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Understanding raid concepts and terminology – HighPoint RocketRAID 2240 User Manual

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Understanding RAID Concepts and Terminology

The following concepts and terminology is commonly used when describing the

functions of the RocketRAID 2240 Host Adapter.

Disk initialization

Initializing a disk writes necessary RAID configuration information to that disk. Disks

must be initialized before configuring them into RAID arrays. The initialization

process will destroy all data on the disk.

Disk Status

New

The disk contains no data and has not been initialized.

Initialized

The disk has been initialized and can be used for array creation.

Configured

The disk has been assigned to one or more arrays, or configured as a

spare disk.

Legacy

The disk was used on other controllers before use with the

RocketRAID 2240 (see legacy disk below).

Array initialization

A redundant array (RAID5, RAID1, RAID10) needs to be initialized to ensure full

performance and reliability. Non-redundant arrays (RAID0, JBOD) do not need to be

initialized.

When you create a redundant array using the RocketRAID 2240 controller’

s BIOS

Configuration Utility, it will create the array in un-initialized state. The initialization

process can be completed after installing the driver and management software.

When creating an array using the HighP oint RAID Management Console software,

you can specify an initialization option (Skip initialization, foreground and

background).

Introduction

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