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03-Configuring an embedded RSTe RAID controller

Configuring the embedded RSTe RAID controller or VROC SATA RAID controller

Rack servers, blade servers, and compute modules may provide embedded RSTe RAID controllers.

About the embedded RSTe RAID controller

The embedded Intel Rapid Storage Technology enterprise (RSTe) RAID controller (referred to as VROC SATA RAID controller for G5 servers) is embedded on the southbridge of the system board. Integrating AHCI and RAID programs, the RAID controller is mainly used to manage Intel chip set-based drives, check the status of the drives, and provide RAID capacity for systems that use SATA drives. If the RAID controller has multiple drives attached, you can configure RAID arrays to protect data and improve read/write performance.

If you use the embedded RSTe RAID controller to configure RAID, you can create a maximum of two logical drives with a physical drive. The second logical drive will use the remaining capacity of the physical drive, and the logical drive size cannot be adjusted.

The RAID controller has one SATA controller and one sSATA controller. For the positions of the controllers, see the user guide of the server.

For the embedded RAID controller, you can configure RAID in both UEFI mode and legacy mode.

Features

Operating modes

The RAID controller supports the following operating modes:

· AHCI mode —This is the default mode. In this mode, all physical drives are exposed to the operating system (OS). The drives can be directly used for data storage. Native Command Queuing (NCQ) is supported, which improves the I/O performance of SATA drives.

· RAID mode—In this mode, RAID functions are enabled and RAID arrays can be created on physical drives to improve I/O performance and data security.

NOTE:

· For the new mode to take effect, restart the server after an operating mode change.

· The OS might fail to start up after the operating mode of the storage controller is changed. To resolve this issue, reinstall the OS. If the issue persists, contact Technical Support.

RAID levels

The supported RAID levels vary by storage controller model. For more information about the supported RAID levels of each storage controller, see H3C Servers Storage Controllers Technical Specifications.

Table 1 shows the minimum number of drives required by each RAID level and the maximum number of failed drives supported by each RAID level. For more information about RAID levels, see "Appendix B RAID arrays and fault tolerance."

Table 1 RAID levels and the numbers of drives for each RAID level

RAID level	Min. drives required	Max. failed drives
RAID 0	2	0
RAID 1	2	1
RAID 5	3	1
RAID 10	4	2

Restrictions and guidelines for RAID configuration

· As a best practice, install drives that do not contain RAID information.

· To avoid degraded RAID performance or RAID creation failures, make sure all drives in the RAID are the same type (HDDs or SSDs) and have the same connector type (SAS or SATA).

· For efficient use of storage, use drives that have the same capacity to build a RAID. If the drives have different capacities, the lowest capacity is used across all drives in the RAID.

· If one drive is used by several logical drives, RAID performance might be affected and maintenance complexities will increase.

Configuring RAID arrays in UEFI mode

This section describes how to configure RAID arrays through an embedded RSTe RAID controller in UEFI mode. For more information about how to enter the BIOS and set the boot mode to UEFI, see the BIOS user guide for the server.

RAID array configuration tasks at a glance

To configure RAID arrays in UEFI mode, perform the following tasks:

· Setting the RSTe operating mode

· Accessing the RSTe configuration screen

· Configuring RAID arrays

· (Optional.) Configuring hot spare drives

· (Optional.) Deleting RAID arrays

Setting the RSTe operating mode

1. During server POST, press Delete, Esc, or F2 as prompted to open the BIOS setup screen as shown in Figure 1.

For how to navigate screens and modify settings, see the operation instructions at the lower right corner.

Figure 1 BIOS setup screen

2. On the screen as shown in Figure 2, select Platform Configuration > PCH Configuration, and press Enter.

For G5 servers, the Platform Configuration options are in the Advanced menu.

Figure 2 Platform Configuration screen

3. On the screen as shown in Figure 3, select PCH SATA Configuration or PCH sSATA Configuration, which corresponds to the two configuration entries of the embedded RSTe RAID controller, and then press Enter.

Figure 3 PCH Configuration screen

4. On the screen as shown in Figure 4, select Configure SATA As, press Enter, and select an operating mode.

For more information about setting the operating mode for an embedded RSTe RAID controller, see "Features."

Figure 4 Modifying the storage controller operating mode

5. After the configuration is complete, press F4. On the dialog box that opens, select Yes to save the current configuration and reboot the system to complete the storage controller operating mode configuration.

Accessing the RSTe configuration screen

1. Access the BIOS setup screen.

2. On the screen as shown in Figure 5, select Advanced > Intel(R) VROC SATA Controller or Intel(R) VROC sSATA Controller, and press Enter.

NOTE:

For the Intel(R) VROC SATA Controller or Intel(R) VROC sSATA Controller option to appear on the screen shown in Figure 5, make sure the SATA or sSATA controller has been configured to operate in RAID mode. For how to set the operating mode, see "Setting the RSTe operating mode."

Figure 5 Advanced screen

The RSTe configuration screen as shown in Figure 6 opens.

Figure 6 RSTe configuration screen

Configuring RAID arrays

1. On the RSTe configuration screen as shown in Figure 7, select Create RAID Volume, and press Enter.

The Create RAID Volume option is available only when the interface corresponding to the SATA or sSATA controller connects to two or more drives.

Figure 7 Selecting Create RAID Volume

2. On the screen as shown in Figure 8, set the Name, RAID Level, Select Disks, Strip Size, and Capacity parameters, select Create Volume, and press Enter to create the RAID volume.

Table 2 describes the configuration parameters for creating a RAID volume.

Figure 8 Setting RAID parameters

Table 2 Configuration parameters

Parameter	Description
Name	RAID array name.
RAID Level	RAID level, which determines the performance, fault tolerance capability, and capacity for the logical drive.
Select Disks	Select member drives for the RAID array. Available drives are displayed under Select Disks. Press Enter to select drives. [X] indicates that the corresponding drive has been selected.
Strip Size	Stripe size, which determines the size of the data block that can be written into a stripe on each drive.
Capacity	Logical drive capacity.

3. The screen as shown in Figure 9 opens.

After the RAID volume is created, the RAID volume is displayed in the RAID Volumes directory. To view details about a RAID volume, select the RAID volume, and press Enter. Details about a RAID volume include the RAID array name, RAID level, and member drives.

Figure 9 Viewing the created RAID volume

Configuring hot spare drives

CAUTION:

With hot spare drives configured, if a RAID level is degraded due to drive failures, hot spare drives replace the failed drives automatically. The system starts RAID rebuilding automatically after accessing the OS.

1. On the RSTe configuration screen as shown in Figure 10, select a drive to configure as a hot spare drive, and press Enter.

Figure 10 Selecting a drive for hot spare

2. Select Mark as Spare, and press Enter.

Figure 11 Configuring a spare drive

3. On the following screen that opens, select Yes and press Enter.

Figure 12 Confirming the hot spare configuration

Deleting RAID arrays

1. On the RSTe configuration screen as shown in Figure 13, select the RAID volume to be deleted under RAID Volumes, and press Enter.

Figure 13 Selecting the RAID volume to be deleted

2. On the screen as shown in Figure 14, select Delete and press Enter to delete the selected RAID volume.

Figure 14 RAID volume information screen

Locating a drive

1. On the RSTe configuration screen as shown in Figure 15, select the RAID volume to locate, and press Enter.

Figure 15 Selecting the RAID volume to delete

2. Select Turn Locate LED On and then press Enter.

For information about drive LEDs, see the user guide for the server.

Figure 16 Locating a logical drive

Initializing a logical drive

The embedded RAID controller automatically initializes the RAID after RAID configuration. After initialization, the logical drive can be used by the OS and the member drives can meet the requirement of the RAID level if the RAID is redundant.

Configuring RAID arrays in legacy mode

This section describes how to configure RAID through an embedded RSTe RAID controller in legacy mode. For more information about how to enter the BIOS and set the boot mode to legacy, see the BIOS user guide for the server.

RAID array configuration tasks at a glance

To configure RAID arrays in legacy mode, perform the following tasks:

· Setting the RSTe operating mode

· Accessing the RSTe configuration screen

· Configuring RAID arrays

· (Optional.) Configuring hot spare drives

· (Optional.) Deleting RAID arrays

Setting the RSTe operating mode

1. Access the BIOS setup screen.

2. On the screen as shown in Figure 17, select Platform Configuration > PCH Configuration, and press Enter.

Figure 17 Platform Configuration screen

3. On the screen as shown in Figure 18, select PCH SATA Configuration or PCH sSATA Configuration, which corresponds to the two configuration entries of the embedded RSTe RAID controller, and then press Enter.

Figure 18 PCH Configuration screen

4. On the screen as shown in Figure 19, select Configure SATA As, press Enter, and select an operating mode.

Figure 19 Modifying the storage controller operating mode

Accessing the RSTe configuration screen

This section describes how to access the legacy BIOS configuration screen. To enter the RSTe configuration screen, make sure a minimum of one embedded RSTe RAID controller is configured to operate in RAID mode and each controller connects to a minimum of two drives. For how to set the operating mode, see "Setting the RSTe operating mode."

To access the RSTe configuration screen:

1. Power on or reboot the server.

2. When the screen is as shown in Figure 20 during server POST, press Ctrl+I.

Figure 20 BIOS boot screen

NOTE:

If both sSATA and SATA controllers are configured to operate in RAID mode, the prompt Press <CTRL-I> to enter Configuration Utility appears twice during server POST, which corresponds to the sSATA controller and SATA controller. Select a controller according to the drives to be configured for a RAID array.

The RSTe configuration screen as shown in Figure 21 opens. Table 3 describes the configuration screen. For how to navigate screens and modify settings, see the operation instructions at the bottom of the screen.

Figure 21 RSTe configuration screen

Table 3 RSTe configuration screen description

Section	Description
MAIN MENU	In the MAIN MENU section on the upper part of the page, you can perform the following tasks: · Create RAID arrays. · Delete RAID arrays. · Reset drives to non-RAID. · Mark drives as spare. · Exit.
DISK/VOLUME INFORMATION	In the DRIVE/VOLUME INFORMATION section on the lower part of the page, you can view brief information about existing RAID arrays and physical drives.

Section

Description

MAIN MENU

In the MAIN MENU section on the upper part of the page, you can perform the following tasks:

· Create RAID arrays.

· Delete RAID arrays.

· Reset drives to non-RAID.

· Mark drives as spare.

· Exit.

DISK/VOLUME INFORMATION

In the DRIVE/VOLUME INFORMATION section on the lower part of the page, you can view brief information about existing RAID arrays and physical drives.