Chapter 18. Managing Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks in the web console

Procedure

1. Open the RHEL 8 web console.
2. Click Storage.
3. Click the menu icon in the Devices table.
4. Click Create RAID device.
5. In the Create RAID Device dialog box, enter a name for a new RAID.
6. In the RAID Level drop-down list, select a level of RAID you want to use.

7. In the Chunk Size drop-down list, leave the predefined value as it is.

   The Chunk Size value specifies how large is each block for data writing. If the chunk size is 512 KiB, the system writes the first 512 KiB to the first disk, the second 512 KiB is written to the second disk, and the third chunk will be written to the third disk. If you have three disks in your RAID, the fourth 512 KiB will be written to the first disk again.

8. Select disks you want to use for RAID.
9. Click Create.

Procedure

1. Open the RHEL 8 web console.
2. Click Storage.
3. In the RAID devices box, choose the RAID you want to format by clicking on it.
4. In the RAID details screen, scroll down to the Content part.
5. Click to the newly created RAID.
6. Click the Format button.

7. In the Erase drop-down list, select:

   • Don’t overwrite existing data — the RHEL web console rewrites only the disk header. Advantage of this option is speed of formatting.
   • Overwrite existing data with zeros — the RHEL web console rewrites the whole disk with zeros. This option is slower because the program has to go through the whole disk. Use this option if the RAID includes any data and you need to rewrite it.
8. In the Type drop-down list, select a XFS file system, if you do not have another strong preference.
9. Enter a name of the file system.

10. In the Mounting drop down list, select Custom.

    The Default option does not ensure that the file system will be mounted on the next boot.

11. In the Mount Point field, add the mount path.
12. Select Mount at boot.

13. Click the Format button.

    Formatting can take several minutes depending on the used formatting options and size of RAID.

    After successful finish, you can see the details of the formatted RAID on the Filesystem tab.

14. To use the RAID, click Mount.

Procedure

1. Open the RHEL 8 console.
2. Click Storage.
3. In the RAID devices box, select the RAID you want to edit.
4. In the RAID details screen, scroll down to the Content part.
5. Click to the newly created RAID.
6. Click the Create partition table button.

7. In the Erase drop-down list, select:

   • Don’t overwrite existing data — the RHEL web console rewrites only the disk header. Advantage of this option is speed of formatting.
   • Overwrite existing data with zeros — the RHEL web console rewrites the whole RAID with zeros. This option is slower because the program has to go through the whole RAID. Use this option if RAID includes any data and you need to rewrite it.

8. In the Partitioning drop-down list, select:

   • Compatible with modern system and hard disks > 2TB (GPT) — GUID Partition Table is a modern recommended partitioning system for large RAIDs with more than four partitions.
   • Compatible with all systems and devices (MBR) — Master Boot Record works with disks up to 2 TB in size. MBR also support four primary partitions max.
9. Click Format.

Procedure

1. Open the RHEL 8 web console.
2. Click Storage.
3. In the RAID devices box, click to the RAID you want to edit.
4. In the RAID details screen, scroll down to the Content part.
5. Click to the newly created RAID.
6. Click Create Partition.
7. In the Create partition dialog box, set up the size of the first partition.

8. In the Erase drop-down list, select:

   • Don’t overwrite existing data — the RHEL web console rewrites only the disk header. Advantage of this option is speed of formatting.
   • Overwrite existing data with zeros — the RHEL web console rewrites the whole RAID with zeros. This option is slower because the program have to go through the whole RAID. Use this option if RAID includes any data and you need to rewrite it.
9. In the Type drop-down list, select a XFS file system, if you do not have another strong preference.
10. Enter any name for the file system. Do not use spaces in the name.

11. In the Mounting drop down list, select Custom.

    The Default option does not ensure that the file system will be mounted on the next boot.

12. In the Mount Point field, add the mount path.
13. Select Mount at boot.
14. Click Create partition.

Procedure

1. Open the RHEL 8 web console.
2. Click Storage.
3. Click the + button in the Volume Groups box.
4. In the Create Volume Group dialog box, enter a name for the new volume group.

5. In the Disks list, select a RAID device.

   If you do not see the RAID in the list, unmount the RAID from the system. The RAID device must not be used by the RHEL 8 system.

6. Click Create.