Recommended raid controller for both FreeNAS and VMware

[Vegard Kolbeinsen]

I am looking for a new "cheap" raid controller as my HighPoint 2720SGL is not working with WMware and that the raid today have died on me after over 6 years of use. The array is rebuilding as we speak but it will take 55+ hours before its done.

I am looking for a new controller that could fit both FreeNAS and WMware at same time, as I want to run FreeNAS as a VM and therefor need support from both.

I look on eBay that the LSI MegaRAID 9240-8 is out for good price and it work in VMware

But is there others i should look at also that could fit both? The price should be around the same as the LSI (max 150$ with cables for 8SATA).

 

[depasseg]

What is wrong with the M1015 that @cyberjock suggested in your other post?
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?posts/301632

 

[Vegard Kolbeinsen]

What is wrong with the M1015 that @cyberjock suggested in your other post?
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?posts/301632

It does not seem to be supported by VMware.

 

[pirateghost]

If you are virtualizing FreeNAS the proper way, you would be passing through the HBA to FreeNAS. There is no raid, and does not have to be 'supported by VMware'

 

[depasseg]

What pirateghost said.

 

[Vegard Kolbeinsen]

Ok. But IS LSI bad? I look at two the 9240-i8 and the 9260-i8 the latter has onboard backup battery. Bot says they support way more than 8 disks but a SAS to SATA cable only has 1 to 4... What would I do if I wanted more?

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[danb35]

What would I do if I wanted more?

Use a SAS expander, as you'd do with an M1015/9211-8i. See https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...-sas-sy-a-primer-on-basic-sas-and-sata.26145/

 

[Vegard Kolbeinsen]

Use a SAS expander, as you'd do with an M1015/9211-8i. See https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...-sas-sy-a-primer-on-basic-sas-and-sata.26145/

Ok thanks. But how about the LSI 9260 is this ok to buy, will I get it to work?

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[CookiesLikeWhoa]

Get yourself a M1015 off ebay and flash it to IT mode. If you don't want to flash something to IT mode and risk bricking it, then you can go with a LSI-9207. All you have to do is update the firmware to P20.

LSI-9260 should work, but would require being flashed to IT mode and function the same as the M1015 or 9207 and cost more.

 

[Vegard Kolbeinsen]

Get yourself a M1015 off ebay and flash it to IT mode. If you don't want to flash something to IT mode and risk bricking it, then you can go with a LSI-9207. All you have to do is update the firmware to P20.

LSI-9260 should work, but would require being flashed to IT mode and function the same as the M1015 or 9207 and cost more.

There is a slight problem with the 9207 from the look of it. And that is the PCI-E 3.0 my mainboard 1366 only supports PCI-E 2.0

 

[ChriZ]

So??
It will work just fine...

 

[Vegard Kolbeinsen]

So??
It will work just fine...

Ok great. So with a 9207 card its more or less plug and play or is there some special guide I need to follow?

 

[CookiesLikeWhoa]

Ok great. So with a 9207 card its more or less plug and play or is there some special guide I need to follow?

pcie is backwards compatible. So the 3.0 should work with 2.0 no problem, just less bandwith (doubt you'll be able to saturate the 2GB/s on pcie 2.0 anyways).

The only thing you'll need to do is update the firmware to p20 on the 9207. Otherwise it is plug and play.

Updating the firmware isn't to hard. I thought it would be but it's not bad at all. Just download the firmware from http://www.avagotech.com/products/server-storage/host-bus-adapters/sas-9207-8i#

Put the uefi bios and the IT firmware onto a USB drive and boot into it. There are a couple of video's on youtube that show it in greater detail but it's some simple commands and you'll be set.

You can do it from inside Freenas, but I had issues and found it easier to just do it off a USB drive.

 

[Vegard Kolbeinsen]

Ok just bought a card from eBay hopefully all will go well :D Thanks all!

 

[cyberjock]

It does not seem to be supported by VMware.

My ESXi server has an M1015 installed, and I can tell you for 100% certainty it is supported. BUT, even then you don't need support if you are doing vt-d passthrough. Of course, our forum rules say something like "when virtualizing freenas, if you have to ask for help you shouldn't do it"... so I guess you know where I stand on this topic.

 

[Vegard Kolbeinsen]

Well I'm to old not to ask when I have a problem. I know it saves time. but well it takes about a month before I will have all the parts ready for the new server. I have managed to find parts from all over the world :-D

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[Black Ninja]

LSI-9260 should work, but would require being flashed to IT mode and function the same as the M1015 or 9207 and cost more.

That's wrong. LSI 9260 is megaraid card, there is no IT mode. It's not the same as M1015. Not every card can be flashed in IT mode(which is HBA mode)