Product manual

Chapter 1: Introduction to VessRAID

Architectural Description

The VessRAID 1700s and 1800s Series are Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)

subsystems suitable for Direct Attached Storage (DAS) and Expanded Storage.

The VessRAID subsystems support:

• 3.0 Gb/s SATA disk drives

• 3.0 Gb/s SAS disk drives

All VessRAID enclosures include a mid-plane, RAID controller, power supply unit,

and enclosure processor all in one cable-less chassis design. Multiple fans and

optional power supplies provide redundancy to ensure continued usage during

component failure. The RAID controller is hardware based and controls all logical

drive functions transparently to the host system. VessRAID appears to the

computer’s operating system as a standard SCSI drive or drives.

Features and Benefits

Highlights

• Intel 81348 I/O Processor with 4MB NOR flash memory, 128 MB NAND flash

memory for additional functions and 128 KB 8-bit NVRAM.

• 512 MB DDRII SDRAM DIMM expandable to 2GB.

• SDRAM has battery backup up to 72 hours.

• PMC PM8388 expander with 2MB flash memory.

• 10/100Mb RJ45 Ethernet management port.

• RJ11 serial port supports RS232 protocol via adapter cable.

• USB 2.0 external ports for subsystem management.

• 12 hot-swappable drive bays in a robust 2U rackmount chassis.

• 16 hot-swappable drive bays in a robust 3U rackmount chassis.

• Redundant, hot-swappable power supplies on 1800s Series models.

• Supports for SAS and SATA 3 Gb/s drives simultaneously in the same

system—choose the drive that is best suited to your application.

• Dual 3 Gb/s SAS x4 host ports provide high-availability SAN and cluster-

friendly platform.

• JBOD expansion support through a 3 Gb/s SAS x4 port.

• Simplified remote management with a comprehensive embedded web-

based management via Ethernet—WebPAM PROe. Command Line

Interface Utility via RJ-11 Serial Port.