Owner's Manual

26 Using The Dell Deployment Pack
Using the Array Builder
Using Array Builder, you can define arrays/disk sets with all available RAID
settings, logical drives/virtual disks of varying sizes or use all available space,
and assign hot spares to individual arrays or assign global hot spares to the
controller.
How it Works
When you run the task sequence on a target system, the array configuration
utility detects the existing controller(s) on the system as well as the disks
attached to each controller. The custom action then tries to match the
physical configuration(s) the utility detected to the logical configurations you
defined in the configuration rules. These array configuration rules are defined
using a graphical, logical layout that allows you to visualize how your array
controllers will be configured. Rules are processed in the order displayed in
the Array Builder tree, so you know exactly which rules have priority.
You can define rules to match configurations based on detected slot number
that the controller is in (or just the embedded controller, if any), how many
disks are attached to the controller, or simply apply a blanket configuration to
any controller the Array Builder finds. You can also apply configuration rules
based on task sequence variables detected on the system. This allows you to
define different configurations to different systems even if the detected
hardware is identical.
Controllers
Controller elements contain variable condition elements. Controllers can be
one of several configuration types:
• The embedded controller
• A controller in slot "X"
• Any controller with "X" disks
• Any controller with "X" disks or more
• All remaining controllers
When launching Array Builder from a <Create configuration file> selection
in the deployment action, a default embedded controller is created.
book.book Page 26 Thursday, February 5, 2009 5:20 PM