Applies to: MegaRAID Storage Manager

Summary

This article provides an introduction to the MegaRAID Storage Manager.

Starting the MegaRAID Storage Manager

To start the MegaRAID Storage Manager:

1. Double-click the MegaRAID Storage Manager ()icon on your desktop.
   
   The Host View opens.
    
2. To log in to the local server, enter 127.0.0.1 in the IP Address field and click Discover Host.
    
3. In the Remote servers section, double-click a displayed server.
   
   
    
4. For permission to create and delete a virtual drive, select Full Access from the Login Mode drop-down menu. 
   
   This allows only one user to log in to a managed server at a time.
    
5. Enter the required User Name and Password to login.
   
   
   
   After a successful login, the MegaRAID Storage Manager main window opens.

Creating a New Virtual Drive

To create a new virtual drive:

1. Select the controller then click the Go To tab and select Controller > Create Virtual Drive.
   
   
   
   The Choose mode window opens.

   IMPORTANT: Do NOT create a virtual drive with the Simple option. Under this 
   mode, the virtual drive settings will be kept by default. Some parameter 
   settings cannot be changed after the virtual drive is created.

2. Select the Advanced radio button then click Next.
   
    
   
   The Create Drive Group - Drive Group Settings window displays.
    
3. Select the desired RAID level from the drop-down menu.
   
   
    
4. Under Select unconfigured drives, select and add the desired unconfigured drives to Drive groups. 
    
5. After configuration, click Create Drive Group > Next.
   
   
    
6. Specify the parameters for the new virtual drive, then click Create Virtual Drive.
   
   
   
   Capacity - Set the desired size of the virtual drive. The maximum size is the default. 
   Initialization state - Select Fast Initialization from the drop-down menu.
   Stripe size - Set the size to 1MB. 
   Write policy - Select Always Write Back from the drop-down menu.
   Disk cache policy - Select Enabled from the drop-down menu.
   Keep the default setting for the other parameters.
    
7. After configuration, click Create Virtual Drive. 
   
   The Write Back Selected window displays. 
    
8. Click Yes.
   
   
    
9. Click Next > Finish.
   
   

Deleting a Virtual Drive

To delete a virtual drive:

1. Navigate to the Drive Group > Virtual Drive, then right-click the virtual disk to delete. 
    
2. Select Delete Virtual Drive from the pop-up window.
   
   
   
   If there are several virtual disks in the Drive Group, the virtual disks need to be deleted one by
   one.
    
3. Check the box next to Confirm, then click Yes.
   
   
   
   After deleting all virtual drives of the Drive Group, the Drive Group is deleted.

Creating JBOD with Single Drive RAID0 Group

For Windows

To support four independent drives as JBOD, delete the existing RAID5 group and create four single-drive RAID0 groups. In other words, each RAID0 group has only one drive.

To create a single drive RAID0 group:

1. Select RAID 0 from the RAID level drop-down menu, and select only ONE drive to add to Drive groups.
   
   
   
    
2. Click Create Drive Group > Next.
    
3. Specify the parameters for the new virtual drive then click Create Virtual Drive.

For Ubuntu

For Ubuntu, use StorCLI commands to delete the existing virtual drive and create new RAID0 virtual drives.

Navigate to the following folder: /usr/local/MegaRAID Storage Manager/StorCLI/

To delete the existing virtual drive:

1. Issue the command sudo ./storcli64 /c0/vall show to see the current virtual drive configuration.
   
   Example:
   
   
   In this example, there is a RAID5 DG/VD 0/0 on controller 0. 
    
2. Issue the following command to delete the virtual drive: sudo ./storcli64 /c0/v0 delete force
    
3. Issue the command sudo ./storcli64 /c0/vall show again to check whether DG/VD 0/0 is there.

To add a new virtual drive:

1. Check the drive's information with command sudo ./storcli64 /c0/eall/sall show
   
   Example:
   
   
   In this example, Controller1 has 4 drives: 252:0, 252:1, 252:2, 252:3
    
2. To create a RAID0 group with only ONE drive, issue the following commands on the Ubuntu system:
   sudo ./storCLI64.exe /c0 add vd type=RAID0 size=all name=vd0 drives=252:0 awb ra direct pdcache=on strip=1024
   
   sudo ./storCLI64.exe /c0 add vd type=RAID0 size=all name=vd1 drives=252:1 awb ra direct pdcache=on strip=1024
   
   sudo ./storCLI64.exe /c0 add vd type=RAID0 size=all name=vd2 drives=252:2 awb ra direct pdcache=on strip=1024
   
   sudo ./storCLI64.exe /c0 add vd type=RAID0 size=all name=vd3 drives=252:3 awb ra direct pdcache=on strip=1024
    
3. Issue command sudo ./storcli64 /c0/vall show to check whether there are four RAID0 DG/VDs.