September 4, 201411 yr Has anyone got any experience of using these cards? It appears to be a standard LSI 9211-8i OEM'd by Sun but who knows! I am wondering if this can be flashed to IT mode like the IBM M1015 etc. Any advice appreciated. Cheers Spart
September 6, 201411 yr ...SUN, eh? Look, these guys invented ZFS...their machines were in no need for a HW-RAID conttroller...this thing probably already *is* in IT mode
September 7, 201411 yr Author ...SUN, eh? Look, these guys invented ZFS...their machines were in no need for a HW-RAID conttroller...this thing probably already *is* in IT mode Becoming poorer by buying S*&t that does not work and ignoring the excellent advice and guidance of those who came before! Spart
September 7, 201411 yr ...so, you're saying you don't own (like in being in possession of) that piece yet?...thought you were
September 7, 201411 yr Author No, not in possession, I saw a few advertised very cheap and wondered if they were usable for passthrough. They have stickers that say SAS9211-81 H3-25104-02C. Cheers Spart
September 7, 201411 yr ...if you see a PIC, compare it to the LSI 9211-8i or 9210-8i (which resembles the M1015). If these are LSI chips, there is a good chance. However, SUN was/is known for getting custom firmware into the OEM devices, like IBM does. But the 9211 indicates that it is a HBA model, not a real HW-Raid...and with ZFS this would make sense.
September 7, 201411 yr ..this is not a M1015 (9210-8i) but looks like a 9211-8i -> http://www.lsi.com/products/host-bus-adapters/pages/lsi-sas-9211-8i.aspx As said, if this is from SUN, there is a good chance that there is IT-FW on it as IR-FW would not make sense when using in a SUN system with ZFS. Based on this: http://www.servethehome.com/lsi-sas-2008-raid-controller-hba-information/ and this link in there http://www.oracle.com/us/products/servers-storage/storage/storage-networking/6gb-sas-pcie-hba-internal-ds-186804.pdf , I would like to think it is worth a try. ...how much are these / what's the risk margin?
September 7, 201411 yr ...check in OTN...the docs for the HBa state they are using the normal LSi drivers -> http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19337-01/E22494/z40005481005495.html#z40005481005451 ...there is a LSI site for Oracle products: http://www.lsi.com/sep/pages/oracle/sas_6gbs_support.aspx
September 8, 201411 yr Author OK, I should be in possession of one of these by mid week 48GBP delivered! The Oracle docs seem to have the right part number and the logic of the ZFS etc. seems sensible. But, it also states that the adapter OOTB supports Raid 0,1,10,1E so maybe in IR mode not IT mode. If so and they are indeed oem 9211-8i cards then I should be able to use the LSI IT firmware right? I don't care about the menu etc. Just raw 6GBSec passthrough. Cheers Spart
September 8, 201411 yr yes..basically I see these options: - if card runs on MEGARaid FW, like the M1015, you will need to try the cross-flash procedure for the M1015 - if the card runs on a custom ROM, based on LSI but for Oracle, you probably need to do the same...cleaning all remains of the "old ghost" - if the card runs und IR or IT, you should be able to update/change using the LSI utils. The ROM seems to have several parts...generic and OEM7Supplier specific ones. For example: The M1015 normally runs on OEM ROM from IBM, made by LSI (MEGARaid). It would, however accept the FW for a vanilla 9240-8i from LSI but still will report (and will work) as IBM M1015 (with newer FW) after the flash. Only the complete wipe from the cross-flash procedure would clean it from all remains/traces from its supplier IBM.
September 11, 201411 yr Author Ok, I now have one of these cards and put it in a test machine. It boots and displays what looks like the standard LSI screen Ctril-C invokes config utility. It appears to be running SAS2008 IR. Test drive shows up in the config utility and is connected at 3.0GBps (it is a Sata II Seagate Barracuda so all good). It shows up in Ubuntu as follows. The test machine is running Ubuntu 14.04.1 64 Bit Server $ dmesg | grep ata [ 0.000000] Memory: 2016832K/2086512K available (7372K kernel code, 1144K rwdata, 3404K rodata, 1336K init, 1440K bss, 69680K reserved) [ 0.192000] perf_event_intel: PEBS disabled due to CPU errata [ 0.641010] libata version 3.00 loaded. [ 1.296206] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: version 2.13 [ 1.296593] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: MAP [ P0 P2 P1 P3 ] [ 1.452402] scsi0 : ata_piix [ 1.452624] scsi1 : ata_piix [ 1.452795] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xfe00 ctl 0xfe10 bmdma 0xfec0 irq 20 [ 1.453120] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xfe20 ctl 0xfe30 bmdma 0xfec8 irq 20 [ 1.453789] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.5: MAP [ P0 -- P1 -- ] [ 1.608301] scsi2 : ata_piix [ 1.608507] scsi3 : ata_piix [ 1.608676] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xfe40 ctl 0xfe50 bmdma 0xfed0 irq 20 [ 1.608999] ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xfe60 ctl 0xfe70 bmdma 0xfed8 irq 20 [ 1.924043] ata4: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300) [ 1.924095] ata3: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300) [ 2.096046] ata2.00: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300) [ 2.096058] ata2.01: SATA link down (SStatus 4 SControl 300) [ 2.096111] ata1.00: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300) [ 2.096124] ata1.01: SATA link down (SStatus 4 SControl 300) [ 2.881787] Write protecting the kernel read-only data: 12288k [ 12.839831] scsi 4:0:0:0: atapi(n), ncq(y), asyn_notify(n), smart(y), fua(y), sw_preserve(y) [ 13.368804] EXT4-fs (sda1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null) $ dmesg | grep mpt2 [ 2.991499] mpt2sas version 16.100.00.00 loaded [ 3.018511] mpt2sas0: 32 BIT PCI BUS DMA ADDRESSING SUPPORTED, total mem (2039052 kB) [ 3.018562] mpt2sas 0000:01:00.0: irq 43 for MSI/MSI-X [ 3.018590] mpt2sas0-msix0: PCI-MSI-X enabled: IRQ 43 [ 3.018592] mpt2sas0: iomem(0x00000000fe7bc000), mapped(0xffffc90000368000), size(16384) [ 3.018593] mpt2sas0: ioport(0x000000000000dc00), size(256) [ 3.500014] mpt2sas0: sending diag reset !! [ 4.464009] mpt2sas0: diag reset: SUCCESS [ 4.615186] mpt2sas0: Allocated physical memory: size(2556 kB) [ 4.631484] mpt2sas0: Current Controller Queue Depth(1676), Max Controller Queue Depth(1871) [ 4.647865] mpt2sas0: Scatter Gather Elements per IO(128) [ 4.896520] mpt2sas0: LSISAS2008: FWVersion(05.00.17.00), ChipRevision(0x03), BiosVersion(07.05.05.00) [ 4.913083] mpt2sas0: Protocol=(Initiator,Target), Capabilities=(Raid,TLR,EEDP,Snapshot Buffer,Diag Trace Buffer,Task Set Full,NCQ) [ 4.930056] mpt2sas0: sending port enable !! [ 6.505572] mpt2sas0: host_add: handle(0x0001), sas_addr(0x500xxxxxxxxxxxxx), phys( [ 12.768049] mpt2sas0: port enable: SUCCESS I have no idea from the above what the actual link speed of the drive is i.e 1.5 GBps, 3.0 GBps as smartctl -a /dev/sda does not show the link speed. So as it booted out of the box and booted from the boot disk is all well? It seems to be passing through the drive fine to the OS. Is there any further performance/boot speed etc. that can be gained from this device by upgrading/flashing the card? Clearly I do not care about any Riad capability in the card. It seems to have Raid 0, 1, 10 etc. configurable from the config utility. Looking at the LSI site it suggests I can download the Linux sas2flash utility and flash the IT firmware. But, does it already have this as the log seems to show it initialised in IT mode. [ 4.913083] mpt2sas0: Protocol=(Initiator,Target), Capabilities=(Raid,TLR,EEDP,Snapshot Buffer,Diag Trace Buffer,Task Set Full,NCQ) Cheers Spart Edit: ~/Installer_P19_for_Linux/sas2flash_linux_i686_x86-64_rel$ sudo ./sas2flash -list LSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility Version 19.00.00.00 (2014.03.17) Copyright © 2008-2014 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved Adapter Selected is a LSI SAS: SAS2008(B2) Controller Number : 0 Controller : SAS2008(B2) PCI Address : 00:01:00:00 SAS Address : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx NVDATA Version (Default) : 05.02.00.16 NVDATA Version (Persistent) : 05.02.00.16 Firmware Product ID : 0x2713 (IR) Firmware Version : 05.00.17.00 NVDATA Vendor : LSI NVDATA Product ID : SGX-SAS6-INT-Z BIOS Version : 07.05.05.00 UEFI BSD Version : N/A FCODE Version : 01.00.54.00 Board Name : SGX-SAS6-INT-Z Board Assembly : H3-25104-02D Board Tracer Number : SP14035738 Finished Processing Commands Successfully. Exiting SAS2Flash. ~/Installer_P19_for_Linux/sas2flash_linux_i686_x86-64_rel$ sudo ./sas2flash -o -testlsall LSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility Version 19.00.00.00 (2014.03.17) Copyright © 2008-2014 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved Advanced Mode Set Adapter Selected is a LSI SAS: SAS2008(B2) Executing Operation: Test Link State ALL Phy 0: Link Down Phy 1: Link Down Phy 2: Link Down Phy 3: 3.0 Gbps Phy 4: Link Down Phy 5: Link Down Phy 6: Link Down Phy 7: Link Down Test Link State All PASSED! Finished Processing Commands Successfully. Exiting SAS2Flash.
September 12, 201411 yr Author So I was intrigued to find out what all the fuss was about flashing these cards. I started with the linux sas2flash utility. Booted the machine from the onboard sata with no drives attached to the 9211-8i. The linux utility was fine for reading operation i.e listing, backing up the onboard bios/firmware etc. but it would not write to the card. I then had to cerate a dos boot disk, I DD'd a Freedos img to a usb and copied on the DOS sas2flash.exe 9211it.bin and mptsas2.rom files. Booted the machine from the usb, and ran. sas2flash.exe -o -e 6 (to erase the flash region) all went well and then sas2flash.exe -o -f 9211it.bin -b mptsas2.rom -l flash.log (to load new firmware and bios and log output). All went well and that was it. sas2flash.exe -l showed the card with the latest '19' firmware and bios in IT mode. Attached 6 x WD 2TB Red's and all is well all drives show up as 6Gbps. Simple, the biggest pain was making the usb DOS boot disk! Hope this helps others. Cheers Spart
September 15, 201411 yr Thanks, for sharing. I will add that card to the wiki as soon as its editable again.
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