# Configuring arrays and logical drives for failover

Connecting the enclosure | Configuring the arrays and logical drives | Completing the installation

Notes:
  1. You must configure arrays and logical drives only on the active controller.
  2. You can create only one logical drive for each array in a failover environment.

To configure arrays and logical drives, do the following:

1. On the toolbar, click (Configure RAID). The Configuration wizard opens.
2. In the tree, click the ServeRAID controller that you want to configure as the active controller.
3. Click Custom configuration.
4. Click Next. The "Create arrays" window opens.
5. Click the appropriate Array tab in the right pane; then, from the ready drives list, select the drives that you want to move to the array.
6. Click >> (Add selected drives) to add the drives to an array. You can click >> (Add all drives) to move all ready drives to an array.
7. Repeat steps 5 to 6 for each additional array that you want to configure.
   Notes:
     1. You must use all the ready drives when creating your arrays (that is, all ready drives in the tree must be online).
     2. Hot-spare drives are not supported in a failover environment. The exception is the built-in hot-spare that is part of a RAID level-5E logical drive.
8. After you select the ready drives for your arrays, click Next. The "Create logical drives" window opens.
9. Click the appropriate Array tab.
10. Select a RAID level from the drop-down list.
    Notes:
      1. Create only one logical drive for each array.
      2. Typically, the first logical drive defined on the first ServeRAID controller found by system BIOS during startup will be your startup (boot) drive.
11. Repeat steps 9 and 10 for each additional array you want to configure.
12. Click Next. The "Configuration summary" window opens.
13. Review the information that is displayed in the "Configuration summary" window. To change the configuration, click Back.
14. Click Apply; then, click Yes when asked if you want to apply the new configuration. The configuration is saved in the ServeRAID controller and on the physical drives.
15. Click Continue to return to ServeRAID Manager. After creating the arrays and logical drives, you must assign merge-group numbers to the shared logical drives.
16. In the tree, click the active controller (that is, the ServeRAID controller that contains the logical drives).
17. Click (Configure for clustering) on the toolbar. The "Configure controller for clustering" window opens.
18. Select the Shared check boxes for all the logical drives.
19. Do not change the merge-group number from the default provided.
20. Record the controller name, partner name, and merge-group numbers; store them in a safe place. You will need this information to recover the configuration if the ServeRAID controller fails.

    Note: You can save this information to a file by using the ServeRAID Manager:

    1. In the tree, right-click the server.
    2. Click Save printable configuration.
21. Click OK.

## More information

- Understanding the hardware requirements
- Understanding the installation guidelines and restrictions
- Preparing the controllers for failover
- Connecting the enclosures
- Complete the failover environment installation
- Failing from active to passive controller (action)

Glossary | Index | Contents

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