FreeNas HBA controler with 24 HDD support

[Fred974]

Hi,

I m converting a Dell PowerEdge C2100 to a FreeNAS storage for my XCP-NG cluster storage.
At the moment, I have a raid controller (LSI Megaraid 9265-8I with BBU) and that controller do NOT have a JBOB function..
Could anyone please advise/sugest an internal SAS HBA that cn support all 24 HDD?
I found lot of HBA on ebay but I cannot tell if they will be able to handle 24 disks.

Thank you all in advance

 

[kdragon75]

Is the backplane a SAS expander or just a passthrough backplane?

 

[Scharbag]

The LSI-9211-8i is more than capable of 24 drives and it is supported by FreeNAS very well.

You will have to verify if your backplane is a SAS expander and if so, what chipset it uses. If it is, a single 9211-8i will suffice. If it is not, a single 9211-8i mated to a SAS expander like the Intel RES2SV240 should work.

 

[sretalla]

I'm using an LSI Logic 9305-24i which works well for me.

I use 6 cables to split out the Mini SAS connectors to the backplanes in my chassis.

There could be discussion at a few levels questioning if this is really a good card since 12Gbps PCIe3.0 isn't really necessary for my use case and a single card is putting a lot of trust in a single adapter... I'm OK with both of those things since the price was OK and I didn't need to handle an expander and the data I host isn't exactly world-shattering to lose (of course controller loss doesn't actually imply that in most scenarios anyway).

Just my 2c.

 

[Fred974]

Is the backplane a SAS expander or just a passthrough backplane?

Hi,

How can I tell? Is there a way to check?

 

[kdragon75]

LSI Megaraid 9265-8I

Derp. I should have guessed. Based on the card you have the -8i indicates 8 ports on the card to 24 drives so the backplane must be an expander. The LSI-9211-8i would be an ideal card.

 

[sretalla]

That also means that the difference between our chassis (my backplanes are pass through, not expanders) makes my card a big waste for your setup.

 

[Fred974]

Thank all for your help and advice :)
I'll get the lsi 9211-8i tomorrow

Sent from my VTR-L09 using Tapatalk

 

[Fred974]

Hi all,

Is it true that the Dell PERC H200 is a rebranded version of the LSI-9211-8i?
I can get one for £35 on ebay but not sure if I need to flash it to IT mode or not

 

[Scharbag]

Hi all,

Is it true that the Dell PERC H200 is a rebranded version of the LSI-9211-8i?
I can get one for £35 on ebay but not sure if I need to flash it to IT mode or not

The Dell PERC H200 is a 9211-8i card. One of my 2 cards is a PERC H200 which I flashed to IT mode. IT mode is the proper firmware to run. That said, be VERY careful how you flash a Dell card as it can be a total PITA as I found out.

This article was a GREAT help. If you need any of the files and cannot find them, PM me as I kept copies of them.

Happy FreeNASing.

Cheers,