SAS2208 Initiator Target firmware?

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xnoodle

Active Member
Jan 4, 2011
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IBM M5120 (aka LSI 9285CV-8e)

Bought a M5120 to play with. Does SAS2208 IT firmware exist for this, or is IR the only flavor floating around?

Have it working on one of my C6100 nodes running FreeBSD 8.3-RELEASE-p5 (aka FreeNAS).

Notes so far:

Cache addon requirement is not optional.



Can be managed using the typical MegaCli stack.

edit: changed title around
 
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dba

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Feb 20, 2012
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I believe that only the HBAs have a choice of firmware. The 2208 has only the RAID firmware.

Let everyone know if the M5120 works in a non-IBM machine, how much cache it has, etc. The prices on those seem to be very reasonable - around $270. If they perform like a normal LSI 2208, that is a bargain.

Bought a M5120 to play with. Does SAS2208 IT firmware exist for this, or is IR the only flavor floating around?
 

xnoodle

Active Member
Jan 4, 2011
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I believe that only the HBAs have a choice of firmware. The 2208 has only the RAID firmware.

Let everyone know if the M5120 works in a non-IBM machine, how much cache it has, etc. The prices on those seem to be very reasonable - around $270. If they perform like a normal LSI 2208, that is a bargain.
The cache modules are required unfortunately,which raises the price a bit.

Worked just fine in my non-IBM C6100 :) Managed it via the normal MegaCli tool. Flashed the LSI firmware on there too without a problem.
 

mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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New Zealand
IBM will have crippled the M5120 with features that are going to need keys to unlock adding more cost and hence them seeming cheap to start with.
I think even the cache is upgradeable, from Zero to 1GB, depending on which feature you get
But if you don't need any features not already then cheaper way to go.


M5120 being a MegaRAID controller = no IT mode, not even an IR mode.
It does how ever do proper HW RAID and with a tweak you can enable JBOD (passthrough), which also bypasses the cache.
 

xnoodle

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Jan 4, 2011
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What tweak is that mobilenvidia? (and can someone change the thread title to "IBM M5120 (aka LSI 9285CV-8e)"

I was unable to get the card working without the cache module.
 

mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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Grab your self MegaCLi
Windows version run as 'Administrator' !!

megacli -adpsetprop -enablejbod -1 -a0

Reboot (it may work without, not certain)
JBOD = enabled
Works on my M5016

I've not tested the M5016 with no cache

MegaCli -AdpSetProp -EnableJBOD -val -aN|-a0,1,2|-aALL
val - 0=Disable JBOD mode.
1=Enable JBOD mode.
More info:

Important: The ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller ships standard without a cache. One of the
available cache upgrades (81Y4484, 81Y4487, or 81Y4559) is required for the M5120 adapter
operations, and it must be purchased together with the controller.
Description Part number Feature code
ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller for IBM System x® 81Y4478 A1WX
ServeRAID M5100 Series 512MB Cache/RAID 5 Upgrade for IBM System x 81Y4484 A1J3
ServeRAID M5100 Series 512MB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade for IBM System x 81Y4487 A1J4
ServeRAID M5100 Series 1GB Flash/RAID 5 Upgrade for IBM System x 81Y4559 A1WY
ServeRAID M5100 Series Battery Kit for IBM System x 81Y4508 A22E
ServeRAID M5100 Series RAID 6 Upgrade for IBM System x 81Y4546 A1X3
ServeRAID M5100 Series SSD Performance Accelerator for IBM System x 90Y4273 A2MC
ServeRAID M5100 Series SSD Caching Enabler for IBM System x 90Y4318 A2MD
Actual title won't change anymore
 
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Yarik Dot

Active Member
Apr 13, 2015
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I was testing JBOD mode last week and I found out it behaves strange. I put 1 ok and 1 failed drive to the server, switched to jbod mode, created mdadm array and let is sync. The goal was to let mdadm kick off the failed drive. Unfortunately, since one moment all readings/writings on failed drive thrown errors, disk didn't respond to anything, but LSI marked them as good and mdadm didn't kick the failed drive from the array. Result: completely stuck system, which had to be rebooted.