IBM ServeRAID M5110e, ServeRAID M5110 Product Manual

ServeRAID M5110 and M5110e SAS/SATA Controllers for IBM System x 1

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ServeRAID M5110 and M5110e SAS/SATA Controllers
for IBM System x

IBM Redbooks Product Guide

The ServeRAID M5110 and M5110e SAS/SATA controllers are part of the IBM® ServeRAID M Series
family that offers a complete server storage solution consisting of RAID controllers, cache/flash modules,
energy packs, and software feature upgrades in an ultra-flexible offerings structure. These products are
optimized to deliver the performance that is demanded by the ever-growing I/O requirements of today's
enterprises. While M5110 comes as a small form factor PCIe adapter, M5110e comes integrated with the
IBM System x3650 M4 server. They also share a common set of upgrades, simplifying inventory
management.

Figure 1 shows the ServeRAID M5110 Controller.

Figure 1. ServeRAID M5110 SAS/SATA Controller (with flash module)

Did you know

The ServeRAID M5110 and M5110e SAS/SATA controllers are optimized for high-performance, internal
data storage with integration of the dual-core chip architecture, DDR3 1333 MHz cache memory, and
PCIe 3.0 host interface. A portfolio of building blocks allows clients to design around a bottom-up
approach and caters to a wide array of storage requirements. Upgrade features, such as support for RAID
6/60, performance optimization, and caching with SSDs, no longer require a hardware key. They are
implemented through Features-on-Demand (FoD) software licenses.

ServeRAID M5110 and M5110e SAS/SATA Controllers for IBM System x 2

Part number information

Table 1 provides the ordering part numbers and feature codes.

Table 1. Ordering part numbers and feature codes

Description Part number Feature code

ServeRAID M5110e SAS/SATA Controller for IBM System x® Onboard Onboard

ServeRAID M5110 SAS/SATA Controller for IBM System x 81Y4481 A347

ServeRAID M5100 Series Zero Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade for IBM System x 81Y4544 A1X2

ServeRAID M5100 Series 512MB Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade for IBM System x 81Y4484 A1J3

ServeRAID M5100 Series 512MB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade for IBM System x 81Y4487 A1J4

ServeRAID M5100 Series 1GB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade for IBM System x 81Y4559 A1WY

ServeRAID M5100 Series Battery Kit for IBM System x 81Y4508 A22E

ServeRAID M5100 Series RAID 6 Upgrade for IBM System x 81Y4546 A1X3

ServeRAID M5100 Series SSD Performance Accelerator for IBM System x 90Y4273 A2MC

ServeRAID M5100 Series SSD Caching Enabler for IBM System x 90Y4318 A2MD

Note: The M5110 SAS/SATA controller is only available as a part of a pre-configured standard model or
through CTO. The M5110 option part number (81Y4481) is planned to be available in 2Q/2012.
Note: The M5100 Series SSD Caching Enabler option (90Y4318) is planned to be available in 2Q/2012.

The ServeRAID M5110 option part number includes the following items:

One ServeRAID M5110 adapter card



Full-height (3U) bracket



Low-profile (2U) bracket



Warranty Flyer



ServeRAID M Documentation CD



Important Notices Flyer



The ServeRAID M5100 Series 512MB Cache Upgrade option part number includes the following items:

Cache module



Important Notices Flyer



Warranty Flyer



ServeRAID M Documentation CD



The ServeRAID M5100 Series Battery Kit option part number includes the following items:

Battery



Two battery cables (0.5 m and 0.95 m)



Important Notices Flyer



Lithium Battery Handling Statement



Warranty Flyer



ServeRAID M Documentation CD



ServeRAID M5110 and M5110e SAS/SATA Controllers for IBM System x 3

ServeRAID M5100 Series 512MB and 1GB Flash Upgrade option part numbers include the following
items:

Cache module



Flash power module

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Two power module cable

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Important Notices Flyer



Warranty Flyer



ServeRAID M Documentation CD



ServeRAID M5100 Series Zero Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade, RAID 6 Upgrade, SSD Performance Accelerator,
and SSD Caching Enabler option part numbers include the following items:

M5100 Series upgrade activation key



Feature Activation Instructions



Figure 2 shows the flash-backed cache module, power module, and power cable.

Figure 2. Flash-backed cache module, power module, and power cable

ServeRAID M5110 and M5110e SAS/SATA Controllers for IBM System x 4

Features

The ServeRAID M5110 and M5110e SAS/SATA controllers have the following standard features:

Auto-resume on array rebuild or array reconstruction after the loss of system power



Auto-resume uses non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) to save the rebuild progress during a host reboot or
power failure to automatically resume from the last checkpoint. Auto-resume ensures that data
integrity is maintained throughout the process. The card supports a number of features that are able
to be implemented without rebooting the server. Applications, such as email and web server, benefit
from avoiding downtime during the transition.

Online Capacity Expansion



Online Capacity Expansion (OCE) allows the capacity of a virtual disk to be expanded by adding new
physical disks or making use of unused space on existing disks, without requiring a reboot.

Online RAID Level Migration



Online RAID Level Migration, which is also known as logical drive migration, provides the ability to
migrate a virtual disk from any RAID level to any other RAID level without requiring a reboot. System
availability and application functionality remain unaffected.

Fast initialization for quick array setup



Fast initialization quickly writes zeros to the first and last sectors of the virtual drive. This feature
allows you to immediately start writing data to the virtual drive while the initialization is running in the
background.

Consistency check for background data integrity



Consistency check verifies that all stripes in a virtual disk with a redundant RAID level are consistent.
The consistency check will mirror data when an inconsistent stripe is detected for a RAID 1 and
recreate the parity from the peer disks in the case of a RAID 5 or RAID 6. Consistency checks can be
scheduled to take place periodically.

Extensive online configuration options and advanced monitoring and event notification



Management tools provide convenience for the configuration of logical volumes and alerting when
errors have occurred or are about to occur.

Patrol read for media scanning and repairing



Patrol read is a background sentry service designed to pro-actively discover and correct media
defects (bad sectors) that arise normally as a disk drive ages. The service issues a series of verify
commands, and if a bad block is discovered, the card's firmware uses RAID algorithms to recreate the
missing data and remap the sector to a good sector. The task is interruptible based on controller
activity and host operations. The firmware also provides an interface where the patrol read task can
be initiated, set up for continuous operation, and terminated from a management application. Patrol
read can be activated by a manual command or automatically.

Global and dedicated hot spare with revertible hot spare support



A hot spare rebuilds data from all virtual disks within the disk group in which it is configured.
ServeRAID provides the ability to define a physical disk as a hot spare to replace a failed drive. Hot
spares can be configured as either global or dedicated. A global hot spare allows any physical drive to
be designated as a hot spare. A dedicated hot spare allows the user to assign a hot spare drive to a
particular array of the same drive type.

Single controller multipathing (failover) I/O load balancing



The ServeRAID's firmware detects and uses multiple paths from the controllers to the SAS drives that
are in enclosures. With redundant paths to the same port of a device, if one path fails, another path
can be used to communicate between the controller and the drive. Using multiple paths with load

ServeRAID M5110 and M5110e SAS/SATA Controllers for IBM System x 5

balancing, instead of a single path, can increase reliability through redundancy.

WebBIOS configuration utility for pre-boot array configuration and management



WebBIOS is a utility that is built into the ServeRAID controller that allows you to configure drive
groups and logical drives before installing or booting the operating system.

MegaRAID Storage Manager management software



MegaRAID Storage Manager is an easy-to-use advanced RAID management application that is used
across the entire family of ServeRAID M controllers. It allows you to configure, monitor, and maintain
drive groups, virtual drives, and advanced features with an intuitive GUI, reducing administrative
efforts and simplifying troubleshooting.

The following features are optional and require the respective upgrade to be purchased:

Support for RAID levels 6 and 60 with M5100 Series RAID 6 Upgrade (81Y4546)



MegaRAID SafeStore support for self-encrypting drive (SED) services



MegaRAID SafeStore encryption services offer instant secure erase and local key management for
self-encrypting drives. This technology represents a significant step forward in securing data on a disk
drive from any unauthorized access or modification resulting from theft, loss, or repurposing of drives.
Instant secure erase permanently removes data when repurposing or decommissioning SEDs.
SafeStore local key management provides the necessary management and protection of SEDs using
a simple pass phrase, security key identifier, and security key file that can be set and applied to all
SEDs assigned to a ServeRAID adapter. This feature removes the complexity of managing each
SED’s unique encryption key, and it essentially relieves the administrator of most of the daily tasks of
securing data. The SafeStore is part of any RAID 5 upgrade that is available: 81Y4544, 81Y4484,
81Y4487, or 81Y4559.

MegaRAID CacheVault flash cache protection



MegaRAID CacheVault flash cache protection uses NAND flash memory powered by a
supercapacitor to protect data stored in the controller cache. This module eliminates the need for a
lithium-ion battery commonly used to protect DRAM cache memory on PCI RAID controllers. To avoid
the possibility of data loss or corruption during a power or server failure, CacheVault technology
transfers the contents of the DRAM cache to NAND flash (CacheVault flash module (CVFM)) using
power from the CacheVault power module (CVPM). After the power is restored to the RAID controller,
CacheVault technology transfers the contents of the NAND flash back to the DRAM, which will
eventually be flushed to disk.

MegaRAID FastPath SSD performance acceleration



MegaRAID FastPath software provides high-performance I/O acceleration for SSD-based virtual
drives by exploiting an extremely low latency I/O path to increase the maximum I/O per second
(IOPS) capability of the controller. This feature boosts the performance of applications with a highly
random data storage access pattern, such as transactional databases. The feature is activated by
enabling M5100 Series Performance Accelerator (90Y4273).

MegaRAID CacheCade Pro 2.0 SSD caching for traditional hard drives



MegaRAID CacheCade Pro 2.0 read/write software is designed to accelerate the performance of hard
disk drive (HDD) arrays with only an incremental investment in solid-state drive (SSD) technology.
The software enables SSDs to be configured as a dedicated pool of controller cache to help maximize
the I/O performance for transaction-intensive applications, such as databases and web serving.
CacheCade software tracks data storage access patterns and identifies the most frequently accessed
data. The hot data is then automatically stored on the solid-state storage devices that are assigned as
a dedicated cache pool on a ServeRAID controller with the M5100 Series SSD Caching feature
(90Y4318) enabled.

ServeRAID M5110 and M5110e SAS/SATA Controllers for IBM System x 6

Technical specifications

The ServeRAID M5110 and M5110e SAS/SATA controllers have the following specifications:

PCI Low Profile, Half-length - MD2 form factor (M5110) or onboard chip (M5110e)



Eight internal 6 Gbps SAS/SATA ports



Two internal Mini-SAS connectors (SFF-8087)



6 Gbps throughput per port



800 MHz dual-core IBM PowerPC® processor with LSI SAS2208 6 Gbps RAID on Chip (ROC)



controller

PCI Express 3.0 x8 host interface



Support for RAID levels 0, 1, 10 standard; support for RAID 5, 50 and 6, 60 with optional upgrades



Optional onboard data cache (DDR3 running at 1333 MHz) with the choice of:



512 MB with optional battery backup



512 MB or 1 GB with flash backup (MegaRAID CacheVault technology)



Support for SAS and SATA HDDs and SSDs



Support for intermixing SAS and SATA HDDs and SSDs; mixing different types of drives in the same



array (drive group) not recommended

Connections to up to 32 internal drives, depending on the server model



Optional support for self-encrypting drives (SEDs) with MegaRAID SafeStore



Optional support for SSD performance acceleration with MegaRAID FastPath and SSD caching with



MegaRAID CacheCade Pro 2.0

Support for up to 64 virtual drives, up to 128 drive groups, up to 16 virtual drives per one drive group,

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and up to 32 physical drives per one drive group

Support for logical unit number (LUN) sizes up to 64 TB

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Configurable stripe size up to 1 MB

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Compliant with Disk Data Format (DDF) configuration on disk (COD)

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S.M.A.R.T. support

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MegaRAID Storage Manager management software

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