recommendations for replacement mSata board

[Francis Reader]

I'm moving my freenas 9.10.x system to a 32GB Supermicro (2xL5630) 12 Bay Storage Server X8DTN+ plus adding M1015 (it mode) card.

The onboards are only Sata2, so will be mindful of using them.

My existing system is a supermicro 32GB X10SLH-F-O (6x3TBs mixture of WD greens/reds) + 2x 1.5 Samsung's + 2x 32GB mSatas. (Partitioned as ZIL mirrored between the mSata, l2arc cache striped between them, and using the remained of the striped mSata space as a mythlive partition for my MythTV Jail.)

I've been having regular aha error (every 6 weeks) failure on that mSata hosting card ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PY1850W/?tag=ozlp-20 ) , recovering any connected drives (the mSata's and 2x samsungs) only after reboot.

The failure periodicity has been less with 9.10 than with 9.3, but would like to have it not happen at all.

Problem with the card or just unreliable chipset.

I was hoping to transfer it to my new X8DTN+ system, as I would like to continue to use the mSata's for ZILs l2arc's.

Anyone have any recommendations or comments.

Regards and TIA

 

[Ericloewe]

I've been having regular aha error (every 6 weeks) failure on that mSata hosting card ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PY1850W/?tag=ozlp-20 ) , recovering any connected drives (the mSata's and 2x samsungs) only after reboot.

Not surprising. Using random SATA controllers rarely ends well.

The onboards are only Sata2, so will be mindful of using them.

Plenty fast for any mechanical drive and much more reliable than any SATA controller you can buy.

If you want to use mSATA SSDs, get passive adapters that convert SATA ports to mSATA and use a proper SATA controller - that means either Intel SATA or an LSI SAS2 controller.

 

[joeschmuck]

The onboards are only Sata2, so will be mindful of using them.

More than fast enough, now worries here.

I was hoping to transfer it to my new X8DTN+ system, as I would like to continue to use the mSata's for ZILs l2arc's.

ZIL and L2ARC. Why?

Here is why I ask... You have 32GB RAM, you are likely inducing time delays with the ZIL and L2ARC into your system. What is the usage of this system? Is it to support stuff like frequently used data such as high use databases? Honestly, I'd pull them out but that is up to you and I know this isn't the advice you were looking for but I feel like it's sound advice. Now I wouldn't have questioned it if you had 128GB RAM or more.

 

[Mirfster]

(Partitioned as ZIL mirrored between the mSata, l2arc cache striped between them, and using the remained of the striped mSata space as a mythlive partition for my MythTV Jail.)

Just to be clear, are you saying that the mSATA is partitioned and serving a different roles (SLOG, L2ARC, etc)? If so, that is a "No No". Aside from the fact that (per your current hardware specs) you don't really need this the drive(s) allocated should separated.

As well, are you using that StarTech card and Raiding the mSatas? If so, again a big "No No".

 

[Francis Reader]

So by trying to be smart, ending up doing something stupid.. ;-)

Thanks for all the advice.

 

[joeschmuck]

You can use one of those cards as a boot device if you like, but just as a boot device. Also, check your SMART data on the drives, ensure the data looks good still since you said you have been having some issues with them.