Guys i'm been searching this forum a little bit. Someone recommended i buy a card based upon LSI 1068E chipset. I will be getting a RPC-4220 case so i will need to support up to 20 drives.

 

i was planning to get 2 of these cards http://www.scsi4me.com/ibm-serveraid-br10i-8-port-pci-express-sas-raid-controller.html. I did a google search and i couldn't find a lot of info about this particular card. So i thought maybe it was better to get the following card instead:

http://www.buy.com/prod/supermicro-aoc-usas-l8i-8-port-sas-raid-controller-1-x-sas-x4-sas-300/q/loc/101/206007293.html

 

I then found some people having spin down problems errors with this HBA. Is this still true? Do you guys think its a problem with the hardware/firmware on the card or do you think its with unRaid/Linux? Do you think the problem will be fixed or is this something i need to worry about? I'd like to get the IBM card above because its the cheapest but if you guys think it would be better to go with the supermicro then i will.

 

If you don't think i should go with any 1068E card hopefully there is another card that you can recommend that is fairly affordable and that is VERY compatible. I might run ESXi also so i want somethat is very compatible with a variety of OSes. I'd prefer 1 card of course but i don't want to spend 500 on an HBA card when i don't need RAID functionality. I might use raid 1 for just the OS but that will be coming directly from the motherboard.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

thanks,

Ncage

1068E cards are not supported in stock unRAID at this time. With the deals popping up on these cards and the increased performance, I think they will be supported in time.

 

Most here are using the SASLP

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101358

Are you sure about that? There were reports of them working on stock 4.5.6 and 4.6-RC3! http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=7451.0

 

I do not think they work with the "standard" Unraid but they may with the user SK modified version - more info here - http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=7914.0

 

And keep in mind that they may be different interpretations on the "work" - I believe the HD temperature is still showing as 0 degrees.

 

Hopefully as now dealextreme is offering a clone for under $100 shipped Tom may find incentive to include an "official" support for them  as the Supermicro's AOC-SASLP-MV8 may be easy to find in North America but not that easy elsewhere.

No. I think they do work with the standard builds. Check the log files attached to those messages. Those all seem to be with stock unraid releases.

 

It's just that SK's mods help out under VMWare ESXi situations.

I'm using SK's mods on a physical box with a physical LSI1068e controller and basic functionality is there. i.e. you can see the model and serial number of the drive connected to the LSI controller and you can disconnect and reconnect those drives without unraid complaining that they are new drives.

 

I don't know about the temperature issue, but currently SK is working on getting spin up/down working.

 

You can follow his progress in this thread UnRAID on VMWare ESXi with Raw Device Mapping

Here is the link to the $95.60 DealExtreme version:

 

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.51316

 

Here is the Newegg version:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118100

 

It sounds like we may have or are very close to a SASLP killer.

 

No. I think they do work with the standard builds. Check the log files attached to those messages. Those all seem to be with stock unraid releases.

 

It's just that SK's mods help out under VMWare ESXi situations.

 

No they do not work - you will see the disk in the inventory but that is all.

 

The user jamerson9 has posted his syslogs with many versions since 4.5.6 you can check yourself his logs here - http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=7451.0

 

However if you copy SK files over the existing standard 4.5.6 Unraid one they do seem to work - I did a very limited test yesterday and hope to do more this weekend if nothing gets in the way but I am a hardware guy with no Linux or ESXi experience whatsoever.

 

Also we all probably may have a different "flavors" cards (different firmware) - mine is Dell 6i/R custom flashed with the generic LSI 1068E B3 firmware (IT mode) - and they do use different cables

 

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/lsi-sas3081e-r-kit-eight-port-internal-sas-sata-pci-express-hba-with-sas-sata-cables

 

LMAO

Look at the uk prices for that card..