Supermicro X10SL7-F LSI 2308 + RAID10 limit?

[BSDguy]

I'm currently using my Supermicro X10SL7-F based server as my SAN in my home lab. I currently have 4 Samsung SM863 480GB drives connected to the LSI 2308 SAS ports (with no RAID used).

What I am planning on doing is buying another 4 Samsung SM863a drives and connecting them to the other 4 SAS ports on the LSI 2308 and then creating a RAID 10 volume with all 8 drives.

While I was researching this I read somewhere that you could only use up to 4 drives in each RAID 10 array created on the LSI 2308, is this true?

Has anyone created a 8 disk RAID10 volume with this particular motherboard and the LSI 2308 controller?

Edit: I found this in the Supermicro manual but it only mentioned the minimum number of drives needed, not the maximum supported:

 

[whitey]

Should work no issues as far as I know.

 

[BSDguy]

Should work no issues as far as I know.

Should work or will work?

Also, where can I download the LSI MegaRAID software for the LSI 2308 to manage the RAID 10 volume and see if I have any failed drives? I seem to be battling to find it. Has it's name changed perhaps?

 

[whitey]

Will work, AKA I run LSI 2008/3008 HBA's w/ 8 disk raid10 all day long and have for years.

Not sure on your 2nd ?, I use my HBA's in IT mode and let ZFS do the rest of the 'magic'

 

[BSDguy]

Will work, AKA I run LSI 2008/3008 HBA's w/ 8 disk raid10 all day long and have for years.

Not sure on your 2nd ?, I use my HBA's in IT mode and let ZFS do the rest of the 'magic'

Ok thanks. I just want to male sure as the point of buying the drives is to have an 8 drive RAID 10 for my VMs.

My SAN is a Windows Server so I am looking for the software that you use to manage/view/monitor/etc the drives connected to the LSI 2308. It's been ages since I have used it but I think it is called LSI MegaRAID.

 

[K D]

I am using the board with Windows server and 12 drives. 8 from the LSI and 4 from the onboard SATA. No issues. It WILL work.

I don't use the Megaraid software but use Stablebit drivepool for pooling the drives as one big drive and use Stablebit scanner for drive monitoring. Awesome setup.

 

[BSDguy]

I am using the board with Windows server and 12 drives. 8 from the LSI and 4 from the onboard SATA. No issues. It WILL work.

I don't use the Megaraid software but use Stablebit drivepool for pooling the drives as one big drive and use Stablebit scanner for drive monitoring. Awesome setup.

Excellent, thank you! I assume you're using the IR firmware for the LSI 2308?

I've never heard of Stablebit drivepool. Is this a replacement for the LSI MegaRAID software?

 

[K D]

I am using it in IT mode. Stablebit is a drive pooling software that combines multiple drives and presents them as one drive to windows. It's great for media storage on windows as you can expand one drive at a time, mix different size drives and only the drive that has the data is accessed.

 

[whitey]

Based on @K D response and assuming that stablebit only allows data access off a single drive at a time if you are after performance I'd steer clear of that type of config, true raid10 all the way...for mass media/dump-zone and flexibility sounds like others are content with it though.

Guess what though I'd bet 99.9% sure that on a pool of ssd's whether it was 4 dev's or 8 you're gonna be pretty satisfied w/ performance and will very likely meet your needs. I've been through my 'bigger/faster/stronger' phase and realized that I was shooting for the moon and getting a bit overzealous when I had no 'real' bottleneck for my workload hah :-D

It's a sickness I tell ya...yet to be officially diagnosed

 

[BSDguy]

I am using it in IT mode. Stablebit is a drive pooling software that combines multiple drives and presents them as one drive to windows. It's great for media storage on windows as you can expand one drive at a time, mix different size drives and only the drive that has the data is accessed.

Oh ok. I don' think that answers my questions then. I am looking to use the LSI 2308 in IR mode so that I can use RAID10 to create a single volume from my 8 SSDs. So I am wanting to know if the LSI2308 supports 8 drives in RAID10 mode while using the IR firmware?

Based on @K D response and assuming that stablebit only allows data access off a single drive at a time if you are after performance I'd steer clear of that type of config, true raid10 all the way...for mass media/dump-zone and flexibility sounds like others are content with it though.

Guess what though I'd bet 99.9% sure that on a pool of ssd's whether it was 4 dev's or 8 you're gonna be pretty satisfied w/ performance and will very likely meet your needs. I've been through my 'bigger/faster/stronger' phase and realized that I was shooting for the moon and a getting a bit overzealous when I had no 'real' bottleneck for my workload hah :-D

It's a sickness I tell ya...yet to be officially diagnosed

I'm not familiar with stablebit at all but if it only allows accessing data off a single drive at a time then it is not the right solution for me.

I am looking to use 8 drives in a RAID10 configuration while using the SAS ports on the LSI2308 controllers running in IR mode.

Is this possible?

The Supermicro document I was reading said that RAID10 requires a MINIMUM of 4 drives to work which makes me ASSUME you can use 6 or 8 drives with RAID10. Then again, you know what they say about assumptions!