Product Info
The FastTrak SX8300 SATA 3Gb/s PCI-X RAID 5 controller delivers industry-leading RAID 5 performance at an unprecedented price/performance ratio. For companies running popular applications like web services, file/email servers, audio/video streaming and nearline storage, the FastTrak SX8300 opens the world of professional RAID 5 performance and data protection and combines it with cost-effective Serial ATA (SATA) 3Gb/s drives for the ultimate internal storage solution. Based on Promise's OEM-proven RAID 5 technology, the FastTrak SX4300/8300 competes with SCSI RAID 5 controllers--at one-half to one-third of the price.
Features
• 8-port SATA RAID controllers with 3.0 Gb/s per port
• 64-Bit/133MHz PCI-X Host Bus Interface
• Low Profile form factor
• Support for RAID level 0, 1, 5, 10, and JBOD
• Improved RAS (Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability) functions
• Online capacity expansion and RAID level migration to add capacity as needed
• Hardware-Assisted RAID 5 Architecture
• Multiple logical drive support
• Automatic/manual rebuild of hot spare drive
• PerfectRAID™ technology for robust error handling and recovery
Specifications
Controller Specifications
• Eight SATA ports at 3.0Gb/s (300MB/sec)
• Storage capacity up to 8.0 terabytes (with eight 500GB drives x2 controllers/system)
• 64-bit, 133MHz PCI-X host bus interface*
• Promise 81731 RAID Processor with XOR engine for RAID parity calculations and memory controller for local cache memory
• On-board ECC DDR cache memory: 64MB
• FRAM for RAID5 transaction log to avoid data corruption in the event application hangs
• Dual controller support within a system
• Supports SAF-TE enclosure management
• Low-profile form factor ideal for 1U/2U server
• Combine with the SuperSwap 4100 for an advanced internal storage system
RAID Levels Supported
• RAID 0 Data striped across 2-8 drives for increased performance but no data protection
• RAID 1 Mirrored pairs of drives for data protection with increased read performance
• RAID 5 Striped parity on 3-8 drives, ultimate data protection, capacity and performance balance
• RAID 10 Data mirrored then striped across up to eight drives, for double drive failure protection
• JBOD Just a Bunch Of Drives: independent connected drives with no RAID interconnection
RAID Fault Tolerance and Robustness Features
• Multiple logical drive support enables combining different RAID levels on one set of disks
• Read Check table to avoid data read errors
• Media Patrol™ on all configured drive space
• Online capacity expansion and RAID level migration to add capacity on the fly as needed
• PerfectRAID™ technology for error handling and recovery of fatal, media and disk errors
• Support hot swap of failed drives and hot spares
• Automatic/manual rebuild of hot spare drive
• Background initialization for instant drive availability
• Variable stripe block size support to meet various application requirements
• Synchronization can be scheduled periodically for RAID array data consistency
Advanced Performance Features
• Multiple caching policy support
• Packet commands and interrupt coalescing minimize interrupts for better performance
• Elevator seek streamlines commands based upon data location on the disk
Web-based Promise Array Manager
• Creates, deletes, expands, and converts disk arrays remotely
• Array synchronization and rebuild scheduling
• Monitors drive, array, and enclosure status and provides online event logging
• E-mail notification of drive, array, controller or enclosure events (e.g. error or degrade conditions)
Operating Systems**
• Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/2003
• Red Hat Linux, SuSE Linux, Linux partial open source driver
Platform Support
• Intel IA32, EM64T, and AMD64
• Single and dual CPU servers
FastBuild™ BIOS
• Array configuration utility at the BIOS level
• BIOS Boot Specification support: boot system from any array
• Flash-upgradeable BIOS for future upgrades
Physical Dimension
• 7.7" x 2.54" (195 x 64.41 mm)
Warranty
3 Year Limited Warranty