Raid Card for HP DL385 G6

[vincent orange]

Hi,

I have a HP DL385 G6 with the following specs:

1 x Six Core AMD 2431 @2.4GHz (I understand that AMD proc is not preferred but it's what I have)
32GB RAM (this is ECC)
4 x 146GB SAS Hdd (there are 16 caddies in total, so will be filled with drives a little later)

I intend to use this server for home use and it won't be on 24x7 but it will be used fairly often. I will be using it to store photographs and videos that the family has accumulated over time. I'm personally not too bothered about throughput or low-latency. The key is reliability and being able to rebuild the array after a drive breaks/fails/gets replaced.

The server is equipped with a HP SmartRaid P410 card that seems to quite good at RAID but useless for a FreeNAS environment. I will remove this for a better card. I currently understand that the IBM Raid Card ServeRAID M1015 is the most preferred for FreeNAS. I'm not comfortable with flashing the firmware on this card, though I have flashed firmware on other devices, I just don't want to make a mistake.

Are there other known alternatives to the IBM M1015 card that can support 16 drives (using mini-SAS) and doesn't require a firmware flash?

I'm just at the research stage and I've got options for RAID cards in the hardware compatibility list, but I'm looking for a Sage that can offer the most optimal solution.

 

[Ericloewe]

With 16 drives, you'll need two cards or a card plus an expander.

With that out of the way, if you don't want to crossflash (note that you are expected to update the firmware to the proper version, currently P16 IT mode), you can buy a regular LSI SAS 9211 or LSI SAS 9207. You could also get the LSI SAS 9201, which has 16 channels, but it's on the expensive side.

 

[BigDave]

The IBM M1015 is the popular and low cost solution for FreeNAS, perhaps you could purchase one that already been flashed to P16 firmware.
I've seen members here that offer to flash cards for others too, you pay shipping both ways...

 

[vincent orange]

The LSI SAS 9211 or LSI SAS 9207 or LSI SAS 9201 are rather expensive (around £200, £220 and £380 respectively) and it does make sense to the get the M1015 card. I could buy two and use them together. How often am I, or get someone else, to flash them?

 

[Ericloewe]

The LSI SAS 9211 or LSI SAS 9207 or LSI SAS 9201 are rather expensive (around £200, £220 and £380 respectively) and it does make sense to the get the M1015 card. I could buy two and use them together. How often am I, or get someone else, to flash them?

Not often. Once to crossflash to the current version, and then whenever the driver is updated. No update is currently expected anytime soon.

 

[vincent orange]

Not often. Once to crossflash to the current version, and then whenever the driver is updated. No update is currently expected anytime soon.

Your input is very informative. I've taken the plunge and two M1015 cards are making their way to be right now. Can I assume that thuis guide by serverthehome is a good place to get the flashing info done?

http://www.servethehome.com/ibm-serveraid-m1015-part-4/

 

[Ericloewe]

Your input is very informative. I've taken the plunge and two M1015 cards are making their way to be right now. Can I assume that thuis guide by serverthehome is a good place to get the flashing info done?

http://www.servethehome.com/ibm-serveraid-m1015-part-4/

Yes, but it's slightly outdated.

If your server has UEFI, you'll probably need to do the erasing with the DOS tool, as described, but then switch to the UEFI shell and use the sas2flash.efi flasher tool.

 

[Darren Myers]

Your input is very informative. I've taken the plunge and two M1015 cards are making their way to be right now. Can I assume that thuis guide by serverthehome is a good place to get the flashing info done?

http://www.servethehome.com/ibm-serveraid-m1015-part-4/

Thats the guide i followed, but i also keep a decently old PC around just to avoid any confusion with UEFI bios and all.

 

[vincent orange]

Checking my server, I doubt it is a UEFI Bios version as the Bios screen looks like this https://i.stack.imgur.com/auBdL.png (this isn't my image, it's something I pulled from google images)

I'll be reading the instructions and details on how to flash many, many times before I give it a go.

 

[Darren Myers]

Checking my server, I doubt it is a UEFI Bios version as the Bios screen looks like this https://i.stack.imgur.com/auBdL.png (this isn't my image, it's something I pulled from google images)

I'll be reading the instructions and details on how to flash many, many times before I give it a go.

Yea i dont think its UEFI either, but its just one extra reason for me to tell the GF why im keeping "This old piece of shit pc" around, even though i've used it a handful of times this year alone to cross flash my M1015's + connect to a old switch to enable the LAN management NIC lol

 

[Ericloewe]

Checking my server, I doubt it is a UEFI Bios version as the Bios screen looks like this https://i.stack.imgur.com/auBdL.png (this isn't my image, it's something I pulled from google images)

I'll be reading the instructions and details on how to flash many, many times before I give it a go.

Appearances don't mean much - Supermicro's setup utilities look like traditional non-UEFI ones, but the boards do support UEFI.

 

[marbus90]

HP servers had UEFI since quite a long time. G6 surely has UEFI under it.

 

[vincent orange]

HP servers had UEFI since quite a long time. G6 surely has UEFI under it.

That's useful to know.

Is video an accurate instruction of what I need to do? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoxbLpF51pU

Also, does anyone know a reliable source for a flashing the RAID Card under UEFI? I found this link http://www.0x00.to/post/2013/04/07/Flash-IBM-ServeRAID-M1015-to-LSI9211-8i-with-UEFI-mainboard any good?

 

[Ericloewe]

Yeah, the second link looks ok. Omit the -b mptsas2.rom part if you don't want the extension ROM. It's mostly useless.

 

[vincent orange]

Yeah, the second link looks ok. Omit the -b mptsas2.rom part if you don't want the extension ROM. It's mostly useless.

excellent. Also, it seems the newest firmware is version P20
https://www.lsi.com/products/host-bus-adapters/pages/lsi-sas-9211-8i.aspx#tab/tab4

9211_8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows

Can anyone confirm?

 

[danb35]

The newest is P20, but you want P16.

 

[vincent orange]

final update. I followed the guide and both cards are flashed. The process was very simple and there were not hiccups. The hardest part was finding a machine with UEFI shell.

Thank you all for helping me create a FreeNAS server from a DL385

 

[Darren Myers]

congrats on the successful flash and moving on with fressnas