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FASTTRAK
SX4300, SX8300
USER MANUAL
Version 1.1
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FastTrak SX4300, SX8300 User Manual Copyright © 2006 Promise Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Copyright by Promise Technology, Inc. (Promise Technology). No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the expressed, written permission of Promise Technology. Trademarks Promise, and the Promise logo are registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. All other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective compani
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Notices Radio Frequency Interference Statement This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy, and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instruction may cause harmful interference to radio communications. H
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FastTrak SX4300, SX8300 User Manual iv
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Contents Chapter 1: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 About This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Product Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 XOR Acceleration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Hot-Swapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 WebPAM Managemen
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FastTrak SX4300, SX8300 User Manual Chapter 4: Installing Software Drivers, continued Windows 2000 Install Driver During New OS Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Install Driver in an Existing System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Confirm Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Red Hat Linux 8.0, 9.0, EL 3.0, EL 4.0 Install Driver During New OS Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Install Driver in an Existing
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Chapter 1: Introduction • About This Manual, below • Product Overview (page 2) • WebPAM Management Software (page 3) Thank you for purchasing one of Promise Technology’s FastTrak SX4300 or SX8300 RAID controllers. About This Manual This User Manual describes how to setup, use and maintain the FastTrak RAID controller. It also describes how to use the Web-based Promise Array Management (WebPAM) RAID management software. This manual includes a full table of contents, chapter task lists and nume
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FastTrak SX4300, SX8300 User Manual Product Overview FastTrak SX4300 and SX8300 are Serial ATA RAID controllers. When used with WebPAM software, the FastTrak RAID Controllers offer a feature-rich, secure and versatile enterprise-wide ATA RAID solution. In addition, the FastTrak SX Series supports RAID expansion. The resulting RAID environment allows users and administrators to configure, manage, and monitor everything from single logical drives on local systems to logical drive networks res
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Chapter 1: Introduction WebPAM Management Software he Web-Based Promise Array Management (WebPAM) software offers local and remote management and monitoring of all FastTrak logical drives that exist anywhere on a network. Browser-based GUI provides email notification of all major events/alarms, memory cache management, drive event logging, logical drive maintenance, rebuild, and access to all components in the RAID configuration (server, controller, logical drives, physical drives, and encl
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FastTrak SX4300, SX8300 User Manual 4
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Chapter 2: Installation • Package lists, below • Installing the FastTrak Card (page 6) • Installing the Disk Drives (page 7) • Create a Logical Drive (page 9) SX4300 When you receive the FastTrak SX4300 card, the package should contain the items listed below: • FastTrak SX4300 RAID Controller Card • Quick Start Guide • Four 1.0m (39-inch) Serial ATA disk drive data cables • Two Y power splitter cables • CD with Drivers, Promise RAID Management (WebPAM) software, WebPAM User Manual and Fas
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FastTrak SX4300, SX8300 User Manual Warning Before installing the adapter into an existing system, backup any important or useful data. Failure to follow this accepted PC practice could result in data loss. Note The FastTrak SX4300 and SX8300 RAID Controller cards are PCI Plug-n-Play (PnP) devices. No changes are necessary in the motherboard CMOS/BIOS Setup for resources or drive types in most applications. Installing the FastTrak Card The FastTrak RAID Controller card fits into any a
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Chapter 2: Installation 3. Install the FastTrak card into the open slot (above). 4. Fasten the FastTrak card bracket to the system case (above). 5. Attach your system case’s 2- or 4-pin LED cable to the LED connector on the FastTrak card (see the Figures below). Installing the Disk Drives Important If you wish to include your current bootable Serial ATA drive using the Windows operating system as part of a bootable Mirrored (RAID 1) logical drive on your FastTrak card, do NOT connect the di
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FastTrak SX4300, SX8300 User Manual Caution Use of removable disk drive enclosures other than Promise Technology’s SuperSwap is not supported and may result in performance loss or other undesired results. Buzzer FastTrak SX4300 Ch1 Ch3 SMBus Connector Ch2 Ch4 FASTTRAK SX4300 LED Pins FastTrak SX8300 Buzzer Ch1 Ch3 SMBus Connector Ch2 Ch4 FASTTRAK SX8300 LED Pins Ch5 Ch7 Ch6 Ch8 2. Attach one Serial ATA data cable to each disk drive. Then attach the other ends of the cables to the connecto
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Chapter 2: Installation 3. Attach the Y-cable power splitters to each of the disk drives. Create a Logical Drive You will now use the onboard FastBuild BIOS utility to create a logical drive with the attached drives. Even if you plan to use the WebPAM software to manage your logical drive, you can still create your first logical drive using the FastBuild Utility, as described here. For an explanation of the logical drive concepts, see Chapter 5 of this manual. 1. Boot your system. If this is
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FastTrak SX4300, SX8300 User Manual 3. Press 2 on the Main Menu screen to display the Define LD Menu (below). 4. Press the arrow keys to highlight an logical drive number you want to define and press Enter to select it. The Define LD Menu for the logical drive number you selected will next appear (below). 5. Choose the RAID Level you want. In the Define LD Menu section, press the Spacebar to cycle through logical drive types: •RAID 0 (Stripe) • RAID 1 (Mirror) • RAID 5 (Block Striping with
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Chapter 2: Installation 6. Press the arrow keys to move to the next option. Option choices depend on the RAID Level you selected. • Initialize logical drive, zero the disk drives. RAID 1, 5, or 10 only. • Stripe Block Size, the default 64KB is best for most applications. • Gigabyte Boundary, allows use of slightly smaller replacement drives. • Cache Mode, WriteThru or WriteBack. 7. Press the arrow keys to move to Disk Assignments. Press the spacebar to toggle between N and Y for each avail
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Chapter 3: FastBuild™ Utility • FastTrak BIOS (below) • Delete Logical Drive (page 21) • Main Menu (page 14) • Controller Configuration (page 22) • View Drive Assignments (page 15) • Logical Drive Problems (page 23) • Create a Logical Drive (page 16) FastTrak BIOS This section explains the information that you can obtain from the FastTrak BIOS. When the FastTrak BIOS loads during bootup, it displays pertinent information about the RAID logical drives that it finds. At this point, you can press
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FastTrak SX4300, SX8300 User Manual hot spare drive, the logical drive will rebuild automatically. You must identify and replace the failed disk drive. Offline – The logical drive is no longer operational and the FastBuild utility cannot rebuild it. You must identify and replace the failed drive(s). Then you can create a new logical drive and copy your data to it from the last tape backup or other device. For RAID levels 1, 5, and 10, at least two or more disk drives in the logical drive h
