-------------------------------------------------------------------README.TXT
Adaptec ASR-7805/ASR-7805Q/ASR-71605/ASR-71605Q/ASR-71605E/ASR-71685/ASR-72405/ASR-78165
SAS/SATA RAID Controllers
Adaptec ASR-8805/ASR-8885/ASR-8885Q/ASR-81605ZQ SAS/SATA RAID Controllers
AFM-700 Flash Backup Unit
NOTE:

All Adaptec by PMC products are UL listed and for use only with UL listed ITE.

as of December 5, 2013-------------------------------------------------------------------Please review this file for important information about issues
and errata that were discovered after completion of the standard
product documentation. In the case of conflict between various
parts of the documentation set, this file contains the mostcurrent information.
The following information is available in this file:
1. New Features in this Release
2. Software and Documentation
2.1
Driver & Utility Software
2.2
Documentation
3. Installation and Setup
3.1
Installation Instructions
3.2
Partition Setup
3.3
DKMS Driver Setup for Red Hat 6/CentOS 6
3.4
AFM-700 Flash Backup Unit Setup
3.4.1 Supercapacitor Setup with Adaptec Series 7Q Controllers
3.4.2 Status LEDs
3.5
Windows SBS 2011 Setup
3.6
Solaris 11 Express Setup
3.7
SLES 11 Setup
3.7.1 SLES 11 SP3 Inbox Driver Issues
3.7.2 SLES 11 SP3 with 4KB/Sector Drives
3.8
Fedora Linux Setup
3.9
Debian Linux Setup
3.10 Ubuntu Linux Setup
3.11 Adaptec maxCache and maxCache Plus Setup
3.12 Dual Firmware Flash Image Support
3.13 Adaptec Flash Utility (AFU) Support
4. Known Limitations
4.1
Linux Boot Device
4.2
OS Installation with RAW Devices
4.3
AFM-700 Flash Backup Unit
4.4
ATAPI Devices
4.5
Drive Compatibility Issues
4.6
System Compatibility Issues
4.7
RAID 50/RAID 60, Max Drives
4.8
Solaris 32-bit Array Size Limits
4.9
SLES 11 Boot Device Migration Issues
4.10 uEFI BIOS Issues
4.11 BIOS Feature Disparity: Selectable Performance Mode
4.12 hdparm Support
4.13 HDA Mode Reset-------------------------------------------------------------------1. New Features in this Releaseo First channel release of Adaptec RAID 8805/8885/8885Q/81605ZQ
SAS/SATA RAID controllers. Key features include:• 8-16 ports, 12 Gb/s I/O• Up to 4 internal mini-SAS HD connectors, 2 external mini-SAS HD connectors• SAS 2.1, PCIe 3.0• Low-profile MD2 card size
• Integrated AFM-700 flash backup module (ASR-81605ZQ only)o Support for Adaptec maxCache Plus caching and tiering softwareon Adaptec Series 8Q/8ZQ controllers. See Section 3.11 for more.
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o Downloadable drivers for all supported operating systems at start.adaptec.com(replaces physical media/DVD for creation of driver disks)o Native support for 4K sector drives
For hard disk drives working in 4K native mode, the disk media
exposes its 4KB physical sector size to the controller firmware
and operating system. Support for 4KB logical sectors within
operating systems varies by vendor and OS version (for more
information, see the Adaptec Knowledge Base at http://ask.adaptec.com).
NOTE: Only uEFI systems can boot from a 4K sector drive. 4KB
sector drives are not supported as a boot device with Legacy BIOS.
o uEFI BIOS updates: flash controller firmware, create support archiveo New controller modes (ARCCONF/BIOS):
RAID: Expose RAW mode (previously, RAID mode)
RAID: Hide RAW modeo Bugfixes-------------------------------------------------------------------2. Software and Documentation
2.1 Driver & Utility Software
NOTE: You can download the latest versions of firmware, BIOS,
driver software and utilities from the Adaptec Web Site atstart.adaptec.com.
o Adaptec Firmware/BIOS/Drivers/Utilities Version 1.04
o Adaptec maxView Storage Manager Version 1.04
Drivers for this release have been tested and certified on
the following operating systems. You can load the drivers on
out-of-box operating system versions, the latest service pack,or software update. Compatibility issues may be seen withuntested OS versions.
Microsoft Windows Drivers:o Windows Server 2012, 64-bit
o Windows Server 2012 R2, 64-bit
o Windows Server 2008 R2, 64-bit
o Windows SBS 2011o Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, 32-bit and 64-bit
Linux Drivers:o Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5*, 6.4, 5.9, IA-32 and x64
o SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, 10, IA-32 and x64
o Debian Linux 7.0, IA-32 and x64
o Ubuntu Linux 12, 11, 10, IA-32 and x64
o Fedora Linux 19, 18, IA-32 and x64
o CentOS 6.4, 5.9*Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 has been tested and qualified
using the inbox operating system driver only.
FreeBSD Drivers:o FreeBSD 9.1, 8.4
Virtual OS Drivers:o VMware ESX 4.1
o VMware ESXi 5.1
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o Citrix XenServer 6.1
Solaris Drivers:o Solaris 10 U9o Solaris 11 Express**Not Supported on Bootable Arrays; see Section 3.6.
2.2 Documentation
NOTE: You can download the latest documentation from the
Adaptec Web Site at start.adaptec.com.
PDF Format (English/Japanese):o Adaptec SAS RAID Controllers Installation and User's Guideo Adaptec RAID Controller Command Line Utility User's Guideo maxView Storage Manager User's Guideo Adaptec SAS RAID Controllers Quick Start Guide (multi-language)HTML and Text Format:
o maxView Storage Manager Online Helpo Adaptec SAS RAID Controllers README.TXT fileo maxView Storage Manager README.TXT file-------------------------------------------------------------------3. Installation and Setup
3.1 Installation Instructions
The Adaptec SAS RAID Controllers Installation and User's Guide
contains complete installation information for the controllers
and drivers. The Adaptec RAID Controllers Command Line Utility
User's Guide contains complete installation information for
ARCCONF. The maxView Storage Manager User's Guide contains
complete installation information for the maxView Storage
Manager software.
3.2 Partition Setup
o Logical drives with >2TB of storage require GPT partitioning(GUID Partition Table) for OS installation or use as adata container.
NOTE: Windows creates MBR partitions (Master Boot Record), by
default, which can address only 2TB of storage space. If thelogical drive is >2TB, it is segmented into two partitions
without warning, one up to 2TB, the other with the remaining
disk space. Linux displays a pop-up message that the disk
needs to be partitioned.
o Before attempting to install an operating system in uEFI mode,
you must delete all MBR partitions from the disk or reformat thedisk with GPT. The installation may fail if you try to installon a disk with a MBR partitioning scheme. See also Section 4.6.
3.3 DKMS Driver Setup for Red Hat 6/CentOS 6
Installation instructions for the pre-compiled DKMS drivers for
Red Hat 6/CentOS 6 with Dynamic Kernel Module Support (DKMS)
are provided in the RAID Controllers Installation and User's Guide.
DKMS ensures that the driver remains installed across OS updates.
You can download the pre-compiled DKMS drivers for Red Hat 6
and CentOS 6 at:
http://ask.adaptec.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/17202
For DKMS driver instructions for other linux OSs, contact Adaptec3Support or search the Adaptec Support Knowledgebase (ASK) at
ask.adaptec.com.
3.4 AFM-700 Flash Backup Unit Setup
3.4.1 Supercapacitor Setup with Adaptec Series 7Q Controllers
Adaptec Series 7Q controllers do not include a mounting plate
for the supercapacitor module. You must affix the supercapacitor
to the computer chassis using cable ties. For full instructions,refer to the AFM-700 installation guide, available in the
documentation section of the Adaptec Web site at start.adaptec.com.
NOTE: The user's guide describes how to install the supercapacitor
using the mounting plate method. These instructions apply to
Adaptec Series 8Q controllers and Adaptec Series 7/8 controllers
with optional flash backup module only.
3.4.2 Status LEDs
The AFM-700 Flash Backup Unit includes three LEDs to help you
monitor status. See the labels on daughterboard PCB for LED
locations.
LED 'DS2': Charger Enabled
DS2 Solid on
DS2 Blinks
DS2 Temporary
BlinksCharger Enabled
Charger Off (during cap learn cycle)
No Supercapacitor attached

LED 'DS3': Supercapacitor power indication;
Supercapacitor charge Bleeding LED
LED 'DS4': Blinks faster when backup in progress
3.5 Windows SBS 2011 Setup
When installing the driver on Windows SBS 2011 Essential, theinstaller times out before listing all discovered drives. The
number of listed drives varies, depending on the drive type (eg,SAS vs SATA). This is a limitation in the Windows SBS installer;
the Adaptec device driver detects all attached drives.
3.6 Solaris 11 Express Setup
Installing Solaris 11/11.1 on a bootable array is not supported
in this release.
3.7 SLES 11 Setup
3.7.1 SLES 11 SP3 Inbox Driver Issues
With SLES 11 SP3 (32-bit/64-bit), the inbox driver takes
precedence over third-party drivers. As a result, the OS
loads the inbox driver rather than installing fromthe Adaptec driver disk.
WORKAROUND: To avoid loading the inbox driver (assuming you
created a driver disk):
1. Boot from the SuSE installation DVD.
2. Add 'brokenmodules=aacraid dud=1' to the boot menu.
3. Press the F6 key to update the driver during installation.
4. Insert the USB driver disk.
5. On the 'Welcome screen', press CTRL+ALT+F2 to switch to the console,then type the following commands:# insmod ./update/000/modules/aacraid.ko# rm -rf /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist /etc/modprobe.d/noload
6. Press CTRL+ALT+F7 to return to the installation screen andcontinue the installation.
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7. When the installation is 60-90% complete, press CTRL+ALT+F2 toswitch back to the console, then type:# cp -a /update/install /mnt/tmp
8. Press CTRL+ALT+F7 to return to the installation screen andcomplete the installation.
3.7.2 SLES 11 SP3 with 4KB/Sector Drives
4KB/sector hard disk drives are not supported as a boot device
with legacy (Ctrl-A) BIOS on SLES 11 SP3 (32-bit/64-bit).
WORKAROUND: Install the driver in uEFI mode. Follow these steps(assuming you created a driver disk):
1. Boot from the SuSE installation DVD.
2. Add 'brokenmodules=aacraid dud=1' to the boot menu:o Change from: linuxefi /boot/x86_64/loader/linux
o Change to:linuxefi /boot/x86_64/loader/linux brokenmodules=aacraid dud=1
3. Press F10 to boot.
4. Insert the USB driver disk.
5. Complete Steps 5-8 in Section 3.7.1 (above) to complete the installation.
3.8 Fedora Linux Setup
To avoid a known PCIe Active State Power Management issue underFedora Linux 14, you must add the OS option `pcie_aspm=off` in
the GRUB bootloader file "menu.lst". Follow these steps:
1. When the first Fedora installation screen appears, press
the 'Tab' key.
2. Before pressing the first 'reboot' button, edit grub/menu.lst:
o Press Alt+F2
o cd /mnt/sysimage/boot/grub/o Open the menu.lst file
3. Add 'pcie_aspm=off' just after 'rhgb quiet'. The new line
should look like this:root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.33.3-85.fc13.i686.PAE... rhgb quiet pcie_aspm=off
3.9 Debian Linux Setup
After installing the Debian Linux driver, you must replace the
SCSI Device Partition Name in Debian’s GRUB bootloader witha UUID. Failure to update the partition name may cause thesystem to hang when the OS is rebooted. In the GRUB bootloader
file "menu.lst", replace the SCSI device partition name(for instance, /dev/sda1), with UUID=<string>.
3.10 Ubuntu Linux Setupo Due to a partition editor issue with Ubuntu 12.04.2, the OS
reports an inaccurate drive size when creating a 4K sectorboot drive in UEFI mode. As a result, the installer hangs
when creating the file system and the installation fails.
WORKAROUND: Install Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS (scheduled for release January 2014)o When installing the driver on an existing Ubuntu 11 or 12 OS,
the install script may stop at "grep vermagic" if the OS isalready installed with Ubuntu-desktop packages. To avoid thisproblem, always install the driver packages first:# sudo dpkg -i aacraid-1.2.1-29600-Ubuntu11.04+11.10+12.04-all.deb...then install Ubuntu desktop utilities by doing an online update:# sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktopo After installing the Ubuntu driver, you must increase the
SCSI command timeout value from 30 seconds (the default
value) to 90 seconds. Failure to increase the timeout may
5cause the system to hang with an EXT4 error when a good drive
is removed from a rebuilding array. Use these commands toincrease the timeout in SYSFS, assuming /dev/sda, /dev/sdb,
and /dev/sdc are the device LUNs on the Ubuntu Linux host:echo ``90``> /sys/block/sda/device/timeout
echo ``90``> /sys/block /sdb/device/timeout
echo ``90``> /sys/block/sdc/device/timeout
3.11 Adaptec maxCache and maxCache Plus Setup
o Adaptec maxCache is supported on Adaptec Series Q controllers
only. maxCache Plus is supported on Adaptec Series 8Q/8ZQ
controllers only. See the maxView Storage Manager Readme for
maxCache Plus requirements and setup instructions.
o The maximum number of SSDs that you can install on acontroller for maxCache applications is:
7805Q/71605Q: up to 8 SSDs, with 2TB total capacity
8885Q/81605ZQ: up to 8 SSDs, with 2TB total capacity
See www.adaptec.com/compatibility for a list of
maxCache-compatible SSD drives.
3.12 Dual Firmware Flash Image Support
Adaptec Series 7 and Adaptec Series 8 controllers support
active and passive firmware images. Built-in logic determinesthe "right time" to update from passive to active, either at
shutdown or boot up, and is designed to protect against image
corruption or data loss due to power failure during image update.
If the update occurs in the boot path, a server reboot is
expected. Additionally, you must be running the latest drivers.
NOTE: This feature is enabled only when upgrading from and to a
firmware version that supports dual firmware images. For
customers upgrading from an Adaptec release prior May 2013
(specifically, Firmware Version 7.2.0, Build 30260), there
is no change in behavior. The firmware image is updated in
one stage.
3.13 Adaptec Flash Utility (AFU) Support
Adaptec Series 8 controllers do not support the DOS-based
Adaptec Flash Utility (described in the user's guide). To
flash a Series 8 controller, use the uEFI BIOS, ARCCONF,
maxView Storage Manager, or the maxView Storage Manager
bootable USB image.
-------------------------------------------------------------------4. Known Limitations
4.1 Linux Boot Device
Regardless of which device you select to install the OS, theboot record is always written to Device 0. As a result,Linux will fail to boot if you delete or swap away Device 0.
For example, if you create three arrays in the BIOS--VOL-0,
VOL-1, and VOL-2--install the OS on VOL-1, then swap VOL-0
and VOL-2, Linux will fail to boot. Restore the originalarray sequence and Linux boots normally. Ideally, you should
always install on Device 0.
4.2 OS Installation with RAW Devices
With Adaptec Series 7 and Adaptec Series 8 controllers, installing
the OS in a mixed configuration with RAID Arrays and RAW devices
is not supported.
WORKAROUND: Remove the RAW devices, install the OS on the RAID
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array, then re-install the RAW devices.
4.3 AFM-700 Flash Backup Unit
Hot-plugging the AFM-700 supercapacitor module is notrecommended. Doing so may result in unusual status updates,
such as Preparing to Dead to Ready.
4.4 ATAPI Devices
Adaptec Series 7 and Adaptec Series 8 controllers do not support
ATAPI CD-ROM, DVD, or tape devices.
4.5 Drive Compatibility Issues
o OCZ Vertex 4 SSDs are not supported in this release.
o With Seagate Constellation ES drives (eg, ST3500514NS) withFW SN11, a medium error might result in SCSI command timeouts,
depending on the I/O load. This condition might be seen whencreating a logical drive with the 'build' initialization method.
o With Hitachi HUA721050KLA330 hard drives, the drive LED blinks
just once when using the CTRL-A BIOS 'Identify Drive' option.
The LED blinks continuously if blinked from ARCCONF or
maxView Storage Manager.
o With HP LTO-4 Ultrium 1840 tape drives, backup fails with Adaptec
Series 7 controllers.
WORKAROUND: Upgrade the drive firmware to A63D using an on-board
SAS or SATA controller, then try again.
o With Tandberg LTO-4 tape drives, backup fails during longer
write sequences with Adaptec Series 7 and Adaptec Series 8controllers. The error is seen during writes in the 10GB-20GB
range, causing the operation to be aborted.
4.6 System Compatibility Issues
o Promise J630 and J830 enclosures are not supported in thisrelease.
o uEFI-mode setup is not supported on Supermicro X9SCL-LN4F
and X9DRi-F motherboards.
4.7 RAID 50/RAID 60, Max Drives
The maximum number of drives in a RAID 50 or RAID 60 differ
between maxView Storage Manager, ARCCONF, and the BIOS:
o BIOS and ARCCONF: 128 drives max
RAID 50 - From 2-16 legs with 3-32 drives/leg
RAID 60 - From 2-16 legs with 4-16 drives/lego maxView Storage Manager:
Assumes 2 legs for RAID 50/RAID 60 (non-selectable)
RAID 50 3-32 drives/leg (64 total)
RAID 60 4-16 drives/leg (32 total)
4.8 Solaris 32-bit Array Size Limits
Due to an OS limitation in Solaris 32-bit systems,
the practical limit for array size on Solaris 32
is 1TB.
NOTE: If you create a >1TB array, OS tools, suchas format or fdisk, won't detect them.
74.9 SLES 11 Boot Device Migration Issues
By default, SuSE Linux uses the 'by-id' method to identify
drives/partitions on the boot device. As a result, migrationfrom one controller to another (eg, ASR-8885 to ASR-81605ZQ)
fails because the original boot drive ID is not found on the
new controller.
WORKAROUND: Switch to the "by-uuid" method, then perform the migration.
Step #1:

Use the blkid command (built-in utility) to find the UUIDs of filesystemssles11sp1boot:~ # blkid/dev/sda1: UUID="4512cf7d-4e22-4dfa-8991-4084dae41409" TYPE="swap"/dev/sda2: UUID="b144a0a2-b7fc-47fd-8459-ba40d0f663cd" TYPE="ext3"
Step #2:(a) cd /etc(b) edit fstab file(c) Change the "by-id" names of file systems to their corresponding "uuid" names
found in Step #1
Note:

Make a backup of the fstab file before modifying it.

Step #3:(a) cd /boot/grub(b) edit menu.lst file(c) Change the "by-id" names of file systems to their corresponding "uuid" names
found in Step #1
Note:

Make a backup of the menu.lst file before modifying it.

Step #4:
(a)
(b)
(c)

Shutdown the SUSE system
Change the HBA/controller
Boot the system

4.10 uEFI BIOS Issues
Using the "FW Update from Media" and "Save Support Archive"
commands in the same uEFI BIOS session may cause the system
to become unresponsive.
4.11 BIOS Feature Disparity: Selectable Performance ModeIn the Legacy (CTRL-A) BIOS, the Selectable Performance Mode
option is enabled for controllers operating in HBA Mode. Thisdiffers from maxView Storage Manager and ARCCONF, which disable
Selectable Performance Mode if the controller is in HBA Mode.
4.12 hdparm Support
On Windows and Linux, the 'hdparm -i' command, used to set andview ATA hard disk drive hardware parameters, is not supported
for direct-attached drives on Adaptec SAS controllers. Since'hdparm -i' is designed for native libata/ide drivers,
the command is working as designed and the behavior is expected.
WORKAROUND: Use the 'hdparm -I' command instead.
4.13 HDA Mode Reset
Adaptec Series 7 and Adaptec Series 8 controllers are reset
using the HDA mode jumper on the controller board. If a HDA
reset is required, contact Adaptec Support for assistance.
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(c) 2013 PMC-Sierra, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This software is protected under international copyright laws andtreaties. It may only be used in accordance with the termsof its accompanying license agreement.
The information in this document is proprietary and confidential to
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P/N DOC-01767-02-A Rev. A

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