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Date:      Tue, 25 Oct 2016 18:06:19 +0100
From:      Tom Evans <tevans.uk@googlemail.com>
Cc:        freebsd-fs <freebsd-fs@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Recommended HBA for ZFS, contemporary
Message-ID:  <CAFHbX1J7hLAmxWp-YBhpzY0gP%2BuGpJ9s9xq3ybfG5=kOV%2BO=Gw@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <502e2b97-4f81-5fdf-3bcc-673d5cceaa22@internetx.com>
References:  <alpine.BSF.2.00.1608221904270.82304@woozle.rinet.ru> <306ccab3-4c78-751a-2258-54701a64ab4b@internetx.com> <41DE4DAA-B5E1-4BB9-AF54-780236A901EF@gmail.com> <059af3ed-71b3-b31d-893c-732121989cee@kateley.com> <633311CF-ADF2-479F-AFB9-E9265C101302@gmail.com> <376FE1E5-42BD-4878-8441-DA912E4ECB5B@gmail.com> <70B75F18-056B-49E5-9CDE-E8CCEA405CE8@gmail.com> <CAOeNLuo4qYK=kk_sT8j%2BA%2BBdn5-__zMYkwcgeKsTuwRGJPqhsQ@mail.gmail.com> <2521A945-AB44-4ADF-80B2-03F528BA11B6@gmail.com> <CAOeNLupq06bCu6OiAp2Sn3H=RkKA=iZAw%2BbtPz0Li0JUd=0f7A@mail.gmail.com> <3C7A8B5A-5900-4996-A869-6BA00191F099@gmail.com> <502e2b97-4f81-5fdf-3bcc-673d5cceaa22@internetx.com>

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On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 8:29 AM, InterNetX - Juergen Gotteswinter
<jg@internetx.com> wrote:
> Dell has still so much in stock of those that they are forced to sell
> them. They are sold as SAS Adapter for Tape Drives, but its a standard
> LSI 2008
>
> http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/accessories/apd/342-0910?c=us&l=en&sku=342-0910
>

Visually this looks identical to a "Dell SAS 6 GB HBA External" that I
picked up new from Ebay for my home server. This had a custom Dell
firmware, it wouldn't flash to a modern generic LSI IT firmware
without some fiddling. IIRC there were two main problems:

1) it required flashing to a very old version of the LSI IR firmware
to get rid of the dell firmware - newer versions would error as an
incompatible card. With that on there, I could then flash an old
version of the IT firmware, before finally flashing the up to date IT
firmware that I wanted to run.
2) the DOS tools provided with the old firmware wouldn't flash under
DOS on a UEFI motherboard, so I had to get EFI shell working and flash
with the EFI utilities[1].

With those annoyances out the way, the card has worked flawlessly with
a pair of junked SGI Rackable SAS expanders (also from ebay) for the
past 3-4 years now. $300 for 32 hot swap bays is pretty good imo.

Cheers

Tom

[1] https://www.thomas-krenn.com/en/wiki/Firmware_Update_of_LSI_9xxx_HBAs_on_H8_/_X9-motherboards



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