Adaptec DuraStor 7220SS User Manual page 127

partition
A subdivision of a disk or storage area. There are three main types
of partitions:
1
A portion of a physical or virtual disk drive that functions as a
separate unit. A single disk drive can be divided into several
partitions, each of which the OS sees as a separate device with
its own volume name (such as D:, E:, F:, and so on). These
partitions are usually created by the OS.
2
Contiguous storage space produced during the RAID creation
process. When a controller creates an array, it automatically
converts some or all of the free space on a disk drive into one or
more partitions.
These partitions are not seen by the OS. Rather, they are the
building blocks of a virtual disk. This virtual disk is seen by the
OS as a single disk drive.
Depending on the type of RAID array created, the virtual disk
may be larger than any of its component partitions. For
example, a stripe set (RAID 0) created from two partitions
presents a virtual disk drive almost two times larger than the
individual partitions.
Each of these partitions can be used by only one array at a time.
3
A subdivision of a virtual disk. Some RAID controllers allow
you to divide the virtual disk into multiple parts, or partitions.
Each partition is seen by the OS as a separate disk drive. See also
array; free space.
preferred owner
When a storage system is in an active-active mode, a single
controller has ownership of arrays and dedicated spares and is the
preferred owner. If the controller fails, the other controller assumes
temporary ownership of its resources. See also
Glossary
storage system.
Glossary-6