InWin Cobra Series User manual

SAS3 12Gbps BP with Expander User Manual
Cobra Series
02M and 07 Series
Supported Devices
Part Number
Description
2RAKVI000800
IW-RS212-02M SAS3 EXP BACK PLANE MODULE
2RAKVI000900
IW-RS316-02M SAS3 EXP BACK PLANE MODULE
2RAKVI000700
IW-RS424-02M SAS3 EXP BACK PLANE MODULE
2RAKVI002300
IW-RS212-07 12BAY BP-EXP OCULINK MODULE
2RAKVI002400
IW-RS212-07 12BAY BP-EXP SLIMSAS MODULE
2RAKVI004000
IW-RS316-07 HYBRID OCULINK*8 BP
2RAKVI004100
IW-RS316-07 HYBRID SLIMSAS*8 BP
2RAKVI004200
IW-RS424-07 HYBRID OCULINK*8 BP
2RAKVI004300
IW-RS424-07 HYBRID SLIMSAS*8 BP
Version: 0.9

History
Version
Changes
Date
0.1
First draft
2017/2/16
0.2
Added Firmware Upgrade Procedures
2017/2/18
0.3
Added supported parts and wide-port operation
mode for IW-RS212-02M
2017/2/20
0.4
Modify Fan Control contents
2017/2/21
0.5
Wording modification and Fan control behavior
change.
2017/4/12
0.6
Added firmware upgrade through in band
connection.
2017/6/5
0.7
Remove fan control manual learning description
to prevent misuse.
2017/8/1
0.8
Added supported device 2RAKVI002300 and
2RAKVI002400
2018/8/27
0.9
Added support devices 2RAKVI004000,
2RAKVI004100, 2RAKVI004200, 2RAKVI004200
2019/6/18

Table Of Contents
1Overview............................................................................................................................ 4
2Jumper Settings................................................................................................................. 7
3Connectors ........................................................................................................................ 8
3.1 29-pin SAS HDD connector....................................................................................... 8
3.2 SFF-8639(U.2) Disk Connector ................................................................................. 9
3.3SFF-8643 Mini-SAS connector:............................................................................... 10
3.4 Oculink and SlimSAS Connector............................................................................. 11
3.5 Power Receptacle .................................................................................................. 12
4LED and Buzzer Behavior................................................................................................. 14
4.1 Disk Bay LED........................................................................................................... 14
4.2 System Alarm LED .................................................................................................. 17
4.3 System ID LED ........................................................................................................ 18
5. Smart Fan Control............................................................................................................ 19
6. Firmware Upgrade........................................................................................................... 22
6.1 Out-Of-Band through serial console...................................................................... 23
6.2 In Band through SES Command ............................................................................. 26
7. Management ................................................................................................................... 28

1Overview
InWin’s 12G SAS3 Backplanes equipped with LSI 3x36R Expander provide an industry
leading high performance and high stability of data transfer for storage server
solution.
The backplanes support state-of-the art SAS3 12Gbps HDD/SSD and also backward
compatible with SAS 6Gbps, SATA 6Gps and SATA 3Gps HDD/SSD.
There are 2 or 3 miniSAS wide ports on each backplane. 1 or 2 of them are defined as
host ports for connecting to RAID/HBA cards and the other is defined as the cascade
port for connecting to another backplane and/or storage enclosure (JBOD) by
extending it to the rear panel of the chassis through a SFF-8643 to SFF8644 cable.
6 to 10 pieces of 4-Pin 12v/5v power receptacles support up to 50A current to satisfy
the power needs of fully loaded HDDs (12 to 24 HDDs depends on backplane model).
The backplane is implemented with smart fan control feature to support wide variety
of fan modules by auto-calibrating the installed modules at system botting up. This
feature provides an efficient way to control the thermal heat exhaustion by sensing
the heat in the enclosure.
Along with the smart fan control feature, a system alarming feature is also
implemented to alert users in case Fan module failure and system overheat occurs by
illuminating the LED indicator and sounding the alarm.

Below the views of the backplane.
IW-RS424-02M
Top view
Bottom view
IW-RS424-07
Top View
Bottom View

2Jumper Settings
System indicators and buttons designed for chassis by connecting 2-wire cable
from the front panel (if existed) to the jumpers on the backplane accordingly to
facilitate the alarm system.
The definitions of the Jumpers on the backplane are as below.
Jumper Name
Print
Function
JB1
ID_BUTTON
To Turn on/off ID Indicator by toggling it
JB2
MUTE_BUTTON
To mute the warning beeping
JB3
SYS_ERR_LED
Turn on when system Fan fails or system over temperature
JB4
ID_LED
Turn on/off according to ID button toggling
J2
DBG/UART
Use for firmware upgrade and debugging purpose
JC1
DBG/UART
Use for firmware upgrade and debugging purpose (For IW-RS212-
07)
JD1
MCU Prg Header
For programming onboard MCU FW
JM1/JM4
MB Fan
For connecting to MB 4-pin fan connector
S1
LED Mode Sel
For selecting NVMe LED Management mode

3Connectors
3.1 29-pin SAS HDD connector
There are totally 8 to 24 pcs of 29-pin SAS HDD/SSD connectors to
accommodate 8 to 24 SAS HDD/SSDs for the enclosure.

3.2 SFF-8639(U.2) Disk Connector
There are totally 4 pieces of SFF-8639 connectors to accommodate 4
SAS/SATA/NVMe SSDs. Please note that only xxx-07 equipped with SFF-8639
connectors for adapting SAS/SATA and NVMe hybrid design on specific disk
slots. The so-called ‘hybrid’ meaning the disk slots support either SATA, SAS
or NVMe disk at a time.
Below graphic demonstrates the pin definition of SFF-8639 connector.

3.3 SFF-8643 Mini-SAS connector:
The backplane is equipped with 2 to 3 pieces of SFF-8643 female mini-SAS
connectors. 1 or 2 are for connecting to host (RAID card/ HBA card) and the
other for connecting to extra enclosure (JBOD) via the cascade port.
The upper ones – For host (RAID Card or HBA)
The lower one – For cascading to extra enclosure or backplane if
applicable.

3.4 Oculink and SlimSAS Connector
Oculinkx4 and SlimSASx4 connectors are for connecting backplane to
NVMe host controllers such as RAID/HBA card for setting up NVMe SSD
access in the enclosure. Please note that only IW-RS212-07 backplanes are
equipped with Oculinkx4 or SlimSASx4 connectors on specific ports. And,
each Oculinkx4 or SlimSASx4 link supports a PCIe x4 NVMe SSD connection.
The mapping of the connectors are as below.
For IW-RS212-07 BP (Supports 4 * x4 NVMe)
NVMe1 → SSD1
NVMe2 → SSD4
NVMe3 → SSD5
NVMe4 → SSD8
For IW-RS316-07 and IW-RS424-07 (Support 8* x4 NVMe)
NVMe1 → SSD1
NVMe2 → SSD5
NVMe3 → SSD9
NVMe4 → SSD13
NVMe5 → SSD4
NVMe6 → SSD8
NVMe7 → SSD12
NVMe8 → SSD16
The look of Oculinkx4 and SlimSASx4 connector

3.5 Power Receptacle
6 to 10 pieces of 4-pin power receptacles (For -02M BP) to support most
up to 50A (600W) power for providing stable power source for expander
and disks.
Users can then decide the number of power connector to connect
according to the disk type being installed.
Bottom view located on the left

2 pieces of 2x3 (for 5v DC)and 2 pieces of 2x4 (for 12v DC) power
receptacles (For -07 BP) to support most up to 48A and 64A current per
each for providing stable power source for expander and disks.
Note that the power receptacle number varies across backplanes
supporting different number of disk slots.

4LED and Buzzer Behavior
4.1 Disk Bay LED
3 LEDs for each bay to indicate HDD status and behaviors by illuminating in
different color and format.
Blue LED:
Power Indicator. Turned on whenever disk drive is properly installed.
Green LED:
Activity indicator. Stay off when idle and blinking whenever disk drive is
accessing.
RED LED:
Fail and Locate indicator. Turned on when disk failure occurs. Blinking when
locate HDD, RAID rebuild and RAID consistent check.

Basically, The LEDs behave following the SES control signal from RAID card when
working in SAS/SATA mode. Below is the design SPEC of the Disk indicators.
SES Status
Status Description
Red LED
(Error)
Green LED
(Activity)
Priority
(Hex)
SES Control
Power-On State (before SES client intervening)
Forced Condition
Cleared
Empty slot or disk unplugged
Off
Off
10
N/A (SEP internal)
Condition Cleared
Disk loaded or inserting
Off
ActFlash
12
N/A (SEP internal)
Informative
OK
Off
ActFlash
11
RQST OK
Device Off
Power down phy or bay
Off
Off
10
RQST DEVICE OFF
Reserved Device
Hot Spare
Do Not Remove
Usually for RAID members
Off
ActFlash
0E
RQST RSVD
DEVICE
RQST HOT SPARE
DO NOT REMOVE
Activity
Consistence Check
(Cons Chk)
Check RAID consistence
Blink_1
ActFlash
03
RQST CONS CHECK
Rebuild/Remap (disk
array)
Spare disk summoned
for critical RAID rebuild
Blink_1
ActFlash
03
RQST
REBUILD/REMAP
Active (Activity)
Off
ActFlash
10
RQST ACTIVITY
Warning & Error
In Critical Array
Members in degraded RAID
Off
ActFlash
06
RQST IN CRIT
ARRAY
In Failed Array
Members in broken RAID
On
ActFlash
07
RQST IN FAILED
ARRAY
Rebuild/Remap
Aborted
(R/R Abort)
Spare disk summoned for
RAID rebuild yet aborted
On
ActFlash
05
RQST R/R ABORT
Fault
On
ActFlash
04
RQST FAULT
Missing
On
ActFlash
04
RQST MISSING
Predict Failing
(Fault Sensed)
Dying disk detected by
enclosure
On
ActFlash
05
COMMON
CONTROL
PRDFAIL
Identify & Prompt
Identify/Locate
Slow_Blink_1
ActFlash
00
RQST IDENT
Ready to Insert
Off
ActFlash
0B
RQST INSERT
Ready to Remove
(RMV)
Disk spun down
Off
ActFlash
RQST REMOVE

0C
Note:
⚫Blink_1 : 50% On and then Off in a one second circle
⚫Slow_Blink_1 : 50% On and then Off in a 2 seconds circle
⚫ActFlash : Stay off while idle and fast flash upon I/O load
Whenever working in NVMe mode, The RED LEDs behave following the
VPP(Virtual Pin Port) over I2C Spec to illuminate. Only Fault, Locate and Rebuild
are supported in the SPEC.
Please note that the SPEC might varies with host controller from different
vendor.
The current FW design is only validated with Broadcom Tri-Mode HBA. Working
with other vendors HBA might need FW implementation to support.
Examples of NVMe connections to Broadcom RAID/HBA controller. Each pair of
VPP over I2C signal supports 2 pieces of NVMe disks LED management. The I2C
bus is leaded to odd-number NVMe connector (Oculink or SlimSAS) to manage
its corresponding and the following NVMe disks. For example, NVMe1 and
NVMe2 LED management signal is form NVMe1 connector’s sideband I2C bus,
NVMe3 and NVMe4 LED management signal is from NVMe3 connector’s
sideband I2C bus and …etc.

4.2 System Alarm LED
There is a system error LEDs designed on the Backplane to indicate system Error
including system Fan Fail and Over-Temperature.
System Fail Indicator:
JB3 is the jumper for system Fail Indicator. The System Fail indicator on the front
panel connect to this jumper to indicate system fan fails or system overheat
when it occurs.
Fan Fail:
When the Fan RPM is lower than 50% of the expected speed the indicator goes
ON. And it would go off when the issue is resolved or not existed.
Overheat:
When the system temperature at the backplane area is going beyond 45°C the
System Fail LED is turned ON. And would be turned off when temperature is
going under 44°C
Note:
◆When the system alarm is triggered, the Buzzer beeps along with it
and stops beeping when alarm is disappear.
◆1 short beep stands for Fan Fails
◆2 short beeps stand for Over-Temperature
◆Press Mute Button to disable buzzer beeps and will be retriggered
when either system error occurs again.

4.3 System ID LED
ID LED is designed to locate enclosure when required. The system ID LED
illuminates when a momentary ID Button is pressed and goes off when pressing
it again.

5. Smart Fan Control
InWin’s Backplane is implemented Smart Fan Control feature by automatically
detecting the existences of the Fan Modules and intelligently control the Fan
RPM per the system temperature being sensed by 2 thermal sensors on
backplane.
Thanks to Smart Fan Control feature the 4 Fan connectors on backplane support
wide variety of PWM driven Fan modules being used in the enclosure.
For 07 series BP, an extra connector JM1 or JM2 is designed to join the arbitration
of the Fan speed control. When there is a customized cable connected between
BP and MB, the MB’s PWM would be recognized by BP to determine what PWM
duty the controller chip output to fan modules. The basic idea is outputting the
higher PWM by comparing the value the controller calculated based on the
temperature detected and the one from MB.

How it works?
1. Fan module auto-calibration would launch in every system boot. The profile
would then be recorded and used until next reboot.
2. Backplane starts fan calibration and calculates the corresponding PWM duty
cycle for each level. There are totally 8 speed levels to be calculated and
recorded.
3. The 8 levels of fan speed are mapped to the temperature readings sensing by
thermistor spreading from 25 to 45 °C in 3.75 degree C step.
4. In normal operation, when the system Temperature changed, the fan module
would change speed accordingly. And, the Fan failure alarm would be
triggered when the RPM of the Fan module is dropped lower than 75% of its
expected speed.
5. The fan module calibration and control profile are as below.