Usage

Each of the modes supported by PRAID (Deploy, Capture, and Restore-defaults) requires a specific syntax, but they all share some common parameters, which are described in the Table 1 table that follows.

The sections that follow describe each mode and provide a description and usage information for each.
Table 1. PRAID parameters common to multiple modes
Parameter Description Usage 
-r:n

Restore-defaults mode

Restores the RAID controller with the controller number specified by n to factory-default settings and then returns immediately.

No RAID configuration is performed if you use this parameter.

If no value is specified for the controller number, all RAID controllers are reset to factory-default settings.

Used alone, the parameter provides Restore-defaults mode. You must use this parameter in conjunction with Deploy mode parameters to reset controllers to the factory default settings before deploying a new configuration.

 
praid -r
Restores all controllers to factory-default settings.
praid -r:3
Restores controller three to factory-default settings. No other controllers are affected.
PRAID -f:policies.ini -r -v:5 -e1
Configures the RAID controllers in the system by using the policies file policies.ini, sets the verbose mode to maximum, and returns an error code if there were no matching policies for any controllers.		 
-f:policies_file

Specifies the policy file

The policy file name. This parameter is required for the Capture and Deploy modes, unless the -d parameter is used.

In Deploy mode, this points to the policies that you would like PRAID to use when configuring the RAID controllers. You cannot use this parameter with the -d parameter.

In Capture mode, this points to the file where you would like the captured configurations to be written. If the file does not exist, PRAID creates it. If the file does exist, PRAID appends to the end of it.

The -f parameter is valid in both Deploy and Capture modes. 

praid -f:myfile.ini
Uses the policies file, myfile.ini, to configure all RAID controllers. 
praid -c -f:myfile.ini
Captures the RAID configuration of all controllers to the policy file, myfile.ini. 
-y

Suppresses prompts

This parameter suppresses the confirmation prompt.

If you select the -y parameter, PRAID does not prompt you before resetting controllers to factory-default settings. PRAID always resets all controllers to factory-default settings before configuring them.

If you do not supply this parameter, PRAID will pause to warn you before resetting the RAID controllers to factory-default settings.

The -y parameter is valid in Deploy and Restore-defaults modes.

This parameter is optional.		 
praid -f:myfile.ini -y
Uses the policies in myfile.ini to configure the RAID controllers and does not prompt before resetting all controllers to factory-default settings.		 
-e2

Error code 2 if no supported controllers found

Returns an error code of 2 if there were no supported RAID controllers found in the system.

By default, PRAID does not return an error if no controllers are found in the system.

This optional parameter is valid in all modes. 

praid  -c -f:myfile.ini -e2
Captures the RAID configuration of all RAID controllers to the myfile.ini file and returns an error if no controllers are found in the system.		 
-e3

Error code 3 if no supported drives found

Returns an error code of 3 if at least one controller was found with no drives attached.

By default, PRAID does not return an error if no drives are attached to a RAID controller.

This optional parameter is valid in any mode.

 
praid -d -e3
Configures all RAID controllers with default settings and returns an error if one or more controllers has no drives attached.		 
-v:n

Verbose level

Sets the verbosity level, where n is:
  • 0 - quiet
  • 3 - default
  • 5 - maximum

This optional parameter is valid in any mode.

 
praid -d -v:5
Configures all RAID controllers with default settings, and sets the verbose level to maximum.

Deploy mode

The syntax for Deploy mode is: 
PRAID -f:policies -r -d -p:path -e1 -e2 -e3 
-v:n -y -b
The parameters unique to Deploy mode are described below.
Table 2. PRAID Deploy mode parameters
Parameter Description Usage 
-d

Configure with defaults

Configures all controllers in the system by using default settings instead of using a policies file. The default settings used are the same as the default settings for the policies file.

You cannot use this parameter with the -f parameter. See Default RAID levels for the default values that are assigned for each RAID controller based on the number of drives attached to the controller.

This parameter is required unless the -f parameter is specified.

 
praid -d -r
Configures all RAID controllers in the system using default settings.		 
-e1

Error if no policy found

Returns an error code of 1 if one or more controllers are not configured due to the fact that there was no policy found to configure them.

This parameter is optional.

 
praid  -f:policy.ini -r -e1
Configures all RAID controllers using the policies file, policy.ini, and returns an error if no matching policy was found.

Capture mode

The syntax for Capture mode is: 
PRAID -c[:p] -f:policies -e2 -e3 -v:n
The parameters unique to Capture mode are described in the following table.
Table 3. Capture mode parameters
Parameter Description Usage 
-c[:p]

Capture mode

Indicates capture mode. The :p portion is optional. If you do not include the optional portion, :p will assume the default value: t,d.

You can use :p to provide a list of parameters describing the AppliesTo parameter that is created when capturing the parameters to a policy. See AppliesTo.n.

:p is a list containing any of the following:
  • t use the type of the RAID controller in the AppliesTo.1 entry for the policy.
  • c use the controller number (scan order relative to all other RAID controllers in the system) in the AppliesTo.1 entry for the policy.
  • d use the number of drives connected to the RAID controller in the AppliesTo.1 entry for the policy.
Note: You must specify the name of the policies file by using the -f parameter when using the -c parameter.

If the file exists, the policy or policies created are appended to the end of the file. If the file does not exist, a new file is created. If there are multiple RAID controllers in the system, their configurations are placed in the file in scan order.

 
praid -c:m,t -f:myfile.ini
Captures the configuration of all RAID controllers to the myfile.ini file by using the machine type of the server and the RAID controller type as the AppliesTo.1 entry.

Restore-defaults mode

The syntax for Restore-defaults mode is: 
PRAID -r:n -e2 -v:n -y