HP 127695-B21 - Smart Array 431 RAID Controller User Manual Download

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Smart Array Controller Technology: Drive Array Expansion
and Extension

table of contents

october 2002

hp industry

standard servers

technology brief

abstract

2

introduction 2

array configuration utility

2

capacity expansion

3

logical drive creation

4

volume extension

5

volume extension in Windows

6

RAID migration

7

stripe size migration

8

conclusion 8

feedback

9

glossary

9

1

1
2
3
...
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Summary of Contents for 127695-B21 - Smart Array 431 RAID Controller

Page 1: ... october 2002 hp industry standard servers technology brief abstract 2 introduction 2 array configuration utility 2 capacity expansion 3 logical drive creation 4 volume extension 5 volume extension in Windows 6 RAID migration 7 stripe size migration 8 conclusion 8 feedback 9 glossary 9 1 ...

Page 2: ...nces between the two terms As a result customers sometimes find it difficult to distinguish between the two This paper presents a brief explanation of capacity expansion and volume extension The paper also briefly discusses other changes that an administrator might want to make such as RAID level migration and stripe size migration This paper assumes that the reader is familiar with basic array co...

Page 3: ...Thus if an existing array is nearly filled with logical drives an administrator can add new physical drives and initiate a capacity expansion through ACU or ACU XE The program automatically checks the drive hardware configuration Then the existing logical drive is distributed across all physical drives in the expanded array without affecting any existing data If the array being expanded contains m...

Page 4: ... had its own logical storage volumes If a new department were created the administrator might need to create an entirely new logical drive for that department or need to improve performance of an existing volume by increasing the number of spindles drives figure 2 After capacity expansion an administrator can use this free space by creating an entirely new logical drive However most customers will...

Page 5: ... capacity expansion as previously discussed or by deleting another logical drive on the same array figure 3 Volume extension grows the size of a logical drive Unlike capacity expansion the OS must be aware of changes to the logical drive size The following operating systems support online volume extension Microsoft Windows 2000 NT 4 0 Novell NetWare 4 2 5 x SCO UnixWare 7 1 x Offline volume extens...

Page 6: ...t be careful when performing volume extension on a dynamic drive The best way to grow a volume size in Windows 2000 is to take advantage of this dynamic disk functionality rather than performing a volume extension in ACU or ACU XE Because a dynamic disk can span multiple partitions on separate logical drives an administrator can create a completely new logical drive when free space exists Then the...

Page 7: ...96 Usable drive space formula n n 2 n 1 n n 2 n Minimum number of drives 1 2 3 4 Tolerant of single drive failure No Yes Yes Yes Tolerant of multiple simultaneous drive failures No If failed drives not mirrored to each other No yes Read performance High High High High Write performance High Medium Low Low Relative cost Low High Medium medium The values for usable drive space are calculated assumin...

Page 8: ...f server applications An administrator can take these general recommendations and try progressively larger or smaller stripe sizes to determine the best overall performance for a particular application Through ACU or ACU XE the administrator can make these changes online without disruption or data loss table 3 Recommended stripe sizes Type of Server Application Suggested Stripe Size Change Mixed r...

Page 9: ...adding additional partitions Expansion The process of adding a physical drive to an existing array The logical drives that exist on the array before the expansion takes place are unchanged Only the amount of free space on the array changes Extension The process of growing the size of a logical drive In this case the size of the logical drive reported to the OS is increased Free space Blocks on an ...

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