ServeRAID M1115 SAS/SATA Controller

The ServeRAID M1115 SAS/SATA Controller is 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 M1115  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.

Figure 1 shows the ServeRAID M1115 Controller.

Figure 1. ServeRAID M1115 SAS/SATA Controller

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, such as the ServeRAID M5110. The information about existing arrays can be recognized and imported into the new controller without requiring any reconfiguration.

Table 1 provides the ordering part numbers and feature codes.

Table 1. Ordering part numbers and feature codes

The ServeRAID M1115 option part number includes the following items:

• One ServeRAID M1115 adapter card
• Full-height (3U) bracket
• Low-profile (2U) bracket
• Documentation package

The ServeRAID M1100 Series Zero Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade option part number includes the following items:

• M1100 Series upgrade authorization key
• Feature Activation Instructions

The ServeRAID M1115 SAS/SATA Controller has the following standard features:

• 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 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

  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.

Note: RAID 10 and 50 drive groups do not support Online Capacity Expansion and Online RAID Level Migration. RAID 0, 1, and 5 drive groups do not support Online Capacity Expansion and Online RAID Level Migration if two or more virtual drives are defined on a single drive group.

The following features are optional and require the purchase of an additional upgrade:

• RAID 5, 50 support with Zero Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade (81Y4542)
• MegaRAID SafeStore support for self-encrypting drive (SED) services

  MegaRAID SafeStore encryption services offer instant secure erase and local key management for self-encrypting 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 feature removes the complexity of managing each SED’s unique encryption key, and essentially, it relieves the administrator of most of the daily tasks of securing data. The SafeStore feature is a part of a RAID 5 upgrade (81Y4542).

The ServeRAID M1115 SAS/SATA Controller has the following specifications:

• PCI Low Profile, Half-length - MD2 form factor
• Eight internal 6 Gbps SAS/SATA ports
• Two internal Mini-SAS connectors (SFF-8087)
• Up to 6 Gbps throughput per port
• 533 MHz IBM PowerPC® processor with LSI SAS2008 6 Gbps RAID on Chip (ROC) controller
• PCI Express 2.0 x8 host interface
• Support for RAID levels 0, 1, and 10 standard; support for RAID 5, 50 with optional upgrade
• Zero Controller Cache, no battery/flash backup
• Support for SAS and SATA hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs)
• Support for simple swap and hot swap drives
• Support for intermixing SAS and SATA HDDs and SSDs. Mixing different types of drives in the same array (drive group) not recommended
• Connection to up to 32 internal drives, depending on the server model (Up to 16 physical drives, including hot spares, can be used in RAID configurations. The drives beyond the limit of 16 are used as stand-alone HDDs in a non-RAID environment.)
• Optional support for self-encrypting drives (SEDs) with MegaRAID SafeStore
• Support for up to 16 virtual drives, up to 16 drive groups, up to 16 virtual drives per one drive group, and up to 16 physical drives per one drive group
• Support for virtual drive sizes up to 64 TB
• Configurable stripe size up to 64 KB
• Compliant with Disk Data Format (DDF) configuration on disk (COD)
• S.M.A.R.T. support
• MegaRAID Storage Manager management software

The ServeRAID M1115 SAS/SATA Controller provides support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 as standard, ready to use or "out-of-the-box" capabilities. An optional feature upgrade is available to expand standard capabilities with RAID 5, 50 and self-encrypting drives. This Feature-on-Demand (FoD) upgrade is a software license. The following table lists the available upgrade and its capabilities.

Table 2. ServeRAID M1115 optional upgrade and its features

Feature			RAID 5, 50	SED
Option description	Part Number	Type
ServeRAID M1100 Series Zero Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade	81Y4542	FoD	Yes	Yes

The ServeRAID M1115 adapter card is supported on the System x, iDataPlex, and NeXtScale servers that are listed in the following table.

No 12 Gb SAS/SATA support: M1115 controller does not support 12 Gb SAS/SATA internal storage expansion options.

See the ServerProven website for the latest information about the servers that support the adapter:
http://www.lenovo.com/us/en/serverproven/xseries/controllers/matrix.shtml

The ServeRAID M1115 SAS/SATA Controller supports the drives that are supported in the servers listed in the following tables. The maximum number of drives that can be connected to the RAID controller is limited by the maximum number of internal drive bays for a supported server.

• Table 6: 1.8-inch SSDs
• Table 7: 2.5-inch hot-swap 6 Gb SAS/SATA HDDs
• Table 8: 2.5-inch hot-swap 6 Gb SAS/SATA SSDs
• Table 9: 3.5-inch hot-swap 6 Gb SAS/SATA HDDs
• Table 10: 3.5-inch hot-swap 6 Gb SAS/SATA SSDs
• Table 11: 3.5-inch simple-swap 6 Gb SAS/SATA HDDs
• Table 12: 2.5-inch internal 6 Gb HDDs for NeXtScale
• Table 13: 3.5-inch internal 6 Gb HDDs for NeXtScale
• Table 14: 2.5-inch internal 6 Gb SSDs for NeXtScale

See the ServerProven® website for the latest information about the System x servers that support drives: http://ibm.com/servers/eserver/serverproven/compat/us/

The adapter supports the following operating systems:

The ServeRAID M1115 SAS/SATA Controller carries a 1-year limited warranty. When installed in a supported server, the adapter assumes the system’s base warranty and any warranty service upgrade purchased for the system.

The ServeRAID M1115 SAS/SATA Controller has the following physical specifications:

Dimensions (approximate):

• Height: 15 mm (0.6 in.)
• Width: 69 mm (2.7 in.)
• Depth: 168 mm (6.6 in.)
• Weight: 77 g (0.2 lb.)

Shipping dimensions (approximate):

• Height: 51 mm (2.0 in.)
• Width: 143.0 mm (5.6 in.)
• Depth: 238 mm (9.4 in.)
• Weight: 222 g (0.5 lb.)

The ServeRAID M1115 SAS/SATA Controller is supported in the following environment:

• Temperature:
  • 10 to 35 °C (50 to 95 °F) at 0 to 914 m (0 to 3,000 ft)
  • 10 to 32 °C (50 to 90 °F) at 914 to 2,133 m (3,000 to 7,000 ft)
• Relative humidity: 20% to 80% (noncondensing)
• Maximum altitude: 2,133 m ( 7,000 ft)

The adapter conforms to the following regulations:

• EN55022
• EN55024
• EN60950 / CE
• EN 61000-3-2
• EN 61000-3-3
• IEC 950 CB Scheme
• FCC Part 15 Class A, and Class B
• UL 1950
• CSA C22.2 950-95
• VCCI
• NZ AS3548 / C-tick
• RRL for MIC (KCC)
• BSMI
• UL 94-/V

For more information, see the following documents:

• US Announcement Letter:
  http://ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=dd&subtype=ca&&htmlfid=897/ENUS112-048
• System x RAID products home page:
  https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/data-center/servers/server-options/system-x-options/server-storage/raid-controllers-and-storage-adapters/raid-controllers/c/raid-controllers
• ServeRAID M1115 User's Guide:
  https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/docs/UM104003
• ServeRAID M1115 Quick Installation Guide:
  https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/docs/UM104004