Recommended controllers for Unraid


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2 hours ago, cemE said:

I can't seem to find a 6 ports: Asmedia ASM1166 (PCIe 3.0 x4 physical, x2 electrical) card. Any suggestions?

Please don't post the same question in multiple threads. It makes it impossible to coordinate replies.

 

Anyone wanting to reply to this specific user go here:

 

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I founded cables on amazon (#10Gtek# 6G Internal Mini SAS 36pin SFF-8087 Male to 4X SATA 7pin Female Fan-Out Cable, 0.5-m (1.6ft))

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01L8ATGAA

Wanted to buy unbranded from aliexpress befor but this i think is better, but they dont have the locking litches on sata side !  is it good choice  ? i never was using befor sata cables without locking litches.

also founded that cables (Supermicro CBL-0097L-03 51/51cm SFF-8087 To 4x SATA forward breakout +sideband )  also without  locking litches ...

why its so ?

 

Edited by Masterwishx
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  • 3 weeks later...

I understand that the combination of a LSI SAS controller card and Segate Iron Wolf hard drives have spin up issues with the current release of Unraid.  Anyone have a recommendation for a different brand of SAS controller card that works with version 6.9?

Thanks for the help.

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7 hours ago, Mr-Cpu said:

I understand that the combination of a LSI SAS controller card and Segate Iron Wolf hard drives have spin up issues with the current release of Unraid. 

AFAIK it's not Ironwolf models in general but only the ST8000VN004, and there's a fix for it, but if you want a non LSI HBA the Adaptec HBA 1000 and 1100 series are reported to work without issues, though not as used as LSI, so not as well tested.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm looking into getting a SAS HBA but not very knowledgeable about them. On eBay the best prices for me ( mostly do to free shipping ) are given as 9212 from China, marked as new. Many sellers even posting the same pictures. Am I too assume these are counterfeit? Also I'm planning on getting a bay in my 5.25 slots with a SAS connector but it seems this card has separate ports for the internal instead of a single SAS.

 

Should I be looking somewhere else in your opinions?

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32 minutes ago, ingovals said:

I'm looking into getting a SAS HBA but not very knowledgeable about them. On eBay the best prices for me ( mostly do to free shipping ) are given as 9212 from China, marked as new. Many sellers even posting the same pictures. Am I too assume these are counterfeit? Also I'm planning on getting a bay in my 5.25 slots with a SAS connector but it seems this card has separate ports for the internal instead of a single SAS.

 

Should I be looking somewhere else in your opinions?

You can see the current controllers being officially manufactured by (for) LSI on their page, https://www.broadcom.com/products/storage/host-bus-adapters/tab-12gb1

If it's not there, and it's being sold as new out of china, it's counterfeit.

 

For older generation controllers you need to look at ebay sellers that specialize in parting out old servers.

 

There is no such thing as a cheap new official LSI controller. They sell to the server market, with prices to match.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Gents,

 

I need a top 3 recommendation of what to buy so it works in my usecase below since I am not very experienced with the lingo :)

 

This is my motherboard: ASRock B365M-ITX/ac and the x16 slot is free.

 

I have 1 tb m.2 and 5x 10tb WD reds and whites (shucked)

I have room (and need) for 2 more 10tb's.\

 

which one should I buy that just works, I dont care if I need to flash something as long as there is a guide somewhere :)

 

I live in the netherlands.

 

I hope you guys can give me a couple of recommendations :)

Edited by BelgarionNL
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 8/11/2021 at 8:30 AM, JorgeB said:

Should be fine.

 

Sorry, but I am asking for my own clarification.

 

The Amazon link, point 5 says : "5. Support command-based and FIS-based port multiplier"

 

I thought it was recommended to avoid sata cards that supported port multiplier? 

 

And if these cards are not recommended would that mean we can not use any sort of multi-bay hard drive enclosures via esata like the Mediasonic Probox 4 bay esata devices which would be a very big downer for me.

 

Cheers & many thanks

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@JorgeB - Thanks very much, that really clears it up. Really appreciate the reply. So that means external esata multi bay enclosures like Mediasonic ProBoxes must be attached via Unraid SAS controller in IT mode? I've priced such devices on eBay and in Canada they are quite expensive. 

 

Years ago when Novell Netware was very popular for file & print services, we used Dell servers which had the Perc SCSI raid controllers. I believe they were PCI or perhaps eisa (I'm in my late 60's and at the time I would have been in my late 30s). They were awesome performers for our raid 5 setups.

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2 minutes ago, Vetteman said:

So that means external esata multi bay enclosures like Mediasonic ProBoxes must be attached via Unraid SAS controller in IT mode?

Ideally yes, doesn't mean that SATA ports multipliers or USB don't work for some, but should always be avoided when possible, you can also make your own SAS enclosure using an ATX case and a SAS expander, this can make it much cheaper, you can buy a used SAS expander for $50 or less.

  • Thanks 1
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/31/2021 at 12:32 PM, ChatNoir said:

How many PCIE lanes are available on that port ?

How many more ports do you need ?

The truth is that I don't really know. I'm only using the 4 sata ports, no external gpu or anything, if it's any help. I "read" the manual and I couldn't find anything related to lanes. In any case, thank you for taking your time to reply :).
And I think I would be done with 4 ports.

Digging around I found people recommending to basically chop off the the extra pins from a pcie x4 and call it a day XD.

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11 minutes ago, megateto said:

And I think I would be done with 4 ports.

Look for an Asmedia ASM1064 based controller, those are x1 with 4 ports, or an ASM1164, these are usually x2 with 4 ports, but there are some x1 models available, they will both perform the same in this case.

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Hi, just got a IO Crest card from amazon, it's a 4 port, 1x PCIe 3.0 that uses ASMedia 1064

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08J2PK1HF?ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details&th=1

it seemed to work fine at first but i started getting UDMA CRC errors on port 3.

it is connected to a 1x PCIe 2.0 port, i assumed lower performance from a PCIe 2.0 but could it result in constant CRC errors?

 

I also had a HPA issue that i think i fixed, but it might be part of the issue. switched the array to a different PC but still get the errors.

not sure this is the right place for the post but any help will be appreciated.

 

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3 hours ago, Squid said:

Reseat the cabling both ends. 

i did, replace the cable a few times and even connected different drives from the array to that port. it seems that the issue is with that specific port.

only the drive that was currently connected to that port had the CRC issues. i'm using port 1,2 now only (+4 onboard) and no issues. i might have gone too cheap on my SATA card :/

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Looking to get a PCIe 3.0 x 1 to add 2 SATA ports for my dell t30 server. I'm looking at these two Jmicron JMB582 cards:

1) https://www.ebay.com/itm/284024382281
2) https://www.amazon.com/MZHOU-Expansion-JMICRON-Adapter-Low-Profile/dp/B099ZCXJLQ/ref=sr_1_4?crid=11Y9IFL8M9QMK&keywords=jmicron%2Bjmb582%2Bio%2Bcrest&qid=1641922637&s=electronics&sprefix=jmicron%2Bjmb582%2Biocrest%2Celectronics%2C113&sr=1-4&th=1

 

They say they support port multipliers...any insight as to which I should get if not one of these? Thanks!

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18 minutes ago, puncho said:

They say they support port multipliers...any insight as to which I should get if not one of these? Thanks!

Either should be OK, JMB582 is good, don't known those exact models but as long as they are normal quality it's fine, supporting port multipliers is OK, using them is what's not recommended.

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