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IBM 46M0907 SAS HBA controller

A

allantab

n00b
Joined
Aug 1, 2009
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Hey all, has anyone used the IBM 46M0907 SAS HBA controller? (around $200) It has four SFF-8087 internal ports, plus one SFF-8088 port, and the card uses a x8 PCIe connection. Since it has 4 SFF-8087 ports, I was thinking of using it as an alternative to Supermicro's AOC-SASLP-MV8, where it would take only one PCIe x8 slot, versus two for using two Supermicro cards (for another Norco RPC-4220 or RPC-4224 build)

It is based on the LSI SAS2008 controller, so it seems identical to the LSI SAS 9201-16i card which is around $400.

http://www.provantage.com/ibm-46m0907~7IBSR25F.htm
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/tips0776.html
 
That is one nice looking card, at a very nice price.

Should be IT only, perfect for a ZFS build.

Tempted to buy and try what it can do...
 
adapter with one external x4 SFF-8088 connector and four internal SATA connectors.
Click to expand...
This card has only 4 internal SATA ports and not 4 MiniSAS 4i ports.
 
Good catch reddi. Ohh well, it was too good to be true :)
 
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LSI SAS 9212-4i4e

Its a rebranded LSI SAS 9212-4i4e, looks exacly the same.
 
The LSI SAS2008 (which the IBM 46M0907 SAS HBA controller is based on) only has a total of 8 ports. So without an on-board expander or some sort of switching mechanism, any HBA based on this controller will only be able to support a total of 8 SATA/SAS ports directly (e.g. 8 external or 4 external and 4 internal or 8 internal)!
 
The documentation at IBM's website, as well as Newegg's site says it has four SFF-8087 internal ports. That's why I'm wondering if anyone was using it. Also was wondering since the big HP SAS expander, thread says any LSI SAS2008 based HBA controler should work with the expander, it may be a good option. At the moment, I have two AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards in a RPC-4220 [my primary file server], and am getting a 2nd Norco, RPC-4224 [six SFF-8087 ports for backplane], so looking at options to get more SFF-8077 ports on one single HBA card (whether this IBM [LSI SAS2008] card, AOC-SASLP, etc, HP SAS Expander because of PCIe x4 or x16 slots on the various new P67 motherboards I'm looking at. This will be my main workstation case also.

The specs also say, besides four SFF-8087 ports, it would support 512 end SAS or SATA devices.

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/tips0776.html
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816145017


The IBM 6 Gb SAS Host Bus Adapter has the following specifications:
Four internal SAS x1 connectors (SFF-8087)
One external SAS x4 connector (SFF-8088)
PCI Express x8 2.0 host interface
SAS Controller: LSI SAS2008
6 Gbps per port data transfer rate
MD2 small form factor
High performance I/O Processor: PowerPC 440 @ 533 MHz
uEFI support
RAID levels : None (uses RAID as provided by external disk enclosures)
Maximum endpoint devices: 512
Power consumption: 13.5 W
 
@allantab: If you look closely at the picture on IBM's website, you will notice that those 4 internal ports are NOT SFF-8087 sockets. Each has 7 contacts just like a standard SATA port. Also the specs state that there are 4 SFF-8087 x 1 ports on the HBA!
A standard SFF-8087 port has 4 lanes!
So this car will actually give you LESS internal ports than the SM AOC-SASLP-MV8 card.
 
keep an eye on ebay for IBM ServeRAID M1015. Can drive JBODs, RAID0 and RAID1 and works with expanders, and for past few weeks had been going for less than $100 at least until I posted about it here a week or two ago (maybe coincidence - but I doubt it). SAS2008 under the hood. Avoid sellers outside of the U.S. (Malaysia, etc).

M1015 is equivalent to $300 LSI 9240-8i except missing RAID5 ability which can be upgraded with software unlock. Does not have an IT mode firmware option like 9211-8i cards, but light raid stack (iMR) doesn't appear to impact ZFS or host based raid performance compared to a 9211-8i with IT mode firmware. Works fine in Windows, Solaris, FreeBSD, etc using 9240-8i drivers and firmware from LSI's site. Presents harddisks as JBOD by default with no configuration required.

I'm working on a more formal write-up with testing data and compatibility info (so far no probs with HP SAS Expander).
 
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@treadstone Yes you are right, at least according to the picture, they look like regular SATA ports versus SFF-8087 sockets. And I misread the documentation, the x1 port must mean regular SATA ports, versus the standard x4 SFF-8077 miniSAS ports. Thanks to everybody on the thread for double checking for me.

@odditory Just checked the M1015 -- unfortunately I was looking for a cheap (sub $250) HBA card with four SFF-8087 ports, as the M1015 has two. I already have two AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards in my first Norco case.

My second Norco case will be my main workstation, Sandy Bridge style, and most P67 motherboards have two or three PCIe x16 slots. I'll be using two video cards (GTX 285 and 9800GT), so that occupies two x16 slots (unfortunately it will be x8 electrical). Some have a third x16 slot that may be x4 electrically that I was thinking of using another AOC-SASLP-MV8 card (or another newer variant of the card), but the vast majority of P67 mobos only have those three PCIE slots, with the exception of very expensive mobos that use a NF200 bridge or the LucidLogic bridge chip that "give" additional PCIe lanes, and will probably have four or more PCIe x16 physical slots. So that's my limitation --- either

1a) get a expensive P67 mobo (say Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7) with 4+ PCIe x16 slots and use say a HP SAS Expander in the 4th or higher x16 PCIe physical slot. [the MSI Big Bang Marshall has 8 of those slots, but to my knowledge is some other ATX variant that wouldn't fit in the Norco RPC-4224 case]

2) get some LSI or Highpoint or Areca card with at least four SFF-8087 x4 ports for that precious remaining 3rd physical x16 slot
3) use AOC-SASLP-xxx variant and a Chenbro SAS expander like the CK13601 or CK12804 which can be powered by a molex connection, no PCIe slot required. I won't have a 4th physical x16 slot to host the HP SAS Expander which requires an x4 slot for power according to *excellent thread* from Odditory.
 
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