From owner-freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Wed Sep 7 08:29:13 2016 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-fs@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DF948B71144 for ; Wed, 7 Sep 2016 08:29:13 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from borjam@sarenet.es) Received: from cu1176c.smtpx.saremail.com (cu1176c.smtpx.saremail.com [195.16.148.151]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id A6271933 for ; Wed, 7 Sep 2016 08:29:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from borjam@sarenet.es) Received: from [172.16.8.36] (izaro.sarenet.es [192.148.167.11]) by proxypop02.sare.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id DE8579DC492; Wed, 7 Sep 2016 10:21:32 +0200 (CEST) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 9.3 \(3124\)) Subject: Re: Recommended HBA for ZFS, contemporary From: Borja Marcos In-Reply-To: Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2016 10:21:32 +0200 Cc: Mike , freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-Id: References: <306ccab3-4c78-751a-2258-54701a64ab4b@internetx.com> <41DE4DAA-B5E1-4BB9-AF54-780236A901EF@gmail.com> To: Dmitry Morozovsky X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3124) X-BeenThere: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: Filesystems List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 07 Sep 2016 08:29:14 -0000 > On 22 Aug 2016, at 20:36, Dmitry Morozovsky wrote: >=20 > On Mon, 22 Aug 2016, Mike wrote: >=20 >>>> LSI SAS 2008 Based HBA, there are dozens of OEM available for = Budget Prices >>>=20 >>> With the IT firmware. >>=20 >> What's the significance of "IT firmware"? >=20 > ability to export raw disk device withou unnatural intelligence of a = controller=20 > to mangle with data :) That=E2=80=99s a serious problem with other HBAs, which are designed as = =E2=80=9CRAID=E2=80=9D cards. That means you need some effort to have them give you direct, CAM access to the disks. The LSI2008 with IR firmware, however, is a different beast. It=E2=80=99s = an HBA with an add-on RAID thingy. Provided you don=E2=80=99t create logical volumes on it, the mps(4) driver will = just make it behave like a simple HBA, which is excellent. Although some claim that there is a performance difference between IR = and IT firmware on the same card, according to the helpful LSI guys in freebsd-scsi the difference should be = negligible.=20 Anyway in case you want to cross flash from IR to IT it=E2=80=99s = possible, although unsupported by LSI. However, sas2flash checks wether the card is running IT or IR firmware and it will abort = cross flashing attempts, except that at least one old version does not abort and lets you proceed. The procedure is described in a rather religious manner (religious = because they don=E2=80=99t say that a particular version is needed, nor why) here: http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=3D1045376 If I remember well I tried a LSI utility from the same date more or = less, and it worked as well. More recent versions of sas2flash will fail, however. Cheers, Borja.=