Fibre Channel Links New RAID Subsystem to Hosts.NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 13, 1996--Conley Corporation today announced the release of a high-performance, high-availability RAID subsystems that provides a fibre-channel connection that can be shared among multiple host computers. Designed to provide shared access to very reliable storage, Conley's new SR-50 Multi-Host RAID Storage Subsystem The part of a computer system that provides the storage. It includes the controller and disk drives. See storage system. was built for high availability Also called "RAS" (reliability, availability, serviceability) or "fault resilient," it refers to a multiprocessing system that can quickly recover from a failure. There may be a minute or two of downtime while one system switches over to another, but processing will continue. . All single points of failure are eliminated through the use of redundant features such as mirrored cache, dual active controllers and auto-failover of host data paths. All active components are hot swappable See hot swap. and parts can be replaced without interrupting operations or incurring downtime. Along with reliability, the SR-50 features excellent performance. In addition to dual active controllers, multiple Ultra-SCSI disk drive channels allow the SR-50 to transfer data to the hosts as fast as the host data path can carry it. Hosts can connect via 40 MB/s Ultra-SCSI or optional 100 MB/s fibre channel (FCAL FCAL Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop ) interfaces. Multiple data paths to each host can be installed for additional performance. Further enhancing performance and reliability, the SR-50 includes up to 256 MB (128 MB per controller) of non-volatile, mirrored data cache. Advanced algorithms dynamically allocate cache for maximum data throughput. As soon as data is written to cache, the host is released for other activity, ultimately providing higher overall performance. Each SR-50 subsystem supports up to 30 disks for a total of 260 GB of useable storage capacity, and also supports up to 7 hosts. RAID levels 0, 1, 0+1, 3, and 5 on the same array allows operators to tune the system to meet specific application needs. Multiple SR-50s can be used to create a multi-terabyte data center shared by over 100 hosts. "As people use fibre channel to connect more servers over longer distances to shared RAID storage, high-availability and reliability becomes even more crucial since multiple servers are now depending on the same storage device," notes Richard Krueger, Director of Product Marketing for Conley Corp. "The SR-50, our third generation of highly reliable shared storage, delivers the availability our customers expect for these and other mission critical environments." Array management utilities provided with the SR-50 make RAID storage management simple, intuitive, and transparent. For example, if a host adapter Also called a "controller" or "host bus adapter," it is a device that connects one or more peripheral units to a computer. It is typically an expansion card that plugs into the bus. IDE and SCSI are examples of peripheral interfaces that call their controllers host adapters. See host. , disk drive, interface cable, or other subsystem component fails, the software directs automatic recovers and immediately notifies the system manager. In the case of a disk replacement, data stored on one of the global hot spares automatically transfers to the new disk, freeing up the global spare disk and restoring the system to its original, balanced state. The SR-50 easily connects to today's most common open systems platforms: Sun, HP, 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) , DEC, Pentium-based and other UNIX UNIX Operating system for digital computers, developed by Ken Thompson of Bell Laboratories in 1969. It was initially designed for a single user (the name was a pun on the earlier operating system Multics). and 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. systems via 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. or fibre channel. -0- Conley Corp., is a leader in multi-host, high-availability, high-performance RAID storage management solutions for UNIX, NT, and Mac-based systems in client/server environments. Conley develops unique storage subsystem and software products and provides custom design, engineering, installation and support of fail-safe data storage subsystems. The company markets its subsystems directly to high-end users and its components to original equipment manufacturers. For additional product information, contact Conley Corp., Sales & Marketing, 420 Lexington Avenue, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , NY 10017. Telephone (212) 682-0162, fax (212) 682-0071, info@conley.com or www.conley.com. CONTACT: Conley Corp. Rich Krueger 617/441-5600 |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion