Frequently Asked Questions About the Intel® Storage Controller AXXSCM3S
| Note | The product is no longer available for purchase. See the Intel® Storage Controller AXXSCM3S product discontinuance. |
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Should I create a single drive pool, or multiple pools?
Although a single pool is easier to create and monitor, multiple pools give greater control, and performance issues can be isolated from other compute modules.Can I mix SATA and SAS drives in an MFSYS25 system?
The system supports mixing SAS drives and SSDs, or SAS drives and SATA drives, but every storage pool must be based on the same drive type, firmware and rpm. See the tested hardware and operating system list (THOL) for validated configurations with SAS and SATA drives mixed within the MFSYS25. To operate SATA drives or SSDs, the AXXTM3SATA converters must be installed in every drive bay that will contain a SATA disk or an SSD. The system firmware must be at a minimum of UFU 5.0 to support SATA and SSD drives.Does drive order matter?
The Storage Controller tracks drives by their physical location. Do not change drive slots on a live server.Can two servers share a Virtual Drive simultaneously?
You may share a single virtual drive among multiple Compute Modules with the Shared LUN feature.Do I have to have two Storage Controller Modules (SCMs)?
Only one Storage Controller is required. The second is optional on the MFSYS25, MFSYS25V2, or MFSYS35.Can I copy a virtual drive to another virtual drive, or back up the entire image pool?
The Intel® Modular Server Storage Management Pack (formerly LUN Copier) feature enables virtual drive copying.Can you store the RAID or storage pool configuration, and deploy the configuration widely?
The Intel® Modular Server Advanced Management Pack feature enables exporting and importing all system configuration, including storage configuration as a .zip file.Can I create global spare drives? How do global spares work?
A global spare is a drive that any RAID array (with drives of the same physical capacity) can use, and it is not dedicated to one in particular.What is a reversible spare drive?
RAID migration is performed to this drive if another drive fails. After the failed drive is replaced, the data transitions back from the reversible spare to the replacement drive.Can you add drives from the lower bay?
Each Storage Controller is connected to both the upper and lower bay.What is the maximum virtual drive size for the storage pool?
No artificial limit is enforced. The maximum size is the total of all your drive space.What is the initial state of the storage?
No preconfigured storage configuration exists because the chassis ships without any drives installed. Having no drives installed allows you to fully customize the storage subsystem.How do I configure my external RAID subsystem through the GUI? Do I have to attach it to both SCMs if I run in dual-mode?
The external storage array management software must be used to configure all drives within the array. See the tested hardware and operating system list (THOL) for the list of peripherals that can be attached to the external SAS port. You must order external RAID subsystem units with a second controller to be able to attach to both SCMs simultaneously.If my SCM fails, will I lose my drive information?
The drive information is stored as metadata on the hard drives. Drive information will be saved even if you replace the SCM.How can I optimize my RAID performance?
Multiple storage pools optimize performance.What do I need to consider if I enable disk caching to increase performance?
An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) should secure any Modular Server system that has disk caching enabled. A power loss during I/O transactions with disk caching enabled may result in data loss or data corruption.What read/write speed should I expect?
This question is dependent on the pool size, RAID type, number of hard drives, operating system, and benchmark tool used.What is the maximum speed of the controller or backplane?
Each storage controller has six separate dedicated 3Gbps connections, one to each compute module.How much memory is on the module?
The Storage Controller Module has 512 MB.What are background tasks and why do they impact performance?
Background tasks are activities that run in the background, only consuming a set amount of system resources. The scheduled tasks, such as Media Patrol, Spare Check, and Redundancy Check, are implemented to check and safeguard the health of physical and virtual drives. A rebuild after a disk failure is also running as a background task. As these tasks need a certain amount of system resources, a performance impact may be seen when they are running.Can I reschedule or disable the scheduled tasks?
Scheduled tasks run at specific times:
- Media Patrol: The first Saturday of each month, start at 3:00 a.m.
- Spare Check: Every Tuesday, start at 3:00 a.m.
- Redundancy Check: The second Sunday of each month, start at 3:00 a.m.
Scheduling for Media Patrol and Spare Check cannot be changed or disabled. The Redundancy Check can be disabled with firmware UFU 6.6 or later.
What is SCM affinity?
On Virtual drives, the Affinity/action column indicates which SCM is the preferred controller (affinity property) and to which SCM the VD will fail over to. These SCMs are configurable in the VD configuration area. Failover will only be available if the second SCM is installed.How do I connect external devices to the SCM?
- View the back of the chassis and select the SCM.
- Select Actions - Expansion Port.
- Choose the module that will use the external device and click Apply.
See the Promise* VTrak Connection Guide for more information.