TEXAS MEMORY SYSTEMS, INC. RamSan-210 User’s Manual Version 1.
Any trademarks or registered trademarks used in this document belong to the companies that own them. Copyright © 2001, Texas Memory Systems, Inc. All rights are reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means - graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems - without permission of the copyright owner.
Table of Contents Preface................................................................................................................................. 1 Document Overview ....................................................................................................... 1 Conventions .................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 – Introduction............................................................................
.5.13 RESET ...................................................................................................... 19 4.5.14 STATUS.................................................................................................... 20 Chapter 5 Chapter 5– Hot Swap Components ............................................................... 21 5.1 Hot Swapping Power Supplies.......................................................................... 21 5.2 Hot Swapping Disk Drives ..............................
Figures Figure 1 RamSan-210 Layout ............................................................................................. 6 Figure 3-2 RamSan-210 Front Panel ................................................................................ 10 Figure 5-3 Default LUN configuration............................................................................. 21 Figure 5-4 Reconfigured LUN mapping...........................................................................
Preface Document Overview This document provides operating procedures for the RamSan-210. It covers installation, management, and troubling shooting issues. Conventions The following textual conventions are used in this document: Select Ethernet Setup lunconfig Front panel button descriptions Front panel text (menu items) Management port (serial/telnet) commands and text.
Chapter 1 – Introduction 1.1 Overview The RamSan-210 is a solid-state disk. The system uses SDRAM (memory) as primary storage. The system is non-volatile because all writes are mirrored to two internal hard disk drives and stored in memory. All reads occur from memory. This architecture provides uncompromised performance and security. The RamSan-210 is designed to be highly available and fault tolerant.
1.3 Power Requirements The RamSan-210 requires 150 watts of power for a fully loaded system. The RamSan210 includes two power supplies. Only one power supply is needed to run the system. The power supplies are auto-ranging (they will accept either 110 or 220 power). Each power supply is connected to an internal battery. The batteries provide at least one hour of operation after a power failure. The power supplies and the batteries are linked.
read intensive. Statistically, most applications have 80% reads and 20% writes. For systems that are write intensive, please contact Texas Memory Systems to discuss configuration alternatives. The RamSan-210 with two FC32 Fibre Channel controllers should be able to provide very close to 400MB/second of read performance. The system will automatically conduct all reads and writes from the disk drives in the event of a main memory failure (this type of failure is not expected).
Chapter 2 – Installation 2.1 Electro-Static Discharge Warning Important: Please take full E.S.D. precautions if it is necessary at any time to come into contact with any circuit boards, components or connectors. The components used in the RamSan-210 and its interfaces can be damaged by electrostatic discharge. 2.2 Battery Warning The internal batteries in the RamSan-210 are charged with enough voltage to power a fully loaded system for approximately one hour.
Figure 1 RamSan-210 Layout -6-
2.4 Rack Mounting The RamSan-210 is a 2U rack-mountable system. The system is shipped with the slides and equipment needed to install it into a standard 19” rack. 2.5 Connecting the Fibre Channel Ports After you have inspected the system and properly mounted it, connect the Fibre Channel ports on the RamSan-210 to either your server or to a Fibre Channel switch. See for a list of TMS approved SAN hardware.
one without any interruption in Fibre Channel service. However, if external power is completely lost, all Fibre Channel ports will go into a standby mode after a short userdefined timeout period because the system will power off. Warning: Do not remove both power supplies from the system at the same time. This will cause system failure since the internal batteries require that at least 1 power supply be present in the system at all times.
2.7 Turning on the System The RamSan-210 will automatically power on when power is connected to the system. The only time the system will not automatically power on is when a user has initiated a Manual Shutdown of the system. In the event this has happened, it is necessary to press the top button on either power supply. Please see 2.6 Connecting the Power Supplies. 2.8 System Initialization The front panel display shows the current state of the boot process.
Chapter 3 – Using the Front Panel 3.1 Overview The front panel for the RamSan-210 allows you to inspect the state of the system, change the method of IP address assignment, and shutdown the system. Four buttons located to the left of the panel are used to make selections. Figure 4.1 is a picture of the front of the system. Figure 3-2 RamSan-210 Front Panel The buttons on the front panel serve the following functions: • • • • Menu.
3.2 Menu System Layout The front panel menu system is as follows: RS-210 Main Menu • Ethernet Setup § Set IP Config § Static § IP § Subnet Mask § Gateway § DHCP § BOOTP § RARP § None § No Change (Exit) § Restart Network § Show Current Config § Exit Menu • Manual Shutdown § Power off System? • Exit Menu 3.3 Ethernet Setup The RamSan-210 uses both a serial port and an Ethernet port to allow you to monitor and configure the system.
After selecting “Set IP Config”, you may use the arrow buttons to cycle though “Static IP”, “DHCP”, “BOOTP”, “RARP”, “None”, and “No Change”. Talk to your system administrator for the proper IP assignment type. Use the “Select” button to select the desired method of IP assignment. If you did not choose “Static IP” you are asked to confirm the selection with the “↓ ↓” button.
display will now indicate that the system is powering off. This will typically take between 5 and 15 seconds to complete. As a reminder, in order to turn the RamSan-210 back on after a manual shutdown it is necessary to press the top button on either power supply. 3.5 System Monitoring When the menu on the front panel is not in use, it is possible to monitor various aspects of the system. The following information is presented: • • • Fibre Channel port bandwidth.
o “*FAIL*”. This indicated that a System Failure has been detected. Possible failures include: – Front or rear fan trays have a failed fan – Power supply failed – One or both batteries have failed – System overheated – One or both disks have failed In the case of either System Warnings or Failures, the front panel display will alternate between displaying status information and Warning/Failure messages every 10 seconds.
Chapter 4 The Management Control Port (MCP) 4.1 Connecting to the MCP The management port on the RamSan-210 allows you to manage, configure, and monitor system behavior. This includes obtaining status information about internal hardware, configuring the LUNs, and obtaining data rates of the system. You may connect to the management port using either a DB-9 serial cable or an RJ-45 Ethernet cable. 4.1.
4.5 MCP Commands 4.5.1 EXIT The exit command is used to close a monitor session. The “QUIT” command also performs the same action. 4.5.2 HELP The “HELP” command provides a brief online description of each command that is available. Commands that require parameters are listed with the “” as options. Commands with optional parameters are listed with the “[parameters]” as options. 4.5.3 CONFIGSYS The system configuration utility allows you to configure various system dependant options.
IP Address Netmask = 192.94.231.206 = 255.255.255.0 Select option: 1. 2. S. Q. Change IP assignment mode Change hostname Save changes, restart the network, and exit Cancel (No changes) Enter selection: To change the IP assignment mode enter “1”. This will present the following screen: ** Ethernet configuration utility ** Current IP assignment: RARP Select option: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
To exit the IP configuration utility, select “S” to save the changes you have made. The network will be reconfigured to use the new Ethernet settings you have chosen. To discard any changes you have made, use the “Q” option. 4.5.6 LUNCONFIG This command is a memory-partitioning tool that allows the administrator to configure system memory into LUNs that may be assigned to specific Fibre Channel ports in the RamSan-210.
The password feature is automatically bypassed when logging in on the serial console. This feature allows a system administrator access to the RamSan-210 if the password is forgotten or lost. 4.5.9 PERFORMANCE The “PERFORMANCE” command may be used to view the bandwidth of each port. The monitor shows the average bandwidth of each port over a period of one second. This performance view shows only DMA activity and does not show other Fibre Channel activity. To stop the output from this command, press “Q”.
4.5.14 STATUS The “STATUS” command provides a variety of configuration details for the MCP and the Fibre Channel controllers. ram-san> status Texas Memory Systems, Inc. RamSan-210 Monitor Software Version: 1.0.1 Ethernet address: 00:20:c2:00:08:05 Ethernet IP: 192.94.231.206 Capacity: 4096 Megabytes System Status: System Idle FC32 Controller 1 -- Not installed FC32 Controller 2 - Firmware version: 0.
Chapter 5– Hot Swap Components One of the main features of the RamSan-210 is the ability to hot swap many of the system components. The power supplies, fans and disk drives can all be hot swapped; meaning that these components can be removed and replacement components reinserted while the system is running. 5.1 Hot Swapping Power Supplies The RamSan-210 includes two power supplies. The system only requires one functioning power supply to run.
5.2 Hot Swapping Disk Drives The RamSan-210 includes two mirrored hard disk drives. The system can operate with two disks operational, one disk operational or no disks operational. Normal operation mirrors writes to both disk drives. If a single disk drive fails, the system will continue to write to the available disk drive. At this point, it is desirable to replace the malfunctioning disk with a new disk drive. Once inserted, the system will rebuild the disk by executing a disk-to-disk copy.
The following steps should be performed to hot swap a fan block: 1. Slide the latch on the fans to the left and simultaneously pull firmly on the fan handle. The unit will slide out from the chassis. Use caution to avoid hitting the spinning fan blades once removed. 2. Firmly insert the new fan block into the RamSan-210 chassis. The fans will begin immediate operation once inserted into the chassis. Important: Failed fans should be replaced as soon as possible.
Chapter 6 – Batteries The RamSan-210 is equipped with two redundant one-hour Lithium Ion batteries. The batteries are designed to support the RamSan’s operational modes. Specifically, if external power to the RamSan-210 is lost, the system will continue to function running on the internal batteries. The batteries in the RamSan-210 are linked to the power supply units. In the event a power supply is removed or broken its attached battery will not work.
Chapter 7 – Troubleshooting After the system runs short self-tests on each internal component, the hardware initiates synchronization between disk and memory. To obtain further information about the failing location, the management port must be used. Contact Information: Texas Memory System, Inc.
Chapter 8 – Specifications 8.1 Physical Characteristics Rack Mount Size: Weight: Voltage: Ventilation: 8.2 Operating Environment Temperature: Max relative humidity: (non-condensing) Max heat dissipation: Power consumption: 8.3 32-85 °F (0-30 °C) 80% 512 Btu/hr (150 W) 100-150 W Non-operating Environment Temperature: Relative Humidity: (non-condensing) 8.4 2U (3.5”) x 25” deep 50 lbs.
Appendix A – RamSan-210 Replacement Parts Figure B-1 MCP31 Management Control Processor Figure B-2 FC32 Dual channel 1 gigabit Fibre Channel controller - 27 -
Figure B-3 PWR21 Power Supply Module Figure B-4 FAN21 Hot swappable fan tray - 28 -
Figure B-5 MEMG41 4 Gigabyte memory blade Figure B-6 TDD21 18 gigabyte replacement hard drive - 29 -
