sanity check: is 9211-8i, on 8.3, with IT firmware still "the one"

[Rich]

The 92xx can be flashed with the IT firmware to just be a dumb SAS
controller, which includes just being a dumb SATA over SAS controller.
:)

I should just point out that the firmware for the 9211/9200 is up to
12.0.0.0 at the moment.

- Rich

On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 11:57 PM, Freddie Cash <fjwcash at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jan 19, 2012 8:54 PM, "John Kozubik" <john at kozubik.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Hi Freddie,
>>
>>
>> On Thu, 19 Jan 2012, Freddie Cash wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 4:08 PM, John Kozubik <john at kozubik.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> We're about to invest heavily in a new ZFS infrastructure, and our
> plans are
>>>> to:
>>>>
>>>> - wait for 8.3, with the updated 6gbps mps driver
>>>> - Install and use LSI 9211-8i cards with newest "IT" firmware
>>>>
>>>> This appears to be the de facto standard for ZFS HBAs ...
>>>>
>>>> Is there any reason to consider other cards/vendors ?
>>>
>>>
>>> We're using the SuperMicro AOC-USAS2-L8i controllers with great
>>> success, via the mps driver in 8.2-STABLE (originally, when we
>>> installed the box), now running 9.0-RELEASE.  WIth the 9.0 IT
>>> firmware.  Haven't tried the 10.0 firmware yet.
>>>
>>> We're currently only using ZFS for storing backups (compression,
>>> dedupe, and snapshots are perfect for this).  But we have plans to use
>>> similar hardware as these boxes as SAN/NAS boxes for VM servers.
>>
>>
>>
>> Is the AOC-USAS2-L8i *actually* identical to the 9211-8i, or is it a
> different implementation of the same chipset ?
>
> They're both using the LSI2008 chipset.
>
> Isn't the 9200 a RAID controller that can be flashed with the IT firmware
> to turn it into a 'dumb' SATA controller?  The USAS2 is just a SATA
> controller. No onboard RAM, no BBU, no frills.
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