Controller IT mode question

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DJCounter

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Firstly, I apologize if this question is in the wrong section, which it likely is.

My question is that I have recently "inherited" a Supermicro server chassis (SC826) in brand new condition, despite being rather old. The chassis has great hardware specs, but includes a 3ware 9650SE card with 12 ports. Does this card have an IT mode - I am seeing that it supports JBOD? Alternatively, I have two LSI LSI00301 (9207-8i) HBA cards which have 8 ports apiece, so if the answer is no then all is not lost.

Thanks in advance for any help
 

DJCounter

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Firstly, I apologize if this question is in the wrong section, which it likely is.

My question is that I have recently "inherited" a Supermicro server chassis (SC826) in brand new condition, despite being rather old. The chassis has great hardware specs, but includes a 3ware 9650SE card with 12 ports. Does this card have an IT mode - I am seeing that it supports JBOD? Alternatively, I have two LSI LSI00301 (9207-8i) HBA cards which have 8 ports apiece, so if the answer is no then all is not lost.

Thanks in advance for any help

NB Parts are:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIABZ04RM7928&cm_re=9650se-_-16-116-044-_-Product

https://www.neweggbusiness.com/product/product.aspx?item=9siv15764s9193

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...m_re=supermicro_12_bay-_-11-152-497-_-Product
 

HoneyBadger

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The 9650SE does have a "JBOD mode" but there's some other users who've complained about poor performance. They resolved that performance issue by moving to LSI HBAs.

Since you have two of the latter already, I'd just skip to the finish and use those in the first place. ;)
 

DJCounter

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The 9650SE does have a "JBOD mode" but there's some other users who've complained about poor performance. They resolved that performance issue by moving to LSI HBAs.

Since you have two of the latter already, I'd just skip to the finish and use those in the first place. ;)

I'm kinda glad to hear you say that, cos it reaffirms what I was thinking. The JBOD mode seems to be a collection of single-disk RAID0 arrays, and the LSI card doesn't seem to have the worry of a drive size limitation.
 

HoneyBadger

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I'm kinda glad to hear you say that, cos it reaffirms what I was thinking. The JBOD mode seems to be a collection of single-disk RAID0 arrays, and the LSI card doesn't seem to have the worry of a drive size limitation.

Wow. Totally forgot about that being a thing from that era - yes, the 2TB drive limit is reason enough alone to put that card in another system. The 9207-8i is also new enough to be able to handle 4K native drives, so it's even more future-proof than the older 9211-8i.

(Edit: It seems the older LSI card may also be able to handle 4Kn drives, but that old 3ware definitely won't.)
 
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DJCounter

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Thanks for your input :) I also like the thought of the chassis being upgradable when the X8 motherboard becomes too much of a relic, particularly since if I bought a Super Server new it would cost $500+, and I got this one unused for free!
 

HoneyBadger

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Are you sure about this? Pretty sure SAS2008 based controllers can handle 4kn drives.
I heard and read otherwise, but I'm thinking now that limitation is for IR mode which wouldn't concern ZFS users in the slightest.

While the compatibility page only references the SAS2308 and SAS3008:

https://www.broadcom.com/support/kn...k---512e-disk-drive-support-on-lsi-raid-contr

Opening the actual PDF shows the 9211-8i (SAS2008) as being a compatible model. So I'm guessing yes, 4Kn is supported in IT mode if not IR.
 

Chris Moore

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DJCounter

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Good to hear. I want to install ESXi on another machine and install Emby media browser on a Windows 10 VM, then attach the FreeNAS PC as an iSCSI target to store the media on. This should be possible, no?
 

Chris Moore

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Possible, but a regular a SMB share would be better.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk
 

Chris Moore

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Really? For speed reasons, or just easier to implement?
It depends a little on how you plan to use it, but most likely the SMB share will be faster and easier to implement. Block storage via iSCSI is absolutely usable, but it carries a lot of extra issues that you can avoid unless you have some special reason for using iSCSI that you didn't explain in the previous post.
If you are planning to host the VMs on the iSCSI, using it for ALL the storage, that would be a bit of a different issue, but if you are only using it to store media, then you can just map it as a network share from the Win 10 VM. If you want to use the iSCSI connected the ESXi to be the place where your virtual hard drives live, then you will need to change some things with regard to the FreeNAS build because the iSCSI could be super slow if you don't do it the right way. You didn't share all the details of the planned build though, so it isn't really possible to be definitive.
 

DJCounter

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Thanks for the info. I planned to use iSCSI just as a learning experience, and to be honest, I WILL be short on storage for the VM's hosted on the ESXi server, but that can be sorted out in other ways easy enough. You raised some interesting points, and probably saved me a lot of heartache, so thank you! SMB would make more sense anyway, as what space isn't used for storing media, I'd utilize for backing up machines on the network
 
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