Product manual

Galaxy G3G12 / G3G16 - Installation and Hardware Reference Manual
213 Section 7 Technology Background
Section 7
Technology Background
7.0 Technology Background
This chapter covers the following topics:
y 7.1 Introduction to RAID
y 7.2 Choosing a RAID Level
y 7.3 Choosing Stripe Size
y 7.4 Choosing Sector Size
y 7.5 Cache Policy
y 7.6 LUN Affinity
y 7.7 Capacity Coercion
y 7.8 Initialization
y 7.9 Hot Spare Drive(s)
y 7.10 Partition and Format the Logical Drive
y 7.11 RAID Level Migration
y 7.12 Media Patrol
y 7.13 Predictive Data Migration (PDM)
y 7.14 Transition
7.1 Introduction to RAID
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) allows multiple hard drives to be combined together in a disk
array. Then all or a portion of the disk array is formed into a logical drive. The operating system sees the
logical drive as a single storage device, and treats it as such. The RAID software and/or controller handle all
of the individual drives on its own. The benefits of a RAID can include:
• Higher data transfer rates for increased server performance
• Increased overall storage capacity for a single drive designation (such as, C, D, E, etc.)
• Data redundancy/fault tolerance for ensuring continuous system operation in the event of a hard drive
failure
Different types of disk arrays use different organizational models and have varying benefits. Also see