Chapter 1: Introduction to Adaptec Storage Manager ● 14Getting Started ChecklistPart I of this User’s Guide includes three special Getting Started chapters to help you install,start, and begin to use Adaptec Storage Manager.D Step 1: Familiarize yourself with Adaptec Storage Manager and the Adaptec StorageManager Agent (see the remainder of this chapter).D Step 2: Install Adaptec Storage Manager on every system that will be part of your storagespaces (see page 18).D Step 3: Build your storage space (see page 25).About Adaptec Storage ManagerAdaptec Storage Manager is a software application that helps you build a storage space for youronline data, using Adaptec RAID controllers, disk drives, and enclosures.With Adaptec Storage Manager, you can group disk drives into logical drives and build inredundancy to protect your data and improve system performance. You can also use AdaptecStorage Manager to monitor and maintain all the controllers, enclosures, and disk drives inyour storage space from a single location.About the Adaptec Storage Manager AgentWhen Adaptec Storage Manager is installed on a system, the Adaptec Storage Manager Agent isalso installed automatically. The Agent is like a service that keeps your storage space running.It’s designed to run in the background, without user intervention, and its job is to monitor andmanage system health, event notifications, tasks schedules, and other on-going processes onthat system. It sends notices when tasks are completed successfully, and sounds an alarm whenerrors or failures occur on that system.The Agent uses less memory than the full application. If your storage space includes systemsthat won’t be connected to monitors (and therefore won’t require the user interface describedin this User’s Guide), you can choose to run the Agent only on those systems instead of the fullapplication (see page 14). You may want to do this if system resources are limited, or if youwant more system resources available for other tasks.Note: Linux or Unix users only—If your storage space includes systems without X-Windows installed orrunning, you can run the Agent, even though you can’t run the full Adaptec Storage Manager application.You can manage and monitor systems running the Agent only by logging into them as remotesystems (see page 31).You can also customize the Agent settings to suit your storage space requirements.
