User's Manual
Table Of Contents
- Safety information
- Chapter 1. General information
- Chapter 2. Server setup road map
- Chapter 3. Product overview
- Chapter 4. Turning on and turning off the server
- Chapter 5. Configuring the server
- Chapter 6. Installing, removing, or replacing hardware
- Guidelines
- Removing the server cover
- Removing and reinstalling the front bezel
- Installing, removing, or replacing hardware
- Installing or removing a memory module
- Installing or removing a PCI card
- Installing or removing the Ethernet card
- Installing or removing the RAID card
- Installing or removing the ThinkServer 9240-8i RAID 5 Upgrade Key
- Installing or removing the ThinkServer SATA Software RAID 5 Key
- Installing or removing the ThinkServer iKVM Remote Management Module
- Installing or removing the TPM module
- Installing or removing the DIT module
- Installing or replacing an optical drive
- Installing or replacing a hot-swap hard disk drive
- Removing or installing a non-hot-swap hard disk drive
- Replacing the hot-swap hard disk drive backplane
- Replacing the non-hot-swap power supply assembly
- Replacing a hot-swap redundant power supply module
- Replacing the power distribution board and cage assembly
- Replacing the front panel board assembly
- Replacing the front system fan
- Replacing the rear system fan
- Replacing the heat sink and fan assembly
- Replacing the microprocessor
- Replacing the system board battery
- Completing the parts replacement
- Chapter 7. Troubleshooting and diagnostics
- Chapter 8. Getting information, help, and service
- Appendix A. Notices
- Index
•“ConguringRAIDusingtheThinkServerEasyStartupprogram”onpage74
•“ConguringtheonboardSATAsoftwareRAID”onpage75
•“ConguringtheadvancedSATAorSAShardwareRAID”onpage80
AboutRAID
RAID,anacronymforRedundantArrayofIndependentDisks,isatechnologythatprovidesincreased
storagefunctionsandreliabilitythroughredundancy.Thisisachievedbycombiningmultipleharddiskdrives
intoalogicalunit,wheredataisdistributedacrossthedrivesinoneofseveralwayscalledRAIDlevels.
WhenagroupofindependentphysicalharddiskdrivesaresetuptouseRAIDtechnology,theyareina
RAIDarray.Thisarraydistributesdataacrossmultipleharddiskdrives,butthearrayappearstothehost
serverasonesinglestorageunit.CreatingandusingRAIDarraysprovideshighperformance,suchasthe
expeditedI/Operformance,becauseseveraldrivescanbeaccessedsimultaneously.
RAIDdrivegroupsalsoimprovedatastoragereliabilityandfaulttolerancecomparedtosingle-drivestorage
systems.Datalossresultingfromadrivefailurecanbepreventedbyreconstructingmissingdatafromthe
remainingdrives.
ThefollowinglistdescribessomeofthemostcommonlyusedRAIDlevels:
•RAID0:block-levelstripingwithoutparityormirroring
SimplestripesetsarenormallyreferredtoasRAID0.RAID0usesstripingtoprovidehighdata
throughput,especiallyforlargelesinanenvironmentthatdoesnotrequirefaulttolerance.RAID0hasno
redundancyanditprovidesimprovedperformanceandadditionalstoragewithoutfaulttolerance.Any
drivefailuredestroysthearrayandthelikelihoodoffailureincreaseswithmoredrivesinthearray.RAID
0doesnotimplementerrorchecking,soanyerrorisuncorrectable.Moredrivesinthearraymeans
higherbandwidth,butgreaterriskofdataloss.
RAID0requiresaminimumnumberoftwoharddiskdrives.
•RAID1:mirroringwithoutparityorstriping
RAID1usesmirroringsothatdatawrittentoonedriveissimultaneouslywrittentoanotherdrive.Thisis
goodforsmalldatabasesorotherapplicationsthatrequiresmallcapacitybutcompletedataredundancy.
RAID1providesfaulttolerancefromdiskerrorsorfailuresandcontinuestooperateaslongasatleast
onedriveinthemirroredsetisfunctioning.Withappropriateoperatingsystemsupport,therecanbe
increasedreadperformanceandonlyaminimalwriteperformancereduction.
RAID1requiresaminimumnumberoftwoharddiskdrives.
•RAID5:block-levelstripingwithdistributedparity
RAID5usesdiskstripingandparitydataacrossalldrives(distributedparity)toprovidehighdata
throughput,especiallyforsmallrandomaccess.RAID5distributesparityalongwiththedataandrequires
alldrivesbutonetobepresenttooperate;drivefailurerequiresreplacement,butthearrayisnot
destroyedbyasingledrivefailure.Upondrivefailure,anysubsequentreadoperationscanbecalculated
fromthedistributedparitysothatthedrivefailureismaskedfromtheenduser.Thearraywillhavedata
lossintheeventofaseconddrivefailureandisvulnerableuntilthedatathatwasonthefailingdriveis
rebuiltontoareplacementdrive.Asingledrivefailureinthesetwillresultinreducedperformanceof
theentiresetuntilthefailingdrivehasbeenreplacedandrebuilt.
RAID5requiresaminimumnumberofthreeharddiskdrives.
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