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Controller Settings Page
The Controller Settings page appears when you choose Management > Controller Settings from the menu bar.
The Controller Settings page lets you view and change settings that affect the units on the controller specified in the drop-down list on the menu bar.
There are four main sections on this page:
Background Task Rate
The Background Task Rate fields let you change the balance of background tasks and I/O performed by the controller.
9000-series controllers show separate settings for Rebuild/Migrate Rate and Verify Rate,. The Rebuild/Migrate Rate also applies to initialization. Although the same rate is used for rebuilding, migrating, and initializing, migrating has the highest priority.
7000- and 8000-series controllers show only one setting for Task Rate; it applies to both rebuild and verify rates. Note that this rate is not persistent following a reboot for 7/8000 controllers.
The five radio buttons let you set the ratio at which background tasks are performed in comparison to I/O. The furthest left buttons set the firmware to the fastest settings for background tasks settings. This means, maximum processing time will be given to background tasks rather than I/O. The furthest right buttons set the firmware to the slowest background rates, giving maximum processing time to I/O.
For additional information, see About Background Tasks.
Unit Policies
For units on 9000-series controllers, you can enable or disable these policies: Write Cache, Auto-verify, and Continue on Source Error During Rebuild. For 9550SX and 9590SE controllers, you can also enable or disable Queuing, and select a StorSave Profile. 3DM lists each unit on the controller specified in the drop-down list on the menu bar, and shows you whether the policies are currently enabled or disabled for each unit.
This section does not appear for 7000- and 8000- series controllers.
Unit Write Cache. You can enable or disable write cache for each unit. 3DM lists each unit on the controller specified in the drop-down list on the menu bar, and shows you whether the write cache is currently enabled or disabled for it.
Write cache is a combination of the physical hard drives' write cache as well as the controller's memory, depending on what type of unit you are using.
For 9500S controllers, a Disable Write Cache on Unit Degrade setting can be set in 3ware BIOS Manager (3BM). You can see if this setting is enabled in the Other Controller Settings field at the bottom of this Controller Settings page. If Disable Write Cache on Unit Degrade is enabled, upon degrade of a unit, the write cache will automatically be disabled, even if you enable write cache in the Unit Write Cache field. (This option does not apply to 9550SX and 9590SE controllers; the feature is integrated into the StorSave policy.)
Auto-verify. The Auto-verify policy causes verify tasks to be performed automatically, whenever the controller firmware algorithms determine that a verify task is needed. This feature is designed to make verification of units easier. When you check this box, the controller will run verify tasks as they are required.
If there is no schedule set up for verify tasks, then the controller firmware can initiate a verify task at any time. If a verify time window is scheduled, then the controller will not start a verify task for that unit outside the time window, and may or may not start a verify task for that unit within the time window, depending on whether one is needed.
If Auto-verify is not set and there is no schedule, you must manually specify when you want to run a verify, on the 3DM Management page. If a schedule is set for verify, then the verify that you manually start will only run during the scheduled time.
Continue on Source Error During Rebuild. This policy applies only to units which are redundant. (For units which are not redundant, a check box is not available.) When this policy is set, ECC errors are ignored when they are encountered during a rebuild. When this policy is not set, a rebuild will abort upon encountering an ECC error and the unit will be set back to Degraded.
Since this option could result in the loss of some source data in the event of source errors, select this option only if you want to ensure that a rebuild will complete successfully without manually intervention. If the rebuild fails and Continue on Source Error During Rebuild is not selected, then you have the option to start a rebuild manually. It is recommended that a file system check be executed when the rebuild completes.
Note: The policy Continue on Source Error During Rebuild is equivalent to the "Force continue on source errors" option in 3DM v 1.x and the "ignoreEcc" option in the CLI.Queuing. This policy enables or disables Native Command Queuing (NCQ) for drives in the unit. By default, queuing is disabled. You can enable it, if desired.
NCQ only operates when the feature is enabled at both the drive and the controller. If a drive does not support NCQ, the policy setting for the controller is ignored.
Enabling NCQ can improve performance in many applications; it causes command reordering to be done on the drive, itself.
StorSave Profile. The 9550SX and 9590SE, like the 9500S, supports StorSave. For the 9550SX and 9590SE models, StorSave II includes an option that lets you change the StorSave Profile used for a unit. Three profiles are available: Protection, Balanced, and Performance. These profiles automatically adjust several different factors that affect protection and performance, including whether FUA (Forced Unit Access) is honored, whether Write Journaling is enabled, and whether Disable Cache on Degrade is enabled. For additional information, see Setting the StorSave Profile for a Unit.
Note: If the write cache setting is disabled for a unit, the StorSave Profile capability does not apply and is automatically disabled.
Unit Names
On 9000-series controllers, units can be assigned names. A name can be assigned when the unit is created and can be changed from this screen. For additional information, see Naming a Unit.
Other Controller Settings
For 9000-series controllers, the Other Controller settings displays information about additional settings, some of which can only be changed in the BIOS (3BM). For more information see Viewing and Seting Controller Policies.
This section does not appear for 7000- and 8000- series controllers.
Auto-Rebuild. For 9550SX and 9590SE controllers, the Auto-Rebuild policy determines how the controller firmware will attempt to rebuild degraded units.
When Auto-Rebuild is disabled, only spares will be used to automatically rebuild degraded units. When Auto-Rebuild is enabled, the firmware will automatically select drives to use for rebuilding a degraded unit using the following priority order.
For additional information, see Setting the Auto-Rebuild Policy.
Auto-Carving. Auto-carving can be enabled or disabled by selecting the appropriate radio button.
When this feature is enabled, any unit that is over a specified size (known as the carve size) will be broken down into multiple volumes of that size, plus a remainder volume. The default carve size is 2048 GB (2 TB). For example, using the default carve size, if the unit is 2.5 TB then it will contain two volumes, with the first volume containing 2 TB and the second volume containing 0.5 TB. If the unit is 5.0 TB then it will contain 3 volumes, with the first two volumes containing 2 TB each and the last volume containing 1 TB. If a specific Boot Volume was also specified in 3BM, the first volume will be the size specified for the Boot Volume, and then the carve size will be applied to the remainder of the unit.
Carve Size. Sets a size for dividing up units into volumes when Auto-Carving is enabled. This setting can be between 1024 and 2048 GB.
Number of Drives Per Spin-up. Number of drives that will spin up at the same time when the controller is powered up. (This setting only applies when the feature is supported by the disk drives.)
Delay between Spin-ups. The delay time (in seconds) between drive groups that spin up at one time on this particular controller.
Export JBOD (Unconfigured) Disks. Indicates whether unconfigured disks (JBODs) should be exported to the operating system. By default, this setting is disabled and JBOD drives are not exported to the operating system. For more information about this feature, see 3ware Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide.
Disable Write Cache on Unit Degrade. For 9500S controllers, indicates whether write cache will be automatically disabled on a unit if it becomes degraded. After the unit is rebuilt, the write cache will be re-enabled automatically. (This option does not apply to 9550SX and 9590SE controllers; the feature is integrated into the StorSave policy.)
For additional information, see Viewing and Seting Controller Policies.
Related Topics
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