Configuring the Storage Device : Creating Storage Configuration Using MegaRAID Storage Manager Software : Creating a Nytro Virtual Drive : Creating a Virtual Drive Using Advanced Configuration

Creating a Virtual Drive Using Advanced Configuration

The advanced configuration procedure provides an easy way to create a new storage configuration. Advanced configuration gives you greater flexibility than simple configuration because you can select the drives and the virtual drive parameters when you create a virtual drive. In addition, you can use the advanced configuration procedure to create spanned drive groups.

Follow these steps to create a new storage configuration in the advanced configuration mode. This example shows the configuration of a spanned drive group.

1.

Perform either of the following steps to bring up the Configuration wizard:

*

Right-click the controller node in the device tree in the left frame of the MegaRAID Storage Manager window, and select Create Virtual Drive.

*

Select the controller node, and select Go To > Controller > Create Virtual Drive in the menu bar.

The dialog for the choosing the configuration mode (simple or advanced) appears.

Figure 37. Create Virtual Drive – Choose mode Dialog

2.

Select the Advanced radio button, and click Next.

The Create Drive Group Settings dialog appears.

Figure 38. Create Drive Group – Drive Group Settings Window

Figure 39. Create Drive Group – Drive Group Settings Window

3.

Select the following items on the Create Drive Group – Drive Group Settings window:

a.

Select the RAID level desired for the drive group from the drop-down menu. To make a spanned drive, select RAID 10 in the RAID level field.

Drive Group 0 and Span 0 appear in the Drive groups field when you select RAID 10.

The controller supports RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10. In addition, it supports independent drives (configured as RAID 0). The dialog text gives a brief description of the RAID level that you select. You can choose the RAID levels depending on the number of available drives.

b.

Scroll down the menu for the Drive security method field if you want to set a drive security method.

The drive security feature provides the ability to encrypt data and use disk-based key management for your data security solution. This solution provides protection to the data in the event of theft or loss of drives.

c.

Select unconfigured drives from the list of drives, and click Add> to add them to the drive group.

The selected drives appear under Span 0 below Drive Group 0, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 40. Span 0 of Drive Group 0

d.

Click Create Span to create a second span in the drive group.

e.

Select unconfigured drives from the list of drives, and click Add> to add them to the second drive group.

The selected drives appear under Span 1 below Drive Group 0, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 41. Span 0 and Span 1 of Drive Group 0

f.

Click Create Drive Group to make a drive group with the spans.

g.

Click Next to complete this step.

The Create Virtual Drive – Virtual drive settings window appears, as shown in the following figure. The drive group and the default virtual drive settings appear. The options to update the virtual drive or remove the virtual drive are grayed out until you create the virtual drive.

Figure 42. Create Virtual Drive – Virtual Drive Settings Window

Figure 43. Create Virtual Drive – Virtual Drive Settings Window

NOTE  If you select Write Back with BBU as the write policy, the write policy switches to Write Through. This setting eliminates the risk of data loss in case of a power failure. A message window notifies you of this change.

CAUTION  Do not hot plug the SuperCap when power is supplied to the controller card or if there is residual charge on the SuperCap, doing so might damage both the SuperCap and the controller card.

4.

Change any virtual drive settings, if desired.

See Selecting the Virtual Drive Settings, for more information about the virtual drive settings.

5.

Click Create Virtual Drive.

The new virtual drive appears under the drive group. The options Update Virtual Drive and Remove Virtual Drive are available. Update Virtual Drive lets you change the virtual drive settings, and Remove Virtual Drive lets you delete the virtual drive.

6.

Click Next.

The Create Virtual Drive – Summary dialog appears. This dialog shows the selections you made for advanced configuration.

Figure 44. Create Virtual Drive – Summary Window

7.

Click Back to return to the previous window to change any selections, or click Finish to accept and complete the configuration.

After you click Finish, the new storage configuration is created and initialized according to the selected options.

NOTE  If you create a large configuration using drives that are in Power-save mode, it could take several minutes to spin up the drives. A progress bar appears as the drives spin up. If any of the selected unconfigured drives fail to spin up, a dialog appears that identifies these drives.

After the configuration is completed, a dialog box notifies you that the virtual drives were created successfully.