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LSI 9240-8i With Lenovo Thinkserver T140 running ESXi 6 Advice
Hi All,
I recently purchased a Lenovo Thinkserver T140 which i intended to run ESXi 6 on until i discovered that ESXi doesn't like software Raid (
).
So, after reading around a bit i found that an IBM M1015 would be a good RAID controller to get as its a rebranded 9240-8i and usually cheaper and supports >2tb drives, which i needed as i have 2 x 3TB WD Reds.
Long story short though i found an actual 9240-8i for less.
My question is though, on this site:- IBM ServeRAID M1015 Part 4: Cross flashing to a LSI9211-8i in IT or IR mode
It mentioned that you can crossflash the IBM M1015 with LSI9211-XX firmware to enable the following:-
LSI9211-IT = Straight pass through no RAID, best for ZFS file system etc
LSI9211-IR = Pass through as in IT mode, but you also have RAID options (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 1e and RAID 10), better for RAID 0 Windows boot SSDs etc, and possibly run Software RAID 5 on the other drives.
LSI9240 = default mode, only really useful feature this mode has is RAID1/ RAID 10, drives have to be set to JBOD (single) or RAID to be seen by OS, can be annoying when adding removing drives often.
I suppose i would like to run my card in IR mode, i only intend on running my 2 3TB WD Reds in RAID 1 to start, so LSI9240, default mode, would do anyway but it would mean that i can basically flash and have more options down the line if i want.
So can i crossflash my 9240-8i with LSI9211-IR firmware? (if so is that site the best source for the firmware) or am i just better leaving it as is and forgetting about flashing it?
I recently purchased a Lenovo Thinkserver T140 which i intended to run ESXi 6 on until i discovered that ESXi doesn't like software Raid (
). So, after reading around a bit i found that an IBM M1015 would be a good RAID controller to get as its a rebranded 9240-8i and usually cheaper and supports >2tb drives, which i needed as i have 2 x 3TB WD Reds.
Long story short though i found an actual 9240-8i for less.
My question is though, on this site:- IBM ServeRAID M1015 Part 4: Cross flashing to a LSI9211-8i in IT or IR mode
It mentioned that you can crossflash the IBM M1015 with LSI9211-XX firmware to enable the following:-
LSI9211-IT = Straight pass through no RAID, best for ZFS file system etc
LSI9211-IR = Pass through as in IT mode, but you also have RAID options (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 1e and RAID 10), better for RAID 0 Windows boot SSDs etc, and possibly run Software RAID 5 on the other drives.
LSI9240 = default mode, only really useful feature this mode has is RAID1/ RAID 10, drives have to be set to JBOD (single) or RAID to be seen by OS, can be annoying when adding removing drives often.
I suppose i would like to run my card in IR mode, i only intend on running my 2 3TB WD Reds in RAID 1 to start, so LSI9240, default mode, would do anyway but it would mean that i can basically flash and have more options down the line if i want.
So can i crossflash my 9240-8i with LSI9211-IR firmware? (if so is that site the best source for the firmware) or am i just better leaving it as is and forgetting about flashing it?