Creating & Managing the RAID volumes on Adaptec 2120S RAID card
1. Ensure that all the HDD’s are connected properly in their respective slots (In case of HS).
2. In the POST ensure that the Adaptec 2120S RAID card is getting sensed.
3. Enter the ARC utility by pressing Ctrl+A when the Adaptec message appears in POST.
4. Once its is inside the Adaptec BIOS you will see a blue-background screen appears with the
title Adaptec 2xx0S with different menu’s Use the “Disk Utilities” menu item to examine the drives showing as available to the system. If any seem to be missing, power the system down and inspect the hardware connections.
5.RAID Controller “ SCSI Select “ Utility. Press < ENTER > once the desired Array Configuration
Utility is highlighted by default.
Note: If more than one controller of the Adaptec SCSI RAID 2120S/2200S family is installed, the
first screen will show the controllers present. Highlight the controller you wish to use and press <
ENTER > to get to the screen in this step.
6. The “ Array Configuration “ Utility screen appears. Using the arrow keys, highlight “ Initialize
Drives “, then press < ENTER >.
Note: All drives being used in an array or volume must be initialized.
7. Using the arrow keys again, highlight the drives to be used for the RAID , press ‘Insert key’ when a desired drive is highlighted. Selected drives will be displayed in the box on the right side of the display. When the desired drives are on the right side, press < ENTER > to continue.
8. A red warning box appears. now Press Y, & then < ENTER > to continue(This is asking for a
confirmation to destroy all the data on the drives). The system will initialize the selected drives,
9. The Array Configuration Utility screen reappears. Using the arrow keys, highlight “Create
Array “, then press < ENTER >.
10. Using the arrow keys highlight the drives for the RAID , press Insert (Insert key) when a desired drive is highlighted. By selecting the drives the right hand frame lists the selected drives of volumes. press < ENTER > to continue.
11. On the next screen, most of the default entries will be used by pressing < ENTER > when they are highlighted. Make the following selections and entries:
Creating Array window appears Press < ENTER > to continue with the array configuration.
Note: The newly created array will be usable immediately, but will continue to build until finished in the background, impacting performance until it is done.
The array property line is displayed on Selection
Array Type :- Select RAID 5/RAID 1 etc, press < ENTER >
Array Label :- Type a suitable name in the space provided for identifying that array & press <
ENTER >
Array Size :- Press < ENTER >for selecting the size of the volume & Press < ENTER > again to use the default value (The default values are based on the capacity & RAID volume created) the default drive granularity will be in GB.
Stripe Size :- Select appropriate (64KB will be the default)
Read Caching :- YES (with default values)
Write Caching :- YES (with default values)
Create RAID :- Press < ENTER > (Default value is Build/verify)
[Done] Press < ENTER > to complete.
12. Press Esc until the Exit Utility window appears. Highlight Yes,
then press < ENTER >. The system will restart.
Rebuilding the RAID
1. Replace the HDD of the same make & model in the failed drive slot & reboot the server.
2. Enter the ARC utility by pressing Ctrl+A when the Adaptec message appears in POST
3. Once its is inside the Adaptec BIOS you will see a blue-background screen appears with the
title Adaptec 2xx0S with different menu’s
Use the “Disk Utilities ” menu item to examine the New disk is getting sensed.
4. In RAID Controller “ SCSI Select “ Utility. Press < ENTER > once the desired Array
Configuration Utility is highlighted by default.
Note: If more than one controller of the Adaptec SCSI RAID 2120S/2200S family is installed, the first screen will show the controllers present. Highlight the controller you wish to use and press < ENTER > to get to the screen in this step.
5. The “ Array Configuration “ Utility screen appears. Using the arrow keys, highlight “ Initialize Drives “, then press < ENTER >.
6. Select the newly inserted disk (Identify using the SCSI ID for the disk) using the arrow keys again, highlight the new drive, press ‘Insert key’ when a desired drive is highlighted. Selected drives will be displayed in the box on the right side of the display. When the desired drives are on the right side, press < ENTER > to continue.
7. A red warning box appears. now Press Y, & then < ENTER > to continue(This is asking for a confirmation to destroy all the data on the drives). The system will initialize the selected drives, in a few seconds.
8. Now the rebuilding will start whose progress can be seen in the properties of the Array. If a higher capacity disk is used as a replacement for failed array member then after initializing the new drive we have to make it as hotspare.
1. Initialize the new drive
2. In the “RAID array” press ctrl + y which will open the Hotspare creation menu.
3. Chose the new drive which is listed there & make it as hotspare which will start rebuilding your array(will use only the previous size of the failed array member & remaining space can be used for other array)
Creating RAID in Intel RAID (Intel SRCU31/SRCU42L)
Storage Console (StorCon) is the software tool used for creating host drives as well as administering the RAID subsystem. This procedure describes how to create a bootable host drive.
1. Power on the computer.
1. Power on the computer.
2. Press <Ctrl>+<g> when the Intel RAID BIOS message appears to load XROM StorCon.
3. Select the controller and press Enter.
4. Select the menu option Configure Host Drives and press Enter as shown below.
5. Select Create new Host Drive (as shown in below) and press Enter. StorCon displays a list of
available hard disks
6. Use the arrow keys and the Space bar to select the number of hard disks for your RAID 5 array (minimum of three disks to a maximum of 15 disks per channel). In this RAID 5 example, four disks are selected. The selected hard disks become marked with an " * " as shown in below Press Enter to accept your selections.
7. From the Choose Type menu, select RAID 5 and press Enter. As shown in the next figure
8. StorCon displays a warning that all data on the selected disks will be destroyed (as shownbelow in RED). Confirm your choice by pressing <y>.
9. StorCon asks for the capacity to use for each drive (as shown below). Type in the physical drive
capacity to be used from each RAID array member and press Enter.
The new host drive is created as shown above.
11. Exit StorCon by pressing <Esc> several times to escape out of the various menus and pressing <y> to quit.Depending on the size of the host drive, the RAID 5 build process may take a considerable amount of time. You may exit out of StorCon without waiting for the build to complete. When leaving StorCon, a progress window informs you about the estimated completion time for the build process (as shown below). Upon successful completion of the build process the RAID 5 disk array changes to ready status, for example, the data is fully redundant.
RAID Configuration steps on LSI Logic RAID cards (Elite 1600, Express 500, and Megaraid)
Starting MegaRAID Configuration Utility When the host computer boots, hold the <Ctrl> key and press the <M >key when the following appears: Host Adapter-1 Firmware Version x.xx DRAM Size 4 MB 0 Logical Drives found on the Host Adapter 0 Logical Drives handled by BIOS Press <Ctrl><M> to run MegaRAID BIOS Configuration Utility For each MegaRAID adapter in the host system, the firmware version, DRAM size, and the status of logical drives on that adapter is displayed. If you do not press <Ctrl> <M> within a few seconds of the prompt, the computer continues the normal boot procedure. When you press <Ctrl> <M>, the following appears:
Configuration Utility Menu Options The Configuration Utility menu options:
MegaRAID Configuration Utility Menu Tree
The following is an expansion of the menus in the MegaRAID Configuration Utility for boards that support Ultra 320 ,Ultra 160M, and 40 logical drives: Enterprise 1600, Elite 1600, and Express
500.
Creating the RAID volume :-
Rebuilding Failed Disk Drives
If a disk drive fails in an array that is configured as a RAID 1, 3, or 5 logical drive, you can recover the lost data by rebuilding the drive.Rebuild Types The rebuild types are:
Manual Rebuild – Rebuilding an Individual Drive
RAID on Adaptec 2010/2015 card
This section describes how to use SMOR to create arrays and multilevel RAIDs, delete arrays, assign hot spare drives, and rebuild an array.
Creating an Array
To create an array, follow these steps:
1 Select RAID > Create. The RAID Type window appears as shown in figure below
2 When the RAID Type window appears, select the RAID level you want to use. The default stripe size is selected automatically; however you can select a different stripe size value by highlighting the fie ld and using the up and down arrow keys to change the stripe size.
Note: Although you can change the stripe size, Adaptec recommends using the default value, which has been selected for optimum performance based on the type of disk array you chose to create.
a When you are ready to proceed, select Ok.
b The Eligible Devices tab appears, as shown in figure
The list of eligible devices can be either individual hard drives or previously created array groups. Array groups appear in the list when you select RAID 0 and eligible array groups exist.
3 Select the devices you want to include in the array:
a To add devices to the array, highlight the device and press the Spacebar . A check mark appears next to the device to indicate that it has been selected. You might need to scroll the display down to view all eligible devices.
b To remove a previously selected device from the array, highlight the device and press the Spacebar .
4 When you are finished selecting drives for the new array, select Done.
5 If you are creating a RAID 1 array, the RAID 1 Build Option window appears, as shown in figure
RAID 1 arrays are built by copying the existing data from one device to the other.
Select the direction for the copy, then select Ok.
6 Select File > Set System Config to start the build process. The build process begins for the array you created. If you created multiple arrays, they are built serially in the order they were defined. Alternatively, you can exit SMOR. Upon exiting, you are prompted to save the configuration changes. If you save, the build process begins for any arrays you defined.
For large redundant arrays, the build process can take several hours to complete. You can exit SMOR and perform other activities on the system while the build continues. An array being built can be accessed during the build process.If you exit SMOR and you want to monitor the progress of the build operation, you can use the Storage Manager Array Group
Creating a Multilevel RAID
Creating a multilevel RAID (RAID 10 or 50) is similar to creating a normal RAID 1 or RAID 5 array
group. To create a RAID10 or RAID 50 multilevel RAID, follow these steps:
1 Create and build your array groups as described in as mentioned earlier. Do not initiate the build process on any arrays that you intend to use in a multilevel RAID.
2 After you have created your initial array groups, select RAID > Create again.
3 Select RAID 0 for the RAID type and click Ok.
4 Select two or more arrays of the same type from the list of eligible devices, then clic k Done.
Note: You cannot combine arrays that use different RAID levels.
5 Select File > Set System Config to begin the build process for the multilevel RAID.
The Tree View displays the multilevel RAID LSU as (x,x,x,x) FW RAID-0 with the array groups listed where drives would normally be listed. Selecting an array group component branches to the hard drives for that array group. The LSU address is the lowest address of the array logical addresses that comprise the multilevel RAID.
Hot Spares
Hot spares automatically replace failed drives in protected arrays and are not accessible by the operating system for other use. Any hard drive not assigned to an array or in use by the operating system can be designated as a hot spare, as long as the spare drive is at least as large as the other drives in the array. To assign a drive as a hot spare, follow these steps:
1 Highlight the drive you want to use in the left pane.
2 Select Action > Make Hotspare.
The selected hot spare is reassigned as a normal hard drive accessible by the operating system.
Rebuilding a Failed Array
To replace a failed drive in an array that is not protected by an automatic hot spare, follow these steps:
1 Remove and replace the failed drive according the procedures in your hardware documentation.
2 When the failed drive has been replaced, select RAID > Rebuild Array to start the rebuild process.
The status of the array changes to Rebuilding (view the Information tab for that array). When the rebuild is
complete, the array status changes to Optimal.
Note: Supported SAF-TE or SES enabled enclosures automatically detect the replacement of a failed drive
and the controller will initiate a rebuild as soon as the new drive is online.
Current RAID cards with their Specifications
RAID levels supported by different RAID cards
Current OS supportability matrix for various RAID cards (as on 30/10/03)
Manageabilitycomparison of various RAID cards
