HP Smart Array P411 Controller

The HP Smart Array P411 is HP's external connect only, PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) RAID controller. The low profile, half height card has 8 ports and utilizes DDR2-800 memory. The P411 is ideal for RAID 0, 1, 1+0, 5, 5+0 and can be upgraded with a minimum of 256MB cache module, battery kit (for BBWC),,and Smart Array Advanced Pack license key for RAID 6 (ADG) & 6+0.

• HP StorageWorks D2600 Disk Enclosure Support
• HP StorageWorks D2700 Disk Enclosure Support
• HP StorageWorks 600 Modular Disk System

HP's innovative design and integration work of the Smart Array family of products creates customer value that is unmatched in the industry. Use of Smart Array products across multiple applications results in a much lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) than any other server storage RAID product. The HP Smart Array family brings an unparalleled return on investment through:

• The SA-P411 Controller supports up to 100 drives. Additional drives can be supported with cache and connection to an expander
• The SA-P411 Controller supports the HP StorageWorks 60 Modular Smart Array,HP StorageWorks 70 Modular Smart Array, HP StorageWorks D2600 Disk Enclosure, HP StorageWorks D2700 Disk Enclosure, and HP StorageWorks 600 Modular Disk System.
• Seamless upgrades to current or next generation HP high performance and high capacity Serial Attached SCSI Smart Array controllers
• 6Gb/s SAS technology delivers high performance and data bandwidth and contains full compatibility with 3Gb/s SATA technology.
• x8 PCI Express host interface technology delivers high performance and data bandwidth up to 2 GB/s maximum bandwidth.
• Addition of the battery or flash backed cache upgrade enables array expansion, logical drive extension, RAID migration, and stripe size migration.
• Additionally, Smart Array Advanced Pack License key enables RAID 6 (ADG), 6+0, Advanced Capacity Expansion, Mirror Splitting and Recombining in Offline Mode, Drive Erase, Performance Optimization-Degraded Reads and Read Coalescing (VOD)
• Mix-and-match SAS and SATA hard drives, lets you deploy drive technology as needed to fit your computing environment.
• Support for SAS tape products.
• Software consistency among all Smart Array family products: Array Configuration Utility, Systems Insight Manager, Array Diagnostic Utility (ADU) and SmartStart.
• Support for greater than 2TB in a single logical drive
• 256 MB 40-bit wide DDR2-800 MHz cache module (with optional battery upgrade)
• Low-profile PCI Express form factor - ships with a full size bracket for deployment in either a low-profile or full sized slot

• Online array expansion (with BBWC)
  
• Online Advanced Capacity Expansion (with BBWC and Smart Array Advanced Pack upgrade)
  
• Online logical drive extension (with BBWC)
  
• Online RAID Level Migration (with BBWC)
  
• Online Stripe Size Migration (with BBWC)
  
• Offline Mirror splitting and recombining (with BBWC and Smart Array Advanced Pack upgrade)
  
• Unlimited global online spare assignment
• User selectable expand and rebuild priority
• User selectable RAID level and stripe size
• User selectable read and write cache size ratio

• Eight (8) SAS physical links distributed across 2 external x4 miniSAS connectors.

Performance

HP's High Performance Architecture sets new boundaries of industry performance expectations!

• 6Gb/s SAS (600MB/s bandwidth per physical link)
• 8x 6Gb/s SAS physical links (compatible with 3Gb/s SATA)
• 256 MB 40-bit wide DDR2-800MHz cache upgradeable to 512 MB 72-bit wide DDR2-800MHz battery-backed write cache x8 2.5G PCI Express host interface provides 2 GB/s maximum bandwidth during burst transfers
  
• Write-back caching (with BBWC)
  

Native Command Queuing (NCQ) is a technology designed to increase performance of SATA hard disk drives by allowing the individual hard disk to internally optimize the order in which received read and write commands are executed. This can reduce the amount of unnecessary going back-and-forth on the drive's heads, resulting in increased performance for workloads where multiple simultaneous read/write requests are outstanding, most often occurring in server or storage-type applications. Without NCQ the drive has to process and complete one command at a time. For NCQ to be enabled, it must be supported and turned on in the controller and in the hard drive itself.

NOTE: Please see the SATA Hard Drive QuickSpecs for specific SATA hard drive capacities that support NCQ: http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11940_na/11940_na.html

Given the increasing need for high performance and rapid capacity expansion, the SA-P411 offers:

• Up to 57.6TB of external storage per PCI slot with 8x HP StorageWorks 60 Modular Smart Array enclosures or HP StorageWorks D2600 Disk Enclosures and 96 x 600GB 3.5" SAS hard drives
• Up to 96TB of external storage per PCI slot with 8x HP StorageWorks 60 Modular Smart Array enclosures or HP StorageWorks D2600 Disk Enclosures and 96 x 1TB 3.5" SATA MDL hard drives
• Up to 30TB of external storage per PCI slot with 8x HP StorageWorks 70 Modular Smart Array enclosures or HP StorageWorks D2700 Disk Enclosures and 100 x 300GB SFF SAS hard drives
• Up to 50 TB of external storage per PCI slot with 8x HP StorageWorks 70 Modular Smart Array enclosures or HP StorageWorks D2700 Disk Enclosures and 100 x 500GB SFF SATA hard drives

NOTE: Support for greater than 2TB in a single logical drive.

Provides increased server uptime by providing advanced storage functionality:

• Online RAID Level Migration (between any RAID level/with BBWC)
• Online Capacity Expansion (with BBWC)
  

• Online Advanced Capacity Expansion (with Smart Array Advanced Pack)

• Logical Drive Capacity Extension (with BBWC)

• Global Online Spare

• Pre-Failure Warranty

Fault Prevention

The following features offer detection of possible failures before they occur, allowing preventive action to be taken:

• S.M.A.R.T. (Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) was first developed by HP which detects possible hard disk failure before it occurs, allowing replacement of the component before failure occurs.
• Drive Parameter Tracking monitors drive operational parameters, predicting failure and notifying the administrator.
• Dynamic Sector Repairing continually performs background surface scans on the hard disk drives during inactive periods and automatically remaps bad sectors, ensuring data integrity.
• Smart Array Cache Tracking monitors integrity of controller cache, allowing pre-failure preventative maintenance.
• Environment Tracking for External Storage System: Monitors fan speed and cabinet temperature of StorageWorks Modular Smart Array Enclosures and HP StorageWorks Disk Enclousres.

Fault Tolerance

Keeps data available and server running while a failed drive is being replaced; several fault tolerance configurations are supported including:

• RAID 6 with ADG (Advanced Data Guarding): This is the highest level of fault tolerance. It allocates two sets of parity data across drives and allows simultaneous write operations. This level of fault tolerance can withstand two simultaneous drive failures without downtime or data loss.
• RAID 6+0: Supported with min of 8 drives, but would have 4 available. Target benefit is to split RAID across the external boxes
  NOTE: RAID 6, 6+0 can be enabled with either
  • Minimum of 256 MB cache, Battery kit and Smart Array Advanced Pack License key option upgrades
  • Minimum of 512 MB BBWC and Smart Array Advanced Pack License key option upgrades
• RAID 5 (Distributed Data Guarding): This allocates one set of parity data across drives and allows simultaneous write operations. This level of fault tolerance can withstand a single drive failure without downtime or data loss.
  • RAID5 is available on the SA P411 with a minimum of 256MB cache
• RAID 5+0: This is a RAID 0 array striped across 5 elements. Combines the straight block-level striping of RAID 0 with the distributed parity of RAID 5.
• Drive Mirroring (RAID 1, 1+0): This allocates half of the drive array to data and the other half to mirrored data, providing two copies of every file. It is a high-performance RAID.

Fault Recovery

Minimizes downtime, reconstructs data, and facilitates a quick recovery from drive failure

• Recovery ROM: This new feature provides a unique redundancy feature that protects from a ROM image corruption. A new version of firmware can be flashed to the ROM while the controller maintains the last known working version of firmware. If the firmware becomes corrupt, the controller will revert back to the previous version of firmware and continue operating. This reduces the risk of flashing firmware to the controller.
• On-Line Spares: There is no limit to the number of spare drives that can be installed prior to drive failure. If a failure occurs, recovery begins with an On-Line Spare and data is reconstructed automatically.
• DRAM ECC corrects against single bit data and address corruption.
• Flash Backed Write Cache upgrade provides indefinite data retention.

Consistency and Upgradeability make the Smart Array family unique in the industry:

• GUI based configuration, management and diagnostic software tools
• Common data format between generations of products
• Data migration between servers and external HP StorageWorks Modular Smart Array enclosures and HP StorageWorks Disk Enclosures

• Powerful server and server options/storage manager tool
• Monitors over 1200 system wide parameters
• Configuration/Diagnostic Utilities

• Powerful Web based configuration utility for all Smart Array controllers
• Provides a graphical view of HP drive array configurations
• Allows for management of multiple arrays over a secure internet connection from anywhere in the world
• Easy to use Wizards for configuration
• Runs online on Windows and NetWare (CPQONLIN)

• An alternative method for easily viewing, creating, and deleting multiple arrays and logical volumes during system power up.
• For advanced array configurations use ACU

NOTE: For advanced array configurations use ACU.

• In depth diagnostic and reporting utility for all Smart Array controllers

RAID 6, 6+0 (Advanced Data Guarding)
NOTE: RAID 6, 6+0 can be enabled with either

• Minimum of 256 MB cache, Battery kit and Smart Array Advanced Pack License key option upgrades
  
• Minimum of 512 MB BBWC and Smart Array Advanced Pack License key option upgrades
  

RAID 5, 5+0 (Distributed Data Guarding)
NOTE: The 256 MB cache is required to enable RAID 5, 5+0 support of the Smart Array P411
RAID 1+0 (Striping & Mirroring)
RAID 0 (Striping)

© Copyright 2009 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

For hard drives, 1GB = 1 billion bytes. Actual formatted capacity is less.