User guide

Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4000 User Guide
6. NetWare cannot detect a single physical drive failure when using
hardware-based fault tolerance; NetWare determines that the data is still
valid and accessible during the rebuilding process. However, the driver
knows that a physical drive has failed. A message will be printed on the
console notifying the user that a physical drive is in a degraded state.
CPQONLIN will also show the drive has failed.
To improve system performance, keep these tips in mind before creating
NetWare volumes or partitions:
■ If you selected a fault-tolerance option, such as mirroring or distributed
data guarding, when using the Compaq System Configuration Utility, do
not select mirroring while using INSTALL.NLM. The fault-tolerance
capabilities of the RA4000 provide performance improvements and
automatic data recovery features.
■ Novell recommends creating volumes with a 64-KB block size and
using the Block Sub-Allocation feature of NetWare. Using a large block
size decreases the amount of RAM required to mount the volume, while
Block Sub-Allocation allows NetWare to allocate disk space more
efficiently.
Use of linear memory provides the best performance in the NetWare
environment. When you use the Compaq System Configuration Utility to
configure your server with NetWare, the memory options default so that linear
memory is used. To verify the setting, run the Compaq System Configuration
Utility and view the Compaq Memory settings. Make sure that a linear option
has been selected under the Base Memory option.