Adaptec Storage Manager-Browser Edition

4Now you can accept the default name for the new array or enter one of your choice. The name you choose must be unique, and can be up to 15 standard ASCII characters in length.

5When you click Finish, the system will create the new array.

Advanced Options

Creating an array by clicking Advanced in the Create Array wizard follows the same basic process as the previous instructions, but at each step there are additional options for you to use.

Step 1 of 3 in the Advanced area of the Create Array wizard offers the following additional options:

■Spanned Volumes and RAID Volumes—As described in Chapter 1, Introduction, a spanned volume concatenates segments from two or more drives to form a volume, while a RAID volume concatenates two or more arrays of the same type.

■Enable or Disable Write Caching—When write caching is enabled, the controller stores the data in cache memory on the controller and will accept another write to this array as soon as the data from the previous write is safely stored in the controller’s memory.

Since writing data to memory is much faster than writing it to the drives, enabling write caching can significantly improve performance. All data stored in the cache will be written to the drives when it is most efficient for the controller.

On controllers fitted with a battery, the additional choice “Enable when protected by battery” is available. Choosing this option will enable write caching whenever the battery is operating correctly, and in the event of a power failure the battery will protect the data currently in cache.

!Caution: Default setting for write cache is enabled. This setting provides the best performance, but in the event of power failure there is a risk of data loss.

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