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Quick Access Window

  Quick Access Window Components

  Create a Virtual Disk

  Create a New Volume

  Create a Partition

  Create a Dynamic Volume

  Connect to a Remote Computer

  Upgrade a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk

  View a Configuration

  View Events

You can reach the most commonly used features of Array Manager through the Quick Access window. Clicking on an icon in this window takes you directly to that feature.

To use Array Manager, you should already be familiar with storage management terms and concepts. If you are not, you should read the Storage Management Concepts chapter before using Array Manager. You can also continue by following the steps in the chapter A Tutorial: Learning Array Manager.


Quick Access Window Components

The Quick Access window appears when you start Array Manager. You can also reach this screen from the View menu.


Create a Virtual Disk

  1. From the Quick Access window, click the Create Virtual Disk button. The Create Virtual Disk wizard appears.

  2. Read the first wizard, which introduces the concept of virtual disks. Click Next to continue. The Select Creation Mode window appears.

  1. Select Express or Custom and click Next to continue.

  2. You are asked to select a virtual disk type, size, and other attributes. Enter the required information and click Next to continue or Back to return to the previous screen.

Note: Do not type a number after the virtual disk name, because Array Manager will number the virtual disk automatically after it is created. You may want to just leave the name "Virtual Disk."

  1. You then see the Default Disk Selection screen. Array Manager automatically selects the number of disks required for the selected operation. Click Back to make changes or Next to continue.

If you chose custom mode, use the wizard screen to select disks and attributes for your virtual disk before clicking Next to continue.

  1. Click Finish to create the virtual disk.

  2. If the newly created virtual disk does not appear under Disks in the tree view, then perform a rescan by selecting Rescan from the View pull-down menu. Rescan forces the Array Manager software to locate and query all the objects in the system. This can take several minutes if there are numerous disks on the system.


Create a New Volume

The Create Volume wizard contains information about creating both partitions and dynamic volumes. To create a partition, use the instructions in the next topic in this chapter. To create a dynamic volume, use the instructions in the Create a Dynamic Volume topic later in this chapter.


Create a Partition

You can create partitions only on basic disks. To check the disk type, click the disk and look at the Type column in the right pane.

  1. From the Quick Access window, click the Create Volume button. The Create Volume wizard appears. You can read information about partitions and volumes and then click Next to continue.

  2. You are asked to select whether to create a partition or a volume. Click Next.

If the disk you have selected is a basic disk, the partition radio button is highlighted. You can create a partition only on a basic disk. To upgrade to a dynamic disk, see Upgrade a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk later in this chapter.

  1. The Create Volume wizard asks you to select a type and size of the partition. Select Primary or Extended. Click Next to continue.

  2. Select a disk for the partition.

  3. Choose a free space for the partition. Click Next to continue.

  4. Assign a drive letter to this volume, if you wish. Click Next to continue.

  5. Format the volume using either NTFS or FAT. File and folder compression is supported only on NTFS volumes.

  6. Choose a file system and formatting option:

  7. Click Next to continue, then Finish.

If there is no free space on the selected disk, the free space selection is shaded. A message appears on the wizard that indicates a lack of available disk space.


Create a Dynamic Volume

You can create dynamic volumes only on dynamic disks. To check the disk type, click the disk and look at the Type column in the right pane.

  1. From the Quick Access window, click the Create Volume button. The Create Volume wizard appears. You can read information about partitions and volumes and then click Next to continue.

  2. You are asked to select whether to create a partition or a volume. Make sure that the Dynamic volume button is highlighted.

If you have selected a dynamic disk, the Dynamic volume button will already be highlighted. Click Next to continue.

  1. You are asked to select the volume name, size, and the type of volume to create. Name the volume and provide a size in megabytes or gigabytes.

If you are creating the volume on a Windows® 2000 system, you will see a Query Max Size button. This button is not available on NT 4.0 systems. The Query Max Size button works differently, depending on whether you have a disk or disks selected.

  1. Select one of the following volume types:

Checkbox

Description

Concatenated

Simple or spanned volume (selected by default).

Striped

You must have unallocated space on at least two dynamic disks to create a striped volume. The number of columns is automatically selected as 2.

RAID-5

You must have at least three dynamic disks with sufficient unallocated space to create a RAID-5 volume. Note that you cannot create a RAID-5 volume if you are using a Windows NT® Workstation or a Windows 2000 Professional machine.

Mirrored

You must have two dynamic disks with sufficient unallocated space to create a mirror. You can mirror only a simple or spanned volume. Any other selection will cause the mirror option on the menu to be grayed out. You cannot mirror a volume if you are using a Windows NT Workstation or Windows 2000 Professional machine.

  1. Click Next to continue, Modify to change, or Back to alter your selections.

  2. After all selections are made, verify your settings and click Next to continue.

  3. Do one of the following:

  4. Format the volume, using either NTFS or FAT. File and folder compression is supported only on NTFS volumes. FAT32 is also available under Windows 2000. You can also choose a label, which will appear in the left pane of the Array Manager console.

  5. You can choose a formatting option, if desired. Click on the appropriate checkbox if you want to select the following. By default, neither box is checked.

  6. Click Next to continue, then Finish.


Connect to a Remote Computer

From the Array Manager console, you can view all the servers within any connected Microsoft Windows NT or Windows 2000 domain that have the Array Manager software installed on them. You need administrator-level access rights to install and use Array Manager.

To connect to a remote computer:
  1. From the Computer pull-down menu, select Connect, or click on the My Network Places icon and select Connect.

  2. The Connect to Computer dialog box appears. Type the name of the computer to connect to.

  3. The Remote Connection dialog box appears and displays the machine name and domain.

Note: The Remote Connection dialog box will not come up if you met the security logon conditions when you logged on initially—that is, your logon name and password match the user name and password of an administrator account on the remote computer. If the Remote Connection dialog box does not come up, see When attempting to access a remote computer, you are denied access or get an error message in the Troubleshooting chapter.
  1. Enter a User Name. You can enter either a local administrator account name on the computer you choose to connect to or a domain administrator account for the remote computer or for a trusted domain of the remote computer.

  2. Type the password.

  3. If you selected a domain account, enter the domain by using the pull-down list. You can see these domain names under the Array Manager tree in My Network Places | Microsoft Windows Network.

Note: If a domain name is not selected, then Array Manager uses a local user account.

The domain name is automatically updated in the window when you change it.

The computer icon for the computer you connected to displays in the tree view of the Array Manager console.

Note: For more information on remote connection, see the chapter on Remote Management.

Upgrade a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk

  1. From the Quick Access window, click the Upgrade Disk button.

  2. The Upgrade to Dynamic Disk wizard explains information about upgrading. Click Next to continue.

  3. You are asked to select disks to upgrade. Add the basic disks you want to upgrade to the list of dynamic disks and click Next to continue, then Finish.

Note: For more information on upgrading a basic disk to dynamic, see Upgrading a Basic Disk to Dynamic in the chapter on Disk Management.

View a Configuration

From the Quick Access window, use this button to move directly to the View Configuration dialog box. You can view the following information about hardware configuration:


View Events

Array Manager generates alerts that are added to the Microsoft Windows NT/2000 application event log. You can view these alerts in the Array Manager Events tab or in the Microsoft Event Viewer.

From the Quick Access window, use this button to move directly to the Events tab in the console. (You will need to close the Quick Access window to see the events in the right pane of the Array Manager console.)

Note: For more information on the Event Log and the Events tab, see the chapter on Event Monitoring.


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