Disk Devices provide the underlying storage for SoftNAS and Storage Pools. Disk devices are attached to SoftNAS at the virtualization platform layer, often as virtual hard disks (e.g., VMDK in VMware, VHD in Hyper-V, EBS volumes in EC2).
When a new disk device is attached, it usually starts out in a raw, unpartitioned state. Before it can be used, the disk device must be partitioned. The Disk Devices panel provides a list of disk devices, their status and the ability to manage the devices.
Partition All
The Partition All button finds all devices without a partition and creates a partition on each device. Devices which are in use or already contain a partition are ignored.
The Create Partition button adds a partition to a device that does not contain a partition. First, select a device in the device list grid by choosing a row, then press the Create Partition button.
To remove a partition, select a device that is not in use and then press the Remove Partition button. Devices which are marked as "Used in pool" are not eligible for partition removal.
Certain types of devices can be added at run-time. Press the Add Device button and choose the type of device to add, then follow the on-screen instructions for adding the device.
Certain types of dynamic devices can be removed at run-time. To delete a dynamic device that is no longer in use within a pool, select the device in the list to choose its grid row, then press the Delete Device button and confirm deletion of the device.
Note that many devices, once deleted, results in permanent data destruction, which may not be recoverable.
