Mylex SANArray FFx

Mylex SANArray FFx ... SANArray FFx delivers cost-effective fiber storage to NT and UNIX servers. In dual active configurations for non-stop data accessibility, the SANArray FFx provides dual fiber inter-faces to loop or fabric topologies and dual redundant loops for continuous access to large data pools. The SANArray FFx can sustain RAID 5 read and write streams of over 90MB per second. With dual active controllers, performance doubles. With a pair of dual active controllers, performance quadruples.

SANArray controllers operating in active-active mode share configuration data and each controller continuously monitors the status of the other controller. If a controller fails, its partner transparently assumes its fiber address and workload - servers just continue processing I/O requests. SANArray data caches are mirrored so any write data that has not been made permanent on disk at the time of a failure is immediately written to disk after the partner assumes the workload.

SANArray controllers are designed for homogeneous and heterogeneous SAN environments. The SANArray FFx provides an access control mechanism that allows system managers to designate which servers are allowed to access which set of data. SANmapping creates an affinity between logical disks and servers, and prevents one server from stepping on another server's data.