Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) and Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) on HP Elite 8100 Business PCs Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Basics of AHCI and RAID Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Intel Rapid Storage Manager software installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Console Software Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Using the Intel Rapid Storage Console interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 RAID migrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Introduction This white paper covers two drive technologies that are provided on the HP Elite 8100 Business PC products, AHCI and RAID. This white paper provides a basic overview of AHCI and RAID technology, supported factory configurations of HP Elite 8100 Business PCs, other supported RAID configurations, and basic instructions on how to migrate non-RAID to RAID configurations in the field.
Basics of AHCI and RAID Technology Definitions Table 1 Table 1. Basic AHCI and RAID Definitions AHCI Advanced Host Controller Interface, a specification for hardware and software, is a register interface for SATA, intended to add higher speed, NCQ and other features. ATA Advanced Technology Attachment. BIOS Basic Input/Output System, also known as system ROM. Chipset Term used to define a collection of integrated components required to make a PC function.
Benefits of AHCI AHCI provides several benefits: • Elimination of master/slave handling • Native Command Queuing (NCQ) • Hot-plugging AHCI mode eliminates the master/slave topology for cabling SATA hard drives. Hardware and software that emulate IDE still have some limitations with the master/slave topology that came from the Parallel ATA (PATA) mass storage implementation.
Software Drivers AHCI Driver In addition to setting the SATA emulation mode of AHCI or RAID in F10 Setup (See BIOS Interface 5 above), an AHCI driver is required for AHCI support. The Windows® XP, Windows Vista™ or Windows 7 image that ships with the HP Elite 8100 Business PC has the Intel AHCI driver (iastor.sys) pre-loaded. The system can be freely switched between IDE to AHCI.
A sample command line is: pkgmgr.exe /o:"C:\;C:\Windows" /n:"C:\AddAHCI\HP-AHCI.xml" Where C:\AddAHCI\HP-AHCI.xml contains: PAGE 8The process update an existing Windows XP image to be AHCI compatible is as follows: 1. Boot into WinPE. 2. Run MSDINST.EXE from OPK. MSDINST.EXE is executed from a command line where the location for the .inf file containing the PnP ID of the RAID/AHCI SATA controller of the target system and location of the Windows directory are specified. For example: Newmsd.inf has the PnP IDs and it is in the C:\AddAHCI directory. C:\Windows is the location of the Windows directory. The command line is: msdinst.
Limitations NCQ functionality requires both HBA and hard drive to support it. Non-NCQ capable hard drives will not see any performance benefits even though the HBA is NCQ capable. Hot-plugging is not possible in an operating system without an AHCI driver that supports hot-plugging, such as DOS, Windows 9x, Windows NT4.0, and older versions of Linux. Changing AHCI to IDE Mode through RepSet Multiple AHCI systems can be reverted back to IDE mode using the Replicated Setup (RepSet) utility.
Basic RAID Types This section provides a brief explanation of the supported RAID configurations for HP Elite 8100 Business PCs. RAID 0 with two hard drives (Striped) Even though HP supports RAID 0, it is not the recommended configuration for business PC users. Lack of redundancy causes less than half the reliability of a single hard drive system since the Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) of RAID 0 is equal to the MTBF of an individual drive, divided by the number of drives.
Figure 1 Performance - RAID 0 with two hard drives At a higher reliability cost with faster performance, the HP Compaq dc7900 and Elite 8000 Business PC Convertible Minitower also allows for RAID 0 with three hard drives. RAID 0 with two or three hard drives is a supported configuration.
RAID 1 with two hard drives (Mirror) Because it is a very cost-effective way to increase system storage reliability and a great value proposition, RAID 1 is the only RAID configuration that HP pre-configures for HP Elite 8100 Business PCs. RAID 1 provides high availability with minimal performance impact, as well as greater reliability compared to a single hard drive configuration. RAID 1 has redundancy and hence is a true RAID.
Figure 3 Reliability: RAID 1 - Mirroring 13
RAID 5 with three hard drives RAID 5 has been used in servers for many years and is one of the most common types of RAID. RAID 5 uses striping with parity data in distributed blocks across all member disks. Therefore, the mass storage controller can simultaneously write new information to two hard drives and parity information to the third hard drive, so if one hard drive fails, the RAID controller can rebuild all the information after the volume degradation occurred.
Figure 4 RAID 5 with three hard drives 15
Intel Matrix RAID Technology This technology provides protection against data loss from a hard drive failure and faster access to digital photo, video, and music files by supporting NCQ as well as RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10. Matrix RAID enables two RAID levels to be combined for data loss protection plus performance.
Figure 6 Matrix RAID combining reliability and performance with same three hard drives 17
Configurations Recommended configurations HP recommends factory configurations of the preinstalled RAID offerings for HP Elite 8100 Business PCs. The preinstalled RAID offering is a RAID 1 volume of two identical SATA hard drives. HP Elite 8100 Business PCs are based on the Intel Q57 Express/5 Series chipset, which is a combined hardware and software RAID solution. The Intel mass storage controller allows all drives to operate in IDE or RAID SATA modes.
• HP also recommends keeping the default options in the RAID Option ROM and in the Windows RAID application. Options like “chunk” size for changing the size “stripe” size have more history in their defaults settings. Other supported configurations HP Elite 8100 Business PC products support two other RAID configurations: • Two hard drive configuration. • Two equal size/type SATA hard drive RAID configurations in RAID 0 or RAID 1 or Matrix Mode of RAID 0 and RAID 1.
Configuring RAID on non-factory preinstalled configurations The remaining sections of this white paper describe steps to set up supported RAID configurations where customers have not purchased factory preinstalled RAID configurations. Enabling RAID through F10 System BIOS 1. Turn on or restart the computer by clicking Start > Shut Down > Restart the Computer. 2. Press F10 as soon as the monitor light turns green.
Accessing RAID Option ROM You can only access Computer Setup at system startup. To access the Computer Setup Utilities menu and enable RAID: 1. Turn on or restart the computer by clicking Start > Shut Down > Restart the Computer. The following screen (RAID Option ROM) displays briefly during boot up. The RAID configuration utility is English only. To configure RAID in other languages, use the Windows-based RAID configuration utility. 2.
Configuring RAID Volume using the Option ROM 1. Use the up or down arrow key to select Create RAID Volume, and then press Enter to access the Create Volume screen. 2. Select or enter the desired RAID Level. Use the information on the bottom half of the screen if necessary.
3. Use the arrow keys to scroll to Create Volume, and press Enter. The following screen appears. CAUTION: All data on the selected disk will be deleted. 4. Type Y to continue. Notes for operating system installation • After creating a RAID disk volume in the option ROM, you can install the operating system. • HP provides a driver download for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 at www.hp.com. See Software Drivers 6 for installation information. • Customer-created images MUST account for the RAID controller.
Intel Rapid Storage Manager software installation This section of the paper focuses on how to configure RAID using Intel Rapid Storage Manager software. The configuration steps are for application usage and supported RAID migrations. Console Software Installation The Intel Rapid Storage Manager Software is pre-loaded in all HP Elite 8100 Business desktops at: XP: “C:\Compaq\Intel RST” and Vista/Win7: “C:\SWSETUP\Intel RST”. To execute the software, run the setup.exe file.
Using the Intel Rapid Storage Console interface 1. Click Start > All Programs > Intel > Intel Rapid Storage Console to open the Intel Rapid Storage Console application. The Intel Rapid Storage Console starts in Status mode by default and has three main menus. NOTE: The report the applications generate is very comprehensive. You can view the report at View/System Report. The reports contains information about the driver, operating system, language, and hard drive. 2.
RAID migrations Migration to RAID 1 from two non-RAID hard drives using Intel Rapid Storage Console NOTE: HP Elite 8100 Business PC products only support RAID based on two identical SATA hard drives in either RAID 0 or RAID 1 or Matrix RAID Mode of RAID 0 and RAID 1. NOTE: At least 6 MB of free space at the end of the drive is required to migrate from a non-RAID to RAID configuration or an error will occur. 1.
5. Click Create Volume to confirm you understand the Volume Creation warning and you want to continue the action. 6. Click OK after the action completes.
Migration to RAID 0 from two non-RAID hard drives using Intel Rapid Storage Console NOTE: HP Elite 8100 Business PC products only support RAID based on two identical SATA hard drives in either RAID 0 or RAID 1 or Matrix RAID Mode of RAID 0 and RAID 1. 1. Open the Intel Rapid Storage Console and select Create and select the volume type Optimized disk performance (RAID 0). 2. Click Next to configure the volume. 3.
Migration to RAID 0 from three non-RAID hard drives using Intel Rapid Storage Console NOTE: Back up all data before proceeding. NOTE: HP Elite 8100 Business PC products only support RAID based on three identical SATA hard drives RAID in either RAID 0 or RAID 5 or Matrix RAID Mode of RAID 0 and RAID 5. 1. Open the Intel Rapid Storage Console and select Create in the top pane and select the Volume Type in the right pane. Select Optimized disk performance (RAID 0). 2. Click Next to configure the volume. 3.
NOTE: If users consume all available storage for this RAID volume, there will be no space to create another RAID volume for this hard drive, thereby not allowing for Matrix RAID Mode RAID. Note the size if you want to create a second RAID volume in this set of hard drives. 8. Reboot the system after the migration finishes. Migration to Matrix RAID 5 and RAID 0 from three non-RAID hard drives using Intel Rapid Storage Console NOTE: Back up all data before proceeding.
13. After the first RAID volume has been created, create the second RAID volume by opening the Intel Rapid Storage Console, clicking View > Advanced Mode, and then clicking Actions/Create RAID Volume from Existing Hard Drive. 14. Click Next. 15. Use the same values you entered in the previous RAID volume confirmation and type the RAID Volume Name, select the RAID Level (for three hard drive RAID 0 or RAID 5 only), and select the Strip Size.
Installation HP desktops come with RAID software preinstalled; however, if reinstallation is necessary, use setup in combination with the following supported flags (Version 9.5/9.6): -?: The installer presents a dialog showing all the supported setup flags (shown here) and their usage. -ver: Displays the driver version. -a: Extracts all files (does not install driver) to if -P is also supplied. Otherwise, the files are extracted to the default location. -b: Forces a system reboot after installation.
Language support table ara Arabic (Saudi Arabia) (0401) chs Chinese (Simplified) (0804) cht Chinese (Traditional) (0404) csy Czech (0405) dan Danish (0406) nld Dutch (0413) enu English (United States) (0409) fin Finnish (040B) fra French (International) (040C) deu German (0407) ell Greek (0408) heb Hebrew (040D) hun Hungarian (040E) ita Italian (0410) jpn Japanese (0411) kor Korean (0412) nor Norwegian (0414) plk Polish (0415) ptb Portuguese (Brazil) (
Degradation In the unlikely event that one of your hard drives malfunctions, you will be notified with the following message: 1. Run the Intel Rapid Storage Console application on the system experiencing a degradation to identify the hard drive that failed and to which port it is connected. 2. After identifying the hard drive, close all applications, shut down the operating system, power down the unit, unplug the power cord, and replace the defective hard drive. 3.
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