External RAID Storage

Hot Swap Bays

The hot-swappable drive bays of the 3Ware sidecar are made of metal and have a plastic front cover and handle. While Accusys offers drive locks for each drive, the frames are removable without protection mechanisms. Drives must be screwed into the frame.

Controller: 3Ware 9650SE-4LPME

The 3Ware 9600 series has been on the market for a while. We took a look at the 9690SA at the end of last year, and the device did really well. In fact, it is still one of the better products on the market, although Adaptec and Areca provide equal or better performance. The fact is that 3Ware has a lot of experience, and the firm has refined its management tools quite a bit over time.

3Ware 3DM2 Software

The 3DM2 software is a well-known piece of software. It’s browser-based, which means that you can administer your 3Ware controller together with the Sidecar from any other system, once remote management is enabled. You first select the hard drives you want to use for your new RAID array (first picture). Then you select the RAID level, stripe size and RAID options. The third picture shows the warning in case the battery backup unit is missing — which, naturally, is the case unless you purchase it separately.