LSI 3ware 9690SA Reference guide

3ware® 9690SA
High-Performance Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) RAID Controller
Product Brief
LSI 3ware 9690SA
KEY FEATURES
nScalable to 128 SAS and/or
Serial ATA devices
nPCI Express x8 host interface
nConguration exibility with four
conguration options
– 8 internal ports
– 8 external ports
– 4 internal/four external ports
– 4 internal ports
nSAS, SATA, and SATA II features, including
3Gb/s and NCQ
n512MB DDR2 533 ECC protected memory
nSimultaneous double parity generation
to maximize RAID 6 performance
nStorSwitch™ 8th generation non-blocking
switch fabric for maximum controller
throughput
nStreamFusion optimizes I/O accesses to
maximize application performance under
heavy workloads
nStorSave BBU with write journaling
optimizes data protection and
performance; remote battery support
nLow-prole form factor
nRAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and
Single Disk
It’s Time for SAS
3ware pioneered the way for SATA and now
capitalizes on time-proven serial storage
expertise to take users from parallel SCSI to
SAS. The 9690SA seizes the moment to enter
the market just as SAS hard drives, expanders
and backplanes are more widely available and
as enterprise infrastructures align to realize the
potential of Serial Attached SCSI. As SAS makes
inroads into the SCSI market, users will look
to SAS to provide expanded connectivity and
greater scalability and to the 3ware 9690SA for
peace of mind.
Connect, Expand, Protect with SAS
End users will enjoy conguration exibility
with four low prole PCI Express controller
options: eight internal ports, eight external
ports, four internal/four external ports, or four
internal ports. Compatibility with industry
standard SAS expanders will maximize
exibility. Each 9690SA SAS controller scales
to support 128 SAS and/or SATA devices.
Advanced 3ware RAID architecture and SAS,
SATA, and SATA II performance features, includ-
ing 3Gb/s and NCQ, help rocket the 9690SA to
RAID 5 and RAID 6 performance heights. An
optional Battery Backup Unit with integrated
write journaling and remote battery mounting
capability provides added data protection in the
event of a power outage. The 9690SA supports
RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and Single Disk.
The RAID 6 Dierence
RAID 6 eliminates the risk of data loss if a second
hard disk drive fails while the RAID array is
rebuilding. Uniquely, in the 3ware RAID 6
implementation, two sets of parity are simulta-
neously calculated, written, and rotated across
all the drives. This second parity calculation
enables the array to survive up to two drive
failures without losing data, signicantly
improving fault tolerance. The 3ware RAID 6
double parity algorithm maximizes RAID 6
throughput, so that the 9690SA controllers
deliver unequaled RAID 6 write performance.
Enterprise-class RAID Storage
SAS is the preferred interface for the direct-
attach server space, SCSI’s former mainstay.
SAS is for mission critical applications that
require higher levels of availability and native
expansion. SAS is optimized for the random
performance requirements of the data
center. The 9690SA’s advanced RAID features,
SAS connectivity, and powerful 3ware
performance architecture make it the ideal
SCSI controller replacement.
The LSI 3ware 9690SA SAS/SATA hardware RAID controllers deliver indus-
try-leading RAID 6 and RAID 5 performance, expanded scalability, robust
fault tolerance, and multi-terabyte capacities. A PCI Express host interface,
StorSwitch™ architecture and sophisticated SAS and SATA II features drive
this unrivaled performance.
Block 10
Block 7
Block 4
P1 Parity
Disk #1
Block 11
Block 8
P2 Parity
Q1 Parity
Disk #2
Block 12
P3 Parity
Q2 Parity
Block 1
Disk #3
Q4 Parity
Block 9
Block 6
Block 3
Disk #5
Striped Data with Distributed Double Parity — RAID 6
Host Data
P4 Parity
Q3 Parity
Block 5
Block 2
Disk #4
RAID 6: Two sets of parity data, P + Q, are
striped across disks. RAID 6 safeguards against
data loss during rebuild mode by allowing up
to two consecutive drive failures for maximum
fault tolerance.

LSI, LSI and Design logo, 3ware, StorSwitch,StorSave, MultiLane and 3DM are trademarks or registered trademarks of LSI Corporation. All other
brand and product names may be trademarks of their respective companies.
LSI Corporation reserves the right to make changes to any products and services herein at any time without notice. LSI does not assume any
responsibility or liability arising out of the application or use of any product or service described herein, except as expressly agreed to in
writing by LSI; nor does the purchase, lease, or use of a product or service from LSI convey a license under any patent rights, copyrights,
trademark rights, or any other of the intellectual property rights of LSI or of third parties.
Copyright ©2009 by LSI Corporation. All rights reserved.
July 2009
For more information and sales oce locations, please visit the LSI web sites at:
lsi.com 3ware.com
3WARE 9690SA SERIES SELECTION GUIDE
9690SA-8I 9690SA-8E 9690SA-4I4E 9690SA-4I
Form Factor Low prole Low prole Low prole Low prole
SAS Ports 8 Internal 8 External 4 Internal / 4 External 4 Internal
Drive Interface SATA+SAS SATA+SAS SATA+SAS SATA+SAS
PCI Express x8 x8 x8 x8
RAID Levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50,
Single Disk
0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50,
Single Disk
0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50,
Single Disk
0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50,
Single Disk
Onboard Memory 512MB DDR2 533 512MB DDR2 533 512MB DDR2 533 512MB DDR2 533
Connector Type SFF-8087 mini-SAS SFF-8088 mini-SAS SFF-8087/SFF-8088 mini-SAS SFF-8087 mini-SAS
BBU with Remote Battery Support Yes Yes Yes Yes
3ware 9690SA Features
n8th-generation StorSwitch™ non-blocking switched architecture
nOn-board I/O RISC processor and RAID ooad provides true
hardware RAID
– SCSI device driver model to take advantage of
SAS or inexpensive Serial ATA drives
nBootable array support for greater fault tolerance of your OS
nVariable stripe size for performance tuning
by application
nSupport for greater than 2TB volumes
n512MB DDR2 533 memory with ECC protection
n128 max disk drives via SAS expanders
nComplete conguration management suite
– 3ware BIOS Manager (3BM) – easy to use BIOS conguration tool
– 3ware Disk Manager 2 – browser-based management tool
– Command Line Interface (CLI) – scriptable conguration tool
nSNMP support
nSMTP support for email/pager notication
nStaggered drive spin-up support
nAuto carving allows LUNs > 2TB to be divided into multiple units
for legacy operating systems limited to 2TB max. per LUN
nBattery Backup Unit (BBU) with remote battery support
nWrite journaling for improved performance and data protection
against accidental drive removal
nMultiple SAS/SATA RAID sets
nMultiple logical unit sizes and RAID levels on one card
nHot-swap and hot-spare support for data availability
nDynamic sector repair for robust data protection
nS.M.A.R.T. disk drive monitoring for reliability
nEmergency Flash Recovery protects against failed
rmware upgrade
nDrive activity LED support
nArray/Drive Status and drive identication LED support
nEnclosure management support for SES 2.0 via I2C or
in-band signaling
nDrive insertion and removal notication
nOnline Capacity Expansion and RAID Level Migration
nRoHS 6 of 6 and WEEE compliant
Operating System Support
nMicrosoft® Windows® Vista/2003/XP, Mac OSX, Red Hat Linux,
SuSE Linux, Fedora Linux, 2.4 Linux kernel, 2.6 Linux kernel,
FreeBSD; 32/64-bit driver support for Windows, Linux and
FreeBSD. For complete OS listing, go to:
www.3ware.com/support/OS-support
3ware 9690SA Specications
nLow prole form factor
nPCI Express x8 congurations, PCI Express 1.1 compliant
nSerial Attached SCSI (SAS) 1.1 specication support
nSATA 2.6 specication support
nBIOS PnP (plug and play) and BBS
(BIOS boot specication) support
nOperating Temperature
Controller: 0°C to 50°C
BBU: 10°C to 40°C
nPower Requirements: 18W maximum
nDimensions
9690SA-8I: 7.60”L x 2.73”H (19.30cm L x 6.93cm H)
9690SA-8E: 7.80”L x 2.73”H (19.80cm L x 6.93cm H)
9690SA-4I4E: 7.25”L x 2.73”H (19.30cm L x 6.93cm H)
9690SA-4I: 7.60”L x 2.73”H (19.30cm L x 6.93cm H)
Service and Support
n3-year warranty
nSupport via the web at www.3ware.com/support
nFor latest motherboard and hard drive compatibility listing go to:
www.3ware.com/products//sys_compatibility.asp
Accessories
nBBU-MODULE-04 Battery Backup Unit
nBATT-SPARE-02 Replacement battery for BBU-MODULE-04
nCBL-SFF8087-05M (0.5m Multi-lane internal cable)
nCBL-SFF8087-06M (0.6m Multi-lane internal cable)
nCBL-SFF8088SAS-10M (Universal key external cable, 1m)
nCBL-SFF8088SAS-20M (Universal key external cable, 2m)
3ware 9690SA Specications
Applications for
3ware Controllers
Servers
Security/
Surveillance
Video
Editing
Super
Computing
NAS
Video
On-Demand
Pro Audio
Disk-to-Disk
Backup