RAID-10 on PE2850

[Lutz Birkhahn]

Before I start banging my head against the wall... Does anybody have a
tip how to configure 4 drives on a PE2850 for RAID-10 or 1+0 or something
like that?

I spent the most part of today playing with the RAID BIOS program and
reading tons of emails saying that others do it every day, but I still
can't figure it out how to do it (I've configured many of these machines
with RAID-1 or RAID-5 before, that works fine). From what I read on the
list it seems you need to start with 2 RAID-1 arrays and then somehow
put them into the same Span (i.e. striping them)?

I tried all kinds of variations, like selecting all 4 of the drives and
build an array out of those (only offers RAID-0 or RAID-5)...

Do you need a split backplane for RAID-10?? (we've ordered all of our
machines with the 1x6 HD Backplane)

These are the steps I've done so far:

BIOS, hit ^M to enter RAID settings
- Configure -> New Configuration (all 4 drives show up on Channel 0)
- Select (with Space key) the first 2 drives (A00-00 and A00-01)
- hit Enter twice, shows the box "Select Configurable Arrays", only
  option I can select is A00: Span-1 (I tried not selecting it, but
  then I cannot continue; also didn't find any way to change this
  string).
- F10 (Configure), it shows:

   LD  RAID   Size    #Stripes   StpSz   Drive-State
    0   1    69880MB      2      64KB    OPTIMAL

- The RAID type field only offers RAID-0 or RAID-1 (no RAID-10 or so)
  so I keep it at RAID-1
- There is a line "Span = NO", but I cannot change it (when I hit Enter
  it says "Not An Option Item. Press Any Key To Continue")
- So I hit Enter on the "Accept" field and have 1 RAID-1 array:

   RAID Ch-0                     RAID Ch-1
   ------------------------------------------------
   0: ONLIN A00-00
   1: ONLIN A00-01
   2: READY
   3: READY

How do I proceed from here, or is this already wrong??

I tried adding a 2nd RAID-1 array just like the first one, called A01,
but at the "Select Configurable Array" it again only had one option,
"A01: Span-1", and I ended up seeing 2 disks in Linux (sda and sdb),
which is not what I want...

In case it matters, the System BIOS is A02, Version H430 (Feb 25, 2005),
FW 521S.

Chris Purcell wrote a while ago:
> from the Main Menu:
> Select Configure,
> Select View/Add,
> Arrow down to your drive(s),
> Select them using the spacebar,
> When drive selection is finished, press Enter,
> Now hit F-10,
> If you aren't creating a Raid10, Raid50, etc, just a normal raid0,
> raid1, or raid5, hit spacebar, then F-10 again,

OK, but what *if* I do want to create a Raid10, Raid50, etc.??!

TIA for any help or consolation...

/lutz