AHCI and RAID on HP Compaq Elite 8000, 8100, and 8200 Business PCs Table of Contents: Introduction ...........................................................................................2 Basics of AHCI and RAID Technology .......................................................4 Definitions ...................................................................................................... 4 Benefits of AHCI .....................................................................................
Unsupported configurations ........................................................................... 18 Configuring RAID on non-factory preinstalled configurations ...................19 Enabling RAID through F10 System BIOS ....................................................... 19 Accessing RAID Option ROM ......................................................................... 20 Configuring RAID Volume using the Option ROM ...........................................
HP Elite 8000-series Business PCs take advantage of Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) technology and the integration of RAID support into select Intel chipsets. Table 1 lists the HP business PC platforms and associated Intel chipsets that provide native RAID support. Table 1.
Basics of AHCI and RAID Technology Definitions Table 2. Basic AHCI and RAID Definitions Acronym or term Description AHCI Advanced Host Controller Interface, a specification for hardware and software, is a registered 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 section for more information), an AHCI driver is required for AHCI support. The Windows Vista™ or Windows 7 image that ships with the HP Elite 8000series Business PC has the Intel AHCI driver (iastor.sys) pre-loaded. The system can be freely switched between IDE to AHCI.
The OPK CD is not available for general download. It must be obtained through a Microsoft authorized distributor. PKGMGR.EXE is a tool that installs, uninstalls, configures, and updates features and packages for Vista and Windows 7. For more information and instructions on OPK or PKGMGR.EXE, go to http://www.hp.com. The process is as follows: 1. Boot into WinPE. 2. Run PKGMGR.EXE from OPK. A sample command line is: pkgmgr.exe /o:"C:\;C:\Windows" /n:"C:\AddAHCI\HP-AHCI.xml" Where C:\AddAHCI\HP-AHCI.
Enhancing existing Windows XP images from IDE Mode Corporate IT may be able to update an existing Windows XP image to be AHCIcompatible that was created in IDE mode. The process requires inserting the AHCI drivers into the image in a pre-installation environment. Once that is done, the system can be switched to AHCI mode safely. Required software to insert the AHCI driver: • Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) CD • Windows OPK (OEM Preinstallation Kit) CD • MSDINST.
3. Reboot the computer. 4. Enter F10 Setup and change SATA Emulation mode to AHCI. 5. Reboot the computer into Windows XP. _GTF Support (HP 8000 and 8100 Business PCs only) HP Elite 8000 and 8100 Business PCs support _GTF (Get Task File) AHCI control method when in AHCI mode. The Intel AHCI driver needs a registry key to enable _GTF for each port. This registry key has been added with the Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 image that ships with HP Elite 8000 and 8100 Business PCs.
Basic RAID Types This section provides a brief explanation of the supported RAID configurations for HP Elite 8000-series 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. Table 3.
Figure 1. Performance - RAID 0 with two hard drives At a higher reliability cost with faster performance, the HP Compaq Elite 8000series 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 0 with three hard drives is shown in Figure 2. Figure 2.
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 preconfigures for HP Elite 8000-series 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 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.
In the previous table, each “Data Segment x” represents a strip. A stripe is made with strip “Data Segment x”, “Data Segment y” and strip “Parity for x and y.” Notice that the strip “Parity for x and y” is used to store the required information to recreate the data if any one of the RAID volume members is compromised. To better illustrate the concept of RAID 5 (parity-based RAID), Figure 4 shows how a sequence of data “ABCD...” is stored in a RAID 5.
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. As shown in Figure 5, Matrix RAID enables two RAID levels to be combined for data loss protection plus performance. Figure 5.
Using Intel Matrix RAID Technology, you can configure an HP Elite 8000-series Business PC Convertible Mini-tower with two RAID volumes using three hard drives (Figure 6) - a RAID 0 volume for ultimate performance, and a second volume as RAID 5 with reliability and performance improvements. Figure 6.
Configurations Recommended configurations HP recommends factory configurations of the preinstalled RAID offerings for HP Elite 8000-series Business PCs. The preinstalled RAID offering is a RAID 1 volume of two identical SATA hard drives. HP Elite 8000-series Business PCs are based on Intel chipsets that provide a combined hardware and software RAID solution. The Intel mass storage controller allows all drives to operate in IDE or RAID SATA modes.
Important RAID configuration The following notes are important for RAID configuration: • RAID 1 is the only RAID configuration that HP Elite 8000-series Business PC products offer as a factory configuration option.
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.
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. WARNING: 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. • Customer-created images MUST account for the RAID controller. • Failure to install and enumerate the RAID driver after enabling the RAID controller (with or without creating a volume) will result in a Windows boot failure (blue screen) for inaccessible boot device.
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. 1. Select Start > All Programs > Intel > Intel(R) Rapid Storage Console. 2. Click Next. 3. Read the driver agreement. If you agree, click Next. 4. Read the License Agreement. If you agree, click Yes. 5. Review the Readme for Intel Rapid Storage Technology, and then click Next.
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 report contains information about the driver, operating system, language, and hard drive. 2.
RAID migrations using Intel Rapid Storage Console Migration to RAID 1 from two non-RAID hard drives NOTE HP Elite 8000-series 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.
4. Click Next to begin the confirmation process and start the Create Volume action. 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 NOTE HP Elite 8000-series 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. To migrate two non-RAID hard drives to a RAID 0 configuration using Intel Rapid Storage Console perform the following steps: 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.
Migration to RAID 0 from three non-RAID hard drives NOTE Back up all data before proceeding. NOTE HP Elite 8000-series Business PC products only support RAID based on three identical SATA hard drives 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.
5. Click Next to begin the confirmation process, review the selected configuration and click Create Volume to start the Create Volume action. NOTE HP currently supports only the default Strip Size (in this case 128KB). There is a performance relation between the type of data and the strip sizes. 6. Click Create Volume to confirm you understand the Volume Creation warning and you want to continue the action. 7. Click OK after the action completes.
7. Click Next. 8. Select all hard drive members of the RAID volume, and then click the right arrow to place the (port 2 and port 3) hard drives in the selected box. 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. Note the size if you want to create a second RAID volume in this set of hard drives. 9.
NOTE The first array volume creation is the place for adjusting the size; the second volume will take any remaining space. 19. While creating the second RAID volume, click Next to open the completion window. 20. Select Finish to start the migration process, which can take a few hours. The following screen appears. You can see the state of the Matrix RAID Mode created by opening the Intel Rapid Storage Console and clicking View > Advanced Mode.
Configuring Intel Rapid Storage Console for Email notifications (HP Elite 8200 Business PCs only) To configure Intel Rapid Storage Console to send notifications of specified events to a designated email address, use the following steps: 1. Open the Intel Rapid Storage Console and select Preferences. 2. Select the type of event to initiate a notification (all three may be selected). 3. Enter the email information. a. SMTP Host (required) b. Port c. Sender email address (required) d.
Installation HP desktops come with RAID software preinstalled. However, if reinstallation is necessary, use setup in combination with the supported flags (Version 9.5/9.6/10.1) as listed and described in the sample screen shot (version 10.1) below Note: Flags and their parameters are not case-sensitive. Flags may be supplied in any order, with the exception of -S and -G, which must be supplied last.
Table 8.
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. After replacing the hard drive, automatic rebuild of the redundancy begins immediately after the system is powered up and operating system starts.
