10TECHNICAL WHITE PAPER
Creating RAID Arrays on the SATA controller
RAID arrays on SATA controller can be created through Option ROM (OROM) at power on, BIOS Setup under UEFI
Drivers, DOS utilities, EFI shell utilities, Windows command line utilities, or from a graphical user interface (GUI) within
the Windows OS.
Pre-OS RAID creation through the Option ROM (OROM)
In order to use the OROM for conguration of RAID arrays, the Option ROM Launch Policy in BIOS must be set to
All Legacy. This can be changed in BIOS Setup under “Advanced”, “Option ROM Launch Policy”.
To access the OROM, press Ctrl-I as soon as you see Intel
®
Rapid Storage Technology enterprise Option ROM.
The OROM will only display at power on if there are two or more RAID capable devices attached to the controller, or a
single device is attached that contains RAID metadata. In the latter case, the OROM will show that the RAID is failed
or degraded.
Once in the OROM, you can Create RAID Volumes, Delete RAID Volumes, Reset Disks to Non-RAID, or Exit.
The keys available for use are listed at the bottom of the screen.
Example: RAID volume creation on the SATA controller through OROM.
1. Use the Up/Down arrows to navigate to “1. Create RAID Volume” if not already selected.
2. Enter the desired volume name and press Tab or Enter.
3 . Use the Up/Down arrows to scroll through available RAID levels. A description of the level will appear in the
“HELP” box. Select the desired RAID level and press Tab or Enter.
4. Press Enter to open the “SELECT DISKS” window.
5. Use the Up/Down arrows to highlight a desired disk and press Space to select the disk. Press Enter after you
have selected all of the disks that you want to be included in the RAID.
6. If you are creating a RAID array that is striped, you can use the Up/Down arrows to change strip size if desired.
Press Enter when done.
7. Capacity will be automatically calculated for you based on the RAID type. The capacity shown may be around
95% of the actual available capacity. In a mirrored array, the reserved space helps to ensure that a failed drive
can be replaced with another drive of the same listed capacity even if the actual capacity is slightly less than
the listed capacity. Press Enter to accept the default capacity.
8. Press Enter to create the volume.
Similarly a user can Delete RAID volumes or reset disks to Non-RAID status by following the on screen prompts and
using the keys listed at the bottom of each screen.
RAID creation using the UEFI driver in BIOS setup
In order to create RAID arrays using the UEFI, the Option ROM Launch Policy in BIOS must be set to All UEFI or All
UEFI Except Video. This can be changed in BIOS Setup under “Advanced”, “Option ROM Launch Policy”.
Example: RAID volume creation on SATA controller using the UEFI Driver interface.
1. Use the Up/Down arrows to select “Create RAID Volume” and press Enter.
2. Use the Up/Down arrows to select Name and press Enter to enable editing the name. Change the name
if desired and press Enter to close the edit box.
3. Use the Up/Down arrows to select RAID Level and press Enter to show available RAID levels. Use the Up/Down
arrows to select the desired RAID level and press Enter to accept.
4. Use the Up/Down arrows to highlight a disk to be included in the array. Press Enter to activate the pull-down
menu and use Up/Down arrows to change from blank to “X”. Press Enter to accept. Continue selecting drives
until you have selected all of the drives that you want to include in the RAID array.
5. Arrays that use striping, will have an option to select strip size. You can accept the default by navigating past it
or press Enter and make a selection.
6. Leave the capacity as default.
7. Use the Up/Down arrows to select Create Volume and press Enter to create the array. This will take you back
to the main screen for the current controller where you can create an additional RAID array (up to 2 arrays)
or view already created arrays.
2
Chassis and system
highlights
4
PCI-Express
Optimizations on
HP Z4 G4 Workstation
7
Storage congurations
and RAID
18
Memory congurations
and optimization
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