ADAPTEC 700i SERIES
DATASHEET
Adaptec® IP SAN Storage Server 700i Series
Easy to Manage
Adaptec 700i Series storage appliances
are Microsoft Simple SAN Component
compliant, and ship with automated,
easy-to-follow set-up wizards to
significantly reduce set-up time. The
auto-provisioning wizard performs all
the tasks necessary to add iSCSI storage
to a Microsoft Windows host. It guides
the user through creating disk pools,
assigning RAID levels and hot spares,
and defining iSCSI LUNs, as well as
performing all the tasks on the host
side, such as setting up multi-pathing,
associating iSCSI LUNs with drive
letters, formatting the new drives, and
establishing CHAP security between the
host server and the Adaptec 700i Series
storage system. Ongoing maintenance is
easy and powerful, as drives can be added
to any RAID pool, and LUNs can be
grown while the storage system is online
and being used by 24/7 applications.
RAID levels for a given disk group can
even be changed on the fly. SMART
reporting and background scrubbing
keeps you informed that your storage is
operating at peak efficiency. You can even
boot your diskless servers from LUNs on
the Adaptec 700i Series to save money,
reduce IT complexity and quickly recover
from server failures.
Designed for Uptime
Adaptec 700i Series storage systems
utilize redundant, hot-swappable
fans and power supplies for ultimate
reliability. Hard drives are hot-swappable,
and are driven by the Adaptec RAID
controller, which delivers the industry’s
most complete protection. Adaptec RAID
controllers lead the industry, powering
over 50% of servers worldwide. When a
drive fails, a hot spare can be instantly
used to rebuild the RAID group while
it is being used. Should power go down,
battery-backup on the RAID controller
holds information for 72 hours, and a
UPS can signal the storage system to
gracefully shut down. The fans, power
supply and temperature, as well as
drives, are constantly monitored, and
SNMP traps and email messages are sent
to inform management consoles and
administrative personnel of the need for
attention.
High availability is provided though a
variety of class-leading features. Support
for Microsoft Cluster Services permits
two servers to share volumes in the
Adaptec 700i Series. Should one server
fail, the other will pick up operations
instantly to keep critical applications
such as Exchange or SQL Server up and
running. The Adaptec’s DPM MPIO
driver is installed on Windows servers to
provide multiple paths for performance
and to protect against a path failure to the
storage system. Lastly, two Adaptec 700i
Series can be set up to synchronously
mirror all information written to a given
volume on one unit to a corresponding
volume on the other. Should one
Adaptec 700i Series fail, the other will
pick up operations instantly with no
need for manual intervention. Up to 256
snapshots can be scheduled or initiated
from any VSS requester running on a
Windows server, such as back-up and
restore, replication, or other management
software. Transportable VSS hardware
snapshots facilitate high performance
back-ups in a SAN.
Ideal for Use with Windows, Linux
and VMware
The Adaptec 700i Series has been
extensively tested for compatibility with
Microsoft Windows, Red Hat and SuSE
Linux, and VMware ESX Server. Adaptec
700i Series storage systems adhere to
key Microsoft standards including
compatibility with the Microsoft iSCSI
initiator that ships with Windows Server
2003 and Windows XP. The VSS hardware
provider takes up to 256 snapshots
within the storage system, and makes
them available for instant recoveries
or to another server on the SAN that is
responsible for performing back-ups or
replication. The VDS provider permits
a Windows system to administer the
Adaptec 700i Series storage system from
within familiar Windows administration
utilities. Microsoft Clustering Services
support keeps mission-critical
applications such as Exchange and SQL
Server up and running if a server fails.
Mirrored Wires
Configuring two servers in a Microsoft cluster with dual paths to two mirrored Adaptec 700i Series
storage systems provides the utmost reliability for the most demanding applications.
