Datasheet

ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e SAS/SATA Controllers for IBM System x 5
MegaRAID CacheCade SSD caching for traditional hard disk drives
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MegaRAID CacheCade read/write software accelerates the performance of hard disk drive (HDD)
arrays with only an incremental investment in solid-state drive (SSD) technology. The software
enables SSDs to be configured as a dedicated pool of controller cache to help maximize the I/O
performance for transaction-intensive applications, such as databases and web serving. CacheCade
software tracks data storage access patterns and identifies the most frequently accessed data. The
hot data is then automatically stored on the solid-state storage devices that are assigned as a
dedicated cache pool on a ServeRAID controller with the M5200 Series SSD Caching feature
(47C8712) enabled.
Note: Not all SSDs support CacheCade feature. For details, refer to the following web page:
https://www-947.ibm.com/support/entry/myportal/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-5094754
Technical specifications
The ServeRAID M5210 and M5210e SAS/SATA controllers have the following specifications:
LSI SAS3108 12 Gbps RAID on Chip (ROC) controller.
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PCI low profile, half-length - MD2 form factor (M5210) or onboard chip (M5210e).
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Eight internal 12 Gbps SAS/SATA ports (support for 12, 6, or 3 Gbps SAS speeds and 6 or 3 Gbps
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SATA speeds). Up to 12 Gbps throughput per port.
Two internal x4 HD Mini-SAS connectors (SFF-8643).
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PCI Express 3.0 x8 host interface.
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Support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 standard; support for RAID 5, 50, 6, and 60 with optional upgrades.
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Optional onboard data cache (DDR3 running at 1866 MHz) with the choice of the following backup:
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1 GB (no battery backup)
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1 GB, 2 GB, or 4 GB with flash backup
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Support for SAS and SATA HDDs and SSDs.
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Support for intermixing SAS and SATA HDDs and SSDs. Mixing different types of drives in the same
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array is not supported.
Connections to up to 32 internal drives, depending on the server model.
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Optional support for self-encrypting drives (SEDs) with MegaRAID SafeStore.
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Optional support for SSD performance acceleration with MegaRAID FastPath and SSD caching with
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MegaRAID CacheCade.
Support for up to 64 virtual disks, up to 128 arrays, up to 16 virtual disks per array, and up to 32
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physical drives per array.
Support for logical drive sizes greater than 2 TB.
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