Help with SATA card <Solved>


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Hi

 

I'm very new to Unraid so i hope im posting the right place.

 

I'm looking at a SATA card but i dont know if its supported.

 

The spec are (copy from sellers website)

 

Element Type: PCI-E to SATA 3.0 Card
Model: PCE8SAT-M01
Master: fit for Marvell 88SE92xx + JMB5XX
Interface: PCI-E 1X 2X 4X 8X 16X
Support system: fit for Windows 7/8/XP/10 fit for Ubuntu
Expansion interface: 8 x SATA3.0 interfaces

 

I'm using ASUS ROG STRIX B550-E GAMING with AMD 3700X and the latest version of Unraid (beta) as i had no LAN support on the lastest stable version.

 

Hope you can help me and thank you in advance :D

Edited by Ira
Solved
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32 minutes ago, Ira said:

Master: fit for Marvell 88SE92xx + JMB5XX

Nothing with a Marvell chipset is recommended with unRAID.  For some they work fine if virtualization/IOMMU is disabled.  In most cases they are a problem and can drop drives or cause them not to show up in unRAID.

 

If you need an 8 port SATA card, the suggestion is to go with something based on an LSI chipset.  There are many posts in these forums about good cards based on LSI.  I personally use the Dell H310 (LSI SAS 2008 chipset), but there are many others from which to choose.

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1 hour ago, Ira said:

cant find your card from someone who wanna ship to me can i use this?

I am not at all familiar with the 2 ASMedia 1093 chips on that card and it is not listed on the ASMedia site.  Avoid anything that has port multipliers/PCIe bridge chips (if that is what the 1093 is) as they will cause disk bottleneck issues.

 

The chips known to work well with unRAID are the following:

 

ASMedia 1061/1062 - 2 SATA ports

ASMedia 1064 (seems to be a new chip) - 4 SATA ports

JMicron JMB582 - 2 SATA ports

JMicron JMB585 - 5 SATA ports

Various LSI chips - 8 or more SATA ports.

 

Recommended LSI chipsets are the SAS2008/2308/3008 chipset in IT mode, e.g., 9201-8i, 9211-8i, 9207-8i, 9300-8i, etc and clones, like the Dell H200/H310 and IBM M1015, these latter ones need to be crossflashed.

 

There are a couple of LSI-based cards that support 16 SATA drives.

Edited by Hoopster
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Damn you make it hard for me to find a card 😅
Most cards i found use more than 1 chip :( 
But im happy you can tell it so easy so i can find the right card (never played with a real server befor and no I/O cards)

 

Anyway could you check the two i think they should be okay (after a few hrs looking to find anyone that will send to my)

 

Technical data:
Model: 9212-4i
State: open field
Interface: PCI-E x8/x16
Support Hard Drive: Support 8TB Hard Drive including SATA and SAS.Support 4 Hard Drives at the same time
Hard drive interfaces: 4
Chipset: LSI SAS 2008
RAID level: 0/1 / 1E / 10
Compatible system:
For Windows 10 / 8/7 comes with a plug and play driver, for Win7 Pure System and for XP you need to install the driver manually, support for QunHui 5.2 / 6.0 / 6.1 (black rock), no need to install a driver, directly recognise the hard driveBR> working mode: dual mode optional
Working mode 1: IR mode
Work Mode 2: IT Mode (Latest firmware version P20)
Size: Approx. 170 x 120 x 20 mm / 6.69 x 4.72 x 0.79 inches.

 

If this can work should i get the IR or IT version?

 

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Tonysa-Memory-Controller-Windows-Driver/dp/B07VNKR88C/ref=sr_1_43?dchild=1&keywords=SAS2008&qid=1611871687&refinements=p_76%3A419123031&rnid=419121031&rps=1&sr=8-43&th=1

 

Specification:
Eight internal 6Gb/s SAS / SATA ports
Optional two internal mini SAS ports (SFF-8087)
6 Gbps throughput per port
800 MHz processor with LSI SAS2108 RAID on chip controller with 6 Gbps
x8 PCI-E 2.0 host interface
Built-in data cache (DDR2 with 800MHz): ServeRAID M5015: 512MB
Battery Backup Unit BBU08 Live Failure Indicator
Connects to up to 32 SAS or SATA drives
RAID level: 0, 1, 5.
RAID Expansion: 10, 50
Automatic recovery during reconstruction
Automatic recovery during reconstruction
Online capacity expansion (OCE)
Online RAID Level Upgrade (RLM)
Global and special hot spare parts with support function for recoverable hot spare parts.
Automatic reconstruction.
Container affinity
Emergency SATA Hot Replacement Parts for SAS Array
Unified Controller Multipath (Failover)
E/A load compensation.
Comprehensive and comprehensive RAID management suite.
The LSI 6Gb/s memory adapter is compatible with existing 3Gb/s SATA and SASDHDD systems.
CompatibleSpread Spectrum Clocking, SSC, Decision Feedback, DFE, Expander Self-Discovery, Self-Configuration, Standardised Zonation.

Package contents:
1 x M5015 array card.

Note:
1. IBM ServeRAID M5015 46M0829 46M0851 will be sent at random.
2. This product has been removed from IBM Server, not a whole new product, no retail package.

 

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Bewinner-46M0851-Controller-9260-8i-Support-Default/dp/B07V47G4VB/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=SAS2008&qid=1611871687&refinements=p_76%3A419123031&rnid=419121031&rps=1&sr=8-4


Thank you in advance. :) 

I love that people help it seem that i whent for the right software/forum to build my first server :D

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1 hour ago, Ira said:

Damn you make it hard for me to find a card 😅

Not my intention.  I just want to make sure you get a card that will actually work well for you.  Multiple chip cards are almost always using port multipliers.  This may be fine for a desktop PC where it is very unlikely that all attached drives are actively reading or writing at the same time.  In unRAID, however, this happens with every parity check or disk rebuild/replacement and causes severe bottlenecks.

 

1 hour ago, Ira said:

 

Technical data:
Model: 9212-4i
State: open field
Interface: PCI-E x8/x16
Support Hard Drive: Support 8TB Hard Drive including SATA and SAS.Support 4 Hard Drives at the same time
Hard drive interfaces: 4
Chipset: LSI SAS 2008
RAID level: 0/1 / 1E / 10
Compatible system:
For Windows 10 / 8/7 comes with a plug and play driver, for Win7 Pure System and for XP you need to install the driver manually, support for QunHui 5.2 / 6.0 / 6.1 (black rock), no need to install a driver, directly recognise the hard driveBR> working mode: dual mode optional
Working mode 1: IR mode
Work Mode 2: IT Mode (Latest firmware version P20)
Size: Approx. 170 x 120 x 20 mm / 6.69 x 4.72 x 0.79 inches.

 

If this can work should i get the IR or IT version?

IT mode is best.  Yes this card will work for unRAID in IT mode.  See this link.  If it can come to you already flashed with IT firmware P20 (version 20.0.0.7) that is best.  If not, there are instructions in the linked thread or in these forums about flashing yourself.

 

You can find cards based on the same chipset that support 8 drives; like the 9211-8i.  My Dell H310 uses the same chip and is a clone of the 9211-8i.

 

Here is one that says it can be shipped to many countries.

 

The second one you listed, even though it supports 8 SATA drives, is a RAID card.  This is not always a problem if the chipset supports flashing to IT mode.  I think the SAS2108 chipset is a MegaRAID chipset.  Any MegaRAID based card cannot usually be flashed to IT mode and is RAID only.

 

The guaranteed known to work with unRAID in IT mode LSI chipsets are those I listed above SAS2008, SAS2308, SAS3008.  There are some others, but those have proven to be the most popular.

Edited by Hoopster
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crap 

2 hours ago, Ira said:

Support Hard Drive: Support 8TB Hard Drive including SATA and SAS.Support 4 Hard Drives at the same time

does this mean total of 8TB on the card or no bigger than 8TB drives?

 

The problem with items from outside EU is shipping will be more than item price and then come tax >_<

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22 minutes ago, Ira said:

does this mean total of 8TB on the card or no bigger than 8TB drives?

Probably at the time the card was released, 8TB was the largest size available.  I doubt there is a limit of 8TB in size. 

 

In general, any HBA card that supports drives greater than 2.2TB in size is going to support any drive size available today.  All four drives connected to the card can be 8TB+ in size.   It would take a really old controller to run into the 2.2TB size limitation.

 

I currently have five 8TB drives connected to my H310 and can connect three more.  8TB is not a limit,  It is just the size I am currently using.

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11 minutes ago, Ira said:

I have been trying to find your card but ether it cost like $200 or they wont deliver to me >_<

LSI 9211-8i, IBM M1015 and Dell H310/H200 are all basically the same card if you can find any of those.  You certainly don't need to have one of those as there are many good options.  They just support 8 drives as apposed to 4 drives for the card you have found.

 

The good thing about the 4 drive card is that it uses normal SATA cables to connect to the drives.  My card requires the SFF-8087 to SATA breakout cables for 8 drives.

 

Edit:  It does say this in the Amazon listing for the card which is interesting.  I have not seen a size limit specified on most cards.  Not sure if that means it cannot support larger drives:

 

"4 standard 6GB SATA/SAS interfaces. Supports SAS hard drives, maximum capacity for single hard drives is 8TB."

Edited by Hoopster
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Sooo i gave it one more look and i think i found a 8 port card can you have look?

If it dont work i will give up and go with the 4 port one >_<

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/product/B01M2AC40Y/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ADD8GDUWB40L7&psc=1

 

Size Name:LSI9211-8I

Features:
8. 6 GB/s SATA + SAS ports
Two x4 internal SFF8087 Mini-SAS connectors
MD2 low-profile form design
IO Controller: LSISAS2008/Fusion MPT 2.0 – Connectivity: 8 ports
Data transfer rate: 6.0 Gb/s SAS 2.0 compliant
SAS Bandwidth: 600 MB/s per lane
Port Configurations:
8 ea, x1 ports (individual drives) or
2 ea, x4 wide port
Host Bus: X8 lane, PCI Express 2.0 compliant
PCI Data Burst Transfer Rates: X8, PCIe 4000 MB/s
Physical Dimensions: Low Profile (2nd 6 x 16.8 cm)
Connectors: Two Mini-SAS internal connectors (SFF8087)
Brackets: Full Height and Low Profile
Cable Support: Passive Copper
PCI Card Type: 3.3 V add in card
Operating Voltage: + 12 V +/-8%; 3.3 V +/-8% – Power Handling (Nominal): 7 W typical (airflow Min 200 LFM
Device Support: 256 Non-RAID SAS/SATA devices
Integrated RAID (IR):
RAID 0, 10 per volume
RAID 1, per volume plus hot spare
RAID 1E, 10 per volume
RAID 10,10 per volume
Environment:
Operation: -
0 °C to 55 °C Range: -45 °C up to 105 °C
5 to 90% Non-condensing: 5 to 90% Non-condensing
MTBF: > 2,000,000 hours

 

I would prefer 8 port card as i only have 2 free now and i have 8 disk from my nas im moving when i get a card 😅

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15 minutes ago, Ira said:

Sooo i gave it one more look and i think i found a 8 port card can you have look?

Yes, that card will work.  It is essentially the same one I have from a chipset, layout and features standpoint.  You will need the forward breakout cables with that card.

 

Mine came with RAID firmware and I flashed it with IT mode firmware.  If that card comes with RAID firmware, you will need to do the same.

 

Don't connect SATA SSDs to it as it does not support TRIM.  Always connect SATA SSDs to motherboard ports.  For hard drives, this card will work very well for you.

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4 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

Make sure they are forward cables an not reverse cables.

Not sure what that means?

I found this cable

 

Product description:
Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) is a high-speed data storage interface for high throughput and fast data access. The SAS interface is primarily intended for data storage centers, backwards compatible with SATA. This allows the user to mix more expensive, lower capacity SAS drives for applications that require faster data access and higher reliability, with cheaper, higher capacity SATA drives for applications with lower access speeds.

Characteristics:
Connector A: 1 x 36 pin 4i Mini MultiLane SAS (SFF-8087) connector
Connector B: 4 x 7-pin Serial ATA socket
SAS lane number: 4 lanes.
Data rate: 6 Gbit / s per channel.
AWG30 Twinaxial 8 Pairs High Bandwidth Low Skew Wire
Impedance = 100 ohms.
Crossover wiring
Heavy duty wire construction with 8 pairs.
Exceeds SAS 1.1 and SAS 2 specifications.

Applications:
Data center
Servers, storage shelves, RAID systems.
External storage systems.
SAS / SATA HBA interfaces
Direct Attached Storage (DAS)
Switch range

 

 

Can that work?

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7 minutes ago, Ira said:

Not sure what that means?

I found this cable

 

Product description:
Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) is a high-speed data storage interface for high throughput and fast data access. The SAS interface is primarily intended for data storage centers, backwards compatible with SATA. This allows the user to mix more expensive, lower capacity SAS drives for applications that require faster data access and higher reliability, with cheaper, higher capacity SATA drives for applications with lower access speeds.

Characteristics:
Connector A: 1 x 36 pin 4i Mini MultiLane SAS (SFF-8087) connector
Connector B: 4 x 7-pin Serial ATA socket
SAS lane number: 4 lanes.
Data rate: 6 Gbit / s per channel.
AWG30 Twinaxial 8 Pairs High Bandwidth Low Skew Wire
Impedance = 100 ohms.
Crossover wiring
Heavy duty wire construction with 8 pairs.
Exceeds SAS 1.1 and SAS 2 specifications.

Applications:
Data center
Servers, storage shelves, RAID systems.
External storage systems.
SAS / SATA HBA interfaces
Direct Attached Storage (DAS)
Switch range

 

 

Can that work?

Yes, from the description it could be OK, or they could be reverse cables.  Reverse cables are usually used when connecting SATA ports to a disk shelf or backplane.  The problem is that  they look exactly the same and there is no way to tell unless the product description specifies the direction.

 

See the cables I linked in this post as an example:

 

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  • 1 month later...
  • Ira changed the title to Help with SATA card <Solved>

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