# Understanding unattended mode

Unattended mode is a setting that alters how the ServeRAID startup code (that is, BIOS) handles failures during a system startup. Examples of possible failures during the startup are the following:

- The BIOS cannot communicate with the controller.
- A physical drive state has changed.
- A logical drive state has changed.

You can set unattended mode: either Disabled or Enabled. The default is Disabled.

When unattended mode is disabled and the BIOS detects a failure, the system remains at the recovery option screen and waits for the user to respond.

When unattended mode is enabled and the BIOS detects a failure, the system waits for 30 seconds for the user to respond to the recovery options screen. If no user responds, the BIOS automatically selects the first recovery option in the list and continues the system startup process. This mode is useful for remote systems where a user is not present for system startups.

Consider carefully whether to enable unattended mode. Depending on how you use the system, unattended mode might be undesirable.

For example, consider a system that includes an enclosure of multiple physical drives such as the Netfinity® EXP15. If the enclosure is turned off when you start the system, the BIOS reports a drive failure. If unattended mode is enabled, the BIOS accepts a recovery option that changes the configuration. When the system restarts with the enclosure turned on, the configuration is no longer correct and the system no longer works as originally configured.

You can change unattended mode with the ServeRAID Manager in startable-CD mode only.

Note: If you are configuring your system for clustering, you must enable unattended mode. If you use the ServeRAID Manager to enable your system for clustering, the ServeRAID Manager automatically enables unattended mode.

## More information

- Enabling and disabling unattended mode (action)
- Configuring controllers for clustering (action)
- Using ServeRAID in a cluster environment

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