ServeRAID M5015 and M5014 SAS/SATA Controllers for IBM System x

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 M1015 offers 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

Description	Part number	Feature code
ServeRAID M5015 SAS/SATA Controller	46M0829	0093
ServeRAID M5014 SAS/SATA Controller	46M0916	3877
ServeRAID M5000 Series Advanced Feature Key	46M0930	5106
ServeRAID M5000 Series Battery Kit	46M0917	5744

The ServeRAID M5015 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

The ServeRAID M5014 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 contains the following items:

• SR M5000 Battery
• Remote Battery Cable Kit
• Battery Flyer
• Quick Install Guide
• Important Notices Flyer

Figure 2. ServeRAID M5014 SAS/SATA Controller


Specifications

The ServeRAID M5015 and ServeRAID M5014 adapter cards have the following specifications:

• Eight internal 6 Gbps SAS/SATA ports
• Two Mini-SAS internal connectors (SFF-8087)
• 6 Gbps throughput per port
• 800 MHz PowerPC processor with LSI SAS2108 6 Gbps RAID on Chip (ROC) controller
• x8 PCI Express 2.0 host interface
• Onboard data cache (DDR2 running at 800 MHz):
  • ServeRAID M5015: 512 MB
  • ServeRAID M5014: 256 MB
• Intelligent Li-Ion-based battery backup unit with up to 48 hours of data retention:
  • ServeRAID M5015: Standard
  • ServeRAID M5014: Optional
• Supports RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 10, and 50 (RAID 6 and 60 support with the optional M5000 Advanced Feature Key)
• Connects to up to 32 SAS or SATA drives
• SAS and SATA drives are supported, but the mixing of SAS and SATA in the same RAID array is not supported
• Supports up to 64 logical volumes
• Supports LUN sizes up to 64 TB
• Configurable stripe size up to 1 MB
• Compliant with Disk Data Format (DDF) configuration on disk (COD)
• S.M.A.R.T. support

Features

The 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 3 shows the ServeRAID M5000 Series Advanced Feature Key attached to the ServeRAID M5015 controller.


Figure 3. ServeRAID M5000 Series Advanced Feature Key


Operating environment

The ServeRAID M5015 and ServeRAID M5014 adapter cards are supported in the following environment:

• Temperature:
  • At 0-1000 m (0-3000 ft): 10-35° C (50-95° F)
  • At 1000-2100 m (3000-7000 ft): 10-32° C (50-90° F)
• Relative humidity: 20-80% (non-condensing)

Warranty

One-year limited warranty. When installed on a System x server, these cards assume your system’s base warranty and any IBM ServicePac upgrade. Batteries are consumables and therefore are not covered under the warranty.


Supported servers

The ServeRAID M5015 and M5014 adapter cards are supported on the IBM System x servers listed in Table 2.

Table 2. Supported servers

Adapter

ServeRAID M5015

N

Y

N

Y

N

N

Y

N

N

Y

N

Y

N

N

Y

N

N

N

N

ServeRAID M5014

N

N

N

N

N

N

Y

N

N

Y

N

Y

N

N

Y

N

N

N

N

See the IBM ServerProven Web site for the latest information about the adapters supported by each System x server type: http://ibm.com/servers/eserver/serverproven/compat/us/.


Supported disk drives

The ServeRAID M5015 and M5014 SAS/SATA Controllers support the disk drives that are supported on the servers listed in Table 2. These drives and the servers that they are supported on are listed in Table 3.

Table 3. Supported drives

Part

Description

FF

Gbps

GB

RPM

SED

SAS Hot-swap drives

44W2234

300GB 15K 6Gbps SAS 3.5" HS

3.5"

6

300

15K

No

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

N

44W2239

450GB 15K 6Gbps SAS 3.5" HS

3.5"

6

450

15K

No

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

N

44W2244

600GB 15K 6Gbps SAS 3.5" HS

3.5"

6

600

15K

No

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

N

40K1043

73GB 15K Hot Swap SAS

3.5"

3

73

15K

No

N

N

Y

N

N

N

40K1044

146GB 15K 3.5" Hot Swap SAS

3.5"

3

146

15K

No

Y

Y

Y

N

N

N

43X0802

300GB 15K 3.5" Hot-Swap SAS

3.5"

3

300

15K

No

N

N

Y

N

N

N

42D0519

450GB 15K SAS 3.5" HS HDD

3.5"

3

450

15K

No

N

N

Y

N

N

N

43W7535

73 GB 10K SAS 2.5" SFF Slim-HS

SFF

3

73

10K

No

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

43W7545

73 GB 15K SAS 2.5" SFF Slim-HS

SFF

3

73

15K

No

N

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

43W7536

146 GB 10K SAS 2.5" SFF Slim-HS

SFF

3

146

10K

No

N

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

42D0672

73GB 15K 6Gbps SAS 2.5” SFF Slim-HS

SFF

6

73

15K

No

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

44W2294

146GB 15K 6Gb SAS 2.5" SFF Slim-HS SED

SFF

6

146

15K

Yes*

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

42D0632

146GB 10K 6Gbps SAS 2.5” SFF Slim-HS

SFF

6

146

10K

No

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

42D0677

146GB 15K 6Gbps SAS 2.5” SFF Slim-HS

SFF

6

146

15K

No

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

44W2264

300GB 10K 6Gb SAS 2.5" SFF Slim-HS SED

SFF

6

300

10K

Yes*

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

42D0637

300GB 10K 6Gbps SAS 2.5” SFF Slim-HS

SFF

6

300

10K

No

N

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

SAS NL hot-swap drives

42D0707

500GB 7200 6Gb NL SAS 2.5'' SFF Slim-HS

SFF

6

500

7200

No

N

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

SATA hot-swap drives

39M4526

250GB 3.5" Hot-Swap SATA II

3.5"

3

250

7200

No

Y

Y

Y

N

N

N

39M4530

500GB Hot-Swap SATA II

3.5"

3

500

7200

No

N

N

Y

N

N

N

43W7576

750GB Hot-Swap SATA II

3.5"

3

750

7200

No

Y

Y

Y

N

N

N

43W7626

IBM Server 1TB 7200 SATA 3.5" HS

3.5"

3

1000

7200

No

Y

Y

Y

N

N

N

43W7670

300GB 10K SATA 2.5" Slim-HS

SFF

3

300

10K

No

N

N

N

N

Y

Y

SATA simple-swap drives

39M4522

160GB 3.5" Hot-Swap SATA II

3.5"

3

160

7200

No

N

N

Y

N

N

N

39M4504

160GB 3.5" Simple-Swap SATA II

3.5"

3

160

7200

No

N

N

Y

N

N

N

39M4508

250GB 3.5" Simple-Swap SATA II

3.5"

3

250

7200

No

Y

Y

Y

N

N

N

39M4514

500GB 3.5" Simple-Swap SATA II

3.5"

3

500

7200

No

N

N

Y

N

N

N

43W7572

750GB Simple-Swap SATA II

3.5"

3

750

7200

No

Y

Y

Y

N

N

N

43W7623

IBM Server 1TB 7200 SATA 3.5" SS

3.5"

3

1000

7200

No

Y

Y

N

N

N

N

SATA NL hot-swap drives

42D0747

IBM 160GB 7200 NL SATA 2.5'' SFF Slim-HS

SFF

3

160

7200

No

N

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

42D0752

IBM 500GB 7200 NL SATA 2.5'' SFF Slim-HS

SFF

3

500

7200

No

N

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

Solid-state drives

41Y8264

IBM 31.4GB SATA 2.5'' SFF Slim-HS SSD V2

SFF

3

31.4

SSD

No

N

N

N

N

Y

Y

43W7714

IBM 50 SATA 2.5 SFF Slim-HS Hi-IOPS SSD

SFF

3

50

SSD

No

N

N

N

N

Y

Y

* SEDs require the ServeRAID M5000 Advanced Feature Key.


Supported operating systems

The ServeRAID M5015 and ServeRAID M5014 adapter cards support the following operating systems:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003/2003 R2, Datacenter Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003/2003 R2, Datacenter x64 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003/2003 R2, Enterprise Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003/2003 R2, Enterprise x64 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003/2003 R2, Standard Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003/2003 R2, Standard x64 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008/2008 R2, Datacenter x64 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008/2008 R2, Datacenter x86 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008/2008 R2, Enterprise x64 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008/2008 R2, Enterprise x86 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008/2008 R2, Standard x64 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008/2008 R2, Standard x86 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008/2008 R2, Web x64 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008/2008 R2, Web x86 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003/2003 R2 Premium Edition
• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003/2003 R2 Standard Edition
• Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003/2003 R2, Enterprise Edition x64
• Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003/2003 R2, Standard Edition
• Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003/2003 R2, Standard Edition x64
• Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003/2003 R2, Workgroup Edition x64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 AS for AMD64/EM64T
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 AS for x86
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server Edition
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server Edition with Xen
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server with Xen x64 Edition
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server x64 Edition
• SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 10 for AMD64/EM64T
• SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 10 for x86
• SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 10 with Xen for AMD64/EM64T
• SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 10 with Xen for x86
• SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 11 for AMD64/EM64T
• SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 11 for x86
• SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 11 with Xen for AMD64/EM64T

See the IBM ServerProven Web site for the latest information about the specific versions and service packs supported: http://ibm.com/servers/eserver/serverproven/compat/us/. Click System x servers, then Disk controllers to see the support matrix. Click the check mark that is associated with the System x server in question to see the details of the operating system support.


Related publications

For more information refer to the following documents:

• IBM US Announcement Letter:
  http://ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=dd&subtype=ca&&htmlfid=897/ENUS109-416
• IBM US Announcement Letter for the M5000 Series Advanced Feature Key:
  http://ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=dd&subtype=ca&&htmlfid=897/ENUS109-739
• System x RAID products home page:
  http://www.ibm.com/systems/storage/product/systemx/scsi_raid.html
• IBM ServeRAID software matrix:
  http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=psg1SERV-RAID
• IBM System x Configuration and Options Guide:
  http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=psg1SCOD-3ZVQ5W