Using the Menu Bar

Using the Menu Bar

Descriptions of the choices available from the Menu Bar are as follows:

File The File pull-down menu contains the following choices in the Information mode:

•  Save Configuration Event Log: Select this choice to save configuration event information
   (such as the start time and completion time for a rebuild operation) to a file.
•  Clear Configuration Event Log: Select this choice to erase the event information stored  in the Configuration Event Log.
•  Exit: Select this choice to exit from the ServeRAID Configuration Program.

View The View pull-down menu contains the following choices in both the Information and Configuration modes:

•  Small Icons: This is the default setting.
   When you select this choice, small icons appear in the Main Tree on the left and the Main Panel on the right.
•  Large Icons: Select this choice to display large icons in the Main Tree on the left and the Main Panel on the right.
•  Options: Select this choice to change the Initialization and Synchronization mode, as follows:
  •  Basic: This is the default setting.
     When this mode is Enabled, the configuration program automatically initializes each new logical drive and  prevents access to the manual initialization and synchronization functions.
     This choice also forces the synchronization of all new RAID level-5 logical drives attached to older ServeRAID  adapter or controller models that do not support the auto-synchronization feature.
  •  Advanced: When Enabled, this choice lets you select to automatically initialize new  logical drives and force the synchronization of all new RAID level-5 logical drives before exiting the  ServeRAID Configuration Program.

      -Attention- If you disable Automatic Initialization, the  ServeRAID Configuration Program will not initialize each logical drive (by writing zeros to the first 1024  sectors of the logical drive) when it is created.
     You still must initialize all newly defined logical drives before storing data.
     If you disable the synchronization feature and the level of firmware being used by the ServeRAID adapter or controller  does not support the auto-synchronization feature, you still must synchronize all RAID level-5 logical drives before storing data.

Actions All choices available from the Actions pull-down menu also are available from the pop-up lists that appear when you use the right mouse button and click on the object in the Main Tree.

The following choices appear on the Actions pull-down menu when you select a ServeRAID controller from the Main Tree:

•  Configure the ServeRAID Controller: This choice is available in the Information mode only.
   It appears on the pull-down menu when there are Ready drives and logical-drive slots still available for the ServeRAID controller.
•  Configure for Clustering: This choice is available in the Information mode only.
   You can select this choice to define the ServeRAID controller for use in a high-availability, shared-disk cluster environment.
   Detailed instructions for using the clustering features are provided in the 'IBM Netfinity High-Availability Cluster Solution Installation and User's Guide.
   You can obtain a copy of this manual at the following address on the World Wide Web:

  http://www.pc.ibm.com/netfinity/clustering

•  Initialize the Controller Configuration: This choice is available in both the Configuration and Information modes.
   Select this choice to delete the ServeRAID controller configuration.

    -Attention- After you initialize the controller configuration, you will  not have access to any data stored on the logical drives attached to the selected ServeRAID adapter or controller.

   This choice deletes the existing configuration information, sets all functional hard disk drives attached to the controller to the Ready state, and  deletes all logical drives defined for the controller.
   This choice does not change any of the ServeRAID adapter or controller settings (such as the stripe-unit size, rebuild rate, and so on) from their current or  customized values.

•  Copy the Configuration from the Drives to the Controller: This choice is available in the Information mode only; it copies the configuration information  stored on the hard disk drives to the ServeRAID controller.
   This function is useful when you import previously configured drives from another system, or when you replace the ServeRAID adapter or controller.
•  Disable or Enable Read-Ahead Cache Mode: These choices are available in the Information mode only.
   When read-ahead cache is set to Enabled (default setting), the ServeRAID controller transfers data from a  disk to its local cache in increments equal to the stripe-unit size.
   This provides excellent overall performance when workloads are steady and sequential.
   However, if the workload is random or the system I/O requests are smaller than the stripe-unit size, reading ahead to the end of the stripe might  degrade performance.
   When read-ahead cache is set to Disabled, the ServeRAID controller transfers data from a disk to local cache in increments equal to the  system I/O request size, without reading ahead to the end of the stripe.
•  Change the Rebuild Rate: This choice is available in the Information mode only.
   You can select this choice to set the priority for Rebuild operations to High (default), Medium, or Low.
  •  When the rebuild rate is set to High, the rebuild I/O request gets high priority in the execution order.
  •  When the rebuild request is set from High to Medium in a heavily loaded system, it can increase the rebuild time, but provide  better system performance.
  •  When the rebuild request is set from High or Medium to Low in a moderate to heavily loaded system, it can increase the disk rebuild time, but  provide better system performance.

•  Change the Stripe-Unit Size: This choice is available in the Information mode only.

    -Attention- After you configure an array and store data on the  logical drives, you cannot change the stripe-unit size without destroying data in the logical drives.

   The stripe-unit size is the amount of data written on a given disk before writing on the next disk.
   To maximize the overall performance, choose a size that is close to the size of the system I/O request.
   You can set the stripe-unit size to 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, or 64 KB.
   When the stripe-unit size is 8 KB (the default setting) or 16 KB, the maximum number of physical drives supported in an array is 16.
   When the stripe-unit size is 32 KB or 64 KB, the maximum number of physical drives supported in an array is eight.
   (See 'Interleave Depth and Stripe-Unit Size' for more information.)

•  Scan for New or Removed Ready Drives: This choice is available in the Information mode only.
   When you select this choice, the configuration program scans all channels on the ServeRAID controller for new  or removed Ready drives.

The following choices appear on the Actions pull-down menu when you select the Arrays icon or a specific array icon from the Main Tree:

•  Create an Array: This choice appears in the Information mode if you select the Arrays icon and  Ready drives are available.
   When you select this choice, the configuration program switches from the Information mode to the Configuration mode.
•  Delete All Arrays: This choice is available in the Information mode only.
   It appears on the Actions pull-down menu if you select the Arrays icon from the Main Tree and arrays are defined for the controller.
•  Delete Array: This choice is available in the Information mode only.
   It appears on the Actions pull-down menu when you select a specific array icon from the Main Tree.

The following choices appear on the Actions pull-down menu when you select the Logical Drives icon or a specific logical drive icon from the Main Tree:

•  Create a Logical Drive in Array: This choice appears on the Actions pull-down menu in the Information mode  if you select the Logical Drives icon and free space is available in one or more arrays.
•  Change Write-Cache Mode to Write Through or Write Back: These choices are available in the  Information mode when you select a specific logical drive icon from the Main Tree.

   When this feature is set to the write-through mode, the completion status of a write command is sent after the  data is written to the hard disk drive.
   Under certain workloads, you can improve performance by changing this setting to the write-back mode, where the  completion status of a write command is sent after the data is copied to cache memory, but before the data is  actually written to the storage device.

    -Attention-

  1.  You might lose data if a power outage occurs while using the write-back mode without a battery-backup cache device.
  2.  If you do not have a battery-backup cache installed and Enabled and you set this feature to the write-back mode,  wait at least 10 seconds after the last operation before you turn off the system.
      Failure to follow this practice can result in lost data.

•  Synchronize: This choice is available in the Information mode when you select a logical drive from  the Main Tree and the following conditions are both true:
  •  The ServeRAID adapter or controller does not support the auto-synchronization feature.
  •  You previously selected Options from the View pull-down menu and disabled the  'Synchronize all new RAID level-5 logical drives' setting.

   Synchronizing a logical drive verifies that the data redundancy for the logical drive is correct.
   You must synchronize all RAID level-5 logical drives before storing data.
   (See 'ServeRAID Controller Information Panel' for more information.)

•  Initialize: This choice is available in the Information mode when you select a logical drive from the Main  Tree and you previously selected Options from the View pull-down menu and disabled the  'Automatically initialize new logical drives' setting.
•  Unblock the Logical Drive: This choice appears in the Information mode when you select a specific logical  drive that is in the Blocked state.
   You can select this choice to change the Drive Access setting for the RAID level-0 logical drive from Blocked to Unblocked.
   During a rebuild operation, the ServeRAID controller sets the state of any RAID level-0 logical drives associated with a failed array to the Blocked state.

   After the Rebuild operation completes, you can unblock the RAID level-0 logical drives, and access them once  again. However, the logical drive might contain damaged data.
   You must either re-create, install, or restore the data from the most recent backup disk or tape to the RAID level-0 logical drive.

The following choice appears on the Actions pull-down menu when you select a hot-spare drive from the Main Tree:

•  Remove from Hot-Spare State: This choice is available in the Information mode only.
   Select this choice to remove a hot-spare drive from the configuration and set the drive state back to Ready.
   The following choices appear on the Actions pull-down menu when you select a physical drive, a physical drive  icon, or a SCSI channel icon from the Main Tree:
•  Set Drive State to Hot Spare: This choice is available in the Information mode only.
   It appears when the physical drive that you select from the Main Tree is in the Ready state.
   You can select this choice to add the drive to the configuration and to change its state from Ready to Hot Spare.
•  Set Drive State to Online: This choice appears in the Information mode, and you can use it to change the  state of a drive from Defunct to Online.

    -Attention- You might lose data by setting a Defunct physical drive that is part of an array to Online.

•  Replace Drive and Rebuild: This choice is available in the Information mode only.
   Select this choice when you want to physically remove a defunct drive from the system and install a good drive in its place.
•  Change the SCSI Transfer Speed: This choice is available in the Information mode only.
   It appears when you select a SCSI Channel icon.
   You can select this choice to change the transfer speed from its default value of Optimal.
   When the transfer speed is set to Optimal, the ServeRAID adapter or controller determines the best transfer speed, based on the  types of SCSI drives and storage enclosures in use.
   Choices available are Ultra2 SCSI, UltraSCSI, Fast SCSI 2, and SCSI 2.
•  Remove Defunct Drive: This choice appears in the Information mode only.
   After you physically remove a drive, select this choice to delete the drive information from the configuration.
•  Replace Defunct Drive: This choice appears in the Information mode only.
   Select this choice to physically replace a defunct disk drive.

  Note: Always replace a defunct drive with a drive of equal or greater capacity.

•  Scan for New or Removed Ready Drives: This choice is available in the Information mode only.
   When you select this choice, the configuration program scans the individual channel or all channels on the  ServeRAID controller for new or removed Ready drives.

Help The following choices are available from the Help pull-down menu:

•  Contents: Select this choice to access the online Help facility.
   This choice is available in both the Information and Configuration modes.
   Task-oriented Help is available from many of the pop-up windows that appear during the configuration process; and, you  also can obtain context-sensitive Help by selecting an item and then pressing the F1 key.
•  About: Select this choice to view the version number and copyright information for the ServeRAID  Configuration Program.
   This choice is available in both the Information and Configuration modes.

Please see the LEGAL  -  Trademark notice.
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