1. RAID Basics
Speaker: Edgar Lin B
April, 2009

2. Agenda What is RAID? RAID Structure Feature Highlight
RAID Level & Comparison
Interface (Host/Disk)
RAID Structure
Configuration & Monitoring
Graphic User Interface Comparison
Storage Provisioning / Performance profile
Feature Highlight
RAIDGuard Central
Snapshot
PathGurard MPIO
Advanced Functions
Technical Support Flowchart
Update Firmware
Trouble Shooting 2

3. What is RAID?
RAID is an acronym first used in a 1988 paper by Berkeley researchers Patterson, Gibson and Katz.
Redundant Array of Independent Disk (RAID) is a storage technology used to combine multiple inexpensive drives into a logical drive to obtain performance, capacity and reliability over single-disk storage.
Single Large Expensive Disk (SLED)
Introduce five levels of RAIDs.
Also called Redundant Array of inexpensive Disk 3

4. RAID level description
RAID 0 – Disk Striping
RAID 1 – Disk Mirroring
RAID 3 – Disk Striping with dedicated parity
Block 6
Block 5
Block 4
Block 3
Block 2
Block 1
Block 7
Block 8
Block 9 ．
Block 6
Block 5
Block 4
Block 3
Block 2
Block 1 ．
Mirror
Block 6
Block 5
Block 4
Block 3
Block 2
Block 1
Parity (5,6)
Parity (3,4)
Parity (1,2) ．
RAID 5 – Disk Striping with distributed parity
RAID 6 – Disk Striping with 2sets of distributed parities
Block 6
Block 5
Block 4
Block 3
Block 2
Block 1
Parity (5,6)
Parity (3,4)
Parity (1,2) ．
Block 9
Block 8
Block 7
Block 6
Block 5
Block 4
Block 3
Block 2
Block 1
P (7,8,9)
Q (7,8,9)
P (4,5,6)
Q (4,5,6)
P (1,2,3)
Q (1,2,3) 4

5. RAID level description
JBOD – Just a Bunch of Disks
NRAID – Non RAID
1610G ．
250 GB
500 GB
160 GB
300 GB
400 GB
250G
500G
160G
300G
400G ．
250 GB
500 GB
160 GB
300 GB
400 GB
RAID 10 – Disk striping with Mirroring
RAID 30/50/60 – combination of RAID 0 and RAID 3/5/6
Block 6
Block 5
Block 4
Block 3
Block 2
Block 1 ．
Mirror
Block 8
Block 7
Block 6
Block 5
Block 4
Block 3
Block 2
Block 1
Parity (6,8)
Parity (2,4)
Parity (5,7)
Parity (1,3) 5

6. Overview of RAID levels
R: Redundant / JanusRAID II J: JanusRAID P: PCI-e I: iSCSI
RAID Level
Description
Capacity
Data Availability
Min. disks
Series
RAID 0
Disk striping N 1
RJPI
RAID 1
Disk mirroring
N/N 5 2
RAID 3
Striping with dedicated parity
N-1 3
RAID 5
Striping with distributed parity
RAID 6
Striping with 2 sets of of distributed parities
N-2 4 TP
Triple Parity
N-3 J
RAID 10
Disk striping with RAID 1
N/2
RJI
RAID 30
Striping of RAID 3 6
RAID 50
Striping of RAID 5
RAID 60
Striping of RAID 6
N-4 8 RI
JBOD
Just a bunch of disks
NRAID
Non-RAID RJ 6

7. Interface (Host/Disk)
Host Interface
SCSI (VHDCI, HD68)
SAS (3 Gbits, 6 Gbits)
Fibre (1 Gbits, 2 Gbits, 4 Gbits, 8 Gbits)
iSCSI (Gigabit,10G Ethernet)
PCI-e (PCI-e x4 x8 ...)
Disk Interface
Serial
SATA (1.5 Gbit/s, 3 Gbit/s)
SAS (3 Gbit/s, 6 Gbit/s)
Parallel
PATA (PIO, DMA, Ultra DMA 33/66/100/133)
SCSI (SCSI-1, SCSI-2, Ultra, Wide, Ultra2, Ultra3, Ultra 320) 7

8. RAID system solution R: Redundant controller S: Single controller
4U 24bays
R: Redundant controller
S: Single controller
4U 24bays
3U 16bays
3U 16bays
SAS-SAS/SATA II (R)
FC 4G-SAS/SATA II (R)
SCSI-SATA II
PCI-e-SATA II
2U 12bays
JBOD-SAS/SATA II (R)
SAS-SAS/SATA II (R/S)
FC 4G-SAS/SATA II (R/S)
SCSI-SATA II
iSCSI-SAS / SATA II
PCI-e-SATA II
JBOD-SAS/SATA II (R/S)
SAS-SAS/SATA II
FC 4G-SAS/SATA II
SCSI-SATA II
iSCSI-SAS/SATA II (2U 8/12bays)
PCI-e-SATA II
2U 8bays
SCSI-SATA II
PCIe-SATA II
NAS-SATA II
Tower 8bays
PCIe-SATA II
Tower 8bays
Tower 4bays
Tower 4bays
eSATA-SATA II
1394/USB-SATA II
2U 6bays
SCSI-SATA II
SCSI-SATA II
NAS-SATA II 8

9. RAID Structures Virtual disk LUN mapping  Logical Units (LUN)
Volumes
 Volumes
Logical Disks
 Logical disk (LD)
Disks Groups
 Disk group ( DG)
Local
Spare
JBOD
Disks
Global
Space
Unused
 Local spare and global
spare disk
Hard Disks
The storage resources are managed as storage objects in a hierarchical structure. 9

10. RAID Structures Virtual disk LUN mapping  Logical Units (LUN)
JBOD
Disks
Logical Units
 Logical Units (LUN)
Volumes
 Volumes
Logical Disks
 Logical disk (LD)
Disks Groups
 Disk group ( DG)
Local
Spare
Global
Space
 Local spare and global
spare disk
Unused
Disks
Hard Disks
The storage resources are managed as storage objects in a hierarchical structure. 10

11. RAID Configuration and Monitoring
LCD & button:
All RAID systems have a front LCD panel which supports a quick configuration and RAID monitoring
Web-GUI
Open a browser and enter the IP address in the address field.
Check IP address on LCD. (Default is DHCP enable. If no DHCP server exists, RAID system will assign an IP automatically.) Supported browsers:
IE 6.x and above SAS
FireFox 1.x and above
Safari 1.x and above
Web-GUI includes 2 modes,
“Monitor mode”: for monitoring most status of RAID system
Config Mode”: password needed to configure RAID system manually. 11

12. Redundant / JanusRAID II
GUI Comparison
1st Gen
2nd Gen
PCI-e GUI
Series
JanusRAID
Redundant / JanusRAID II
PCIe
Installation
No (need JRE) No
Yes
communication
Out-band
(Ethernet)
In-band
Interface
Browser
Standalone
Language
Java
JavaScript
Monitor
Configure 12

13. 1st Gen GUI 2nd Gen GUI PCI-e GUI13

14. Maintenance Utilities Hardware Configurations Performance Management
RAID Configuration
To configure any settings under Config. Mode, log in with admin and its password.
The Overview screen displays as below.
The Config. Mode provides the following configuration settings
Item
Detail information
Quick Setup
Allows you to configure your array quickly.
RAID Management
Allows you to plan your array.
Maintenance Utilities
Allow you to perform maintenance task on your arrays.
Hardware Configurations
Allows you to configure the settings to hard disks, FC/SAS/SCSI ports, and COM port settings.
Event Management
Allows you to configure event mail, event logs, and UPS settings.
System Management
Allows you to erase or restore the NVRAM configurations, set up mail server, update firmware, boot code and so on.
Performance Management
Allows you to check IO statistics of hard disks, caches, LUNs, and FC/SAS ports. 14

15. RAID Flow Chart RAID System setup Advanced Array Setup Open Web-GUI
Set Time
JBOD
RAID or JBOD?
Set JBOD disk
Change admin’s password & set reminding
RAID
Set DG (Disk Group)
Insert Disk and run Disk-Self-Test
Set LD (Logical Disk)
- RAID 0/1/3/5/NRAID
Quick Array Setup
Yes
RAID 30/50/60 ?
Set Vol(Volume)
Set array by LCD/Web-GUI No
Set Performance Profile
Mapping to LUN - Storage Provision
Connect to host server and start to use 15

16. Storage Provisioning (DAS) (MPIO) (SAN) Simple Symmetric Selective
LUN 0
(DG0 LD0)
(DG1 LD1)
Host port 1
Host port 2
Symmetric
(MPIO)
LUN 0
(DG0 LD0)
LUN 1
(DG1 LD1)
LUN 2
(VOL 3)
LUN 3
(JBOD 2)
Host port 1
Host port 2
Selective
(SAN)
Host 0
Host 4
Host 3
Host 6
Host 5
Host 8
Host 7
SAN
Environment
(Host Group)
(Storage Group)
HG1: Host 5, Host 6 ….
LUN 2
(DG0 LD0)
LUN 3
(DG0 LD2)
LUN 4
(VOL 2)
LUN 5
(DG0 LD1)
LUN 6
(JBOD 5)
LUN 8
(DG3 LD3)
LUN 9
(DG2 LD0)
LUN 10
(DG2 LD2)
LUN 15
(VOL 6)
LUN 16
(VOL 7)
LUN 13
(VOL 4)
LUN 14
(VOL 5)
Simple storage is used in direct attached storage (DAS) environment, any computer is allowed to access the LUNs presented by the controller after gaining access to the host ports of the controller. LUNs are assigned to each virtual disk in RAID so the host can address and access the data in those devices.
Symmetric storage is used in environments where hosts are quipped with multi-path IO (MPIO) driver or software that can handle multiple paths (LUNs) to a single virtual disk. Use the provided PathGuard package to install and use the MPIO driver. In this case, the controller’s performance is highly elevated. You need not consider different host ports because the bindings between HG (host group) and virtual disk are applied to all host ports.
Selective is used in complicated SAN environments, where there are multiple hosts accessing the controller through an FC switch. This method provides the most flexibility for you to manage the logical connectivity between host and storage resources exported by the RAID system.
The HG (Host Group) can be a host or a group of hosts that share the same access control settings in the controller. SG (Storage Group) represents the LUNs as a storage group. Bind the host/ host group and storage group to the same host port. 16

17. Performance Profile Profile AV stremaing Maximum IO per second
Maximum throughput
Disk IO Retry Count
0 (Degrade: 2) 1
Disk IO Timeout (second)
3 (Degrade: 10) 30
Bad Block Retry
Off On
Bad Block Alert
N/A
Disk Cache
Write Cache
Write Cache Periodic Flush (Second) 5
Write Cache Flush Ratio (%) 45
Read Ahead
Adaptive
Read Ahead Multiplier 8 - 16
Read Logs 32 17

18. Features Highlight RAIDGuard Central Snapshot PathGuard MPIO
Advanced Function 18

19. RAIDGuard Central Features -1
Ethernet Switch
․․․
Centralized Monitoring 19

20. RAIDGuard Central Features -2
Fan Error
Event notice
Mail and MSN
inform
Ethernet Switch
Fan Error
Error
․․․ 20

21. RAIDGuard Central Features -3
Config. RAID 5
Ethernet Switch
Config. RAID 5
Config. RAID 5
Config. RAID 5
․․․
Centralizing configuration 21

22. RAIDGuard Central Features
Centralized monitoring:
New RAIDGuard Central could monitor hundreds of Arena RAID at the same time. Best way to control multiple installations.
Advanced Event notice :
All systems could send error message to center server. Easy to know immediately which unit needed to be proper maintained.
Mail and MSN inform :
Allow customer to warning the engineer real-time with mail sending and most popular web messenger: MSN.
Centralizing Configuration:
Maintain/ configure multiple Arena RAID to save the most time on system integration and supports.
Compatible Models: Janus II, Redundant 22

23. Snapshot Features -1 Instant copy Multiple copies Instant recovery
12:00
1:00
2:00
3:00
Timeline
1:00 status
Virus
Saving Data
Roll Back
Data Restore
Instant copy
Multiple copies
Instant recovery
Data Rollback 23

24. Snapshot Features -2 Instant Copy : Multiple copies: Instant Recovery:
Copy on the scheduled time of the date. Customers can define how much and when they feel data is important
Multiple copies:
Snapshot can create multiple return point with change only- it means without lot’s efforts on RAID and no loading on server
Instant Recovery:
No down time needed. Work instantly online. No performance impact and also no requirement to rebuild or try to data rescue.
Data Rollback:
Snapshot allow you to rollback/ recover to the nearest point of time. Only little data loss for time being.
Compatible Models: iSCSI, PCI-e, Janus II, Redundant 24

25. PathGUard ™ MPIO Features -1
Server
Host Host 2
Server
Host Host 2
Before
After
Path Guard
Double Bandwidth
Boost up
Performance
Load balancing
Boost up performance 25

26. Re-Connect/ Change cable
PathGUard ™ MPIO Features -2
Server
Host Host 2
Server
Host Host 2
Path Guard
Fail Over
Fail back
After check
Fail
Re-Connect/ Change cable
Fail over
Fail back 26

27. PathGuard™ MPIO Features
Load balancing:
Add both bandwidth boost up performance. Improve server and application performance and data availability
Fail-over:
Automatic recovery from path fails. Improve application availability and enhances performance
Fail-back:
Real-time detect and auto switching back while the other path is back. Improve application and server availability
Auto detection and performance policy:
Tunable policy to optimize performance for specific application. Such as video editing or video surveillance.
Compatible Models: Janus, Janus II, Redundant 27

28. Advance Function Bad Block Alerts SMART Disk Cloning Scrubbing
Disk Spin Down
Array Roaming
Array Recovery
Bad Block
Access
Work NO
ZZZ… REST
Health OK
Sick
Fail
Working
Sick
Spare Copy
RAID 5
Fix &
Recover Data
Disk Fail
2nd Fail
Array Recovery
Disk Cloning When a hard disk is likely to become faulty or develop errors, like bad sectors over threshold or a disk reports SMART warning, you can copy all the data on the disk to another disk.
Bad Block Alerts This option enables event alerts or disk cloning for bad block reallocation.
SMART RAID system monitors drive health on preset polling intervals, if hard drive degradation is detected or the SMART fail signal is reached, the alert or cloning function will begin immediately.
Scrubbing Bad sectors may lead to unrecoverable data loss. Disk scrubbing can scan for bad sectors and/or parity errors in a RAID system. RAID system reconstructs bad sectors from other sectors and re-assigns it to an undamaged area, at the same time it also detects parity inconsistency, users can decide whether or not to overwrite (regenerate) inconsistent parity.
Disk Spin Down Disk Spin Down makes hard disk to go into idle state when no I/O requests are directed to the hard disks within a selected period of time. Allowing the disks to spin only when needed greatly reduces power consumption and thereby decreases operational cost.
Array Roaming With the array roaming, the user can install the disk drives to the new RAID system and power on system to get foreign or conflict disks, then performing array roaming to get array configuration back. All background tasks running previously on the disk drives are also resumed.
Array Recovery There are chances of RAID crash resulted from the transient failure of multiple disk drives, and the disk drives can still be working after being repowered. With the Array Recovery, the firmware can online recognize and recover the RAID configurations stored on disk drives and get the data back as long as the disk drives can be running again.
Stop
Repaired 28

29. Update Firmware (Janus / Janus II/Redundant / PCI-e)
Procedure
System Functions -> Update F/W
To update the System F/w click the Update System F/W button. It will be green when selected.
Click Update Start button. A dialogue box pops out asks you to confirm your update action, and click Yes.
A new browser window will automatically open.
System Management > Firmware Update
Specify the firmware type; the current firmware and boot code version will be also displayed on-screen. click on System F/W or Boot Code radio button.
Click Browse to select an update file.
Click Apply, and a confirmation prompt displays. Click Confirm to continue.
Update Firmware – Click to update the firmware of the controller card.
Update Boot Code – Click to update the boot code of the controller card.
Update BIOS & EFI – Click to update the BIOS and EFI of the controller card.
Ethernet
Yes No
Vendor Tools 29

30. Vendor Tools Windows Based Central Management
Green Software (No Installation)
Multiple RAIDs Firmware Update
Multiple RAIDs Bootcode Update 30

31. Technical Support Flowchart
Question
RMA
Yes No
Enough
Information ?
Hardware?
Analyze
Problem
Yes
Software
Debug
Solved No
Compatible
Issues
Consult
3rd Party 31

32. Trouble Shooting 4W, 1H Info RAID What is the problem?
When it occurred?
Where is the problem?
Why happen this problem?
RAID
Model,
FW, Boot Code
Memory, Hard Disk
RAID Level
Host
OS, Model, Memory, CPU
4W, 1H
Info
How to occur or duplicate the problem?
Connection
HBA, SFP, Terminator
External & Internal Cable
Message
LCD & Terminal Message
GUI (.BIN, .CSV, .html)
OS Event Log
What is the problem? Detail Description
When the problem occurred? From the beginning use or sudden happen after running for a while?
Where is the problem?
Why happen the problem?
How to occur the problem? 32

33. a more powerful way for storage33