LSI 9211-8i + 12TB SAS 512e drives

Deeda

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Hi all,

Looking to upgrade and change over my current file server to FreeNAS, and change from SATA to SAS drives. The SAS drives in question are 12TB 512e. Doing a bit of research I think the LSI 9211-8i are compatible with 512e drives, but not sure about if they are ok with 12TB drives?

Also I think to get the SAS drives connected to the LSI 9211-8i and a standard ATX PSU, these cables would be the way to go https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-Min...339588?hash=item4462eaedc4:g:LNQAAOSwyt9e2fFv

Thanks.
 

ChrisRJ

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Just out of curiosity: Is there a particular reason for using SAS drives?
 
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Deeda

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kspare

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Don’t waste your Money on sas....stick with Sata.
 

Deeda

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Don’t waste your Money on sas....stick with Sata.
I already have the drives. So you are saying, still not worth using them?
 

kspare

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I already have the drives. So you are saying, still not worth using them?

If you have them use them. the smart monitor script is updated well now to use sas drives. used to be a bit of a challenge. sata drives sorta give better stats. I run one of my servers with them, and I wouldn't do it again. Right now I stick with barracuda pro 4tb drives as my choice. nice size drive, good price, quick to do a replace if a drive fails and a 5yr warranty. My sas drives are hitachi and i can tell you. with my config, you can't tell a difference. in fact alot of people will say just use 5400 rpm drives and thats good enough save your money.
 

Deeda

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Thanks for the info kspare.

Would there be any performance advantage to running a 12gbps HBA vs the 9211-8i? Or because they are spinning disk, you wouldn't notice?
 

ChrisRJ

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Well, the higher bandwidth of 12 Gbit/s is helpful if the disks attached can saturate it. Is that the case for you?
 

Deeda

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It would be 8 x 12gbps SAS drives, but usage would mainly be for media streaming for 1-2 clients at a time. So unsure if that would saturate it?
 

kspare

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Thanks for the info kspare.

Would there be any performance advantage to running a 12gbps HBA vs the 9211-8i? Or because they are spinning disk, you wouldn't notice?

I run 12gb adapters but I will run a couple hundred vm's on the storage servers so they can get pushed hard and I don't want cpu lag or any latency from an over worked controller when it gets hammered in spurts. may not matter for you?
 

Deeda

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I run 12gb adapters but I will run a couple hundred vm's on the storage servers so they can get pushed hard and I don't want cpu lag or any latency from an over worked controller when it gets hammered in spurts. may not matter for you?
What adapter are you running? Your sig says 9207, buts that a 6gbps adapter?
 

Deeda

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ah that's the same one as I linked to in a previous post. Are you using any SAS SFF-8643 to SFF-8482 connectors for SATA power?
 

kspare

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looks like it!
 

ChrisRJ

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@Deeda, you will have to look at the maximum transfer rate of the drives and compare that to the bandwidth the HBA supports. Usage details are not relevant here.
 

Deeda

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Thanks Chris. Though I did mention in a previous post that they were 12gbps drives.
 

ChrisRJ

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Right. That is the bandwidth of the drive's interface but not the drives maximum transfer rate. You can find the latter in the datasheet of the drive.
 

Deeda

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ah good point. The sustained throughput is listed as 243/255
 

firesyde424

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I run 12gb adapters but I will run a couple hundred vm's on the storage servers so they can get pushed hard and I don't want cpu lag or any latency from an over worked controller when it gets hammered in spurts. may not matter for you?

Speaking from experience, if you are going to run VMs from this storage, do NOT use SATA drives. The SATA bus itself is half duplex which will cause problems with performance. Also, make sure you have a solid SLOG device such as a high IO SSD or NVDIMM. You can disable sync but then you run the risk of file system corruption on your VMs should you lose power suddenly.
 
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