SAS Connectivity Card (CIOv) for IBM BladeCenter
8
Table 6. Components used when connecting the SAS Connectivity Card (CIOv) to the integrated
BladeCenter S storage with support for shared storage
Diagram
reference
Part number / Machine
type
Description
Quantity
Varies
BladeCenter HS22 or other supported server
1 to 6
43W4068
SAS Connectivity Card (CIOv) for IBM BladeCenter
1 per
server
8886
BladeCenter S
1
43W3584
IBM BladeCenter S SAS RAID Controller Module
2 required
43W3581
IBM BladeCenter S 6-Disk Storage Module (DSM)
1 or 2
Take these considerations into account when planning BladeCenter S advanced shared storage
implementations:
Every blade requiring integrated storage connectivity must have one SAS Connectivity Card installed.
z
At least one DSM must be installed into the BladeCenter S chassis; a maximum of two DSMs are
z
supported in one chassis. The IBM BladeCenter S does not ship with any DSMs as standard.
Two SAS RAID Controller Modules must be installed into the BladeCenter S chassis.
z
The SAS RAID Controller Module creates storage pools (or arrays), and the RAID level is defined for
z
these storage pools. Logical volumes are created from storage pools. Volumes can be assigned to
specific blades, or be shared by several blade servers.
Zoning is supported by the SAS RAID controller module. However, zoning should not be used for
z
regular operations (that is, for purposes other than troubleshooting).
The RAID functionality is supplied by the SAS RAID Controller Modules installed into the BladeCenter
z
S chassis.
RAID levels supported: 0, 1, 5, 10.
z
Maximum volume size is 2 TB.
z
Maximum number of volumes is eight per blade server (for a total of 48 volumes per chassis).
z
One volume can be mapped to all six blades in the chassis.
z
Mixing HDDs of different capacities in a single volume is supported. However, the total volume size is
z
aligned with the size of the smallest HDD, and excess space on larger-sized HDDs is not used.
Both SAS and Near-line SAS (NL SAS) hot swap HDDs are supported, and intermixing SAS/NL SAS
z
drives is supported as well. However, each storage pool must have hard disks of the same type, that
is, SAS or NL SAS. SATA drives are not supported by the SAS RAID Controller Module.
Global hot-spare drives are supported. The drive designated as a hot-spare should be as large as or
z
larger than other drives in the system.
Blade boot from logical volume is supported.
z
Path failover is supported with IBM Subsystem Device Driver Device Specific Module (SDD DSM) for
z
Windows and Device Mapper Multipath (DMM) for Red Hat/Novell SUSE Linux.
Currently, external storage attachments are not supported.
z
