BUILD First Build, Wrong HBA Card? :( (What a noob)

[doublethink]

Alright, parts I already have:

CASE: U-NAS NSC-800
MOBO: Supermicro MBD-A1SRi-2758F-O (C2758 8-CoreCPU)
RAM: (2) 8GB ECC (Kingston KVR16LSE11/8KF)
PSU: SeaSonic SS-350M1U or FSP400-70LQ (I have both to try, will decide which I like more)
SAS: SuperMicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8

So, by being a stubborn idiot, I bought this tiny case, and will deal with its airflow issues. I found the Delta 50x50x10 fan Supermicro uses when they sell this board to people in their fully built systems from Digikey. That should help the CPU not set itself on fire. I also have learned there is not much airflow up by the PCI slot area, and I have some ideas for that as well. I am pretty clever, we'll see if I can make it work.

My actual problem, is this HBA is something from my old Windows server that I was really hoping to use. Being supermicro, I figured, it has to be good! According to the mfg it is based on the Marvell 9480 host controller. Searching threads on here I get: "well it might work, but good luck" and other various anecdotal scary shit. The thing is, in its BIOS menu are settings for staggered spinup, and it was awesome on my windows box as a JBOD.

But, I would like to use RaidZ2 and FreeNAS for this new setup. Its not worth me being a guinea pig with my data for this card. I am seeing everyone on here uses this LSI card, M1015 variant. OK fine. On ebay they are like 99$. But I need to know if you can do forced Staggered Spin up with that setup because I am limited in total amps due to FlexATX PSU limitations.

As long as I can distribute the spinup amp load using an M1015, then I think I am OK. Can anyone confirm/deny that for me?

I am looking at this card:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-LSI-Ser...398873?hash=item1a07f13899:g:qm0AAOSwVL1V-uOC

The added bonus is the side exit for the cables makes room for a cooling solution up top!

Thank you.

 

[SweetAndLow]

I think the motherboard bios handles the disk spin up task.

 

[Ericloewe]

SAS: SuperMicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8

On LSI SAS cards, you can configure the card via its BIOS extension ROM with spinup delays.

 

[doublethink]

I think the motherboard bios handles the disk spin up task.

My motherboard has settings in its BIOS, but my understanding is that is for the onboard SATA controller, since the spinup command is issued on that interface, which I won't be using.

On LSI SAS cards, you can configure the card via its BIOS extension ROM with spinup delays.

This is exactly what I needed to know. Thank you.

 

[doublethink]

Just to follow up in case anyone ever searches to this thread for whatever reason:

I purchased that used LSI SAS9220-8i and cross flashed it to the V20 firmware ALONG WITH the bios, and set up 3 delayed start groups of 2 for my 6 drives. (Just as Ericloewe said)

It was a bit of work, but it works amazingly.

Also this case is great, but do not attempt it unless you are willing to DIY some things. I had to build a duct with (2) 40mm fans for the upper raid card area to get the temps where I wanted them.

Using a Windows share, reading and writing to my pool is saturating gigabit 109-110MB/s, going over 100 feet of CAT6 to a gigabit switch in an equipment closet on the other side of the house. The performance is limited only by the cabling and link speed. I am thoroughly impressed with this, I still suck at *nix CLI but I am getting better.

 

[Ericloewe]

Just to follow up in case anyone ever searches to this thread for whatever reason:

I purchased that used LSI SAS9220-8i and cross flashed it to the V20 firmware ALONG WITH the bios, and set up 3 delayed start groups of 2 for my 6 drives. (Just as Ericloewe said)

It was a bit of work, but it works amazingly.

Also this case is great, but do not attempt it unless you are willing to DIY some things. I had to build a duct with (2) 40mm fans for the upper raid card area to get the temps where I wanted them.

Using a Windows share, reading and writing to my pool is saturating gigabit 109-110MB/s, going over 100 feet of CAT6 to a gigabit switch in an equipment closet on the other side of the house. The performance is limited only by the cabling and link speed. I am thoroughly impressed with this, I still suck at *nix CLI but I am getting better.

Out of curiosity, did you use the legacy BIOS or UEFI extension ROM?

 

[doublethink]

Out of curiosity, did you use the legacy BIOS or UEFI extension ROM?

First I went to P16 because everything I read said that was the one to use. Finished my 9.3 stable install, and I get an alert yelling at me "WHY NO P20?"

So, I used the firmware and BIOS from this file:

Firmware:
\9211-8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows\Firmware\HBA_9211_8i_IT\2118it.bin
BIOS:
\9211-8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows\sasbios_rel\mptsas2.rom

Again, for anyone searching this, you can get everything to do that from Avago's site except the "sbrempty.bin", which was wild goose chase and a half to track down since many links to the zip are dead.

I used DOS and sas2flsh.exe because I come from that world and its what I know best. I set up a directory like this for the future to avoid the headache:

So I take it what I did was the "legacy BIOS" then?

 

[cyberjock]

So I take it what I did was the "legacy BIOS" then?

I don't understand the question.

 

[jgreco]

I don't understand the question.

What a n00b.

 

[Ericloewe]

8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows\sasbios_rel\mptsas2.ro

That's the legacy BIOS extension ROM.

The new UEFI version has a different name.

 

[doublethink]

That's the legacy BIOS extension ROM.

The new UEFI version has a different name.

Are there any advantages/disadvantages to UEFI version? Is it similar to motherboards where it adds things like mouse support? I'm pretty happy with the current functionality, just curious. Thanks!

 

[Ericloewe]

Is it similar to motherboards where it adds things like mouse support?

Doubtful.

Are there any advantages/disadvantages to UEFI version?

Good question. Nobody's tried it yet.