The RAID Manager service enables you to conveniently manage RAID systems.
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a technology whereby several physical storage devices (fixed disks) are grouped into one or more virtual drives that appear to the operating system as one or more physical drives.
The following information and statistics are available:
Note: RAID Manager is available for use only on systems that have both a RAID array and supported RAID adapter installed.
Adapter Information gives helpful information about your adapter.
The status of the adapter. RAID Adapters may attain any of the states listed:
Adapter Specific Data gives advanced information about your adapter.
Standard Device Information provides real-time information about system devices.
The Device Status describes the current state of the selected RAID device. Device status can be any of the following:
Displays helpful information about Virtual Drives on your RAID system.
RAID Virtual drives may attain any of the states listed:
Adapter Statistics show real time information about your RAID adapter.
The Device Statistics section displays helpful data about your RAID devices.
Provides real time statistical information about Virtual Drives on your RAID system.
A RAID Physical Array is a collection of physical devices combined to act as one or more physical devices or virtual drives.
A Virtual Drive is created by the RAID adapter by combining several physical drives and presenting them to the operating system as an individual drive or series of individual drives. Virtual drives are represented by cylinders on the main RAID Service display window.
RAID technology allows you to configure the virtual drives in a variety of configurations. These configurations (called RAID Levels) provide varying levels of data integrity, protection, storage capacity, and speed. RAID Level describes the method by which data is stored on the physical devices of an array.
Common RAID Levels are:
RAID Level 0 stripes data across all of the devices making up each virtual drive. RAID Level 0 devices do not use any form of data mirroring or data redundancy.
Note: Because RAID Level 0 does not use any form of data mirroring or redundancy, the failure of even one physical device results in a loss of data for the virtual drive. However, RAID Level 0 maximizes the storage capacity of the virtual drive because no storage space is used to store parity information. RAID Level 0 also provides the best speed advantage of the various RAID Levels.
RAID Level 1 stripes data across all of the devices making up each virtual drive. Enhanced IBM RAID Level 1 uses data mirroring to ensure data integrity. Because the data is mirrored, the capacity of the virtual drive is one half of the total capacity of all the physical devices in the array. Enhanced Data Mirroring is also known as RAID Level 6.
RAID Level 5 stripes all data and parity information across all physical devices in the virtual drive. This striping method enables the RAID system to reconstruct data when any one of the physical devices fails or is removed from the array. The virtual drive will continue to be operational (at reduced performance) should this occur.
The capacity of a RAID Level 5 virtual array is ((N-1)/N) multiplied by the total physical capacity of all N devices (N is the number of devices in the array).
RAID Level 6 is IBM Enhanced RAID Level 1 which features data mirroring. Disk space available is 50% of the total physical capacity. Maximum data protection is available through RAID Level 6.
RAID Level 7 is RAID Level 0 striped across one physical device.
Data Striping is the process by which data is distributed across all devices in a virtual array. Striping improves data throughput during normal system operation. Striping sizes or stripe widths are usually multiples of 8 kilobytes. Once a stripe size is set it should not be changed. Changing the stripe size destroys all data on all drives connected to that adapter.
Data Mirroring is a format used in some RAID Levels that helps to ensure data integrity. Data mirroring makes a mirror copy of the data so that if one device in the virtual drive fails or is removed from the array, all data will be safeguarded AND the drive will continue to be operational albeit at lower reduced performance. A minimum of 2 devices is required for data mirroring.
A Hot Spare is a physical device that is kept ready and in a waiting state for use by a virtual drive of RAID Level 1, 5, or 6. Should a device fail the Hot Spare will automatically take the failed devices' place.
If another device in the array fails while the Hot Spare is coming on line, data loss will result thus it is important to replace drives as quickly as possible.
When a device fails, the Hot Spare will automatically become an active member of that virtual drive. The failed device should be replaced. After the failed device is replaced it will become the Hot Spare.
To exit the RAID Manager service, select the "Netfinity" image on the top or bottom of the RAID Manager service to return to the Netfinity services screen.