Promise Technology 66 Pro User Manual
Page 37
SuperTrak66™ User's Manual
Chapter 3
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Assigning Four Drives to a Mirroring Array
Under the [ Drive Assignments ] section, assign all drives to the array and
save the information with
two striped pairs of drives (RAID 0+1). You will be returned to the [ Define
Array ] Menu where the array will be shown.
Creating a RAID 3 Array
Use the information in Chapter 6 to help determine the selection of a RAID 3 array.
In the [Define Array Definition Menu], use the [Space] key to cycle through array
types and select "RAID 3" for RAID Level. You must configure such an array using
a minimum of three drives since additional parity information must be calculated
and stored on a dedicated "parity" drive.
You will be joining either two (if 3 drives are assigned) or three (if 4 drives are
assigned) of the drives together and splitting (or striping) write data among them.
Each member of such an array will no longer be readable as an independent drive if
removed from the array. The capacity of the array will equal the capacity of the
smallest drive multiplied by the total number of drives assigned to the array minus
one.
NOTE: If you choose to use just three drives, a fourth unassigned drive can be
your "hot" spare drive in case of drive failure (see p. 28).
Changing Stripe Block Size for RAID 3 Array
For RAID 3 arrays, SuperTrak66 will allow you to change the stripe block
size. The default is 64K. However, certain application environments may
perform optimally with different values (see drive manufacturer for additional
information on block sizes). To change the block size, use the arrow keys
to highlight the field and the spacebar to cycle through the available size
selections.
NOTE: you can not change the block size AFTER the array has been
created.
Assigning Drives to a RAID 3 Array
Under the [ Drive Assignments ] section, highlight a drive and with the
[Space] bar change the Assignable option to “Y” to add the drive to the
disk array. Press
Define Array Menu screen will appear after you have pressed [Ctrl-Y]. You
will see the array defined. You may ESC to exit and return to the Main
Menu of SuperBuild.