EU UK Cheap Fusion-io £150 3.2TB and £400 6.4TB PCI-e SSDs

[alex_stief]

Seems to be a known problem that at least Debian 10/Proxmox 6 and probably a 5.0<= Kernel in general do not work.

For real? I was planning to use this in my main workstation. Since I upgrade CPUs from time to time, a recent kernel is required sometimes.
Using OpenSUSE.

 

[lukts30]

At least all officially supported Linux Distribution are not using a 5.0 Kernel (since the newest driver dates to the 12th September 2018). We all probably know that the Kernel has no stable ABI and because of that all out of tree drivers will eventfully break. I am also quiet unhappy since my intention was to use them on my proxmox 6 machine.

 

[acquacow]

is someone else using a modern Linux kernel and got the drivers compiling ?

There are source RPM packages for the VSL for the 4.x kernels, but mostly in fedora.

You can use rpmbuild there to rebuild them against your current kernel-headers and kernel-devel

 

[lukts30]

4.x kernels work because the source code was crafted to target that ABI. But as i said the Kernel ABI is not stable (functions were at least renamed/removed) so this proprietary kernel driver would need changes to work with a 5.x kernel which Proxmox 6 uses. Replacing this inbox kernel with an older 4.x is not an option for me.

 

[Fairlight]

Great news - thanks @acquacow - I really appreciate the replies.

So I have ordered one of the 3.2TB grade B's to see what its like. Clearly I need this card for my ESXi estate which currently comprises of an enormous 14 VMs,... I don't know how I coped without one (seriously though it will get a lot bigger but the card will probably still be asleep).....

Thanks @YardBouncer for the thread! they should give you a free card just for all the revenue you have generated for that site!

Now I just need 40GE switch, I am thinking one of those ICX6610's but I was originally going for the Arista DCS-7050QX-32-F? (I had saved up for it for a while), the ICX6610 makes more sense but I didn't think there was room for sense in this hobby, only complete overkill and thus the Arista falls into that bracket quite well, like the 200mph tank.

 

[alex_stief]

At least all officially supported Linux Distribution are not using a 5.0 Kernel (since the newest driver dates to the 12th September 2018). We all probably know that the Kernel has no stable ABI and because of that all out of tree drivers will eventfully break.

Let's assume for a second that I have no clue about most of the things you mentioned here. ABI...out of tree...
I'm a linux user, not a developer.
So realistically, what are the odds that someone gets these cards to cooperate with a modern linux kernel, or vice-versa. And then can explain the steps necessary so dummies like me can follow in their footsteps.

 

[i386]

ABI = application binary interface (Application binary interface - Wikipedia)
out of tree = drivers that are not part of the linux kernel

 

[xexe]

Can sm1 link where to get drivers for win? Found drivers see attachment if sm1 needs.
Is there any utility with GUI? Link - choose IoSphere
Got nice drives, first:
PBW Endurance Rating: 20 PB
PBW Used: 0.138 PB
Second:
PBW Endurance Rating: 20 PB
PBW Used: 4.798 PB

 

[acquacow]

Found drivers see attachment if sm1 needs.

No need to post attachments. The drivers are all on link.sandisk.com

 

[RedX1]

Hi

For those interested in making this SanDisk Fusion IoScale card work with Proxmox this thread might be worth a look.


[TUTORIAL] - Configuring Fusion-Io (SanDisk) ioDrive, ioDrive2, ioScale and ioScale2 cards with Proxmox




I have not yet had time to investigate furthr, but this was last edited on August 8.





Have Fun





RedX1

 

[lukts30]

So the official provided package "iomemory-vsl-3.2.16/" only works with a kernel up to 4.16.18. The releases after that are not working out of the box.
With the 4.17 release there was a minor function rename but essential you can just rename the referenced function in the driver source files and get a working kmodule for 4.17.xx .
block: Introduce blk_queue_flag_{set,clear,test_and_{set,clear}}()

4.18 again broke something by unexporting a function used by the driver. This change was even done by western digital employees
block: unexport elevator_init/exit

This goes on with every release ...


But apparently somebody maintains a modified version on github and he reported some progress to get it working on a 5.x kernel.

Failing to compile on Fedora 29 (5.0.13-200) · Issue #42 · snuf/iomemory-vsl
Failing to compile on Fedora 29 (5.0.13-200) #42

 

[alex_stief]

Finally got around to testing mine on a Windows machine. It has 82% of endurance left.
For some unknown reason, ioSphere refuses to update the firmware, informing me that an upgrade from the current firmware version is "not allowed"

 

[acquacow]

Ditch ioSphere and just use fio-update-iodrive, it should be more verbose as well.

ioSphere isn't needed for anything.

 

[zeynel]

Great news - thanks @acquacow - I really appreciate the replies.

So I have ordered one of the 3.2TB grade B's to see what its like. Clearly I need this card for my ESXi estate which currently comprises of an enormous 14 VMs,... I don't know how I coped without one (seriously though it will get a lot bigger but the card will probably still be asleep).....

Thanks @YardBouncer for the thread! they should give you a free card just for all the revenue you have generated for that site!

Now I just need 40GE switch, I am thinking one of those ICX6610's but I was originally going for the Arista DCS-7050QX-32-F? (I had saved up for it for a while), the ICX6610 makes more sense but I didn't think there was room for sense in this hobby, only complete overkill and thus the Arista falls into that bracket quite well, like the 200mph tank.

quick question,

did the drive work with ESXi ? version?

Thanks in forward.

 

[acquacow]

quick question,

did the drive work with ESXi ? version?

Thanks in forward.

Yeah, works just fine with everything up to 6.5, I haven't tried anything newer yet.

 

[alex_stief]

Shameless plug of my "uhmmm...what do I do now" thread. Any help is appreciated.
https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...usionio-sx300-6400-running-on-opensuse.25842/

 

[DouglasteR]

Requesting some help with mine that FINALLY arrived after some customs fighting. @acquacow @YardBouncer

Installed just fine, volume appeared in Windows 10 and everything is ok.

BUT

After rebooting, Windows logs in and then BSOD with system exception and then resets iteself.

If i let the Ioscale check itself, then the pc enter in loop mode, BSODing as soon as i log in.

But if i cancel the auto check feature, i can enter and use the PC just fine, but obviously the volume from the IoScale isn't there.

If i "re-attach" it from the iosphere management page, it works just fine, but if i reboot the problem returns !!

Anyone can guess what could this be ? Already tried the 3.2.15 and 3.2.14 drivers.

The Motherboard is a Asrock Extreme 4 Z370.

This is the fio-status result:

Thanks for the help !

 

[acquacow]

You aren't running HWinfo at boot are you? The only incompatibility I've had is scanning hardware with HWINFO, it causes the VSL driver to bluescreen.

What size drive, and how much memory do you have in the system?

 

[DouglasteR]

You aren't running HWinfo at boot are you? The only incompatibility I've had is scanning hardware with HWINFO, it causes the VSL driver to bluescreen.

What size drive, and how much memory do you have in the system?

HWinfo ? No. I use SIV64X and Goverlay (small LCD to display health telemetry).

3.2TB - 16GB normally with 9GB in use.

Thanks for the flash reply !

 

[acquacow]

I'd disable anything you have that pulls drive temps/etc that might run at startup and see if that fixes it.