SOLVED Basic IBM ServeRAID M1015 question

[paradoxiom]

Will it be possible for me to hook up 3x identical HDDs using a SAS cable to this and run them as a single ZFS partition, while also having an SSD hooked up to the same SAS cable and have that with a completely unrelated windows install on it that I could use to boot from?

Thanks

 

[pirateghost]

Well, yeah. But why would you want to

 

[Ericloewe]

completely unrelated windows install on it that I could use to boot from?

Why on earth would anyone want to dual boot a server and a desktop OS?

 

[paradoxiom]

Why on earth would anyone want to dual boot a server and a desktop OS?

Just so I can use the server (which is a tiny Gen8 MicroServer) as an emergency PC if my main one fails, especially since I don't have a laptop anymore. I watercool my main PC too and that sometimes leads to a lot of downtime.

So I gather it is possible then, would I just create the ZFS volume in freenas using the HDDs and not touch the SSD, and then (somehow in the bios?) select the SSD to boot from and windows will work fine on it?

Thanks again.

 

[pirateghost]

Just so I can use the server (which is a tiny Gen8 MicroServer) as an emergency PC if my main one fails, especially since I don't have a laptop anymore. I watercall my main PC too and that sometimes leads to a lot of downtime.

So I gather it is possible then, would I just create the ZFS volume in freenas using the HDDs and not touch the SSD, and then (somehow in the bios?) select the SSD to boot from and windows will work fine on it?

Thanks again.

Yeah. FreeNAS won't touch drives you don't tell it to

 

[Ericloewe]

It might be a better idea to just use a PCH SATA port for the Windows disk. That way, you're not stuck juggling two OSes drivers, plus the card's firmware plus the BIOS extension ROM (required for booting from LSI SAS controllers).

 

[pirateghost]

Really it's just an all around bad idea anyway.

If you need to boot a temporary pc up, just boot a Linux distribution on a USB. Don't mess with dual boot crap

 

[cyberjock]

Honestly, I'd make the system solely for FreeNAS and not try to dual-purpose this. Windows may not play well with the zpool drives (Windows like to touch and break everything that isn't Windows). Some people have had.. shall we say "less than desirable" results with their systems when trying to do what you want to do. By "less than desirable" I mean they've lost their data!

 

[paradoxiom]

Thanks for the advice all, I guess I'll stick to having windows on a USB stick should I need to boot it

 

[Darren Myers]

Thanks for the advice all, I guess I'll stick to having windows on a USB stick should I need to boot it

I use a SSD in a USB enclosure at work, the feature is called Windows To Go, and well...for me its awesome because i can take it *almost* anywhere i have access to a 64bit machine (which come on...what machines in day to day life arent?) http://www.howtogeek.com/196817/how...-go-usb-drive-without-the-enterprise-edition/

 

[paradoxiom]

I use a SSD in a USB enclosure at work, the feature is called Windows To Go, and well...for me its awesome because i can take it *almost* anywhere i have access to a 64bit machine (which come on...what machines in day to day life arent?) http://www.howtogeek.com/196817/how...-go-usb-drive-without-the-enterprise-edition/

I ended up using windows to go on a usb stick, it's pretty slow, but it's great because it doesn't try and touch any existing drives - since I will hardly use it I'll just stick to this rather than try and shoehorn an SSD in there.

 

[Darren Myers]

I ended up using windows to go on a usb stick, it's pretty slow, but it's great because it doesn't try and touch any existing drives - since I will hardly use it I'll just stick to this rather than try and shoehorn an SSD in there.

I am glad you found a solution, at first i used a flash drive too, but it was too slow for me to work with so i switched to a 80Gb SSD and a cheapie enclosure.

 

[paradoxiom]

I got my card today, have yet to cross-flash it to IT mode, but I heard that it runs hot so I did a little mod and added a small Noctua 40mm fan ( Noctua NF-A4x10 FLX ) to the heatsink, and a couple adhesive copper ramsinks to the larger chips.

The rubber fan pins that come with the Noctua fans were too thick to fit through the heatsink and the card so I used some of these ( Akasa AK-MX003 - Siliconized Rubber Fan Pins ) I had already.

 

[Ericloewe]

I got my card today, have yet to cross-flash it to IT mode, but I heard that it runs hot so I did a little mod and added a small Noctua 40mm fan ( Noctua NF-A4x10 FLX ) to the heatsink, and a couple adhesive copper ramsinks to the larger chips.

The rubber fan pins that come with the Noctua fans were too thick to fit through the heatsink and the card so I used some of these ( Akasa AK-MX003 - Siliconized Rubber Fan Pins ) I had already.

That's overkill, unless you have a very weird layout where the PCI-e cards get no airflow. Won't hurt, though.

 

[paradoxiom]

Short clip showing it running with various other cooling additions to my Gen8 that once I get temps for I'll post more details in the Gen8 section.

 

[Darren Myers]

Short clip showing it running with various other cooling additions to my Gen8 that once I get temps for I'll post more details in the Gen8 section.

Since you have a Micro G8 i might kidnap you over to offtopic to pick your brain...i just got one and i wanna know some info about your setup!

 

[paradoxiom]

Since you have a Micro G8 i might kidnap you over to offtopic to pick your brain...i just got one and i wanna know some info about your setup!

Happy to help any way I can but this is my first NAS so don't know how much help I can be

 

[Darren Myers]

Happy to help any way I can but this is my first NAS so don't know how much help I can be

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hp-proliant-micro-g8.35545/