1.1 Overview
The RamSan-3xx series solid-state disk uses SDRAM (memory) as its
primary storage. This technology enables practically instantaneous data
access, which results in dramatic application performance increases.
Texas Memory Systems (TMS) designed the RamSan to be highly available
and fault tolerant. The system has higher availability than RAID or JBOD
systems because the primary storage media is SDRAM, which does not
require moving parts. Additionally, SDRAM has a very high mean time
between failures (as high as several hundred years) according to some
studies. The mechanical components in the RamSan are redundant and
hot swappable.
The RamSan-320/325’s internal disk drives provide a fully non-volatile
solution. The RamSan-320/325 has three modes of operation: Active
BackupTM mode, DataSync mode, and Mirror mode. For more information
on these three modes, see Section 6.9 - Setting Backup Mode.
The RamSan complements existing disk drives, JBOD, or RAID, in
performance sensitive applications. Servers perceive the RamSan as
another attached SCSI disk drive. For some applications, the RamSan is
the only storage system required. For applications that store terabytes of
data, storage administrators add the RamSan to systems that include
RAID or JBOD.
Connect the RamSan via Fibre Channel to host servers, NAS filers, or
storage network switches and hubs. If you have specific compatibility
questions, please contact Texas Memory Systems.
Use the RamSan in a variety of applications. If hard disk drives slow
down your application, there is a good chance that the RamSan can speed
it up.
RamSan-300/320/325 User’s Manual - 3 -