User's Manual

• To delete all data on the physical disk drives containing the foreign configuration, click Clear Foreign

Configuration. This option deletes the hard disk drive space containing the foreign configuration and

makes it available for use in a new virtual drive.

After selecting one of the options, click Next.

Viewing Current RAID Configuration

The View Current RAID Configuration and Select Controller page displays the attributes of any virtual

disks already configured on the supported RAID controllers attached to the system. You have two

options:

• Accept the existing virtual disks without changing. To select this option, click Back. If you have to

install the operating system on an existing virtual disk, make sure that the virtual disk size and RAID

level are correct.

• Use the RAID configuration wizard to delete all the existing virtual disks and create only single and

new virtual disk to be used as the new boot device. To select this option, click Next.

NOTE: RAID 0 does not provide data redundancy and hot spare. Other RAID levels provide data

redundancy and enable you to reconstruct data in the event of a disk drive failure.

NOTE: You can create only one virtual disk using Lifecycle Controller. To create multiple virtual

disks, use option ROM. To access option ROM, press <Ctrl + R> during boot or Power-on Self-

test (POST).

Selecting RAID Controller

The View Current RAID Configuration and Select Controller page displays all supported RAID controllers

attached to the system. Select the RAID controller on which you want to create the virtual disk, and then

click Next.

Selecting RAID Levels

Select a RAID Level for the virtual disk:

• RAID 0 — Stripes data across the physical disks. RAID 0 does not maintain redundant data. When a

physical disk fails in a RAID 0 virtual disk, there is no method for rebuilding the data. RAID 0 offers

good read and write performance with zero data redundancy.

• RAID 1 — Mirrors or duplicates data from one physical disk to another. If a physical disk fails, data can

be rebuilt using the data from the other side of the mirror. RAID 1 offers good read performance and

average write performance with good data redundancy.

• RAID 5 — Stripes data across the physical disks, and uses parity information to maintain redundant

data. If a physical disk fails, the data can be rebuilt using the parity information. RAID 5 offers good

read performance and slower write performance with good data redundancy.

• RAID 6 — Stripes data across the physical disks, and uses two sets of parity information for additional

data redundancy. If one or two physical disks fail, the data can be rebuilt using the parity information.

RAID 6 offers good data redundancy and read performance but slower write performance.

• RAID 10 — Combines mirrored physical disks with data striping. If a physical disk fails, data can be

rebuilt using the mirrored data. RAID 10 offers good read and write performance with good data

redundancy.

• RAID 50 — A dual-level array that uses multiple RAID 5 sets in a single array. A single physical disk

failure can occur in each of the RAID 5 without any loss of data on the entire array. Although the RAID

50 has increased write performance, its performance decreases, data or program access gets slower,

and transfer speeds on the array are affected when a physical disk fails and reconstruction takes place.

• RAID 60 — Combines the straight block level striping of RAID 0 with the distributed double parity of

RAID 6. The system must have at least eight physical disks to use RAID 60. Failures while a single