Dell PowerEdge R710 with H700

[ofirohayonz]

Hello,

I'm thinking about installing FreeNAS
But after doing a quick research I found out that H700 isn't really compatible of working along side with FreeNAS.
Is this issue still relevant? do I have to replace the card?
or is there any way to make it work (firmware update, etc.)
If not, please suggest which card will be the best for me.

My rig:
2xSSD's
4x2TB

 

[Nick2253]

The H700 is a RAID card, and what you need for ZFS is an HBA. You can probably sell your H700 on eBay, and use the money to buy one of the recommended cards from the Hardware Recommendations list: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

 

[twinscroll]

Hello,

I'm thinking about installing FreeNAS
But after doing a quick research I found out that H700 isn't really compatible of working along side with FreeNAS.
Is this issue still relevant? do I have to replace the card?
or is there any way to make it work (firmware update, etc.)
If not, please suggest which card will be the best for me.

My rig:
2xSSD's
4x2TB

Definitely check out the hardware recommendations list - that will be a big help.

What I see a lot of folks using is an LSI 9211-8i. Note that you may need longer SAS cables than the one's that already came in the R710. Those are just long enough to reach the H700 controller.

If you're rocking multiple SSD's, I'd suggest taking a look at an LSI 9207-8i (also mentioned in the hardware recommendations).

 

[BobBob76]

I'm interested to know how this will all come together as I have an R710 or two that I might be able to use. Is it a case of ripping out the H700, putting in the SAS controller and hooking up the two SAS cables to the backplane?

 

[twinscroll]

I'm interested to know how this will all come together as I have an R710 or two that I might be able to use. Is it a case of ripping out the H700, putting in the SAS controller and hooking up the two SAS cables to the backplane?

Pretty much. If you look under the resources section, they've got all the recommendations there for cards. Some get H200's from dell or H310's also from dell (just re-branded as they're LSI). By far the most popular are still LSI's 9211-8i and IBM's M1015.

But regardless - if you haven't - take a look at the hardware suggestions portion of the guide.

 

[kdragon75]

I'm interested to know how this will all come together as I have an R710 or two that I might be able to use. Is it a case of ripping out the H700, putting in the SAS controller and hooking up the two SAS cables to the backplane?

Pick up a used Dell Perc H200 for cheap ~$30 and cross flash to the LSI firmware. It's easy to do and it you pull the bracket off the card it should fit where the H700 is and the cables should match up almost perfectly! The Perc H310 is the same card but the ports are on the end of the card and will not fit with the location of the RAID card in the R710.