CLARiiON enhances high availability and management software for raid disk array configurations.WESTBORO, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--January 16, 1995--CLARiiON, a business unit of Data General Corporation, today announced Application Transparent Failover (ATF ATF Molecular virology Activating transcription factor A cellular protein that stimulates transcription of adenovirus E4 transcription unit, which acts early in infection at any of several 'enhancer' binding sites ) and ArrayGUIde, two new software products that provide open platform users of its disk arrays with enhanced system failover and enterprise storage management capabilities, extending fault tolerance See fault tolerant. (architecture) fault tolerance - 1. The ability of a system or component to continue normal operation despite the presence of hardware or software faults. This often involves some degree of redundancy. 2. beyond the disk array. ATF assures the integrity of the server CLARiiON array I/O (Input/Output) The transfer of data between the CPU and a peripheral device. Every transfer is an output from one device and an input to another. See PC input/output. I/O - Input/Output path, which is key to the continuous operation required in transaction processing systems. ArrayGUIde enables real-time monitoring and control of enterprise disk array resources. The products are targeted at mission critical applications such as on-line financials, healthcare, and other transaction processing Updating the appropriate database records as soon as a transaction (order, payment, etc.) is entered into the computer. It may also imply that confirmations are sent at the same time. Transaction processing systems are the backbone of an organization because they update constantly. environments. "The CLARiiON Business Unit has established design excellence in redundancy and fault-tolerance for RAID disk array subsystems. We are now applying software technology to expand this excellence by monitoring and protecting more elements of the enterprise configuration," said Larry Hemmerich, vice president and general manager of the CLARiiON Business Unit. "This further enhances the safety and accessibility of critical enterprise information." Application Transparent Failover The new Application Transparent Failover software permits automatic SCSI SCSI in full Small Computer System Interface Once common standard for connecting peripheral devices (disks, modems, printers, etc.) to small and medium-sized computers. SCSI has given way to faster standards, such as Firewire and USB. I/O bus Same as peripheral bus. re-routing to an alternate path if a fault occurs in the primary path to a disk array. This means that fault tolerance is now expanded from the disk array unit itself into the I/O interconnections of a system configuration, further improving data access and integrity for user applications. For example, in a dual-server configuration sharing a CLARiiON disk array, the ATF capability is used to establish failover protection of the storage processors, SCSI-2 adapters and I/O cables. Dual I/O buses from each server are connected to each CLARiiON storage processor, permitting alternate I/O paths and providing automatic I/O re-routing upon SCSI bus error detection. ATF complements the CLARiiON GuardWare multi-server failover software, announced in October 1994. Since fault detection and diagnosis can be isolated at the I/O path level, ATF can compensate for I/O failures that might otherwise trigger a comprehensive server failover under GuardWare. As a result, an appropriate level of failover protection is provided, at the same time preserving user access to the primary server's unique resources. The new failover capabilities support SPARCserver configurations running Solaris. Support for other open systems platforms will be added in the future. Pricing for a typical ATF dual server configuration is $13,000, which includes all interface hardware, ATF software and documentation. The new software is available in the current quarter. ArrayGUIde Array Management Software This new disk array management software is an X-Windows/Motif-compliant tool that provides easy-to-use, centralized configuration and management of one or more CLARiiON disk arrays that are distributed around an enterprise. "This is the first in a series of disk array management functions and applications," said Peter Gibbs Peter Gibbs is a BBC Weather forecaster, born in Sunderland, who appears regularly on BBC One, BBC News 24, BBC World and BBC Radio, particularly BBC Radio Four. He is a main weather presenter on the BBC Six O'Clock News, and was previously a main weather presenter on the BBC One , marketing director for the CLARiiON Business Unit. "Our goal is to address user needs for management capability throughout the enterprise and its networks." ArrayGUIde reports events in real time to the user display and sends messages to a designated address, enabling "lights out" operation of disk array resources. ArrayGUIde disk array management software provides a point-and-click environment to monitor and manage disk arrays. Functions that can be performed from designated workstations include: o Binding modules into logical units (RAID groups) o Setting logical unit parameters o Monitoring status of fans, power supplies, disk modules o Collection/display of real-time performance statistics o Reconfiguring logical units o Loading new firmware o Adding new drives in the future o Setting up alarm systems via e-mail ArrayGUIde supports CLARiiON arrays with SPARCservers running Solaris and IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) RS/6000s running AIX (Advanced Interactive eXecutive) IBM's Unix-based operating system which runs on its Intellistation workstations and pSeries, p5, iSeries and i5 server families. . The new software can be run on one or more designated SPARC (Scalable Performance ARChitecture) A family of RISC CPUs from Sun that runs mostly under Sun's Solaris, but also under Linux and BSD operating systems. After development began in the mid-1980s by David Patterson of the University of California at Berkeley and Bill or RS/6000 workstations on the network, or connected to the network remotely. ArrayGUIde software is priced at $300 for each server to which CLARiiON disk arrays are attached. The new software is available in the current quarter. About CLARiiON The CLARiiON Business Unit is a part of Data General Corporation. CLARiiON leading disk array technology has been protecting customer data and information in the marketplace for more than three years. This innovative storage solution supports a variety of platforms, including Sun SPARC systems, IBM RS/6000, NetWare, NT, OS/2 and SCO UNIX An enhanced version of Unix System V Release 3.2 for Intel processors from SCO. In 1989, SCO Unix was introduced as a major upgrade to SCO XENIX with more security, networking and standards conformance. , and most recently, PCI (1) (Payment Card Industry) See PCI DSS. (2) (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The most widely used I/O bus (peripheral bus). support for PCs running Windows NT (Windows New Technology) A 32-bit operating system from Microsoft for Intel x86 CPUs. NT is the core technology in Windows 2000 and Windows XP (see Windows). Available in separate client and server versions, it includes built-in networking and preemptive multitasking. and Novell NetWare (operating system, networking) Novell NetWare - Novell, Inc.'s proprietary networking operating system for the IBM PC. NetWare uses the IPX/SPX, NetBEUI or TCP/IP network protocols. It supports MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, OS/2, Macintosh and Unix clients. . CLARiiON advanced storage solutions are available worldwide through strategic partners, selected private label strategic partners, and an extensive team of key distributors serving North America, Europe and the Far East. About Data General Data General is an open systems company that specializes in providing servers, storage systems and services to information technology users worldwide. The company which is headquartered in Westboro, Mass., reported revenues of US$1.12 billion in fiscal 1994. -0- CLARiiON is a registered trademark and ArrayGUIde is a trademark of Data General Corporation. Other brand and product names may be registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders. CONTACT: CLARiiON Bob Palmer, 508/898-6547 |
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