ServeRAID M1115 SAS/SATA Controller for System x

Specifications

The ServeRAID M1115 SAS/SATA Controller is a part of the ServeRAID M Series family that offers a complete server storage solution, consisting of RAID controllers, cache/flash modules, energy packs, and software feature upgrades in an ultra-flexible offerings structure. M1115 offers a low-cost RAID 0/1/10 solution that can be upgraded to a cacheless RAID 5 with a Features-on-Demand license upgrade. The ServeRAID M1115 SAS/SATA Controller is a part of the ServeRAID M Series family that offers a complete server storage solution consisting of RAID controllers, cache/flash modules, energy packs, and software feature upgrades in an ultra-flexible offerings structure. The M1115 offers a low-cost RAID 0/1/10 solution that can be upgraded to a cacheless RAID 5 with a Features-on-Demand license upgrade. The ServeRAID M1115 SAS/SATA Controller is an entry-level internal data storage solution that provides hardware RAID capabilities and advanced features, such as online capacity expansion and RAID-level migration. The optional RAID 5 upgrade and support for self-encrypting drives no longer require a hardware key, because the upgrade functionality is implemented through Features-on-Demand (FoD) software licenses. With increased demand for performance and advanced features, the M1115 provides a seamless migration path to the full-featured RAID controllers. The information about existing arrays can be recognized and imported into the controller without requiring any reconfiguration.

• Auto-resume on array rebuild or array reconstruction after loss of system power
  Auto-resume uses non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) to save rebuild progress during a host reboot or power failure to automatically resume from the last checkpoint. Auto-resume ensures that 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 the 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
  Fast initialization quickly writes zeroes to the first and last sectors of the virtual drive. This feature allows you to immediately start writing data to the virtual drive while the initialization is running in the background.
• 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 will recreate the parity from the peer disks in the case of a RAID 5. Consistency checks can be scheduled to take place periodically.
• Extensive online configuration options and advanced monitoring and event notification
  Management tools provide convenience for the configuration of logical volumes and 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 uses 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 can 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 allows the user to assign a hot spare drive to a particular array of the same drive type.
• Single controller multipathing (failover) I/O load balancing
  The ServeRAID"s firmware detects and uses multiple paths from the controllers to the SAS drives that are in enclosures. With redundant paths to the same port of a device, if one path fails, another path can be used to communicate between the controller and the drive. Using multiple paths with load balancing, instead of a single path, can increase reliability through redundancy.
• WebBIOS and Human Interface Infrastructure (HII) configuration utilities for pre-boot array configuration and management
  WebBIOS and HII are utilities that allow you to configure drive groups and logical drives before installing or booting the operating system.
• MegaRAID Storage Manager management software
  MegaRAID Storage Manager is an easy-to-use advanced RAID management application that is used across the entire family of ServeRAID M controllers. It allows you to configure, monitor, and maintain drive groups, virtual drives, and advanced features with an intuitive GUI, reducing administrative efforts and simplifying troubleshooting.