SATA Controller Help for Small Server Build

[Avtechman]

Hi,

 

I currently have DrivePool on another large server (the SM 846 Chassis) and works good though I don't have the server in operation right now.

 

I am doing a smaller media server build with parts from a former video editing build that consist of these components:

 

 

Antec 302 case, with Rosewill 3 x 5.25-Inch to 4 x 3.5-Inch Hot-swap SATAIII/SAS cage

AsRock H61M//U3S3 mATX motherboard

Intel i5 2500 (non-K) 3.3GHz CPU

16GB RAM (I know overkill, and WSS will only use 8GB)

Silverstone 500W PSU

128GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD for OS

2x 2TB Toshiba hard drives

 

I've pretty much used all the on-board SATA ports on the motherboard which is only 6 ports. With the 5.25" 4 x 3.5" hot swap cage I can use up to 10 drives in the case. 

 

My question is, what's a good recommendation for an SATA controller that Stablebit Scanner will be able to read the SMART information from. I know there are many IBM M1015 variants on Ebay, but possible that Scanner won't read the info from any drives with some of those controllers, such as the Perc H310 controller cards I have in another system. 

 

Any help would be great!

 

 

EDIT: Ok being home from work now I see there are some topics regarding the controller cards. Still have to do some reading, though alot of the SAS cards on ebay needs to be flashed to IT mode, which I am not sure how to do. 

 

I do have an ESXi setup that's using an Supermicro X9SCL+-F-O 1155 board with the Xeon E3-1230 v2 CPU (which I think its equivalent to an I7). However, since the ESXi setup only has 3 VM's on it with only two active, I may just decommission it and use it for a solid physical server using Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials since I have a license for it.

 

Only down side is that it while I believe it does Windows 7 client backups, it doesn't support XP clients so would have to use another backup product for those. 

[Christopher (Drashna)]

The IB ServeRAID M1015 is fine.  If the SMART data doesn't show up, then you need to enable the "Unsafe Direct IO" option to get SMART Data.  

 

This is after "cross flashing" it to IT or IR mode.  But any HBA card would work fine. 

If you want new, something like the LSI/Avago SAS9211-8i is a good option.  Or the 9207-8i.  These are HBA cards that don't need ANYTHING done to them. 

 

Otherwise, check out this link: http://www.servethehome.com/ibm-serveraid-m1015-part-4/

 

 

 

As for ESX, if you're passing disks through to VMs, then you need to look up "RDM passthrough"

 

 

As for backups, you're going to have fun finding XP compatible software anymore.  Since it's been out of extended support for a few years now, pretty much nothing supports it anymore. 

[Avtechman]

The IB ServeRAID M1015 is fine.  If the SMART data doesn't show up, then you need to enable the "Unsafe Direct IO" option to get SMART Data.  

 

This is after "cross flashing" it to IT or IR mode.  But any HBA card would work fine. 

If you want new, something like the LSI/Avago SAS9211-8i is a good option.  Or the 9207-8i.  These are HBA cards that don't need ANYTHING done to them. 

 

Otherwise, check out this link: http://www.servethehome.com/ibm-serveraid-m1015-part-4/

 

 

 

As for ESX, if you're passing disks through to VMs, then you need to look up "RDM passthrough"

 

 

As for backups, you're going to have fun finding XP compatible software anymore.  Since it's been out of extended support for a few years now, pretty much nothing supports it anymore. 

 

Its true that XP has gone the way of the dodo, but since I do video restoration work and still do transfers from analog sources (VHS, etc.) I have two XP machines I built for that purpose since the best video recording hardware were made during the XP era. I don't use the internet with either machine so don't need the support for them. But I do network them with my home LAN to share the files between my video editing workstation for further processing and editing. The XP boxes are just capture machines and their sole purpose.

 

Okay I will check out the cards you suggested, and read on the flashing the cards. However, I don't know if the LSI cards will be compatible with the AsRock board I have, so may consider using my Supermicro board for the card since its pretty much server grade gear. And it does have 16GB ECC RAM.

[Lando B.]

I'm a big fan of the LSI 9201-16i

Somewhat pricey but it does everything I could ask for. Was easy to do passthrough with it on ESXi. The card is much like the ones Christopher pointed out as it is HBA. Works perfectly out of the box. StableBit Scanner is able to pull HDD SMART data. I feel it is much more cost effective if you actually need 16 ports.

 

Only con I have for the card is that it can get pretty hot if you don't have some kind of decent cooling inside your enclosure. It sits right under my graphics card so I cut a hole in top of the case and added a 120mm exhaust fan taking care of the both of them.

[MetalGeek]

I've been eyeballing the LSI/Avago SAS9211-8i and it still requires a flash to IT mode to use a plan HBA card, per KSI/Avago documentation.

[ThePaladinTech]

Could some clarify for me the difference between IT and IR mode? looking to get the LSI HBA mentioned here (the IBM one, or the LSI branded)

 

I've got two installations (mine and my brothers) -  Right now we both have adaptec controllers (Sata II) - but the biggest problem is they have to create a volume using the adaptec software, and then they show up to the OS. And they don't pass ANY information to StableBit.  So they are a pain when it comes to swapping drives, identifying the drive etc.

 

We have bought so many cards that don't work :/ - I'm about to send back a IOCrest card that supposedly gives 8 but on my board it only shows four. something to do with virtualization and the marvell chip - Well I want to do virtualization and have 16 drives

 

My 'server' is a pretty new Gigabyte / AMD A series motherboard (with UEFI) - Which has SATA III ports - so in my case I'd love a *DUMB* adapter that just shows the drives, so I can get 16 drives going (eight of the mb and 8 of the controller)

 

My brothers is an older intel workstation class motherboard (xeon processor I think) (Just BIOS) - and it is only SATA II - He would like to continue using the ports off the motherboard but add 8 more ports and boot off of one of those (with a SSD) - He'd like 6 of the MB and 8 of the controller but the ability to boot off the controller card.

 

So what do we want? I'm thinking for mine the IT mode? and for my brother IR mode???? Will they both (IT and IR) just show up as Drives and will all the info get passed to StableBit?

[Christopher (Drashna)]

IT Mode = HBA Mode

IR Mode = RAID mode

 

the RAID mode can still be used as an HBA (depending, but usually).  

 

I'd recommend just an IT/HBA card, as they tend to be cheaper outright. 

 

HBA meaning "host bus adapter", which is a fancy term for "just a disk controller" And that's what you want.