Storage Controller Options Overview; Embedded Sata/Sata Raid Support - Intel R1000SPO Series Technical Product Specification

6.

Storage Controller Options Overview

The server platform supports different embedded and add-in SAS/SATA controller options to provide a
larger number of possible storage configurations. This section will provide an overview of the different
options available.
6.1

Embedded SATA/SATA RAID Support

The Intel ® Server System R1000SPO product family provides an embedded SATA host controller that
supports independent DMA operation on up to eight ports and supports data transfer rates of up to 6.0 Gb/s
(600 MB/s). The SATA controller contains two modes of operation – a legacy mode using I/O space, and an
AHCI mode using memory space. Software that uses legacy mode will not have AHCI capabilities. The Intel
C230 series chipset supports the Serial ATA Specification, Revision 3.0. The Intel
several optional sections of the Serial ATA II: Extensions to Serial ATA 1.0 Specification, Revision 1.0 (AHCI
support is required for some elements).
The server board also offers hardware support for Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI), a standardized
programming interface for SATA host controllers. Platforms supporting AHCI may take advantage of
performance features such as no master/slave designation for SATA devices—each device is treated as a
master—and hardware assisted native command queuing. AHCI also provides usability enhancements such
as Hot-Plug. AHCI requires appropriate software support (for example, an AHCI driver) and for some features,
hardware support in the SATA device or additional platform hardware.
The Intel ® Server System R1000SPO product family includes support for two embedded software RAID
options:
Intel ® Embedded Server RAID Technology 2 (ESRT2) based on LSI* MegaRAID SW RAID technology

Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology (RSTe)

Using the <F2> BIOS Setup Utility, accessed during system POST, options are available to enable/disable SW
RAID, and select which embedded software RAID option to use.
6.1.1.1 Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology Enterprise
The server board provides support for Intel
above for details on AHCI) and integrated RAID functionality. The industry-leading RAID capability provides
high-performance RAID functionality on up to 8 SATA ports of the server board on the following
configurations:
RAID Level 0 – Non-redundant striping of drive volumes with performance scaling of up to 6 drives,

enabling higher throughput for data intensive applications such as video editing.
Data security is offered through RAID Level 1, which performs mirroring.

RAID Level 10 provides high levels of storage performance with data protection, combining the fault-

tolerance of RAID Level 1 with the performance of RAID Level 0. By striping RAID Level 1 segments,
high I/O rates can be achieved on systems that require both performance and fault-tolerance. RAID
Level 10 requires 4 hard drives, and provides the capacity of two drives.
RAID Level 5 provides highly efficient storage while maintaining fault-tolerance on 3 or more drives.

By striping parity, and rotating it across all disks, fault tolerance of any single drive is achieved while
only consuming 1 drive worth of capacity. That is, a 3 drive RAID 5 has the capacity of 2 drives, or a 4
drive RAID 5 has the capacity of 3 drives. RAID 5 has high read transaction rates, with a medium write
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Intel® Server System R1000SPO Product Family TPS
® Rapid Storage Technology enterprise, providing both AHCI (see
® C230 series also supports
®