5901-8205 - IBM i Series E4B, PCIe Dual-x4 SAS Adapter

IBM i Series 8205-E6B (#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 EXP12S or EXP24S 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 EXP12S or EXP24S Disk Drawers. SAS #3688 cables attach SFF SAS drives in an PCIe 12X I/O Drawer. With the EXP12S or EXP24S 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 EXP12S Disk Drawers or two #5887 EXP24S Disk Drawer

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 EXP12S Disk Drawers or configured with a #5802 and one #5887 EXP24S

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 EXP12S Disk Drawers or configured with a #5803 and one #5887 EXP24S

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 8202-E4B: (#5901)

Minimum required: 0

Maximum allowed: 24 (Initial order maximum: 24)

OS level required:

AIX Version 5.3 supported

AIX Version 6.1 supported

AIX Version 7.1 supported

IBM i 6.1 supported

IBM i 7.1 supported

SUSE Linux supported

Red Hat Linux supported

Refer to Software Requirements for specific O/S levels supported

Initial Order/MES/Both/Supported: Both

CSU: Yes

Return parts MES: No

Note:

Maximum of 4 in the CEC

System maximum of 24 -- 4 in CEC and 20 in 2 x #5802/ #5877