Pcie Dual - X4 Sas Adapter (Fc 5901; Ccin 57B3) - IBM 8236-E8C Manual

SAS RAID controllers for Linux

PCIe Dual - x4 SAS Adapter (FC 5901; CCIN 57B3)

Learn about the specifications and operating system requirements for the feature code (FC) 5901 adapter.
Overview
The PCI Express (PCIe) Dual - 4x SAS adapter is a low-profile short form factor adapter for
high-performance and high-density, serial attached SCSI (SAS) applications. It supports the attachment of
SAS disk, tape, and DVD by using a pair of mini SAS 4x connectors which allow the eight physical links
to be used in various narrow and wide-port configurations. The adapter does not have write cache.
The adapter is a 64 bit, 3.3 V, bootable SAS adapter that provides RAID 0, 5, 6, and 10 capability. Some
RAID level support is operating system dependent. The adapter provides RAID 0, RAID 5, RAID 6, and
RAID 10 for the AIX and Linux operating systems. IBM i operating system provides mirroring and data
spreading capability. FC 5901 does not support the RAID 5 and RAID 6 configurations. The adapter does
not have write cache. (The write performance of RAID 5 and RAID 6 can be poor on adapters that do not
provide write cache. Consider using an adapter which provides write cache when using RAID 5 or RAID
6.)
The adapter can address up to 48 SAS disk drives, although the actual number of drives in a system is
subject to the physical placement limitations of the system. Externally attached devices are designed to
run at a data rate of 1.5 Gbps for serial ATA (SATA) devices, and 3 Gbps for SAS devices. This card
supports RAID and non-RAID DASD, tape, and optical devices. This adapter supports the multi-initiator
and high availability configurations in AIX and Linux. IBM i does not support feature 5901 in
multi-initiator and high availability configurations.
Important: See the SAS RAID controllers for AIX, SAS RAID controllers for Linux, or SAS RAID
controllers for IBM i topics for more information and important considerations for multi-initiator and
high availability or dual storage IOA configurations
The 5901 supports SAS SFF disk drives located in a PCIe 12X I/O Drawer or SAS disk drives located in
an EXP 12S Disk Drawer or SAS disk drives located in a supported POWER system unit (split disk
backplane).
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Managing PCI adapters