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M1115 IBM Adapter - No SMART in Scanner - Need Help


Nissan_SR20_Man

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All,

 

Background

I have a operational drivepool install using a new M1115 IBM SAS Adapter using Windows 7 X64.  The M1115 is same as M1015.  I have the stock, IBM firmware as sent from seller and operates fine.  It passes the drives through as "JBOD/unconfigured" and all is good, no raid in operation.

 

Problem

SMART data is not read into Stablebit Scanner by default due to "unsafe IO" settings.  I found post on here about setting the config file to use unsafe IO due to the SAT protocol.  I still cannot see any data in scanner even with the config file altered.  I have used the DirectIOTest program on here to determine capabilities.  The SCSIPassthrough48 setting offers the most information from the disk and looks like it should work using the unsafe IO settings.  Scanner still does not see the temp or other smart data.

 

Questions

1. How do i make SMART work?  In order to retrieve temps and health attribute data.

2. Do I need to flash firmware to LSI equivalent?  I am still IBM OEM firmware.  IR or IT Mode makes sense as this is all i need and the raid offers additional layers and a slight performance hit.

 

Actions Tried

1. Tried the unsafe IO config file mod

2. Tested with the DirectIOTest program and it works, for the SCSIpassthrough48

3. Reboot PC, stop start service, no change in scanner after allowing 1-2 minutes for a SMART refresh

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All is good once I actually completed the procedure the correct way.  It would have helped if I read the wiki closely instead of glazing over the whole rename file section...  my bad.  Thank you.

 

I will re-post a compatibility post now that it works.  For reference it is a IBM M1115 8 port SAS/SATA controller on stock IBM firmware, no raid.  Ebay auction for $65 USD brand new.

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Yeah, quickly scanning gets you in all sorts of trouble. And I'm guilty of doing that from time to time too.

But sometimes the config file doesn't like to take (it happens, not sure why).

 

But very nice find. IIRC, these cards do use an LSI chipset. 

Though, there is one major difference I'm seeing between the 1015 and the 1115... and that's SATAII vs SATAIII. Mainly a big deal with SSDs or RAID arrays, but otherwise, it's a great card.

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The M1115 is identical to a M1015 regarding chipset.  It can be cross flashed to LSI 9211-8i same as M1015.  Yes the Sata3 is pretty nice.  I have a couple of cheap Highpoint Sata3 2 port HBAs.  The IBM M1115 blows the highpoint adapter away regarding performance when using 2 or more drives.  I have a pair of OCZ Vertex 4 Sata3 SSD for the OS.  The performance is unbelievable, all while using stock IBM firmware...  I will post up a new post in this forum, just need some time to document and post.  Using it in a Norco 4020 20 bay server with drivepool and scanner.  I installed covecube's software for a demo, and fell in love with the simplicity and performance, then purchased both.  Never bothered to try the other guy's software.

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Well, that's good to hear.

 

And yeah, looking into the cards, I noticed that they use the same base chipset.

 

And yes, SATA III (6gbps) is much nicer. :)

 

In fact, I just ordered a M1115 off of ebay due to some extra cash coming in that I didn't expect. And as I've been having issues with the disks that are on my HighPoint RocketRAID card... I think I may be swapping the cards out. 

 

 

 

And nice to see another Norco user. I have a RPC 4220 (1st gen, the one with only one SSD mount... I mean 2.5" drive mount.... :) )

And I'm glad to hear that you absolutely love our products. 

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I have 9211-8i I used to retrofit one of two eSATA Towers I have, since never seemed to get either of my eSATA towers to be completely stable, the fake RAID cards, all of them seem to die quick, or seem to be very picky about drives or port multipliers, and lack any consistent performance (In my case).  What a great idea that just did not work.  I also have a couple of HP P800s I plan to test and use, only 3Gb/s but for some older drives I have expect them to work well, the 9211-8i is 6 Gb/s, going to use it for SSDs going forward... TLC based SSDs 100+ years before brown outing (i.e. read/write memory failure).

 

About eSATA, if anyone interested.  For me, eSATA, what a nightmare... RocketRAID 644... lasted about 1 month, RocketRAID 622 that came with one tower, worked great with 2 drives per backplane but only using 4 bays in a 8 bay tower?  The other no-name PCI-E Sil3132 cards, I tried a few, keeps dropping eSATA link status, thought it was the SIL3726 based backplane, so swapped that out, same drop of link state, so changed cables, changed cards, change power in tower, nothing would be consistently stabilize more than a couple of hours.  Finally took tower part and started changing more components with 2nd tower... just to see if I could get anything to make sense.  Multimeter on specific components... power and signaling was stable, it appears to be bad drivers or just bad embedded BIOS in the backplanes.

 

The 9211-8i, with (forward) fan out cables... to tower, and a bit of customization of the tower (LOL)... bypassed/removed the backplanes, and everything was stable in seconds.  I will never go near eSATA again... except for on-board mainboard single drive use (JMB6xx series SB850 series SATA seems work ok, common on a lot of boards, when needed, if ever again) but never port multipliers, never eSATA variant cotnroller cards, horrible experience for me.  I will NEVER purchase anything based on SIL chipsets or any other based eSATA techology again.

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Well, I can't say that I've had that bad of an issue with eSATA. But I can definitely understand it.

 

But I will wholeheartedly agree with SIL chipsets. I've never been a fan, and the last few cards I've used are garbage. (including a 3132 card). 

But I've had good look with HighPoint's RocketRAID 2720SGL card. But it does use a Marvell chipset (for better or worse, depending on your preference).

And yeah, JMicron chipsets seem to be pretty stable (the JMb6xx is JMicron, I believe).

 

But I'm not a fan of external at all. A number of members here do use USB and eSATA. I... have had too many issues and have seen too many to trust them (I've been a member of the WHS community since Dec 2007, so I've seen a lot)

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