unit is still operating.

NVRAM

(Non-Volatile Random Access Memory) A memory unit is equipped with

a battery so that the data remain even after the main power had been

switched off. Actually an EEPROM used to store conguration informa-

tion.

Parity

A technique used to protect a system from data loss due to faults.

When parity is implemented (RAID3 and RAID5), data written is logi-

cally XOR’d together to calculate parity, which is stored on the drives

along with the data. In a system with three drives, the data is written

to two drives and the calculated parity is stored on a third drive. If one

drive fails, data on the failed drive is reconstructed from other data

and parity.

PCI Express

An advanced version of the PCI bus introduced in 2002. Rather than

the shared, parallel bus structure of PCI, PCI Express provides a high-

177

GLOSSARY

speed, switched architecture. Each PCI Express link is a serial commu-

nications channel made up of two differential wire pairs that provide

2.5 Gbits/sec in each direction. Up to 32 channels may be combined,

creating a parallel interface of independently controlled serial links.

PCI-X

(PCI extended) an enhanced PCI bus technology is backward compat-

ible with existing PCI cards. PCI and PCI-X slots are physically the

same. PCI cards run in PCI-X slots, and PCI-X cards run in PCI slots at

the slower PCI rates. First introduced in 1999, PCI-X offered increased

speed over PCI and has steadily increased to more than 30 times that

of the original PCI bus.

RAID

(Redundant Array of Independent Disks) a disk subsystem that is used

to increase performance or provide fault tolerance. RAID can also be

set up to provide both functions at the same time. RAID is a set of

two or more ordinary hard disks and a specialized disk controller that

contains the RAID functionality. RAID has been developed initially for

servers and stand-alone disk storage systems. RAID is important espe-

cially when rebuilding data after a disk failure.

Rebuild

When a RAID array enters into a degraded mode, it is advisable to

rebuild the array and return it to its original conguration (in terms of

the number and state of working disks) to ensure against operation in

degraded mode.

SATA (Serial ATA)

The evolution of the ATA (IDE) interface that changes the physical

architecture from parallel to serial and from master-slave to point-

to-point. Unlike parallel ATA interfaces that connect two drives; one

congured as master, the other as slave, each Serial ATA drive is con-

nected to its own interface. At initial introduction, Serial ATA (SATA)

increases the transfer rate to 150 MB/sec (1.5Gb/s) and SATA2 to 300

MB/sec.

GLOSSARY

178

SMART

This technology provides users with advanced warning of Disk Drive

failures, thus enabling the Operating System to warn Users of potential

failure. S.M.A.R.T. was included in EIDE drives with the ATA-3 and later

specication.

SNMP

Since it was developed in 1988, the Simple Network Management

Protocol has become the de facto standard for inter-network manage-

ment. Because it is a simple solution, requiring little code to imple-

ment, vendors can easily build SNMP agents into their products. SNMP

is extensible, allowing vendors to easily add network management

functions to their existing products. SNMP also separates the man-

agement architecture from the architecture of the hardware devices,

which broadens the base of multi-vendor support.

Volume Set

A volume set is a concatenation of storage elements that may be RAID

arrays, JBODs, or simply areas of disks that are not part of RAID ar-

rays.

Write-back

When a cache is operating in write-back mode, data written into the

cache is not immediately written out to its destination in second-

ary storage unless the heuristics governing the ushing of dirty data

demands otherwise. This methodology can improve the efciency of

write operations under favorable circumstances. However, its use can

potentially lead to incoherences in a system that is not protected from

power uctuations or other failures.

Write-through

When a cache is operating in write-through mode, data written into

the cache is also written to the destination secondary storage devices.

Essentially write completion does not occur until the data is written to

secondary storage. Thus the contents of the cache and the secondary

storage are always consistent. The advantage is that the possibility

179

GLOSSARY

of data corruption is greatly reduced. The disadvantage is that write-

through operations are more time consuming.

XOR-Engine

All RAID arrays (with the exception of RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 1E)

require parity to be calculated and written to the array in conjunction

with data. Typically the parity is a simple XOR on the bytes compris-

ing a stripe. This is a computationally intensive operation that many

modern RAID controllers perform using a dedicated ASIC (instead of

calculating them in rmware on the main embedded processor’s core).

This dedicated ASIC is often referred to as a XOR-engine.

History

180

Revision Page Description

3.2 P117-120 Added ArcHttp Conguration

3.2 P116 Added Mac OS 10.x information

3.2 P82,134 Added expand an existing vol-

ume noticed

3.2 p34 Added illustration of ARC-

1210ML/1220ML

3.2 p37, p46, p47 Revised illustration of ARC-

1231ML/1261ML/1280ML/1280

3.2 p43, p44 Revised gure 2-15, added

gure 2-17

Version History

Areca Arc 1120 Users Manual

ARC-1130 to the manual b0faf85a-b977-4678-8921-06a0b155993a

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