Sata Hardware Controller

[Jrod696]

I read through "A Complete Guide to FreeNAS Hardware Design, Part II" about hardware controllers and purchased the Dell LSI SAS 9217-8i HBA on eBay NIB, its on its way from China so I have 3 weeks before I actually get it but I do have a couple questions.

I cant seem to find much literature on it so im not sure if there is anything I actually need to do when it arrives, from searches and reading through the forums I know it needs to be in IT mode but im not quite sure how to go about doing that, or when it arrives can I just plug this thing and go about my business and not mess with anything on it at all.

 

[kdragon75]

If its sold as an HBA and not a RAID card, you should be set on the IT mode. In any case, you will know if the drives show up in FreeNAS as teh drives they are not DellLV01 or some nonsense like that.

 

[Elliot Dierksen]

If you need to flash it, here is an excellent guide for how to do it.

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/how-to-flash-lsi-9211-8i-using-efi-shell.50902/

 

[Jrod696]

This is the exact one I purchased
http://r.ebay.com/AVOdT2

 

[kdragon75]

I can't say for sure. But they talk about RAID modes so you might. You will find out soon enough.

 

[melloa]

This is the exact one I purchased
http://r.ebay.com/AVOdT2

Do you need/got cables?

 

[Jrod696]

Do you need/got cables?

Yeah I managed to get them on amazon pretty cheap, showed up in a day, just wish I had been paying attention to location when I ordered the card.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/r.html?C=2KVQPKQSS2V7N&M=urn:rtn:msg:2018071722113314619a1aac2f4c3a96ad6aea16b0p0na&R=369DCXT57LVSU&T=C&U=https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Internal-SFF-8087-Breakout/dp/B012BPLYJC/ref=cm_sw_em_r_dp_dz_U_XLMtBbK6PW7WX_tt&H=UCTZ8TTAHMAQWOHRPHAQ63GO4GIA

 

[IceBoosteR]

I would suggest it is in IR or RAID mode still, you will need to flash it. And make sure you test the controller a little bit, before you put data on your disks ;)

 

[Jrod696]

greeeeeat

 

[garm]

Flashing is easy, just take it slow and make sure you type the commands without mistakes.

 

[Jrod696]

I think I got it, maybe ill luck out and it will be in IT mode already although I don't get to roll with that kind of luck very often. The only confusing part is the walkthrough has you download the dos windows drivers but ill do what it says, The EFI part actually makes sense from fixing VM EFI boot issues in FreeNAS itself. Ignore the link below, those are my notes so when the card comes and I come back to this post to grab the instructions I can grab the link for the files to

https://www.broadcom.com/support/do...&pn=SAS+9217-8i+Host+Bus+Adapter&pa=&po=&dk=#

 

[HoneyBadger]

make sure you test the controller a little bit, before you put data on your disks ;)

Not to be exceptionally cynical, but this needs a little emphasis. Personally my first course of action would be to validate with Dell or LSI that it's a genuine card, and then engage in some strenuous testing.

 

[Jrod696]

Not to be exceptionally cynical, but this needs a little emphasis. Personally my first course of action would be to validate with Dell or LSI that it's a genuine card, and then engage in some strenuous testing.

I appreciate your cynicism, I didn't even think about the option of potentially being a knockoff. I have all the parts from my first FreeNAS box, it may be time to dig it out of the closet, dust it off, and throw a couple old 500G hard drives in there and use as a test box and transfer a couple TB back and fourth and make sure its stable.

The tracking on it is going faster than I thought it would and should be here by Friday, I wonder what the best course is to check the validity of the card.

 

[Jrod696]

Just thought of a side question, does using this card allow my drives to be hot swappable now?

 

[IceBoosteR]

I appreciate your cynicism, I didn't even think about the option of potentially being a knockoff. I have all the parts from my first FreeNAS box, it may be time to dig it out of the closet, dust it off, and throw a couple old 500G hard drives in there and use as a test box and transfer a couple TB back and fourth and make sure its stable.

The tracking on it is going faster than I thought it would and should be here by Friday, I wonder what the best course is to check the validity of the card.

Write some data to the disk and verify that these are 1:1 identical. Maybe something simple like SHA-256/512 checksum before and after.
But I do worry more about reliability to be honest. Therefore you may want to run 24/7 on some connected disks.

 

[IceBoosteR]

Just thought of a side question, does using this card allow my drives to be hot swappable now?

I would say no:
https://docs.broadcom.com/docs/12352067?eula=true

As the 9211-8i version is able to do it:
https://www.starline.de/fileadmin/images/produkte/lsi/LSISAS92118i__ENG_.pdf

 

[Jrod696]

I think my plan is to build up the second rig, throw 4 500gb hard drives in it, 2 on port and 2 on the other, throw about 200gb of data on there and then setup an rsync script to just move it from one folder to another for 24 hours, I feel like that should frag it quite nicely and put the card through the ringer and see if it screams at me.

I am hoping I can find a way to validate if the card is legit and if I am 100% on that I will probably just rsync 4 or 5 times. what do you think @IceBoosteR, does that sound like a reasonable test plan?

 

[HoneyBadger]

I wonder what the best course is to check the validity of the card.

Contact Dell/LSI directly with the serial number and pictures of the front and back of the card. Posting them here wouldn't hurt either.

It's entirely possible that it is indeed a "used pull" card, but still genuine.

 

[Jrod696]

Contact Dell/LSI directly with the serial number and pictures of the front and back of the card. Posting them here wouldn't hurt either.

It's entirely possible that it is indeed a "used pull" card, but still genuine.

What has me worried is the auction says new never used but the picture shows Certified Re-utilized part on it. Looks like ill find out Friday and post up some pics as well as contact LSI and Dell

 

[IceBoosteR]

I think my plan is to build up the second rig, throw 4 500gb hard drives in it, 2 on port and 2 on the other, throw about 200gb of data on there and then setup an rsync script to just move it from one folder to another for 24 hours, I feel like that should frag it quite nicely and put the card through the ringer and see if it screams at me.

I am hoping I can find a way to validate if the card is legit and if I am 100% on that I will probably just rsync 4 or 5 times. what do you think @IceBoosteR, does that sound like a reasonable test plan?

The testing plan sound good to me, and even better as no testing and the trouble afterwards. Therefore, use rsync with -c option, which is for validating files with checksum.
I am hoping the best, that all will be fine, but no one can know.
Btw: make sure you have decent airflow in your chassic, LSI cards can run hot ;)

What has me worried is the auction says new never used but the picture shows Certified Re-utilized part on it. Looks like ill find out Friday and post up some pics as well as contact LSI and Dell

The question from my side would be: Was it worth to buy from China? Those 20 bucks ... ?

Nevertheless, the pic might be taken as a placeholder for various products the seller is offering. I would not worry to much, still Iam interested to know when the card arrives.

-Ice