Support for SAS/SATA non-RAID adapters

[Freddie Cash]

2009/11/18 Gerrit Kühn <gerrit at pmp.uni-hannover.de>:
> On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:56:14 -0800 Freddie Cash <fjwcash at gmail.com> wrote
> about Re: Support for SAS/SATA non-RAID adapters:
>
> FC> > I installed a Supermicro AOC-USASLP-L8i card here some days ago.
> FC> > Should be even cheaper than the ones you mentioned and comes with a
> FC> > LSI chip supported by mpt driver:
>
> FC> > mpt0 at pci0:6:0:0:        class=0x010000 card=0xa68015d9
> FC> > chip=0x00581000 rev=0x08 hdr=0x00 vendor     = 'LSI Logic (Was:
> FC> > Symbios Logic, NCR)' device     = 'SAS 3000 series, 8-port with
> FC> > 1068E -StorPort' class      = mass storage
> FC> >    subclass   = SCSI
>
> FC> > I only installed it last week and cannot comment much on performance
> FC> > and stability up to now.
>
> FC> These look nice, and are in the $200-300 CDN range.  Have the same
> FC> mini-SAS connectors as the 3Ware cards we use, so wouldn't have to
> FC> re-cable the chassis.
>
> Hm, I don't know the recent exchange rate, but are you sure this is the
> same card? I paid something like 80,-€ (excl. VAT).

Oops, you're right, was reading the model numbers wrong.  The
LSI1068-based one is only $129 CDN, the Intel IOP-based ones are
$200-300 CDN.

Last time I checked the Euro was in the $1.50-2.00 CDN range.

> FC> Are you using these as standard disk controllers, or are you using the
> FC> RAID features (seems it supports RAID0 and RAID1 in hardware, RAID5 in
> FC> software)?  Reading through the manual right now, and it doesn't cover
> FC> using the card in non-RAID modes.  Wondering if the drives would show
> FC> up as normal da0 da1 da2 etc.
>
> I think my card does not have the raid features included, maybe that's why
> it was so cheap. The devices appear as normal scsi disks:
>
> dmesg:
> da0 at mpt0 bus 0 target 0 lun 0
> da0: <ATA WDC WD5001ABYS-0 1D01> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-5 device
> da0: 300.000MB/s transfers
> da0: Command Queueing enabled
> da0: 476940MB (976773168 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 60801C)
> [...]

Nice.  Thanks for the output.

> FC> All of these (there's a couple variations on the card) appear to be
> FC> PCIe, though, no PCI-X.  We have 24 drive bays, and only 2 PCIe slots.
> FC> Have 3 PCI-X slots, though, so would need at least 1 PCI-X
> FC> controller.
>
> I guess the version of the card I have here was actually intended to be
> used in some kind of special Supermirco-Extension Slot. However, it fits
> into a standard PCIe slot and works nicely there as far as I can tell.
> Do you have the opportunity of using a riser card that would give you one
> more slot?

Urgh, I have yet to find a riser card that will plug into a Tyan
motherboard and not cause issues.  Due to all the issues we've had
with riser cards in the past, we have sworn off all riser cards.  For
our 2U servers, we use low-profile cards to avoid risers.

I'll keep looking for a PCI-X card.  These look like they'll cover our
PCIe needs.

-- 
Freddie Cash
fjwcash at gmail.com