User manual

Chapter 5: RAID Concepts

Stripe Block Size

The size selected (32, 64, 128 KB) affects how FastTrak sends data blocks to

and receives them from the drives. You must perform your own testing to

determine how the data block size affects your particular use of the logical disk.

In general, a larger block size is better when handling large data transfers (such

as in A/V editing or graphics) while a smaller block size is better when handling e-

mail and other common server data. The default is 64 KB.

Gigabyte Rounding

The Gigabyte Rounding feature is designed for mirrored logical disks (RAID 1 or

RAID 10) that makes replacing a disk drive easier. When a logical disk goes

Critical becamse a disk drive has failed, you must replace the failed drive with

one that is the same size or larger. However, the Gigabyte Rounding feature

permits the installation of a replacement drive that is slightly smaller (within 1

gigabyte) than the remaining working drive.

This can be helpful in the event that a drive fails and an exact replacement model

is no longer available. Without this feature enabled, FastTrak TX2200 or TX4200

will NOT permit the use of a replacement drive that is slightly smaller than the

remaining working drive.

For the Gigabyte Rounding feature to work, the Gigabyte Rounding feature must

be set to ON when the original mirrored logical disk is created. When enabled,

the Gigabyte Rounding feature rounds the drive capacity of both drives to the

common whole GB drive size. For example, with the Gigabyte Rounding feature

enabled, the remaining working drive can be 80.5 GB and the replacement drive

can be 80.3, since both are rounded down to 80GB.

This permits the smaller drive to be used. Please note that users will lose a small

amount of available storage capacity from both drives in order to arrive at a

common drive size.

Note

Gigabyte Rounding is automatically disabled when you create a

mirrored logical disk (RAID 1) from an existing drive (versus using

two brand new drives). This protects the existing drive's partition

table in order to maintain data integrity.