User's Manual

your RAID and size selection.
Before creating a virtual disk, you should be familiar with the information in "Considerations Before Creating Virtual Disks". You may also want to review
"Choosing RAID Levels and Concatenation."
If you want to make your own selections for the virtual disk configuration, click Go To Advanced Wizard.
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To Create a Virtual Disk Express Wizard: Step 1 of 2
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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. See "Number of Physical Disks per Virtual Disk" for information on whether the controller supports a single physical disk or
two or more when using Concatenated. 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.
¡ Select RAID 10 for striping over mirror sets. This selection groups n disks together as one large virtual disk with a total capacity of (n/2) disks.
Data is striped across the replicated mirrored pair disks. When a disk fails, the virtual disk continues to function. The data is read from the
surviving mirrored pair disk. This feature provides the best failure protection, read and write performance. Your system must have at least four
disks to use RAID 10.
¡ Select RAID 50 to implement striping across more than one span of physical disks. RAID 50 groups n*s disks as one large virtual disk with a
capacity of s*(n-1) disks, where s is the number of spans and n is the number of disks within each span.
¡ Select RAID 60 to implement striping across more than one RAID 6 span. RAID 60 Groups n*s disks as one large virtual disk with a capacity of s*
(n-2) disks, where s is the number of spans and n is the number of disks within each span. RAID 60 provides increased data protection and better
read performance, but slower write performance.
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2. Type a name for the virtual disk in the Name text box.
The virtual disk name can contain only alphanumeric characters as well as spaces, dashes and underscores. The maximum name length depends on the
controller. In most cases, the maximum length is 15 characters. The name cannot start with a space or end with a space.
It is recommended that you specify a unique name for each virtual disk. If you have virtual disks with the same name, it will be hard to differentiate the
alerts generated for these virtual disks.
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3. Type the size for the virtual disk in the Size text box. The virtual disk size must be within the minimum and maximum values displayed near the Size text
box. For information on how the maximum virtual disk size is calculated, see "Calculation for Maximum Virtual Disk Size and the Create Virtual Disk
Express Wizard."
In some cases, the virtual will be slightly larger than the size you specify. The Create Virtual Disk wizard may round up the size of the virtual disk to
avoid rendering a portion of the physical disk space unusable.
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4. Click Continue to go to the next screen or Exit Wizard if you want to cancel.
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To locate this task in Storage Management:
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1. Expand the Storage tree object to display the controller objects.
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2. Expand a controller object.
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3. Select the Virtual Disks object.
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4. Click Go To Create Virtual Disk Wizard.
Create Virtual Disk Express Wizard (Step 2 of 2)
NOTE: The CERC SATA1.5/2s controller does not allow you to specify a name for concatenated virtual disks. The concatenated virtual disk will be created
with a default name.
NOTE: When creating a virtual disk on the CERC SATA1.5/2s controller or on a controller that is in a cluster configuration, you must specify the maximum
virtual disk size.