Comments on: A Complete Guide to FreeNAS Hardware Design, Part II: Hardware Specifics https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/ Fri, 16 Feb 2024 17:42:57 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 By: Tim Linnell https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5174 Sun, 03 Feb 2019 23:59:44 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5174 Will freeNAS work with an HP Smart Array P420 controller – I have an ML310e Gen8 I’m interested in running it on with 20 x 4TB WD RED drives?

]]> By: Slush Fund https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5173 Wed, 02 Jan 2019 21:56:51 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5173 What is the optimal SATA LSI HBA for the current release of FreeNAS?
Many many choices. The recommended LSI SAS 9305-16i is SAS.
Also, my calculations have the power as an significant cost. Put a KillAWatt on a 8 disk server and it was $2 per day on a 8 hour work day in my area at work.
I was looking at the SuperMicro D-1541 motherboards. Love to try the D-2141I, but they only sell in bulk.

]]> By: Paul Spuria https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5172 Thu, 29 Nov 2018 17:44:02 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5172 In reply to Marko Petrovikj.

if you go on amazon and search for LSI 9201-16i the comments state that this card does very well with freenas and zfs

]]> By: Joon Lee https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5171 Tue, 27 Nov 2018 21:35:08 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5171 In reply to RaffaEL.

No, we recommend SATA drives. WD Red, specifically.

]]> By: RaffaEL https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5170 Fri, 26 Oct 2018 13:13:59 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5170 Can i put SAS drives into FreeNAS mini or mini+?

]]> By: Andrey https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5169 Thu, 03 May 2018 11:17:42 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5169 In reply to Mike S.

will work for LSI MegaRAID SAS9361-8I ?

]]> By: Joon Lee https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5168 Wed, 21 Feb 2018 22:34:26 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5168 In reply to Marko Petrovikj.

In what context are you asking this question about? In general?

]]> By: Marko Petrovikj https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5167 Mon, 01 Jan 2018 12:43:58 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5167 Can i put two different host bus adapter ..9201-16i + 9211-8i for total 24 HDD

]]> By: Joon Lee https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5166 Sat, 16 Dec 2017 01:05:40 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5166 In reply to Dev Aruldas.

You can, but it is not recommended as you will be limited to the smallest disk size. See http://doc.freenas.org/11/storage.html#manual-setup

]]> By: Dev Aruldas https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5165 Tue, 07 Nov 2017 15:11:32 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5165 Can I mix and match different drive sizes, manufacturers, etc.? (Even different drive speeds? Although I’d try to get all drives of the same speed, but just asking the question).

]]> By: Joon Lee https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5164 Fri, 27 Oct 2017 23:13:00 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5164 In reply to Justin Hunt.

We suggest posting this question on the FreeNAS forums.

]]> By: tazinblack https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5163 Fri, 01 Sep 2017 07:48:01 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5163 How reliable are the 12 GBps LSI SAS drivers in the meanwhile? Are they stable for production use by now?
Anyway it was two and a half years ago when this article was written.

]]> By: Justin Hunt https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5162 Thu, 10 Aug 2017 21:01:26 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5162 Will a AMD – A10-7860k 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor operate well FreeNAS?

]]> By: Joshms https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5161 Fri, 31 Mar 2017 17:29:22 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5161 In reply to Tom.

A lot of our users prefer the Western Digital RED NAS drives. Give them a try!

]]> By: Tom https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5160 Thu, 29 Sep 2016 13:35:49 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5160 Shopping for NAS Drives for custom FreeNas build I’m doing. Want 4ea of 6TB. WD or Seagate or HGST – – which brand would you recommend for this investment. Thanks, T

]]> By: Michael Dexter https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5159 Thu, 12 Nov 2015 23:00:39 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5159 In reply to Dave Trowbridge.

This represents a high-end system. Give it a go but do try to meet the minimum 8GB RAM requirement.

]]> By: Michael Dexter https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5158 Thu, 12 Nov 2015 22:45:18 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5158 In reply to Don Jackson.

The drivers are included but your mileage may vary.

]]> By: Michael Dexter https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5157 Thu, 12 Nov 2015 22:38:32 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5157 In reply to terry.

The article describes a pretty high-end system. The FreeNAS Mini is a 10th the price and is available on Amazon.

]]> By: PaulH https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5156 Wed, 14 Oct 2015 22:25:16 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5156 In reply to El Gordito.

The drives don’t care. The manufacturers are concerned about two things if too many drives are used together, temperature and vibration. A good enclosure can mitigate temperature. Some can mitigate vibration. If you plan on using more than 8 drives, consider both.

]]> By: jkh https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5155 Sat, 11 Jul 2015 07:11:48 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5155 In reply to El Gordito.

Short answer: They don’t!

]]> By: El Gordito https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5154 Tue, 16 Jun 2015 17:20:40 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5154 The 4TB Red drives are rated for a 1-8-bay NAS. Please help me understand, how can the drive dictate the limits of the NAS bays? Or to look at it from another angle; what would happen if I put 24 4TB Red drives into a suitable enclosure? How/Why would the individual drives care how many siblings it has?

]]> By: Axel Mertes https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5153 Sat, 09 May 2015 10:27:45 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5153 We consider to have SSD caching for both ZIL and L2ARC.
As far as I understood the recommendations here I should tend to have a battery protected server level SSD for ZIL, while L2ARC may use more “standart” devices.
I currently look at the SAMSUNG 845DC Pro, as all those Intel 3×00 SSDs are simple out of reach, price-wise. I may even split up by using 845DC Pro for ZIL and 850 EVOs for L2ARC.
I plan to have like 4-8 TBytes in total for SSD cache on a potentially mirrored pool with ~64 TByte as of now.
Some questions here:
1. Which controller would you recommend to hook up the SSDs to the mainboard (Supermicro)?
Would an LSI 2308 be enough?
I think this one is SATA-III and does it support SSDs?
2. I have 4 RAID enclosures which I’d like to set up as follows:
All running as JBODs, presenting each disk individually to the host via 4 GBit FC.
I have two FC ports per enclosure, so I’d like to present 8 drives per port.
In total I need then 8 FC ports on the host computer, ikely using two 2364 Qlogic quad port cards.
Each group of 8 disks becomes a vDev as RAIDZ2 (used to use RAID6 before, though…).
Two enclosures become one pool, the others two a mirror pool. As we have only single controllers in the enclosures, I think this keeps us safe in terms of a controller failure (two vDev failing) or failing vDev due to 3 disks failing inside a vDev.
With these chassis we can see about 1600 MByte/s throughput, read and write on sequential transfers (on Windows server up until now). Will that still be the same with ZFS?
I read somewhere that a vDev is only as fast as a single disk inside the vDev. If that is true, we would be on a poor performance road. Is that really so?
Is that the best config or what would you recommend to gain more performance?
3. As we touch about 1-2 TByte of data in reads & writes during a single day, I believe having a cache of twice that size for the ZIL and L2ARC may be sufficient to feel like its all pure SSD.
Is that a misconception?
How would you outbalance SSD size for ZIL and L2ARC?
Do I need dedicated ZIL and L2ARC for each pool?
Can I have a dedicated “working pool” with SSD cache, while having a pure nearline mirror backup pool without?
Would that affect total performance?
I know, lots of questions.
Any comments would be helpful!
Best regards
Axel

]]> By: Dave Trowbridge https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5152 Mon, 16 Mar 2015 02:06:09 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5152 I picked up a Dell Poweredge 860 on Freecycle and the guy who gave it to me (an IT tech from UCSC, I think) recommended using FreeNAS on it. But your specs require a multicore CPU, and this doesn’t have that. Must I give up? I can’t afford to buy a server.

]]> By: Michael S https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5151 Tue, 10 Mar 2015 13:29:47 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5151 I’m considering purchasing this LSI HBA:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118218
Since this is not an inexpensive item I want to make sure I understand your recommendations on LSI storage controllers. You state that the FreeNAS BSD driver is based on version 16 of the stock LSI driver. You then recommend that we use version 16 of the LSI FIRMWARE (driver version == firmware version?). What if I receive this adapter with some other version of the firmware. Are there utilities in FreeNAS to flash the controller to version 16?

]]> By: Brett Davis https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5150 Fri, 27 Feb 2015 20:27:04 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5150 In reply to WD Red Drives.

Our FreeNAS Mini ships with WD Red drives, and it’s not something that we disable.

]]> By: WD Red Drives https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5149 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 18:25:07 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5149 Building my first NAS box. WD Red drives come with a feature called NASware 3.0. Is this something to disable? Background: Other box components: Asus P8B mobo, Xeon E3-1200v2 CPU, 8GB of DDR3 1600MHz ECC RAM. I plan on using two 4TB WD Red drives. The unit will serve an association with 20 – 35 off-board sites.

]]> By: Joshua Paetzel https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5148 Tue, 17 Feb 2015 23:21:32 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5148 In reply to Mike S.

That’s the FreeNAS Mini.

]]> By: terry https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5147 Sat, 14 Feb 2015 04:38:27 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5147 Wow, how FreeNAS has changed. No longer is it viable to even think about running FreeNAS. Goodbye boys. It was nice while it lasted.
$10,000 worth of equipment for a NAS computer is too much for me.

]]> By: Don Jackson https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5146 Sat, 14 Feb 2015 00:48:35 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5146 Are the LSI 12Gbps SAS HBAs supported by FreeNAS?

]]> By: Mike S https://www.truenas.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/#comment-5145 Fri, 13 Feb 2015 05:48:03 +0000 http://web.freenas.org/whats-new/?p=849#comment-5145 what is the enclosure featured on this page?

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