Hardware recommendations needed for HBA

  • So what I currently have is as follows


    Fractal Design R5 case (Awesome case for the money and has 8x hdd trays)
    Supermicro X10SLL-F board
    Intel i5 4570
    32gb Kingston ECC memory



    That being said, I normally ran 5x 3tb drives before, Now I'm looking to run 8 however I need a suggestion on a HBA card. Need something that isn't going to break the bank but supports anything between 3-8tb for drive size.


    Thanks in advance!

    Motherboard : SuperMicro X10SLL-F | i3-4170 @ 3.7ghz | 32gb ECC RAM
    PSU: EVGA 500w
    Case: Fractal Design Define R5
    Controller : Dell H310 flashed with IT Mode Firmware
    DATA: 8x3TB

    Einmal editiert, zuletzt von captainwtf ()

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Need something that isn't going to break the bank but supports anything between 3-8tb for drive size.

    LSI 9211-8i or its re-branded modes (IBM m1015 or DELL PERC H310 flashed with LSI IT firmware). I use the LSI 9211-8i and 9260-8i cards myself.

    omv 7.0.4-2 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.10 | compose 7.1.2 | k8s 7.0-6 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


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  • LSI 9211-8i or its re-branded modes (IBM m1015 or DELL PERC H310 flashed with LSI IT firmware). I use the LSI 9211-8i and 9260-8i cards myself.

    That's what I keep seeing pop up everywhere is the 9211 or M1015 flashed with the IT firmware. And to confirm those will support 3tb and larger drives? I've actually had a difficult time confirming this.


    I have a 9260-8i already thats in a Lenovo server of mine (not in use yet)

    Motherboard : SuperMicro X10SLL-F | i3-4170 @ 3.7ghz | 32gb ECC RAM
    PSU: EVGA 500w
    Case: Fractal Design Define R5
    Controller : Dell H310 flashed with IT Mode Firmware
    DATA: 8x3TB

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    And to confirm those will support 3tb and larger drives? I've actually had a difficult time confirming this.

    I have three 4tb and one 8tb drives connected to the 9211. I've had seven 4tb and one 8tb connected to it before.

    omv 7.0.4-2 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.10 | compose 7.1.2 | k8s 7.0-6 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


    Please try ctrl-shift-R and read this before posting a question.

    Please put your OMV system details in your signature.
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  • I have three 4tb and one 8tb drives connected to the 9211. I've had seven 4tb and one 8tb connected to it before.

    Appreciate the input, I'll nab one of the h310's & a couple of the SFF to SATA hydra cables.


    I know at one point in time you had some suggestions or personal preferences regarding filesytems in a thread I had somewhere, seems like everyone and their mother says use ZFS. and while in theory it sounds like a great idea I hateeeeee that there isn't really the ability to dynamically expand a pre-existing pool

    Motherboard : SuperMicro X10SLL-F | i3-4170 @ 3.7ghz | 32gb ECC RAM
    PSU: EVGA 500w
    Case: Fractal Design Define R5
    Controller : Dell H310 flashed with IT Mode Firmware
    DATA: 8x3TB

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    I know at one point in time you had some suggestions or personal preferences regarding filesytems in a thread I had somewhere, seems like everyone and their mother says use ZFS. and while in theory it sounds like a great idea I hateeeeee that there isn't really the ability to dynamically expand a pre-existing pool

    Are you wanting to use raid? I don't and I use ext4. Very easy to dynamically expand a mergerfs pool.

    omv 7.0.4-2 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.10 | compose 7.1.2 | k8s 7.0-6 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


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  • I mean I do like fault tolerance so... yes? haha.


    I mean realistically it's not like I'd be expanding the number of drives on this system, if I did i'd have to get an expander card or something & use a DAS. If I need more space i'd probably just buy some storage from wasabi or something, upload all my data there since I'll have a 300x300 conn at home, then build new array & download it all back.

    Motherboard : SuperMicro X10SLL-F | i3-4170 @ 3.7ghz | 32gb ECC RAM
    PSU: EVGA 500w
    Case: Fractal Design Define R5
    Controller : Dell H310 flashed with IT Mode Firmware
    DATA: 8x3TB

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    I mean I do like fault tolerance so... yes? haha.

    Use mdadm raid then. Although, if you can handle the downtime to rebuild your array and download everything over a 300mbps connection, I don't think you necessarily need realtime raid. I think snapraid and mergerfs would probably meet your needs. If a drive fails, you would only be missing the content until you replaced the drive and restored the data with snapraid.

    omv 7.0.4-2 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.10 | compose 7.1.2 | k8s 7.0-6 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


    Please try ctrl-shift-R and read this before posting a question.

    Please put your OMV system details in your signature.
    Please don't PM for support... Too many PMs!

  • Eh I wasn't exactly planning on keeping all my data backed up offsite all the time, at 5 dollars per TB as I add more content that's quite the monthly cost. I'd use it as a one time thing to migrate data.

    Motherboard : SuperMicro X10SLL-F | i3-4170 @ 3.7ghz | 32gb ECC RAM
    PSU: EVGA 500w
    Case: Fractal Design Define R5
    Controller : Dell H310 flashed with IT Mode Firmware
    DATA: 8x3TB

    Einmal editiert, zuletzt von captainwtf ()

  • I use a Supermicro AOC-USAS2-L8i, which is the same LSI 2008 series chip as the 9211 & H310. If you are in the U.S. you can get them new for about $15 shipped on E-Bay. Definitely a cost saver. I have 3TB drives connected with no problem.


    They go so cheap because they are the Supermicro proprietary UIO format though (components on the opposite side of the PCB). In my tower configuration this is actually an advantage. Since the components are facing upward heat seems to dissipate better than a conventional configuration where the components face downward and rising heat gets trapped against the PCB. I saw a trick on another site to use two 3/8" nylon spacers and two 4-40 machine screws (found at my local hardware store for about $1 (US)) to offset the bracket for use in a regular case.

  • I use a Supermicro AOC-USAS2-L8i, which is the same LSI 2008 series chip as the 9211 & H310. If you are in the U.S. you can get them new for about $15 shipped on E-Bay. Definitely a cost saver. I have 3TB drives connected with no problem.


    They go so cheap because they are the Supermicro proprietary UIO format though (components on the opposite side of the PCB). In my tower configuration this is actually an advantage. Since the components are facing upward heat seems to dissipate better than a conventional configuration where the components face downward and rising heat gets trapped against the PCB. I saw a trick on another site to use two 3/8" nylon spacers and two 4-40 machine screws (found at my local hardware store for about $1 (US)) to offset the bracket for use in a regular case.

    Was any type of firmware flash needed or plug and play essentially?

    Motherboard : SuperMicro X10SLL-F | i3-4170 @ 3.7ghz | 32gb ECC RAM
    PSU: EVGA 500w
    Case: Fractal Design Define R5
    Controller : Dell H310 flashed with IT Mode Firmware
    DATA: 8x3TB

  • Was any type of firmware flash needed or plug and play essentially?

    Once the controllers are in the mode you want (HBA or RAID), they are plug and play. The drivers have been in the Linux Kernel for some time. Both OMV 3.x and 4.x have them.


    As for firmware, the Supermicro card can take the LSI firmware flash with no problem. However, the Supermicro firmware is unmodified LSI as far as I can tell, so I went with Supermicro's out of convenience.


    Generally, you'll find in the used/"new but obsolete" market, the controllers flashed to Hardware RAID mode (aka "IR") cost less than the ones flashed as HBAs (aka "IT"). I have no idea why. But, since it very easy to flash the firmware on these, and there's a ton of guides out there for it, lots of folks buy the RAID versions and flash to HBA for use with passthrough, ZFS, etc. This is what I did.


    A note of caution though: Starting with the generation after this one, LSI started making some chip models that couldn't be freely flashed from one mode to another. So, if you are contemplating anything newer than this Supermicro or the ones @ryecoaaron mentioned, you will want to ensure that it can operate in HBA mode. Sites like Servethehome, have guides on the LSI Controller families and which models are HBA/can be flashed to HBA mode, if you're interested.

  • Well I went with a flashed H310, works great! I just got the rest of cables yesterday & got all the drives hooked up, I tested something else for an OS at first just because it's what I had a copy of at work, all drives show up. a pool can be created.


    I'll remove that & install OMV, I always have issues with this $otherNASdistro and choose to not use it for that reason.



    I appreciate the input! I definitely feel much more confident in my NAS build now, I've been trying to figure out for some time what I wanted to do at home for a NAS, I bought all this hardware in 2016 to build one & then just... kinda trailed off. Recently inherited 4 more 3tb enterprise grade drives from work so I could bump from my 5 3tb drives to 8 (one of them was failed)

    Motherboard : SuperMicro X10SLL-F | i3-4170 @ 3.7ghz | 32gb ECC RAM
    PSU: EVGA 500w
    Case: Fractal Design Define R5
    Controller : Dell H310 flashed with IT Mode Firmware
    DATA: 8x3TB

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