Pcie3 Raid Sas Quad-Port 6 Gb Lp Adapter - IBM Power System Series Manual

Operating system or partition requirements
If you are installing a new feature, ensure that you have the software that is required to support the new
feature and that you determine whether any prerequisites must be met for this feature and attaching
devices. For information about operating system and partition requirements, see one of the following
topics:
• The latest version of enabling libraries and utilities can be downloaded from Fix Central (http://
www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/).
• Power Systems Prerequisites (http://www14.software.ibm.com/support/customercare/iprt/home).
• IBM SSIC (System Storage Interoperation Center) (http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/support/storage/
ssic/interoperability.wss).
• The latest version of the device driver or IBM Power RAID adapter utilities (iprutils) can be downloaded
from the IBM Service and Productivity Tools website (http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/
set2/sas/f/lopdiags/home.html).
• For support details, see the Linux Alert website (http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/
lopdiags/info/LinuxAlerts.html).
This adapter requires the following drivers:
• AIX: devices.pci.14104A0 device driver package
PCIe3 RAID SAS quad-port 6 Gb LP Adapter (FC EL3B and FC EJ0M; CCIN 57B4)
Learn about the specifications and operating system requirements for the feature code (FC) EL3B and
EJ0M adapter.
Overview
The PCIe3 RAID SAS quad-port 6 Gb LP Adapter is a PCI Express (PCIe), generation 3, RAID SAS adapter
that has a low-profile and short-form factor. The adapter is used in high-performance and high-density,
serial attached SCSI (SAS) applications. It supports the attachment of SAS hard disk drives (HDDs) and
solid-state devices (SSDs) by using four mini SAS high-density (HD) x4 connectors that allow the physical
links to be used in various narrow and wide-port configurations. The adapter does not have a non-volatile
write cache. However, Linux customers can take advantage of a volatile adapter write cache of up to 1 Gb
(compressed) for improved performance. This support is available with the 2.4.10 version of the
iprutils utility available from the IBM Linux Power Tools Repository (http://www14.software.ibm.com/
webapp/set2/sas/f/lopdiags/yum.html) and with the latest adapter firmware available from the Fix
Central website (http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/).
The adapter is a 64 bit, 3.3 V, bootable SAS adapter that provides RAID 0, 5, 6, and 10 capability, and
system level mirroring via the operating system. The adapter provides both single and dual RAID
controller configurations. Dual controller configurations (dual storage IOA) must run RAID. JBOD (512
byte) functionality is supported only in a single controller configuration based on the operating system.
Best performance is achieved when multiple RAID sets are configured and optimized under a pair of
adapters in a high availability, multi-initiator RAID configuration (dual storage IOA) which allows for an
Active-Active mode of operation.
The adapter supports a maximum of 96 attached disk devices that depends on the drive enclosure
attached. A maximum of 48 devices can be solid-state devices (SSDs). Externally attached devices are
designed to run at a maximum data rate of 6 Gbps for SAS disk devices. This adapter supports RAID and
non-RAID DASD. Specific device attachment support rules apply. This adapter supports the multi-initiator
and high availability (dual storage IOA) configurations in AIX, IBM i, and Linux partitions. This adapter
enables configuring the SAS drives as dedicated hot-spares with equal or higher capacity.
Important: See the SAS RAID controllers for AIX, SAS RAID controllers for IBM i, or SAS RAID controllers
for Linux topics for more information and important considerations for multi-initiator and high availability
or dual storage IOA configurations
Figure 47 on page 145 shows the adapter. The connector plug (A) is installed in an empty port and
prevents damage to that port whenever a cable for the adjacent port connectors is plugged-in or
removed.
144 Power Systems: Managing PCIe adapters