LSI 9260-8i RAID 6 Unavailable?

[FrozenLiquidity]

Hey all,

I've got a LSI 9260-8i card in my VMware server that I'm trying to configure as a RAID 6 array with 6 identical 2TB drives. The BIOS for the Raid controller detects all six drives and I can run the configuration wizard, but there is simply no selection available for RAID 6 even though the card supports it and I know that some of you have or currently are using this card in this mode. I can't find any way to implement this within the MegaRAID BIOS - does this need to be configured through a different utility? The configuration wizard shows the available modes as R0, R1 and R5, so I don't see why R6 wouldn't also be available when all of these drives are added to the drive group. Does anyone with this card and a RAID 6 setup on it recall what was required for them to get this working?

The firmware is from 2011, so I may want to update that - but I would probably pop the card into a different machine to do so, as I'd rather operate from bare metal to OS for that sort of operation rather than going through a hypervisor, even if it is in pass thru mode.

On top of that, does anyone have any other suggestions to get the best performance out of this array once it's created? BIOS Options, block sizes, etc.

Thanks!

 

[Cerulean]

Try updating the firmware. When I had the 9260-8i it supported RAID6 out of the box and after two firmware upgrades over the last 2 years. I had five 2TB Enterprise-grade SATA drives setup in RAID6 no problem. Good luck on your research with block sizes. I remember that I had a minor headache trying to find the best settings for that too. My foggy memory makes me think that it was something that was rather variable / wasn't something like "oh, use this setting and you'll have as good as it can get".

If you want to get more performance, look into getting a CacheCade Pro license and using an SSD as a cache for your RAID.

 

[Master_shake_]

is it an actual 9260 or is it an ibm m5015?