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                              Array1000CA Family 

                                 Readme File

                                October 1, 1997

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PLEASE Contact Adaptec WWW site at http://www.adaptec.com 
for the latest Readme file. 
For Adaptec Tech support  services, call 800-959-7274

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This file contains the following:

COMPATIBILITY NOTES

HARDWARE INSTALLATION NOTES: ARO-1130CA, AAA-131CA

ARRAY CONFIGURATION NOTES

ARRAY OPERATIONAL NOTES

WINDOWS NT-SPECIFIC: INSTALLATION & CONFIGURATION NOTES

WINDOWS NT-SPECIFIC: OPERATIONAL NOTES

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COMPATIBILITY NOTES
===================

EMM386.EXE
----------
Not compatible with EMM386.exe.

AHA-2940
--------
Memory errors or other problems may be experienced if both AHA-2940 and 
Array1000 Family product coexist.  To solve this problem, upgrade the 
AHA-2940 BIOS to v1.24 or later.  If the Array1000CA and the AHA2940 are 
installed in the same system, one of the cards may not be visible by the 
system.  This problem is caused by the system BIOS. Correct this problem 
by enabling the shadow RAM for all the address ranges in the system BIOS 
setup.

WINDOWS NT INSTALLATIONS USING EZ-SCSI 4.0
------------------------------------------
EZ-SCSI 4.01 includes ASPI8DOS.SYS v1.26 which is incompatible with 
the Array1000CA.  The Array1000CA Family product requires ASPI8DOS.SYS 
v1.31(included on Array1000CA Family v1.0 Manager Set diskette or higher).  


COMPATIBILITY WITH NETWORK CARD
-------------------------------
Some uncommon network card configurations may cause the array configuration 
to hang.  If this happens, check for conflicts with the network card 
configuration.

Do not configure the system to share interrupts between the Array1000CA 
Family product and any network interface cards (NICs)in the system.  Refer 
to the system BIOS manual for information on how to configure PCI interrupts, 
or change the PCI slot in which the NIC is installed.

REMOVABLE DEVICES AS PART OF A RAID ARRAY
-----------------------------------------
Removable storage media devices can't be a part of a RAID array, although 
they can exist in the system as individual non-bootable devices.


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HARDWARE INSTALLATION NOTES
===========================================

ARO-1130CA
============

NO DRAM PRESENT
---------------
The Bios reports that no DRAM is present when there is no memory is
physically present. 

TERMINATION
-----------
If the SCSI bus is not properly terminated, per the instructions in the 
system motherboard and the ARO-1130 Installation and Hardware Guide, 
intermittent system problems may be experienced (i.e. : workstations 
locking up or very slow operation or data miscompare).  If this symptoms 
are observed, recheck the device termination.   Also, read the termination 
information included in the system motherboard documentation.  When 
combining Wide SCSI and Narrow SCSI devices on the SCSI bus, read the 
motherboard documentation carefully to determine how to terminate the 
devices and the SCSI bus. 

DISABLING BIOS
--------------
To disable BIOS both channel A & B should have Array1000CA Bios set to be
disable.


AAA-131CA
===========

NO MEMORY PRESENT
-----------------
The Bios reports that 16MB memory is detected when there is no memory is 
installed. The BIOS DRAM diagnostic will fail, if there is no DRAM 
present.

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GENERIC ARRAY CONFIGURATION NOTES
=================================

MAXIMUM NUMBER OF ARRAYS
-----------------------
Array1000CA Family products support a maximum of four arrays per card.

RISKS & BENEFITS OF DRIVE WRITE CACHING
----------------------------------
Most disk drives allow write caching which greatly speeds up writes to 
disks.  This feature enables an application program to continue executing 
once write data is successfully sent to a drive.   In very rare cases a 
deferred write error can occur (for example, because of a parity error 
within the drive cache memory).  A deferred write error means data has been 
incorrectly written and is no longer available to the I/O system.  The 
error is unrecoverable. The consequence of turing off the write cache on the
 drive is slower write performance. But defined write error are prevented.

SWAPPING DEVICES
----------------
Swapping a device with another device of different type having the same 
SCSI IDs (replacing a CD-ROM with disk or vice versa) is not supported.  

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ARRAY OPERATIONS NOTES
======================

CREATING ARRAY WITHOUT INITIALIZATION
-------------------------------------
If the user has created the array without initializing it and reboots 
the system, the state of the array will be reported as

	"New arrays needs init, needs system reboot"

A reboot at this point is not required.  The array can be initialized and 
becomes ready to use.


USE OF PAUSE I/O
----------------
Pause I/O is a feature which enables replacement of SCSI devices in an 
operational enclosure that is not specifically designed with hot-swap 
capability.  Although it temporarily stops I/O transactions on the SCSI 
bus, it cannot assure the same level of protection from electrical noise 
during device replacement as hot-swap hardware.   As indicated in the 
following procedures which use Pause I/O, only a single change ( such 
as a device removal OR a device insertion, but not both) should be 
made with each use of this feature.  Do not replace a non-downed drive 
in a paused array.  The proper procedure is to down the drive, and then 
replace it.  Failure to do so may lead to data corruption.

RESCAN & PAUSE/RESUME
---------------------
The following are the limitations to the current release:

1. For a multiple channel environment, users cannot presently change 
existing array configurations on the fly through use of Pause/Resume 
or rescan.

2. Geometry of a drive is not updated when a smaller single member is 
replaced with a larger single member and vice versa.  Should this 
single to single replacement occur, the potential for data 
corruption is possible.

3. Singles cannot be replaced with array members and be reported back 
to the O/S and application layer properly.  This means that in the event 
of a channel failure a user cannot replace a single with an array member 
to make his array configuration complete and usable again during runtime.

4. Configuration changes of devices from CD to TAPE, TAPE to CD, SINGLE 
to CD/TAPE, or Array member to CD/TAPE, is not supported.

REPLACING AN ACTIVE ARRAY MEMBER
--------------------------------
The software automatically responds to the event of one failed array member 
by using a spare, if available, and notifying the user.  To replace an 
array member in active use, the following steps must be performed:

Down the Array Member Device in all cases.

If a hot-swap enclosure is not used, Pause I/O.

Remove the Array Member and allow I/O to resume.

If a hot-swap enclosure is not used, Pause I/O.

Insert the replacement device and allow I/O to resume.

It may be necessary to low-level format the removed, downed spare prior to 
re-use.

REPLACING A SPARE
-----------------
To replace a spare drive that is recognized as good by the software, the 
following steps must be used:

1. Delete the spare.  

2. If a hot-swap enclosure is not used, Pause I/O. 

3. Remove the Spare and allow I/O to resume.

4. If a hot-swap enclosure is not used, Pause I/O. 

Insert the replacement device and allow I/O to resume via CI/O WAMS.  

6. Mark this new device as a spare(dedicated or pool).

Under some unlikely circumstances, a spare may be recognized as down by 
the software.  This is indicated by a lightning bolt symbol on the 
spare icon.  This is unlikely, because if a spare fails a test by the 
software, it is normally deleted.  A spare may be marked as down, for 
example, if I/O is paused and the user mistakenly removes the spare and 
reinserts it. When I/O resumes, a re-scan occurs, and the spare will be 
marked as down.

To replace a spare drive that is marked as down, the following steps must
be used:

1. If a hot-swap enclosure is not used, Pause I/O 

2. Remove the Downed Spare and allow I/O to resume

3. If a hot-swap enclosure is not used, Pause I/O 

4. Insert the replacement device and allow I/O to resume via CI/O WAMS.

5. Mark the new device as a spare (dedicated or pool).

OTHER NOTES ON REPLACING DRIVES
1. When an array member fails, replace it with a good drive with the same 
SCSI ID to reconstruct the array.  The information about the new array 
member will not be written to the member's reserved sectors until a manual 
Reconstruction command is issued after re-scanning the system.  (The member 
might show up as a "single" disk if the system immediately rebooted after 
the re-scan.) 

2. It is recommended that old/down/defective disk drives be removed from the 
system as soon as possible.  Any removed drives that are reused must be 
low-level formatted before reuse.  


VERIFY AND RECONSTRUCT PRIORITY
-------------------------------
The Verify and Reconstruct operations can take a long time to complete.  
For large arrays, from minutes to several hours.  By default, these 
operations are assigned a Low or Medium priority to minimize the impact 
to other workstation activity.  For faster operation, change the priority 
to High.

ALL MEMBERS MISSING
-------------------
If all SCSI drives connected to the computer's SCSI channels are members 
of a single array and that array goes off-line, CI/O Workstation Array 
Management Software does not display any controller, SCSI channels, or 
drives.  If all members of an array are missing, the array and its 
members are not displayed in CI/O Workstation Array Management 
Software after rebooting or when performing a re-scan. 

RAID0 WITH MEMBER DOWN
------------------------------
When an RAID level array goes to an offline status and the machine is
rebooted, the array will be given an OK status for RAID0 or a critical 
status for all fault tolerant arrays if one member was already marked
down. Even though an OK or critical status is given, there could be data
corruption. This is done so the user can retrieve the data off the array.
If this was not done the user could not retrieve their data.

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WINDOWS NT-SPECIFIC: INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION NOTES
=====================================================

DRIVE LETTERS AND PARTITIONS
-----------------------------
If there is a primary partition on the first hard drive marked as 
active, it gets the first drive letter(C); otherwise, the first 
drive letter is assigned to the first recognized primary partion.

This process is repeated for all hard drives in the system. Please 
note that if you have multiple controllers in your system, the drive 
letter ordering is based on the order in which the device drivers are 
loaded by Windows NT.

Once the letters have been assigned to the first primary partitions on 
all drives in the system, letters are assigned to the recognized logical 
disks in the extended partitions using the same scheme as outlined above, 
starting with the first drive in the system.

After all of the logical disks in the extended partitions are assigned 
letters, one last scan is made of the drives, and the letters are assigned 
to any remaining recognized primary partitions.

ERROR MESSAGES WHILE SETTING UP NT
----------------------------------
During NT setup, if the message "Setup is unable to locate the hard drive 
partition prepared by the MS-DOS portion of setup" or the message 
"xxxx MB disk y at Id z on bus 0 on cda1000.sys does not contain a 
partition suitable for starting Window NT" appears, do the following: 

1. Re-boot using the ArrayConfig disk.  

2. Using ArrayConfig utility, Enter "Custom setup". Select "Display arrays". 
Select the bootable array with Windows NT ensure that the array intended 
to boot Windows NT, contains the drive with the lowest SCSI ID on 
the Primary SCSI channel of ARO-1130CA.

IF NT SETUP HANGS
-----------------
During NT Setup, the system may hang while the NT Setup floppy #3 is being 
used for copying the SCSI disk device driver.  A workaround is to boot to 
a DOS boot-disk, create a DOS partition on the array using FDISK and 
then install Windows NT on the array.

CD-ROM BOOT SYSTEM ERROR
------------------------
When attempting to boot from NT installation CD, some systems will issue 
an error message:

	"Boot: Couldn't find NTLDR"

If this happens, boot from the NT floppies, and proceed to load OS from 
the CD according to Microsoft instructions.

"1024 CYLINDERS" ERROR DURING NT INSTALLATION
---------------------------------------------
When attempting to load Windows NT on a bootable array larger than 
8 GBytes, or containing drive members larger than 1 GBytes capacity, 
NT may generate an error stating that the installation drive is 
greater than 1024 cylinders.  NT will only allow the creation of 
1 GByte partitions.  Therefore, the user will only be able to make 
a 1 GByte partition.  

To use a larger partition under NT: 

1. Disconnect all other devices.

2. Load NT.

3. Reconnect all other devices.


WINDOWS/NT BOOT ORDER VERSUS ARRAY CONFIG
---------------------------------

During installation NT does not show the device in BOOT Order, instead 
it shows the array with the lower SCSI Id (on lower channel) first.  
To remedy :

1. Disconnect all devices other than the members of the BOOT array, so 
that only one disk is presented in the NT installation.

2. Configure the BOOT array in ArrayConfig such that the lowest SCSI Id 
on the lowest channel is the member of the BOOT array.

3. Reconnect all other devices.


"NO-ACCESSABLE BOOT DEVICE" MESSAGE DURING BOOTUP
-------------------------------------------------
When booting the NT installation CD, systems may issue the message:

	"NO-ACCESSABLE BOOT DEVICE"
This indicates that the NT CD-ROM does not contain Array1000CA drivers.  

To avoid this failure:

1. Re-boot the NT CD-ROM.

2.  At the prompt "Setup is inspecting your computers hardware 
configuration", press the <F6> key repeatedly for some time.

3. NT will later request the Array1000CA driver diskette and the 
installation will succeed.


READING README.TXT DURING CI/O WAMS SETUP
----------------------------------------
Attempting to read this readme.txt file during CI/O WAMS setup may 
result in a delay of up to 3 minutes when exiting the notepad utility.  
The setup utility will then continue with the setup process.   

NT DISK ADMINISTRATOR
---------------------
When creating a new array on a system running under Windows NT, the array 
is not listed as "usable" in the NT Disk Administrator until initialized.  
This is normal Windows NT functionality.

SYSTEM TIME CHANGE
------------------
Do not change the system time while the CI/O WAMS is running.

To change the system time one must:

1. Stop all CI/O WAMS and RPC services

2. Change the system time.

3. Restart the CI/O WAMS and RPC services

All scheduled activities should be deleted and rescheduled after 
changing the system time.  Otherwise, scheduled activities may not run 
at the specified time.

RESTORE DEFAULTS FOR CACHE
--------------------------
The "Restore Defaults" button will have two different behaviors:

1. If the array currently has cache enabled, "Restore Defaults" will
restore the current amount of cache allocated to the cache size entry field.

2. If the array is just in the process of creation, or is an existing array
which has cache disabled, "restore Defaults" will restore the total unused
cache to the cache size entry field.

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WINDOWS NT-SPECIFIC: OPERATIONAL NOTES
====================================

USE OF LARGE FONTS
------------------
The use of large fonts is not supported on Windows NT versions of CI/O WAMS.

LOG SEVERITY ICON COLORS
------------------------
Highlighting the small severity icons at the beginning of each workstation 
log entry changes the color of the highlighted icon without changing the 
severity level.

HOURGLASS ON TASK COMPLETION
----------------------------
When issuing certain commands, the cursor may still remain as an hourglass 
when the task has completed.  To correct this, move the mouse.

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                                  END OF 
                           
                           Array1000CA Family
          
                               Readme File
                         
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