IT Firmware for LSI MR9361-8i

TrueNAS General
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Hi,

I’ve got some LSI MR9361-8i SAS controllers here which I’d like to reuse for TrueNAS. Is there an IT firmware for these cards so it’s a pure HBA without any RAID etc?

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read the following thread for the answer to the same question

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There is no IT mode for the “MegaRAID” line from LSI.

That said, the newest firmware allows you to enable JBOD mode, which does serve any JBOD disks exactly as an HBA would…the OS would have full access to the raw drive, including things like SMART. In addition, the card does none of its fancy “RAID” manipulation of data, like re-ordering or caching writes for disks in JBOD mode. For all intents and purposes, JBOD mode disks are exactly like a disk connected to an HBA. Despite this, most people here would advise against using such a card, but that advice came from the fact that BSD had poor drivers for the LSI MegaRAID line.

Linux, OTOH, has had excellent support for these cards for many years, so TrueNAS SCALE would be able to use JBOD mode disks connected to these cards.

If you don’t have any card right now, buy an HBA to use with TrueNAS. But, if you have a 9361 right now, you can use it and save some money.

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Just so I follow your reasoning:

  • This MegaRAID card set to the JBOD personality is exactly the same as a straight up HBA card.
  • It uses a different driver.

?

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Note that you don’t have to set the card to JBOD personality. You just need to enable “JBOD” when in RAID personality. The 3 options:

  1. JBOD personality: All new disks are JBOD. RAID 0, 1, and 10 options available.
  2. RAID personality, JBOD enabled: All new disks are JBOD. All RAID levels available. Disk must be converted to “Unconfigured Good” to be included in RAID.
  3. RAID personality, JBOD disabled: All new disks are “Unconfigured Good”. All RAID levels available.

What JBOD personality does, according to Broadcom:

At a minimum, a controller in JBOD mode can seamlessly replace an IT-like HBA with no performance impact. In JBOD mode, the adapter provides logistical and operational advantages: It enhances the use of physical drives through better performance.

But, I have found that merely placing a drive in JBOD mode gives you the same level of transparency and performance.

The difference is that the driver for the 9361 is always some form of “megaraid_sas” (in Linux), regardless of the personality, while an LSI HBA would use “mpt?sas” as the driver, with the “?” being the SAS version of the HBA.