A storage subsystem is a storage entity that is managed by the . A storage subsystem consists of a collection of both physical components and logical components.
Physical Components
The physical components of a storage subsystem are described in this table.
Physical Components and Descriptions
Component
Description
Controller
A controller consists of a board and that controls the disk drives and implements the storage management software functions.
Controller module
A controller module contains one or more controllers, power-fan CRUs, and other supporting components in a single enclosure.
Disk drive
A disk drive is an electromagnetic mechanical device that provides the physical storage media for data.
Expansion drawer
A expansion drawer contains a set of disk drives, power supply CRUs, power-fan CRUs, CRUs, and other supporting components in a single enclosure.
Note – If your storage subsystem contains disk drives with different media types or different interface types, a expansion drawer
for each disk drive type appears.
Controller module
Some enclosures combine both controller module components and drive expansion enclosure components in the same enclosure.
Logical Components
The disk drives in the storage subsystem provide the physical storage capacity for data. Use the storage management software
to configure the physical capacity into logical components, such as arrays, logical drives, and storage partitions. These
components are the tools that you use to configure, store, maintain, and preserve data on the storage subsystem. The logical
components of a storage subsystem are described in this table.
Logical Components and Descriptions
Component
Description
Array
An array is a set of disk drives that are logically grouped together by the controllers in a storage subsystem to create one
or more logical drives for data storage. All of the disk drives in a array must have the same media type and interface type.
Logical drive (or standard logical drive)
A standard logical drive is the basic structure that you create in the storage subsystem to store data. A logical drive is
configured from an array with a specific level to meet the software application’s needs for data availability and I/O performance. The operating system sees a logical
drive as one disk drive.
FlashCopy logical drive
A flashcopy logical drive is a logical point-in-time image of a standard logical drive in the storage subsystem.
Free capacity
Free capacity is a contiguous region of unused capacity on a designated array. You can use the space to create one or more
logical drives.
Unconfigured capacity
Unconfigured capacity is capacity that is present in the storage subsystem from disk drives that have not been assigned to
an array. You can use the space to create new arrays and logical drives. An unconfigured capacity node exists for each type
of disk drive having different media types or different interface types.
Storage partition
A storage partition is a logical grouping of one or more logical drives. Storage Partitioning lets you configure a single
storage subsystem as multiple virtual storage subsystems up to the maximum value enabled. Access to a storage partition can
be restricted to specified hosts or groups of hosts by defining a set of . A mapping defines which host or will have access to a specified logical drive in the storage subsystem.