OWC Mercury Rack Pro mini-SAS User manual
User Guide &
Owners Manual
OWC Mercury Rack Pro mini-SAS Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
1.1.1 Mac Requirements
1.1.2 PC Requirements
1.1.3 Supported Hard Drives
1.2 PACKAGE CONTENTS
1.3 ABOUT THIS MANUAL
1.4 REAR VIEW & CABLE CONNECTIONS
1.5 FRONT VIEW & LED INDICATORS
1.5.1 LED Indicators
1.6 RAID MODES
1.6.1 Combine
1.6.2 Disk Striping (RAID 0)
1.6.3 Disk Mirroring (RAID 1)
1.6.4 Disk Mirroring with Striping (RAID 10)
1.6.6 Disk Striping with Dedicated Parity (RAID 3)
1.6.6 Disk Striping with Distributed Parity (RAID 5)
1.6.7 Clear RAID Mode
2 SYSTEM SETUP
5 APPENDIX
6 CUSTOMER SERVICE
6.1 BEFORE CONTACTING CUSTOMER SERVICE
6.2 CUSTOMER SERVICE HOURS OF OPERATION
2.1 HARD DRIVE INSTALLTION
2.2 REPLACING HARD DRIVES
2.3 CONNECTIONS TO COMPUTER
2.4 CONVERTING TO DESKTOP UNIT
3 FORMATTING
3.1 MACINTOSH FORMATTING
3.2 REMOVING AN EXISTING GUID PARTITION (PRECONFIGURED SOLUTIONS)
3.3 WINDOWS FORMATTING
4 TROUBLESHOOTING & TIPS
4.1 TROUBLESHOOTING
4.2 USAGE TIPS
5.1 FAQ
5.2 ABOUT DATA BACKUP
1.1 System Requirements
1.1.1 Mac Requirements
Dependent on the interface card you purchase to use with this solution. Please check
the specications of the controller card to determine system requirements.
1.1.2 PC Requirements
Dependent on the interface card you purchase to use with this solution. Please check
the specications of the controller card to determine system requirements.
1.1.3 Supported Drives
•Up to 4 3.5” SATA or SAS drives (1.5Gb/s, 3.0Gb/s, or 6.0Gb/s)
•40GB - 3.0TB per HDD
•Drives of identical capacity / model are required for RAID congurations
1.2 Package Contents
OWC Mercury Rack Pro mini-SAS Chapter 1 - Introduction
1 INTRODUCTION
Item
➀Power cable
➁Rack Mounting Handles
➂ Desktop Mounting Feet
➃ Screws for Rack / Desktop Conversion
➄ Software CD Bundle (solutions only)
➅ User Guide & Owner’s Manual
1.3 About This Manual
Firmware, images, and descriptions may vary slightly between this manual and the
unit shipped. Functions and features may change depending on the rmware version.
Please visit the product webpage for the most recent specications.
➂
➃
➀
➁
➅
➄
OWC Mercury Rack Pro mini-SAS Chapter 1 - Introduction
1.5.1 LED Indicators
Power Input
Voltage Switch External mini-SAS Port
Cable Connections:
1. Plug the power cable into the wall and into the OWC Mercury Rack Pro.
2. Verify that the voltage switch is set properly for your country.
3. Connect your external mini-SAS cable to your external mini-SAS controller card.
(neither are included)
1.4 Rear View & Cable Connections
1.5 Front View & LED Indicators
Each drive by has a multicolor LED indicator.
Power:
• O = Power o
• Blue = Power on (all 4 drive bays)
Access:
• Flashing Red = Drive being accessed
Rebuild:
• Blinking red = Rebuilding RAID array
• Solid Red = Faulty drive
Power On/O button
is inside the front door on the left side.
OWC Mercury Rack Pro SAS Chapter 1 - Introduction
1.6 RAID Modes
The OWC Mercury Rack Pro mini-SAS does not have any RAID functions built in;
however most RAID cards you will choose to use with the OWC Mercury Rack Pro
mini-SAS will. These denitions of dierent RAID modes are provided to help you
decide which mode is best for you to use.
1.6.1 Combine
The drives show up as one large single volume. The total size will depend on the drives
installed, you can use drives of dierent capacities. Combining is an array (not RAID)
that is written sequentially to, across the hard drives. By itself, it does not provide any
performance or redundancy benets.
1.6.2 Disk Striping (RAID 0)
The drives show up as one large (single) volume. It is highly recommended to use
identical hard drives for this RAID method. However, you can utilize drives of dierent
capacity, but realize that the RAID size will be based on the smallest capacity total of
the drives used in the RAID set.
Used when speed is the primary objective but RAID Level 0 (also called “striping”) is
not redundant. This array splits each piece of data across the drives in segments. Since
data is written without parity data-checking, it allows for the fastest data transfer rates,
but if one drive fails, the whole array can become corrupted.
1.6.3 Disk Mirroring (RAID 1, only 2 drives installed)
The drives show up as one volume, but only 50% of the total capacity can be used. It
is highly recommended to use identical hard drives for this RAID method. However,
while you can utilize drives of dierent capacity, the RAID size will be based on the
smallest capacity total of the drives used in the RAID set. RAID 1 creates an exact copy
(or “mirror”) of a set of data on the second drive. This is useful when reliability and
backup are more important than capacity. When one drive fails, it can be replaced and
the data rebuilt.
Storage Capacity Data Safety Performance
Storage Capacity Data Safety Performance
Storage Capacity Data Safety Performance
OWC Mercury Rack Pro mini-SAS Chapter 1 - Introduction
1.6.4 Disk Mirroring with Striping (RAID 10) (also known as RAID 1+0)
The drives show up as one volume, but only 50% of the total capacity can be used,
depending on the drive with the smallest capacity. RAID 10 creates an exact copy (or
“mirror”) of a set of data but also uses a RAID 0 Stripe for speed. When one hard drive
fails, it can be replaced and the data rebuilt automatically.
1.6.5 Disk Striping with dedicated parity (RAID 3)
The drives show up as one volume, but the total capacity, depending on the drive with
the smallest capacity, is the combined size minus the size of one drive. RAID 3 uses
byte level striping with parity data located on 1 disk. Very fast performance can be
achieved with RAID 3.
1.6.6 Disk Striping with distributed parity (RAID 5)
The drives show up as one volume, but the total capacity, depending on the drive with
the smallest capacity, is the combined size minus the size of one drive. RAID 5 uses
block level striping with parity data distributed across all member disks and therefore
provides the perfect balance between high performance and data integrity. When one
hard drive fails, it can be replaced and the data rebuilt automatically.
1.6.7 Clear RAID Mode (also known as Independent)
Each drive will appear as a single volume. If you wish to use a mixed variety of capacity
and model hard drives, this is the mode to use.
NOTE:
Hard drives of identical model are required for all RAID types.
Storage Capacity Data Safety Performance
Storage Capacity Data Safety Performance
Storage Capacity Data Safety Performance
OWC Mercury Rack Pro mini-SAS Chapter 2 - System Setup
2.1 Drive Installation
NOTE: If you purchased a precongured solution with drives, they will be numbered
for proper installation in individual drive bays. Please match the drive bay numbers to
the hard drives and their trays.
To install your own drive mechanisms:
1. Open the front door on the
OWC Mercury Rack Pro.
2. Install the hard drive as
shown to the left, with the SATA
connector facing away from you.
3. Slide the drive all the way into
the drive bay. It will t ush with
the aluminum frame.
4. Repeat the previous steps for each hard drive you are installing.
NOTE: Be careful to not damage any components, and do not force the drives into
place. If they don’t slide in easily, make sure there are no obstructions.
IMPORTANT:
In most cases, is not possible to add more drives to an existing RAID array or change
the RAID conguration without reformatting. This will depend on your controller card
and the operating system that you are using. Some cards support OLE and ORLM on
the Windows platform. Check your controller card manual for more information.
2 SYSTEM SETUP
OWC Mercury Rack Pro mini-SAS Chapter 2 - System Setup
2.2 Replacing Drives
If one of the drives fail,
the corresponding activity
LED will light up solid red
If only one drive is defec-
tive and your controller
card’s RAID mode is set
to RAID 1, RAID 3, RAID
5, or RAID 10, the data
can still be accessed, but
we strongly suggest that
you replace the faulty
drive mechanism immedi-
ately to assure continued
backup and data safety. To
remove the hard drive from the enclosure, simply use the ip lever located above the
hard drive to eject the drive mechanism.
If more than one drive fails at the same time, or if one drive fails and your controller
card’s RAID mode is not set to a mode with redundancy, data will be lost.
1. Check the Drive LED and replace the faulty drive. The red LED indicates the defective
hard drive. Depending on the controller card you are using, the power may need to be
turned o - check your controller card manual to conrm this. You may be able to leave
the RAID powered on.
2. After replacing the defective drive, power on the OWC Mercury Rack Pro (if neces-
sary).
3. Using the RAID controller card managment software, follow the instructions there or
within the RAID controller card manual to proceed with the rebuild process. Depend-
ing on the card you are using, this may be automatic.
NOTE: Combined drives or independent drives can have the data from the good drives
recovered in most cases.
2.3 Connections to Computer
1. Plug the power cable into the wall and into the OWC Mercury Rack Pro.
2. Verify the voltage switch is set properly for the country you reside in.
3. Connect the mini-SAS port to your controller card.
If sold as a precongured solution, your OWC Mercury Rack Pro is preset as a RAID 5,
using the “Mac OS Extended” format and is ready to use. If you want to change this
conguration, please follow the instructions in Chapter 3 to do so.
A few precautions and notes when using your external storage device:
• Do not expose the product to water or humid conditions.
• Do not cover the enclosure’s ventilation holes.
• Before connecting the device to your computer, install the hard drives.
• For the safe removal of your drive and to assure that no data is lost, always eject or
unmount the drive from your operating system before powering o.
• In order for the computer to access volumes larger than 2TB, both the hard-
ware and Operating System need to support large volumes (e.g.: Windows Vista
32bit/64bit or Mac OS X 10.4 and above).
OWC Mercury Rack Pro mini-SAS Chapter 2 - System Setup
Power Input
Voltage Switch
External mini-SAS Port
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