LSI SAS 3 (12Gb/s) issues

[Ericloewe]

I am opening this thread to collect any issues that arise when using LSI SAS 3 controllers (Pretty much anything using an LSI SAS 3008 controller, including some Supermicro Haswell-EP motherboards and the LSI SAS 9300-series HBAs).

Please don't ask for help in this thread - if you need help, open a thread or reply to one that covers your issue. Only post here after help in the forum has been given (and you ended up with either a workaround or a faulty system).

Please add as much information as you have on your issue, including full hardware, FreeNAS version and SAS controller firmware version.

These issues may end up being reported to LSI, since they're in charge of the driver (mostly) and firmware.

Summary of known issues (as of 2014-12-08)
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Weird quirks may occur when using SAS3 controllers with SAS2 expanders. Does not seem to affect SAS3 expanders. Supermicro is also currently advising against using SAS2 expanders with their LSI SAS 3008 motherboards. (See this thread)

 

[depasseg]

Do you want confirmation of working configs or just issues? Like I have the same the SAS3 controller/motherboard with the issue listed above connected to a SAS3 enclosure and it's working fine.

 

[Ericloewe]

Do you want confirmation of working configs or just issues? Like I have the same the SAS3 controller/motherboard with the issue listed above connected to a SAS3 enclosure and it's working fine.

Well, working configs similar to bad configs are also useful.

 

[TXAG26]

Well, working configs similar to bad configs are also useful.

Bumped and tagged. I have a X10SRH-CLN4F build in progress and plan to use the onboard LSI 3008 SAS controller in IT mode. Have there been any updates since the last post to this thread (Dec. 2014)?

 

[wuxia]

Weird quirks may occur when using SAS3 controllers with SAS2 expanders. Does not seem to affect SAS3 expanders. Supermicro is also currently advising against using SAS2 expanders with their LSI SAS 3008 motherboards. (See this thread)

What about the opposite - SAS2 controllers with SAS3 expanders - any known problems?

 

[Ericloewe]

What about the opposite - SAS2 controllers with SAS3 expanders - any known problems?

Haven't heard anything, but it's an unusual combination.

That said, any issues would be on the backplane side. Make sure you have the latest firmware for the expander.

 

[jgreco]

Haven't heard anything, but it's an unusual combination.

It's probably going to be fine at this late date. Anyone looking for the ultimate in rock solid is going to be going all 6Gbps anyways, but the 12Gbps compatibility seems fine. We'd have heard about it by now if it was busted.

edit: It may be busted.

 

[wuxia]

Well, the idea was to get SAS3 chassis just to be future proof and SAS2 controllers and switch to SAS3 controllers once the SAS3 drivers have been ironed out. But of course you can get all SAS2 and switch both controller and backplane later if needed. Anyway no new issues have been reported in this tread for more than a year now...

 

[depasseg]

If you have a SAS3 chassis, then the SAS3 HBA should be fine. I see no reason to use SAS2 HBA with a SAS3 chassis.

 

[jgreco]

I see no reason to use SAS2 HBA with a SAS3 chassis.

Paranoia conflicting with cost consciousness.

 

[wuxia]

Paranoia conflicting with cost consciousness. :)

guilty

 

[depasseg]

If that's the case, then why bother with a SAS3 chassis? Save the cash and stick with SAS2.

 

[wuxia]

Well if it's a completely safe option you only upgrade the controller later and save some money.

 

[depasseg]

I'm not aware of anyone using a SAS2 HBA with a SAS3 chassis/expander - so no one can say it's completely safe. And you are eventually paying for 2 HBA's. So if you are paranoid and cost conscious I don't understand how that would be an attactive option for you.

 

[depasseg]

Back to the OP topic - the issues I've heard from other forum members (but haven't experienced firsthand) occurred with an incompatibility between a SAS3 HBA and a SAS2 expander (specifically the supermicro stuff). There were 2 issues that came up. 1) the chassis sometime only reported N-1 drives (1 drive was missing). It appeared that the identification of the 1st drive conflicted with the SAS details of the enclosure (SES) and the enclosure won. The Second issue was performance related. It appeared that performance degraded when multiple IO's tried to take place on the same drives. It was hard to pin down though, so maybe it was a different issue. I believe the poster having this issue was @HeloJunkie and I'm not sure if the P9 driver and firmware update fixed any of those issues.

 

[kspare]

I'm running a 12gb backplane/Chassis and switched to a 6gb controller. No issues.

 

[wuxia]

I'm not aware of anyone using a SAS2 HBA with a SAS3 chassis/expander - so no one can say it's completely safe. And you are eventually paying for 2 HBA's. So if you are paranoid and cost conscious I don't understand how that would be an attactive option for you.

It would have been if SAS2 HBA with a SAS3 expander was considered safe - hence my question :)

 

[wuxia]

I'm adding this bug report from the FeeNAS 9 issues list: random SCSI timeout errors with LSI 3008 controller in IT mode/SAS3 expander.

 

[jgreco]

I'm adding this bug report from the FeeNAS 9 issues list: random SCSI timeout errors with LSI 3008 controller in IT mode/SAS3 expander.

Wow, okay, that's crap and I take back my earlier comment.

 

[Ericloewe]

I'm adding this bug report from the FeeNAS 9 issues list: random SCSI timeout errors with LSI 3008 controller in IT mode/SAS3 expander.

What's the backplane firmware version?