Products affected:
Intel® Server Board S5000PSLSAS
Intel® Server Board S5000XVNSAS
Intel® Server Systems SR1500ALSAS, SR1550ALSAS, SR2500BRPLX
Intel® Server Board S5000VSASAS
Intel® Server System SR2520SAX
Intel® Server Board S5000VCLSASBB
Intel® Server System SR1530HCLS

Description:
Intel has identified a potential data loss issue if the maximum number of connected drives supported by the Intel ® Embedded Server RAID Technology II (ESRTII) is exceeded on any Intel® S5000 chipset based server board with Software RAID enabled on the SAS controller.

Root Cause:
Only eight (8) drives are allowed on an Intel S5000 chipset based server board with Intel® Embedded Server RAID Technology II enabled on the SAS 106x controller (enabled in BIOS and by drivers). Connecting a ninth (9th) drive to the same controller may cause the controller to alter which eight drives are considered to be part of the array which might cause data loss.

Corrective Action / Resolution:
Do not attach more than eight (8) drives including the hot spare drive(s) to the onboard SAS controller ports when Intel ® Embedded Server RAID Technology II is enabled. At this time there is no warning given when a ninth drive is added . It is the user's responsibility not to exceed the 8 total drive limit.

In the future a warning will be shown when more than 8 drives are attached to the server board SAS ports.

	Technical Advisory 859 [PDF]
	File Name: TA859_Intel(R)_ESRTII_Drive_Limit.pdf Size: 351,185 bytes Date: January 2007

This applies to:

Intel® Server Board S5000PAL Intel® Server Board S5000PSL Intel® Server Board S5000VCL Intel® Server Board S5000VSA Intel® Workstation Board S5000XVN