ASRock X79 Extreme11 LSI SAS2 Integrated RAID Solution User Guide - Page 23

SAS2 Integrated RAID Solution User Guide

Chapter 4: Overview of Integrated Striping

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Introduction

LSI Corporation Confidential

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August 2010

Page 23

Chapter 4

4.1

Introduction

The LSI Integrated RAID solution enables you to create Integrated Striping volumes for

applications that require the faster performance and increased storage capacity of

striping. The low-cost Integrated Striping feature has many of the advantages of a more

expensive RAID striping solution. You can configure an Integrated Striping volume as

the boot disk or as a data disk.

The Integrated Striping solution provides better performance and more capacity than

individual disks, without burdening the host CPU. The firmware distributes host I/O

transactions over multiple disks and presents the disks as a single, logical drive. In

general, striping is transparent to the BIOS, the drivers, and the operating system.

You can use the LSI SAS2 BIOS CU to configure Integrated Striping volumes. These

volumes can consist of two-to-ten disks.

4.2

Integrated Striping Features

Integrated Striping supports the following features:



Support for volumes with two-to-ten disks



Support for two Integrated Striping volumes with up to 14 drives total on a

SAS2 controller.



Support for combining one Integrated Striping volume and one Integrated

Mirroring, Integrated Mirroring + Striping, or Integrated Mirroring Enhanced

volume on a single controller.



Support for both SAS and SATA drives, although you cannot combine the two types

of drives in one volume



Fusion-MPT architecture



Easy-to-use SAS BIOS configuration utility



Error notification



Disk write caching, which is enabled by default on all Integrated Striping volumes



Use of metadata to store volume configurations on disks



OS-specific event log



Error display inside the Fusion-MPT BIOS



SCSI Enclosure Services (SES) status LED support for drives used in Integrated

Striping volumes

Overview of Integrated Striping

This chapter provides an overview of the LSI Integrated RAID features that support the

creation of striped arrays.

Section	Page
SAS2 Integrated RAID Solution User Guide	1
Introduction to the Integrated RAID Solution	5
1.1 Overview	5
1.2 Benefits and Features	6
1.2.1 Host Interface	6
1.2.2 Metadata Support	6
1.2.3 SMART Support	6
1.2.4 Fusion-MPT Support	6
Overview of Integrated RAID Mirrored Volumes	7
2.1 Introduction	7
2.2 Integrated Mirroring and Integrated Mirroring Enhanced Features	7
2.3 Operation of Mirrored Volumes	8
2.4 Mirrored Volume Features	11
2.4.1 Resynchronization with Concurrent Host I/O Operation	11
2.4.2 Hot Swapping	11
2.4.3 Hot Spare Disk	11
2.4.4 Online Capacity Expansion	11
2.4.5 Media Verification	11
2.4.6 Disk Write Caching	12
2.4.7 NVSRAM Usage	12
2.4.8 Background Initialization	12
2.4.9 Consistency Check	12
2.4.10 Make Data Consistent	12
Creating Mirrored Volumes	13
3.1 Mirrored Volume Configuration Overview	13
3.2 Creating Mirrored Volumes	13
3.2.1 Creating an Integrated Mirroring Volume	14
3.2.2 Creating an Integrated Mirroring Enhanced or Integrated Mirroring + Striping Volume	15
3.2.3 Expanding an Integrated Mirroring Volume with OCE	16
3.3 Managing Hot Spare Disks	17
3.3.1 Creating Hot Spare Disks	17
3.3.2 Deleting Hot Spare Disks	18
3.4 Other Configuration Tasks	19
3.4.1 Viewing Volume Properties	19
3.4.2 Running a Consistency Check	19
3.4.3 Activating an Array	20
3.4.4 Deleting an Array	20
3.4.5 Locating Disk Drives in a Volume	21
3.4.6 Selecting a Boot Disk	21
Overview of Integrated Striping	23
4.1 Introduction	23
4.2 Integrated Striping Features	23
4.3 Integrated Striping Description	24
Creating Integrated Striping Volumes	25
5.1 Integrated Striping Configuration Overview	25
5.2 Creating Integrated Striping Volumes	25
5.3 Other Configuration Tasks	27
5.3.1 Viewing Volume Properties	27
5.3.2 Activating an Array	27
5.3.3 Deleting an Array	28
5.3.4 Locating Disk Drives in a Volume	28
5.3.5 Selecting a Boot Disk	29
Using the SAS2 Integrated RAID Configuration Utility	31
A.1 Hardware and Software Requirements	31
A.1.1 Controller Support	31
A.1.2 Operating System and Software Support	32
A.2 Interface Description	32
A.3 Commands	32
A.3.1 Common Command-Line Parameters	33
A.3.2 CREATE Command	33
A.3.3 DELETE Command	35
A.3.4 DISPLAY Command	35
A.3.5 HOTSPARE Command	37
A.3.6 STATUS Command	38
A.3.7 LIST Command	39
A.3.8 MFGPAGE Command	40
A.3.9 CONSTCHK Command	40
A.3.10 ACTIVATE Command	40
A.3.11 LOCATE Command	41

ASRock X79 Extreme11 LSI SAS2 Integrated RAID Solution User Guide - Page 23

Overview of Integrated Striping

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