LSI RAID Controller - HBA Equivalency Mapping

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mobilenvidia

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Controllers LSI PCIe to SAS Host Bus Adapters
LSISAS2004 - LSISAS9211-4i
LSISAS2008 - LSISAS9210-8i, LSISAS9211-8i, LSISAS9200-8e, and LSISAS9212-4i4e
LSISAS2116 - LSISAS9200-16e
Dual LSISAS2008 - LSISAS9202-16e (low profile)
LSISAS2308 - LSISAS9205-8e

Product guide

LSI9205 looks nice, SAS2308vs2008 = 550k iops vs 320k, SAS 2.1 vs 2.0
LSI9202 also would do nicely with 700k iops with dual ROC's
 
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Falloutboy

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Oct 23, 2011
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I'll give the M1015 ago with the M5000 key, not sure if this will unlock the RAID 5/50 and SED features.

I alas don't have a AOC or Supermicro version, I do have broken Dell Perc H200, this does not have a standard 2 pin key header.
It does have a header in a socket with 2 pins the key doesn't fit though.

The M1015 should be here next week, the M5015 hopefully this week.
Now I need a Mobo with more than 3 PCIe slots to fit the cards and UEFI BIOS to run them
Two things that would be interesting,
1 Keep a copy of your bios before you add the raid key
2 Make a copy after the raid key is added and do a binary file compare to see whats changed ( if anything )

Also if its just a serial eprom it should be pretty easy to "backup" ;)
 

mobilenvidia

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Two things that would be interesting,
1 Keep a copy of your bios before you add the raid key
2 Make a copy after the raid key is added and do a binary file compare to see whats changed ( if anything )

Also if its just a serial eprom it should be pretty easy to "backup" ;)
I don't think its that simple, copying the EEPROM
Having a look at a M1015, on the card it self just beside the 2 pin Key header is 6 pin tiny chip looking identical to the key chip.
This from some research looks to be the decoder chip.
So the key is encoded the chip on the card decodes the key.
I'm not sure how the info is passed back to the ROC though.

The key only uses 2 pins (gnd and data) to communicate, the decoder uses 3 (gnd, vcc, data)
Needs more investigating, in the meantime I wait for these cards to turn up.
But yes backups of FW will be done first thing, to do a compare.
Looks like they are being delivered on horse back to NZ :)
 
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mobilenvidia

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I'm pretty sure the M5000 key I have and probably all other keys have the Maxim DS2432, 1K-bit SHA-1 Protected EEPROM

Not so sure of the one on the card, I think it might be a Maxim DS28E10 1-Wire SHA-1 Authenticator

These 2 chips interface and one has a unique (factory) code the other chip decodes this to authenticate the key
I just don't know how the ROC interfaces with the DS28E10.
 

mobilenvidia

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Intel LSI RAID controller matrix

Below all Intel 2x0x cards, no more guessing

24 port expander
Intel® RAID Expander RES2SV240

SAS2008
Intel® RAID Controller RS2WC080 / 040

SAS2108
Intel® RAID Controller RS2SG244
Intel® RAID Controller RS2WG160
Intel® RAID Controller RS25NB008
Intel® RAID Controller RS2VB080 / 040
Intel® RAID Controller RS2MB044
Intel® RAID Controller RS2BL080 / 040
Intel® RAID Controller RS2PI008
Intel® RAID Controller RT3WB080

SAS2208
Intel® RAID Controller RS25DB080

SAS2308
Intel® RAID Controller RS25GB008
 

Tyrant82

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Oct 11, 2011
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[URL="http://www.intelraid.com
SAS2308
Intel® RAID Controller RS25GB008


Hy,

I couldn't find any information on a SAS2308 Chipset, are you sure about that? I checked the LSI Homepage and the Intel Homepage and it seems that the Intel Raid Controller is based off the LSI MegaRAID 9285-8e which contains a LSI2208 Chip.

Greets :)
 

mobilenvidia

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Hmmm, I took the info from the Intel RAID matrix:

Intel® RAID Controller RS25GB008
Entry-level 6.0 Gb/s SAS RAID controller with eight external ports for JBOD with SAS / SATA drives
RS25GB008
LSI* SAS2308
2 MB Context Memory
PCI Express* 2.0 x8
8 external SAS / SATA ports supporting point-to-point 6.0 Gb/s and 3.0 Gb/s data-transfer rates
Low-profile, 6.6†length (MD2 compliant)
JBOD
No
Not included
August
But the actual data on the card at intel says LSI2208

All very confusing, the card in the Matrix even looks like a LSI9205 which is the SAS2308 basec card.
 

storrgie

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Nov 19, 2011
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Maybe you read that from me since I posted that bit of info in another forum, but regardless I have a few dozen of these cards already and have spent some time with them.

Yes the IBM M1015 is most equivalent to LSI 9240 in terms of firmware, it runs the iMR stack actually (lite version of the MR stack found on 926x and 928x cards) and its based on SAS2008 platform. And I said mostly equivalent to LSI 9240 because its had a few features toggled off in firmware, like RAID5 ability which is present on the retail LSI 9240-8i part. IBM's idea was to upsell the RAID5 feature with a software unlock key, so naturally LSI made it difficult to circumvent that by mere firmware cross-flashing.

Thus unfortunately it cannot be cross-flashed to become an LSI retail part and inherit that feature set, the way one can do with certain other OEM LSI parts. It also cannot be flashed with "IT" mode firmware like the 9211-8i, even though they're both based on the same SAS2008 platform.

It can however be firmware upgraded with the files from LSI's website for the 9240-8i. Reason being the firmware ROM file is universal for all variations of the card - retail and rebadged/OEM versions - this based on analysis with a hex editor. The firmware rom file also can't (easily) be modified because there's a hash check to protect against changed bytes, otherwise it would be (easier) to hack an OEM card into having the featureset of the LSI retail version of the card.

On the bright side, these cards have been selling for $75 and less on ebay, and their default behavior is to present unconfigured disks as JBOD to the host O/S, meaning even though its running a lite raid stack, it behaves like a JBOD HBA until configured otherwise. While its usually regarded as technically cleaner to run a JBOD card with IT (target mode) firmware to do away with the overhead of the raid stack, in benches I really don't see the raid stack presenting a slowdown on this card. Example 16 drives in soft-RAID0 in Windows benches pretty much the same as my retail LSI 9211-8i w/ IT firmware. Same goes for Bonnie++ results in Solaris Express 11.
We're you able to see the drives in linux? Does the card need to be configured in any way? (assuming it is already flashed to the 9240-8i firmware
 

storrgie

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Nov 19, 2011
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I am using the megaraid_sas.ko kernel module driver that came with the 2.6.37 kernel that I am using. I did not use the WebGUI (nor megaraid manager, nor change anything in the M1015 BIOS). All I did was use FreeDOS and megacli tool to flash the firmware to the Dec 2010 firmware for 9240-8i from LSI's website. I flashed the firmware one card at a time (I have no idea if I could have successfully done more than one at a time)

Code:
$ modinfo megaraid_sas
filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.37-autogroup/kernel/drivers/scsi/megaraid/megaraid_sas.ko
description:    LSI MegaRAID SAS Driver
author:         megaraidlinux@lsi.com
version:        00.00.04.31-rc1

I flashed through the windows MDM utility, but the cards are not showing me any drives in linux... Using Linux 3.1.1 under fedora
 

storrgie

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Nov 19, 2011
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Sorry to post again, last night I was a little deficient with my information. I figure its better to put some more up for when someone has a chance to respond.

I've bought two of the IBM M1015 cards and I'm pairing them with an X9SCA-F-O (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182255). The first battle was that this motherboard needs to be upgraded to 1.1a BIOS otherwise it makes Linux have really weird issues in the udev subsystem.

As a side note, Supermicro's documentation of their BIOS releases is abysmal as far as I can tell, no change log for me to look at, no sane version numbering (e.g. the 1.1a bios is numbered something like '928' and their documentation is generic so zero specification of release date etc.)

I took the two M1015 cards and was able to get them to boot in my Core I5 system (wouldn't boot in older motherboards) which I use to play games occasionally so it has just Windows7. I used the Megaraid Storage Manager (was simple to install and interrogate the drive) to upgrade to the supplied October 14th firmware (20.10.1-0061). For a test I have thrown in a couple 2TB drives that I've not ever initialized in an array, I can boot into the web-bios (which looks the same as it did before the flash) and see the drives (6 of them) as unassigned.

When I boot into linux I can see both controllers, however I have no drives exposed to me. I have my sda/sdb from the onboard controller, however I cannot see anything behind the M1015(9240-8i firmware 20.10.1-0061).

I'm curious if I did something wrong, such as used the Megaraid Storage Manager instead of MegaCLI which requires you to do wiping steps... I'm not sure what MSM does under the hood...

I would appreciate any assistance, I have a couple more hours before the weekend ends for me and then this becomes an issue I have to poke around with at night.

I should say that in linux I'm on Fedora 16 to get the most recent kernel support for drivers and btrfs. I can give out versions of things if that helps with troubleshooting.

If any of you hang out on IRC please let me know and I can come and chat with you a little faster about this issue.

Thanks for such a great forum, I'm a 1068E (USAS-L8i) user in my other server, heres my blog post about getting the UIO card to work in my Norco 4220 chassis (http://blog.agdunn.net/?p=391). There was not a lot of documentation for me to find about the 1068E, and I always had issues with S.M.A.R.T off-lining the drives in linux. I'm really hoping these M1015 work out so I can move away from 1068E.
 

mobilenvidia

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It looks like you just need to assign the drives in either Web BIOS or MSM.
Seems you are running IR BIOS which may need to have the drives assigned first. ie makes them part of an array even single drives
I thought that the LSI9240 based controllers did make any drive not in an array JBOD but I could be wrong.

The IT BIOS should just make the drives JBOD and shown to the OS without any input from user.

Hope this helps.
 

PigLover

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Jan 26, 2011
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There is no IT BIOS for the 9240-8i. There is just one - and any drive not assigned to an array is just passed through as is.

When using an LSI2008 based card the "IT/IR" concept only exists with the 9210/11 firmware.

The OP clearly has something else going on here. He should check to confirm that he can see the drives from the raid card BIOS. if so, he should load up another OS known to be "friendly" to this card and see if there continues to be a problem.
 

storrgie

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Nov 19, 2011
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There is no IT BIOS for the 9240-8i. There is just one - and any drive not assigned to an array is just passed through as is.

When using an LSI2008 based card the "IT/IR" concept only exists with the 9210/11 firmware.

The OP clearly has something else going on here. He should check to confirm that he can see the drives from the raid card BIOS. if so, he should load up another OS known to be "friendly" to this card and see if there continues to be a problem.

Firstly, I should verify I have successfully flashed the right firmware, is there a way I can do that?
 

mobilenvidia

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At boot up when the LSI BIOS screen shows, it tells you the FW version number then.
Also in WebBIOS it says it when you click on the controller.

Try this in Windows.

Goto:
Control panel
System and Security
Administrative tools
Create and format Hard drive partitions

Now it will check all the drives it can see in the BIOS, including the ones that arn't partitioned/initialised yet.
You should see a box 'Initialise disk', click on either MBR <2TB partitions or GPT for >2TB

Now the drives should become visible, and you can partition and format them.

Gparted in Linux should do the same

If they still don't show, then something else is afoot.
 
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storrgie

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Nov 19, 2011
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Quick check in my windows machine with MSM


Controller: ServeRAID M1015 SAS/SATA Controller (Bis 4, Dev 0)
Status: Optimal
Firmware Package Version: 20.10.1-0061
Firmware Version: 2.120.184-1415
BBU: NO
Enclosure(s): 0
Drive(s): 0
Virtual Drive(s): 0

I dont have any drives plugged into it because all of my drives are in the NORCO 4220.
 

mobilenvidia

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The m1015 is not detecting any drives, why there are none showing in any OS either.

Something is wrong in the WebBIOS/MSM settings possibly.
You may need to set the drives as 'online' or assign them
Or try going into WebBIOS and set the factory default switch, press confirm or what ever button at bottom of screen to activate it.
Now reboot and try again.
 

mobilenvidia

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BIOS File Name: x9sca1.928.zip
Size (KB): 2,776
BIOS Revision: R 1.1a
File Description: This zip file contains BIOS ROM, Flash utility, and Readme instructions. You may download the free WINZIP utility to extract the contents of this file.
Should be latest BIOS for system.

The LSI BIOS should detect the drives, usually System HW issues means not being able to get to BIOS or card not working at all.
 

storrgie

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Nov 19, 2011
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So I moved a couple more drives on to the controller, this time I noticed they showed up as JBOD in the web-bios screen. where as my other 6 drives on this controller are 'unconfigured'

Booting into linux shows me the drives, however they are under the peripherals section in disk manager and smart is 'not supported'

Edit: I can see the controller still, but zero drives show up under it. The drives are showing up under the usb, firewire and peripherals section.
 
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