Re: Considering new SATA PCIe card

[Ram Ramesh <rramesh2400@gmail.com>]

On 11/24/20 9:28 PM, Alex wrote:
> Hi,
>
>>>> If plan to use addon cards, please consider LSI SAS9211-8i cards. Well
>>>> supported and reliable.
>>> Oh yes, how quickly I forgot. I actually have one of these in another
>>> server, but I think it's too long to physically fit in the case. Just
>>> to be sure, this is the card you're referencing, right?
>>>
>>> https://www.ebay.com/itm/LSI-SAS-9211-8i-8-port-6G-IT-Raid-Card-ZFS-JBOD-HBA-SAS-SATA6-0-2008-8I/143735992677
>> Yes. Any one of those that mentions this controller and preferably IT
>> (just HBA) firmware instead of IR (Raid) firmware as your raid will be
>> implemented as SW mdraid over JBOD.
> Thanks so much for your help. Are there other similar LSI cards that
> are also well supported?
>
> This looks like a 4-port version of the same card that would certainly fit.
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-H1110-81Y4494-SAS-2-6Gbps-HBA-LSI-9211-4i-P20-IT-Mode-for-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID/143488380023
>
> And here's a 1GB cache version?
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/LSI-MegaRaid-SAS-9270CV-8i-1G-Cache-PCI3-0-6Gb-s-Raid-Card-SAS-Controller/143780173461

I am not an expert by any means. I have purchased just one 9211 card and 
it is working well so far. Yes, there are several. I think PCIe version 
may be newer with higher numbered cards, but not sure. In any case, 
vanilla simple 9211 will be more than enough for spinning disks.

I could not figure out if the cache version you list above is meant to 
do HW raid. I was told by those knowledgeable here that HBA or JBOD 
cards are more suitable for mdraid.

Like others have said, this is unlikely to speed up your disk access as 
spinning disks are too slow compared to PCIe/SATA line/cable rates. Buy 
RAM/SSD or do something more fancy  like bcache/lvm cache, if 
performance is a real need vs. feel good state.

Regards
Ramesh