2 x DELL R710 4HD best scenario

[webstyler]

Hello guys

I have 2 DELL R710 with 4HD.

In the past, in similar scenario, we have installed Freenas on USB but we have encounter a lot of issue.

For this R710 we can create 2 virtual dish with controller raid onboard, 1 for truenas and 1 for storage, but with this ways we cannot use zfs..

There is any suggest about best way for this?

Thanks for any help / suggest / idea :)

 

[jgreco]

You should not use a PERC RAID card.

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

If it happens to be an H710, it is possible to crossflash it to IT mode to make it into an HBA. Remove the battery if you do this.

Boot drives on Dell gear can be somewhat difficult, because Dell optimizes their hardware for certain use cases. A USB thumb drive is likely to fail. However, if no other good option is available, an actual SSD with a USB converter is an acceptable option. These usually won't burn out the way that most thumb drives do.

 

[webstyler]

You should not use a PERC RAID card.

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

If it happens to be an H710, it is possible to crossflash it to IT mode to make it into an HBA. Remove the battery if you do this.

Boot drives on Dell gear can be somewhat difficult, because Dell optimizes their hardware for certain use cases. A USB thumb drive is likely to fail. However, if no other good option is available, an actual SSD with a USB converter is an acceptable option. These usually won't burn out the way that most thumb drives do.

Thanks jgreco

We have w options, H200 or H700, so as you write undestand that crossflash H200 may be right way, it's the first time we flash

We thought that H700 could be a solution, by create a single volume and withous use raid on truenas, similar to installation of truenas of Virtual machine, that is based on single volume..

For don't waste HD for installation we can use an SD internal module, with 16 or 32 GB, is not in HA but may be a good solution for you?

Thanks

 

[jgreco]

The H700 is based on the same hardware platform but I am not aware of anyone having lobotomized this into an HBA. The H710 seems to have been a more popular choice for that, possibly because it was newer and had more units out there that were being retired.

Otherwise, the H700 is normally driven by the MFI driver, which is known to be problematic. I would avoid it.

SD cards tend to wear out quickly unless you find a good high endurance one.

 

[webstyler]

The H700 is based on the same hardware platform but I am not aware of anyone having lobotomized this into an HBA. The H710 seems to have been a more popular choice for that, possibly because it was newer and had more units out there that were being retired.

Otherwise, the H700 is normally driven by the MFI driver, which is known to be problematic. I would avoid it.

SD cards tend to wear out quickly unless you find a good high endurance one.

Thanks jgreco

for boot we have 3 ways:
1. usb stick bootable with truenas installed
2. internal SD 32GB
3. SSD disk on USB

What you suggest?

Understand that failed on this put down the storage, but the storage is replicated to other one.

Thanks

 

[jgreco]

You will probably have best luck with an SSD disk on USB.

 

[webstyler]

Thanks :)

I'm flashing H200 be follow this guide https://techmattr.wordpress.com/201...-flashing-to-it-mode-dell-perc-h200-and-h310/

firt steps ok BUT, for this command
megarec.exe -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin
OR THIS
megarec.exe -cleanflash 0

not done, after long time seems freezed and I must force reboot.

Any suggest? Thanks

 

[jgreco]

@Stilez here has posted what is probably the most detailed and documented guide I've seen. If I got stuck, it's the first place I'd go. And that's saying something. I would aspire to write up stuff as well as this:

Detailed newcomers' guide to crossflashing LSI 9211/9300/9305/9311/9400/94xx HBA and variants

There's hundreds of threads on crossflashing variants of LSI 9211/9300/9305/9311/94xx cards here, on ServeTheHome, and on blogs. But they don't always discuss the subtleties of doing it on an EFI board for users who may never have used EFI...

www.truenas.com

 

[webstyler]

@Stilez here has posted what is probably the most detailed and documented guide I've seen. If I got stuck, it's the first place I'd go. And that's saying something. I would aspire to write up stuff as well as this:

Detailed newcomers' guide to crossflashing LSI 9211/9300/9305/9311/9400/94xx HBA and variants

There's hundreds of threads on crossflashing variants of LSI 9211/9300/9305/9311/94xx cards here, on ServeTheHome, and on blogs. But they don't always discuss the subtleties of doing it on an EFI board for users who may never have used EFI...

www.truenas.com

Thanks jgreco, we flash both H200.. take time because not possible to make directly on R710, but now work all really fine.

We have installed on external SSD (new ssd).

The only issue, may be false positive, is on server where we get an alert:
"boot-pool - one or more device has experienced an unrecoverable error. Anattempt was made to correct the error. Application are unaffected."

on console we have check but after this alert there is "no know data errors" ..

any suggestion?

Thanks

 

[jgreco]

That implies that the fault was successfully corrected. That's ZFS for you. However, if you get additional errors, perhaps a different device is necessary for the boot pool.

 

[techmattr]

@Stilez here has posted what is probably the most detailed and documented guide I've seen. If I got stuck, it's the first place I'd go. And that's saying something. I would aspire to write up stuff as well as this:

Detailed newcomers' guide to crossflashing LSI 9211/9300/9305/9311/9400/94xx HBA and variants

There's hundreds of threads on crossflashing variants of LSI 9211/9300/9305/9311/94xx cards here, on ServeTheHome, and on blogs. But they don't always discuss the subtleties of doing it on an EFI board for users who may never have used EFI...

www.truenas.com

It should be noted several methods this guy recommends can and often do leave your card bricked. He even mocks such a result in his tutorial. I have several hundred PMs on reddit from people asking for help after they've bricked their cards with his guide. Using sas2flash to completely wipe all flash areas of the card is not safe. Modifying HEX directly on the card is not safe. These methods should only be used when you have no other alternative. This topic gets me a little heated as this guys treats people really poorly when they ask him for help after they've bricked their cards using his guide. Many examples of him being a royal a-hole on reddit to people. In fact, I was only made aware of this thread by someone who PM'd me who had just followed the quoted link and bricked their card.

 

[jgreco]

Feel free to post something better. I work with what I have, not with what I'd like to have.

 

[techmattr]

Feel free to post something better. I work with what I have, not with what I'd like to have.

I did. Back in 2013. And updated it in 2016.
I recompiled the old the sas2flash tools and developed the process for crossflashing the Dell cards.

 

[jgreco]

quoted link and bricked their card.

Well, I've never successfully managed to brick an LSI card. Not that I don't have north of a hundred cards worth of trying under my belt.

But, let's circle around here. I had a user come in here who cited your guide and saying that following it had not worked.

Thanks :)

I'm flashing H200 be follow this guide https://techmattr.wordpress.com/201...-flashing-to-it-mode-dell-perc-h200-and-h310/

firt steps ok BUT, for this command
megarec.exe -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin
OR THIS
megarec.exe -cleanflash 0

not done, after long time seems freezed and I must force reboot.

Any suggest? Thanks

So, your response to this is that I should point him back at your guide?

I did. Back in 2013. And updated it in 2016.
I recompiled the old the sas2flash tools and developed the process for crossflashing the Dell cards.

"Apparently so." No, I have to guess that you were all TL;DR and didn't read for context. That's fine, and I appreciate you showing up. But the user was complaining ABOUT YOUR MATERIAL. I then pointed him on to a more technically detailed document, because, in my opinion, there are useful clues in what Stilez wrote that isn't present in your 2013 or 2016 guides.

I have several hundred PMs on reddit from people asking for help after they've bricked their cards with his guide.

This isn't reflected in the review scores for his guide. How odd.

Now, I previously said,

Feel free to post something better. I work with what I have, not with what I'd like to have.

And I still feel that this was the best general answer. You haven't posted something better, but I suspect that you could have a good chance at writing a definitive work on the topic. I come from a background of medical electronics and embedded systems, and I can see that there's basically a structure of some sort to all the LSI stuff, but I'm used to working forwards from a vendor's documentation. I respect all you folks who invest the time and talent to reverse engineer all this garbage.

Someone like you apparently recently did a little more hacking and took some of us by surprise in that suddenly a bunch of the glut of PERC H710's on eBay (thanks ESXi 7) suddenly started showing up here in the forums, crossflashed to IT mode. Given that there is a common(-ish) underlying platform to lots of the LSI stuff, this is obviously not impossible, but it's also somewhat opaque to those of us who aren't really familiar with all the details necessary.

So I once again invite you to post something better, perhaps with less of an emphasis on the "how" and more of an emphasis on the "why" and the details.

 

[techmattr]

The user that was "complaining" about my material realized he had to flash the card in a different slot or different PC. It had nothing to do with either guide. It sounds like he resolved his issue before even seeing your response....

Again the only reason I posted here is because someone PM'd me asking for help with a card they bricked. The guide they linked was your post in this thread https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/2-x-dell-r710-4hd-best-scenario.99014/#post-683574

So just trying to provide a friendly warning of that guide isn't reliable. megarec puts the card in a "maintenance" mode before it wipes the flash area. sas2flash does not. Obviously directly writing to the cards flash with a hex editor does not either.

 

[jgreco]

It sounds like he resolved his issue before even seeing your response....

So what? My response to his post happened within about ten minutes of his post, see posts #7 and #8. The time the user saw the response is of dubious (useless IMO) relevance.

So just trying to provide a friendly warning of that guide isn't reliable.

Your guide hasn't been reliable either. That's actually what caused Stilez to write something with "more details".

megarec puts the card in a "maintenance" mode before it wipes the flash area. sas2flash does not.

I'm not doubting that you may have more expertise than Stilez. I did, after all, invite you to post something better. But, as I also said, I work with what I have, not what I would like to have. There's really nothing preventing you and Stilez from collaborating or synergizing on the work you each have done. Sitting here writing defensive responses to me is not adding value to the state of things. I've tried to give you some ideas as to what might be useful, and it'd be great if you could take one or more of them and run with it. That's what I try to do here on these forums. I try to make the inaccessible topics more accessible. But I also take criticism and requests, because I desire for the open source community to thrive, and I view accessibility of arcane topics to be a critical path to uptake.

 

[webstyler]

You will probably have best luck with an SSD disk on USB.

Hello jgreco

About this, we have any issue on both servers

Could you give us your advice on this thread?

Critical Alerts for Boot Pool

Hello guys We have a truenas online from 4 weeks, with a boot on external SSD drive (new) we get Critical alert "Boot pool status is ONLINE: One or more devices has experienced an unrecoverable error. An attempt was made to correct the error. Applications are unaffected.." From shell, with #...

www.truenas.com

Thanks :)

 

[Ericloewe]

So what? My response to his post happened within about ten minutes of his post, see posts #7 and #8. The time the user saw the response is of dubious (useless IMO) relevance.



Your guide hasn't been reliable either. That's actually what caused Stilez to write something with "more details".



I'm not doubting that you may have more expertise than Stilez. I did, after all, invite you to post something better. But, as I also said, I work with what I have, not what I would like to have. There's really nothing preventing you and Stilez from collaborating or synergizing on the work you each have done. Sitting here writing defensive responses to me is not adding value to the state of things. I've tried to give you some ideas as to what might be useful, and it'd be great if you could take one or more of them and run with it. That's what I try to do here on these forums. I try to make the inaccessible topics more accessible. But I also take criticism and requests, because I desire for the open source community to thrive, and I view accessibility of arcane topics to be a critical path to uptake.

I'll add one request of mine, if anyone takes this up: Figure out a tl;dr and try to keep things concise. Stilez's guide is hard to follow because it is fairly dense and very long.