Creating virtual disks – Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller S110 User Manual

Page 29

Initialization takes 10–15 seconds per physical disk. A status indicator shows

which physical disk is being initialized. When initialization is complete, the

status indicator turns off, and all channels are re-scanned automatically.

CAUTION:

If a physical disk has a virtual disk on it, the physical disk cannot be

selected for initialization. To initialize the physical disk anyway, make sure to
delete the virtual disk. Be sure you want to initialize the physical disk, because all
data on it (including PERC S110 configuration information) is deleted.

NOTE:

When Non-RAID physical disks are installed in the system, their associated

Non-RAID virtual disks must be deleted in order to use the physical disks with the

PERC S110. Deleting the Non-RAID virtual disks converts the Non-RAID physical

disks to RAID Capable disks and changes their state to Ready.

NOTE:

Continue with the next procedure, Creating Virtual Disks.

Creating Virtual Disks

You can create virtual disks after the physical disks are converted to RAID

Capable disks, especially if the virtual disk is a bootable virtual disk for your

system. If you have not decided what RAID level to use, see the RAID

Technology Guide, located on the Dell Support website at

dell.com/support/manuals.

More Information

When creating virtual disks, consider whether or not the virtual disk capacity

needs to be expanded in the future.
For a Microsoft Windows

operating system, format the virtual disks with New

Technology File System (NTFS). Microsoft Corporation provides a utility

(diskpart.exe) that can dynamically extend an NTFS file system onto any

unused adjacent space.
Note also that using a single partition per virtual disk makes expansion much

easier.

NOTE:

The diskpart.exe utility version depends on which version of the Windows

operating system is running.

NOTE:

The diskpart.exe utility can be found on the CD for some versions of the

Windows operating systems, or on the Microsoft Corporation website

(microsoft.com) for other versions. Use the correct version for your operating

system.

A5_bk0.book Page 27 Thursday, May 29, 2014 11:37 AM