Users guide

Intel® RAID Software User Guide 30
Integrated Mirroring and Integrated Mirroring Enhanced support the following features:
• Configurations of one or two IM or IME volumes on the same Intel
®
IT/IR RAID
Controller. IM volumes have two mirrored disks; IME volumes have three to ten
mirrored disks. Two volumes can have up to a total of 12 disks.
• One or two global hot-spare disks per controller, to automatically replace failed
disks in IM/IME volumes. The hot-spare drives are in addition to the 12-disk
maximum for two volumes per Intel
®
IT/IR RAID Controller.
• Mirrored volumes run in optimal mode or in degraded mode (if one mirrored disk
fails).
• Hot-swap capability.
• Presents a single virtual drive to the OS for each IM/IME volume.
• Supports both SAS and SATA disks. The two types of disks cannot be combined in
the same volume. However, a Intel
®
IT/IR RAID Controller can support one
volume with SATA disks and a second volume with SAS disks.
• Fusion-MPT* architecture.
• Easy-to-use BIOS-based configuration utility.
• Error notification: The drivers update an OS-specific event log.
• LED status support.
• Write journaling, which allows automatic synchronization of potentially
inconsistent data after unexpected power-down situations.
• Metadata used to store volume configuration on mirrored disks.
• Automatic background resynchronization while the host continues to process
inputs/outputs (I/Os).
• Background media verification ensures that data on IM/IME volumes is always
accessible.
3.3 Intel
®
RAID BIOS Console 2 Configuration
Utility for Intelligent RAID
The Intel
®
RAID BIOS Console 2 configuration utility provides full-featured, GUI-based
configuration and management of RAID arrays. The Intel
®
RAID BIOS Console 2 utility
resides in the controller firmware and is independent of the operating system. The Intel
®
RAID BIOS Console 2 configuration utility lets you:
• Select an Intel
®
RAID controller
• Choose a configuration method for physical arrays, disk groups, and virtual drives
• Create drive arrays
• Define virtual drives
• Initialize virtual drives