Learning about Custom Configuration

Learning about Custom Configuration

The Custom Configuration path allows you to manually configure your ServeRAID subsystem. Using this path, you can select the drives that you want to include in each array, define the number and size of the logical drives for each array, and select the drives that you want to use as hot spares.

Before you select the Custom Configuration path, consider the following:

•  If you are not familiar with the IBM implementation of  RAID technology, you might want to review the  information provided in 'Understanding RAID Technology' before you begin.
•  Each ServeRAID controller supports a maximum of eight arrays.
•  Each ServeRAID controller supports a maximum of eight logical drives.

   When you create an array, you group hard disk drives  into one storage area. You can define this storage  area as a single logical drive, or you can subdivide it  into several logical drives. Each logical drive appears  to the operating system as a single physical hard disk  drive.

   If you have only one array, you can define it as a  single logical drive, or you can divide it into several  logical drives. Typically, the first logical drive defined  on the first ServeRAID adapter or controller found by  the basic input/output system (BIOS) during startup  will be your startup (boot) drive.

•  If you have two or more arrays, each array can be  one logical drive, or you can divide each array into  multiple logical drives, as long as the total number of  logical drives for all of the arrays does not exceed eight.

•  The optimal way to create arrays is to use hard disk  drives that have the same capacity.

   Hard disk drive capacities influence the way you  create arrays. Drives in an array can be of different  capacities (1 GB 1, or 2 GB, for example), but RAID  controllers treat them as if they all have the capacity  of the smallest disk drive.

   For example, if you group three 1 GB drives and one  2 GB drive into an array, the total capacity of the  array is 1 GB times 4, or 4 GB, not the 5 GB  physically available. Similarly, if you group three 2  GB drives and one 1 GB drive into an array, the total  capacity of that array is 4 GB, not the 7 GB physically  available.

•  A hot-spare drive is a disk drive that is defined for  automatic use in the event of a drive failure. The  hot-spare drive must be of equal or greater capacity  than the drive that it is intended to replace. If a  physical drive fails and it is part of a RAID level-1 or  RAID level-5 logical drive, the ServeRAID controller  automatically starts to rebuild the data on the  hot-spare drive.
•  You can include a maximum of 16 physical drives in  an array when the stripe-unit size is set to 8KB (the  default setting) or 16KB, and you can include a  maximum of 8 physical drives in an array when the  stripe-unit size is set to 32KB or 64KB. (See 'Interleave Depth and Stripe-Unit Size' and 'Menu Bar' for more information.)

1 When referring to hard-disk-drive capacity, GB means approximately 1000000000 bytes, total user-accessible capacity may vary depending on operating environment.

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