This step by step guide will help in the creation of any RAID that is supported by the LSI 12 Gb/s MegaRAID controllers using the LSI CTRL-R utility built into the controller.

1. Boot your server and at the end of the LSI screen you will see an option to hit 'Ctrl+R' to get into the BIOS.  

2. The main screen will look like the image below.  The top bar is the various pages to control various aspects of your controller.  Use the navigation tips at the bottom of the screen to move between these menus.

3. Use the up arrow to navigate up to the line 'No Configuration Present!' and hit enter.

4. From here you will create a new VD.  Use the 'Tab' key to navigate around this page.  The default will have your RAID 0 selected.  Hit enter to change this to the desired RAID level.

5. As you can see, we have a few options for the kind of RAID we can create from the drop down menu. Use the Up/Down arrows to choose the desired RAID level and hit enter.  For this demo we will use a RAID 6.

6. Once you have select the desired RAID level, use the 'Tab' key to move over to the 'Drives' box. 

7.  Use the 'Space' key to select the individual drives you would like to add to your RAID.  If you wish to have a Hot Spare, then you will need to leave the last drive or two unchecked depending on how many Hot Spare drives you need for your application.  This is the same for all RAID levels except RAID 0 which does not support having a Hot Spare.

8. Use the 'Tab' key to navigate the menus.  In the 'Basic Settings' area you can give your new VD a name or you can skip this and go directly to the 'Advanced' section and hit enter.

9.  Here you can change the default settings for your configuration.  Silicon Mechanics does not change these unless otherwise specified by the Customer.  You can also choose to initialize your array if desired.

10. Once you have made all the changes you need, use the 'Tab' key to navigate over to the 'OK' button and hit 'Enter'.  This will take you back to the RAID screen. Tab over to 'OK' and hit 'Enter' if satisfied with the configuration.

11. This will bring you to a prompt about 'Initializing' your array if you did not select that as an option under the 'Advanced' settings. You can Cancel and go back, or skip this step.  For a new RAID it is recommended to initialize the array the first time to clear any unwanted meta data from the drives.

12. You should now be sitting at the default main screen again.  This time instead of having a 'No Config Present!', it should now show the 'Drive Group: 0, RAID 6' or whatever RAID that was conifigured and the 'Virtual Drive Size' below that.  On the right of the screen you can see the RAID level, if it is Optimal or not, and how many drives are apart of this configuration.

13. If you decided to have a hot spare, this screen will look similar to this.  Here you can see that for this demo I had 1 drive left for a hot spare and it shows up as Unconfigured.

14. To configure this as a hot spare, make sure you use the up arrows to move the highlighted section to 'Drive Group: 0, RAID 6' and then hit F2.

15. This will bring up the following menu.  If it is not selected use the arrow keys to highlight the 'Manage Ded. HS' (Manage Dedicated Hot Spare) option and press 'Enter'. This screen also will allow you to delete the drive group if you made a mistake and needed to start over among other options depending on the RAID level.

16. If there is only one Hot Spare the default will be highlighted and you only need to press 'Space' to select it. If you have multiple Hot Spares it will list them in order here for selection.  Once selected use the 'Tab' key to navigate to the 'OK' button and press 'Enter'.

17. Back at the main menu you can see that you have your RAID 6, its Optimal and you have 1 HS drive.  You can either exit the controller at this point by hitting the 'Esc' key, or you can continue to configure other options under the 'Ctrl Mgmt' screen.  

18. Use Ctrl+N and Ctrl+P to navigate the top menus. The 'PD Mgmt' screen will show you the status of your configured drives. The 'Ctrl Mgmt' screen seen below will allow you to set various things depending on how you want your controller to function.  

19.  The 'Properties' page will list out all of the information about your controller, Name of Controller, Status, Temp, Package, Firmware, BIOS version, etc...