LSI Storage Authority Feature Comparison Matrix

The following tables outline the LSA feature differences for MegaRAID, iMegaRAID, Software RAID, and Initiator-Target controllers with respect to software features and firmware features. The tables also indicate the supported and unsupported features for a specific controller.

Some of the features might not be supported on all the controllers. Refer to these feature comparison matrices for information on the features that are supported on your controller.

Table 1. Firmware Feature Comparison Matrix
Feature Name MegaRAID iMegaRAID Software RAID IntegratedRAID Initiator-Target
RAID level RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 00, RAID 10, RAID 50, RAID 60, RAID 1E, and Spanned RAID 1E (PRL-11) RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, RAID 50, and RAID 1E RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, and RAID 1E No
Maximum Configurable physical drives 240 iMegaRAID 32. The rest of the drives can be used as JBODs. 8 12 configurable physical drives and two Hot Spares 1024
Maximum spans 8 8 4 No No
Maximum virtual drives 240 32 8 2 No
Dimmer Switch DS-I and DS-II No No No No
Maximum media errors 256 102 256 No No
Drive-mixing support Yes Yes Yes No No
Strip size support 64 KB, 128 KB, 256 KB, 512 KB, and 1024 KB 64 KB 64 KB 64 KB No
Maximum VDs per Drive Group 64 16 8 1 No
Multipath Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Controller reset support Yes Yes No No No
Table 2. Software Feature Comparison Matrix
Feature Name MegaRAID iMegaRAID Software RAID IntegratedRAID Initiator-Target
LDAP authentication Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Server discovery and managing servers Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Server dashboard Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Controller dashboard Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Simple configuration Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Advanced configuration Yes Yes Yes Yes No
CacheCade ® – SSD Caching configuration No No No No No
Foreign configuration (import/clear) Yes Yes No Yes No
Clear configuration Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Update firmware Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Online Firmware Update Yes Yes No Yes No
Controller Operations
Setting consistency check properties Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Scheduling consistency check Yes Yes No No No
Setting patrol read properties Yes Yes Yes No No
Starting patrol read Yes Yes Yes No No
Stopping patrol read Yes Yes Yes No No
Managing link speed Yes Yes No No No
Setting adjustable task rates Yes Yes Yes No No
Enable and disable alarm Yes Yes No No No
Silence alarm Yes Yes No No No
Manage power-save settings Yes Yes No No No
Enable and disable SSD Guard ™ Yes Yes No No No
Enable and disable security Yes Yes No No No
Change drive security Yes Yes No No No
Discarding preserved cache Yes No No No No
Downloading TTY log Yes Yes No No No
Background operations Yes Yes Yes No No
Personality management Yes No No No No
Advanced Software Features
Fast Path Yes Yes No No No
CacheCade SSD No No No No No
CacheCade Pro Yes No No No No
SafeStore ™ Yes Yes No No No
RAID 5 and RAID 6 Yes Yes No No No
Modify drive group Yes Yes No No No
Secure using FDE Yes Yes No No No
Disable data protection Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Hide and unhide Yes Yes No No No
Virtual Drive Operations
Virtual drive settings and modifying virtual drive properties Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Start and stop locating a virtual drive Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Erasing a virtual drive Yes Yes No No No
Initializing a virtual drive Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Starting consistency check on a virtual drive Yes Yes Yes No No
Expanding the online capacity of a virtual drive Yes Yes No No No
Deleting a virtual drive Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Hide and unhide Yes Yes No No No
Physical Drive Operations
Assign global hot spare Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Remove a global hot spare Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Assign a dedicated hot spare Yes Yes No No No
Remove a dedicated hot spare Yes Yes No No No
Start and stop a locating drive Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Making a drive online and offline Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Replacing a drive Yes Yes No No No
Rebuilding a drive Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Prepare for removal Yes Yes No No No
Erasing a drive Yes Yes No No No
Instant secure erase Yes Yes No No No
Converting an unconfigured bad drive to an unconfigured good drive Yes Yes No No No
Make an unconfigured good drive Yes Yes No No No
Make a JBOD and delete a JBOD Yes Yes No No No
Energy Pack Operations
Learn cycle Yes No No No No
Event Logs
Viewing event logs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
1 Limited properties can be set. The Reconstruction Rate option is not supported.
2 Energy pack is not supported.
3 Unsupported background operations are Reconstruction, Copyback, and PD Format. Supported background operations are Rebuild, Full Initialization, Fast Initialization, Check Consistency, Patrol Read, and BGI for RAID 5 and RAID 6. Pause and Resume are not supported for the Patrol Read operation.
4 RAID 6 is not supported.
5 Cached IO and Write Back options are not supported.
6 Cached IO and Write Back options are not supported.
7 All the settings except the virtual drive name in the virtual settings window are disabled. After you create the virtual drive, you can only change the disk cache policy.