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Changing Controller Parameters
- Select the array.
- Choose Configuration > Custom Configure.
If necessary, log in to the configuration level of the program with
the ssconfig password.
- From the Custom Configuration Options
window, select Change Controller Parameters.
The Change Controller Parameters window with the Channel
tab is displayed.
NOTE: For the SANnet II 200 FC and
SATA arrays, the CurClk is 2.0 GHz.
Controller Name (optional) If you
want to specify a name for the controller so that you can easily identify
it, select Controller Name and type the desired name. Click OK
to save the change. The controller name is displayed in various applicable
SANscape windows for convenience.
Controller Unique ID (reserved)
The controller unique identifier is automatically set by the SCSI Accessed
Fault-Tolerant Enclosure (SAF-TE) or SCSI Enclosure Services (SES) device.
The controller unique identifier is used to create Ethernet addresses
and WWNs, and to identify the unit for some network configurations.
CAUTION: Do not specify a new nonzero
value unless you have replaced the chassis and the original chassis
serial number must be retained. It is especially important in a Sun
Cluster environment to maintain the same disk device names in a cluster.
Do not change the controller unique identifier unless instructed to
do so by qualified service personnel. Changes made to the controller
unique identifier do not take effect until the controller is reset.
The tabs in this window include:
Channel Tab
RS 232 Tab
Cache Tab
Disk Array Tab
Drive I/F Tab
Host I/F Tab
Redundancy Tab
Peripheral Tab
Network Tab
Protocol Tab
Some of the options on the Change Controller
Parameters window require that the controller be reset so the changes
can take effect. For details about saving changes in the Change Controller
Parameters window, see Saving Changed Values.
Channel Tab
- From the Channel tab, select the
channel to be edited.
- Click Change Settings.
The Change Channel Settings window
is displayed. For the server to recognize the array, a host channel
must have an ID assigned to a logical drive and a logical drive mapped
to that host channel and ID. This window enables you to configure the
host/drive channel.
-
From the Channel Mode list box,
select either Host or Drive.
A Drive channel is what the drives
are connected to (internal or external). A Host channel is
what is connected to the server. The most common reason to change
the Channel Mode from Host to Drive is to attach
expansion units to a RAID array.
NOTE: SCSI arrays support a maximum
of two host channels.
NOTE: Depending on the controller
configuration, you might need to select both primary and secondary channel
IDs as described in the following steps.
CAUTION: Arrays are preconfigured
with host, drive, and RCCOM channel settings. SANscape cannot configure
or show RCCOM channels. Before configuring a host or drive channel,
review the channel assignments using the firmware application. In a
redundant-controller configuration, if the RCCOM channel settings are
overwritten using SANscape, intercontroller communication stops and
unexpected results might vary. For more information, refer to the SANnet
II Family RAID Firmware User's Guide.
- From the Available SCSI IDs list
box, select the primary channel ID, which is designated as PID.
Then click Add PID.
- If you have two controllers installed,
select a secondary channel ID from the Available SCSI IDs list
box, and click Add SID.
NOTE: For SCSI arrays, if you add
more than four channel IDs, the LUNs Per Host ID (see Host
I/F Tab) must be set to a value less than 32.
Changing Host ID in a Fibre or SATA Configuration
- If you want an ID higher than 15,
select the desired range from the Select SCSI Range list box.
NOTE: Each channel's ID must be
within the same range.
- Click Remove to remove the PID
or SID.
- Once your selections have been made, click
OK to redisplay the previous window.
RS 232 Tab
RS 232 parameters enable you to set the baud
rate of the RS 232 connection.
- After all channel settings have been made,
from the Change Controller Parameters window, click the RS
232 Settings tab.
- Select the port desired, and click Change
Settings. The Change RS232 Port Settings window is displayed.
- Select any baud rate desired, including
the default rate of 38400, and click OK to return to the
previous window.
- Click OK.
Cache Tab
- From the Change Controller Parameters
window, select the Cache tab.
- To specify write back as the default
cache, select Enabled from the Write Back Cache list box.
The write policy determines when cached
data is written to the disk drives. The ability to hold data in cache
while it is being written to disk can increase storage device speed
during sequential reads. Write policy options include write-through
and write-back.
Using write-back cache, the controller
receives the data to write to disk, stores it in the memory buffer,
and immediately sends the host OS a signal that the write operation
is complete, before the data is actually written to the disk drive.
Write-back caching improves the performance of write operations and
the throughput of the controller card. Write-back cache is enabled
by default.
Using write-through cache, the controller
writes the data to the disk drive before signaling the host OS that
the process is complete. Write-through cache has lower write operation
and throughput performance than write-back cache, but it is the safer
strategy, with minimum risk of data loss on power failure. Because
a battery module is installed, power is supplied to the data cached
in memory and the data can be written to disk when power is restored.
When write-back cache is disabled, write- through cache becomes the
default write policy.
The setting you specify is the default
global cache setting for all logical drives. You can override this
setting per logical drive when you create a logical drive.
- Select an optimization mode.
- The Optimization mode
indicates the amount of data that is written across each drive. The
controller supports two optimization modes, Sequential I/O and Random
I/O. Sequential I/O is the default mode.
The RAID arrays cache optimization mode determines the cache block
size used by the controller for all logical drives:
- For sequential optimization, the cache
block size is 128 Kbyte.
- For random optimization, the cache block
size is 32 Kbyte.
An appropriate cache block size improves performance when a particular
application uses either large or small stripe sizes:
- Video playback, multimedia post-production
audio and video editing, and similar applications read and write large
files in sequential order.
- Transaction-based and database update
applications read and write small files in random order.
Since the cache block size works in conjunction with the default stripe
size set by the cache optimization mode for each logical drive you create,
these default stripe sizes are consistent with the cache block size
setting. You can, however, specify a different stripe size for any logical
drive at the time you create it. See Specifying Non-Default Stripe
Sizes on page 168 for more information.
Refer to the SANnet II Family RAID Firmware Users Guide
for more information on cache optimization modes.
NOTE: Once logical drives are created,
you cannot use the RAID firmwares Optimization for Random
I/O or Optimization for Sequential I/O menu option to
change the optimization mode without deleting all logical drives. You
can use SANscape, as described above, or the SANscape CLI set
cache-parameters command to change the optimization mode while
logical drives exist. Refer to the SANscape CLI Users Guide
for information on the set
cache-parameters command.
Specifying Non-Default Stripe Sizes
Depending on the optimization mode and
RAID level selected, newly created logical drives are configured with
the default stripe sizes shown in the following table.
RAID Level |
Default Stripe Size for Sequential
I/O |
Default Stripe Size for Random
I/O |
0, 1, 5 |
128 |
32 |
3 |
16 |
4 |
When you create a logical drive, you can
replace the default stripe size with one that better suits your application.
- For sequential optimization, available
stripe size choices include 16 Kbyte, 32 Kbyte, 64 Kbyte, 128 Kbyte,
and 256 Kbyte.
- For random optimization, available stripe
size choices include 4 Kbyte, 8 Kbyte, 16 Kbyte, 32 Kbyte, 64 Kbyte,
128 Kbyte, and 256 Kbyte.
NOTE: Default stripe sizes optimize performance for most applications.
Refer to the SANnet II Family RAID Firmware Users Guide for information
about how to set the stripe size for a logical drive.
Once the stripe size is selected and data is written to logical drives,
the only way to change the stripe size of an individual logical drive
is to back up all its data to another location, delete the logical drive,
and create a logical drive with the stripe size that you want.
Maximum Number of Disks and Maximum Usable Capacity for Random and
Sequential Optimization
The maximum capacity per logical drive supported by the RAID firmware
is:
- 16 Tbyte with Random Optimization
- 64 Tbyte with Sequential Optimization
Actual logical drive maximum capacities are usually determined by practical
considerations or the amount of disk space available.
CAUTION: In FC and SATA configurations with large drive capacities,
the size of the logical drive might exceed the device capacity limitation
of your operating system. Be sure to check the device capacity limitation
of your operating system before creating the logical drive. If the logical
drive size exceeds the capacity limitation, you must partition the logical
drive.
Refer to the SANnet II Family RAID Firmware Users Guide
for details regarding maximum usable capacity of a logical drive, depending
on RAID level and optimization mode.
- Set Periodic Cache Flush Time.
Setting a Periodic Cache Flush Time
enables the controller to flush cache to logical drive storage at
specified intervals. This safety measure prevents the accumulation
of data in cache that could be lost in the event of power loss.
Select one of the following values:
- Disabled - Terminates periodic
cache flush, enabling the controller to flush cache when data in
cache is written to disk.
- Continuous Sync - Continuously
flushes data from cache to logical drive storage
- 30 sec - Flushes cache to logical
drive storage after each 30-second interval.
- 1 min - Flushes cache to logical
drive storage after each one-minute interval.
- 2 min - Flushes cache to logical
drive storage after each two-minute interval.
- 5 min - Flushes cache to logical
drive storage after each five-minute interval.
- 10 min - Flushes cache to
logical drive storage after each 10-minute interval.
NOTE: Setting this value to an interval
less than one minute (Continuous Sync or 30 sec) might affect performance.
For changes to take effect, reset the controller.
See also Maximum
Number of Disks and Maximum Usable Capacity for Random and Sequential
Optimization.
Disk Array Tab
- From the Change Controller Parameters
window, click the Disk Array tab.
- Select either Disabled or Enabled
from the three Write Verify list boxes.
Normally, errors might occur when a hard
drive writes data. To avoid the write error, the controller can force
the hard drives to verify the written data.
- Write Verify on Initialization
- Performs verify-after-write while initializing the logical drive.
- Write Verify on Rebuild - Performs
verify-after-write during the rebuilding process.
- Write Verify on Normal - Performs
verify-after-write during normal I/O requests.
- Select from the four options available
in the Rebuild Priority list box: Low, Normal, Improved,
or High.
The RAID controller provides a background
rebuilding ability. This means the controller is able to serve other
I/O requests while rebuilding the logical drives. The time required
to rebuild a drive set largely depends on the total capacity of the
logical drive being rebuilt. Additionally, the rebuilding process is
totally transparent to the host computer or the operating system.
- Low - The default that uses the
controller's minimum resources to rebuild.
- Normal - To speed up the rebuilding
process.
- Improved - To allocate more resources
to the rebuilding process.
- High - To use the controller's
maximum resources to complete the rebuilding process in the shortest
time possible.
Drive I/F Tab
- From the Change Controller Parameters
window, click the Drive I/F tab.
- From the Drive Motor Spin Up field,
select either Disabled or Enabled.
Drive Motor Spin Up determines how
the physical drives in a disk array are started. When the power supply
is unable to provide sufficient current for all physical drives and
controllers that are powered up at the same time, spinning up the physical
drives serially requires less current.
If Drive Motor Spin Up is enabled,
the drives are powered up sequentially and some of these drives might
not be ready for the controller to access when the array powers up.
Increase the disk access delay time so that the controller will wait
longer for the drive to be ready.
- Set the Disk Access Latency.
This function sets the delay time before
the controller tries to access the hard drives after power on. The default
is 15 seconds.
- Set the Tag Count Per Drive.
This is the maximum number of tags that
can be sent to each drive at the same time. A drive has a built-in cache
that is used to sort all of the I/O requests (tags) that are sent to
the drive, enabling the drive to finish the requests faster.
The cache size and maximum number of tags
varies between different brands and models of drive. Use the default
setting of 32. Changing the maximum tag count to Disable
causes the internal cache of the drive to be ignored (not used).
The controller supports tag command queuing
with an adjustable tag count from 1 to 128.
- Select the variable time options shown
in the list box from the SAF-TE/SES Polling Period(s) field,
or select Disabled to disable this function so that all installed
Event Recording Modules (ERMs) are never polled.
- From the SCSI I/O Timeout(s) field,
select from 0.5 through 30 seconds.
The SCSI I/O Timeout is the time
interval for the controller to wait for a drive to respond. If the controller
attempts to read data from or write data to a drive but the drive does
not respond within the SCSI I/O timeout value, the drive is considered
a failed drive. The default setting for SCSI I/O Timeout is 30
seconds.
CAUTION: Do not change this setting.
Setting the timeout to a lower value causes the controller to judge
a drive as failed while a drive is still retrying or while a drive is
unable to arbitrate the SCSI bus. Setting the timeout to a greater value
causes the controller to keep waiting for a drive, and it might sometimes
cause a host timeout.
When the drive detects a media error while
reading from the drive platter, it retries the previous reading or recalibrates
the head. When the drive encounters a bad block on the media, it reassigns
the bad block to another spare block. However, all of this takes time.
The time to perform these operations can vary between different brands
and models of drives.
During SCSI bus arbitration, a device with
higher priority can use the bus first. A device with lower priority
sometimes receives a SCSI I/O timeout when devices of higher priority
keep using the bus.
- From the Drive Check Period (Sec)
field, select from 0.5 through 30 seconds.
The Periodic Drive Check Time is an interval
for the controller to check the drives on the SCSI bus. The default
value is Disabled, which means if there is no activity on the bus, the
controller does not know if a drive has failed or has been removed.
Setting an interval enables the program to detect a drive failure when
there is no array activity; however, performance is degraded.
- Auto Assign Global Spare Drive.
This feature is disabled by default.
When you enable it, the system automatically assigns a global spare
to the minimum drive ID in unused drives. This enables the array to
rebuild automatically without user intervention when a drive is replaced.
Host I/F Tab
- From the Change Controller Parameters
window, click the Host I/F tab.
- Set the Max Queued IO Count.
This function enables you to configure
the maximum number of I/O operations per logical drive that can be accepted
from servers. The predefined range is from 1 to 1024 I/O operations
per logical drive, or you can choose Auto Compute (automatically
configured) setting. The default value is 1024 I/O operations per logical
drive.
The appropriate setting depends on how
many I/O operations the attached servers and the controller itself are
performing. This can vary according to the amount of host memory present,
the number of drives and their size, and buffer limitations. If you
increase the amount of host memory, add more drives, or replace drives
with larger drives, you might want to increase the maximum I/O count.
-
(FC and SATA only). Select the type of
Fibre Connection.
SANnet II 200 FC arrays and SANnet II
200 SATA arrays support the following Fibre connection protocols:
- Set the LUNs Per Host.
This function is used to change the maximum
number of LUNs you can configure per host ID. Each time a host channel
ID is added, it uses the number of LUNs allocated in this setting. The
default setting is 32 LUNs, with a predefined range of 1
to 32 LUNs available.
NOTE: For SCSI arrays, the maximum
number of LUN assignments is 128; therefore, if you use the default
setting of 32, you can only add four host channel IDs (4 x 32 = 128).
If you added more than four host channel IDs (see Channel
Tab), the LUNs Per Host ID parameter must be set to a value
less than 32.
- (Optional) To increase the security of
the data stored on the array, you can prevent in-band management through
a SCSI or FC interface by selecting Disable for In-Band External
Interface Management.
CAUTION: If you are managing the
array through in-band, when you select Disable for In-Band External
Interface Management, communication with the array is disabled.
If you want to continue monitoring this array, select this option
only when you are managing the array through out-of-band. For the
steps to switch to out-of-band management, see Out-of-Band
Storage Management.
After selecting Disable for In-Band
External Interface Management, select the server icon and choose
View > View Server > Probe. It takes several minutes for the
console to update.
-
If you made changes to the Fibre Connection
protocol, for changes to take effect, reset the controller.
Disable for In-Band External Interface
Management.
Redundancy Tab
- From the Change Controller Parameters
window, click the Redundancy tab.
- Select an option from the Set Controller
Config field.
- Redundant Deassert Reset - If
you have failed a controller and want to bring it back online.
- Redundant Force Sec Fail - If
you want to force the secondary controller to fail.
- Redundant Force Pri Fail - If
you want to force the primary controller to fail.
NOTE: Set both controllers in the
Redundant Primary configuration. The controllers then determine which
one is primary and which one is secondary. This prevents any possible
conflicts between controllers.
-
When an array with redundant controllers
is operating with write-back cache enabled, you can disable the synchronization
of cache between the two controllers by selecting Not Synchronized
from the Write-Through Cache Synchronization list box.
CAUTION: Disabling cache synchronization
and eliminating the mirroring and transferring of data between controllers
can improve array performance, but it also eliminates the safeguard
provided by cache synchronization if one of the controllers fails.
- To save any changes in the Change Parameters
window, reset the controller.
- Click OK to return to the main
window.
Peripheral Tab
The Peripheral tab enables you to configure
the array to dynamically switch write policy from write-back cache to
write-through cache when a specified event occurs or threshold is exceeded.
Once the problem is corrected, the original write policy is restored.
You can also configure the controller to shut down if it exceeds the temperature
threshold.
The Peripheral Device Status box enables
you to view the status of all environmental sensors for the controller.
(For environmental status of the chassis, see Enclosure
View.)
- From the Change Controller Parameters
window, click the Peripheral tab.
- Enable or disable event trigger operations.
If the array is configured with write-back
cache enabled, specify whether you want the write policy to automatically
switch from write-back cache to write-through cache when the following
events occur:
- Controller Failure
- Fan Failure
- Battery-backup Unit Failure or
battery Not Fully Charged
- Power Supply Failure
NOTE: Once the problem is corrected,
the original write policy is restored.
If you do not want the write policy to
be switched automatically, set these options to Disable. They
are enabled by default.
- Enable or disable over-temperature controller
shutdown.
If you want the controller to shut down
immediately if the temperature exceeds the threshold limit,
select the Enable in the Temperature Exceeds Threshold
field; otherwise, select Disable.
When the controller shuts down, the controller
icon in the main window displays a yellow (degraded) device status
symbol .
- If you want the controller to shut down
after the temperature exceeds the threshold limit but not before a specified
interval, select a time from the Temperature Exceeds Threshold Period
field:
- 0 sec
- 2 min
- 5 min
- 10 min
- 20 min
- 30 min (default)
Viewing Environmental
Status for the Controller
- From the Change Controller Parameters
window, click the Peripheral tab.
- Click the right scroll bar and scroll
down until the Peripheral Device Status box is displayed.
- In the Peripheral Device Status
box, click the scroll bar and scroll down to view the environmental
status information.
The threshold ranges for peripheral devices
are set using the firmware application. If a device exceeds the threshold
range that was set, its status displays Over upper threshold.
If a device does not meet the threshold range, its status displays
Under lower threshold. Both events cause the controller icon
in the main window to display a red (critical) status symbol .
For information on how to set the threshold
ranges, refer to the SANnet II RAID Firmware Users Guide.
Network Tab
- From the Change Controller Parameters
window, click the Network tab.
- To manually configure an IP address, subnet
mask, gateway, and MAC address, click Change Settings.
The Change Network Setting window is displayed.
NOTE: SANnet II family arrays are configured by default with
the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) TCP/IP network support
protocol enabled. If your network uses a DHCP server, the server assigns
an IP address, netmask, and gateway IP address to the RAID array when
the array is initialized or subsequently reset.
- If you have set up an array in an environment
with a RARP server:
- Remove DHCP from the Selected box in the
Dynamic IP Assignment Mechanism List.
- Add RARP to the Selected box in the Dynamic
IP Assignment Mechanism List.
NOTE: The firmware does not support multiple IP assignment mechanisms.
If a protocol is currently selected, you must remove it before adding
another protocol.
- If you prefer to have a static IP address:
- Deselect the Enable Dynamic IP Assignment
check box.
- Type the static IP address, the subnet
mask, and the gateway IP address into the appropriate boxes under Static
IP Information.
- Click OK.
- When prompted to reset the controller,
click Yes.
For new settings to take effect, reset
the controller.
Saving Changed Values
The options on the Change
Controller Parameters window specified in the following table
require that the controller be reset so that the changes take effect.
Option |
Tab |
Controller Unique
ID |
All |
Channel Mode |
Channel (Change
Channel Settings) |
Default Transfer
Width |
Channel (Change
Channel Settings |
Termination |
Channel (Change
Channel Settings |
Default Sync
Clock |
Channel (Change
Channel Settings |
Write Back Cache
(only in firmware later than 3.3.1) |
Cache |
Optimization |
Cache |
I/O Timeout |
Drive I/F SCSI |
Max Queued IO
Count |
Host I/F |
Fibre Connection
(FC and SATA only) |
Host I/F |
LUNs Per Host |
Host I/F |
Controller Configuration |
Redundancy |
If a change requires
a controller reset, the following message is displayed in the lower left
side of the window:
[A Controller reset is required for changes
to take effect.]
To reset the controller and save changed
values, you can either select the Controller Reset check box at
the time of making the change, or reset the controller later through the
Controller Maintenance window. If you are making multiple changes,
you might not want to stop and reset the controller after each change.
If you do not select the Controller Reset check box, and the change
requires a reset, when you click OK, a warning message is displayed.
- Select the Controller Reset check
box.
- Make the changes and click OK.
or
- Do not select the Controller Reset
check box.
- Make the changes and click OK.
- Reset
the controller later.
Protocol Tab
For security reasons, you can enable only
the network protocols you want to support, which limits the ways in which
security can be breached.
- From the Change Controller Parameters
window, click the Protocol tab.
- Select which protocols to enable or disable.
The protocols are enabled or disabled
by default as follows:
- TELNET - Telnet access to the
IP address is enabled.
- HTTP - Hypertext Transport
Protocol access is disabled.
- HTTPS - Hypertext Transport
Protocol Secure access is disabled.
- FTP - File Transfer Protocol
access is disabled.
- SSH - Secure Socket Handling
protocol access is disabled.
- PriAgentAll - The internal
communication protocol used by the controller is enabled.
NOTE: The
PriAgentAll protocol must remain enabled for SANscape and the CLI
to receive information from the controller firmware. Do not disable
this protocol.
- SNMP - Simple Network Management
Protocol access is disabled. SNMP might be used to communicate with
external management software.
- DHCP - The Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol access is enabled. DHCP is used in some networks to dynamically
assign IP adresses to systems on the network.
- Ping - Ping enables hosts in
the network to determine if an array is online.
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