This article explains the procedure to create a RAID 5 storage volume using the MegaRAID Storage controllers.
Create RAID 5 drive
Step 1:
login on MegaRAID Storage Manager using Windows credentials (default VDG / VDG):
Step 2:
Click Dashboard tab in the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu window. Click ‘Create virtual drive’
Step 3:
Click ‘Advanced’
Step 4:
Select RAID level, for instance ‘RAID 5’.
Step 5:
Select the drives needed for the RAID volume and press ‘Add’. Click ‘Create drive group’ and ‘Next’.
Step 6:
Select the options for RAID volume as in the picture below:
Step 7:
Click ‘Create Virtual Drive’, ignore warning about the write policy.
Step 8:
Click ‘Finish’ in the next dialog.
Step 9:
Check ‘Dashboard’ tab and wait until fully loaded. Initialization could take a full day and the new volume cannot be used until the initialization is completely finished.
Create Storage Volume
After the new RAID5 volume has been created and initialized, the new volume needs to be partitioned and formatted to be used in Windows.
Step 1
Start Windows Disk Management, the first time it starts and detects the new volume it will ask toinitialze the disk. Select ‘GPT’ assuming it is not a volume from which Windows should boot:
Step 2
To create a new partition right-click on the new disk and select ‘Create Simple Volume’. The following dialog appears:
Step 3
In the next dialog the volume size can be configured. By default it is set to the maximum size:
Step 4
Assign a Drive letter to the new volume, by default it should be the D:
Step 5
Format drive with ‘NTFS’ file system and '64K' allocation unit size, optionally name the new volume:
Step 6:
Click ‘Finish’ to complete the volume configuration: