HBA - SATA adapter - recommendation for 5x SATA HDD

[flashdrive]

Is there a recommendation available for such an adapter working out of the Box with TrueNAS?

I want to see if the internal motherboard SATA ports are the write bottleneck of my system.

Honestly I do not prefer to introduce single point of failures and am initially reluctant to use an adapter.

Also regarding some HBA's hardware RAID options:

I do want to use raidz(1) of zfs natively. Would I create JBODs just per single HDD at the HBA?

 

[flashdrive]

I found this:

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

This is relevant to FreeNAS and TrueNAS CORE. Some parts of it might also be relevant to Scale, but I don't really know how reliable the Linux drivers are. 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...

www.truenas.com

 

[Redcoat]

"Many" of us buy used HBA's on ebay and deploy them with success. They can be bought preflashed with the required IT firmware, or you can buy one with the IR firmware and flash it yourself - there are many guides here to that process. The ART of SERVER is one of the ebay stores often positively referenced here on the forum - see his listing for cards that include "P20" and "FreeNAS/TrueNAS" (and even Unraid).

 

[sretalla]

Is there a recommendation available for such an adapter working out of the Box with TrueNAS?

Yes. Looks like you found the right posts to see those (LSI-chip-based, NON-RAID with IT firmware).

I want to see if the internal motherboard SATA ports are the write bottleneck of my system.

Extremely unlikely, so you're probably wasting your time, but it's your choice.

Also regarding some HBA's hardware RAID options:

If it's offering you RAID options, it's not really an HBA.

 

[flashdrive]

Hello @Redcoat and @sretalla

thank you for the hints - I did watch some art of server videos, this was a good introduction into the HBA topic to learn.

Before going the HBA route I will check again my current setup and do some additional benchmarking and baselining first. The out of the box config is ok-ish, but not what I have been aiming for.