Compaq StorageWorks HSG60 ACS Solution Software V8.6 for Compaq Tru64 UNIX Installation and Configuration Guide

2–6 HSG60 ACS Solution Software Version 8.6 for Compaq Tru64 UNIX Installation and Configuration Guide
Determining Storage Requirements
It is important to determine your storage requirements. Here are a few of the questions you
should ask yourself regarding the subsystem usage:
■ What applications or user groups will access the subsystem? How much capacity do
they need?
■ What are the I/O requirements? If an application is data-transfer intensive, what is the
required transfer rate? If it is I/O-request intensive, what is the required response time?
What is the read/write ratio for a typical request?
■ Are most I/O requests directed to a small percentage of the disk drives? Do you want
to keep it that way or balance the I/O load?
■ Do you store mission-critical data? Is availability the highest priority or would
standard backup procedures suffice?
Choosing a Container Type
Different applications may have different storage requirements. You will probably
want to configure more than one kind of container within the subsystem.
In choosing a container, you choose between independent disks (JBODs) or one of
several storageset types, as shown in Figure 2–5. The independent disks and the selected
storageset may also be partitioned.
The storagesets implement RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks)
technology. Consequently, they all share one important feature: each storageset,
whether it contains two disk drives or ten, looks like one large, virtual disk drive to the
host.