RAID and Subsystem Architectures Subsystem Architectures
Disk Subsystem Architecture
Multiple Ports
Allow multiple devices to connect with high bandwidth
Port Logic
Provides physical
to outside world
Cache
Provides fast response to majority of I/O requests
RAID Controller
Performs LUN Management
and RAID striping/mirroring across multiple disks
Physical Disks
Storage Devices
Most Enterprise data is stored on high-end storage subsystem and these devices deliver a very high performance, very high availability and very high resilience of the data.
Remember that it is devices like this which are effectively holding account information for Banking and Financial organizations, as well as just about any piece of information in any organization. Your own bank account balance will be held by your own bank on a number of devices such as this, so the resilience of the data is critical, as is the more important factor of data integrity.
However, despite the high performance, availability and resilience demanded, and delivered, by these devices, they are constructed using similar disk technology to the disk inside your own desktop machine or laptop. They achieve this performance by a combination of techniques; High Performance Internal Architecture Caching & Cache Protection RAID Mirroring & Striping