Is there any risk to using Sata Expander cards?


Recommended Posts

They drop disks offline mostly. They were quite usable with early versions of Unraid but as time has passed they have become more and more of a liability. This thread is what brought it to my attention:

 

 

and it has just got worse since. I and many other people were using Marvell-based Supermicro SAS2LP-MV8 controllers and when they became unreliable even with IOMMU disabled we had to swap them out for LSI-based cards. I like the Dell Perc H310, which you can get quite cheaply on Ebay as used but reliable server pulls. They usually come with RAID firmware but they can be cross-flashed to LSI IT firmware, which makes them very suitable for Unraid.

Link to comment

I believe that the Windows drivers were written by Marvell, whereas the Linux drivers were reverse-engineered without any official support. So they will probably continue to work well enough under Windows. It's a shame, because when it worked, the SAS2LP-MV8 worked straight out of the box without any need for cross-flashing.

 

Edited by John_M
typo
Link to comment

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.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.