Components, Continued

Fault-ToleranceThe MegaRAID fault-tolerance features are:

•built-in 9-pin berg connector that provides an RS-232C serial communication interface

•automatic failed drive detection

•automatic failed drive rebuild with no user intervention required

•hot swap manual replacement without bringing the system down

•SAF-TE compliant enclosure management

•cache memory

Detect Failed Drive The MegaRAID firmware automatically detects and rebuilds failed drives. This can be done transparently with hot spares.

Hot Swap MegaRAID supports the manual replacement of a disk unit in the RAID subsystem without system shutdown.

Compatibility MegaRAID compatibility issues include:

•server management

•SCSI device compatibility

•software compatibility

Server Management As an SNMP agent, MegaRAID supports all SNMP managers and RedAlert from Storage Dimensions.

SCSI Device Compatibility MegaRAID supports SCSI hard disk drives, CD-ROMs, tape drives, optical drives, DAT drives and other SCSI peripheral devices.

Software

All SCSI backup and utility software should work with MegaRAID. Software that has been tested

 

and approved for use with MegaRAID includes Cheyenne®, CorelSCSI®, Arcserve®, and

 

Novaback®. This software is not provided with MegaRAID.

Clustering Support LSI Logic provides OEM-optional firmware with multi-initiator support. This software provides high system availability by permitting server failover.

Summary

MegaRAID features were discussed in this chapter. In the next chapter, MegaRAID configuration is described.

32MegaRAID Enterprise 1600 Hardware Guide