Dell PowerVault 725N (Rackmount NAS Appliance) - Manual (Page 22)

Dynamic disks contain volume management databases comprising information about all other dynamic disks and volumes on a system. This information allows
dynamic disks to support dynamic volumes, which are defined in the following subsection. Storage on a dynamic disk is divided into volumes instead of
partitions.
Basic and Dynamic Volumes
A volume is made up of portions of one or more physical disks. You can format a volume with a file system and access it by a drive letter. Like disks, volumes
can be basic or dynamic.
Basic volumes refer to volumes created on basic disks. They include primary and extended partitions and logical drives on extended partitions.
Dynamic volumes are volumes created on dynamic disks. There are five types of dynamic volumes—simple, spanned, mirrored, striped, and RAID-5. However,
you can expand only simple and spanned volumes using Array Manager. These are the only types of volumes that this document addresses. See the Array
Manager online help for more information about mirrored, striped, and RAID-5 dynamic volumes.
To upgrade a basic disk to a dynamic disk, perform the following steps:
1. Launch Array Manager.
See " Launching Array Manager From the NAS Manager ."
2. Right-click the disk you want to upgrade and click Upgrade Dynamic Disk.
The Upgrade Disk Wizard provides information about upgrading.
3. Click Next to continue.
The system asks you to select the disks to upgrade.
4. Add the basic disks you want to upgrade to the list of dynamic disks and click Next.
5. Click Finish.
Reactivating Dynamic Disks
A dynamic disk might appear as a missing disk when it is corrupted, powered down, or disconnected. You can reactivate a dynamic disk to bring it back online
by performing the following steps:
1. Launch Array Manager.
See " Launching Array Manager From the NAS Manager ."
2. Right-click the disk labeled Missing or Offline dynamic disk.
3. Click Reactivate Disk on the menu.
The disk is labeled Online after it has been reactivated.
Merging Foreign Disks
Dynamic disks with a foreign status are disks that have been moved from another system. You cannot reactivate a foreign disk; you must merge the disk to
the system. To change the status of a foreign disk and enable it to be seen as a part of the current system, use the Merge Foreign Disk command.
To merge foreign disks, perform the following steps:
1. Launch Array Manager.
See " Launching Array Manager From the NAS Manager ."
2. Right-click a disk marked as Foreign and click Merge Foreign Disks.
The Merge Foreign Disk Wizard displays.
3. Select the foreign disks that you want to merge to the system.
By default, the system selects all foreign disks to be merged.
4. Click Next.
5. Click Next again to validate the volume status of each foreign disk.
6. Click Finish.
Volume Management
This subsection provides conceptual and procedural information about how Array Manager implements basic and dynamic volumes.
The following topics are discussed:
NOTE: After a disk is upgraded to dynamic, it cannot be reverted back to basic unless all volumes on that disk are removed. Dell recommends that you
do not revert a disk back to basic after data volumes are present.