Chapter 9: Configuration; Creating A New Configuration; Selecting Virtual Drive Settings - Lenovo ThinkServer RD650 User Manual

12Gb/s MegaRAID SAS Software User Guide
March 2014

Chapter 9: Configuration

This chapter explains how to use MegaRAID Storage Manager software to create and modify storage configurations
on LSI SAS controllers.
The LSI SAS controllers support RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 00, RAID 10, RAID 50, and RAID 60 storage
configurations. The Configuration wizard allows you to easily create new storage configurations and modify the
configurations. To learn more about RAID and RAID levels, see
9.1

Creating a New Configuration

You can use the MegaRAID Storage Manager software to create new storage configurations on systems with LSISAS
controllers. You can create the following types of configurations:
Simple configuration specifies a limited number of settings and has the system select drives for you. This option

is the easiest way to create a virtual drive.
Advanced configuration lets you choose additional settings and customize virtual drive creation. This option

provides greater flexibility when creating virtual drives for your specific requirements.
This section describes the virtual drive parameters and explains how to create simple and advanced storage
configurations.
9.1.1

Selecting Virtual Drive Settings

This section describes the virtual drive settings that you can select when you use the advanced configuration
procedure to create virtual drives. You should change these parameters only if you have a specific reason for doing so.
It is usually best to leave them at their default settings.
Initialization state: Initialization prepares the storage medium for use. Specify the initialization status:

No Initialization: (the default) The new configuration is not initialized, and the existing data on the drives is
—
not overwritten.
Fast Initialization: The firmware quickly writes 0s to the first and last 8-MB regions of the new virtual drive
—
and then completes the initialization in the background. This allows you to start writing data to the virtual
drive immediately.
Full Initialization: A complete initialization is done on the new configuration. You cannot write data to the
—
new virtual drive until the initialization is complete. This process can take a long time if the drives are large.
Strip size: Strip sizes of 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, 128 KB, 256 KB, 512 KB, and 1024 KB are supported. The default

is 64 KB. For more information, see the striping entry in the Glossary.
Read policy: Specify the read policy for this virtual drive:

Always read ahead: Read ahead capability allows the controller to read sequentially ahead of requested
—
data and to store the additional data in cache memory, anticipating that the data will be needed soon. This
process speeds up reads for sequential data, but little improvement occurs when accessing random data.
NOTE You cannot create or modify a storage configuration unless you are
logged on to a server with administrator privileges.
NOTE BGI is supported only for RAID 5 and RAID 6 and not for any other RAID
levels. New RAID 5 virtual drives require at least five drives for a
background initialization to start. New RAID 6 virtual drives require at
least seven drives for a background initialization to start. If there are
fewer drives, the background initialization does not start.
Introduction to
LSI Corporation
- 261 -
Chapter 9: Configuration
Creating a New Configuration
RAID.