User guide

Features 1-5
Drive Movement
An array of drives can be moved from one system to another as long as the
relative order of the drives is maintained. For more information, see Chapter 6,
“Array Configuration Utilities.”
Read-Cache Memory
The Smart Array 431 Controller has 16-MB of d-RAM used for code data and
non-battery backed read cache.
Expanding and Extending Capacity
The Array Configuration Utility makes changing your storage configuration
easy, even in fault-tolerant configurations, without requiring a data backup and
restore cycle. If you are using Microsoft Windows NT or Novell NetWare
operating systems with hot-pluggable drives, storage expansion or extension
can be performed online, without shutting down the server operating system.
Capacity expansion refers to adding capacity and creating new logical drives.
Capacity extension refers to growing existing logical drives.
Online RAID Level and Stripe Size Migration
The Array Configuration Utility also makes reconfiguring a currently
configured logical drive to a new fault tolerance (RAID) level or moving an
existing logical drive’s stripe size to a new stripe size easy. Both can be done
online without disruption to system operation or loss of data. For more
information about online RAID level and stripe size migration, see “Array
Configuration Utilities,” in Chapter 6.
SCSI Support
The Smart Array 431 controller supports a number of SCSI standards to
provide the latest high performance SCSI device support available while also
providing compatibility with older SCSI devices. The following SCSI
standards are supported:
■ Wide Ultra 3 capable of a 160 MB/s maximum transfer rate
■ Wide Ultra 2 capable of a 80 MB/s maximum transfer rate
■ Wide-Ultra capable of a 40 MB/s maximum transfer rate