Term | Definition |
F_port | A port in the FC fabric where a N_port may attach |
| Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop: an FC network in which up to 126 systems and devices are |
| connected in a loop topology, with each transmitter connecting to the receiver of the device |
| to its logical right; multiple |
A port in the FC fabric where a NL_port may attach in an arbitrated loop | |
firmware | Software stored in |
| hardware but more difficult to change than software stored on disk; firmware is responsible |
| for the behavior of the system when it is first switched on |
GBIC | A removable serial transceiver module which provides a connection between an external |
| FC interface and a host interface board |
host | a processor which communicates with devices over an interface |
hot swapping | Components are removed and replaced while the unit is running, with power to either the |
| component or a device connected to the unit |
initiator device | A component which originates a command |
JBOD | Just a Bunch of Disks: a storage subsystem of multiple independent disk drives |
L_port | a port in an arbitrated loop, either a NL_port or a FL_port |
LED | |
| LEDs are used as indicator lights on the |
LUN | Logical Unit Number: a SCSI or FC identifier of a device. A LUN is associated with a RAID |
| group or Virtual Drive. |
N_port | a port attached to a node used with point to point or fabric configurations |
NL_ port | a port attached to a node in FC arbitrated loop or fabric loop |
originator | an initiating device; a component which originates a command |
partition | a continuous range of addresses in a storage subsystem that appear as a logical unit; used |
| to subdivide and manage a storage subsystem |
port | an access point in a device: see N_port, NL_port, etc. |
receiver | the ultimate destination of data transmission; a terminal device |
RAID | originally Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, now Redundant Array of Independent |
| Drives: a storage system spanning multiple disk drives. |
| The following standard RAID specifications will be used here: |
| RAID 0: |
| top of the other; no data protection |
| RAID 1: mirrored arrays: information written to one disk is also written to another |
| simultaneously; provides complete data protection |
| RAID 10: striping of mirrored groups |
| RAID 5: striping across multiple disks offering redundancy by including a parity block in |
| every stripe; the parity block is used to reconstruct the data if a single drive in the |
| subsystem fails |
SFP | Small Formfactor Pluggable: a removable transceiver which provides the connection |
| between an external FC interface and a host interface |
subpartition | a convenient term used to describe the allocation nature of a partition; a partition may be |
| split into a number of subpartitions (each a partition in its own right) and a collection of |
| contiguous subpartitions may be merged into a partition |
topology | logical layout of the parts of a computer system or network and their interconnections |
Virtual Drive | the presentation of a collection of disk drives as a single logical disk, also known as a RAID group. |
Virtual Drive ID | a unique identifier associated with each Virtual Drive and displayed via CLI |