Drive Roaming; Mirror Splitting And Recombining; Online Drive Flash; Recovery Rom - HP 273914-B21 - Smart Array 6404/256 RAID Controller Technology Brief

Smart array controller technology
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Drive roaming

HP Smart Array controllers support drive roaming, which allows administrators to move disk drives
and arrays while maintaining data availability. Drive roaming allows administrators to move one or
more disk drives that are members of a configured logical drive to a different bay position as long as
the new bay position is accessible by the same controller. In addition, it allows administrators to move
a complete array from one controller to another, even if controllers are in different servers.
Drive roaming is supported as an offline feature. There is no current support for "ejecting" an array
while the server is online and then importing it into a new physical location, whether it is attached to
the same array, or migrated to a separate online array.

Mirror splitting and recombining

Mirror splitting is a task that splits an array with one or more RAID 1 or RAID 1+0 logical drives into
two identical new arrays with RAID 0 logical drives. This is useful for administrators who want to
replicate a configuration or need to build a backup before performing a risky operation. Using the
ACU, administrators can also recombine a split mirrored array. Beginning with the present generation
of SAS-based Smart Array controller controllers, the Smart Array Advanced Pack (SAAP) is required to
use the mirror splitting and recombining functions. For support information regarding mirror splitting
on specific controllers, see the controller QuickSpecs. More information about mirror splitting can be
found in the technology brief "RAID 1(+0): breaking mirrors and rebuilding drives" at
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00378986/c00378986.pdf
NOTE:
An array cannot be split if it contains logical drives in RAID 0, RAID 5, or RAID 6
configurations. An array can be split or re-mirrored only when the server is offline and
operating in the standard configuration mode of the ACU. When a split mirrored
array is recombined, all data on the second array is destroyed. For more information,
refer to the product documentation.

Online drive flash

Serial-based Smart Array controllers support online drive flashing, which saves time when updating
firmware. Instead of taking the hard disk drive (HDD) offline before loading a new firmware image,
administrators can download an updated HDD firmware image to the supported Smart Array
controller and update all of the HDDs the next time the server is rebooted. This greatly reduces the
time involved in updating disk drive firmware.

Recovery ROM

HP Smart Array controllers store a redundant copy of the controller firmware image to protect against
data corruption. If the active firmware image becomes corrupt, Smart Array controllers use the
redundant firmware image and continue operating. The recovery read-only memory (ROM) provides
protection against power outages during firmware flashing.

Pre-Failure Warranty using S.M.A.R.T technology

HP (then Compaq) pioneered failure prediction technology for disk disk drives by developing
monitoring tests run by Smart Array controllers. Called monitoring and performance (M&P), or drive
parameter tracking, these tests externally monitor disk drive attributes such as seek times, spin-up
times, and media defects to detect changes that could indicate potential failure.
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