Marvell SE9172/9230 controllers

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SDLeary

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Aug 4, 2015
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Looking to build a small home server, using either FreeBSD or FreeNAS. I'm on a budget, so I'm looking at the ASRockRack C2550D4I, with its copious SATA connections. I remember reading last year that the BSDs had issues with the Marvell controllers on this board, but now see that ASRock is stating FreeBSD compatibility (possibly only referring to the c2000 linked SATA).

Does anyone out there have any recent experience with this board, or similar, with these controllers under BSD? I can't seem to find any definitive answers out there.

Thanks Much
SDLeary
 

EffrafaxOfWug

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Feb 12, 2015
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IIRC this is the same board that FreeNAS now use for their own line of prebuilt NAS units... I think there was a firmware update for this board/controller (along with the usual kernel updates) that finally fixed most of the problems with them.
FreeNAS Mini

I daresay they're probably still not as performant as Intel or LSI SATA controllers but this is rarely a factor these days for platter-based hard drives.
 
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Patrick

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That is the board FreeNAS uses in their Mini. I think they use the C2750 version in the XL.
 

Deslok

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Jul 15, 2015
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I actually have both that board and the ASUS P9A-I/C2550/SAS/4L with the Marvell 88SE9485 controllers onboard, between the two I like the asus design and layout better(4xgbe plus 4xSAS connector) I'm not sure if the 9485 controllers are any better supported
 

SDLeary

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Aug 4, 2015
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I actually have both that board and the ASUS P9A-I/C2550/SAS/4L with the Marvell 88SE9485 controllers onboard, between the two I like the asus design and layout better(4xgbe plus 4xSAS connector) I'm not sure if the 9485 controllers are any better supported
I am a SCSI advocate of old, and this is the board that prompted me to start to look at a home server. The reviews (admittedly user reviews) of the boards SAS issues turned me off. Have you had any issues under 'BSD?

SDLeary
 
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Deslok

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Jul 15, 2015
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deslok.dyndns.org
I am an old SCSI advocate of old, and this is the board that prompted me to start to look at a home server. The reviews (admittedly user reviews) of the boards SAS issues turned me off. Have you had any issues under 'BSD?

SDLeary
I havent had issues but it's running under WS2012R2 and i can't take it offline to test BSD unfortunately, Patrick had one i'm not sure what his testing revealed.