Creating Virtual Disk

This section describes the procedure for creating a virtual disk using the BIOS Configuration Wizard.

To create a virtual disk

1.  In the Topology pane, scroll to HBA 0: Marvell 0 and press Enter to select. A menu pops-up, as shown in Figure 1.

Select Configuration Wizard and press Enter to begin creating the virtual disk.

Figure 1  Configuration Wizard

2.  Press Space to select/unselect a disk, as shown in Figure 2. Use the arrow keys to scroll the list of free disks.

Figure 2  Select Free Disks

Note: The 88SE91xx controller supports the creation of RAID 0 and RAID 1 virtual disks comprising of exactly two SATA physical disks. PATA physical disks cannot be used to create RAID virtual disks.

3.  After selecting the required disks, press Enter to continue, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3  Confirm Disk Selection

Note: When a disk is selected, an asterisk (*) appears to the left of the disk label, as shown in Figure 3.

4.  Create Virtual Disk by configuring its settings in the Information pane, as shown in Figure 4.

The controls for making selections are listed in the Help pane when an available setting is highlighted.

Figure 4  Configure Virtual Disk

Note: Max Size (MB) and Disk ID are properties of the virtual disk that cannot be edited. Max Size (MB) is the size of the RAID virtual disk as determined by the selected RAID Level. Disk ID lists the IDs of the physical disks comprising the virtual disk.

5.  RAID Level, as shown in Figure 4, is highlighted when the Create Virtual Disk screen is presented. Press Enter to select a RAID Level. A menu pops-up, as shown in Figure 5, and lists available RAID levels.

6.   Scroll the list, as shown in Figure 5, and press Enter to select a RAID Level (RAID 0, RAID 1).

Figure 5  RAID Level

Note: The default RAID Level is RAID 0. For information on RAID levels, see Appendix B, Selecting a RAID Level.

7.  Scroll to Stripe Size and press Enter to select.

A menu pops-up, as shown in Figure 6, and lists available stripe sizes for the selected RAID level.

8.  Scroll the list, as shown in Figure 6, and press Enter to select Stripe Size (32K, 64K).

Figure 6  Stripe Size

Note: The default Stripe Size is 64 KB. For information on Stripe Size, see Appendix D, Glossary.

9.  Scroll to Gigabyte Rounding and press Enter to select.

A menu pops-up, as shown in Figure 7, and lists available stripe sizes for the selected RAID level.

10. Scroll the list, as shown in Figure 7, and press Enter to select Gigabyte Rounding (None, 1G, 10G).

Figure 7  Gigabyte Rounding

Note: The default setting for Gigabyte Rounding is 1G. For information on Gigabyte Rounding, see Appendix D, Glossary.

11. Scroll to Quick Init and press Enter to enable or disable quick initialization of the virtual disk.

A menu pops-up, as shown in Figure 8, and lists available options for quick initialization of the virtual disk.

12. Scroll the list, as shown in Figure 8, and press Enter to select Quick Init (Yes, No).

Figure 8  Quick Init

Note: The default setting for Quick Init is Yes.

13. Scroll to VD Name and the Default name is cleared for a new name, as shown in Figure 9.

Type a new name and press Enter to confirm the selection.

Figure 9  VD Name

14. After configuring the virtual disk, scroll to Next, as shown in Figure 10.

Press Enter to create the virtual disk.

Figure 10  Create Virtual Disk

15. Press Y to select Yes, as shown in Figure 11, to confirm the creation of the virtual disk.

The virtual disk is now listed in the Topology pane, as shown in Figure 12.

Figure 11  Create Virtual Disk Confirmation

Figure 12  Virtual Disk in Topology Pane