Dell PowerVault MD 32XX/36XX Series Storage Arrays CLI Guide

Using The Create Virtual Disk Command

The create virtualDisk command enables you to create new virtual disks in the storage array in three ways:

Create a new virtual disk while simultaneously creating a new disk group to which you assign the physical disks.
Create a new virtual disk while simultaneously creating a new disk group to which the MD Storage Manager software assigns the physical disks.
Create a new virtual disk in an existing disk group.

You must have unassigned physical disks in the disk group. You do not need to assign the entire capacity of the disk group to a virtual disk.

Creating Virtual Disks With User-Assigned Physical Disks

When you create a new virtual disk and assign the physical disks to use, the MD Storage Manager software creates a new disk group. The RAID controller module firmware assigns a disk group number to the new disk group. The following syntax is the general form of the command:

create virtualDisk physicalDisks=
                                    (
                                    enclosureID0,slotID0...enclosureIDn,slotIDn)
                                    raidLevel=(0 | 1 | 5 | 6)userLabel=
                                    "
                                    virtualDiskName" [capacity=
                                    virtualDiskCapacity
                                    owner=(0 | 1) segmentSize=
                                    segmentSizeValue]
                                    [enclosureLossProtect=(TRUE | FALSE)]

NOTE: The capacity, owner, segmentSize, and enclosureLossProtect parameters are optional. You can use one or all of the optional parameters as needed to help define your configuration. You do not, however, need to use any optional parameters.

The userLabel parameter is the name to give to the virtual disk. The virtual disk name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and underscores. The maximum length of the virtual disk name is 30 characters. Spaces are not allowed. You must put quotation marks (" ") around the virtual disk name.

The physicalDisks parameter is a list of the physical disks that you want to use for the disk group. Enter the enclosure ID and slot ID of each physical disk that you want to use. Put parentheses around the list. Separate the enclosure ID and slot ID of a physical disk by a comma. Separate each enclosure ID and slot ID pair by a space. For example:

(0,0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4)

The capacity parameter defines the size of the virtual disk. You do not have to assign the entire capacity of the physical disks to the virtual disk. You can later assign any unused space to another virtual disk.

The owner parameter defines the RAID controller module to which you want to assign the virtual disk. If you do not specify a RAID controller module, the RAID controller module firmware determines the owner of the virtual disk.

The segmentSize parameter is the same as described for the autoConfigure storageArray command. See Using The Auto Configure Command.

The enclosureLossProtect parameter turns on or turns off enclosure loss protection for the disk group. For a description of how enclosure loss protection works, see Enclosure Loss Protection.

Example Of Creating Virtual Disks With User-Assigned Physical Disks

client>smcli 123.45.67.89 -c "create virtualDisk
                                    physicalDisks=(0,0 0,1 0,2) raidLevel=5 userLabel=
                                    \"Engineering_1\" capacity=20 GB owner=0;"

NOTE: The capacity parameter returns an error if you specify a value greater than or equal to 10 without a space separating the numeric value and its unit of measure. (For example, 10 GB returns an error, but 10 GB does not return an error).

The command in this example automatically creates a new disk group and a virtual disk with the name Engineering_1. The disk group has a RAID level of 5 (RAID 5). The command uses three physical disks to construct the disk group. The virtual disk created has a capacity of 20 GB. If each physical disk has a capacity of 73 GB, the total capacity of the disk group is 219 GB.

Because only 20 GB are assigned to the virtual disk, 199 GB remain available for other virtual disks that you can later add to this disk group. The segment size for each virtual disk is 64 KB. Hot spares have not been created for this new disk group. You must create hot spares after running this command.

Creating Virtual Disks With Software-Assigned Physical Disks

You can let the MD Storage Manager software assign the physical disks when you create the virtual disk. To have the software assign the physical disks, only specify the number of physical disks to use. The MD Storage Manager software then chooses the physical disks on which the virtual disk is created. The RAID controller module firmware assigns a disk group number to the new disk group. The following syntax is the general form for the command:

create virtualDisk physicalDiskCount=
                                    numberOfPhysicalDisks raidLevel=(0 | 1 | 5 | 6)
                                    userLabel="virtualDiskName" [physicalDiskType=
                                    (SAS)] [capacity=virtualDiskCapacity | owner=(0 |
                                    1) | segmentSize=segmentSizeValue]
                                    [enclosureLossProtect=(TRUE | FALSE)])

NOTE: The physicalDiskType, capacity, owner, segmentSize, and enclosureLossProtect parameters are optional. You can use one or all of the optional parameters as needed to help define your configuration. You do not, however, need to use any optional parameters.

This command is similar to the previous create virtualDisk command, which allows the user to assign the physical disks. This version of the command requires only the number and the type of physical disks to use in the disk group. You do not need to enter a list of physical disks. All other parameters are the same. Enclosure loss protection is performed differently when MD Storage Manager assigns the physical disks as opposed to when a user assigns the physical disks. For an explanation of the difference, see Enclosure Loss Protection.

Example Of Creating Virtual Disks With Software-Assigned Physical Disks

client>smcli 123.45.67.89 -c "create virtualDisk
                                    physicalDiskCount=3 raidLevel=5 userLabel=
                                    \"Engineering_1"\ capacity=20 GB owner=0
                                    segmentSize=64;"

The command in this example creates the same virtual disk as the previous create virtualDisk command. However, in this case the user does not know which physical disks are assigned to this disk group.

Creating Virtual Disks In An Existing Disk Group

To add a new virtual disk to an existing disk group, use the following command:

create virtualDisk DiskGroup=diskGroupNumber
                                    userLabel="virtualDiskName" [freeCapacityArea=
                                    freeCapacityIndexNumber | capacity=
                                    virtualDiskCapacity | owner=(0 | 1) | segmentSize=
                                    segmentSizeValue]

NOTE: The freeCapacityArea, capacity, owner, and segmentSize parameters are optional. You can use one or all optional parameters as needed to help define your configuration, though you do not need to use any of them.

The diskGroup parameter is the number of the disk group in which you want to create a new virtual disk. If you do not know the disk group numbers on the storage array, you can use the show allVirtualDisks summary command. This command displays a list of the virtual disks and the disk groups to which the virtual disks belong.

The userLabel parameter is the name you want to give to the virtual disk. The virtual disk name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and underscores. The maximum length of the virtual disk name is 30 characters. You must enclose the virtual disk name with quotation marks (" ").

The freeCapacityArea parameter defines the free capacity area to use for the virtual disk. If a disk group has several free capacity areas, you can use this parameter to identify which free capacity area to use for virtual disk creation. You do not have to assign the entire capacity of the physical disks to the virtual disk. Assign any unused space to another virtual disk at another time.

The userLabel, capacity, owner, and segmentSize parameters are the same as in the previous versions of the create virtualDisk command.

Enclosure Loss Protection

The enclosureLossProtect parameter is a boolean switch that turns enclosure loss protection on or off. To work properly, each physical disk in a virtual disk group must be in a separate enclosure. Enclosure loss protection is set under the following conditions:

You assign the physical disks.
The RAID controller module assigns the physical disks.

The following table shows possible results for the enclosureLossProtect parameter. The results depend on whether you assign the physical disks or the RAID controller module assigns the physical disks.

Method	enclosureLossProtect= TRUE	enclosureLossProtect=FALSE
You assign the physical disks.	If you select more than one physical disk from any one enclosure, the storage array returns an error.	The storage array performs the operation, but the created disk group does not have enclosure loss protection.
The RAID controller module firmware assigns the physical disks.	The storage array posts an error if the RAID controller module firmware cannot provide physical disks to ensure that the new disk group has enclosure loss protection.	The storage array performs the operation even if it means that the disk group might not have enclosure loss protection.

The enclosureLossProtect parameter is not valid when creating virtual disks on existing disk groups.

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