+1 for LSI/Broadcom/Arago/whatever they're called these days.In general, I like LSI Logic = Broadcom = Arago. Part numbers are for example 92xx and 93xx.
# mpsutil show adapter
mps0 Adapter:
Board Name: SAS9207-8i
Board Assembly: H3-25412-00K
Chip Name: LSISAS2308
Chip Revision: ALL
BIOS Revision: 7.39.00.00
Firmware Revision: 20.00.02.00
Integrated RAID: no
PhyNum CtlrHandle DevHandle Disabled Speed Min Max Device
0 0001 0009 N 6.0 1.5 6.0 SAS Initiator
1 0002 000a N 6.0 1.5 6.0 SAS Initiator
2 0003 000b N 6.0 1.5 6.0 SAS Initiator
3 0004 000c N 6.0 1.5 6.0 SAS Initiator
4 0005 000d N 6.0 1.5 6.0 SAS Initiator
5 0006 000e N 6.0 1.5 6.0 SAS Initiator
6 0007 000f N 6.0 1.5 6.0 SAS Initiator
7 N 1.5 6.0 SAS Initiator
Sure, but the 12 disk drives will cost you about $4000, so $200 to hook them up reliably doesn't seem out of line.Times 2 channels or Times 4 channels could be up to $200 in cables if doing >12 drives.
Yes and no. At the drive level, SAS 4.0 connectors are compatible with the existing drive connectors, but they also have extra contacts. So you can take a SAS 4.0 disk drive and connect it to a SAS 3.0 cable, and it will work at 3.0 speeds. I don't know what the HBA vendors will do though.Does SAS4 use the same connectors? That would be a cincher. It is on the horizon,.
Never tried one. Supermicro has had a series of espionage / data breach scandals (whether real or staged is an interesting question, and not all of them have been public knowledge), and for that reason I haven't used any Supermicro boards in about 5 years. Which is sad, because they used to make really good hardware that was a joy to use.Has anyone had any success with the Intel SCU ports built on lots of Supermicro server motherboards?
I've done that for myself (2 cards). One was Chinese IBM M5014/M5015 (I assume knockoff) to 'generic' LSI 9660-8i. Difference remained, twice less onboard RAM on card, compared to real LSI card. Otherwise it worked splendidly until I switched to SSD's and sold it. Flashing was required to get around OEM vendor-lock for disks. It only recognized IBM disks until I flashed it. After flashing I even used Dell's (originally fiberoptic Advanced Format I had converted to 512b/s format - FreeBSD ports has sg3_utils if any of you ever needs to do smth like this too) SAS drive in array without problems.My only caution with the LSI/Avago/Broadcom cards is there are so many versions.
I recently had troubles with SAS9440 tri-mode card bought off ebay as Lenovo version.
So I wondered if I got someones bad flash card as it didn't seem to work.
Liked the card so i purchased a brand new 'Intel Storage Controller' that is their version of the LSI SAS9440
Found out that the Intel cards use a different VID/PID and are not supported on FreeBSD.
I could maybe hack these pcidevs in but I don't care to. Intel does not support FreeBSD with drivers.
So I recommend you stick with a Retail LSI/Avago/Broadcom card. I would stay away from the SAS94xx cards.
Newegg or similar. Not ebay.
There is a whole cottage industry around flashing LSI cards firmware. Buy a cheap OEM LSI and flash it to "IT" mode.
I have done lots of it in the past but the tools for flashing keep changing. The latest require EFI magic.
I recommend Retail SAS9305-16i for 16 internal ports.