LSI 9240-4i 4K alignment

[Don Lewis]

On 16 Aug, Steven Hartland wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "George Kontostanos" <gkontos.mail at gmail.com>
>  
>> You are right, the chip specs say: LSISAS2108 RAID-on-Chip
>> 
>> The drives are identified as mfisyspd0, mfisyspd1, etc.
> 
> The following might be interesting to you:-
> http://forums.servethehome.com/showthread.php?599-LSI-RAID-Controller-and-HBA-Complete-Listing-Plus-OEM-Models
> 
> Which states:-
> LSI MegaRAID SAS 9240-4i 1x4 port internal SAS vertical,
> no cache, no BBU, RAID 0, 1, 10 and 5, can be crossflashed
> to LSI9211 IT/IR
> 
> This is insteresting as this is the card we're using but
> in the 8 port version under mps :)

I wish I would have known this earlier.  I just put together a ZFS
server using LSI MegaRAID SAS 9240-8i cards.  The cabling probably would
have been cleaner with the 9211-8i, but I went with the 9240 because the
vendor that I purchased the cards from listed that 9240 as being
PCI-Express 2.0, but didn't say that about the 9211.  I also got the
impression that the 9240 recognized JBOD drives with the off-the-shelf
firmware, whereas the 9211 did not.

Even LSI's own site is a bit confusing.  They list the 9211 in the HBA
section, but its specs don't mention JBOD, whereas the 9240 is listed in
the RAID section and its specs do list JBOD.  If the only physical
difference between the cards is the connector position, it seems odd
that they don't offer products with all the combinations of firmware and
connector position.

I haven't configured the ZFS pool yet, but I didn't have any trouble
installing FreeBSD 9.1-BETA on the GPT partitioned boot drive, which
shows up as an mfi device.  I'm planning on getting the ZFS pool up and
running in the next few days.