Intel RAID AXXRSBBU6 User Manual

Intel® RAID Smart Battery AXXRSBBU6

User’s Guide

Order Number: E33722-001

Warranty Notice: Adding a battery on an Intel RAID controller will limit the warranty of this product. Returns determined to

be caused by battery installation damage, stripped screws, or other damage resulting from the battery installation will not be

covered. ESD damage to the board will also not be covered by the warranty.

The warranty on the AXXRSBBU6 is 1 year.

Disclaimer

Information in this document is provided in connection with Intel otherwise, to any intellectual property rights is granted by this document. Except as provided in Intel's Terms and Conditions of Sale for such products, Intel assumes no liability whatsoever, and Intel disclaims any express or implied warranty, relating to sale and/or use of Intel products including liability or warranties relating to fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, or infringement of any patent, copyright or other intellectual property right. Intel products are not designed, intended or authorized for use in any medical, life saving, or life sustaining applications or for any other application in which the failure of the Intel specifications and product descriptions at any time, without notice.

product could create a situation where personal injury or death may occur. Intel may make changes to

products. No license, express or implied, by estoppel or

Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Contents

List of Figures..................................................................................................... iv

List of Tables ...................................................................................................... iv

About the Intel

RAID Smart Battery ...................................................................i

Installing the AXXRSBBU6 ................................................................................. 3

Important Pre-installation Considerations ......................................................................4

Step-by-step AXXRSBBU6 Installation .......................................................................... 4

Monitoring Battery Backup ................................................................................ 7

Monitoring BBUs with the RAID BIOS Configuration Utility............................................ 7

Using Intel

RAID Web Console 2 .................................................................................8

Replacing Battery Backup Units........................................................................ 9

Disposing of Battery Backup Units................................................................................. 9

Battery Backup Unit Specifications................................................................. 10

Battery Life and Data Retention Time .......................................................................... 10

iii

List of Figures

Figure 1. Top and Bottom View of the AXXRSBBU6...................................................................3

Figure 2. Battery alignment on the add-in Intel

Figure 3. Battery board mounting on RAID controller board........................................................5

Figure 4. Reinserting an add-in RAID Controller .........................................................................6

Figure 5. Battery monitoring with the RAID BIOS Utility .............................................................. 7

Figure 6. BBU information in RWC2 ............................................................................................ 8

RAID Controllers ..............................................5

List of Tables

Table 1. Battery Backup Unit Specifications ..............................................................................10

About the Intel® RAID Smart Battery

Intel® RAID Controllers and Intel® Integrated Server RAID Modules provide reliability, high performance, and fault-tolerant disk subsystem management. A complete fault-tolerant strategy requires protection for all data, including the unwritten cached data in the RAM cache. If power is lost, the data in RAM is lost. To avoid this data loss, a battery can be added to supply power to the RAID RAM during an AC power outage or if the AC power cord is removed.

A battery backup unit protects the integrity of the cached data on Intel RAID controllers by providing backup power if there is a complete AC power failure or a brief power outage. The Intel RSBBUs provide an inexpensive alternative to using an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) or act as a second level of fault tolerance when used in conjunction with a UPS.

The cache memory available on Intel controllers can improve overall system performance. Writing data to the controller’s cache memory is much faster than writing it to a storage device. Write operations appear to complete very quickly at the software application level. The Intel RAID controller then writes the cached data to the storage device when system activity is low or when the cache is getting full. The risk of using write-back cache is that the cached data can be lost if the AC power fails before it has been written to the storage device. This risk factor is eliminated when the Intel RAID controller has an onboard BBU.

The Intel RSBBUs monitor the voltage level of the DRAM modules installed on the Intel RAID controller. If the voltage drops below a predefined level, the battery backup module switches the memory power source from the Intel RAID controller to the battery pack attached to the Intel RAID Smart Battery Backup Unit (RSBBU). As long as the voltage level stays below the predefined value, the Intel RSBBU provides power for memory. If the voltage level returns to an acceptable level, the RSBBU switches the power source back to the Intel RAID controller, and all pending writes to storage devices are completed with no data loss.

A smart battery backup unit (BBU) has built-in functionality to charge the battery pack automatically and to communicate battery status information such as voltage, temperature, and current to the host computer system.

The AXXRSBBU6 is a smart battery back up module using LiON technology that is compatible with a backup auxiliary power source. Battery charging and recharging take place automatically.

The AXXRSBBU6, which features LiON battery cell technology, mounts directly to the following

Intel

RAID Controllers using a small board-to-board connector (daughtercard):

• Intel

RAID Controller SRCSASBB8I

RAID Controller SRCSASLS4I

1 Intel® RAID Smart Battery User’s Guide

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