Hardware User's Guide

Intel® RAID Controller RS25FB044 Hardware User’s Guide 17
Supported Device Technology
The various device technologies supported by the Intel
®
RAID Controller RS25FB044
are described in the subsections that follow.
Support for Hard Disk Drive Devices
The Intel
®
RAID Controller RS25FB044 integrates four internal and four external high-
performance SAS/SATA II ports that support SAS and enterprise-class SATA hard drives.
Each port supports both SAS and SATA devices using the SAS Serial SCSI Protocol
(SSP), Serial Management Protocol (SMP), and Serial Tunneling Protocol (STP). The
SSP protocol enables communication with other SAS devices. STP allows the SAS RAID
controller to communicate with SATA devices using the SATA commands.
SAS Expander Support
The Intel
®
RAID Controller RS25FB044 supports LSI* expanders, that are used either as
independent devices, or as a component in Intel enclosures. Other expanders may be
supported post launch, based on market conditions and customer requirements.
Support for Non-Hard Disk Drive Devices
As SAS-based non-hard drive devices were not available when this controller was in
development, support for these devices will be determined as they become available. For
information on support for non-hard drive devices, see the Intel
®
RAID Controller
RS25FB044 Tested Hardware and Operating System List.
Enclosure Management Support
The Intel
®
RAID Controller RS25FB044 support SES2 enclosure management in-band to
expander-based backplanes and out-of-band to direct-connect backplanes. These RAID
Controllers also support SGPIO enclosure management interface.
RAID Functionality and Features
Hierarchy
The fundamental purpose of a RAID system is to present a usable data storage medium
(virtual drive) with some level of redundancy to a host operating system. The Intel
®
RAID
firmware is based on the concept of associating physical drives in arrays and then creating