ArcSAP Quick Manager

USER’s Guide
Version: 4.0
Issue Date: May, 2015
Copyright and Trademarks

The information of the products in this manual is subject to change

without prior notice and does not represent a commitment on the part
of the vendor, who assumes no liability or responsibility for any errors
that may appear in this manual. All brands and trademarks are the
properties of their respective owners. This manual contains materials
protected under International Copyright Conventions. All rights
reserved. No part of this manual may be reproduced in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without
the written permission of the manufacturer and the author. All inquiries
should be addressed to Areca Technology Corporation.
 Contents
1. ArcSAP Quick Manager ................................................ 4
1.1 Overview..........................................................................4
1.2 Installing the ArcSAP Utility.................................................4
1.2.1 Mac Users....................................................................4
1.2.2 Windows Users.............................................................5
1.3 ArcSAP Main Menu.............................................................8
1.4 Controller Hierarchy...........................................................9
1.4.1 Rescan Device..............................................................9
1.4.2 Add and Remove Host.................................................. 10
1.4.3 Expand All.................................................................. 10
1.5 Raid System Console........................................................ 11
1.5.1 Select a RAID Controller............................................... 11
1.5.2 Select a RiadSet.......................................................... 14
1.5.3 Select a Volume Set..................................................... 16
1.6 Menu Bar........................................................................ 17
1.6.1 arcsap....................................................................... 17
1.6.2 Edit........................................................................... 23
1.6.3 RAID Operations......................................................... 26
1.7 Recent Tasks................................................................... 27
ArcSAP Quick Manager
1. ArcSAP Quick Manager
1.1 Overview
The Areca Single Admin Portal (ArcSAP) quick manager is a graph-
ical-based device management program specifically designed for
use in managing and configuring RAID unit implemented using any
of Areca RAID controllers. The ArcSAP quick manager can scan for
multiple RAID units in the local and remote systems and provide
an effective mechanism to configure your RAID units. It also pro-
vides real-time reporting on the status of the complete disk array,
thus making the task of monitoring disk arrays virtually effortless.
For power users, the ArcSAP Command Line Interface (CLI) func-
tion also provides the scripting capability for automated tasks and
customization.

1.2 Installing the ArcSAP Utility

You must have administrator permissions for the computer on
which you are installing ArcSAP quick manager. Before this proce-
dure began, we assume that the RAID unit and OS are installed
and operational in your system.

1.2.1 Mac Users

This section describes detailed instructions for installing the Mac

ArcSAP Quick Manager for the Areca RAID unit on your system.
This can be done in just a few steps!

1. Download the ArcSAP installer from the website at “http://

www.areca.com.tw/support/s_thunderbolt/thunderbolt_mac.
htm”, the file name begins with “arcsap” followed by the ver-
sion control or insert the RAID unit software CD in the CD-ROM
drive.

2. Double-click on the zipped file that comes from the website or

resides at <CDROM>\packages\MacOS to add the installer on
the Finder.

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3. Double click the arcsap.dmg to make its content available
(name will be shown up in the Finder sidebar), usually a win-
dow opens showing the content as well.

4. Drag the application from the arcsap.dmg window into Applica-

tions folder to install.

5. Wait for the copy process to finish.

Double click on the “arcsap” link from the Applications folder to

start your ArcSAP quick manager. By default, the ArcSAP is locked
to prevent unauthorized accesses to your RAID units. The ArcSAP
password dialog box appears.

Type your Mac computer password into the Password field and
click the “OK” Button to open it.

1.2.2 Windows Users

This section describes how to install the ArcSAP quick manager to

your operating system. Follow the steps below to install the utility
for Windows.

1. Download the ArcSAP installer from the website at “http://

www.areca.com.tw/support/s_thunderbolt/thunderbolt_win.
htm”, the file name begins with “ArcSAP” followed by the ver-
sion control or insert the RAID unit software CD in the CD-ROM
drive.

2. Double-click on the zipped file that comes from the website or

resides at <CDROM>\PACKAGES\Windows to unzip it. Double
click on the “setup.exe” file for installing ArcSAP quick man-
ager.

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ArcSAP Quick Manager
3. The screen shows Preparing to Install.

4. The InstallShield Wizard opens, preparing to install and click

on the “Next” button to continue.

5. When you reach the installation page, click on the “Install”

button to continue.

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6. A Progress bar appears that measures the progress of the
ArcSAP quick manager setup. When this screen completes, you
have completed the ArcSAP quick manager setup.

7. After a successful installation, the “Setup Complete” dialog

box of the installation program is displayed. Click on the
“Finish” button to complete the installation.

There is one “MRAID” icon showing on your “Programs” folder

for you to locate ArcSAP quick manager program file folder. The
“ArcSAP” icon is for you to start up the ArcSAP quick manager.
Click on the “ArcSAP” program icon to start the ArcSAP quick
manager.

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ArcSAP Quick Manager
1.3 ArcSAP Main Menu
After starting the ArcSAP quick manager, the main window ap-
pears on the screen. The ArcSAP quick manager window contains a
Controller Hierarchy, Menu Bar, Raid System Console, and a Recent
Tasks. The Controller Hierarchy tree lists all hosts — including IP
addresses — with their connected RAID controllers, RaidSet, and
Volume Sets. When you click on an item in the Controller Hierarchy
tree, the Raid System Console shows additional information about
the selection. All management operations pertaining to the RAID
units will be performed within the main window. The figure 1-1
shows the elements contained on the main window.

Figure 1-1, ArcSAP Quick Manager Main Window

• The “Menu Bar” displays the available menus. Except for Help,
all menus provide a list of commands for invoking various RAID
units and notification operations.
• The “Controller Hierarchy” window at the left of the display
page lists localHost and remote hosts found on the network, as
well as currently configured devices.
• The “Raid System Console” window in the right window pane
provides information and options for a device highlighted in the
controller hierarchy.
• The “Recent Tasks” displays events log about localhost and net-
work in the system.

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 ArcSAP Quick Manager
1.4 Controller Hierarchy
Let’s assume you’ve put all Areca RAID units into a system. The
ArcSAP automatically scans the localhost RAID units on the system
and creates an individual RAID storage icon located on left column
of the “Controllers Hierarchy” screen. When you double click on a
selected element in the Controller Hierarchy tree, child element be-
longed parent element appears. The Controller Hierarchy tree con-
tains icons and text as visual indicators for the Localhost, Network,
RAID Controllers, Raid Sets, and Volume Sets.

Figure 1-2, Controller Hierarchy Window

1.4.1 Rescan Device

Right click mouse on the host, this Rescan Device function allows
you to rescan the network subnet, and find any new RAID units
added or removed. Rescanning updates the list of available devic-
es shown. For example, if you physically plug in a unit and want
the ArcSAP to recognize the newly plugged in device, use Rescan
Device.

ArcSAP default shows the controller name as the target host

name on the Controller Hierarchy tree. User can change the host
name for easy identification. In the SNMP configuration page,
there have two OIDs called sysName and sysLocation which allow
user to enter this host name. User can enter the controller iden-
tification on the “sysName” and “sysLocation” of “SNMP System
Configurations”. ArcSAP will use these two OIDs (if existed) to
replace the host name.

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ArcSAP Quick Manager
1.4.2 Add and Remove Host
The ArcSAP quick manager provides a feature that facilitates
“Add” and “Remove” from RAID units. Before manager can
be performed on a particular RAID unit, you need to add first a
connection between your ArcSAP quick manager station and the
target RAID unit. Once a connection is established successfully,
manager can be started. “Remove” is used for breaking the link
between the ArcSAP manager station and the RAID unit.

- Add Host
A host can be added manually by clicking on the “ ” tab
and entering the IP address of the local or remote host in the
“Connect To Server” box.

- Remove Host
A host can be removed manually by clicking on the target host
in the “Controller Hierarchy” window and clicking on the “ ”
tab.

1.4.3 Expand All

You can use the “Expand All” to open all folders at the same time
to see the contents within. Once mouse click is completed your
“Controller Hierarchy” window will look like this.

Figure 1-3, Expand All Controller Hierarchy

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 ArcSAP Quick Manager
1.5 Raid System Console
ArcSAP quick manager security ensures that RAID configuration
changes require password authorization. You are required to login
to manage any host when you attempt to modify the RAID control-
ler settings after turning on the ArcSAP quick manager or after the
manager comes back from a period of inactivity. Under configura-
tion modification, verify that you have administrator or root privi-
leges for the selected RAID controller by entering the password you
use to access the unit: In the Login box, type the login password
on the RAID unit you selected.

Figure 1-4, Login Box

The correct login gives you full control over the disk array; specify-
ing otherwise, only allows you to view the current configuration of
the RAID controller. If you highlight an element in the “Controller
Hierarchy”, tabs and panel display for that element shown on the
Raid System Console.

1.5.1 Select a RAID Controller

The following tabs display in the “Raid System Console” window

when you select a specific RAID controller in the “Controller Hier-
archy” window:

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ArcSAP Quick Manager

Figure 1-5, Specify a RAID Unit

- Overview
The ‘Overview’ tab provides general information about the
RAID controller currently highlighted in the controller hier-
archy. It shows the RAID operations options to configure the
RAID controller.

(1). Quick Create: create a default configuration, which is

based on the number of physical disks installed; it can
modify the volume set Capacity, Raid Level, and Stripe
Size.

(2). Create RaidSet: is used to create a Raid set. A Raid set

is a group of disks containing one or more volume sets.

(3). Create Nested (Hybrid) RAID: is used to create a R00/

100/30/50/60 Raid set. R00/100/30/50/60 is a combi-
nation multiple RAID x volume sets with RAID 0 (strip-
ing). Striping helps to increase capacity and performance
without adding disks to each RAID x array. The operating
system uses the spanned volume in the same way as a
regular volume. RAID level 00, 100, 30, 50 and 60 can
support up to eight RAID set.

(4). Create PassThrough Disk: is not controlled by the RAID

controller firmware and thus cannot be a part of a volume

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 ArcSAP Quick Manager
set. The disk is available directly to the operating system
as an individual disk. It is typically used on a system
where the operating system is on a disk not controlled by
the RAID controller firmware.

(5). Create HotSpare Disk: is used to create the global hot

spare for the selected controller.

(6). Delete Nested (Hybrid) RAID: is used to delete a R00/

100/30/50/60 Raid se on the selected controller.

(7). Delete HotSpare Disk: is used to delete the global hot

spare on the selected controller.

(8). Advanced Features: is used to launch the web browser-

based McRAID storage manager. The firmware-embedded
web browser-based McRAID storage manager is used to
configure the advanced features. This Advanced Features
is for user to launch the selected RAID controller web
browser RAID manager. When you double click on the
Advanced Features, the “Enter Network Password” dialog
screen appears.

Figure 1-6, McRAID Manager Login Box

Type the User Name and Password. The RAID controller

default User Name is “admin” and the Password is “0000”.
After entering the user name and password, click the but-
ton to access the McRAID storage manager. See the Web
Browser-based Configuration on the user manual detail-
ing the McRAID Storage Manager to customize your RAID
configuration.

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ArcSAP Quick Manager
(9). Mute Beeper: is used to “Disabled” the RAID controller
alarm tone generator.

- RaidSets
The ‘RaidSets’ tab provides information about the RAID set
information on the highlighted RAID controller.

- Volumes
The ‘Volumes’ tab provides information about the volume
sets information on the highlighted RAID controller.

- Disk
The ‘Disk’ tab provides information about the disk information
on the highlighted RAID controller.

- H/W Monitor
The ‘H/W Monitor’ tab provides information about the Hard-
ware monitor information on the highlighted RAID controller.

- Events
The ‘Events’ tab provides information about the event log
information on the highlighted RAID controller.

- CLI
The ‘CLI’ tab allows experienced users to manage the RAID
controller using a Command Line Interface.

1.5.2 Select a RiadSet

The following tabs display in the “Raid System Console” window

when you select a specific RiadSet number in the “Controller Hier-
archy” window:

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 ArcSAP Quick Manager

Figure 1-7, Select a Raid Set

- Overview
The ‘Overview’ tab provides general information about the
Raid set currently highlighted in the “Controller Hierarchy”
window. It shows the RAID operation options to configure this
Raid set.

(1). Create Volume: is used to create a Raid set. A Raid set

is a group of disks containing one or more volume sets.

(2). Create HotSpare Disk: is used to create the dedicated

hot spare for the selected Raid set.

(3). Delete HotSpare Disk: is used to delete the global hot

spare on the selected Raid set.
(4). Activate Incomplete RaidSet: is used to active an
incomplete Raid set. If one of the disk drives is removed
in power off state, the Raid set state will change to “In-
complete State”. If the user wants to continue to operate
the controller without power-off the RAID unit, the user
can use the “Activate Incomplete Raid Set” option to ac-
tive the Raid set.

- Member Disks
The ‘Member Disks’ tab provides information about the disk
information on the highlighted Raid set.

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ArcSAP Quick Manager
1.5.3 Select a Volume Set

The following tabs display in the “Raid System Console” window

when you select a specific volume number in the “Controller Hier-
archy” window:

Figure 1-8, Select a Volume Set

- Overview
The ‘Overview’ tab provides general information about vol-
ume set currently highlighted in the “Controller Hierarchy”
window. It shows the RAID operation options to configure this
volume set.

(1). Delete (volume name): delete the selected volume.

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 ArcSAP Quick Manager
1.6 Menu Bar
After starting the ArcSAP quick manager, the main window appears
on the screen. All management operations pertaining to the disk
array system will be performed within the main window. The Menu
Bar displays the available menus. Except for Help, all menus pro-
vide a list of commands for invoking various RAID units.

1.6.1 arcsap

The ‘arcsap’ tab allows you to select “Preferences” for application

settings or “Quit arcsap” for quiet application in the ArcSAP ap-
plication. For Window version ArcSAP application, the “File” tab on
the “Menu Bar” allows you to select “Setup” for application set-
tings or ‘Exit” for quiet application.

Figure 1-9, arcsap Tab

- About arcsap
When you choose arcsap > About arcsap from the menu
bar, the utility will show you an informational page which dis-
plays the tool’s version number.

- Preferences
Preferences controls application settings (“global” settings),
and is available from the arcsap > Preferences from the
menu bar at the upper-left corner of the screen. Preferences
lets you set the ArcSAP quick manager language and notifica-
tion.

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ArcSAP Quick Manager
1. General
This general setting is to select your own language, just pull
down the menu and select the language which you comfort-
able with. You need to restart the application to take effect
once you change the language.

2. Notification
The ArcSAP quick manager provides four methods of send-
ing notifications: By E-mail, By SNMP, By Windows Messag-
es and By System Log. You can use any of the notification
methods mentioned above; be reminded though that be-
fore you can use a particular method, you should have the
proper hardware and software installed in your system.

When ArcSAP quick manager configure with one of the

methods mention in above. The ArcSAP quick manager
notifications to occur in response to various disk array
events. For example, if you configure an email notification,
the ArcSAP quick manager will send an e-mail to selected
computers on the network if the event (that just occurred)
falls within the selected notification level. If the notification
is detailed enough, the recipient can respond accordingly.

When properly configured, this function can notify the ad-

ministrator of event occurrences in the managed disk ar-
ray system instantly even when he or she is at home, or in
other places around the globe. The check box allows you
to select the notification level and type in the ArcSAP quick
manager.

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 ArcSAP Quick Manager

Figure 1-10, Notification SettingsSet

(1). Notification Levels

The ArcSAP quick manager classifies disk array events
into four levels depending on their severity. These in-
clude: Information Level, Warning Level, Serious Level
and Urgent Level. Select the check boxes for the appro-
priate levels type of system on which you want to send.

• Information Level: cover notification events such as

initialization of the controller and initiation of the re-
building process.
• Warning Level: include events which require the
issuance of warning messages.
• Serious Error Notification Level: cover events that
need immediately attention from the administrator
• Urgent Error Notification Level: is the critical
level, need immediately action from the administrator.

(2). Enabling an E-Mail Notification

The ArcSAP quick manager sends e-mail messages to
particular people on the local network or through the
internet by using the Mail services or others e-mail
server. You will need these e-mail services to enable
the e-mail notification function of the ArcSAP quick
manager. It only allows you to select the users who will
receive the notification messages, and specify the noti-
fication message for each recipient.

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ArcSAP Quick Manager

Figure 1-11, Email Configurations

• Server: Enter the SMTP email server by “IP address”

or “Name” when sending an email.
• Port: specify the port number to which the ArcSAP
quick manager attempts to connect to the email
server. Parameters value = 1 ~ 65535
• Sender Name: Enter the sender name that will be
shown in the outgoing mail.
• Sender Address: specify the text that will show in
the “From” field in the sent email.

If your IP or e-mail service provider requires SMTP au-

thentication for outgoing mail, you will need to use the
“Account and Password” option for that SMTP server.
To set up ArcSAP quick manager to use authentica-
tion with your SMTP server, make the “Authentication”
check box in the “Email” and add your account and
password. Clear the “Authentication” check box in the
SMTP server setting. No User Account/Password is re-
quired to access this resource.

• Account: enter the valid account if your SMTP mail

server requires authentication.
• Password: enter the valid password if your SMTP
mail server requires authentication.

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 ArcSAP Quick Manager
• Enable SSL: check this if using SSL protocol for
email. The ArcSAP monitor utility can be configured to
use a TLS/SSL email server (such as Gmail or Yahoo)
as well as the port to use when connecting to the
email server.
• Recipient: type the alert receiver email address to
enable e-mail notification for this particular entrance.
Notification rules instruct ArcSAP on the notifications
that should be sent when certain types of alerts are
detected. You can configure the e-mail notification
function to send a notification to multiple users.
• Attach log file on event level SERIOUS or
URGENT:
You can automatically send event notifications—along
with a copy of the current controller’s log on event
level SERIOUS or URGENT—by e-mail to a distribution
list, thus enabling the information to be opened and
analyzed from other locations

(3). Enabling a SNMP Notification

This section discusses how to enable the SNMP traps
on your RAID storage, and how to control the sending
of SNMP traps from the ArcSAP quick manager. To send
the SNMP traps to client SNMP manager such as Net-
SNMP manager using the IP address assigned to the
operating system, you can simply use the SNMP func-
tion on the ArcSAP monitor utility. The ArcSAP quick
manager only provides one direction to send the trap
to the SNMP manager without needing to install the
SNMP extension agent on the host. If SNMP manager
requests to query the SNMP information from RAID
storage, please refer the Appendix D “SNMP Operation
& Installation”.

To set up SNMP traps sending function, click on the

“SNMP Configuration” link. SNMP Trap Configurations
are set up on this page. This setup screen is shown as
below:

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ArcSAP Quick Manager

Figure 1-12, SNMP Trap Configurations

• SNMP Trap IP Address: enter the SNMP trap IP ad-

dress.
• Port: specify the port number to the SNMP trap IP
address. Parameters value = 1 ~ 65535
• Community: act as a password to screen accesses to
the SNMP agent of a particular network device. Type
the community names of the SNMP agent in this field.
Most network devices use “public” as default of their
community names. This value is case-sensitive.

Before the client side SNMP manager application ac-

cepts the RAID storage traps, it is necessary to inte-
grate the MIB into the management application’s data-
base of events and status indicator codes. This process
is known as compiling the MIB into the application. This
process is highly vendor-specific and should be well-
covered in the User’s Guide of your SNMP application.
Ensure the compilation process successfully integrates
the contents of the areca_sas.mib file into the traps
database.

(4). Enabling a Message Notification

The ArcSAP quick manager provides another way to no-
tify selected users on the network by sending messages
to their respective stations.

(5). Enabling System Log

If you wish to create a system log, tick on a check
mark in the box beside the “By System Log” dialog box.

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 ArcSAP Quick Manager
1.6.2 Edit

The ‘Edit’ tab allows you to select “Rescan Device” function for
LocalHost /Network or ‘Scheduler’ for the selected background
tasks by selecting on the Action in the ArcSAP application.

Figure 1-13, Edit Tab

- Rescan Device
Refer to 1.4.1 Rescan Device

- Scheduler
The Scheduler page appears when you choose Edit > Sched-
uler from the menu bar. The Scheduler page lets you view
and change the schedule for background tasks that affect the
selected controller.

You select the type of task for which you want to set the
schedule from the “Action” list on the Scheduler, including:
MessageBox, Send Mail or Check Volume.

(1). About Task List

You can set up scheduler for when background tasks can
occur, so that routine maintenance of controller occurs at
times that will be least likely to interfere with peak I/O
times. Click on the Add button to add a new entry. When
you add a new task schedule, you specify the trigger
condition for the task. If you want to change a scheduled
task, you edit the scheduled item and then store it. The
scheduled tasks can be added in any order. To disable
the scheduler task you either disable “Enabled” field, or
remove the tests listed in the “Task List” column.

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ArcSAP Quick Manager

(2). About Trigger

When you add a new task schedule, you specify the Daily/
Weekly/Monthly, and Recur for the task. The Enabled
option is used to set schedule times whether scheduling
is set to be followed or ignored. This is useful if you want
to temporarily disable the schedule without deleting the
schedule itself.

• For the Daily option, enter an interval in the ‘Recur

every days’ field. Specify the start count time from the
dropdown menu (PgUp/PgDn buttons to set the time).

• For the Weekly option, enter an interval in the ‘Recur

every weeks on’ field and choose one day of the week.
Specify the start count time from the dropdown menu
(PgUp/PgDn buttons to set the time).

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 ArcSAP Quick Manager
• For the Monthly option, enter an interval in the ‘Recur
every # months on’ field and click on, Day of the Month
option. Specify the start count time from the dropdown
menu (PgUp/PgDn buttons to set the time).

(3). About Action

You select the type of task for which you want to set the
schedule from the “Action” list on the Scheduler, includ-
ing: MessageBox, Send Mail or Check Volume.

• MessageBox

In the “Message shows on the message box:” text box,

specify the message you want to notify selected users.

• Send Mail

In the “Subject” text box, type in the subject you want

to show on the ongoing e-mail notification. In the “Mes-
sage” text box, specify the message you want to send to
the selected user.

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ArcSAP Quick Manager
• Check Volume

Check Volume function default applies the localhost

controllers. You can include the network controllers by
ticking on the check box on the ‘Include remote side
controllers’.

A volume check is a process that verifies the integrity

of redundant data. To verify RAID 3, 5, 6, 30, 50 or 60
redundancy, a volume check reads all associated data
blocks, computes parity, reads parity, and verifies that
the computed parity matches the read parity. You can
set up scheduling windows for when consistency check
can occur, so that routine consistency check occurs at
times that will be least likely to interfere with peak I/O
times.

1.6.3 RAID Operations

The ‘RAID Operations’ tab allows you to choose the configura-

tion options available to any option highlighted in the “Controller
Hierarchy” window.

Figure 1-14, RAID Operations Tab

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 ArcSAP Quick Manager
- Save Controller Settings
Save the current controller settings to a configuration file on a
disk. You will be prompted to specify the name and location of
the backup file. ArcSAP will write the controller configuration
to one file name: serial #.bin when it’s finished with the instal-
lation and fist-time running.

- Restore Controller Settings

Restore controller settings to the controller from a configura-
tion file on a disk. You will be prompted to specify the name
and location of the file containing the new configuration.

- Collect Controller Data

The “Collect Controller Data” option on the ArcSAP is used to
download all controller’s information (system information, con-
figuration, disk information and event log) to a supported file
(file name:ctlrxx-xxxxx.log). It will be automatically started
when ERROR or SERIOUS event has occurred.

1.7 Recent Tasks

The ArcSAP quick manager keeps a “Recent Tasks” for recording all
events that occurred in the RAID units on the localhost and net-
work.

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