Terminology Used in This Appendix ............................................................................................................73
What is SAS?.................................................................................................................................................73
How Do SAS Devices Communicate?...........................................................................................................73
What’s a Phy?...............................................................................................................................................74
What’s a SAS Port?.......................................................................................................................................74
What’s a SAS Address?.................................................................................................................................74
What’s a SAS Connector?.............................................................................................................................75
What do SAS Cables Look Like?....................................................................................................................75
How are Disk Drives Identied in SAS? ........................................................................................................75
What are the SAS Connection Options?.......................................................................................................75
Direct-attach Connections...............................................................................................................75
Backplane Connections...................................................................................................................76
SAS Expander Connections..............................................................................................................76
How is SAS Different from Parallel SCSI? .....................................................................................................77
Appendix B Understanding RAID.............................................................................................................................78
Understanding Drive Segments....................................................................................................................78
Non-redundant Arrays (RAID 0)...................................................................................................................78
RAID 1 Arrays ...............................................................................................................................................79
RAID 1 Enhanced Arrays...............................................................................................................................79
RAID 10 Arrays..............................................................................................................................................80
RAID 5 Arrays................................................................................................................................................81
RAID 5EE Arrays............................................................................................................................................82
RAID 50 Arrays..............................................................................................................................................83
RAID 6 Arrays................................................................................................................................................84
RAID 60 Arrays..............................................................................................................................................84
Comparing RAID Levels................................................................................................................................84
Appendix C Using the Adaptec RAID Conguration Utility......................................................................................86
Introduction to the ARC Utility.....................................................................................................................86
Ctrl-A or uEFI/HII? ...........................................................................................................................86
Running the ARC Utility...................................................................................................................86
Using the ARC Utility to Create and Manage Arrays....................................................................................87
Creating a New Array.......................................................................................................................87
Managing Existing Arrays.................................................................................................................87
Creating Bootable Arrays....................................................................................................87
Modifying Power Management Settings.............................................................................88
Modifying Cache Settings....................................................................................................88
Initializing Disk Drives......................................................................................................................89
Rescanning Disk Drives....................................................................................................................89
Secure Erasing Disk Drives...............................................................................................................89
Stopping a Secure Erase......................................................................................................89
Uninitializing Disk Drives.................................................................................................................89
Managing Global Hot Spares...........................................................................................................90
Creating and Managing JBODs.........................................................................................................90
Creating a New JBOD..........................................................................................................90
Managing Existing JBODs....................................................................................................90
Converting a JBOD Into a Simple Volume............................................................................90
Managing the maxCache Pool.........................................................................................................90
Using the ARC Utility to Modify Controller Settings.....................................................................................91
Opening the Controller Settings Tool ..............................................................................................91
Applying Changes and Exiting..........................................................................................................91
Modifying Your Controller’s Conguration......................................................................................91
General Controller Settings ................................................................................................91
Power Management Settings..............................................................................................93
Checking Backup Unit Status...........................................................................................................94
Formatting and Verifying Disk Drives...........................................................................................................94
Locating Disk Drives.....................................................................................................................................94
Identifying Disk Drives .................................................................................................................................94
Updating the Controller Firmware...............................................................................................................95
Creating a Support Archive..........................................................................................................................95
6Proprietary and Condential to PMC-Sierra, Inc.
Document No.: CDP-00283-03-A Rev. A, Issue
Serial Attached SCSI RAID Controllers Installation and User's Guide