Disk array controller
A Disk Array Controller in computing is a Computer Peripheral which provides secondary storage services to computer systems, often to large servers.
A Disk Array Controller usually contains or attaches to a number of Disk drives which are organised into groups called RAID arrays.
Disk Array Controllers often provide other services in addition to RAID arrays. These include a Read Cache a Fast Write Cache and Copy Services such as Flash Copy and Peer to Peer Remote Copy PPRC. Various vendors have different terms for these concepts.
Disk Array Controllers attach to Computers using a number of different methods. These include:
- Parallel SCSI busses, incuding the newer wide, fast, and ulta versions of prallel SCSI.
- ESCON for connecting to mainframes
- The SCSI command protocol over a Fibre Channel link
- a SAN over either an IP Network (iSCSI) or Fibre Channel
A Large Number of companies make disk array controllers. These include the:
- IBM Enterprise Storage Server
- Hitachi Thunger and Lighning range of conrollers
- The Hewlet Packard range of storage controllers
See also
- RAID - Redundant Array of Independant Disks
- Fibre Channel - Most often used protocol to implement a SAN.
- iSCSI - attempt to re-unify storage and communication networks.
- NAS - Network Attached Storage
- SCSI - a Standard for Computer Communication