Getting started with disk management

 

When a new disk unit is attached to the system, the system initially treats it as a non-configured disk. Learn what you can do with your disk units after initial installment.

You can add non-configured disk units to either the system disk pool, basic disk pool, or an independent disk pool. When adding non-configured disk units, use the serial number information that is assigned by the manufacturer to ensure that you are selecting the correct physical disk unit.

When you add a non-configured disk unit to a disk pool, the system assigns a unit number to the disk unit. The unit number can be used instead of the serial number and logical address.

When a disk unit has mirrored protection, the two disk units of the mirrored pair are assigned the same unit number. The serial number and logical address distinguish the two disk units in a mirrored pair.

To determine which physical disk unit is being identified with each unit number, make note of the unit number assignment. If a printer is available, print the display of your disk configuration. If you need to verify the unit number assignment, use iSeries™ Navigator to display disk unit properties and check the serial number and logical address of each disk unit.

The disk unit that is addressed by the system as disk unit 1, the load source disk unit, is always used by the system to store Licensed Internal Code and data areas. The amount of storage that is used on disk unit 1 is quite large and varies depending on the configuration of your system. Disk unit 1 contains a limited amount of user data. Disk unit 1 contains the initial programs and data that is used during an IPL of the system.

The system reserves a fixed amount of storage on disk units other than disk unit 1. The size of this reserved area is 1.08 MB per disk unit, reducing the space available on each disk unit by that amount.

 

Parent topic:

Disk management

Related concepts
How mirrored protection works

Related tasks
Adding a disk unit or disk pool