LSI 9211 IT mode SAS card or SATA ahci card, preference? Opinions?

[phone guy]

I am wanting to build a large backup only device, to sync all my other devices too and possibly make it a proxmox or vm box too (not sure, have no decided yet)

 

I was going to buy a LSI 9211 sas pci card off from ebay where they run about $50 or so dollars USD.  I did a few searches here to make sure it would work, try to establish difference between the H200 H310 H700 cards... and I found a couple thread where people say do not buy the sas card, and go with an ahci sata card and on motherboard sata ports instead? Seemed like 918 builds do not like sas controllers, but the 36xx models are ok since they have sas drivers? unless I misunderstood.

 

Hoping people with either cards can input their experience before I decide which way to go... they cost about the same, as a 5 sata port card is about $45 usd on amazon, and the sas card about $50 usd on ebay.  The only advantage I can see is the sas card supports 8 drives (plus your motherboard sata ports) and the ahci sata cards support 5 (plus your motherboard sata ports)

 

Is there a difference between the h200/h300/h700 series cards? or are all LSI 9211 cards the same for our purposes.

The ahci sata pci cards have to be non-multiplex (so no 10 sata port card if only 1 controller chip) ???

 

Advice is appreciated.

[Peter Suh]

I have 9211-4i, 9211-8i (H200, H310) among HBA cards
All of them are changed to it-mode and used.

As I said, the HBA is stable in ds36xx, but in ds9xx, there seems to be a problem that the HBA still does not match the serial of the HDD.

Yesterday, there was an inquiry about the compatibility of the ASMEDIA chipset SATA card made by AliExpress at the server forum in Korea where I work.

So, as a result of checking the lspci-tvnnq log with the 6-port Marvel 4 port + ASM 2 port SATA card that I have separately, only the ASM chipset was not recognized.

I heard that there is a case where the chipset of the ASMEDIA SATA card has been confirmed, but I don't know exactly.

Satacard with more than 6 ports with only a complete Marvel chipset does not seem to be identified on Aliexpress.
And Chinese merchants falsely sell chipsets without telling them exactly how they are made.

[MajkelP]

7 hours ago, phone guy said:

I am wanting to build a large backup only device, to sync all my other devices too and possibly make it a proxmox or vm box too (not sure, have no decided yet)

 

I was going to buy a LSI 9211 sas pci card off from ebay where they run about $50 or so dollars USD.  I did a few searches here to make sure it would work, try to establish difference between the H200 H310 H700 cards... and I found a couple thread where people say do not buy the sas card, and go with an ahci sata card and on motherboard sata ports instead? Seemed like 918 builds do not like sas controllers, but the 36xx models are ok since they have sas drivers? unless I misunderstood.

 

Hoping people with either cards can input their experience before I decide which way to go... they cost about the same, as a 5 sata port card is about $45 usd on amazon, and the sas card about $50 usd on ebay.  The only advantage I can see is the sas card supports 8 drives (plus your motherboard sata ports) and the ahci sata cards support 5 (plus your motherboard sata ports)

 

Is there a difference between the h200/h300/h700 series cards? or are all LSI 9211 cards the same for our purposes.

The ahci sata pci cards have to be non-multiplex (so no 10 sata port card if only 1 controller chip) ???

 

Advice is appreciated.

 

I would start form this:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTbKzQZk21w

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeFJtjVvGyc

 

If you got only HDD drives you can use Dell Perc H310 and flash to IT, but if you have 8 SSD I would go with something which can handle:  HP H220 LSI 2308  (9205-8i) (PCIExpress 3.0) but depends if your motherboard supports it.

 

There are several factors that determine the right choice. 

-your current motherboard, does it support PCIE 2.0 or 3.0

  SAS2308 cards support PCIE 3.0 (HP220), SAS2008 cards support PCIE 2.0, these are the basic differences. 

-what case do you have, ventilation of case is very important because SAS controllers produce some heat

-what kind of disk do you want to connect HDDs or SSD. 

  

I use in my both systems Dell Perc H310 flashed to IT mode. Test NAS: DS3622xsp (Redpill) and working NAS: DS3617xs

I use SSDs and HDDs in the test DS3622xsp and in my working NAS 3617xs I only have SSDs and have never had any issues.

 

In my opinion is better to use SAS card and flash it to IT mode rather than external ahci sata controller. (if you are going to use them in DS3622xsp) I do not know what is support of above cards in DS918, DS920. I don't want to comment because I haven't tested them.

 

Please watch above and after that you can decide. 

 

Beware of counterfeits on Ebay.  - good to watch this as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYHA77U7NyU

 

Good luck, do not be afraid of SAS  

 

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by MajkelP

[Peter Suh]

On 4/16/2022 at 1:11 AM, MajkelP said:

 

I would start form this:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTbKzQZk21w

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeFJtjVvGyc

 

If you got only HDD drives you can use Dell Perc H310 and flash to IT, but if you have 8 SSD I would go with something which can handle:  HP H220 LSI 2308  (9205-8i) (PCIExpress 3.0) but depends if your motherboard supports it.

 

There are several factors that determine the right choice. 

-your current motherboard, does it support PCIE 2.0 or 3.0

  SAS2308 cards support PCIE 3.0 (HP220), SAS2008 cards support PCIE 2.0, these are the basic differences. 

-what case do you have, ventilation of case is very important because SAS controllers produce some heat

-what kind of disk do you want to connect HDDs or SSD. 

  

I use in my both systems Dell Perc H310 flashed to IT mode. Test NAS: DS3622xsp (Redpill) and working NAS: DS3617xs

I use SSDs and HDDs in the test DS3622xsp and in my working NAS 3617xs I only have SSDs and have never had any issues.

 

In my opinion is better to use SAS card and flash it to IT mode rather than external ahci sata controller. (if you are going to use them in DS3622xsp) I do not know what is support of above cards in DS918, DS920. I don't want to comment because I haven't tested them.

 

Please watch above and after that you can decide. 

 

Beware of counterfeits on Ebay.  - good to watch this as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYHA77U7NyU

 

Good luck, do not be afraid of SAS  

 

 

 

In a forum related to server equipment in Korea, where I work, I showed a YouTube video to identify counterfeit products telling me to beware of the 3rd eBay, and I got the answer below.

I don't think there's any need to be suspicious of counterfeit products like that.

Rather, it is argued that the story of such a YouTuber is not 100% reliable.

------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------>
User 1)
Both are genuine in my opinion.

Since LSI is mainly OEM, even if it looks the same, it can be very different internally depending on where the OEM is.

To distinguish LSI cards, first classify them by chipset model rather than the card itself, and whether only the OEM model name has been changed from the LSI original card or the board is a unique design.
I think it's easier to differentiate them.

https://www.servethehome.com/lsi-sas-2008-raid-controller-hba-information/

------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------>
user 2)
My opinion is a little different.

In that way, it is said that 99% of Intel NICs are fake, and there is a possibility that all cards received as OEMs from vendors are also fake.

I don't know if it's worth making a fake like that and selling it, but...

I wonder if it's worth making an entry-level card with no cash so sophisticated.

What I can expect is...

1. The revision has been changed.

2. The difference between OEMs.

3. There was a problem with the yield at the time of production of this product, so I received it through a supplier.

4. It was made differently according to the certification standard of the final supplier.

and so on.

The color of the board may be different when the revision is changed or there are multiple producers.

Most of the users of RAID cards are server vendors. It is extremely rare that these are manufactured for retail and sold to end customers.

If it was a problem to copy and sell IBM OEM products that are not retail products, IBM would not have known about this and would have filed a formal complaint with LSI.

It is strange that there was no such issue, and... if there are no major problems with the operation in common sense, it would be strange by itself.

The difference between the stickers on the back is that one is KC radio certification and the other is certification, but it is doubtful that there is a font difference. The location of the sticker has been changed, etc..

Some of the evidence that suggests that it is a fake product is that I think that it may well be the case with the genuine product.

 

 

Edited May 7, 2022 by Peter Suh

[Captainfingerbang]

On 4/15/2022 at 9:25 AM, Peter Suh said:

I have 9211-4i, 9211-8i (H200, H310) among HBA cards
All of them are changed to it-mode and used.

As I said, the HBA is stable in ds36xx, but in ds9xx, there seems to be a problem that the HBA still does not match the serial of the HDD.

Yesterday, there was an inquiry about the compatibility of the ASMEDIA chipset SATA card made by AliExpress at the server forum in Korea where I work.

So, as a result of checking the lspci-tvnnq log with the 6-port Marvel 4 port + ASM 2 port SATA card that I have separately, only the ASM chipset was not recognized.

I heard that there is a case where the chipset of the ASMEDIA SATA card has been confirmed, but I don't know exactly.

Satacard with more than 6 ports with only a complete Marvel chipset does not seem to be identified on Aliexpress.
And Chinese merchants falsely sell chipsets without telling them exactly how they are made.

 

May i ask or expand upon this? 

i needed to add 8 ssds to my 918+, for all ssd array. i have 4 open pcie 3.0 x1 slots, and just purchased 2x  pcie 3.0 x1 cards each card has 4 sata 6gbps. 

ive connected 8 ssds to the cards and all is working fine. 

 

My question is, does using for example, 4x sata 6gbps on 1 tiny pcie x1, doesnt that slow it down? 

Doesnt 4 sata ssds require more lanes or something? Is this bottleneck? 

[sbv3000]

I got one of these from Aliexpress, its a 16 port using 4 independent asmedia 1064 chips standard ahci driver.

 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256802942788966.html?gatewayAdapt=4itemAdapt

 

Tested with TCRP builds 3615/17/22, with satamap 4444 (overriding the discovered/bad ports)

Works with 16 drives with onboard ports disabled. With correct combination of satamap/diskidx I had it working with 4 on board and 12. Its not the fastest but good for a backup 'jbod' device

[Peter Suh]

8 hours ago, sbv3000 said:

I got one of these from Aliexpress, its a 16 port using 4 independent asmedia 1064 chips standard ahci driver.

 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256802942788966.html?gatewayAdapt=4itemAdapt

 

Tested with TCRP builds 3615/17/22, with satamap 4444 (overriding the discovered/bad ports)

Works with 16 drives with onboard ports disabled. With correct combination of satamap/diskidx I had it working with 4 on board and 12. Its not the fastest but good for a backup 'jbod' device

 

Even though TRCP's satamp action reports that it is an bad port, all ports seem to be recognized normally.

 

It was a good reference.

 

thank you

Edited August 31, 2022 by Peter Suh