Raid For Your Server - Lenovo ThinkServer TS460 User Manual And Hardware Maintenance Manual

must use an even number of drives in each RAID virtual drive in the span. The RAID 1 virtual drives must
have the same stripe size. RAID 10 provides high data throughput and complete data redundancy but
uses a larger number of spans.
RAID 10 requires a minimum number of four HDDs and also requires an even number of drives, for
example, six HDDs or eight HDDs.
• RAID 50: a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 5
RAID 50 uses distributed parity and disk striping. A RAID 50 drive group is a spanned drive group in which
data is striped across multiple RAID 5 drive groups. RAID 50 works best with data that requires high
reliability, high request rates, high data transfers, and medium-to-large capacity.
Note: Having virtual drives of different RAID levels, such as RAID 0 and RAID 5, in the same drive group is
not allowed. For example, if an existing RAID 5 virtual drive is created out of partial space in an array, the
next virtual drive in the array has to be RAID 5 only.
RAID 50 requires a minimum number of six HDDs.
• RAID 60: a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 6
RAID 60 uses distributed parity, with two independent parity blocks per stripe in each RAID set, and disk
striping. A RAID 60 virtual drive can survive the loss of two drives in each of the RAID 6 sets without losing
data. RAID 60 works best with data that requires high reliability, high request rates, high data transfers,
and medium-to-large capacity.
RAID 60 requires a minimum number of six HDDs.
For detailed information about RAID, refer to "Introduction to RAID" in the MegaRAID SAS Software User
Guide. This guide is available on the Lenovo Support Web site at:
http://www.lenovo.com/support

RAID for your server

Note: Before configuring RAID for your server, ensure that you use HDDs that are of the same type (SATA or
SAS) and have the same capacity within a single RAID array.
Your server supports the following two types of RAID configurations:
• Onboard SATA software RAID configuration
The onboard SATA software RAID controller is integrated on the Intel C232 chip on the system board. If
your server has SATA HDDs that are connected to the system board, you can use the Intel Rapid Storage
Technology enterprise program to configure RAID. By default, your server supports onboard SATA
software RAID levels 0, 1, 5, and 10. The onboard RAID is a software RAID instead of a hardware RAID.
For detailed information, see "Configuring onboard SATA software RAID" on page 48.
• Advanced SATA/SAS hardware RAID configuration (requires a RAID card)
Some server models come with a required RAID card to provide advanced SATA/SAS hardware RAID
functions to the server. You also can purchase the RAID card from Lenovo and install it into server models
that support the RAID card to get advanced SATA/SAS hardware RAID functions. See "RAID card" on
page 27 and "PCIe card" on page 61 for more information.
The RAID card provides the Ctrl-R Uitility and HII Utility program to help you configure RAID
independently of the operating system. You also can install the MegaRAID Storage Manager program and
the StorCLI Configuration Utility program to help you manage the RAID array and RAID controller in an
operating system environment. The supported RAID levels are RAID 0, 1, and 10 for ThinkServer RAID
520i PCIe Adapter by default. To activate RAID 5 level, install a RAID 520i upgrade key on the RAID card.
The supported RAID levels are RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 for ThinkServer RAID 720i PCIe Adapter by default. To
activate RAID 6 level, you need to install a Thunderbolt Memory Module on the RAID card.
For detailed information, see "Configuring advanced SATA or SAS hardware RAID" on page 50.
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Chapter 4 Configuring the server
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