Hardware Installation
PixelStor 5000 User Manual
Rev. 1, May 2013
4-33
Once you open the Create a Disk Group page, you need to enter a name for the Disk Group
(see Figure 4-16). The Disk Group name should not contain spaces or special characters. You
will also need to select the drives to be used as members of the Disk Group. Then select a RAID
level from the pull down menu by clicking on the down arrow of “Select protection level:”. The
RAID level selected for the Disk Group further imposes requirements associated with that RAID
level.
The following table describes the requirements for each RAID level:
Table 4-1
Disk Group Parameters
Disk Group (DG) Parameters
RAID 0
RAID5 RAID50 RAID6 RAID60 RAID1
RAID 1+0
Minimum # of Drives per DG
2
3
6
4
8
2
4
Maximum # of Drives per DG
108
108
108
108
108
108
108
Maximum # of Drives per
System (PixelStor 5000)
108
108
108
108
108
108
108
DGs Allowed per System
1-16
1-16
1-16
1-16
1-16
1-16
1-16
RAID Levels Allowed per DG
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Drives Must be Added in
Singles
Three’s Group 6 Four’s Group 8 Pairs
Pairs
Global Spare Capability
N/A
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Access to DG by both
Controllers
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Drives that are not assigned to a Disk Group are available as Global Spares unless they are in
an Orphan state or Failed Disk state. A Disk Group built as RAID 0 cannot use a global spare.
It is recommended that for a RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 50, RAID 60 or RAID 10 Disk
Groups, the drives the same size. The usable space on any given drive in the Disk Group will
be equal to the size of the smallest drive in the Disk Group (except for RAID 0).
Next, you select a primary controller for the new Disk Group on the Create a Disk Group page.
When using an iSCSI initiator, this setting will associate the Disk Group with the IP address of
the controller you select as defined in the network setup. Simply click on the button for the
controller you wish to associate with the Disk Group.
Figure 4-16 shows the selection of Controller 0 for the new Disk Group. Clicking on the Finish
button will create the Disk Group. Clicking on the advanced button will open the Advanced
Features page shown in Figure 4-17, where you can set an Occupancy Warning level and add
any comments to the Disk Group attributes.
