Raid Configuration in IBM Server

Please follow below steps to create / replace array in IBM servers

1. Boot your server and watch out for Press <Ctrl><A> for Server RAID Configuration Utility. When
the message appears, press Ctrl+A to go into your Server Raid Configuration controller BIOS.
Note: If you are creating additional array in server, Please take backup of Raid configuration
explained later in the document to be in safer side.

2. Server Raid Controller configuration utility main menu have 3 options.

A) Array Configuration Utility.
B) Serial select Utility
C) Disk Utilities

3. Choose Disk Utilities and see whether new disk are visible. If disk are visible you are creating
array for first time in that controller, then go to next step 5 directly.

4. If you are replacing existing array with new array for adding bigger disk follow below steps.
a. After server was shutdown, remove the existing disk.
b. Power on the server and go to raid configuration utility as explained in steps 1~3.
c. On selecting Disk utilities, you will get error” Disk utilities cannot be accessed as there is
a configuration change”, this is because controller still have configuration information
about old disk. We need to remove those configurations from adaptor.
d. Go back to Main menu
e. Choose Array Configuration utility.
f. It Will prompt us to accept or reject configuration change.

g. Select accept to flush configuration information of removed disk.

h. Press Escape button twice to exit Raid Configuration utility.
i. It will prompt for you to confirm exit (Yes / No). Press yes.
j. Server will be rebooted automatically. During this activity power off server physically or
through RSA.
k. Insert new disks into the server. And follow regular steps in creating array.
5. Array Configuration utilities will have below sub menu
a. Manage array
b. Create array
c. Initialize drive
d. Rescan drive
e. Secure Erase drive

6. Choose rescan drive to identify newly inserted disk. After scanning we will have all disk listed as
below.

7. Choose Initialize drive to initialize newly inserted disk. Scroll down on left hand side of window
and press the space bar on selected new disk/drives so that drives show in Selected Drives in the
top right-hand corner of the screen.
8. Press once selection is complete, press enter to disk initialization.
Though its empty disk We will get a warning saying : “WARNING : One or more selected drives
has a valid partition and there is a risk of losing the data if configured.
Do you want to continue? (Yes/No):”

9. Press Y to continue initialization

10. Once the initialization is completed, again go back to array configuration utility menu

11. Choose Create array.

12. Choose new Initialized drive to create new array. Scroll down on left hand side of window and
Press the space bar on selected new disk/drives so that drives show in Selected Drives in the top
right-hand corner of the screen.

13. Press Enter to go to Array creation options.

a) Array Type - Select an array type from the drop-down list (Volume, 0,1,5,10).
b) Array Label - Type in a label.
c) Stripe Size - Type in a stripe size.
d) Read Caching - Type Y or N.
e) Write Caching - Select an option from list.( Enable Always / Enable With battery / None )
14. Leave all other options with default selection for Stripe Size & Read / Write caching, unless if u
 get any special request to change value.

15. Select ‘Done’ at bottom to start array creation.

16. Once array is created, it will initiate Synchronization of array. During Synchronization process the
Read / Write performance will be slow and so we can save data after synchronization is
completed.

17. Go back to Array configuration utility menu.

18. Choose manage array to check whether array is listed at right hand window as listed below.

19. Press escape twice to exit Server Raid Configuration console.

20. It will prompt for confirmation (Yes / No), Press Y to exit and server reboot automatically.

21. After server is up, Login to Server raid manager console.

22. Check the status of Synchronization, Wait for it complete.

Note: During Synchronization process if we create partition, we can access partition but data
read / write will be slow and synchronization will also take long time to complete.

23. Go to Computer management to create new partition.

24. Select the new unallocated space and create partition.

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Backup / Restore RAID Configuration In IBM Servers.
When you are replacing Existing array with new array for increasing disk space in server, its always
good to take backup of raid configuration. So that if there is issue in new disk we can restore old disk in
same disk bay and restore raid configuration. This will help us to restore data from the old disk ASIS in
servers during backout plan.

The IBM ServeRAID Command Line Program Diskette contains the IPSSEND executable files which can
be used efficiently in creating, modifying & deleting arrays.
Since we can create, Manage, Delete array using Server Raid manager console or from Server Boot
option. We use Legacy command ‘ IPSSEND’ to take backup / restore Raid configuration.

To backup Raid Configuration from a server.

1. Login to server
2. Go to command prompt and browse to directory where Server Raid manager is installed,
In our case its C:\program Files\IBM\Server raid Manager.
3. Run IPSSEND command as explained below to take backup.
Command : IPSSEND BACKUP <Controller> <Filename> <Options>

Replace:
Controller with the ServeRAID controller number (1 to 8) not the version.
Filename with the path and file name where the configuration is to be written
Options with the optional parameter, NOPROMPT, to override the user prompt

Ex : IPSSEND BACKUP 1 F:\raid.cfg

4. m If you didn’t specify ‘NoPrompt’, it asks for confirmation to take backup. Press y and
then enter. This will save raid configuration information to the file.
 To restore Raid Configuration from a server.

Note: Though we have option to restore raid configuration when server is online. Its limited for
Controller hosting non os drive, because during restore all information about existing logical
drives will be erased and restored with configuration available in source file. If we have OS drive
and data drive in same controller then we need to use “IBM ServeRAID Command Line Program
Diskette “ to boot and restore raid configuration.

1. If you are restoring raid configuration for Data drive, go to command prompt and change
directory to server raid manager folder.
2. Execute IPSSEND restore <Controller> <Filename> <Options>
Options are same as in backup command
3. If you are restoring for OS drive, boot from the IBM ServeRAID Command Line Program Diskette
4. From Command prompt, Type command : IPSSEND restore <Controller> <Filename> <Options>

Ex : IPSSEND Restore 1 F:\raid.cfg

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