force SATA 2

[RegularJoe]

Hi All,

I can't seem to find anyone talking about this. I want to force all disks on a system to SATA2 300MB/S

I am using a LSI 9211-8i and TOSHIBA MQ01ABB200 2TB disk with some Samsung 840 Pro SSD's.

Thanks,
Joe

 

[danb35]

I can't seem to find anyone talking about this.

I expect that's because there isn't any reason to do it, at least in most cases. What do you think this will do for you?

 

[RegularJoe]

Dan,

I have the SSD drives negotiating SATA3 and the mechanical drives negotiating SATA2. Some of the mechanical drives share the same BUS as the SSD drives. If I can't get an answer I will just have to reboot and put the SSD's on the backplane so they all 4 goto the same HBA port. This box has 6 HBA ports that to to a 4 port HBA and a 2 port HBA. I am not using any SATA/SAS interposer so it might not matter as each disk is a direct connection to the HBA vai a SFF-8087.

Thanks,
Joe

 

[Ericloewe]

SAS is switched. Every port on the expander will run at the maximum speed both devices support.

Since you don't even have an expander (you almost certainly did not mean an interposer), it matters even less, since all ports are individual.

 

[aran kaspar]

I'm having similar issues with on-board SATA-2 controller.
Tried swapping the drives back and forth. Checked mobo and drive specs all-around.
Seems to be either drive feature or firmware related.
The same speeds seem to follow the drives, definitely not per-port, they will all happily adjust to their drive
Let me know your thoughts.

SSD #1 (Crucial M4 SATA-3)
"camcontrol identify ada5"
pass5: <M4-CT256M4SSD2 040H> ATA-9 SATA 3.x device
pass5: 150.000MB/s transfers (SATA 1.x, UDMA5, PIO 8192bytes)
...
WAY OFF

SSD#2 (Samsung PM810 SATA-2)
"camcontrol identify ada4"
pass4: <SAMSUNG SSD PM810 2.5" 256GB AXM08D1Q> ATA-8 SATA 2.x device
pass4: 300.000MB/s transfers (SATA 2.x, UDMA5, PIO 8192bytes)
...
MAXED!

HDD#1 (WD Velociraptor 10K SATA-2)
"camcontrol identify ada7"
pass7: <WDC WD6000HLHX-01JJPV0 04.05G04> ATA-8 SATA 3.x device
pass7: 150.000MB/s transfers (SATA 1.x, UDMA5, PIO 8192bytes)
...
NOT MAX
HDD#2 (using old SATA-2 Hitachi just as a test or reference for curiosity)
"camcontrol identify ada6"
pass6: <Hitachi HDS721050CLA362 JP2OA3MA> ATA-8 SATA 2.x device
pass6: 300.000MB/s transfers (SATA 2.x, UDMA5, PIO 8192bytes)
...
MAXED!

 

[Ericloewe]

What's the SATA controller?

 

[aran kaspar]

What's the SATA controller?

Nvidia-something
I'll get the model soon.

 

[Ericloewe]

Nvidia-something

Well, there's your problem. An Nvidia chipset.

Those were never good for Windows. You can imagine what that means for FreeBSD. I'm afraid your only way around the overall suckiness is recommended hardware.

 

[aran kaspar]

Well, there's your problem. An Nvidia chipset.

Those were never good for Windows. You can imagine what that means for FreeBSD. I'm afraid your only way around the overall suckiness is recommended hardware.

Aha! Gotcha.
Should I buy some sort of SATA expander or controller card?
I only have 2 PCI slots and 1 PCI-E (1x) available.

 

[aran kaspar]

Well, there's your problem. An Nvidia chipset.

Those were never good for Windows. You can imagine what that means for FreeBSD. I'm afraid your only way around the overall suckiness is recommended hardware.

Thanks for your post Eric, I guess the answer is to buy a card. Can you recommend one?

 

[BigDave]

I guess the answer is to buy a card. Can you recommend one?

FreeNas Recommended Hardware

 

[Ericloewe]

I only have 2 PCI slots and 1 PCI-E (1x) available.

That's going to be a problem.

To be honest, a system with an Nvidia chipset is essentially unsalvageable.

 

[aran kaspar]

That's going to be a problem.

To be honest, a system with an Nvidia chipset is essentially unsalvageable.

i think ill swap boards with esxi server and report back. its a lenovo board. ill let you know but it may be so old that its only got sata 1 which ill have to check first

 

[aran kaspar]

FreeNas Recommended Hardware

Thank you for the list! Very good stuff.

 

[aran kaspar]

That's going to be a problem.

To be honest, a system with an Nvidia chipset is essentially unsalvageable.

The other board is an AMD chipset.
Is that out of question too?
I tested with all the different types of drives I have and they all come up as SATA II whereas before only 1 out of 5 types would.

 

[Ericloewe]

The other board is an AMD chipset.
Is that out of question too?

Not necessarily. It's better. At least the SATA controller should be usable.

 

[aran kaspar]

Not necessarily. It's better. At least the SATA controller should be usable.

Thank you for answering all my dumb questions Eric. Should run much smoother now. Just out of sheer curiosity, do you have your freenas specs posted anywhere?

 

[Ericloewe]

My signature. If you can't see it, here goes:

FreeNAS 9.3 Stable
Supermicro X10SLM+-F with Intel Core i3 4330 and 2*8GB Crucial ECC 1.35V DDR3 1600MHz
6 * WD30EFRX WD Red 3TB in RAIDZ2 and 2*16GB Toshiba USB drive, mirrored
Sharkoon T9 Value with 2 * Icy Dock FatCage MB153SP-B 3-in-2 drive cages
Seasonic G-550 APC Back-UPS Pro 900

 

[Ericloewe]

My signature. If you can't see it, here goes:

FreeNAS 9.3 Stable
Supermicro X10SLM+-F with Intel Core i3 4330 and 2*8GB Crucial ECC 1.35V DDR3 1600MHz
6 * WD30EFRX WD Red 3TB in RAIDZ2 and 2*16GB Toshiba USB drive, mirrored
Sharkoon T9 Value with 2 * Icy Dock FatCage MB153SP-B 3-in-2 drive cages
Seasonic G-550 APC Back-UPS Pro 900

Thanks, XenForo, for ruining my whitespace... /sigh

 

[aran kaspar]

Thanks, XenForo, for ruining my whitespace... /sigh

That's b!tch'n. You must run a boatload of add-ons then. How do you do backups? I just started using Rsync modules but my performance speeds are barely measurable when the FreeNAS box does a pull from my ReadyNAS Duo.
Talking like 4MBps