ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller

The ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller is a part of the IBM ServeRAID M Series family. The M5120 comes as a small form factor PCIe adapter, and it shares a common set of ServeRAID M Series upgrades available for the entire family, simplifying inventory management. This controller is optimized for high-performance external data storage with integration of dual-core chip architecture, DDR3 1333 MHz cache memory, and PCIe 3.0 host interface. A portfolio of building blocks allows clients to design around a bottoms-up approach and caters to a wide array of storage requirements. Upgrade features such as support for RAID 6/60, performance optimization, and caching with SSDs no longer require a hardware key. They are implemented through Features-on-Demand (FoD) software licenses.


Figure 2. ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller (with flash module)

Table 4. ServeRAID M5120 ordering part numbers and feature codes

ServeRAID M5120 specifications

The ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller has the following specifications:

• PCI Low Profile, Half-length - MD2 form factor
• Eight external 6 Gbps SAS/SATA ports
• Two external Mini-SAS connectors (SFF-8088)
• 6 Gbps throughput per port
• 800 MHz dual-core IBM PowerPC® processor with LSI SAS2208 6 Gbps RAID on Chip (ROC) controller
• PCI Express 3.0 x8 host interface
• Support for RAID levels 0, 1, 10 standard, support for RAID 5, 50 and 6, 60 with additional upgrades
• Onboard data cache (DDR3 running at 1333 MHz) required for M5120 operations (does not come standard, must be purchased in addition to M5120) with the choice of:
  • 512 MB with optional battery backup
  • 512 MB or 1 GB with flash backup (MegaRAID CacheVault technology)
• Supports SAS, SATA HDDs, and SSDs
• Intermix of SAS and SATA HDDs and SSDs is supported, but the mixing of different drives type in the same array (drive group) is not recommended
• Connects to up to 240 external drives
• Supports connections to EXP2512 and EXP2524 external expansion enclosures
• Optional support for self-encrypting drives (SEDs) with MegaRAID SafeStore
• Optional support for SSD performance acceleration with MegaRAID FastPath and SSD caching with MegaRAID CacheCade Pro 2.0
• Supports up to 64 virtual drives, up to 128 drive groups, up to 16 virtual drives per one drive group, and up to 32 physical drives per one drive group
• Supports LUN sizes up to 64 TB
• Configurable stripe size up to 1 MB
• Compliant with Disk Data Format (DDF) configuration on disk (COD)
• S.M.A.R.T. support
• MegaRAID Storage Manager management software

The ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller supports connectivity to the IBM System Storage® external expansion enclosures listed in the following table. Up to nine expansion enclosures can be daisy chained per one M5120's external port. For better performance, distribute expansion enclosures evenly across both M5120 ports.

Table 5. IBM System Storage external expansion enclosures