2 sas array limitations – Avago Technologies MegaRAID SAS 9240-4i User Manual
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6Gb/s MegaRAID SAS RAID Controllers User Guide
August 2013
Overview
Summary of 6Gb/s MegaRAID SATA+SAS RAID Controller Characteristics
Support of wide ports that consist of two, three, or four PHYs within a single quad port.
Support of narrow ports consisting of a single PHY.
Data transfer using SCSI information units.
1.6.2
SAS Array Limitations
This section describes the array limitations of the MegaRAID 6Gb/s SAS RAID controllers. These limitations include the
number of drives supported per controller, the maximum number of drives per controller, and the maximum number
of virtual drives allowed per controller.
The following table lists the array limitations for the MegaRAID 6Gb/s SAS RAID controllers.
The maximum numbers in the previous table depend on how many physical devices you have connected to the RAID
controller. For example, the maximum number of drive groups is equal to the number of drives that are supported by
the controller. Thus, for the MegaRAID SAS 9240-4i RAID controller, the maximum number of drive groups per
controller is 16, which is based on the maximum number of physical devices that you can connect. In addition, the
maximum number of hot spares per controller is equal to the maximum number of drives per controller.
Although you can have up to 16 virtual drives per drive group, and up to 128 drive groups on most of the controllers,
a limit of 64 virtual drives exists on those controllers.
These RAID controllers support 64-bit logical block addressing (LBA), which makes it possible to connect a large
number of drives to the RAID controller, directly and through expanders. However, the actual number of drives that
you can attach depends on the limits listed in this table rather than by actual RAID volume capacity.
Table 1 6Gb/s MegaRAID SATA+SAS RAID Controllers Array Limitations
Specification
SAS 9240-4
i
SAS 9240-8
i
SAS 9260-4
i
SAS 9260C
V
-4
i
SAS 9260-8
i
SAS 9260C
V
-8
i
SAS 9260
-16i
SAS 9261-8
i
SAS 9265-8
i
SAS 9265C
V
-8
i
SAS 9265-8
i
SAS 9266-4
i
SAS 9271-4
i
SAS 9266-8
i
SAS 9271-8
i
SAS 9
280 4i4
e
SAS 9280-8e
SAS 9
280DE-8
e
SA
S 9280-
16i4e
SA
S 9280-
24i4e
SAS 9285-8e
SAS 9285C
V
-8e
SAS 9286-8e
SAS 9286C
V
-8e
Maximum virtual drives per
controller
16
16
64
64
64
64
64
64
64
64
64
64
64
64
64
Maximum drive groups per
controller
16
16
128
128
128 128
128
128
128
128 128 128 128 128
128
Maximum virtual drives per drive
group
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
Maximum drives per drive group
16
16
32
32
32
32
32
32
32
32
32
32
32
32
32
Maximum drives per controller
16
a
a.
These controllers can support up to 64 devices, but only 16 can be used in a RAID configuration.
128
128
128 128
128
128
128
240 240 240 240 240
240
Maximum hot spares per controller 16
128
128
128 128
128
128
128
240 240 240 240 240
240
Maximum spans per virtual drive
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
Maximum enclosures per port
b
b.
The number assumes one storage enclosure processor (SEP) per enclosure.
2
2
2
2
10
2
2
2
2
10
10
2
10
10
10
Number of port connectors
1
2
1
2
4
2
2
1
2
2
2
2
5
7
2
- MegaRAID SAS 9240-8i MegaRAID SAS 9260-16i MegaRAID SAS 9260-4i MegaRAID SAS 9260-8i MegaRAID SAS 9261-8i MegaRAID SAS 9266-4i MegaRAID SAS 9266-8i MegaRAID SAS 9270-8i MegaRAID SAS 9271-4i MegaRAID SAS 9271-8i MegaRAID SAS 9271-8iCC MegaRAID SAS 9280-16i4e MegaRAID SAS 9280-4i4e MegaRAID SAS 9280-8e MegaRAID SAS 9286-8e MegaRAID SAS 9286CV-8e MegaRAID SAS 9286CV-8eCC MegaRAID SAS 9285-8ecv