Solved SAS-12 Gb/s controller card for FreeBSD?

toorski

toorski

I've traded my 1TB SATA/SSD for 1.2 TB SAS/Seagate-ST 1200MM088 2.5" HD with a person from craigslist. Now, I have:

I'm trying to get this SAS-12 Gb/s controller card for it:
ark.intel.com

Product Specifications

quick reference guide including specifications, features, pricing, compatibility, design documentation, ordering codes, spec codes and more.
ark.intel.com ark.intel.com

Edit:
Or maybe this one? It shows as FreeBSD-12.0 compatible.
www.ebay.com

New LSI MegaRAID 9341-8i Single 8 Port SATA/SAS PCI-E 3.0 12Gb/s Controller Card | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for New LSI MegaRAID 9341-8i Single 8 Port SATA/SAS PCI-E 3.0 12Gb/s Controller Card at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com

So, I wonder if the SAS controllers would work in FreeBSD without issues. Any suggestions or hints?
 
rigoletto@ said:
Apparently yes
Click to expand...
I checked the hardware notes before I started looking at the 12Gb/s SAS controllers. I'm still looking, but now only for the lowest sale price :)

This helps, somewhat:
forums.freebsd.org

ZFS - 12.0R - New server - How to check for disk performance

Hello. I've bought a new server for my shop. Dell T130 with just 1 2TB hdd just for hosting bhyve vms. I installed zfs as root dir. Is it possible that zfs slows a mere file move? I moved an ISO from my home dir to cbsd src iso directory and I took longer than I expected. To make things certain...
forums.freebsd.org forums.freebsd.org
 
SirDice said:
Most LSI/Avago/Broadcom (it changed owner a couple of times) cards should work fine.
Click to expand...
I can see that there are many SAS controller driver options for FreeBSD, and even more controller choices on Ebay. The cheapest seem to be (used) pull-outs from various, so called, enterprise servers - most are 6Gb/s. I'm trying to find some kind of 12Gbs/SAS card that will work - HBA or RAID, for $50 or less.

I just wonder if the SAS-12Gb/s HD is a hype or a REAL r/w speed or/and performance improvement over 6Gb/s SATA/SSD. At the end, it won't matter. I just want to play with SAS HD in FreeBSD
 
rigoletto@ said:
Just for the sake of the information, if you are going to use ZFS this is not recommended to use a RAID card but a just an HBA.
Click to expand...
Yes, HBA will be. I almost forgot about beloved ZFS;)

Another, maybe a good, thing. I can disable SATA interface in BIOS on my X79 model PC/EnterPrice server with Intel C600 chips :)

So, I will look for SATA/SAS combo controller. This may prevent SAS controller's BIOS interfering with my motherboard's SATA in BIOS.

Edit:
And later, I'll be looking for an EnterPrice 12Gb/s SSD.
Can't live with just FreeBSD updates and upgrades - heh
 
toorski said:
I'm still looking, but now only for the lowest sale price
Click to expand...
This is a mistake I learned personally.
Ebay is full of idiots who don't know what they are selling.
Although all cards look visually the same the firmware is the clencher.
For example the Intel card you quoted above is an LSI card, BUT
It uses Intel's VID and PID. So FreeBSD will not recognise it.
Same with shopping for the cheapest. Lots of Dell cards that are LSI but they use a different VID and PID.
So for 50 bucks you are not going to find a genuine 12G LSI card but a clone.
Fortunately you can flash an LSI firmware to the card but it takes alot of practice to get it right.
The earlier 6G LSI cards like the SAS92xx series were quite simple to crossflash.
The IBM M1015 card for example was very easy to crossflash to LSI IT mode.
These new 12G cards use EFI blobs and it is much harder.
I have a stack of them to prove it.

toorski said:
So, I will look for SATA/SAS combo controller.
Click to expand...
All the recent LSI cards take either SAS or SATA. It is IT mode that you desire for software raid.
Also avoid MegaRAID cards at all cost. They are hardware RAID.

toorski said:
And later, I'll be looking for an EnterPrice 12Gb/s SSD.
Click to expand...
Save your money and get an NVMe drive. They are quicker and cheaper.
In fact I would advise to skip 12G SSD's altogether. Go straight to NVMe.
Either Intel or Samsung enterprise drives.
You just need PCIe 3.0 lanes to accommodate them.
The M.2 NVMe cards run hot due to tiny size and thermally throttle.
I advise you look at NVMe U.2 drives in the 2.5" Form Factor.
Here is an easy host card for U.2 drives:
www.ebay.com

U.2 SFF-8639 Adapter PCIe 2.5' SSD PCI-E X4 intel PCIe3.0 PCI-E3.0 GEN3 M-KEY 8011448416546 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for U.2 SFF-8639 Adapter PCIe 2.5' SSD PCI-E X4 intel PCIe3.0 PCI-E3.0 GEN3 M-KEY at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
For max throughput you need PCIe 3.0 with x4 lanes.
 
Phishfry said:
This is a mistake I learned personally.
Ebay is full of idiots who don't know what they are selling.
Although all cards look visually the same the firmware is the clencher.
For example the Intel card you quoted above is an LSI card, BUT
It uses Intel's VID and PID. So FreeBSD will not recognise it.
Same with shopping for the cheapest. Lots of Dell cards that are LSI but they use a different VID and PID.
So for 50 bucks you are not going to find a genuine 12G LSI card but a clone.
Fortunately you can flash an LSI firmware to the card but it takes alot of practice to get it right.
The earlier 6G LSI cards like the SAS92xx series were quite simple to crossflash.
The IBM M1015 card for example was very easy to crossflash to LSI IT mode.
These new 12G cards use EFI blobs and it is much harder.
I have a stack of them to prove it.
Click to expand...
I concur. I think the only safe ones to get are HP StoreOnce cards. You're looking at least double in price, though.
 
toorski said:
I just wonder if the SAS-12Gb/s HD is a hype or a REAL r/w speed or/and performance improvement over 6Gb/s SATA/SSD. At the end, it won't matter. I just want to play with SAS HD in FreeBSD
Click to expand...
Not quite hype, but for a spinning drive that gets 200MB/sec there is no need for SAS3/12G.
If this is your first SAS experience I suggest you get the IBM card I mentioned, the M1015 for $25 bucks.
You could hook up 8 SAS2/SAS3 drives or SATA3 drives to it.
8 SATA3 SSD's will max out the PCIe 2.0 bus at x8 so be advised of that issue with these older cards.
You will want to flash it with the LSI IT firmware. If that is a hassle for you look for the LSI SAS9211-8i.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/274063856556

Here is the SAS2 cable for SAS92xx
https://www.ebay.com/itm/254241691691

Here is a SATA cable for the SAS92xx series
https://www.ebay.com/itm/293195419970

You can use both of these cables at the same time. 4 SAS drives and 4 SATA drives.
 
Phishfry said:
Not quite hype, but for a spinning drive that gets 200MB/sec there is no need for SAS3/12G.
Click to expand...
Hype or not, I won't know until I try it.
But, if you have or did some real world benchmarks of a similar HD, post few lines here.
I got all the right cables already. I also have my Puget Sound Associates (high-tech dumpster divers and tweekers) looking for all and any EnterPrice SAS controllers or anything that looks like one - I'll do (almost) anything to avoid Ebay or Amazon, if I can :)
 

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Are you going to use SSD disks on that controller? If not why you need 12Gb/s controller? Or maybe you have a backplane with with 32 HDD?
 
The final outcome:
After little bit of time and with help from my Puget Sound Associates (hitek dumpster divers and modderhackers), I was able to dig out 2 good Dell-PERC H310 SAS controller cards from the pile of trash that we could flash. Now, I have 2 good SAS controllers and my EnterPrice SAS HD running like a good'n old BMW, with its hot engine raving at 10K RPMS doing 200++KM/h in the fast (left) lane on authobahn - blinking high beams, left flasher on and shooting laser sign "MTFO to the right or die" :)
7127


Edit:
Sorry for the picspam.
I don't know why am I having issues with deleting the img and just leaving Thumbnail :( Is it the otter-browser or the forum's engine :confused:. Each time, when I tried to delete just the img, the Thumbnail was also gone :mad:
 
Very wise to go the SAS2 route. SAS3 to me has been a money pit.
I went first for the LSI TriMode cards which should do NVMe as well as SAS3 and SATA3.
All I can say is run away from SAS3 OEM cards. Nothing but headaches.
Never got a single NVMe running on any of the TriMode SAS94xx cards.
OEM/Non-LSI SAS3 cards have been a wash for me.
Some background here:
forums.freebsd.org

Best ZFS SAS controllers

Any good recommendations?
forums.freebsd.org forums.freebsd.org
 
I don't know why I was insisting on 12Gb/s SAS3 controller card. Most of my gear that I play with is vintage. But, if I found one for free, I'd try it anyway with FreeBSD :)
The SAS controller cards were free and so was this Dell-T3500 box, as you see, all from trash. The Dell box didn't have any RAM or storage devices. Somehow, I was able to mix&match my extra vintage RAM stick to make all work, as shown. Now, I have 2xDell-T3500 and one T5500 boxes, just in case, and to experiment with.
 
The Dell LSI cards are well established solution and let you install SAS hard drives which can be found on Ebay relatively cheaply -Like for 3TB and 4TB drives on Ebay the price for a SAS drive is about $10 less, and If you're using RAID 5 setups with 3-4 HDs that adds up. But I wouldn't recommend it for SSDs at all.
 
Here is a discussion about the Lenovo OEM versions of LSI SAS3 controllers. I am attempting to try to flash one tonight.

Lenovo 930-8i to Broadcom SAS 9460-8i SAS3508

Has anyone flashed a Lenovo 930-8i to a Broadcom SAS9460-8i yet? The LSI card is around $750 while the Lenovo card is around $450. Lenovo ThinkSystem RAID 930-8I 2GB Flash PCIE 12GB Adapter 7Y37A01084 ZZ | eBay
forums.servethehome.com forums.servethehome.com

Info on LSI SAS3408? Got myself a 530-8i on eBay...

I recently found an auction for a Lenovo 530-8i on eBay and got lucky and picked it up for $55. From what I can tell, it is a LSI SAS3408 chipset based MegaRAID controller, similar to LSI 9440-8i. It does appear to have a built-in "JBOD" mode, which I suspect is similar to the "HBA" mode of the...
forums.servethehome.com forums.servethehome.com
 
Phishfry said:
Here is a discussion about the Lenovo OEM versions of LSI SAS3 controllers. I am attempting to try to flash one tonight.

Lenovo 930-8i to Broadcom SAS 9460-8i SAS3508

Has anyone flashed a Lenovo 930-8i to a Broadcom SAS9460-8i yet? The LSI card is around $750 while the Lenovo card is around $450. Lenovo ThinkSystem RAID 930-8I 2GB Flash PCIE 12GB Adapter 7Y37A01084 ZZ | eBay
forums.servethehome.com forums.servethehome.com

Info on LSI SAS3408? Got myself a 530-8i on eBay...

I recently found an auction for a Lenovo 530-8i on eBay and got lucky and picked it up for $55. From what I can tell, it is a LSI SAS3408 chipset based MegaRAID controller, similar to LSI 9440-8i. It does appear to have a built-in "JBOD" mode, which I suspect is similar to the "HBA" mode of the...
forums.servethehome.com forums.servethehome.com
Click to expand...

Did it work?
 
Phishfry said:
Not quite hype, but for a spinning drive that gets 200MB/sec there is no need for SAS3/12G.
If this is your first SAS experience I suggest you get the IBM card I mentioned, the M1015 for $25 bucks.
You could hook up 8 SAS2/SAS3 drives or SATA3 drives to it.
8 SATA3 SSD's will max out the PCIe 2.0 bus at x8 so be advised of that issue with these older cards.
You will want to flash it with the LSI IT firmware. If that is a hassle for you look for the LSI SAS9211-8i.
[...]
Click to expand...

So far I have had some bad luck with the LSI SAS 9300-8i cards. I have had two of these die on my 8 drive ZFS pool. One just died completely. The second one would be recognized by FreeBSD but the driver couldn't reset the controller and it never came up. So I am a bit gun shy of these boards now. Any suggestion on 12Gb 8 port cards out there that have mature FreeBSD drivers?
 
Unless you have an actual need for 12Gb I would stick with 6GbSAS boards. SAS SSD is the only reason to consider them
Rotating disks have zero need for a faster interface.
I bought another Avago 9400-8i because I am a glutton for punishment. I have even ordered the $100 cable for 2 NVMe drives.
Hopefully it works this time. I see you can damage the controller by using the wrong cable. That is just plain messed up.
The SAS94xx is not anything like the good old SAS92xx series.
I just bought two more SuperMicro branded 2308 controllers for my virt box. I like them and have 4 in use already.
www.ebay.com

SuperMicro AOC-S2308L-L8i 8 Ports IT Mode PCIe 6Gb/s RAID Controller Card US | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for SuperMicro AOC-S2308L-L8i 8 Ports IT Mode PCIe 6Gb/s RAID Controller Card US at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
 
I did want to mention that now with FreeBSD 12.1 my Intel branded SAS9400 is properly found by the mrsas(4) driver.
There was a commit to FreeBSD late last year that brought us up to date with the Broadcom/Avago mrsas driver.
 
K, the SuperMicro 2308 controller uses a Broadcom 2308 and the SAS 9300-8i uses the 3008. I don't know what is going on with the SAS 9300-8i but I had one just totally fail and the other going to some bad partial state. I do have 8 spinning drives, so paying $50 for a 2308 instead of 8x that for the 9400-8i is tempting. Any problems with the 2308?
 
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