Local Mylex distributor, SCSI Technology, has announced the availability of eXtremeRAID 1100, a high-performance RAID storage controller that reduces bottlenecks in mid-range and enterprise-class storage systems.
Mogammad Peters, product manager of SCSI Technology, says the RAID controller incorporates several new technologies including a 233 MHz on-board RISC processor and advanced bus architecture. "The Mylex controller is based around a 64-bit PCI bus and features multiple Ultra2 SCSI LVD interfaces and new firmware optimised to provide maximum performance," he says.
The eXtremeRAID 1100 supports RAID levels 0, 1, 0+1, 3, 5, 10, 30, 50 and JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Drives) configuration capabilities and 32MB or 64MB of fast SDRAM cache memory. The JBOD sometimes referred to as `Just a bunch of drive`, is a feature that allows administrators to configure unmateched drives as independent drives or as a single drive.
It also supports Windows NT clustering along with PCI hot plug capability and uses an integrated battery backup to prevent data loss in the event of a power failure. Features such as hot spare and automatic rebuild allow the server to continue to operate when a drive fails.
"Wherever business continuance strategies focus on disaster management as opposed to disaster recovery, RAID is a must for 24x7 operations," says Peters.
The Mylex`s eXtremeRAID 1100 has a multitude of fault detection and fault tolerance features, as well as new functions to ease set-up and management. The new "Immediate RAID Availability" feature enables other set-up tasks to be performed while the rest of the system is being configured in the background.
RAID-expansion allows administrators to add drives to existing arrays and re-stripe data across all the drives while RAID-migration allows for easy online reconfiguration from one RAID configuration to another.
Additionally, the copy-drive group feature provides users with a method of transferring the contents of one logical drive to another in a single step.
The products storage management function is supported by the Global Array Manager (GAM) which allows system administrators to remotely configure and monitor RAID subsystems using standard network protocols.
"With this software the drive array can be managed over the LAN, WAN and across the Internet and allows for event notification which can be via e-mail, fax or pager. The GAM application is rich in management features, allowing users to easily manage their online storage," adds Peters.
The Mylex eXtremeRAID solution provides a common environment to protect against system downtime and enables administrators to protect, manage, share and make information constantly available to users," concludes Peters.
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