Technical Specifications
Table 4-1 and Table 4-2 list the basic features of a RAID controller card.
Feature |
LSI SAS3008IR |
LSI SAS3108 |
Avago SAS3508 |
Avago SAS3516 |
Avago MegaRAID SAS 9460-16i |
Avago MegaRAID SAS 9460-8i |
Avago SAS3408iMR |
Avago MegaRAID SAS 9440-8i |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Port rate (Gbit/s) |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
Number of supported RAID arrays |
2 |
64 |
64 |
64 |
64 |
64 |
32 |
32 |
Maximum number of hard drives supported by a RAID array |
10 |
32 or 240 (Note 1) |
32 or 240 (Note 2) |
32 |
32 |
240 |
32 |
32 |
Maximum number of hard drives in all RAID arrays (Note 4) |
14 |
32 or 240 (Note 1) |
32 or 240 (Note 2) |
32 |
240 |
240 |
32 |
32 |
Support for transparent transmission |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Number of hard drives supported by pass-through |
1000 |
32 or 240 (Note 1) |
32 or 240 (Note 2) |
32 |
240 |
240 |
63 |
63 |
Maximum number of hard drives supported |
1000 |
32 or 240 (Note 1) |
32 or 240 (Note 2) |
32 |
240 |
240 |
63 |
63 |
Support for CacheCade |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Adjustable cache read/write ratio |
N/A |
No |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
Maximum number of SSDs supported by CacheCade |
N/A |
32 |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
Maximum CacheCade capacity |
N/A |
512GB |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
RAID levels supported by CacheCade |
N/A |
0/1 |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
Hot sparing supported by CacheCade |
N/A |
Yes |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
Support for FastPath |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Support for 4K drives |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
RAID levels supported |
0/1/10/1E |
0/1/10/5/50/6/60 |
0/1/10/5/50/6/60 |
0/1/10/5/50/6/60 |
0/1/10/5/50/6/60 |
0/1/10/5/50/6/60 |
0/1/10 |
0/1/10 |
Support for strip unit configuration |
No (64 KB by default) |
Yes (Value: 64 KB/128 KB/256 KB/512 KB/1024 KB. The default value is 256 KB.) |
Yes (Value: 64 KB/128 KB/256 KB/512 KB/1024 KB. The default value is 256 KB.) |
Yes (Value: 64 KB/128 KB/256 KB/512 KB/1024 KB. The default value is 256 KB.) |
Yes (Value: 64 KB/128 KB/256 KB/512 KB/1024 KB. The default value is 256 KB.) |
Yes (Value: 64 KB/128 KB/256 KB/512 KB/1024 KB. The default value is 256 KB.) |
No (64 KB by default) |
No (64 KB by default) |
Support for power failure protection by iBBU |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Support for power failure protection by supercapacitor |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
Support for global hot spare |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Support for dedicated hot spare |
No |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Support for emergency spares |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Number of supported hot spare drives |
2 |
32 or 240 (Note 1) |
32 or 240 (Note 2) |
32 |
240 |
240 |
63 |
63 |
Support for online RAID level migration |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Support for online capacity expansion |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Support for automatic SMART scanning |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Support for Patrol Read |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Support for consistency check |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Yes (Note 5) |
Support for crypto encryption |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Support for out-of-band management |
No |
Yes (Note 3) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Cache |
No |
Yes (1 GB/2 GB) |
Yes (2 GB/4 GB) |
Yes (2 GB/4 GB) |
Yes (2 GB/4 GB) |
Yes (2 GB/4 GB) |
No |
No |
Support for a buzzer |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
Note 1: The LSI SAS3108 supports two types of RAID keys, which support 32 and 240 hard drives respectively. For details, see Table 6-4 in Support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60. Note 2: The Avago SAS3508 supports two types of RAID keys, which support 32 and 240 hard drives respectively. For details, see Table 7-2 in RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60. Note 3: The LSI SAS3108 PCB version .B and later support out-of-band management. The LSI SAS3108 PCB version .A does not support out-of-band management. Note 4: Maximum number of hard drives in all RAID arrays (for an LSI SAS3008IR RAID controller card) = Number of hot spare drives + Number of drives in RAID arrays. Maximum number of hard drives in all RAID arrays (for other RAID controller cards) = Number of hot spare drives + Number of idle drives (drives in Unconfigured Good state) + Number of hard drives in RAID arrays. Note 5: RAID 0 is excluded. |
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Feature |
MSCC SmartRAID 3152-8i |
MSCC SmartHBA 2100-8i |
|---|---|---|
Interface rate (Gbit/s) |
12 |
12 |
Number of supported RAID arrays |
64 |
64 |
Maximum number of hard drives supported by a RAID array |
128 |
128 |
Maximum number of hard drives in all RAID arrays |
238 |
238 |
Support for transparent transmission |
Yes |
Yes |
Number of hard drives supported by pass-through |
238 |
238 |
Maximum number of hard drives supported |
238 |
238 |
maxCache (note 1) |
Yes |
No |
Adjustable cache read/write ratio |
Yes |
N/A |
Maximum number of SSDs supported by maxCache |
128 |
N/A |
Maximum maxCache capacity |
6.8TB |
N/A |
RAID levels supported by maxCache |
0/1/10/5 |
N/A |
Hot spare support by maxCache |
No |
N/A |
SSD I/O Bypass |
Yes |
Yes |
4K drive |
Yes |
Yes |
RAID levels supported |
RAID 0/1/1ADM/10/10ADM/5/50/6/60 |
RAID 0/1/10 |
Strip size configuration |
Yes (Value: 16 KiB/32 KiB/64 KiB/128 KiB/256 KiB/512 KiB/1024 KiB. The default value is 256 KiB.) |
Yes (Value: 16 KiB/32 KiB/64 KiB/128 KiB/256 KiB/512 KiB/1024 KiB. The default value is 256 KiB.) |
Power failure protection by iBBU |
No |
No |
Power failure protection by supercapacitor |
Yes |
No |
Global hot spare |
Yes |
Yes |
Dedicated hot spare |
Yes |
Yes |
Emergency hot spare |
N/A |
N/A |
Number of supported hot spare drives |
32 (up to 4 hot spare drives per array) |
32 (up to 4 hot spare drives per array) |
Online RAID level migration |
Yes |
No |
Online capacity expansion |
Yes |
No |
Automatic SMART scan |
Yes |
Yes |
Patrol Read |
Yes |
Yes |
Consistency check |
Yes |
Yes |
Crypto encryption |
No |
No |
Out-of-band management |
No |
No |
Support for the 520 byte sector hard drive |
No |
No |
Support for a buzzer |
No |
No |
Note 1: The Microsemi defines CacheCade as MaxCache. |
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N/A in the table stands for not applicable.
Table 4-3 lists the reliability, read/write performance, and hard drive utilization of different RAID levels.
RAID Level |
Reliability |
Read Performance |
Write Performance |
Hard Drive Utilization |
|---|---|---|---|---|
RAID 0 |
Low |
High |
High |
100% |
RAID 1 |
High |
High |
Medium |
50% |
RAID 1ADM |
High |
High |
Medium |
33% |
RAID 5 |
Medium |
High |
Medium |
(N - 1)/N |
RAID 6 |
Medium |
High |
Medium |
(N - 2)/N |
RAID 10 |
High |
High |
Medium |
50% |
RAID 1E |
High |
Medium |
Medium |
50% |
RAID 10ADM |
High |
High |
Medium |
33% |
RAID 50 |
High |
High |
Better than medium |
(N - M)/N |
RAID 60 |
High |
High |
Better than medium |
(N - M x 2)/N |
Note: N indicates the number of member hard drives in a RAID array. M indicates the number of spans of a RAID array. |
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Table 4-4 lists the interface types of hard drives supported by each RAID controller card.
Interface Type |
SAS HDD |
SATA HDD |
SAS SSD |
SATA SSD |
NVMe PCIe SSD |
M.2 SATA SSD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
LSI SAS3008IR |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Not supported |
Not supported |
LSI SAS3108 |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Not supported |
Not supported |
Avago SAS3508 |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Not supported |
Not supported |
Avago SAS3516 |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Not supported |
Not supported |
Avago SAS3408iMR |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Not supported |
Not supported |
Avago MegaRAID SAS 9440-8i |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Not supported |
Not supported |
Avago MegaRAID SAS 9460-8i |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Not supported |
Not supported |
Avago MegaRAID SAS 9460-16i |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Not supported |
Not supported |
MSCC SmartRAID 3152-8i |
Supported |
Supported |
Not supported |
Supported |
Not supported |
Not supported |
MSCC SmartHBA 2100-8i |
Supported |
Supported |
Not supported |
Supported |
Not supported |
Not supported |
