FreeNAS does not recognize Adaptec 51245 adapter

[jjonsson]

FreeNAS does not recognize my Adaptec 51245 adapter. It has drivers for FreeBSD: http://www.adaptec.com/en-us/downloads/unix/freebsd/productid=sas-51245&dn=adaptec+raid+51245.html

Can I install those ? And if yes, how to do it ?

 

[anodos]

FreeNAS does not recognize my Adaptec 51245 adapter. It has drivers for FreeBSD: http://www.adaptec.com/en-us/downloads/unix/freebsd/productid=sas-51245&dn=adaptec+raid+51245.html

Can I install those ? And if yes, how to do it ?

For all practical purposes, you can't install those. The card isn't well suited for ZFS anyway. If I were you I'd sell the Adaptec on ebay and buy an LSI 9211-8i or some other HBA that can be flashed to SAS2008-IT firmware.

 

[cyberjock]

Read my hardware recommendations thread.. it specifically says not to use anything Adaptec.

 

[jjonsson]

The card isn't well suited for ZFS anyway.

It works fine with Nexenta. The box has been running with Nexenta for 2 years now. I would have continued with Nexenta but I have to many harddrives in the box now (just added 4 more), which the Nexenta license does not permit.

So it's totally no go for use in FreeNAS ?

 

[anodos]

It works fine with Nexenta. The box has been running with Nexenta for 2 years now. I would have continued with Nexenta but I have to many harddrives in the box now (just added 4 more), which the Nexenta license does not permit.

So it's totally no go for use in FreeNAS ?

I'd avoid using it. I've seen too many people with problems here or in FreeBSD forums. Perhaps the situation is different under an illumos kernel. Like I mentioned, you can probably turn a profit (or at least break even) on swapping out the raid card for an HBA.

Note that the driver you linked is for FreeBSD 8.x. FreeNAS is based on FreeBSD 9.x. Since adaptec does not list FreeBSD 9.x compatibility, I'd say it's currently not supported. You can dig around and try to find a FreeBSD 9 driver for that card, but I'd say the best long-term solution is to migrate to something better supported and can present bare drives to the OS.

 

[cyberjock]

What anados said. It's basically dead in the water. Nexenta has different needs for hardware than FreeBSD, which is slightly different from linux, which is different from Windows.

 

[jjonsson]

I have looked at the IBM M1015 HBA adapter. It has only 2 SFF-8087 ports and my Adaptec has 3 SFF-8087 ports. :-( Also my motherboard has only 2 PCI-X slots and I'm using 1 for Qlogic FC , so I can't just buy 2. I have to buy new of everything. I guess FreeNAS is just NO GO for my setup :-(
(Eventhough the Adaptec controller is running in JBOD mode)....

I actually has 4 more drive bays (need 1 one SFF-8087 port = 4 in total). What controller should I look for then ? It must be one that can handle 4 internal SFF-8087 ports and be compatible with FreeNAS.....

 

[anodos]

I have looked at the IBM M1015 HBA adapter. It has only 2 SFF-8087 ports and my Adaptec has 3 SFF-8087 ports. :-( Also my motherboard has only 2 PCI-X slots and I'm using 1 for Qlogic FC , so I can't just buy 2. I have to buy new of everything. I guess FreeNAS is just NO GO for my setup :-(
(Eventhough the Adaptec controller is running in JBOD mode)....

I actually has 4 more drive bays (need 1 one SFF-8087 port = 4 in total). What controller should I look for then ? It must be one that can handle 4 internal SFF-8087 ports and be compatible with FreeNAS.....

I believe you can flash an LSI9201-16i to IT mode and get 4x SFF-8087. My experience is exclusively with SAS2008 cards, and so I can't guarantee compatibility or suitability for FreeNAS. @cyberjock would know more.

 

[Ericloewe]

I believe you can flash an LSI9201-16i to IT mode and get 4x SFF-8087. My experience is exclusively with SAS2008 cards, and so I can't guarantee compatibility or suitability for FreeNAS. @cyberjock would know more.

The LSI SAS 9201 only supports IT mode. It should work just as well as a 9211, with more devices sharing PCI-e bandwidth and with the higher price tag.

 

[ninjaneer68]

I am in the same situation. My system has 12 bays ( 3 mini SAS back planes) Most cards only support two. anyone have recommendation for a card that supports 3 to replace the Adaptec 51245 adapter

I had no problem getting FREENAS to see the drives with this ADAPTEC 51245. I just set up the drives as JBOD / simple volume and it saw all the drives. I even tested pulling out a drive and the zpool stay in tack. I am about to test re-imaging then importing the drives to see if that works correctly

I have already re imaged and restored a conf file and the zpools where still good and all the DATA was accessible

 

[Dice]

anyone have recommendation for a card that supports 3 to replace the Adaptec 51245 adapter

There is - in the hardware guide in the resource section :)

 

[ninjaneer68]

There is - in the hardware guide in the resource section :)

awesome ! do you have a link ? I was looking at the guide in the forum but struggling of where this resource section is ?

 

[ninjaneer68]

ooooooo I am a idiot, i didn't see the download button for the PDF.......... oppps

 

[ninjaneer68]

There is - in the hardware guide in the resource section :)

Just looked in the guide, I didn't see any. Are you talking about the hardware guide PDF ?

 

[Ericloewe]

You didn't read it well enough then:

An additional option is the LSI SAS 9201, a 16-port card which uses the LSI SAS2116 controller, which is also known to work well and only supports HBA usage, not hardware RAID. It is not very popular because it is more expensive than a pair of 8-port HBAs.

 

[ninjaneer68]

You didn't read it well enough then:

thank you for that !! I was over looking that one and google the other numbers........ Cheers !! I will add it to my shopping list of things to get soon.

 

[ninjaneer68]

UPDATE - I reinstalled FREENAS and now my SMART service turns on. I know this adaptec isn't ideal but its working for now and I was able to import the old zpool data