Suggestions on buying IBM ServeRAID M1015?

[rmflint]

I am looking to purchase an IBM ServeRAID M1015. It appears that Ebay has a reasonable selection of new and used in the $90-130 range. There are several new ones but the sellers are in either China or Hong Kong and I am concerned about purchasing from them due to there locations.

Can anyone share their experience or suggestions on a reliable seller for this card?

 

[cyberjock]

I know a few people have bought from China and such. Only 1 person had to do a return, and the long delay kind of sucked.

I personall bought 3 9211-8is for $90 each about 2 months ago. One of them didn't work out of the box and the seller cross-shipped me a replacement.

 

[mattlach]

I have two of them in my storage box right now. Both bought on eBay.

One was used from a semi-high volume U.S. server parts recycler, who offered to crossflash it to IT mode for me (which I gladly accepted, as I hear it can sometimes be tricky to find a motherboard that they will accept being flashed on.

The other was used from a random U.S. person, who presumably flashed it for their own use and then later decided to sell it online.

Both work beautifully!

I've ordered many things from China before, but not these specific cards. Usually takes a bit longer to get here, but other than that I have never had a problem. I'd imagine the return process would be hell if you had to do it though.

 

[wlee]

As far as I know, most so claimed new oem are knock off, so are boxed retail lsi boards, priced too good. Personally I prefer working server pulls.

Sent using Tapatalk

 

[cyberjock]

@mattlach

It might be convenient that they flashed it to IT mode, but you're going to be reflashing the card yourself every time you upgrade FreeNAS to a new point release. So you really only saved yourself from not learning how to reflash it right now. You also may or may not even have the right firmware installed since FreeNAS uses P16 and unless you told them you wanted P16 it's unlikely that's what they flashed on the card.

 

[mattlach]

@mattlach

It might be convenient that they flashed it to IT mode, but you're going to be reflashing the card yourself every time you upgrade FreeNAS to a new point release. So you really only saved yourself from not learning how to reflash it right now. You also may or may not even have the right firmware installed since FreeNAS uses P16 and unless you told them you wanted P16 it's unlikely that's what they flashed on the card.

Odd. They work just fine. Maybe I lucked out?

I just added the second one, but I've had the first one unchanged since my initial FreeNAS install which I installed in September of 2012. 8.2.0-p1 I believe.

I've never had to re-flash them for them to continuing to work well.

Getting them pre-flashed was a precaution because I was on consumer hardware, and I understand they don't always flash well (or at all) on consumer hardware. Now that I have a supermicro server board, I'm hoping that is no longer a concern, and if I need to reflash them I can.

Can you link me to some source information regarding the need of specific firmware for specific point releases so I can read up on it? This is the first I have heard of it, and I have been talking about these controllers on various forums ever since I got mine in september of 2012...

 

[mattlach]

So,

I just checked the version of the firmware on my controllers:

Code:

# sas2flash -listall
LSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility
Version 14.00.00.00 (2012.07.04) 
Copyright (c) 2008-2012 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved 

    Adapter Selected is a LSI SAS: SAS2008(B2)  

Num   Ctlr            FW Ver        NVDATA        x86-BIOS         PCI Addr
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

0  SAS2008(B2)     14.00.00.00    0e.03.00.02    07.27.00.00     00:03:00:00
1  SAS2008(B2)     19.00.00.00    11.00.00.08    07.37.00.00     00:0b:00:00

    Finished Processing Commands Successfully.
    Exiting SAS2Flash.

One is apparently on version 14, the other on 19.

What is the significance of version 16? They both appear to be working perfectly as is. Great performance and rock solid...

 

[cyberjock]

Can you link me to some source information regarding the need of specific firmware for specific point releases so I can read up on it? This is the first I have heard of it, and I have been talking about these controllers on various forums ever since I got mine in september of 2012...

Yep. Read the release notes for 9.2.1, 9.2.0, 9.1.0, 8.3.0.

You'll find that the major releases always have a mention of what driver version is included. Anyone with LSI experience knows that you always, always, *always* match LSI drivers to LSI firmware.

It's something that people have often ignored without ill effects. However in the last 2 months the newest firmware generates errors on bootup and every few seconds non-stop.

9.3 has a new feature where you'll get a warning stoplight if you don't have a driver and firmware that match. The risk of losing data from ignoring this is non-zero, but the risk is still there.

 

[cyberjock]

What is the significance of version 16? They both appear to be working perfectly as is. Great performance and rock solid...

The significance is that v16 drivers are part of 9.2.1.x.

 

[mattlach]

The significance is that v16 drivers are part of 9.2.1.x.

Interesting. Usually drivers aren't firmware specific. They both seem to work fine as is on v14 and v19. I might re-flash them if I find the time to do so.

It's always a pain to create a DOS usb stick...

 

[cyberjock]

I can tell you right now that the 9.3 beta plays very badly with v19 firmware. If I remember correctly the drivers were v17 or v18.

In my case, things were so badly that the pool wouldn't mount and the system would kernel panic.

In any case I'd seriously consider going to v16 sooner than later just so you understand the process because with 9.3 you *are* going to have problems. ;)

Yes, usually drivers aren't firmware specific. But my experience with Adaptec and LSI is that with each driver releaesd it lists "compatible" firmwares. My Adaptec controllers usually had a range of versions, but with LSI it's a strict 1-for-1. In fact, if you are an enterprise customer of LSI and you call them with a problem and your driver and firmware don't match they won't even give you further support until they do match. LOL.

 

[mattlach]

Thank you.


Appreciate the suggestion.

I just went to LSI's webpage and could only find the latest p19 files.

Do you know where I might find the p16 images?

 

[cyberjock]

yep.. gotta look at the historical archives. They are there though.

 

[mattlach]

yep.. gotta look at the historical archives. They are there though.

Ahh,

Thank you. Not sure if the small link above the downloads just wasn't showing at home, or if I was reading too fast and missed it.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Gibby]

I picked up 2 yesterday from the below seller.

 

[mattlach]

Nice,

Enjoy them. Did you get the appropriate cables (either SFF 8087 to SFF 8087 for most backplanes, or a SFF 8087 to SATA breakout cable)

These are not inexpensive as far as cables go.

Monoprice.com usually has good deals on all things cable though.

 

[Gibby]

Nice,

Enjoy them. Did you get the appropriate cables (either SFF 8087 to SFF 8087 for most backplanes, or a SFF 8087 to SATA breakout cable)

These are not inexpensive as far as cables go.

Monoprice.com usually has good deals on all things cable though.

Didn't need cables, my Supermicro case already had everything else I needed. I am having a hell of a time getting the firmware on them to 16 though.

 

[mattlach]

What kind of problems are you running into?

I plan on attempting to flash mine this weekend. Hoping it goes smoothly, but I know that isn't always the case.

 

[Gibby]

It says they are in IT mode in the listing but they are really in IR mode.

He is what 1 looked like before I started messing with it:

Adapter Selected is a LSI SAS: SAS2008(B2)

Controller Number : 0
Controller : SAS2008(B2)
PCI Address : 00:08:00:00
SAS Address : 590xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
NVDATA Version (Default) : 07.00.00.19
NVDATA Version (Persistent) : 07.00.00.19
Firmware Product ID : 0x2713 (IR)
Firmware Version : 07.15.08.00
NVDATA Vendor : Dell
NVDATA Product ID : IntTapeAdp
BIOS Version : 07.11.10.00
UEFI BSD Version : 07.02.03.00
FCODE Version : N/A
Board Name : Int Tape Adapter
Board Assembly : N/A
Board Tracer Number : N/A



As you can see they say they are Int Tape Adapter's in IR mode. I haven't been able to get anything else to flash except the same version that now reports as 6GbpsSAS instead of tape. Everything else I try gets Failed to Validate Mfg Page2

 

[jgreco]

Well that's new ...