SATA Controller Cards


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6 minutes ago, NAStyBox said:

Onboard connections seem to be consistently faster

 

Onboard Intel ports are some of the best ports you can use in terms of stability, but they are not faster than HBAs, in fact they can be considerably slower when all ports ares in use, for now with SSDs only, but everything below Skylake is limited to about 1500/1600 MB/s total for all ports combined, and skylake and above are inexplicably limited to 2000MB/s, when in theory with DMI 3.0 it should do above 3000MB/s, I was able to get +3500MB/s total from a LSI HBA, and it wasn't the limit as that was the max speed of the SSDs I used.

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10 minutes ago, NAStyBox said:

The difference wasn't huge, but it was there. 

 

There should be any difference, I tested mine and can easily do +500MB/s with a single (or +450MB/s with up to 4) devices.

 

10 minutes ago, NAStyBox said:


What are you using to test concurrent use?

 

With unRAID on a test server doing a parity check (or read check, that is al devices assigned as data devices without parity)

Edited by johnnie.black
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On 5/30/2017 at 2:46 PM, bjp999 said:

I have yet to see SAS SFF-8087 motherboard connections. I prefer the add on cards that use those to the myriad of individual sata cables on the motherboard. And when motherboard ports go over 6 (or 8?), the other ports are using some add-on controller chips with some of the same challenges as add on cards.

 

3

 

I've seen several motherboards with 8087's on board, although usually server boards, and most of the time the board has an LSI HBA onboard.  One exception is the Cisco C200 M2 machine I'm using, it's got an 8087 on the LSI Mezzanine controller (1068 card if I remember right), and an 8087 onboard on the right side that connects to the onboard sata chipset (NOT the raid card) for ports 3-6 (1 and 2 are standard sata ports on the opposite side of the motherboard).  It's not exactly an 'off the shelf' board, but it's not exactly unique either.

 

There's also the SuperMicro X10SRM-TF, with a single 8087 onboard, plus an additional 6 regular style ports, for a total of 10.

 

The Intel DBS2400SC2 has 2 8087's, plus 2 sata 6g, and 4 sata 3g ports.

 

Far as regular, consumer-grade boards, I can't recall seeing any with 8087's on them.

 

 

Edited by heffe2001
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/30/2017 at 1:56 PM, NAStyBox said:

Well that's the difference. I'm using that drive speed test plugin, which does them one at a time.

 

The next full version will recognize the controllers & the drives connected to each controller and will perform simultaneous tests on differing controllers.

A Drive Map plugin I'm working on now (which is the framework for the above disk speed app) will allow you to test bandwidth limits on single controller cards and up so you can identify where speed bottlenecks happen, if they exist.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi Folks,

I have an old HP xw8600 I'm using for unraid. The MB already has an LSI controller on board that is used for the data/parity drives. I just purchased an LSI 9211-8i strictly as the interface for my flash drives (4 x 128gb). The xw8600 MB has the ability to disable the ROM downloads from the onboard SAS/SATA as well as the PCIe slots individually. I've disabled the ROM for the on board LSI controller and this new card (couldn't help but to play with the new toy) and all seems to be working fine. It sees and is using all the drives without downloading the ROMs during boot. Does anybody know if it is safe to run unraid in this manor? Just bypassing the ROMs instead of changing the firmware(s) to IT mode?

 

Thanks!

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Try E-bay.  That is where I got mine.  Just look at each seller ratings and make sure that the state of the firmware.  It will/may need to flashed to IT mode.  If the vendor has not done it, your friend will have to do.  Here is the one that I bought in mid June and it has worked perfectly.

 

   http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-IT-Mode-Genuine-LSI-9211-8i-SAS-SATA-8-port-PCI-E-Card-Bulk-pack-US-Seller/291641245650?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

As you can tell, this one was flashed by the Vendor which makes the cost a bit higher.  Of course, he will need to find a vendor either in the UK or who will ship it there.

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  • 1 month later...
On 8/4/2017 at 0:32 PM, Frank1940 said:

Try E-bay.  That is where I got mine.  Just look at each seller ratings and make sure that the state of the firmware.  It will/may need to flashed to IT mode.  If the vendor has not done it, your friend will have to do.  Here is the one that I bought in mid June and it has worked perfectly.

 

   http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-IT-Mode-Genuine-LSI-9211-8i-SAS-SATA-8-port-PCI-E-Card-Bulk-pack-US-Seller/291641245650?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

As you can tell, this one was flashed by the Vendor which makes the cost a bit higher.  Of course, he will need to find a vendor either in the UK or who will ship it there.

 

So, is this particular unit plug&play? or is more setup required?

Thanks

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I just plugged it and it worked.  It does add a few extra seconds to the boot time and it does have a control key combination to get to the card's BIOS but I have never even looked at it.  I did order it with the P20 firmware.  (I contacted them and they responded quickly with instructions on how to request that version when I placed the order.)  Don't forget that you have to get cables...

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Just now, Frank1940 said:

I just plugged it and it worked.  It does add a few extra seconds to the boot time and it does have a control key combination to get to the card's BIOS but I have never even looked at it.  I did order it with the P20 firmware.  (I contacted them and they responded quickly with instructions on how to request that version when I placed the order.)  Don't forget that you have to get cables...

Thanks for the quick reply.

I am currently using a couple of very inexpensive x2 pci/pcie cards and i feel like they are affecting my performance and just want to clean up the case. (remove all the random sata cables and just have the breakout cables/sata mobo cables) 

Is there anything I have to configure or change once I plug it in other than just swapping my cables over?

also, are the cables in his add satisfactory? http://www.ebay.com/itm/121460778754

 

Thanks again!

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12 minutes ago, Popple2000 said:

Is there anything I have to configure or change once I plug it in other than just swapping my cables over?

Nope. Once I installed and connected the cable to the drives, the server booted and was up and running with the array mounted in less than three minutes.

 

12 minutes ago, Popple2000 said:

are the cables in his add satisfactory? http://www.ebay.com/itm/121460778754

It appears to be the right one.  I would made sure that I actually needed a 1M long cable.  I actually got this one (.5M long)  from amazon:

     https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FBYS2U/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Shorter cable makes for a less clutter inside of the case.

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10 minutes ago, Frank1940 said:

Nope. Once I installed and connected the cable to the drives, the server booted and was up and running with the array mounted in less than three minutes.

 

It appears to be the right one.  I would made sure that I actually needed a 1M long cable.  I actually got this one (.5M long)  from amazon:

     https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FBYS2U/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Shorter cable makes for a less clutter inside of the case.

 

Awesome, thanks so much!

https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147164&_ga=2.112518151.280416927.1506009442-602548271.1506009442 is my case, so the .5's will most likely be fine.

I just sent them an email asking about the P20 firmware :)

Edited by Popple2000
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On 8/4/2017 at 0:32 PM, Frank1940 said:

Try E-bay.  That is where I got mine.  Just look at each seller ratings and make sure that the state of the firmware.  It will/may need to flashed to IT mode.  If the vendor has not done it, your friend will have to do.  Here is the one that I bought in mid June and it has worked perfectly.

 

   http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-IT-Mode-Genuine-LSI-9211-8i-SAS-SATA-8-port-PCI-E-Card-Bulk-pack-US-Seller/291641245650?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

As you can tell, this one was flashed by the Vendor which makes the cost a bit higher.  Of course, he will need to find a vendor either in the UK or who will ship it there.

 

thanks for this post! I've been lurking this thread for a replacement (my IOCrest SI-PEX40057 Marvell 88SE9230 died on me) and I've never used server SAS cards

 

i eventually bought a Dell H310 that was preflashed with IT firmware... i had never considered the eBay route, so thank you for pointing me in that direction

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am planning to expand my unRAID HDD pool and to do it, I need to add SATA/SAS controller card. From what I have read, I am leaning to SAS controllers and I need some recommendations.
MB is ASRock H87WS-DL with all PCIe slots available for now, Intel i3-4360T and 8 GB of RAM.
Which SAS controller would you recommend?
I have read that IBM M1015, LSI 9211-8i and LSI 9201-16i are good choices for unRAID.

For what I am planning, I will have to set up 2 HDDs in RAID1 mode (they will be used via unassigned devices). Is there any special setting that I need to pay attention to?

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The IBM M1015 will need to be flashed to IT mode (not hard to do).  The LSI-9211-8i may also need to be flashed but I believe it is an HBA (so already IS in IT mode) - but I could be wrong.  The LSI-9201-16i IS an HBA and is plug and play with unRAID.  Just plug it in attach drives and turn on the computer and unRAID v6 will detect the card and the drives and boot up.

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4 hours ago, BobPhoenix said:

The IBM M1015 will need to be flashed to IT mode (not hard to do).  The LSI-9211-8i may also need to be flashed but I believe it is an HBA (so already IS in IT mode) - but I could be wrong.  The LSI-9201-16i IS an HBA and is plug and play with unRAID.  Just plug it in attach drives and turn on the computer and unRAID v6 will detect the card and the drives and boot up.

 

I am pretty sure the 9211 requires a flash into IT mode. It's the difference between the 9211 and 9201. 9211 is RAID, and 9201 is HBA.

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On 9/22/2017 at 10:27 AM, Frank1940 said:

Nope. Once I installed and connected the cable to the drives, the server booted and was up and running with the array mounted in less than three minutes.

 

It appears to be the right one.  I would made sure that I actually needed a 1M long cable.  I actually got this one (.5M long)  from amazon:

     https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FBYS2U/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Shorter cable makes for a less clutter inside of the case.

 

On 9/22/2017 at 10:29 AM, Popple2000 said:

 

Awesome, thanks so much!

https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147164&_ga=2.112518151.280416927.1506009442-602548271.1506009442 is my case, so the .5's will most likely be fine.

I just sent them an email asking about the P20 firmware :)

 

Just wanted to say I got my card and cables yesterday and they went in without a hitch! Just popped the card in, swapped the cables and it fired right back up :)

Super happy with the purchase!

Thanks again!

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19 hours ago, Vaseer said:

I am from Europe so I am looking to buy used IBM M1015 within EU borders (no customs...). Any recommendations where to look/search (besides ebay.de/com/co.uk)?

 

Seaching on ebay.de i have directly found one seller which is located in Germany. http://www.ebay.de/itm/IBM-ServeRaid-M1015-SATA-SAS-HBA-Controller-RAID-6Gbps-PCIe-x8-wie-9220-8i-/131847466320?_trksid=p2385738.m2548.l4275

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19 hours ago, Vaseer said:

I am from Europe so I am looking to buy used IBM M1015 within EU borders (no customs...). Any recommendations where to look/search (besides ebay.de/com/co.uk)?

you can search for Dell H310/H200 too, it's all the same as IBM M1015, this for example: http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Dell-H310-HBA-Controller-LSI-basiert-6G-PCIe-x8-Gebraucht-SAS-SATA-0HV52W-/272403436256?hash=item3f6c8292e0:g:fN4AAOSwLnBX9kJY

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