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SATA II and SAS RAID CARD ROUNDUP
Adaptec ASR-31605
Adaptec has long been
known as one of the pioneers of SCSI and RAID.
Over the years, they've managed to adapt (no pun
intended) to the changing storage landscape, and
bring to market a fresh crop of SAS/SATA II RAID
controllers. The ASR-31605 represents the top
of the Adaptec line, with a splendid array of
features:
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Supported Operating Systems |
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Microsoft
Windows
Red Hat Linux
SUSE Linux
Novell NetWare
SCO OpenServer
UnixWare
Sun Solaris
FreeBSD
VMware ESX Server
For a
detailed list see
ASK Answer
ID 15062 |
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Key
Differentiators |
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Affordable Unified Serial RAID
controllers support both SATA
and SAS devices. Ideal for
workstations, and entry to
mid-range servers. |
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Customer Needs |
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Affordability and performance
with an advanced feature set for
customers needing storage
flexibility and capacity growth. |
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System
Environment |
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Intel IA32, EM64T, and AMD64 |
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Cache
Memory |
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256MB of DDR2 memory
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RAID
Levels |
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RAID 0, 1, 1E, 5, 5EE, 6, 10,
50, 60, JBOD |
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Key
RAID Features |
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Supports up to 128 SAS or SATA
devices (depending on server
design)
RAID Levels 0, 1, 10, 5, 50,
JBOD
Advanced Data Protection Suite
RAID Levels 1E (Striped
Mirror), 5EE (Hot Space), 6
and 60 (Dual Drive Failure
Protection)
Copyback Hot Spare
Snapshot Backup (optional)
Dynamic caching algorithm
Online Capacity Expansion
RAID Level Migration
Optimized Disk Utilization
Quick Initialization
Native Command Queuing (NCQ)
Hot spares global,
dedicated, and pooled
Background initialization
Automatic/manual rebuild of
hot spares
SAF-TE enclosure management
support
Configurable stripe size
S.M.A.R.T. support
Up to 512TB array sizes
Multiple arrays and types per
disk drive
Bad stripe table
Dynamic sector repair
Staggered drive spin-up
Bootable array support
Hot-plug drive support
Redundant path failover |
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Bus
System Interface Type |
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8-lane PCIe |
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Internal Connectors |
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4 internal connectors (SFF-8087) |
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Data
Transfer Rate |
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3 Gb/s per port |
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Package
Contents |
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Adaptec
RAID 31605 Controller
Quick Installation Guide
(English/French/German/Italian/Spanish)
Software and documentation CDs
Cables (4): Mini SAS to SATA
fanout cable w/ sideband
(2247000-R) |
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Management Utilities
Adaptec Storage Manager (ASM)
Java-based GUI Management
Utility
Remote configuration,
monitoring & notification
ASM OS Support: Windows,
Linux, SCO, Solaris, NetWare
Microsoft VDS Support
SNMP, SMTP
Simultaneous remote
firmware updates
ARCCONF
Command Line Interface
Adaptec BIOS Configuration
Utility (ACU)
BIOS level configuration
utility
Flashable BIOS support
Physical Size
4.6" H
x 6.6" L (116 mm x 167 mm)
Operating Temperature (incl.
battery)
0°C to
45°C (without airflow)
0°C to 55°C (with airflow
Operating Voltage
1 amp
@ 3.3V
Regulatory Certification
FCC,
C-tick, CE, VCCI
Accessories
Snapshot Backup Key
(2228200)
Adaptec Battery Module
ABM-800 (2248000-R)
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In typical Adaptec
fashion, the ASR-31605 comes in a neatly sleeved
box, but now the card is protected by a clear
plastic container which is assumed to also provide
static protection. Heatsinks cover a couple of
the critical ASICs on the board, but one on the rear
shows that it is an Adaptec-designed chip. The
rear of the card is where the row of four mini-SAS
connectors are located. Each comes protected
with a plastic insert, which must be removed in
order to plug in the cable. The last photo
shows traditional Adaptec design - LEDs showing port
activity and others indicating overall RAID card
status:
   
Installing the ASR-31605
in our Tyan S2696 testbed uncovered a compatibility
bug. The S2696 has one x16 slot with 16 lanes,
and another x16 with 4 lanes. In order to
maximize performance, we decided to put the
ASR-31605 in the slot with 16 lanes, and relegate
the graphics card in the 4-lane slot. In this
setup, the system refused to progress beyond POST.
It simply hung. When the cards were reversed
(or another manufacturer's card was placed in the
16-lane slot), the system booted properly without
incident. To make a 6-week long story much
shorter, Adaptec and Tyan tech support and
engineering collaborated, resulting in a new BIOS
for the S2696, allowing the ASR-31605 to now work in
the 16-lane slot as originally intended.
The latest driver and
management software were downloaded from the Adaptec
website, and the were performed. Here is a
screen shot of the Adaptec Storage Manager.
All functions of setting up and managing arrays can
be performed either through the RAID BIOS during
bootup, or through this interface. This is a
Java application which is not too slow to respond,
but is very thorough, informative and easy to
understand and use. It is also secure,
utilizing the system's username and mandatory
password to log in. If you are running a
system with a blank password, it will not let you
modify arrays.
Test Results are as
follows:
HD Tach RW v3.0.1.0, 8MB Zones: RAID-0, 16k
stripe
HD Tach RW v3.0.1.0, 32MB Zones: RAID-0, 16k
stripe
ATTO Disk Benchmark: Hardware RAID-0, 16k stripe
HD Tach RW v3.0.1.0, 8MB Zones: RAID-0, 1024k
stripe
HD Tach RW v3.0.1.0, 32MB Zones: RAID-0, 1024k
stripe
ATTO Disk Benchmark: Hardware RAID-0, 1024k
stripe
ATTO Disk Benchmark: Windows Disk Striping
(Software RAID-0)
HD Tach RW v3.0.1.0, 8MB Zones: RAID-1
HD Tach RW v3.0.1.0, 32MB Zones: RAID-1
ATTO Disk Benchmark: Hardware RAID-1
Strangely, HD Tach
v3.0.1.0 would not properly run on the next
following RAID levels on the ASR-31605.
Nevertheless, ATTO Disk Benchmark worked without
problems after formatting the uninitialized array:
ATTO Disk Benchmark: RAID-5, 16k stripe
ATTO Disk Benchmark: RAID-5, 1024k stripe
ATTO Disk Benchmark: RAID-6, 16k stripe
ATTO Disk Benchmark: RAID-6, 1024k stripe
The ASR-31605 also
supports three additional RAID levels, namely 10, 50
and 60. These are known as "nested RAID
levels". RAID 10 is basically a stripe of
mirrors, or a RAID-0 of two or more pairs of
RAID-1s. RAID 50 is similar, wherein it is a
stripe of RAID-5s. Same goes for RAID-60, it
is a stripe of RAID-6s. As you can imagine,
RAID 50 and 60 can be configured in more ways than
one. For example, a 12-drive RAID-50 can be
FOUR 3-drive RAID-5s, or THREE 4-drive RAID-5s.
Each configuration provides a tradeoff between
capacity, speed, and fault tolerance. In our
testing, we simply selected the system default
during array creation.
ATTO Disk Benchmark: RAID-10, 16k stripe
ATTO Disk Benchmark: RAID-10, 1024k stripe
ATTO Disk Benchmark: RAID-50, 16k stripe
ATTO Disk Benchmark: RAID-50, 1024k stripe
We could not understand
why, but even after several iterations, our test
results we similar to the one below. Hopefully
it is a minor software or firmware issue, and not in
the Adaptec hardware. But notice that when the
strip size was increased to the maximum 1024k,
results were far better and more consistent.
ATTO Disk Benchmark: RAID-60, 16k stripe
ATTO Disk Benchmark: RAID-60, 1024k stripe
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