Does FreeNAS support the LSI SAS 9305-16i?

[hsvcd]

Yes, I know it's a relatively new card, and yes, I know the LSI SAS 9201-16i likely has better support, but will the 9305 work at all? Or even the 9300? If they will work, is anyone running one? How stable is it?

I don't have immediate plans for a 12Gbps SSD, but I'm building a home server that I hope to last 3-5 years (as my last one has), and I'd rather spend an extra $100 now then have to buy a whole new card later on. If the 9305 or 9300 are unstable however, I will get an older generation.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Ericloewe]

It should work, but it's a poor choice.
LSI SAS2 is more stable and the extra bandwidth is unlikely to be useful.

If you want fast SSDs, you'll be connecting them via PCI-e anyway, not with SAS.

 

[jgreco]

Put differently:

FreeNAS probably has over a billion aggregate problem-free hours logged under the old LSI 6Gbps 9211 based stuff. We know that this works EXCEEDINGLY WELL when used with the proper driver.

FreeNAS definitely has millions of aggregate problem-free hours logged under the new LSI 12Gbps stuff. I'm not aware of any problems that have been logged using any 12Gbps HBA when used with the proper driver. I probably wouldn't be too worried about that.

But.

A LSI 6Gbps HBA has 48Gbps (6Gbps * 8 lanes) of connectivity on it. Your NAS, even if it is large, probably only has 2 x 10Gbps (20Gbps) of connectivity to it.

There's no compelling need for 12Gbps SAS for most NAS uses. The people who actually do need it know why.

So if you want to be smart, buy a backplane that's 12Gbps compatible, sure. It'll be more resellable in the future when you upgrade in 5 years. But these days the 6Gbps HBA's are usually a lot less expensive than the 12's, so you can comfortably buy one and know it isn't a big impediment.