First FreeNAS Server Build Dell R710 - Looking For Best HBA Card

[CGIbeast]

Hi Everyone,
I'm purchasing a Dell Power Edge R710 in the very near future. I was originally going to purchase this box: http://www.dfwpartsdepot.com/?produ...ing_wp_cron=1479955150.1947500705718994140625 from this form posting: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/ode-to-the-dell-c2100-fs12-ty.43665/page-2
However they do not ship to Canada and during the emails I had with them they sold out. I plan to still get one in the future after I figure something out in a few months and if they get more of them.
Dell R710: 2x X5560, 64GB ECC, 6x 3.5" drive bays with trays. Planning to 6x 6TB raidz2 with WD RED
I'm currently looking for a few SAS2 HBA cards. I found these so far and I'm wondering if any of them are correct (flashing may be necessary).
Dell Perc H200 8-Port RAID Controller 47MCV w/ SAS SATA Hard Drive cable PTR5N
Dell Perc H200 6Gb/s 8-Port SAS SATA RAID Controller 47MCV w/ FullHeight Bracket
IBM ServeRaid M1015 46M0861 LSI SAS9220-8i SAS/SATA PCI-E RAID Controller
LSI MegaRAID 9211-8I 8PORT 6GB/S LP SAS/SATA RAID Controller Card - 58092
I'm not planning on getting this card but I am wondering if it would be compatible with FreeNAS: Dell 12DNW H200E SAS 6Gbps HBA Dual Port External Controller Card
Thanks for any input,

 

[Acheron]

All 4 of those are basically the same card with different firmware. Dell PERC H200s and IBM M1015 can be crossflashed to make them an LSI 9211-8i in IT mode, which is the most-recommended card for FreeNAS these days it seems. Here are some links with crossflashing info for H200s if you go with the Dell... there's good info around for the IBM card too if you do a bit of searching.

https://techmattr.wordpress.com/201...-flashing-to-it-mode-dell-perc-h200-and-h310/
http://blog.michael.kuron-germany.d...dell-perc-h200-to-lsi-9211-8i/comment-page-1/

~Acheron

 

[CGIbeast]

Thanks Acheron,
I purchased 2 of each of these and they happened to be 15% off when I went to purchase:
Dell Perc H200 8-Port RAID Controller 47MCV w/ SAS SATA Hard Drive cable PTR5N
Dell Perc H200 6Gb/s 8-Port SAS SATA RAID Controller 47MCV w/ FullHeight Bracket
I have plans to make a couple FreeNAS servers in the future.
I will let you guys know how the build goes :)

 

[Chris Moore]

Thanks Acheron,
I purchased 2 of each of these and they happened to be 15% off when I went to purchase:
Dell Perc H200 8-Port RAID Controller 47MCV w/ SAS SATA Hard Drive cable PTR5N
Dell Perc H200 6Gb/s 8-Port SAS SATA RAID Controller 47MCV w/ FullHeight Bracket
I have plans to make a couple FreeNAS servers in the future.
I will let you guys know how the build goes :)

I have nothing bad to say about this, I just wanted to add that the Dell H310 controller can also be cross-flashed to the LSI firmware and I am using 6 of those in various builds with great success. I am not sure how the chip-set compares between the H200 and H310, but I prefer the physical layout of the H310 in my server chassis.

 

[Chris Moore]

However they do not ship to Canada and during the emails I had with them they sold out. I plan to still get one in the future after I figure something out in a few months and if they get more of them.

Are you still looking to get a server chassis?

If so, I ran across this deal on eBay that I think is a bargain: http://www.ebay.com/itm/201614424117

 

[CGIbeast]

I finally have the Dell R710 server but I have a problem I'm trying to workaround with it. The flashed card is not comparable with the dell storage PCIe slot (don't want to move to a regular PCIe slot).
So I'm going to use a Dell 2950 that was given to me(2x 3.0Ghz Xeon 4 core, 32GB ECC 667Mhz), till I can figure that problem out, (Very loud for me in my room so I will mod the fans: http://www.ratzblog.com/2014/08/reducing-dell-poweredge-pe-295029002800.html) I have my 6*6TB drives burned in with badblocks and smartcl.
The attached pic flashed card works in the 2950 storage slot, I just want to make sure it is flashed properly for compatibility with FreeNAS version 9.10.

The commands I used in FreeDOS:

Code:

Boot DOS
sas2flsh -c 0 -list (zero)
note sas Address Here:
megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin
megarec -cleanflash 0
(RESTART)
sas2flsh -o -f 6GBPSAS.FW
(restart)
sas2flsh -c 0 -list
sas2flsh -o -sasadd xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(reboot)
sas2flsh -o -f 2118itP20.bin	 y
sas2flsh -list

Now the second card was flashed in the same way, (I used an old system to flash both cards) and no longer works in R710's storage slot flashed to IT.
I came across this article which gives me a couple questions with regards to fixing this slot problem: https://hardforum.com/threads/need-help-with-h200-freenas-and-dell-r710.1891289/
What is the purpose of these commands?:
#Backup SBR and SPD
1) megarec.exe -readsbr 0 filename.sbr
2) megarec.exe -readspd 0 filename.spd
and what would the LSI P07 Firmware that is flashed between 6GBPSAS and 2118itP20 do?
Thanks in advance!

 

[2nd-in-charge]

Hi CGIbeast,

I've got a similar situation with PowerEdge T710 and H200I flashed to P20 firmware. It wouldn't work in the storage slot. I then went on the path of least resistance, and moved the card to an expansion slot. One of the cables didn't reach, we had to order a new mini-SAS cable. It also wouldn't boot from any drives attached to the card.

The definitive guide on crossflashing H200/H310 to LSI firmware (https://techmattr.wordpress.com/201...-flashing-to-it-mode-dell-perc-h200-and-h310/) omits -b <bios> option, so there is no BIOS flashed to the card using the recommended procedure (which you followed as well). If you were to execute sas2flash.efi -o -f 2118it.bin -b mpt2sas.rom, it will probably allow Dell m/b Bios to see the card and boot from the drives attached to it, but I haven't tried. I'm pretty sure Dell m/b BIOS will still reject the card in the storage slot if it has LSI bios on it.
And we don't know if the Dell card bios (if you can find one) will work with the P20 firmware from LSI. I haven't found any reports of anyone successfully doing that. I also haven't backed up the Dell card bios before flashing the card (since I followed the abovementioned guide).

#Backup SBR and SPD
1) megarec.exe -readsbr 0 filename.sbr
2) megarec.exe -readspd 0 filename.spd

I guess it backs up those records if you want to restore the card to original firmware. I didn't do any of that either.

and what would the LSI P07 Firmware that is flashed between 6GBPSAS and 2118itP20 do?

Nothing. The person writing that guide didn't know that P20 can be written directly over 6GBPSAS.

 

[CGIbeast]

After spending way too much time playing around I gave up on getting the H200 in the storage slot. H200 work no problem in the 2950 storage slot.
This person got it working with an R510: http://www.jonkensy.com/diy-sannas-...le-shared-storage-with-a-twist-of-zfs-part-1/

FreeNAS 10, R710 2x Xeon 5675 64GB ECC, H200 IT P20/21 no bios
The next issue I am trying to figure out is getting 6 of these old 40gb (Attached is a pic) drives to show up in FreeNAS as a test box to play with the Correl and docker VMs. I though I messed up with flashing again but, I put in my spare 6tb red and it show up no problem.

disk show with 5x40gb and 1x6tb

Code:

Unix::>disk show 
 Name Size Online Empty Allocation SMART status 
 da0 59.62 GiB yes no boot device none 
 da1 5.46 TiB yes no unallocated PASS 

 

[CGIbeast]

Found the problem Guys,
My flashed H200 will only See a min of SATA II (3Gb) and SAS II (6Gb) HDDs. (I was wondering why my extra drive worked but the old ones did not).
Tested with a 160GB Seagate that had a jumper limiting it to SATA I. Tryed removing the jumper to set it to SATA II, then it showed up in the card BIOS (Swapped in my card with the BIOS on it).