LSI Controller for passthrough to unRAID?

[sgibbers17]

I have been searching around and found a couple of LSI Hard disk controllers that are listed on ESXi compatible hardware list.

 

LSI Internal SATA/SAS 9211-8i 6Gb/s PCI-Express 2.0 RAID Controller Card

LSI MegaRAID Internal Low-Power SATA/SAS 9240-8i 6Gb/s PCI-Express 2.0 RAID Controller Card

 

Would either of these cards be a good candidate for passthrough to unraid?  I am leaning towards the 9211-8i because it is cheaper by about $30.  Amazon has used ones for $170 and ebay has them new for about $100-$120.

[BobPhoenix]

You can cross flash an IBM M1015 to 9211-8i and is a very common card used with ESXi - I have 3 passed through to unRAID VMs.

 

I have also cross flashed 2 Dell Perc H310 to 9211-8i's recently thanks to directions from Fireball3.

 

Both can be had on eBay for < $100.  I spent between 70-120 on eBay for my M1015s and $70 each for the Dell Perc H310s.

[sgibbers17]

You can cross flash an IBM M1015 to 9211-8i and is a very common card used with ESXi - I have 3 passed through to unRAID VMs.

 

I have also cross flashed 2 Dell Perc H310 to 9211-8i's recently thanks to directions from Fireball3.

 

Both can be had on eBay for < $100.  I spent between 70-120 on eBay for my M1015s and $70 each for the Dell Perc H310s.

 

I've seen threads about flashing but I prefer not having to make changes like flashing to a different firmware to get things working.  If I bought a 9211-8i or 9240-8i would I need to flash these to work properly within ESXi passed through to unRAID?  If I need to update the firmware that would be fine but flashing a card to make it think it is a different card I don't like doing.

 

I can get a 9211-8i off of ebay for about $100 so there isn't really price incentive to buy a M1015 over the 9211-8i.

 

LSI MegaRAID with SAS2008 chipsets

 

1) IBM ServeRAID M1015

 

2) Intel RS2WC080

 

Please let me know (PM or post here) what Card you have successfully flashed with the LSI MegaRAID SAS2008 chipset with the provided zip.

 

20.10.1-0037 (APP-2.120.54-1235) / 15-APR-11

Only iMR mode available.

 

LSI MegaRAID SAS2008 Controller.zip - 5.32 MB (Windows)

 

Linux Driver: megaraid_sas - supports the LSI SAS1078, SAS1078 GEN2, SAS1079 GEN2, SAS0073 and SAS0071 chipsets. Though is is an old version indeed. (Thanks to "BRiT"s prior post)

unRAID Support: Driver not included at this point.

 

Drive Spin Down support: YES (UPDATE: Added as of 5.0Beta7)

Drive Temp Readings: YES

 

3TB Drive Support with this card: YES (UPDATE: 5.0Beta7 added 3TB Drive support)

 

Update: Convert your LSI MegaRAID controller card with LSI SAS2008 chipset to a Plain SAS2008 controller card (IT or IR mode), will look and feel like a LSI SAS9211-8i, and will be ready to use with unRAID (BIG THANKS to KKM for creating the empty.bin, so you dont need to have to worry about which sbr to obtain and use.)

 

1) IBM ServeRAID M1015 (tested successfully)

 

2) Intel RS2WC080  (tested successfully)

 

Please let me know (PM or post here) what Card you have successfully flashed with the LSI MegaRAID to SAS2008 with the provided zip.

 

LSI MegaRAID to SAS2008(P10).zip - 6.38 MB (DOS, via bootable usb key)

LSI MegaRAID to SAS2008(P11).zip - 5.87 MB (DOS, via bootable usb key)

 

Please read the __READMEFIRST.txt file so you are clear as to all the steps and why it is important not to skip any steps.

 

 

Converting it follows all details in the post above for the LSI SAS2008 chipset (firmware release, support, etc.)

 

from reading this:

 

Update: Convert your LSI MegaRAID controller card with LSI SAS2008 chipset to a Plain SAS2008 controller card (IT or IR mode), will look and feel like a LSI SAS9211-8i, and will be ready to use with unRAID (BIG THANKS to KKM for creating the empty.bin, so you dont need to have to worry about which sbr to obtain and use.)

 

It leads me to think that the 9240-8i will not work with unraid unless I flash it to think it is a 9211-8i.  Am I correct?

[BobPhoenix]

Cross flashing is not complicated if you follow the procedure outlined.  The problems occur when you get an the "Pal..." error when trying to flash.  That has been solved in various ways.  If your MB has an UEFI bios then you can use the UEFI shell to flash it and from what I've seen posted works even when the dos boot flash drive method fails.  Another way to get around it is if you have another PC that IS capable of flashing the firmware from a dos boot flash drive - the method I took.  My C2SBA+II MB will flash them from a dos boot flash drive no problem.  Have done 7 or 8 of them now.

 

The ONLY cards that are truly plug and play in the LSI based controllers are purchasing ones that already have the IT firmware flashed on it.  If the controllers you linked to indicate which firmware then you are fine if it is IT firmware.  If they don't indicate then they will likely have the IR firmware and you would have to flash to IT mode.  If you flash the 9240-8i to an IT firmware it would work same goes for the 9211-8i.

 

For me it was worth saving the $30.

 

[sgibbers17]

If I could get a 9240-8i or 9211-8i for about $100 which one should I get

 

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[BobPhoenix]

If I could get a 9240-8i or 9211-8i for about $100 which one should I get

 

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Hopefully someone else that knows the answer will respond.  One of those cards is likely to be a better value at $100 than the other.  I do not have that information myself however. 

 

 

But my 2¢ opinion is that you probably won't notice a difference.

[sgibbers17]

I know that the 9240-8i has more features that are useful outside of unRAID, so that one is a better deal for non-unRAID sytems.  But what I want to know is one particularly better for unRAID on an ESXi system.

 

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