MegaRaid SAS Software User Guide Chapter 1: Overview | SAS Technology

Chapter 1
Overview
This chapter provides an overview of this guide, which documents the utilities used to
configure, monitor, and maintain MegaRAID® Serial-attached SCSI (SAS) RAID
controllers with RAID control capabilities and the storage-related devices connected to
them.
This guide explains how to use the MegaRAID Storage Manager™ software, the
WebBIOS configuration utility, and the MegaRAID command line interface (CLI). This
chapter documents SAS technology, Serial ATA (SATA) technology, solid state disk (SSD)
technology, Dimmer Switch™, EUFI 2.0, configuration scenarios, and drive types.

1.1 SAS Technology The MegaRAID 6Gb/s SAS RAID controllers are high-performance intelligent PCI
Express-to-SCSI/Serial ATA II controllers with RAID control capabilities. MegaRAID 6Gb/s
SAS RAID controllers provide reliability, high performance, and fault-tolerant disk
subsystem management. They are an ideal RAID solution for the internal storage of
workgroup, departmental, and enterprise systems. MegaRAID 6Gb/s SAS RAID
controllers offer a cost-effective way to implement RAID in a server.
SAS technology brings a wealth of options and flexibility with the use of SAS devices,
Serial ATA (SATA) II devices, and SSD devices within the same storage infrastructure.
These devices bring individual characteristics that make each one a more suitable
choice depending on your storage needs. MegaRAID gives you the flexibility to
combine these two similar technologies on the same controller, within the same
enclosure, and in the same virtual drive.

NOTE: LSI recommends that you carefully assess any decision to mix SAS drives and
SATA drives within the same virtual drives. Although you can mix drives, LSI strongly
discourages the practice. This recommendation applies to both HDDs and SSDs.

The MegaRAID 6Gb/s SAS RAID controllers are based on the LSI first-to-market SAS IC
technology and proven MegaRAID technology. As second-generation PCI Express RAID
controllers, the MegaRAID SAS RAID controllers address the growing demand for
increased data throughput and scalability requirements across midrange and
enterprise-class server platforms. LSI offers a family of MegaRAID SAS RAID controllers
addressing the needs for both internal and external solutions.

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Chapter 1: Overview | Serial-attached SCSI Device Interface MegaRaid SAS Software User Guide

The SAS controllers support the ANSI Serial Attached SCSI standard, version 1.1. In
addition, the controller supports the SATA II protocol defined by the Serial ATA
specification, version 1.0a. Supporting both the SAS and SATA II interfaces, the SAS
controller is a versatile controller that provides the backbone of both server
environments and high-end workstation environments.
Each port on the SAS RAID controller supports SAS devices, SATA II devices, or SSD
devices using the following protocols:
„ SAS Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP), which enables communication with other SAS
devices
„ SATA II, which enables communication with other SATA II devices
„ Serial Management Protocol (SMP), which communicates topology management
information directly with an attached SAS expander device
„ Serial Tunneling Protocol (STP), which enables communication with a SATA II device
through an attached expander

1.2 Serial-attached SCSI SAS is a serial, point-to-point, enterprise-level device interface that leverages the
Device Interface proven SCSI protocol set. SAS is a convergence of the advantages of SATA II, SCSI, and
Fibre Channel, and is the future mainstay of the enterprise and high-end workstation
storage markets. SAS offers a higher bandwidth per pin than parallel SCSI, and it
improves signal and data integrity.
The SAS interface uses the proven SCSI command set to ensure reliable data transfers,
while providing the connectivity and flexibility of point-to-point serial data transfers.
The serial transmission of SCSI commands eliminates clock-skew challenges. The SAS
interface provides improved performance, simplified cabling, smaller connectors, lower
pin count, and lower power requirements when compared to parallel SCSI.
SAS controllers leverage a common electrical and physical connection interface that is
compatible with Serial ATA technology. The SAS and SATA II protocols use a thin, 7-wire
connector instead of the 68-wire SCSI cable or 26-wire ATA cable. The SAS/SATA II
connector and cable are easier to manipulate, allow connections to smaller devices,
and do not inhibit airflow. The point-to-point SATA II architecture eliminates inherent
difficulties created by the legacy ATA master-slave architecture, while maintaining
compatibility with existing ATA firmware.

1.3 Serial ATA II Features The SATA bus is a high-speed, internal bus that provides a low pin count, low voltage
level bus for device connections between a host controller and a SATA device.
The following list describes the SATA II features of the RAID controllers:
„ Supports SATA II data transfers of 3.0 Gb/s
„ Supports STP data transfers of 3.0 Gb/s
„ Provides a serial, point-to-point storage interface
„ Simplifies cabling between devices
„ Eliminates the master-slave construction used in parallel ATA
„ Allows addressing of multiple SATA II targets through an expander
„ Allows multiple initiators to address a single target (in a fail-over configuration)
through an expander

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MegaRaid SAS Software User Guide Chapter 1: Overview | Solid State Drive Features

1.4 Solid State Drive Features MegaRAID firmware supports SSD drives attached to MegaRAID SAS controllers. These
drives are expected to behave like SATA HDDs or SAS HDDs. The major advantages of
SSD drives include:
„ High random read speed (because there is no read-write head to move)
„ High performance-to-power ratio, as these drives have very low power
consumption compared to HDDs
„ Low latency
„ High mechanical reliability
„ Lower weight and size (for low-capacity SSD drives)
The features and operations on SSD drives are the same as for hard disk drives (HDD).

NOTE: MegaRAID implements support for only those SATA SSD drives which support
ATA-8 ACS compliance.

You can choose whether to allow a virtual drive to consist of both SSD devices and
HDDs. For a virtual drive that consists of SSDs only, you can choose whether to allow
SAS SSD drives and SATA SSD drives in that virtual drive. For virtual drives that have
both SSDs and HDDs, you can choose whether to mix SAS and SATA HDD drives with
SAS and SATA SSD devices in various combinations.l

NOTE: Support for SATA SDD drives applies only to those drives that support ATA-8 ACS
compliance.

1.4.1 Solid State Drive Guard SSDs are known for their reliability and performance. SSD Guard™, a feature that is
unique to MegaRAID, increases the reliability of SSDs by automatically copying data
from a drive with potential to fail to a designated hot spare or newly inserted drive.
Because SSDs are very reliable, non-redundant RAID 0 configurations are much more
common than in the past. SSD Guard offers added data protection for RAID 0
configurations.
SSD Guard works by looking for a predictive failure while monitoring the SDD S.M.A.R.T.
(Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) error log. If errors indicate a SSD
failure is imminent, MegaRAID starts a rebuild to preserve the data on the SSD and
sends appropriate warning event notifications.

1.5 Dimmer Switch Feature Powering and cooling drives represents a major cost for data centers. The new
MegaRAID Dimmer Switch reduces the power consumption of the devices connected
to a MegaRAID controller. This helps to share resources more efficiently and lower costs.
With Dimmer Switch, any unconfigured drive connected to a MegaRAID controller is
spun down after 30 minutes of inactivity, reducing its power usage. Spun down drives
are spun up automatically when you create a configuration using those drives.

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Chapter 1: Overview | UEFI 2.0 Support MegaRaid SAS Software User Guide

1.6 UEFI 2.0 Support Significant challenges face operating system and platform developers to innovate
using the legacy PC-AT BIOS boot environment. These include memory constraints,
maintenance challenges, and increased complexities due to a lack of industry-wide
standards.
To handle these challenges, the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) was
developed to do the following:
„ Define a clean interface between operating systems and the hardware platform at
boot time.
„ Support an architecture-independent mechanism for initializing
add-in cards.
UEFI 2.0 provides MegaRAID customers with expanded platform support. The
MegaRAID UEFI 2.0 driver, a boot service device driver, handles block IO requests and
SCSI pass-through commands (SPT), and offers the ability to launch pre-boot
MegaRAID management applications through a driver configuration protocol (DCP).
The UEFI driver also supports driver diagnostic protocol, which allows administrators to
access pre-boot diagnostics.

1.7 Configuration Scenarios There are three main scenarios in which you can use the SAS RAID controllers:
„ Low-end, internal SATA II configurations: In this configuration, use the RAID
controller as a high-end SATA II compatible controller that connects up to eight
disks either directly or through a port expander. This configuration is mostly for
low-end or entry servers. Enclosure management is provided through out-of-band
I2C bus. Side bands of both types of internal SAS connectors support the SFF-8485
(SGPIO) interface.
„ Midrange internal SAS configurations: This configuration is like the internal SATA
II configurations, but with high-end disks. This configuration is more suitable for
low-range to midrange servers.
„ High-end external SAS/SATA II configurations: This configuration is for both
internal connectivity and external connectivity, using SATA II drives, SAS drives, or
both. External enclosure management is supported through in-band,
SCSI-enclosed storage. The configuration must support STP and SMP.
Figure 1 shows a direct-connect configuration. The Inter-IC (I2C) interface
communicates with peripherals. The external memory bus provides a 32-bit memory
bus, parity checking, and chip select signals for pipelined synchronous burst static
random access memory (PSBRAM), nonvolatile static random access memory
(NVSRAM), and Flash ROM.

NOTE: The external memory bus is 32-bit for the SAS 8704ELP and the SAS 8708ELP,
and 64-bit for the SAS 8708EM2, the SAS 8880EM2, and the SAS 8888ELP.

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MegaRaid SAS Software User Guide Chapter 1: Overview | Configuration Scenarios

SAS/SATA II Device
32-Bit Memory
Address/Data
SAS Bus Flash ROM/
SAS/SATA II Device PCI Express PSBRAM/
RAID Controller NVSRAM
I2C
SAS/SATA II Device Interface
I2C

SAS/SATA II Device

PCI Express Interface

Figure 1: Example of an LSI SAS Direct-Connect Application
Figure 2 shows an example of a SAS RAID controller configured with an LSISASx12
expander that is connected to SAS disks, SATA II disks, or both.
PCI Express Interface
8
Peripheral
SAS RAID Controller Bus Flash ROM/
NVSRAM/
I2C/UART
LSISAS1078 72-bit DDR/DDR2
PCI Express to SAS ROC with ECC
Interface
SRAM
SDRAM
SRAM

SAS/SATA
LSISASx12 Drives LSISASx12
Expander Expander

SAS/SATA II SAS/SATA II SAS/SATA II SAS/SATA II

Drives Drives Drives Drives

Figure 2: Example of an LSI SAS RAID Controller Configured with an LSISASx12

Expander

1.7.1 Valid Drive Mix Configurations You can allow a virtual drive to consist of both SSDs and HDDs.
with HDDs and SSDs For virtual drives that have both SSDs and HDDs, you can choose whether to mix SAS
drives and SATA drives on the SSD devices.
You can choose whether to allow a virtual drive to consist of both SSD devices and
HDDs. For a virtual drive that consists of SSDs only, you can choose whether to allow
SAS SSD drives and SATA SSD drives in that virtual drive. For virtual drives that have
both SSDs and HDDs, you can choose whether to mix SAS and SATA HDD drives with
SAS and SATA SSD devices in various combinations.

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Chapter 1: Overview | Technical Support MegaRaid SAS Software User Guide

Table 1 lists the valid drive mix configurations you can use when you create virtual
drives and allow HDD and SSD mixing. The valid drive mix configurations are based on
manufacturer settings.

Table 1: Valid Drive Mix Configurations

# Valid Drive Mix Configurations

1. SAS HDD with SAS SDD (SAS-only configuration)
2. SATA HDD with SATA SSD (SATA-only configuration)
3. SAS HDD with a mix of SAS and SATA SSD (a SATA HDD cannot be added)
4. SATA HDD with a mix of SAS and SATA SSD (a SAS HDD cannot be added)
5. SAS SSD with a mix of SAS and SATA HDD (a SATA SSD cannot be added)
6. SATA SSD with a mix of SAS and SATA HDD (a SAS SSD cannot be added)
7. A mix of SAS and SATA HDD with a mix of SAS and SATA SSD
8. A SSD cannot be added to a HDD, but a SAS/SATA mix is allowed.

NOTE: Only one of the valid configurations listed in Table 1 is allowed based on your
controller card manufacturing setting.

NOTE: The valid drive mix also applies to hot spares. For hot spare information, see
Section 2.4.12, Hot Spares, on page 24.

1.8 Technical Support For assistance with installing, configuring, or running your MegaRAID 6Gb/s SAS RAID
controller, contact an LSI Technical Support representative:
Click the following link to access the LSI Technical Support page for storage and board
support:
http://www.lsi.com/support/storage/tech_support/index.html
From this page, you can send an email or call a Technical Support representative, or
submit a new service request and view its status.
E-mail:
http://www.lsi.com/support/support_form.html
Phone Support:
http://www.lsi.com/support/storage/phone_tech_support/index.html
1-800-633-4545 (North America)
00-800-5745-6442 (International)

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