Dell OpenManage Array Manager 2.5 User's Guide
This tutorial chapter illustrates how two components of the Array Manager application, hardware RAID and software RAID, function together. You should read this chapter and follow all the steps if you are a new user or if you are getting reacquainted with the application.
In this chapter, you will learn how to do the following:
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Note: For this tutorial, you should have four unused array disks under Array Group 0 (connected through a controller card) and Array Manager software installed on your system. It is recommended that your disks all be the same size. |
To complete this tutorial, it is assumed that you are familiar with array disks and RAID concepts. Refer to the following sections or chapters for detailed information:
RAID functions can be implemented with either hardware RAID (through a RAID controller) or software RAID (RAID programming without specific hardware).
In this tutorial, you will use hardware RAID to create two RAID-0 virtual disks. Each virtual disk will contain two array disks. Once the virtual disks are created, they are displayed as disks in the Windows NT® or Windows 2000® operating system.
Software RAID can be configured on top of the hardware RAID volumes and provide a powerful variety of features. In this tutorial, you will upgrade the two virtual disks, which are classified as basic disks, to dynamic disks. Then you will use Array Manager's software RAID functions to create a dynamic mirrored volume, as shown in the illustration above. The mirrored volume provides redundancy to your configuration.
Disk 0 in the above illustration refers to the computer's boot disk.
This tutorial may take from 10 to 20 minutes to complete. It has five sections:
To get started with the tutorial, do the following:
The Select Virtual Disk Type window appears.
You are asked for the following information:
Using Custom Mode
If you chose Custom Mode, follow the instructions on the wizard to continue.
When initialization is complete, "Ready" appears under the Status column.
The new virtual disk appears in the General tab view similar to the example screen that follows. In the screen, Virtual Disk 0 is the boot disk and was already created. Virtual Disk 1 is the newly created disk.
If your configuration is similar to the one shown in the screen above, Virtual Disk 1 appears under Array Group 0 in the tree view in the left pane of the console window. If you click the plus sign (+), you will see Array Disk 0:1 and Array Disk 0:2, indicating that the virtual disk was created from these two array disks, as shown in the sample screen that follows.
Repeat steps 1 - 8 described in the preceding section to create a second striped virtual disk. Give it the default name of "Virtual Disk," select RAID-0, and make the disk the same size as the first virtual disk.
If the newly created virtual disks do not appear under Disks, then perform a rescan by selecting Rescan from the View pull-down menu. Rescan forces the Array Manager software to locate and query all the objects in the system. This can take several minutes if there are numerous disks in the system.
In the left pane, you will see the two new virtual disks under Array Group 0. Under the Disks node, you will see two new disks. In the sample screen that follows, each disk displays an error symbol because it does not yet have a write signature on it. Only virtual disks created with a PERC, 2/SC, or 2/DC controller display this error symbol. Virtual disks created with a PERC 2, 2/Si, 3/Si, or 3/Di controller do not have this error symbol.
In the sample screen that follows, notice that the top computer node also displays the error symbol. Whenever there is an error on a subordinate storage object, the top node in the tree view displays an error symbol. Because the tree view can be collapsed down to the top computer node, it is important that it display the error condition so that you can be aware that an error exists even when the tree is fully collapsed.
If you created a virtual disk with a PERC, PERC 2/SC, or PERC 2/DC controller, you will need to write a signature to the resulting disk. If you used a PERC 2, PERC 2/Si, PERC 3/Si, or PERC 3/Di controller, this step is not required.
When you have a virtual disk that requires a disk signature, you will see that fact noted in the disk listing of the General tab of the Array Manager console, as shown in the sample screen that follows.
This section explains how to upgrade a newly created virtual disk to a dynamic disk.
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Note: On Windows NT, the disk must not contain partitions or volumes. It should be an empty disk. On Windows 2000, the disk can contain partitions and/or basic volumes. |
This is the final step in the process of creating a mirrored volume on the striped virtual disk. You will use the Create Volume wizard in this process.
Right-click on the icon of one of the upgraded disks and select Create Volume.
Concatenated will be chosen by default. Since you are creating a mirrored volume, click the Mirrored checkbox to request a mirrored volume. Click Next.
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Note: The sample screen shown below was taken on a Windows NT system, and thus it does not show the Query Max Size button that is available on Windows 2000 systems. For more information on this button, see Creating a Dynamic Volume in the Volume Management chapter. |
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Note: The sample screen above was taken on a Windows NT system, and thus it does not show the additional option of mounting a drive at an empty NTFS folder that is available on Windows 2000 systems. |
You now have a striped (hardware RAID) and a mirrored (software RAID) volume that you created from your hardware array disks. Click Volume 1 in the left pane, and the statistics appear in the right pane.