HBA 1100 FAQs
Overview
Product & Features
» How is the Microsemi Adaptec® HBA 1100 different from prior Microsemi HBAs?» What models are included in the HBA 1100 Product Line?
» How does the HBA 1100 compare with previously announced competitive offerings?
» What is the performance of HBA 1100?
» How is the HBA 1100 power consumption on average 60% lower than competition?
» Is there a limit to the number of supported HBA's in a single system?
» Do the HBA's support mixing of 6Gb and 12Gb devices on the same HBA?
» What operating systems are supported?
» What management utilities are included with the HBA 1100?
» What is the warranty period on the HBA 1100?
» When and where are the HBA 1100 products available?
Applications
» What applications are best suited for HBA 1100's and why?» How compatible is the HBA 1100 family?
» Are there unique connector requirements for such high port count configurations?
» Is HBA 1100 supported inbox in Linux operating systems?
» What are implications of using HBA 1100 with existing 6Gb/s SATA SSDs?
Products & Features
How is the Microsemi Adaptec HBA 1100 different from prior Microsemi HBAs?
The HBA 1100 is based on the SmartIOC 2100 SAS/SATA protocol controller and delivers enterprise resiliency with its broadly deployed Smart Storage stack. It offers over 40% power savings compared to previous generations, and significant power advantages versus competing solutions The HBA 1100 adapters can aggregate the performance of devices to the limits of the PCIe Gen3 host bus at 6.6 Gbps, and achieve up to 1.7M IOPS and 60% higher IOPS performance with SATA devices without additional overhead or latency.
The HBA 1100 Series is also optimized for new devices and new use cases. It supports SMR HDDs and their specific command sets (ZAC/ZBC for SAS/SATA SMR drives), enabling cost-efficient solutions for bulk andcold storage applications. It also supports the latest SAS and SATA SSDs. The HBA 1100 is also optimized for software-defined storage solutions, such as Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct, VMWare vSAN, and OpenStack Swift/Ceph.
What models are included in the HBA 1100 Product Line?
Five specific models make up the HBA 1100 product line. All have the same 8 lane PCIe Gen 3 host interface in a compact MD2 form factor and a set of common software, drivers and tools. The model differences lie in their SAS connectivity applications. There are four internal connector configurations for 24, 16, 8 and 4 ports and one external 8-port configuaration.
How does the HBA 1100 compare with competitive offerings?
The HBA 1100 offers the industry’s lowest power solution for any x8 PCIe Gen 3 SAS-3 capable HBA by virtue of its highly integrated and power-optimized 28nm SAS/SATA storage controller, the SmartIOC 2100. Furthermore, it boasts the quality and ease of qualification inherent in the Smart Storage stack.
What is the performance of HBA 1100?
The HBA 1100 Series provides the highest levels of storage performance and scalability for next-generation data centers. Using the new SmartPQI host OS device drivers that are optimized for low latency solid-state drives, HBA 1100 adapters can aggregate the performance of devices to the limits of the PCIe Gen3 host bus at 6.6 Gbps, and achieve up to 1.7M IOPS and 60% higher IOPS performance with SATA devices without additional overhead or latency (16- and 24-port adapters can achieve 1.7M random read IOPS for 4 KB I/Os. Adapters with 8 ports and fewer are capable of 1.5M IOPS.) The HBA1100-24i, with 24 internal ports, delivers the lowest latency and highest performance when connected to SSDs, with no need for expanders in most rack server applications.
How is the HBA 1100 power consumption on average 60% lower than competition?
In addition to superior scalability and performance, the 16 port HBA 1100 models consume 60% less power on average than competitive HBAs, thanks to the power-efficient Microsemi SmartIOC. The specific comparison is based on an average of various 16 port HBA configuration – HBA 1100 Series 16 port models: 11.45W and Competitor's HBA 16 port models: 27.8 W.
Is there a limit to the number of supported HBA's in a single system?
The Legacy BIOS supports up to 4 controllers and uEFI can support up to 64 controllers.
Do the HBA's support mixing of 6Gb and 12Gb devices on the same HBA?
The HBA can support the mixing of 6Gbps and 12Gbps SAS devices, however it is not recommended from a best practices viewpoint. The mixing of different speed devices can lead to performance issues due to the limitations of the slower targets because applications expect devices logically grouped together to have similar performance characteristics.
What operating systems are supported?
Microsoft Windows, Red Hat, SuSE, CentOS, Ubuntu, and VMware ESXi, FreeBSD, Solaris, Citrix XEN Server. The latest drivers and OS support are at storage.microsemi.com/en-us/support/.
What management utilities are included with the HBA 1100?
maxView Storage Manager is a web-based utility enabling remote management, monitoring, and configuration through secure, encrypted communication and easily integrates with third-party clients via SMI-S.
ARCCONF (Command Line Interface – CLI) - Text-based command line interface that provides the same functions as maxView Storage Manager in environments where a GUI is not available.
uEFI/HII support – HII (Human Interface Infrastructure) is an API that allows integration of third-party configuration tools into motherboard system BIOS.
BIOS configuration utility (ACU) – used for quick and easy local setup without booting the OS.
Do the HBA's support mixing of 6Gb and 12Gb devices on the same HBA?
The HBA can support the mixing of 6Gbps and 12Gbps SAS devices, however it is not recommended from a best practices viewpoint. The mixing of different speed devices can lead to performance issues due to the limitations of the slower targets because applications expect devices logically grouped together to have similar performance characteristics.
When and where are the HBA 1100 products available?
They will be available in numerous OEM products as their individual schedules dictate and from Microsemi Adaptec distributors worldwide by the end of December 2017. A list of distributors can be found here.
Applications
What applications are best suited for HBA 1100's and why?
HBA 1100 Series is designed to deliver "pure" connectivity while not limiting performance between host and storage devices and is also optimized for new devices and new Use Cases, it supports SMR HDDs and their specific command sets (ZAC/ZBC for SAS/SATA SMR drives), enabling cost-efficient solutions for warm and cold storage applications. It also supports the latest SAS and SATA SSDs. The HBA 1100 is also optimized for software-defined storage solutions, such as Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct, VMWare vSAN, and OpenStack Swift/Ceph.
How compatible is the HBA 1100 family?
The HBA 1100 is both SAS 3.0 and PCIe 3.0 compliant, but system applications can be complex and unique product offerings are available. A list of products verified to be compatible with the HBA 1100 family is located at www.adaptec.com/compatibility.
Are there unique connector requirements for such high port count configurations?
There are no unique cable requirements for connecting to the HBA 1100 12 Gbps SAS ports. All models of the HBA 1100 are compliant with the SAS 3.0 standard connector callouts: internal connections use SFF-8643 connectors and external connections use SFF-8644 connectors, collectively referred to as "HD Mini" SAS Connectors.
Cables used with Microsemi Adaptec Series 8 RAID controllers, SmartRAID and SmartHBA are all also compatible with the HBA 1100. A list of Microsemi Adaptec cables can be found at here.
Is HBA 1100 supported inbox in Linux operating systems?
Yes, the HBA 1100 is supported inbox in the most popular Linux operating systems.
What are implications of using HBA 1100 with existing 6Gb/s SATA SSDs?
Obviously, the HBA 1100 backward compatibility to 6 Gbps SAS enables it to also be connected to 'value' based SSDs with SATA interfaces. In combination with a Microsemi Adaptec 82885T, 'edge buffering' can almost double the number of effective 6Gb/s devices that can be connected to the system. The additional device performance can then be scaled by the HBA 1100 up to the PCIe limited performance.
Resources
Product DetailsProduct DifferentiatorsProduct Compatibility/IntegrationCables & AccessoriesProduct Guide |
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