Content in Intel Communities

Intel SSD Toolbox

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:37:05 GMT

I have two Intel® SSD 520 Series (60GB, 2.5in SATA 6Gb/s, 25nm, MLC) installed in RAID “0” on an ASUS P8Z77-V Pro, Intel Ivy Bridge Quad i7 3770K, G.SKILL Trident X F3-2400C10D-16GTX and two HDDs with Windows 8 Pro 64-bit installed on the RAID volume. I am running Intel® Rapid Storage Technology, Kit installed: 11.7.0.1013, User interface version: 11.7.0.1013, RAID option ROM version: 11.0.0.1339, Driver version: 11.7.0.1013, ISDI version: 11.7.0.1013. I have Intel® SSD Toolbox 3.1.2 installed. When I run the Intel® SSD Optimizer, I get the message “The
Intel SSD Optimizer cannot run on a RAID array under Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012.”. Intel web site Download Details says “Optimize the performance of an Intel SSD in RAID 0 using Trim functionality Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) 11.0 or greater”. Why is it not working?

Cannot enable SRT after reinstalling system

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:18:25 GMT

Hello,

I have got in front of me a computer whose behaviour regarding Intel Smart Response Technology puzzles me to no end. The machine in question, a Lenovo IdeaPad U410 (500 GB HDD + 24 GB SSD) running Windows 7 x64, is a few months old and has already had SRT successfully running on it. Howewer, a couple of weeks ago it got hit by some nasty malware and in the end I was asked to reinstall everything from scratch. I wiped both the SSD and the HDD, re-created the required partitions on the hard drive (200 MB EFI system, 128 MB Microsoft Reserved, everything that's left covered by a single NTFS partition; all of this using GPT), re-installed Windows 7 x64 (with Intel Rapid Storage drivers, exactly the same as during the first installation on that computer, read from a USB stick so that Windows installer could see the drives with the controller set to RAID mode), installed the whole Rapid Storage package... and now the option to enable acceleration is no longer there. No errors or warnings of any sort. it's just not there any more. What gives? The only difference in configuration is that earlier on the Windows partition ended 40 GB before the end of the HDD, with the remaining space left unallocated, to leave room for a possible Linux installation.

I've looked around on the Web and unfortunately have found no information that would help me. Having re-installed RST drivers - several times - has achieved nothing and besides, it seems most problems with SRT people complain about pertain to first-time installation, whereas as I have already mentioned above this laptop has already had SRT acceleration enabled on it.

Anyway, I would very much appreciate some suggestions regarding what else I could try to get acceleration running again. I have run our of ideas and unfortunately, the RST tool provided by the driver has given me no hints regarding why it doesn't let me switch SRT on.win

Get SRT rolling on Data Drive separate from system disk

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:07:44 GMT

Hi - first posting.

I've been digging through the forums but not quite finding what I'm looking for.

I'm running an Intel DZ68BC board with two Seagate Momentus XT drives in RAID1 for the System Drive. I do a great deal of database work w lots of I/O so I've also got a 2TB WD Black Data Drive. I'm also running an external drive (RAID1 inside of a Vantec box via eSata) but figure that is of little concern.

My big idea is to install an SSD and team it with the data drive in a SRT RAID configuration. Though I enjoy poking around w the box I'm really just an enthusiast - not a real IT guy.

Since this is not my system drive would the operation be as simple as installing the SSD, going into the Intel Rapid Storage Tech program and selecting accelerate for the data drive? One question is, since the system drives are already in a RAID, will that cause confusion to the configuration tools/chips when I want to put two other disks in a separate RAID? Here's another, would I absolutely need to update BIOS or should stock BIOS be OK?

Easy as pie? Pitfalls to know about? Fools errand?

Appreciation in advance for any thoughts/suggestions.

Wireless Profile Synchronization – Enable seamless AMT connectivity in newly discovered wireless networks.

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:11:48 GMT

In a previous article, I discussed Link Preference and how it enables better KVM user experience over wireless. In this article, I will discuss Profile Synchronization, another important capability that makes AMT over wireless a seamless experience.

What challenge are we trying to solve? Although we can configure in advance wireless networks in AMT, but what if the client roams in a new network; one that was never configured before? You can’t have access to AMT unless AMT is aware of that network. Profile synchronization solves that problem by pushing the OS’s currently used network's parameters to AMT.

OK, so how does it work?

First: Not all AMT wireless profiles are born equal!

AMT defines two types of profiles:

Admin profiles: Profiles known in advance and entered by IT administrator (during provisioning or manually using Web-UI for example)

User profiles: Networks discovered by the OS after the client has been deployed. AMT get User Profiles only though synchronization.

Up to 15 Admin Profiles and 8 User Profiles can be defined in AMT.

Other key differences

While Admin Profiles require TKIP or CCMP with WPA minimum encryption, User Profiles have more relaxed requirements and can be configured with WEP or no encryption.
User Profiles are not viewable from Web-UI, only Admin Profiles are viewable *

Wireless Profile Synchronization modes

Profile Synchronization supports three modes:

Normal (default)
Whenever the OS connects to a new wireless network the profile is pushed to AMT but requires user acknowledgment before synchronization.
Always reject
Synchronization of any new profiles are rejected and no user notification displayed.
Always accept
Synchronization accepted with no user notification (“Silent Synchronization”)

PROSet is currently the only Wireless Connection Manager that supports Profile Synchronization.

The Full PROSet package (except GUI) must be installed. The ‘drivers only’ installation does not have the necessary API to support that feature.
Install PROSet with the following option to enable/disable synchronization:
1. MEPROFILESYNC=ACCEPT (silently accepts all profile sync)
2. MEPROFILESYNC=BLOCK (silently blocks all profile sync)
If desired, instead of setting the MEPROFILE though PROSet, the registry value can be edited directly:

define ENABLE_USER_ACCEPT 0x10 // accept all USER profiles, no popup

#define ENABLE_USER_BLOCKED 0x20 // reject all USER profiles, no popup

Other important points about Profile Synchronization:

Only currently connected network is pushed to AMT (discovered networks are ignored).
Both sides of synchronization (OS & AMT) must be enabled:
1. OS side (“push” ): PROSet synchronization is enabled as described above
2. AMT side (“accept”): Configured in the Provisioning Profile: “Enable Synchronization” box
LMS is required for Profile Synchronization.

PROSet communicates with AMT through LMS.

Profile Synchronization user acknowledgment:

What happens when User Profile password changed?

PROSet will NOT synchronize changes in the profile’s password. The proper procedure to change profile password is:

First disconnect and delete the network from PROSet
1. PROSet synchronization will remove the wireless profile from AMT.
Create a new profile with the new password.
Upon connecting to that network, PROSet synchronization will add the profile to AMT.

What happens when max of 8 User profiles reached?

When AMT has already maxed out at 8 User Profiles, a newly synchronized network will override the profile that has not been used for the longest time.

What happens during provisioning and re-provisioned?

Un-Provisioning deletes, as expected, all Admin Profiles as well as User Profiles.

Re-Provisioning however is less intuitive:
During re-provisioning, only Admin Profiles are deleted (and new ones installed based on what is configured in the provisioning profiles), User Profiles however, are NOT removed ** and although the provisioning process competes successfully it gives warning: “ClearWirelessSettings failed” and “Access Denied”. The warnings look scary but don’t be alarmed, it only means that user profiles could not be deleted but that’s not an issue.

Here is a screen sample of such warning message after re-provisioning completes:

* This can be confusing, particularly during debugging: you connect with Web-UI and don’t see any User Profiles; you may think they are simply not there, which may or may not be the case. Knowing this would save you some grief during debugging.

** User Profiles are saved in User Space that certain applications (Ex. Web-UI) and Re-Provisioning cannot access or remove.

Raid5 is corrupt

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:59:56 GMT

Hello,

on an Asrock P67 Extreme 6 Motherboard is a RAID5 with 4x1,5TB Harddisks. (W7 Home Pr. 64bit)

Unfortunately the CLR CMOS button was pressed while running Windows.

Then the system was restarted with wrong BIOS-Settings.

Everything ended up with a corrupt Array. Only two of the four harddisks are within the array. The two others are there as normal drives.

I think the disks themselfs are OK.

Is it possible to recreate the Array?

Thanks

No option for Enabling Acceleration In Intel Rapid Storage Technology

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:50:31 GMT

Hello EveryOne,

I had to disable Acceleration in Intel Rapid Storage Technology to Change SATA Mode to AHCI inorder to boot RedHat alongside Windows as Linux installation is not supported in mSATA operating mode.

After the successful installation I switched back the SATA mode to Intel Smart Response Technology. I opened up the IRST but there was no option for enabling the acceleration for caching. Here is a screenshot of the program:

I messed up everything. Please help me enabling the acceleration back.

Here is the detailed system info:

System Report

System Information

OS name: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional

OS version: 6.1.7600 7600

System name: TUSHAR-ULTRABOK

System manufacturer: Dell Inc.

System model: Inspiron 5423

Processor: GenuineIntel Intel64 Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9 1.701 GHz

BIOS: Dell Inc., A10

Intel® Rapid Storage Technology enterprise Information

User interface version: 12.5.0.1066

Language: English (United States)

RAID option ROM version: 11.6.0.1702

Driver version: 12.5.0.1066

ISDI version: 12.5.0.1066

Storage System Information

RAID Configuration

Hardware Information

Controller name: Intel(R) Mobile Express Chipset SATA RAID Controller

Type: SATA

Mode: RAID

Number of SATA ports: 3

Number of volumes: 0

Number of spares: 0

Number of available disks: 2

Rebuild on Hot Plug: Disabled

Manufacturer: 32902

Model number: 10282

Product revision: 4

Direct attached disk: TA95123VGZ6ZKX

Direct attached disk: S0XLNSAC532389

Disk on Controller 0, Port 0

Status: Normal

Type: SATA disk

Location type: Internal

Usage: Available

Size: 466 GB

System disk: Yes

Disk data cache: Enabled

Command queuing: NCQ

SATA transfer rate: 3 Gb/s

Model: Hitachi HTS545050A7E380

Serial number: TA95123VGZ6ZKX

SCSI device ID: 0

Firmware: GG2OA7A0

Physical sector size: 4096 Bytes

Logical sector size: 512 Bytes

Disk on Controller 0, Port 1

Status: Normal

Type: SATA SSD

Location type: Internal

Usage: Available

Size: 30 GB

System disk: No

Disk data cache: Enabled

Command queuing: NCQ

SATA transfer rate: 6 Gb/s

Model: SAMSUNG SSD PM830 mSATA 32GB

Serial number: S0XLNSAC532389

SCSI device ID: 1

Firmware: CXM12D1Q

Physical sector size: 512 Bytes

Logical sector size: 512 Bytes

ATAPI device on Controller 0, Port 4

Location type: Internal

SATA transfer rate: 1.5 Gb/s

Model: HL-DT-ST DVD+/-RW GU60N

Serial number: KX7C6L12956

Firmware: A103

Intel RST with VelociRaptor on P8Z77V issue

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:32:48 GMT

Hey guys,

Ok, so not related to an Intel motherboard, rather the intel Chipset/Rapid Storage Technology...

So, I recently upgraded to an Asus P8Z77V motherboard with i5 CPU and 8 GB memory. I've got an old 60 GB OCZ Vertex spare, so I changed my Windows 7 SATA driver from AHCI to RAID and installed the Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers/software. When I run the software I can create the RAID device using the SSD, but when I try to specify my 300GB WD VelociRaptor drive as the target for acceleration, the software either finds it and clicking OK does nothing... or it simply doesn't see it in the HDD drive drop down list.

I can select my 2 TB Seagate Barracuda HDD as the Target and the caching acceleration works fine, but any ideas why it does not work with the VelociRaptor or does not even see it sometimes to show in the list?

I've seen other people use VelociRaptors as targets of this Z77 Chipset caching, though they were more recent versions of VRs. Could it be a VR Firmware issue? I've updated to the latest RAID drivers, but to no avail.

Ideas?

And for the record, I did a fresh install of Win 7, updated all the drivers and the same issue..

Bonding with active-loadbalancing mode on Intel 82599 SRIOV VF within VM

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:30:51 GMT

Hi Folks,

We are trying to bond two SRIOV VF's (coming out of two different PF's) within a Linux VM in active loadbalance mode using linux bonding driver. This is primarily to have high-availability across the links/switches & without losing out on the bandwidth/performance of the links.

One of the issue we hit upon is the driver constantly printing "Spoofed packets detected" & the bond doesnt work at all. Is this is due to the active-load-balance mode sending the same mac across the VF's & at HW level they are considered as spoofed packets? Is recompiling ixgbe with mac-spoofing disabled the only option for this? Or is there some way to get around this problem?

We in fact tried to change to active-backup mode with fail_over_mac (in bonding driver) set to active/follow modes. But even in that case the failovers dont seem to happen.

Have anybody tried bonding SRIOV VF's within Linux VM (especially active-load-blance) & got it working? If so, can you pls share your thoughts on this?

Thanks.

--Shyam

DX79SR - Rear USB 3.0 Ports Not Working - What is the fix?

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:29:34 GMT

In Device Manager, the Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller that pertains to the rear USB 3.0 ports has a yellow warning sign with an exclamation character in the middle and the status of the device is "This device cannot start (Code 10)". I have tried to disable and re-enable the device, uninstall and reinstall the driver to no avail. I have the latest BIOS and Renesas driver versions which I downloaded and installed from the Intel download site. The BIOS version is SIX7910J.86A.0553.EB and the Renesas version is 3.0.12.0. Does anyone else experience this same issue? Does anyone have a fix for it?

DQ77CP Bios Update failed

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:27:59 GMT

Hello, i have a problem with a new DQ77CP Mainboard.

It came with Bios-Version 0046 and i updated it successfully

to 0050. Now every Biosupdate fails.

I tried with the F7 BIOS Falsh Update from USB where the

Version 0050 was also. Neither the next Update 0052 nor any

other Update works.

Does anybody have the same Problem or a Solution?

Best wishes

therichy - DE