Dell T5600 with H310 PERC Sas controller? (IT Mode)

[Brink2Three]

So I am currently using a Dell T5600 with the internal SAS controller in use. I haven't had any issues with it, but the system I purchased came with an H310 controller, and I would like to use it to add drives (SFF-8087 to 8088 for external enclosure most likely). My dilemma is, if I install the H310 card in the system as is (no IT/LSi firmware flash yet), the card disables the internal sas controller, and I don't have the rest of my drives. According to a Dell forum member, anytime the chipset sees a Dell SAS controller, it disables the internal SAS controller and uses the card.
So my question is as follows: If I flash the H310 to IT or LSi firmware, would that still show up to the internal controller as a "Dell" Sas controller, and disable the internal one, or is there a good chance that I will be able to use both controllers because the firmware flash?
(Here's the forum post about the H310 disabling the internal sas controller. His statement is tested and true with my system.
https://www.dell.com/community/DELL...TA-Perc-H310/m-p/3978894/highlight/true#M2089)
Thanks in advance.

 

[Chris Moore]

There may be other ways around this issue, please give a full description of where you are now and where you want to go. Many of us have a lot of experience cobbling things together to make them work and we may be able to offer you advice or ideas that you have not considered yet.

Are you familiar with the process for crossflashing the H310? That is something you should do regardless.

 

[Brink2Three]

There may be other ways around this issue, please give a full description of where you are now and where you want to go. Many of us have a lot of experience cobbling things together to make them work and we may be able to offer you advice or ideas that you have not considered yet.

Are you familiar with the process for crossflashing the H310? That is something you should do regardless.

Hardware in system:
1x Xeon E5-2667
16GB DDR3 ECC
Dell T5600 dual socket board
4x 1TB hard drives, 128GB ssd boot drive. (Adding 2x 4TB drives when they arrive within the next week)

I currently use the 1TB drives purely as backup shares for 2 Macbooks and 2 windows laptops on our network. This has no issue and works incredibly well.
I am adding the 4TB drives to add a Plex server to the system and centralize the 2TB of movies I have on my desktop (seperate backup not on the nas).
My plan at the moment is to use a space desktop case or hard drive enclosure, and use the SFF 8087 to 8088 adapter to connect them via the H310 controller.

I am familiar with the process and have done vBIOS flashing before which seems somewhat familiar as well so I do not think I would have any issue with flashing the card. I don't want to waste time flashing the card if it won't work though.

 

[jgreco]

So I am currently using a Dell T5600 with the internal SAS controller in use. I haven't had any issues with it, but the system I purchased came with an H310 controller, and I would like to use it to add drives (SFF-8087 to 8088 for external enclosure most likely). My dilemma is, if I install the H310 card in the system as is (no IT/LSi firmware flash yet), the card disables the internal sas controller, and I don't have the rest of my drives. According to a Dell forum member, anytime the chipset sees a Dell SAS controller, it disables the internal SAS controller and uses the card.
So my question is as follows: If I flash the H310 to IT or LSi firmware, would that still show up to the internal controller as a "Dell" Sas controller, and disable the internal one, or is there a good chance that I will be able to use both controllers because the firmware flash?
(Here's the forum post about the H310 disabling the internal sas controller. His statement is tested and true with my system.
https://www.dell.com/community/DELL...TA-Perc-H310/m-p/3978894/highlight/true#M2089)
Thanks in advance.

It wouldn't be the chipset that disables it, it'd be the BIOS.

Crossflashing the H310 to LSI makes it look substantially less like a Dell controller, but there are still things deep inside the card that could potentially be recognized as a Dell card. Since your only option for FreeNAS and the H310 is to crossflash it to IT mode, it seems like you should just go ahead and try. There's a chance it won't work. Then as @Chris Moore says, there may be ways to work around that.

 

[Brink2Three]

It wouldn't be the chipset that disables it, it'd be the BIOS.

Crossflashing the H310 to LSI makes it look substantially less like a Dell controller, but there are still things deep inside the card that could potentially be recognized as a Dell card. Since your only option for FreeNAS and the H310 is to crossflash it to IT mode, it seems like you should just go ahead and try. There's a chance it won't work. Then as @Chris Moore says, there may be ways to work around that.

Thanks for the info. I'm going to try flashing it today and I'll update this post once I try the new drive on it.

 

[Brink2Three]

I realize this over a year later but I got a DM from a quite sleuthy user, so I thought I should update:
I had some issues flashing the card based on my inability to format the freeDOS drive properly while still having the sas2flash tools work properly. (I was just a newbie then) But I was able to get the card flashed to LSI IT firmware and it works flawlessly. the primary guides I used are linked.
Only comment I have is make sure you're flashing the CORRECT raid controller. I almost attempted to flash the C602 built-in raid controller on my first attempt.

https://tylermade.net/2017/06/27/how-to-crossflash-perc-h310-to-it-mode-lsi-9211-8i-firmware-hba-for-freenas-unraid/
^Disable adblockers for this one, it won't load^
https://josephlo.wordpress.com/2018/03/24/not-another-article-on-flashing-dell-h310-to-it-mode/