The Smart Array Advantage
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HP's innovative design and integration work of the Smart Array family of products creates customer value that is unmatched in the industry. Use of Smart Array products across multiple applications results in a much lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) than any other server storage RAID product. The HP Smart Array family brings an unparalleled return on investment through:
Data Compatibility among all models of Smart Array controllers allows simple and easy upgrades any time needs for higher performance, capacity, and availability increase. Even successive generations of Smart Array controllers understand the data format of other Smart Array Controllers.
Consistent Configuration and Management Tools. All Smart Array products utilize a standard set of management and utility software. These tools minimize Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by reducing training requirements and technical expertise necessary to install and maintain the HP server storage.
Universal Hard Drive form factor is for use across multiple HP servers, disk enclosures and storage systems. With compatibility across many enterprise platforms, you are free to deploy and re-deploy these drives to quickly deliver increased storage capacity, migrate data between systems, and easily manage spare drives.
Pre-Failure Warranty means HP Insight Manager not only reports when a drive is going to fail but allows replacement of failing drives prior to actual failure. For complete details, consult the HP Support Center or refer to your HP Server documentation.
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Key features
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The SA-P410 Controller supports up to 12 drives depending on the server implementation. Additional drives can be supported with cache and connection to an expander.
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Seamless upgrades from past generations and upgrades to next generation HP high performance and high capacity Serial Attached SCSI Smart Array controllers.
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6Gb/s SAS technology delivers high performance and data bandwidth and contains full compatibility with 3Gb/s SATA technology.
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x8 PCI Express gen 2 host interface technology delivers high performance and data bandwidth up to 2 GB/s maximum bandwidth.
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Modular, easy-to-upgrade design lets you optimize performance by upgrading from 40-bit 256MB cache to 72-bit 512MB battery-backed write cache (BBWC).
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Addition of the battery backed cache upgrade enables BBWC, RAID 5, 5+0, array expansion, logical drive extension, RAID migration, and stripe size migration.
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Additionally, Smart Array Advanced Pack License key enables RAID 6 (ADG), 6+0, Advanced Capacity Expansion, Mirror Splitting and Recombining in Offline Mode, Drive Erase, Performance Optimization-Degraded Reads and Read Coalescing (VOD).
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Mix-and-match SAS and SATA hard drives, lets you deploy drive technology as needed to fit your computing environment.
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Software consistency among all Smart Array family products: Array Configuration Utility (ACU), Option ROM Configuration for Arrays (ORCA), Systems Insight Manager, Array Diagnostic Utility (ADU) and SmartStart.
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Low-profile PCI Express form factor - ships with a full size bracket for deployment in either a low-profile or full sized slot.
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Management features
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Online array expansion (with BBWC upgrade)
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Online Advanced Capacity Expansion (with BBWC and Smart Array Advanced Pack upgrade)
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Online logical drive extension (with BBWC upgrade)
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Online RAID level migration (with BBWC upgrade)
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Online strip size migration (with BBWC upgrade)
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Offline Mirror splitting and recombining (with BBWC and Smart Array Advanced Pack upgrade)
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Unlimited global online spare assignment
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User selectable expand and rebuild priority
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User selectable RAID level and stripe size
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User selectable read and write cache sizes
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Ports
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Eight (8) SAS physical links distributed across 2 internal x4 wide port connectors.
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Performance
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HP's High Performance Architecture sets new boundaries of industry performance expectations!
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6 Gb/s SAS [(600 MB/s bandwidth per physical link)]
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x8 6 Gb/s SAS physical links (compatible with 3 Gb/s SATA )
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256MB 40-bit wide DDR2-800 MHz cache upgradeable to 512MB 72-bit wide DDR2-800 MHz battery-backed cache provides up to 4.2 GB/s maximum bandwidth
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x8 PCI Express gen 2 host interface provides maximum bandwidth
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Gen 2.0
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Read ahead caching
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Write-back caching (with battery-backed write cache upgrade)
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Native Command Queuing
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Native Command Queuing (NCQ) is a technology designed to increase performance of SATA hard disk drives by allowing the individual hard disk to internally optimize the order in which received read and write commands are executed. This can reduce the amount of unnecessary going back-and-forth on the drive's heads, resulting in increased performance for workloads where multiple simultaneous read/write requests are outstanding, most often occurring in server or storage-type applications. Without NCQ the drive has to process and complete one command at a time. For NCQ to be enabled, it must be supported and turned on in the controller and in the hard drive itself.
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Capacity
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Given the increasing need for high performance and rapid capacity expansion, the SA-P410 Controller offers:
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Availability
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Provides increased server uptime by providing advanced storage functionality:
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Online RAID level migration (between any RAID level/with BBWC)
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Online stripe size migration
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Online array expansion
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Online logical drive extension
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Online drive firmware upgrade
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Unlimited global online spare
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Pre-Failure Warranty
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Fault prevention
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The following features offer detection of possible failures before they occur, allowing preventive action to be taken:
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S.M.A.R.T.: Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology first developed at HP detects possible hard disk failure before it occurs, allowing replacement of the hard drive before a real failure occurs.
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Drive Parameter Tracking monitors drive operational parameters, predicting failure and notifying the administrator.
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Dynamic Sector Repairing continually performs background surface scans on the hard disk drives during inactive periods and automatically remaps bad sectors, ensuring data integrity.
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Smart Array Cache Tracking monitors integrity of controller cache, allowing pre-failure preventative maintenance.
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Fault tolerance
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Keeps data available and server running while a failed drive is being replaced; several fault tolerance configurations are supported including:
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RAID 6 with ADG (Advanced Data Guarding): This is the highest level of fault tolerance. It allocates two sets of parity data across drives and allows simultaneous write operations. This level of fault tolerance can withstand two simultaneous drive failures without downtime or data loss.
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RAID 6+0: Supported with min of 8 drives, but would have 4 available. Target benefit is to split RAID across the external boxes
NOTE: RAID 6, 6+0 is available only with the minimum of 256MB, Battery Kit, and Smart Array Advanced Pack License Key option upgrades
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RAID 5 (Distributed Data Guarding): This allocates one set of parity data across drives and allows simultaneous write operations. This level of fault tolerance can withstand a single drive failure without downtime or data loss.
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RAID 5+0: This is a RAID 0 array striped across 5 elements. Combines the straight block-level striping of RAID 0 with the distributed parity of RAID 5.
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RAID 1, 1+0 (Drive Mirroring): This allocates half of the drive array to data and the other half to mirrored data, providing two copies of every file. It is a high-performance RAID.
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Fault recovery
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Minimizes downtime, reconstructs data, and facilitates a quick recovery from drive failure
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Recovery ROM: This feature protects the user from a firmware image corruption by storing a redundant copy of the firmware image. If the active firmware image becomes corrupt, the controller will use the redundant firmware image and continue operating.
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On-Line Spares: There is no limit to the number of spare drives that can be installed prior to drive failure. If a failure occurs, recovery begins with an On-Line Spare and data is reconstructed automatically.
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DRAM ECC detects and corrects data bit errors.
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Battery-backed write cache upgrade provides for up to two days of battery power for data cache retention. The data backup duration could be extended anytime the server's auxiliary power is available during system power down.
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Ease of use
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Consistency and Upgradeability make the Smart Array family unique in the industry:
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GUI based configuration, management and diagnostic software tools
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Common data format between generations of products
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Data migration between servers and external StorageWorks Modular Smart Array enclosures
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