ServeRAID H1110 SAS/SATA Controller

The ServeRAID H1110 SAS/SATA Controller for System x offers a low-cost enterprise-grade RAID solution for internal HDDs and integrates popular SAS technology into an organization’s storage infrastructure. Ideal for supporting four HDDs in a space-constrained server configuration, the ServeRAID H1110 comes in a standard PCIe form factor, enabling it to support a wide array of servers. It features a PCI Express x4 Gen 2 host interface, MD0 form factor, and robust hardware RAID processing engine based on the LSI SAS2004 RAID on Chip (ROC) controller. Figure 1 shows the adapter.

Figure 1. ServeRAID H1110 SAS/SATA Controller for System x

6 Gbps SAS 2.0 technology has been introduced to address data off-load bottlenecks in the direct-access storage environment. This new throughput doubles the transfer rate of the previous generation. SAS 2.0 is designed for backward compatibility with 3 Gbps SAS as well as with 3 Gbps SATA hard drives.

Hardware RAID offers better reliability, performance, and lower CPU utilization in server environments compared to software RAID implementations.

Table 1. Ordering part number and feature code

The ServeRAID H1110 option part number includes the following items:

• One ServeRAID H1110 adapter card (without brackets)
• One full-height (3U) bracket
• One low-profile (2U) bracket
• Documentation package

The ServeRAID H1110 adapter has the following specifications:

• Four internal 6 Gbps SAS/SATA ports
• One x4 mini-SAS internal connector (SFF-8087)
• 6 Gbps throughput per port
• Based on LSI SAS2004 6 Gbps RAID on Chip (ROC) controller
• x4 PCI Express 2.0 host interface
• Supports RAID 0, 1, 1E, and 10
• Connects to up to four SAS or SATA drives
• SAS and SATA drives are supported, but the mixing of SAS and SATA in the same integrated volume is not supported
• Supports simple-swap SATA and hot-swap SAS and SATA drives
• Supports up to two integrated volumes
• Supports up to two global hot-spare drives
• Supports drive sizes greater than 2 TB for RAID 0, 1E, and 10 (not RAID 1)
• Fixed stripe size of 64 KB
• Compliant with Disk Data Format (DDF)
• S.M.A.R.T. support

The ServeRAID H1110 adapter has the following features:

• Resynchronization with Concurrent Host I/O Operation:Host’s I/O operations are not halted when the volume is re-synchronized because of a hot-spare activation or disk replacement, thereby avoiding downtime.
• Online Capacity Expansion for Integrated Mirroring (RAID 1) volumes:Online Capacity Expansion (OCE) allows the capacity of a two-drive integrated mirroring volume (RAID 1) to be expanded by replacing existing physical disks with larger capacity disks without disrupting volume operations.
• Write Journaling for data integrity:Write Journaling is used to verify that the disks in a mirrored volume are synchronized. It automatically synchronizes potentially inconsistent data after the unexpected loss of electrical power.
• Background initialization for quick volume setup:Background initialization allows host I/O operations on a newly created mirrored volume without waiting for the process of copying data from the primary disks to secondary disks to complete.
• Consistency Check for background data integrity:Consistency Check verifies that all data on the primary and secondary disks in a mirrored volume are identical.
• Global Hot Spare support:A hot spare rebuilds data from a failed drive in an integrated volume that supports data redundancy. ServeRAID provides the ability to define a physical disk as a global hot spare to replace a failed drive. A global hot spare allows

Operating environment