LSI 9207 vs 9211 vs 9300

[dwchan69]

I am looking to see which LSI HBA to get for TrueNAS. I will be starting with 8 x 8TB Seagate IronWolf HD. As demand gets bigger, the plan is to get another LSI and add more disk to the chassis as need. With that being said, does it make sense to stay with 9207 / 9211 as it is an older generation HBA, or does it make more sense to go over 9300 where it can work with SATA12. Given Seagate IronWolf only run at SATA6, with max sustain throughput around 120MB/sec, and each card only handle up to 8 disk, not sure if the math works in my favor.

In short, between the 9207 vs 9211, which one is a better choice? I think 9207 is PCIe 3 vs 9211 is PCIe 2
Do I still need to flash them to IT mode ?

 

[blanchet]

• If you have only 8 spinning disks, you can stay with an old HBA, because the disks only run at 6 Gbps.
• If you have more than 8 disks, you should consider using a SAS expander instead of breakout cables, like in SuperMicro servers. In this case a LSI 9300-8i can manage up to 1024 disks.
• You have to flash the HBA to IT mode - but it is easy because sas3ircu is pre-installed on TrueNAS
• iXsystems uses LSI 9300 in their TrueNAS certified servers

 

[ornias]

• If you have only 8 spinning disks, you can stay with an old HBA, because the disks only run at 6 Gbps.

Closer to max. about 200MBs or about 2Gbps actually.
A PCIE 2.0 lane is about 500MBs or about 5Gbps.
Most HBA's are a minimum of 4 lanes of PCIE 2.0, so 2GBs or about 20Gbps, which is more than you would ever need for 8 disks.
so above 10 disks you might occationally hit a slight bottleneck, but nothing significant.

• If you have more than 8 disks, you should consider using a SAS expander instead of breakout cables, like in SuperMicro servers. In this case a LSI 9300-8i can manage up to 1024 disks.

Between 8 and 16 disks, expander vs bigger HBA is basically a tie when it comes to costs.

• You have to flash the HBA to IT mode - but it is easy because sas3ircu is pre-installed on TrueNAS

Secondhand HBA's often are even pre-flashed, without additional costs, which is nice. :)

• iXsystems uses LSI 9300 in their TrueNAS certified servers

Interesting, didn't know...
Thats a good thing, because it guarantees problem-free-ness a bit more :)


That being said:
Intel has some great (and relatively cheap) and flexible sas expander boards which flood ebay from time to time :)

 

[dwchan69]

what's the advantage of a sas expander boards vs LSI HBA using octopus cables? As the case (tower) I am using does not come with a Hot Plug drives

 

[ornias]

what's the advantage of a sas expander boards vs LSI HBA using octopus cables? As the case (tower) I am using does not come with a Hot Plug drives

You could connect more drives with just one cheap HBA.
Thats all ;-)