Storage Pooling; Virtual Disks; Snapshots; Storage Units - Compaq N2400 - TaskSmart - 1 GB RAM Administration Manual

Storage Pooling

SWVR enables the grouping of hardware array storage, or physical drives, into
a logically proportioned pool of drive space. You can create any number of
pools, using industry-standard storage components and controller-based,
fault-tolerant drive arrays (such as SANworks RAID arrays). The logical
drives created from the RAID arrays are referred to as storage units. The
storage units provide drive space for the pool in the same way that physical
drives provide drive space for a SANworks RAID array.

Virtual Disks

SWVR controls how data is stored on a virtual disk. The virtual disks perform
and behave in exactly the same way as physical drives do. You can format and
map drive letters to them, and read from and write to them. Disk virtualization
allows you to optimally tailor drive space to the size required by users and
their applications. You can make the sizes of the virtual disks match the
requirements of your applications and users. For example, if a user needs
650 MB of drive space, you can create a 650-MB virtual disk. If you have a
terabyte database, you can combine several drives or SANworks RAID arrays
into a single pool and create a 1-terabyte virtual disk that spans that physical
storage. The size of the virtual disks that you create can range from 10 MB to
1 terabyte, depending on free pool space and other limits set at the time of pool
creation. The TaskSmart N2400 appliance has a maximum storage capacity of
2 terabytes, which can consist of up to two 1-terabyte virtual disks. See
Chapter 6, "Advanced Administrative Procedures," for more information
about virtual disks.

Snapshots

SWVR lets you make instant replicas, called snapshots, of virtual disks in a
matter of seconds. Snapshots enable the instant creation of multipurpose
virtual replicas of production data without having to physically copy the data.
Snapshots function in exactly the same way as ordinary physical drives with
read and write capabilities do. Snapshots should be considered temporary in
nature. See the "Creating and Scheduling Snapshots" section later in this
chapter for additional information.
Administrative Procedures 2-13