For Dell servers, you use the Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) to create a RAID volume that uses all physical disks on a server.

VMware recommends that you use RAID5 for SAS drives and RAID6 for SATA drives.

1. Start or restart the Dell PowerEdge server.
2. Press Ctrl+R to access the Perc 6/I Integrated BIOS Configuration Utility.
   • The configuration utility opens and shows the VD Mgmt tab.
3. To create a new virtual disk, press F2 and select Create New VD.
4. Select an appropriate RAID configuration from the RAID Level drop-down menu.
   • VMware recommends that you use RAID 5, 6, or 10.
5. Under Physical Disks, select the hard disks that you want to include in the virtual disk.
6. Select OK and press Enter.
   • The virtual disk is created.
7. Expand the Disk Group option, and under Virtual Disks
   • Select the newly created virtual disk and press F2 to open the Operations menu.
8. From the Operations menu, select Initialization > Start Init to initialize the new virtual disk.
   • The new RAID volume is ready for use.