SOLVED Dell r720xd FlexBay SSD

[DavidinGA]

I have a Dell r720xd in the 25 2.5" drive front, 2x 2.5" FlexBay rear, format.

TrueNAS has been loaded and the four 146GB SAS drives set up as 2x for the OS and 2x as virtual drives.

If I were to put two 2.5" SSD's in the rear FlexBay would TrueNAS make use of them for high speed swap - while the drives in the front are used, in various virtual drive configurations, for storage?

I have read this ...
https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/the-path-to-success-for-block-storage.81165/
and so I'm I'm looking, short term, at at least a pair of 6TB HDD drives in the front bay.

and this ...
https://www.reddit.com/r/truenas/comments/v73ol5/understanding_zfs_capacity_in_truenas_how_zfs/

(Trying to enhance my understanding of how everything works ...)

The server currently hosts 8x Samsung 4GB 2Rx4 PC3-10600R-09-11-E2-P2 RAM sticks.

Should I be planning to add more, or to upgrade them with something different, for improved future performance?

Thanks ...

 

[DavidinGA]

Dell support responded ...

NAS =network attached storage, meaning if you were to bring the performance to the top, network speed should change- for example- upgrade from 1GB to 10GB or through bonding, make 1GB to 2 GB. The storage speed itself is just fine, I believe.

DELL-Young E
Social Media and Communities Professional
Dell Technologies | Enterprise Support Services

I take that to mean that SSD's in the FreeBay slots only help under their OS and not TrueNAS, but increasing ram would be helpful.

Does that sound like a correct understanding?

 

[DavidinGA]

This is the latest reply from Dell

You should be able to use SSD in the rear FlexBay. The drives are still controlled by the PERC. You may have to select a different Enclosure (backplane) to see them. I can't say how that is done in TrueNAS. Dell has not validated TrueNAS as an operating system on the R720xd. We may have someone in the community that has installed TrueNAS and can share their experience. Dell -Charles R Social Media and Communities Professional

 

[DavidinGA]

Since it sounds as though only the Dell OS would make good use of FlexBay drives - I'm going to leave them empty - and call this SOLVED.

 

[oldman66]

Hi guys
I have an Dell 730XD with two rear 2,5" 10000 RPM sas drives. I use the to boot truenas core so I can´t really chime in if this will work as cashe drives. To boot from? yes, they work just fine

 

[DavidinGA]

Thanks!