Preparing The Active Controller - IBM ServeRAID User Reference

v The stripe-unit size and level of BIOS and firmware code must be the same on
v All physical drives must be configured in arrays. A failover pair must not contain
v You must set the write-cache mode of all logical drives on the active controller to
v All logical drives must have unique shared merge-group numbers.
v When you use multiple failover pairs in a system, each set of controllers must
v All on-board ServeRAID controllers must be enabled, even if the controller is not
The following restrictions apply:
v Hot-spare drives are not supported in a failover environment. The exception is
v You cannot hot add a controller and then configure it as part of a failover pair.
v A failover pair and a ServeRAID adapter defined as a Microsoft Cluster Server
v A logical drive cannot failover if it is any of the following:

Preparing the active controller

This section covers the following steps:
Step 1. Installing the ServeRAID controller that you will designate as the active
Step 2. Configuring the active controller for failover.
Step 3. Connecting the active controller to the enclosure; then, starting the server
Step 4. Configuring arrays and logical drives.
Step 5. Installing the appropriate device driver.
Installing the active controller
If you have not yet installed the ServeRAID controller that you will designate as the
active controller, do so now. For instructions, see the IBM Installation Guide that
came with the controller.
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IBM ServeRAID: User's Reference, Version 5.10
both controllers.
any physical drives in the ready state.
write through.
Note: If your ServeRAID controller has a battery-backup cache, it is disabled
when you create a failover pair. The write-cache mode is automatically
changed from write back to write through.
have unique controller and partner names.
used.
the built-in hot-spare that is part of a RAID level-5E logical drive.
(MSCS) resource cannot coexist in the same server.
– A RAID level-5 or level-5E logical drive in a critical state
– A RAID level-5 or level-5E logical drive that is undergoing a rebuild operation
– A RAID level-5E logical drive that is undergoing a compression or
decompression operation
– A logical drive undergoing a logical-drive migration
controller.
with the IBM ServeRAID Support CD in the CD-ROM drive.
Important
Do not install the controller you will designate as the passive controller until instructed to do
so.