Intelligent Firmware with Infortrend Smart Technologies

Derived from more than ten years of experience in RAID storage design, Infortrend's subsystems are based on their own proprietary firmware codes that help safeguard disk array storage and provide a clearly defined, high performance standard in terms of maximum protection against failures and fast I/O transmission speeds. These intelligent firmware functions-IOSmart, DrvSmart, and SysSmart-are designed to strike a balance between system performance and data availability for every customer environment, from small organizations to large enterprises.

• Drive spin down (for subsystems using SATA drives)
  • Power consumption commands support
• AV optimization mode
• Drive-side cache Enable or Disable (SATA only)
• User-selectable Restore/Un-restore password from disk
• Maximum 32 LDs/16 LVs/64 Partitions/1024 LUNs
• Maximum 512/1024 KB stripe size
• Supports RAID6
• LD and stripe size migration

Infortrend Smart Technologies

IOSmart technologies consist of specific functions and configurable options that control various I/O characteristics in order to meet the rapidly increasing requirements of today's applications.

DrvSmart mechanisms ensure data integrity by correcting minor defects, increasing reaction time, and allowing more time to prepare a rebuild while minimizing performance impact.

SysSmart combines enclosure monitoring and firmware management capabilities to minimize the chance of downtime caused by hardware failures. With SysSmart, Infortrend's subsystems are smartly managed and guarded against extreme operating conditions.

New Features

Drive Spin Down

The Drive Spin Down command allows hard drives enter idle state after a configurable period of time with no I/O requests directed to the hard drives. Enable this command allows drive only spin when needed that greatly reduces power consumption by approximately 36KW/hours and further decreases operational cost. This feature ensures solid data protection while retain healthy drives and energy saving especially in a disk-to-disk (D2D) application.

The AV Optimization mode maximizes data throughput performance for applications requiring continuous reading such as audio/video streaming. Firmware 3.47 supports up to 1024 stripe size allowing the RAID controller to retrieve data files efficiently. Different optimization modes have different default stripe sizes to meet most applications' requirements.

With over 1GB cache memory installed, the EonStor subsystems support a maximum of 32 LDs, 16 LVs, 64 partitions, and 1024 LUNs giving users remarkable configuration choices. This support surpasses the industry standard and reflects the incomparable core technology of Firmware 3.47.

RAID6 is similar to RAID5 but provides protection against double disk failures and failures while a single disk is rebuilding. If a second disk fails with RAID 6, data can be reconstructed onto a second drive. RAID6 provides a significantly higher redundancy level with its ability to withstand the failure of two member drives at the same time.

The RAID Migration function supports switching logical drive between RAID5 and RAID6 with selective stripe sizes for better performance. In the event that additional physical disks are added to the RAID subsystem, switching to RAID6 can further guarantee data reliability.

Firmware v3.47 was first included on the EonStor A16F-G2422 FC-4G to SATA-II (3Gbps), single controller subsystem and will be available on the company's other ASIC266 products such as the ES A24U-G2421 and the recently announced ES A24F-R/G2224 RAID subsystems. These products are available through Infortrend's worldwide network of OEMs, distributors and storage integrators.