Intel RS2BL080 Benutzerhandbuch

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RAID Functionality and Features 
Intel® RAID Controller RS2BL080 Technical Product Specification 
 
 
Revision 1.0
 
 
Intel order number E64388-001 
28 
4.3.2 
Cache Policies 
The RAID cache can temporarily store data, so it can be more quickly accessed while it awaits 
drive readiness. The cache is available both on the RAID controller and on hard drives. The 
RAID controller’s read and write cache policy is set on a virtual drive level. This policy is set 
when the virtual drive is created, but it can be changed using the Intel
®
 RAID BIOS Console 2 
configuration utility, the command-line utility, or the Intel
®
 RAID Web Console 2 utility. 
The user should not enable specific cache policies if the Intel
®
 RAID Smart Battery is not 
installed. The drive cache is managed through a user-configurable RAID controller option, but 
the RAID controller battery does not protect data in the drive cache in the event of a power 
interruption. Exercise caution when enabling the drive cache. 
Table 14. Cache Policies 
Array Cache Policy 
Cache Option 
Description 
Direct I/O 
When possible, no cache is involved for both reads and writes. The 
data is transferred directly from host to disk and from disk to host. 
Cache Policy 
Cached I/O 
All reads first look at cache. If a cache hit occurs, the data is read from 
cache; if not, the data is read from disk and the read data is buffered 
into cache. All writes to drive are also written to cache. 
No Read Ahead 
The controller does not use read-ahead. 
Read Ahead 
Specifies that additional consecutive data stripes are read and 
buffered into cache. 
Read Policy 
Adaptive Read Ahead 
Specifies that the controller begins using read-ahead if the two most 
recent disk accesses occurred in sequential sectors. 
Write Through 
The controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host after 
the disk subsystem receives all the data in a transaction and the data 
is successfully written to disk. 
Write Policy 
Write Back 
The controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host 
when the controller cache receives all the data in a transaction and the 
data is then written to disk as the drive becomes available. 
If the ‘Use Write Through for failed or missing battery’ option is 
disabled, the Write Back mode is enabled even if the battery backup 
unit is bad or missing. 
Hard Drive Cache  Read and Write Cache 
Memory located on the hard drive is used to cache data going to or 
coming from the drive. Enabling the hard drive cache can result in a 
performance improvement but data held in drive cache is not protected 
by the RAID controller.