SSD Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 My email: I am using a LSI SAS3081E-R controller (Part Number: LSI00151). I recently purchased a pair of 3TB Hitachi drives and found that they are recognized as only 2.2 TB. I flashed the latest firmware / BIOS (6.34 / 1.32) and it did not make a difference. I am using the SATA II (1.5/3.0) "IR" version for compatibility to older drives. Is there a plan to support 3T drives on this controller? Thanks for the reply! LSI response: At this time development is testing 3 TB drives on multiple cards, unfortunately, we do not which ones they are intending to support. There is not an estimated time that this information would be released. Please feel free to continue to check back with us regularly to for further information. Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 Strange problem I set up my array and booted. The machine got through the post and the LSI detection, and then went to a black screen with a blinking cursor in upper left and stayed that way forever. No unRAID boot menu. On a hunch, I rebooted, and this time hit the Ctrl-C on the LSI BIOS screen to bring up the configuration screen (knowing that it would not work because the USB flash was configured as a removable disk, which inhibits the setup program from running). The controller announced that the setup program would run after initialization, and the next thing you know, the unRAID boot menu appears. I was able to boot just fine, all drives recognized, and parity build in progress. Weird. When I ran all of my controller tests, I was definitely booting into unRAID over and over from USB. Not sure what happened to cause this. I do have more disks now. It is repeatable. Anyone see anything similar. Motherboard is a C2SEE-O. Quote Link to comment
theone Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 My email: I am using a LSI SAS3081E-R controller (Part Number: LSI00151). I recently purchased a pair of 3TB Hitachi drives and found that they are recognized as only 2.2 TB. I flashed the latest firmware / BIOS (6.34 / 1.32) and it did not make a difference. I am using the SATA II (1.5/3.0) "IR" version for compatibility to older drives. Is there a plan to support 3T drives on this controller? Thanks for the reply! LSI response: At this time development is testing 3 TB drives on multiple cards, unfortunately, we do not which ones they are intending to support. There is not an estimated time that this information would be released. Please feel free to continue to check back with us regularly to for further information. Is this the one you are using? http://www.dealextreme.com/p/lsi-sas3081e-r-pci-e-express-sas-sata-host-bus-adapter-51316 Is it fully compatible with unRAID version 4.7? Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 Is this the one you are using? http://www.dealextreme.com/p/lsi-sas3081e-r-pci-e-express-sas-sata-host-bus-adapter-51316 Actually I am using the IBM BR10i, but it is exactly the same chipset as the LSI board you linked. I said I had their controller so they would answer me and not refer me to IBM. The BR10is can be had for $70. There have been deals now and then for in the mid 40s or ever lower. eBay is a good place to check. I thought I saw 2 for $100 the other day. Be aware that these controllers frequently do not come with the bracket necessary to secure the controller into a conventional PCIe slot. These little brackets are ridiculously hard to find at a reasonable price, and you can be gouged for up to $20 for one. Is it fully compatible with unRAID version 4.7? No - it needs one of the 5.0 betas. Even with the latest beta, there is still a small issue with spindown, but there is a workaround. It does have issues with 3T drives at the moment (hence the post above). Quote Link to comment
abq-pete Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 Strange problem I set up my array and booted. The machine got through the post and the LSI detection, and then went to a black screen with a blinking cursor in upper left and stayed that way forever. No unRAID boot menu. On a hunch, I rebooted, and this time hit the Ctrl-C on the LSI BIOS screen to bring up the configuration screen (knowing that it would not work because the USB flash was configured as a removable disk, which inhibits the setup program from running). The controller announced that the setup program would run after initialization, and the next thing you know, the unRAID boot menu appears. I was able to boot just fine, all drives recognized, and parity build in progress. Weird. When I ran all of my controller tests, I was definitely booting into unRAID over and over from USB. Not sure what happened to cause this. I do have more disks now. It is repeatable. Anyone see anything similar. Motherboard is a C2SEE-O. I see this happening whenever I add a drive to the built-in motherboard SATA connectors or insert a new controller card where I've forgotten to disable INT13. The boot order changes immediately and I have to update it. However, I do not recall it ever correcting itself. Regards, Peter Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 Anyone using one of these BR10is working with a SuperMicro X7SBE motherboard? I bought one hoping to get IPMI and be able to use PCIX cards (I already have one) with good performance. Unfortunately the BR10i is not at all happy about living in the motherboard. It keeps hanging on the Initialization message and twirling ascii symbols. I found I could disable the option ROM completely and it would boot ok as JBOD. That would probably be fine for most people. But my goal was to have a RAID-1 pair on the BR10i for my cache drive, and for this I need the option ROM to work. I disabled everything I could (the X7SBE is very different from a workstation motherboard and disabling things not nearly as available). The BIOS kept hanging on "Intializing" until I disabled "enhanced AHCI" in favor of "native mode". Not sure exactly the difference, but after that was able to get the LSI BIOS to initialize, but then it hung on boot like it didn't recognize the boot device. Even if I could get past that, I could not get the BR10i firmware program to come up, necessary to configure my RAID array with stock unRAID. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Found this on the LSI website. DRIVES > 2TB It says down near that bottom that "6GB/s SATA+SAS HBAs" support the full capacity. I think its unlikely, but perhaps if we patch the firmware to the 6Gb/s firmware it would recognize the larger disks (unlikely but I may give it a try to see). Also perhaps the "IT" firmware would also support the larger capacity. I may play around with it this weekend. Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 I upgraded the firmware to the 3G/6G IT BIOS (SATA II/III). It made no difference on the ability to detect a 3T drive. Quote Link to comment
SuperW2 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Appears to possible not work in PCIe 4x slot on ASUS P5B-VM DO MB (at least not with a 16x Supermicro Card also plugged in)... Not even getting the LSI BIOS on bootup...Plugged into the 16x slot and I get the LSI Bios as expected (but my Supermicro card doesn't work in the 4x slot). I was hoping to Run the BR10i in the 4x and Supermicro in 16x, but appears it might not be functional with this MB. I get lights on the BR10i card when in the 4x slot, just no BIOS, No Lights on SM card in 4x slot There was a little USB Daughter card attached to the bottom of the BR10i that I got... I assume I don't need that and would make the card impossible to mount horizontally in my case. Wade Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I have no idea what that little USB card is. I don't think it has anything to do with the BR10i. Sorry you bought it, but as you said, you could sell it. The Adaptec 1430sa definitely works in that slot (I ran a SASLP and a 1430sa for years). With the 8 MB ports, 8 SASLP ports, and 4 1430sa ports, and a 2 port PCI be able to go to 22 (just make one of your PCI ports the cache disk and you'd have 20+1 full speed data drives). An alternative, if you prefer, is to buy a new motherboard that supports 2x8 port cards. I have the C2SEE card and really like it (only slight negatives are no IPMI and no one has yet gotten the sleep mode to work with unRAID). It has x16, x4, and x1 slots and 6 ports on the motherboard. So with this card you could have 6 (mb) + 8 (SASLP) + 8 (BR10i) + 2 (cheap x1 card or ARC-1200) + 2 PCI = 26 ports. It is LGA775 so compatible with your processor but not your memory. I'm getting much better speeds from the C2SEE, but might have more to do with my drives than with the motherboard. The ARC-1200 is an interesting addition. I got one and will be posting some details about my results soon. HERE IS A LINK to one of the few C2SEE motherboards I could find. At $122 it is a bit steep - but LGA775 motherboads are hard to find these days and prices are high on them. Quote Link to comment
SuperW2 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I have no idea what that little USB card is. I don't think it has anything to do with the BR10i. Sorry you bought it, but as you said, you could sell it. The Adaptec 1430sa definitely works in that slot (I ran a SASLP and a 1430sa for years). With the 8 MB ports, 8 SASLP ports, and 4 1430sa ports, and a 2 port PCI be able to go to 22 (just make one of your PCI ports the cache disk and you'd have 20+1 full speed data drives). An alternative, if you prefer, is to buy a new motherboard that supports 2x8 port cards. I have the C2SEE card and really like it (only slight negatives are no IPMI and no one has yet gotten the sleep mode to work with unRAID). It has x16, x4, and x1 slots and 6 ports on the motherboard. So with this card you could have 6 (mb) + 8 (SASLP) + 8 (BR10i) + 2 (cheap x1 card or ARC-1200) + 2 PCI = 26 ports. It is LGA775 so compatible with your processor but not your memory. I'm getting much better speeds from the C2SEE, but might have more to do with my drives than with the motherboard. The ARC-1200 is an interesting addition. I got one and will be posting some details about my results soon. HERE IS A LINK to one of the few C2SEE motherboards I could find. At $122 is it a bit steep - but LGA775 motherboads are hard to find these days and prices are high on them. I'm going to play with it some more before I give up... it's obviously getting power, which the SM never did (at least by the light indications), I'm not sure if any of the options in the CTRL-C Bios config will do anything... Quote Link to comment
SuperW2 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Appears to possible not work in PCIe 4x slot on ASUS P5B-VM DO MB (at least not with a 16x Supermicro Card also plugged in)... Not even getting the LSI BIOS on bootup...Plugged into the 16x slot and I get the LSI Bios as expected (but my Supermicro card doesn't work in the 4x slot). I was hoping to Run the BR10i in the 4x and Supermicro in 16x, but appears it might not be functional with this MB. I get lights on the BR10i card when in the 4x slot, just no BIOS, No Lights on SM card in 4x slot There was a little USB Daughter card attached to the bottom of the BR10i that I got... I assume I don't need that and would make the card impossible to mount horizontally in my case. Wade Interestingly enough, with the BR10i in the PCIe 4x port, and nothing in the 16, I can pound CTRL-C during Bootup and LSI Bios appears and of the drives show up (in LSI BIOS and Unraid, even if I'm missing the 8 drives hooked to the SuperMicro card)... as soon as I stick the SM card back into the 16x slot, even if I pound the CTRL-C, I get Nada from the So I know the 4x port is running the card, I think it's just fighting the SuperMicro and I'm not sure there is a setting in either cards' BIOS or the Motherboard BIOS to prevent it.... hmmm...more playing needed before I give up. Attached is my Syslog with just the BR10i in the 4x slot... some UDMA100/UDMA133 stuff in there I don't really remember seeing before, but maybe I wasn't looking close enough. Wade syslog-2011-03-21.txt Quote Link to comment
madburg Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 "bjp999" you meantioned there is a spindown "fix" for the Br10i, what is the fix? Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 The workarounds is to configure the drive itself to spin down. The command (from memory) is hdparm -y Quote Link to comment
madburg Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 The workarounds is to configure the drive itself to spin down. The command (from memory) is hdparm -y OK, trying to understand. You meantion above configure the drive itself to spin down, what does unRaid natively configure to make the drive spin down? and command? Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 UnRaid does not run commands, it uses APIs. And whatever API he is using to spinup/spindown doesn't work with this controller or it's driver. Quote Link to comment
madburg Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 Ah ok, and that is via the http console which is not open source right? So has anyone tried the lastest 5.0Beta6a and see if Tom added the detection and issue a different API call instead, to be able to spindown/up drives on this cards? Quote Link to comment
prostuff1 Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 Ah ok, and that is via the http console which is not open source right? So has anyone tried the lastest 5.0Beta6a and see if Tom added the detection and issue a different API call instead, to be able to spindown/up drives on this cards? Yes, and spindown does not work in the latest beta either. The problem with trying to figure this all out is that there are many controller cards that do the same thing different ways. Quote Link to comment
madburg Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 I dont know about that, I bet it is around 2, max 3 ways. Quote Link to comment
prostuff1 Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 I dont know about that, I bet it is around 2, max 3 ways. I can think of 3 different controllers that each require a different way of getting smart reports, drive temp, spindown commands, etc off the top of my head. That is mostly based on my extensive reading around these forums. I am positive I could find other controllers that do the above mentioned things different ways also. It is more complicated than it sounds... Quote Link to comment
madburg Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 I believe you, I guess I am thinking more on the side of things come/start from a standard which all should follow, but I do see many deviations unfortunately. Well I really hope LIME is willings to make at least the top cards requested work. LSI 1068E & SAS 2008 which work with ESXi as well (out of the box) would be my choice as solid x8 lane cards to support (fully). Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Interesting ... Dell 6/iR This card uses the same processor as the BR10i. Wonder if we use its firmware, if it would make the BR10i 3T capable? Firmware Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Encouraging (I wonder why these people would crossflash the LSI BIOS for the Dell BIOS? I guess the LSI BIOS is newer, but sounds like the DELL BIOS is more expandable.) Quote Link to comment
bcbgboy13 Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Not encouraging: http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/HDD+Support+for+2.5TB,+3TB+Drives+and+Beyond Quote Link to comment
madburg Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Good read, thanks for posting! Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.