Link a disk drive to an integrated server

In order for an integrated Windows server to recognize an integrated server disk drive (network server storage space) as a hard disk drive, link the two together. You must create a disk drive before you can link it. See Create an integrated server disk drive. After you create and link a new integrated server disk drive, it appears as a new hard disk drive to the integrated server. Then format it before you can use it. See Format integrated server disk drives.

To link a disk drive to an integrated server, follow these steps:

1. If you are not linking a disk drive dynamically, then shut down your integrated server. See Start and stop an integrated server.

2. In iSeries™ Navigator, select Integrated Server Administration —> All Virtual Disks.

3. Right-click an available disk drive and select Add Link, or select the drive and click the appropriate icon on the iSeries Navigator toolbar.

4. Select the server you want to link the disk to.

5. Select one of the available link types and the link sequence position.

6. If you are linking the disk to an iSCSI attached server, select one of the available storage paths.

7. Select one of the available data access types.

8. Click OK.

9. If you are not linking a disk drive dynamically, then start your integrated server. See Start and stop an integrated server.

If you want to use the CL command, see ADDNWSSTGL.

If the disk drive is new and has not previously been formatted, refer to Format integrated server disk drives.

Manage disk drives when running out of drive letters:

The maximum number of disk drives that can be linked to an integrated server is greater than the number of drive letters that are available on Windows. Since not all drives will have a drive letter, other options must be used to utilize all storage linked to the server. Here are two options to utilize all disk drives which are linked to a server.

1. A disk drive letter can be made up of multiple disk drives using a spanned volume set.

   When you create a volume set, all of the existing data on the partitions that you use for the new volume set is erased. You should consider volume sets while you are setting up your server.

   1. From Disk Management, right-click each disk drive number and select Upgrade to Dynamic Disk... from pop-up menu.

   2. Right-click a disk drive partition and select Create Volume... from pop-up menu.

   3. Follow the create volume wizard to create a spanned volume, making sure to add the multiple disks.

      This feature is nice because if the volume gets full, a disk can be dynamically added, and it will be immediately joined to the spanned volume without ever requiring to reboot the server.

2. A disk drive can be mounted over a subdirectory of an existing disk drive letter.

   1. Create a directory on a disk drive letter that is formatted with NTFS. For example, MD C:\MOUNT1.

   2. From Disk Management, click over disk drive partition you want to format and select Format from the pop-up menu.

   3. Once drive is formatted, right-click over disk drive partition again and select Change Drive Letter and Path... from pop-up menu.

   4. Select Add.

   5. Select radio button Mount in this NTFS folder:

   6. Use Browse button to find directory C:\MOUNT1 that was created in step 1.

   7. Click OK to make that directory a mount point for this disk drive.