Chapter 1: About This Guide
●
12
What You Need to Know Before You Begin
You should be familiar with computer hardware, data storage, RAID technology, and the
input/output (I/O) technology—Small Computer System Interface (SCSI), SAS, or Serial ATA
(SATA)—used by your controller. (For an introduction to SAS, see
page 67
.)
You should also be familiar with Direct-Attached Storage (DAS) or Network-Attached Storage
(NAS)—whichever is appropriate for your storage space—and Storage Area Network (SAN)
concepts and technology.
Note:
Because this
Guide
covers multiple ICP RAID products, some of the features and
functions described may not be available for your controller. For more information, see
About
Your RAID Controller
on page 15
.
Terminology Used in this Guide
Because you can use your ICP RAID controller to manage data storage in a variety of
configurations from DAS to NAS to SAN, the generic term “storage space” is used to refer to
controller(s) and disk drives being managed with ICP Storage Manager
TM
or the other utilities
described in this
Guide
.
Many of the terms and concepts referred to in this
Guide
are known to computer users by
multiple names. This
Guide
uses these terms:
●
Controller (also known as adapter, board, or card)
●
Disk drive (also known as hard disk, hard drive, or hard disk drive)
●
Enclosure (also known as a RAID enclosure, storage enclosure, or JBOD enclosure)
●
Array (also known as a container or logical drive)
Note:
In DAS environments, ICP Storage Manager refers to arrays as logical drives. Why?
Your RAID controller creates
arrays
, which your operating system (and ICP Storage
Manager) recognizes as
logical drives
.
In NAS environments, ICP Storage Manager displays both arrays and logical drives. For
more information, refer to the
ICP Storage Manager User’s Guide for Internal RAID Storage
on the ICP Storage Manager Installation CD.
How to Find More Information
You can find more information about your ICP RAID controller and the software and utilities
included with it by referring to these documents:
●
Readme.txt
—Includes updated product information and known issues; located on the
RAID Installation CD.
●
ICP Storage Manager User’s Guide for Internal RAID Storage
—Describes how to install and
use the ICP Storage Manager software (see
page 61
); located on the ICP Storage Manager
Installation CD.
●
ICP Storage Manager online Help
—Describes how to use the ICP Storage Manager
software; accessible from the main window of ICP Storage Manager.
●
Command Line Utility for Internal RAID Storage User’s Guide
—Describes how to use the
Adaptec RAID Controller Configuration (ARCCONF) command line utility (see
page 61
)
to perform basic array and configuration management functions; located on the ICP
Storage Manager Installation CD.