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Changing Controller Parameters
Use this option to modify the parameters
for the array controller.
- Select the appropriate array controller
from the main menu and the tree view.
- 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 Sun StorEdge 3510
FC array, 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 Sun StorEdge Configuration Service 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:The Sun StorEdge SCSI array
and Sun StorEdge 3320 SCSI array 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: Sun StorEdge arrays are
preconfigured with host, drive, and RCCOM channel settings. Sun StorEdge
Configuration Service 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 Sun StorEdge Configuration
Service, intercontroller communication stops and unexpected results
might vary. For more information, refer to the Sun StorEdge 3000
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 the Sun StorEdge 3310
SCSI array and the Sun StorEdge 3320 SCSI array, 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 ID 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
- After all channel settings have been
made, from the Change Controller Parameters window, select
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 Cache tab, you can select
whether the global write policy setting for all the logical drives is
write-back cache or write-through cache, the optimization mode for the
logical drive, which indicates the amount of data that is written across
each drive in an array, and the periodic cache flush time.
- To specify write back as the
default cache, click the Write Back Cache list box and select Enabled.
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 array's 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 for further details.
Refer to the Sun StorEdge 3000 Family
RAID Firmware User's Guide for more information.
NOTE: Once logical drives are
created, you cannot use the RAID firmware's 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 Sun StorEdge Configuration Service or the Sun StorEdge
CLI set cache-parameters command to change the optimization
mode while logical drives exist. Refer to the Sun StorEdge 3000
Family CLI User's Guide for information on the set cache-parameters
command.
Specifying Non-Default
Stripe Sizes
The following table shows the default
stripe sizes for each RAID level, depending on the optimization
mode.
RAID Level |
Default Stripe Size for Sequential
I/O |
Default Stripe Size 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, 32, 64, 128, and 256 Kbyte.
- For random optimization, available
stripe size choices include 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, and 256 Kbyte.
NOTE: Default stripe sizes optimize
performance for most applications.
Refer to the Sun StorEdge 3000 Family
RAID Firmware User's Guide for information on setting 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.
- 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.
See also Maximum
Number of Disks and Maximum Usable Capacity for Random and Sequential
Optimization.
Disk Array Tab
- From the Change Controller Parameters
window, select the Disk Array tab. Four list boxes are displayed.
- 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, select 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.
- From the SAF-TE/SES Polling Period(s)
field, select the variable time options shown in the list box, 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 Drive Check Period(s) 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 Sun StorEdge Configuration
Service 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, select 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.
Sun StorEdge 3510 FC arrays and Sun
StorEdge 3511 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 the Sun StorEdge 3310
SCSI array and the Sun StorEdge 3320 SCSI array, 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.
Disable for In-Band External Interface
Management.
Redundancy Tab
- From the Change Controller Parameters
window, select the Redundancy tab.
Three information-only fields are displayed:
Controller Configuration, Controller Status, and the
Secondary Serial No. fields.
- 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, select 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, select 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 .
Network Tab
- From the Change Controller Parameters
window, select the Network tab.
- To manually configure an IP address,
subnet mask, gateway, and MAC address, click Change Settings.
NOTE: Sun StorEdge 3000 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.
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 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, select the Protocol tab.
- Select which protocols to enable.
- Select which protocols to enable or
disable.
The protocols are enabled or disabled
by default as follows:
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