LSI SAS 2008 RAID Controller/ HBA Information

Posted April 18, 2012 by Pieter in Servers

One of the most popular server RAID controller chip and HBA controller chip out there is the LSI SAS 2008. The LSI SAS 2008 is a 6.0gbs SAS 2 or SATA III based controller that features eight ports and native PCIe connectivity. In the forums we have maintained a LSI Controller Mapping between LSI controllers and their OEM counterparts. This post will be updated with both information on the LSI SAS 2008, including how to flash cards between IT and IR modes for initiator-target and RAID modes, as well as the different OEM models commonly found in the marketplace. Oftentimes LSI SAS 2008 controllers are less expensive when found as OEM parts from Intel, Dell, HP, IBM, Supermicro and others, so it makes sense in many cases to purchase the OEM versions of the LSI SAS 2008 based cards such as the 9211-8i.

Quick Notes on the LSI SAS 2008

The RAID controller supports both SAS 2 and SATA III at 6.0gbps
Approximately 9w of power consumption for common cards
Single PowerPC core at 533MHz
No onboard cache
PCIe 2.0 x8 interface
Supports SAS expanders (with dual linking)
Uses sas2flash utility to flash to IT/IR mode (when possible).

Supported HBA Modes

RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 1E, RAID 10 and Passthrough (non-RAID)

Supported RAID Modes

RAID 0, RAID1, RAID 10, RAID 5, RAID 50 and JBOD

ServeTheHome Guides

Flashing the IBM ServeRAID M1015 Part 1 (Getting Started)
Flashing the IBM ServeRAID M1015 Part 2 (Performance)
Flashing the IBM ServeRAID M1015 Part 3 (SMART Data)
Flashing the IBM ServeRAID M1015 Part 4 (Cross flashing into IT/ IR mode of the LSI 9211-8i)

Cards Based on the LSI SAS 2008

The following listing is for the RAID Controllers and HBAs based on the LSI SAS 2008 SAS 2 and SATA III RAID controller.

LSI SAS 9211-8i

Naming Convention: i=internal port(s), e=external port(s)
LSI original SAS 2008 based controller, all cards are PCIe 2.0 x8 unless otherwise noted.

LSI Logic Cards

LSI9240 series use iMR mode (integrated MegaRaid)

LSI9240-4i Supports RAIDs 0, 1, 10, 5, 50 and JBOD
LSI9240-8i Supports RAIDs 0, 1, 10, 5, 50 and JBOD

LSI920x/921x series are LSI HBA / Fusion MPT 2.0 all in IR mode support RAIDs 0, 1, 1e, and 10, IT mode = passthrough only

LSI9200-8e
LSI9201-16e SAS2116 version
LSI9201-16i SAS2116 version
LSI9202-16e Dual SAS2008 controller using PCIe 16x
LSI9210-8i OEM version of LSI9211, vertical SAS ports
LSI9211-4i Horizontal SAS ports
LSI9211-8i Horizontal SAS ports
LSI9212-4i4e 1×4 SAS external port and 4x single internal SAS/ SATA 7-pin connectors

IBM SAS HBA’s

IBM ServeRAID M1015 similar to LSI 9240-8i but the ServeRAID M1015 does not support RAID 5 unless you add the ‘Advanced feature key’ to enable it
IBM ServeRAID M1115 newer version of the IBM ServeRAID M1015
IBM 6 Gb Performance Optimized HBA (46M0912) – LSI-9240-8i (SSD enhanced)
IBM 6 Gb SAS Host Bus Adapter (46M0907) – LSI 9212-4i4e – 4x Internal SAS 2/ SATA III and 1x 4 SAS 2 SFF-8088 external connector.

Dell Cards

Dell PERC H200 ships with IT firmware but seems similar to the LSI 9211-8i
Dell Perc H310

Cisco Cards

Cisco UCSC RAID SAS 2008M-8i

Fujitsu Cards

Fujitsu D2607 – Rebranded LSI 9211-8i ?

Oracle (Sun) Cards

SUN SGX-SAS6-EXT-Z (p/n 375-3641) – LSI 9200-8e (external connectors)
SUN SGX-SAS6-INT-Z (p/n 375-3640) – LSI 9211/10-8i (internal connectors)

Intel RAID Cards

Intel RS2WC080 looks identical to the LSI 9240-8i and IBM M1015, but supports RAID 5 and RAID 50 like the 9240-8i.

Intel Proprietary PCIe x4 Cards

Intel RMS2AF040 (Proprietary PCIe 4x)
Intel RMS2AF080 (Proprietary PCIe 4x) As above but 8 port

Hewlett Packard HBA’s

HP H220 Host Bus Adapter
HP H221 Host Bus Adapter (2x External SFF-8088 connectors)
HP H222 Host Bus Adapter
HP H220i Host Bus Adapter
HP H210i Host Bus Adapter

Supermicro Proprietary Format UIO Cards

SuperMicro AOC-USAS2-L8iR – 9240-8i spec’d but with 16MB cache and RAID 5 but no RAID 1E has IR firmware (UIO Card!)
SuperMicro AOC-USAS2-L8E – HBA version so most like a 9211-8i has IT firmware (UIO Card!)
SuperMicro AOC-USAS2-L8i – LSI 9240-8i spec’d no RAID 5 but does have RAID 1E has IR Firmware (UIO Card!)

Lenovo RAID Controllers

Lenovo 67Y1460 is a barely re-branded LSI 9240-8i.

Feel free to contribute to anything here by posting in the LSI Controller Mapping post. We need community feedback to make this as useful as we can for everyone.

Dell, Fujitsu, HBA, IBM, Intel, Lenovo, lsi, raid, SAS 2008, ServeRAID, Supermicro

About the Author

Pieter

Pieter is perhaps best known as the one behind laptopvideo2go.com. He has been a regular contributor in the STH forums and has been detailing his learning, specifically in the area of LSI controllers on STH. He is quickly becoming the resident LSI controller guru.