This knowledge base (KB) applies to the following NVMe RAID AICs.   Table 1: Support NVMe RAID AICs Support NVMe RAID AICs SSD7105 SSD7202 SSD7502 SSD7505 SSD7540 SSD7580B SSD7580C SSD7749E SSD7749M SSD7749M2 SSD6780A RS6542AW RocketAIC 7105HWSeries RocketAIC 7502HWSeries RocketAIC 7505HWSeries RocketAIC 7540HWSeries RocketAIC 7749EWSeries RocketAIC 7749MW Series RocketAIC 7749M2W Series   When attempting to create a RAID array using the UEFI tool, the interface reports that “No Supported Controller Detected”, and can proceed no further. Possible causes 1. The SSD7000/7500 controller is not functioning properly. 2. The SSD controller is not securely installed into the motherboard’s PCIe slot. 3. There is a UEFI version error (you are using an incorrect our outdated version of the UEFI tool) 4. The SSD controller’s ID is incorrect. 5. PCIe slot is not set to allow Storage Option ROM to load or motherboard CSM not set disable.   Known Solutions & Workarounds 1. Make sure the SSD controller is properly installed into the PCIe slot. A loose/insecure connection would prevent the controller from being detected by the motherboard. 2. Consult your motherboard’s User Guide, and check the motherboard’s UEFI BIOS settings – make sure Option ROM settings are enabled for the PCIe slot used by the controller. 3. Make sure you are using the correct and latest version of the UEFI utility. Check the Software Updates webpage for the SSD7000 controller you are working with, and see if any updates are available. · SSD7202:  https://www.highpoint-tech.com/gen3-nvme-m2-bootable · SSD7103:  https://www.highpoint-tech.com/legacy · SSD7505:  https://www.highpoint-tech.com/gen4-nvme-m2 · SSD7540:  https://www.highpoint-tech.com/gen4-nvme-m2 · SSD7580A:  https://www.highpoint-tech.com/gen4-nvme-u2 · SSD7580B:  https://www.highpoint-tech.com/gen4-nvme-u2 4. If the controller is detected, but the “No Supported Controller Detected” is still displayed when attempting to create an array, you will need to make sure the controller ID matches the product ID.   Check this by manual loaded driver Enter  loadpcirom xxx.rom  in the UEFI Shell. Based on the output of this command, we can determine whether our UEFI driver is incompatible with your motherboard. If it can be loaded manually, it means that the BIOS settings do not allow third-party ROM (Storage Option ROM) files to be loaded. Support Services If it still does not work after manual loading, Please collect two copies of the file on the UEFI Shell command side and submit it to  Support . 1. Save the driver information by using the following command:  drivers > drivers.txt It will save drivers’ log to the USB drive, as the file “ drivers.txt ”. 2. Save the on-screen pci information using the following command:  pci > pci.txt   This will save the pci’s log to the USB boot drive, as the file “pci.txt”.

This knowledge base (KB) applies to the following NVMe RAID AICs.   Table 1: Support NVMe RAID AICs Support NVMe RAID AICs RocketRAID 4520/4522SGL RocketStor 6628A RocketStor 6418AS/6414AS RocketStor 6314A/6314B   The driver cannot be loaded or cannot enter the WEBGUI Until Update the firmware If you had been successfully using a HighPoint RAID solution based on the RR4500 series Hardware RAID controller with macOS 10.13x (and earlier), but are currently unable to use the product after updating to 10.14.x or later, you may need to update the RR4500 firmware. Procedure: 1. Power down the Mac system. 2. Disconnect any drives hosted by the HighPoint controller or enclosure; (temporarily unplug the cables or eject the drive trays). 3. Boot the Mac system. 4. After booting macOS, download the latest firmware from the official HighPoint Website:  https://www.highpoint-tech.com/BIOS_Driver/HighPointIOP/FW/RS63xx_macOS_v1.8.15.0.4_18_04_24.zip 5. Extract the download to a directory of your choice. 6. Open the terminal , browse to the location of the extracted RR4500 firmware download, and run the following command:  go.command Note: you can also drag the  go.command  file to the terminal window to start the process: 7. The script will prompt you to confirm that the RS63xx is not connected, and ask you to press Enter  to continue. Depending on your macOS user privileges, you may be promoted to enter a password. 8. Verify that all disks hosted by the RS63xx are temporarily removed (unplug the drive trays) and connect the RS63xx to the Mac system. 9. Press the " Enter " key; a pop-up message will be displayed. Enter your username and password to confirm the  System Preferences  prompt " Security & Privacy ", and then click " Allow Anyway " to proceed. 10. The script will flash the firmware; this process requires approximately 10 seconds. A new pop-up will display asking you to confirm the update. Click " OK ". 11. If macOS prompts  “ctrinfo” can’t be opened … (as shown below), the warning can be safely ignored. Press OK  to complete the process.

This knowledge base (KB) applies to the following NVMe RAID AICs.   Table 1: Support NVMe RAID AICs   Support NVMe RAID AICs SSD7101A-1 SSD7104 SSD7105 SSD7204 SSD7140A SSD7540 SSD7749M SSD7749M2 SSD7749E SSD7505 SSD7202 SSD7502 SSD7120 SSD7180 SSD7184 SSD7580B SSD7580C   1. Overivew The three most common benchmark utilities are FIO, HDparm and “dd”. We used each utility with the SSD7103 to document how these tools are able to test NVMe performance. We found that FIO was the only utility capable of acurrately testing the performance of NVMe/SAS/SATA RAID storage. 2. Descriptions of common Benchmarking Tools for Linux 1) Hdparm Introduction hdarm  it is used to obtain, set, and test disk parameters for Linux-based systems, including the read performance and cache performance of hard disk drives. However, hdparm was designed as a performance testing tool. It was only designed to test very low-level operations; it was not designed to consider the distinction between cache and the physical platters of a disk. In addition, once you have created a file system on the target disk, the test results will drastically change. This is particularly noticeable when testing sequential access vs. random access. Command Line Parameters Using hdparm's -T and -t parameters, you can measure the basic characteristics of a disk in a Linux environment: Format: hdparm [-CfghiIqtTvyYZ] a. -t Evaluate the read efficiency of the hard disk. b. -T Evaluate the read efficiency of hard disk cache Example: [root@kafka118 ~]# hdparm -t /dev/sda (Evaluate the read efficiency of the hard disk) [root@kafka118 ~]# hdparm -T /dev/sda (Test the read speed of the hard disk cache) [root@kafka118 ~]# hdparm -tT --direct /dev/sda (Directly test the read performance of the hard disk) 2) dd Introduction “dd” is a command line utility for UNIX and Linux operating systems.  Its main purpose is to convert and copy files. Common Command Line Options Option Description if= file name Enter the file name, specify the source file, such as . of= file name The output file name; the destination file is specified as . ibs=bytesobs=bytesbs=bytes Read in bytes at a time (specify a block size as bytes) cbs=bytes Output bytes; specify a block size in as bytes. skip=blocks Set the block size of the read/output to bytes. seek=blocks Convert bytes at a time; specify the size of the conversion buffer. count=blocks Start copying after skipping blocks from the beginning of the input file. Common command line format a. #dd bs=128k count=10k if=/dev/zero of=test The default mode of dd does not include the "sync" command, and the system does not actually write the file to the disk before the dd command is completed. Simply reading the data into the memory buffer (write cache [write cache]) shows only the read speed, and the system does not actually start writing data to the disk until dd has completed. Sample Test result: b. # dd bs=128k count=10k if=/dev/zero of=test; sync Same as above, the two commands separated by semicolons are independent of each other，the dd command has already displayed the "writing speed" value on screen, and the real-world write speed cannot be obtained. Sample run results: c. # dd bs=128k count=10k if=/dev/zero of=test conv=fdatasync At the end of the dd command execution, it will actually perform a "sync" operation, and what you get is the time required to read the 128M data to the memory and write it to the disk. This is more in line with the real-world transfer. Sample run results: d. # dd bs=128k count=10k if=/dev/zero of=test oflag=dsync Same as above, the two commands separated by semicolons are independent of each other ，the dd command has already displayed the "writing speed" value on the screen, and the real writing speed cannot be obtained. dd will perform a synchronous write operation every time when it is executed. After each 128k read, the 128k must be written to the disk, and then the following 128k is read. It is the slowest way, and it is basically not used. Write cache Sample test results: 3. Testing the benchmark Utilities 1) Test environment Motherboard GIGABYTE X570 AORUS MASTER CPU AMD Ryzen 93900X 12-Core Processor Memory Kingston HYPERX RURX DDR4 3200MHz BIOS 1201 Slot PCIE x16_1 OS Ubuntu Desktop 20.04.1(kernel:) HBA SSD7103 SSD Samsung 970 Pro 512GB*4 Driver https://highpoint-tech.com/BIOS_Driver/NVMe/HighPoint_NVMe_G5_Linux_Src_v1.2.24_2021_01_05.tar.gz WebGUI https://highpoint-tech.com/BIOS_Driver/NVMe/SSD7540/RAID_Manage_Linux_v2.3.15_20_04_17.tgz Scripts Fio: #fio --filename=/mnt/test.bin --direct=1 --rw=read --ioengine=libaio --bs=2m --iodepth=64 --size=10G --numjobs=1 --runtime=60 --time_base=1 --group_reporting --name=test-seq-read #fio --filename=/mnt/test.bin --direct=1 --rw=write --ioengine=libaio --bs=2m --iodepth=64 --size=10G --numjobs=1 --runtime=60 --time_base=1 --group_reporting --name=test-seq-write 2) Test Procedure a. Prepare the motherboard, OS, and SSD7103 with 4 NVMEs, and set up the test environment. b. Install the driver and WebGUI, and restart the system. c. Format a single disk for partition and mount it. d. Use FIO to test document abse performance. e. Umount partition, using HDPARM to test its performance. f. Create RAID0 and RAID1 respectively and repeat steps c to e. above. 3) Test Results Result Tool Category HPT Single Disk HPT RAID0 HPT RAID1 Fio 2M-Seq-Read(MB/s) 3577 14300 7143 2M-Seq-Write(MB/s) 2319 9211 2299 4K-Rand-Read(IOPS) 377K 1318K 753K 4K-Rand-Write(IOPS) 331K 312K 262K   Hdparm Cached Reads(MB/s) 2759.23 6562.94 3628.14 Reads (MB/s) 1454.80 6562.99 2036.38   dd 2M-Read(MB/s) 1500 1900 1300 a. Hdparm b. dd 4) Test analysis a. Comparison of Hdparm and fio · 1. Hdparm has few parameters for testing performance. · 2. Hdparm is normally used to read and set hard disks, without considering the distinction between cache and actual physical read performance. b. Comparison of dd and fio · 1. When using dd to test the maximum read bandwidth, the queue depth is always very small (not greater than 2), so the test results of dd are much lower than those reported by fio. · 2. When using the dd command, if you set iflag=direct, the queue depth is 1, the test result is basically the same as the fio test result. Therefore, if you need to test the delay, bandwidth, and IOPS of a single queue, you can consider using the dd command. · 3. When using the dd command, if the value of iflag is sync, nocache, or when the iflag parameter is not used, the actual IO block size is 128KB, regardless of the value set by the bs parameter. · 4. dd cannot set the queue depth and cannot obtain the maximum read IOPS. We do not recommend using dd to test performance for the following reasons: · 1. The IO model of the dd command is single, which can only test sequential IO, not random IO. · 2. The dd command can set fewer parameters, and the test results may not reflect the real performance of the disk; · 3. The original intention of the dd was not to test the performance (please refer to the official dd documentation for more information). 5) Conclusion “dd” and hdparm are not suited for testing NVMe performance in a Linux environment. We recommend customers use fio.

This knowledge base (KB) applies to the following NVMe RAID AICs.   Table 1: Support NVMe RAID AICs   Support NVMe RAID AICs All Products   For Windows or Linux operating systems; please refer to the resources section of the corresponding product page to obtain the complete RAID Management Guide. The following is a link to HighPoint's official website:  https://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/main.htm   Create a RAID10 using the command line interface (CLI) Enter the following command using the CLI to create a RAID10 array: create RAID10 disks=1/E1/1,1/E2/1,1/E1/2,1/E2/2,1/E1/3,1/E2/3,1/E1/4,1/E2/4 capacity=* init=quickinit bs=512k * refers to the desired capacity (please check the CLI RAID Management Guide for more information). Note: RAID 10 arrays are comprised of two RAID 1 arrays that have been striped together (RAID 0). The drives that constitute a RAID 10 array are always arranged in pairs (groups of two), hence the complex command line .   Checking the RAID10 configuration using the WebGUI management software Access the  Logical  tab, and then click on Maintenance for the RAID10 array. This will allow you to view information about each drives (note how they are organized in pairs).

This knowledge base (KB) applies to the following NVMe RAID AICs.   Table 1: Support NVMe RAID AICs Support NVMe RAID AICs All Products How to Check if TRIM is enabled: 1. Using the search button located near the Windows icon (bottom left-hand corner of the desktop), type  Command Prompt  and press  Enter .  Note: you may need to start the utility with Administrator Privileges enabled. 2. Once Command Prompt starts, enter the following command and press Enter:  fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify 3. If the value is  0  (as shown in the screenshot below), TRIM is enabled.   If the value is  1 , TRIM is disabled.   Enabling TRIM Support 1. Open the Command Prompt utility. 2. Type the following command and press Enter:  fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0   Disabling TRIM Support 1. Open the Command Prompt utility. 2. Type the following command and press Enter:  fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 1   How do I configure Windows to automatically start TRIM? 1. Using the Search field, enter “ Defragment and Optimize Drives ”, then right-click and select “ Run as administrator ” to enter. 2. Select the disk you want to TRIM and click Optimize to TRIM the disk. How to schedule TRIM 1. Click the  Change settings  button, and then click the  Frequency  drop down menu – you can select between  Daily, Weekly  and  Monthly. 2. Use the  Choose  button to select the target drive. 3. Once you have made your selection, you can close the window.

This knowledge base (KB) applies to the following Enclosures.   Table 1: Support Enclosures   Support NVMe RAID AICs R3700 Series/ RR2800 Series/ RR2700 Series/ RR800 Series/RR600 Series/ RS64xxTS/ RS6618T/ RS6628T/ RS6674T RR4500 Series/ RS64xxAS/ RS6314A/ RS6318A/ RS6618A/ RS6628A   There are several possible reasons why the WebGUI would be unable to connect to the RAID Enclosure: 1. The RAID Enclosure’s Controller isn’t recognized by the system. 2. The Device ID is incorrect. 3. The HighPointIOP/HighPointRR driver isn’t loading. 1) Confirm the Enclosure’s RAID Controller is recognized by the Mac system. Under System Profile, click on PCI and look for the RocketRAID controller entry (RR4520 example shown below): RS6314A,RS6318A,RS6618A,RS6628A: Device ID:0x4520 RS6618T,RS6628T,RS6674T: Device ID:0x0840 2) Confirm the RAID Controller’s Device ID. As shown above, the ID should correspond with the Enclosure’s RAID controller. 3) Confirm the Driver is loading. As shown above “Driver Installed” should be listed as “Yes”. For RR4500 Series/RS64xxAS/RS6314A/RS6318A/RS6618A/RS6628A products: System Information à Software à Extensions à HighPointIOP For RR3700 Series/RR2800 Series/RR2700 Series/RR800 Series/RR600 Series/RS64xxTS/RS6618T/RS6628T/RS6674T products: System Information à Software à Extensions à HighPointRR 4) Confirm the Enclosure is recognized as a Thunderbolt Device. Under System Profile, click on  Thunderbolt  and look for the RocketStor Enclosure entry: 5) Contact our Support Department if you are not able to resolve the issue. Some technical issues may require advanced support, or direct assistance from our software engineers. In these cases, we will need a copy of your system log file (also known as the event log).The System Log typically records errors, device failures, and software or driver related incidents. This information can help our engineers narrow down or even identify the source of the problem you are experiencing. Please refer to the following guide: https://highpoint-tech.com/PDF/support/Obtaining%20System%20Log%20Files%20Article_v1.04_20_05_28.pdf Contact Support:  To contact our Support Department, visit our Online Web Support Portal https://www.highpoint-tech.com/websupport/

This knowledge base (KB) applies to the following NVMe RAID AICs.   Table 1: Support NVMe RAID AICs   Support NVMe RAID AICs SSD7140 / SSD7180 / SSD7184 / RU1488C   While using the SSD7140/SSD7180/SSD7184/RU1488C NVMe RAID controller with a Windows operating system, a “Yellow Mark” error is shown under Windows Device Manager for a “Base System Device”: 1. This “Yellow Mark” error message is associated with an unused feature of  SSD7140, SSD7180, RU1488C, and SSD7184,  NVMe RAID Controllers’ PCIe Switch chipset. It can be safely ignored, and will not interfere with the controller’s performance or functionality. For more information, please see section “ 3. Notes about the Yellow Mark entry” . If you wish to remove the yellow marked entries, please install the following PLX driver. 2. Installing the PLX Driver: Download 1) Remove all NVMe SSD’s from the SSD7000 series controller, and install it into a PCIe slot. 2)  Power on the system and boot Windows. 3) Locate the PLX driver package and extract this to a directory of your choice. 4) Open Device Manager and expand Other Devices. 5) Right-click on one of the  Base system device  entries, and select  Update driver. 6) Select  Browse my computer for drivers , and browse to the folder that contains the extracted PLX download. 7) Click the  PLX_Windows_Driver_xxx option (as shown below), and click  OK. 8) Select  Next. 9) When the pop-up window appears, select  Install. 10) After the installation process is complete, click  Close. 11) Repeat steps 5 through 10 for the remaining Base system device entries. Once complete, you should see the following entries:   12) You can check the properties for each entry – it should report that “The device is working properly”. 3. Notes about the Yellow Mark entry: Windows Device Manger distinguishes the types of device according to ClassGUID. The PLX driver claims to report the device ClassGUID={4d36e97e-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}. This ClassGUID is categorized under Other Devices, according to the instructions given by Microsoft. So even if the controller driver is successfully installed, it will still display the yellow mark entry under Other Devices, due to how Windows classifies the PLX component. Regarding the    shown above; this signifies “Other Device”. Official Microsoft explanation link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/install/system-defined-device-setup-   classes-reserved-for-system-use The ClassGuid of the PLX driver is consistent with the instructions provided by Microsoft.

This knowledge base (KB) applies to the following NVMe RAID AICs.   Table 1: Support NVMe RAID AICs   Support NVMe RAID AICs RocketRAID 4500 series RocketRAID 2700 series RocketRAID 3700 series RocketRAID 644L RocketRAID 642L RocketRAID 622   HighPoint no longer manufactures eSATA controllers (controllers with external SATA connectivity). We recommend customers upgrade to our RR4500, 2700 or 3700 series. We manufacture 4 and 8-bay mini-SAS storage enclosures,  and a range of cabling accessories that have designed for use with these controller series. For: RocketRAID 644L, RocketRAID 642L, RocketRAID 622 Recommended Upgrade Solutions: External mini-SAS (SFF-8088/SFF-8644) Connectivity RocketRAID series RAID Controllers Product RocketRAID 4522SGL RocketRAID 2722 RocketRAID 3742A SAS/SATA Support 6Gb/s SAS/SATA 6Gb/s SAS/SATA 12Gb/s SAS (backwards compatible with 6Gb/s SAS and 6Gb/s SATA) PCIe Host Interface PCIe 2.0 x8 PCIe 2.0 x8 PCIe 3.0 x8 Port Count 8 (2x SFF-SFF-8088) 8 (2x SFF-8088) 8 External (1x SFF-8644) / 8 Internal (SFF-8643) Certified Cable Accessory EXT-1M-1MMS 8644-8088-1M1 RocketStor 6400 Series RAID Storage Enclosures HighPoint manufactures the industry’s most comprehensive selection of SAS & SATA storage enclosures, and are ideal for nearly any DAS application, hardware or software platform, and budget. Available in four and eight-bay tower form factors, RocketStor 6400 Series storage enclosures can be purchased in any number of configurations, ranging from stand-alone drive enclosures and compact external RAID solutions, to complete turnkey storage devices.   RocketStor 6400 Series Enclosures employ industry standard SFF-8088 interface, also known as Mini-SAS connectors, offer several advantages over eSATA cables. The connection is highly secure, and features a built-in locking mechanism. Each cable can accommodate 4 dedicated 6Gb/s SATA connections. RocketStor 6418x  – 8-Bay SAS/SATA Tower Enclosures   RocketStor 6414x  – 4-Bay SAS/SATA Tower Enclosures

This knowledge base (KB) applies to the following NVMe RAID AICs.   Table 1: Support NVMe RAID AICs   Support NVMe RAID AICs RR600, RR800, RR2700, RR2800, RR3700, RR4500, RS6400 series Note: This only applies to RocketRAID series product, and SAS/SATA based RAID Enclosures (RR600, RR800, RR2700, RR2800, RR3700, RR4500, RS6400 series).   This is related to applications that require a 32bit environment. If you need to access the BIOS interface of a RocketRAID controller, or use a DOS-level utility or 32-bit operating system with a RocketRAID controller or RocketStor 6400 series RAID enclosure, you will need to access the motherboard’s BIOS and disable “Above 4G Recording”. This setting does not have to be disabled for general use with current 64-bit platforms (when using the controller/enclosure at the operating system level, for example). This setting does not have to be disabled when using HighPoint SSD7000/7500/6200/6540 series NVMe RAID controllers and enclosures, Rocket 1000 series NVMe HBA’s, HighPoint RocketU and RocketStor USB HBA’s & enclosures, or HighPoint Thunderbolt™ series adapter and enclosure products.

This knowledge base (KB) applies to the following NVMe RAID AICs.   Table 1: Support NVMe RAID AICs   Support NVMe RAID AICs SSD7105 SSD7202 SSD7502 SSD7505 SSD7540 SSD7580A SSD7580B SSD7580C SSD7749E SSD7749M SSD7749M2 SSD6780A RS6542AW RocketAIC 7105HWSeries RocketAIC 7502HWSeries RocketAIC 7505HWSeries RocketAIC 7540HWSeries RocketAIC 7749EWSeries RocketAIC 7749MW Series RocketAIC 7749M2W Series RA6542AWW-S491T5-12   The binary driver only supports certain kernel versions. If you upgrade the system kernel without installing the opensource driver, the upgraded kernel cannot be accessed.

This knowledge base (KB) applies to the following NVMe RAID AICs.   Table 1: Support NVMe RAID AICs   Support NVMe RAID AICs SSD7101A-1 SSD7104 SSD7105 SSD7204 SSD7140A SSD7540 SSD7749M SSD7749M2 SSD7749E SSD7505 SSD7202 SSD7502 SSD7120 SSD7180 SSD7184 SSD7580B SSD7580C SSD6204A SSD6202A SSD6540   We provide two types of reports for most of our product series – Compatibility and Performance. Our compatibility reports focus on general functionality, and server as reference material; customers can download these reports to check if their hardware has been tested with the product they are researching. Our performance reports serve to highlight the maximum transfer capabilities of our storage products. We use Samsung SSD's to benchmark most of our NVMe products due to their overall performance characteristics. We do not seek to promote a specific brand of NVMe media - this is simply the end result of extensive, long-term product testing. We have determined that Samsung PRO series NVMe SSD's produce repeatable, consistently results regardless of platform or configuration.

This knowledge base (KB) applies to the following NVMe RAID AICs.   Table 1: Support NVMe RAID AICs   Support NVMe RAID AICs All products   We apologize for any confusion, but we were an OEM supplier for this enclosure solution - we did not sell or market this product. The controller included with this Sans Digital product likely uses unique BIOS/driver versions – HighPoint software updates should not be used with this combination. To clarify, our controllers do not support Port Multiplier enclosures.Please contact Sans Digital for the appropriate update and further technical assistance. Thank you.