Adaptec ASR-6805Q User Manual

Also see for ASR-6405: Information sheet

Contents

Adaptec ASR-6805Q User Manual Manual pdf 71 page image

What’s a SAS Connector?A SAS or mini-SAS connector is the physical plug or receptacle that you see on a SAS device. It’s whatyou plug a SAS cable into, or the end of the SAS cable that’s being plugged in. (See Cables on page 31.)A connector is what forms physical links between phys. Some SAS connectors can support multiple links.The number of links a SAS connector can support is referred to as its width. Narrow connectors supporta single link; wide connectors supports more than 1 link.A single SAS device may have one or more connectors. A single SAS connector may help form linksbetween more than two SAS devices. (For instance, as shown in the figure in Connecting Drives Directlyto the Controller on page 41, the 4-wide internal SAS connector forms links with four independent diskdrives.)What do SAS Cables Look Like?Internal standard SAS cables are narrower than internal parallel SCSI cables. The connectors vary in sizedepending on the number of links they support, from single link connectors to 4-wide (or larger)connectors. Internal fan-out cables let you attach four disk drives to a single 4-wide connector.Mini-SAS connectors support both internal and external SAS connections. The mini-SAS connectors aresmaller than the standard SAS internal and external connectors. Mini-SAS connectors support singleand multilinks with the ability to scale to future speed needs.For examples of some internal SAS/mini-SAS cables and an external SAS/mini-SAS cables, see Cables onpage 31.How are Disk Drives Identified in SAS?In the BIOS and in the management utilities (see Identifying Disk Drives on page 90), disk drives areidentified in the following formats:• CNX:DevY = Device Y is attached to Connector X (see Direct-attach Connections on page 71 for moreinformation)• BoxX:SlotX = Enclosure X is attached to a disk drive in Slot X (see Backplane Connections on page72 for more information)• ExpX:PhyX = Expander X is attached to Phy X (see SAS Expander Connections on page 72 for moreinformation)where X is the count number.Note: Devices other than disk drives (CDROM, tape drives, etc...) are listed in orderafter your system disk drives.In parallel SCSI, XX is the disk drive’s channel number, YY is the target number, and ZZ is the logical unitnumber (LUN).What are the SAS Connection Options?You can connect end devices to each other through direct cable connections and through backplaneconnections. When you use one or more expander devices (see SAS Expander Connections on page 72),you can create large configurations.Direct-attach ConnectionsIn a direct-attach connection, SAS or SATA disk drives are connected directly to a SAS card with SAS ormini-SAS cables. One disk drive is attached to one SAS/mini-SAS connector with one SAS/mini-SAS cable(or multiple disk drives are attached to one SAS/mini-SAS connector with one fan-out cable). The figurein Connecting Drives Directly to the Controller on page 41 shows an example of direct-attach connections.71Proprietary and Confidential to PMC-Sierra, Inc.Document No.: CDP-00277-02-A Rev. A, Issue:Serial Attached SCSI RAID Controllers Installation and User's Guide