Adaptec 71605 Compatibility

[ichikasuto]

Hi all,

I've recently built a machine to be used as a NAS server and bought the Adaptec RAID 71605 Controller to connect additional drives to my machine since my motherboard only has 4 SATA ports. Did I make the wrong choice due to the controller possibly being a RAID controller?

I figured I should be fine if I installed the driver for the corresponding controller, but I've had trouble getting it to install successfully based off some random instructions for installing FreeBSD drivers I found online. I've also looked at the FreeBSD manual and there's an aacraid entry but I can't find the specific driver to match. Does anyone have any experience installing this controller or even know if it is compatible in a FreeNAS setup?

 

[danb35]

Did I make the wrong choice

Yes.

 

[jgreco]

Hi all,

I've recently built a machine to be used as a NAS server and bought the Adaptec RAID 71605 Controller to connect additional drives to my machine since my motherboard only has 4 SATA ports. Did I make the wrong choice due to the controller possibly being a RAID controller?

I figured I should be fine if I installed the driver for the corresponding controller, but I've had trouble getting it to install successfully based off some random instructions for installing FreeBSD drivers I found online. I've also looked at the FreeBSD manual and there's an aacraid entry but I can't find the specific driver to match. Does anyone have any experience installing this controller or even know if it is compatible in a FreeNAS setup?

Yeah, this is PC hardware you're talking about. Most of it is made for Windows. Most of the driver effort is put into Windows. Adaptec doesn't provide documentation (IIRC) for their cards any longer.

See this thread.

https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/adaptec-8805-support.74533/#post-517284

Then see the recommended hardware list here on the forum before you choose a replacement, it'll save you time and annoyance.

 

[ichikasuto]

Yeah, this is PC hardware you're talking about. Most of it is made for Windows. Most of the driver effort is put into Windows. Adaptec doesn't provide documentation (IIRC) for their cards any longer.

See this thread.

https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/adaptec-8805-support.74533/#post-517284

Then see the recommended hardware list here on the forum before you choose a replacement, it'll save you time and annoyance.

Hm, this is slightly annoying. I guess I can part this adapter out in a PC build for someone else. Thanks for the information.

 

[danb35]

this is slightly annoying.

That happens when you buy hardware before reading the documentation.

 

[Chris Moore]

or even know if it is compatible in a FreeNAS setup?

Compatible hardware list:

Hardware Recommendations Guide Rev. 1e) 2017-05-06
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

Hardware Recommendations by @cyberjock - from 26 Aug 2014 - and still valid
https://forums.freenas.org/threads/hardware-recommendations-read-this-first.23069/

I figured I should be fine if I installed the driver for the corresponding controller

You can't add drivers to FreeNAS, it is an appliance built on FreeBSD, but it is not a full installation of FreeBSD. You can't directly reconfigure it like you might in a full FreeBSD install as it is reconfigured from the configuration database at every boot.

You might want to take some more time to learn about what FreeNAS is before you start trying to build one. Take a look at some of the links provided to help get you up to speed.

https://www.ixsystems.com/community/resources/links-to-useful-threads.108/

 

[jgreco]

Also worth noting that while there's drivers for a lot of hardware available under FreeBSD, not all of them work well. Take a look at Realtek ethernets as the typical example. FreeNAS will push hardware very hard and needs essentially perfect performance. So if you want a truly stable FreeBSD box, you end up needing the same sorts of hardware we suggest for FreeNAS. Unfortunate reality of the PC world.