Lenovo ServeRAID M5015, ServeRAID M5014 Product Manual

ServeRAID M5015 and M5014 SAS/SATA Controllers

Product Guide

The ServeRAID M5015 and ServeRAID M5014 SAS/SATA Controllers for System x are the next-generation
6 Gbps SAS 2.0 RAID controllers. The adapters have two internal mini-SAS connectors to control up to 32
devices and support global and dedicated hot-spare drives. The ServeRAID M5014 controller delivers a full
RAID 6 Gbps SAS 2.0 solution, while the ServeRAID M5015 provides additional performance advantages of
an extended cache and a standard battery backup unit. With the attachment of the ServeRAID M5000
Advanced Feature Key, the ServeRAID M5015 and M5014 offer the option of RAID 6, RAID 60, and SED
Encryption Key management.

Figure 1 shows the ServeRAID M5015 with its standard battery backup unit.

Figure 1. ServeRAID M5015 SAS/SATA Controller

Did you know?

6 Gbps SAS 2.0 technology has been introduced to address data off-load bottlenecks in the direct-access
storage environment. This new throughput doubles the transfer rate of the previous generation. SAS 2.0 is
designed for backward compatibility with 3 Gbps SAS as well as with 3 Gbps SATA hard drives.

Self-encrypting drives are based on a new technology that helps prevent data from being accessed without
authorization. These drives adhere to the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) Enterprise Security Subsystem
Class specification and are National Security Agency qualified to provide government-grade encryption.
With self-encrypting drives (SEDs), if a drive is removed from its storage system or the server that it is
housed in, the data on that drive is encrypted and useless to anyone who attempts to access it without the
appropriate security authorization.

ServeRAID M5015 and M5014 SAS/SATA Controllers 1

Part number information

Table 1. Ordering part number and feature code

Part number Feature code Description

46M0829 0093 ServeRAID M5015 SAS/SATA Controller

46M0916 3877 ServeRAID M5014 SAS/SATA Controller

46M0917 5744 ServeRAID M5000 Series Battery Kit

68Y7396 5862 ServeRAID M5000 Series Battery Remote Mount Cable

46M0930 5106 ServeRAID M5000 Series Advanced Feature Key

81Y4426 A10C ServeRAID M5000 Series Performance Accelerator Key

The ServeRAID M5015 option part number includes the following items:

One ServeRAID M5015 adapter card with full-height bracket

One replaceable low-profile (2U) bracket

One attached ServeRAID M5000 battery

Documentation CD

The Important Notices Document

Note: The ServeRAID M5015 option part number 46M0829 includes the M5000 battery, however the
feature code 0093 does not contain the battery. Order feature code 5744 if you wish to include the battery
in the server configuration.

The ServeRAID M5014 option part number includes the following items:

One ServeRAID M 5014 adapter card with full-height bracket

One replaceable low-profile (2U) bracket

The ServeRAID M V1.10 Utility and Documentation CD

The Important Notices Document

The ServeRAID M5000 Series Battery Kit option part number contains the following items:

ServeRAID M5000 Battery

Battery Flyer

Quick Install Guide

Important Notices Flyer

Tip: The Battery Remote Mount Cable is a separately orderable item and is not part of the Battery Kit. The
cable is also part of the System x3650 M3 Hot-swap SAS/SATA 4 Pack HDD Upgrade option, 69Y4236.

ServeRAID M5015 and M5014 SAS/SATA Controllers 2

Specifications

The ServeRAID M5015 and ServeRAID M5014 adapter cards have the following specifications:

Eight internal 6 Gbps SAS/SATA ports

Two Mini-SAS internal connectors (SFF-8087)

6 Gbps throughput per port

800 MHz PowerPC processor with LSI SAS2108 6 Gbps RAID on Chip (ROC) controller

x8 PCI Express 2.0 host interface

Onboard data cache (DDR2 running at 800 MHz):

ServeRAID M5015: 512 MB
ServeRAID M5014: 256 MB

Intelligent Li-Ion-based battery backup unit with up to 48 hours of data retention:

ServeRAID M5015: Standard in the option part number
ServeRAID M5014: Optional

Supports RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 10, and 50 (RAID 6 and 60 support with the optional M5000 Advanced
Feature Key)

Connects to up to 32 SAS or SATA drives

SAS and SATA drives are supported, but the mixing of SAS and SATA in the same RAID array is not
supported

Supports up to 64 logical volumes

Supports LUN sizes up to 64 TB

Configurable stripe size up to 1 MB

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

S.M.A.R.T. support

Figure 2. ServeRAID M5014 SAS/SATA Controller

ServeRAID M5015 and M5014 SAS/SATA Controllers 3

Features

The ServeRAID M5015 and ServeRAID M5014 adapter cards have the following features:

Auto-resume on array rebuild or array reconstruction after loss of system power
Auto-resume uses non-volatile NVRAM to save rebuild progress during a host reboot or power
failure to automatically resume from the last checkpoint. Auto-resume will ensure data integrity is
maintained through 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 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 (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

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 recreating the parity from the peer disks when in the case of a RAID 5 or RAID 6. Consistency
checks can be scheduled to take place periodically.

Extensive online configuration options: advanced monitoring and event notification
Management tools provide convenience for configuration of logical volumes plus 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 proactively 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 will use 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 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 may 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 will allow the user to assign a hot spare drive
to a particular array of the same drive type.

The ServeRAID M5000 Series Advanced Feature Key enables the following features:

RAID levels 6 and 60

LSI SafeStore: support for self-encrypting drive services:

Instant secure erase
Local key management

LSI 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.

ServeRAID M5015 and M5014 SAS/SATA Controllers 4