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ForceWare Software
MediaShield User’s
Guide
Version 4.0
NVIDIA Corporation
March 24, 2006
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NVIDIA Applications MediaShield User’s Guide Version 4.0 Published by NVIDIA Corporation 2701 San Tomas Expressway Santa Clara, CA 95050 Notice ALL NVIDIA DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS, REFERENCE BOARDS, FILES, DRAWINGS, DIAGNOSTICS, LISTS, AND OTHER DOCUMENTS (TOGETHER AND SEPARATELY, “MATERIALS”) ARE BEING PROVIDED “AS IS.” NVIDIA MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE WITH RESPECT TO THE MATERIALS, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NONINFRINGEMENT, MERCH
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NVIDIA Applications MediaShield User’s Guide v4.0 Table of Contents 1.About NVIDIA® MediaShield™. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 System Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Hardware Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
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NVIDIA Applications MediaShield User’s Guide v4.0 Synchronizing a RAID Array. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 5.Using Disk Alert. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 About Disk Alert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Di
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C HA PTER ® ABOUT NVIDIA MEDIASHIELD™ NVIDIA brings Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) technology—which is used by the world’s leading businesses—to the common PC desktop. This technology uses multiple drives to either increase total disk space or to offer data protection. RAID techniques were first published in 1988 by a multivendor consortium—the RAID Advisory Board. RAID techniques were divided into different categories or levels. Originally, RAID levels focused on improving resi
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CHAPTER 1 About NVIDIA® MediaShield™ System Requirements Hardware Support ® NVIDIA MediaShield supports the following NVIDIA nForce™ versions: • NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI • NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI • NVIDIA nForce 570 • NVIDIA nForce 550 • NVIDIA nForce 430 • NVIDIA nForce 410 • NVIDIA nForce4 • NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra • NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra Intel Edition • NVIDIA nForce4 SLI • NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition • NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 • NVIDIA nForce4 SLI XE Intel Edition • NVIDIA nForce4 Professonal IO
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CHAPTER 1 About NVIDIA® MediaShield™ Operating System Support NVIDIA MediaShield supports the following operating systems: ® •Windows XP Home Edition • Windows XP Professional Edition • Windows 2000 Professional • Windows Server 2003 NVIDIA Corporation 3
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CHAPTER 1 About NVIDIA® MediaShield™ RAID Arrays This section describes the following types of RAID arrays that MediaShield supports: • RAID 0 RAID 0 defines a disk striping scheme that improves the disk read and write times for many applications. • RAID 1 RAID 1 defines techniques for mirroring data. • RAID 0+1 RAID 0+1 combines the techniques used in RAID 0 and RAID 1 arrays. 1 • RAID 5 RAID 5 provides fault tolerance and better utilization of disk capacity. • JBOD JBOD provides a method
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CHAPTER 1 About NVIDIA® MediaShield™ RAID 0 How RAID 0 Works In a RAID 0 array, the controller ʺstripes ʺ data across multiple drives in the RAID subsystem. RAID 0 breaks up a large file into smaller blocks and then performs disk reads and writes across multiple drives in parallel. The size of each block is determined by the stripe size parameter, which you set during the creation of the RAID 0 set. Performance of applications running with a RAID 0 can vary greatly depending on the stripe s
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CHAPTER 1 About NVIDIA® MediaShield™ RAID 1 How RAID 1 Works In a RAID 1 array, every read and write is carried out in parallel across two disk drives. The mirrored—or backup—copy of the data can reside on the same disk or on a second redundant drive in the array. RAID 1 provides a hot-standby copy of data if the active volume or drive is corrupted or becomes unavailable due to a hardware failure. RAID 1 techniques can be applied for high-availability solutions, or as a form of automatic bac
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CHAPTER 1 About NVIDIA® MediaShield™ RAID 0+1 How RAID 0+1 Works RAID 0 drives can be mirrored using RAID 1 techniques, resulting in a RAID 0+1 solution for improved performance plus resiliency. Figure 1.3 RAID 0+1 Array Diagram The controller combines the performance of data striping (RAID 0) and the fault tolerance of disk mirroring (RAID 1). Data is striped across multiple drives and duplicated on another set of drives. Summary of Features and Benefits • Benefits: Optimizes for both fault
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CHAPTER 1 About NVIDIA® MediaShield™ RAID 5 How RAID 5 Works RAID 5 stripes both data and parity information across three or more drives. It writes data and parity blocks across all the drives in the array. Fault tolerance is maintained by ensuring that the parity information for any given block of data is placed on a different drive from those used to store the data itself. Figure 1.4 RAID 5 Array Diagram Summary of Features and Benefits • Benefits: An ideal combination of good performance,
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CHAPTER 1 About NVIDIA® MediaShield™ JBOD How JBOD Works JBOD stands for “Just a Bunch of Disks”. Each drive is accessed as if it were on a standard SCSI host bus adapter. This is useful when a single drive configuration is needed, but it offers no speed improvement or fault tolerance. Figure 1.5 JBOD Array Diagram Summary of Features and Benefits • Benefits: JBOD provides the ability to combine odd size drives using all of the capacity of the drives. • Drawbacks: No additional fault toleran
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CHAPTER 1 About NVIDIA® MediaShield™ Summary of RAID Configurations Table 1.1 RAID Configuration Summary # Hard Fault Array Uses Advantages Drawbacks Disks Tolerance RAID 0 Non-critical data High data throughput. No fault tolerance. multiple None requiring high performance. Small databases or any 100% data Requires two drives for the storage 2Yes RAID 1 other small capacity redundancy. space of one drive. environment requiring Allows spare disks fault tolerance. Critical data requiring Opti
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CHAPTER 1 About NVIDIA® MediaShield™ having to go through multiple steps. The migrating feature gives the user an upgradeable option to manage storage easily. • Hot Plug Array A nice flexibility feature is the ability to move MediaShield RAID arrays from one nForce system to another. Since most nForce systems support SATA hot plug capability, you can add/remove a RAID array even while the system is running. This is done using the Hot Plug Array wizard. Features and Benefits Summary Features
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CHAPTER 1 About NVIDIA® MediaShield™ 12 MediaShield User’s Guide – Version 4.0
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C HA PTER SETTING UP YOUR RAID CONFIGURATION This chapter provides instructions for: • Setting Up a Non-Bootable RAID Array • Setting Up a Bootable RAID Array Setting Up a Non-Bootable RAID Array RAID arrays can be created/deleted using both MediaShield RAID BIOS and the MediaShield RAID Manager from Windows. This section only covers basic BIOS setup required for non-bootable array. • See the section ʺSetting Up a Bootable RAID Array” for instructions on configuring the RAID array in BIOS.
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CHAPTER 2 Setting Up Your RAID Configuration The BIOS CMOS Setup Utility window appears. Phoenix - Award BIOS CMOS Setup Utility Load Fail-Safe Defaults Standard CMOS Features Advanced BIOS Features Load Optimized Defaults Advanced Chipset Features Set Supervisor Password Integrated Peripherals Set User Password Power Management Setup Save & Exit Setup PnP / PCI Configurations Exit Without Saving Esc : Quit : Select Item F10 : Save & Exit Setup Onboard IO, IRQ, DMA Assignment ... Figure
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CHAPTER 2 Setting Up Your RAID Configuration The RAID Config window appears. Phoenix - Award BIOS CMOS Setup Utility RAID Config Item Help [Enable] RAID Enable SATA 1 Primary RAID [Enabled] RAID [Enabled] SATA 1 Secondary Menu Level RAID [Enabled] SATA 2 Primary SATA 2 Secondary RAID [Enabled] SATA 3 Primary RAID [Disabled] RAID [Disabled] SATA 3 Secondary :Move Enter:Select +/-/PU/PD:Value F10:Save ESC:Exit F1:General Help F5: Previous Values F6: Fail-Safe Defaults F7: Opt
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CHAPTER 2 Setting Up Your RAID Configuration Installing the NVIDIA MediaShield Software Under Windows 1 This section describes how to run the setup application and install the RAID software . 1 Start the nForce Setup program to open the NVIDIA Windows nForce Drivers page. Figure 2.4 nForce Driver Installation Window 2 Select the modules that you want to install. Make sure that the “NVIDIA IDE Driver” is selected. You must install the NVIDIA IDE driver in order to enable NVIDIA MediaShield. If y
