HBA cards

[gabsd]

I need to expand my modest FreeNAS and I am out of SATA ports. After reading around here, I understand hardware RAID is a NO-NO. However, all the HBA cards I see (Newegg, filter to LSI, Broadcom, Avago) have the word "RAID" or "MEGARAID" in their descrition. How do I know if those cards can work as JBOD ("IT" mode I guess?). What should I look for?
Where do people get HBA cards that are not RAID?

Thanks!

 

[Newfoundland.Republic]

Go to eBay an look for an LSI SAS 9210-8i. IBM M1015 cards work well.

Some may already be flashed to IT mode. If not, there are instructions on the forums on how to do this.

Do NOT connect disks during flashing :)

 

[jgreco]

Confused about that LSI card? Join the crowd ...

A recent post prompted me to think, there's a lot of confusion regarding LSI HBA/RAID cards. If you're confused, it is probably understandable... it can be a bit complicated! ZFS users on FreeNAS should avoid using hardware RAID cards. ZFS and FreeNAS work best when the drive is managed...

www.ixsystems.com