StarPort JBOD RAID
Heterogeneous Storage Consolidation
Linear RAID, Network Pooling RAID or JBOD RAID (Just a Bunch of Disks) combines several disks into a single storage array. The capacity of the individual disks is available as a single logical volume. For example, JBOD array can combine 4 GB, 14 GB, 6.5 GB, and 16 GB drives into a single logical drive of 40.5 GB (4+14+6.5+16=40.5). The combined storage can even have different physical attachment interfaces such as SATA, SCSI, IDE, etc. This is often more useful than having to address the individual drives separately. For example, you could have a database application just access the single logical drive.The diagram below describes how data is distributed in a JBOD array:
JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks) Array
Although the configuration above is preferable to three discrete disks, it has significant limitations if it is used as Directly Attached Storage (DAS).
DAS has fixed restrictions and these can limit your applications. For examples:
- The maximum number of jacks for IDE/SCSI/SATA devices on the Motherboard and the controller is limited.
- Data interfaces length is also limited (Parallel ATA only allows cable lengths up to 18 inch (460 mm); SCSI SSA - 984 inch (25 m)).
- Limitations in the amount of devices that one can connect to a single interface port.
Using local or direct storage for building JBOD arrays also ties the storage to the same location of that computer.
How StarPort helps solve these issues?
Configure one or more Linear RAID arrays at locations most convenient to your environment. You can then connect to them via iSCSI, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) or ATA over Ethernet (AoE).In sum, StarPort allows configuring Linear RAID arrays using remote Targets! You can use it to connect up to 50 remote Targets. These can reside in different parts of the networkso you can build a Linear array out of any of those targets. The Linear RAID will be recognized as local on the PC where StarPort is installed.
