Hi. In this video we're going to cover RAID creation using Dell's HII utility. In order to access this utility we'll want to press f2 during server POST so that we can access the System Setup screen and then from there we'll click on 'Device Settings'. Once we're in 'Device Settings' we'll select our RAID controller - a PERC H345 for this example - and we'll click on that, and we'll access the 'Configuration Utility'.
On this screen we're going to scroll down to 'Actions' and then click 'Configure' and then we'll click on 'Create Virtual Disk'. Since this is a PERC H345 I only have three RAID levels available to me. I'm going to go ahead and select 'RAID-1' and then I will select my physical discs. These top three options will allow me to filter the list as I so choose, but I'll go ahead and leave them all as default and just select the top two drives that I see here. I'll click 'Apply Changes' and I will confirm it.
Notice now the virtual disk size has already been populated for us. The 'Virtual Disk Name' box is left empty by default. We can leave it blank with no impact or we can give it our own name. I'll go ahead and name this one 'OS' since that's what I intend to store on these particular drives. Then we'll scroll down a little bit further and then the next option I want to take is the default initialization option. By default this is set to 'No'. I'm going to go ahead and choose 'Fast'. Now, choosing either 'Fast' or 'Full' will delete any data currently stored on those discs.
Go ahead and click 'Create Virtual Disk' and then we see this warning popping up telling us that any data that is on those discs will be destroyed. This is our last chance to back out if we decide that there is some data that we need to hang on to. Since there's no data on these drives that I care about I'm going to go ahead and click 'Confirm' which will allow me to then click 'Yes' and then after just a moment the completion message will pop up again.
Click 'OK' and we're done. We're back at a screen where we can create another RAID array if we want to, but I'll go ahead and back out here, and then I will come back to the dashboard view and select 'Main Menu', and I can click on 'Virtual Disk Management' and now I can see the RAID that I've just created, and I can see its basic properties here, and I have a couple of options if I so choose.
Thank You.
