Adaptec CDP-00277-01-A - 1 About this Guide; What You Need to Know before You Begin; Terminology Used in this Guide; How to Find more Information

1 About This Guide
This Installation and User's Guide explains how to install your Adaptec® by PMC™ RAID controller. It
also describes the utilities included in your controller kit, and provides a basic overview of Serial Attached
SCSI (SAS) and Redundant Array of Independent Disk (RAID) technology.
These Adaptec Serial Attached SCSI RAID (ASR) controller models are described in this guide:
• ASR-7805, ASR-7805Q
• ASR-71605, ASR-71605E, ASR-71605Q
• ASR-71685
• ASR-72405
What You Need to Know Before You Begin
You should be familiar with computer hardware, data storage, RAID technology, and SAS and Serial ATA
(SATA) technology. (For more information about SAS technology, see Introduction to SAS on page 59.)
You should also be familiar with direct-attached storage (DAS) concepts and technology.
Note: Because this guide covers multiple Adaptec RAID products, some of the features
and functions described may not be available for your controller. For more information,
see About Your RAID Controller on page 16.
Terminology Used in this Guide
Because you can use your Adaptec RAID controller to manage data storage in a variety of congurations,
the generic term “storage space” is used to refer to controller(s) and disk drives being managed with
Adaptec maxView Storage Manager™ (called simply maxView Storage Manager in the remainder of this
guide) or the other utilities described in this guide.
Many of the terms and concepts referred to in this guide are known to computer users by multiple
names. This guide uses these terms:
• Controller (also known as adapter, board, or card)
• Disk drive (also known as hard disk, hard drive, or hard disk drive)
• Solid State Drive (also known as SSD or non-rotating storage media)
• Enclosure (also known as a RAID enclosure, storage enclosure, or disk drive enclosure)
• Array (also known as a container, logical device, or logical drive)
Note: maxView Storage Manager refers to arrays as logical drives. Your RAID
controller creates arrays, which your operating system (and maxView Storage
Manager) recognizes as logical drives. For more information, refer to the maxView
Storage Manager User’s Guide on the Adaptec Installation DVD.
How to Find More Information
You can nd more information about your Adaptec RAID controller and the software and utilities included
with it by referring to these documents:
• Readme.txt—Includes updated product information and known issues; located on the Adaptec
Installation DVD.
• maxView Storage Manager User’s Guide—Describes how to install and use the maxView Storage
Manager software (see About maxView Storage Manager on page 54) to manage your direct attached
storage; located on the Adaptec Installation DVD.
• maxView Storage Manager Online Help—Describes how to use the maxView Storage Manager
software; accessible from the main window of maxView Storage Manager.
13Proprietary and Condential to PMC-Sierra, Inc.
Document No.: CDP-00277-01-A Rev. A, Issue:
Serial Attached SCSI RAID Controllers Installation and User's Guide