Managing Arrays

Note: The H-Series and X-Series CTERA Edge Filers are supplied with arrays that are preconfigured. These arrays cannot be changed. For an HC100 edge filer Storage > Arrays in the navigation pane is not available.

To create an array:
Note: This procedure is only required in the following circumstances:

• You did not set up storage during the initial setup of the CTERA Edge Filer.
• You did not set up storage using the storage setup wizard.
• You have additional disks that you want to use in a new array, separate from the existing array.

1. In the CONFIGURATION tab, select Storage > Arrays in the navigation pane.
   The Arrays page is displayed.
2. Click New.
   The Select drives to join this array wizard is displayed, which shows you all drives available and asks you to select drives to join the new array.
   
3. Check the Member box for each drive you want to include in the array.
4. Click Next and then select the type of array you want to create.
   
   LVM – A Logical Volume Manager-based array. This is the default array type.
   RAID0 (Striped) – Combines the capacity of the drives and increases the read and write speed using striping. You must at least two drives to create a RAID0 array.
   Specify the RAID Stripe Size. This is the size of blocks that data is divided into when it is written to the array and distributed across the drives. Reading and writing large data files sequentially generally benefits from a large stripe size. Small random reads and writes generally benefit from a smaller stripe size. The default value is 64K.
   Note: Other array types are disabled.
5. Click Next and enter a name for the array.
6. Click Next.
7. To immediately create a volume on the array, select the I want to create a logical volume on this storage array check box.
8. Click Finish.
   If you checked the I want to create a logical volume on this storage array check box, you proceed to create a volume. For details, see Managing Volumes.

Expanding an Array (Except for H-Series and X-Series Edge Filers)

To expand an array after adding new disks, you add the disks to the existing array.
Note: Edge filers that were defined with a JBOD array can still add additional disks to the JBOD array.
To expand an array:

1. In the CONFIGURATION tab, select Storage > Arrays in the navigation pane.
   The Arrays page is displayed.
2. Select the array to expand or select the array row and click Edit.
   The Select drives to join this array wizard is displayed, which shows you all drives available and asks you to select drives to join the new array.
   
3. Check the Member box for each drive to include in the array.
4. Click Next to the end of the wizard and then click Finish.

After expanding an array, the added disk space can be used to increase volume sizes. For details, see Managing Volumes.

Renaming an Array

To rename an array:

1. In the CONFIGURATION tab, select Storage > Arrays in the navigation pane.
   The Arrays page is displayed.
2. Select the array to expand or select the array row and click Edit.The Select drives to join this array wizard is displayed.
3. Click Next until the Name this Array window is displayed.
4. Change the Array name value.
5. Click Next.
6. Click Finish in the Wizard Completed screen.

Deleting Arrays

Warning: Deleting an array will result in the loss of all existing data on the array.
To delete an array, select the array, and then click Delete. Click Yes to confirm.
You cannot delete an array that has a volume defined on it.