Abstract: A disk drive storage enclosure includes one cooling path for storage media and a separate cooling path for non-drive storage support equipment such as controller hardware, power supplies, circuit memory, processors, etc. Within the enclosure, storage media are stored up front, with non-drive storage support equipment stored at rear. The storage media and non-drive equipment are separated by a central ventilating chamber. In one cooling path, intake air enters the storage media from the enclosure's front face, then passes into the central ventilating chamber before exhausting through the chamber's side wall. A separate cooling path serves the non-drive storage support equipment. In this path, intake air passes laterally through the non-drive storage support equipment. The cooling paths are driven by fan assemblies, which may include redundant fan units with shutoff gates that are automatically activated if a fan unit fails to prevent back flow.

Abstract: An adjustable system for mounting data storage chassis allows chassis of differing depths to be mounted to a single set of rack mount posts. The front face of the chassis is attached to two front posts. One or more rails are then slidably inserted into the chassis and attached a corresponding number of rear posts. In one embodiment, two narrow, elongated rails are slidably adjusted into guide paths each comprising two, open and opposing brackets affixed internally to the chassis. The rails are then attached to two corresponding rear posts. In another embodiment, a single, wide rail is slidably adjusted into a single guide path at the bottom of the chassis and is then attached to one of the rear posts.

Abstract: A Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) system that is adaptable to host Input/Output traffic, wherein the RAID configuration is hidden from the host computer, and wherein the system uses various methods for striping and organizing data across the array when disks are added or removed. The system dynamically determines the RAID configuration used to store host data. To maximize response time and avoid a write penalty, small write operations are mapped into RAID 1 configurations, and medium and large write operations are mapped into RAID 3 configurations. The data are migrated into RAID 5 configurations as a background operation, to minimize the disk space lost. The system hides configuration changes necessary for the addition and/or removal of disks to/from the disk array by unstriping data, adding or deleting (removing) a disk and then restriping data over all the disks.