Asus LSI SAS3442X-R - Manual (Page 40)

4-4 Overview of Integrated Striping
Version 1.1 Copyright © 2006, 2007 by LSI Logic Corporation. All rights reserved.
4.4 Integrated Striping Firmware
This section describes features of the LSI Integrated RAID firmware.
4.4.1 Metadata Support
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.
4.4.2 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.
4.4.3 Disk Write Caching
Disk write caching is enabled by default on all IS volumes.
4.5 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.