IBM ServeRAID M5015 SAS – SATA

The ServeRAID M5015 specifications

The ServeRAID M5015 and ServeRAID M5014 SAS/SATA Controllers for IBM System x are the next-generation 6 Gbps SAS 2.0 RAID controllers. The adapters have two internal mini-SAS connectors to control up to 32 devices and support global and dedicated hot-spare drives. The ServeRAID M5014 controller delivers a full RAID 6 Gbps SAS 2.0 solution, while the ServeRAID M5015 provides additional performance advantages of an extended cache and a standard battery backup unit. With the attachment of the ServeRAID M5000 Advanced Feature Key, the ServeRAID M5015 and M5014 offer the option of RAID 6, RAID 60, and SED Encryption Key management.

Figure 1 shows the ServeRAID M5015 with its standard battery backup unit.

Figure 1. ServeRAID M5015 SAS/SATA Controller

Did you know

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.

Self-encrypting drives are based on a new technology that helps prevent data from being accessed without authorization. These drives adhere to the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) Enterprise Security Subsystem Class specification and are National Security Agency qualified to provide government-grade encryption. With self-encrypting drives (SEDs), if a drive is removed from its storage system or the server that it is housed in, the data on that drive is encrypted and useless to anyone who attempts to access it without the appropriate security authorization.

Part number information

Table 1. Ordering part number and feature code

The ServeRAID M5015 option part number includes the following items:

• One ServeRAID M5015 adapter card with full-height bracket
• One replaceable low-profile (2U) bracket
• One attached ServeRAID M5000 battery
• Documentation CD
• The IBM Important Notices Document
  

Note: The ServeRAID M5015 option part number 46M0829 includes the M5000 battery, however the feature code 0093 does not contain the battery. Order feature code 5744 if you wish to include the battery in the server configuration.

• The ServeRAID M5014 option part number includes the following items:
• One ServeRAID M 5014 adapter card with full-height bracket
• One replaceable low-profile (2U) bracket
• The ServeRAID M V1.10 Utility and Documentation CD
• The IBM Important Notices Document

The ServeRAID M5000 Series Battery Kit option part number contains the following items:

ServeRAID M5000 Battery

• Battery Flyer
• Quick Install Guide
• Important Notices Flyer

The ServeRAID M5000 Series Battery Kit option part number contains the following items:

• ServeRAID M5000 Battery
• Battery Flyer
• Quick Install Guide
• Important Notices Flyer

Tip: The Battery Remote Mount Cable is a separately orderable item and is not part of the Battery Kit. The cable is also part of the IBM System x3650 M3 Hot-swap SAS/SATA 4 Pack HDD Upgrade option, 69Y4236.

Features

ServeRAID M5015 and ServeRAID M5014 adapter cards have the following features:

Auto-resume on array rebuild or array reconstruction after loss of system power

Auto-resume uses non-volatile NVRAM to save rebuild progress during a host reboot or power failure to automatically resume from the last checkpoint. Auto-resume will ensure data integrity is maintained through the process. The card supports a number of features that are able to be implemented without rebooting the server. Applications such as email and web server benefit from avoiding downtime during transition.

Online Capacity Expansion

Online Capacity Expansion (OCE) allows the capacity of a virtual disk to be expanded by adding new physical disks or making use of unused space on existing disks, without requiring a reboot.

Online RAID Level Migration

Online RAID Level Migration (also known as logical drive migration) provides the ability to migrate a virtual disk from any RAID level to any other RAID level without requiring a reboot. System availability and application functionality remain unaffected.
Fast initialization for quick array setup

Consistency check for background data integrity

Consistency Check verifies that all stripes in a virtual disk with a redundant RAID level are consistent. The consistency check will mirror data when an inconsistent stripe is detected for a RAID 1 and recreating the parity from the peer disks when in the case of a RAID 5 or RAID 6. Consistency checks can be scheduled to take place periodically.

Extensive online configuration options: advanced monitoring and event notification

Management tools provide convenience for configuration of logical volumes plus alerting when errors have occurred or are about to occur.

Patrol Read for media scanning and repairing

Patrol read is a background sentry service designed to proactively discover and correct media defects (bad sectors) that arise normally as a disk drive ages. The service issues a series of verify commands and if a bad block is discovered, the card’s firmware will use RAID algorithms to recreate the missing data and remap the sector to a good sector. The task is interruptible based on controller activity and host operations. The firmware also provides an interface where the patrol read task can be initiated, set up for continuous operation, and terminated from a management application. Patrol read can be activated by manual command or automatically.

Global and dedicated Hot Spare with Revertible Hot Spare support:

A hot spare rebuilds data from all virtual disks within the disk group in which it is configured. ServeRAID provides the ability to define a physical disk as a hot spare to replace a failed drive. Hot spares may be configured as either global or dedicated. A global hot spare allows any physical drive to be designated as a hot spare. A dedicated hot spare will allow the user to assign a hot spare drive to a particular array of the same drive type.

The ServeRAID M5000 Series Advanced Feature Key enables the following features:

• RAID levels 6 and 60
• LSI SafeStore: support for self-encrypting drive services:
• Instant secure erase
• Local key management

LSI SafeStore encryption services offer instant secure erase and local key management for self-encrypting drives. This technology represents a significant step forward in securing data on a disk drive from any unauthorized access or modification resulting from theft, loss, or repurposing of drives:

Instant secure erase permanently removes data when repurposing or decommissioning SEDs.
SafeStore local key management provides the necessary management and protection of SEDs using a simple pass phrase, security key identifier, and security key file that can be set and applied to all SEDs assigned to a ServeRAID adapter. This removes the complexity of managing each SED’s unique encryption key, and essentially relieves the administrator from most of the daily tasks of securing data.
Note: To use the SED services of the ServeRAID M5000 Series Advanced Feature Key, you must use self-encrypting drives as listed in “Supported disk drives” below.

Figure 2 shows the ServeRAID M5000 Series Advanced Feature Key attached to the ServeRAID M5015 controller.

Figure 2. ServeRAID M5000 Series Advanced Feature Key

The ServeRAID M5000 Series Battery Remote Mount Cable is a 24-inch cable and enables the battery to be installed separately from the adapter.

The ServeRAID M5000 Series Performance Accelerator Key adds the following performance and data protection enhancements to the standard ServeRAID products:

• MegaRAID FastPath: An I/O accelerator that doubles the I/O operations per second (IOPS) on solid-state drives (SSDs)
• MegaRAID CacheCade: A data-tiering enabler to support hybrid environments of SSDs and HDDs, realizing higher levels of performance
• MegaRAID Recovery: A data recovery feature that works both in pre-boot and OS environments and provides snapshot capabilities for file-level and volume-level data restoration
• LSI SafeStore: Utility for enabling encryption and storing drive keys for self-encrypting drives (SEDs)
• RAID 6 and 60 support: Additional RAID levels for added data protection
• The ServeRAID M5000 Series Performance Accelerator Key cannot be installed at the same time as the ServeRAID M5000 Series Advanced Feature
• Key, 46M0930. The Advanced Feature Key must be removed before the Performance Accelerator Key is installed. The functions of the Advanced Feature Key are provided by the Performance Accelerator Key. No further migration steps are needed.