Dell POWERVAULT MD3620I User Manual download pdf (Page 8)

8 Introduction

• Display resolution of 1024x768 with 16 million colors (1280x1024 32-bit

recommended).

• Microsoft Windows, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or SUSE Linux Enterprise

Server.

NOTE: Supported operating systems include both native and guest operating

systems.

NOTE: Supported hypervisors include Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer,

and VMware. For information about the supported versions, see the

Support

Matrix

at dell.com/support.

• Administrator or equivalent permissions.

Introduction to Storage Arrays

A storage array includes various hardware components, such as physical disks,

RAID controller modules, fans, and power supplies, gathered into enclosures.

An enclosure containing physical disks accessed through RAID controller

modules is called a storage array.

One or more host servers attached to the storage array can access the data on

the storage array. You can also establish multiple physical paths between the

host(s) and the storage array so that loss of any single path (for example,

through failure of a host server port) does not result in loss of access to data

on the storage array.

The storage array is managed by MDSM running on a:

• Host server—On a host server system, MDSM and the storage array

communicate management requests and event information using

SAS connections.

• Management station—On a management station, MDSM communicates

with the storage array either through an Ethernet connection to the

storage array management port or through an Ethernet connection to a

host server. The Ethernet connection passes management information

between the management station and the storage array using SAS

connections.

Using MDSM, you can configure the physical disks in the storage array into

logical components called disk groups and then divide the disk groups into

virtual disks. Disk groups are created in the unconfigured capacity of a storage

array. Virtual disks are created in the free capacity of a disk group.

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Dell POWERVAULT MD3620I User Manual Page 8