New Dell PE R710 - Storage

Dell PE R710, received from Dell in the following state :

Windows Disk 0 1800GB ( Volume C & D )

Windows Disk 1 526 GB (Volume E )

Perc6i Integrated Raid Controller
6 x 500GB Nearline SAS 7200RPM HDDs

Raid 5 Configuration with two Virtual Disks

I have installed Dell open Manage and it shows the following :

Virtual Disk 0 - State : Background Initialization ( 7% )

Virtual Disk 1 - State : Background Initialization ( 25% )

Now when I click on Virtual Disk 0 it shows me all 6 Disks and the same happens when I click on Virtual Disk 1 it displays all 6 disks.

But when I click on Storage > Perc6i > Connector 0 > I get 4 Physical disks with the following numbers :

Physical Disk 0:0:0
Physical Disk 0:0:1
Physical Disk 0:0:2
Physical Disk 0:0:3

When I click on Storage > Perc6i > Connector 1 > I get 2 Physical Disks Listed in the following way :

Physical Disk 1:0:4
Physical Disk 1:0:5

I am a little confused in this description, does this 1:0:4 interprets to Controller1, Disk4. Does this integrated raid card have two controllers coming out of it ?

Also, When I first switched on the machine, the boot partition was showing 1GB Available out of 40GB, now its showing 38GB available out of 40GB.

Is this because the Virtual Disks are still Initializing ?
Any recommendations or suggestions ?

Also, this server have 6 x 500GB NearLine SAS Hard drives, what would be a good raid config ?

We are planning to use it for Hyper-V with quite a few (7 or 8) virtual servers, your suggestions would be helpful.

Also, while the virtual disks are in a initialization state, can I destroy and re-create the raid configuration ? I would have to do it at the BIOS CTRL-M ?

Answer

I am a little confused in this description, does this 1:0:4
interprets to Controller1, Disk4. Does
this integrated raid card have two
controllers coming out of it ?

I think that it is still technically one controller. EDIT: @techieb0y has the right answer to this part of the question below.

Also, When I first switched on the

machine, the boot partition was
showing 1GB Available out of 40GB, now
its showing 38GB available out of
40GB.

Is this because the Virtual Disks are
still Initializing ?

Yes.

Any
recommendations or suggestions ?

Wait until they are finished initializing.

Also, this server have 6 x 500GB

NearLine SAS Hard drives, what would
be a good raid config ?

This really depends on your needs, and I am sure there are many threads here on ServerFault that talk about the benefits and drawbacks of various RAID configurations in various scenarios. What is most important to you? Safety? Speed? Maximum volume? When I'm in doubt, I usually stick with a RAID5, cause it offers a good combination of performance and safety.

We are planning to use it for Hyper-V
with quite a few (7 or 8) virtual
servers, your suggestions would be

helpful.

Depending on how much RAM and CPU you have, and depending on what you are doing with these systems, that might not be that many at all. I've run as many as 30 simultaneous VMs on my similarly spec'd hosts (although running VMware ESX and not Hyper-V). But those VMs have all been "light-duty" machines that aren't heavily utilized.

Also, while the virtual disks are in a
initialization state, can I destroy
and re-create the raid configuration ?

Yes, I've done this many times on my R710s with no ill-effects. Just make sure you do a new initialization before using them.

I would have to do it at the BIOS
CTRL-M ?

Yes, as far as I know, this is the only way to do it. There might be others though, I haven't looked for any alternatives.

Hope this helps. Good luck,

--jed