Hardware user guide

26 Intel® Integrated RAID Module RMS25KB0x0 and RMS25JB0x0 Hardware User’s Guide
Support for Non-Hard Disk Drive Devices
Selected non-hard drive devices are supported for use with this module. For information
on support for non-hard drive devices, see this RAID module’s Tested Hardware and
Operating System List.
Enclosure Management Support
The Intel
®
Integrated RAID Module RMS25KB080, RMS25KB040, RMS25JB080 and
RMS25JB040 support the internal SAS sideband signal SFF-8485 (SGPIO) enclosure
management interface.
RAID Functionality and Features
Hierarchy
The fundamental purpose of a RAID system is to present a usable data storage medium
(virtual drive) with some level of redundancy to a host operating system. The Intel
®
RAID firmware is based on the concept of associating physical drives in arrays and then
creating a virtual drive from that array that includes a functional RAID level. To create a
virtual drive and present it to the host operating system, the RAID firmware typically
follows these steps:
1. One or more physical drives are selected and ass
ociated as an array.
2. One or more arrays are associated and given a RAID level. This process creates a
virtual drive and
provides an option to initialize the virtual drive.
3. The RAID firmware presents the virtual drive to
the operating system.
RAID Virtual Drive Status
Table 7. RAID Virtual Drive Status
Drive State Code Description
Optimal Optimal The drive operating system is good. All
config-
ured drives are online.
Degraded Degraded The drive operating condition is not optimal
becau
se one of the configured drives has failed
or is offline.
Offline Offline The drive is not available to the operating system
and
is unusable.