Max drive size for flashed Dell H310 HBA?

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beatle

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Mar 23, 2017
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My Dell R510 server is growing, and I'm planning to add another drive (using DrivePool w/duplication). Looks like the 14TB EasyStores are the best bang for the buck when they're at $180. Anyway, the biggest drive I have in the server right now is an 8TB. I've seen some running 10TB, but couldn't find evidence that a 14TB would work. Any comments on whether I'll have a headache with the 14TB or should I pick up a smaller drive (or a different HBA?)
 

BLinux

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My Dell R510 server is growing, and I'm planning to add another drive (using DrivePool w/duplication). Looks like the 14TB EasyStores are the best bang for the buck when they're at $180. Anyway, the biggest drive I have in the server right now is an 8TB. I've seen some running 10TB, but couldn't find evidence that a 14TB would work. Any comments on whether I'll have a headache with the 14TB or should I pick up a smaller drive (or a different HBA?)
the answer to that question is found in this video:

 

BLinux

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TL;DR - there is no mention of the card in there. Seems like it depends on the firmware version. I believe I'm on P20 since I followed this guide, though that was a couple years ago:

Updated: SAS HBA crossflashing or flashing to IT mode, Dell Perc H200 and H310

So I'm still fairly sure I'll be okay, but that's about where I was before I started this thread.
The max size limit is due to LBA address field size in CDB. Once you pass the 2TB limit, the next size limit is 8-ZB for SAS, and 128-PB SATA.
 
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beatle

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Might as well derail my own thread.

Support for 4KN drives seems spotty at best. I've considered buying a used enterprise drive, but they all appear to be 4KN which I don't believe is compatible with my H310. I take it that's just the way it is with this old card?
 

BLinux

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Might as well derail my own thread.

Support for 4KN drives seems spotty at best. I've considered buying a used enterprise drive, but they all appear to be 4KN which I don't believe is compatible with my H310. I take it that's just the way it is with this old card?
answered in this video:

 

beatle

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So basically it might work. Not particularly encouraging, but that's the lifespan of hardware.

I also found this page that appears to be a great reference for what controllers support 4kn:

4Kn LSI Compatibility List

Some of the cards are not all that expensive. Under $50. From what I gather, I should be able to drop a 9207 or 9208 in one of the free PCIe slots and be good to go. I don't think I'd be able to use the native storage slot - or would I? That might let me keep my cables since the existing cables would likely be too short to reach a card at the back of the case.
 

BLinux

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So basically it might work. Not particularly encouraging, but that's the lifespan of hardware.

I also found this page that appears to be a great reference for what controllers support 4kn:

4Kn LSI Compatibility List

Some of the cards are not all that expensive. Under $50. From what I gather, I should be able to drop a 9207 or 9208 in one of the free PCIe slots and be good to go. I don't think I'd be able to use the native storage slot - or would I? That might let me keep my cables since the existing cables would likely be too short to reach a card at the back of the case.
If you watched the video, you will have clearly seen that some of the information on that "compatibility list" is not true for HBAs.

You can install a H200 with IT mode firmware in the integrated storage slot of the R510. And since the H700 and H200 use the same SFF8087 connector, you can re-use the existing SAS cables. Most 11th gen Dell PowerEdge servers require a special subsystem PCI id to work in the integrated storage slot, but the R510 is the 1 exception it seems. If you do run into an issue, here's a video showing how you can fix it:

 
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KC8FLB

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Aug 12, 2018
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EDIT:

I was worried that I had a problem with my 10GB 4Kn drive on my 2008 based controller, but everything is working fine. My machine cleared/formatted and now is successfully using this drive in my Unraid array on my with a Dell H310 HBA flashed to IT mode (LSI SAS2008).
**************************************************************************************

I have a H310 flashed to IT mode and it appears to be working with a 4Kn drive in my Unraid server. I am in the middle of clearing and adding the drive to the server so I really havent had it do any work, but the clearing is working great:

Total size: 10 TB
Elapsed time: 12 hours, 6 minutes
Current position: 9.01 TB (90.1 %)
Estimated speed: 147.2 MB/sec
Estimated finish: 1 hour, 49 minutes

HBA info per server:
04:00.0 Serial Attached SCSI controller [0107]: Broadcom / LSI SAS2008 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2 [Falcon] [1000:0072] (rev 03)
Subsystem: Dell 6Gbps SAS HBA Adapter [1028:1f1c]
Kernel driver in use: mpt3sas
Kernel modules: mpt3sas

Drive info per server:
[8:0:6:0] disk HGST HUH721010AL4204 C386 /dev/sdn 10.0TB
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Vendor: HGST
Product: HUH721010AL4204
Revision: C386
Compliance: SPC-4
User Capacity: 10,000,831,348,736 bytes [10.0 TB]
Logical block size: 4096 bytes
LU is fully provisioned
Rotation Rate: 7200 rpm
Form Factor: 3.5 inches
Logical Unit id: 0x5000cca2510d76bc
Serial number: xxxxxxxxx
Device type: disk
Transport protocol: SAS (SPL-3)
Local Time is: Fri Apr 17 18:14:32 2020 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
Temperature Warning: Enabled
Read Cache is: Enabled
Writeback Cache is: Enabled

EDIT:
Drive finished clearing and then formatted to XFS and now added to array and working properly so far.

Hope this helps
 
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rojarrolla

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Apr 25, 2020
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Hi, I have a question, so even with a non flashed perc h310 it will be capable of handling drives larger than 8TB? Thx
 

Spartacus

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Spartacus

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If it works with drives over 2TB it'll work with any size.
I have the H310 flashed using 8TB drives and can attest they work in IT mode on version P20.
 
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Elmojo

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Apr 16, 2021
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EDIT:
I was worried that I had a problem with my 10GB 4Kn drive on my 2008 based controller, but everything is working fine. My machine cleared/formatted and now is successfully using this drive in my Unraid array on my with a Dell H310 HBA flashed to IT mode (LSI SAS2008).
Sorry to dig up this old thread, but I'm about to dive into this very pool, and I'm have a terrible time finding clear answers. This looks like it might be the clarification I'm looking for, if I'm reading it right...

So I have a Poweredge T420 with a PCIe H310. Do I understand correctly that if I flash it to IT mode, I shouldn't have any trouble running 4TB HGST Ultrastar 4Kn drives in unRAID?
Can I still use the 3.5" LFF backplane?
I've seen some mention of replacing something with some sort of cable, and that makes me nervous... ;)