8-port hardware RAID under Windows 7, /w 8TB drives

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meatling

Weaksauce
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May 14, 2011
Messages
98
Hi,

I need some advice for updating my computer.

I've been using a Supermicro X10SAE "Workstation" (Xeon E3 with 32GB ECC RAM) under Windows 7 for several years now, with an LSI 9211-8i (IR) card as a RAID controller.

This has worked brilliantly, until I decided to replace my 1TB hard disks with 8TB drives, with which the controller doesn't work so brilliantly anymore. To wit, the initialization hangs at 17%.

Since I read that the 9211-8i IR relies on, and writes into, the drives' MBR, I have a hunch that updating the LSI controller's RAID firmware to a newer version wouldn't help, or would it? What do I do now?

If there's a chance that a firmware update would do the trick, then of course I'd prefer that. If that's a fool's errand that only risks data loss and a bricked computer, the obvious solution seems to be a RAID controller that can handle drives with 8+ TB. Is there anything to be recommended there?

Thanks
 
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The 9211-8i can do 8TB drives Broadcom’s compatibility shows several 8TB drives in the list: https://docs.broadcom.com/docs/IT-SAS-Gen2.5CompatibilityList

So its possible a fw update is needed (on the drive and/or raid controller possibly). Otherwise it might be a drive incompatibility, you never mentioned the drive brand/model, or speed.

Additional note: I’m using a H310 in it-mode which is a branded 9211-8i with the WD shucked 8tb drives myself.
 
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Spartacus09 said:
The 9211-8i can do 8TB drives Broadcom’s compatibility shows several 8TB drives in the list: https://docs.broadcom.com/docs/IT-SAS-Gen2.5CompatibilityList
Click to expand...

Thank you for that find. However, the document's headline ("Report for IT SAS Gen 2.5 Controllers") suggests that it refers to the IT (i.e. non-RAID) versions of the listed controllers. I suspect the difference might be crucial.

My drives' brand/model is ST8000NE0004 (Seagate IronWolf Pro)

Thanks again
 
Just a hunch, but could it be an issue with 512 byte vs 4KB sectors? If the controller is expecting 512 bytes and getting 4096, it could be overflowing a buffer. A firmware update would likely fix that.
 
ryan_975 said:
A firmware update would likely fix that.
Click to expand...

We will find out :D I just did take the plunge and updated to P20, the latest firmware version that I know of.

First thing to notice was that the controller reassigned my slot numbers: instead of 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7 it's now 3,2,1,0,7,6,5,4. I'm sure it was well-intentioned.

I'll have to wait whether the initialization will be stuck at 17% (currently at 1%) -- I'll keep you posted.
 
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meatling said:
I'll have to wait whether the initialization will be stuck at 17% (currently at 1%) -- I'll keep you posted.
Click to expand...

Following up on that, it seems that a firmware update really did the trick. Initialization progress passed 20%, and the drives are still permanently busy.
 
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