HBA - Need Advice

[fx24]

I have a Norco 4224 case, 24 WD 6TB Reds, Supermicro X10SL7-F-O mobo, LSI 9201-16i HBA and 2 reverse breakout cables.

With another system, I have had FreeNAS 9.2 for awhile, but for this I plan on using FreeNAS 9.3. I don't have any experience with HBAs so it makes this install much different and the stakes are higher due to much more data storage.

Needless to say, I am kind of hesitant because I am about to create 4 RAIDZ2 vdevs and already have 6 drives connected for testing. I want to ensure that my HBA and onboard SAS ports are rock solid as that is the most important to me.

I have read that P16 is good and am wondering if that is what I should use cause I have also read about success with P19. Beyond that, I don't know if the advice is slightly dated or only pertains to certain hardware.

From LSI's site, I have downloaded P16 and P19 MS-DOS/Windows firmware. Is this correct?

My HBA reflects this current information and was shipped this way:

MPT SAS2
LSI Config v7.33.00.00 (2013.07.18)
MPT Firmware Rev. 17.00.01.00-IT
NVData 11.00.00.05

I would appreciate any concerns or criticism. The bottom line is stability, and secondly, this is a learning experience for me.

 

[jgreco]

Why would you use a firmware other than what's known to be compatible and supported, if you're not intimately familiar with this stuff?

 

[fx24]

Why would you use a firmware other than what's known to be compatible and supported, if you're not intimately familiar with this stuff?

I am not trying to do that. I just want to use the most stable and updated firmware there is for 9.3. I am not sure if that is 16, 17, 18 or 19.

 

[fx24]

So I now understand the relation between FreeNAS using driver version 16 and the firmware needing to also be on 16.

I am currently trying to update my 2308 from 15 to 16, and then my 9201-16i from 17 down to 16.

Also, the 9201-16i and onboard 2308 seem to conflict at startup. When I have my 9201-16i plugged in and press ctrl+c, it loads the config to the 9201-16i, but I don't see a way to enter the config for the 2308 unless I unplug the 9201-16i.

Ideas?

 

[jgreco]

There's really no relevant configuration to speak of. While I typically prefer to leave the BIOS enabled to be able to identify problems outside of the OS environment, it can at times cause some conflicts. Some people prefer to leave the BIOS unflashed as a result. You might blank the BIOS on the 9201-16i if you deem it problematic.

 

[FreeNAS fan]

I'm in a similar situation, building a new system with LSI HBAs. The motherboard (SuperMicro X9DRD-7LN4F-JBOD) has on-board LSI 2308 HBA. The firmware on the HBA P19. I will try to downgrade to P16. I find version 16.00.01 on SuperMicro's site. Is that going to be a problem? Is version 16 of the FreeNAS driver going to be OK with version 16.00.01 firmware?

 

[Ericloewe]

I'm in a similar situation, building a new system with LSI HBAs. The motherboard (SuperMicro X9DRD-7LN4F-JBOD) has on-board LSI 2308 HBA. The firmware on the HBA P19. I will try to downgrade to P16. I find version 16.00.01 on SuperMicro's site. Is that going to be a problem? Is version 16 of the FreeNAS driver going to be OK with version 16.00.01 firmware?

Not a problem.

 

[fx24]

If either of them are higher than 16, you need to erase and then flash to "downgrade". If that motherboard is UEFI, then you will need to perform the flash from the EFI shell which you can find in the BIOS. Make sure you get UEFI drivers, and from what I remember, I pulled the drivers directly from LSI.

When I get home from work, I'll be able to provide some more specific directions for how to flash from the EFI shell.

 

[FreeNAS fan]

If either of them are higher than 16, you need to erase and then flash to "downgrade". If that motherboard is UEFI, then you will need to perform the flash from the EFI shell which you can find in the BIOS. Make sure you get UEFI drivers, and from what I remember, I pulled the drivers directly from LSI.

When I get home from work, I'll be able to provide some more specific directions for how to flash from the EFI shell.

I tried to update/downgrade via the sas2flash utility in FreeNAS, but that gave med an error concerning the NVDATA. I then tried hitting F11 during reboot and entered the UEFI shell with a prepared USB stick at hand containing the firmware files for the controller, downloaded from SuperMicro's site. This version was 16.00.01. I ran the script from the USB stick and it flashed the first card it found.. Ooops!

Now, the machine has two additional 9207-8e HBAs and of course just running the script (.nsh file) that accompanied the firmware files from SuperMicro (SMC) resulted in me flashing the first HBA in the system, which happened to be one of the extra cards... This made me set the wrong SAS address for the card. I pulled the USB stick out and prepared additonal scipts on it with correct values for the SAS address (I had made a note of them), and flashed the first card again. I then flashed the onboard card again. I will wait with the third card until I know what is best;

So, version 16 is good with driver 16, but what about small differences between cards? I am thinking that it is best to use the FW provided by SMC for the onboard HBA, but should I use the same FW for the other two PCIe cards? These cards are cards from LSI, and the FW from the LSI site is 16.00.00. Will the small difference lead to trouble? And, if so, should I flash all three cards with the LSI firmware or the slightly modified FW? I noticed that for the onboard card the "Board Name" is SMC2308-IT, and for the unflashed LSI card it says SAS9207-8e. Also, the "Board Assembly" and "Board Tracer Number" says N/A on the one I flashed with SuperMicro FW and something a bit more meaningful on the one that is not flashed yet.

The two additional 9207-8e cards are connected to an SMC SuperChassis 847E26-R1K28JBOD with two backplanes, multipathing all the drives for a bit of redundancy (mirrored -- one part on the front and the other on the back).

So, again, to ask clear questions;
1) Do all cards need to be the same exact version or is it OK with 16.00.00 and 16.00.01 in the system at the same time?
2) If they should all be the same, should I go for the LSI one or the SMC one (.00 or .01)?
3) Since the backplanes are SMC, is the SMC firmware better suited?

 

[Ericloewe]

I am thinking that it is best to use the FW provided by SMC for the onboard HBA, but should I use the same FW for the other two PCIe cards?

If anything, I'd use Supermicro's version for the onboard controller and LSI's for the "real" cards.

Nobody's really tried running an X10SL7-F (much less an X9DRD-7LN4F) SAS 2308 with stock LSI firmware, so it's hard to say if that's a problem. Feel like being a guinea pig? :D

3) Since the backplanes are SMC, is the SMC firmware better suited?

Nah. It's all LSI in the end. Backplane firmwares are also a bit more of a mystery than HBA firmwares, though.

 

[FreeNAS fan]

OK, thanks for the replies!

I will keep the onboard HBA on SMC firmware version 16.00.01 and the two PCIe 9207-8e HBAs on 16.00.00 from LSI. If it had been my private system I might have been interested in being a guinea pig, but I'm setting this equipment up at work, and I don't want surprises down the road... ;-)