Benefits to IBM M1015 and installation process?

[engmsf]

Freenas 8.3.1 P2 x64
ZFS RaidZ1
Asus C60, 3x 3TB WD Red, 8GB RAM, booting from USB

My current drvies are connected to the onboard sata connection on the motherboard. I am planning to max it out to 6 drives and run in Z2 as that is what the mb supports.

A lot of people install the M1015 to get additional drives beyond the 6 they have. Other than this, what other benefits does the M1015 really get me? The NAS is mostly used for archive backup and streaming movies to windows clients.

Noob question. What are the proper steps to setting up the M1015 and migrate the drives from the motherboard to the card? Same thing for the Freenas configration with the controller, what are the steps do perform this.

 

[cyberjock]

A lot of people install the M1015 to get additional drives beyond the 6 they have. Other than this, what other benefits does the M1015 really get me? The NAS is mostly used for archive backup and streaming movies to windows clients.

The M1015 just buys you 8 more SATA/SAS ports.

Noob question. What are the proper steps to setting up the M1015 and migrate the drives from the motherboard to the card? Same thing for the Freenas configration with the controller, what are the steps do perform this.

Reflash the controller to IT mode(you don't want to use a hardware RAID with ZFS). Then plug in your drives. Yes, it's THAT easy.

 

[engmsf]

Thanks for the reply Cyberjock. With the M1015, do you expect my transfer speed to increase? Although that is not important as I'm mostly using the NAS for streaming. I am already getting 40-60MB right now.

If I don't plan to go beyond the 6 SATA, my thoughts are having the C60 and M1015, I now have two pieces of hardware that can fail. With just the C60, if that fails I would just replace the motherboard.

If I move the 3 SATA from the C60 mb to the M1015 in IT mode, there is no major configurations to do in Freenas? Export configurations settings, export/import Zpools? Is it really that easy as you mention, just plug and play?

 

[gpsguy]

Note, you won't be able to convert the disks/data from RAIDz1 to RAIDz2.

You'll need to backup the data, wipe the current drives, and create your new array in RAIDz2 and restore your old data.

I am planning to max it out to 6 drives and run in Z2

 

[gpsguy]

Frankly, as I look at this again, why bother with the M1015? Your motherboard already supports 6 SATA drives.

And, you may have troubles getting it to work in a C60. IIRC, the mobo slot was only intended to support a video card. I believe some forum user's were trying to get Intel NIC's working in the slot. And, someone finally found a BIOS setting that allowed it to work. You'll have to search the C60 messages here on the forum to find it.

If I don't plan to go beyond the 6 SATA, my thoughts are having the C60 and M1015, I now have two pieces of hardware that can fail. With just the C60, if that fails I would just replace the motherboard.

I doubt you'd see any performance increase, in fact, you might see a decrease.

Your primary limiting factor right now, is probably the CPU. After you add 3 more drives, insufficient RAM might degrade your performance.

If you start thinking past 6 drives, where you need something like the M1015, you probably need to give up on the mini-ITX form factor and move to something larger.

With the M1015, do you expect my transfer speed to increase? Although that is not important as I'm mostly using the NAS for streaming. I am already getting 40-60MB right now.

 

[engmsf]

Frankly, as I look at this again, why bother with the M1015? Your motherboard already supports 6 SATA drives.

And, you may have troubles getting it to work in a C60. IIRC, the mobo slot was only intended to support a video card. I believe some forum user's were trying to get Intel NIC's working in the slot. And, someone finally found a BIOS setting that allowed it to work. You'll have to search the C60 messages here on the forum to find it.

I doubt you'd see any performance increase, in fact, you might see a decrease.

Your primary limiting factor right now, is probably the CPU. After you add 3 more drives, insufficient RAM might degrade your performance.

If you start thinking past 6 drives, where you need something like the M1015, you probably need to give up on the mini-ITX form factor and move to something larger.

Thanks Gpsguy. I won't be too worried about the CPU as I'm not doing much other than streaming and storing files. I will wait for newer solutions from Intel Silvermont and AMD equivalent to come out later this year before replacing. If any of those support ECC memory, they will have my wallet vote!

It does look like the C60 and M1015 can work together as seen from the link below. 14 drive NAS project. 64bit, low power consumption, and on 24/7.
http://greyproc.blogspot.ca/2013_06_01_archive.html