The added old question is always raised, what’s better?  Onboard Raid or an actual stand alone Raid card popped into one of those free PCI Express slots.  There are many arguments for, and many against.  Stability of the actual system is of a paramont, though the actual security of data being written to the drive and read from the drive plays a huge amount within these actual decisions one has to make.  The aim today is to show just how efficient a stand alone raid card is within the system and what it provides.  Many readers will be well versed in this arena though some not so.  With this in mind and taking into consideration our target audience we take a look today at LSI’s offering of the MegaRAID SAS 8888ELP.   In conjunction with the Raid Card a first look at Western Digitals new RE3 Enterprise SATA drives.  Therefore there is plenty for all within to suit everyone’s needs.

Flexibility best summarizes the features of the SAS 8888ELP. With selectable connectors, one card serves three deployment needs. Users can choose two connectors: two internal, two external or one each.    System builders can attach up to 240 disks; choosing high performance SAS disks or high capacity SATA drives – or a combination of both for greater system design flexibility. Finally, the 8888ELP adapter features a replaceable DDR II 512MB mini DIMM cache module, with two battery backup options covered later on.

Performance.   The MegaRAID SAS 8888ELP is designed to excel in both high I/O transaction and high bandwidth processing. With an integrated 500MHz PowerPC and industry leading 667MHz write cache, and x8 PCI express, the 8888ELP delivers impressive performance numbers – over 1.5 GB/s throughput – allowing steaming video or data backup applications run faster than ever with 1MB stripe configurations.

• 8 SAS/SATA compatible ports
• Two selectable SAS / SATA connectors
  • Two internal mini-SAS 4i connectors (8087)
  • Two external mini-SAS 4x connectors (8088)
• 3 Gb/s throughput per SAS / SATA port
• Fits PCI Express slot, x4 or x8
• 667Mhz DDRII cache (512MB)
• Optional battery backup module
  • Rated 72 hours
• Connect up to 16 intermixed SAS and SATA devices within the same array
• RAID levels 0, 1, 5 and 6
• RAID Spans 10, 50 and 60
• Auto-resume on array rebuild
• Auto resume array reconstruction
• Online Capacity Expansion (OCE)
• RAID Level Migration (RLM))
• Create 64 logical volumes
• Up to 64TB LUN support
• Comprehensive management tools
• LED fault indicator header
• Audible alarm circuit
• LSISAS1078 RAID on Chip
  • 500MHz PowerPC
  • Hardware RAID 5 & 6 engines

The Benefits

• Advanced features to protect data
• High-performance architecture reduces IO bottlenecks
• Unified management application (MSM) simplifies monitoring and management

MegaRAID Battery Backup Reference Guide: shows which battery works with which adapter.

MegaRAID Battery Backup Units (BBU)

Add-on modules that protect against data loss in the event of a server or power failure by providing emergency power to the cache memory.    When power is restored, the data not yet written to the hard drives can be retrieved from cache memory.