Smart Array P600 User Guide

15
Configuring an array
In this section
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................15
Comparing the utilities .................................................................................................................16
Using ORCA ................................................................................................................................17
Using ACU ...................................................................................................................................18
Introduction
HP provides two utilities for manually configuring an array on a Smart Array
controller:
• ORCA—A simple ROM-based configuration utility
• ACU—A versatile, browser-based utility that provides maximum control
over configuration parameters
NOTE: To copy a particular array configuration to several other
servers on the same network, use ACR or the scripting capability of
ACU. ACR is provided in the SmartStart Scripting Toolkit, available on
the HP website (http://www.hp.com/servers/sstoolkit
).
Whichever utility you use, the following limitations apply:
• For the most efficient use of drive space, do not mix drives of different
capacities within the same array. The configuration utility treats all physical
drives in an array as if they have the same capacity as the smallest drive in
the array. The excess capacity of any larger drives is wasted because it is
unavailable for data storage.
• The probability that an array will experience a drive failure increases with
the number of physical drives in the array. If you configure a logical drive
with RAID 5, keep the probability of failure low by using no more than 14
physical drives in the array.