I have an LSI 9300-8i (https;//www,amazon,com/LSI-Broadcom-9300-8i-PCI-Express-Profile/dp/B00DSURZYS#aw-udpv3-customer-reviews_feature_div) that my TrueNAS Scale system doesn’t recognize. I have determined that I need to upgrade the firmware, but even with this very detailed guide (https;//www,truenas,com/community/resources/detailed-newcomers-guide-to-crossflashing-lsi-9211-9300-9305-9311-9400-94xx-hba-and-variants.54/) I’m still overwhelmed. I have a disability that makes thinking hard for long periods of time literally bad for my health. I have managed to install TrueNAS Scale and access it through the web interface, as proof of my ability to think and follow directions, but this firmware upgrade is on another level.
I am looking for an equivalent PCIe to SAS hub that can handle at least 8 SAS drives (3.84 TB each) and will work out of the box. My build is intended as backup storage, so I’m not concerned with speed or bandwidth I just need something cheap that works.
I am building this system on a Dell Optiplex 7010.
-Intel i3 CPU
-8GB of RAM
-500GB Seagate HD for the TrueNAS install
Let me know if there’s any other details you need.
I have bastardized the links provided so that you can see I have attempted to do my due diligence. I assume I’m not allowed to post links on account of being a brand new profile. But like, Amazon and the old TrueNAS forum seem like pretty safe links…
Okay, just for context, I took a slightly educated guess that the correct place for those commands was the Linux Shell on the server machine, and it seems I was right!
Here’s what we got:
1) Configure network interfaces
2) Configure network settings
3) Configure static routes
4) Change local administrator password
5) Reset configuration to defaults
6) Open TrueNAS CLI Shell
7) Open Linux Shell
8) Reboot
9) Shutdown
Enter an option from 1-9: 7
root@truenas[/]# sas2flash -list
ILSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility
Version 20.00.00.00 (2014.09.18)
Copyright (c) 2008-2014 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved
No LSI SAS adapters found! Limited Command Set Available!
ERROR: Command Not allowed without an adapter!
ERROR: Couldn't Create Command list
Exiting Program.
root@truenas[/]# sas3flash -list
Avago Technologies SAS3 Flash Utility
Version 16.00.00.00 (2017.05.02)
Copyright 2008-2017 Avago Technologies. All rights reserved.
Adapter Selected is a Avago SAS: SAS3008 (CO)
Controller Number: 0
Controller: SAS3008 (CO)
PCI Address: 00:01:00:00
SAS Address: 5006056-0-0b2a-f0f0
NVDATA Version (Default): 08.01.00.07
NVDATA Version (Persistent): 08.01.00.07
Firmware Product ID: 0x2221 (IT)
Firmware Version: 16.00.10.00
NVDATA Vendor: LSI
NVDATA Product ID: SAS9300-8i
BIOS Version: 08.27.00.00
UEFI BSD Version: 16.00.00.00
FCODE Version: N/A
Board Name: SAS9300-8i
Board Assembly: H3-25573-00H
Board Tracer Number: SP61824844
Finished Processing Commands Successfully.
Exiting SAS3Flash.
root truenas[/]#
If there’s a way to format text in here to look like the CLI, let me know.
So my understanding of the output is that my controller:
Can be seen by the CPU
Is at the expected PCIe slot (I happened to see on a diagram of the machine that that’s slot #1, and I assume that’s what the address is saying)
Is the kind of controller I thought it was
is running in IT mode
Is running the factory NVDATA, whatever that is
based on which command worked, it needs an SAS3Flash… Right?
And that’s it.
I’m happy to learn and be thorough, let me know if you need any more information
My reading also - key things are that it is found and that it is in IT mode.
I have no idea whether this is the latest firmware or not - you need to research this. If you can find later IT firmware, then you can flash it with the same sas3flash utility (sas3flash -h to get some more info).
And this is the limit of my knowledge - hopefully someone more knowledgeable will now step in to help you with firmware research and simplified flashing instructions.
Good work!
The recommended firmware version is 16.00.12.00, so your card isn’t abhorrently off. If everything else is set up correctly the drives should still show up as is. Besides, as the linked page states, the 12-point update only helps with a SATA-specific issue.
Even if you end up replacing the card, I think it’s worth double-checking that the rest of the setup is sane.
Have you actually tried this with drives connected? If so, what brand and model?
What was the result?
Not strictly true. Only if you want to pair adapters for redundancy and increased bandwidth - not if they have different IPs and especially not if they are on different subnets.
P.S. A cautionary tale about Amazon’s “recertified” drives…
I received 5x4TB Ironwolf drives shipped from Amazon (and I kid you not) loose in an A1 or A2 sized envelope and thrown over the gate by the delivery driver.
I was unwilling to trust my data to drives that had been mistreated in this way, because even if they were working when I tried them who could say whether they would fail early and possibly several fail at the same time - so I didn’t bother even to test them, but simply wrote in permanent marker on each of the sealed Mylar envelopes that they had been received damaged and returned, and put them back in their individual boxes and sent them back to Amazon as damaged on receipt.
Despite assurances from Amazon that they would be recertified by the manufacturer, they were back on sale within hours of them being received back at the Amazon warehouse - definitely insufficient time for them to have been back to the manufacturer for recertification, and almost certainly insufficient time for Amazon themselves to do any checks whether they were even working. Indeed, the Amazon marketplace seller who owned the drives said that Amazon had put them back on sale “as new”.
So, IMO buy any drives from Amazon at your own risk because they may be mistreated on their way to you, and drives may have been mistreated before or sent back as defective, and then sold as “new” rather than “recertified”.
Have you actually tried this with drives connected? If so, what brand and model?
What was the result?
Yes. When I log in to the web interface and create a pool in the Storage Dashboard I get “No disks available” under the Unassigned Disks header. When I check what disks the machine can see (Storage Dashboard → Disks) I get two entries:
Name
Serial
Disk Size
Pool
sda
S2AA03QK
465.76 GiB
boot-pool
sde
058F63626420
0 B
N/A
I have no idea what that second “drive” is.
The missing drives are all 3.84 TB Dell SAS SSDs model number: 1805. They were verified to work by the friend I bought them form before they shipped them.
I have two copies of the LSI adapter so I just now tested the system with both installed and drives hooked up to both of them. I got the same “output” as before.
again but got the same response. I would assume this is because they’re using the same… everything? Like it only listed one adapter even though bother are inserted with drives attached.
Yeah that’s been my experience. Know how those Data center drives get pulled, it’s a hit and miss, roll of the dice. You gotta know that in some Data warehouse units, A drive might not get the much ware or could been beaten nearly to death before replaced as part of a refresh. I did not envy my Storage and server teams. I would hardy venture into the Data center floor unless to talk with the IBM Mainframe CE. The sever/Cisco guys it seemed camped out nightly.
I assume there’s some CLI command I can run that would spit out a list of all the components, since the computer came with different options and I don’t know exacty which version I have (E.G. I know I have an i3 processor but not which kind).
Using AdcAudx sff-8643 to 4x SFF-8482 SAS cables. I would be a little surprised if both cables I got were bad. Can the cable itself have compatibility issues?
