Dell 6/i sas controller success

just wanted to let everyone know I dropped one of these into my server and so far so good.  Latest beta of unraid.

My concern is that the perc 6 is an Lsi based card. You will probably have drives redball on spin-up. I'd test that feature. You might need to roll back to 12.

My concern is that the perc 6 is an Lsi based card. You will probably have drives redball on spin-up. I'd test that feature. You might need to roll back to 12.

Cheers for the heads up, I haven't been using the spin down feature.

Any updates on this?  Its a cheap card ($30) and i got a free one from a server pull.  I dont want to spend $40-60 on cable to convert it to 8 sata cards If there is better options.

Be aware that the Dell PERC 6i does not support drives larger than 2TB.

Sorry, I hadn't heard about the 4k sector support.

Be aware that the Dell PERC 6i does not support drives larger than 2TB.

I thought it supported over 2tb if the drive was the current style 4kb formating, and not the older 512?

http://www.hgst.com/avl/src_front/compatibility.php?mode=product_pdf&pid=2〈=en

hgst 4tb is on the approved list for the LSI SAS3081E-R with 2011 firmware.

It's a 1068 chip and I've never seen any report that this chips will support drives >2.2TB.

With regard to the 3081E-R

The Hitachi drives are supported, but they don't tell how much of that drives capacity will be

usable! 

Nooooo, its sas drives that support 3-4tb with the 13 series firmware, and only some....

Eh guess ill find out when the cables come.  Still i have 5 onboard headers, and only 2 3tb drives, ill just go 2tb crazy.

Be aware that the Dell PERC 6i does not support drives larger than 2TB.

 

I thought it supported over 2tb if the drive was the current style 4kb formating, and not the older 512?

 

http://www.hgst.com/avl/src_front/compatibility.php?mode=product_pdf&pid=2〈=en

 

hgst 4tb is on the approved list for the LSI SAS3081E-R with 2011 firmware.

Sorry, I hadn't heard about the 4k sector support.

I for the life of me can not get this thing to flash.  Ive tried sasflash is dos, windows 7 (32 and 64 bit) and efi.  Everytime sasflash says it cant find the card.

The card posts fine, and bios sees it, and windows loads the driver for it, but sasflash is doomed to never see it.  Ive tried flashing the card in 3 systems.

From the OP i thouhgt it would work without any flashing!? 

From the OP i thouhgt it would work without any flashing!? 

ALL LSI cards need flashed to IT mode so unraid can "see" the hard drives.  They all come preflashed with the raid firmware (IR mode).

 

ALL LSI cards need flashed to IT mode so unraid can "see" the hard drives.  They all come preflashed with the raid firmware (IR mode).

Simple untrue.

The popular LSI SAS2008 based 9210/9211 is available in both IT and IR firmware. Here is a comparison chart from Newegg.

IR version http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118112

IT version http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118116

The reason there is so much flashing going on is the OEM versions of these cards, which are pulled out of servers, and sold cheaply. Those cards are often running IR firmware. But again, they do not have to be running IR.

 

ALL LSI cards need flashed to IT mode so unraid can "see" the hard drives.  They all come preflashed with the raid firmware (IR mode).

 

Simple untrue.

 

The popular LSI SAS2008 based 9210/9211 is available in both IT and IR firmware. Here is a comparison chart from Newegg.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006519%2050001833%2040000410%208000&IsNodeId=1&Manufactory=1833&bop=And&CompareItemList=410|16-118-114^16-118-114-TS%2C16-118-112^16-118-112-TS&percm=16-118-114%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24%3B16-118-112%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24

 

The reason there is so much flashing going on is the OEM versions of these cards, which are pulled out of servers, and sold cheaply. Those cards are often running IR firmware. But again, they do not have to be running IR.

Your link sends me to the 9211-4i and 8i.  Their firmware still needs to be flashed to IT or IR before put into use(or at least updated).  And at least the sas2008 still gets updates, i think the latest is sep 2014.

Are you saying that LSI RAID cards come preflashed in IT mode, and you have to flash them to IR mode before using it for raid?

Yeah, that was a not so good link, I was trying to show the two models available from LSI. One has IT firmware, the other has IR. If you purchase the correct card, no flashing is required. Direct from LSI, the IT cards are cheaper. But since most cards are server pulls, they are IR and for unRAID need to be converted to IT.

unRAID likes IT.

LSI sells RAID cards and HBA.

I'm not sure if they ship everything with IR firmware and let the customer

flash to IT if necessary. I wouldn't expect that.

While HBA's can have IR or IT firmware, the RAID cards "usually" don't have

IT firmware. (Maybe unofficial crossflash)