Confused about that LSI card? Join the crowd ...

[cyberjock]

I'm not sure I've ever heard of an M1015 failing on the forums. This isn't your consumer grade hardware. This is IBM server grade stuff and LSI server grade stuff. While I have no doubt that they do fail since everything does eventually, I wouldn't be overly worried about buying a used M1015.

 

[jgreco]

I'm not sure I've ever heard of an M1015 failing on the forums.

There've been a few instances of what might be bad cards or PCIe problems and it hasn't been clear, but I will note that knockoff cards are an occupational hazard in the used market. The Cisco router guys have to be real wary of fakes too. But sometimes you'll acquire parts from a supposedly reputable reseller like NewEgg and they can be knockoffs too. We got some great dual-port Intel Pro/1000 MT knockoffs from NewEgg mid-2000's, which struck me as particularly odd since dual cards are a bit esoteric. But higher margin I guess.

So anyways,

Fewer servers coming off-lease meaning that they usually end their lease at the end of a Corporate fiscal year in September? Or that the economy has sent sales plummeting and lengthened lease periods?

No, sorry, was way too terse. I kind of forget most of you guys aren't in the business sometimes See, what tends to happen are two things, one when a server is purchased and one at the end of a lease.

When a server is purchased, manufacturers often push certain options and buyers may take the deal, then go and buy the controller of their choice, pull the M1015, and eBay the leftover "new-pull" card for some extra beer money. So you would probably have seen a glut of low priced cards at that time.

At the end of the lease what happens is that the servers are returned and maybe refurbished or parts'ed up for resale on eBay. So basically you have to rewind three years and look at what IBM's popular offerings were at the time. The ServeRAID was introduced as a low-end controller back in 2009. I don't know what kind of promos they were running but prices seemed really good in 2012-2013 on eBay so I'm guessing they flooded the market in 2009-2010. That's when you see a flood of "used/tested/great condition!" cards hit eBay.

 

[Richman]

The ServeRAID was introduced as a low-end controller back in 2009.

The 1015 was into'd in 2009?

I don't know what kind of promos they were running but prices seemed really good in 2012-2013 on eBay so I'm guessing they flooded the market in 2009-2010. That's when you see a flood of "used/tested/great condition!" cards hit eBay.

Seasms to me that if a Corp doesn't do the bulk of their IT purchases at the beginning of a fiscal year then different Corps could be buying them at different times all throughout the year and leases would end at all different times so there should always be offerings of used cards as long as the cards were offered for sale ........ up till even the end of the last leases of the equipment the cards were used on. I am thinking that the 1015 has aprox. a 12 month offering and then their may ave been another model that took its place.

 

[ECCfrenaslover]

Its not always September. I know we get our server when ever we need them and after 3years we send them back. That can be at any time. As for the card, I just wanted to make sure that was a good card. Not all cards from china are fake but some are. I just want one that works but right now its hard to find one with the card and the bracket for a good price and with the cables.

I will say i did look on newegg and a Brand new LSI card that will work with freenas is 230 bucks which is not a bad price for a brand new card.

My card is awesome because it works and it only cost me 50 with no cables and two brackets. My U-Nas came with everything I needed. That case, to me, is a phenomenal case. I have two of them now.

 

[pbucher]

I had a fake from China once, I was able to return it for a full refund but it definitely made me weary of buying cards on ebay. The card looked like the real deal but the silk screen and traces where not as crisp as the real deal. I was lucky enough to have a real LSI card to compare it to.

I'm guessing they took controller chips that failed QA and built boards with them. The one I had was completely unstable and replacing the take with the real one I already had instantly stabilized everything and going back unstabilized everything.

That all said, if you building a complete new system, take a look at some of the Supermicro boards that have a LSI 2308 based controller already built-in. The X10SL7-F is a real sweet board that costs less than a standalone LSI card of the same class, the downside is it maxes out at 32GB and uses intel's new low end server NICs instead of the standard ones of the past. But you can get a Intel NIC alot cheaper on ebay then a good LSI card.

 

[Richman]

My card is awesome because it works and it only cost me 50 with no cables and two brackets. My U-Nas came with everything I needed. That case, to me, is a phenomenal case. I have two of them now.

what case are you using? I have two 8 bay u-nas from china land. I think i was under 600 dollars w/o hdd's

So you have what .....??? Two 8 bay UNAS boxes with the same 'Fake' card. Are you sure it is a fake. if so maybe its a crap shoot on stability. Not sure I would take the chance and would just get a used one that has proven itself.
How do you have that set up? You have one board with a card feeding both boxes or two completely separate systems?

 

[jgreco]

Seasms to me that if a Corp doesn't do the bulk of their IT purchases at the beginning of a fiscal year then different Corps could be buying them at different times all throughout the year and leases would end at all different times so there should always be offerings of used cards as long as the cards were offered for sale ........ up till even the end of the last leases of the equipment the cards were used on. I am thinking that the 1015 has aprox. a 12 month offering and then their may ave been another model that took its place.

It's hard to know when these were popular/being promoted/etc, but a year is not necessarily a bad guess. I'd guess a bit longer. A lot of the cards we were seeing up through maybe 2011 were "new pulls". That is kind of consistent with the lower volume of used cards we are seeing since then, but basically without knowing the actual history this is all theory. My point was simply that the M1015 was new in '09, and so the availability of the cards in the used/secondhand market is driven by that.

 

[Richman]

It's hard to know when these were popular/being promoted/etc, but a year is not necessarily a bad guess. I'd guess a bit longer. A lot of the cards we were seeing up through maybe 2011 were "new pulls". That is kind of consistent with the lower volume of used cards we are seeing since then, but basically without knowing the actual history this is all theory. My point was simply that the M1015 was new in '09, and so the availability of the cards in the used/secondhand market is driven by that.

But then I am guessing there has to be newer versions with better features that will be shuffled out from leases from 2011-2013 that are now coming due or new equipment that someone pulls the included card to opt for a specific one they want. Like, what did I read somewhere or here that a newer version was 1028 or something?

 

[Blade Runner]

I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this thread. I purchased a used areca 1280-ML before reading this thread. There were no issues prior to installing FreeNAS 9.2 afterwards it was Conflict City.

I initially thought the Supermicro XSCM9 BIOS were incorrect. Posters had similar issues on several different forums. The next issue was BIOS settings sporadically were reset to default while troubleshooting and rebooting. The problem was the areca.

I purchased a used LSI 9211-8i with FW 5.00.17.00-IR on Ebay. I used links in this thread flashing FW to the latest version. Talk about doing a 180-no conflicts, no BIOS resets. Card performs like a champ.

 

[rfs830]

so from what im reading then.. dont buy a card that is from china then?

 

[jgreco]

correct.

 

[Z300M]

correct.

But even some of the cards from US sellers on eBay may have originated in China and not be up to standard.

 

[rfs830]

its starting to get harder to find one that is not from china now. I guess I may just have to buy new then.

 

[Blade Runner]

its starting to get harder to find one that is not from china now. I guess I may just have to buy new then.

Have patience because used cards are listed every day. I also would review a seller's return policy before buying.

 

[ECCfrenaslover]

glad you found the issue. let's keep it FREENAS strong!

 

[Jackie Lowery]

i'm using a perc 5i. what if it's not showing up at all?

 

[jgreco]

i'm using a perc 5i. what if it's not showing up at all?

The usual fix is to remove the junk and to install an HBA.

The Perc 5/i is total junk and has numerous issues such as incompatibility with many Intel boards (Google: perc 5/i smbus). As a RAID controller, it is not well suited for use with FreeNAS anyways.

 

[indy]

Would this be the proper procedure to flash the controller of the X10SL7-F:

Code:

Note SAS controller ID from MB sticker
Download/Unpack 9207_8i_Package_P18_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows.zip
Boot into FreeDos
	sas2flsh -o -e 7
	sas2flsh -f 9207-8.bin
	sas2flsh -o -sasadd id_from_mb_sticker

Also I read about heat problems with the LSI controllers in cases with moderate airflow.
Should I consider adding an additional cooler?

 

[jgreco]

I don't have crossflash info for the X10 board.

Most of the LSI controllers seem to burn maybe a dozen watts. The tech info is available on LSI's website. Do plan to ensure a supply of air. I would think "moderate" is fine but as with all things computery, there's always an exception.

 

[jyavenard]

Would this be the proper procedure to flash the controller of the X10SL7-F:

Code:

Note SAS controller ID from MB sticker
Download/Unpack 9207_8i_Package_P18_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows.zip
Boot into FreeDos
	sas2flsh -o -e 7
	sas2flsh -f 9207-8.bin
	sas2flsh -o -sasadd id_from_mb_sticker

You may want to read the thread about that MB and for flashing, this thread:
http://forums.freenas.org/threads/supermicro-x10sl7-f.14105/page-6#post-81892