This chapter covers file system concepts, setup, and management for the Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS

Appliance and Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS Cluster Appliance. It includes the following sections: File System Concepts on page 37 Creating the File System on page 42 Creating File Volumes or Segments on page 45 About Rebuilding a LUN on page 50 Managing File Volumes and Segments on page 50 Configuring the iSCSI Protocol on page 53 Where to Go From Here on page 59 File System Concepts The following sections provide definitions of some of the basic file system conc epts and attributes used in NAS storage: About RAID Configurations on page 38 About LUNs on page 40 About Partitions on page 41 About File Volumes on page 41 About Segments on page 42 38 Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS Appliance and Gateway Administration Guide May 2006 About RAID Configurations There are different RAID system configurations that are supported by the system. The following sections describe these configurations: About RAID Systems on page 38 About the RAID 0 Configuration (Not Supported) on page 38 About the RAID 1 Configuration (Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS Gateway System Only) on page 39 About the RAID 0+1 Configuration (Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS Gateway System Only) on page 39 About the RAID 5 Configuration on page 39 About RAID Systems Redundant array of independent disks (RAID) systems allow data to be distributed to multiple drives through an array controller for greater performance, data sec urity, and recoverability. The basic concept of a RAID system is to combine a group of smaller physical drives into what looks to the network as a single very large dr ive. From the perspective of the computer user, a RAID system looks exactly like a si ngle drive. From the perspective of the system administrator, the physical component of the RAID system is a group of drives, but the RAID system itself can be administered as a single unit. There are multiple types of RAID configurations. The Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS Appliance and Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS Cluster Appliance software support RAID 5 only. The Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS Gateway System software supports RAID 1, RAID 0+1, and RAID 5. About the RAID 0 Configuration (Not Supported) The RAID 0 configuration does not include the redundancy for which redundant array of independent disks (RAID) systems were developed. However, it provides a significant increase in drive performance. The RAID 0 configuration employs the concept of striping. Striping means that data is divided into stripes. One strip e is written to the first drive, the next to the second drive, and so on. The primary advantage of striping is the ability for all drives in the array to process read s and writes simultaneously. Simultaneous access greatly speeds both writes and reads. Chapter 3 File System Setup and Management 39 However, because there is no redundancy in a RAID 0 configuration, if one drive fails, all of the data on the entire array may be lost. The RAID 0 configuration

is best used in situations where performance is the overriding concern and lost data is of less significance. About the RAID 1 Configuration (Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS Gateway System Only) Drive mirroring is the primary concept of the redundant array of independent dis ks (RAID) 1 array, which doubles the number of drives required to provide the same amount of storage, but provides an up-to-date backup of the drive. The mirrored drive is always online and can be accessed very quickly if the primary drive fai ls. Each primary drive is mirrored by a second drive of the same size. All writes ar e duplicated and written to both members of the RAID 1 array simultaneously. The RAID 1 array provides excellent high availability. A RAID 1 array is most useful where data security and integrity are essential, but performance is not as signi ficant. About the RAID 0+1 Configuration (Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS Gateway System Only) Redundant array of independent disks (RAID) 0+1 combines two RAID concepts to improve both performance and high availability: striping and mirroring. The mirrored drive pairs are built into a RAID 0 array. All writes are duplicated an d written to both mirrored drives simultaneously. The striping of the RAID 0 impro ves performance for the array as a whole, while drive mirroring (RAID 1) provides excellent high availability for each individual drive. RAID 0+1 is a good choice for environments where security may outweigh performance, but performance is still important. About the RAID 5 Configuration The redundant array of independent disks (RAID) 5 array claims the best of both the performance improvements of striping and the redundancy of mirroring, without the expense of doubling the number of drives in the overall array. RAID 5 uses striping and parity information. Parity information is data created by combining the bits in the information to be stored and creating a small amount o f data from which the rest of the information can be extracted. In other words, th e parity information repeats the original data in such a way that if part of the o riginal is lost, combining the remainder of the original and the parity data reproduces the 40 Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS Appliance and Gateway Administration Guide May 2006 complete original. The parity information is not stored on a specific drive. Ins tead, a different drive in the stripe set is used for parity protection for different re gions of the RAID 5 set. The RAID 5 array includes the parity information as one of the stripes in the st ripe arrangement. If one drive in the array fails, the parity information and the rem aining portion of the original data from the surviving drives are used to rebuild the n ow missing information from the failed drive. Thus the RAID 5 array combines the hi gh

availability of the mirror with the performance of the stripes and produces the best overall RAID type. It also has t