Supermicro SC847 host adapters for software raid?

[Martin Reczko]

Dear all,

can someone point me to HBAs compatible with
Supermicros 36 bay SC847E2-R1400LPB
(and the 16 bay SC936E26-R1200) chassis.

More specifically, we'd like to configure software RAID
with SATA disks and Linux.

 

[sethk]

You need something like the LSI 9211-8i, assuming this is a server with a motherboard it it (as opposed to a headless DAS box) - http://www.lsi.com/products/host-bus-adapters/pages/lsi-sas-9211-8i.aspx

The chassis has 2 x SFF 8087 internal connectors (4 x SAS or SATA on each) and then uses a SAS expander to run all the bays. I have used various LSI cards in that family to drive SuperMicro storage enclosures in DAS mode and it has been problem free.

 

[Martin Reczko]

Thanks for sharing your config.
As we'd go for software RAID, is it true that the LSI 9211-8i
has to be flashed to the IT mode (JBOD, as described in
http://linustechtips.com/main/topic...card-to-it-mode-for-zfssoftware-raid-tutorial) ?
Would the LSI 9207-8i (shipped with IT firmware) also work?

 

[thatoneuser]

You can use SW RAID in both IT and IR mode, but it's usually recommended to flash it to IT mode as there would be some overhead if you leave it in IR mode. You can either flash from IR to IT, or buy a card that is shipped with IT.