Software User Guide for Windows*

RAID Features
Intel
®
RSTe for Microsoft Windows* OS Software User’s Guide 9
For a RAID 5 configuration that consists of 3 or 4 drives, the RAID volume will be shown as normal as
soon as the volume is created. Parity will be computed and written with every RAID 5 write activity. For a
RAID 5 configuration that consists of 5 or more drives, the parity initialization will begin as soon as the
volume is created. This is done to improve the operational performance of RAID 5 volumes.
2.5.12 RAID Level Migrations
The RAID level migration feature in Intel
®
RSTe product enables and provides the ability to convert the
contents of a drive (attached to the AHCI or SCU controller) into a RAID volume (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID
5, or RAID 10). The RAID level migration feature also supports the ability to migrate from one RAID
volume to another.
The size of the hard drives determines how much time is required to complete the migration but the system
remains fully functional during the migration process. The only limitation is that some disk-intensive tasks
may have slower performance during a RAID migration.
Note: Single volume per array only. This is dependent on required capacity and implicit array expansion.
The following are some examples of RAID level migrations supported by Intel
®
RSTe:
 N-drive RAID 0 to N+1 – 32 drive RAID 5 (where N can be 2 to 31)
 2-drive RAID 1 to 3 – 32 drive RAID 5
 4-drive RAID 10 to 4 – 32 drive RAID 5
2.5.13 RAID Reconfiguration (Stripe Size)
Intel
®
RSTe provides the ability to change stripe size on existing volumes (migration required). Intel
®
RSTe supports a stripe size migration in conjunction with a RAID level migration.
Note: Migration supports stripe sizes for the respective RAID levels supported.
Stripe Size Support for (values are in Kilobytes):
 RAID 0 volumes – 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024
 RAID 10 volumes – 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024
 RAID 5 volumes – 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024
2.5.14 Expanded Stripe Size
Intel
®
RSTe supports the ability to expand the RAID volume stripe size for the following RAID volumes
(values are in Kilobytes):
 RAID 0 volumes – 256, 512, 1024
 RAID 10 volumes – 256, 512, 1024
 RAID 5 volumes – 256, 512, 1024
2.5.15 Online Array/Volume Capacity Expansion
Intel
®
RSTe provides the ability to add new drives to an existing array and expand existing volumes
accordingly. This is supported only under RAID 0 and RAID 5.
2.5.16 Read Patrol
Intel
®
RSTe provides support for Read Patrol, which checks the RAID volumes for errors that could result
in a failure. The checks are done periodically in background and will verify all sectors of all RAID volumes
that are connected to either the AHCI or SCU controllers. If an issue is discovered an attempt at corrective
action is taken. Read Patrol can be enabled or disabled manually. The background process begins when
there is no I/O to the RAID volume, though it can continue to run while I/Os are being processed.