Configuration for Dell PowerEdge R710/R720 Hardware

The following RAID controller configuration procedure applies to Forge appliances based on Dell PowerEdge R710/R720 hardware.

On first boot, you use the PERC 5/I Configuration utility to configure the RAID controller:

1. Press Ctrl+R at the RAID Controller boot prompt, approximately 24 seconds into the boot sequence:
2. Configure the PERC RAID controller to have multiple logical disks over a single RAID5 array:
   1. Delete any existing disk groups:
      1. Select a disk group and press F2.
      2. Select Delete Disk Group.
      3. Repeat Step 2.a.a and Step 2.a.b for all existing disk groups.
   2. Create a new disk group for the Forge system:
      1. Select the controller and press F2.
      2. Select Create New VD.
      3. Select the RAID Level value, press Enter, select RAID 5 from the list, then press Enter again.
      4. Select all available physical disks by selecting a disk item and pressing the Spacebar (disk sizes might vary).
      5. Under Basic Settings, fill in the following fields:
         • VD Size: Use 307200 as the value.
         • VD Name: Use ForgeSystem as the value.
      6. Select OK and press Enter.
   3. Create a new disk group for the failover VMs, each not exceeding 2TB in size:
      1. Select the controller, select Disk Group 0, then press F2.
      2. Select Add New VD.
      3. Select the RAID Level value, press Enter, select RAID 5 from the list, then press Enter again.
      4. Under Basic Settings, fill in the following fields:
         • VD Size: Use 2000000 as the value.
         • VD Name: Use FailoverMVMs1 as the value (use FailoverVMs2 if this is the second 2 TB disk).
      5. Select OK and press Enter.
   4. Repeat Step 2.c until all disk space has been allocated in chunks of 2000000 MB each, adjusting the names of each VD to be FailoverVMs2, FailoverVMs3, and so on.
      When less than 2000000 MB remains, allocate all remaining space to the last VD.
   5. Fast-initialize the disks by performing the following steps for each virtual disk:
      1. Select a virtual disk and press F2.
      2. Select Initialization > Fast Init.
      3. Select OK and press Enter when you are prompted.
3. Verify that the final RAID configuration looks like the following.
   
   The number of disks might vary depending on how many 2TB chunks were allocated.
4. Press Esc to exit the controller configuration utility.
5. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del if prompted. The server reboots with the new settings.