Working with Advanced RAID 5 Layouts

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R-Studio allows you to create and process very complex custom RAID 5 layouts.

For example, let us create a RAID 5 with the following layout:

· Three disks,
· Block size: 64 KB
· Offset: 32768 sectors (64 KB)
· Block order:

 

A

B

C

1

PD

1

2

2

PD

3

4

3

PD

5

6

4

7

PD

8

5

9

PD

10

6

11

PD

12

7

13

14

PD

8

15

16

PD

9

17

18

PD

To create such RAID 5,

1 Click the Create virtual volume sets or RAIDs button and select Create Virtual Block RAID

or select Create Virtual Block RAID on the Create menu

Check that the Apply changes immediately check box is clear on the Parents tab. This will prevent R-Studio from trying to start processing the RAID configuration until you specify it completely.

2 Drug the required objects from the Drives pane to the Parents tab and select RAID 5 on the RAID type

Click to expand/collapse Other ways to add objects

· Right-click the Parents tab and select the required partition from the shortcut menu,

or

· Right-click the partition on the Drives panel, select Add to RAID on the shortcut menu, and select the RAID object you want to add the partition to.

These objects may be hard drives, logical disks, or images. Check that the objects are correctly placed.

Object control buttons

Locate

Click this button to locate the selected object in the Drives panel.

Add Empty Space/Add Missing Disk

Click this button to add an empty space or missing disk object to the RAID

Remove

Click this button to remove the selected object from the RAID

Move Up

Click this button to move up the selected object in the RAID

Move Down

Click this button to move down the selected object in the RAID

Synchronize Offsets

Click this button to make the offsets the same for all objects in the RAID

3 Specify the Block size and Offset parameters on the Parents tab

Disregard the Block order field.

4 Manually enter 9 to Number of rows on the Parents tab

Block order will change to Custom.

5 Enter the block order in the table on the Parents tab

Use the RAID sequence window to move from one row to another.

Using the keyboard: arrow keys to navigate, digit and p keys to enter the block order.

Using the mouse: right-click the cell and select the number or parity from the shortcut menu. If the block table is too large, you better use the keyboard to enter the digits.

Corrections: R-Studio will tell you if some digits are not correct. Navigate to the required cell and enter the correct value. Use the Delete key to clear a cell.

Clear the table: Right-click the table and select Clear all on the shortcut menu.

6 When you finishes entering the information, click the Apply button on the Parents tab
> The created Virtual Block RAID 1 object can now be processed like regular drives/volumes

If R-Studio detects a valid file system on this RAID object, a partition object will appear on the Drives panel.

The Description Files for RAID Configurations topic shows the RAID description file for this RAID configuration.