Vibe Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 Hi everyone, Recently I picked up a pair of LSI 9201-8i HBA cards from a friend after he upgraded his system. I was hoping to use both in my unRAID server that uses an Asus M5A97 R2.0 motherboard. Soon after I realized that my motherboards' PCIe configuration won't work with two x8 cards since one PCIe slot runs in x4 mode. This being the case, can anyone recommend an AMD AM3+ motherboard that runs both PCIe slots in x8 mode - which would allow me to use both cards? The other option I can follow is to use a spare IO Crest 2-port card + one LSI card - but I'd rather use both LSI cards and save the motherboard SATA ports for an SSD cache pool. I greatly appreciate any suggestions - thanks! Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 23 minutes ago, Vibe said: Hi everyone, Recently I picked up a pair of LSI 9201-8i HBA cards from a friend after he upgraded his system. I was hoping to use both in my unRAID server that uses an Asus M5A97 R2.0 motherboard. Soon after I realized that my motherboards' PCIe configuration won't work with two x8 cards since one PCIe slot runs in x4 mode. This being the case, can anyone recommend an AMD AM3+ motherboard that runs both PCIe slots in x8 mode - which would allow me to use both cards? The other option I can follow is to use a spare IO Crest 2-port card + one LSI card - but I'd rather use both LSI cards and save the motherboard SATA ports for an SSD cache pool. I greatly appreciate any suggestions - thanks! I do not think that running a card in x4 slot is going to hold you back much if at all if you are using spinners and your slots are PCIe 2.0 our higher spec. Each lane of a PCIe 2.0 controller provides about 400 MB/sec of bandwidth, which can support 2 200 MB/sec drives. Multiply by 4 lanes, means that the controller can support 8 drives at 200 MB/sec speed. Put one in an x8 slot and now you are up to 400 MB/sec per drive, which no spinner can get anywhere close to. I run a -16I version of that controller in an x8 slot with no problem. Which is equivalent bandwidth per drive of running a -8i version in an x4 slot. If this were a PCIe 1.1 slot, the bandwidths would be cut in half and you would need an x8 slot to not restrict bandwidth. Physically fitting an x8 card into an x4 slot can be a challenge. Newer motherboards have open ended slots that let you insert them. But older motherboards might require melting the back of the slot. But an x8 card will work in an x4 slot. Even an x16 card will work in an x1 slot, just with reduced bandwidth. 1 Quote Link to comment
Vibe Posted February 20, 2018 Author Share Posted February 20, 2018 Hi SSD - thanks so much for your reply, I greatly appreciate it. I didn't realize that the second card would work in the second PCIe x16 slot if it only runs at x4 - this is great news. I always thought the number of lanes that a card utilized would determine the slot requirement. I'm currently only running one SSD drive on one of the motherboard SATA ports so considering the speeds you mentioned I should be set with my standard SATA drives. I will definitely try installing the second card tomorrow to see how this will work out. Thanks again for your insight and information! Quote Link to comment
JorgeB Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 Just be aware that the x4 slot goes through the south bridge, i.e., it shares the A-link connection (2000MB/s) with the onboard SATA ports, so if you're using all the 8 ports on the 2nd HBA and also using the all onboard ports the bandwidth will be shared by all 14, so if not using all ports assign as little array devices as possible to the 2nd HBA + onboard controller. Quote Link to comment
Vibe Posted February 20, 2018 Author Share Posted February 20, 2018 Hi johnnie.black - thank you for your reply. I didn't realize that the south bridge shared the connection with the onboard SATA ports - this is very good to know. I read your very helpful (and appreciated) post HERE for information about SATA/SAS controllers. With what you have mentioned, is there any standard practice for unRAID (e.g. regarding hardware) to utilize 15 storage drives (1x parity + 14x storage) and then add a two or three drive cache pool? Quote Link to comment
JorgeB Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 With 15 array devices devices you'll be fine, connect 8 to the top HBA and 7 to the bottom, the cache devices can be on the onboard ports since they won't be (or shouldn't be) in heavy use during parity checks/disk rebuilds. Quote Link to comment
Vibe Posted February 20, 2018 Author Share Posted February 20, 2018 Perfect - I was hoping this would be the case. Thank you both again for your help and suggestions - I greatly appreciate it! Quote Link to comment
Vibe Posted February 23, 2018 Author Share Posted February 23, 2018 Well...the plot thickens I tried installing the second LSI card in the x4 PCI slot only to receive the following error message: MPT BIOS Fault 10h encountered at adapter PCI (07h,00h,00h) Press any key to continue... What is strange, however, is that both cards work fine in the main x8 slot - no issues at all. It is only when I add both cards to my system (regardless of the order) that I receive the same error message. I have a feeling my motherboard will not accept two cards. During the process of troubleshooting I did disable the Boot Support for both cards. I did some further research and found many references to resolving the matter by flashing the bios/rom for these cards (for the non-IT versions). However, since they are both SAS9201-8i cards they are already in IT mode. I reviewed the unRAID support page for Crossflashing Controllers but none of this appeared to be relevant in my case. I was also not able to find bios information specific to the 9201-8i (only the 9201-16i). Would anyone mind looking at my attached LSI Card Screenshot and let me know if this bios is considered outdated? I don't want to risk damaging the card if the bios is fine and my motherboard is the culprit. If this is an old bios that should be updated - can someone recommend the bios version that I should be using? I greatly appreciate any suggestions! As an aside, I have found a few used/refurbished AMD 990fx motherboards that presumably have dual x16 and/or x8 support. If it does turn out that my motherboard does not like having cards installed - I may be better served going this route. Thank you again for any suggestions! Quote Link to comment
JorgeB Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 Try erasing the bios, it's not needed and as an added bonus it will boot much faster: https://lime-technology.com/forums/topic/12114-lsi-controller-fw-updates-irit-modes/?do=findComment&comment=632252 Quote Link to comment
JorgeB Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 You should also update the firmware, latest is 20.00.07 Quote Link to comment
Vibe Posted February 23, 2018 Author Share Posted February 23, 2018 Thank you johnnie.black - I greatly appreciate the information. I've seen numerous comments about bios version 20 - but thought that they only pertained to cards that were not natively in IT mode. This is great to know - my knowledge is growing in baby-steps I will definitely try this over the weekend - thank you again! Quote Link to comment
Vibe Posted February 24, 2018 Author Share Posted February 24, 2018 I've made some progress - both LSI cards have been flashed to firmware version 20.00.07 (and bios 7.39.2 which I disabled). I'm getting a similar bios error so I will go ahead and erase the bios to see if this fixes the issue (thanks for the reference to your post johnnie.black). When I erase the bios - Is it possible to re-flash the card at a later date to utilize the bios again? (e.g. if I ever decide to sell the cards due to an upgrade). Or is this a "one-time" shot? Thanks again! Quote Link to comment
JorgeB Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 5 hours ago, Vibe said: When I erase the bios - Is it possible to re-flash the card at a later date to utilize the bios again? Yes, you can add the bios at any time. 1 Quote Link to comment
Vibe Posted February 24, 2018 Author Share Posted February 24, 2018 Home Run! After erasing the bios on both cards the system booted without any issues and unRAID immediately recognized all drives. The only thing I needed to do was re-assign my cache drive. This is absolutely perfect and will serve my needs very well. I can't thank you enough johnnie.black for your suggestions and guidance, and SSD for the education on PCIe speeds. It's members like you both that help make unRAID a wonderful operating system! Thanks again - I hope I can return the favor! 1 Quote Link to comment
Dalarielus Posted April 4, 2022 Share Posted April 4, 2022 I know this is resurrecting an old thread, but just wanted to say thanks and point out that the solution mentioned here is still very much relevant. I was attempting to run an LSI 9201-8i in IT mode with the p20 firmware on an ASUS Z170M-PLUS motherboard. With the HBA inserted, the system would not boot. On connecting the card to another motherboard and erasing the HBA BIOS, the HBA now boots and runs perfectly - in fact it's currently preclearing my new parity disk Quote Link to comment
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