LSI 9266-8i won't boot with CacheVault module installed

[Jarkko Rantala]

So I've been upgrading the RAID configuration in my NAS server, and the parts I went with were:

• LSI00295: LSI MegaRAID 9266-8i 1 GB
• LSI00290: CacheCade Pro 2.0 Software Physical Key
• LSI00297: CacheVault Kit LSICVM01+Battery

The plan was to use six 3 TB SATA drives in RAID 50, with a 250 GB Samsung 850 EVO for the CacheCade 2.0 drive.

For some reason, the 9266-8i will not boot with the CacheVault module installed. The card is detected, configurable in BIOS setup, and working fine without the CacheVault module (CVM01), but as soon as I install one, the card won't be recognized in BIOS and loading a MegaRAID driver crashes any OS (tried Windows, Linux, VMWare). As soon as the CacheVault module is removed, the card continues to function normally.

I suspected a faulty CacheVault module and the vendor kindly sent a replacement, but the behaviour is exactly the same with the new module.

I'm aware that LSI recommends upgrading the CacheVault module's gas gauge firmware if the RAID controller is upgraded past 5.12, but as the card won't be recognized with the module installed I can't upgrade the firmware using StorCLI either. I've tried with several versions of the MegaRAID firmware (5.3, 5.9, 5.11, 5.12, 5.14), but none will allow the card to be detected with the CacheVault module installed.

The kit's stuffed into a HP z800 workstation case, with the standard fan setup in place. This leaves the MegaRAID card idle temperature near 70 °C which is over the rated maximum of 55 °C. Could this cause the card not to detect in boot with the CacheVault module?

Would anyone happen to have any ideas on what else could be going on? I've resorted to ordering a BBU09 battery backup unit to see if that would work better.

 

[m4ntic0r]

I would not use a 850 Evo and the LSI Raid Controller.

I had two 850 Evo 500G on my LSI 9271-8i in Raid1 and after some time performance was terrible (~50mb/s).
I dont know if this is better when you only format 75% of the capacity. I formated 100%.
Even with writeback mode performance was not good.. i think because there was no trim active.

 

[Jarkko Rantala]

I would not use a 850 Evo and the LSI Raid Controller.

I had two 850 Evo 500G on my LSI 9271-8i in Raid1 and after some time performance was terrible (~50mb/s).
I dont know if this is better when you only format 75% of the capacity. I formated 100%.
Even with writeback mode performance was not good.. i think because there was no trim active.

That's worrying to hear. I'll conduct some tests with another drive to see if I'm experiencing the same. Which cache drive did you go for to improve matters?

 

[Jarkko Rantala]

For some reason, the 9266-8i will not boot with the CacheVault module installed.
I've resorted to ordering a BBU09 battery backup unit to see if that would work better.

As an update, the card works fine with the iBBU09 battery backup unit, and I've been able to enable write-back mode on my arrays. It's just the CacheVault modules that refuse to co-operate. I guess I'll keep this setup, even if it means getting new batteries every couple of years.

 

[m4ntic0r]

That's worrying to hear. I'll conduct some tests with another drive to see if I'm experiencing the same. Which cache drive did you go for to improve matters?

at the moment i dont use the raid controller. all this is for my 24/7 home server with ~20vms.
i changed back from esxi and raid controller to a win2016 + vm workstation 14 setup. before esxi i had a workstation 12 setup and was very happy with this.

i dont use raid anymore, just single ssds and hdds and do my backups.