Support For Hard Disk Drive Devices; Sas Expander Support; Support For Non-Hard Disk Drive Devices; Enclosure Management Support - Intel AXXRMS2AF080 Hardware User's Manual

Support for Hard Disk Drive Devices

The Intel
internal high-performance SAS/SATA II ports that support SAS and enterprise-class
SATA hard drives. Each port supports both SAS and SATA devices using the SAS Serial
SCSI Protocol (SSP), Serial Management Protocol (SMP), and Serial Tunneling Protocol
(STP). The SSP protocol enables communication with other SAS devices. STP allows the
SAS RAID controller to communicate with SATA devices using the SATA commands.

SAS Expander Support

The Intel
expanders, Vitesse SAS expanders, and PMC expanders that are used as a component in
Intel enclosures. Other expanders may be supported post launch, based on market
conditions and customer requirements.

Support for Non-Hard Disk Drive Devices

As SAS-based non-hard drive devices were not available when this controller was in
development, support for these devices will be determined as they become available. For
information on support for non-hard drive devices, see the Intel
Module RMS2AF040 and RMS2AF080 Tested Hardware and Operating System List.

Enclosure Management Support

The Intel
enclosure management in-band to expander-based backplanes and out-of-band to direct-
connect backplanes. These RAID Controllers also support the SGPIO enclosure
management interface.

RAID Functionality and Features

Hierarchy

The fundamental purpose of a RAID system is to present a usable data storage medium
(virtual drive) with some level of redundancy to a host operating system. The Intel®
RAID firmware is based on the concept of associating physical drives in arrays and then
creating a virtual drive from that array that includes a functional RAID level. To create a
virtual drive and present it to the host operating system, the RAID firmware typically
follows these steps:
1. One or more physical drives are selected and associated as an array.
2. One or more arrays are associated and given a RAID level. This process creates a
virtual drive and provides an option to initialize the virtual drive.
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Integrated RAID Module RMS2AF040 and RMS2AF080 integrates eight
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Integrated RAID Module RMS2AF040 and RMS2AF080 supports LSI*
®
Integrated RAID Module RMS2AF040 and RMS2AF080 support SES2
Intel® Integrated RAID Module RMS2AF040 and RMS2AF080 Hardware User's Guide
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Integrated RAID