Lenovo ThinkServer RD430 - Configuring RAID; About RAID

•OntheMicrosoftWindowsServer
®
2003operatingsystem,youmightneedtoaddtheUniformResource
Locator(URL)fortheThinkServerEasyStartupprogramWebpagetothetrustedWebsitelistsothat
thepagecanopencorrectly.
YoucandothefollowingwhenusingtheThinkServerEasyStartupprogramonaWindowsoperatingsystem.
Fordetailedinformation,refertothehelpsystem.
•ViewageneralintroductiontoyourThinkServerservermodelandthespecicserverconguration
information.
•ViewgeneralguidanceonhowtousetheThinkServerEasyStartupDVD.
•Downloadtherequireddevicedriverstoaremovablestoragedevicesothatyoucaneasilygetthe
driversforservercongurationwhenyouneedthem,especiallywhenyounishinstallinganoperating
systemwithoutusingtheThinkServerEasyStartupDVDandneedappropriatedevicedriverstocongure
yourserver.
•InstalltherequireddevicedriversdirectlyontheserveronwhichyouarerunningtheThinkServer
EasyStartupDVD.
•ViewinformationaboutallservermodelssupportedbytheThinkServerEasyStartupprogramand
informationaboutthedevicedriversforeachservermodel,includingthedriverversionsanddriver
locationsintherootdirectoryoftheThinkServerEasyStartupDVD.
Note:Themostup-to-datedevicedriversforvariousservermodelsarealwaysavailablefordownloadon
theLenovoSupportWebsiteat:
http://www.lenovo.com/drivers
ConguringRAID
ThistopicprovidesinformationaboutRAIDandtheutilityprogramsthatareavailableforyoutocongure
RAID.
Thistopiccontainsthefollowingitems:
•“AboutRAID”onpage70
•“ConguringRAIDusingtheThinkServerEasyStartupprogram”onpage72
•“ConguringtheThinkServerRAID300”onpage72
•“ConguringtheadvancedSATA/SAShardwareRAID”onpage77
AboutRAID
RAID,anacronymforRedundantArrayofIndependentDisks,isatechnologythatprovidesincreased
storagefunctionsandreliabilitythroughredundancy.Thisisachievedbycombiningmultipleharddiskdrives
intoalogicalunit,wheredataisdistributedacrossthedrivesinoneofseveralwayscalledRAIDlevels.
WhenagroupofindependentphysicalharddiskdrivesaresetuptouseRAIDtechnology,theyareinaRAID
array.Thisarraydistributesdataacrossmultipleharddiskdrives,butthearrayappearstothehostserveras
onesinglestorageunit,knownasavirtualdrive.CreatingandusingRAIDarraysprovideshighperformance,
suchastheexpeditedI/Operformance,becauseseveraldrivescanbeaccessedsimultaneously.
RAIDdrivegroupsalsoimprovedatastoragereliabilityandfaulttolerancecomparedwithsingle-drive
storagesystems.Datalossresultingfromadrivefailurecanbepreventedbyreconstructingmissingdata
fromtheremainingdrives.
ThefollowinglistdescribessomeofthemostcommonlyusedRAIDlevels:
70ThinkServerRD430HardwareMaintenanceManual