Technical information

70 Netfinity and Windows 2000 Integration Guide
5.2 ServeRAID-attached disks
If you’re going to install Windows 2000 on hard disks attached to a ServeRAID
adapter, you must first install and configure the adapter.
The first step is to configure the ServeRAID arrays. There are three tools you can
use to configure arrays and logical drives on your Netfinity server:
• ServeRAID Configuration and Management CD-ROM (recommended)
• ServerGuide Netfinity Setup and Installation CD-ROM
• ServeRAID DOS Configuration diskette (not recommended)
Both booting the ServerGuide or ServeRAID Configuration CD will lead you to the
same graphical ServeRAID Configuration Program.
The ServeRAID Configuration and Management CD is part of the ServeRAID
Support Package that ships with every ServeRAID adapter. The latest version
can be downloaded from the IBM Web site as well and converted to a CD using a
CD burner:
1. Go to http://www.pc.ibm.com/support.
2. Click the Servers section.
3. Select the ServeRAID product family.
4. Click Downloadable files.
5. Select the latest version available for your operating system.
6. Download the Configuration and Management CD image (a .ISO file).
7. Create a CD from the ISO file using a CD writer program.
Note: There is no need to download the BIOS and firmware update as the update
is included on the ServeRAID CD and will be automatically checked and updated
as required.
The ServerGuide CDs are shipped with your Netfinity server, and updates can be
ordered free of charge from:
http://www.ibm.com/pc/coupon
Table 14 compares the RAID levels supported by the ServeRAID adapters:
Table 14. Comparison of the different RAID levels
RAID level Number of
drives
Data
redundancy
Performance
RAID-0 1-8 or 1-16
1
No Excellent read and write performance
RAID-1 2 Yes Very good read and write performance
RAID-1E 2-8 or 2-16
1
Yes Very good read and write performance
The Windows 2000 CD-ROM contains a version of the ServeRAID driver that is
equivalent to the v3.5-level driver and will allow you to install the operating
system onto ServeRAID-attached disks. We recommend you install Windows
2000 using that driver, then, once the installation is complete, upgrade to the
latest driver.
Use the driver on the Windows 2000 CD