HPE 650072-B21 Getting Started Guide
QuickSpecs
HPE Smart Array P721m Controller
Overview
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HPE Smart Array P721m Controller
The HPE Smart Array P721m is a PCI-Express (PCIe) 3.0 mezzanine card supporting direct attached and Shared SAS Storage for
the
Gen8 Blade servers through its support of the latest SCSI technology and advanced RAID capabilities. The P721m can support up
to 227 zoned direct attached SAS or SATA hard drives per controller. This controller can support t
to 4 P2000 G3 SAS array systems), and direct attach to D2600, D2700, D6000 and MDS600.
What's New
• Support for HPE MSA2040 Storage
Models
HP Smart Array P721m/2GB FBWC 6Gb 4-ports Ext Mezzanine SAS Controller
650072-B21
HP Smart Array P721m/512 FBWC 6Gb 4-ports Ext Mezzanine SAS Controller
655636-B21
NOTE: HPE Smart Array P721m/512M Controller is only for shared storage connectivity. For connecting
SmartCache features enabled by default.
HPE ProLiant Gen8 BladeSystem servers. It provides new levels of reliability, connectivity, and storage performance for HPE
ape drives, shared storage (up
D2600/D2700/D6000 or MDS600, one must use P721m/2G FBWC controller.
NOTE: HPE Smart Array P721m/2G FBWC controller comes with Smart Array Advanced Pack 2.0 and HPE
QuickSpecs
HPE Smart Array P721m Controller
Standard Features
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The Smart Array
Advantage
The Hewlett Packard Enterprise innovative design and integration work within the Smart Array family
of products creates customer value that is unmatched in the industry. Use of Smart Array products
across multiple applications results in a much lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) than any other
server storage RAID product. The HPE Smart Array family brings an unparalleled return on investment.
Data Compatibility. Data Compatibility with all Serial Smart Array controllers allows simple and easy
upgrades any time needs for higher performance, capacity, and availability increase.
Consistent Configuration and Management Tools. All Smart Array products utilize a standard set of
management and utility software. These tools minimize Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by reducing
training requirements and technical expertise necessary to install and maintain HPE server storage.
Pre-Failure Warranty. Pre-Failure Warranty means Systems Insight Manager not only reports when a
drive is going to fail but allows replacement of failing drives prior to actual failure. For complete details,
consult the HPE Support Center or refer to your HPE Server documentation.
Key Features
• Storage interface (SAS/SATA)
gy
read performance by bypassing the Smart Array firmware for the optimal performance path to
nse is not required
Online Management
Features
• Online array expansion
• Online and high performance offline Rapid Parity Initialization (RPI)
o Eight (8) 6Gb/s SAS physical links distributed equally across 4 external 2x ports to
support up to 4 6Gb/s SAS Switches
o 6Gb/s SAS technology delivers up to 600 MB/s theoretical bandwidth per physical
link.
o 6Gb/s SATA technology delivers up to 600 MB/s theoretical bandwidth per physical
link for directly attached SATA drives.
o Mix-and-match SAS and SATA drives to the same controller. Deploy drive technolo
as needed to fit the computing environment.
o Support for SAS tape drives, SAS tape autoloaders and SAS tape libraries.
• RAID controller features
o 512 MB or 2 GiBytes cache
o RAID 0, 1, 10, 5, 50, 6, 60, 1 ADM, 10 ADM
NOTE: RAID for Shared Storage is controlled by the controller of the array.
o Recovery ROM protects against ROM corruption.
• Smart Array PCIe mezzanine card that connects to a HPE 6Gb/s SAS BL Switch through the c-
Class enclosure high-speed mid-plane supporting shared SAS storage.
• 2 GiBytes Flash Backed Write Cache (FBWC) provides read ahead caching and write back
caching with indefinite write cache data retention in the case of unexpected power outage.
• Software consistency on most current shipping Smart Array family products: HPE
SmartStorage Administrator, HPE Systems Insight Manager, and HPE Intelligent Provisioning.
The HPE Smart Storage Administrator configures and manages a host of Smart Array
controllers and other storage devices using a single interface. It replaces the HPE Array
Configuration Utility (ACU) with an updated design and configuration enhancements.
• The HPE SSD Smart Path feature included in the Smart Array software stack improves SSD
the SSD.
• The HPE SmartCache licensed feature is a controller-based read caching solution in a DAS
environment that caches the most frequently accessed data ("hot" data) onto lower latency
SSDs to dynamically accelerate application workloads. HPE Smart Cache lice
on P721m with 2GiBytes FBWC. HPE Smart Cache requires a minimum of 1 GiByte FBWC.
• Online capacity expansion
• Online logical drive extension
• Online RAID level migration
• Online stripe size migration
• Online mirror split, recombine, and rollback
QuickSpecs
HPE Smart Array P721m Controller
Standard Features
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• Unlimited global online spares assignment
Performance
• Eight (8) 6Gb/s SAS physical links distributed across 4 external 2x ports which supports up to
Capacity
• Dependent upon attached arrays. See drive enclosure QuickSpecs for details
Availability
Provides increased server uptime by providing advanced storage functionality:
Fault Prevention
The following features offer detection of possible failures before they occur, allowing preventive action
to be taken:
Fault Tolerance RAID
Descriptions
Keeps data available and server running while a failed drive is being replaced; two fault tolerance
configurations are supported for the internal connections including:
(Distributed Data Guarding): Supported with a minimum of 3 drives. This allocates one
RAID 50
• User selectable expand and rebuild priority
• User selectable RAID level and stripe size
• User selectable read and write cache sizes
• Supports Predictive Spare Activation
four 6Gb/s SAS Switches
• 6Gb/s SAS (600MB/s theoretical bandwidth per physical link)
• PCIe 3.0
• Up to 2 GiBytes Flash Backed Write Cache
• Online RAID level migration between any RAID levels
• Online stripe size migration
• Online capacity expansion
• Online logical drive extension
• Online active drive replacement
• Unlimited global online spare
• S.M.A.R.T.: Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology first developed at HPE detects
possible hard disk failure before it occurs, allowing replacement of the component before
failure occurs.
• Drive Parameter Tracking monitors drive operational parameters, predicting failure and
notifying the administrator.
• Dynamic Sector Repairing continually performs background surface scans on the hard disk
drives during inactive periods and automatically remaps bad sectors, ensuring data integrity.
• Smart Array Cache Tracking monitors integrity of controller cache, allowing pre-failure
preventative maintenance.
• RAID 6 (Advanced Data Guarding): Supported with a minimum of 4 drives. This allocates two
sets of parity data across drives. This level of fault tolerance can withstand a double drive
failure without downtime or data loss.
• RAID 60: Supported with a minimum of 8 drives. This volume is composed of two or more
RAID 6 sub-volumes (parity groups) where data is striped across each parity group as if it
were a single physical drive. Each RAID 6 parity group can sustain up to two drive failures
without incurring data loss.
• RAID 5
set of parity data across drives. This level of fault tolerance can withstand a single drive failure
without downtime or data loss.
•
: Supported with a minimum of 6 drives. This volume is composed of two or more
QuickSpecs
HPE Smart Array P721m Controller
Standard Features
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RAID 5 sub-volumes (parity groups) where data is striped across each parity group as if it
were a single physical drive. Each RAID 5 parity group can sustain a single drive failure without
drive array to the data and the other half to the mirrored data, providing two copies of the
Fault Recovery
Minimizes downtime, reconstructs data, and facilitates a quick recovery from drive failure:
corruption. A new version of firmware can be flashed to the ROM while the controller maintains
n of firmware. If the firmware becomes corrupt, the controller will
Ease of Use
Consistency and upgradeability on most shipping HPE Smart Array products make them unique in the
industry:
HPE SmartCache
HPE SmartCache is a controller-based read caching solution in a DAS environment that caches the
most frequently accessed data ("hot" data) onto lower latency SSDs to dynamically accelerate
application workloads. The
Gen8 supported HDD for bulk storage and any
HPE
The basic
For more information please visit http://www.hp.com/go/smartcache
HPE SSD Smart Path
The HPE SSD Smart Path feature included in the Smart Array software stack improves Solid State Disk
(SSD) read performance. With up to 4x better SS
SSD Smart path chooses the
optimum path to the SSD and accelerates reads for all RAID levels and RAID 0 writes. It is configurable
through the
archite
SSD Smart Path is ideal for read intensive workloads and is included as a base feature
on
SSD Smart Path feature:
incurring data loss.
• RAID 1 & 10 (Drive Mirroring): Supported with a minimum of 2 drives. This allocates half of
the
data.
• RAID 1 ADM & 10 ADM (Advanced Data Mirroring): Supported with a minimum of 3 drives.
RAID 1 ADM creates redundant copies of the data using 3 drives. RAID 10 ADM stripes data
across two or more sets of RAID 1 ADM volumes. This level of fault tolerance can withstand a
double drive failure within a RAID 1 ADM volume without downtime or data loss.
• Recovery ROM: This feature provides unique redundancy that protects from a ROM image
the last known working versio
revert back to the previous version of firmware and continue operating. This reduces the risk
of flashing firmware to the controller.
• DRAM ECC corrects against single bit data and address corruption.
• GUI based configuration, management and diagnostic software tools
• Common data format between generations of products
HPE SmartCache architecture is flexible and supports any HPE ProLiant
HPE ProLiant Gen8 supported SSD as an accelerator.
SmartCache is deployed and managed using the HPE SmartStorage Administrator (HPE SSA).
HPE SmartCache architecture is comprised of the following three elements:
• Bulk storage: The first element is the bulk storage device, which is any supported HDD
attached to the HPE Smart Array controller.
• Accelerator: The second element, the accelerator, is a faster/lower latency SSD device that
caches data.
• Metadata: The final element is metadata, information held in a relatively small storage area
that maps the location of information residing on the accelerator and bulk storage devices.
D read performance, HPE
HPE SmartStorage Administrator providing seamless management with the Smart Array
cture. HPE
HPE Smart Array P-series controllers. The following operating systems are supported by the HPE
QuickSpecs
HPE Smart Array P721m Controller
Standard Features
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• Microsoft Windows 2008 Server
• Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Server
• Microsoft Windows 2012 Server
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