Dell SCSI 6/IR manual Creating a Integrated Mirroring Virtual Disk

Creating a Integrated Mirroring Virtual Disk

An Integrated Mirroring (IM) virtual disk, also referred to as RAID 1, offers the ability to mirror data from one physical disk onto another one. IM volumes offer increased reliability by combining two physical disks into a single virtual disk such that each disk contains a mirrored copy of the other’s data. Follow these steps to create an IM virtual disk on a SAS 6/iR controller that does not currently have a virtual disk configured.

1Select a controller from the Adapter List in the Configuration Utility.

2Select the RAID Properties option.

3Select Create IM Volume when you are prompted to create either an IS virtual disk or an IM virtual disk. The next screen shows a list of disks that can be added to a virtual disk.

4Move the cursor to the RAID Disk column. To add a disk to the virtual disk, change “No” to “Yes” by pressing the <+>, <->, or space bar.

NOTICE: Data on both disks will be lost. It is recommended that you back up all data before performing these steps.

5As disks are added, the Virtual Disk Size field will change to reflect the size of the new virtual disk. There are several limitations when creating an IM virtual disk:

•All disks must be either Dell-compliant SAS or SATA physical disks.

•SAS and SATA physical disks cannot be used in the same virtual disk.

•Disks must have 512-byte blocks and must not have removable media.

•There must be 2 physical disks in an IM virtual disk.

6Press <C> and then select Save changes when the virtual disk has been fully configured.

NOTE: There is an option to create a hot spare for an IM virtual disk. The Create Integrated Mirror screen allows the option to assign a hot spare. Only drives that are compatible with the new virtual disk configuration can be selected. The maximum number of hot spares allowed is two.

7Press <F3> to confirm that existing data will be lost with the creation of the virtual disk. The Configuration Utility will pause while the virtual disk is being created.

NOTE: IM provides protection against the failure of a single physical disk. When a disk fails, the physical disk can be replaced and the data re-mirrored to the physical disk, maintaining data integrity.

NOTE: The maximum size of the virtual disk that contains the bootable operating system is 2 Terabytes. This is due to operating system restrictions.The maximum array size (non-bootable) is 16 Terabytes.

SAS 6/iR BIOS

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