Compaq ProLiant 8500 ProLiant 8500 Server Technology - Page 19

TC000604TB TECHNOLOGY BRIEF (cont.) ... proactively generates parity data so that it can keep all data available and the server running during replacement of any failed drive. The integrated array controller also supports online spare disk drives. These spares are powered up but not active; they are held in reserve in case one or more of the active drives should fail. The controller supports logical drive expansion, which consists of three different types of operations: capacity expansion, RAID migration, and distribution factor changing. Capacity expansion allows growing an existing logical drive, either by adding additional physical drives or by using existing free space on the current physical drives. RAID migration allows changing the RAID level of an existing logical drive. Distribution factor changes the amount of data stored on each physical drive in a RAID stripe. All of these operations can be performed without disturbing the data on the drives. MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGIES Fault-tolerant, redundant features are only part of what makes Compaq servers highly available. Compaq offers a range of hardware- and software-based server management tools that can be used to reduce downtime and increase productivity. The ProLiant 8500 server includes the following standard tools available to all Compaq servers: • Automatic Server Recovery. ASR automatically resets the server after a critical hardware or software error. ASR can reset the server to the OS or to the System Partition Utilities. The ASR reset function is based on a hardware timer working in conjunction with the Server Health Drivers. If the Server Health Drivers can no longer reset the hardware timer after some userspecified amount of time, the server is automatically reset. ASR can also be configured to page the administrator when an ASR event occurs. • System Partition Utilities. These utilities assist the system administrator in diagnosing server problems, configuring new hardware, and upgrading ROMs. For example, an administrator can analyze the system configuration files to verify that no interrupts or other conflicts are causing system failures. The System Partition Utilities are available when the server is reset. ASR can be configured to reset automatically to the System Partition Utilities; or the administrator can reboot to the System Partition Utilities through Compaq Insight Manager. • Compaq Insight Manager. This software-based management tool monitors more than 1,000 management parameters to allow fault prediction and alerting, asset and configuration inventory, and performance monitoring. Through Compaq Insight Manager, a remote administrator can request an OS console operation, reset the server, view utilities, and view system configuration information. See the white paper Compaq Insight Manager, document number 11CW-1199A-WWEN, for more details. • Asynchronous Insight Management. Asynchronous Insight Management provides access to Compaq Insight Manager through a dial-up networking, or asynchronous, connection. This gives an administrator additional flexibility in troubleshooting problems. If the server OS is still functioning, an administrator can dial in remotely and access Insight Manager through a point-to-point protocol (PPP) connection. In addition to these utilities, the ProLiant 8500 server also ships standard with management technologies that reduce downtime and increase productivity even more. Remote-flash Redundant ROM allows administrators to update the ROM remotely, and the auto-default ROM configuration provides default configuration settings for most devices. The IMD and IRC provide essential information at a glance and allow users easy remote access to their servers. For additional remote management functionality, customers can request that the optional Remote Insight Board/PCI be added to the ProLiant 8500 server. 19