User`s guide
4.20 Updating Firmware on Hitachi HUS1514xxVLS300 SAS drives
Firmware upgrade on Hitachi HUS151473VLS300 and HUS151436VLS300
SAS drives is not supported for packet sizes below 4K (512/1024/2048).
4.21 Installing Windows OS from Direct-Attached Non-DASD Device
Adaptec RAID controllers do not support Windows OS installation from
direct-attached Non-DASD devices ("Direct Access Storage Devices"),
such as a tape drive, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM. Adaptec recommends
using a motherboard IDE or SATA DVD-ROM/CD-ROM device to install
the Windows OS on a RAID array.
4.22 MaxIQ SSD Cache Performance
The MaxIQ cache contents is lost if the OS is not shut down
cleanly (for example, by pressing the reboot button or
pulling the power). When the system is restarted, the cache
is rebuilt. Until that time, you may see a temporary loss
in performance.
4.23 Exceeding 2TB LUN Size on VMware ESX Server
Under VMware, if you create a logical drive with greater than
2TB of capacity, the OS will only be able to access the remaining
storage above 2TB. For instance, with the 3.5TB LUN, only
1.5TB will be accessible; with a 5TB LUN, only 1TB will
be accessible (first 2TB+2TB are skipped); and so on.
4.24 PHY Rate Limitations on Western Digital Hard Drives
To avoid data-phase errors with certain Western Digital hard
drives, the PHY rate must be set 1.5Gb/s rather than the
maximum rate of 3.0Gb/s.
o For Western Digital WD2002FYPS and WD20EADS hard drives, the
PHY rate is set automatically to 1.5Gb/s.
You can set the PHY rate to Auto (default), 1.5Gb/s, or 3.0Gb/s.
in the Control-A/BIOS utility.
NOTE: For Adaptec low-port RAID controllers, the device
properties in ASM and the BIOS utility will continue
to report the maximum PHY rate (3.0Gb/s), not the reduced
rate. For high-port controllers, the PHY rate is
reported correctly.
4.25 Changing the Stripe Size for Large RAID Arrays
For large RAID arrays, a RAID-level migration may fail with a
firmware crash if you reconfigure the array with a different
stripe size. No data is lost, however.
Known migrations that result in a FW crash include:
o 16/32/64/128 drive R0- 256/16 to 16/256 stripe change
o 16/32/64/128 drive R0- 512/16 to 16/512 stripe change
o 16/32/64/128 drive R0- 1024/16 to 16/1024 stripe change
o 16/32 drive R5- 16 to 512/1024 stripe change
o 16/32 drive R5- 512/1024 to 16 stripe change
o 16/32 drive R6- 1024/16 to 16/1024 stripe change
4.26 Hot-Adding MaxIQ SSDs
If you remove two or more MaxIQ SSDs then re-insert the drives
at the same time, only one will be recognized as part of
the MaxIQ pool. To reconstitute the pool, use Adaptec
Storage Manager or the BIOS utility to reconfigure
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