A Closer Look - HP D7171A - NetServer - LPr Manual
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Also See for D7171A - NetServer - LPr:
- Installation manual (182 pages) ,
- User manual (126 pages) ,
- Upgrade manual (97 pages)
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By the time you've read this white paper, many of your questions about storage and
controllers will have been addressed. Then the decisions that you make and the
configurations that you select, as you evaluate server system choices, will meet your needs
now and in the future. If you have additional questions on related topics, there are many
HP NetServer white papers and technology briefs that may be of interest to you as well. A
detailed listing of these references and their URLs are included at the end of this paper.
A Closer Look
Purpose
Mass storage is the lifeblood of a server system. Selection of storage components impacts
both performance and availability of the server system (see Figure 1). Storage provides the
capacity to keep programs, applications, data, and other files that the system and the users
Form/Function
Availability
Improvements
Performance
Improvements
Figure 1. Analysis of Aspects of Storage
Types of Storage Devices
There are several categories of mass storage devices that are available for configuration in
a server system. Hard disk drives come in a variety of capacities and rotation speeds and
can be used internally or externally to the CPU system. They can be either fixed or hot
swappable. Hot swappable drives, unlike fixed drives, can be removed and replaced
without shutting the system down, thus improving overall system availability. Tape backup
drives are segmented into three basic technologies: Quarter-Inch Cartridges (QIC)/Travan,
Digital Data Storage (DDS) or Digital Audio Tape (DAT) and Digital Linear Tape (DLT). The
performance of the disk drives depends upon the seek time, platter rotation speed, track
density, and size of the disk cache buffer. The performance of the tape drives is a function
of the type of device, device capacity, and data transfer rate. The capacity of both types of
devices enhances the function of the server system. Small server systems currently require
mass storage devices in the 9 GB range while large enterprise systems can require a
terabyte or more of storage in a large arrayed set of drives.
Types
Capacity
Access speeds
Internal or External
Back-up
Hot Swap & Hot Spare
Array, RAID, Duplexing
Fibre Channel
SCSI
Fast and Wide, Wide Ultra 2
Increased Revolutions per Minute
(RPMs)
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require. Storage is also one of the ways to
improve and extend a server system's
availability. Depending upon the system's
needs for access, a variety of storage
solutions provide redundancy for the data
and failover to alternative means of
running applications should a failure occur
within a server system. Other aspects of
storage also affect the performance of a
server system. Because mass storage is
the part of a server architecture entrusted
with safeguarding important data and
applications, selection of the appropriate
mass storage components is a primary
issue.
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