Compatibility: Dell PowerEdge R510

[huong.chris]

Currently, we have Dell PowerEdge R510 used as Microsoft SQL Server standalone. We are planning to setup a SQL Server Cluster, and we intend to use it as shared storage for the cluster.

I have checked the hardware support list and found out that the RAID controller is not supported by FreeNAS. Here is part of the specs for PowerEdge R510:

Code:

Processor
Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 and 5600 series
Six-core Intel® Xeon® 
Quad-core Intel® Xeon®

Operating System
Microsoft® Windows® Small Business Server 2008
Microsoft® Windows® Essential Business Server 2008
Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 SP2, x86/x64 (x64 includes Hyper-V™)
Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 R2, x64 (includes Hyper-V™ v2)1
Microsoft® Windows® HPC Server 2008 R2
Novell® SUSE® Linux® Enterprise Server
Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®

Chipset
Intel 5500 chipset

Memory2
Up to 128GB3 (8 DIMM slots) 1GB/2GB/4GB/8GB/16GB DDR3 800MHz, 1066MHz or 1333MHz. 
16GB3 Quad-Ranked 1066MHz DIMMs (for 8 and 12 HDD) – Support for LVDIMM

Storage
Hard Drive Options:

3.5" SATA(7.2K RPM): 160GB4, 250GB4, 500GB4, 1TB4
3.5" Near Line SAS(7.2K RPM): 500GB4, 1TB4
3.5" 6Gps SAS (7.2K): 2TB4
3.5" SAS(15K RPM): 146GB4, 300GB4, 450GB4, 600GB4
3.5" SAS (10K RPM): 600GB4
2.5" SAS (10K RPM): 146GB4, 300GB4, 600GB4
2.5" SATA SSD: 25GB4, 50GB4

Maximum Internal Storage:

Up to 8TB4 4 hard drive chassis
Up to 16TB4 8 hard drive chassis
Up to 24.6TB4 12 hard drive chassis
Drive Bays
Cabled or Hot-Swap options available:

Cabled HD options:
Up to four 3.5" SAS or SATA drives

Hot-Swap HD options:
Up to eight or twelve 3.5” SAS or SATA or 2.5” SAS or SSD drives
Slots
3 PCIe G2 slots + 1 storage slot: 

One x8 slot
Two x4 slots
One Storage x4 slot

RAID Controllers
Internal Controllers: 

PERC H200 (6Gb/s)
PERC H700 (6Gb/s) with 512MB Non-Volatile cache
PERC H700 (6Gb/s) with 512MB battery-backed cache; 512MB, 1G Non-Volatile battery-backed cache
SAS 6/iR
PERC 6/i with 256MB battery-backed cache
PERC S100 (software based, available for 4-HDD configuration)
PERC S300 (software based, available for 4-HDD and 8-HDD configurations) 

External Controllers: 

PERC H800 (6Gb/s) with 512MB Non-Volatile cache
PERC H800 (6Gb/s) with 512MB of battery-backed cache; 512MB, 1G Non-Volatile battery-backed cache
PERC 6/E with 256MB or 512MB of battery-backed cache 

External HBAs (non-RAID): 

6Gbps SAS HBA
SAS 5/E HBA
LSI2032 PCIe SCSI HBA

Network Controller
One Dual-Port Broadcom 5716 Gigabit NICs

Communications
Intel 10G Base-T Single Port NIC
Broadcom® BMC5771 10 Base-T Copper Single Port NIC
Intel PRO/ 1000 PT Single Port Adapter, Gigabit Ethernet NIC, PCIe x1
Intel PRO/1000 PT Dual Port Server Adapter, Gigabit, Copper, PCIe x4
Intel Gigabit ET Dual Port Adapter, Gigabit Ethernet NIC, PCIe x4
Broadcom® NetXtreme™ 5709 Dual Port Gigabit Ethernet NIC, Copper, w/TOE PCIe x4
Broadcom® NetXtreme™ 5709 Dual Port Gigabit Ethernet NIC, Copper, TOE/iSCSI PCIe x4
Intel PRO/1000 VT Quad Port Server Adapter, Gigabit, Copper, PCIe x4
Intel Gigabit ET Quad Port Adapter, Gigabit Ethernet NIC, PCIe x4
Brocade® CNA Dual-port adapter
Emulex® CNA iSCSI HBA stand up adapter OCE10102-IX-D
Brocade® FC4 and 8 GB HBAs
Brocade® CNA BR1020

I just want to double confirm if it is support by FreeNAS. Please advice.

Thanks

 

[cyberjock]

The best advice I can give is to install FreeNAS on the server and boot it up. There's no writing to the installed internal drives so its an easy test to see what does and doesn't work.

I always tell people to just try it if they already have the hardware. There's no downside to trying FreeNAS on the USB and you will have absolute 100% certainty of what does and doesn't work.

 

[huong.chris]

Dear noobsauce80,

I can't install FreeNAS on it now, because my SQL Server is running on it. It is currently a production server. I have to make sure it works for FreeNAS before I bring it down and setup SQL Server Cluster.

Chris Huong

The best advice I can give is to install FreeNAS on the server and boot it up. There's no writing to the installed internal drives so its an easy test to see what does and doesn't work.

I always tell people to just try it if they already have the hardware. There's no downside to trying FreeNAS on the USB and you will have absolute 100% certainty of what does and doesn't work.

 

[cyberjock]

Dear noobsauce80,

I can't install FreeNAS on it now, because my SQL Server is running on it. It is currently a production server. I have to make sure it works for FreeNAS before I bring it down and setup SQL Server Cluster.

Chris Huong

If someone has your exact server they may have experience with it and will hopefully reply. But to be completely sure you'll really need to bring the server down and try FreeNAS. Some people have had problems with BIOSes not working well with FreeBSD and other stuff that you just can't prepare for by looking at a "compatibility" list. Especially if you your plan will fall apart if FreeNAS won't work for some reason. The best option is still to bring the server down and just try booting it to see if it works. :( Realistically, all you'd need is probably 15-30 mins to see if it detects your network cards, your hard drives in all of your controllers, etc.

 

[huong.chris]

Dear noobsauce80,

If I bring down the server and boot with FreeNAS, would it affect the SQL Server? If it boots, does it mean everything is working out good? or there are more cautions I have to be aware of?

If someone has your exact server they may have experience with it and will hopefully reply. But to be completely sure you'll really need to bring the server down and try FreeNAS. Some people have had problems with BIOSes not working well with FreeBSD and other stuff that you just can't prepare for by looking at a "compatibility" list. Especially if you your plan will fall apart if FreeNAS won't work for some reason. The best option is still to bring the server down and just try booting it to see if it works. :( Realistically, all you'd need is probably 15-30 mins to see if it detects your network cards, your hard drives in all of your controllers, etc.

 

[cyberjock]

Dear noobsauce80,

If I bring down the server and boot with FreeNAS, would it affect the SQL Server? If it boots, does it mean everything is working out good? or there are more cautions I have to be aware of?

Well, Your SQL services will be offline. FreeNAS doesn't write to hard drives unless you go in and start formatting them or something like that.

If it boots then you need to look and see what devices are there. Does FreeNAS get an IP address(which means that your NIC is supported)? Do all of your hard drives(or RAIDs) get detected? Things like that. After you are done looking around the GUI then you just shutdown the server and unplug the FreeNAS USB drive. The SQL OS and software will be completely unaware of FreeNAS being used.

I have tested several machines with a spare FreeNAS USB stick. FreeNAS was designed to let you do this.. on purpose.

 

[huong.chris]

Well, Your SQL services will be offline. FreeNAS doesn't write to hard drives unless you go in and start formatting them or something like that.

If it boots then you need to look and see what devices are there. Does FreeNAS get an IP address(which means that your NIC is supported)? Do all of your hard drives(or RAIDs) get detected? Things like that. After you are done looking around the GUI then you just shutdown the server and unplug the FreeNAS USB drive. The SQL OS and software will be completely unaware of FreeNAS being used.

I have tested several machines with a spare FreeNAS USB stick. FreeNAS was designed to let you do this.. on purpose.

As far as I found out, there are 9 SAS disks installed in the PowerEdge r510, and they are configured RAID 5 and RAID 10. Would it be a problem detecting RAID drives? Every single disk or just RAID volumes?

Thanks noobsauce80, for all your advice. I really appreciate it.

 

[cyberjock]

Then if FreeNAS supports your controller you likely won't see 9 drives. You'll see however many RAID arrays you have(in this case 2). If you don't see anything then your controller isn't supported.

Keep in mind that you won't want to run in RAID mode when you actually start using FreeNAS. But that's much later on down the line.

Read the manual and my guide(link in the sig). This will really help! You won't be one of those people I have to tell "RTFM and stop wasting my time" :) If you are really devoted I'd read the manual while running a virtual machine with FreeNAS on it. Then you can experiment with it and break it without dedicating hardware to it.