Compaq AlphaServer GS60 Operation Manual page 324

Defining a Drive Group
Use this option to bind drives together into drive groups. To maximize your disk space
resources, use drives of the same capacity in a drive group. To define a drive group,
follow these steps:
1. Select the New Configuration option from the main menu and either one of the
following things happens depending upon whether a configuration currently exists.
If a configuration currently exists, the utility displays a warning message saying
that a valid configuration exists and if you proceed, you will destroy it. A
confirmation window also appears. Go to Step 2. If no configuration currently
exists, then the utility displays the New Configuration menu. The New
Configuration menu appears with the Define Drive Group option highlighted. Go
to Step 3.
2. Select Yes to delete the current configuration (select No to quit without changing
the configuration and to return to the main menu). The utility displays the New
Configuration menu. The New Configuration menu appears with the Define Drive
Group option highlighted.
3. Press the Enter key to select the Define Drive Group option. The utility displays a
drive matrix that shows the drives connected to the adapter and the status of each.
The Create Group function appears highlighted. If you are uncertain about the
size of a particular drive, select the Device Information option on the Define Drive
Group screen to check the size before you create a drive group.
4. Press the Enter key to select the Create Group option. The cursor moves to the
drive matrix.
5. Position the cursor on each drive with a status of RDY (ready) that you want to
add to the drive group, one at a time, and press the Enter key. The utility adds that
drive to the drive group by changing its status from RDY to OPT (optimal); and
assigning a group letter and a sequence number to the drive. To maximize the I/O
performance of your multichannel RAID subsystem, locate each member of a
drive group on a separate SCSI channel. This allows the RAID controller
concurrent access to the disk drives.
6. Press the Esc key after you add all the drives that you want for this drive group.
7. Repeat Steps 3 through 6 of this procedure to create additional drive groups. If you
plan to define a hot spare, leave at least one drive with RDY status. This drive
must be of equal or greater capacity to the drives you assigned to drive groups. If
you assign all the physical drives to drive groups, the system automatically
highlights the Arrange Group option. Otherwise, press the Esc key and
the cursor returns to the Group Definition menu.
C-8 AlphaServer 8200/8400 Operations Manual