
Chapter 5. Installation without ServerGuide 71
Note: Only ServeRAID 3L and newer ServeRAID adapters support RAID 5E. The
ServeRAID and ServeRAID II adapters and the integrated ServeRAID controller
integrated in the Netfinity 5500 family of servers do not support RAID 5E.
For a more in-depth explanation of the different RAID levels and the advantages
they offer, please refer to:
• The redbook Implementing Netfinity Disk Subsystems: ServeRAID SCSI,
Fibre Channel and SSA, SG24-2098, available at:
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com
• IBM Netfinity RAID Technology white paper, available at:
http://www.pcco.ibm.com/us/techlink/wtpapers
• ServeRAID Installation and User’s Guide, available at:
http://www.pc.ibm.com/support
For non-ServerGuide installations, we recommend you use the ServeRAID
Configuration and Management CD to configure your arrays. Proceed as follows:
1. Boot the server with the configuration CD. The configuration program
automatically checks the BIOS and firmware levels of all ServeRAID adapters
present in the system. If needed, the program will update them automatically,
as shown in Figure 46.
Figure 46. Automatic update of the ServeRAID BIOS and firmware
2. Once the update is complete (if it was required), the configuration program
starts, allowing you to define arrays, logical drives, and hot spares as shown in
Figure 47:
RAID-5 3-8 or 3-16
1
Yes Excellent read performance and good
write performance
RAID-5E 4-8 or 4-16
1
Yes Excellent read performance and good
write performance; better performance
than RAID 5 on small arrays
Note:
1 16 physical drives are supported if the stripe size is set to 8 KB or 16 KB. Eight physical
drives are supported in an array if the stripe size is 32 KB or 64 KB.
RAID level Number of
drives
Data
redundancy
Performance
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