SAS subsystem configuration that uses a dual storage IOA with internal drives

This configuration uses dual storage I/O adapter (IOA) or high availability (HA) RAID mode with internal disk drives.

This configuration increases availability by using dual storage IOA or high availability (HA) to connect multiple adapters to a common set of internal disk drives. It also increases the performance of RAID arrays. The following rules apply to this configuration:

• This configuration uses the 175 MB Cache RAID – Dual IOA enablement card.
• Using the dual IOA enablement card, the two embedded adapters can connect to each other and all six disk drives.
• The disk drives are required to be in RAID arrays.
• No separate SAS cables are required to connect the two embedded SAS RAID adapters to each other. The connection is contained within the backplane.
• RAID 0, 10, 5, and 6 support up to six drives.
• Solid-state drives (SSDs) and hard disk drives (HDDs) can be used, but they can never be mixed in the same disk enclosure.

Example: Dual storage IOA using internal drives

This example provides an overview of the dual storage configuration that uses internal disk drives.

Figure 1. Disk bays controlled by both embedded SAS adapters that have dual storage IOA with internal drives

The following table lists the configuration details.

Table 1. Configuration details

Embedded SAS adapters	Configuration details
Two embedded SAS adapters	RAID mode is required for this configuration. The SAS adapters connect to all six disk drives. Physical connections to the SAS cable are disabled. The two embedded adapters report CCIN 57CF.