M1015 vs M1115

[Mr_N]

Has anyone used the M1115 (newer version of M1015) with freenas, can it still be flashed to IT mode same as the M1015?

 

[vegaman]

A quick look on the IBM site shows it also uses the SAS2008 controller. So you should have a reasonable chance of being able to flash it, but it also means there's no reason to use it over the M1015.

 

[Mr_N]

well there is if its cheaper or you cant find any M1015's around ;)

 

[cyberjock]

I looked at the M1115 a few months back and its like 3x the price of an M1015.

 

[Mr_N]

on amazon theres one listed for $90, while all the M1015's are closer to $130 if your buying retail, and you get people on ebay that have pulled one from a new IBM server as its not needed and they aren't flogging it off at 3 times the price either :)

 

[cyberjock]

You're right. Now I can't figure out what model I was looking atbefore.. I remember it being like $350 for the cheapest on ebay.

 

[Mr_N]

maybe the M5015 ;)

 

[cyberjock]

maybe the M5015 ;)

That's it! LOL. To many 0s, 1s, and 5s.

 

[philosophish]

Hello,

I have flashed an M1115 to LSI9211-8i; it works, but there might be issues with some motherboards as I have explained in the Confused about that LSI card? thread (http://forums.freenas.org/threads/confused-about-that-lsi-card-join-the-crowd.11901/)

cheers
philosophish

 

[LAYGO]

Hello,

I have flashed an M1115 to LSI9211-8i; it works, but there might be issues with some motherboards as I have explained in the Confused about that LSI card? thread (http://forums.freenas.org/threads/confused-about-that-lsi-card-join-the-crowd.11901/)

cheers
philosophish

On that link you reference the M1015 & not the M1115 (more of an FYI).

I've got a M1115 that I'm about to try to cross flash. I too confirmed on IBM's site that the M1115 has a SAS2008 chip. I've also figured out that mine was a replacement via the FRU: 81Y4449. I'll report back in a bit on my success.

 

[cyberjock]

Ok.. and that discussion is from Nov 2013.... ;)

 

[LAYGO]

MUCH SUCCESS! Well, that is after I figured out how to load a UEFI shell . . .

So these are the instructions I followed to get the firmware/bios updated:
https://www.syxin.com/2014/03/crossflashing-an-ibm-m1115-raid-controller-to-lsi-firmware/

Which was just a specific version of this for the M1115:
http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/29059-sas2008-lsi92409211-firmware-files/

I also referred to this on switching to the appropriate device. Although the shell I used automatically listed the devices w/o having to type a command:
http://brycv.com/blog/2012/flashing-it-firmware-to-lsi-sas9211-8i/

Once I figured out my I needed to complete the flashing in a UEFI shell, I used this to get me across the finish line:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/304583/what-command-launches-the-uefi-shell

I had to re-format my USB stick as FAT, put the shell linked in the syxin.com page in the specified folder from the askubuntu link:
/EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi

I did try shellx64.efi & the default name of Shell_Full.efi, but those didn't work. I just kept renaming the file until the shell boot. I also made sure my mobo BIOS (Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 rev4) was set to boot to UEFI first.

As another FYI, I flashed the IR (RAID firmware) because this isn't a FreeNAS machine the card is going in. I WANTED RAID, not HBA because this is ESXI.

So, hopefully this will help someone else . . .

 

[philosophish]

On that link you reference the M1015 & not the M1115 (more of an FYI).

I've got a M1115 that I'm about to try to cross flash. I too confirmed on IBM's site that the M1115 has a SAS2008 chip. I've also figured out that mine was a replacement via the FRU: 81Y4449. I'll report back in a bit on my success.

Hello,

Well, the thread in general originally is/was about M1015, but in my posting #85 I explain that one of my 6 LSIs is a 1115 which I had some problems with; I admit though, that I should have made the link point to my posting directly, instead of the thread as a whole.

For the record, those problems are/seem to be due to northbridge incompatibilities on some chipsets (NVIDIA, but not all of them, I had it on Intel 5520 based motherboards) and can be resolved by taping 2 pins on the pcie-connector of the cards (there are several sources for this on the web, first result I have come up now is http://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/ibm-m1115-sas9223-8i.2664/ posting #13 - #16); I can confirm this taping mod works for me with one of the workstations that had a problem with the M1115.

Aside: Unfortunately I lack a reference for this, but I have also read that the mentioned problem can be avoided when you put it into a southbridge attached PCIe port, but as my understanding of general southbridge specs goes, these usually are slower (<= x4) PCIe slots; this seems to defeat the purpose of a a high performance I/O controller.
I must also admit that I have not investigated further or actually tried this, as the taping mod worked for me and the M1115 is placed now in a box where the problem does not arise at all.

regards
phish

 

[Ghwomb]

MUCH SUCCESS! Well, that is after I figured out how to load a UEFI shell . . .

[...]

So, hopefully this will help someone else . . .

Thanks a lot! I managed to flash mine successfully.

Just a few notes:

• Try both commands sas2flash/sas2flsh and Megarec without any parameters. So you can be be sure both works in one way or another before you run them properly.
• The hard drives connected to my SAS does not seem to spin down anymore. So if that is important to you, beware.
• From what I gather there is native support for M1115 in FreeBSD 10.0-RELEASE. So if you are uncomfortable with flashing stuff you can be patient and wait.
• As per BSD Now! I think they said that the next major item was to upgrade NFS from v3 to v4. So there will be migration from 9 to 10 until NFS4 is stable.

 

[SwampRabbit]

Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences with the M1115.

I am finding them online for a lot cheaper than the M1015, new, and with warranty still.

 

[cyberjock]

Hate to break it to you but if you call IBM for a warranty on the M1115 they're going to ask for a receipt that somehow tracks back to them. Anything with M1015s and M1115s from ebay will NOT have a warranty as resold merchanise is NOT entitled to warranty status of any kind.

 

[SwampRabbit]

I didn't say I was buying from eBay, I actually refuse to buy anything like this from eBay.

I could buy a 3 M1015 for $68 each, which says its new (doubt it), but no brackets, and is coming from eBay (China).

Or I could get a 3 M1115 for $98 each, which says its factory sealed (who knows), both brackets, and is coming from a server supply company in the U.S.

Or I could keep trying to use the HP 2720 SGLs, which I don't know if they are causing my performance problems or not, since the ports on the Supermicro board are giving the same results.

I still can't break over 50MB/sec with CIFS, no one has even really offered help besides you, but now I've exhausted most of my testing options so far except to install something other than
FreeNAS to see if its a problem with my hardware and the versions I have tested (9.2.1.5 through 9.2.1.7).
Have 8 of them new, so if one of the two I am using die at least I can replace it quickly. Besides I paid over $100 for each of these at the end of last year.
I have two lasts things to try before I order different HBAs, because anything else is something small or hidden, that I'd have to randomly attempt to find in a dark alley under gun fire.

Even if the warranty doesn't work out, oh well. The M1015s cost more or are being sold by someone/somewhere I don't trust to give my money to.
If there is a legitimate technical reason why the M1115s shouldn't be used that's a different story.

 

[Ericloewe]

I didn't say I was buying from eBay, I actually refuse to buy anything like this from eBay.

I could buy a 3 M1015 for $68 each, which says its new (doubt it), but no brackets, and is coming from eBay (China).

Or I could get a 3 M1115 for $98 each, which says its factory sealed (who knows), both brackets, and is coming from a server supply company in the U.S.

Or I could keep trying to use the HP 2720 SGLs, which I don't know if they are causing my performance problems or not, since the ports on the Supermicro board are giving the same results.

I still can't break over 50MB/sec with CIFS, no one has even really offered help besides you, but now I've exhausted most of my testing options so far except to install something other than
FreeNAS to see if its a problem with my hardware and the versions I have tested (9.2.1.5 through 9.2.1.7).
Have 8 of them new, so if one of the two I am using die at least I can replace it quickly. Besides I paid over $100 for each of these at the end of last year.
I have two lasts things to try before I order different HBAs, because anything else is something small or hidden, that I'd have to randomly attempt to find in a dark alley under gun fire.

Even if the warranty doesn't work out, oh well. The M1015s cost more or are being sold by someone/somewhere I don't trust to give my money to.
If there is a legitimate technical reason why the M1115s shouldn't be used that's a different story.

Well, M1115s don't have any advantage over M015s (for FreeNAS), but they are essentially M1015s with extra stuff activated. Flashed to IT mode, they should be identical.

 

[SwampRabbit]

Thanks for the extra verification Ericloewe.

Not really concerned about any advantage performance wise.
More concerned if it works just as well and not paying extra up charges for no reason.
Its almost feels like buying DDR2 over DDR3, although there is a performance difference there, but the older one costs more.
I am finding the M1115 new is easily $25-50 cheaper than a lot of used M1015s, so when buying a bunch it adds up.

 

[cyberjock]

Yeah, the M1115s are probably cheaper just because our sticky doesn't mention them. They *should* function identically to the M1015. Assuming both are the same price there is no reason to go with one over another as far as I can see. Price is really the only thing I see different.

The M1015s are still manufactured, so there's no guarantee that the M1015 you buy is newer or older than an M1115 aside from the fact that the M1015 has existed longer so naturally there are more of them "out there" that are older.