LSI Enhances MegaRAID SAS/SATA Adapters

LSI Corporation announced MegaRAID(R) Release 3.5, which offers significant new performance, reliability and usability features for the MegaRAID SAS 8700 and 8800 families of 3Gb/s SAS/SATA adapters. The software upgrade includes multipathing and load balancing capabilities designed to reduce system downtime and deliver as much as a 40 percent increase in large-block sequential read performance.

MegaRAID Release 3.5 is the latest release in a new software upgrade program which provides enhanced features and functionality to existing MegaRAID SAS/SATA adapters. The upgrade program is designed to conveniently bundle key enhancements in four areas: data protection and availability; performance; features and usability; and green computing.

"MegaRAID Release 3.5 software provides current customers with a robust and user-friendly upgrade package which can be quickly and easily downloaded via the Web," said Kelly Bryant, DAS RAID business line director, Engenio Storage Group, LSI. "This new feature set, combined with our proven direct- attached storage solutions, reinforces LSI’s position as the leader in providing host-based RAID solutions to the world’s largest server vendors and distributors."

To increase data protection and reduce system failures, MegaRAID Release 3.5 software now offers single controller multipathing. If an I/O link to a dual-port drive should become unavailable due to issues such as faulty or disconnected cables, the MegaRAID adapter can seamlessly continue to access the drive via an alternate path, helping eliminate downtime caused by a single failed I/O link.

MegaRAID Release 3.5 also provides customers with load balancing, a powerful feature for improving application performance. Working in tandem with multipathing, load balancing efficiently distributes read/write requests to available paths. This function maximizes throughput between the MegaRAID adapter and the hard drive, removing bottlenecks while providing up to a 40 percent increase in large-block sequential read performance. The feature is ideal for improving I/O performance for virtual tape library, data backup and media streaming applications.

Additionally, Release 3.5 includes usability features that reduce the time required for installation, setup and maintenance. Customers can now utilize a revertible hot spare feature to automatically restore a hot spare and logical drive to their original configuration. This function allows administrators who prefer to keep a hot spare in a specific slot within the enclosure to easily return to the preferred configuration without a manual rebuild. The revertible hot spare feature reduces or eliminates any administrator maintenance beyond replacement of the failed hard drive.

Bandwidth-intensive applications, including databases and Microsoft Exchange, that require the redundancy of RAID 1 and the performance of RAID 10 can now benefit from much larger disk configurations supported in MegaRAID Release 3.5. New enhancements allow up to 32 drives per RAID 1 volume, and up to 256 drives for RAID 10, improving overall system capacity and storage performance.

Based on the high-performance LSI SAS1078 RAID-on-Chip technology, the MegaRAID adapters also provide green computing benefits with up to 25 percent savings in power consumption compared to previous generation adapters.

New and existing customers of MegaRAID SAS 8700 and 8800 family adapters can download the software upgrades for free via the LSI website.