Apparatus and method that automatically scans for and configures previously non-configured disk drives in accordance with a particular raid level based on the needed raid level

A computer-implemented method for automatically configuring disk drives connected to a controller, the method comprising the steps of:

• scanning the disk drives connected to the controller;
• finding one or more unconfigured disk drives;
• preparing a configuration for the unconfigured disk drives in accordance with one of a plurality of RAID levels, such that
• (a) when only one unconfigured disk drive is found, configuring the unconfigured disk drive as a single drive (JBOD),
• (b) when the unconfigured disk drives are associated with a parameter setting indicating no redundancy, configuring the unconfigured disk drives in accordance with a RAID level 0,
• (c) when the unconfigured disk drives are associated with a parameter setting indicating mirroring, configuring the unconfigured disk drives in accordance with a RAID level of 0+1,
• (d) when the unconfigured disk drives are associated with a parameter setting indicating that mirroring is not required, configuring the unconfigured disk drives in accordance with RAID level of 5, and
• (e) when the unconfigured disk drives are associated with a parameter setting indicating that a spare disk drive is required,
• selecting a largest unconfigured disk drive as the spare disk drive,
• decrementing a number of unconfigured disk drives by the spare disk drive, and
• configuring the unconfigured disk drives with a RAID level that supports the number of unconfigured disk drives in accordance with the parameter settings;
• and
• storing the configuration with the controller.

A computer-implemented method for automatically configuring disk drives connected to a RAID controller, the method comprising the steps of:

• detecting, by the RAID controller, at runtime that at least one disk drive was added to the RAID controller;
• determining, by the RAID controller, if one or more dead drives are connected to the RAID controller, and if there are one or more dead drives,
• substituting, by the controller, each dead drive with one of the added disk drives;
• if there are no dead drives connected to the RAID controller, or if there are at least one of the added disk drives remaining,
• as a function of the number of added disk drives remaining and the number of disk drives in an existing last logical drive, adding, by the controller, the added drives to the existing last logical drive,
• and when the added disk drives cannot be added to the existing last logical drive, forming, by the controller, one or more new independent logical drives with the added drives based on a set of predetermined rules whereby a RAID level is established for the connected disk drives that may be different from the RAID level before the disk drives were added.

In a data storage system, an apparatus for configuring connected disk drives, the disk drives being operatively connected to the apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

• a memory storing a procedure and having data defined therein, said procedure having instructions for:
• (a) identifying one or more unconfigured disk drives from among the connected disk drives;
• and,
• (b) preparing a configuration for the unconfigured disk drives in accordance with one of a plurality of RAID levels, including:
• (i) associating with each unconfigured disk drive one or more parameter settings;
• and
• (li) configuring the unconfigured disk drives with a particular RAID level based on the number of unconfigured disk drives and the parameter settings, where the particular RAID level established for the unconfigured disk drives after the configuring may be different from the RAID level before the configuring of other of the connected disk drives.