SAS adapter for internal Split DASD option (FC 5911; CCIN 57BA)

Overview

The SAS adapter for internal Split DASD option is an x8 PCI Express (PCIe) serial-attached SCSI (SAS) adapter combined with a cable card in a single cassette assembly. This feature provides an optimized 3/3 split storage device backplane solution within a single PCIe slot for the 9117-MMA system.

This feature allows half of the internal SAS disk slots in a 9117-MMA enclosure to be controlled by the 5911 SAS adapter and also provides an external SAS connector for external disks or removable media.

With feature 5911 the connection to disk slots 4, 5, and 6 is transferred from the imbedded internal controller of the system to the 5911 SAS adapter.

The single cassette assembly goes in slot P1-C3 in the 9117-MMA system. The feature is not supported in any other models or slots.

Three mini SAS 4x connectors are on the tailstock of this cassette assembly. The top connector (T2) is the cable card link to the system's SAS backplane. The other two connectors are for the PCIe SAS adapter within the 5911 assembly. A one meter SAS cable (feature 3679) is used to connect the top mini SAS 4x connector to either of the lower mini SAS 4x connectors, thereby connecting the three internal SAS disk slots to the SAS adapter within the 5911 assembly. The remaining mini SAS 4x connector (either of the lower connectors) can be attached to an EXP 12S Disk Drawer or a SAS removable media expansion unit.

The SAS adapter contained in this feature is a 64-bit, bootable SAS adapter providing RAID 0, 5, 6, and 10 capability. The adapter does not provide write cache. Write performance of RAID 5 and RAID 6 might be poor on adapters that do not provide write cache. Consider using RAID 0 or 10 when using this adapter.

This feature cannot be used in a multi-initiator, high availability configuration using two adapters in a dual controller mode.

Figure 1. SAS adapter for internal Split DASD option

Figure 2 shows a back view of 9117-MMA with feature 5911 installed and cabled.

Figure 2. Back view of system with feature 5911 installed and cabled

(A)

Cassette containing feature 5911

(B)

SAS 4x AI-cable

Specifications

Item

Description

Adapter FRU number

44V4854 (Designed to comply with RoHS requirement.)

I/O bus architecture

PCIe x8

Slot requirement

PCIe slot P1-C3 in a 9117-MMA system

Cables

SAS 4x AI-cable:

• FC 3679
• FRU number 44V4041

SAS device attachment requires specific cables that are provided with the subsystem or device features being attached. Special cabling is required for multi-initiator and high availability configurations. See Serial attached SCSI cable planning.

Maximum number

One per system enclosure.

Attributes

• 27 SAS disks are supported when configured with two 5886 EXP 12S Disk Drawers and the internal disk slots
• Removable media devices are supported
• SAS speed: 3 Gbps
• SATA speed: 1.5 Gbps
• SAS Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP), Serial ATA Tunneling Protocol (STP), and Serial Management Protocol (SMP) are supported
• Concurrent firmware update supported
• Does not support Solid State Drives (SSD)

Operating system or partition requirements

• AIX®:
  • AIX 5L™ Version 5.3 with the 5300-07 Technology Level and Service Pack 8, or later
  • AIX 5L Version 5.3 with the 5300-08 Technology Level and Service Pack 6, or later
  • AIX 5L Version 5.3 with the 5300-09 Technology Level and Service Pack 2, or later
  • AIX 5L Version 5.3 with the 5300-10 Technology Level, or later
  • AIX 6.1 and Service Pack 8, or later
  • AIX Version 6.1 with the 6100-01 Technology Level and Service Pack 4, or later
  • AIX Version 6.1 with the 6100-02 Technology Level and Service Pack 3, or later
  • AIX Version 6.1 with the 6100-03 Technology Level, or later
• Linux:
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 4, with update 6, or later
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 5, with update 1, or later
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, with service pack 1, or later

This adapter requires the following drivers:

• AIX: devices.pciex.14103903 device driver package
• Linux:
  • iprutils version 2.1.2 and ipr driver version 2.0.11.5 (or newer) for RHEL4 kernels
  • iprutils version 2.1.2 and ipr driver version 2.2.0.1 (or newer) for RHEL5 kernels
  • iprutils version 2.1.2 and ipr driver version 2.2.0.1 (or newer) for SLES10 kernels

If you are installing a new feature, ensure that you have the software required to support the new feature and that you determine if there are any existing prerequisites. To do this, use the IBM® Prerequisite Web site at http://www-912.ibm.com/e_dir/eServerPrereq.nsf .