User`s guide

Integrated Mirroring Overview 9

Integrated Mirroring Overview

This chapter provides an overview of the IM feature and includes these sections:

• "Introduction" on page 9

•"Features" on page9

• "Description" on page 10

• "Integrated Mirroring Firmware" on page 11

Introduction

The IM feature provides simultaneous mirroring on a configuration of two disks, to assure fault

tolerant, high availability data. If a disk fails, the hot swap capability allows the system to be easily

restored by simply hot swapping disks. The system then automatically re-mirrors the swapped disk.

Features

This section lists the key features of IM.

• Supports configurations of two mirrored disks

• Mirrored volume runs in optimal mode or degraded mode (if one mirrored disk fails)

• Provides hot swap capability

• Presents a single virtual drive to the OS

• Supports disks of different types and capacities

• Fusion-MPT architecture encompasses firmware, multiple physical interfaces, and supporting

OS-level drivers

• Uses BIOS-based configuration utility to select IM or SCSI mode

• Provides error notification through OS-specific event log

• Provides management of IM under Operating Systems through OpenManage Storage

Services (OMSS). Additional information can be found in the OMSS User Guide on

http://support.dell.com.

• Supports SAF-TE drive status LEDs for IM disks

• Write journaling allows automatic synchronization of potentially inconsistent data after

unexpected power-down situations

• Uses metadata to store volume configuration on mirrored disks