Compaq StorageWorks 4000 - RAID Array Manuale utente

Technology Brief

June 1999

ECG0205699A

Prepared by ECG Technology

Communications Group

Compaq Computer Corporation

Contents

Introduction............................... 3

Hardware Technology ............... 4

StorageWorks RAID Array

4000........................................ 4

StorageWorks RAID Array

4000 Controllers....................... 5

Compaq StorageWorks Fibre

Channel Host Adapter.............. 7

StorageWorks Fibre Channel

Storage Hub 7.........................10

StorageWorks Fibre Channel

Storage Hub 12.......................10

Gigabit Interface Converters....11

Cables....................................12

Hardware Architecture .............12

Firmware...................................14

Operating Systems

Supported.................................15

Redundant Operating

Systems Supported.................15

Non-redundant Operating

Systems Supported.................15

Compaq Utilities.......................16

Array Configuration Utility........16

Fibre Fault Isolation Utility .......17

User Diagnostics Utility............18

Array Diagnostics Utility...........19

Compaq Insight Manager........19

Compaq Redundancy

Manager for Microsoft

Windows NT...........................19

Performance.............................20

Migration to RA4000 from

SCSI Technology......................21

Clustering with RA4000............22

For More Information................22

APPENDIX A: User

Diagnostics Utility ....................23

Compaq RAID Array 4000

Overview

Abstract: The Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4000 (RA4000),

formerly the Fibre Channel Storage System, is an external storage

solution incorporating Fibre Channel interconnect technology. This

solution overcomes inherent limitations of small computer systems

interface (SCSI) interconnect technology. Fibre Channel interconnect

technology is designed to satisfy the requirements of such enterprise

applications as databases, data marts, email, groupware, Web

servers, and file and print for large storage capacity and scalable

input/output (I/O) performance.

The architecture of this Fibre Channel storage solution enables

administrators to simultaneously achieve multiple goals:

•To provide hardware redundancy and failover capabilities with

no single point of failure (NSPOF).

•To build a scalable external storage solution for high capacity or

high growth applications by:

•Scaling a single I/O slot to more than 3.2 TB.

•Scaling an 8-PCI-slot server to more than 25.6 TB.

•To scale cache and processing power for increased I/O

performance.

•To conserve I/O slots for connecting other types of I/O devices.

This technology brief explains the hardware components, hardware

architecture, firmware functionality, software support, and

performance expectations for the RA4000.

Compaq RAID Array 4000 Overview 2

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Notice

The information in this publication is subject to change without notice and is provided “AS IS” WITHOUT

WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE ENTIRE RISK ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS

INFORMATION REMAINS WITH RECIPIENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL COMPAQ BE LIABLE FOR

ANY DIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE OR OTHER DAMAGES

WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS

PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION OR LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION), EVEN IF

COMPAQ HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

The limited warranties for Compaq products are exclusively set forth in the documentation accompanying

such products. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting a further or additional warranty.

This publication does not constitute an endorsement of the product or products that were tested. The

configuration or configurations tested or described may or may not be the only available solution. This test

is not a determination or product quality or correctness, nor does it ensure compliance with any federal,

state, or local requirements.

Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective

companies.

Compaq, Contura, Deskpro, Fastart, Compaq Insight Manager, LTE, PageMarq, Systempro, Systempro/LT,

ProLiant, TwinTray, ROMPaq, LicensePaq, QVision, SLT, ProLinea, SmartStart, NetFlex, DirectPlus,

QuickFind, RemotePaq, BackPaq, TechPaq, SpeedPaq, QuickBack, PaqFax, Presario, SilentCool,

CompaqCare (design), Aero, SmartStation, MiniStation, and PaqRap are registered with the United States

Patent and Trademark Office.

Netelligent, Armada, Cruiser, Concerto, QuickChoice, ProSignia, Systempro/XL, Net1, LTE Elite,

Vocalyst, PageMate, SoftPaq, FirstPaq, SolutionPaq, EasyPoint, EZ Help, MaxLight, MultiLock,

QuickBlank, QuickLock, UltraView, Innovate logo, Wonder Tools logo in black/white and color, and

Compaq PC Card Solution logo are trademarks and/or service marks of Compaq Computer Corporation.

Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, Windows NT Server and Workstation, and Microsoft SQL Server for

Windows NT are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

NetWare and Novell are registered trademarks and intraNetWare, NDS, and Novell Directory Services are

trademarks of Novell, Inc.

Pentium is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation.

Compaq RAID Array 4000 Overview

Technology Brief prepared by ECG Technology Communications Group

First Edition (June 1999)

Document Number ECG0205699A

Compaq RAID Array 4000 Overview 3

ECG0205699A

Introduction

Note: This paper includes the terms fibre and fiber. Fibre is the international spelling that refers

to the Fibre Channel Standards that include optical and copper media. Fiber refers to the optical

media used to implement Fibre Channel.

Applications central to enterprise operations demand remarkable storage capacity and scalable

performance. Data marts, for example, may grow by as much as 400 percent per year. Email data

and Lotus Notes data typically double each year. Databases and consolidated print and file

applications also demand increasing storage capacity. With its inherent I/O and physical

limitations, SCSI technology cannot support the scalability of storage capacity and I/O

performance required by such applications.

The expanding need for enterprise storage capacity and performance demands new storage

solutions. After extensively studying possible alternatives, Compaq has determined that Fibre

Channel is the best interconnect technology to propel growth of enterprise storage. As a result,

Compaq actively participates in industry standardization efforts for Fibre Channel interconnect

technology and is continuing to develop products incorporating that technology.

The RA4000 is a primary storage solution incorporating Fibre Channel technology. The Fibre

Channel architecture of this solution enables administrators to scale the storage capacity

supported by a single, 8 PCI-slot server from gigabytes to more than 25.6 TB, while

simultaneously scaling cache, processing power, and throughput of their storage subsystem.

The RA4000 is an external array storage system which means the array controller is housed in the

hard disk drive (HDD) instead of the server. This design enables clustering and NSPOF

configurations that allows the enterprise to reduce its planned and unplanned downtime.

Unplanned system downtime, which usually is caused by component failure, can be significantly

reduced by using RAID and redundant components. Planned downtime, such as planned

maintenance or system expansion, also can be reduced with the RA4000 solution.

Features of the RA4000 include:

•Online capacity expansion

•Hot growth

•Hot add (Novell)

•PCI hot-plug support

•The connectivity benefits of Fibre Channel technology1

The RA4000 solution provides enterprises with increased availability, scalability in both

performance and capacity, and a tight integration with ProLiant servers. This leap in capacity,

scalability, and availability results from innovations to proven Compaq hardware and software

products and from total storage system integration. The RA4000 targets computing environments

that require large, rapidly growing storage capacity and scalable I/O performance.

This technology brief will explain the hardware components, hardware architecture, firmware

functionality, software support, and performance expectations for the RA4000.

1It is easier to add storage in rack configurations.

Compaq RAID Array 4000 Overview 4

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Hardware Technology

The RA4000 consists of 11 hardware components that can be interconnected to form a Fibre

Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) topology:

•Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4000

•Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4000 Controller

•Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4000 Redundant Controller2

•Compaq StorageWorks Fibre Channel Host Adapter/E

•Compaq StorageWorks Fibre Channel Host Adapter/P

•Compaq StorageWorks Fibre Channel Storage Hub 7

•Compaq StorageWorks Fibre Channel Storage Hub 12

•Short wave gigabit interface converters

•Long wave gigabit interface converters

•Multi-Mode Fibre Channel Cables

•Single-Mode Fibre Channel Cables

StorageWorks RAID Array 4000

This section describes the function of each hardware component and then explains the hardware

architecture and Fibre Channel topology used in the RA4000.

An RA4000 is an external drive enclosure containing:

•A high-performance RA4000 Controller.

•An optional RA4000 Redundant Controller.

•A hot-pluggable fan assembly.

•Optional redundant hot-pluggable power supplies.

The RA4000 is available in a tower or a 4U rack form factor and supports hot-pluggable drives.

The RA4000 enhances the availability of data through redundant controllers that can be deployed

in an NSPOF storage system.

2The redundant controller is an RA4000 Controller with redundancy support firmware.

Compaq RAID Array 4000 Overview 5

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A single RA4000 accommodates up to eight 1.6-inch or twelve 1-inch Wide-Ultra SCSI-3,

Fast-Wide SCSI-2 or Fast SCSI-2 drives. As Table 1shows, a single, fully populated RA4000

can provide a total capacity of up to 291.2 GB using eight hard disk drives. For installations in

which improved performance (spindle density for example) is more important than maximum

capacity, 12 hard drives placed in an RA4000 can provide up to 218.4 GB of capacity.

Table 1. Storage capacity of a single Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4000

Maximum Total Capacity (gigabytes)

Maximum

Number of

Drives Drive Size

(inches)

Native Capacity

per Drive

(gigabytes) RAID 0 RAID 1 RAID 4 or 5

81.6 36.4 291.2 145.6 254.8

81.6 18.2 145.6 72.8 127.4

81.6 9.1 72.8 36.4 63.7

12 1.0 18.2 218.4 109.2 200.2

12 1.0 9.1 109.2 54.6 100.1

12 1.0 4.3 51.6 25.8 47.3

StorageWorks RAID Array 4000 Controllers

The RA4000 Controller is an intelligent Fibre Channel-to-SCSI array3controller integrated into

the RA4000 solution. The controller is based on the Compaq SMART-2 architecture and has two

Wide-Ultra SCSI-3 channels. Each channel can transfer data at 40 megabytes per second (MB/s)

for a total of 80 MB/s possible internal bandwidth. The array controller-to-host interface is Fibre

Channel for high-speed connection to the server. The Fibre Channel interface can transfer data to

the server at burst rates of 100 MB/s.

The RA4000 Controller:

•Supports RAID40, 0+1, 1, 4, and 5.

•Supports multiple logical drives and online capacity expansion within the array.

•Features sixth-generation Compaq RAID technology and components.

•Can have a total of 64 MB of usable cache (16 MB read and 48 MB user-selectable

read/write). The cache is scalable up to 5.6 GB in an 8-slot, single server environment.

The RA4000 Redundant Controller is the same controller as the standard RA4000 controller with

redundancy support firmware embedded that adds higher availability not found previously in

Compaq storage systems. The RA4000 Redundant Controller fully supports Compaq Insight

Manager, Pre-Failure Warranty, and Fibre Channel Host Adapter failover.

The RA4000 Controller and RA4000 Redundant Controller supports Wide-Ultra SCSI-3,

Fast-Wide SCSI-2, or Fast SCSI-2 drives. Use of SCSI technology inside the RA4000 allows

customers to use existing SCSI disk drives. Since hard disk drives are the most costly part of a

storage system, this compatibility can reduce the cost of implementing an RA4000.

3An array is a set of disk drives that are physically grouped together and can be subdivided into logical drives consisting of one or

more disks in the set.

4Redundant Array of Independent Disks. RAID levels are methods that improve array performance and provide for protection of the

data on disks.

Compaq RAID Array 4000 Overview 6

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Hot-Swapping Disk Drives

The RA4000 Controller supports individual failed disk drives to be removed from an RA4000

and replaced them while the array is active. After the new drive is installed, the Compaq

Automatic Data Recovery software automatically rebuilds data on the new drive without

administrator intervention.

Online Capacity Expansion

The RA4000 Controller supports adding disk drives to an RA4000 and redistributing the data

across the drives in the array while the array is active. Note, however, that to add an additional

RA4000 to the overall storage system, reboot the server.

Array Accelerator

Each RA4000 Controller installed in an RA4000 includes an enhanced Array Accelerator with a

total of 64 MB of cache. Of that total, 16 MB is dedicated read cache that is integrated on the

base controller board. The remaining 48 MB is user-configurable5, battery-backed read/write

cache located on a small, removable board that plugs into the base controller board.

For owners of the original Fibre Channel Storage System Controller with 32 MB of cache,

Compaq offers a memory upgrade that expands the total memory available to 64 MB. 16 MB of

dedicated read cache remains integrated on the original base controller board. The 48 MB

memory upgrade is a user-configurable, battery-backed board. The default allocation of this

memory cache is 50 percent read and 50 percent write. The user can configure the cache using the

Array Configuration Utility.

An RA4000 Redundant Controller (64-MB cache) can be added to an existing Fibre Channel

Storage System (32-MB cache). In this configuration, all write-cache is disabled and performance

in certain write-intensive environments may be affected. Compaq recommends the memory

upgrade kit in these types of environments.

The RA4000 Controller uses a posted write-caching scheme that allows applications to continue

without waiting for write operations to complete. Without this type of caching, the controller

would be forced to wait until the write data is actually written to the disk before returning

completion status to the operating system.

With write-back caching, the controller can post-write data to high-speed cache memory and

immediately return completion status to the operating system. The write operation is completed in

microseconds rather than milliseconds. Data in the write cache is written to disk later, at an

optimal time for the controller.

While data is in the write cache, it is protected against memory chip failure by Error Checking

and Correcting (ECC) technology and against system power loss by integrated battery backup.

The removable dynamic random access memory (DRAM) with integrated battery keeps

posted-write data secure in the unlikely event that power should be lost or the base controller

board should fail.

Should a system power outage occur while write data is stored in the cache, the data is protected

for at least four days by power from the battery backup system.

5Configure cache memory using the Compaq Array Configuration Utility. Refer to “Array Configuration Utility” later in this

document.

Compaq RAID Array 4000 Overview 7

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Once system power is restored, the posted-write data will automatically be written to disk. Should

the base controller board fail, the small write cache board can be removed and installed on a

replacement base controller board, and the posted-write data will automatically be written to disk.

The 16-MB read-ahead cache integrated on the RA4000 Controller uses an intelligent read-ahead

algorithm that anticipates data needs and reduces latency. The algorithm detects sequential read

activity on single or multiple I/O threads and predicts that sequential read requests will follow.

The algorithm then reads data from the disk drives before the data is actually requested. When the

read request occurs, the data is serviced out of the high-speed cache memory at microsecond

speeds rather than from the disk drive at millisecond speeds.

When the firmware detects non-sequential read activity, the read-ahead feature is automatically

disabled. This adaptive read-ahead scheme provides excellent performance for sequential small

block read requests. At the same time, it avoids degradation of random read performance.

The ECC technology used on the Array Accelerator provides greater data protection than

mirroring and is much more cost effective. The ECC scheme generates 16 bits of check data for

every 64 bits of user data. This check data can be used to detect and correct errors. ECC can be

used to detect and correct DRAM bit errors, DRAM chip failures, and memory bus errors on the

Array Accelerator connector.

Compaq StorageWorks Fibre Channel Host Adapter

The Fibre Channel Host Adapter is available in either a PCI version or an EISA6version. The

Fibre Channel Host Adapter/P is a PCI bus master device. The Fibre Channel Host Adapter/E is

for use in a server equipped only with an EISA expansion bus or with a server that has a majority

of EISA bus slots. It takes advantage of the EISA architecture by performing 32 bit bus master

burst transfers. Both the PCI and EISA versions of the Fibre Channel Host Adapter require

installation of a gigabit interface converter (GBIC) into the I/O port before the multi-mode fiber

cable is connected.

In single adapter environments, the server can be connected directly to the RA4000 or multiple

RA4000s using a storage hub. There are no redundant paths to ensure data availability in this

configuration should a component fail.

Figure 1through Figure 4depict examples of some possible RA4000 configurations. For more

detailed information, refer to the appropriate RA4000 manuals.

Using custom-length, 50-micron multi-mode cables, interconnect distances between components

can be up to 500 meters. Therefore, RA4000s can be located up to 1 kilometer from the Fibre

Channel Host Adapter. Using custom-length 9-micron single-mode cables, interconnect distances

between components can be up to 10 kilometers. Therefore, RA4000s can be located up to

20 kilometers from the Fibre Channel Host Adapter.

6Extended Industry Standard Architecture.

Compaq RAID Array 4000 Overview 8

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In Figure 1, the Fibre Channel Host Adapter connects to a Storage Hub 7. The Storage Hub 7

connects to the RA4000. GBICs are installed at all fiber interconnections.

Figure 1.Single controller configuration

Additional RA4000s can be added simply by connecting them to the hub while the loop is not

active. The added RA4000 can then be configured using the Array Configuration Utility7.

Figure 2shows that using redundant host adapters, Storage Hubs, and RA4000 Redundant

Controllers, an NSPOF configuration can be deployed.

Figure 2.Redundant controllers configuration

7Refer to Array Configuration Utility later in this document.

Compaq RAID Array 4000 Overview 9

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Figure 3shows that the Fibre Channel Host Adapters in an RA4000 topology can be deployed in

a two-node cluster. This configuration does not provide for NSPOF.

Figure 3.Single controllers in a clustered configuration

Figure 4shows that Fibre Channel Host Adapters in a redundant topology can be deployed in a

two-node cluster. This configuration provides for an NSPOF server and storage system.

Figure 4.Redundant controllers in a clustered configuration

The Fibre Channel Host Adapter supports the Compaq ProLiant and rack-mountable ProLiant

family of servers. For up-to-date information about specific server models supported, refer to the

Compaq website:

www.compaq.com/products/storageworks/

Compaq RAID Array 4000 Overview 10

ECG0205699A

StorageWorks Fibre Channel Storage Hub 7

The Storage Hub 7 is a seven-port hub that creates a 100 MB/s FC-AL through its internal wiring

and logic. In a standard RA4000 configuration, it connects one Fibre Channel Host Adapter and

up to six RA4000s. A 1U rack-mounting kit is available for the Storage Hub 7.

With the use of a Storage Hub 7, a Fibre Channel Host Adapter occupying a single I/O slot can

support up to six RA4000s for a total storage capacity of either of the following:

•1.75 TB using 48 x 36.4 GB, 1.6-inch drives

•1.31 TB using 72 x 18.2 GB, 1.0-inch drives

If, for example, sufficient slots were available in a server, 8 Fibre Channel Host Adapters plugged

into that server could support 48 RA4000s for a total capacity of approximately 14 TB.

RA4000s can be added to the Storage Hub 7 as requirements for storage capacity grow. When an

RA4000 is added to the hub, restart all servers on the system and run the Compaq Array

Configuration Utility.

StorageWorks Fibre Channel Storage Hub 12

The Storage Hub 12 is an intelligent, unmanaged, 12-port hub similar to the Storage Hub 7. Every

Storage Hub 12 includes both a rack-mounting kit and rubber feet for desktop use.

With the use of a Storage Hub 12, a Fibre Channel Host Adapter occupying a single I/O slot can

support up to 11 RA4000s for a total storage capacity of either of the following:

•3.2 TB (using 88 x 36.4 GB, 1.6-inch drives)

•2.4 TB (using 132 x 18.2 GB, 1.0-inch drives)

In a server with 8 PCI slots, Compaq Fibre Channel Storage Hub 12 allow a maximum storage

capacity of more than 25.6 TB. By contrast, Compaq SMART Array Controllers can support only

two ProLiant Storage Systems per I/O slot. The Storage Hub 12 is therefore the ideal solution for

RA4000 configurations requiring the highest level of slot utilization and storage capacity.

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