Initializing virtual disks, Background initialization – Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller 6E User Manual

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About PERC 6 and CERC 6/i Controllers

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A SMART failure is also referred to as a predicted failure. There are numerous
factors that relate to predicted physical disk failures, such as a bearing failure,
a broken read/write head, and changes in spin-up rate. In addition, there are
factors related to read/write surface failure, such as seek error rate
and excessive bad sectors.
For information on physical disk status, see "Disk Roaming" on page 27.

NOTE:

For detailed information on Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)

interface specifications, see www.t10.org and for detailed information on for Serial
Attached ATA (SATA) interface specifications, see www.t13.org.

Initializing Virtual Disks

You can initialize the virtual disks as described in the following sections.

Background Initialization

Background Initialization (BGI) is an automated process that writes the
parity or mirror data on newly created virtual disks. BGI assumes that the data
is correct on all new drives. BGI does not run on RAID 0 virtual disks.

NOTE:

You cannot permanently disable BGI. If you cancel BGI, it automatically

restarts within five minutes. For information on stopping BGI, see "Stopping
Background Initialization" on page 108.

You can control the BGI rate in the Dell™ OpenManage™ storage
management application. Any change in the BGI rate does not take effect
until the next BGI run.

NOTE:

Unlike full or fast initialization of virtual disks, Background Initialization does

not clear data from the physical disks.

Consistency Check (CC) and BGI perform similar functions in that they
both correct parity errors. However, CC reports data inconsistencies through
an event notification, but BGI does not (BGI assumes the data is correct, as it
is run only on a newly created disk). You can start CC manually, but not BGI.

Dell_PERC6.2_UG.book Page 25 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:08 PM

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