Disks on HPE P410i SAS Controller - not recognised

[SecCon]

So I am setting up a new system and I seem to recall that TrueNAS should identify the drives individually to create ZFS pools and FreeBSD had support for this SAS chipset, so I guess I should somehow install the drivers for it so TrueNAS can identify the disks?

I am using a RAID 0+1 as a system drive which is on the same chipset and was found and identified correctly. It does not see the unconfigured individual drives. 14 of 16.

As it is they are unconfigured in the P410i controller BIOS.

 

[SecCon]

ah well i'll make a raid of those remaining 14 disks and I am sure they will be seen.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Stop. Danger.

What's all the noise about HBAs, and why can't I use a RAID controller?

1) An HBA is a Host Bus Adapter. This is a controller that allows SAS and SATA devices to be attached to, and communicate directly with, a server. RAID controllers typically aggregate several disks into a Virtual Disk abstraction of some sort...

www.truenas.com

Do not use the P410i for anything - get a separate (LSI) HBA and install it into a PCIe slot, and re-route/replace cables to the front bays to allow for their use. Those are bad enough even under supported (Windows) configurations, but you're setting yourself up for a world of hurt trying to use one here.

Is your current DL380 G7 already set up in a similar "ZFS on top of hardware RAID" configuration?

 

[SecCon]

No, the server is default for now... nothing confed beyond what i mentioned.

I knew I had to conf the drives in TrueNAS for ZFS and using a controller that would not allow for direct I/O access to disks was a bad thing. Crap.

Will have to look up another controller and see what that might cost...

 

[Newfoundland.Republic]

Look on eBay for an LSI HBA (v. RAID controller). Beware of knockoffs, though. There are some resources that will help out.

 

[HoneyBadger]

No, the server is default for now... nothing confed beyond what i mentioned.

I knew I had to conf the drives in TrueNAS for ZFS and using a controller that would not allow for direct I/O access to disks was a bad thing. Crap.

Will have to look up another controller and see what that might cost...

Check for the Dell PERC H200 or H310 - these are LSI SAS2008 based controllers that can be easily reflashed to use the standard LSI 9211-8i IT firmware. You might be able to use something like the HP H220 to avoid this but it's not guaranteed; I'm not sure how the DL380 G7 behaves exactly.

 

[Newfoundland.Republic]

IBM M1015 as well - it can be cross-flashed to IT (e.g. non-RAID) mode. That is an LSI9211.

 

[SecCon]

something like this seems feasible...

Dell PERC h310 SATA/SAS HBA Controller RAID 6 Gbps PCIe x8 LSI 9240-8i m1015 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Dell PERC h310 SATA/SAS HBA Controller RAID 6 Gbps PCIe x8 LSI 9240-8i m1015 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

or this:

IBM M5015 / LSI Megaraid SAS 9260-8i SATA / SAS Controller RAID 5 6G PCIe x8 BBU 883436054386 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for IBM M5015 / LSI Megaraid SAS 9260-8i SATA / SAS Controller RAID 5 6G PCIe x8 BBU at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

prices seem ok

Someone please verify these choices, or link to what is right.

 

[HoneyBadger]

something like this seems feasible...

Dell PERC h310 SATA/SAS HBA Controller RAID 6 Gbps PCIe x8 LSI 9240-8i m1015 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Dell PERC h310 SATA/SAS HBA Controller RAID 6 Gbps PCIe x8 LSI 9240-8i m1015 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Yes, this is an HBA. Buy it, reflash (or "crossflash") with the official LSI firmware, install, be happy. Note that you'll have to recreate your pool if you created it on the P410i already.

IBM M5015 / LSI Megaraid SAS 9260-8i SATA / SAS Controller RAID 5 6G PCIe x8 BBU 883436054386 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for IBM M5015 / LSI Megaraid SAS 9260-8i SATA / SAS Controller RAID 5 6G PCIe x8 BBU at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

RAID controller, nope. Anything that says "BBU" or "cache" on it is typically no good, and even if it works is usually more expensive than a regular HBA.

 

[SecCon]

Yes, this is an HBA. / snip /. Anything that says "BBU" or "cache" on it is typically no good, and even if it works is usually more expensive than a regular HBA.

Ok, thanks. Considering I got those servers for next to nothing I guess I can spend a bit to get them "right".

No worries, nothing done that can't be remade in 30 minutes...

Only thing to do is to check physical cables and slots and stuff just in case...

 

[HoneyBadger]

Only thing to do is to check physical cables and slots and stuff just in case...

Measure the internal cable length and ensure that it will reach to the PCIe slots, with the understanding that the ports are on the "back" of the H310. The ones included with your DL380 G7 may have only been long enough to reach the onboard SFF ports rather than an add-on card.

Another note - "GrafSpee" is listed as being a "VM Server" - if you're planning to host virtual machines from external hypervisors such as ESXi, Hyper-V, ProxMox, etc - and data loss is considered "not acceptable" you may want to budget for a performance-minded SLOG device.

 

[SecCon]

Another note - "GrafSpee" is listed as being a "VM Server" - if you're planning to host virtual machines from external hypervisors such as ESXi, Hyper-V, ProxMox, etc - and data loss is considered "not acceptable" you may want to budget for a performance-minded SLOG device.

Some dev vm's, none prod. In any case backup will be confed with other machines if needed.