Texas Memory Systems 320 User Manual

Page of 122
 
 
 
failure occurs, the RamSan-320/325 contains redundant batteries. When 
fully functional and fully charged, the batteries are able to provide at least 
30 minutes of operation. 
 
The system monitors the internal disks and batteries for a failure 
condition.  In such an event, it notifies the operator of an error through 
the front panel display and the management software. 
 
1.5   Configurable Backup 
The RamSan-320/325 allows the administrator to set backup modes for 
each LUN individually or system wide. 
 
Active Backup
TM
 mode (optional) 
This ideal mode for most users is only available from Texas Memory 
Systems.  In Active Backup mode, the RamSan uses available internal 
bandwidth (i.e. performance not utilized by the applications) to constantly 
backup memory to the disks.  The system automatically optimizes this 
operation to backup the maximum amount of data at any given time 
without impacting performance.  This means that at any one time, most of 
the data already resides on disk.  Upon emergency or shutdown, the unit 
need only finish the backup that is already nearly completed.  Active 
Backup is an optional feature on the RamSan-320/325; therefore, some 
systems may not display this option. 
 
Datasync mode 
In DataSync mode, reads and writes are done only to memory.  The disks 
remain offline during normal operation.  If power loss occurs and the 
shutdown timer reaches zero, or the user requests a shutdown, the 
system takes the Fibre Channel interfaces offline and synchronizes all data 
to the internal hard drives. 
 
Mirror mode 
This operational mode provides the highest level of data integrity.  The 
system mirrors all write operations to the internal hard drives and 
memory.  The system performs read operations from memory only.  This 
mode allows read intensive applications to benefit from high speed reads 
while ensuring that any data written to the RamSan is simultaneously 
written to non-volatile storage. 
 
None (Volatile) mode 
This operational mode disables the backup functionality for the LUN 
making it completely volatile.  In the case of system shutdown or failure, 
all data stored in the selected LUN will be lost intentionally. 
 
RamSan-300/320/325 User’s Manual 
 
- 5 -