Marvell CHIPSET compatibility?

[Louloute83]

Hello, I recently bought a SATA controller card equipped with a Marvell 88SE9215 to be able to connect all my disks for Truenas use.
I have a problem after installation, Truenas cannot boot, I would like to know if the chipset Marvell 88SE9215 is compatible with TrueNAS.

I have this controller card : https://www.amazon.fr/Computer-Dist...AifQ==&sprefix=,aps,71&sr=8-1#customerReviews

Thanks

 

[sretalla]

You have posted the question in the TrueNAS 13 (CORE) section, so I'm assuming you're asking about that...

The article on Amazon already states nothing about compatibility with FreeBSD, which usually means there is none.

It does state Linux compatibility after version 2.x, so maybe you would have some luck with SCALE, which runs on Linux 5.x kernel. (but with no guarantee that additional drivers are compiled in if the developers see no need for them, so I would put your chances at 20% or less for that).

Marvel are known to have a not perfect record with TrueNAS and SATA controllers, so maybe would have been best to follow the advice in the resources section and get an LSI HBA instead.

If you must use that controller and SCALE doesn't help, you should probably look into OMV or other options for your NAS.

It may be interesting to look at these:

Multiply your problems with SATA Port Multipliers and cheap SATA controllers

In the last year or two, we've had a resurgence of users asking about SATA Port Multipliers and cheap SATA controllers. Please, do NOT use port multipliers, and use cheap SATA controllers only after extensive research. SATA controllers and SATA...

www.truenas.com

What's all the noise about HBA's, and why can't I use a RAID controller?

This is relevant to FreeNAS and TrueNAS CORE. Some parts of it might also be relevant to Scale, but I don't really know how reliable the Linux drivers are. 1) An HBA is a Host Bus Adapter. This is a controller that allows SAS and SATA devices to be attached to, and communicate directly with...

www.truenas.com

 

[jgreco]

Multiply your problems with SATA Port Multipliers and cheap SATA controllers

In the last year or two, we've had a resurgence of users asking about SATA Port Multipliers and cheap SATA controllers. Please, do NOT use port multipliers, and use cheap SATA controllers only after extensive research. SATA controllers and SATA...

www.truenas.com

Oops, @sretalla beat me to it.

 

[Ericloewe]

You have posted the question in the TrueNAS 13 (CORE) section, so I'm assuming you're asking about that...

The article on Amazon already states nothing about compatibility with FreeBSD, which usually means there is none.

It does state Linux compatibility after version 2.x, so maybe you would have some luck with SCALE, which runs on Linux 5.x kernel. (but with no guarantee that additional drivers are compiled in if the developers see no need for them, so I would put your chances at 20% or less for that).

Marvel are known to have a not perfect record with TrueNAS and SATA controllers, so maybe would have been best to follow the advice in the resources section and get an LSI HBA instead.

If you must use that controller and SCALE doesn't help, you should probably look into OMV or other options for your NAS.

It may be interesting to look at these:

Multiply your problems with SATA Port Multipliers and cheap SATA controllers

In the last year or two, we've had a resurgence of users asking about SATA Port Multipliers and cheap SATA controllers. Please, do NOT use port multipliers, and use cheap SATA controllers only after extensive research. SATA controllers and SATA...

www.truenas.com

What's all the noise about HBA's, and why can't I use a RAID controller?

This is relevant to FreeNAS and TrueNAS CORE. Some parts of it might also be relevant to Scale, but I don't really know how reliable the Linux drivers are. 1) An HBA is a Host Bus Adapter. This is a controller that allows SAS and SATA devices to be attached to, and communicate directly with...

www.truenas.com

It's AHCI, like most/all native SATA controllers. The problem is in whatever hardware/firmware bugs they inevitably have.

 

[jgreco]

The problem is in whatever hardware/firmware bugs they inevitably have.

I have to disagree that this is inevitable. However, end users are prone to accepting slight evidence as signs of total success. It may also depend on the user's use case for the NAS. For example, it may not matter if hotswap support is broken if it is used on a system where the chassis cover has to be removed. This typically means a system has to be shut down to work on the drives. This makes the relevance of hotswap in such a case much less important, but now we are also talking about situation-dependent hardware selection.

I have this controller card : https://www.amazon.fr/Computer-Dist...AifQ==&sprefix=,aps,71&sr=8-1#customerReviews

Oh. That thing. We've seen this wannabe-HBA on the forums once or twice before, but since it doesn't seem to identify the manufacturer it makes it very hard to identify what to search for. I cannot recall offhand if the outcome of the previous thread was good or not.

 

[sretalla]

Oops, @sretalla beat me to it.

It's your resource... I'll allow it. ;) Link to it as often as you like.

 

[Ericloewe]

I have to disagree that this is inevitable.

I don't have the quirks file handy, but I suspect even Intel has hardware bugs in their controllers - just more minor ones that quickly get identified and thrown in as quirks.
I do agree that there are paths to success, as we've seen with one of the SATA controllers in the ASRock Rack C2x50D4I boards. I also agree that limiting the scope of what you're trying to do makes things a lot easier.

I have this controller card : https://www.amazon.fr/Computer-Dist...AifQ==&sprefix=,aps,71&sr=8-1#customerReviews

Oh. That thing. We've seen this wannabe-HBA on the forums once or twice before, but since it doesn't seem to identify the manufacturer it makes it very hard to identify what to search for. I cannot recall offhand if the outcome of the previous thread was good or not.

I question it. The Marvell 88SE9215 is specced for 1W. Let's assume the vague datasheet is gaslighting us and say 2W. They throw in that monstrosity of a heatsink with a fan? Come on, I'm not trusting that, it's the server equivalent of RGB LED fans!

 

[jgreco]

I question it. The Marvell 88SE9215 is specced for 1W.

Uh, question? The Marvell 88SE9215 is a 4 SATA device controller. Are you certain that they're not using multiple 88SE9215 controllers, or, worse, ugh, SATA port multipliers? Because if they were, then it would suddenly be a 4W or possibly more card.

https://www.marvell.com/content/dam/marvell/en/public-collateral/storage/marvell-storage-88se92xx-product-brief-2012-04.pdf

I seem to recall that the last time I saw this card, I was able to dig a bit more deeply into it and didn't care for what I saw. Unfortunately I'm not finding a manufacturer's page for it.

 

[HoneyBadger]

I question [the HBA]. The Marvell 88SE9215 is specced for 1W. Let's assume the vague datasheet is gaslighting us and say 2W. They throw in that monstrosity of a heatsink with a fan? Come on, I'm not trusting that, it's the server equivalent of RGB LED fans!

The 88SE9215 is a 4-port SATA controller that uses a PCIe 2.0 x1 connection.

It's probably hiding three JMicron JMB575 1-to-5 SATA port multipliers under there as well.

(Bonus math question: PCIe 2.0 x1 is capable of 500MB/s. How much bandwidth will each of the 16 drives get?)

 

[jgreco]

The 88SE9215 is a 4-port SATA controller that uses a PCIe 2.0 x1 connection.

It's probably hiding three JMicron JMB575 1-to-5 SATA port multipliers under there as well.

Oh, I think you're correct. I think this is what we discovered last time this came along, and we advocated heavily in favor of a better solution.

(Bonus math question: PCIe 2.0 x1 is capable of 500MB/s. How much bandwidth will each of the 16 drives get?)

(counts on fingers) (mumbles fifty, sub forty eight, that's two, minus sixteen....)

(brightly) Is it 31? Ish? 31 megabytes per second. Yeah that's legit.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Oh, I think you're correct. I think this is what we discovered last time this came along, and we advocated heavily in favor of a better solution.

Yes, I'd "heavily advocate" for a regular LSI HBA myself in comparison. I'd suggest that @Louloute83 make use of the Amazon return policy to receive a refund, and select a regular 8-port card - with an outboard expander if more than eight drives are required.

@Louloute83 can you describe your hardware, such as case and motherboard?

(counts on fingers) (mumbles fifty, sub forty eight, that's two, minus sixteen....)

(brightly) Is it 31? Ish? 31 megabytes per second. Yeah that's legit.

That's the direct answer, although who knows how the bandwidth allocation would work as it fights among the one lucky drive connected to the Marvell directly vs. the fifteen that have to cascade through the JMicrons off of the other three controller ports.

 

[Ericloewe]

Ah, hell, I mistook the SFF-8087 connectors for SATA-style connectors when I glanced at the thing.

This card rings a bell now. They were using a cheap x4 to 4x x1 PCIe switch to connect all controllers on systems that can't bifurcate a x4 slot to 4x1 (which is all of them). Not a bad solution to the problem at hand, but the end result probably uses as much power as an SAS2008, with less connectivity, no SAS support and worse compatibility. Also explains the need for the fan...

 

[HoneyBadger]

This card rings a bell now. They were using a cheap x4 to 4x x1 PCIe switch to connect all controllers on systems that can't bifurcate a x4 slot to 4x1 (which is all of them)

Using an x4 to 4x x1 PCIe switch is potentially the better option. No port multipliers, significantly more bandwidth (125MB/s per port if all 16 are used) and the Marvell chip actually has some FreeBSD support dating back to 9.2 (although it has an AHCI quirk about not properly waiting for device readiness using interrupts, I think?)

I'm still going to "strongly advocate" for an LSI solution though.

 

[Ericloewe]

Yeah, two SAS2008s or one SAS2116 would be the way to go.

Sidenote: It's been two decades, we carry SATA over all sorts of weird and wonderful connectors, but we don't have a more specific name for the 7-pin port that was introduced and popularized by SATA, sometimes used for SAS, rarely used for crazier uses, besides "SATA-style connector". That annoys me.

 

[Louloute83]

Hello everybody, thanks for your comments.
I admit that I use google translate and I'm a little lost, my motherboard is that of a proliant dl380 g7 (original), I tried with TrueNAS Scale, and I get the same result: impossible to boot... Can you recommend a cheap card on the net?

Thanks a lot

 

[Ericloewe]

Anything based on an SAS2008, SAS2116, SAS2308 or SAS3008 controller. That includes such popular models as the LSI SAS 9211, LSI SAS 9201, LSI SAS 9207, LSI SAS 9300, etc.

 

[Louloute83]

Thanks ! a LSI 9240-8i work ?



https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005...1bd-8f71-4212-809d-b5814d8acac1-0&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"12000031164483502"%7D&pdp_npi=2%40dis%21EUR%2181.23%2140.61%21%21%21%21%21%402101d8f416698076630813803ee2ad%2112000031164483502%21sea&curPageLogUid=CHJWPDuSEdrh

 

[Ericloewe]

The 9240 requires extra work, as it needs to be crossflashed to 9211 firmware. You can find a bunch of reputable sellers with pre-flashed cards if you don't want to go down that route.
I would definitely avoid AliExpress, as there a lot of dodgy (fake, defective, etc.) cards coming out of the Chinese grey market.

 

[Vocalicacorn187]

I was running a Marvell 9215 card, this one in particular, and could only connect 4 drives to it. If I had 8 connected it would only see 4 still. I ran my server with it for the last nearly 2 years, with 4 hdd connected to it, and 5 (1 boot drive) connected to the SATA ports on my motherboard.

Today I finally swapped in a 9201-16i card and plugged in my 8 hdds to it, and it worked as it should.