SAS Avalanche

The Avalanche SAS analyzer is LeCroy's next generation system that decodes 6Gbps and 3Gbps Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and 6Gbps, 3Gbps and 1.5Gbps Serial ATA (SATA) traffic. Avalanche runs the SASSuite™ application. Powerful post-processing reporting and search tools allow users to find errors and their causes very quickly. This system is capable of connecting to four hosts and targets simultaneously. Raw bit recording allows for analysis down to the lowest possible level and the 4GB buffer can record very deep traces. Avalanche comes in a condensed package that is highly portable.

The Avalanche SAS analyzer system does more than just record traffic moving across 4-Wide SAS links. Using the SASSuite application, it provides a time-synchronized view, both at the DWORD and the Frame level for all four links. Plus it logically groups all frames that are part of a common operation - even if they are spread across multiple physical pathways. This eliminates the need to decode SAS transactions manually and helps you find problems faster. It also includes full SATA analysis if you are interested in testing in Serial ATA environments (6, 3 or 1.5 Gbps); plus full decoding of STP traffic when SATA devices are used with SAS Expander environments.

• Four SAS analysis ports (6 or 3 Gbps) - Monitor, trigger and record up to 4 Serial Attached SCSI links simultaneously
• Complete Serial ATA Recording and Analysis (6, 3 or 1.5 Gbps) - The Avalanche system is designed to be plug-and-play compatible with Serial ATA
• State Machine Triggering - Isolate areas of interest with real-time hardware triggering
• Hardware Filtering - Extend capture window by removing non-essential primitives from the recording
• Raw Bit Recording - Analyzes traffic at the lowest possible level
• SAS Zoning and Multiplexing Capable - Capture, record and analyze traffic in complex storage network environments
• Link Tracker Display - Chronologically display all DWORDs on all channels synchronized to a common clock
• Frame Tracker Display - Summary view shows transport level events in a time synchronized table format
• Cascade Multiple Analyzers - By cascading up to 8 analyzers, time correlated traces for up to 32 channels can be recorded
• Traffic Summaries - Statistical reports provide high-level abstraction of events, operations, errors and OOB transactions
• Collapsible / Expandable Headers - Easy "drill-down" on field structures for individual Frames, Commands and Tasks
• Automatic Decoding at OOB View, Frame and Transport Layers; SCSI STP, and SMP Transactions - View high-level Serial Attached SCSI protocol events
• Field Upgradeable BusEngine Technology - Easily upgrade firmware to support new features
• Dynamically Allocated Memory Pool (4 GB) - Capture long recording sessions for analysis and problem solving

SASSuite is a powerful and intuitive software system embedding detailed knowledge of the protocol hierarchy and intricacies, as defined in the protocol specification. The software utilizes a graphical display that has been optimized for fast and easy navigation through a captured traffic session. You are alerted as violations are detected at all levels of the protocol layering and can easily drill-down on areas of interest or collapse and hide fields that are not relevant. The software will logically group, at the Application layer, all frames and transactions that are part of a common operation. Essential for debugging wide port traffic, SASSuite can assemble SCSI queued operations if they are spread across multiple physical pathways.

LeCroy pioneered the "scatter-gather" approach to showing high level events but SASSuite also provides exceptional "drill down" to byte level detail including raw 8b10b symbols. The Link Tracker display allows you to see DWORD level data streams in a table view. It uses a common reference clock to time synchronize traffic moving upstream and downstream on a full-duplex SAS link. It can display Packet fields, 10B HEX, Scrambled or unscrambled DWORDs. For Avalanche systems connected to multiple channels, it displays additional columns showing DWORD traffic chronologically across all links. This level of detail is critical to debugging full duplex SAS traffic because it provides precise timing context for analyzing SAS state transitions. Frame Tracker moves one level higher by summarizing and displaying transport level events in a similar table format. Together, these two displays preserve the physical orientation of the recorded data, which makes it easier to visualize what's occurring on multiple SAS links.

The SASSuite display detects and alerts you to every potential violation at all levels of the protocol layering, from running disparity to the proper sequencing of the handshaking. The proper formation of each command is checked for validity and compliance to the specification, including the recalculation and checking of CRCs. Vendor unique FIS's are also supported allowing trigger and decode of custom FIS types for developers implementing proprietary commands. Throughout the display, informative tool-tips give complete definition of each field's contents. In many cases, the display replaces the need to use a specification to understand the protocol.

SASTracer Link Tracker shows OPEN ADDRESS frame as it propagates down the SAS topology until the device responds with OPEN_ACCEPT. Link Tracker can be linked to the main trace display or maximized on screen (as shown above).

Frame Tracker provides a condensed view of frame level events on each channel and can be synchronized with the Link Tracker display

The Avalanche system is fully capable of recording at 6Gbps high-speed serial interfaces. It comes with 4GB of memory. The mini-SAS connectors can attach to 4 hosts and target devices simultaneously. A Hi-Speed USB port is used to upload the captured data to the host. The heart of the Avalanche platform is the revolutionary BusEngine™. This state-of-the-art process core incorporates a real-time recording engine and configurable tools to trigger and filter SAS traffic. All bus engine logic is fully field-upgradeable. It can selectively monitor traffic on specific channels or with unique SAS addresses. It can start recording when event counters or timers exceed specified thresholds.

For efficient development of SAS systems and components, an analyzer has to let you extract useful information from a crowded stream of traffic, and accurately identify and selectively record what interests you most. SASSuite provides real-time hardware triggering on the critical components of Serial Attached SCSI including out-of-band signals, SCSI operations, errors and primitives.

The Avalanche system features the state-of-the-art BusEngine core. This real time recording engine works can intelligently monitor up to 4 fully loaded SAS links. It discards idles and packs redundant symbols to save recording memory and can filter out primitives or truncate data payloads to maximize the efficiency of your recording memory.

Avalanche can cooperatively trigger across multiple channels. Popup menus allow easy triggering on a specific I_T_L Nexus, hashed addresses, or connection tags. It also supports triggering on common SCSI IU and status fields including Check Condition, Busy, Reservation Conflict and Abort Task.

With 256 levels of trigger logic and up to six trigger states per level Avalanche is particularly effective at trapping intermittent problems that only occur during overnight testing. Multiple if/then/else/goto conditions can be programmed for isolating very specific situations. The triggering and filtering options are channel independent and can record different fields based on the traffic detected on the individual links.

You can configure the depth of the recording memory up to 4Gbytes and determine where in the recording the trigger is located. Filtering strategies can significantly extend the recording memory. A full complement of bus usage graphs is available which makes spooled recording useful for characterizing performance over an extended period.

Using SASSuite Software to analyze trace data makes it easy to identify problems and explain behavior. The Trace display system trains your eye to understand more information faster. Colors and graphics are used to represent trace elements in the context of the SAS protocol. The intuitive use of collapsible headers provides unprecedented drill-down for individual transactions, data payloads, and frames. SASSuite automatically decodes SSP and SMP events as well as SCSI operations and tasks. SASSuite also decodes STP traffic moving between SAS Expanders and SAS initiators. It also provides full support for Serial ATA analysis by showing primitives; FIS and decoded ATA level traffic moving between Serial ATA targets and STP bridge devices.

Decodes SSP, STP, SATA and SMP events with easy drill down to DWORD level detail

The CATC Trace uses collapsible headers to logically group all frames and transactions that are part of single SCSI operation

Traffic Summaries provide statistics on the occurrence of errors, primitives, frames, SCSI operations and other protocol events within the trace. You can evaluate these metrics at a glance or use them to navigate through the recording. For example, by choosing SSP frame type within the Traffic Summary, such as Response, you can automatically jump through each occurrence of that frame within the trace. The traffic summary can be printed, saved to text or emailed with a single keystroke.

SASSuite also features graphical bus utilization and throughput reports, which provide a histogram of activity dynamically linked to frame level details. These graphical reports including SCSI Latency Time and Pending I/Os for SAS and SATA provide a snapshot of bus efficiency. A single click within the bus utilization charts navigates to that point in the trace. The new Export to .CSV allows extraction of both Command & Transport level parameters to spreadsheet format for custom performance analysis.

VSE provides an API which allows third party applications to extract information from a SASSuite recording. This scripting language is capable of opening and parsing any size trace file to allow users to automate routine analysis tasks such as performing timing calculations between link and transport layer events or automating data compares for Header fields or command parameters like status, or LBAs.

VSE scripts can be run from the application to automate post-processing tasks

The perfect combination of power and portability, Avalanche meets airline carry-on regulations and adapts to any lab environment.

SASTracer provides valuable traffic summaries of all viewable elements