The Array Manager console provides a graphical way to see all the objects in your system. The Array Manager console display shows a tree view on the left and an expanded view of a selected tree view item on the right.
Array Manager allows you to customize your console layout and make a custom product that is more convenient to use. You can add or remove display categories, customize headers, resize columns, and change colors of the graphical layout.
Starting Array Manager with a Controller Highlighted for information on launching Array Manager with a particular controller highlighted in the tree view. This procedure may be useful if you wish to quickly identify the status of a particular controller.
Starting Array Manager with a Remote Connection for information on using the Windows command line to launch Array Manager and establish a connection to a remote system. This procedure may be useful for verifying the status of storage connected to a remote system.
You can start Array Manager on a Windows system using the Start menu. The Array Manager console launches with storage connected to the local system displayed in the tree view.
To start Array Manager from the Windows Start menu:
You can start Array Manager on a Windows system using the command line. The Array Manager console launches with storage connected to the local system displayed in the tree view.
To start Array Manager from a command line:
Open a DOS command shell.
Enter the following as a single command string:
amconsole $user:UserName password:Password
where:
UserName is the name of a user with administrator or supervisor authority.
Password is the password of a user with administrator or supervisor authority.
You may also wish to view the following related sections:
When starting Array Manager from the command line, you can specify that a particular controller be highlighted in the tree view. Highlighting a controller may be useful when the system is attached to multiple controllers and you only need the status of a particular one. For example, you may have received an error message regarding a controller. You might also be using another management application that has identified a problem with a controller. In these cases, you may wish to launch Array Manager with the controller highlighted so that you can quickly obtain more information regarding the controller's status.
To start Array Manager with a controller highlighted:
ControllerName is the controller that you wish to be highlighted in the Array Manager tree view.
DomainName is the domain to which the remote computer belongs. When connecting to a NetWare system, omit this parameter. It does not apply to NetWare.
Password is the password of a user with administrator or supervisor authority. When connecting to a remote system with Array Manager, it is recommended that the password be the same on both the local and remote system. When connecting to a NetWare system, omit the Password parameter. NetWare will prompt you for the password.
UserName is the name of a user with administrator or supervisor authority. When connecting to a remote system with Array Manager, it is recommended that the user name be the same on both the local and remote system. When connecting to a NetWare system, omit the UserName parameter. NetWare will prompt you for the user name.
Elements of the controller name should be separated by a space. When using spaces, enclose the item containing spaces in quotation marks. For example, to start Array Manager with a PERC 2 /Si controller selected in the tree view, enter:
When launching Array Manager with a remote connection, the Array Manager tree view displays the local system and the remote system with their attached storage.
DomainName is the domain to which the remote computer belongs. When connecting to a NetWare system, omit this parameter. It does not apply to NetWare.
Password is the password of a user with administrator or supervisor authority. When connecting to a remote system with Array Manager, it is recommended that the password be the same on both the local and remote system. When connecting to a NetWare system, omit the Password parameter. NetWare will prompt you for the password.
UserName is the name of a user with administrator or supervisor authority. When connecting to a remote system with Array Manager, it is recommended that the user name be the same on both the local and remote system. When connecting to a NetWare system, omit the UserName parameter. NetWare will prompt you for the user name.
You may also wish to view the following related sections:
The amconsole command launches Array Manager on a Windows system. This section provides the amconsole command's syntax along with its parameters. This section is provided for reference purposes. Other sections provide specific uses of the amconsole command and appropriate syntax examples. You may wish to refer to one of these sections:
ComputerName is the name of the remote computer. When you specify a remote computer, the controllers attached to the remote computer are displayed in the Array Manager tree view. This parameter is only necessary when connecting to a remote computer.
ControllerName is the controller that you wish to be highlighted in the Array Manager tree view. This parameter is only necessary if you wish to highlight a particular controller.
DomainName is the domain to which the remote computer belongs. This parameter is only necessary when connecting to a remote computer.
Password is the password of the administrator or supervisor. Array Manager requires administrator or supervisor authority. When connecting to a remote system with Array Manager, it is recommended that the password be the same on both the local and remote system.
UserName is the user name of an administrator or supervisor. Array Manager requires administrator or supervisor authority. When connecting to a remote system with Array Manager, it is recommended that the user name be the same on both the local and remote system.
The amconsole command and its parameters should be entered on a single line without a line break. Elements of the controller name should be separated by a space. When using spaces, enclose the item containing spaces in quotation marks. For example, to start Array Manager with a PERC 2 /Si controller selected in the tree view, enter:
The Array Manager console display has the following features:
A tree view displaying the storage objects in the left pane of the window.
Tabbed views in the right pane that contain additional information on storage objects.
If you are viewing Array Manager running on an NT 4.0 computer, you will see two tabbed views in the right pane, General and Events, as shown in the screen below.
On the other hand, on a Windows 2000 Array Manager console screen, four tabbed views appear: General, Events, Disk View, and DM View, as shown in the screen that follows.
For more detail on the tabbed views, see the topic The Right Pane later in this chapter.
Note For NetWare® users, the Array Manager console provides a graphical way to see
other NetWare servers and storage objects. Because Array Manager does not
support disk and volume management on NetWare servers, you will not see the
Disks and Volumes storage objects in the console view of those servers.
The left pane shows the objects detected by the Array Manager software. In the example screen below, the local computer object, DELL4, is at the top. The other major storage objects are Arrays, Disks, and Volumes. By clicking the plus sign (+) in front of a storage object, you can see the subordinate storage objects under that object.
Disks represent the disks recognized by the Microsoft® Windows NT® or Windows® 2000 operating system. This can include regular hard disks, CD-ROM drives and other removable media, and virtual disks created through Array Manager.
Volumes include dynamic RAID volumes created in Array Manager, primary and extended partitions, logical drives associated with extended partitions, and RAID volumes created in NT 4.0 Disk Administrator.
This icon works exactly like the My Network Places icon in the My Computer window of the Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 operating system.
Note The My Network Places icon is displayed in the left pane when you start Array
Manager using the Windows Start menu. This icon is not displayed when you start
Array Manager using IT Assistant.
Array Manager uses History to store a list of the most recent connections made from the computer. You may want to delete some computer names from the History list. To delete a computer name from the History list, right-click the name and select Remove Computer from the context menu that appears.
Note The History icon is displayed in the left pane when you start Array Manager using
the Windows Start menu. This icon is not displayed when you start Array Manager
using IT Assistant.
You can use the Favorites option for easy storage and retrieval of frequently used computer names. The Favorites option lets you display and retrieve NetWare server names, as well as other computers.
Note The Favorites icon is displayed in the left pane when you start Array Manager
using the Windows Start menu. This icon is not displayed when you start Array
Manager using IT Assistant.
The right pane identifies the various objects and their status, and displays any error conditions that may exist. The screen below shows the right-pane console view on a Windows NT 4.0 console with its two tabbed views, General and Events.
The four tabbed views in the Windows 2000 right-pane console view are shown in the following screen. It includes the General, Events, Disk View, and DM View tabs.
The sections that follow describe the right pane's four tabbed views:
The objects you select in the console's tree view determine what parameters display in the right pane's General tab. The parameters are briefly discussed as follows:
Name — The name of the object.
Status — This can vary, depending on the object. Common Status conditions are Online, Healthy, and Resynching. If Status shows as Failed, refer to the Array Disk Status Information in the Troubleshooting chapter.
Layout — Identifies the layout of the selected object. For example, if a volume is selected, the volume layout may indicate whether the volume is partitioned or not.
Type — Identifies the object, such as Array Disk.
Disk Group — Shows an entry for disks in a basic or dynamic group.
Capacity — The maximum size of the disk.
Unallocated Space — The amount of free disk space still available.
Graphical Layout — How much of the disk is being used.
Progress — The current progress (entage of completion) for tasks.
File System — Indicates the type of file system. For example, a selected volume might have a FAT (File Allocation Table) or an NTFS (NT File System) file system.
Device — The type of disk: SCSI, IDE, etc.
Port — Identifies the controller card. A SCSI port has zero or more target IDs, and a target ID has one or more LUNs.
LUN — Logical Unit Number.
Target — SCSI ID, which uniquely identifies the disk on the controller card.
Vendor — Identifies vendor on hardware objects.
You can change the sort order of columns. First, click a header, such as Name, and either an up or down arrow will display (indicating the current sort of the column—ascending or descending). Then click the arrow to reverse the sort. The arrow appears only for a short time. You can also right-click a header and the context menu that comes up has commands for ascending and descending sort. If you left-click or right-click a header and do not get the sort arrow or the sort menu commands, the column most likely is not sortable because it contains storage objects that are displayed in a hierarchical order.
You will see the Disk View tab only on the Windows 2000 console. It will not appear if you are running Array Manager on a Windows NT 4.0 machine. The Disk View tab displays a view similar to that in Disk Administrator in Windows NT 4.0 and Disk Management in Windows 2000. It has a graphical layout of the disks on your system, including CD-ROMs or other removable media. As with the tree view and General tab view, right-clicking on an object or portion of the window relating to an object brings up a context menu that has commands related to the object.
The DM View tab appears only on the Windows 2000 console. You will not see this tab if you are running Array Manager on a Windows NT 4.0 machine. The DM View tab displays the information for the Windows 2000 Disk Management snap-in, which is also called LDM (Logical Disk Manager). Disk Management is the built-in disk and volume manager that comes with Windows 2000.
The DM View tab is inactive (dimmed) in an Array Manager console when it is connected to a local or remote Array Manager for Windows 2000 server machine. That is because Array Manager for Windows 2000 and Disk Management cannot run on the same computer. Array Manager for Windows 2000 is an upgrade that replaces the Disk Management product during installation. For details, see the section More on the Array Manager and Disk Management Relationship at the end of the Overview chapter.
The reason that the DM View tab exists on the Windows 2000 console is that you can remotely connect from a Windows 2000 console to a server with Disk Management. Once you make the connection to the server with Disk Management, the DM View will become active. Because Array Manager for Windows 2000 and Disk Management are related products, you can connect to the server with Disk Management and view and manage its storage. Refer to the Windows 2000 Disk Management online help for details on how the function works.
To customize the Array Manager console display, you can add or remove categories, customize headers, resize columns, and change the colors in the graphical layout. Topics in this section include:
The default Array Manager tree view shows three categories: Arrays, Disks, and Volumes. (NetWare users will see only Arrays.) You can add new categories to this tree view. For example, you may want Array Groups, Basic Groups, and Dynamic Groups to be displayed under the same object in the tree view. You can add a Groups category and specify that Array Groups, Basic Groups, and Dynamic Groups be included in this category.
Highlight an object in the left pane of the console.
In the right pane, right-click in one of the column headings, such as Name.
Select Customize header.
A dialog box comes up with two panes:
Hide columns on the left
Visible columns and order on the right
Add and Remove buttons are provided to allow you to move the column headers
provided by the program between each pane.
Use the Add or Remove buttons to move the column headers you want to the Visible columns and order pane. Once the desired headers are moved to the right pane, you can change their order with the Move Up and Move Down buttons.
Note You can also change the order of the column headers by dragging a header to the
right or the left in the General tab view.
The color preference option allows you to select how you want to view particular items in the graphical layout, such as RAID-5 volumes, mirrored disks, and other managed objects.
