LSI controllers for sale

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mobilenvidia

Moderator
Sep 25, 2011
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It's time to clear some space on my desk.
As some of you know I have been tinkering with SAS/SATA controllers for a while, I seem to have more than I need.
So time to get rid of some some.

All are working as they should, not new ofcourse, all I want is the price I paid, as I never pay retail you should do alright.
Shipping is to pretty well anywhere.

IBM ServeRAIDM5016
SAS2208
1GB Cachevault (NAND backed RAM doesn't need battery)
8 internal ports
$520 incl shipping
Cachevault I'm so going to miss, one of the best features out there.
RAID 0,1,5,6,10,50,60 and JBOD

IBM ServeRAID M5015 controller with the M5000 advanced feature key.
SAS2108
512MB cache
8 internal ports
M5000 key enables RAID6 and SED
BBU included
$250 incl shipping
The card that started it all, a steal at the price incl battery and the HW key.

SOLD

LSI9261-8i
SAS2108
512MB cache
8 internal ports
Comes with permanent Software keys up to and including Fastpath, Cachecade Pro v2 can be enabled via trial key
BBU included
$430 incl shipping
A great all rounder, until I got the SAS9266-8i this was my main RAID6 controller with cachecade/Fastpath

SOLD

All have been tested and written about here, so you know what their all about.
And all work very well in different ways.
Paypal preferred, price I'm pretty firm on, I need to recoup costs as to keep more testing going.

My ebay credentials
 
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mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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Intel AXXRPFKSSD RAID SSD Cache With Fast Path I/O Hardware key
Upgrade Key to enable SSD Cache with Fastpath I/O for Intel RAID 6G ROC Products.

Intel® RAID Premium Features key

Revision 1:
AXXRPFKSSD (SSD Cache with Fastpath)
AXXRPFKDE (Encryption Management)
AXXRPFKSNSH (Snapshot)

Revision 1 keys are compatible with these Intel® RAID Controllers and Modules:

  • RS2BL080
  • RS2BL040
  • RS2BL080DE
  • RS2BL080SNGL
  • RS2MB044
  • RS2SG244

  • RS2WG160
  • RT3WB080
  • RS2VB080
  • RS2VB040
  • RMS2MH080
Intel ® RAID Premium Feature Key AXXRPFKSSD enables a form of Flash Tiering called SSD Cache and Fastpath features.
„SSD Cache uses Solid State Devices as secondary cache for Intel ® RAID Controllers and is designed to improve read performance of Intel ® RAID Controller.
„Fastpath feature can support full optimization of SSD Virtual Disk groups. With this
premium feature enabled, Solid State Drive configurations tuned for small, random blocksize IO activity (typical of transactional database applications) can sustain up to over
150,000 IO READS Per Second.
Note: The Fastpath feature is automatically enabled when the Intel ® RAID Premium Feature Key AXXRPFKSSD is present
$160 incl shipping (envelope)
 
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mrkrad

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2012
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would you say the LSI2208 without fastpath is equal to teh LSI2108 with fastpath in ssd raid? Does the 1GB cache affect SSD-only arrays?
 

mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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would you say the LSI2208 without fastpath is equal to teh LSI2108 with fastpath in ssd raid? Does the 1GB cache affect SSD-only arrays?
Have a look in my LSI9261 and M5015 experiences threads in controller section.
Also have a peek in my Cachecade whats it all about post also
I have done all sorts of benchies for all sorts of scenarios's

BTW the M5016 when available on ebay rarely go below $1000 (not sure why)
It's a rare SAS2208 that has Cachevault built in from factory, the LSI9265/66/70/71 do not have this as standard, becomes an add on.
 

mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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Hardware RAID only, ZFS I had going on my M1015 in IT mode.
I ended up ditching ZFS and putting the drives in HW RAID and NTFS (GPT)
It means I have the data more easily accessible.

Now I can set my LSI9266 to set drives as JBOD, I'll plug the M5016 back in and see if I can do the same.
It required fiddling with MegaCLi
But JBOD is still not ideal for ZFS, ZFS needs direct access to the drives, JBOD still adds a layer.
IT mode on a HBA = best
But using HW RAID is still possible with ZFS just not how ZFS was designed to work
 

gigatexal

I'm here to learn
Nov 25, 2012
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Portland, Oregon
alexandarnarayan.com
Hardware RAID only, ZFS I had going on my M1015 in IT mode.
I ended up ditching ZFS and putting the drives in HW RAID and NTFS (GPT)
It means I have the data more easily accessible.

Now I can set my LSI9266 to set drives as JBOD, I'll plug the M5016 back in and see if I can do the same.
It required fiddling with MegaCLi
But JBOD is still not ideal for ZFS, ZFS needs direct access to the drives, JBOD still adds a layer.
IT mode on a HBA = best
But using HW RAID is still possible with ZFS just not how ZFS was designed to work
well i might go hardware raid in windows server 2012 with maybe one of your fancy cards and the intel expander I've already got in the mail...still trying to figure out if my disks are problematic
 

mobilenvidia

Moderator
Sep 25, 2011
1,956
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New Zealand
No probs, no hurry, do your homework before buying, or like me, just get all sorts of stuff and never actually get round to finishing what you started :D

The LSI9261 with the SAS ports at the back is ideal in a tower style case (as I have) or a large 4u+
It has all the full software features BUT the CacheCade Pro v2 key is on trial, which you can renew every 30 days
For databases being accessed continuously ideal to have fastpath, Cachecade to a lesser extend as it uses a whole SSD(s)

The M5016, has no ability for Hardware keys (designed that way) so no Fastpath, Cachecade etc
BUT it has Cachvault, the bees knees of data retention in powerloss, the single most feature that I will miss
You need data security than you can do no better than this.
 
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mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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I've enabled JBOD mode on the M5016

Updated to latest FW

Version Numbers:
===============
Current Package Details:
Firmware Package: 23.11.0-0021 (MR 5.5)
WebBIOS 6.1-60-e_60-Rel
Firmware 3.230.05-2100
ROMENV 1.08
PCLI 05.07.00
BootBlock 2.05.00.00-0010
NVDATA 2.1301.03-0115
BootBlockCommon 07.26.13.219
UEFI_Driver 0x05240000
Hii 03.00.06.00
FCODE 4.12.05.00
BIOS 5.38.00
 
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mobilenvidia

Moderator
Sep 25, 2011
1,956
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New Zealand
I've never used an expander, I'm a need more ports bought more controllers kinda guy :)

Should work with any expander that works with a LSI conroller.
Possibly best chance of success is with LSI based expanders
 

mobilenvidia

Moderator
Sep 25, 2011
1,956
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New Zealand
HW RAID = same size drives, with different sized drives it will make the array using the smallest size drive (ie 2T, 3TB and 4TB drives in HW RAID = 3x 2TB array)

SW RAID can take different sized drives and array/pool them up, but CPU/system does all the work.