Re: 8 port HBA recommendations for ZFS on NetBSD

[Staffan Thomén <duck%shangtai.net@localhost>]

Jason Thorpe wrote:
> > On Dec 5, 2019, at 4:26 AM, David Brownlee<abs%absd.org@localhost>  wrote:
> >
> > In the LSI/mfii arena:
> >
> > The 3008 based LSI cards (LSI 9340-8i or IBM M1215) seem quite nice,
> > though I'd probably need a cable adaptor for the ports. Or I could
> > step back to a 2008 card like the LSI SAS 9211-8i and not worry about
> > cables.
> >
> > Does anyone know if NetBSD supports 2308 based cards like the LSI SAS
> > 9207-8i - that seems to be the best option still keeping a SFF-8087
> > connector.
>
> The "mpii" driver appears so, but I have no first-hand experience.  These cards seem to be plentiful on eBay (e.g. HP H220).

I have one LSI 2108 that's built into the motherboard of my supermicro, the 
firmware on that one is pretty terrible; it does not support passthrough.

Because I wanted to attach a tape drive I got a 9211-8i off ebay. It arrived 
with a very old version of the IR firmware (RAID) and I flashed it with the 
latest official IT firmware from LSI and it works great. NetBSD Just 
Worked(tm). The official firmware is MUCH nicer than the stuff that was on the 
vendor provided firmware on the internal controller even though the hardware 
is pretty much the same. (I understand this is the case with quite a lot of 
these SAS controllers, and that they're very amenable to crossflashing, but I 
don't know anything about that YMMV)

mpii0 at pci4 dev 0 function 0: vendor 1000 product 0072 (rev. 0x03)
mpii0: interrupting at ioapic1 pin 6, event channel 7
mpii0: SGX-SAS6-INT-Z, firmware 20.0.4.0, MPI 2.0
mpii0: physical disk inserted in slot 24
mpii0: physical disk inserted in slot 36
scsibus1 at mpii0: 256 targets, 8 luns per target

st0 at scsibus1 target 24 lun 0: <QUANTUM, ULTRIUM 5, 3180> tape removable
st0: uhidev0 at uhub1 port 1 configuration 1 interface 0

ses0 at scsibus1 target 36 lun 0: <HP, HP SAS EXP Card, 2.08> enclosure 
services fixed
ses0: SCSI-3 SES Device
ses0: tagged queueing

Staffan