Intel’s RAID cards that are based on LSI SAS2108 (LSI MegaRAID) have unlockable premium features that can be accessed via a dongle that plugs into the RAID card. The features that can be unlocked are the following:

SSD Cache with Fast Path IO

• Uses SSD’s as additional cache to the RAID controller, this allows for data that is frequently accessed to be cached for faster access
• Improves the speed of SSD’s by providing up to 150,000 I/O reads per second, which is ideal for small reads of the hard drive.

Drive Encryption Management

• Enables authentication key management, auto-lock, and instant erase of self-encrypting drives
• Helps reduce risk of data being compromised when drives eventually leave the data center
• Significantly reduces the cost and time of re-purposing or retiring drives

Rapid Recovery Snapshot

• Allows users to capture source volume data changes and either restore files or roll back applications to previous point in time
• Recovers lost data from data from disk in minutes, minimizing the downtime that users experience and eliminating the lengthy process of restoring data from tape
• Allows isolation of a server’s boot volume to a separate virtual drive; by enabling the Auto Snapshot feature, users are guaranteed that bootable snapshots exist, in case corruption of the operating system occurs

More information available at www.intel.com/go/raid