LSI 9265-8i & VMware ESXi (health monitoring, MegaRAID UI in a VM, & CacheCade 2.0)

[Paul Braren]

The 9260, or any SAS2108 capable of CacheCade 2.0 has read/write working for sometime now.
The SAS2208 took a bit longer to even get write added to the Firmware (I think LSI call it v2.1), there were/are some problems by the looks of it implementing it on the dual core ROC.

I wonder if LSI will ever get it working properly for the SAS2208, or roll out the SAS3108 and have it working on that and forget about older cards.
I find it a bit naff selling a product with a feature (it's top end) that doesn't even work.

Yeah, understood, they got RAID0 read and write caching capable firmware much earlier on the 9260, such as my friend Greg Welch:
http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/3791-playing-with-cachecade-20/

RAID5 caching compatible firmware, to enable the CC Pro 2.0, came much later for the 9265-8i, with me experiencing hit (briefly), and mostly miss (3 firmware levels and counting) to actually get read and write caching working well.

So I'm still seeking a known-good combo for my 9265-8i:
1) exact SSD model
2) exact SSD firmware used
3) exact firmware on the 9265-8i controller

With those 3 vitals finally discovered, I should be able to finally have my RAID5 of 5 1.5TB drives accelerated.

Then anybody should be able to also succeed with this known-good working configuration.

LSI just doesn't make it easy. For example, see their CacheCade 2.0 Pro info page and click Technical Specs:
http://store.lsi.com/store.cfm/Advanced_Software_Options/Advanced_Software_Options/LSI00292/

and you'll see it points you to where SSD compatibility lists are supposed to be
http://www.lsi.com/channel

but it isn't exactly obvious what to click on next, with a tiny link:
Interop. & Compatibility

which goes here:
MegaRAID 926x/928x Series 6Gb/s SAS Controllers (Interoperability Report)

then finally, on page 25 of 29, the SSD list begins, only recently updated to finally include some sort-of-affordable stuff that is actually SATA3, like the Intel 520 series.

So DBayPlaya2k3 went with that SSD, but had an issue himself discussed earlier in this thread here.

Anyhow, this is normal enterprise support type of stuff, nothing new, takes some digging, and unfortunately some trial and error.

But I do finally feel some optimism that we're closing on what's really going on, and what SSD exactly to buy next (if my current Samsung 830 MZ-7PC256B/WW doesn't work out), to finally get this 9265-8i working the way I had originally intended, back when I got it the summer of 2011.

 

[mobilenvidia]

About to start a consistency check in 10min.
Using LSI9261 with FW 12.12.0-00126, RAID0 Cachecade pro v2.0 setup, RAID6 Array.
Lets see what happens

Hmmm, setting Consistency to start at after certain time does nothing, start time goes by and nothing happens.
Manually setting CC works fine

 

[Paul Braren]

Hmmm, setting Consistency to start at after certain time does nothing, start time goes by and nothing happens.
Manually setting CC works fine

When you say manually, exactly how? A couple of months ago, I tried everything. This recent attempts in the YouTube video I mentioned above, I didn't bother with trying every which way.
Are you saying you've configured CC2 for read and write caching on a RAID5 or RAID6? If so, using the MegaRAID UI, the WebBIOS, or MegaCLI?

 

[mobilenvidia]

CC started automatically an hour after it was supposed to., I suppose on 24/7 no problems with that.

I've got the LSI9261 not LSI 9265 !
6x Hitachi 7k2000 2TB RAID6 array
2x 60GB OCZ Solid3 SSDs in RAID0 Cachecade Pro v2.0, using write back.
All setup in MSM 12.08.03

You can manually do consistency in MSM, in 'server', 'start CC' or right click on controller in either hardware or logical views and select 'start CC'

 

[Paul Braren]

Had one LSI engineer discourage me from 2 SSDs for CacheCade for RAID0 or RAID1. But I didn't get a solid reasoning why, and I have nothing in writing.

Anyhow, good to hear you're having better luck with your OCZ Solid3 SSDs (which firmware on there?), than I've had with my OCZ Vertex 4 (firmware 1.4, array dropped from ESXi 5.0, not sure if firmware glitch summer of 2012 or drive related), and my Samsung 830 drive (firmware CXM03B1Q, can't turn on write-cache in CC Pro 2.0, with any of the many 9265-8i firmware levels I've tried).

None of these drives are actually on LSI's list though, which the engineer strongly encouraged me to adhere to:
http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public.../MegaRAID_Value_Feature_Interop_List_SAS2.pdf

 

[mobilenvidia]

Running latest OCZ FW 2.25 on them, updated from 2.22 which also worked.

 

[DBayPlaya2k3]

Paul if you do want an SSD that will work for both reading and writing I suggest the Intel 330 SSD. Its not on the supported list but works fine for my setup which is very very similar to yours. It should also hopefully be reliable as well since its intel (though the controller is sandforce which was given a bad rep due to earlier ocz ssd problems with previous generation controller) . I currently use two intel 330's 180gb in raid 0. Stay awa from the Intel 520 (even though its on the list) until LSI comes out with a new vib update for esxi .

Yeah, understood, they got RAID0 read and write caching capable firmware much earlier on the 9260, such as my friend Greg Welch:
http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/3791-playing-with-cachecade-20/

RAID5 caching compatible firmware, to enable the CC Pro 2.0, came much later for the 9265-8i, with me experiencing hit (briefly), and mostly miss (3 firmware levels and counting) to actually get read and write caching working well.

So I'm still seeking a known-good combo for my 9265-8i:
1) exact SSD model
2) exact SSD firmware used
3) exact firmware on the 9265-8i controller

With those 3 vitals finally discovered, I should be able to finally have my RAID5 of 5 1.5TB drives accelerated.

Then anybody should be able to also succeed with this known-good working configuration.

LSI just doesn't make it easy. For example, see their CacheCade 2.0 Pro info page and click Technical Specs:
http://store.lsi.com/store.cfm/Advanced_Software_Options/Advanced_Software_Options/LSI00292/

and you'll see it points you to where SSD compatibility lists are supposed to be
http://www.lsi.com/channel

but it isn't exactly obvious what to click on next, with a tiny link:
Interop. & Compatibility

which goes here:
MegaRAID 926x/928x Series 6Gb/s SAS Controllers (Interoperability Report)

then finally, on page 25 of 29, the SSD list begins, only recently updated to finally include some sort-of-affordable stuff that is actually SATA3, like the Intel 520 series.

So DBayPlaya2k3 went with that SSD, but had an issue himself discussed earlier in this thread here.

Anyhow, this is normal enterprise support type of stuff, nothing new, takes some digging, and unfortunately some trial and error.

But I do finally feel some optimism that we're closing on what's really going on, and what SSD exactly to buy next (if my current Samsung 830 MZ-7PC256B/WW doesn't work out), to finally get this 9265-8i working the way I had originally intended, back when I got it the summer of 2011.

 

[Paul Braren]

Finally, resolved this issue, replacing my LSI00290 CacheCade Pro 2.0 hardware key did the trick.

Wrote up details here:
"LSI 9265-8i CacheCade Pro 2.0 is finally using my Samsung 830 256GB SSD for RAID5 read and write caching, and great performance"
http://tinkertry.com/cachecade-pro-2-0-on-lsi-9265-8i

 

[mobilenvidia]

Good to hear you got it sorted finally.
All down to a tiny little key, I take it LSI also had no idea of what was causing your issues.

 

[Paul Braren]

Yes, no insight was given into why replacing the key actually seems to have fixed the issue with not being able to enable read and write caching on my RAID5.