ServeRAID M1215 SAS/SATA Controller for IBM System x User’s Guide Safety
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ServeRAID M1215 SAS/SATA Controller for IBM System x User’s Guide Safety
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ServeRAID M1215 SAS/SATA Controller for IBM System x User’s Guide Safety
Statement 28:
CAUTION:
The battery is a lithium ion battery. To avoid possible explosion, do not burn the
battery. Exchange it only with the approved part. Recycle or discard the battery
as instructed by local regulations.
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ServeRAID M1215 SAS/SATA Controller for IBM System x User’s GuideTable of Contents
ServeRAID M1215 SAS/SATA Controller for IBM System x User’s GuideChapter 1: Overview
ServeRAID M1215 Controller Description
Chapter 1: Overview
1.1ServeRAID M1215 Controller Description
The ServeRAID M1215 SAS/SATA controller is a PCI Express 3.0, low-profile, low-height RAID controller based on the
LSISAS3008 PCI Express-SAS/SATA I/O Processor chip.
The controller brings 12.0 Gb/s SAS and 6.0 Gb/s SATA performance to host controller, workstation, and ser ver designs.
The controller supports internal storage devices, which allows you to use a system that supports enterprise-class SAS
drives, and desktop-class SATA drives. The controller can connect to drives directly. Simplified cabling between
devices is an additional benefit.
The controller supports eight internal SAS/SATA ports through two SFF-8643 4i internal mini-SAS HD connectors. The
controller integrates eight high-performance SAS/SATA PHYs and a PCI Express bus master DMA core. Each of the
eight PHYs is capable of 12.0 Gb/s SAS link rates and 6.0 Gb/s SATA III link rates.
The LSISAS3008 device increases system performance and provides fault-tolerant data storage. The LSISAS3008 ROC
device supports data striping across multiple disks, which reduces disk access time because multiple disks
simultaneously read or write data. In addition, the device backs up data with either data mirroring or a parity block.
Either backup method enables you to recover lost data in the event of a disk failure. You can select the data backup
method that best suits your needs.
The controller supports the SAS protocol as described in the Serial Attached SCSI Standard, version 3.0, and the SATA III
protocol defined by the Serial ATA Revision 3.0 Specification.
NOTE You cannot mix SAS drives and SATA drives within the same virtual drive.
Each port on the controller supports SAS devices and/or SATA devices using the following:
SAS Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP), which enables communication with other SAS devices
SATA, which enables communication with other SATA devices
Serial Management Protocol (SMP), which communicates topology management information directly with an
attached SAS expander device
Serial Tunneling Protocol (STP), which enables communication with a SATA device through an attached expander
1.1.1Controller Guidelines
Before you install the controller, read the following guidelines:
You can connect only one device per SAS PHY unless you use an expander
Cables have to meet the SAS specification
You cannot mix SAS drives and SATA drives in the same virtual drive
You cannot mix SAS Solid State Drives (SSDs) or SATA SSDs and existing mechanical drives (SAS or SATA) in the
same virtual drive
You cannot mix Solid State SAS drives and Solid State SATA drives in the same virtual drive
See Section 3.2.4, “Power Supply Requirements for the ServeRAID M1215 SAS/SATA Controller” for information about
the power requirements, and Section 3.2.5, “Operating and Non-operating Conditions”for information about the
minimum and the maximum temperature ranges.
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ServeRAID M1215 SAS/SATA Controller for IBM System x User’s GuideChapter 1: Overview
Integrated MegaRAID
1.2Integrated MegaRAID
The ServeRAID M1215 controller runs in integrated MegaRAID (iMR) mode natively. iMR technology is a highly
integrated, low-cost RAID solution made possible by Fusion-MPT architecture. iMR mode is a processor-based,
hardware RAID solution designed for system environments requiring redundancy and high availability where a
full-featured RAID implementation is not required or might be cost prohibitive.
The major advantage of iMR is that it provides RAID at the processor level, so it does not burden the CPU, which allows
for more efficient operation. iMR mode is native to the ServeRAID M1215 controller and does not require a
transportable memory module.
NOTE Support for RAID 5 and RAID 50 requires purchase of the Feature on Demand upgrade.
1.2.1Summary of RAID Levels
RAID levels describe a system for ensuring the availability and redundancy of data stored on large disk subsystems.
Tab le 1 describes the RAID levels supported by the ServeRAID M1215 controller.
NOTE Refer to the ServeRAID-M Software User’s Guide for more information about RAID levels.
Table 1 Summary of RAID Levels
Raid LevelDescriptionComments
0RAID 0 uses striping to provide high data throughputRAID 0 is well suited for large files in an environment
that does not require fault tolerance.
1RAID 1 uses mirroring so that data written to one drive
is simultaneously written to another drive.
5RAID 5 uses disk striping and parity data across all
drives (distributed parity) to provide high data
throughput, especially for small random access.
10RAID 10, a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 1, consists
of striped data across mirrored spans. A RAID 10 drive
group is a spanned drive group that creates a striped
set from a series of mirrored drives.
50RAID 50, a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 5, uses dis-
tributed parity and disk striping. A RAID 50 drive group
is a spanned drive group in which data is striped
across multiple RAID 5 drive groups.
RAID 1 is good for small databases or other applica-
tions that require small capacity but complete data
redundancy.
RAID 5 is best suited for networks that perform a lot of
small input/output (I/O) transactions simultaneously.
NOTE RAID 5 requires purchase of the Feature on
Demand upgrade.
RAID 10 allows a maximum of eight spans. You must
use an even number of drives, and the total number of
drives must be divisible by 4 in each RAID 10 drive
group in the span. The RAID 1 virtual drives must have
the same stripe size. RAID 10 provides high data
throughput and complete data redundancy but uses a
larger number of spans.
RAID 50 works best with data that requires high reli-
ability, high request rates, high data transfers, and
medium-to-large capacity.
NOTE RAID 50 requires purchase of the Feature on
Demand upgrade.
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ServeRAID M1215 SAS/SATA Controller for IBM System x User’s GuideChapter 1: Overview
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Configuration Scenarios
NOTE MegaRAID does not allow virtual drives of different RAID levels, such as RAID 0 and RAID 5, in the same
array. For example, if an existing RAID 5 virtual drive is created out of partial space in an array, the next virtual
drive in the array has to be RAID 5 only.
1.3Configuration Scenarios
There are two main scenarios in which you can use this ServeRAID controller:
Low-end, internal SATA configuration: In this configuration, use the ServeRAID controller as a high-end SATA
compatible controller that connects to several SATA disks. This type of configuration is mostly for low-end or entry
level servers. Enclosure management is provided through out-of-band I2C bus. Side bands of both types of
internal SAS connectors support the SFF-8485 and SFF-8448 (SGPIO) interface.
Midrange, internal SAS configuration: This configuration is like the internal SATA configuration, but with high-end
disks. This type of configuration is more suitable for low-range to midrange servers.
The following figure shows a direct-connect configuration. The Inter-IC (I2C) interface communicates with peripherals.
The external memory bus provides a 16-bit memory bus, parity checking, and chip select signals for pipelined
synchronous burst static random access memory (PSBRAM), nonvolatile static random access memory (NVSRAM), and
Flash ROM.
Figure 1 Example of a SAS Direct Connect Application
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