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The following table provides definitions for some of the terms that are used in this document:
Term | Definition |
ACID-compliant | ACID stands for data atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability. One aspect of ACID-compliant databases is that they can restart after a power failure or crash without loss of committed transactions. |
Devices and volumes | These terms are used interchangeably and have the same meaning: thin devices that are user-accessible when mapped to a host. |
Failover Cluster Instances (FCI) | FCI is how SQL Server uses Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC) to fail over SQL Server instances between WSFC nodes spontaneously or automatically. |
Microsoft Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) | The Microsoft ODX protocol allows offloading of data copy operations in Windows NTFS and Hyper-V to be performed internally in the storage system, thus making the copy faster and more efficient. |
NTFS | NTFS is a native file system type on Microsoft Windows. PowerMax best practices recommend formatting NTFS with a 128 KB allocation unit, which matches the PowerMax cache and storage track size. |
Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) and Decision Support Systems (DSS) | OLTP refers to workloads that focus on short transactions when users make frequent data inquiries and updates. DSS refers to workloads that focus on long data (batch) updates and sequential reads spanning large segments of the database to produce reports. |
Persistent memory (PMEM) and DRAM | PMEM is a type of memory that maintains its data during system shutdown or power failure. DRAM is a type of memory that loses its data if power is lost. While both are fast compared to NAND flash storage, DRAM is faster than PMEM but is also more expensive |
PowereMaxOS 10 | The PowerMax operating system released in Q3 2022. |
Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC) | WSFC is a Microsoft Windows clustering technology from which SQL Server can benefit. |
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