
Chapter 3. Technical description of the hardware architecture 59
Before you can create a RAID array, you must reformat the hard disk drives so
that the sector size of the drives changes from 512 MB to 528 MB. If you later
decide to remove the hard disk drives, delete the RAID array before you remove
the drives.
If you decide to delete the RAID array and reuse the hard disk drives, you must
reformat the drives so that the sector size of the drives changes from 528 MB to
512 MB.
When the IBM BladeCenter JS43 Express is installed in a Blade Center Storage
(BCS) and all or some of the BCS DASD are configured to that blade slots, those
devices, if formatted to 528-Byte sector, can also be candidates for RAID array
members with the JS43 Express drives themselves.
SAS CIOv paddle card
When the CIOv SAS paddle card is installed on an IBM BladeCenter JS23 or
JS43 Express, it is possible to access the hard drives installed on a Blade Center
S or external hard drive array.
Supported SAS topology via CIOv paddle card
When the CIOv SAS paddle card is installed on Base or MPE planar, the SAS
controller can access the hard drives installed on a BCS or external hard drive
array. The CIOv Paddle connects the SAS controller to the SAS switch bay 3 and
bay 4. Each SAS Switch bay may be populated with a Non-Raid SAS Switch
Module (NSSM).
In BCS, the switch expands the SAS controller ports to the two internal DSMs
and to storage enclosures that are attached to 4 external connections of the
switch modules. In Blade Center H (BCH) or Blade Center HT (BCHT), only
external storage enclosures are attached to the 4 external ports of the SAS
switch. There is not internal storage in BCH nor BCHT.
Configurations are allowed with either one or both switch bays populated. Each
NSSM contains 4 mini SAS connectors on it. The two SAS devices that can be
attached to these connectors are SAS Tape devices and DS3200.
DS3200 is a RAID box that will appears as a SAS End device/Target with one or
more LUNs. SAS Tape devices are also end devices.
Furthermore, when a IBM BladeCenter JS23 Express is installed in a BCS, there
are “internal storage” Data Storage Modules in BCS that attaches to the NSSM
Note: By the time of this writing, RAID SAS Switch Modules (RSSM) is not
supported.
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