A P P E N D I X E - Supplemental Information

A P P E N D I X E

Supplemental Information

This appendix contains information that supplements the procedures in this guide.

E.1 RAID Support

A redundant array of independent disks (RAID) is a collection of drives that:

Collectively act as a single storage system

Tolerate the failure of a drive without losing data

Operate independently

These servers include LSI Logic's Integrated RAID solution, which supports the Integrated Mirroring (IM) type of RAID:

Note - LSI Logic's Integrated RAID solution also supports Integrated Striping (IS) but this option is not supported on the servers.

E.1.1 LSI Logic's Integrated RAID Solution

LSI Logic offers an integrated RAID solution by simplifying the IM configuration options and by providing firmware support in its host adapters. The software continuously monitors IM volumes and reports status and error conditions as they occur.

Integrated RAID provides the following benefits:

A low-cost solution.

Easy to use, install and configure.

The system can boot from an IM or IS volume.

No special operating-system-specific software is required.

High reliability and data integrity.

Low host CPU and PCI bus utilization.

Fusion-MPT architecture provides processing power.

Note - LSI Logic provides a BIOS-based configuration utility that enables you to configure the mirroring attributes during initial setup and to reconfigure them in response to hardware failures or changes in the environment. Refer to Appendix D of this guide for more information about this utility.

E.1.2 Integrated Mirroring

With traditional mirroring (or RAID1), a drive has its data duplicated on two different drives using either a hardware RAID controller or software (generally by means of the OS). If either drive fails, the other continues to function as a single drive until the failed drive is replaced.

With integrated mirroring enhanced (IME) (also referred to as either Enhanced RAID1 or RAID1E), instead of being able to use only two drives, you can use two to six drives, including the option of only using an odd number of drives. Instead of mirroring at the disk level, the data is mirrored in stripes across the drives. Thus, IME allows for more flexibility with mirroring data.

The LSI Logic Integrated Mirroring (IM) feature provides data protection for the system boot volume to safeguard critical information such as the OS on servers. Integrated mirroring provides simultaneous mirroring on configurations of two to six disks, to assure fault-tolerant, high-availability data.

If a disk fails, the hot-swap capability allows the system to be easily restored by simply swapping disks. The system then automatically re-mirrors the swapped disk. Additionally, the hot spare feature keeps one disk ready to automatically replace a failed disk in the volume, making the system even more fault-tolerant.

The mirroring is accomplished through the firmware of an LSI Logic controller that supports the standard Fusion-MPT interface. The runtime mirroring of the boot disk is transparent to the BIOS, drivers and OS. Host-based status software monitors the state of the mirrored disks and reports any error conditions. The system is configured with a second disk as a mirror of the first primary disk.

The IM feature uses the same device drivers as the standard controllers, providing seamless and transparent fault tolerance. This eliminates the need for complex backup software or expensive RAID hardware. The IM feature operates independently from the OS, in order to conserve system resources. The BIOS-based configuration utility makes it easy to configure a mirrored volume.

E.1.3 Zero-Channel RAID Not Supported

Zero-channel RAID cards are RAID controller cards that utilize the SCSI chip on the motherboard to configure more advanced RAID setups. These servers do not support zero-channel RAID cards.

E.1.4 Alternative Internal Drive RAID Configuration For Sun Fire V40z Servers (Only)

To achieve other RAID levels not supported by the on-board LSI controller, you can control the internal drives with a RAID card by routing the SCSI cable to it. Cabling a full-function RAID card to the internal drives is supported on the Sun Fire V40z server by routing a standard cable from the backplane to PCI slots 1, 2 or 3.

Note - An extender cable attached to the existing cable allows connection to a RAID card in slots 1, 2 or 3. (Slots are numbered on the board, right to left as viewed from the rear, with slot 1 being a half-length slot under the power-supply cage.)