Powerful System Management Tools

Another aspect of RAID systems that is very important, but is often overlooked, is system management. This refers to the tools needed to set-up, monitor and tune a RAID system. RAID features some of the most advanced system management capabilities available.

RAID Lite has three user interfaces with different levels of functionality and ease-of-use: the RAID Lite front panel, the controller-based RAID Monitor Utility and the host-based RAID Management Utility software (RMU).

Front Panel

Every RAID Lite base system has a front panel with a four-line, 20 character LCD display that provides information needed to identify system failures and configure RAID parameters. The display operates in three modes: self-test, configuration and dynamic.

RS-232 Port & the RAID Monitor Utility

Every RAID Lite base system also has an RS-232 port through which the controller-based RAID Monitor Utility can be accessed. An expanded version of the information presented on the front panel is available by connecting a terminal to the RS-232 port. A keyboard can also be used to move around the menu driven application.

RAID Management Utility Sofeware (RMU)

Included with every RAID Lite system is a Motif GUI-based software package that simplifies system management. Many competitive offerings perform monitoring and control operations by using a command line interface and a proprietary command language. Installing RAID Lite and performing the otherwise complex tasks of reconfiguring and trouble-shooting the RAID arrays are made simple with RMU.

RMU also features the ability to remotely notify the system administrator if a system fault should occur. This innovative new feature is extremely important to UNIX system administrators trying to keep their critical data on-line.

The RAID Lite Tower System features a redundant power system consisting of three power supplies. If one, or even two, power supplies fail, a fully loaded RAID Lite will continue to operate. Standard with RAID Lite rackmount and RAID Lite data center systems are two power supplies per rack.