Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) and Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) on HP Compaq dc7800 Business PCs Using Intel Matrix Storage Manager Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Basics of AHCI and RAID Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
RAID migrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Migration to RAID 1 from two non-RAID hard drives using Intel Matrix Storage Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Degradation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Introduction This whitepaper covers two drive technologies that are provided on the HP Compaq dc7800 Business PC products, AHCI and RAID. This whitepaper provides a basic overview of AHCI and RAID technology, supported factory configurations of HP Compaq dc7800 Business PCs, other supported RAID configurations, and basic instructions on how to migrate non-RAID to RAID configurations in the field. HP also provides a Smart IV Hard Drive technical whitepaper for HP Compaq dc7800 Business PC products on HP.com.
Migration Term used to describe the movement of data from one configuration or usage model to another. NCQ Native Command Queuing. Option ROM Piece or software module inside the System BIOS which provides extended support for a particular piece of hardware. The RAID Option ROM provides boot support for RAID volumes as well as a user interface for managing and configuring the systems RAID volumes. PCI Peripheral Components Interface. PCIe PCI express. A serial version of PCI. PnP Plug and Play.
Basic RAID Types This section provides a brief explanation of the supported RAID configurations for HP Compaq dc7800 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 dc7800 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 preconfigures for HP Compaq dc7800 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.
Table 4 RAID 5 with 3 hard drives (Parity) First Disk Second Disk Third Disk Data Segment 1 Data Segment 2 Parity for 1 and 2 Data Segment 3 Parity for 3 and 4 Data Segment 4 Parity for 5 and 6 Data Segment 5 Data Segment 6 Data Segment 7 Data Segment 8 Parity for 7 and 8 Data Segment 9 Parity for 9 and 10 Data Segment 10 Parity for 11 and 12 Data Segment 11 Data Segment 12 Data Segment 13 Data Segment 14 Parity for 13 and 14 Data Segment 15 Parity for 15 and 16 Data Segment 16 P
Intel Matrix Storage 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. Intel Matrix Storage Technology was previously known as Intel Application Accelerator 4.x and Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition 3.x.
Figure 6 Matrix RAID combining reliability and performance with same three hard drives Configurations Recommended configurations HP recommends factory configurations of the preinstalled RAID offerings for HP Compaq dc7800 Business PCs.
Hardware and firmware support is present to take advantage of the future Microsoft Vista operating system. Intel Matrix Storage Technology RAID software support for Microsoft Vista will be available at a later date. HP Compaq dc7800 Business PCs are based on the Intel Q35/ICH9-DO RAID chipset, which is a combined hardware and software RAID solution. The Intel ICH9-DO SATA mass storage controller allows all drives to operate in IDE or RAID SATA modes.
NOTES: The following notes are important for RAID configuration: - • RAID 1 is the only RAID configuration that HP Compaq dc7800 Business PC products offer as factory configurations. • The preconfigured systems: Are complete RAID systems. Have both drives installed. Have the necessary Option ROM configuration. Are preloaded and preinstalled with all required Intel software. Include a preinstalled operating system that is mirrored mode out of the box.
• Different cache size • RAID combinations of hard drives with any operating system other than Microsoft XP Pro (SP2) using Microsoft’s IDE driver stack based on ATAPI.SYS 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.
CAUTION: Do NOT turn the computer power off while the ROM is saving the F10 Computer Setup changes as the CMOS could become corrupted. Only turn the computer off after exiting the F10 Setup screen. Configuring 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. 2.
Configuring RAID Volume using the Option ROM 1. Once you are in the Option ROM, if there are no previous RAID member hard drives, press Ctrl + I to enter the RAID configuration utility.
2. With Create RAID Volume selected, press Enter to access the Create Volume screen. 3. Select or enter the desired RAID Level. Use the information on the bottom half of the screen if necessary.
4. 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. Notes for operating system installation • After creating a RAID disk volume in the option ROM, you can install the operating system. • HP provides a download for the required F6 disk for Windows XP CD installation. • Customer-created images MUST account for the RAID controller.
Intel Matrix Storage Manager software installation This section of the paper focuses on how to configure RAID using Intel Matrix Storage Manager software. The configuration steps are for application usage and supported RAID migrations. Console Software Installation The Intel Matrix Storage Manager Software is preloaded in all HP Compaq dc7800 Business desktops at “C:\Intel\Intel MSM”. To execute the software, run the setup.exe file. You can also get this software from the HP and Intel Web sites. 1.
Using the Intel Matrix Storage Console interface 1. Click Start > All Programs > Intel Matrix Storage Manager/Intel Matrix Storage Console to open the Intel Matrix Storage Console application. The Intel Matrix Storage Console starts in basic 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.
1. Open the Intel Matrix Storage Console and in the left pane select either Protect data from a hard drive failure with RAID 1 or Improve storage performance with RAID 0. 2. In the right pane, select Protect data from a hard drive failure with RAID 1. 3. Click Create a RAID 1 volume to open a verification window. 4. Select Yes to begin the migration process. 5. Click OK after the migration completes.
Degradation In the unlikely event that one of your hard drives malfunctions, you will be notified with the following message: 1. Run the Intel Matrix 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. The following message appears: Migration to RAID 0 from two non-RAID hard drives using Intel Matrix Storage Console NOTE: HP Compaq dc7800 Business PC products only support RAID based on two identical SATA hard drives in either RAID 0 or RAID 1 or Matrix Mode of RAID 0 and RAID 1. 1.
3. Click Yes to begin the migration process. 4. Click OK after the migration completes. Migration to RAID 0 from three non-RAID hard drives using Intel Matrix Storage Console NOTE: Back up all data before proceeding. NOTE: HP Compaq dc7800 Business PC products only support RAID based on three identical SATA hard drives RAID in either RAID 0 or RAID 5 or Matrix Mode of RAID 0 and RAID 5. 1. Open the Intel Matrix Storage Console and select View>Advanced Mode. 2.
3. Click Next. 4. Type the RAID Volume Name, select the RAID Level (for three hard drive RAID 0 or RAID 5 only), and select the Strip Size. 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.
5. Click Next to display the selection of hard drives that will be part of this RAID volume. 6. Select all three hard drives (Port 0, Port 1, and Port 2), and then click the right arrow to place them in the Selected box. 7. Click Next.
8. Select all hard drive members of the RAID volume, and then click the right arrow to place all three hard drives in the Selected box. 9. Click Next. 10. Complete the volume size selection screen, and then click Next. 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 mode RAID. Note the size if you want to create a second RAID volume in this set of hard drives. 11.
12. Select Finish to start the migration process, which can take a few hours. After you click Finish, the migration starts and the following screen displays: 13. Reboot the system after the migration finishes. Migration to RAID 5 from three non-RAID hard drives using Intel Matrix Storage Console NOTE: Back up all data before proceeding. NOTE: HP Compaq dc7800 Business PC products only support RAID based on three identical SATA hard drives in either RAID 5 or RAID 0 or Matrix Mode of RAID 0 and RAID 5. 1.
2. Click Actions/Create RAID Volume from Existing Hard Drive to open a verification window. 3. Click Next. 4. Type the RAID Volume Name, select the RAID Level (for three hard drive RAID 0 or RAID 5 only), and select the Strip Size. NOTE: HP currently supports only the default Strip Size (in this case 64KB).
5. Click Next to see the selection of hard drives that will be part of this RAID volume. 6. Select all three hard drives (Port 0, Port ,1 and Port 2), and then click on the arrow to move them to the Selected window. 7. Click Next.
8. After the selection of the all hard drive members of the RAID volume, complete the volume size selection screen, and then click Next. 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 mode RAID. Note the size if you want to create a second RAID volume in this set of hard drives. 9.
10. Select Finish to start the migration process, which can take a few hours. The following screen displays. 11. Reboot the system after the migration finishes. Migration to Matrix RAID 5 and RAID 0 from three non-RAID hard drives using Intel Matrix Storage Console NOTE: Back up all data before proceeding. NOTE: HP Compaq dc7800 Business PC products only support RAID based on three identical SATA hard drives in either RAID 5 or RAID 0 or Matrix Mode of RAID 0 and RAID 5. 1.
2. Click Actions/Create RAID Volume from Existing Hard Drive to open a verification window. 3. Click Next. 4. Type the RAID Volume Name, select the RAID Level (for three hard drive RAID 0 or RAID 5 only), and select the Strip Size. NOTE: HP currently supports only the default Strip Size (in this case 128KB).
5. Click Next to see the selection of hard drives that will be part of this RAID volume. 6. Select all three hard drives (Port 0, Port ,1 and Port 2), and then click on the arrow to move them to the Selected window. 7. Click Next.
8. After the selection of the all hard drive members of the RAID volume, complete the volume size selection screen, and then click Next. 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 mode RAID. Note the size if you want to create a second RAID volume in this set of hard drives. 9.
11. Click Finish to start the migration process, which can take a few hours. 12. Reboot the system after the migration finishes. 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 Matrix 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. NOTE: HP currently supports only the default Strip Size (in this case 64KB). 16. Click Next to see the selection of hard drives that will be part of this RAID volume.
17. Because this is the second volume for this set of hard drives, select the existing name in the Available box (Array 0000), and then click the right arrow to move this array into the Selected box. 18. Click Next. The Specify Volume Size screen is grayed out because the second volume of this matrix mode takes the remaining space. After the selection of the all hard drive members of this RAID volume, follow the volume size selection screen.
20. Select Finish to start the migration process, which can take a few hours. The following screen appears.
21. Reboot the system after the migration finishes. After the second reboot and both migrations are complete, you can see the state of the Matrix mode created by opening the Intel Matrix Storage Console and clicking View>Advanced Mode. The matrix mode of three hard drives is illustrated in the following image.
Migration to RAID Matrix Mode (0 + 1) from two non-RAID hard drives using Matrix Storage Console The migration process for two hard drives to RAID Matrix Mode (0 + 1) is very similar to the process described in the section about migration of three hard drives to matrix mode RAID (0 + 5). The difference in the process is selecting two hard drives as part of the volume created and selecting RAID 5 instead of RAID 1.
Language support table ara Arabic (Saudi Arabia) (0401) chs Chinese (Simplified) (0804) cht Chinese (Traditional) (0404) csy Czech (0005) dan Danish (0006) nld Dutch (0013) enu English (United States) (0009) fin Finnish (000B) fra French (International) (040C) deu German (0007) ell Greek (0008) heb Hebrew (040D) hun Hungarian (000E) ita Italian (0010) jpn Japanese (0011) kor Korean (0012) nor Norwegian (0014) plk Polish (0015) ptb Portuguese (Brazil) (
