Bought too much hardware (LSI MegaRAID)

[Rural]

So we have been testing FreeNAS for use as a SAN/NAS solution for a school division (mostly for off-site backups and for virtual machine images). We're quite happy. In fact, we're so happy that we decided to buy a nice rack mount server that can hold a bunch of drives, can be expanded to hold more, and have installed FreeNAS on it. The server is a Supermicro 6027R-E1R12N that supports 10 drives out of the box, has 4 GigE ports (plus one dedicated to IPMI) and offers an external JBOD port. We are very happy with it...except for one issue: It comes with an LSI hardware RAID controller that doesn't seem to offer a way to treat the drives as just a bunch of ordinary SATA disks.

The controller is an LSI MegaRAID and we've configured each disk as it's own "virtual disk" through the controller. Done this way, FreeNAS just sees a bunch of disks. Maybe there is a trick in the BIOS or the RAID controller configuration that we've missed. I'm not sure. Anyway, this works, but its one more configuration step that I'd rather not go through. In all honesty, if I could buy a replacement LSI card that supported 10 to 12 drives and offered the JBOD support too, I'd snap it up.

I guess I'm wondering if anyone knows of a trick I'm missing to disable the RAID in the MegaRAID or if someone can suggest a possible replacement.

The server is in production now, and therefore difficult to mess with, but we're about to buy an identical server and will have some opportunity to attempt different solutions.

 

[ato]

Check with LSI support - on some controllers you can flash "IT" version of firmware which provides what you are looking for

 

[survive]

Hi Rural,

It looks like you got a AOC-USASLP-H8iR:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-USAS2LP-H8iR.cfm

controller when what you really needed was a AOC-USAS2-L8i:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-USAS2-L8i.cfm?TYP=I

This shouldn't really be a big problem, particularly since you are ready to buy another one. I would explain the situation to your sales guy (assuming you have one) and see if Supermicro sells that case with HBA controller for the next order & see if you can swap the controller you have already for credit as part of the deal. The hardware RAID card seems to retail for about $400 while the HBA can be had for about $150 so there might be some additional incentive to work with you.

Assuming the cases are going to be the same drive-wise you could always migrate the data from the production box to the new box with the HBA controller first, then swap out the hardware card & return it. Then set up the old box so it's running the HBA like the new box.

-Will

 

[Rural]

ato & survive,

Thanks for the suggestions. Seriously, I'm actually amazed that both of you took the time to comment. Goodwill back at you.

I'll contact LSI and see what they know. Maybe there is a simple setting somewhere that we just haven't noticed. And it's simple enough to replace the hardware RAID cards with something cheaper. (survive, the AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 caught my eye as being a straight-forward 8-port SATA adapter. Seem reasonable?)

What bothers me most about the LSI MegaRAID card is that it has to do something to the disks before using them, even when each is configured as its own RAID0 "array". I'm not sure exactly what it did, but my fear is that I won't be able to just pull the drives and stick them in another machine. For that reason, I'd rather be out the extra $150 (or so) for the simpler adapter. Who knows? I might be able to get enough from them on EBay to buy some more RAM.

 

[survive]

Hi Rural,

I would get the AOC-USAS2-L8i over the MV8 simply because the L8i is an LSI card.

The reason you have to make each disk it's own array with the current card is because the crad is just to smart for it's own good....it can't just simply pass the drive through like an HBA can.

-Will

 

[Rural]

Interesting. Looking over Supermicro's selection of adapter cards, the AOC-USAS2-L8e looks especially simple (what I want). Being RAID-capable, the L8i (see the subtle difference) makes me worry that it will do exactly the same thing as the current card.

In any case, this has all been very helpful.

 

[survive]

Hi Rural,

Most all LSI HBA's can do the simpler forms of RAID (IR mode), but all you have to do is flash the right firmware on the card to turn it into a dumb HBA (IT mode). That said, this is probably the card you really want:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-USAS2-L8i.cfm?TYP=E

That's the same card, but with the HBA firmware.

-Will

 

[Rural]

Cool. We concur and that lessens my worry. Thanks again.