FastTrak TX4000 User Manual

Q: How does the FastTrak TX4000 RAID controller provide storage and/or

data protection with their arrays?

A: FastTrak TX4000 implements three different RAID levels as follows:

RAID 0 (Stripe)

For capacity – The FastTrak TX4000 array will be as big as the smallest HDD in

the array times however many HDDs are in the array. Any larger HDDs will

simply be truncated. The truncated space on the bigger HDDs will then be

unusable.

For sustained data transfers – Using FastTrak TX4000, a RAID 0 array

consisting of two HDDs will transfer at about twice the speed of the slowest HDD

in the array. A RAID 0 array consisting of four HDDs will transfer at about three

times the speed of the slowest HDD in the array.

RAID 1 (Mirror)

For fault tolerance – The FastTrak TX4000 array will be one-half as big as the

smaller HDD in the array. The larger HDD will simply be truncated. The

truncated space on the bigger HDD will then be unusable.

For sustained data transfers – The FastTrak TX4000 array will write data at the

rate of the slowest HDD in the array. The FastTrak TX4000 array will read data

at twice the rate of the slowest HDD in the array.

RAID 0+1 (Mirror)

For capacity and fault tolerance – The FastTrak TX4000 array will be equal to

one-half the number of drives times the capacity of the smallest HDD in the

array. Larger HDDs will be truncated and that space will be unusable.

For sustained data transfers – The FastTrak TX4000 array will read and write

data at twice the rate of the slowest HDD in the array.

Drive Issues

Q: Can I add a drive to a FastTrak TX4000 RAID array via hot-swap and

dynamically adjust the array size/configuration?

A: No. The FastTrak TX4000 system does not support dynamically adjustable

RAID size/configurations.

Q: Do the HDDs on the FastTrak TX4000 have to be the same size?

A: The HDDs that you use with the FastTrak TX4000 do not have to be the

same size. If the sizes differ, the FastTrak TX4000 will truncate the bigger HDD

so the drives match. The resulting difference in HDD space is unusable, so

avoid using HDDs of significantly different capacities.

Q: I already have an array on an older FastTrak controller. Can I move

that array to my new FastTrak TX4000 controller?