· Specifications
· SANArray FFx-2 Data Sheet (pdf)
· Press Release - Oct 22,2001

The SANArray FFx-2 is a 2Gb/s external, end to end fibre channel RAID controller ideal for Storage Area Network (SAN) environments. It delivers cost-effective fibre storage to NT, NetWare and UNIX servers. In dual active configurations for non-stop data accessibility, the SANArray FFx-2 provides dual fibre interfaces to loop, fabric, or point-to-point topologies and dual redundant loops for continuous access to large data pools.

SANmapping^TM provides system managers the ability to designate or restrict server access to specific data sets. Mylex’s SANArray^TM Manager network RAID management utilities allow users to remotely configure and monitor RAID subsystems using industry standard protocols. SANArray Manager offers state-of-the-art features such as the advanced RAIDAssist which virtually eliminates difficulty in setting up disk arrays by interactively selecting the optimum balance of storage capacity, data availability (fault tolerance), and I/O performance for your application.

SANArray FFx-2 helps maximize server uptime by offering critical SAN fault-tolerance features, such as multiple-target ID support, pairing for active-active configuration and transparent failover/failback for high-availability and clustered environments.

SANArray controllers operating in active-active mode share configuration data and continuously monitor the status of the other controller. If a controller fails, its partner transparently assumes its fibre address and workload. Coherent, mirrored data caches are designed to ensure data integrity; any write data that has not been made permanent on disk at the time of failure is immediately written to disk.

A perfect companion for the SANArray FFx-2, Mylex’s PATHPilot^TM software utility automatically detects data path failures and routes data across alternate paths to enhance availability.

Scale capacity by adding up to 124 disk drives to one controller. SANArray FFx-2 supports up to 1GB of user data cache that is mirrored between RAID controllers, for data protection. With features such as active-active, transparent failover/failback, SANmapping and cache coherency, the SANArray FFx-2 can be configured to move and protect tera- bytes of data.

Physical Specifications

Form Factor	9.2”L x 3.9”W x 1.0”H
Power Requirements	+5.0v at 5.7A (max) +12V at .75A
Temperature	0 to 50º C
MTBF	400,000 Hrs. at 25oC
Warranty	Three years

 
Fibre Channel Specifications
One or two 2Gb/s Fibre host channels
Point-to-point, loop, fabric
N_Port and NL_Port
Copper and shortwave optical GBICs
2x2 configurations
Two 2Gb/s drive channels
Up to 124 drives can be attached per controller
RAID 5 sustained disk transfer (duplex)
     Reads: up to 350MB/s
     Writes: up to 270MB/s
Disconnect/Reconnect
Support for SMART capable drives
Auto-Negotiate support 
     (Host and Drive Channels can be set to 1Gb/s, 2Gb/s, or Auto-Negotiate)

RAID Fault Tolerant and Flexibility Features
RAID levels 0, 1, 0+1, 3, 5, 10, 30, 50 and JBOD
Transparent disk drive rebuild
Mylex Online RAID Expansion^TM (M.O.R.E.)
Up to 32MB I/O request sizes
Variable stripe size per controller
Variable cache line size per controller
Mirrored cache
Drive roaming during power off
SES enclosure management
Cache coherency
Dual active operation
Transparent failover/failback
Automatic error recovery
Write through, write back or read ahead support per logical device
Automatic detection of failed drives
Automatic rebuild using hot spare drive
Hot-drive swapping support
Clustering support
SANmapping server to LUN mapping
Backend-Ping

RAID Management
SANArray Manager (SAM)
     Globally configure, monitor and manage storage
RAIDAssist 
     Automated menus for easy configuration
     Custom menus for advanced users

System Driver Support
Operating system independent

Certifications
FCC Class B, CE, UL