HP ProLiant BL660c Innovative technologies in HP ProLiant Gen8 servers - Page 9

Technology enhancements for the P-Series controllers include increased performance, Smart Array Advanced Pack (SAAP) 2.0 features, as well as support for 227 drives, Active Health Logging, and Predictive Spare Activation. These controllers use an embedded RAID-on-Chip (ROC). Predictive Spare Activation technology protects data by automatically servicing a predictive failure drive without degrading the fault tolerance of the RAID logical drive(s). The drive can report a predictive failure before an actual drive failure occurs. Predictive Spare Activation automatically copies the data from a predictive failure drive to a global spare drive. The copy operation reduces the time before the spare drive becomes active. After the copy completes, the predictive failure drive is marked as a drive failure. You can then remove it from the RAID set for servicing. A new feature of the Smart Array Advanced Pack 2.0 is support for Advanced Data Mirroring (ADM). ADM allows triple mirroring of RAID 1 and 1+0 configurations, which provides the highest level of fault tolerance offered by Smart Array. Flash back write cache (FBWC) is now standard on most Smart Array Controllers. FBWC uses a large capacitor and flash memory instead of battery power to hold write cache data. FBWC provides lifetime data retention should the power go out. When the server is powered back on, FBWC writes the data to the drive. FBWC is available in 512 MB, 1 GB, or 2 GB modules. HP Dynamic Smart Array Controllers The HP Dynamic Smart Array B-Series Controllers are embedded devices that support direct-attached SATA and SAS drives. The B-Series controllers allow you to use Smart Array RAID technology to protect data on drives that are located behind embedded host bus adapters or server chipsets. The controllers leverage the host processor and memory without impeding system performance. They also take advantage of hardware-RAID capabilities embedded on the server and optional FBWC. Smart Array B-Series and P-Series controllers support the following tools: Active Health Logging Array Configuration Utility (ACU) ACU-CLI (command line interface) SNMP agents Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) providers The B-Series controllers (B320i and B120i) use the same easy and consistent user interface as P-Series Smart Array Controllers. This makes storage management and deployment easier for IT personnel. The B-Series controllers allow you to make better use of emerging storage media, such as solid-state drives. The B320i controller supports up to eight 6 Gb/s SATA drives, depending on server configuration. It can also support SAS drives with a license key. The B120i, by contrast, supports up to six 6 Gb/s SATA drives. Both controllers include RAID 5 support with cache and hot-plug drive support. A 512 MB FBWC module option is available for both controllers. HP SmartDrive For our ProLiant Gen8 servers, we designed the HP SmartDrive for improved drive density, drive status indication, and serviceability. The compact drive carrier design enables a 50% increase in spindle count and a 33% increase in memory footprint. The drive's front bezel includes a blue backlight for locating a specific SmartDrive selected from within the storage software. An icon-based display reports the drive's status. A ―do-not-remove‖ LED helps prevent a drive failure whenever anyone tries to remove the wrong drive. Other serviceability 9