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Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2016 22:14:04 -0500
From: "Zane C. B-H." <vvelox@vvelox.net>
To: Mike Tancsa <mike@sentex.net>
Cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: mfi vs mps vs firmware images
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On 2015-01-12 16:30, Mike Tancsa wrote:
> I have been using a pair of LSI branded 9420-8si cards in my backup
> server on RELENG_10 since November 2014 (firmware from Oct 2014 off
> the LSI site) and so far so good. However, a number of other users
> have warned me not to use the mfi driver, and stick with the MPS
> driver and some older versions of the firmware aimed at an IBM m1015.
> I use the cards for zfs and to expose the disks individually through
> cam with the mfip module and so far so good.
> However, folks over on the FreeNAS forum are convinced I am flirting
> with data loss using the supposed disastrous mfi driver/firmware
> combo.  Can anyone shed light  on the state of these cards and how
> best to use them ? I havent really seen anything on the FreeBSD lists
> in the past year indicating serious issues, but then again, I only
> started using these cards since Novmeber of last year.
> 
> I do zfs scrubs every month and they have yet to show errors on my
> 32TB pool. (a number of raidz2s)

Hoi chummer,

It is worth noting that these are both two very different beasts.

The MFI does not give you direct access to the drives. You have to setup
actual RAID arrays with it. If you are using ZFS, this is likely not 
what
you are wanting to do.

The MPS version allows you to talk to the actual drives and just a 
simple
HBA. This makes stuff like gmirror and ZFS work nicely with it.

Personally I hate the MegaRAID MFI drek and it is one of my least 
favorite
things about Dells after their buggy FW updater...