Before you create a logical drive with ServerView RAID Manager, ensure that you are familiar with the Supported RAID Types and also know precisely which RAID level is most suitable for your application.
Select a controller in the tree structure and start the Create logical drive action (via the pulldown menu of the Actions button or with a right mouse click). A dialog box is opened as in the example below for an Avago controller.
Depending on the controller type and RAID level you can change information and properties in the dialog box to create the logical drive.
In the RAID level input field enter the RAID level you wish to create. The default for this field is "RAID-0".
If a new logical drive requires a stripe size, this is displayed in the field of the same name. You can accept the default (64 kilobyte) or select a different size.
Under Capacity of the logical drive you have two options for determining the size of the logical drive:
Use maximum capacity (default)
The logical drive is created with maximum capacity.
Use only
If you want to use a different value from the default, enable this
button and enter the desired size in the two adjacent fields.
Under General parameters you have further adjustable parameters:
In the Name input field you can accept the default name for the new logical drive or specify a new name. This name must be unique on the controller and may be up to 15 characters long (standard ASCII).
With Init mode you can select whether no initialization shall be executed automatically after creation of the logical drive or the initialization is executed fast or normal.
With Cache parameters you have the possibility to modify the cache behavior of the logical drive:
For ease of use you can carry out an optimization on Data protection (default) or on Performance under Cache settings.
If you choose the option Advanced instead you can modify all cache parameters separately. Further information to the various parameters can be found under Displaying and Modifying Properties.
On the left the dialog box contains a tree structure in which you select a hard disk and then make it available using the Add button. The hard disk that has been added is displayed under Current layout.
Logical drives generally (depending on the controller type and RAID level) consist of more than just one hard disk. You must therefore select and add a suitable number of hard disks. In our example (Avago controller and RAID-1) two hard disks are required. Then you can create the logical drive using the Create button. After you have pressed the Create button you must confirm creation of the logical drive again.
If you quit the dialog box via Cancel, no new logical drive is created.
This procedure does not create a user accessible logical drive but a drive that functions as a secondary tier of cache.
On controllers that support MegaRAID CacheCade and have the appropriate license installed select in the Create logical drive dialog a RAID level with (CacheCade) appendix. Then proceed as with creating a logical drive with SSD's.
After successful completion of the Create logical drive dialog a new object will appear in the tree structure as in the example below:
To grant access to the secondary tier of cache the action Enable SSD caching has to be executed on a logical drive.