Hi,

 

I'm new to the community and unraid entirely. I purchased a server with the following hardware:

 

• X9DRI-F Motherboard
• 2x E5-2670 2.6ghz 8-Core 8.0 GT/s / 20mb Smart Cache CPUs
• 16x 4gb PC3-10600R Memory
• 24x 3.5" Trays
• SAS2-846EL1 Backplane
• LSI 9266-8i 6gb/s Raid Controller
• 2x 1200w PSU

 

I've looked for IT firmware for my LSI controller, but wasn't able to find much info other than based on other's experiences with it, it may not be worth continuing trying to flash it. Could someone offer some clear advice here? If the answer is to get a different controller - of the plethora of cards out there that work well with Unraid, which would be the most preferred by the community that's compatible with my current hardware?

That's a raid controller only, no IT mode, you should get any LSI with a SAS2008/2308/3008 chipset in IT mode, e.g., 9201-8i, 9211-8i, 9207-8i, 9300-8i, etc and clones.

Okay.

 

If I picked up a 9207-8i, would I also need a RES2CV360 or RES2SV240 SAS expander? Or if I added the expander later, could I do so without negatively impacting the array?

Edited January 20, 20188 yr by Salandor

Your backplane already has an expander, no need for another one.

Right, but looking at it. There's currently two SFF8087 cables from the controller to my backplane. Looks like each would provide support for 8 drives. There is a third port on my backplane's expander. So it looks like I would need a 2nd controller to accommodate the remaining 8 bays since the 9207-8i also only has 2 ports?

Edited January 20, 20188 yr by Salandor

No, the point of an expander is that you can use all disks with a single mini SAS cable, you can use both cables for dual link, failover or cascading.

https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/BPN-SAS2-846EL.pdf

I see. Good info. Thanks for taking the time.

One last question. Would there be a point in even using a 9300-8i that's 12 Gb/s since my backplane is only 6?

Not for now, to take advantage of 12Gb/s you'd need a SAS3 expander and SAS3 disks/SSDs.