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New Configuration

The New Configuration option enables you to customize the logical drive configuration to meet the specific needs of your environment. You can configure one or more logical drives with varying RAID levels. You can then add two or more logical drives (unpartitioned) to a logical volume and divide the logical volume into a maximum of 32 partitions for SCSI and 128 partitions for Fibre Channel.

NOTE: On UNIX systems, if the SANscape Console locks up during use, you can stop SANscape by typing ssconsole stop. Then close and reopen the window. The window is displayed again without affecting the SANscape Agent.

Before You Use New Configuration

Before you use New Configuration to create a logical drive or a logical volume for the first time, it is useful to familiarize yourself with the information contained in the following steps. Knowing this information ahead of time will ease the process of creating a logical drive or volume.

  1. Determine the total number of physical disks to be included in the logical drive.
  2. NOTE: On systems running the Solaris operating environment, if the logical drive is going to be larger than 253 Gbyte, see Preparing for Logical Drives Larger Than 253 Gbyte.

    If the security of your data is important, you will want to make some of these disks standby (spare) drives.

  3. Determine whether any standby (spare) drives will be local or global.
  4. A standby drive is a drive that is marked as a spare to support automatic data rebuilding after a physical drive associated with a logical drive fails. For a standby drive to take the place of another drive, it must be at least equal in size to the failed drive. Also, the failed drive itself must be from a RAID 1, 3, or 5.

    A local spare drive is a standby drive assigned to serve one specified logical drive. When a member drive of this specified logical drive fails, the local spare drive becomes a member drive and automatically starts to rebuild.

    A global spare drive does not only serve one specified logical drive. When a member drive from any of the logical drives fail, the global spare drive joins that logical drive and automatically starts to rebuild.

  5. Determine the RAID level; SANscape automatically computes the maximum size logical drive that can be created at that RAID level.
  6. Determine whether you want to partition the logical drive.
  7. A partition is a logical division of the logical drive (or logical volume). Partitions enable you to create the appearance of having separate logical drives (or logical volumes) for file management, multiple users, or other purposes.

    NOTE: Partitioning can be done during the initial configuration or after the logical drive has been created.

    NOTE: Logical drives that have been partitioned cannot be added to a logical volume.

  8. Understand the disk capacities displayed in the New Configuration window.
    • Max Drive Size (MB) - displays the maximum drive size per selected physical disk (total capacity of each disk).
    • A smaller logical drive can be created by decreasing this value. The remainder can be used later by expanding the drive (as explained in Expanding the Capacity of a Logical Drive or Logical Volume).

    • Available Size (MB) - displays the total capacity of all disks, which is the total logical drive or logical volume size.
    • NOTE: The maximum usable capacity for a logical drive is equal to the smallest physical size disk. For example, if you add an 18-Gbyte disk and then add a 70-Gbyte disk to be part of the logical drive, the maximum usable capacity is 18 Gbyte per drive.

  9. Determine whether the logical drive is to be part of a logical volume.
  10. NOTE: Logical drives that have been partitioned cannot be added to a logical volume.

  11. Determine whether you want to partition the logical volume.
  12. NOTE: Partitioning can be done during the initial configuration or after the logical volume has been created.

To Create and Partition a Logical Drive Using New Configuration

The following steps provide a working example of creating a new configuration for a new logical drive. Three drives are selected and configured into a RAID 5 logical drive. A small logical drive is then created and partitioned.

CAUTION: Back up any existing data to an external device before using the New Configuration command. SANscape automatically initializes new logical drives defined on the array controller.

  1. Log in as an ssconfig user.
  2. Select the desired RAID controller in the main window.
  3. Select Configuration > Custom Configure.
  4. Click New Configuration.
  5. The New Configuration Warning message box is displayed.

  6. Click OK.
  7. Verify the Server and Controller displayed at the top of the window are correct.
  8. If the server and the controller displayed are not correct, click Cancel to exit the New Configuration window and return to the main window. Select the appropriate disk controller and reselect New Configuration.

  9. In the Select disks for Logical Drive list box, select the first disk and click Add Disk.
  10. Proceed to add the next two disks so that three disks are displayed in the lower list box.

    If you make a mistake or change your mind, select the drive from the drives list and click Remove Disk.

    NOTE: Because the logical drive has not been partitioned yet, the Part Size (MB) and the Available Size (MB) are equal. A single logical drive is considered to be a single partition.

  11. Select the RAID Level. For this example, select RAID Level 5.
  12. This applies to all disks in this logical drive.

    In this example, the new logical drive is composed of three physical disks, totaling 103428 Mbyte, as indicated in the Available Size (MB) field.

  13. Set the Max Drive Size.
  14. The Max Drive Size displays the total capacity of each disk. A smaller logical drive can be created by decreasing this value.

    NOTE: If you do not change the Max Drive Size but you do change the Partition Size, SANscape creates a new partition at the specified partition size. The remaining logical drive size capacity moves to the last partition. Remaining capacity can be used later by expanding the drive (as explained in Expanding a Logical Drive or Logical Volume). The drive capacity is no longer editable after a partition is created.

  15. Select the Host channel and SCSI ID to which you would like the new logical drive to be mapped to from the Channel and SCSI ID list boxes.
  16. NOTE:If you do not want to map the logical drive at this time, select Do Not Map from the Channel list box.

    NOTE: You can create up to eight logical drives with up to 128 partitions per logical drive on an array controller. There is a maximum of 1024 LUN assignments (maximum number of LUNs assigned to each host is 32).

  17. This steps depends on what you want to do next:
    • To create another logical drive, click New LD and repeat Steps 1-11.
    • To add this logical to a logical volume click Add to LV and see To Create Create and Partition Logical Volumes.

    • To partition this logical drive, continue with the following steps. In this example, a small logical drive is created and partitioned.

  18. To create a small logical drive, type 2000 in the Max Drive Size field.
  19. NOTE: In this example, a total of 4000 Mbyte is shown for the logical drive size as opposed to 6000 Mbyte; because this is a RAID 5 level, you lose the capacity equal to 1 drive (2000 Mbyte) for parity.

  20. To create a partition, type 1000 in the Part Size field and click Add Partition.

    NOTE: Do not partition a logical drive if you plan on adding it to a logical volume. Once a logical drive is partitioned, it cannot be added to a logical volume.

    To create multiple partitions of the same size, click Add Partition as many times as partitions you want to create. You can also type the partition size in the Part Size field and multiple (*) it by the number of partitions you want to create, for example 100*128. Any remaining MB is added to the last partition.

    As you add partitions, the remaining capacity displayed in Available Size (MB) decreases by the amount of the partition size.

  21. (Solaris OE only). If you want the new logical drive to be automatically added to the operating environment without rebooting, click Write a new label to the new LD.
  22. Click Commit to end the configuration of the logical drive or New LD to configure another logical drive.
  23. When you click New LD, any available disks that haven't been used are displayed.

    When the logical drive configuration for this array is complete, click Commit, and then click OK. The completed configuration is displayed.

    NOTE: You cannot change a logical drive configuration after you click OK.

To Create and Partition a Logical Volume

A logical volume is composed of two or more logical drives. The logical volume can be divided into a maximum of 32 partitions for SCSI and 128 partitions for Fibre Channel. During operation, the host sees a non-partitioned logical volume or a partition of a logical volume as one single physical drive.

  1. Create a logical drive as described in Steps 1-11 above.
  2. NOTE: Do not partition the logical drive that you are adding to the logical volume. A logical drive that has been partitioned cannot be added to a logical volume.

  3. Before you click Commit, to add the logical drive to a logical volume, click Add to LV.
  4. The logical drive is added to the LV Definition box. The total size of the logical volume is displayed in the Available Size (MB) field.

    NOTE: Because the logical volume has not been partitioned yet, the Part Size (MB) and the Available Size (MB) are equal. A single logical volume is considered to be a single partition.

  5. To create another logical drive to add to the logical volume, click New LD.
  6. Create the logical drive and add it to the logical volume by clicking Add to LV.
  7. Repeat this step for every logical drive you want to ad to the logical volume.

  8. To create a partition, type the partition size in the Part Size field and click Add Partition.

    To create multiple partitions of the same size, click Add Partition as many times as partitions you want to create. You can also type he partition size in the Part Size field and multiply (*) it by the number of partitions you want to create, for example 100* 128.

  9. As you add partitions, the remaining capacity displayed in Available Size (MB) decreases by the amount of the partition size.

  10. When you are finished adding logical drives to the logical volume, to create another logical volume or an individual logical drive, click Commit LV.
  11. When you are finished creating logical volumes and do not want to create an individual logical drive, click Commit.

    NOTE: When you are finished creating logical volumes and want to exit the New Configuration window, if you accidentally click Commit LV instead of Commit, you still have to create another logical drive; otherwise, you have to click Cancel and configure the logical volume again.

To Clear a Configuration

If at any time during the configuration process in the New Configuration window you are dissatisfied with the configuration, you can clear it.

  1. Click Clear to remove all physical and logical drives from the display.
  2. Either click New LD to define a new logical drive, or click Commit.
  3. When you click Commit, a warning prompt is displayed; click OK.
  4. SANscape initializes the entire configuration on the selected array controller.

NOTE: Host LUNs are automatically mapped after logical drives have completed the initialization process.

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