Best way to add more SATA ports to Unraid build

[NasBok]

Hello all,

 

I have the following board p10s-i:

https://www.asus.com/uk/Commercial-Servers-Workstations/P10S-I/

 

I have filled all 6 sata ports and would like to add cache ssd disks / unattached disks for vms.

 

I was thinking about using this:

 

https://www.inline-info.com/en/products/io-cards-cardreader/mini-pcie/10188/inline-m.2-pcie-2.0-sata-card-4x-sata-6gb/s-raid-0-1-10-jbod

 

But since the use of it would mean I'd lose an onboard sata port just wanted to see if it was worth it or not.

 

[Frank1940]

I would suggest a LSI based card.  You can find them on E-Bay starting below $100.00 for the older chip sets (which work perfectly well for HD's).  See this thread for more info:

 

          https://forums.unraid.net/topic/69018-sata-controller-replacement-question-and-advice/?tab=comments#comment-630097

 

Just be sure that any card you buy is in the IT Mode as many of the (new and used) LSI cards are actually RAID controllers and they will have to be flashed to the IT Mode. You can do the flashing yourself or buy the cards already flashed for an extra cost.  (You often find the LSI cards on the used market that are savaged from servers removed from large Data Centers when they are upgrading  thier servers.) 

Edited September 10, 2018 by Frank1940

[NasBok]

Thanks Frank1940, would you happen to know any LSI cards with known good performance with SSD's?

[Frank1940]

As I recall, the problem is not performance of the card but rather they do not properly support the TRIM operation.  I think I remember which series number do support  TRIM but I hate to state which ones based on my current recollection.  @johnnie.black would know if he spots this thread, he may chime in.  However, what many folks do is to put the ssd's on the MB ports and use the LSI cards for the spinners.  That solves the problem.  (Also, the cards that support TRIM are usually more expensive...) 

Edited September 10, 2018 by Frank1940

[JorgeB]

Older SAS2008 based controllers like the 9201-8i, 9211-8i don't support trim, newer SAS2308 (e.g. 9207-8i) and 3008 (e.g. 9300-8i) support it.

[NasBok]

Cool I'll do that then, Thanks again :)

[Alphahelix]

I have a 9260 and a 9211. None flashed to IT mode. Unraid can see discs in jbod mode just fine. No need to risk messing up your raid card. My suggestion, try first. Only if it is not working i would suggest flashing your card.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

[twg]

Hmm, I just purchased a LSI MegaRAID 9260-16i to replace my AOC-SAS2LP cards which started exhibiting the dropped disk problem... Unraid doesn't see the drives connected to the 9260... googling reveals there isn't an IT mode on the card... how did you get your 9260 working ?

[JonathanM]

1 hour ago, twg said:

Hmm, I just purchased a LSI MegaRAID 9260-16i to replace my AOC-SAS2LP cards which started exhibiting the dropped disk problem... Unraid doesn't see the drives connected to the 9260... googling reveals there isn't an IT mode on the card... how did you get your 9260 working ?

You should be able to define a volume for each drive, then use those single disk raid volumes in unraid.

However, there are some serious drawbacks for doing it that way.

See here for a short discussion of those.

 

[Frank1940]

Try googling 'LSI 9260 Flash to IT mode' and look for the way that you feel most comfortable doing it.   (Google does a much better job of finding the applicable thread and post then the 'built-in' search engine.  Just add 'unraid' as a one of the search terms!)

 

You can also look at this thread:

 

     https://forums.unraid.net/topic/12114-lsi-controller-fw-updates-irit-modes/

 

PS: As a note for anyone else looking for a LSI card-- When I was purchasing my cards, I looked for a vendor who had already done the job.