SATA Controller Cards


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16 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

It's not an unRAID problem, it's a Linux problem with most Marvell chipsets, and 4 port controllers are mostly Marvell based, if you want a new controller you can get 2 or 8 ports, 2 ports go for Asmedia, 8 ports there are new LSI controllers that work out of the box, e.g., LSI 9207-8i.

 

Are there any issues with the LSI 9207-8i not being able to spin down drives?

Edited by Frank1940
fixed grammer
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Another option if you want a "newer" HBA would be to go with the LSI 9300 series.

These can be found in IBM M1215 or Dell H330. Advantages are 12gbps bus compared to 6 for the 2008 based cards, and better support for downstream port multipliers.

They come at a greater cost, but should be considered if you want newer cards which would also be able to handle SSDs at a much better throughout.


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4 hours ago, miniwalks said:

They come at a greater cost, but should be considered if you want newer cards which would also be able to handle SSDs at a much better throughout.

 

Only if using SAS3 enterprise SSDs, speed will be the same with SATA SSDs, also make sure it works with unRAID as not all newer LSI models are supported.

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Only if using SAS3 enterprise SSDs, speed will be the same with SATA SSDs, also make sure it works with unRAID as not all newer LSI models are supported.


Yeah, that's true, but having the PCIe 3.0 bus width helps if you have 250+ drives connected via expanders :)

When my new H330 arrives I'll flash it to IT mode and report back on its compatibility. It's scheduled to arrive next week

I'll probably write a blog post and just link to that if that's ok?


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2 minutes ago, miniwalks said:

 


That's true, currently my builds of FreeNAS, UnRaid and ScaleIO all use M1015 and H310's so PCIe 2.0 limitation mainly hits with the ScaleIO with the SSDs pushing 250K IOPs cross cluster

 

 

Yes, with SSDs PCIe 2.0 can easily became a bottleneck during simultaneous access.

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Hi, I'm struggling with the performance of my Adaptec 51245, which feeds my 12 drives. It's just dog slow (eg 5-10MB/s), and whilst I'm still doing some further tests, I think it's the raid card.

 

I'm thinking about changing it for 2x dual port cards (if they'll fit - it's a 2u chassis, and the current controller uses a riser card to fit it in horizontally - hoping I can fit the low profiles i the standard slots, without the brackets).

 

If I've read everything correctly, I should be safe with something 2x Fujitsu 9211-8i LSISAS2008 cards, as it uses the LSI2008 chipset - is that correct?

 

It would then be a case of flashing to IT mode - would I then be able to hook up my existing drives to the new cards without losing the data? (Warnings around backing up etc taken as given).

 

Anything else I should be thinking about? (I need a card which outputs to the rear of the card, as I don't think there'd be enough clearance at the top!).

 

What are temperatures like on these cards? The Adaptec card gets outrageously hot - I have 3 fans running at >4000RPM to get the nearby temp sensor (on the main motherboard) below 50c

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Hi, I'm struggling with the performance of my Adaptec 51245, which feeds my 12 drives. It's just dog slow (eg 5-10MB/s), and whilst I'm still doing some further tests, I think it's the raid card.
 
I'm thinking about changing it for 2x dual port cards (if they'll fit - it's a 2u chassis, and the current controller uses a riser card to fit it in horizontally - hoping I can fit the low profiles i the standard slots, without the brackets).
 
If I've read everything correctly, I should be safe with something 2x Fujitsu 9211-8i LSISAS2008 cards, as it uses the LSI2008 chipset - is that correct?
 
It would then be a case of flashing to IT mode - would I then be able to hook up my existing drives to the new cards without losing the data? (Warnings around backing up etc taken as given).
 
Anything else I should be thinking about? (I need a card which outputs to the rear of the card, as I don't think there'd be enough clearance at the top!).
 
What are temperatures like on these cards? The Adaptec card gets outrageously hot - I have 3 fans running at >4000RPM to get the nearby temp sensor (on the main motherboard) below 50c


The 9211 based cards are excellent

Depending on your mobo, you may need to blank two PCIe pins on the card, it's a weird motherboard compatibility issue, I personally haven't run into it, but other have, a quick google search will answer your problem should you hit it :)

They don't get that hot, I have M1015's in my N54L (FreeNAS) which has bugger all airflow and it's still rock solid.

As far as hooking up the drives goes, I would just recommend that you hookup the new card with 1 drive, firstly to test the fan-out cables etc are working as expected, and that the card is working and passing through drives in IT mode

Once that's done, screenshot your drive assignments, power down, redo the sata spaghetti and power on :)

They'll easily fit in a 2U chassis, they are available in half-height brackets or full, if you need half height I can send you a ebay link for them, or even the full heights (depending on the server make/model and layout of PCIe)

I wouldn't mount a HBA without a bracket on it tho, the vibration in the case will give you a hardware failure sooner rather than later if connections aren't supported correctly

Hope this helps

Cheers


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13 minutes ago, miniwalks said:

 


The 9211 based cards are excellent

Depending on your mobo, you may need to blank two PCIe pins on the card, it's a weird motherboard compatibility issue, I personally haven't run into it, but other have, a quick google search will answer your problem should you hit it :)

They don't get that hot, I have M1015's in my N54L (FreeNAS) which has bugger all airflow and it's still rock solid.

As far as hooking up the drives goes, I would just recommend that you hookup the new card with 1 drive, firstly to test the fan-out cables etc are working as expected, and that the card is working and passing through drives in IT mode

Once that's done, screenshot your drive assignments, power down, redo the sata spaghetti and power on :)

They'll easily fit in a 2U chassis, they are available in half-height brackets or full, if you need half height I can send you a ebay link for them, or even the full heights (depending on the server make/model and layout of PCIe)

I wouldn't mount a HBA without a bracket on it tho, the vibration in the case will give you a hardware failure sooner rather than later if connections aren't supported correctly

Hope this helps

 

 

Thanks - that helps a lot. It's a Tyan S7012 motherboard - in case that means anything to anyone! (Absolutely huge thing!)

 

The only problem with the brackets is that the chassis only has horizontal brackets, not vertical, so wouldn't be able to attached them - but I'll have a play around, see if there's a way around it.

I think the current riser card has 2 slots, but a) not sure what spec the other slot it and b) not sure there's enough room for both cards stacked this way.

 

Edit:

Looking around online, it looks like the original user swapped out the Vertical brakcets for horizontal ones - can't seem to fine something that does the reverse!

Edited by extrobe
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I'll grab a couple this evening and stick them up - thank you

Awesome

For what it's worth, TYAN oem'd the LSI cards at a similar time to the S7012, so compatibility should be quite simple

Do you know the case make/model?


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3 minutes ago, miniwalks said:


Awesome

For what it's worth, TYAN oem'd the LSI cards at a similar time to the S7012, so compatibility should be quite simple

Do you know the case make/model?


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Indeed - some versions of the S7012 include as LSI controller onboard. Sadly not mine :)

 

The chassis is a Chenbro - I think it's model RM23212

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I've managed to find someone selling the H310's - slightly more than the 9211 cards, but it's a UK based seller rather than China/HK, so will hopefully arrive a little sooner

 

As it happens, the vendor I bought the system from has offered to send a replacement Adaptec card - but assuming I can fit them in, I think I'll stick with a couple of 2-port cards, in the hope is reduces some of the temps it's kicking out, and sell the replacement card

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I've managed to find someone selling the H310's - slightly more than the 9211 cards, but it's a UK based seller rather than China/HK, so will hopefully arrive a little sooner
 
As it happens, the vendor I bought the system from has offered to send a replacement Adaptec card - but assuming I can fit them in, I think I'll stick with a couple of 2-port cards, in the hope is reduces some of the temps it's kicking out, and sell the replacement card


Probably more genuine too

Looks like the Chenbro case is designed for use with a riser rather than vertical slots


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After somehow posting them in completely the wrong forum, here are the images of the chassis / PICe area.

 

Looking at the maintenance guide on the rear of the lid, the rear window in the full-height configuration (as I have here) was an optional extra part.

 

I've emailed Chenbro to find out the part number for the original window, but given it's pretty old, I'm not holding out much luck.

 

 

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Managed to get a couple of H200's for about £100 for the pair - didn't want to chance it with the Chinese Imports, plus the seller will flash them to P20 IT mode for me.

 

Also having major second thoughts on this current 2u Chenbro server - it's huge, with nowhere to put it (without buying a rack), and the noise is deafening at times.

Now I know I like using unRaid, and as I've already invested in the drives, I might go whole-hog and buy a Lian-Li 20 bay monster (D8000B). Not cheap, but be easier to keep about the house, and gives much better cooling (and therefore noise!) options.

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I went with a Norco 4220 and love it, it is actually a pretty quiet case with lots of room. Still not so easy to store though. I bit the bullet and moved all my network stuff to our guest room and put it all into a wire shelf system, works great and looks ok too :P

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Man, my head is spinning. For a newbie, what are the recommended plug and play cards that will work straight out of the box? I don't wish to get into flashing or doing advance iT. Just want to plug it into my little TS140 server, run UnRaid and get the best performance possible from equipment. :) 

 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Sabot said:

Man, my head is spinning. For a newbie, what are the recommended plug and play cards that will work straight out of the box? I don't wish to get into flashing or doing advance iT. Just want to plug it into my little TS140 server, run UnRaid and get the best performance possible from equipment. :) 

 

 

 

 

Don't feel bad Sabot - my head hurts too - still working it all out, and have basically decided to back to drawing board and start again with what I now know!

 

My understanding is that the reason for IT mode, is that you don't want the raid card itself interfering with the drives (as would normally happen with a raid card). This is because if you ever need/want to connect the drives to a different controller (eg yours stops working), you may end up losing the information on the drives, as your new controller may not be able to read the info left by the original controller.

 

So (and I may have this wrong!) your options are...

- Create single Raid-0 arrays for each disk, and live with the risk of the controller failing (I have this setup on my HP Microserver - though not running unRaid - and is rock solid stable)

- Get a card which natively supports JBOD - I'm not aware of any that are recommended. My Adaptec 51245 supports this - but isn't a recommended card - and gets damn hot!

- Get a standard recommended card, and flash it to IT mode. As it happens, I found an eBay seller who offered to do this for me, so that might be worth looking into.

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