User's Manual

Policy and the selected physical disk. The default values of the virtual disk attributes excluding the RAID
level are recommended for the selected RAID level.
1. In the Name field, type a name for the virtual disk.
The virtual disk name can contain only alphanumeric characters, spaces, dashes, and underscores.
The maximum 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 is hard to
differentiate the generated alerts.
2. In the Size field, type the size of the virtual disk.
The virtual disk size must be within the minimum and maximum values displayed near the Size field.
In some cases, the virtual disk is slightly larger than the size you specify. The Create Virtual Disk
Wizard adjusts the size of the virtual disk to avoid rendering a portion of the physical disk space
unusable.
NOTE: If a physical disk is receiving a SMART alert, it cannot be used in a virtual disk.
NOTE: For a controller that has more than one channel, it may be possible to configure a virtual
disk that is channel-redundant.
Depending on the RAID level you selected and the virtual disk size, this page displays the disks and
connectors (channels or ports) available for configuring the virtual disk.
NOTE: The Size field displays the default size of the virtual disk depending upon the RAID
configuration you selected. You can specify a different size. The virtual disk size must be within
the minimum and maximum values displayed near the Size field. In some cases, the virtual disk
is slightly larger than the size you specify. The Create Virtual Disk Wizard adjusts the size of the
virtual disk to avoid rendering a portion of the physical disk space unusable.
3. Select a stripe size from the Stripe Element Size drop-down list box. The stripe size refers to the
amount of space that each stripe consumes on a single disk.
4. Select the required read, write, and disk cache policy from the respective drop-down list box. These
selections can vary depending on the controller.
NOTE: There is limited support for write policy on controllers that do not have a battery. The
cache policy is not supported on controllers that do not have a battery.
NOTE: If you have selected the Create Encrypted Virtual Disk option in Create Virtual Disk
Advanced Wizard, then in the Summary of Virtual Disk Attributes, an Encrypted Virtual Disk
attribute is displayed with a value Yes.
Click Span Edit to edit the spans created in Create Virtual Disk Advanced Wizard.
The Span Edit option is available only if the controller is a SAS controller with firmware 6.1 and later
and if you selected RAID 10.
NOTE: If you click Span Edit, Intelligent Mirroring that has already been applied becomes
invalid.
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