Managing Systems and Workgroups: A Guide for HP-UX System Administrators

Using High Availability Strategies
What is AutoRAID?
Appendix A 953
What is AutoRAID?
HP offers a disk array with a patented technology named AutoRAID.
AutoRAID hardware and software monitor the use of data on a system to
provide the best possible performance by determining the best RAID
array level for that specific system.
With a traditional array, the process of configuring the system for
optimum performance is time-consuming and error prone. You must
perform numerous tasks and then choose between RAID 1 and RAID 5,
considering the advantages and trade-offs of each. You must then do
performance tuning and evaluate the impacts across the entire systems
environment. The entire process can take anywhere from a few hours to
days and even weeks.
With AutoRAID, the data is managed for you so that you do not have to
do this kind of extensive configuration. The entire configuration process
can be completed within less than a minute and once the array is up and
running, it continuously and automatically optimizes its own
performance. It chooses the appropriate RAID level for you, either RAID
1 or RAID 5, to provide the best performance characteristics, depending
upon the changing application workloads.
AutoRAID allows data from different arrays to be managed as a single
array. The data within a given array may be a mixture of RAID 1 and
RAID 5.
Pros and Cons of AutoRAID
An HP disk array with AutoRAID provides improved performance over
traditional RAID systems. It adapts to the system workload by
dynamically moving data between multiple arrays with different RAID
levels, or within a single array.
Recommended Uses of AutoRAID
Cost and capacity make AutoRAID a good choice in many situations
where 50 to 200 GB of storage are required and where you would like the
system software to help tune the system for best disk array performance.