User manual TYAN NVRAID

[. . . ] NVIDIA RAID User's Guide ForceWare Software Version 2. 0 A NVIDIA Corporation September 3, 2004 NVIDIA Applications NVIDIA RAID User's Guide Version 2. 0 Published by NVIDIA Corporation 2701 San Tomas Expressway Santa Clara, CA 95050 Notice ALL NVIDIA DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS, REFERENCE BOARDS, FILES, DRAWINGS, DIAGNOSTICS, LISTS, AND OTHER DOCUMENTS (TOGETHER AND SEPARATELY, "MATERIALS") ARE BEING PROVIDED "AS IS. " NVIDIA MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE WITH RESPECT TO THE MATERIALS, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NONINFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Information furnished is believed to be accurate and reliable. However, NVIDIA Corporation assumes no responsibility for the consequences of use of such information or for any infringement of patents or other rights of third parties that may result from its use. No license is granted by implication or otherwise under any patent or patent rights of NVIDIA Corporation. [. . . ] 2 Click Disk Management (under the Storage section). The Initialize and Convert Disk Wizards appears. Figure 2. 23 Initialize and Convet Wizard NVIDIA Corporation 33 CHAPTER 2 Setting Up Your RAID Configuration 3 Click Next. The Select Disks to Initialize window appears. Figure 2. 24 Select Disks to Initialize Page The disks listed depend on how many arrays you have configured 4 Click Next. The Select Disks to Convert window appears. Figure 2. 25 Select Disks to Convert Page 34 NVIDIA RAID User's Guide ­ Version 2. 0 A CHAPTER 2 Setting Up Your RAID Configuration 5 Check the disk in the list if you want to make the array a dynamic disk, then click Next. The Completing the Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard window appears. Figure 2. 26 Completing the Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard Page NVIDIA Corporation 35 CHAPTER 2 Setting Up Your RAID Configuration 6 Click Finish. The Computer Management window appears. Figure 2. 27 Computer Management Window The actual disks listed will depend on your system. In Figure 2. 27, there is a 111 GB unallocated partition (which is the total combined storage of two 60 GB HD). You must format the unallocated disk space in order to use it. Right click "Unallocated space", select "New Partition. . . " and follow the Wizard instrucrtions. After the drive has been formatted, it is ready for use. 36 NVIDIA RAID User's Guide ­ Version 2. 0 A C HAPTER USING THE NVRAIDMAN UTILITY About the NVIDIA RAID Management Utility The NVIDIA RAID software ships with an application called NVRAIDMAN. This chapter describes the NVRAIDMAN tasks in the following sections: · Viewing RAID Array Configurations View an array configuration (mirrored, striped, mirrored-striped, JBOD, or any supported combination) · Setting Up a Spare RAID Disk · View free and/or dedicated free disks · Designate a free disk to a particular array · Rebuilding a RAID Array · Rebuild a broken mirrored array · Watch the progress of rebuilding of an array · Only applies to RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 arrays · Creating RAID Arrays · Deleting a RAID Array · Morphing From One RAID Array to Another · Hot Plug Array NVIDIA Corporation 37 CHAPTER 3 Using the NVRAIDMAN Utility Viewing RAID Array Configurations To view your RAID configuration from Windows, launch the NVIDIA RAID Management utility by double-clicking NVRAIDMAN. The RAID configuration information appears in the right-side pane, as shown in Figure 3. 1. Figure 3. 1 NVRAID Management Utility Window The following are examples of the information displayed for the various RAID levels. While the details of your own configuration will likely vary from what is shown, the examples serve to illustrate the basic differences between the RAID levels. NVIDIA RAID Mirrored Array Figure 3. 2 shows an example of a two hard drive mirrored array using identical 34. 4 GB1 SATA hard drives (WD360GB), where one drive is configured as Primary and the other drive is configured as Secondary. The total hard disk space used is 34. 4 GB. Figure 3. 2 NVRAIDMAN Mirrored Array Information 1. 1 GB = 1, 073, 741, 824 bytes 38 NVIDIA RAID User's Guide ­ Version 2. 0 A CHAPTER 3 Using the NVRAIDMAN Utility NVIDIA RAID Striped Array Figure 3. 3 shows an example of a two hard drive striped array using identical 34. 48 GB SATA hard drives (WD360GB), where one drive is configured as Primary and the other drive is configured as Secondary. The total disk space used is 68. 95GB. Figure 3. 3 NVRAIDMAN Striped Array Information NVIDIA RAID Mirrored-Stripe Array Figure 3. 4 shows an example of a four hard drive mirrored-stripe array. The total storage space is 68. 95 GB because the two upper drives (the drives with the 34. 48 GB size) are first striped, and then they are mirrored onto the 69. 25 GB drives. Figure 3. 4 NVRAIDMAN Stripe Mirroring Array Information NVIDIA RAID Spanning (JBOD) Array Figure 3. 5 shows an example of a two hard drive spanning array. The total disk space used is 68. 95 GB. Figure 3. 5 NVRAIDMAN Spanning Array Information NVIDIA Corporation 39 CHAPTER 3 Using the NVRAIDMAN Utility NVIDIA RAID Mirrored Array and Striped Array Figure 3. 6 shows an example of a two hard drive mirrored array as well as a two hard drive striped array. Figure 3. 6 NVRAIDMAN Mirrored Array and Striped Array Information 40 NVIDIA RAID User's Guide ­ Version 2. 0 A CHAPTER 3 Using the NVRAIDMAN Utility Setting Up a Spare RAID Disk You can designate a hard drive to be used as a spare drive for a RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 array2. The spare drive can take over for a failed disk. NVIDIA RAID supports two types of spare drives: · Free Disk A free disk is a disk that is not part of any RAID array, but can be used by any available RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 array that requires a particular disk when one of its disks crashes or becomes unusable. The process is automatic and doesn't require any user interaction. For example, if you have a system with four hard disks where one disk is used to boot the OS, two hard drives are set up in a mirrored array, and a fourth hard disk is set up as a free disk, then if one of the mirrored array drives fails, the free disk will be automatically assigned to the mirrored array to be used instead of the failed disk. · Dedicated Disk A dedicated free disk is a disk that is assigned to a RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 array and that disk is used by that array only when needed, for example during a system crash where a RAID mirrored drive is broken. [. . . ] The system directs you into the NVIDIA RAID Utility. 11 Press TAB to go into the Free Disk menu. 12 Use the Right Arrow key to add the desired disk. NVIDIA Corporation 113 CHAPTER 5 NVIDIA RAID Application Notes 13 Press F7 to finish. 14 Select N (NO) when asked to Clear Disk Data. [. . . ]