Confused Newbie - HBA needed - Please confirm if this planned purchase makes sense

[stele77]

Hi fellow ZFS-loving, data-hoarding, free and open source championing FreeNAS users! :)

I have been using FreeNAS before, and always was very happy with it. But due to having to also use my NAS temporarily with KVM+QEMU + Docker, i switched to Ubuntu for the last year.
Now i am planning myself a proper FreeNAS build, and i need a HBA for this. But it should also work in Linux, should i want to use it in my Linux Server later on.
I read the relevant thread(s), and searched the forum and the web as well.
Sadly i am still insecure, and would be happy if you could help me out.

What i know i would need according to my research:
-LSI or OEM versions from DELL IBM etc.
-"True" HBA, and not a RAID controller in JBOD mode (according to the sticked thread)
-To flash into "IT" instead of "IR" mode

My personal requirements:
-No RAID needed whatsoever
-Support for FreeBSD and Linux
-Easy flashing to IT mode if needed
-Cheap price (30€) max. if at all possible
-Ability to attach 8x SATA HDDs

Now, as i am financially extremly constraint atm, i checked online retailers here in Germany. Prices are outrages from regular online shops, so i checked Ebay for used/refurbished models.
I know about the risk of counterfeits, but i can not spend 5 times as much as the 25-30 € i would pay on Ebay. With PayPal, i can get my money back anyway, and i would check the serial number first thing and also check the hardware itself before pushing valuable data on it (i always have proper Backups anyway).

Now, my questions:
1. Which of those ebay offers is the best fit? I checked them myself as good as i can at this point, but maybe i oversaw something (and likely still dont know enough to be sure anyway). This Seller has no reviews claming fake HBAs, despite having sold 100s of them. Labels and markings also seem to check out AFAIK.
LSI SAS 9210-8i:

LSI SAS 9210-8i 8-port 6Gb/s PCIe x8 HBA RAID SATA Controller card=M1015 9211-8I | eBay

Data Transfer Rates: 6Gb/s SAS 2.0 compliant. RAID Levels PCI Power: 7 W typical (Airflow min 200 LFM). We keep our promises that we will provide you with the best solution within 24 hours. Devices Supported: 256 Non-RAID SAS/SATA devices.

www.ebay.de

Dell Perc H310:

Bitte entschuldigen Sie die Störung...

What are your thoughts on these offers? Are they well suited, easy to flash into IT mode, and are the "true" HBAs? Am i missing something here?
Do you recommend another model? Or a specific ebay seller that you have got good experiences with that offers at comparable price points?

Thanks anyone for helping me out, and stay healthy in these volatile times!
:)

 

[jgreco]

The Dells are harder to crossflash because you have to downgrade them to P7, haul them across to LSI and IT firmware, then upgrade them again. There are also sometimes issues with being unable to use the needed tools in DOS mode on some newer machines.

See if you can find a pre-crossflashed unit, even if it's for a little more money.

 

[stele77]

The Dells are harder to crossflash because you have to downgrade them to P7, haul them across to LSI and IT firmware, then upgrade them again. There are also sometimes issues with being unable to use the needed tools in DOS mode on some newer machines.

See if you can find a pre-crossflashed unit, even if it's for a little more money.

Thank you very much, this is exactly the kind of information (that only comes from experience) i was looking for!
So, to confirm if i now got this correctly:

-Get a LSI brand HBA, and not Dell or other OEM
-Get only in IT mode (which means it does not need to be flashed)

I searched Ebay again, and found another chinese seller who offers LSI HBAs of various OEM including LSI itself already flashed into IT mode.
The LSI chips in the offer would be:
-LSI 9240-8i (According to seller equivalent to LSI 9211-8i)
-LSI 9201-8i (According to seller equivalent to 9211-8i)

The 9240-8i is more expensive, and the 9201-8i seems to be more commonly mentioned in this forum.

So the LSI brand card with LSI 9201-8i chip already flashed into "IT" mode would be the best choice AFAIK. Is this conclusion correct?

Thanks again, and kind regards!

 

[stele77]

Forgot to add (and can not edit the post it seems): Does anything speak against the 9240-8i other than that it is less popular in this forum?
Thanks

 

[jgreco]

Sorry for any confusion. What I meant: If you can find an already crossflashed Dell or IBM HBA, that's actually just dandy because you will not need to do any of the dirty work. Historically, these have been more expensive than the raw freshly-yanked Dell cards but less expensive than a 9240-8i.