3 w a r e S A S 9 7 5 0 - 8 i Equivalent

[BigXor]

I was wondering if there is an IBM or other budget brand controller equivalent to the 3WARE 9750-8i. I would like to have a card that handles raid with cache and pass-through both.

I have a M5014 but you have to configure single disks as raid 0 to use them which does not work for moving disks around to different controllers.

Thanks in advance.

 

[supermacro]

9750 is physically the same as 9260 but with different BIOS & Firmware (they are not interchangeable. i.e. will not import each other's configurations). I did ask this before but never got any answers... If you can cross flash 9260 to 9750 then I'm sure you can flash IBM M5015 to 9750.

 

[mobilenvidia]

9750 identical to LSI9261, with rear SAS ports.

BUT firmware and BIOS are totally different.
Probably has different boot loader to handle to tiny Firmware file (compared to LSI)
Firmware is less than 1MB
3Ware has different PCI_ID and SUBSYS numbers.
I tried to run the 3Ware drivers but crashed.
Would be risky to try to flash the Areca FW to the M5015, I think the PCI_ID will be the obstable and the FW not recognising it.

LSI are doing them selves no favours with not supporting JBOD on RAID controllers, where as 3Ware did as does Areca.
There is no way of enabling JBOD on the LSI SAS2108 controllers, the NVDATA cheat doesn't work.
I need to test this on the SAS2208, which also doesn't natively support JBOD.

 

[BigXor]

Thanks folks.

I have some Adaptec controllers. Once you create single disk volumes they will be recognized by a motherboard controller, so I can move a drive anywhere between my computers as they both use Norco backplanes.

 

[odditory]

Keep in mind Adaptecs historically haven't played nicely with SAS expanders in case you have any of those. At least the 3-series and 5-series refused to work with any expanders I tried. Maybe the newer gen cards are different.

 

[omniscence]

There is no way of enabling JBOD on the LSI SAS2108 controllers, the NVDATA cheat doesn't work.
I need to test this on the SAS2208, which also doesn't natively support JBOD.

I assume turning on JBOD mode for the MegaRAID cards with

megacli adpsetprop enablejbod 1 a0

does not work? There was a KB article about how to turn JBOD mode on and putting specific drives into that mode, but I can no longer find it online.

EDIT: Ah, I see. It seems that this is not an option for the SAS2108 controllers, should however work on SAS2208.

 

[mobilenvidia]

I'm about to try it on the SAS2208 as soon as I get sometime

LSI have disabled it by default now, reading back through FW updates it caused quite a bit of grief, it used to be enabled on SAS2208's I think the sAS2108 may also have had it, as it does mention it.
Not sure why as 3ware and Areca have it sorted, and LSI own Areca now, wonder if the engineers also came with the purchase or LSI got rid of them as it was really after the IBM PC440 ROC.
Strange stuff going on, LSI are breaking ground in all sorts of directions, but neglecting their Core business.