RAID on LC2000

[Tim Tanguay]

I have an LC2000 with 4 18GB drives which is currently set up without RAID, but I am going to convert to RAID 10 using a NetRaid 1si controller. All my drives were suppose to be identical, but looking at the output from a hardware inspection program I noticed the last drive is slightly different:
0: HP 18.2GB A 80-SA40SA40 (18.20 GB)
1: HP 18.2GB A 80-SA40SA40 (18.20 GB)
2: HP 18.2GB A 80-SA40SA40 (18.20 GB)
3: HP 18.2GB C 80-BX02BX02 (18.21 GB)

So the fourth actually has 18.21GB space as opposed to 18.20. Is this going to prevent me from having all these drives on the same RAOD 10 array?

[malvin drakley]

Hi Tim,
When you build a Raid array the total space used is always equal to the size of the smallest of your discs i.e. the 18.2gb. However this is the unformatted size and you will find that you only end up with about 16.9gb on each disc for data. You are not losing very much by having them initialize themselves at the 18.2 size.
hth
Malvin

[Sven Jacobsen]

Hi Tim,

Malvin is correct the lowest common denominator is always taken on first initialization. THat means you can make u a raid like that without a problem. If you have a defective drive in the future which needs to be exchanged and it has a size below 18.20GB it might be refused as "too low capacity". The lower amount of data Malvin is hinting on is a problem of calculation between OS and the Hardware Marketing Departments. Mainly that is because the difference in seeing 1GB as 1000mb to 1GB as 1024MB (what causes the rest of the capacity loss: I do not know). Nobody wants to calculate with 1024 if calculation with 1000 is easier ;-)

But justfor you to be aware of beside your question: you should urgently update the firmware of your Drives. All SA40 drives should be updated to a revision SA4c and the BX02 Drive should be updated to BX05.
It is very important as especially the SA40 firmware can cause the drive to fail in the Raid, which can be cleared through a rebuild for the moment, but it is not necessary to run into that problem by upgrading the firmware.

Regards.
Sven

[Tim Tanguay]

Thanks, I think I've downloaded all the necessary utilities/firmware for the upgrade. At first I didn't even realize these were different drive mfg since they all had the same part number.

Here are the files I've gotten for the upgrade:

HP NetServer Firmware Tool
4.Q.11 13-Dec-01
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HP Hard Disk Drive Firmware Tool Catalog File for the AMI/Adaptec Controller
4.1e 2-Jan-02
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Firmware SA4C for D5039A and D7174A 18GB drives made by IBM (to be used with the Firmware Upgrade Tool)
nphnsa4c-bs6 22-May-00
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Firmware BX05 for Seagate 9.10GB / 18.2GB 7200rpm Ultra 3. - 09043133.lod
BX05 17-Jul-02