Dell PowerVault ME4 Series Storage System Administrator’s Guide

Linear disk groups

A linear disk group requires the specification of a set of disks, RAID level, disk group type, and a name. Whenever the system creates a linear disk group, it also creates an identically named linear pool at the same time. No further disk groups can be added to a linear pool.

For maximum performance, all of the disks in a linear disk group must share the same classification, which is determined by disk type, size, and speed. This provides consistent performance for the data being accessed on that disk group. To dissolve a linear disk group, delete the disk group and the contained volumes are automatically deleted. The disks that compose that linear disk group are then available to be used for other purposes.

The RAID levels for linear disk groups created through the PowerVault Manager must be fault tolerant. The supported RAID levels for linear disk groups in the interface are: RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, RAID 50 and ADAPT. RAID 10 and RAID 50 only appear in the interface if the system's disk configuration supports them. If RAID 10 is specified, the disk group has a minimum of two sub-groups. If RAID 50 is selected, depending on the number of selected disks, varying numbers of sub-groups can be created. Additionally, you can create fault-tolerant RAID-3 or non-fault-tolerant NRAID or RAID-0 disk groups through the CLI.