LSI SAS 9265-8i 6Gb/s 1GB cache RAID 170$ !?!

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canta

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Nov 26, 2014
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copied from Dell PowerEdge C6105 Manuals
......
LSI 9265-8i PCIe card
The PowerEdge C6105 supports the LSI 9265-8i if you need high performance SAS drives and higher

RAID levels with battery backed cache
. Other features include:

Storage controller: LSI MegaRAID SAS 9265-8i
Note: The LSI9265-8i card with the PowerEdge C6105 server supports only the latest revision
motherboard (AMD 4300 series, 95W processor supported).

Maximum quantity of storage devices: Six hard drives

RAID level: RAID 0, 1, 5 and 6

RAID spans: 10, 50 and 60

Device type: PCIe add-in controller

PCI Interface: PCIe 2.0 x8 lanes

SAS interface type: Two MiniSAS SFF-8087 x4 connectors

SAS interfaces transfer rate: Up to 6Gbpsecond per port

Max ambient when this card is installed is 30°
---------------------
this seems raid6 required BBU(or supercap). or try to find a menu to override "higher Raid Level" enabled.
 
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james23

Active Member
Nov 18, 2014
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it's the super capacitor model not a standard battery (you can see "6.4f" it stands for farads unit to measure capacitor capacity).





Some advantages compared to a BBU:

  • A traditional BBU loses cached data after 72 hours without restored power. CacheVault technology stores the contents of DRAM on NAND flash for up to three years.
  • No BBU/battery replacement necessary
  • 3 years of guaranty instead of 1 year for BBUs
More info : LSI CacheVault Flash Cache - Thomas-Krenn-Wiki

Hey, even though the ebay listing for the above action says it supports the 9265-8i, if you look closely at the connector pictured, and then compare it to a picture/connector of a standard battery for the 9265-8i, the battery's connector is way longer than the connector on this Tecate Capacitor. I have no idea how you would connect this capacitor to a 9265-8i (even though mr china ebay Lister shows it as supporting 9266 9265 9270 9271 9285CV 9286CV, he is ofcorse wrong, its not part num LSI BBU09 , its LSICVM01 which only support 9266 and 9271 ),

see this LSI link:
https://store.lsi.com/index.cfm/CacheVault/CacheVault/LSI00297/

See my image below, showing the capacitor small connector (i checked on my dell 9265-8i, there is no where that connector can possibly go) , compared to the standard battery connector (longer/wider, and i do see a port on my 9265 where i can connect this to)

BBU09 Kit LSI00279 connector:
connector3.PNG

Tecate Capacitor connector (supposedly fits 9265-8i, but does not):
connector1.PNG connector2.PNG

between the incorrectly labeled items , and those items that are DOA, ive just had horrible luck with ebay purchases for my last 2 server builds :( . As of Recently I do every purchase directly on my credit card (not via my paypal account, i use the paypal check-out, but enter my CC directly and dont check the option to "create a paypal account with this info" . this way i can reverse the change if the seller doesnt want to take a DOA or incorrect product back, once it arrives..
 

myrison

Member
Jan 26, 2011
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Good find. Thanks for posting back. I ordered the real one (hopefully) that you linked to earlier from the US seller, so hopefully less drama with that part.

Good tip on how you're using your CC to check out instead of PayPal. I'll remember that one in the future as well.

Let us know if you get anywhere with any of the other suggestions in the thread to update your firmware to an LSI version and/or somehow enable R6.
 
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james23

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Nov 18, 2014
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Hey Myrison, good news! it took the latest true LSI Firmware! (remember i was going from the Dell FW referenced a few posts back, NOT the dell FW that a user linked to and was listed on dell as the latest FW, i was running the DELL fw that a user here linked to that stated it addressed the "no raid card found" at bios error. despite this dell fw patch, i still think the entire issue with the card i got in was some prior user of this *new* card did a bad FW flash or something to really messup the FW, somehow...).

IMG_4767.JPG


FullSizeRender.jpg

What i did, was boot into a centos USB stick i have, installed the latest LSI mega storage manager (their gui raid config app), and then choose clicked upgrade FW, selected the latest LSI FW from their site (see images for the exact FW rev number), and let it do its update. It then confirmed that i had updated (see images below). To test i then shutdown, pull all power, let it sit for a while, and booted back up... no issues at all, webBIOS works and shows it running latest LSI FW. However i still have no RAID 6, no am i seeing the 1gb cache (the thinking so far in this thread is, no cache BC of no BBU , and no RAID 6 either bc no BBU or bc its a DELL oem 9265 and dell didnt license RAID 6 maybe?).



2 other issues to keep in mind:

1) 6 DISK HARD LIMIT?? - i think this maybe a HUGE DEAL PPL are ignoring, in the manual clipping posted before, it states ONLY 6 DRIVES MAX?!? wtf is that?? i hope its not another weird DELL OEM limitation on this card. (i only have 5 spare drives so i cant test trying to hook up 7 drives to the card). see this quote another users posted:

copied from Dell PowerEdge C6105 Manuals
......
LSI 9265-8i PCIe card
The PowerEdge C6105 supports the LSI 9265-8i if you need high performance SAS drives and higher
....... (see original quote)
Note: The LSI9265-8i card with the PowerEdge C6105 server supports only the latest revision
motherboard (AMD 4300 series, 95W processor supported).

Maximum quantity of storage devices: Six hard drives


2) No 1gb Cache - Ive used the 4x spare sata drives i have laying around here (150gb , 300gb, 150gb, 200gb, crap disks i had laying around) to create a quick raid5 virtual disk, and it will NOT let me use cache in this way either (its only letting me choose WRITE THROUGH , and No options for read cache), so it looks like its going to require the BBU for use of the cache, but there are no issues making and accessing this quick raid5 i created. Also, im still not sure exactly how LSI webBIOS works / shows Cache, but in this screen shot i made below, i feel like i should be seeing 1GB listed in memory (again, maybe its not showing up bc no BBU is attached)

FullSizeRender (1).jpg


I am returning this card for a full refund, via a prepaid return label (from NPS, the ebay seller i spoke with today). Ive already bought (on ebay again :/ 280$ shipped :((( ) a 2nd 9265-8i WITH BBU (and the seller *thinks* its a real LSI, not some dell OEM, it doesn't have that dell QR code like this card has, but im still keeping my fingers crossed). SO hopfully the end of this week i'll have that new card in, and i can test if the cache doesn't show when the BBU is disconnected, AND / OR if i get the option for raid 6 with BBU connected.... i will def update here... DANG i hope this card i have coming is not another OEM..
 
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james23

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Nov 18, 2014
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Hmm..this is interesting. I was playing around with making arrays with these cheap extra drives i have, and i made a RAID 0 VD and i then see MegaRaid FastPath ENABLED show up in the advanced software accessories, see the image below (isnt FastPath an expensive add on ?) also for whatever reason (maybe a bad disk, these are really crappy disks i have extra, laying around--, maybe bc no cache? i was seeing weak performance on raid 5 , 3 disks, 8MB/sec write?? that "bad" laptop drive in the pict below as not part of this raid5)

note the picts crappy drives im running (its all i had extra that is not being used in a live server here)

IMG_4770.JPG IMG_4771.JPG IMG_4772.JPG IMG_4773.JPG

EDIT, i did a 3x drive RD0 and saw much better performance (keep in mind no cache and even these 3 are old crappy drives, except the velocoraptor ) still weird that these same drives do OK write speed at rd0 and so bad at RD5.

3x drive RD0 (still no raid card cache , but i am able to enable to drives cache, on each drive :/ )
IMG_4774.JPG
 
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PersonalJ

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May 17, 2013
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I flashed the card to the latest LSI firmware without issue, I see this in megacli which is quite nice if accurate:
Mfg. Date : 06/15/14
 

canta

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Nov 26, 2014
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................


1) 6 DISK HARD LIMIT?? - i think this maybe a HUGE DEAL PPL are ignoring, in the manual clipping posted before, it states ONLY 6 DRIVES MAX?!? wtf is that?? i hope its not another weird DELL OEM limitation on this card. (i only have 5 spare drives so i cant test trying to hook up 7 drives to the card). see this quote another users posted:

copied from Dell PowerEdge C6105 Manuals
......
LSI 9265-8i PCIe card
The PowerEdge C6105 supports the LSI 9265-8i if you need high performance SAS drives and higher
....... (see original quote)
Note: The LSI9265-8i card with the PowerEdge C6105 server supports only the latest revision
motherboard (AMD 4300 series, 95W processor supported).

Maximum quantity of storage devices: Six hard drives


2) No 1gb Cache - Ive used the 4x spare sata drives i have laying around here (150gb , 300gb, 150gb, 200gb, crap disks i had laying around) to create a quick raid5 virtual disk, and it will NOT let me use cache in this way either (its only letting me choose WRITE THROUGH , and No options for read cache), so it looks like its going to require the BBU for use of the cache, but there are no issues making and accessing this quick raid5 i created. Also, im still not sure exactly how LSI webBIOS works / shows Cache, but in this screen shot i made below, i feel like i should be seeing 1GB listed in memory (again, maybe its not showing up bc no BBU is attached)
...............
on my understanding on Dell claim: they cover their coverage on each server model due on how many HDs/Drives are supported.
6 drives means , dell only support 6 drive on that server model type.
NOT to worry about that, Dell does not waste money to release firmware(RAID) for each server model.
I believe, 8 drives are supported without expander. or could be wrong :p

Even on low end Dell server, they support only 2 Drives on their HBA Raid (0 or 1) that basically 9211 IR HBA raid card supports 8 Drives without expander.
this is the same gimmick on Lenovo ThinkServer (including IBM server that ate by Lenovo) and HP too , which is common practice to cover their **s on support :D.
** I worked less than a year in IBM server X series development four years ago***

About the memory cache, my last experience on HP server, they indeed disabled when no BBU is installed on some their RAID cards.

I believe non-OEM RAID card has an option to enable forcely when no BBU Installed with some warnings

those are just my experiences, someone can disagrees "P
 

james23

Active Member
Nov 18, 2014
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Maybe im missing something, but this seller has sold nearly 20 of these cards, and ive searched his feedback and dont see any negative or nutral listings for the card (there are about 5 positive feedbacks left for this exact card/auction on their profile though).

how is it that users are getting this raid card, yet it cant do raid 6, nor has its cache visible/usable, yet they are happy with it?

-Maybe they are using only raid 5? (who uses raid 5?) or raid 1 / raid 0?
- maybe they use it in "IT" type mode (meaning it just passes the disks to the OS and does not raid functions) (again there are much cheaper options for doing this at 6.0/gb/s speeds).

what am i missing here? how are people using this severely limited 9265-8i ?
 

bug2th

New Member
Jan 7, 2015
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Must be something about your card - I got mine and logged in with MR and raid 5 and 6 show up and when drives are available fastpath does too. Card seems pure LSI and I flashed with latest LSI fw without any issues. Cache shows up and has option to bypass BBU

------------------------------

Maybe im missing something, but this seller has sold nearly 20 of these cards, and ive searched his feedback and dont see any negative or nutral listings for the card (there are about 5 positive feedbacks left for this exact card/auction on their profile though).

how is it that users are getting this raid card, yet it cant do raid 6, nor has its cache visible/usable, yet they are happy with it?

-Maybe they are using only raid 5? (who uses raid 5?) or raid 1 / raid 0?
- maybe they use it in "IT" type mode (meaning it just passes the disks to the OS and does not raid functions) (again there are much cheaper options for doing this at 6.0/gb/s speeds).

what am i missing here? how are people using this severely limited 9265-8i ?
 

james23

Active Member
Nov 18, 2014
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Must be something about your card - I got mine and logged in with MR and raid 5 and 6 show up and when drives are available fastpath does too. Card seems pure LSI and I flashed with latest LSI fw without any issues. Cache shows up and has option to bypass BBU

------------------------------

How many drives are you testing with?

Tks
 

myrison

Member
Jan 26, 2011
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Maybe im missing something, but this seller has sold nearly 20 of these cards, and ive searched his feedback and dont see any negative or nutral listings for the card (there are about 5 positive feedbacks left for this exact card/auction on their profile though).

how is it that users are getting this raid card, yet it cant do raid 6, nor has its cache visible/usable, yet they are happy with it?

-Maybe they are using only raid 5? (who uses raid 5?) or raid 1 / raid 0?
- maybe they use it in "IT" type mode (meaning it just passes the disks to the OS and does not raid functions) (again there are much cheaper options for doing this at 6.0/gb/s speeds).

what am i missing here? how are people using this severely limited 9265-8i ?
FWIW, even on the NewEgg reviews for the LSI card, some users reported the need for BBU to enable write-through, so it could be something related to versions of the hardware or firmware that are leading to the inconsistent experiences with RAID 6. Or, you could just have a bad card. I'll be experimenting with mine this weekend as well. I think I have more than 6 disks to test as well, so I should be able to confirm that limitation too.
 

PersonalJ

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May 17, 2013
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Here's something interesting, on the default firmware that came with the card I only had a RAID 5 and 6 license. After flashing the firmware and logging into the RAID controller BIOS I now see that I have an unlimited license for fastpath as well. It's using the same serial as the other licenses so perhaps the firmware I installed added support for fastpath.
 
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mrkrad

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Oct 13, 2012
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fastpath was released free to ALL megaraid owners IIRC and DELL cards with 1meg NVRAM came with fastpath and cachecade 1.0 enabled no less!
 

james23

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Nov 18, 2014
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fastpath was released free to ALL megaraid owners IIRC and DELL cards with 1meg NVRAM came with fastpath and cachecade 1.0 enabled no less!
Maybe you are right, (sth fourm post : )
https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...-on-lsi-cards-with-new-firmware-but-ibm.2941/

As much reading as ive done on wtf FastPath actually is (its hard to get a clear answer/explanation), its always seemed like something that should be standard on all LSI controllers... so hats off to LSI ;).. but really, why sell a "speed upgrade" for your cards, it almost implies that they are throttling DOWN the hardware a user has purchased, until they purchase something else (that else being CacheCade, bc IIRC , the "old" way to get fastpath enabled was to buy CacheCade HW dongle/license).

Please correct me if im wrong, but from what ive been able to gather on FastPath, it seems to be the use of the cards Cache? (which the card should be doing anyway if you have write through enabled, right??).

on a separate note, my 2nd :mad: 9265-8i with battery comes in tomorrow (please, PLEASE usps keep your schedule on time for once :eek:)!! cant wait!! its the card that started this now very long and very scattered thread LOL

i got this 2nd card for 280 shipped via ebay (i wonder if any of the ppl from this thread were so aggressively bidding against o_O me in the last 30seconds of that auction lol, it went from 130 -> 270 in 10seconds.. i beat out the "other person" by 2$ after a 70$ jump!! it was ment to beee and luck on my part to put in that high bid ) ...$280 for what i should have got/was expecting for 170$, 2weeks earlier, had that first card i got in worked right (or had it *actually* been NEW as it was advertised :/ )...ohhhh ebay...
 

enigmo

New Member
Apr 30, 2013
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FWIW, I've just bought this battery from this seller. Estimated delivery is the end of this month and I have an M5016 waiting to go in my new-built home server so I shall test it then. My other interest, though, is I also have a 'real' LSI 9265-8i with a BBU. I'm wondering if this supercap will work with the stock LSI version of the card. After all, ~£45 for this supercap is less than I paid for the BBU in the first place, and the BBU will die eventually. Having a spare supercap to replace it when the time comes would be nice.
 

james23

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Nov 18, 2014
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wow, i just got the 280$ 9265-8i in...DOA. no green led, doesnt even show up in bios...fml

enigmo: check a few posts up, you will see that the supercap's connector does not look like it will fit the 9265-8i
 

myrison

Member
Jan 26, 2011
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Well, I got home today and was able to plug it in and check out the firmware. It was an LSI firmware (about 2 years out of date), but the event log in the card shows it's not been used before. Also, I was able to flash it to the latest version and all looks well.

Lastly, it shows that it's licensed for RAID 5 and 6 and shows with the 1GB of Cache, so all of the major boxes are ticked so far... Functionality tests to come. I haven't hooked up any drives to it yet but will later this weekend.