User`s guide

Chapter 3: About Your RAID Controller ● 17
Standard RAID Controller Features
● Flash ROM for updates to controller firmware, BIOS, and the Adaptec RAID
Configuration utility
● Disk drive hot-swapping
● Event logging and broadcasting including email and SNMP messages
● Multiple options for creating and managing RAID arrays—A full software application
(Adaptec Storage Manager), a BIOS-based utility, a command line utility, and a DOS
utility. See Managing Your Storage Space on page 52 for more information.
● (SAS and SATA RAID controllers only) Native command queuing (NCQ), which lets disk
drives arrange commands into the most efficient order for optimum performance
● (SAS and SCSI RAID controllers only) Support for disk drive enclosures with SAF-TE
enclosure management hardware
● (SAS RAID controllers only) Support for disk drive enclosures with SES2 enclosure
management hardware
Some RAID controllers support a battery backup module (see page 18).
Array-level Features
Note: For more information, refer to the Adaptec Storage Manager User’s Guide or online Help.
● Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, RAID 50
1
, simple volumes, and spanned
volumes
● Support for hot spares (global and dedicated)
● Support for automatic failover, so arrays are automatically rebuilt when a failed disk drive is
replaced (applies to redundant arrays in SES2- or SAF-TE-enabled disk drive enclosures only )
● Optimized disk utilization, which ensures that the full capacity of all disk drives can be
used, even if the disk drives vary in size
● Online capacity expansion, so you can increase the capacity of an array without recreating it
● Support for array migration from one RAID level to another
Advanced Data Protection Suite
● Copyback Hot Spare—You can use this feature to move data from a hot spare back to its
original location after a failed disk drive is replaced.
● Striped Mirror (RAID 1E)—A RAID 1 Enhanced array is similar to a RAID 1 array except
that data is both mirrored and striped, and more disk drives can be included.
● Hot Space (RAID 5EE)—A RAID 5EE array is similar to a RAID 5 array except that it
includes a distributed spare and must be built from a minimum of four disk drives.
● Dual Drive Failure Protection (RAID 6)—A RAID 6 array is similar to a RAID 5 array
except that it includes two independent sets of parity data instead of one.
● Dual Drive Failure Protection (RAID 60
1
)—A RAID 60 array is similar to a RAID 50 array
except that it includes four independent sets of parity data instead of two.
1
The Adaptec 2420SA RAID controller does not support RAID 50 or RAID 60.