Promise Technology EX8654 SAS Connections and ID Numbers, Scenario 1 Virtual Enclosure Sgpio

Chapter 2: Installation

SAS Connections and ID Numbers

The table below correlates the ranges of Enclosure IDs and Physical Drive IDs, that appear in the WebPAM PRO interface as a result of the data connections you make.

SuperTrak SAS Port	Enclosure ID Range	Drive ID Range
Ch1-4 Virtual*	1	1 to 128
Ch1-4	2 to 9	1 to 128
Ch5-8	10 to 17	129 to 256
Ch9-12	18 to 25	257 to 384
Ch13-16	26 to 33	385 to 512

* A virtual enclosure involves physical drives attached directly to the SuperTrak controller or a connection to an SGPIO backplane.

You can attach up to 128 SAS or SATA drives on each SAS port using SAS expanders.

The SuperTrak EX8650, EX8654, and EX8658 cards are designed to manage up to 16 enclosures and up to 256 SAS or SATA disk drives (using SAS expanders).

The SuperTrak EX16650 card is designed to manage up to 32 enclosures and up to 512 SAS or SATA disk drives (using SAS expanders).

If your system has fewer components, you might be surprised at the way WebPAM PRO numbers your enclosures and drives. The following scenarios illustrate some numbering examples.

Scenario 1: Virtual Enclosure – SGPIO

You install the SuperTrak card into an SGPIO enclosure. You attach a SAS data cable between Port Ch1-4 and the enclosure’s backplane.

In WebPAM PRO, the SGPIO enclosure appears as Enclosure 1. The drives are numbered 1 to 128.

If you attached a second SGPIO enclosure to Port Ch5-8, it would appear in WebPAM PRO as Enclosure 10. The drives would be numbered 129 to 256.

Scenario 2: Virtual Enclosure – Host PC

You install the SuperTrak card into a Host PC. You attach SAS breakout cables to Ports Ch1-4 and Ch5-8 and a SAS or SATA drive at the drive ends of each cable.

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