LSI 9300-16i 16-Port 12Gb/s SAS Controller HBA Card with P16 IT Mode for ZFS TrueNAS unRAID

Bought to use in my TrueNAS setup and it worked right away. No setup, no drivers, nothing extra required software wise to make this work. It was an instant drop in adapter to let my SAS drives to their thing.

Using with Windows Server 2022 It doesnt seem to be on the lastest P16 firmware, but that is easily rectified by using IBM Megaraid to update from Windows using the files from FreeNAS/TrueNAS (Google it). This is an important thing to do as I had continual disconnections of SATA-based devices until I installed it. It runs a bit hot, but I screwed an 80mm fan into the heatsing and it runs nice and cool. A good value.

Board was not properly re-flashed from OEM state during refurb or something. The NVDATA is mismatched and there's nothing I can do to fix that as a consumer except return the card and try again...with another vendor. ⚠️ The NVDATA is mismatched Default NVDATA: 0e.01.00.03 Persistent NVDATA: 0e.01.00.07 output from sas3flash below shows the mismatch: Avago Technologies SAS3 Flash Utility Version 17.00.00.00 (2018.04.02) Copyright 2008-2018 Avago Technologies. All rights reserved. Adapter Selected is a Avago SAS: SAS3008(C0) Controller Number : 0 Controller : SAS3008(C0) PCI Address : 00:08:00:00 SAS Address : 500062b-2-013f-5500 NVDATA Version (Default) : 0e.01.00.03 NVDATA Version (Persistent) : 0e.01.00.07 Firmware Product ID : 0x2221 (IT) Firmware Version : 16.00.12.00 NVDATA Vendor : LSI NVDATA Product ID : SAS9300-16i BIOS Version : 08.37.00.00 UEFI BSD Version : 18.00.00.00 FCODE Version : N/A Board Name : SAS9300-16i Board Assembly : 03-25600-01B Board Tracer Number : SP53918490 Finished Processing Commands Successfully. Exiting SAS3Flash. 🔍 What the sas3flash -list Output Confirms ✅ 1. The card is in IT mode, so this is not a RAID-mode issue. Firmware Product ID : 0x2221 (IT) ⚠️ 2. The NVDATA is mismatched Default NVDATA: 0e.01.00.03 Persistent NVDATA: 0e.01.00.07 These must match on a healthy card. A mismatch like this is the classic signature of: a partially flashed white‑label card corrupted NVDATA a board that was cross‑flashed incorrectly before you received it or a counterfeit SAS3008 board with invalid NVDATA partitions This mismatch is exactly what causes drives to be visible, SMART readable, capacity readable, but all writes fail with I/O errors. This matches the behavior of the drives on my system. Additionally: ⚠️ 3. The SAS address format is unusual. Real LSI SAS addresses follow a strict pattern. This looks like it was autogenerated by a refurbisher. 500062b-2-013f-5500 ⭐ Bottom Line: The NVDATA region is corrupted — and that cannot be fixed with normal flashing. -e 6 didn’t fix it flashing firmware didn’t fix it flashing the ROM didn’t fix it Windows still throws I/O errors all disks fail identically This is the exact behavior of a SAS3008 card with bad NVDATA or a defective write path. 🔥 Can this be repaired? There is a deeper recovery method, but it only works if the hardware is genuine: The “full NVDATA rewrite” procedure involves: forcing an erase of NVDATA partitions manually injecting a clean NVDATA image rewriting the SAS address reflashing firmware again However: This requires a matching NVDATA image for your board White‑label cards often reject the rewrite Clone cards often brick when forced into this procedure If the write path is physically damaged, no firmware fix will help Given your symptoms and the mismatch, the odds are high that the card is either defective or a clone with invalid NVDATA. Chat GPT also said: 🧠 My honest recommendation Based on the NVDATA mismatch, the unusual SAS address, the fact that -e 6 didn’t fix it, the universal write failures, and the white‑label refurb origin: You are dealing with a bad card, not a configuration issue. No driver, no Windows setting, and no normal flash procedure will fix a corrupted NVDATA region on a clone or defective SAS3008 board. Return it. Replace it with a genuine LSI/Broadcom card. May the odds be ever in your favor. They weren't in mine.

This is a great card for the price, but don't expect to simply drop it into a standard desktop case and it work. It will require a little, research, tinkering and tweaking to make it work for your situation. Below I've addressed some items I saw in other reviews. Hopefully this helps future buyers make a good buy for their home lab. Despite other reviews complaining about this card not shipping with the latest firmware, I can confirm both of the cards I received had P16. One was 0.10.0 and the other was 0.12.0. From my 5 minute Google search there were no major changes made between the 10 and 12 revisions so don't worry about it. These cards do come with the boot services image installed in case you are wanting to boot from them. This is a reasonable safe assumption on the part of the seller because someone could want to boot from one of these rather than an NVMe or SSD in their home lab, but who am I to judge. The boot services do slow down the boot process if they are left on the card. In my case with 2 cards in one case that would have added close to a minute of extra boot time. Since I'm booting Proxmox from a sata SSD and these cards are being used for my 24bay SAS 12g case plus an external MD1200 SAS shelf the boot services weren't necessary. If you don't need boot services then grab the sas3flash.efi from broadcom, find a tutorial and delete that boot image. The other major concern about these cards was a heat issue. These cards were designed to be in a server grade case with what most would consider overkill and loud fans. If you are a home lab user with a standard desktop case designed for quiet, you will need to rig up some kind of fan system to ensure proper airflow across the heat sink. Some attached an 80mm fan straight on the heat sink, which is a viable option. Personally I would grab a PCI expansion slot fan and use that to avoid damage to the card itself with screws or zip ties. Just my opinion.

I was a little worried as I have a bit of an obscure server. Plugged it in to my riser card instead of the Raid Expander. Changed out the cables and booted up. OS saw every drive perfectly. Because it is in a server chassis, it runs 50c which is perfectly content.

I bought and installed mine in a TrueNAS server in July 2024 and it failed just as the clock turned over to 2025. Although mine was inside a Factal Node 804 case (these have excellent air flow) I think that it was likely a casualty of the amount of heat it generated. These do run hot and from other reviews I knew that in advance. So beware. Other than that, it is an excellent board: runs fast, great True/FreeNAS compatibility, I love the cable connection system, and it was trivial to install.

The product itself is good. Fully operational and works as expected. The only complaint is that product is listed with P16 IT mode firmware installed. This was not the case when the product was received from seller SCSI4ME. P16 firmware for this particular card (16i) can be found on TrueNAS as Broadcom only lists the 8i P16 firmware. Be aware that the 16i contains 2 controllers and will need firmware on both to be updated.

Excelente producto, viene listo para usarse, solo hay que conectar los cables y listo, el software que trae pre-cargado funciona perfectamente en modo IT justo como lo menciona el vendedor. Como es bien sabido, esta tarjeta puede calentarse bastante entonces es una muy buena idea comprar un ventilador pequeño y un bracket para sujetarlo justo debajo de la tarjeta, así se mantiene a buena temperatura todo el tiempo. La he usado casi un año y ha funcionado sin ningún problema con 16 discos de entre 8TB y 24TB.

Card is not recognized by the motherbord.