The SmartHBA 2100 is an ideal solution for server-based storage systems that require maximum bandwidth and I/O connectivity, low power consumption, high reliability, plus options for data availability. The Smart Storage Platform even allows a combination of RAID and raw devices. This is useful in SDS environments where hardware RAID significantly increases OS boot reliability, but full HBA features and performance are otherwise needed. The SmartHBA 2100 also provides enhanced enclosure management capabilities to both RAID and raw devices, and enables enclosure services by providing a virtual SEP to software stacks if needed.

The SmartHBA 2100 offers over 40 percent power savings compared to prior generations and significant power advantages versus competing solutions, giving it the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) for an HBA/basic RAID solution. It delivers a robust and scalable solution that can handle the toughest system workloads and configurations, from an array of high performance SSDs to high-capacity HDDs. The SmartHBA 2100 can be used with or without SAS expanders.

Maximum Performance

The SmartHBA 2100 Series provides the highest levels of storage performance and scalability for next-generation data centers. The SmartHBA 2100 provides connectivity to large numbers of storage devices, including HDDs, SSDs, and SMR drives. These storage devices 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 percent higher IOPS performance with SATA devices without additional overhead or latency.

Entry-Level RAID Functionality

The SmartHBA 2100 combines uncompromised HBA functionality with basic RAID support in hardware using the Microsemi PM8222 SmartIOC 2100 silicon. Robust RAID support is the same for all platforms and operating systems, providing a consistent user experience. Metadata compatibility with SmartRAID 3100 products allows customers to upgrade to a full feature hardware RAID solution with caching for acceleration, if needed. The SmartHBA 2100 supports up to 32 hard disk drives or SSDs in RAID configurations using RAID levels 0, 1, 10, or even RAID 5, and can simultaneously use RAID arrays and raw devices in mixed mode.

Unified Microsemi Storage Management Utilities

maxView provides both server and remote administration, including proactive failure notification, and supports all Microsemi HBA, SmartHBA, and SmartRAID products, including backward compatibility. This browser-based tool suite supports all standard browsers, and is also available as an offline USB boot image. maxView adapter management components include the maxView GUI, an ARCCONF command-line tool, an event monitor for logging and email alerts, a CIM provider, and a vSphere plugin.