4-5
Chapter 4: MegaRAID BIOS Configuration Utility
4. To create a global hotspare drive, highlight a READY disk drive and press F4. Then
select YES from the pop-up menu.
Make sure the capacity of the hotspare drive is equal to or larger than the capacity
of the disks in the array and that it is the same type of drive (SAS or SATA).
5. To define multiple arrays, select all the drives you want for the first array, then press
ENTER to start selecting drives for the second array, and so on.
6. When you have selected drives for all desired arrays, press F10.
7. Press the SPACEBAR to select an array, if needed.
Press F10 to continue.
8. Highlight RAID and press ENTER.
A list of the available RAID levels for the current virtual drive appears.
9. Select a RAID level for the virtual drive and press ENTER.
10. (Optional) You may also set the logical drive size by highlighting SIZE and then
pressing ENTER.
The minimum valid virtual drive size is 64 Mbytes. An error will appear if you try to
create a virtual drive that is smaller 64 Mbytes.
By default, all the available space in the array is to the current virtual drive. For
RAID 10 arrays, only one virtual can be defined for the entire array.
11. (Optional) You may change the disks’s default Write Cache and Read Ahead
policies (see Section4-3: "Setting the Hard Disk Write Cache and Read Ahead
Policies" on page4-8).
12. When you have finished defining the current virtual drive, select ACCEPT and press
ENTER.
13. Configure additional virtual drives on the same array, if desired.
If you have created more than one array, configure a virtual drive on the second
array.
14. Save the configuration when prompted, and press any key to return to the
MANAGEMENT menu.
15. Initialize the new virtual drive(s). (See "Initializing Virtual Drives" on page 4-6 for
detailed instructions.)
NOTE: The hotspare drive will rebuild a failed drive even if it is SAS and the
failed drive is SATA, or vice versa. Once the rebuilt is completed, however, it is
recommended that you replace the new array member with a drive of the same
type.