Replacing perc6i with lsi HBA

[Salacious B Crum]

I have an LSI HBA ordered for my newly acquired dell R710 has anyone on here done this my question is can I pull the perc6i and install the HBA into its pcie slot? is it even a pcie slot or proprietary port? off to youtube to see if I can find anything any help appreciated!

[Windows7ge]

It uses a standard PCI_e x8 slot. So you can plug any other PCI_e x8 or less device into the same slot.

[Salacious B Crum]

27 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

It uses a standard PCI_e x8 slot. So you can plug any other PCI_e x8 or less device into the same slot.

Nice so I guess to prep for its removal I should prolly delete any raid config thats on it, still would like to try something different in way of the os it currently has windows server 2016 trial but I'm not going to pay that kinda money when it expires so I'm not going to invest the time with it I have an unRAID server thats rock solid so I could got that route as the HBA I ordered is already flashed to it mode but thinking of learning a linux server distro any thoughts on that subject

[Windows7ge]

1 hour ago, mrbilky said:

Nice so I guess to prep for its removal I should prolly delete any raid config thats on it, still would like to try something different in way of the os it currently has windows server 2016 trial but I'm not going to pay that kinda money when it expires so I'm not going to invest the time with it I have an unRAID server thats rock solid so I could got that route as the HBA I ordered is already flashed to it mode but thinking of learning a linux server distro any thoughts on that subject

There's PROXMOX it's basically a free alternative to UnRAID. It has a WebUI but it does rely more heavily on the CLI when it comes to configuring things (like the pool).

[Salacious B Crum]

stupid question but will I run into any issues with an HBA that supports 8 2x4 drives connected to a 6 drive backplane? putting an lsi HBA in this dell r710

[dalekphalm]

1 hour ago, mrbilky said:

stupid question but will I run into any issues with an HBA that supports 8 2x4 drives connected to a 6 drive backplane? putting an lsi HBA in this dell r710

No issues there. You'll likely have to connect both SFF cables to the backplane. Basically 2 of the 8 channels will just be unused.

[Salacious B Crum]

11 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

No issues there. You'll likely have to connect both SFF cables to the backplane. Basically 2 of the 8 channels will just be unused.

Cool should be here today and yeah I ordered both cables

[Salacious B Crum]

So another question can I abandon the perc6i card in place disconnect the cables and place the new HBA in an open slot? seems likely it would not be a problem but might spam me with errors?

[dalekphalm]

56 minutes ago, mrbilky said:

So another question can I abandon the perc6i card in place disconnect the cables and place the new HBA in an open slot? seems likely it would not be a problem but might spam me with errors?

Sure you could (though you'd want to go into the RAID Firmware and clear out any arrays so it doesn't complain about missing drives)... but why would you?

 

It should take you a few seconds to remove one card and put in the replacement. In fact, if you've opened up the case enough to install the HBA, you've already done most of the work to remove the Perc.

 

So, unless you intend on using both cards, I'd recommend you to pull the Perc. Besides, you can sell it on eBay/Kijiji/Craigslist (or local equivalent), or even on the forums here.

[Salacious B Crum]

Yep was going to remove just thought I'd get a view on leaving it in I have no need for it at present so might go that route and sell it

[dalekphalm]

6 hours ago, mrbilky said:

Yep was going to remove just thought I'd get a view on leaving it in I have no need for it at present so might go that route and sell it

You can always pop it back in some time in the future if you end up wanting to use the Perc, but I'd suggest pulling it and storing it (or selling it).

[Phas3L0ck]

I feel like there's a cloak and dagger going on here-- there are simple but massive details missing here...

What kind of "LSI HBA?" Is it a 9200 series, or a 9300 series? And of those, what model?

What type of array are you aiming for?

 

Also, it's worth mentioning that if you're gonna use a linux OS of any kind to do volume configuration or SoftRAID, there's no point to having an upgraded HBA since the newest HBA cards do hardware RAID and store the config in the built in RAID BIOS that the others are alluding to when they talk about deleting old arrays.

 

In fact, the only reason to upgrade your RAID HBA anymore is hardware features; native support for RAID 6 & 60, better cache protection and acceleration. Other things like "high speed" from SAS 2 and 3 (6Gb/s and 12GB/s) are absolutely pointless if you're using HDD's which at the time only reach speeds as high as SAS-1 or SATA-2 (3Gb/s, or 300MBytes/sec). Watching others talk about SAS/RAID adapters in any context with such a lack of perspective disgusts me. Aside from the electronic architectural gap that may prevent 12Gb/s SAS-3 HDDs from working on some 3Gb/s SAS-1 cards, the only way anyone could possibly leverage the speed "benefit" of 12Gb/s adapters, because they use the full bandwidth of the PCIe x8 slot they reside in, is to use uncommon and expensive SAS SSD drives. (Yes, SAS SSD's are a real thing *rollseyes*) And for that matter, you might as well splurge on a dedicated PCIe x8 multi-TeraByte NVMe to do the job right... *facepalm with a wad of imaginary cash*.

 

So unless you pan to make immediate use of the hardware features, save your money and just learn CLI to assemble a SoftRAID.

I'd go into detail much further, but I have a thread to write.

[dalekphalm]

4 hours ago, Phas3L0ck said:

I feel like there's a cloak and dagger going on here-- there are simple but massive details missing here...

What kind of "LSI HBA?" Is it a 9200 series, or a 9300 series? And of those, what model?

What type of array are you aiming for?

 

Also, it's worth mentioning that if you're gonna use a linux OS of any kind to do volume configuration or SoftRAID, there's no point to having an upgraded HBA since the newest HBA cards do hardware RAID and store the config in the built in RAID BIOS that the others are alluding to when they talk about deleting old arrays.

 

In fact, the only reason to upgrade your RAID HBA anymore is hardware features; native support for RAID 6 & 60, better cache protection and acceleration. Other things like "high speed" from SAS 2 and 3 (6Gb/s and 12GB/s) are absolutely pointless if you're using HDD's which at the time only reach speeds as high as SAS-1 or SATA-2 (3Gb/s, or 300MBytes/sec). Watching others talk about SAS/RAID adapters in any context with such a lack of perspective disgusts me. Aside from the electronic architectural gap that may prevent 12Gb/s SAS-3 HDDs from working on some 3Gb/s SAS-1 cards, the only way anyone could possibly leverage the speed "benefit" of 12Gb/s adapters, because they use the full bandwidth of the PCIe x8 slot they reside in, is to use uncommon and expensive SAS SSD drives. (Yes, SAS SSD's are a real thing *rollseyes*) And for that matter, you might as well splurge on a dedicated PCIe x8 multi-TeraByte NVMe to do the job right... *facepalm with a wad of imaginary cash*.

 

So unless you pan to make immediate use of the hardware features, save your money and just learn CLI to assemble a SoftRAID.

I'd go into detail much further, but I have a thread to write.

There's a lot wrong here.

 

RAID and HBA are entirely, 100%, different things.

 

Granted, on a hardware level, sometimes an HBA is actually just a RAID Card with different firmware, but hey - that firmware is ESSENTIAL in the differences.

 

HBA = Host Bus Adapter - it essentially just passes the drives straight through to the system hardware. HBA's can't do RAID (and if they claim to, they're not really HBA's).

 

There is of course, some RAID Cards that can operate as HBA's if you don't bother to configure any RAID arrays, but that's a specific subset of RAID cards, and isn't the norm.

 

The whole point of this thread is that the OP has a Perc 6i RAID Card. He doesn't have an HBA.

[Phas3L0ck]

3 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

There's a lot wrong here.

 

RAID and HBA are entirely, 100%, different things.

 

Granted, on a hardware level, sometimes an HBA is actually just a RAID Card with different firmware, but hey - that firmware is ESSENTIAL in the differences.

 

HBA = Host Bus Adapter - it essentially just passes the drives straight through to the system hardware. HBA's can't do RAID (and if they claim to, they're not really HBA's).

 

There is of course, some RAID Cards that can operate as HBA's if you don't bother to configure any RAID arrays, but that's a specific subset of RAID cards, and isn't the norm.

 

The whole point of this thread is that the OP has a Perc 6i RAID Card. He doesn't have an HBA.

#totallymissingthepoint

 

Even @mrbilky called it an HBA, so #screwU **facepalm with a brick**

[Salacious B Crum]

okie dokie so I left out that in fact the HBA I have (LSI 9211) is flashed to IT mode as I want to pass through the drives for the option of running unRAID as my os and I have read that the perc6i will not flash to IT

[dalekphalm]

18 hours ago, Phas3L0ck said:

#totallymissingthepoint

 

Even @mrbilky called it an HBA, so #screwU **facepalm with a brick**

The fact that’s the OP used the incorrect term does not mean you should perpetuate it. 

 

Also, the OP just clarified that they have the IT (Initiator Target) firmware flashed. Which makes it an HBA in all of the sense. 

[Salacious B Crum]

46 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

The fact that’s the OP used the incorrect term does not mean you should perpetuate it. 

 

Also, the OP just clarified that they have the IT (Initiator Target) firmware flashed. Which makes it an HBA in all of the sense. 

Well everything is installed and everything is working correctly although I am having an issue with spin down on unRAID but I think it may be a setting on the server hardware side will have to peruse the system and see if there is something there

 

[dalekphalm]

10 minutes ago, mrbilky said:

Well everything is installed and everything is working correctly although I am having an issue with spin down on unRAID but I think it may be a setting on the server hardware side will have to peruse the system and see if there is something there

 

Glad things are (mostly) working!

 

Can you elaborate on the spin down issue? Are your HDD’s going to sleep too often or something?

[Salacious B Crum]

13 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Glad things are (mostly) working!

 

Can you elaborate on the spin down issue? Are your HDD’s going to sleep too often or something?

Hey thanks for the input so I decided to run unRAID for the time being and everything on the hardware side was detected so I went and configured unRAID and brought the server online, in the web gui for unRAID there is the option for spin down when I invoke that the temp indicators turn to asterisks a behavior that is expected but they remain "green balled" I also get these errors in the log file:

[dalekphalm]

Hmm interesting. I’m not familiar with unraid so I won’t be of any specific help with those errors. 

 

We should see if one of the unraid gurus can chime in and give you some insight. 

[Salacious B Crum]

1 hour ago, dalekphalm said:

Hmm interesting. I’m not familiar with unraid so I won’t be of any specific help with those errors. 

 

We should see if one of the unraid gurus can chime in and give you some insight. 

Update so I did check in with the guys over on the unRAID board and in fact my suspicion was right unRAID has no current support for SAS drives so spin down and SMART data are unobtainable but no biggie the SAS drives were just a bonus with the server I will be installing sata drives in this server so I'll have that ability when that occurs of course spin down would be nice as this server pulls some power at idle compared to my scratch built server but the idrac6 card gives me remote access so startup and shutdown works well

[dalekphalm]

1 minute ago, mrbilky said:

Update so I did check in with the guys over on the unRAID board and in fact my suspicion was right unRAID has no current support for SAS drives so spin down and SMART data are unobtainable but no biggie the SAS drives were just a bonus with the server I will be installing sata drives in this server so I'll have that ability when that occurs of course spin down would be nice as this server pulls some power at idle compared to my scratch built server but the idrac6 card gives me remote access so startup and shutdown works well

UnRaid has pretty decent customer support from the sounds of it. 

 

If you want to use those SAS drives you could switch to FreeNAS or Proxmox - though if you intend on using SATA drives anyway then sticking with unraid is also good. 

[Salacious B Crum]

5 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

UnRaid has pretty decent customer support from the sounds of it. 

 

If you want to use those SAS drives you could switch to FreeNAS or Proxmox - though if you intend on using SATA drives anyway then sticking with unraid is also good. 

Yeah drives work fine with the exception of the above mentioned so I will just faze them out with sata drives I'm not comfortable putting any important data on them as they are retired server pulls I still need to create a sound backup solution for this server it is currently going to be a test server but I plan on using it for a VM platform so far so good never worked with enterprise hardware before some nice features just a drain on power