sanity check: is 9211-8i, on 8.3, with IT firmware still "the one"

[Freddie Cash]

On Jan 19, 2012 8:54 PM, "John Kozubik" <john at kozubik.com> wrote:
>
>
> Hi Freddie,
>
>
> On Thu, 19 Jan 2012, Freddie Cash wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 4:08 PM, John Kozubik <john at kozubik.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> We're about to invest heavily in a new ZFS infrastructure, and our
plans are
>>> to:
>>>
>>> - wait for 8.3, with the updated 6gbps mps driver
>>> - Install and use LSI 9211-8i cards with newest "IT" firmware
>>>
>>> This appears to be the de facto standard for ZFS HBAs ...
>>>
>>> Is there any reason to consider other cards/vendors ?
>>
>>
>> We're using the SuperMicro AOC-USAS2-L8i controllers with great
>> success, via the mps driver in 8.2-STABLE (originally, when we
>> installed the box), now running 9.0-RELEASE.  WIth the 9.0 IT
>> firmware.  Haven't tried the 10.0 firmware yet.
>>
>> We're currently only using ZFS for storing backups (compression,
>> dedupe, and snapshots are perfect for this).  But we have plans to use
>> similar hardware as these boxes as SAN/NAS boxes for VM servers.
>
>
>
> Is the AOC-USAS2-L8i *actually* identical to the 9211-8i, or is it a
different implementation of the same chipset ?

They're both using the LSI2008 chipset.

Isn't the 9200 a RAID controller that can be flashed with the IT firmware
to turn it into a 'dumb' SATA controller?  The USAS2 is just a SATA
controller. No onboard RAM, no BBU, no frills.