DL380 Gen9 p440ar with USB

[zerowalker]

I have installed TrueNAS on a DL380 Gen9 with a p440ar in HBA mode with 8 2.4tb HDDs and the OS on a 128gb sandisk USB,
and then later added another which to the boot pool which hopefully acts as a redundancy.

Is this a valid setup?
I wanted to have the OS on a separate disk,
but as the 8 disks slots are taken and i couldn't figure out if there is any additional ports that can be used for a drive i had to go the usb route.

The purpose is to store backup copies from Veeam, and as they are already compressed i disabled compression on the storage pool.

 

[Ericloewe]

I wanted to have the OS on a separate disk,

You don't have much of a choice in the matter, so you'd be "stuck" with that anyway.

Is this a valid setup?

It's not invalid, let's put it that way. But your experience will vary according to how reliable the USB flash drives are and how well they deal with fragmentation.
One increasingly popular option is to use a USB/SATA or USB/NVMe bridge with a decent SSD. This is generally "good enough" for boot while still being a better experience than low-end USB flash.

 

[zerowalker]

I can't look up the model, but i think it's this: https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-SDCZ880-128G-G46-Extreme-128GB-Solid/dp/B01MU8TZRV
i do have usb to sata and some western green ssd laying around, which perhaps might be better to use then?

 

[Ericloewe]

western green ssd

Better not, those have a controller bug that corrupts data. Not fun.

 

[zerowalker]

Better not, those have a controller bug that corrupts data. Not fun.

Wait, really?

Could you post a source, cause that's not good as we use it in some laptops i think.
Are there any recommended ssd usb drives then?
or doesthe DL380 Gen9 actually have some sata port that can be used, or sas i guess as i think sas->sata is a thing if i am not mistaken.
But looking at the manual i can't really don't understand the specifications, cause it says there's some sata ports and it points at some sas ports though, i think.
And i tried connecting those to the second drive cage, but it doesn't seem to detect anything connected to it, they just powerup.
i am looking at this: https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=c04346247
Page 3, 11: X4 SATA ports (1 and 2)

 

[Ericloewe]

Wait, really?

Could you post a source, cause that's

Yeah, there's a thread somewhere around here. Also applies to the equivalent SanDisk model. I've seen it first-hand on both of them.
The disks seem to be fine when used with Windows, but FreeBSD triggers a bug in the controller, IIRC related to Trim. Disabling trim seems to have helped those who tried it.

 

[Ericloewe]

Are there any recommended ssd usb drives then?
or doesthe DL380 Gen9 actually have some sata port that can be used, or sas i guess as i think sas->sata is a thing if i am not mistaken.
But looking at the manual i can't really don't understand the specifications, cause it says there's some sata ports and it points at some sas ports though, i think.
And i tried connecting those to the second drive cage, but it doesn't seem to detect anything connected to it, they just powerup.
i am looking at this: https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=c04346247
Page 3, 11: X4 SATA ports (1 and 2)

The document suggests that the PCH SATA ports are exposed via the two SFF-8087 connectors you mention. Assuming they're actually available (you never know with servers), you just need a forward breakout cable to use with SATA disks.

If you want to go the USB route, perhaps the best option is something based on a cheap NVMe SSD and a USB/NVMe bridge.

 

[zerowalker]

Oh that would be interesting to try out.
What about the power though, i tried finding info on it with not much much,
there's 2 power cables currently used to the second drive bay that doesn't work (probably cause it's SAS but uses the 4x SATA).
But i am guessing that power can be utilized?