Sun StorEdge Network Array A5000 Series Support Expertise

Independent Sun StorEdge Network Array A5000 Series Support Expertise



Sun StorEdge Network Array A5000 SeriesThe Sun StorEdge A5000 range are software based RAID devices. The A5000 arrays provide host connectivity via Fibre cable using the FC-AL standard. The disks are hot-pluggable and have a dual loop Fibre interface for ultimate throughput.
The Sun StoreEdge A5200 uses low profile drives and can therefore accomodate up to 22 disks. The A5200 uses 18.2Gb or 36.4Gb disks. The 36.4Gb disks are available at spin speeds of either 10000rpm or 15000rpm. The A5200 can be configured with up to four FC-AL connections. The FC-AL connections can be used to provide redundancy, multi-host connectivity or daisy-chaining of storage units. FC-AL hubs can be used to provide growth in storage capacity. FC-AL hubs can also be used to attach multiple hosts to multiple A5000s in an any-to-any configuration. Up to three power supplies can be installed within an A5000 for redundancy. A5000 Arrays can be configured in a dual loop configuration permitting the disks to be viewed as two separate logical groups. Up to six arrays and two hubs can be mounted in a single StoreEdge 72" cabinet. Fibre Switches can be used allowing the creation of "disk farms". Without Fibre Switches, up to four hosts can share two A5000 arrays. A maximum of two hosts can connect to a single Fibre Hub.
Sun StorEdge A5000 arrays can be separated at a distance of up to 10Km using Long Wave Optical Modules. These Long Wave modules permit the implementation of remote site mirroring. The standard Optical Modules support Fibre cables up to a maximum length of 500m.
Prior to the A5200 array, a model called the A5100 was available. This array had 14 disk bays instead of 22 disk bays. The disks were 1.6" high instead of 1" high. The old disks are still available as spare parts.
The StorEdge A5000 range of arrays do not include Cache for fast writes. If you wish to implement caching, use the T3 array models instead.
The Sun StorEdge A5000s supports windows NT 4.0 via a free software upgrade kit.