The CHALLENGE® RAID storage system provides a compact, high-capacity, high-availability source of disk storage for the complete line of Silicon Graphics® CHALLENGE servers running IRIX™ 5.3 and 5.3 with XFS™: CHALLENGE S, CHALLENGE DM, CHALLENGE L, and CHALLENGE XL.
 | Note: For ease in reading, CHALLENGE is written as Challenge in the balance of this guide. |
The Challenge RAID deskside storage system uses traditional or high-availability disk storage in as many as 20 disk modules that you or the customer can replace while the system continues to run. For even more storage, the Challenge RAID rack storage system offers up to four RAID chassis assemblies, each with as many as 20 disk modules. The chassis assemblies in a Challenge RAID rack can be connected to one or more SCSI buses on Challenge servers separately or in combination.
RAID levels 0, 1, 1_0 (0+1), 3, and 5 are supported, as well as disks configured as hot spares. In addition, the Challenge RAID storage system can provide storage-system caching.
Besides a command-line interface, a graphical user interface, RAIDGUI, is also available; it is documented extensively in the CHALLENGE RAID Owner's Guide, revision 007-2532-006 and later.
| Note: This document is intended for use by Silicon Graphics System Support Engineers only. |
This guide contains the following chapters:
| Chapter 1 | "Challenge RAID Kit Contents" lists the RAID cables and other components shipped with the unit. | |
| Chapter 2 | "Challenge RAID Chassis Tour" illustrates and describes all Challenge RAID components. | |
| Chapter 3 | "Installing a Challenge RAID Storage System" describes how to install, cable, and set up the storage system. | |
| Chapter 4 | "Installing the Challenge RAID Software and Configuring Disks" explains how to start the Challenge RAID software, use the command-line interface to group disks into RAID-5 units, and, if the customer desires, enable caching. | |
| Chapter 5 | "Maintaining and Upgrading Disk Modules" explains replacing and installing disk modules. | |
| Chapter 6 | "Maintaining and Upgrading SPs" explains replacement and upgrade procedures for storage-control processors, including FLARE code upgrades. | |
| Chapter 7 | "Maintaining and Upgrading Other Components" explains replacing and installing the remaining components, such as the power-supply module. It also explains how to install additional chassis assemblies in a Challenge RAID rack. | |
| Appendix A | "Technical Specifications" summarizes technical information for the Challenge RAID deskside storage-array system. | |
| Appendix B | "The raidcli Command-Line Interface" lists and explains all parameters of the raidcli command. | |
| Appendix C | "Troubleshooting" explains how to solve system problems. |
An index completes this guide.
| Note: It is advisable to have handy your copy of the CHALLENGE/Onyx XL Rackmount Installation Instructions (108-7042-020); Appendix D contains SCSI channel information. Depending on the Challenge server present at the site, you might also need the CHALLENGE/Onyx Deskside Installation Instructions (108-7039-020). |
These type conventions and symbols are used in this guide:
| Helvetica Bold | Hardware labels | |
| Italics | Executable names, filenames, IRIX commands, manual or book titles, new terms, program variables, tools, utilities, variable command-line arguments, variable coordinates, and variables to be supplied by the user in examples, code, and syntax statements | |
| Fixed-width type |
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| Bold fixed-width type |
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| "" | (Double quotation marks) Onscreen menu items and references in text to document section titles | |
| [] | (Brackets) Surrounding optional syntax statement arguments | |
| <> | (Angle brackets) Surrounding nonprinting keyboard keys, for example, <Esc>, <Ctrl-D> |