Chapter 6: Driver installation
6-2
6.1 RAID
The server system/motherboard comes with the Adaptec® HostRAID™
technology embedded in the Intel® 6300ESB Southbridge to support up to
two SATA hard disk drives and RAID 0, 1, and JBOD configurations.
Refer to the RAID definitions below.
6.1.1 RAID configurations
RAID 0
(Data striping) optimizes two identical hard disk drives to read and
write data in parallel, interleaved stacks. Two hard disks perform the same
work as a single drive but at a sustained data transfer rate, double that of a
single disk alone, thus improving data access and storage. Use of two new
identical hard disk drives is required for this setup.
RAID 1
(Data mirroring) copies and maintains an identical image of data from
one drive to a second drive. If one drive fails, the disk array management software
directs all applications to the surviving drive as it contains a complete copy of the
data in the other drive. This RAID configuration provides data protection and
increases fault tolerance to the entire system. Use two new drives or use an
existing drive and a new drive for this setup. The new drive must be of the same
size or larger than the existing drive.
JBOD
(Spanning) stands for Just a Bunch of Disks and refers to hard disk
drives that are not yet configured as a RAID set. This configuration stores
the same data redundantly on multiple disks that appear as a single disk on
the operating system. Spanning does not deliver any advantage over using
separate disks independently and does not provide fault tolerance or other
RAID performance benefits.
If you want to boot the system from a hard disk drive included in a created
RAID set, copy first the RAID driver from the support CD to a floppy disk
before you install an operating system to the selected hard disk drive.
Refer to section “2. RAID driver installation” for details.
6.1.2 Installing hard disk drives
The motherboard supports Serial ATA hard disk drives for RAID set
configuration. For optimal performance, install identical drives of the same
model and capacity when creating a disk array.
To install the SATA hard disks for RAID configuration:
1.
Install the SATA hard disks into the drive bays following the
instructions in the system user guide.
2.
Connect a SATA signal cable to the signal connector at the back of
each drive and to the SATA connector on the motherboard.
3.
Connect a SATA power cable to the power connector on each drive.