M1015 & sas3444e

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Falloutboy

Member
Oct 23, 2011
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Hi All,

I'm new to all this but I picked up and IBM M1015 and a LSI SAS3444E and am now hoping that I haven't brought 2 lemons. In total I paid $165 NZD for them, neither came with cables or software.

What I need re these cards is as follows.
Do they both handle SATA and SAS and what type of connections are they each using, Im not used to this stuff and there fore its a bit rocket sciencey.

Cheers in advance.
 

mobilenvidia

Moderator
Sep 25, 2011
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New Zealand
Hey a fellow Kiwi (woohoo) :)
You've not done too badly with your purchase.
I won't tell you that Trademe has M1015 for NZ$50

The M1015 needs a 8087 to 4x SATA cable, its a break out cable so the 8087 side goes on the Controller and this can then control 4x SATA drives (or SAS)
To use all 8 ports you will need 2 sets of these.
These cables you will need to shop around for as they can be expensive, I got some from Ebay Hong Kong for US$12 delivered

The 3444E already has 4x SATA sockets so this is easy, all are internal
It also has a 8088 socket for external drives you can get a 8088 to 4x SATA break out cable or if you have an external SAS backplane (*external enclosure for HDD's) then you can get a cable to directly hook this up

The 3444E is a 3Gbps controller
The M1015 is a 6Gbps controller

Drivers for the 3444E just goto LSI for your needs.
Drivers for the M1015 head on over here
 

Falloutboy

Member
Oct 23, 2011
221
23
18
Hey a fellow Kiwi (woohoo) :)
You've not done too badly with your purchase.
I won't tell you that Trademe has M1015 for NZ$50

The M1015 needs a 8087 to 4x SATA cable, its a break out cable so the 8087 side goes on the Controller and this can then control 4x SATA drives (or SAS)
To use all 8 ports you will need 2 sets of these.
These cables you will need to shop around for as they can be expensive, I got some from Ebay Hong Kong for US$12 delivered

The 3444E already has 4x SATA sockets so this is easy, all are internal
It also has a 8088 socket for external drives you can get a 8088 to 4x SATA break out cable or if you have an external SAS backplane (*external enclosure for HDD's) then you can get a cable to directly hook this up

The 3444E is a 3Gbps controller
The M1015 is a 6Gbps controller

Drivers for the 3444E just goto LSI for your needs.
Drivers for the M1015 head on over here
Thanks for that Im just trying to figure out 1 more thing now but unless you run a raid 5 adapter you wont know so ill ask it generaly.
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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The M1015 uses SFF-8087 connectors while the SAS 3444E uses standard 7-pin connectors. For the 3444E you can just use standard SATA connectors. For the M1015 you need SFF-8087 on one end. If connecting to SATA drives you can either use a breakout cable has standard 7-pin connectors on the other side or something like SFF-8087 to SFF-8482 connectors (power and data). See the SAS/ SATA cable guide on the main site.
 

SebastianMWS

New Member
May 7, 2011
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Drivers for the 3444E just goto LSI for your needs.
No can do mobilenvidia, LSI SAS3444E was never released as retail product under LSI brand name, but was adopted by several OEMs, such as Intel, Sun and IBM. IBM released the card (with it's own Firmware !) under FRU: 25R8060 (and 25R8071 as replacement part). It was meant to be used as an entry-level tape and HDD controller, for use in their System x line. Here's the link ...

As for drivers and firmware for SAS3444E - Falloutboy , there's no such thing as Firmware for 3444E released by LSI, but you'll find all you need on IBM's website (downloads for 25R8060).

You might want to check out the Page 3 & 4 in the "LSI RAID Controller - HBA Equivalency Mapping" thread first. It's all there ...

Hope that helps ...

Sebastian
 

mobilenvidia

Moderator
Sep 25, 2011
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New Zealand
IBM 3GB SAS HBA v1 Firmware

The SAS3444e has the DEV_ID of PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0058 making it a 1068e LSI based 3000 series card as we already knew.
Any driver that supports the PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0058 will work with the card.

The Dell SAS 6/iR range also uses PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0058
Theoretically you should be able to cross flash to this, if there was an advantage to do so.

Dell 6/iR Firmware

LSI SAS1068e support page (drivers, EFI and MSM)
Again these drivers will work with branded 3444e and 6/iR devices.

The SAS3445e is idential driver wise to the SAS3444e (both are PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0058) , it might also be possible to cross flash these cards.
IBM 3GB SAS HBA v2 Firmware

Both IBM HBA FW are v2.74, the files are slightly different for each adaptor, v1 FW has both sets of FW, v2 only has v2 FW.

Version 2.74 - Critical
Contains:
BIOS Version: 6.30.00.00
Firmware Version: 1.30.10.00
BSD Version: 3.16.00.06
BDD Fixes
Removed the "SAS/SATA missing" warning message when SAS and SATA arrays are present on the same controller.
Firmware Fix
Addressed issue where 6Gb SATA drives will only negotiate at 1.5Gb/s instead of 3Gb/s.
Fixed issue where SAS/SATA mixing errors will occur when the controller is setup to allow mixing of devices.
Fixed issue with large topology of SATA drives where media errors on a single drive will cause one phy to hang after IOs to other drives start to timeout.
Fixed discovery Error 0x2 in maximum topology with SATA devices,
Addressed issue where Credit would be stuck at zero until controller resets resulting in a phy becoming hung and IO failing. Only occurs with very high IO.
A truck load of OEM drivers for the sas1068e controller
 
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