Areca ARC-12x5 Series User manual

ARC-12x5 Series
(PCIe 3.0 to 6Gb/s SAS RAID Controllers)
6Gb/s SAS RAID Cards
Quick Start Guide
Version: 1.1
Issue Date: December, 2014

Copyright and Trademarks
The information regarding products in this manual is subject to change
without prior notice and does not represent a commitment on the part
of the vendor, who assumes no liability or responsibility for any errors
that may appear in this manual. All brands and trademarks are the
properties of their respective owners. This manual contains materials
protected under International Copyright Conventions. All rights
reserved. No part of this manual may be reproduced in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without
the written permission of the manufacturer and the author.
FCC Statement
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits
for a Class B digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC Rules.
These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against in-
terference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses,
and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used
in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to
radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interfer-
ence will not occur in a particular installation.
Manufacturer’s Declaration for CE Certication
We conrm ARC-12x5 series has been tested and found compliant with
the requirements in the council directive relating to the EMC Directive
2004/108/EC. Regarding to the electromagnetic compatibility, the fol-
lowing standards were applied:
EN 55022: 2006, Class B
EN 61000-3-2: 2006
EN 61000-3-3: 1995+A1: 2001+A2: 2005
EN 55024:1998+A1:2001=A2:2003
IEC61000-4-2: 2001
IEC61000-4-3: 2006
IEC61000-4-4: 2004
IEC61000-4-5: 2005
IEC61000-4-6: 2006
IEC61000-4-8: 2001
IEC61000-4-11: 2004

Contents
1. Introduction ................................................................ 4
1.1 Overview .........................................................................4
1.2 Features ..........................................................................6
2. Hardware Installation ............................................... 10
2.1 Before You First Installing................................................. 10
2.2 Board Layout.................................................................. 10
2.3 Installation..................................................................... 14
2.4 SAS Cables .................................................................... 21
2.4.1 Internal Min SAS 4i to SATA Cable ............................... 21
2.4.2 Internal Min SAS 4i to 4xSFF-8482 Cable....................... 22
2.4.3 Internal Min SAS 4i (SFF-8087) to Internal Min SAS 4i (SFF-
8087) cable ....................................................................... 22
2.4.4 External Min SAS 4x Drive Boxes and Drive Expanders .... 23
2.5 LED Cables..................................................................... 24
2.5.1 Recognizing a Drive Failure .......................................... 27
2.5.2 Replacing a Failed Drive .............................................. 28
2.6 Summary of the installation.............................................. 28

INTRODUCTION
4
1. Introduction
This section presents a brief overview of the 6Gb/s SAS RAID con-
troller, ARC-1215-4x/ARC-1225-8x (PCIe 3.0 x8 external 6Gb/s SAS/
SATA RAID controller), ARC-1215-4i/ARC-1225-8i (PCIe 3.0 x8 internal
6Gb/s SAS/SATA RAID controllers).
1.1 Overview
SAS 2.0 is designed for much higher speed data transfer than
previous available and backward compatibility with SAS 1.0. The
6Gb/s SAS interface supports both 6Gb/s and 3Gb/s SAS/SATA
disk drives for data-intensive applications and 6Gb/s or 3Gb/s
SATA drives for low-cost bulk storage of reference data. The ARC-
1215-4i/ARC-1225-8i support directly attach 4/8 SAS ports via
1/2 internal SFF-8087 connector. The ARC-1215-4x/ARC-1225-8x
support directly attach 4/8 SAS ports via 1/2 external SFF-8088
connector. Each port on the SAS controllers supports SAS and/
or SATA devices. Since there is no expander support on those
boards, this can meet the customer inquiry SAS solution (using
same enclosure) to replace SATA solution. The ARC-1215-4i/4x and
ARC-1225-8i/8x RAID controllers only support directly attach to
4/8 SAS/SATA drives without supporting the expand function. The
ARC-12x5 series default support 1GB on board ECC DDR3-1333
SDRAM memory.
The ARC-12x5-4i/8i RAID controllers are low-prole PCIe cards,
ideal for 1U and 2U rack-mount systems without needing the ex-
pansion capability. These controllers utilize the same RAID kernel
that has been eld-proven in existing external RAID controller
products, allowing Areca to quickly bring stable and reliable PCIe
3.0 6Gb/s SAS RAID controllers to the market.
Unparalleled Performance
The 6Gb/s SAS RAID controllers raise the standard to higher per-
formance levels with several enhancements including new high
performance dual core ROC Processor, a DDR3-1333 memory
architecture and high performance PCIe 3.0 x8 lane host interface
bus interconnection. The low prole controllers by default support

INTRODUCTION
5
on-board 1G of ECC DDR3-1333 SDRAM memory. The optional bat-
tery backup module provides power to the cache if it contains data
not yet written to the drives when power is lost. The test result is
against overall performance compared to other 6Gb/s SAS RAID
controllers. The powerful new ROC processors integrated 8 6Gb/s
SAS ports on chip delivers high performance for servers and work-
stations.
Unsurpassed Data Availability
As storage capacities continue to rapidly increase, users need
greater level of disk drive fault tolerance, which can be imple-
mented without doubling the investment in disk drives. The RAID
6 can offer fault tolerance greater that RAID 1 or RAID 5 but only
consumes the capacity of 2 disk drives for distributed parity data.
The 6Gb/s SAS RAID controllers with extreme performance RAID
6 engine installed provide the highest RAID 6 feature to meet this
requirement. The controller can concurrently compute two parity
blocks and get very similar RAID 5 performance.
The 6Gb/s SAS RAID controllers can also provide RAID levels 0, 1,
1E, 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50, 60, Single Disk or JBOD for maximum con-
guration exibility. Its high data availability and protection derives
from the following capabilities: Online RAID Capacity Expansion,
Array Roaming, Online RAID Level / Stripe Size Migration, Global
Online Spare, Automatic Drive Failure Detection, Automatic Failed
Drive Rebuilding, Disk Hot-Swap, Online Background Rebuilding,
Instant Availability/Background Initialization, Auto Reassign Sector,
Redundant Flash Image and Battery Backup Module. Greater than
Two TB Support allows for very large volume set application in 64-
bit environment such as data-mining and managing large data-
bases.
Maximum Interoperability
The 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller support broad operating system in-
cluding Windows 8/Server 2012(R2)/7/2008/Vista/XP/2003, Linux
(Open Source), FreeBSD (Open Source), Solaris (Open Source),
Mac, VMware and more, along with key system monitoring features
such as enclosure management (Serial Bus & SGPIO) and SNMP
function. Our products and technology are based on extensive

INTRODUCTION
6
testing and validation process; leverage Areca SAS or SATA RAID
controller eld-proven compatibility with operating systems, moth-
erboards, applications and device drivers.
Easy RAID Management
The controllers contain an embedded McBIOS RAID manager that
can access via hot key at M/B BIOS boot-up screen. This pre-boot
McBIOS RAID manager can use to simplify the setup and manage-
ment of RAID controller. The controller rmware also contains a
browser-based McRAID storage manager which can be accessed
through the Ethernet port or ArcHttp proxy server in Windows,
Linux, FreeBSD and more environments. The McRAID storage man-
ager allows local and remote to create and modify RAID set, vol-
ume set, and monitor RAID status from standard web browser. The
Single Admin Portal (SAP) monitor utility can support one applica-
tion to scan multiple RAID units in the network.
1.2 Features
Controller Architecture
• Dual Core RAID-on-Chip (ROC) 800 MHz processor
• PCIe 3.0 x8 lane host interface
• 1GB on-board DDR3-1333 SDRAM with ECC
• Write-through or write-back cache support
• Support up to 4/8 internal or 4/8 external 6Gb/s SAS ports
• ARC-1215-4i/4x supports up to 4 x 6Gb/s SAS/SATA HDDs
• ARC-1225-8i/8x supports up to 8 x 6Gb/s SAS/SATA HDDs
• Multi-adapter support for large storage requirements
• BIOS boot support for greater fault tolerance
• BIOS PnP (plug and play) and BBS (BIOS boot specication)
support
• Support EFI BIOS for Mac Pro
• NVRAM for RAID event & transaction log
• Redundant ash image for controller availability
• Battery Backup Module (BBM) ready (optional)
• RoHS compliant
RAID Features
• RAID level 0, 1, 10(1E), 3, 5, 6, 30, 50, 60, Single Disk or JBOD

INTRODUCTION
7
• Multiple RAID 0 and RAID 10(1E) support (RAID 00 and
RAID100)
• Multiple RAID selection
• Congurable stripe size up to 1024KB
• Support HDD rmware update
• Online array roaming
• Online RAID level/stripe size migration
• Online capacity expansion and RAID level migration simultane-
ously
• Online volume set growth
• Instant availability and background initialization
• Support global and dedicated hot spare
• Automatic drive insertion/removal detection and rebuilding
• Support for native 4K and 512 byte sector SAS and SATA devices
• Multiple pairs SSD/HDD disk clone function
• SSD automatic monitor clone (AMC) support
• Controller level hardware encryption support
• Support intelligent power management to save energy and ex-
tend service life
Monitors/Notication
• System status indication through global HDD activity/fault con-
nector, individual activity/fault connector, LCD/I2C connector and
alarm buzzer
• SMTP support for email notication
• SNMP support for remote manager
• Enclosure management (serial bus and SGPIO) ready
RAID Management
• Field-upgradeable rmware in ash ROM
In-Band Manager
• Hot key "boot-up" McBIOS RAID manager via M/B BIOS
• Web browser-based McRAID storage manager via ArcHttp proxy
server for all operating systems
• Support Command Line Interface (CLI)
• API library for customer to write monitor utility
• Single Admin Portal (SAP) monitor utility
Out-of-Band Manager
• Firmware-embedded web browser-based McRAID storage man-
ager, SMTP manager, SNMP agent and Telnet function via Ether-

INTRODUCTION
8
net port
• API library for customer to write monitor utility
• Support push button and LCD display panel (optional)
Operating System
• Windows 8/Server 2012/7/2008/Vista/XP/2003
• Linux
• FreeBSD
• VMware
• Solaris 10/11 x86/x86_64
• Mac OS 10.4.x or higher
(For latest supported OS listing visit http://www.areca.com.tw)
Important:
Be sure to update the ArcMSR.kext driver shipping with Mac
OS X to V1.3.7 or later from the software CD or from the
Areca website.
6Gb/s SAS RAID Controllers
Model Name ARC-1215-4i ARC-1225-8i
I/O Processor Dual Core RAID-on-Chip (ROC) 800 MHz Processor
Form Factor Low Prole: 64.4(H) x 169.5(L) mm
Host Bus Type PCIe 3.0 x 8 Lanes
Driver Connector 1 x SFF-8087 2 x SFF-8087
Drive Support 4 x SAS/SATA 8 x SAS/SATA
RAID Level 0, 1, 10, 3, 5, 6, Single Disk
or JBOD
0, 1, 10, 3, 5, 6, 30, 50, 60,
Single Disk or JBOD
On-Board Cache 1GB on-board DDR3-1333 SDRAM with ECC
Management
Port
In-Band: PCIe
Out-of-Band: BIOS, LCD (Optional) and LAN Port
Enclosure Ready Individual Activity/Faulty Header, Serial Bus and SGPIO

INTRODUCTION
9
Note:
Low-prole bracket has included on the low prole board shipping
package.
6Gb/s SAS RAID Controllers
Model Name ARC-1215-4x ARC-1225-8x
I/O Processor Dual Core RAID-on-Chip (ROC) 800 MHz Processor
Form Factor Low Prole: 64.4(H) x 169.5(L) mm
Host Bus Type PCIe 3.0 x 8 Lanes
Driver Connector 1 x SFF-8088 2 x SFF-8088
Drive Support 4 x SAS/SATA 8 x SAS/SATA
RAID Level 0, 1, 10, 3, 5, 6, Single Disk
or JBOD
0, 1, 10, 3, 5, 6, 30, 50, 60,
Single Disk or JBOD
On-Board Cache 1GB on-board DDR3-1333 SDRAM with ECC
Management
Port
In-Band: PCIe
Out-of-Band: BIOS and LCD (Optional)
Enclosure Ready External Serial Bus

HARDWARE INSTALLATION
10
2. Hardware Installation
This section describes the procedures for installing the 6Gb/s SAS RAID
controllers.
2.1 Before You First Installing
Thanks for purchasing the 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller as your RAID
data storage subsystem. This user manual gives simple step-by-
step instructions for installing and conguring the 6Gb/s SAS RAID
controller. To ensure personal safety and to protect your equipment
and data, reading the following information package list carefully
before you begin installing.
Package Contents
If your package is missing any of the items listed below, con-
tact your local dealers before you install. (Disk drives and disk
mounting brackets are not included)
• 1 x 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller in an ESD-protective bag
• 1 x Installation CD – containing driver, relative software, an
electronic version of this manual and other related manual
• 1 x Quick start guide
• 1 x Low-prole bracket
2.2 Board Layout
The controller can support a family included 8 ports models as well
as 4/8 internal/external ports. This section provides the board lay-
out and connector/jumper for the 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION
11
Connector Type Description
1. (J7) Ethernet Port RJ45
2. (J6) Individual Fault LED Header 4-pin header
3. (J5) Individual Activity (HDD) LED Header 4-pin header
4. (J4) Global Fault/Activity LED 4-pin header
5. (J2) Battery Backup Module Connector 12-pin box header
6. (J1) Manufacture Purpose Port 12-pin header
7. (J3) I2C/LCD Connector 8-pin header
8. (SCN1) SAS 1-4 Ports (Internal) SFF-8087
9. (SCN2) SAS 5-8 Ports (Internal) SFF-8087
Table 2-1, ARC-1215-4i/ARC-1225-8i connectors
Figure 2-1, ARC-1215-4i/ARC-1225-8i Top View

HARDWARE INSTALLATION
12
Table 2-2, ARC-1215-4x/ARC-1225-8x connectors
Figure 2-2, ARC-1215-4x/ARC-1225-8x
Connector Type Description
1. (J1) Battery Backup Module Connector 12-pin box header
2. (J2) Manufacture Purpose Port 10-pin header
3. (J5) I2C/LCD Connector RS232 Male Connector
4. (SCN1) SAS 1-4 Ports (External) SFF-8088
5. (SCN2) SAS 5-8 Ports (External) SFF-8088

HARDWARE INSTALLATION
13
Tools Required
An ESD grounding strap or mat is required. Also required are
standard hand tools to open your system’s case.
System Requirement
The 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller can be installed in a universal PCIe
slot and requires a motherboard that:
ARC-1215-4i/4x and ARC-1225-8i/8x 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller
requires:
• Comply with the PCIe 3.0 x8 lanes
It can work on the PCIe 3.0 x1, x4, x8, and x16 signal with x8 or
x16 mechanical slot M/B.
• Backward-compatibe with PCIe 1.0 x1, x4, x8, and x16 signal
with x8 or x16 mechanical slot M/B.
Installation Tools
The following items may be needed to assist with installing the
6Gb/s SAS/SATA RAID controller into an available PCIe expansion
slot.
• Small screwdriver
• Host system hardware manuals and manuals for the disk or
enclosure being installed.
Personal Safety Instructions
Use the following safety instructions to help you protect your
computer system from potential damage and to ensure your own
personal safety.
• Always wear a grounding strap or work on an ESD-protective
mat.
• Before opening the system cover, turn off power switches and
unplug the power cords. Do not reconnect the power cords until
you have replaced the covers.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION
14
Electrostatic Discharge
Static electricity can cause serious damage to the electronic
components on this 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller. To avoid damage
caused by electrostatic discharge, observe the following precau-
tions:
• Do not remove the 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller from its anti-
static packaging until you are ready to install it into a computer
case.
• Handle the 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller by its edges or by the
metal mounting brackets at its each end.
• Before you handle the 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller in any way,
touch a grounded, anti-static surface, such as an unpainted por-
tion of the system chassis, for a few seconds to discharge any
built-up static electricity.
Warning:
High voltages may be found inside computer equipment. Be-
fore installing any of the hardware in this package or remov-
ing the protective covers of any computer equipment, turn
off power switches and disconnect power cords. Do not re-
connect the power cords until you have replaced the covers.
2.3 Installation
Use the following instructions below to install a PCIe 3.0 6Gb/s SAS
RAID controller.
Step 1. Unpack
Unpack and remove the PCIe 3.0 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller from
the package. Inspect it carefully, if anything is missing or damaged,
contact your local dealer.
Step 2. Power PC/Server Off
Turn off computer and remove the AC power cord. Remove the sys-
tem’s cover. For the instructions, please see the computer system
documentation.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION
15
Figure 2-3, Insert into a PCIe Slot
Step 4. Mount the Drives
You can connect the SAS/SATA drives to the controller through
direct cable and backplane solutions. In the direct connection, SAS/
SATA drives are directly connected to 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller
PHY port with SAS/SATA cables. The 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller
can support up to 8 PHY ports. Remove the front bezel from the
computer chassis and install the cages or SAS/SATA drives in the
computer chassis. Loading drives to the drive tray if cages are
installed. Be sure that the power is connected to either the cage
backplane or the individual drives.
Step 3. Install the PCIe 6Gb/s SAS RAID Cards
To install the 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller, remove the mounting
screw and existing bracket from the rear panel behind the selected
PCIe 3.0 slot. Align the gold-ngered edge on the card with the
selected PCIe 3.0 slot. Press down gently but rmly to ensure that
the card is properly seated in the slot, as shown in Figure 2-3.
Then, screw the bracket into the computer chassis. ARC-12x5 se-
ries controllers require a PCIe 3.0 x8 slot for better performance.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION
16
In the backplane solution, SAS/SATA drives are directly connected
to 6Gb/s SAS system backplane. The number of SAS/SATA drives is
limited to the number of slots available on the backplane.
Step 5. Install SAS Cable
This section describes SAS cable how to connect on controller.
Figure 2-4, Connecting to HDD

HARDWARE INSTALLATION
17
Figure 2-5, Connecting to Backplane
Step 6. Install the LED Cable (Optional)
The preferred I/O connector for server backplanes is the internal
SFF-8087 connector. This connector has eight signal pins to support
four SAS/SATA drives and six pins for the SGPIO (Serial General
Purpose Input/Output) side-band signals. The SGPIO bus is used
for efcient LED management and for sensing drive Locate status.
See SFF 8485 for the specication of the SGPIO bus. For backplane
without SGPIO supporting, Please refer to Section 2.4 LED cables
for fault/activity LED cable installation.
LED Management: The backplane may contain LEDs to indicate
drive status. Light from the LEDs could be transmitted to the out-
side of the server by using light pipes mounted on the SAS drive
tray. A small microcontroller on the backplane, connected via the
SGPIO bus to a 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller, could control the LEDs.
Activity: blinking 5 times/second and Fault: solid illuminated
Drive Locate Circuitry: The location of a drive may be detected by
sensing the voltage level of one of the pre-charge pins before and
after a drive is installed.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION
18
PIN Description PIN Description
SideBand0 SClock (Clock signal) SideBand1 SLoad (Last clock of a bit
stream)
SideBand2 Ground SideBand3 Ground
SideBand4 SDataOut (Serial data
output bit stream)
SideBand5 SDataIn (Serial data input bit
stream)
SideBand6 Reserved SideBand7 Reserved
The SFF-8087 to 4 SATA with sideband cable which follows
SFF-8448 specication. The SFF-8448 sideband signals cable
is reserved for the backplane with header on it. The following
signal denes the sideband connector which can work with Areca
sideband cable on its SFF-8087 to 4 SATA cable. The sideband
header is located at backplane. For SGPIO to work properly, please
connect Areca 8-pin sideband cable to the sideband header as
shown below. See the table for pin denitions.
Note:
For lastest release versions of drivers, please download from
http://www.areca.com.tw/support/main.htm
The following signals dene the SGPIO assignments for the Min
SAS 4i internal connector (SFF-8087) in the 6Gb/s SAS RAID con-
troller.
Step 7. Adding a Battery Backup Module (Optional)
Please refer to Appendix B of the user manual for installing the
BBM in your 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION
19
Step 8. Re-check Fault LED Cable Connections (Optional)
Be sure that the proper failed drive channel information is dis-
played by the fault LEDs. An improper connection will tell the user
to ‘‘Hot Swap’’ the wrong drive. This can result in removing the
wrong disk (one that is functioning properly) from the controller.
This can result in failure and loss of system data.
Step 9. Power up the System
Thoroughly check the installation, reinstall the computer cover, and
reconnect the power cord cables. Turn on the power switch at the
rear of the computer (if equipped) and then press the power button
at the front of the host computer.
Step 10. Install the Controller Driver
For a new system:
• Driver installation usually takes places as part of operating sys-
tem installation. Please refer to Chapter 4 “Diver Installation” of
the user manual for the detailed installation procedure.
In an existing system:
• To install the controller driver into the existing operating system.
For the detailed installation procedure, please refer to the Chap-
ter 4, “Diver Installation” of the user manual for the detailed
installation procedure.
Step 11. Install ArcHttp Proxy Server
The 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller rmware has embedded the web-
browser McRAID storage manager. ArcHttp proxy server will launch
the web-browser McRAID storage manager. It provides all of the
creation, management and monitor 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller sta-
tus. Please refer to the Chapter 5 of the user manual for the detail
ArcHttp Proxy Server Installation. For SNMP agent function, please
refer to Appendix C of the user manual.
Step 12. Congure Volume Set
The controller congures RAID functionality through the McBIOS
RAID manager. Please refer to Chapter 3 of the user manual, Mc-

HARDWARE INSTALLATION
20
BIOS RAID Manager, for the detail. The RAID controller can also
be congured through the McRAID storage manager with ArcHttp
proxy server installed, LCD module (refer to LCD manual) or
through on-board LAN port. For this option, please refer to Chapter
6 of the user manual, Web Browser-Based Conguration.
Step 13. Determining the Boot Sequences
For PC system:
6Gb/s SAS RAID controller is a bootable controller. If your sys-
tem already contains a bootable device with an installed operating
system, you can set up your system to boot a second operating
system from the new controller. To add a second bootable control-
ler, you may need to enter setup of motherboard BIOS and change
the device boot sequence so that the new RAID controller heads
the list. If the system BIOS setup does not allow this change, your
system may be not congurable to allow the 6Gb/s SAS RAID con-
troller to act as a second boot device.
For Intel-based Mac system:
Areca controller has supported the EFI BIOS on the PCIe 3.0 6Gb/s
SAS RAID controller. You have other alternatively to add volumes
on the Intel-based Mac bootable device listing. You can follow the
following procedures to add 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller on the Mac
bootable device listing.
1. Set the BIOS selection in System Controls: Advance Congura-
tion to “EFI” option for Intel-based MacPro boot.
2. Download OS X Mavericks and DiskMaker X. Follow the Disk-
Maker X to make a bootable OS X Mavericks USB install drive.
3. Restart your Mac and after you hear the chime sound, press
the Option (Alt) key until you see the option to choose the
ash drive to boot from.
4. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete Areca Volume
Upgrade and Clean Install of OS X Mavericks. Power up the
Intel-based Mac and Areca volume will be added in the
bootable device automatically.