Dell Sas 6ir Manual

							Safety Instructions9
 CAUTION: Safety Instructions
Use the following safety guidelines to help ensure your own personal safety and to help protect 
your system and working environment from potential damage.
 NOTE: See the caution and safety statements in your Dell™ PowerEdge™ system 
or Dell Precision™ workstation.
SAFETY: General
 Observe and follow service markings. Do not service any product except as explained in 
your user documentation. Opening or removing covers that are marked with the triangular 
symbol with a lightning bolt may expose you to electrical shock. Components inside these 
compartments should be serviced only by a trained service technician.
 If any of the following conditions occur, unplug the product from the electrical outlet and 
replace the part or contact your trained service provider:
– The power cable, extension cable, or plug is damaged.
– An object has fallen into the product.
– The product has been exposed to water.
– The product has been dropped or damaged.
– The product does not operate correctly when you follow the operating instructions.
 Use the product only with approved equipment. 
 Operate the product only from the type of external power source indicated on the 
electrical ratings label. If you are not sure of the type of power source required, consult 
your service provider or local power company.
 Handle batteries carefully. Do not disassemble, crush, puncture, short external contacts, 
dispose of in fire or water, or expose batteries to temperatures higher than 
60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit). Do not attempt to open or service batteries; 
replace batteries only with batteries designated for the product.
SAFETY: When Working Inside Your System
Before you remove the system covers, perform the following steps in the sequence indicated.
 CAUTION: Except if expressly otherwise instructed in Dell documentation, only trained 
service technicians are authorized to remove the system cover and access any of the 
components inside the system. 
 NOTICE: To help avoid possible damage to the system board, wait for 5 seconds after 
turning off the system before removing a component from the system board or disconnecting 
a peripheral device.
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							10Safety Instructions
1Turn off the system and any devices.
2Ground yourself by touching an unpainted metal surface on the chassis before touching 
anything inside the system. 
3While you work, periodically touch an unpainted metal surface on the chassis to dissipate any 
static electricity that might harm the internal components.
4Disconnect your system and devices from their power sources. To reduce the potential of 
personal injury or shock, disconnect any telecommunication lines from the system. 
In addition, take note of these safety guidelines when appropriate:
 When you disconnect a cable, pull on its connector or on its strain-relief loop, not on the 
cable itself. Some cables have a connector with locking tabs; if you are disconnecting this 
type of cable, press in on the locking tabs before disconnecting the cable. As you pull the 
connectors apart, keep them evenly aligned to avoid bending any connector pins. Also, before 
you connect a cable, make sure that both connectors are correctly oriented and aligned. 
 Handle components and cards with care. Do not touch the components or contacts on a 
card. Hold a card by its edges or by its metal mounting bracket. Hold a component such as 
a microprocessor chip by its edges, not by its pins.
SAFETY: Protecting Against Electrostatic 
Discharge
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) events can harm electronic components inside your computer. 
Under certain conditions, ESD may build up on your body or an object, such as a peripheral, and 
then discharge into another object, such as your computer. To prevent ESD damage, you should 
discharge static electricity from your body before you interact with any of your computer’s internal 
electronic components, such as a memory module. You can protect against ESD by touching a 
metal grounded object (such as an unpainted metal surface on your computer’s I/O panel) before 
you interact with anything electronic. When connecting a peripheral (including handheld digital 
assistants) to your computer, you should always ground both yourself and the peripheral before 
connecting it to the computer. In addition, as you work inside the computer, periodically touch an 
I/O connector to remove any static charge your body may have accumulated.
You can also take the following steps to prevent damage from electrostatic discharge:
 When unpacking a static-sensitive component from its shipping carton, do not remove the 
component from the antistatic packing material until you are ready to install the 
component. Just before unwrapping the antistatic package, be sure to discharge static 
electricity from your body.
 When transporting a sensitive component, first place it in an antistatic container or 
packaging.
 Handle all electrostatic sensitive components in a static-safe area. If possible, use antistatic 
floor pads and work bench pads.
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							Overview11
Overview
The Dell™ Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS) 6/iR controller is Dell’s next generation 
controller with integrated redundant array of independent disks (RAID) 
capabilities. SAS technology is not backward compatible with the previous 
generation of SCSI devices. All SAS 6/iR controllers are half-length, standard-
height PCI-E cards, except for the SAS 6/iR Integrated controller on the blade 
servers and on the Precision workstations. The SAS 6/iR controllers are 
supported on platforms with PCI-E x4, x8 and x16 connectors.
Figure 2-1. SAS 6/iR Adapter Hardware Architecture
1SAS x4 internal connector2PCI-E connector
1
2
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							12Overview
About RAID
RAID is a group of multiple independent physical disks that provide high 
performance or better data availability by increasing the number of drives 
used for saving and accessing data. A RAID disk subsystem improves 
I/O performance and data availability. The physical disk group appears to the 
host system as a single storage unit. Data throughput improves because 
multiple disks can be accessed simultaneously. RAID systems also improve 
data storage availability and fault tolerance. 
RAID Levels
RAID 0 uses disk striping to provide high data throughput, especially for large 
files in an environment that requires no data redundancy.
Integrated Mirroring or RAID 1 uses disk mirroring so that data written to 
one physical disk is simultaneously written to another physical disk. This is 
good for small databases or other applications that require small capacity, but 
complete data redundancy.
 NOTICE: Lost data on an Integrated Striping virtual disk cannot be recovered in the 
event of a physical disk failure.
RAID Terminology
Integrated Striping
Integrated Striping (RAID 0) allows you to write data across multiple physical 
disks instead of just one physical disk. Integrated Striping involves partitioning 
each physical disk storage space into 64 KB stripes. These stripes are 
interleaved in a repeated sequential manner. The part of the stripe on a single 
physical disk is called a stripe element.
For example, in a four-disk system using only Integrated Striping, segment 1 is 
written to disk 1, segment 2 is written to disk 2, and so on. Integrated Striping 
enhances performance because multiple physical disks are accessed 
simultaneously, but Integrated Striping does not provide data redundancy. 
Figure 2-2 shows an example of Integrated Striping.
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							Overview13
Figure 2-2. Example of Integrated Striping (RAID 0)
Integrated Mirroring
With Integrated Mirroring (RAID 1), data written to one disk is 
simultaneously written to another disk. If one disk fails, the contents of the 
other disk can be used to run the system and rebuild the failed physical disk. 
The primary advantage of Integrated Mirroring is that it provides 100 percent 
data redundancy. Because the contents of the disk are completely written to a 
second disk, the system can sustain the failure of one disk. Both disks contain 
the same data at all times. Either physical disk can act as the operational 
physical disk.
 NOTE: Mirrored physical disks improve read performance by read load balance.
Figure 2-3. Example of Integrated Mirroring (RAID 1)
stripe element 1
stripe element 5
stripe element 9stripe element 2
stripe element 6
stripe element 10stripe element 3
stripe element 7
stripe element 11stripe element 4
stripe element 8
stripe element 12
stripe element 1
stripe element 2
stripe element 3stripe element 1 duplicated
stripe element 2 duplicated
stripe element 3 duplicated
stripe element 4 stripe element 4 duplicated
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							14Overview
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							SAS 6/iR Features15
SAS 6/iR Features
This section provides the specifications of Dell™ Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS) 
6/iR controller. The following table compares the specifications of the 
SAS 6/iR Adapter and SAS 6/iR Integrated.
Table 3-1. Specifications of SAS 6/iR
Specification SAS 6/iR Adapter SAS 6/iR Integrated
SAS technology Yes Yes
Support for x4, x8, or x16 
PCI Express Host InterfaceYe s Ye s
Fo r m  Fa c t o rStandard-Height, 
Half-Length PCI AdapterStandard-Height, Half-
Length PCI on all systems 
except on blade servers 
(where the dimension do 
not follow industry 
standards) and some 
Precision workstations 
(where the controller has 
been integrated on the 
mother board)
I/O controller (IOC)LSI SAS 1068e LSI SAS 1068e
Core Speed: 255 MHz Core Speed: 255 MHz
Operating voltage 
requirements+12V, +3.3V, +3.3Vaux +12V, +3.3V, +3.3Vaux
Communication to the 
systemPCI-E lanes System dependent
Communication to end 
devicesSAS Links SAS Links
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							16SAS 6/iR Features
SAS Connectors 2 x4 Internal 2 x4 Internal connectors on 
all systems, with two 
exceptions: 4 x1 on 
Precision workstations with 
controller integrated on the 
motherboard, no SAS 
connector on the controller 
for the blades (I/O is routed 
though the PCI connector)
Lead Free Yes Yes
Supported operating 
systemsMicrosoft
® Windows Server® 2003 Family, Windows® XP, 
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Family, Windows Vista™, 
Red Hat
® Enterprise Linux® Versions 4 and 5, SUSE® 
Linux Enterprise Server Version 10.
Dell-compliant SAS and 
SATA compatibilityYe s Ye s
Dell supported direct 
connected end devicesDell-compliant physical 
disksDell-compliant physical 
disks
SMART error support 
through management 
applicationsYe s Ye s
Backplane supported 
systemsYe s Ye s
Hardware-based RAID RAID 0, RAID 1 RAID 0, RAID 1
Maximum number of 
virtual disks22 Table 3-1. Specifications of SAS 6/iR (continued)
Specification SAS 6/iR Adapter SAS 6/iR Integrated
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							SAS 6/iR Features17
Storage management 
softwareOpenManage™ Storage 
Services, SAS RAID 
Storage ManagerOpenManage Storage 
Services, SAS RAID 
Storage Manager
NOTE: The management software that is supported depends on the specific platform.
Support for internal tape 
driveNo No
Support for Global 
HotspareYe s Ye s
Maximum number of 
Hotspares22 Table 3-1. Specifications of SAS 6/iR (continued)
Specification SAS 6/iR Adapter SAS 6/iR Integrated
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							18SAS 6/iR Features
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