8-3
Chapter 8: Integrated Striping
8-4 Integrated Striping Firmware
This section describes features of the Integrated RAID firmware.

Metadata Supp ort

The firmware supports metadata, which describes the IS logical drive configuration
stored on each member disk. When the firmware is initialized, each member disk is
queried to read the stored metadata to verify the configuration. The usable disk space
for each IS member disk is adjusted down when the configuration is created, in order to
leave room for this data.

SMART Support

SMART is a technology that monitors hard disk drives for signs of future disk failure and
generates an alert if such signs are detected. The firmware polls each physical disk in
the volume at regular intervals. If the firmware detects a SMART ASC/ASCQ code on a
physical disk in the IS volume, it processes the SMART data and stores it in nonvolatile
memory. The IS volume does not support SMART directly, since it is just a logical
representation of the physical disks in the volume.

Disk Write Caching

Disk write caching is enabled by default on all IS volumes.
8-5 Fusion-MPT Support
The BIOS uses the LSI Fusion-MPT interface to communicate to the SAS controller and
firmware to enable IS. This includes reading the Fusion-MPT configuration to gain
access to the parameters that are used to define behavior between the SAS controller
and the devices connected to it. The Fusion-MPT drivers for all supported operating
systems implement the Fusion-MPT interface to communicate with the controller and
firmware.
8-6 IS Configuration Overview
You can use the SAS BIOS CU to create one or two IS volumes, with up to twelve drives
total, on an SAS controller. Each volume can have from two to ten drives. Disks in an IS
volume must be connected to the same SAS controller, and the controller must be in the
BIOS boot order.
Although you can use disks of different size in IS volumes, the smallest disk determines
the “logical” size of each disk in the volume. In other words, the excess space of the
larger member disk(s) is not used.
Usable disk space for each disk in an IS volume is adjusted down to leave room for
metadata. Usable disk space may be further reduced to maximize the ability to
interchange disks in the same size classification.