does my Raid card need flashing for Unraid? 03X3834 IBM LSI 6GB 16 PORT PCI-E SAS EXPANDER CARD 9240-8i 9261-8i 11407-1

[comet424]

hi I bought and just got this card

03X3834 IBM LSI 6GB 16 PORT PCI-E SAS EXPANDER CARD 9240-8i 9261-8i 11407-1

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/143405687529

 

I cant get unraid to detect the drives on it... I remember I got a LSI raid card a couple years ago and had to do some fiddling to reprogram it .. but I don't remember how to do that.. and if this card is different.. or if anyone has done this card...  

I could use help and what files to to make it work..

 

 

please and thank you

[Frank1940]

I would suggest that you start by Googling     what is an SAS EXPANDER CARD     and make sure you understand what a expander card does. 

[comet424]

ah  well I thought it was like my 9211 lsi card sas card   2 port for 8 Sata drives..  and I had to upgrade the Firmware to remove RAID to replace it with for AHCI mode  but I couldn't find for this card how to change the firmware on it..  so that this card would work on the SAS Expander backplane.. 

 

as my understanding of a SAS expander card is to connect to either each port for 4 SATA  or to my current EXPANDER Backplane

but I just figured I had to change the firmware   to get rid of the RAID out of it  and put the HBA in  

 

but ill keep googling thanks   for repsonding

 

 

 

[JonathanM]

How is your new expander connected to your current HBA?

[Frank1940]

I will ping @johnnie.black who has a great deal of knowledge in this area.  As near as I can tell, he is based somewhere in Europe so it may be tomorrow before he sees this. 

[comet424]

right now  I have the SAS cable connected from  Card to the 1 port on the SAS Expander that handles 6 drives

but unraid cant see it.. probably its in  RAID mode

with my 2 port SAS 2011 I think its called Exander I had to Firmware it to TI or IT to get the raid off and the AHCH HBA mode in

but for this card I not sure I tried googling the card  so I working on it..  

as I tried my 2 port 8i 2011 LSI card on the single port SAS Expander board  and that works..

its just this card is not... and right now I don't have a monitor to the headless server at the moment  so im guessing I need to flash the firmware to the TI or IT mode so they show up as normal hard drives on the expander card

 

but I not sure what to google for this specific.. but ill keep googling..

 

and ok I appreciate it @Frank1940    I don't do these much its my 2nd card  I just remember you having to flash  etc..

 

but in mean time ill google more too  I was hoping someone already had done this card before and knew more lol

 

 

[JonathanM]

5 minutes ago, comet424 said:

I have the SAS cable connected from  Card to the 1 port on the SAS Expander that handles 6 drives

So you don't have an actual SAS controller, just expanders?

[comet424]

not sure what you mean..

I have the card you see in the link and I have a expander board

using 1 port off the card to link the the expander board

 

if I need something else  then let me know    as I ordered a 16 hard drive board for future expansion later.. but if I bought the wrong board I will send it back

[comet424]

if you need pics ill go take one

[comet424]

I bought this card as it was linked to be similar to IBM  M5010 card

[soja]

The card you linked is an expander. You need a HBA and an expander together.

 

The HBA(sounds like you already had one) instead of connecting to the drives now should connect to your expander. Then you plug drives into the expander. The expander card does not need to be flashed as it is just multiplying ports.

[comet424]

ah ok  ya I looked .. so   I guess I ordered the wrong card

I wanted a single card that did 16 drives... so this card totally usless to me

 

ya I have 2 servers  one using the 1.5gb/s raid card   so I wanted to upgrade to a 6gb  but also if I junk server it could handle 16 hard drives..

so is is crap to me

 

so Port 1 and 2  that's for the card  from a HBA  like I have then..

 

as this cant see no drives

 

so what card am I looking for then for 16 to 24 hard drives  off a card  like the 20 dollar cards   not these crazy 1500 for 1 card..

 

and do I look for HBA SAS card?

[comet424]

thanks for helping so far least I know..

and will this card work with my current card I have the 9211 one I mentioned 

[comet424]

is this what I should have bought?

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Adaptec-ASR-71605-16-Port-6G-SAS-SATA-Raid-Controller-PCIe-x8-3-0-1Gb/293377743626?hash=item444ead1b0a:g:5wkAAOSwBq9d9c2J

[comet424]

or is this card better 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/LSI-3Ware-9650SE-12-16ML-SATA-PCI-E-x8-16-Port-RAID-Controller-w-Battery/333222275131?hash=item4d9598683b:g:KqAAAOSwLW5c9r8y

 

and if the other card works with my 8 sata one then ill link it to it 

[Frank1940]

Search for    9207-16i  IT-mode    on Ebay and that will point you to the 16 port LSI cards.   If you want it in the IT Mode, you will have to search for one. 

[comet424]

ah ok  275 bucks frig..  or I guess use 2 i8 cards for 30 bucks 

 

I appreciate the help guess next time better do better researching...    guess ill try this card with my current i8 card to see if it works with it.. as too expensive to send back to china lol

 

thank you for all the help

[Harro]

Beware of knock off's. If you can get a serial number you can search on Broadcoms site to check if genuine.

[comet424]

oh ok thank you @Harro   I appreciate the help

 

[soja]

1 hour ago, comet424 said:

thanks for helping so far least I know..

and will this card work with my current card I have the 9211 one I mentioned 

a 9211-8i can handle 256 drives with SAS expanders in IT mode. If you already have that card flashed to IT mode you should be able to plug it into the two ports on the expander, then from there go to your drives.

[comet424]

ah ok  I looked what I bought its 

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/LSI-SAS-9210-8i-8-port-6Gb-s-PCIe-RAID-SATA-Controller-card-2pcs-SFF-8087-cables/172864804594?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

how many drives can that handle..      so then possibly I can use this card with the expander so it wasn't a waste of money..  I get confused soo many different numbers  etc on ebay   you get over whelmed.. when you just wanna get maximum speed out hard drives and handle as many drives as it can etc

 

[soja]

2 minutes ago, comet424 said:

ah ok  I looked what I bought its 

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/LSI-SAS-9210-8i-8-port-6Gb-s-PCIe-RAID-SATA-Controller-card-2pcs-SFF-8087-cables/172864804594?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

how many drives can that handle..      so then possibly I can use this card with the expander so it wasn't a waste of money..  I get confused soo many different numbers  etc on ebay   you get over whelmed.. when you just wanna get maximum speed out hard drives and handle as many drives as it can etc

 

That can also handle 256 drives in IT mode

[comet424]

@soja ok thank you very much. then not wasted 

 

I appreciate it...  and for a 16 20 24 hard drive bays is there a certain card to get?

[soja]

6 minutes ago, comet424 said:

@soja ok thank you very much. then not wasted 

 

I appreciate it...  and for a 16 20 24 hard drive bays is there a certain card to get?

Depends on how many connections the backplane has, some have 2 some had 4, some may have different kinds of connectors.

Edited December 21, 2019 by soja

[comet424]

oh so play it by ear and then re ask when I get one right..

so if a backplane has 2  then  u want a card with 2  

if the backplane has 4 then you want a card with 4

 

so when they state  8i or 16i  that's really    2 SAS ports equaling 8 SATA  = 8i   and 4SAS ports equals 16 SATA  = 16i   is that how that works