MegaRAID Storage Manager Online Help System

Configuration > Creating a New Configuration > Creating a Virtual Drive Using Simple Configuration

Creating a Virtual Drive Using Simple Configuration

Simple configuration is the quickest and easiest way to create a new storage configuration. When you select simple configuration mode, the system creates the best configuration possible using the available drives.

Follow these steps to create a new storage configuration in simple configuration mode.

  1. Perform either of the following steps:
    • Right-click the controller node in the device tree in the left frame of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu screen and select Create Virtual Drive.
    • Select the controller node and select Operations->Create Virtual Drive in the menu bar, as shown in Figure 12.
    • Figure 12 Virtual Drive Creation Menu



      The dialog box for the configuration mode (simple or advanced) appears, as shown in Figure 13.
      Figure 13 Virtual Drive Simple Configuration Mode



  2. Select the Simple radio button, and click Next.
  3. The Create Virtual Drive - Allocate capacity dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 14. If unconfigured drives are available, you have the option to use those unconfigured drives. If unconfigured drives are available, the Create Drive Group Settings screen, as shown in Figure 15, appears and you can go to step 4.
    Figure 14 Create Virtual Drive Screen



  4. Perform one of the following two options:
    • If a drive group exists, select the radio button to use the free capacity of the existing drive group, and click Next. Continue with step 4.
    • The Create Virtual Drive – Drive Group and Virtual Drive Settings window appears, as shown in the following figure. If different types of drives are attached to the controller, such as HDD, SDD, SAS, and SATA, an option is available to allow drive type mixing.
    • If unconfigured drives are available, select the radio button to use the unconfigured drives, and click Next. Continue with step 10.
    • The Summary screen (Figure 16) appears.
      Figure 15 Create Drive Group Settings Screen



  5. If you want to allow different types of drives in a configuration, select the Use the drive type mixing check box.
  6. For best results, do not use drive type mixing.

  7. Select a RAID level for the virtual drive.
  8. When you use simple configuration, the RAID controller supports RAID levels 1 and 1E. In addition, it supports independent drives (configured as RAID 0). The screen text gives a brief description of the RAID level that you select. The RAID levels that you can choose depends on the number of drives available.
  9. Select the Assign a hot spare check box if you want to assign a dedicated hot spare to the new virtual drive.
  10. If an unconfigured good drive is available, that drive is assigned as a hot spare. Hot spares are drives that are available to replace failed drives automatically in a redundant virtual drive.
  11. Use the drop-down menu in the Virtual drives field to select how many virtual drives you want to create.
  12. Select the capacity for the virtual drives.
  13. Each virtual drive has the same capacity.
  14. Click Next.
  15. The Create Virtual Drive - Summary window appears, as shown in the following figure. This window shows the features of the simple configuration.
    Figure 16 Create Virtual Drive - Summary Window



  16. Click Back to return to the previous screen to change any selections or click Finish to accept and complete the configuration.
  17. The new virtual drive is created after you click Finish. After the configuration is completed, a dialog box notifies you that the virtual drives were created successfully.

    If you create a large configuration using drives that are in powersave mode, it could take several minutes to spin up the drives. A progress bar appears as the drives spin up. If any of the selected unconfigured drives fail to spin up, a box appears that identifies the drive or drives.


DB09-000202-04  37857-02  Rev. E  October 2010
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