SuperTrak66™ User's Manual | Chapter 6 |
6.4Configuration Ideas
This part of the chapter covers additional ideas which are helpful to bear in mind while considering RAID configurations.
Fault Tolerance
Hard drives aren’t the only things that can fail in a server room full of equipment, PCs, hard drives, cables, connections, and power supplies. There are literally hundreds of things that could go wrong on any given day. Although this is a disturbing thought that has led some to seriously question their career in computers and networking, there are some additional ways to prevent a server’s RAID storage downtime and perhaps extend one's livelihood.
Since SuperTrak66 maintains four independent data channels and assigns just one drive per channel, users are protected in case a single drive OR an entire data channel fails. This provides an added level of protection than other RAID controllers that allow connecting two (more) drives to the same channel connector.
Hot Spare Drive(s)
A good precaution to protecting your array integrity in the event of drive failure is maintaining a hot spare drive. A hot spare is a drive which is connected to the array system, but is not assigned as a member of the array. In the event of the failure of a drive within a functioning fault tolerant array, the hot spare is activated as a member of the array. The spare drive effectively takes the place of the failed drive and the RAID system immediately begins to rebuild data on the drive. When the rebuild is complete, the array is returned to fault tolerant status. Once the failed drive is replaced, the new drive is automatically recognized as a hot spare in the event of a subsequent drive fault.
Some possibilities for making use of hot spares can include:
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