**********************************************************************
                    Array1000CA2 Family v4.10
                                and
   Adaptec CI/O Workstation Array Management Software v3.30
                            Readme File
                           July 24, 1998
**********************************************************************

This file contains the following additions to the user guides:
 COMPATIBILITY NOTES
 ARRAY CONFIGURATION NOTES
 ARRAY OPERATIONAL NOTES
 WINDOWS NT-SPECIFIC: INSTALLATION & CONFIGURATION NOTES
 WINDOWS NT-SPECIFIC: OPERATIONAL NOTES

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

BIOS & DRIVER PRECAUTIONS FOR AIC-78XX DEVICES
----------------------------------------------
The following BIOS and driver items are important to note
if both an AIC-78xx device (example, AHA-2940) and an 
Array1000CA2 Family product coexist in the same system.
 -BIOS updates may be required due to memory errors or other 
  problems. Solve by upgrading the AIC-78xx device BIOS to the 
  most recent version, v1.24 or later. 
 -A "shadow ROM" setting change may be required if one of the 
  cards is not visible to the operating system. In many cases 
  devices become visible to the OS by enabling shadow RAM for 
  all the address ranges in the system BIOS setup.
 -ARO-1130CA2 (only): If the Selection Utility selects driver 
  disk B for the ARO-1130CA2, an AHA-2940UW Dual or AHA-3940AUW 
  cannot coexist in the system due to a PCI hardware conflict. 
  Instead users should switch to the AHA-2940UW or AHA-3940UW 
  (non-AIC-7895B based product).
To obtain a copy of a required BIOS or driver visit Adaptec's 
website.


PROBLEMS BOOTING WITH MULTIPLE ADAPTER BIOS ENABLED
---------------------------------------------------
To BOOT a device on your Array1000SA adapter, enable the
Array1000 BIOS in SCSI SELECT. 

The BIOS on Adapters without BOOT devices should be disabled.  

Caution: some systems will not boot if multiple PCI Adapter 
BIOS images are left enabled, due to a lack of system resources 
(BIOS space.) This is not a problem caused by the Array1000CA2 
product. 

If the Array1000CA2 product BIOS is enabled, but doesn't load and
your system has multiple PCI adapters try the following:
 1. enable shadow ROM for all the address ranges in the 
    system BIOS setup. 
 2. If your system reports an error like: "PCI/PNP Error! 
    No space available to shadow ROM", disable the BIOS on non-
    booting PCI adapters, (i.e. these adapters do not contain 
    BOOT devices.)

If your PCI adapter is not visible to the system after disabling 
the BIOS, contact your vendor for a system BIOS upgrade or adapter 
compatibility information. 

SHARING PCI INTERRUPTS
----------------------
Do not configure the system to share interrupts between an
Array1000CA2 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.

PROPER SCSI TERMINATION
-----------------------
It is important to properly terminate both ends of the SCSI bus for 
the Array1000SA Family RAID Card to function properly. Improperly 
terminated SCSI busses can still operate under lightly loaded 
situations (only a couple of drives.)  SCSI bus scans will generally
work, and find all devices even if termination is incorrect. Under 
heavy workloads, improper termination leads to SCSI bus errors and 
data corruption. Refer to the your Hardware Installation Guide or 
motherboard/system documentation for termination instructions.

REMOVABLE DEVICES AS PART OF A RAID ARRAY
-----------------------------------------
Removable storage media devices cannot be part of a RAID array.

HIGH PERFORMANCE CD-ROM DRIVES
------------------------------
Active termination may be required with CD-ROM Drives supporting the 
FAST SYNCHRONOUS (10MB/sec) negotiation or higher.  In general, 
failing to install proper termination or incorrectly setting 
negotiation speeds within SCSI Select may affect CD-ROM function-
ality, resulting in installation and CD-ROM access errors. Consult 
your CD-ROM drive vendor for proper termination information.

**********************************************************************

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

INITIALIZING THE ARRAY
----------------------
If the user has created the array without initializing it, and 
reboots the system, the state of the array will be reported as:
        "New array needs init, needs system reboot"
A reboot at this point is not required.  One can initialize the 
array, and the array will become fault tolerant.

SUGGESTIONS ON DISK 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. If the 
consequences of this potential problem are unacceptable, the drives 
should be put in the "write cache disabled" mode.

HOT SWAPPING OF DEVICES 
-----------------------
Hot swapping a device with another device of a different type having 
the same SCSI ID (replacing a CD-ROM with disk or vice versa) is 
not supported. 

REINSERTION OF DEDICATED SPARES
-------------------------------
If a dedicated spare is removed by mistake, upon reinsertion and bus 
rescan, it may become a single.  If this occurs, simply re-create
the single as a dedicated spare.

**********************************************************************

ARRAY OPERATIONAL NOTES
=======================
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 RAID 0 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.  To get the array to appear again, go 
through the reactivate process and bring the array back online.

RAID 0 WITH MEMBER DOWN
-----------------------
When a RAID 0  array goes to an off-line status and the machine 
is restarted , the array will be given an OK status for the 
RAID 0 array. Even though an OK status is given, there could be
data corruption. This is done so the user can retrieve the data
off the array.

OFF LINE ARRAY CACHE SETTINGS
-----------------------------
If an array with cache enabled goes off-line, that cache is not
returned to the "available" memory pool.  This causes a bad value
to be displayed for "Internally used" cache.  To correct this
situation, simply delete or reactivate the off-line array.

**********************************************************************

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

DRIVE LETTERS AND PARTITIONS
----------------------------
If there is a primary partition on the lowest ID hard drive, it 
gets the first drive letter(C); otherwise, the first drive letter 
is assigned to the first recognized primary partition. 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 lowest ID drive in the system.

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 GByte, 
NT may generate an error stating that the installation drive is 
greater than 1024 cylinders.  NT limits boot partitions:
           FAT 16/32 = 2GB
           NTFS      = 4GB
To setup the largest available boot partition under NT: 
1. Disconnect all non-booting array and non-array devices
2. Setup NT
3. Reconnect all disconnected devices

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.   

ACTIVITIES SCHEDULED MULTIPLE TIMES
-----------------------------------
A given CI/O activity should not be scheduled more than once to 
run at a specific time.  Multiple events may otherwise be generated.

**********************************************************************

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

USE OF LARGE FONTS
------------------
The use of large fonts is not supported on 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
                 Array1000CA2 Family v4.10
                            and
   Adaptec CI/O Workstation Array Management Software v3.30
                        Readme File
**********************************************************************


















