Manage your storage arrays Common Array Manager

CAM 6.2.0 is now available. Here's what's new for this release:

• Support for the new Sun StorageTek 6580 and 6780 arrays (7.30.xx.xx firmware)
• Support for 7.15.xx.xx firmware for the Sun StorageTek 6140, 6540 and FLX380 arrays, with the following features
• RAID 6 (6140 arrays only)
• >2TB LUN Support (varies by operating system)
• Portable Volume Groups
• Batch Volume Operations
• Support for 7.35.xx.xx firmware for the 2500 Series arrays with the following features:
• Third Expansion Try (48-Drive) Cabling patch
• RAID 6
• 4, 8 and 16k Cache block sizes
• >2TB LUN Support (varies by operating system)
• Volume-Copy (optional)
• Portable VDisks
• Batch Volume Operations
• Varying Cache Block size
• IPV6 Support
• Increased Number of Global Host Spares
• Mixed Drive Support
• 8k Cache Block Size
  

This release also supports Sun's other existing storage arrays, i.e. Sun Storage J4200 and J4400, Sun Blade 6000, Sun StorEdge 6130 and StorageTek FLX240 and FLX280 Arrays, but is not a required upgrade for those platforms.

CAM 6.1.2 has been released and is available for download from here. This release adds support for the following new storage systems from Sun:

• Sun Storage J4500 Array
• Sun Blade 6000 Disk Module
• Sun Blade 6000 Multi-Fabric Network Express Module
  
• Sun Blade 6000 10GbE Multi-Fabric Network Express Module
  

In addition to support for these new devices, this release also includes the following new features:

• Support for 7.10.xx.xx firmware for the 6140, 6540, and FLX380 arrays with the following features:

            RAID 6 (6140 arrays only)
            >2TB LUN Support
            Portable Volume Groups
            Batch Volume Operations
            8K Cache Block size

• Support for in-band management for Solaris x86 and Microsoft Windows
• CLI Minimal Installation
• Remote Proxy Agent for JBODs
• Data in Place Migration (DIPM) and the concept of portable vdisks
• Third Expansion Tray (48-Drive) Cabling patch for the 2500 Series Arrays

Welcome to CAM, the Common Array Manager web log. CAM is the management software for Sun's
midrange storage arrays including the Workgroup Disk, Modular Disk, and new Storage Expansion Array lines. This blog is devoted to all things CAM -- both the free product released by Sun and the new OpenSolaris project. CAM is distributed with every new midrange storage array and is also available for download from the Sun Download Center. The OpenSolaris project is devoted to making the software and technology available to the community. CAM has been designed with an architecture that allows new device support to be added to the product through a plug-in mechanism. One of the main goals we have for the project at this point is to build up a collection of CAM plugins which would allow the software to manage many other types of storage arrays and disk systems. We are planning to release some sample plugins soon along with a toolkit that will provide documentation and guidance for writing new plugins.

CAM is java software and is supported on Solaris, Windows and Linux. It includes a monitoring agent, a web application and a command line utility. The web application currently runs in the Sun Java Web Console and the common line utility can be installed on a separate host and remotely connect to the agent. Additionally, the agent can operate in a proxy mode where it can act on behalf of an agent installed on another host. With these software configuration options CAM provides flexibility with how to arrange your disk management infrastructure. CAM offers both in-band and out-of-band management of devices. Some of the supported devices can only be managed in-band (the Storage Expansion Arrays are an example of such devices). In these cases either a proxy agent or a full CAM installation is required on the host that is attached to the storage device.

That's all for now. We hope to provide regular postings on usage, tips and tricks of the software and more detailed information on the design and implementation of the software as our OpenSolaris project evolves. Stay tuned and we look forward to your comments and suggestions.