Choosing HBA IT mode for 12th gen PowerEdge servers | H310 vs H710 mini

[@homeuser4295]

great video, i am confuse with H310 & H710 mini before I see your video. now clear about it, thanks.

[@ArtofServer]

Glad it helped

[@squirrel_ca9745]

Please could you do a video on how to flash the H710/H710P D1 chipset with lsi raid firmware (instead of IT mode) for those of us wanting to make use of the pci-e 3.0 speeds. It would be absolutely invaluable for quite a lot of us viewers

[@johnvanwinkle4351]

Thank you for the information! This was helpful since I just bought another server....grin

[@ArtofServer]

Glad I could help!

[@BigKens]

Great summary - thank you so much!

[@ArtofServer]

Glad it was helpful!

[@mspencerl87]

i bought one of you cards just now, but it would be awesome if you could post a "Guide" video where to get all the relevant files for doing this. For the H310 H710 H710P etc.

[@ArtofServer]

I'll consider that and put it on my list of future videos. However, the LSI firmwares are all available at broadcom.com.

[@AhrenBaderJarvis]

Thank you for the helpful video. This got me on the right path. One thing I did find in my research though that I don't think you mentioned is that the h310 doesn't have a battery backup. Also do you have a video talking about what the IT Mode firmware is and the advantage of it?

[@ArtofServer]

Thanks for watching and glad it was helpful. With IT mode or HBA controllers, there is no cache or it is not used on the controller, so the battery backup (for the cache) becomes unnecessary. In fact, on the H710 mini that I sell, I usually remove the battery since it's just wasted power and a potential fire hazard. I have on my very long list of future videos a topic on "HBA IT mode vs RAID mode" ... so thanks for the suggestion and stay tuned for that video some time in the future! :-)

[@AhrenBaderJarvis]

@@ArtofServer awesome! Thanks for the great helpful videos. I definitely subscribed to take a look at that. Also you should plug your store at the end of each video. If I knew you sold them I would have bought them here. Though now I remember seeing another video where you mentioned flashing them to sell and I think you said the IT Mode firmware isn't compatible with VMware ESXi.

[@JeffDavis73]

Very helpful. Could you explain the h310 in non-raid mode vs flashing it to IT mode. I'm running one unraid server with an h310 but I just have the drives set as "non-raid". Will there be significant advantages flashes to IT? Will I lose my dell hard drive lights/activity? Thanks again, always learning from you.

[@ArtofServer]

Great questions! Yes, with the LSI IT mode firmware, the H310 card will have a much higher queue depth than with Dell firmware. So, there is a performance boost by using the LSI IT mode firmware. You are correct, with LSI firmware, the status LED will not work as before. (Off for SATA, on for SAS HDDs) but the activity led will work as usual. Thanks for the great question, wish I thought to mention it!

[@OdenKnight]

Excellent question and answer! Thank you both!

[@seanm9378]

Great news! So basically swap out my H710P for this and ZFS will be up and and ready to be running properly? I am runnig 2 dell R720’s. Well, bought one so waiting for it to arrive. This should be perfect for my server!

[@sogndal94]

yes, If you buy preflashed cards from Art Of server/Blinux, and you put them in your server. you will be up and running ready to setup ZFS in your OS(If the OS supports it.)

[@seanm9378]

sogndal94 yes, will be running as i am now freenas/truenas. I’ll need to buy one or two!

[@ArtofServer]

Thank you for your support! :-)

[@MrMulcahyjohn]

Excellent video

[@ArtofServer]

Glad you liked it

[@NdxtremePro]

@Art of Server, you mentioned in the video the 710 mini will only support PCI-E 3.0 with IT mode flashed, but I thought there were 2 versions of this card, some with support for PCI-E 3.0? Also, you mentioned the H310 is fine for spinning disks when you only have 8 or 12 disks. What about 26 disks, like the R720XD 2.5" chassis? Is that a situation you recommend the 710 mini over the h310?

[@ArtofServer]

I was referring to this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iIGxm6aDrJhkmc0 But, I have since found out there is a way to enable PCIe 3.0 support even with Dell firmware on the rev D1 SAS2208. It's on my list of future videos...

[@NdxtremePro]

@@ArtofServer That will be really cool.

[@pinkdispatcher]

Hi, thanks again for lots of informed and informative content. With the help of various tutorials on the net I managed to re-flash my H310 in my T320 to IT mode. It currently runs the Original Dell "Non-RAID" SAS firmware. So what are the advantages are of using LSI firmware (9211-8i) over the Dell IT-Mode HBA firmware? Flashing either worked after initial trouble, but I haven't installed any operating system yet, so could still change.

[@ArtofServer]

For this generation of dell servers, they did not have an IT mode firmware available for any of the mini monolithic slots. So, not sure which "Dell IT mode HBA firmware" you are referring to. Starting in the 13th gen PowerEdge servers, they did start to offer HBA mode cards. The IT mode H310 & H710 mini mentioned in this video are modified with LSI firmware. Now, if you're comparing LSI IT mode firmware vs Dell H310 MegaRAID firmware, there is one significant difference; the queue depth is crippled in the Dell firmware.

[@pinkdispatcher]

@@ArtofServer Thanks a lot for the answer. I'm sorry for the confusion, and I realise this wasn't the right video to post this question. I was asking about a "normal" PCIe H310, not the mini monolithic, and it works with the "6GBPSAS.FW" firmware, downloadable from Dell. I think I found the answer: I cannot BIOS-boot with the Dell Firmware, but can with the LSI firmware, even though I flashed both times with the same BIOS. Maybe that's also just a coincidence, but since I have now set the Server to UEFI boot mode, it doesn't matter, and everything works for me. (Running NetBSD with OpenZFS.) Thanks again, these videos have been very helpful in educating me about SAS and RAID-Controllers, and HBA and IT-Mode. Until recently I only had experience with Legacy (parallel) SCSI and ATA/SATA.

[@BrianOrange]

Thank you, this was a good video for me.

[@ArtofServer]

Glad it was helpful!

[@OdenKnight]

Q: I am currently running a 720 with 16x 2.5” SAS drives and the H310 mini with the Dell firmware. ProxMox is installed on a consumer SSD and 3 ZFS pools (various configurations) are set up on the SAS drives. If I get a flashed Hx10 mini from you, will I have to rebuild the ZFS pools (and data), or will it be plug and play (faster) for my scenario? (ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR DATA). Thanks for the video series! I’m one of the binger’s and new to server grade equipment, but learning a lot from you.

[@ArtofServer]

There's a good chance you can just swap the controller and import the zpool immediately. I did something just like that even with a real RAID controller like H700 near the end of this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iZC8f2Ssodp_rdU

[@SV-lw8jo]

Can a 10TB (HUH721010AL5200) 12Gb/s drive be used on a Dell R720XD with a mini H710 controller, even though the H710 mini supports only up to 6Gb/s?

[@ArtofServer]

yes

[@SV-lw8jo]

@@ArtofServer Thank you!

[@umirza]

@ArtOfServer from what I've researched and been told I can also use an H200 to pass through drives to the OS without doing any modifications. Is that true? I'm trying to follow your video around converting NetApp drive sector size to work in the dell r720 and that seemed like the easiest and most cost effective option. Looks like over the years there's been lots of back and forth around whether the h200 needs IT mode and it's really got me confused. I just need to switch the driver sector size and it's tough to buy the more expensive cards just for one job

[@ArtofServer]

Part of the issue is that not all H200 are the same. Even the hardware can be different with some missing components. Most H200 come with PERC RAID firmware, which is like the LSI megaraid firmware. Some have the "6Gbps HBA" Dell firmware, which is like the LSI IT mode firmware. All that said , on R720, you should get a IT mode firmware mini monolithic card.

[@umirza]

@@ArtofServer Thanks I did manage to just plug in h200 and ubuntu saw the drives right away and I was able to format the drives! Guess this one came with the 6Gbps firmware....though its not the latest wondering if updating it via the dell drivers would revert the card back to non-IT mode like? Funny you mentioned the mini slot, I would like to free up the PCI slot and was thinking about finding something that would go there. What would you recommend as far as an IT mode mini monolithic card? Tried some searching but its a minefield.

[@tochilko7885]

Great video! Already faced with the lack of drivers on esxi 7, although the H310 adapter is in the HCL. Is it possible to add a "pcie bifurcation" option for 12th G servers?

[@ArtofServer]

VMware lists H310 as compatible only with RAID firmware, not the IT mode firmware. If you look closely at the product ID, they only accept 0x0073 (RAID), not 0x0072 (IT mode). So SAS2008 with IT mode for ESXi 7.0 is no go. Sorry, no idea about the PCIe bifurcation on 12G servers.

[@tochilko7885]

@@ArtofServer Thanks for the detailed explanation! Initially, I planned to test vSAN with native firmware and then with IT, the result is same - esxi 7 does not see local disks. All hope for the H710...

[@NdxtremePro]

12G servers do not support native bifurcation. If the PCI device has a PCI chip that does bifurcation, and your OS has the drivers for your device, that will work. So, you need the more expensive cards for 4 NVMe drives on one PCI-E slot, for example.

[@joji0717]

When the H710 is Flashed to IT Mode. I lost the Rear two drives on my R720XD. Is there any way to get those drives back? Unable to use the two rear drives as the Boot/OS Drive.

[@ArtofServer]

That's really weird. The R720XD rear backplane is connected to the SAS expander of the front backplane. If the controller can see the front SAS expander, then it should see the rear backplane as well. I suspect there's something else going on in your situation.

[@joji0717]

@@ArtofServer turns out the Flash was not successful. And I'm having issues reverting the FW to stock.

[@UnkyjoesPlayhouse]

another great video :)

[@ArtofServer]

Thanks again!

[@donvenardos6934]

Can the H710p mini also be flashed to IT mode?

[@ArtofServer]

yes, but I don't usually do that as the "P" version is the 1GB cache high performance RAID card and all the cache would be wasted in IT mode. so, I usually use the cheaper non-P version for IT mode flashing.

[@Synt3x1337]

@@ArtofServer Do you have a video on how to flash H710P mini to HBA? The server I'm watching on ebay has that raid card preinstalled (R720). First I was thinking about expanding my current build, so I bought a card from you that you flashed to HBA. But know I feel like normal pc parts is so expensive, so it would be better buy a used server. :)

[@thekaduu]

H310 has no cache... H710 has 512 MB and H710P has 1GB!

[@ArtofServer]

With IT mode firmware, the cache is not used, so it is irrelevant.