2x 14TB SAS + LSI 9361-8i and 2x cables 149 USD

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Auggie

Active Member
Nov 26, 2022
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so wait, what kind of the cables is the seller saying are supposed to be included?

the SFF-8643 -> SFF-8643 that seem to be pictured or something else?
It was just listed as a SAS3 to SAS3 cable. I don't think there was any mention of connector, just pictures, which were accurate.
 
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Mithril

Active Member
Sep 13, 2019
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My drives passed a full badblocks test no errors. I save the smart data before and after and diff them. No increase in ECC errors, and "grown defect list" is 0 for both. If I'm feeling paranoid I could run a latency test sector by sector that tries to find reallocated (or just troublesome) sectors. Sort and long selftests also passed.

Now the question is do I get 2 more of these, or 2 of another model to reduce the risk of any model/batch specific issues.
 

Oarman

Member
Feb 28, 2021
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I ordered a couple of these and was wondering about the cable myself, since the pictured cable wouldn't actually connect the drive to the card without a backplane, and if you already had a backplane, you probably already had a card and cables.

I didn't particularly care, since I already have a backplane, card and cables.
 
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EasyRhino

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Aug 6, 2019
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if it was somehow miraculously a regular HBA card (not a hardware raid) and also had 2x breakout cables, i would have jumped out the deal, only to get the very marginal upgrade from my current HPE H240 (it's still 12G SAS, but uses the older SFF 8087 cables from is limited to around 10G max speed instead of 12G). But that would be asking for like... three unicorns of a deal all combined into one.
 

nabsltd

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Jan 26, 2022
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So what is the take on this raid card? can i use it as JBOD mode?
For the card from the eBay listing, that's pretty much all you can use it for. Without cache, it sucks at RAID.

The JBOD mode presents the disks just like an HBA. The only difference is that the RAID driver is used by the OS, instead of an HBA driver. TrueNAS fans will tell you that the HBA driver is more tested than the RAID driver, but this is really no longer true, at least as far a TrueNAS SCALE is concerned.
 

Thomas H

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Dec 2, 2017
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I have 4 drives and all passed short and long SMART tests. So far badblocks going at 39+ hours no errors. However, I hear a subtle rotation clicking noise briefly goes away and comes back which I did not notice when I first started testing. Otherwise, they are fan noise quiet.
 
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Thomas H

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Dec 2, 2017
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Two drives working:
Code:
# badblocks -b 4096 -ws /dev/sdc
Testing with pattern 0xaa: done
Reading and comparing: done
Testing with pattern 0x55: doneReading and comparing:  32.32% done, 62:45:19 elapsed. (0/0/0 errors)
The other two has issues:
Code:
# smartctl -a /dev/sda
smartctl 7.3 2022-02-28 r5338 [x86_64-linux-6.8.4-3-pve] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-22, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

Smartctl open device: /dev/sda failed: No such device
# smartctl -a /dev/sdb
smartctl 7.3 2022-02-28 r5338 [x86_64-linux-6.8.4-3-pve] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-22, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

Smartctl open device: /dev/sdb failed: No such device
Code:
[sda]
badblocks: Invalid argument during seek 219678859                                                                                                                                                                                      │Copyright (C) 2002-22, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
badblocks: Invalid argument during seek 219678860                                                                                                                                                                                      │Short Background Self Test has begun
badblocks: Invalid argument during seek 219678861                                                                                                                                                                                      │root@pve:~# smartctl -t conveyance /dev/sdc
badblocks: Invalid argument during seek 219678862                                                                                                                                                                                      │Copyright (C) 2002-22, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
badblocks: Invalid argument during seek 219678863                                                                                                                                                                                      │SCSI device successfully opened
badblocks: Invalid argument during seek 219678864                                                                                                                                                                                      │Use 'smartctl -a' (or '-x') to print SMART (and more) information
...

[sdb]
badblocks: Invalid argument during seek 199329902                                                                                                                                                                                      │SCSI device successfully opened
badblocks: Invalid argument during seek 199329903                                                                                                                                                                                      │Use 'smartctl -a' (or '-x') to print SMART (and more) information
badblocks: Invalid argument during seek 199329904                                                                                                                                                                                      │root@pve:~# smartctl -t long /dev/sdd
badblocks: Invalid argument during seek 199329905                                                                                                                                                                                      │Copyright (C) 2002-22, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
badblocks: Invalid argument during seek 199329906                                                                                                                                                                                      │Extended Background Self Test has begun
...
 
Last edited:

wildpig1234

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Aug 22, 2016
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For the card from the eBay listing, that's pretty much all you can use it for. Without cache, it sucks at RAID.

The JBOD mode presents the disks just like an HBA. The only difference is that the RAID driver is used by the OS, instead of an HBA driver. TrueNAS fans will tell you that the HBA driver is more tested than the RAID driver, but this is really no longer true, at least as far a TrueNAS SCALE is concerned.
It looks there is a rise module installed on my card. I think it's a cache module. Anyone else also has one installed?
 
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wildpig1234

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Aug 22, 2016
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The only thing that can be plugged into the connector next to the heat sink is a cache module. You can check the status by entering the card's BIOS, or using storcli.
Anyone else card also have the cache module installed?
 
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nabsltd

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Jan 26, 2022
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That's the cache module, as it's the only thing that can be added to the card. See the picture.
 

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wildpig1234

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Aug 22, 2016
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So how many people here that bought on this offering had their card come with the cache installed and how many didnt? Without the cache, it sucks as a RAID card but with the cache, should be pretty decent? Now if we can get the capacitor battery back up for cheap, that would make it a great deal ;)
 
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autoturk

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Sep 1, 2022
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So how many people here that bought on this offering had their card come with the cache installed and how many didnt? Without the cache, it sucks as a RAID card but with the cache, should be pretty decent? Now if we can get the capacitor battery back up for cheap, that would make it a great deal ;)
I have one of these in barely used condition (w/o a low profile bracket), not sure if it's compatible with the above but I could let it go for a good price in case anyone is interested.
 

wildpig1234

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Aug 22, 2016
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I have one of these in barely used condition (w/o a low profile bracket), not sure if it's compatible with the above but I could let it go for a good price in case anyone is interested.
These are some expensive raid battery back up...lol... The question is how long are they able to keep the data back up in the cache... longer than a ups?
 
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Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
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HSV and SFO
These are some expensive raid battery back up...lol... The question is how long are they able to keep the data back up in the cache... longer than a ups?
Yes, generally longer than a UPS. But if you have a UPS, the data can be written and the system safely shut down so that's usually the route I go vs a battery.
 

yoyellow

New Member
May 9, 2022
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got mine yesterday. the card had the cache module on it.

The included cables are weird thou, external sas3 cables so not usable with the card or anything.. wonder if i should have gotten those..

Disks looked new in seal. have to check them later to see the smart info
 
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