Overview - ServeRAID F-Series SAS/SATA Controllers

The ServeRAID F-Series family of products offers MegaRAID data protection and flexible onboard flash technology that can be used in a variety of ways to help improve performance and server storage density.

These products are optimized to deliver performance demanded by the increasing I/O requirements of today's enterprises. They integrate popular disk media such as SAS and SATA HDDs and emerging solid-state disks into an organization's storage infrastructure.

The portfolio is designed with individual flash modules on-board. These flash modules can be configured in a RAID array to support latency-sensitive data storage - used for the boot volume, for the 'golden image' in a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) application, or for storing tempdb in SQL server or indexes/data objects from an Oracle or MySQL database, for example - and will still support a caching volume as well, dynamically identifying 'application hot data' to be stored and serviced from the flash for improved performance and reduced latency.

The IBM ServeRAID F5115-200GB and F5115-800GB SAS/SATA Controllers for IBM System x offer full RAID functionality, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, RAID 50, RAID 6, and RAID 60, on connected devices, plus a superior array of additional features. Both the 200 GB and 800 GB flash modules leverage eMLC memory - each providing essentially two enterprise-quality SSDs on-board. The on-board flash storage supports RAID-0 and RAID-1. Intelligent caching algorithms are utilized to help identify frequently accessed application data and promote it to fast on-board flash.

Both the F5115-200GB and F5115-800GB come as a small form factor PCIe adapter, each of which provides one (x4) internal mini-SAS (SFF8087) connector with four lanes of 6 Gbps SAS and eight lanes of PCIe 3.0 to facilitate high data transfer rates.

Providing additional peace of mind, your ServeRAID F-Series portfolio is covered under IBM warranty. All adapters carry a 1-year limited warranty or, when installed in a System x server, assume your system's base warranty and any IBM ServicePac upgrade.

Features and functions:

RAID Controllers

ServeRAID F5115-200GB SAS/SATA Controller for IBM System x (00AE882) ServeRAID F5115-800GB SAS/SATA Controller for IBM System x (00AE886)

• Up to 6 Gbps per port
• RAID Levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60
• x8 lane PCI Express 3.0
• LSI SAS2208 Dual-Core RAID on Chip (ROC)
• 1 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM
• PCI low profile - MD2 form factor
• One (x4) mini-SAS internal connector
• Support for up to 128 devices
• S.M.A.R.T. support

The ServeRAID F-Series family of products provide an integrated solution offering on-board flash capacity, dynamic caching software, and RAID data protection to meet today's enterprise-grade storage performance requirements.

Performance:

• Optimized for high performance with integrated Dual Core chip architecture, eMLC flash, DDR3, and PCIe Gen 3 technologies
  • Enterprise-grade flash storage is optimized for performance, reliability, and endurance.
  • New Elastic Cache algorithm increases both cache utilization and performance.
  • These offerings sustain high performance during an HDD failure, and accelerate degraded array rebuild time.
  • Improved caching algorithm allows more hot spots to be retained in flash.

Consistency:

• Management of all products through MegaRAID management tools to help significantly reduce qualification time, personnel training, and management overhead
• Easy transition to the new flash portfolio for clients migrating from the current generation of 6 Gb controllers

Flexibility:

• Configure integrated flash capacity for caching or data volumes, eliminating dedicated boot HDDs and increasing server density

The controller must be installed in a selected System x server:

• x3650 M4 BD / 5466 / All

SAS/SATA Controllers can be used on supported System x servers with an available PCI Express expansion slot.

The IBM ServeRAID F5115 product options are supported on the following major operating systems:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11
• VMware vSphere 5.0
• VMware vSphere 5.1

As a result, solid-state storage has a maximum amount of write cycles to which it can be subjected, documented as Total Bytes Written (TBW).

IBM is not responsible for replacement of hardware that has reached the maximum guaranteed number of write cycles. This limit may be revealed as the device failing to respond to system- generated commands or becoming incapable of being written to.

Additional information is available at:

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/x/options/

ServeRAID F5115 SAS/SATA Controllers

• Approximate shipping dimensions and weight:
  • Approximate height: 64 mm (2.50 in)
  • Approximate width: 206 mm (8.13 in)
  • Approximate depth: 276 mm (10.88 in)
  • Approximate weight: 536 g (1 lb. 2.9 oz)

Note: All measurements are approximate.

• Temperature, operating: 0 to 45 degrees C (32 to 113 F) at 0 to 5,000 m (16,404 feet)
• Temperature, storage and transit: -45 to 105 degrees C (-49 to 221 degrees F)  
• Relative humidity: 20% to 80% (non-condensing)  
• Maximum altitude: 5,000 m ( 16,404 ft)

• UL
• cUL
• IEC60950
• EMC
• FCC
• TUV
• CE
• VCCI
• BSMI
• C-tick
• KC

ServeRAID options offer a 1-year limited warranty (1) or, when installed in a System x server, assume your system's base warranty and any IBM ServicePac upgrade.

Note. Solid-state memory cells have an intrinsic, finite number of program/erase cycles that each cell can incur. As a result, solid-state storage has a maximum amount of program/erase cycles to which it can be subjected. IBM's warranty for devices with solid-state storage is limited to those devices that have not reached the maximum guaranteed number of program/erase cycles, as documented in the Official Published Specifications for the product. Solid-state storage that reaches this limit may fail to operate according to its specifications.