Lenovo ServeRAID M5210, ServeRAID M5210e Product Manual
ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e SAS/SATA Controllers
Product Guide
The ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e SAS/SATA Controllers are high performance 12 Gb SAS controllers
for internal disk storage. They are part of the 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. The M5210 is a low profile
PCIe adapter, and the M5210e is integrated in servers such as the x3750 M4 and x3650 M4 HD. The two
controllers share a common set of upgrades, simplifying inventory management.
The following figure shows the ServeRAID M5210 Controller with an optional cache installed.
Figure 1. ServeRAID M5210 SAS/SATA Controller (with an optional cache installed)
Did you know?
The ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e SAS/SATA Controllers are optimized for high-performance, internal
data storage, with a 12 Gbps SAS controller featuring a DDR3 1866 MHz cache memory interface and
PCIe 3.0 host interface.
The ServeRAID M5200 portfolio is designed around several base solutions with upgrades that are rich with
features to satisfy a wide range of storage needs while minimizing parts-on-the-floor upgrades.
Upgrade features, such as support for RAID 6 and 60, performance optimization, and caching with solidstate drives (SSDs) no longer require a hardware key. They are implemented through Features-on-Demand
(FoD) software licenses.
ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e SAS/SATA Controllers 1
Part number information
The following table provides the ordering part numbers and feature codes.
Table 1. Ordering part numbers and feature codes
Description Part number Feature code
Base controller
ServeRAID M5210e SAS/SATA Controller Onboard Onboard
ServeRAID M5210 SAS/SATA Controller 46C9110 A3YZ
Cache upgrades
ServeRAID M5200 Series 1GB Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade 47C8656 A3Z0
ServeRAID M5200 Series 1GB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade 47C8660 A3Z1
ServeRAID M5200 Series 2GB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade 47C8664 A3Z2
ServeRAID M5200 Series 4GB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade 47C8668 A3Z3
Features on Demand (FoD) upgrades*
ServeRAID M5200 Series Zero Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade FoD 47C8708 A3Z6
ServeRAID M5200 Series RAID 6 Upgrade FoD 47C8706 A3Z5
ServeRAID M5200 Series Performance Accelerator FoD 47C8710 A3Z7
ServeRAID M5200 Series SSD Caching Enabler FoD 47C8712 A3Z8
* One M5200 Series FoD upgrade activates the feature on all M5200 Series and M5100 Series controllers
that are installed in the server. The M5200 Series Zero Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade also activates the
equivalent upgrades for M1100 and M1200 Series controllers.
The ServeRAID M5210 option part number includes the following items:
One ServeRAID M5210 adapter with a full-height (3U) bracket
One low-profile (2U) bracket
Documentation package
The ServeRAID M5200 Series 1GB Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade option part number includes the following
items:
Cache module
Documentation package
The ServeRAID M5200 Series 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade option part numbers include the
following items:
One Flash/Cache module
One Offload power module
Two power module cables (425 mm and 925 mm)
Documentation package
The ServeRAID M5200 Series Zero Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade, RAID 6 Upgrade, SSD Performance
Accelerator, and SSD Caching Enabler option part numbers include the following items:
One M5200 Series upgrade authorization letter
Feature Activation Instructions
Features
The ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e SAS/SATA controllers have the following standard features:
ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e SAS/SATA Controllers 2
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 can 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, can 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 mirrors data when an inconsistent stripe is detected for RAID 1
and re-creates the parity from the peer disks for 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 that pro-actively discovers and corrects 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 re-create
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 can 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.
Drive roaming
Drive roaming occurs when the physical disks are changed to different ports on the same controller.
When the drives are placed on different channels, the controller detects the RAID configuration from
the configuration data on the drives.
Human Interface Infrastructure (HII) configuration utility for pre-boot array configuration and
management
HII 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.
ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e SAS/SATA Controllers 3
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.
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 optional and require the respective upgrade to be purchased:
Support for RAID 6 and 60 with M5200 Series RAID 6 Upgrade (47C8706)
This is a Features on Demand upgrade and one upgrade is needed per server; all M5200 and
M5100 series adapters installed in the server will have this upgrade enabled automatically.
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 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 by
using a simple pass phrase, security key identifier, and security key file that can be set and applied
to all SEDs that are 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 a part of any M5200 Series RAID 5 upgrade that is
available: 47C8708, 47C8656, 47C8660, 47C8664, or 47C8668.
MegaRAID flash cache protection
MegaRAID flash cache protection uses NAND flash memory, which is powered by a
supercapacitor, to protect data that is stored in the controller cache. This module eliminates the
need for a lithium-ion battery, which is 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 offload power module. After the power is restored to the RAID controller, the
content of the NAND flash is transferred back to the DRAM, which is flushed to disk.
MegaRAID FastPath SSD performance acceleration
MegaRAID FastPath software provides high-performance I/O acceleration for SSD-based virtual
drives by using a 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
M5200 Series Performance Accelerator (47C8710).
This is a Features on Demand upgrade and only one upgrade is needed per server; all M5200 and
M5100 series adapters installed in the server will have this upgrade enabled automatically.
MegaRAID CacheCade SSD caching for traditional hard disk drives
MegaRAID CacheCade read/write software accelerates 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 M5200 Series SSD Caching
feature (47C8712) enabled.
This is a Features on Demand upgrade and only one upgrade is needed per server; all M5200 and
M5100 series adapters installed in the server will have this upgrade enabled automatically.
ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e SAS/SATA Controllers 4
Note: Not all SSDs support CacheCade feature. For details, refer to the following web page:
https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/MIGR-5094754
Technical specifications
The ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e SAS/SATA controllers have the following specifications:
LSI SAS3108 12 Gbps RAID on Chip (ROC) controller.
PCI low profile, half-length - MD2 form factor (M5210) or onboard chip (M5210e).
Eight internal 12 Gbps SAS/SATA ports (support for 12, 6, or 3 Gbps SAS speeds and 6 or 3 Gbps
SATA speeds). Up to 12 Gbps throughput per port.
Two internal x4 HD Mini-SAS connectors (SFF-8643).
PCI Express 3.0 x8 host interface.
Support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 standard; support for RAID 5, 50, 6, and 60 with optional upgrades.
Optional onboard data cache (DDR3 running at 1866 MHz) with the choice of the following backup:
1 GB (no battery backup)
1 GB, 2 GB, or 4 GB with flash backup
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 is not supported.
Support for intermixing of 12 Gbps and 6 Gbps drives
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.
Support for up to 64 virtual disks, up to 128 arrays, up to 16 virtual disks per array, and up to 32
physical drives per array.
Support for logical drive sizes greater than 2 TB.
Support for Integrated MegaRAID (iMR) mode (no cache memory upgrades installed) or MegaRAID
(MR) mode (requires 1 GB, 2 GB, or 4 GB cache memory upgrade).
iMR mode supports (no cache memory upgrades installed) the following features:
RAID 0, 1, and 10, and, optionally, 5 and 50
Fixed stripe unit size of 64 KB
Self-encrypting drives with optional Zero Cache/RAID 5 upgrade
Both RAID and JBOD (pass-thru mode with system drives) configurations
Up to 16 drives are supported in a RAID configuration.
Up to 63 drives are supported in a JBOD configuration. (JBOD drives can be
used as bootable drives.)
MR mode supports (1 GB, 2 GB, or 4 GB cache memory upgrade required):
RAID 0, 1, 10, 5, and 50 and, optionally, 6 and 60 (Non-RAID is not supported.)
Configurable stripe unit size from 64 KB up to 1 MB
Self-encrypting drives
Optional SSD performance features (FastPath and CacheCade)
Compliant with Disk Data Format (DDF) configuration on disk (CoD).
S.M.A.R.T. support.
MegaRAID Storage Manager management software.
ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e SAS/SATA Controllers 5
Feature upgrade matrix
The ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e provide support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 as standard capabilities.
Additional optional functional upgrades are available to expand the standard capabilities. Some upgrades
do not depend on other upgrades and can be applied to standard controllers (we call them primary
upgrades). Certain upgrades cannot be applied to standard controllers and require that other upgrades are
enabled before applying these upgrades (we call them secondary upgrades). There are two types of
available upgrades: hardware (HW) and Feature on Demand (FoD). Hardware upgrades contain physical
parts (for example, cache module or supercapacitor). FoD upgrades are software licenses. The following
table lists the available primary upgrades, their capabilities, and types.
Table 2. ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e primary upgrades and their features
Feature RAID 5 & 50 SED 1 GB
cache
2 GB
cache
4 GB
cache
Flashbacked
cache
Option description Part number Type
Zero Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade 47C8708 FoD Yes Yes No No No No
1GB Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade 47C8656 HW Yes Yes Yes No No No
1GB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade 47C8660 HW Yes Yes Yes No No Yes
2GB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade 47C8664 HW Yes Yes No Yes No Yes
4GB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade 47C8668 HW Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
The following table shows the secondary upgrades, their capabilities, types, and dependencies. The
primary feature upgrades, on which the secondary upgrades depend, are listed in their respective
columns. "Required" means that the primary upgrade that is listed in the column must be enabled before
enabling the secondary feature that is listed in that particular row.
Table 3. ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e secondary upgrades, their features, and dependencies
Primary
feature upgrades
Secondary
feature upgrades
Option
description
Zero
Cache/
RAID 5
1GB
Cache/
RAID 5
1GB
Flash/
RAID 5
2GB
Flash/
RAID 5
4GB
Flash/
RAID 5
Part number 47C8708 47C8656 47C8660 47C8664 47C8668
Upgrade type FoD HW HW HW HW
Feature Option
description
Part
number
Type
RAID 6 and60RAID 6 Upgrade 47C8706 FoD No support Required Required Required Required
FastPath SSD Performance
Accelerator
47C8710 FoD No support Required Required Required Required
CacheCade SSD Caching
Enabler
47C8712 FoD No support Required Required Required Required
Note: All ServeRAID Feature on Demand upgrades are system-wide. One FoD upgrade part number will
enable the feature on all ServeRAID M5200-series adapters (M5210, M5210e, M5215, M5225) installed in
the server. In the case of the x3950 X6, if you have partitioning enabled, then the FoD upgrade will enabled
the feature on all M5200-series adapters installed in that partition; the other partition will require a separate
FoD upgrade.
ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e SAS/SATA Controllers 6
Server support
The following tables list the servers that support the ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e controllers.
Support for System x and dense servers with Xeon E5/E7 v4 and E3 v5 processors
Table 4. Support for System x and dense servers with Xeon E5/E7 v4 and E3 v5 processors
Part
number Description
46C9110 ServeRAID M5210 SAS/SATA Controller Y Y Y Y Y Y N
Onboard ServeRAID M5210e SAS/SATA Controller N N N N N N N
47C8708 ServeRAID M5200 Series Zero Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade-FoD Y Y Y Y Y Y N
47C8656 ServeRAID M5200 Series 1GB Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade Y Y Y Y Y Y N
47C8660 ServeRAID M5200 Series 1GB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade Y Y Y Y Y Y N
47C8664 ServeRAID M5200 Series 2GB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade Y Y Y Y Y Y N
47C8668 ServeRAID M5200 Series 4GB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade Y Y Y Y Y Y N
47C8706 ServeRAID M5200 Series RAID 6 Upgrade-FoD Y Y Y Y Y Y N
47C8710 ServeRAID M5200 Series Performance Accelerator-FoD Y Y Y Y Y Y N
47C8712 ServeRAID M5200 Series SSD Caching Enabler-FoD Y Y Y Y Y Y N
x3250 M6 (3943)
x3250 M6 (3633)
x3550 M5 (8869)
x3650 M5 (8871)
x3850 X6/x3950 X6 (6241, E7 v4)
nx360 M5 (5465, E5-2600 v4)
sd350 (5493)
ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e SAS/SATA Controllers 7
Support for servers with Intel Xeon v3 processors
Table 5. Support for servers with Intel Xeon v3 processors
Part
number Description
46C9110 ServeRAID M5210 SAS/SATA Controller N N Y Y Y Y Y
Onboard ServeRAID M5210e SAS/SATA Controller N N N N N N N
47C8708 ServeRAID M5200 Series Zero Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade-FoD N N Y Y Y Y Y
47C8656 ServeRAID M5200 Series 1GB Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade N N Y Y Y Y Y
47C8660 ServeRAID M5200 Series 1GB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade N N Y Y Y Y Y
47C8664 ServeRAID M5200 Series 2GB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade N N Y Y Y Y Y
47C8668 ServeRAID M5200 Series 4GB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade N N Y Y Y Y Y
47C8706 ServeRAID M5200 Series RAID 6 Upgrade-FoD N N Y Y Y Y Y
47C8710 ServeRAID M5200 Series Performance Accelerator-FoD N N Y Y Y Y Y
47C8712 ServeRAID M5200 Series SSD Caching Enabler-FoD N N Y Y Y Y Y
x3100 M5 (5457)
x3250 M5 (5458)
x3500 M5 (5464)
x3550 M5 (5463)
x3650 M5 (5462)
x3850 X6/x3950 X6 (6241, E7 v3)
nx360 M5 (5465)
ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e SAS/SATA Controllers 8
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