User's Manual

Virtual Disks 247
If you want to make your own selections for the virtual disk configuration,
click Go To Advanced Wizard.
To Create a Virtual Disk Express Wizard: Step 1 of 2
1 Click the radio button to select the correct RAID level.
– Depending on the controller,
Concatenated enables you to combine
the storage capacity of several disks or to create a virtual disk using
only a single physical disk. For information on whether the controller
supports a single physical disk or two or more when using
Concatenated, see Number of Physical Disks per Virtual Disk. Using
Concatenated does not provide data redundancy nor does it affect
the read and write performance.
– Select
RAID 0 for striping. This selection groups n disks together as
one large virtual disk with a total capacity of n disks. Data is stored to
the disks alternately so that they are evenly distributed. Data
redundancy is not available in this mode. Read and write performance
is enhanced.
– Select
RAID 1 for mirroring disks. This selection groups two disks
together as one virtual disk with a capacity of one single disk. The data
is replicated on both disks. When a disk fails, the virtual disk
continues to function. This feature provides data redundancy and
good read performance, but slightly slower write performance. Your
system must have at least two disks to use RAID 1.
– Select
RAID 5 for striping with distributed parity. This selection
groups n disks together as one large virtual disk with a total capacity of
(n-1) disks. When a disk fails, the virtual disk continues to function.
This feature provides better data redundancy and read performance,
but slower write performance. Your system must have at least three
disks to use RAID 5.
– Select
RAID 6 for striping with additional distributed parity. This
selection groups n disks as one large virtual disk with a capacity of (n-
2) disks. The virtual disk remains functional with up to two disk
failures. RAID 6 provides better read performance, but slower write
performance. Your system must have at least four disks to use RAID 6.