Abstract; Introduction; Storage Trends - HP 273914-B21 - Smart Array 6404/256 RAID Controller Technology Brief

Abstract

This technology brief describes specific functions of the HP Smart Array controller family and explains
how Smart Array technology meets administrators' requirements for capacity growth, high
performance, data availability, and manageability.

Introduction

In today's networking environments, administrators face difficult online data storage problems and
ever-increasing performance demands. While PCI Express (PCIe) provides a high speed interface for
data communication, the HP family of parallel SCSI, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), and Serial ATA
(SATA) Smart Array controllers addresses direct attach and storage area network (SAN) requirements.
References made in this technology brief to the 'present generation' of Smart Array controllers refer to
the P410i, P410, P411, P212, and P712. These SAS-based, PCIe 2.0 compliant Smart Array
controllers were released in the first half of 2009.
HP Smart Array controllers provide administrators with configuration, management, and diagnostics
tools. These tools provide high levels of usability as well as consistency between generations of
products. This continuity ensures that administrators can move data between servers and external
storage enclosures, and between models of Smart Array controllers.
For complete Smart Array controller compatibility and support information, see
www.hp.com/products/smartarray

Storage trends

Four key trends influence network storage requirements today:
• Application complexity — Network applications are becoming more complex, leading to larger
files and the need to maintain more information online for immediate user access.
• Mission-critical migration — More mission-critical data is moving to servers, either down from larger
systems or up from paper-based processes.
• Server consolidation — Multiple servers and applications are being consolidated onto fewer servers
for increased control and centralized network management.
• Efficiency expectations — Corporate information technology organizations are managing more
applications and more data while at the same time reducing the size of their administrative staffs.
These key trends generate five primary data storage requirements:
• Capacity growth — Storage solutions must provide not only adequate capacity for today's
applications but also flexibility for future growth.
• High performance — Data storage subsystems must deliver enough performance to accommodate
an increasing number of users while maintaining rapid response times. In many environments, the
storage subsystem is the most critical determinant of overall system performance.
• Data availability — Because businesses depend on their mission-critical data, it must be accessible
at all times to maintain user productivity.
• Manageability — Storage solutions must reduce the total cost of ownership by making network
storage management intuitive, informative, and less time consuming.
• Virtualization — Virtualization improves storage efficiency and simplifies operation by pooling,
sharing, and centrally managing SAN storage.
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