From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Oct 13 10:16:05 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2F5991065718 for ; Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:16:05 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from ohartman@zedat.fu-berlin.de) Received: from outpost1.zedat.fu-berlin.de (outpost1.zedat.fu-berlin.de [130.133.4.66]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E1A6B8FC0A for ; Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:16:04 +0000 (UTC) Received: from inpost2.zedat.fu-berlin.de ([130.133.4.69]) by outpost1.zedat.fu-berlin.de (Exim 4.69) with esmtp (envelope-from ) id <1REIKa-00061v-1L>; Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:16:04 +0200 Received: from telesto.geoinf.fu-berlin.de ([130.133.86.198]) by inpost2.zedat.fu-berlin.de (Exim 4.69) with esmtpsa (envelope-from ) id <1REIKZ-0006Tq-Ve>; Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:16:04 +0200 Message-ID: <4E96BA63.3040001@zedat.fu-berlin.de> Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:16:03 +0200 From: "O. Hartmann" Organization: Freie =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Universit=E4t_Berlin?= User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20111003 Thunderbird/7.0.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Originating-IP: 130.133.86.198 Cc: Subject: Dell Poweredge 1950 III (PE_SC3): replacement SAS controller to acceess drives >= 3TB X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:16:05 -0000 Hello out there. We run a Dell PowerEdge 950 III (PE_SC3) Server with FreeBSD 8.2-STABLE. This Server is equipted with a SAS controller, residing, as far as I could observe, on a PCIe slot. Its kernel message is: mpt0: port 0xec00-0xecff mem 0xfc4fc000-0xfc4fffff,0xfc4e0000-0xfc4effff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci1 mpt0: [ITHREAD] mpt0: MPI Version=1.5.14.0 mpt0: Capabilities: ( RAID-0 RAID-1E RAID-1 ) mpt0: 0 Active Volumes (2 Max) mpt0: 0 Hidden Drive Members (14 Max) The pciconf -lcv output is as: mpt0@pci0:1:0:0: class=0x010000 card=0x1f101028 chip=0x00581000 rev=0x08 hdr=0x00 vendor = 'LSI Logic (Was: Symbios Logic, NCR)' device = 'SAS 3000 series, 8-port with 1068E -StorPort' class = mass storage subclass = SCSI cap 01[50] = powerspec 2 supports D0 D1 D2 D3 current D0 cap 10[68] = PCI-Express 1 endpoint max data 256(4096) link x4(x8) cap 05[98] = MSI supports 1 message, 64 bit cap 11[b0] = MSI-X supports 1 message in map 0x14 enabled ecap 0001[100] = AER 1 0 fatal 0 non-fatal 0 corrected This controller obviously isn't capable of handling 3TB harddrives and I need it to be replaced - but I do not know what type and brand of controller is suitbale for the Dell PowerEdge III. We already contacted our support, but they rejected support, since the BIOS of this server isn't capable of booting off 3 TB harddrives due to the 32bit limitations. Well, I need the controller to attach 3 and 4 TB drives, we still boot off from legacy BIOS capable < 2,2 TB drives, so I see no issue to replace the SAS controller. I'm a bit afraid of buying something "out of the blue" since the dimensions of this little controller board seems small. I hope someone already made a decission to buy such a replacement for their similar or exact the same system and can help me out. We do not need RAID, nor SAS 2.0 capabilities, just JBOD. Thanks a lot in advance, Oliver P.S. Please also reply to my email, I'm not subsribing "questions" in case you reply. Thanks.