Infortrend SentinelRAID 170 320ML/sec SCSI-to-SCSI RAID Controller manual SCSI-320 I/O Channels

Appendix A: SentinelRAID Features

Appendix A

SentinelRAID Features

A.1. Overview

The SR controller comes with many different features. Some of these features enhance the performance of the controller or add configuration flexibility while other features simplify the installation, maintenance procedures of the controller. This section highlights some of the features of the SR controller.

A.2. Controller Features

A.2.1 SCSI-320 I/O Channels

All of the I/O channels on both the controller board and the daughter board are SCSI-320 compatible. These channels can be connected to SCSI-320 host computers and SCSI-320 drives with data transmission rates of up to 320MB/second.

A.2.2 Flexible Configuration

All of the SCSI-320 I/O channels can be configured as host or drive channels. Eight logical drives can be created from physical drives and eight logical volumes can be created from one or several logical drives. You may then divide storage capacity by partitioning each of the logical units into eight portions for a total of 64 partitions. Various RAID levels can be applied to different logical units with the support of dedicated or global spare drives.

A.2.3 Expansion

Channel expansion: With the installation of an optional daughter board, the SR 170 controller can support up to eight SCSI-320 channels.

Capacity expansion: Logical drive capacity can be expanded either by adding a new drive or copying and then replacing the original members with drives of larger capacity.

A.2.4 User-friendly Configuration Utilities

There are multiple choices of interfaces or management programs for configuring the RAID system. Administrators may choose one or more from the LCD front panel, firmware-embedded configuration utility, and the Java-based GUI RAIDWatch Manager for local or remote management.

Overview A-1