HP NetRAID 1 Controller - Manual (Page 13)

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feature. SFT-3 mirrors disk storage on a partition basis rather than a volume basis. Because of the
virtual space created within the partition, SFT-3 cannot successfully mirror the partitions. This
limitation also applies to regular mirroring (without SFT-3) of volumes. Novell is aware of this issue
but has not yet committed to providing a work around to this conflict. It is likely that a future version
of NetWare will address this issue. SFT-3 users may add storage capacity online without bringing
the two systems down if enough drives are added to create a new array and logical drive on a
NetRAID Series adapter. Under the Install module, NetWare can then scan for new devices and
detect the new logical drive.
Setting Up Your Array for Capacity Expansion
For NetWare installations, you will need to plan ahead and consider your storage use. Since
NetWare only permits one NetWare partition per logical drive, you need to make the NetWare
partition the size of the virtual logical drive in advance to be able to expand that volume. Under
NetWare, you cannot grow a partition, but you can add additional segments within an existing
partition. The added segments can be "joined" to be part of the same volume, or they can be made
separate volumes.
It does not matter if NetWare is already installed or not at this point assuming NetWare will reside
on a separate drive. If NetWare must be installed on the disk array, create a single logical drive with
Virtual Sizing enabled. Create a DOS partition of 500 megabytes or less for booting. NetWare
volumes can then be added after the DOS partition on the same logical drive. The unused space on
the partition can be used later for capacity expansion. Be sure to follow the precautions above.
For this example assume that the OS is installed on a drive connected to the embedded SCSI channel
A. The following steps are necessary to prepare your array for capacity expansion.
1. Connect Drives to the HP NetRAID or HP NetRAID-1 adapter.
Connect physical drives to the adapter. Example: Assume there are four drives of 4 gigabytes each
connected to the adapter.
2. Configure the Adapter.
Configure your adapter and create a logical drive (this can be done in either NetRAID Assistant or in
Express Tools). If you create multiple arrays (groups of physical drives), you should know which
logical drive(s) will be designated for capacity expansion. You should only assign one logical drive
per array, otherwise the logical drive will not be reconstructable. Save your configuration. For this
example, assume the 4x4 gigabyte drives are configured as a single RAID 5 logical drive. This will
produce a logical drive with 12 gigabytes of real storage capacity.
It is important to initialize your logical drives; if the drives have been previously configured under
an OS, there can sometimes be residual partition/format information which can subsequently cause
misrepresentation of logical drives under NetWare’s Install module.
3. Enable Virtual Sizing.
If not already, enter Express Tools. Select the logical drive to be setup for capacity expansion by
selecting Objects/Logical Drives/Properties/Virtual Sizing and enabling Virtual Sizing. Virtual
Sizing is enabled on a per logical drive basis.
Note: Clearing a previous configuration does not reset the Virtual Sizing setting previously used for
a logical drive; use the Reset to Factory Defaults in Express Tools to disable Virtual Sizing for all
logical drives or manually change the setting.