I apologize if this a bit of a newb question, but I've been trying all night and still just can't seem to get things setup.

 

I have an Intel S2600GL 2U server. 12 SATA / SAS hot swap bays on the front, two internal SATA for SSD's, Dual Xeon E5 2670's (upgraded), 128GB of DDR3 ECC RAM (upgraded). Previously I was just running Windows Server 2016 to get things setup and start tinkering with. Recently discovered unRAID, really want to check it out as it sounds perfect for what I want to do.

 

I have 1 HGST Ultrastar 3TB Drives, 1 WD Green 3TB, and 1 Seagate 3TB drive - all almost full. I ordered 5 HGST Ultrastar 3TB Drives to expand upon and to do a proper unRAID install with. Plan to have Dual Parity drives, and 18TB of total usable space, with a few bays leftover for future expansion. As well as two SSD's - a 120GB cache drive, and one dedicated to Docker Apps / VM's.

 

Previously with just Windows Server, I had a single RAID0 Virtual drive for each of my three 3TB drives. Windows detected them all no problem.

 

However, with unRAID I cannot for the life of me get it to detect any of my drives, other than the two internal SSD's - so every drive connected to the backplane. Those drives go through a Intel RMS25CB080 hardware RAID card, which runs the LSI SAS 2208 chipset.

 

06:00.0 RAID bus controller [0104]: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic MegaRAID SAS 2208 [Thunderbolt] [1000:005b] (rev 05)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation RMS25CB080 RAID Controller [8086:3513]
09:00.0 Serial Attached SCSI controller [0107]: Intel Corporation C602 chipset 4-Port SATA Storage Control Unit [8086:1d6b] (rev 06)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation C602 chipset 4-Port SATA Storage Control Unit [8086:3583]
Kernel driver in use: isci
Kernel modules: isci

 

From what I can see after searching online, there is no "IT Mode" to flash for this chipset. According to Intel's own specifications, it supports a variety of RAID configs, but specifically not JBOD. However, you can manually enable JBOD mode through the CLI following this tutorial. Which I've done, everything executes sucessfully, and upon reboot it still doesn't detect the drives. So individual RAID0 virtual drives doesn't work, and neither does "JBOD pass through" from what I've tried. I have seemingly altered every possible setting in the RAID BIOS, and on the motherboard BIOS as well, all to no avail.

 

Is what I'm trying to accomplish even doing even possible? Has anybody had any luck with this card? Or should I just give up on using this controller and buy a normal HBA? If so, does anyone have any suggestions given my current hardware?

 

It sounds to me like you've done everything you can and the card is just not supported by unRAID. I think your next step is to get a supported HBA as you have already concluded.

Damn. Was hoping this wouldn't be the case. Any recommendations on what HBA to buy? One that works well with unRAID and would support up to 12 3TB HDD's at 6Gbps.

I use this one currently and its supporting eight drives from sizes 3TB up to 8TB, depending on your backplane, it may be all you need with the right cables.

 

SUPERMICRO AOC-SAS2LP-MV8

 

Any LSI 2008 or 2308 based controller in IT mode also works.

 

PS. I'm pretty sure the 2208 wold also work if it was in IT mode.

In reply to your edit (about the 2208 in IT mode) - is there even any way to do this? from what I found there simply wasn't an IT mode available for this card.

I meant if there is a IT mode for the 2208, if there isn't then probably it will never work with unRAID.

I gotcha. Yeah in theory it would work in IT mode if there is one, but I haven't been able to find one.

 

Thanks for the help / reassurance on this guys. I ended up purchasing a LSI 9210-8i from a seller on eBay that comes preflashed into IT mode for unRAID / FreeNAS compatibility.