Home > Storage > PowerMax and VMAX > Data Protection > Dell PowerMax: Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability > Power-down operation
When a system is powered down or transitioned to offline, or when environmental conditions trigger a vault situation, a vaulting procedure occurs. First, the part of global memory that is saved reaches a consistent image (no more writes). The directors then write the appropriate sections of global memory to the flash I/O modules, saving multiple copies of the logical data. The SPS modules maintain power to the system during the vaulting process for up to 5 minutes.