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Dell PowerVault NX300 User Manual

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Glossary

parity — Redundant information that is associated with a block of data.

parity stripe — In RAID arrays, a striped hard drive containing parity data.

partition — You can divide a hard drive into multiple physical sections called
partitions with the fdisk command. Each partition can contain multiple logical drives.
You must format each logical drive with the format command.

PCI — Peripheral Component Interconnect. A standard for local-bus
implementation.

PDU — Power distribution unit. A power source with multiple power outlets that
provides electrical power to servers and storage systems in a rack.

peripheral — An internal or external device, such as a diskette drive or keyboard,
connected to a system.

pixel — A single point on a video display. Pixels are arranged in rows and columns to
create an image. A video resolution, such as 640 x 480, is expressed as the number of
pixels across by the number of pixels up and down.

POST — Power-on self-test. Before the operating system loads when you turn on your
system, the POST tests various system components such as RAM and hard drives.

processor — The primary computational chip inside the system that controls the
interpretation and execution of arithmetic and logic functions. Software written for
one processor must usually be revised to run on another processor. CPU is a synonym
for processor.

PXE — Preboot eXecution Environment. A way of booting a system via a LAN
(without a hard drive or bootable diskette).

RAC — Remote access controller.

RAID — Redundant array of independent disks. A method of providing data
redundancy. Some common implementations of RAID include RAID 0, RAID 1,
RAID 5, RAID 10, and RAID 50. See also mirroring and striping.

RAM — Random-access memory. The system’s primary temporary storage area for
program instructions and data. Any information stored in RAM is lost when you turn
off your system.

R-DIMM — A registered DDR3 memory module.

readme file — A text file, usually shipped with software or hardware, that contains
information supplementing or updating the product’s documentation.

read-only file — A read-only file is one that you are prohibited from editing or
deleting.

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