Configuring Hardware RAID Arrays on Fujitsu Primergy
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AN!Wiki :: How To :: Configuring Hardware RAID Arrays on Fujitsu Primergy |
This mini-tutorial is meant to walk you through the process of configuring hardware RAID arrays on Fujitsu Primergy servers using LSI-based controllers.
This is not designed to be an extensive tutorial.
It is meant to be a "quick-start" guide to help you get under way with building an [[Anvil!].
If you plan to use encryption, please review this tutorial first:
Building a RAID Array
I know, I have no idea why it's called a "web" BIOS either.
Booting into the WebBIOS
After the main system BIOS is done booting, you will see the hardware RAID controller BIOS start up.
It can take a minute, and this is normal.
Once started, the controller will scan for attached drives and then present an option to press '<ctrl> + <h>' to enter the "WebBIOS". Do so.
Selecting a Controller
The first screen you will see is one that asks you to choose which adapter you want to configure.
Most machines have only one adapter installed, so there is nothing to choose, really.
Press 'Start'.
Building an Array
Here we see a controller with eight 136.2 GiB (146 GB) hard drives. Your array will almost certainly be different, but the general look will be the same.
To build the array, click on "Configuration Wizard" on the left panel.
New Configuration
This is a new array and there is no existing configuration, so both "New Configuration" and "Add Configuration" will do the same thing.
The difference is that, if there was an existing array, "New Configuration" would delete it where "Add Configuration" would let you build a second (or third or ...) array.
In our case, we'll choose "New Configuration" and then click on 'Next'.
You are warned that this will erase any existing arrays. In our case that is OK, so we'll click 'Yes'
Manual Configuration
To make life easier, the controller gives you the option of performing an "Automatic Configuration", but we're control freaks.
So we're going to select "Manual Configuration" and the click on 'Next'.
Drive Group
We need to first create a "Drive group", which is the set of drives we want to assemble into an array.
We're going to use all disks to create a single RAID level 5 array.
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Note: We normally would not use RAID level 5 alone, but because the Anvil! mirrors the data across both nodes, we end up with, effectively, RAID level 51. |
To create a drive group, click on the first drive in the list ("Slot: 0, SAS, HDD, 136.218 GB" in the screen shot above), wait a moment and it will be highlighted in blue.
Then press and hold the '<ctrl>' key and then click on the rest of the drives.
Once all drives are highlighted, click the 'Add to Array' button.
Now all the drives will be shown in the right-side "Drive Groups" window.
Click on 'Accept DG' to create the drive group.
The page will reload but now the "Accept DG" button is gone, which is good.
Click 'Next' to proceed.
Create SPAN
The next page allows us to create "SPAN" (combining two RAID arrays into one combined array, like a mirror of RAID 5 arrays to create a '15' array). We don't need a combined array, so we will create a "SPAN" of just the one array.
Click on the "Add to SPAN" and then click 'Next'.
Create the Array
Now we configure the array itself!
By default, the controller suggests RAID level 6. If this was a single-server setup, that would be perfectly sensible.
We're mirroring our data across two nodes though, so we can live a little more dangerously and select RAID level 5.
Click on the "RAID Level" select box and change the value to 'RAID 5'
We have a Flash Backup module on our controller that allows us to safely use write-back caching.
The provides a significant performance boost, but it is only safe to use when the flash unit is working. In the past, these was a battery and was called a "Battery Backup Unit" (BBU).
So we can safely click on the "Write Policy" selection box and change the value to "Write Back with BBU".
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