The
create virtualDisk command enables you to create new virtual
disks in the storage array in three ways:
- Create a new virtual disk while simultaneously creating a new
disk group to which you assign the physical disks.
- Create a new virtual disk while simultaneously creating a new
disk group to which the MD Storage Manager software assigns the physical
disks.
- Create a new virtual disk in an existing disk group.
You must have unassigned physical disks in the disk group. You
do not need to assign the entire capacity of the disk group to a virtual
disk.
Creating
Virtual Disks With User-Assigned Physical Disks
When you
create a new virtual disk and assign the physical disks to use, the
MD Storage Manager software creates a new disk group. The RAID controller
module firmware assigns a disk group number to the new disk group.
The following syntax is the general form of the command:
create virtualDisk physicalDisks=
(
enclosureID0,slotID0...enclosureIDn,slotIDn)
raidLevel=(0 | 1 | 5 | 6)userLabel=
"
virtualDiskName" [capacity=
virtualDiskCapacity
owner=(0 | 1) segmentSize=
segmentSizeValue]
[enclosureLossProtect=(TRUE | FALSE)]
-
NOTE: The
capacity,
owner,
segmentSize, and
enclosureLossProtect parameters are optional. You can use one or all of the optional
parameters as needed to help define your configuration. You do not,
however, need to use any optional parameters.
The
userLabel parameter is the name to give to the virtual disk.
The virtual disk name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters,
hyphens, and underscores. The maximum length of the virtual disk name
is 30 characters. Spaces are not allowed. You must put quotation marks
(" ") around the virtual disk name.
The
physicalDisks parameter is a list of the physical disks that you want to use for
the disk group. Enter the enclosure ID and slot ID of each physical
disk that you want to use. Put parentheses around the list. Separate
the enclosure ID and slot ID of a physical disk by a comma. Separate
each enclosure ID and slot ID pair by a space. For example:
(0,0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4)
The
capacity parameter defines the size of the virtual disk. You do not have
to assign the entire capacity of the physical disks to the virtual
disk. You can later assign any unused space to another virtual disk.
The
owner parameter defines the RAID controller
module to which you want to assign the virtual disk. If you do not
specify a RAID controller module, the RAID controller module firmware
determines the owner of the virtual disk.
The
segmentSize parameter is the same as described for the
autoConfigure
storageArray
command. See Using The Auto Configure Command.
The
enclosureLossProtect parameter turns on or
turns off enclosure loss protection for the disk group. For a description
of how enclosure loss protection works, see Enclosure Loss Protection.
Example Of
Creating Virtual Disks With User-Assigned Physical Disks
client>smcli 123.45.67.89 -c "create virtualDisk
physicalDisks=(0,0 0,1 0,2) raidLevel=5 userLabel=
\"Engineering_1\" capacity=20 GB owner=0;"
-
NOTE: The
capacity parameter returns an error if you specify a value greater than or
equal to 10 without a space separating the numeric value and its unit
of measure. (For example,
10 GB returns an error, but
10 GB does not return an error).
The command in this
example automatically creates a new disk group and a virtual disk
with the name
Engineering_1. The disk group
has a RAID level of 5 (RAID 5). The command uses three physical disks
to construct the disk group. The virtual disk created has a capacity
of 20 GB. If each physical disk has a capacity of 73 GB, the total
capacity of the disk group is 219 GB.
Because only 20 GB are
assigned to the virtual disk, 199 GB remain available for other virtual
disks that you can later add to this disk group. The segment size
for each virtual disk is 64 KB. Hot spares have not been created for
this new disk group. You must create hot spares after running this
command.
Creating Virtual Disks With Software-Assigned Physical Disks
You can let the MD Storage Manager software assign the physical
disks when you create the virtual disk. To have the software assign
the physical disks, only specify the number of physical disks to use.
The MD Storage Manager software then chooses the physical disks on
which the virtual disk is created. The RAID controller module firmware
assigns a disk group number to the new disk group. The following syntax
is the general form for the command:
create virtualDisk physicalDiskCount=
numberOfPhysicalDisks raidLevel=(0 | 1 | 5 | 6)
userLabel="virtualDiskName" [physicalDiskType=
(SAS)] [capacity=virtualDiskCapacity | owner=(0 |
1) | segmentSize=segmentSizeValue]
[enclosureLossProtect=(TRUE | FALSE)])
-
NOTE: The
physicalDiskType,
capacity,
owner,
segmentSize, and
enclosureLossProtect parameters are optional.
You can use one or all of the optional parameters as needed to help
define your configuration. You do not, however, need to use any optional
parameters.
This command is similar to the previous
create
virtualDisk
command, which allows the user to assign the physical
disks. This version of the command requires only the number and the
type of physical disks to use in the disk group. You do not need to
enter a list of physical disks. All other parameters are the same.
Enclosure loss protection is performed differently when MD Storage
Manager assigns the physical disks as opposed to when a user assigns
the physical disks. For an explanation of the difference, see Enclosure
Loss Protection.
Example Of Creating
Virtual Disks With Software-Assigned Physical Disks
client>smcli 123.45.67.89 -c "create virtualDisk
physicalDiskCount=3 raidLevel=5 userLabel=
\"Engineering_1"\ capacity=20 GB owner=0
segmentSize=64;"
The command in this example creates the
same virtual disk as the previous
create virtualDisk command. However, in this case the user does not know which physical
disks are assigned to this disk group.
Creating Virtual Disks
In An Existing Disk Group
To add a new virtual disk to an
existing disk group, use the following command:
create virtualDisk DiskGroup=diskGroupNumber
userLabel="virtualDiskName" [freeCapacityArea=
freeCapacityIndexNumber | capacity=
virtualDiskCapacity | owner=(0 | 1) | segmentSize=
segmentSizeValue]
-
NOTE: The
freeCapacityArea,
capacity,
owner, and
segmentSize parameters are optional. You can use one or all optional parameters
as needed to help define your configuration, though you do not need
to use any of them.
The
diskGroup parameter is
the number of the disk group in which you want to create a new virtual
disk. If you do not know the disk group numbers on the storage array,
you can use the
show allVirtualDisks summary command.
This command displays a list of the virtual disks and the disk groups
to which the virtual disks belong.
The
userLabel parameter is the name you want to give to the virtual disk. The
virtual disk name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters,
hyphens, and underscores. The maximum length of the virtual disk name
is 30 characters. You must enclose the virtual disk name with quotation
marks (" ").
The
freeCapacityArea parameter defines
the free capacity area to use for the virtual disk. If a disk group
has several free capacity areas, you can use this parameter to identify
which free capacity area to use for virtual disk creation. You do
not have to assign the entire capacity of the physical disks to the
virtual disk. Assign any unused space to another virtual disk at another
time.
The
userLabel,
capacity,
owner, and
segmentSize parameters are the
same as in the previous versions of the
create virtualDisk command.
Enclosure Loss Protection
The
enclosureLossProtect parameter is a boolean switch that turns enclosure loss protection
on or off. To work properly, each physical disk in a virtual disk
group must be in a separate enclosure. Enclosure loss protection is
set under the following conditions:
- You assign the physical disks.
- The RAID controller module assigns the physical disks.
The following table shows possible results for the
enclosureLossProtect parameter. The results depend on whether
you assign the physical disks or the RAID controller module assigns
the physical disks.
Method |
enclosureLossProtect= TRUE |
enclosureLossProtect=FALSE |
You assign the physical disks. |
If you select more than one physical disk from any one enclosure,
the storage array returns an error.
|
The storage array performs the operation, but the created disk
group does not have enclosure loss protection.
|
The RAID controller module firmware assigns the physical disks. |
The storage array posts an error if the RAID controller module
firmware cannot provide physical disks to ensure that the new disk
group has enclosure loss protection.
|
The storage array performs the operation even if it means that
the disk group might not have enclosure loss protection.
|
The
enclosureLossProtect parameter is not valid
when creating virtual disks on existing disk groups.