Compaq RAID ARRAY 3000 EK-SMCPO-UG. C01 - Manual (Page 38)

2-4 RAID Array 3000 Pedestal Storage Subsystem Hardware User’s Guide
Compaq Confidential – Need to Know Required
Writer: Bob Young Project: RAID Array 3000 Pedestal Storage Subsystem Hardware User’s Guide Comments:
Part Number: EK-SMCPO-UG. C01 File Name: c-ch2 RAID Array Controller.doc Last Saved On: 12/4/00 1:51 PM
From the pedestal’s perspective, the controller receives the I/O requests from
the host and directs them to the devices in the pedestal. Since the controller
processes all the I/O requests, it eliminates the host-based processing that is
typically associated with reading and writing data to multiple storage devices.
The controller does much more than simply manage I/O requests: it provides
the ability to combine several ordinary disk drives into a single, high-
performance storage unit called a storageset. Storagesets are implementations
of RAID technology, also known as a Redundant Array of Independent Disks.
Every storageset shares one important feature: whether it uses two disk drives
or 14, each storageset looks like a single storage unit to the host.
You create storage units by combining disk drives into storagesets such as
stripesets, RAIDsets, and mirrorsets, or by presenting them to the host as
single-disk units (Figure 2–2).
Figure 2-2. Units created from storagesets, partitions, and disk drives