LSI MegaRAID 9260-8i Review – Storage Manager Software, FastPath and CacheCade

Les Tokar March 12, 2011 1 Comment

LSI MEGARAID STORAGE MANAGER

Once the LSI 9260-8i is installed and recognized, there needs to be a means by which we can set up and fine tune our RAID configurations. This is where the MegaRAID Storage Manager comes in and the application is included on the DVD or can be found on the website. Click on the image for a better view.

This may look a bit intimidating but it really isn’t. We had never used this before and had our first LSI RAID config up and running in less than 20 minutes.

From there, we ripped it apart and tried another…and another…and another. We then got up the nerve to start playing with different settings and, well, we have to give the team at XtremeSystems.Org credit here because any question we had, they had the answer for within minutes. This is, without a doubt, the best place to go if you want to know about LSI RAID Cards.

PREMIUM SOFTWARE UPGRADES

There are a number of software products that can be purchased to upgrade the safety and performance of LSI MegaRAID cards. Our sample card was supplied to us with Fastpath, CacheCade and advance RAID configuration options activated so we are unable to draw a comparison between the before and after of each add-on. We have listed each below as shown directly on the LSI website:

LSI MegaRAID FastPath – LSI MegaRAID FastPath optimization software provides a high performance I/O accelerator, designed to dramatically boost transactional application throughput of multiple SSDs connected to a 6Gb/s SATA+SAS MegaRAID controller. MegaRAID FastPath software supports full optimization of SSD Virtual Disk groups to deliver a 3X improvement in read and write I/Os per second (IOPS) compared to the previous generation product;
LSI MegaRAID CacheCade – LSI MegaRAID CacheCade software for tiered cache allows users to leverage SSDs in front of hard disk drives (HDDs) to create up to 512GB of controller cache. Using SSDs as controller cache allows for very large data sets to be present in cache to deliver up to a 50X performance improvement in read-intensive applications, such as file, Web, OLTP and database server. The solution is designed to provide a dramatic performance upgrade while only requiring a small investment in SSD technology;
LSI MegaRAID Recovery – LSI MegaRAID Recovery software enhances file and boot-block/volume protection, empowering IT administrators with data retrieval and upgrade risk-management. Users can capture source volume data at designated Points-in-Time (PiT) and “restore ” or “rollback” should accidental or malicious data deletion or infection occur. While traditional periodic off-hour backups continue to be the primary method for preventing complete data loss, MegaRAID Recovery software meets a growing need for more frequent restore points and reduced recovery times. By supplementing traditional backup methods with MegaRAID Recovery software, IT organizations can avoid unexpected downtime and greatly enhance their level of business continuity, data protection and restore capabilities; and
LSI MegaRAID SafeStore – Data security also has been enhanced utilizing MegaRAID SafeStore software. This feature, together with self-encrypting drives (SEDs), secures a drive’s data from unauthorized access or modification resulting from theft, loss or repurposing of drives. Local key management in the controller is designed to protect data from security breaches with minimal cost and complexity. Another benefit of SafeStore software with SED drives is the ability to instantly and securely make data on disk drives unreadable, significantly reducing the time and cost associated with secure drive erasure.

BENCHMARK TESTING

We have elected to adapt a quick and easy comparison in our testing today, in that, we are going to dispense with each benchmarks purpose and benefit and just lay it all out there. Should the reader not understand any of the benchmarks, please visit any of our previous reviews where we take the time to explain the pro’s and cons of each.

CRYSTAL DISKMARK X64 V.3.0