Serial Attached SCSI technologies and architectures(读书笔记)

在googol的英文搜索到了Serial Attached SCSI technologies and architectures 感觉挺好的，对理解SAS协议有帮助，故再次好好的阅读一下，同时整理一下。

1：SAS相关名词定义

Domain：A set of SAS devices that communicate with one another through a service delivery subsystem
Expander ：A device that functions as a switch to attach one or more initiators to one or more targets
JBOD : A group of hard disks, usually in an enclosure, that may or may not be RAID configured
Initiator : A device containing SSP, STP, or SMP initiator ports in a SAS domain
PHY : The mechanism that connects the physical SAS layer to the SAS link layer
Physical link : Two differential signal pairs, one pair in each direction, that connect two PHYs
SAS address : The address of an initiator port, a target port, or an expander device
Serial ATA Tunneling Protocol (STP) :A SAS protocol used to communicate with SATA drives
Serial Management Protocol (SMP) : A SAS protocol used to communicate with SAS expanders
Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP) : A SAS protocol used to communicate with SAS drives
Service delivery subsystem : The part of a SAS system that sends information between a SAS initiator and a SAS target
Target : An end device such as a SAS drive, SATA drive, or SAS tape drive
Wide port : A port that contains more than one PHY
Zone group : A set of PHYs in a zone that all have the same access permission

 

SAS devices
有三种类型的SAS设备，initiators, targets, and expanders。

个人觉得上面的图很重要，理解上面的图就理解了SAS中这三个设备的角色及在系统中所处的位置。其中的initiator相当于前文中提到的SAS2008。上图中的HBA卡是插在PCI插槽中。在上面的图中HBA就是initiator，可以通过HBA给expander发送如SMP，SSP命令来获取target的信息。

Initiators：SAS initiators have multiple ports for connecting to internal and external targets. Each initiator port can have a single physical link (a narrow port) or two, four, or eight physical links (a wide port). You can connect SAS initiator ports to separate domains for fail-over redundancy，提到了initiator port可以有多个physical links.

Expanders：Expanders connectinitiators, targets, and other expanders. They receive commands and data in one port and route them to another port based on the SAS address of the target. Expanders use three routing methods:direct, table, and subtractive. Direct routingforwards the commands and data to targets directly attached to the expander.Table routingforwards the commands and data to another expander. When an expander receives a SAS address that it does not recognize, it uses subtractive routing to forward the commands and data to another expander that recognizes the address. Each routing method uses routing tables that are maintained in each expander. The expander creates the routing table during the discovery processknown as self-configuration. expander在系统中的位置是：承上启下，用来连接Initiator和target，expander作用类似于路由器，根据target的SAS地址来路由数据和命令。其中expander具有三种路由方式：

direct, table和 subtractive

Targets :SAS drives (both enterprise-class and midline) have two narrow ports. SAS drives use the same electrical and physical connection interface as SATA drives. However, SATA drives have a single narrow port. You can have SAS and SATA devices in a single domain. The size of the expanders’ routing tables determines how many initiators and targets you can have in a domain.

SAS protocol

SAS uses a point-to-point architecture that transfers data to and from SCSI storage devices by using serial communication. SAS devices use differential signaling to achieve reliable, high-speed serial communication. SAS inherits its command set from parallel SCSI and its frame formats and full-duplex communication from Fibre Channel. SAS also supports SATA targets.SAS使用点对点方式从SCSI存储设备接收和传输数据。SAS设备使用差分信号来取得可靠，高速的串行通信。

Storage power management

SAS-2.1 devices can turn off SAS physical links when they are idle.为了节省电源能量，在SAS设备为空闲的时候，可以关闭SAS的physical link。

Every SAS device includes one or more PHYs in its ports. A physical link of two wire pairs connects the transmitter of each PHY in one device’s port to the receiver of a PHY in another device’s port (Figure 2). The SAS interface lets vendors combine multiple physical links to create 2x, 3x, 4x, or 8x connections per port for scalable bandwidth. The SAS interface lets you use SAS drives, SATA drives, or a mixture of these drives in the same storage enclosure

 

Differential signaling

Every SAS device includesone or more PHYs in its ports.A physical link of two wire pairs connects the transmitter of each PHY in one device’s port to the receiver of a PHY in another device’s port (Figure 2). The SAS interface lets vendors combine multiple physical links to create 2x, 3x, 4x, or 8x connections per port for scalable bandwidth.

上面的图中的俩个PHY的transmitter和receive交叉连接了在一起。同时说明了可以在一个port中连接多个PHY来增加SAS链路的带宽。

SAS supports three communication protocols:SAS支持三种通信协议：SSP.SMP,STP。

Serial Management Protocol (SMP) manages the point-to-point topology of expanders and enclosures.

Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP) facilitates communication with SAS devices and existing SCSI software.

SATA Tunneling Protocol (STP) lets SAS controllers communicate with SATA devices through expanders.

SAS topologies

SAS makes it possible to create highly scalable topologies—internal, external, or both—giving you the flexibility to design and deploy a range of solutions. SAS controllers use STP to communicate with SATA devices through expanders. SATA scalability in SAS domains depends on this ability to communicate through expanders。SAS可以创建三种高扩展性的拓扑结构。SAS控制器通过expander使用STP协议和SATA设备进行通信。

Figure 4 shows a topology for internal RAID systems using either SAS or SATA drives. Each drive has a point-to-point connection to the controller. The controller can support a maximum of eight drives.SAS控制器中包含了RAID控制器。

Figure 5 shows another topology for RAID systems that usesan internal port of the SAS controller,an HP SAS Expander Card, and SAS or SATA drives. The full-height HP Smart SAS Expander card supports more than eight internal drives on select ProLiant servers when connected to a Smart Array P410 or P410i controller. The SAS expander card supports up to 24 internal drive bays, and it has a Mini SAS 4x port for connecting tape drives.

Figure 6 shows a topology for connectingone port on a controller to an external storage enclosure. This single controller port incorporates four lanes for a total maximum throughput of 2400 MB/s. The storage enclosure contains an internal 36-port expander that supports cascading an additional enclosure in a 1+1 configuration. Figure 6 also shows a topology forconnecting both ports to the enclosure. That doubles the bandwidth, which is important for some workloads.