Intel Communities: Message List

Re: How To Format New Disks

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:56:38 GMT

I am not sure what they would mean by "not supported". The EMC software shares the drives with CIFS (samba). It doesn't care about the bit architecture of the client OS.

I am running Windows 7 x64, and I administer and use the shares on my SS4200e running EMC Storage Center software.

Re: How To Format New Disks

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:22:07 GMT

Since you didn't say, I will assume that you are going to use the EMC software that is included with the unit. In that case, you do not need to format the drives. If the drives are virgin (unpartitioned), just insert them into the server chassis and power it up. With 4 drives, the EMC software should automatically create and partition a RAID 5 array for you. The final capacity will be equal to 3 times the drive size, with the 4th drive being used for parity information.

If you are NOT using the included EMC software, and are going to install Windows on the system, then I would use NTFS. But unless you are pretty good at working with machines that don't have monitors, keyboards, and mice, then I would recommend just using the EMC software. It has its limitations, but it can be made to work fairly well.

One word of caution about this system: ATTACH A USB UPS!

Despite the redundant drives, it is prone to data corruption if the power is removed without shutting down first. USE A UPS!

don

www.iri.com

Re: SS4200E - How to format hard drives?

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:20:46 GMT

Here is a method to zero out a drive so that the SS4200e will rebuild the array, without using another computer (except as a web browser and ssh client).

Assuming that the SS4200e is named "store":

Access the web page store/support.html
Enable ssh for support access
Using an ssh client, like PuTTY, connect to root@store, password is "soho"
At the # prompt, issue this command "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M count=1"
Repeat for /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, etc. where applicable
Issue the reboot command

When the SS4200e restarts, it should start building the array. It worked for me anyway.

donp

www.iri.com

Re: SS4200E - How to format hard drives?

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:59:02 GMT

OK, I have a supported set of 1TB disks in my SS4200e. One of them came from another SS4200e and was "erased" using the EMC software. That disk is now flagged as faulted, and the hover on the warning icon says that it has data from another system on it. How am I supposed to prepare this drive?

Saying things like "Furthermore, when formating the drives, the drives should be clean having no partitions on it whatsoever." is of little help. You can not format a disk, only partitions, so that statement makes no sense.

No wonder these units are being sold so cheaply, they are very hard to work with.