5901-8203 - PCIe Dual-x4 SAS Adapter

The IBM Power6 8203-E4A (#5901) PCIe Dual-x4 SAS Adapter

The #5901 PCIe Dual-4x SAS Adapter is a low-profile short form factor adapter which supports the attachment of SAS disk, tape, and DVD using a pair of mini SAS 4x connectors. From a high level perspective, it is functionally equivalent to the #5912 PCI-X SAS adapter and provides a high-performance connection to SAS devices.

The #5901 supports external SAS tape drives such as the 36/72 GB DAT72, 80/160GB DAT160, and 800/1600GB LTO-4 found in the IBM tape units such as the 7214-1U2, TS2240, TS2340, TS3100, TS3200, and TS3310. Other removable media devices supported include IBM SAS/SATA DVD-ROM/RAM drives. SAS adapter-to-enclosure (AE) cables are used to attach these drives.

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 drives in a Power6 system CEC (split DASD backplane). AIX/Linux formatted SAS drives are supported with RAID 0 (with mirroring) and RAID 10. IBM i formatted SAS drives are supported and data spreading and mirroring functions are provided by IBM i. RAID-5 or RAID-6 are not supported on the #5901. #5901 has zero write cache. CCIN for #5901 is 57B3.

With proper cabling and configuration, multiple wide ports are used to provide redundant paths to each dual port SAS disk . The adapter manages SAS path redundancy and path switching should a SAS drive failure occur. SAS Y cables attach SAS disk drives in an EXP 12S Disk Drawers. SAS #3688 cables attach SFF SAS drives in an PCIe 12X I/O Drawer. In the EXP 12S Drawer, a high availability I/O configuration can be created using a pair of #5901 adapters and SAS X cables to protect against the failure of a SAS adapter. In the PCIe 12X I/O Drawer, this function is provided via the internal wiring within the drawer itself.

Highlights

Supports up to 48 SAS disks, when configured with four #5886 EXP 12S Disk Drawers

Supports up to 42 disk (18 SFF disk plus up to 24 3.5-inch SAS disk) when configured with a #5802 19-inch PCIe 12X I/O Drawer and two #5886 EXP 12S Disk Drawers

Supports up to 50 disk (26 SFF disk plus up to 24 3.5-inch SAS disk) when configured with a #5803 24-inch PCIe 12X I/O Drawer and two #5886 EXP 12S Disk Drawers

SAS speed = 3Gbs

SATA speed = 1.5Gbs

SAS Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP) , Serial ATA Tunneling Protocol (STP) and Serial Management Protocol (SMP)

Dual controller supports mirrored RAID parity footprints

Concurrent firmware update

Attributes provided: Eight physical links via two mini SAS 4x connectors

Attributes required: One PCI Express slot

For 8203-E4A: The IBM Power6 8203-E4A (#5901)

Minimum required: 0

Maximum allowed: 42 (Initial order maximum: 42)

OS level required:

AIX 5.3 with the 5300-07 Technology Level and Service Pack 9, or later

AIX 5.3 with the 5300-08 Technology Level and Service Pack 7, or later

AIX 5.3 with the 5300-09 Technology Level and Service Pack 4, or later

AIX 5.3 with the 5300-10 Technology Level, or later

AIX 6.1 with the 6100-00 Technology Level and Service Pack 9, or later

AIX 6.1 with the 6100-01 Technology Level and Service Pack 5, or later

AIX 6.1 with the 6100-02 Technology Level and Service Pack 4, or later

AIX 6.1 with the 6100-03 Technology Level, or later

IBM i 6.1 or later

SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 10 SP1 for POWER Systems, or later

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for POWER, Version 4.5 or later

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for POWER, version 5.1 or later

Initial Order/MES/Both/Supported: Both

CSU: Yes

Return parts MES: No

Note: 3 Max in the CEC.