IBM ServeRAID M5110 - Storage controller (RAID) - 8 Channel - SATA 6Gb/s / SAS 6Gb/s - low profile - RAID RAID 0, 1, 10 - PCIe 3.0 x8 - for System x3100 M5; x3300 M4; x3500 M4; x3530 M4; x3550 M4; x3630 M4; x3650 M4 BD
- Auto-resume on array rebuild or array reconstruction after the loss of system power
- Online Capacity Expansion (OCE)
- Online RAID level migration
- Fast initialization for quick array setup
- Consistency check for background data integrity
- Patrol read for media scanning and repairing
- Global and dedicated hot spare with revertible hot spare support
- Single controller multipathing (failover) I/O load balancing
- WebBIOS configuration utility for pre-boot array configuration and management
The ServeRAID M5110 SAS/SATA controller is part of the IBM 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. This product is optimized to deliver the performance that is demanded by the ever-growing I/O requirements of today's enterprises. The M5110 comes as a small form factor PCIe adapter. It also shares a common set of upgrades, simplifying inventory management.
-
Auto-resume on array rebuild or array reconstruction after the loss of system power
Auto-resume uses non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) to save the rebuild progress during a host reboot or power failure to automatically resume from the last checkpoint. Auto-resume ensures that data integrity is maintained throughout the process. The card supports a number of features that are able to be implemented without rebooting the server.
-
Online Capacity Expansion (OCE)
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, which is 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 zeros 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 recreate the parity from the peer disks in the case of a RAID 5 or RAID 6. Consistency checks can be scheduled to take place periodically.
-
Patrol read for media scanning and repairing
Patrol read is a background sentry service designed to pro-actively 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.
-
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 configuration utility for pre-boot array configuration and management
WebBIOS is a utility that is built into the ServeRAID controller that allows you to configure drive groups and logical drives before installing or booting the operating system.