Dot Hill Systems II 200 FC service manual Comparison of FC, SATA, and SATA SE Arrays

1.1Comparison of FC, SATA, and SATA SE Arrays

Figure 1-1SANnet II 200 FC, SATA, and SATA SE Array Front View

The SANnet II 200 FC array is a next-generation Fibre Channel storage system designed to provide direct attached storage (DAS) to entry-level, mid-range, and enterprise servers, or to serve as the disk storage within a storage area network (SAN). This solution features powerful performance and reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features using modern FC technology. As a result, the SANnet II 200 FC array is ideal for performance-sensitive applications and for environments with many entry-level, mid-range, and enterprise servers, such as:

■Internet

■Messaging

■Database

■Technical

■Imaging

The SANnet II 200 SATA and SATA SE arrays are best suited for inexpensive secondary storage applications that are not mission-critical where higher-capacity drives are needed, and where lower performance and less than 7/24 availability is an option. These include near-line applications such as:

■Information lifecycle management

■Content addressable storage

■Backup and restore

■Secondary SAN storage

■Near-line DAS storage

■Static reference data storage

It is possible, though not always desirable, to combine both FC expansion units and SATA expansion units connected to a SANnet II 200 FC RAID array. For instance, you might want to use two SANnet II 200 SATA expansion units for near-line backup and archival storage while the Fibre Channel drives in your RAID array and other expansion units are used for real-time, mission-critical information processing and input/output (I/O) operations.

For an example of such a configuration, refer to the SANnet II 200 FC and SATA Array Best Practices Manual.

1-2SANnet II 200 FC, SATA, and SATA SE Array Installation, Operation, and Service Manual • March 2005