Sun Microsystems Sun StorEdge T3 - Manual (Page 18)

6 Sun StorEdge T3 and T3+ Array Configuration Guide • August 2001
Array Configurations
Each array uses Fibre Channel-Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) connections to connect to
the application host. An FC-AL connection is a 100-Mbyte/second serial channel
that enables multiple devices, such as disk drives and controllers, to be connected.
Two array configurations are supported:
■ Workgroup . This standalone array is a high-performance, high-RAS configuration
with a single hardware RAID cached controller. The unit is fully populated with
redundant hot-swap components and nine disk drives (
FIGURE 1-4 ).
FIGURE 1-4 Workgroup Configuration
Caution – In a workgroup configuration, use a host-based mirroring solution to
protect data. This configuration does not offer the redundancy to provide cache
mirroring, and operating without a host-based mirroring solution could lead to data
loss in the event of a controller failure.
■ Enterprise . Also called a partner group, this is a configuration of two controller
units paired using interconnect cables for back-end data and administrative
connections. The enterprise configuration provides all the RAS of single controller
units, plus redundant hardware RAID controllers with mirrored caches, and
redundant host channels for continuous data availability for host applications.
In this document, the terms enterprise configuration and partner group are used
interchangeably, but apply to the same type of configuration shown in
FIGURE 1-5 .
Application host
Ethernet port
Ethernet
FC-AL
connection
LAN
Management host
connection