3ware RAID Controller

3ware RAID controllers are supported by default under Linux, but if you want to manage them from Linux instead of the RAID BIOS (3BM) you have to download some things from the 3ware website first.

CLI and Web interface

Automatic installation

The 3ware 9560 controller is now automatically recognized by LinutMCE and the 3dm2 software is installed automatically (introduced after 0710 beta 4). There's is no need for manually installing the software.

Manual installation

Using APT

apt-get install 3ware-3dm2

From 3ware's website

3ware download page: http://www.3ware.com/support/download.asp

• Select "Latest Official Release".

This way you'll have just on option to select instead of a whole bunch.

• Choose your product.

I selected "3ware 9650SE" (the suffix doesn't matter, its the same software)

• Scroll down to "Combined 3DM2 and CLI"
• Click on the 32bit or 64bit Linux link, depending on your architecture
• Read the license and press the "Agree" button, which will start the download.
• Unpack the downloaded archive
• Run ./setupLinux_x86.bin (32bit) or ./setupLinux_x64.bin (64bit) in a X terminal.

This will start an InstallShield. You can go with the defaults.

There is a chance that the 3dm2 daemon won't get started by the installer (it will tell you if it fails). You can run it manually by typing "3dm2" in a console.

Web interface

For some reason, accessing the web interface remotely doesn't work. The browser gets redirected to the wrong place. It only works for local access, for me at least.

After you started the 3dm2 daemon, start a firefox on the machine with the controller and go to https://localhost:888. Login as "Administrator". The default password is "3ware".

Documentation

The installer also installs some documentation which you can browse by using this URL: file://localhost/opt/AMCC/Documentation/index.html (if you used the default path, /opt/AMCC)

Extending a RAID 5's capacity by adding a new disk

If you have a working RAID 5 array and want to expand it with one or more drives so you have more space, you can use the 3ware web interface (3DM) to do this.

Here are the steps:

• Login as "Administrator" (default password "3ware")
• In the top menu, select Management/Maintenance
• Mark the checkbox corresponding to the unit that you want to expand
• Click "Migrate Unit"
• A popup appears. Mark the checkbox(es) corresponding the the disks that you want added to the array and click "OK". Keep the RAID level the same.

At this point, the array will switch to migration mode and it will show this. In the summary page, the controller will say "Warning" in yellow. If you select the controller, the unit you started to expand will display its status in the "Status" column in yellow and a completion percentage.

After the migration is complete, you'll have to increase your partition and filesystem size or create new partition(s) and filesystem(s) from Linux.

Power failure notes

The manual doesn't say a word about what happens if a power failure happens during array migration/expansion.

Extrapolating the information in the manual, chances are that the migration/expansion will continue after power gets back.

Information extrapolated to get the high chances:

• If you have a BBU (Backup Battery Unit) enabled, the controller memory will contain its data for up to 72 hours in case of an unexpected shutdown
• The array is usuable during the migration. All you get is a performance hit.