Intel RS2WC080 Installation manual

Intel®RAID Controller RS2WC080
Hardware User’s Guide
Intel Order Number: E64399-002

ii Intel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware User’s Guide
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Intel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware User’s Guide iii
Preface
About this Manual
This is the primary hardware guide for the Intel®RAID Controller RS2WC080, for use
with the SAS and SATA disk drives. It contains installation instructions and
specifications.
For details on how to configure the storage adapters, and for an overview of the software
drivers, see the Intel®RAID Software User’s Guide on the Resource CD.
Audience
This document assumes that you have some familiarity with RAID controllers and related
support devices. The people who benefit from this book are:
•Engineers who are designing a system using the Intel®RAID Controller
RS2WC080.
•Anyone installing an Intel®RAID Controller RS2WC080 in a RAID system.
Organization
This document includes the following chapters and appendixes:
•Chapter 1 provides a general overview of the Intel®RAID Controller RS2WC080.
•Chapter 2 describes the procedures for installing the RAID controller.
•Chapter 3 provides the characteristics and technical specifications for the Intel®
RAID Controller RS2WC080.
•Appendix B explains drive roaming and how to do a drive migration.
Related Publication
The Intel®RAID Software User’s Guide is on the Resource CD that ships with the RAID
controller or on the controller support website at:
http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/.

iv Intel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware User’s Guide

Intel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware User’s Guide v
Table of Contents
Preface ........................................................................................................................iii
About this Manual ................................................................................................................. iii
Audience ............................................................................................................................... iii
Organization ......................................................................................................................... iii
Related Publication ............................................................................................................... iii
Chapter 1, Overview ...................................................................................................1
Benefits of SAS ......................................................................................................................1
Intel®RAID Controller RS2WC080 ........................................................................................2
Protocol Support ............................................................................................................2
Operating System Support ............................................................................................2
Usability .........................................................................................................................3
SAS/SATA Features of the LSI*SAS2008 Controller ....................................................4
Chapter 2, Intel®RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware Installation ....................7
Requirements ........................................................................................................................7
Installing the RAID Controller ................................................................................................7
Configuring the RAID Controller ..........................................................................................11
Replacing a Controller .........................................................................................................11
Resolving a Configuration Mismatch ...................................................................................11
Chapter 3, Intel®RAID Controller RS2WC080 Characteristics ............................13
Technical Specifications ......................................................................................................14
Array Performance Features ...............................................................................................15
Fault Tolerance ............................................................................................................16
Safety Characteristics ..................................................................................................17
A. Installation / Assembly Safety Instructions .......................................................19
English .................................................................................................................................21
Deutsch ................................................................................................................................22
Français ...............................................................................................................................23
Español ................................................................................................................................25
Italiano .................................................................................................................................26
B. Drive Roaming and Drive Migration Install ........................................................29
Drive Roaming .....................................................................................................................29
Drive Migration .....................................................................................................................30
C. Regulatory and Certification Information ..........................................................31
Electromagnetic Compatibility Notices ................................................................................33

vi Intel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware User’s Guide

Intel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware User’s Guide vii
List of Figures
Figure 1. Changing the Bracket................................................................................................. 8
Figure 2. Installing the Intel®RAID Controller RS2WC080....................................................... 9
Figure 3. Connecting Cables between the RAID Controller and Drives/Backplane................ 10
Figure 4. Card Layout.............................................................................................................. 13

viii Intel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware User’s Guide

Intel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware User’s Guide ix
List of Tables
Table 1. Jumper Description ...................................................................................................13
Table 2. Technical Specifications ............................................................................................14
Table 3. Array Performance Features .....................................................................................15
Table 4. Fault Tolerance Features ..........................................................................................16
Table 5. Electrical Characteristics ...........................................................................................17

xIntel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware User’s Guide

Intel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware User’s Guide 1
1Overview
The Intel®RAID Controller RS2WC080 is an intelligent PCI Express* 2.0-compliant
SAS/SATA II RAID controller that offers reliability, good performance, and fault-tolerant
disk subsystem management. This is a RAID solution that meets the internal storage needs
of workgroup, department, or enterprise systems to use cost-effective SATA or high-
performance SAS media.
As a second-generation PCI Express* RAID controller, the Intel®RAID Controller
RS2WC080 addresses the growing demand for increased data throughput and scalability
requirements across entry-level, mid-range, and enterprise-class server platforms.
The controller can be connected to up to eight drives directly and allows the use of
expanders to connect to additional drives. For more information about the use of
expanders, see the ANSI SAS Standard Specification, Version 2.0.
SATA and SAS are serial, point-to-point device interfaces that use simplified cabling,
smaller connectors, lower pin counts, and lower power requirements than parallel SCSI.
Benefits of SAS
SAS is a serial, point-to-point, enterprise-level device interface that leverages the proven
SCSI protocol set. SAS is a convergence of the advantages of SATA, SCSI, and Fibre
Channel, and is the future mainstay of the enterprise and high-end workstation storage
markets. SAS offers a higher bandwidth per pin than parallel SCSI and improves signal
and data integrity.
The SAS interface uses the proven SCSI command set to ensure reliable data transfers,
while providing the connectivity and flexibility of point-to-point serial data transfers. The
serial transmission of SCSI commands eliminates clock skew challenges. The SAS
interface provides improved performance, simplified cabling, smaller connectors, lower
pin count, and lower power requirements than parallel SCSI.
SAS controllers leverage a common electrical and physical connection interface that is
compatible with Serial ATA technology. The SAS and SATA protocols use a thin, 7-wire
connector instead of the 68-wire SCSI cable or 40-wire ATA cable. The SAS/SATA
connector and cable are easier to manipulate, connect to smaller devices, and do not
inhibit airflow. The point-to-point SATA architecture eliminates difficulties created by the
legacy ATA master-slave architecture while maintaining compatibility with existing ATA
firmware.

2Intel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware User’s Guide
Intel®RAID Controller RS2WC080
The Intel®RAID Controller RS2WC080 is a PCI* Express 2.0, half-size, low profile
RAID controller based on the LSI*SAS2008 PCI* Express-SAS/SATA I/O Processor
chip, providing both a SAS controller and RAID engine. With eight independent ports
supporting 6Gb/s and 3Gb/s SAS data transfers using two SFF-8087 mini multi-lane
connectors, this controller supports up to 64 physical drives including up to 16 enterprise-
class SAS or SATA devices in up to 16 RAID arrays. Drives not configured as part of a
RAID array can be configured as “pass through” drives in Non-RAID mode. The PCI
Express* connector fits into an x8 or x16 PCI Express* slot capable of performance up to
5 Gb/s per lane.
The SAS RAID controllers support the SAS protocol as described in the Serial Attached
SCSI Standard, Version 2.0. The controllers also support the Serial ATA II (SATA II)
protocol defined by the Serial ATA Specification, Version 1.0a and the Serial ATA II:
Extension to the Serial ATA Specification, Version 1.1. SATA II is an extension to SATA
1.0a.
In addition, the SAS RAID controllers support the following SATA II features:
•3Gb/s SATA II
•Staggered spin-up
•Hot plug
•Native command queuing
•Activity and fault indicators for each PHY
•Port selector (for dual-port drives)
Protocol Support
Each port on the SAS controllers supports SAS devices, SATA II devices, or both using
SSP, SMP, STP, and SATA II as follows:
•Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP) to enable communication with other SAS devices.
•SATA II Protocol to enable communication with other SATA II devices.
•Serial Management Protocol (SMP) to share topology management information
with expanders.
•Serial Tunneling Protocol (STP) support for SATA II through expander interfaces.
Operating System Support
•Microsoft Windows Server 2003*, Microsoft Windows Server 2008*, and Windows
Vista*.
•Red Hat* Enterprise Linux 4.0, and 5.0.
•SuSE* Linux Enterprise Server 10 and 11.

Intel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware User’s Guide 3
All operating systems supported by the RAID controller may not be supported by your
server board. To verify compatibility, see the Tested Operating System List for your server
board at http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/.
To make sure the RAID controller supports your operating system, refer to the Tested
Hardware and Operating System List for the Intel®RAID Controller RS2WC080.
Usability
•The card ships with both a standard and a low-profile bracket.
•Small, thin cabling with up to 6.0 Gb/s serial, point-to-point data transfer rates
•Support for non-disk devices and mixed capacity drives
•Support for intelligent XOR RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 10, and 50
•Dedicated or global hot spare with auto rebuild if an array drive fails
•User-defined strip size per drive: 8, 16, 32, or 64 KB
•Advanced Array configuration and Management Utilities provides:
— Online Capacity Expansion (OCE) adds space to existing drive or new drive.
See Appendix A for limitations on OCE and RAID migration.
— Online RAID level migration (upgrade of RAID mode may require OCE).
— Drive migration
— Drive roaming
— No reboot necessary after expansion
— Load Balancing
•Upgradeable Flash ROM interface
•Allows for staggered spin up, hot-plug, and lower power consumption
•User-specified rebuild rate (percent of system resources to use from 0-100%)
Caution: Exceeding 50% rate may cause operating system errors due to waiting for
controller access.
•Background operating mode can be set for Rebuilds, Consistency Checks,
Initialization (auto restarting Consistency Check on redundant volumes), Migration,
OCE, and Patrol Read.
•Allows mixed connections to SAS targets or SATA II targets
Note: Intel recommends that you carefully assess any decision to mix SAS and SATA drives
within the same virtual drive. Although you can mix drives within the same virtual drive,
Intel strongly discourages the practice. However, you should never mix SAS and SATA
drives within the same enclosure.

4Intel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware User’s Guide
Redundancy and Error Handling
•In-band SES2.
•Enclosure management support.
•Drive coercion (auto-resizing to match existing disks).
•Support the internal SAS Sideband signal SFF-8485 (SGPIO) interface.
•Auto-detection of failed drives with transparent rebuild. There must be disk activity
(I/O to the drive) for a missing drive to be marked as failed.
•Auto-resume on reboot of initialization or rebuild (must be enabled before virtual
disk creation).
•Smart initialization automatically checks consistency of virtual disks if there are five
or more disks in a RAID 5 array, which optimizes performance by enabling read-
modify-write mode. RAID 5 arrays of only three or four drives use Peer Read mode.
•Smart Technology predicts failures of drives and electronic components.
•Patrol Read checks drives and maps bad sectors.
•Commands are retried at least four times.
•Firmware provides best effort to recognize an error and recover if possible.
•Failures are logged from controller and drive firmware, and SMART monitor.
•Failures are logged in NVRAM, viewable from OS Event Log, Intel®RAID Web
Console 2; CIM, LEDs.
•Cache options:
— Write-through: Usually slower but ensures data is on the disk.
— Normal Read: Always reads from the drive after determining exact location of
each read.
— Direct I/O: Reads data directly from disk (without checking cache first).
•Access policy:
— RW: allow read and write I/O
— Read Only: allow read I/O only
— Blocked: deny read and write I/O
•Redundancy through:
— Configuration stored in non-volatile RAM and on the drives (COD).
— Hot-swap support.
SAS/SATA Features of the LSI*SAS2008 Controller
•Provides eight independent phys, each supporting 6Gb/s and 3Gb/s SAS data
transfers per PHY.
•Supports SSP to enable communication with other SAS devices.

Intel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware User’s Guide 5
•Supports SMP to communicate topology management information.
•Supports single PHY or wide ports consisting of 2, 3, or 4 PHYs within a single
quad port.
•Allows addressing of multiple SATA targets through an expander if using SATA 2.0-
compliant hard disk drives.
•Allows multiple initiators to address a single target (in a fail-over configuration)
through an expander.
Note: All expander features will not be available at launch.
Online Capacity Expansion and RAID Level Migration Rules
•Migration must occur to the same or larger capacity configuration.
•Migration cannot occur if there is more than one virtual disk in an array.
•Migration and OCE cannot be done on Spanned Arrays (RAID 10 and 50).
•Migrations supported are RAID 1 to RAID 0, RAID 5 to RAID 0.
•With OCE, migrations supported are RAID 0 to RAID 1, RAID 0 to RAID 5, and
RAID 1 to RAID 5.

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Intel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware User’s Guide 7
2Intel®RAID Controller RS2WC080
Hardware Installation
Requirements
•An Intel®RAID Controller RS2WC080 with the provided cables
•A host system with an available x8 or x16 PCI-Express* slot
•The Resource CD, which contains drivers and documentation
•SAS or SATA 3.0 hard drives
Note: SATA II is the only type of SATA supported by this RAID Controller.
In addition, Intel Corporation strongly recommends using an uninterruptible power supply
(UPS).
Installing the RAID Controller
To install the RAID Controller, follow these steps:
1. Turn off the power to the system, all drives, enclosures, and system components.
Remove the power cord(s).
2. Remove the server system cover. For instructions, see the server system
documentation.
3. If necessary, change the bracket on the RAID controller to fit the height of the
server system (see Figure 1).

8Intel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware User’s Guide
Figure 1. Changing the Bracket
4. Install the RAID controller into an available server system x8 or x16 PCI-Express*
slot (see Figure 2). To locate an appropriate slot and for instructions on installing an
add-in card, see your server system documentation.
AF003344

Intel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware User’s Guide 9
Figure 2. Installing the Intel®RAID Controller RS2WC080
5. For the first four drives (ports 0 - 3), connect one 4-port combined end of an
internal cable to the right connector (see letter “A” in Figure 3). If you are using
more than four drives without using an expander backplane, connect the second
cable to the left connector (see letter “B” in Figure 3). Connect the other end of the
cables to SATA drives or to the ports on a SATA or SAS backplane (see letter “C”
in Figure 3).
To prevent throughput problems:
✧Use the cables provided or use the shortest possible cable.
✧Do not use cables longer than one meter.
✧Decrease the maximum length by one foot if you are using a backplane.
✧Do not use cross-over cables.
✧Only connect to a SATA drive, SAS or SATA backplane, or an expander
device.
✧Route the cables carefully.
✧Check that the controller and cables are all properly attached.
AF003345
PCI Express* Slot (3.3 V)

10 Intel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 Hardware User’s Guide
Figure 3. Connecting Cables between the RAID Controller and
Drives/Backplane
6. Install the server system cover and connect the power cords. For instructions, see
your server system documentation.
AF003346
D
Ports 4-7
Ports 0-3
A
C
B