Dell OpenManage Deployment Toolkit Version 4.3 User's Guide

Q: Why does RAIDCFG display an error message when I use an invalid read, write, and cache policies and/or stripe sizes for a particular controller?

A: All RAID controllers have their own default read, write, and cache policies and stripe sizes. It is possible that if you provide an invalid policy or a stripe size for a particular controller, RAIDCFG may not give an error but creates the virtual disk with the default policy and/or stripe size.

Q: When I execute RAIDCFG with the RAID level of "01," RAIDCFG creates RAID 1, not RAID 01.

A: This behavior occurs because the RAIDCFG CLI parser ignores zeros preceding any parameter value. For example, -r=01 is parsed as -r=1.

Q: What is strict creation?

A: Strict creation is an optional flag that has been added to the create virtual disk command. It allows you to create virtual disks only if the array disks (that is, hard drives) are within a specified percentage of disk space of each other.

Q: Why is the drive location of array disks displayed like 0:0:0?

A: The nexus used to display array disks is "channel:target:lun." The Logical Unit Number (LUN) is always "0." The channel and the target IDs are necessary to identify array disks when dealing with SCSI devices.

When dealing with SAS devices, the array disk location is displayed as channel:target:enclosure. It is possible to have the enclosure value as non-zero. If the enclosure has a non-zero value, then all three numbers (channel, target, and enclosure) have to be included on the command line.

Q: Do I need to specify RAID type and size when creating virtual disks?

A: No. The default RAID type is RAID 0. If RAID size is not provided, the maximum size allowed for virtual disk is created. The mandatory fields required to create virtual disks are the controller slot ID and the array disks.

Q: What is a hot spare (failover drive)?

A: A hot spare is an extra and unused disk drive that is part of an array disk subsystem. A hot spare is always in standby mode. If a disk failure occurs, the hot spare replaces the failed drive without interrupting the system.

Q: What is mr2kserv.exe?

A: The mr2kserv.exe is a service needed to configure all LSI RAID controllers in Windows PE. It provides Plug and Play support.

Q: What features have changed from the MS-DOS version of RAIDCFG to the Windows PE and embedded Linux versions?

A: Windows PE and embedded Linux version of RAIDCFG support new controllers. For the list of supported controllers, see Dell Systems Software Support Matrix at dell.com/openmanagemanuals.

Q: What is the minimum virtual disk size that I can create?

Q: Why cannot I see any controllers using RAIDCFG?

A: Ensure that the RAID controllers can be seen in the BIOS during POST. If the BIOS does not detect the controller, then RAIDCFG does not detect it. Also ensure that the controller is set to RAID mode and not any other mode in the controller BIOS.

Q: What is span length?

A: Span length enables you to select the number of array disks in a span for the nested RAID levels (RAID-10, RAID-50, and RAID-60). The default (minimum permissible) span length value is 2 for RAID-10, 3 for RAID-50, and 4 for RAID-60.

Q: PARTCFG cannot enumerate the virtual disks created by RAIDCFG. What must be done?

A: A reboot is required for PARTCFG to enumerate virtual disks after creating a virtual disk using the RAIDCFG command.