IBM M1015-IT vs. LSI 9211-8i

[BDMcGrew]

Good morning,

Are these two controllers the same? Does it matter which one I chose? There are lots of the LSI's on eBay for the same price as the IBM cards; I just don't really want to mess with cross-flashing the IBM cards if I don't have to.

I'm asking becuase it seems everyone is recommending the IBM's and just cross-flash them but they're being cross-flashed to that same model of LSI - so does it matter?

 

[anodos]

Good morning,

Are these two controllers the same? Does it matter which one I chose? There are lots of the LSI's on eBay for the same price as the IBM cards; I just don't really want to mess with cross-flashing the IBM cards if I don't have to.

I'm asking becuase it seems everyone is recommending the IBM's and just cross-flash them but they're being cross-flashed to that same model of LSI - so does it matter?

As long as they're not counterfeit cards you should be fine with either of them. They are both based on the SAS2008 chipset.

 

[Yatti420]

Let us know what and where you get it from :)

 

[Mirfster]

So is the Perc H200, lets not forget that one... :)

 

[wtfR6a]

As long as they're not counterfeit cards you should be fine with either of them. They are both based on the SAS2008 chipset.

Any tell tale signs to look for?

 

[SweetAndLow]

You will still have to flash the lsi card to IT mode or the correct version of the firmware to work with freenas. In the end both cards require the same amount of work.

 

[Fuganater]

You will still have to flash the lsi card to IT mode or the correct version of the firmware to work with freenas. In the end both cards require the same amount of work.

Meh. I still say the 9211-8i is easier to flash.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Meh. I still say the 9211-8i is easier to flash.

It is literally the exact same command for both. If I gave you a server and said flash the card you wouldn't know what card you stated with.

 

[moosekaka]

The IBM ServeRaid M1015 might not be recognized ("No LSI SAS adapters found!") when you try to flash with sas2flash.efi, see this thread:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...i-sas-adapters-found.27445/page-2#post-266294

This is what happened to me , and I just flashed with megarec.exe. Thus 9211-8i could be 'easier' to flash using just sas2flash.efi.

Also as of this date (Feb 16) I got an M1015 with man date of 04/2012 for $89 shipping inc. on ebay, US seller. I think that's the cheapest you can find right now for US based sellers.

 

[tres_kun]

How are the LSI SAS SATA 9211-8i of ebay
for about 60 pounds from China
Are they reasonable or high risk of fake?

 

[Mirfster]

Are they reasonable or high risk of fake?

Perhaps... Would definitely check out the seller to be sure.

 

[BDMcGrew]

Thanks for the all info. I bought 3 LSI Logic 9211-8i cards from a reputable US seller on eBay and for all intents and purposes they all seem legit. My only bust was I didn't notice in the listing they were low profile brackets so I had to get the full height brackets but can't really blame the sellers for that one.

My system doesn't have an EFI BIOS so I used a FreeDOS flash drive and and DOS/Windows SAS2FLASH.EXE that comes with the firmware. The flash process was about the easiest I've ever done and within minute they cards were in IT mode and cheerfully recognized as such with SAS2FLASH.EXE -list.

I'm on to some other hardware issues that I just posted in a thread here but I don't think it's a question of bad LSI cards, yet.