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).
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.
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.
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.