Can I install FreeNAS on QNAP TS-EC1279U and/or TS-EC2480U-RP?

[guglez]

Subj. Both are running XEON cpu and up to 32gb of ecc ram plus ugly QTS OS.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Did you try? All you need is to boot from a USB stick. I doubt it is good hardware for freenas though and people don't usually do this.

 

[guglez]

Did you try? All you need is to boot from a USB stick. I doubt it is good hardware for freenas though and people don't usually do this.

I never tried this and I believe that I will not be able to do that before January. That's why I'm asking this here.

Why you think that it's not a good hardware? One is 2U 12 drive unit and another is 3U 24 drive unit. Trust me - QTS OS (original qnap firmware) - is a crap.

 

[SweetAndLow]

What type of disk controller and what motherboard? Does it have 16+GB memory?

 

[guglez]

What type of disk controller and what motherboard? Does it have 16+GB memory?

I saw the motherboard from ec2480U - it has non-standard form factor. I believe it's qnap proprietary HW.

Handle 0x0002, DMI type 2, 15 bytes
Base Board Information
Manufacturer: ICP/iEi
Product Name: QA61


Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31225 @ 3.10GHz

I'm not sure about RAID controller but I think that it's a PCIe RocketRAID 62X
DRIVER=ahci
PCI_CLASS=10601
PCI_ID=1B4B:9125
PCI_SUBSYS_ID=1B4B:9125
PCI_SLOT_NAME=0000:08:00.0
MODALIAS=pci:v00001B4Bd00009125sv00001B4Bsd00009125bc01sc06i01

 

[SweetAndLow]

That controller will not work

 

[guglez]

That controller will not work

Why you think so?
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series_rr600-overview.htm - this page says that it's supported by FreeBSD.

and what about this:
DRIVER=ahci
PCI_CLASS=10601
PCI_ID=1B4B:9215
PCI_SUBSYS_ID=1B4B:9215


It's a Marvell Technology Group Ltd.88SE9215 SATA 6 Gb/s RAID controller

 

[cyberjock]

1. Anything made by Marvell is likely flaky, if functional at all.
2. Any RAID controller, assuming it has a driver, is almost certainly not going to be recommended because it cannot be used as an HBA.

You're really fighting an uphill battle and are better off sticking with the OS it has. If you want a FreeNAS system, look at the stickies on recommended hardware and build a system out of parts that are recommended and known to be solid with FreeNAS.

 

[guglez]

Bad news.. Thank you for help!

 

[solarisguy]

1. Anything made by Marvell is likely flaky, if functional at all.
2. Any RAID controller, assuming it has a driver, is almost certainly not going to be recommended because it cannot be used as an HBA.

You're really fighting an uphill battle and are better off sticking with the OS it has. If you want a FreeNAS system, look at the stickies on recommended hardware and build a system out of parts that are recommended and known to be solid with FreeNAS.

Bad news.. Thank you for help!

It might work, but

• you appear to be the first one attempting a FreeNAS installation on this particular hardware = only generic support possible;
• nobody (you & us) knows whether the manufacturer enabled a BIOS setting that allows that particular card to be properly used as an HBA (i.e. RAID functionality entirely turned off); Marvell 88SE9215 only indicates the chipset used on the card, and not how the card is designed;
• Marvell chipset were often used by card makers who targeted cheap Windows users, and such cards did not necessarily properly work with FreeNAS (FreeBSD), even if the chipset was supported by FreeBSD; thus the general recommendation was to avoid them. Actually, it is still recommended to avoid them, as there are only some cards with Marvell chipset working for some people, while there are cards with different chipsets that are always working for everybody.

 

[guglez]

I'm planning to buy new hardware and reuse the disks from QNAP NAS appliances. Any recommendations? Supermicro?

 

[Mirfster]

I'm planning to buy new hardware and reuse the disks from QNAP NAS appliances. Any recommendations? Supermicro?

Seems to me like SuperMicro is mentioned the most here so I would defer to that.

However, I would mention that you may want to take a look at a Dell PowerEdge C2100 (2U Rackmount). Get it with a H200 Mezzanine (flash it to LSI 9211-8i IT Mode), make sure your BMC Firmware is < 1.8. I am happy with the bunch that I have and use them for FreeNas, ESXi 5.5 and MS Server 2012 R2 DataCenter. Just my 2 cents.