6.2 Managing Traditional Software RAID1 Devices

This section discusses the following management tasks:

6.2.1 Mirroring Partitions

You set the Mirror attribute for a partition when you create it.

  1. In Novell Remote Manager for NetWare, click Manage Server > Partition Disks.

  2. Locate the device that you want to create the partition on, then click Create.

  3. In the Partition Type drop-down list, select the type of partition you want to create.

    For example, a Traditional NetWare partition.

  4. Click Create Partition and Volume.

  5. Specify the size of the partition in bytes (B), kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), or gigabytes (GB).

    If you plan to make this a mirrored partition, it must be compatible in data area size with other partitions you plan to use. The physical size of the partition must be at least 100 KB, but no more than 120 MB larger than the data size of the existing partitions in the mirror group.

  6. (Conditional) To create a partition that can be mirrored, select Mirror and select one of the following options:

    • Create New Mirror: This option means you are making the partition capable of being part of a mirror group. You do not actually create the group until you add another mirrored partition to the partition you are creating.

    • Existing Mirror Group: (If you select this option, also select the ID of the mirrored partition.) This shows a list of existing mirror groups that are compatible in data area size. This option lets you add this new partition to one of the mirror groups in the list.

  7. Complete the required fields, click Create, then click OK to confirm your decision.

    If this is a mirrored partition, NetWare displays the status as “100% mirrored” when the mirroring is complete.

6.2.2 Unmirroring Partitions

You must unmirror mirrored partitions before you can delete a partition or conduct surface tests on a disk.

  1. In Novell Remote Manager for NetWare, click Manager Servers > Partition Disks.

  2. Locate the partition you want to unmirror, then click the Remove Mirror link next to it.

    This removes the partition from the mirror group. You can now delete the partition, if desired.

6.2.3 Recovering Data from an Out of Sync Disk

After a server disk is unmirrored, its status is listed as either Not Mirrored or Out of Sync on the Disk Partition Mirroring Status list.

Checking Mirror Status

  1. At the server console command prompt, enter

    mirror status

Resynchronizing the Mirror

When a server disk is listed as Out of Sync, the operating system does not recognize any volume information on it. Use this procedure to recover data from an Out of Sync partition.

  1. At the server console command prompt, enter:

    remirror partition id

    Substitute the actual partition ID for id. For example, if the device is 0X1e, enter

    remirror partition 1e

    This initiates the resynchronization process for the mirror group that contains the partition you selected.

  2. Check the mirror status to confirm the resynchronization.