Course Description
This Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) online training course covers the architecture and components of SAS. The course provides an introductory module showing why serial protocols are required for true high speed communications and discusses the equipment necessary to test, validate and troubleshoot SAS. You will investigate the function and interaction of each SAS protocol layer, illustrating how SAS addresses the issues interference suppression, initialization techniques, resets, encoding methods, speed negotiation and clock skew management.
You will also have an introduction of SAS expanders, multiplexing techniques and zoning to demonstrate how SAS enhances scalability and improves performance. Through STP, SAS interoperation with existing SATA storage environments is explored. Demonstrations with SAS analyzer software are used throughout the course to illustrate the behavior and performance of SAS.
In This Course You Will Learn:
- Describe the architecture of SAS and its components
- Explain the operation of serial protocols and frame based transmission methods
- Compare and contrast the features and benefits of SAS with SCSI, SATA, ATA and Fibre Channel architectures
- Be aware how of the concepts of ports, connections, data paths and links are used in SAS architectures
- Discuss SAS transmitter and receiver characteristics, jitter tolerance and cable and connector options
- Investigate the role of expanders, expander types, their operation and routing and arbitration methods used in SAS and SATA environments
- Examine in detail the function and interaction of all SAS protocol layers including initialization procedures, management services, error handling, flow control and physical layer encoding methods
- Explore in depth the use of SAS specific primitives, addressing schemes, speed negotiation and Phy reset sequences
- Develop an understanding of the operation of SMP, SSP, STP protocols in SAS and SATA applications
- Acquire testing and troubleshooting skills with a serial protocol analyzer
Prerequisites
This SAS course is intended for hardware, software and validation engineers who are involved with designing, troubleshooting and validating SAS based products.
Additionally, the online training is beneficial to managers, systems engineers and technicians who are responsible for integration of SAS devices. Attendees are expected to have a good understanding of serial communications techniques and storage network methodologies.
Outline
Module 00: Course Introduction
Module 01: Protocols
- Layered Protocol Stacks
- Serial Switches
Module 02: Serial Protocol Analyzers
- Test Equipment Types
- Test Verification Tools
- Serial Testing
- Using a Protocol Analyzer
Module 03: Introduction to SAS
- Introduction to SAS
- Deploying SAS
- SAS Architecture
Module 04: Devices and Connections
- End Devices
- Expander Devices and technology
- Domains
- Connections
Module 05: State Machines, Expander Operation and Zoning
- State Machines
- Data Path
- Expander Operation
- Zoning
Module 06: SAS Physical Layer Part 1
- Internal Connectors
- External Connectors
- Connector Standards and Requirements
Module 07: Phy Layer
- Encoding
- Bits, Bytes and Dwords
- OOB Signals and Resets
- State Machines
Module 08: OOB Signaling
- COMINIT, COMWAKE, COMSAS
- SAS Speed Negotiation Sequence
- SATASpeed Negotiation Sequence
- Multiplexing
- PHY Layer State Machines
Module 09: Primitives
- Primitives Defined
- Primitives and Connections
- Primitive Sequences
Module 10: Clock Skew and Bits and Error Management
- Clock Skew Management
- Clock Skew Implementation
- CRC
- Scrambling
- SAS Transmit and Receive
Module 11: Identification and Resets, and Connections
- Address Frames
- Identification Sequence
- Reset Sequence
- Opening and Closing Connections
- Connection Responses
Module 12: Arbitration and Deadlocks, and Rate Matching
- Arbitration Schemes and Fairness
- Deadlock
- Pathways
- Rate Matching
Module 13: Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP)
- SSP Overview
- SSP Flow Controls
- Interlocked and Non-Interlocked Frames
- SSP State Machines
Module 14: Serial Management Protocol (SMP)
- SMP Overview
- SMP Frames
- SMP State Machines
Module 15: STP (Serial ATA Tunneling Protocol) Part 1
- STP and SATA Overview
- STP Frame Transmission
- STP Flow Control
Module 16: STP (Serial ATA Tunneling Protocol) Part 2
- Opening and Closing and STP Connection
- STP Frames
- STP Affiliations
- STP Power Management
Module 17: Port and SSP Transport Functions
- Port Layer Overview
- Port Layer State Machines
- SSP Frames
- SSP Command Sequences
- SSP Headers
Module 18: STP Transport and SMP Transport and Application Layer Functions
- Types of SATA State Machines
- SMP Frames
- SMP Transport Layer
- SMP Application Layer Overview