How to create, swap, and manage a Virtual Disk (VD) created with the S300 RAID controller

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Article Summary: This article provides information on How to create, swap, and manage a virtual disk created with the S300 Raid Controller

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Issue 1: Virtual Disk Management

View Properties of Virtual Disks

1. Power the system on and press <Ctrl><R> when prompted, to access the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.
2. At the Main Menu field, select View Disk Details. Press <Enter>.
3. Use the arrow keys to choose a physical disk.
4. Physical disk information is displayed at the top of the window:
   • Physical disk number
   • Channel number
   • Physical disk size
   • Physical disk status: New/NonRAID/Ready/Online
   • Amount of free space
   • Manufacturer and model number
5. Press <Esc> to return to the main window when finished.

Viewing Virtual Disk Details

Follow these steps to view the properties of virtual disks:

1. Power the system on and press <Ctrl><R> when prompted, to access the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.
2. At the Main Menu field, select View Virtual Disk Details. Press <Enter>.
3. Use the arrow keys to choose a virtual disk.
4. Virtual disk information is displayed at the top of the window and in the Virtual Disks field:
   • Virtual disk number
   • RAID level
   • Physical disk size
   • Size
   • Status (R/W, R,NA)
5. Press <Esc> to return to the main window when finished.

Rescan Disks

This option enables you to rescan all channels and detect new or removed physical disks or virtual disks.

• To perform a rescan, select Rescan Disks from the Main Menu field and press <Enter> (The activity indicator, in the information field at the top of the window, spins while the physical disks are being polled).
• The Rescan Disks option rescans all the channels, searches for new or removed physical disks, and re-reads the configuration information from each physical disk.

 

Issue 2: Creating a virtual disk

Below are the steps for creating the Virtual disk with the S300 controller:

1. When the system is booting, press <Ctrl><R> to enter the S300 controller BIOS.
2. At the Main Menu field, use the arrow keys to select Create Virtual Disk. Press <Enter>.
3. At the Physical Disks field, select the physical disk(s) on which to create a virtual disk.
4. For each physical disk, press the <Insert> key to select the physical disk. (The physical disks can be inserted in any order.) After selecting the physical disk(s) to be included in the virtual disk, press <Enter>
5. At the User Input field, use the arrow keys to select a virtual disk type (RAID level). Press <Enter> (Only the virtual disk types that can be created with the selected physical disk(s) are indicated; they are highlighted in white text). <Enter>.
6. If hot spares are available, At the Physical Disks field and select the physical disk to use as a hot spare (if applicable). Press <Insert> to select it.
7. At the User Input field, use the arrow keys to select a dedicated hot spare. Press <Enter>. A global hot spare can be assigned after a virtual disk is created, by selecting the Manage Global Hot Spare(s) option.
8. Press <Insert> to select the drive you wish to use as a dedicated hot spare.
9. Use the up and down arrows to select the desired virtual disk size.
10. Choose the desired caching policy option.
11. Press <C> to confirm creation of the virtual disk information.
12. The controller performs a re-scan of the virtual disk.
13. At the Main Menu field, perform other operations or select Continue to Boot and press <Enter>.The boot virtual disk must be the first virtual disk listed in the Virtual Disks field. If necessary, use the Swap Two Virtual Disks option to place the bootable virtual disk in the first position.

 

Issue 3: Swapping a virtual disk

Use the Swap Two Virtual Disks option of the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility to arrange virtual disks in a different order. The boot virtual disk must be the first virtual disk listed in the Virtual Disks field. If necessary, use the Swap Two Virtual Disks option to place the bootable virtual disk in the first position. The Swap Two Virtual Disks option is enabled only if there is at least one initialized physical disk in the system. For example, if all the physical disks in the system are Non-RAID, the Swap Two Virtual Disks option is disabled.
Below are the steps for swapping virtual disks:

1. When the system is booting, press <Ctrl><R> to enter the S300 controller BIOS.
2. At the Main Menu field, select Swap Two Virtual Disks. Press <Enter>.
3. Use the up and down arrows to highlight the 166GB RAID 5 Virtual Disk listing, and then press <Enter> to select it.
4. Use the arrow keys to highlight the 83GB RAID 1 virtual disk. Press <Enter>.
5. Press to swap the VDs. The 83GB virtual disk now appears first in the list.