Upgrading and Repairing Servers

Chapter 11 Disk Subsystems

As mathematician and pioneering computer scientist John Von Neumann conceptualized it, a computer's architecture is built like a human brain. A server's processors correspond to intelligence or, more precisely, higher logic functions; your RAM and cache perform a function similar to short-term memory; and permanent storage such as disks functions similarly to long-term memory. We don't yet have computers that are massively parallel processed or compute with a fault-tolerant fabric, but one day, in the not-too-distant future, we most certainly will.

Access to massive amounts of storage is a feature of modern computers; and that is true to an even greater degree with servers. What once fit into a very large room now fits ...