Software Support

Wizard. If you want the wizard to choose a recommended virtual disk configuration for you, select the Express Wizard
option.
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.
To create a virtual disk using the Create Virtual Disk Advanced Wizard:
1. On the left-hand side of the Server Administrator page, expand Storage.
2. Click on the <PERC Controller>.
3. Click on Virtual Disks.
The Virtual Disk(s) on Controller <Controller Name> page is displayed.
4. Click Go to the Create Virtual Disk Wizard.
The Create Virtual Disk Wizard (Step 1) <Controller Name> page is displayed.
5. Select the Advanced Wizard option.
6. To make sure that only encrypted physical disks are used to create the virtual disk, select Yes from the Create
Encrypted Virtual Disk drop-down list.
The RAID levels are available for selection based on the number of encrypted physical disks.
If you select No, the RAID levels are available based on the total number of physical disks present on the system.
7. Select the required RAID level from the drop-down list.
– Depending on the controller, Concatenated enables you to combine the storage capacity of several disks or
to create a virtual disk using a single physical disk. For more information on the number of supported
physical disks supported by Concatenated, see Number Of Physical Disks Per Virtual Disk. Using
Concatenated does not provide data redundancy or affect the read/write performance.
– Select RAID 0 for striping. This selection groups n disks together as a large virtual disk with a total capacity
of n disks. Data is alternately stored in the disks so that they are evenly distributed. Data redundancy is not
available in this mode. Read/write performance is enhanced.
– Select RAID 1 for mirroring disks. This selection groups two disks as one virtual disk with the capacity of a
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.
The system must have at least two physical 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 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. The system must
have at least three physical 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. The system must have at least
four physical 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 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 and read/write performance. The system must have at least four
physical disks to use RAID 10. For PERC controllers with firmware version 6 and later, RAID 10 also allows
you to create a single span virtual disk with 22 or 26 physical drives.
– Intelligent Mirroring — Automatically calculates the span composition based on the physical disks you
select.
Spans are not displayed on this page. Select Continue to view the span grouping on the Summary page.
Click Exit Wizard to cancel the virtual disk creation.
Storage Management calculates the optimum span composition as follows:
* Determining span calculation:
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