Anyone running more than 24 Disks on LSI SAS9305

[klu]

Hey everyone,

since I cannot solve my problem over here, I was wondering if anyone is successfully running more than 24 Disks on an LSI SAS9305-16/24i/e

 

[blanchet]

I run 44 disks with

• SuperMicro JBOD SC847E1C-R1K23JBOD
• 44 x WD DC550 18 TB SATA hard disks
• LSI-9300-8e HBA

It runs out-of-the-box with TrueNAS Core 12.0u6.1 server.

 

[klu]

Thank you, so it could be a problem with my controller. I basically have 2/4 IOM6, but whatever I do, I can only see 24 disks in TureNAS Core. Interestingly I can see disks from both my disk shelves at the same time but never more than 24.

Just out of curiosity, what firmware do you run on your controller? I am running "16.00.12.00 - IT-Mode" and tried "16.00.11.00 - IT-Mode" but did not go further down, yet.

 

[blanchet]

On my LSI9300-8e, I use firmware 16.00.01.00.
The HBA was shipped with this version, and I have never upgraded yet because it works well until now.

 

[klu]

Today I just got more confused. I swaped my SAS9305-16i for a SAS9211-8i and suddenly I can see all 31 drives I got in my enclosures.

So it might be a problem of the firmware I got on my SAS9305-16i or the problem is very specific for the SAS9305-16i (sas3224).

So anyone here that got exactly a SAS9305-16i/e (sas3224) and running more than 24 disks?

 

[Ericloewe]

Might you have some weird RAID firmware remnants left? In RAID mode, the number of disks is typically very limited, but that's not really a thing for IT/IR modes. Or at least it wasn't for Gen 2/Gen 3 stuff. Gen 3.5 may be different.

 

[klu]

Actually I am using

Adapter Selected is a Avago SAS: SAS3224(A1)

Controller Number : 0
Controller : SAS3224(A1)
PCI Address : 00:43:00:00
SAS Address : 500062b-2-02b5-e700
NVDATA Version (Default) : 10.00.00.05
NVDATA Version (Persistent) : 10.00.00.05
Firmware Product ID : 0x2228 (IT)
Firmware Version : 16.00.12.00
NVDATA Vendor : LSI
NVDATA Product ID : SAS9305-16i
BIOS Version : 08.37.02.00
UEFI BSD Version : 18.00.03.00
FCODE Version : N/A
Board Name : SAS9305-16i
Board Assembly : 03-25703-02003
Board Tracer Number : SP71503600

so no RAID-Mode. I did try to hook up 2 disk shelves as you can read here. After a while of testing I startet wondering, if it is possible to hook up more thant 24 disks at all. Espacially since the man page for mpr states

Broadcom Ltd./Avago Tech (LSI) SAS 3224 (24 Port SAS)

and I was not sure what the "24 Port" was refering to.

But I am going to try some older firmware in the next couple of days. I just can't get my head around why the "newer" and seemingly "better" SAS9305-16i controller is not working and the SAS9211-8i works right away.

 

[blanchet]

According to this post, SAS3 HBA may not work well with SAS2 expanders.
It would explain why the SAS9305-16i does not work with the Netapp DS4246, but the SAS9211-8i does.

What SAS3008 Firmware to use for TrueNAS12?

Hey, I just updated my FreeNAS to TrueNAS12. I'm wondering which SAS3008 Firmware Version I should use for TrueNAS12? Current firmware is 15.00.00.00. Output of sas3flash -list is: Adapter Selected is a Avago SAS: SAS3008(C0) Controller Number : 0...

www.truenas.com

 

[klu]

Thank you, like I said over in the other threa I will look into it. But the question for this one remains, since I cannot test it - due to a lack of SATA/SAS and power cables for more than 24 drives without disk shelve.

Has anyone a controller with a sas3224 chip (like SAS9305-16i or SAS9305-24i) running with more than 24 disks on TrueNAS/FeeBSD? It would ease my mind that It can be done and is not an issue between this specific chip and the mpr driver.

 

[klu]

So, another week and just more confusion. But I think it is just an incompatibility between FreeBSDs mpr driver and my setup.

I finally managed to hook up more than 24 drives to my SAS9305-16i. I attached 12 SATA drives directly and one Netapp DS4246. I could see all 12 SATA drives and 20 of the 24 drives from the shelve. So although it is not working like I want it to work, I can definitely hook up more than 24 drives to my SAS9305-16i.

So this seems to be figured out, I will continue other here because I got some new results on the problem.