December 6, 20169 yr Due to my current situation, http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=54346.0 I'm think about get on of these: LSI Logic Controller Card MegaRAID SAS 9211-8i 8 Port HBA. Most of what I've seen is from older posts, so I'm looking some fresh thoughts. I understand that I have to flash it to IT mode, but is there any thing else I should know? BTW, I'm open to a completely different card, if any one has a better suggestion. MB slots include 2 (x8) & 1 (x4) PCI-Express, 2x 64-bit 133MHz PCI-X, 1x 64-bit 100MHz PCI-X, Low-profile Expansion Slots.
December 7, 20169 yr I understand that I have to flash it to IT mode, but is there any thing else I should know? Have you seen this wiki page already? You're welcome to ask further questions, if you feel something is missing there!
December 7, 20169 yr Author I had looked at the wiki and the thread that it stemmed from. The thread post was from 2011, so I was more or less asking if there is anything new or different with unRAID v6+, and anyone's experience with this controller. Also, I read that it "now supports 3TB drives", again this was 2011, what about 4 or 6 TB?
December 7, 20169 yr If it supports 3 TB disks then 4 TB and 6 TB and even 100 TB disks will be no problem.
December 8, 20169 yr I had looked at the wiki and the thread that it stemmed from. The thread post was from 2011, so I was more or less asking if there is anything new or different with unRAID v6+, and anyone's experience with this controller. Also, I read that it "now supports 3TB drives", again this was 2011, what about 4 or 6 TB? Reasonable question! You will be fine with the controllers in the list. Especially the SAS2008 are OK for use with spinner drives. There are pulled H310's in the bay very frequently selling at good prices. (20-40€) If somewhen in future, SSD prices will drop significantly, then we might have to consider SAS3008 12 Gbps controllers but then we will have to deal with some other bottlenecks too.
January 4, 20179 yr Author Just wanted to say for anyone looking at this thread that I'm happy with the 9211-8i. I flashed it to IT mode and updated the firmware and BIOS utility. I did not use the firmwares p10 or p11 avalible in the LSI thread. Instead I used the lastest from LSI/Avago/Broadcom https://www.broadcom.com/support/download-search/?pg=&pf=&pn=SAS+9211-8i+Host+Bus+Adapter&po=&pa=&dk= and flashed the card within my rig. With out to much trouble What didn't work, sort of worked, and did work: Loaded the rig with a Windows PE disk, flash utilities and firmwares/ROM on a pen drive. Updated BIOS first, success. Flash firmware to IT mode with newer firmware, fail. It wouldn't allow IT mode to be flashed over IR mode. Okay, erase the firmware at Level 6 (there are different erase levels 1-7), fail. It wouldn't let me erase with the Windows command utility, had to use the DOS utility. Made a bootable drive with FreeDOS, and the update package. Erased the current firmware and then flashed with the new one, success. After the firmware is erased the card is in different mode, "reset mode" (I think) and must be reflashed with a firmware while in this state. I'm pretty sure there was a warning about this. Or I read it somewhere. Listed below is the 4 commands that I used, and the files that are included with the download package there are many others, see the reference guide included with the package. List HBA/s: flash utility -listall Update BIOS: flash utility -b mptsas2.rom Erase Firmware: flash utility -o e6 Flash Firmware: flash utility - o -f firmware.bin ************************************************************************************************************ Package for P20 Firmware BIOS Upgrade on MSDOS & Windows ************************************************************************************************************ LSI Host Bus Adapter(HBA) - LSI SAS 9211-8i Package Contents- Readme first note : README_9211_8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows.txt Installer(SAS2FLSH) : \sas2flash_dos_rel\sas2flsh Version no: 20.00.00.00 Release date: 18-SEP-14 Installer(SAS2FLASH) : \sas2flash_win_x86_rel\sas2flash Version no: 20.00.00.00 Release date: 18-SEP-14 Installer(SAS2FLASH) : \sas2flash_win_x64_rel\sas2flash Version no: 20.00.00.00 Release date: 18-SEP-14 Installer(SAS2FLASH) : \sas2flash_win_ia64_rel\sas2flash Version no: 20.00.00.00 Release date: 18-SEP-14 Reference Guide : SAS2Flash_ReferenceGuide.pdf Version no: 2.1 Release date: JUNE-11 Firmware : \firmware\HBA_9211_8i_IR\2118ir.bin Version no: 20.00.07.00 Release date: 11-FEB-16 Firmware : \firmware\HBA_9211_8i_IT\2118it.bin Version no: 20.00.07.00 Release date: 11-FEB-16 BIOS : \sasbios_rel\mptsas2.rom Version no: 7.39.02.00 Release date: 03-AUG-15 Readme for BIOS : \sasbios_rel\mptbios.txt Version no: NA Release date: NA ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 27, 20188 yr On 1/3/2017 at 7:22 PM, d8sychain said: Just wanted to say for anyone looking at this thread that I'm happy with the 9211-8i. I flashed it to IT mode and updated the firmware and BIOS utility. I did not use the firmwares p10 or p11 avalible in the LSI thread. Instead I used the lastest from LSI/Avago/Broadcom https://www.broadcom.com/support/download-search/?pg=&pf=&pn=SAS+9211-8i+Host+Bus+Adapter&po=&pa=&dk= and flashed the card within my rig. With out to much trouble What didn't work, sort of worked, and did work: Loaded the rig with a Windows PE disk, flash utilities and firmwares/ROM on a pen drive. Updated BIOS first, success. Flash firmware to IT mode with newer firmware, fail. It wouldn't allow IT mode to be flashed over IR mode. Okay, erase the firmware at Level 6 (there are different erase levels 1-7), fail. It wouldn't let me erase with the Windows command utility, had to use the DOS utility. Made a bootable drive with FreeDOS, and the update package. Erased the current firmware and then flashed with the new one, success. After the firmware is erased the card is in different mode, "reset mode" (I think) and must be reflashed with a firmware while in this state. I'm pretty sure there was a warning about this. Or I read it somewhere. Listed below is the 4 commands that I used, and the files that are included with the download package there are many others, see the reference guide included with the package. List HBA/s: flash utility -listall Update BIOS: flash utility -b mptsas2.rom Erase Firmware: flash utility -o e6 Flash Firmware: flash utility - o -f firmware.bin ************************************************************************************************************ Package for P20 Firmware BIOS Upgrade on MSDOS & Windows ************************************************************************************************************ LSI Host Bus Adapter(HBA) - LSI SAS 9211-8i Package Contents- Readme first note : README_9211_8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows.txt Installer(SAS2FLSH) : \sas2flash_dos_rel\sas2flsh Version no: 20.00.00.00 Release date: 18-SEP-14 Installer(SAS2FLASH) : \sas2flash_win_x86_rel\sas2flash Version no: 20.00.00.00 Release date: 18-SEP-14 Installer(SAS2FLASH) : \sas2flash_win_x64_rel\sas2flash Version no: 20.00.00.00 Release date: 18-SEP-14 Installer(SAS2FLASH) : \sas2flash_win_ia64_rel\sas2flash Version no: 20.00.00.00 Release date: 18-SEP-14 Reference Guide : SAS2Flash_ReferenceGuide.pdf Version no: 2.1 Release date: JUNE-11 Firmware : \firmware\HBA_9211_8i_IR\2118ir.bin Version no: 20.00.07.00 Release date: 11-FEB-16 Firmware : \firmware\HBA_9211_8i_IT\2118it.bin Version no: 20.00.07.00 Release date: 11-FEB-16 BIOS : \sasbios_rel\mptsas2.rom Version no: 7.39.02.00 Release date: 03-AUG-15 Readme for BIOS : \sasbios_rel\mptbios.txt Version no: NA Release date: NA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks D8SYCHAIN! I was successful using your instructions with one minor edit. The ERASE command is -e then a space 6. Erase Firmware: flash utility -o -e 6 According to the SAS2Flash Reference Guide.pdf sas2flsh –o –e 1 * If you are using Freedos version of the SAS2Flash the command is SAS2FLSH (no "a" in flash).
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