Performance, Redundancy, Reliability!

Ultra 160-to-Ultra 160

Interface

Fibre-to-Ultra 160

Interface

Fibre-to-Fibre

Interface

Product Highlights

• Superior performance in stand alone (single) and failover (dual) controller configurations

• Featuring Ultra 160 LVDS host and device channels (4 total in flexible configuration options)

• Active-active failover with dual hot pluggable controllers

• Sustained data transfer rates over 180 Mbytes/sec using a single controller

• Greater than 15,000 IOPS capability from a single controller

• Supports up to 45 disk drives organized in up to 24 arrays and 32 LUNs

• On-line capacity expansion allowing reconfiguration without interruptions

• Flexible configuration featuring single or dual SCSI target host connectivity

• Supports up to 512 MB PC-100 compatible SDRAM cache memory

• OS independent--no special software drivers required

• Supports RAID levels 0, 1, 0/1, 3, 4, 5, 10 and JBOD

• The special active-active failover design in the Chi RAID allows individual controllers to be taken off-line for firmware upgrade without interrupting operations

Key Benefits

Unsurpassed data availability
Chi's controllers provide dual controller host independent active-active failover. Chi utilizes an Error Correcting Code (ECC) SDRAM DIMM module in the Chi RAID for data cache. Supporting RAID levels 0, 1, 0/1, 3, 4, 5, 10 and JBOD, Chi's true RAID technology protects against loss of data while delivering the highest levels of performance. Additional features include: OCE (On-line Capacity Expansion), dedicated and pooled spares, ECC-protected battery backed disk cache, and hot-swap replacement of disk drives and controllers. Automatic failover initiation in Chi RAID controllers utilizes Chi's unique run-time diagnostics and error handling software.

High performance
The Chi RAID controllers deliver more than 15,000 IOPs making the controllers excel in transaction intensive environments such as OLTP, thanks to the powerful on board 266 MHz Intel Pentium II CPU. With 32 KBytes of Level 1 cache and 256 KBytes of Level 2 on-chip cache, the powerful Pentium II processor is ready for the full range of demanding environments from transaction intensive OLTP applications to data streaming backup operations and multimedia rich Internet.

Flexibility
These high performance controllers feature four flexible 160 MBytes/sec Ultra 160 LVDS independent buses that can be configured as host or device channels. The great flexibility built into the Chi RAID gives users the ability to select the configuration that suits their needs. Users with a larger number of devices can configure the controllers in one host channel and three device channels. Users who require more host channels can configure the Chi RAID as 2 host by 2 device channels. The Chi RAID controllers can aggregate performance across 30 to 45 SCSI devices spread over as many as 24 logical arrays.

Robust Management
The Chi RAID RAID controllers are manageable through two different means: Out-of-band over an RS-232 interface to an ANSI terminal or terminal emulator, or in-band over the host SCSI interface. An intuitive and easy-to-use menu-driven interface is provided using the Disk Array Administrator (CDAA) embedded firmware. The CDAA utility allows users to configure the Chi RAID controllers and arrays, read event logs, and monitor numerous hardware and software conditions over the RS-232 interface. The CAPI (Configuration Application Programming Interface) enables users to write host-based utilities to manage, configure and monitor all connected storage subsystems. A CAPI software development kit is available to aid in writing GUI (Graphical User Interface) and other management utilities.

Firmware is embedded in the Chi RAID to monitor voltage levels of all incoming power, cache battery pack voltage and temperature, CPU temperature, and controller ambient temperature. Warnings are provided over the management interfaces. Auto-shutdown has been implemented to prevent loss of data or compromising its integrity when environmental conditions exceed their maximum thresholds. The Chi RAID Controllers' extensive feature set supports passthrough of SAF-TE environmental monitoring commands to disk enclosures. Also included is event logging and SMART event monitoring.

Product Highlights

• Fibre Channel interface supporting FC-AL, point-to-point, and switched fabric

• Array partitioning up to 64 partitions

• LUN zoning based on HBA worldwide name allows access management for up to 16 host systems per LUN

• Greater than 16,000 IOPS from a single controller, over 300 MB/s from dual FC ports

• Supports RAID levels 0, 1, 10, 3, 4, 5, 50 and JBOD

• Two independent, 1 or 2 Gigabit/second Fibre Channel host ports (user configurable or auto-configurable)

• Six independent, Ultra160 SCSI channels

• Dynamic Spare Configuration, provides the ability to automatically begin array reconstruction upon the addition of a new drive

Key Benefits

SAN-Ready
The Chi RAID supports Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) and switched Fibre Channel fabric for easy integration into Storage Area Networks (SANs). The 2Gbit high-speed (full duplex 2Gbit per channel) Fibre Channel interconnect is designed to easily inter-operate with today's 1Gbit Fibre Channel infrastructure while providing for tomorrow's faster Fibre Channel environments. The controller is especially desirable in SAN environments where advanced capabilities such as LUN Zoning and Array Partitioning are critical.

Data security is a big concern in many environments. With the advanced LUN Zoning technology, information access is managed, independently from the host, at the LUN level. The Array Partitioning feature provides a means to take advantage of larger disk capacities while minimizing the total cost of ownership.

The controller with its 2 Gbit Fibre Channel interconnects and advanced SAN array management capabilities is ready to meet the demands of today's enterprise SAN environments.

High performance
The new RAID controller is designed for today's most data intensive applications with the ability to accommodate tomorrow's more demanding environments. The high performance controller features dual 2Gb/sec Fibre Channel host interfaces with six Ultra 160 SCSI LVDS independent device channels. The RAID controller can aggregate performance across 90 drives spread over as many as 24 arrays and up to 64 LUNs. The combination of a powerful 333 MHz Intel Pentium II CPU and up to 512 MB of cache delivers superior performance of over 300 MegaBytes/second data transfers and greater than 16,000 Input/Output operations per second.

Robust Management
The controller in the Chi RAID provides great flexibility for management: out-of-band over an RS-232 interface to an ANSI terminal or terminal emulator, or Ethernet 10BASE-T connection, or in-band over the host FC interface. An intuitive and easy-to-use menu-driven interface is provided using the Disk Array Administrator (CDAA) embedded firmware. The utility allows users to configure the controllers and arrays, read event logs, and monitor numerous hardware and software conditions over the RS-232 or Ethernet interfaces. The  Configuration Application Programming Interface (CAPI) enables users to write host-based utilities to configure and monitor all connected storage subsystems containing the RAID controller. A CAPI software development kit is available to aid in the writing of custom management utilities.

Unsurpassed data availability
Chi's reliable RAID Controller supports RAID levels 0, 1, 10, 3, 4, 5, 50 and JBOD. The Chi RAID utilizes a battery backed, Error Correcting Code (ECC) SDRAM DIMM module in the RAID product for data cache. The Nickel Metal Hydride battery will provide up to 72 hours of cache uptime in the event of a power loss, maintaining cache integrity up to 3 days. Additional features include, dedicated and pooled spares, hot-swap replacement of disk drives, Dynamic Spare Configuration, and OCE (On-line Capacity Expansion).

Maintainability
All onboard firmware is upgradeable either in-band over the host FC interface, or out-of-band using either the RS-232 interface or Ethernet interface, allowing users to take advantage of new advanced features.

• Dual 100 MB/sec FC host channels
• Dual 100 MB/sec FC disk channels
• Drive side redundant loop support
• Single controller or dual redundant,
• active/active controller configurations
• Auto-failover and AutoRebind
• SANmask
• Host LUN masking
• Up to one gigabyte of ECC cache memory
• Hot-pluggable controllers and fans
• Non-disruptive online firmware updates
• Online RAID level migration
• SES enclosure management protocol
• Online RAID set expansion
• Compact 5.25", full height form factor
• Support for up to 248 FC disk drives
• OS independent