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Dell PowerVault MD 34XX/38XX Series Storage Arrays CLI Guide

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Create RAID Virtual Disk (Manual Physical Disk Select)

Description

This command creates a new disk group and virtual disk, and enables you to specify the physical disks for the virtual disk.
  • NOTE: You cannot use mixed physical disk types in the same disk group and virtual disk. This command fails if you specify different types of physical disks for the RAID virtual disk.
  • NOTE: You cannot use mixed drive security types (FIPS and SED).

Syntax

create virtualDisk physicalDisks=(enclosureID1,drawerID1,slotID1 ... enclosureIDn,drawerIDn,slotIDn)
                                 diskGroupUserLabel="diskGroupName" 
                                 raidLevel=(0 | 1 | 5 | 6) 
                                 userLabel="virtualDiskName" 
                                 [capacity=virtualDiskCapacity] 
                                 [owner=(0 | 1)] [cacheReadPrefetch=(TRUE | FALSE)] 
                                 [segmentSize=segmentSizeValue]
                                 [usageHint=(fileSystem | dataBase | multiMedia)] 
                                 [enclosureLossProtect=(TRUE | FALSE)] 
                                 [drawerLossProtect=(TRUE | FALSE)] 
                                 [dssPreAllocate=(TRUE | FALSE)] 
                                 [securityType=(none | capable | enabled)] 
                                 [securePhysicalDisks=(fips | sed)]
                                 [dataAssurance=(none | enabled)]

Parameters

Parameter Description
physicalDisks Specifies the physical disks to assign to the created virtual disk. Specify the enclosure ID and slot ID for each unassigned physical disk to assign to the virtual disk. Enclosure ID values are 0 to 99. Drawer ID values are 0 to 4. Slot ID values are 0 to 31. You must put parentheses around the enclosure ID values and the slot ID values.
diskGroupUserLabel The alphanumeric identifier (including – and _) that you want to give the new disk group. Enclose the disk group identifier in square brackets ([]).
raidLevel RAID level of the disk group that contains the virtual disk. Valid values are 0, 1, 5, or 6.
  • NOTE: If you set the raidLevel parameter to RAID 1, the RAID controller module firmware takes the list of physical disks and pairs them using the following algorithm:

    Data physical disk = X

    Consistency physical disk = N / 2 + X

    where, X goes from 1 to N / 2 and N is the number of physical disks in the list. The following data show an example of six physical disks and their replication pairs.
    Data Consistency
    1 N / 2 + 1 = 4
    2 N / 2 + 1 = 5
    3 N / 2 + 1 = 6
userLabel Name that you want to give the new virtual disk. You must put quotation marks (" ") around the new virtual disk name.
  • NOTE: You can use any combination of alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and underscores for the names. Spaces are not allowed. Names can have a maximum of 30 characters.
capacity Size of the virtual disk that you are adding to the storage array. Size is defined in units of bytes, KB, MB, GB, or TB.
  • NOTE: If you do not specify a capacity, all physical disk capacity available in the disk group is used. If you do not specify capacity units, bytes are used as the default. A space must be added between the last digit and the size (MB, GB, or KB) for values greater than 9.
owner RAID controller module that owns the virtual disk. Valid RAID controller module identifier values are 0 and 1. The identifier value is 0 for the RAID controller module on the top and 1 for the RAID controller module on the bottom when viewed from the rear of the enclosure. If you do not specify an owner, the RAID controller module firmware determines the owner.
  • NOTE: The owner parameter defines which RAID controller module owns the virtual disk. The preferred owner of a virtual disk is the RAID controller module that currently owns the disk group.
cacheReadPrefetch The setting to turn on or turn off cache read prefetch. To turn on cache read prefetch, set this parameter to TRUE. To turn off cache read prefetch, set this parameter to FALSE.
segmentSize Amount of data (in kilobytes) that the RAID controller module writes on a single physical disk in a virtual disk before writing data on the next physical disk. Valid values are 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, or 512. For information about the segmentSize parameter, see Using The Auto Configure Command.
usageHint The settings for both the cacheReadPrefetch parameter and the segmentSize parameter should be the default values. The default values are based on the typical I/O usage pattern of the application that is using the virtual disk. Valid values are fileSystem, dataBase, or multiMedia.
dssPreAllocate The setting to make sure that reserve capacity is allocated for future segment size increases. The default value is TRUE.
securityType The setting to specify the security level when creating the disk groups and all associated virtual disks.
  • none—The disk group and virtual disks are not secure.
  • capable—The disk group and virtual disks are capable of having security set, but security has not been enabled.
  • enabled—The disk group and virtual disks have security enabled.
For information about securityType, see Security Type.
The type of secure drives to use in the disk group. These settings are valid:
  • fips — To use FIPS compliant drives only.
  • sed — To use SED compliant drives only.
  • NOTE: At this time, the controller firmware does not support mixed FIPS and SED drives within disk groups and disk pools.
  • CAUTION: Use this parameter along with the securityType parameter. If you specify none for the securityType parameter, the value of the securePhysicalDisks parameter is ignored because non-secure disk groups do not need to have secure drive types specified.
dataAssurance The setting to specify that a disk pool has data assurance protection to make sure that the data maintains its integrity. When you use this parameter, only protected physical disks can be used for the disk pool.
These settings are valid:
  • none – The disk pool does not have data assurance protection.

  • enabled – The disk pool has data assurance protection. The disk pool supports protected information and is formatted with protection information enabled.

    The default value is none.

    • NOTE: This option is only valid for enablement, if the drives support DA.
drawerLossProtect The setting to enforce drawer loss protection when you create the replicated repository virtual disk. To enforce drawer loss protection, set this parameter to TRUE. The default value is FALSE.
enclosureLossProtect The setting to enforce enclosure loss protection when you create the repository. To enforce enclosure loss protection, set this parameter to TRUE. The default value is FALSE.

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