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About Initialization

Larger RAID 5 and RAID 50 units need to be initialized before they perform optimally. For these configurations, foreground initialization starts immediately in the BIOS, or if the system is rebooted, about 10 minutes after the driver loads. (If a rebuild schedule is enabled, the initialization will happen at the next scheduled rebuild time.)

Initialization of RAID 0 Units

RAID 0 units do not need to be initialized and are immediately available for use with full performance when created.

Initialization of RAID 5 and RAID 50 Units

RAID 5 units with 3 or 4 disks do not need to be initialized and have full performance upon creation. Regardless of the size, all 9000-series RAID-5 and 50 arrays are fully fault tolerant upon creation. Similarly, RAID 50 units with 6 or 8 disks do not need to be initialized. This is because these configurations use a specialized scheme for writing to the unit, which does not have to be valid to provide fault tolerance. Initialization of these RAID-5 units will take place the first time the unit is verified, either in 3BM, 3DM 2, or the CLI.

RAID 5 units with 5 or more disks, and RAID 50 units with 5 or 6 disk subunits do not need to be initialized. For these configurations, initialization begins automatically after you create them. If you create them in the 3BM utility, zeroes are written to all unit members. If you create them through 3DM, RAID 5 parity is calculated and written to disk, keeping any data in the unit intact. While the parity calculation takes longer than writing zeroes to the unit members, it allows you to partition, format, and use the unit while initialization is taking place. The unit is fully fault tolerant while the initialization is taking place.

Initialization of RAID 1 and RAID 10 Units

RAID 1 and RAID 10 units are not initialized when they are created and are immediately available for use with full performance when created.

Initialization of RAID 1, RAID 10 will take place the first time the units is verified, either via 3BM, through 3DM 2, or through the CLI.

Initialization of a RAID 1 unit results in data from one disk (the disk on the lower channel number) being copied to the other disk. In RAID 10 units, data from one half of the unit is copied to the other half.

After the initialization, subsequent verifies to a RAID 1 or 10 unit check for data consistency by comparing the data from one drive (or set of drives) to the other drive (or set of drives).


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