Intel SRCSASPH16I - RAID Controller Installation instructions

Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide i
Intel®RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I
Hardware Guide
Intel Order Number: E33256-001

ii Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide
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Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide iii
Preface
This is the primary reference and user’s guide for the Intel®RAID Controller
SRCSASPH16I, which can be used for 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 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 RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I storage adapter into
a system.
• Anyone installing a RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I storage adapter in a RAID
system.
Organization
This document includes the following chapters and appendixes:
• Chapter 1 provides a general overview of the Intel®RAID Controller
SRCSASPH16I.
• Chapter 2 describes the procedures for installing the RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I
storage adapter.
• Chapter 3 provides the characteristics and technical specifications for the RAID
Controller SRCSASPH16I storage adapter.
• Appendix A lists and explains the terms and abbreviations used in this manual.
Related Publication
The Software User’s Guide on the Resource CD that is included with the RAID controller.

iv Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide

Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide v
Figures
Figure 1. Inserting the Intel®RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I into a
PCI Express* Slot...................................................................................................................... 8
Figure 2. Connecting the Disk Drive.......................................................................................... 9
Figure 3. SAS and SATA Plugs and SAS Backplane Connector............................................ 10
Figure 4. Card Layouts............................................................................................................ 12

vi Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide

Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide vii
Contents
Preface ........................................................................................................................iii
Audience ............................................................................................................................... iii
Organization ......................................................................................................................... iii
Related Publication ............................................................................................................... iii
Chapter 1, Overview ................................................................................................... 1
Summary of SAS RAID Controller Features ..........................................................................1
Usability .........................................................................................................................2
Redundancy and Error Handling ...................................................................................3
SAS and SATA Features ...............................................................................................4
Online Capacity Expansion and RAID Level Migration Rules .......................................4
Beep Codes ...................................................................................................................5
Benefits of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) ................................................................................5
Chapter 2, Intel®RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Installation .............. 7
Requirements ........................................................................................................................7
Installation ..............................................................................................................................8
Connecting the Cables ........................................................................................................10
Configuring the Storage Adapter .........................................................................................11
Replacing a Controller .........................................................................................................11
Resolving a Configuration Mismatch ...................................................................................11
Chapter 3, Intel®RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Characteristics ...................... 12
Technical Specifications ......................................................................................................13
Array Performance Features .......................................................................................14
Fault Tolerance ............................................................................................................15
Electrical Characteristics .............................................................................................16
Thermal and Atmospheric Characteristics ...................................................................16
Safety Characteristics ..................................................................................................17
A. Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations ............................................................... 18

viii Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide

Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide ix
Tables
Table 1. Jumper Descriptions ..................................................................................................12
Table 2. Specifications ............................................................................................................14
Table 3. Array Performance Features .....................................................................................14
Table 4. Fault Tolerance Features ..........................................................................................15
Table 5. Maxium Power Requirements ...................................................................................16
Table 6. Environmental Specifications ....................................................................................16
Table 7. Storage and Transit Specifications ............................................................................16

1Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide
1Overview
This chapter provides a general overview of the Intel®RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I.
It consists of the following sections:
• Summary of SAS RAID Controller Features
• Benefits of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)
The Intel®RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Storage Adapter is a high-performance
intelligent PCI Express* SAS RAID controller. It provides reliability, high performance,
and fault-tolerant disk subsystem management. This is an ideal RAID solution for the
internal storage needs of workgroup, departmental, and enterprise systems. The RAID
Controller SRCSASPH16I offers a cost-effective way to implement RAID in a server for
internal and external storage.
The SAS controller allows you to use SATA and SAS hard disk drives in the same system,
so you can take advantage of the benefits of each type of drive. The controller can connect
up to eight drives directly and use expanders to connect to additional drives. See the ANSI
SAS standard, version 1.0 specification for more information about the use of expanders.
As the second generation PCI Express storage adapter, the RAID Controller
SRCSASPH16I addresses the growing demand for increased data throughput and
scalability requirements across midrange and enterprise-class server platforms. Simplified
cabling between drives is an additional benefit.
The optional Intel®RAID Smart Battery for cached data protection allows system
builders to protect cached data during catastrophic system failures.
Summary of SAS RAID Controller Features
The Intel®RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I is an intelligent low-profile RAID adapter
with:
•AnIntel
®IOP333 I/O processor running at 500 MHz.
• An LSI 1068 SAS (including SATA) controller.
• 256 MB RAM.
• Sixteen independent internal ports provided via four SFF8087 connectors.
• Support for both enterprise-class SAS devices and desktop-class SATA drives.
• Support for up to 122 SAS or SATA drives and 64 logical drives.
• PCI Express* connector that fits into a x8 PCI Express slot capable of 2.5 Gbps per
lane over PCI Express x1, or x16.
• 3.0 Gbps point-to-point transfer rate.

Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide 2
The SAS controller supports the ANSI Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) standard, version 1.0.
In addition, the controller supports the Serial ATA (SATA) protocol defined by the Serial
ATA specification, version 1.0a.T he SAS controller is a versatile controller that
supporting both the SAS and SATA interfaces and provides the backbone of both server
and high-end workstation environments.
Protocols supported include:
• Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP): Communication with other SAS devices.
• SATA II Protocol: Communication with other SATA II devices.
• Serial Management Protocol (SMP): Topology management information sharing with
expanders.
• Serial Tunneling Protocol (STP) support for SATA II through expander interfaces.
Usability
• Smaller, thinner cabling with serial point-to-point 3.0 Gbps data transfer rates.
• Allows mixed connections to SAS or SATA targets.
• Support for non disk devices and mixed capacity drives.
• Support for intelligent XOR RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50 and 60.
• Dedicated or global hot spare with auto rebuild if an array drive fails.
• User defined stripe size per drive (8, 16, 32, 64 (def), or 128 KB).
• Advanced array configuration and management utilities that provide:
— Online Capacity Expansion (OCE) adds space to existing drive or new drive.
— Online RAID level migration (upgrade of RAID mode, may require OCE).
— Drive migration.
— Drive roaming.
— No reboot necessary after expansion.
• An upgradeable Flash ROM interface.
• Allows for staggered spin up, hot plug, lower power consumption.

3Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide
• User specified rebuild rate (% of system resources to use from 0-100%).
Warning: Exceeding 50% rate may cause operating system errors caused by
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.
Redundancy and Error Handling
• Enclosure management support, including LEDs.
• Activity and fault indicators per drive, port selector (dual-port drives).
• Drive coercion (auto resizing to match existing disks).
• Auto-detection of failed drives with transparent rebuild. Disk activity (I/O to the
drive) must be present 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 overdrives use peer read mode.
• Dirty cache LED plus cache write to disk error reporting.
• 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 from it if possible.
• Failures are logged from controller and drive firmware, SMART monitor, SAF-TE
controller.
• Failures are logged in NVRAM, viewable from OS Event Log, Intel®RAID Web
Console 2; CIM, LEDs, and via alarm.
• Multiple cache options provide choice of speed, redundancy:
— Write: The data written / (done) signal is returned when data is written to drive or
only to cache:
^ Write-back (default): Faster, because it since doesn't wait for the disk, but
data will be lost if power is lost.
^ Write-through: Slower, but ensures data is on the disk.
— Read Ahead: Predicts the next read will be sequential and buffers this data into
the cache:
^ NonRead Ahead: Always reads from the drive after determining the exact
location of each read.
^ Adaptive Read Ahead: Will read ahead and cache data only if doing
sequential reads.

Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide 4
— I/0 setting: Determines whether to read/write from cache to improve performance:
^ Cache I/O: Writes to the cache and next read checks the cache first.
^ Direct I/O: Never uses cache, all data goes from host to disk to host.
• Redundancy through:
— Configuration stored in nonvolatile RAM and on the drives (COD).
— Hot swap support.
— Optional battery backup for cache memory. Controller provides fast or trickle
charges.
SAS and SATA Features
• Provides sixteen independent PHYs, each supporting 3.0 Gbps and 1.5 Gbps SAS and
SATA data transfers.
• Scalable interface that supports up to 16 directly attached SAS/SATA devices, 64
logical devices, or 122 SAS devices via expanders.
• Transfers data using SCSI information units.
• Supports SSP to enable communication with other SAS devices.
• Supports SMP to communicate topology management information.
• Supports single PHY or wide ports consisting of 2, 3, or 4 PHY 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.
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 a logical array.
• Migration and OCE cannot be done on Spanned Arrays (RAID 10, 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, RAID 1
to RAID 5.

5Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide
Operating System Support
The RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I supports major operating systems, including:
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008*, Microsoft Windows Server 2003*, and Microsoft
Windows XP*
• Red Hat* Enterprise Linux 4.0 and 5.0 (32 and 64 bit)
• SuSe* Linux Enterprise Server 9 and 10 (32 and 64 bit)
Note: The operating systems supported by this controller may not be supported by your server
board. See the tested operating system list for your server board at
http://support.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/. See also the tested hardware and
operating system list for the RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I to make sure the RAID card
supports your operating system.
Beep Codes
• Short beep, 1 second on, 1 second off: The array is degraded, but no data is lost
• Long beep, 3 seconds on, 1 second off: The array has failed and data has been lost.
• Short beep, 1 second on, 3 seconds off: Using hot spare in rebuild. The alarm will
continue during the rebuild with a different sound at completion.
To disable the alarm, choose Disable Alarm. To disable the alarm only until the next event
or until the next power cycle, choose Silence Alarm. To enable the alarm, choose Enable
Alarm.
Benefits of Serial Attached SCSI (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 FC, 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 when compared to 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, allow connections to smaller devices, and do

Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide 6
not inhibit airflow. The point-to-point SATA architecture eliminates inherent difficulties
created by the legacy ATA master-slave architecture, while maintaining compatibility with
existing ATA firmware.

7Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide
2Intel
®RAID Controller
SRCSASPH16I
Hardware Installation
This chapter describes the procedures used to install the Intel®RAID Controller
SRCSASPH16I with internal and external connectors.
Requirements
The following items are required to install a RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I:
•AnIntel
®RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I.
• A host system with an available x8 or x16 bi-directional PCI Express* slot.
•TheResource CD, which contains drivers and documentation.
• The cables provided with the RAID controller.
• SAS or SATA hard disk drives.
Intel Corporation strongly recommends using an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).

Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide 8
Installation
1. Power off the computer and all drives, enclosures, and system components. Remove
the power cord from the computer.
2. Remove the chassis cover and access the PCI Express add-in card slots. See your
server chassis documentation for instructions.
3. Align the controller’s connector with a x8 or x16 PCI Express* slot on the server
board.
4. Press down gently but firmly to ensure that the card is properly seated in the slot, as
shown in Figure 1. Secure the bracket to the computer chassis.
Figure 1. Inserting the Intel®RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I into a
PCI Express* Slot
5. Connect the provided internal cables into the adapter using the 4-port combined end.
Make sure the controller and cables are properly attached.
AF002644
Edge of
Main Board
Bracket Screw
Press
Here Press
Here

9Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide
— Plug the cable into connector at the inside edge of the adapter.
Figure 2. Connecting the Disk Drive
Note: System throughput problems can occur if using SAS cables that do not come with the
RAID controller and that are not the correct type. To minimize the potential for problems:
- Use cables no longer than ten meters for SAS and one meter for SATA. It is better to use
the shortest possible cables. The cable length should be reduced by about one foot (.33
meters) if using a backplane.
- You may connect one device per SATA/SAS cable either as a device or as an expander.
- Route SAS cables carefully.
- Use only “straight” SAS cables, not “cross-over” SAS cables.
6. Replace components you needed to remove to access the PCI Express add-in card
slot. See your server chassis documentation for instructions.
7. Reinstall the chassis cover and reconnect the power cord(s). See your server chassis
documentation for instructions.
8. Reconnect any peripheral items you needed to disconnect.
9. Turn the power on to the server and hard drives. As the server powers up, listen to be
sure that the SAS and SATA devices are powered up before or at the same time as the
computer boots.

Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide 10
10. Watch the boot process until you see a BIOS message to inform you of the key
combination to press to enter the RAID BIOS Console. It will look similar to the
following message:
Press <CTRL><G> to run BIOS Console 2.
This message will time out after several seconds and pass the option to get into the BIOS
Console.
The firmware takes several seconds to initialize and will then display the RAID Controller
SRCSASPH16I number and firmware version. The numbering of the controllers follows
the PCI slot scanning order used by the server board.
Connecting the Cables
This section describes the cables used on the SAS controller and provides instructions for
connecting SAS and SATA hard disk drives to the SAS RAID controller.
Note: Use only “straight” SAS cables, not “cross-over” SAS cables.
A SATA connector consists of a signal connector and a power connector. The SAS
connector adds a bridge (primary physical link) between the signal connector and the
power connector. This means SAS backplane connectors can accept either drive type, but
SATA backplane connectors can ONLY accept SATA drives. Figure 3 shows these
connectors.
Figure 3. SAS and SATA Plugs and SAS Backplane Connector
Serial A TA
SAS Primary
Physical Link
SAS Primary
Physical Link
Power
SATA
Physical Link
Power
Serial Att ached SCSI
SAS Backplane
Recept acle Connector
Note: SA TA backplane connectors
will NOT accept SAS drives
Power
SAS Secondary
Physical Link SATA/SAS
Primary
Physical Link

11 Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I Hardware Guide
Configuring the Storage Adapter
After performing the Intel®RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I installation, you must
configure the storage adapter and install the operating system driver. The Software User’s
Guide instructs you on the configuration options and how to set them on your RAID
Controller SRCSASPH16I, and provides detailed installation instructions for operating
system drivers.
Replacing a Controller
Perform the following steps to replace a failed controller.
1. Power off the computer and all drives, enclosures, and system components. Remove
the power cord.
2. Remove the chassis cover and access the PCI Express add-in card slots. See your
server documentation for instructions.
3. Disconnect the cable(s) from the RAID controller.
4. Remove the failed controller from the system.
5. Insert the replacement controller into the system. Follow the instructions under
Installation.
Resolving a Configuration Mismatch
If a replacement RAID Controller SRCSASPH16I has a previous configuration, a
message displays during POST stating that there is a configuration mismatch. A
configuration mismatch occurs when the configuration data in the NVRAM and the hard
disk drives are different. You need to update the configuration data in the NVRAM with
the data from the hard disk drive.
Perform the following steps to resolve the mismatch.
1. Press <Ctrl> <G> when prompted during the boot process to access the BIOS
Configuration Utility.
2. Select Configure—>View/Add Configuration. This allows viewing of the NVRAM
and drive configurations.
3. Select the configuration on disk because the drives contain the correct configuration.
4. Press <Esc> and select YES to update the NVRAM.
5. Exit and reboot.