StorCase Technology InfoStation 12-Bay 4U Ultra160/SATA - Manual (Page 13)

2 Introduction
StorCase Technology, Inc. InfoStation 12-Bay RAID User's Guide - C00
General Description
CAUTION: The InfoStation chassis contains NO USER SERVICEABLE parts inside the unit.
Refer ALL servicing to qualified personnel!
NOTES: The configuration and use of the InfoStation RAID Controller requires a certain
level of expertise and experience on the part of the user/integrator. Since there
are many configuration options and variables (ie. host platforms, applications,
etc.), only general guidelines will be discussed in this User's Guide.
Refer to the disk manufacturer's documentation for specific information re-
garding the disks.
InfoStation 12-bay SCSI-to-Serial ATA and FC-to-Serial ATA RAID enclosures are designed
to support low-profile Serial ATA (SATA) or Parallel ATA (Ultra ATA/100) drives for RAID
applications. The SCSI-to-SATA enclosures support dual SCSI Ultra160 host channels and
are downward-compatible with earlier SCSI Wide Single-Ended or LVD interface technologies
(i.e. Ultra2 or Ultra). Daisy-chaining chassis for extended storage is also possible with an
optionally available SCSI Ultra160 repeater kit. The FC-to-SATA enclosures support dual Fibre
Channel Arbitrated Loops (FC-ALs) with 2Gbps operation.
Each standard 4U rack mount 12-bay RAID InfoStation chassis comes equipped with a RAID
controller, (12) removable drive carriers and an open 5.25" half-height device bay. These
enclosures are constructed of corrosion-resistant steel and each include (2) hot-swappable,
redundant 460W power supply modules and (2) hot-swappable, redundant, variable-speed
fan modules.
Both the SCSI-to-SATA and FC-to-SATA RAID chassis support RAID levels 0, 1, 0+1, 3 and
5, and is OS independent. Online Capacity Expansion (OCE) and LUN support, 128MB cache
memory, as well as automatic hot swap, hot spare and drive rebuild support are all included.
An audible alarm on the InfoStation alerts the User to system hardware failures and warning
conditions. LED indicators at each drive bay provide additional User feedback for drive activity,
drive readiness and drive faults.
The InfoStation also incorporates "Soft Start" circuitry which eliminates in-rush current to each
of the installed drives during spin-up, as well as avoid power arcing during drive insertion.
A User Interface Module on the 12-bay InfoStation provides the User with a visual indication
of chassis configurations and communication statuses, in addition to providing an RS232
connection for system environmental monitoring, configuration and control. InfoMon ® , a
downloadable chassis monitoring utility program, provides the InfoStation with a customizable,
web-based monitoring capability via the RS-232 serial connection. InfoMon includes a “Call
Home” feature, which enables chassis log information to be conveniently sent to a predeter-
mined FTP site for trouble shooting and analysis. InfoMon also provides the User the ability to
easily configure both device and chassis settings with a few clicks of the mouse! Refer to
Appendix B for further information on InfoMon.