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A Tutorial: Learning Array Manager

Dell OpenManage™ Array Manager 2.5 User's Guide

  Concepts and Terminology

  Tutorial Steps

This tutorial chapter illustrates how two components of the Array Manager application, hardware RAID and software RAID, function together. You should read this chapter and follow all the steps if you are a new user or if you are getting reacquainted with the application.

In this chapter, you will learn how to do the following:

Note: For this tutorial, you should have four unused array disks under Array Group 0 (connected through a controller card) and Array Manager software installed on your system. It is recommended that your disks all be the same size.

Concepts and Terminology

To complete this tutorial, it is assumed that you are familiar with array disks and RAID concepts. Refer to the following sections or chapters for detailed information:

Hardware RAID

RAID functions can be implemented with either hardware RAID (through a RAID controller) or software RAID (RAID programming without specific hardware).

In this tutorial, you will use hardware RAID to create two RAID-0 virtual disks. Each virtual disk will contain two array disks. Once the virtual disks are created, they are displayed as disks in the Windows NT® or Windows 2000® operating system.

Software RAID

Software RAID can be configured on top of the hardware RAID volumes and provide a powerful variety of features. In this tutorial, you will upgrade the two virtual disks, which are classified as basic disks, to dynamic disks. Then you will use Array Manager's software RAID functions to create a dynamic mirrored volume, as shown in the illustration above. The mirrored volume provides redundancy to your configuration.

Disk 0 in the above illustration refers to the computer's boot disk.


Tutorial Steps

This tutorial may take from 10 to 20 minutes to complete. It has five sections:

Getting Started

To get started with the tutorial, do the following:

  1. Verify that you have four unused array disks connected through a controller card that supports hardware RAID, such as the PERC Controller. Because the first two disks will be mirrored to the second two disks, the second pair should be the same size or larger than the first pair.

  2. Open the Array Manager application. The Array Manager window appears. (If enabled, the Quick Access window appears. Close the Quick Access window.)

Create a RAID-0 (Striped) Virtual Disk

  1. In the left pane, left-click on the plus signs (+) to browse down the subdirectories until you locate Array Group 0 under the Logical Array storage object, as shown in the following screen.

  1. Right-click Array Group 0. From the context menu, select Create Virtual Disk.

  2. Read the contents in the Create Virtual Disk window. Click Next to continue.

  3. The next window, Select Creation Mode, shows two options: Custom Mode and Express Mode. For this tutorial, Express Mode is recommended. Accept the default parent array group (Array Group 0).

  1. Click Next to continue.

The Select Virtual Disk Type window appears.

You are asked for the following information:

  1. The Default Disk Selection window appears. Array Manager automatically selects the number of disks required for the selected operation. Click Next to continue.

Using Custom Mode

If you chose Custom Mode, follow the instructions on the wizard to continue.

  1. The final screen displays. The Rescan Disk Layout checkbox is checked by default. This process allows Microsoft Windows NT/2000 to recognize the new virtual disk. A Rescan Disk Layout can be performed later if the box is not checked when you create the virtual disk.

  2. Click Finish to create the virtual disk. You can now create volumes on the new virtual disk. Array Manager displays the virtual disk under Array Group 0. In the right pane, "Initializing" appears under the Status column and the progress is noted.

When initialization is complete, "Ready" appears under the Status column.

Viewing the new virtual disk in the General tab view

The new virtual disk appears in the General tab view similar to the example screen that follows. In the screen, Virtual Disk 0 is the boot disk and was already created. Virtual Disk 1 is the newly created disk.

Viewing the virtual disk in the tree view

If your configuration is similar to the one shown in the screen above, Virtual Disk 1 appears under Array Group 0 in the tree view in the left pane of the console window. If you click the plus sign (+), you will see Array Disk 0:1 and Array Disk 0:2, indicating that the virtual disk was created from these two array disks, as shown in the sample screen that follows.

Create a Second RAID-0 (Striped) Virtual Disk

Repeat steps 1 - 8 described in the preceding section to create a second striped virtual disk. Give it the default name of "Virtual Disk," select RAID-0, and make the disk the same size as the first virtual disk.

Rescan

If the newly created virtual disks do not appear under Disks, then perform a rescan by selecting Rescan from the View pull-down menu. Rescan forces the Array Manager software to locate and query all the objects in the system. This can take several minutes if there are numerous disks in the system.

In the left pane, you will see the two new virtual disks under Array Group 0. Under the Disks node, you will see two new disks. In the sample screen that follows, each disk displays an error symbol because it does not yet have a write signature on it. Only virtual disks created with a PERC, 2/SC, or 2/DC controller display this error symbol. Virtual disks created with a PERC 2, 2/Si, 3/Si, or 3/Di controller do not have this error symbol.

In the sample screen that follows, notice that the top computer node also displays the error symbol. Whenever there is an error on a subordinate storage object, the top node in the tree view displays an error symbol. Because the tree view can be collapsed down to the top computer node, it is important that it display the error condition so that you can be aware that an error exists even when the tree is fully collapsed.

Write a Signature

If you created a virtual disk with a PERC, PERC 2/SC, or PERC 2/DC controller, you will need to write a signature to the resulting disk. If you used a PERC 2, PERC 2/Si, PERC 3/Si, or PERC 3/Di controller, this step is not required.

When you have a virtual disk that requires a disk signature, you will see that fact noted in the disk listing of the General tab of the Array Manager console, as shown in the sample screen that follows.

To write a signature on a disk:
  1. Right-click Disk 1 and select Write Signature from the context menu that appears.

  1. Select Write Signature for Disk 2, using the same method as in step 1.

Upgrade to a Dynamic Disk

This section explains how to upgrade a newly created virtual disk to a dynamic disk.

Note: On Windows NT, the disk must not contain partitions or volumes. It should be an empty disk. On Windows 2000, the disk can contain partitions and/or basic volumes.
  1. Click the plus sign (+) on Disks to see the available disks.

  2. Select one of the new virtual disks, and right-click on it to display a menu.

  3. Select Upgrade to Dynamic Disk Group.

  4. You are asked to select disks to upgrade. The disk you highlighted is selected by default and appears in the right pane under Upgrade these disks to dynamic. The other disk is shown on the left side of the window under Basic disks.

  5. Select the other disk and click Add. This moves the disk into the right pane. You can upgrade multiple disks at once.

Create a New Dynamic Mirrored Volume

This is the final step in the process of creating a mirrored volume on the striped virtual disk. You will use the Create Volume wizard in this process.

Right-click on the icon of one of the upgraded disks and select Create Volume.

  1. Read the information about partitions and volumes in the Create Volume wizard and then click Next to continue.

  2. The Select Partition or Volume window appears. Because you have selected a Dynamic disk, the Dynamic Volume radio button is selected. Click Next.

  1. The Select Volume Type window appears. Name the volume and provide a size in MB or GB. If you leave the default size, the application will create a mirrored volume that fills both dynamic disk volumes.

Concatenated will be chosen by default. Since you are creating a mirrored volume, click the Mirrored checkbox to request a mirrored volume. Click Next.

Note: The sample screen shown below was taken on a Windows NT system, and thus it does not show the Query Max Size button that is available on Windows 2000 systems. For more information on this button, see Creating a Dynamic Volume in the Volume Management chapter.

  1. The Verify Disks window appears and shows the current configuration. (You can click Modify to choose different dynamic disks for the volume.)

  1. Verify the disks that the volumes will be on. The wizard displays a view of the volumes. Click Next to continue, or Back to alter your selections.

  2. Assign a drive letter. Click Next.

Note: The sample screen above was taken on a Windows NT system, and thus it does not show the additional option of mounting a drive at an empty NTFS folder that is available on Windows 2000 systems.
  1. Format the volume, using either NTFS or FAT. If you are using Windows 2000, FAT32 is also given as a choice. You can leave the Allocation Unit Size as Default.

  2. If desired, select a formatting option:

  1. Click Next to continue, then Finish.

You now have a striped (hardware RAID) and a mirrored (software RAID) volume that you created from your hardware array disks. Click Volume 1 in the left pane, and the statistics appear in the right pane.


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