Configuration Topology review

[TheUsD]

Hey Team,

Am I just not thinking straight or should this configuration work?

Both ESXi hosts will have a PERC H200e connected to the TrueNAS boxes.
The TrueNAS boxes are controlling the disks with PER H700P's (IT mode) wanting to pass the zvols to ESXi hosts with the PERC H200E (IT mode)
(Currently, using 10Gb SFP+ NICS w/ iSCSi to pass zvols to ESXi hosts)

 

[TheUsD]

Maybe I need to ask the question a bit clearer.

I have 2 ESXi hosts with no drives. Each will have a PERC H200e card (in IT mode).

I have two TrueNAS boxes. Each with a PERC H710P (in IT mode) connected to the backplane which controls the disks. Each TrueNAS will also have a PERC H200E card (in IT mode).

I'd like to connect use the 4 HBA cards as the medium to connect the two ESXi hosts to the TrueNAS devices so the ESXi hosts can see the zvols.

Asking because I have successfully flashed two PERC H200E cards. Installed one card into a new ESXi host, and installed the other into an existing TrueNAS 12.0U8 host that has an existing zvol/VMFS6 that is being shared via iSCSi using 10Gb SFP+ to two other esxi hosts. However, the new host cannot see the zvol/VMFS6.

The overall goal is to rid of the SFP+ cards and move over to the HBA.

Is this possible? Am I going about this the right way?

 

[HoneyBadger]

I'd like to connect use the 4 HBA cards as the medium to connect the two ESXi hosts to the TrueNAS devices so the ESXi hosts can see the zvols

...

The overall goal is to rid of the SFP+ cards and move over to the HBA.

Is this possible? Am I going about this the right way?

No, TrueNAS (FreeBSD) cannot act as a SAS target. There was some experimentation done on Linux using older 1068E and lsiutil but to my knowledge it never yielded a functional solution, much less a stable one.

Buy another 10Gbps SFP+ card for your new ESXi host and connect it to the backplane. If you're out of 10Gbps ports somewhere (on your TrueNAS hosts, if you're direct-attaching) then it's time to invest in a switch.

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[TheUsD]

No, TrueNAS (FreeBSD) cannot act as a SAS target. There was some experimentation done on Linux using older 1068E and lsiutil but to my knowledge it never yielded a functional solution, much less a stable one.

Got it.

If you're out of 10Gbps ports somewhere (on your TrueNAS hosts, if you're direct-attaching) then it's time to invest in a switch.

I have plenty of 10G cards, was just wanting to do away with iSCSi in general. I'm still wrapped up in my Dell EMC world while trying to learn TrueNAS; ZFS in general

Thanks for the confirmation, @HoneyBadger