Lenovo ServeRAID M5120 Product Manual

ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller

Product Guide (withdrawn product)

The ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller is a 6 Gb SAS RAID controller with two external connectors
to connect to SAS expansion enclosures. The adapter is a part of the ServeRAID M5100 Series family,
which 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 performance demanded by the ever-growing I/O requirements of today's enterprises.
The M5120 comes as a small form factor PCIe adapter, and it shares a common set of ServeRAID M5100
Series upgrades available for the entire family, simplifying inventory management.

Figure 1. ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller (with flash module)

Did you know?

The ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller is optimized for high-performance external data storage with
integration of 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 bottoms-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-on­Demand (FoD) software licenses.

ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller (withdrawn product) 1

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

Base controller

ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller 81Y4478 A1WX

Cache upgrades and battery kit (required)

ServeRAID M5100 Series 512MB Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade 81Y4484 A1J3

ServeRAID M5100 Series 512MB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade 81Y4487 A1J4

ServeRAID M5100 Series 1GB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade 81Y4559 A1WY

ServeRAID M5100 Series 2GB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade 47C8670* A4G6

ServeRAID M5100 Series Battery Kit 81Y4508 A22E

Features on Demand (FoD) upgrades (optional)**

ServeRAID M5100 Series RAID 6 Upgrade 81Y4546 A1X3

ServeRAID M5100 Series SSD Performance Accelerator 90Y4273 A2MC

ServeRAID M5100 Series SSD Caching Enabler 90Y4318 A2MD

* Withdrawn from marketing
** One M5100 Series FoD upgrade activates the feature on all M5200 Series and M5100 Series controllers
that are installed in the server.

Cache is required: The ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller ships standard without a cache, however
one of the available cache upgrades (81Y4484, 81Y4487, 81Y4559, or 47C8670) is required and must be
purchased together with the controller.

The ServeRAID M5120 option part number includes the following items:

One ServeRAID M5120 adapter card
Full-height (3U) bracket
Low-profile (2U) bracket
Documentation package

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

Cache module
Documentation package

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

Battery
Two battery cables (0.5 m and 0.95 m)
Documentation package

ServeRAID M5100 Series 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB Flash Upgrade option part numbers include the following
items:

Cache module
Flash power module
Two power module cable
Documentation package

ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller (withdrawn product) 2

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

M5100 Series upgrade authorization letter
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

Features

The ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller has the following standard 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 ensures that 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.

ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller (withdrawn product) 3

Fast initialization for quick array setup

Fast initialization quickly writes zeroes to the first and last sectors of the virtual drive. This 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

Note: RAID 10, 50 and 60 drive groups do not support Online Capacity Expansion and Online RAID Level
Migration. RAID 0, 1, 5, and 6 drive groups do not support Online Capacity Expansion and Online RAID
Level Migration if two or more virtual drives are defined on a single drive group.

The following features are not included in the and require respective upgrade to be purchased:

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

This is a Features on Demand upgrade and one upgrade is needed per server; all M5100 and
M5200 series adapters installed in the server will have this upgrade enabled automatically.

ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller (withdrawn product) 4

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 removes the complexity of managing each
SED’s unique encryption key, and essentially relieves the administrator of most of the daily tasks of
securing data.

The SafeStore is a part of any RAID 5 upgrade available: 81Y4484, 81Y4487, 81Y4559, or 47C8670.

MegaRAID flash cache protection

MegaRAID 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, flash cache protection technology
transfers the contents of the DRAM cache to NAND flash using power from the flash power module.
After the power is restored to the RAID controller, flash protection technology transfers the contents
of the NAND flash back to the DRAM, which will eventually be flushed to disk.

MegaRAID FastPath SSD performance acceleration

This feature is activated by enabling M5100 Series Performance Accelerator upgrade (90Y4273).
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 IOPS capability of
the controller. This feature boosts performance of applications with highly random data storage
access patterns like transactional databases.

M5100 Series Performance Accelerator is a Features on Demand upgrade and one upgrade is
needed per server; all M5100 and M5200 series adapters installed in the server will have this
upgrade enabled automatically.

MegaRAID CacheCade SSD caching for traditional hard drives

This feature is activated by enabling M5100 Series SSD Caching Enabler upgrade (90Y4318).
MegaRAID CacheCade 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
I/O performance for transaction-intensive applications like databases and web serving. CacheCade
software tracks data storage access patterns and identifies the most frequently accessed data. This
hot data is then automatically stored on the solid state storage devices assigned as a dedicated
cache pool on a ServeRAID controller.

M5100 Series SSD Caching Enabler is a Features on Demand upgrade and one upgrade is needed
per server; all M5100 and M5200 series adapters installed in the server will have this upgrade
enabled automatically.

ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller (withdrawn product) 5