SOLVED FreeNAS 9.3 FC Fibre Channel Target Mode DAS & SAN

[Don Intellys]

And, just so everyone knows, this is wicked fast. I was using iSCSI for so long, I forgot how fast external storage can actually be.

 

[Simon Sparks]

Does anyone use freenas with an FC switch, say a HP switch? And, will freenas 10.0 work with FC also??

I use FreeNAS-11.0-U1 (aa82cc58d)
I use a DELL PowerEdge R810
I use a QLogic QLE2564 Quad Port 8Gb Fibre Channel Card ( PCIe Gen 2 X8 )

I run VMware ESXi v6.0.0 build 5572656
I use a DELL PowerEdge R610
I use a QLogic QLE2564 Quad Port 8Gb Fibre Channel Card ( PCIe Gen 2 X8 )

The switch I use is a Cisco MDS 9148 - 48 port 8Gb Fibre Channel Switch that I got off eBay with all the ports active for £600.

 

[Simon Sparks]

These are screen shots of my fibre channel configuration.

http://www.qlogic.com/Resources/Documents/DataSheets/Adapters/datasheet_2500_Series_Adapter.pdf

 

[errmatt]

Just wanted to share success with this, again. I previously had this working with Qlogic 2462 cards in my vSphere host and FreeNAS system. I've since upgraded my hosts and they have Emulex LPe12000 8gb FC adapters. I put a Qlogic 2562 8gb 2port card into my FreeNAS system and connected both hosts up and everything is working great... now at 8gb!

 

[colintheitguy]

Thanks for confirming it works!

 

[colintheitguy]

Up until I revisited this post I thought I was stuck on FreeNAS 9.10.2.x...your setup sounds pretty sweet, a lot more than I can afford for a home lab but I'm using QLogic QLE2564 in my FreeNAS and 2 Brocade 815's in each of my two VMware hosts, back-to-back with no FC switches and it works quite well. Now that you've shared your config details I'll be able to go to FreeNAS 11, thanks very much!

Sorry, actually mean to say thanks to Simon Sparks for this...really helpful!

These are screen shots of my fibre channel configuration.

http://www.qlogic.com/Resources/Documents/DataSheets/Adapters/datasheet_2500_Series_Adapter.pdf

View attachment 19498 View attachment 19499 View attachment 19500 View attachment 19501 View attachment 19502

 

[Caffe Mocha]

sorry for hijacking the post a little bit. I have no previous experiences of FC and FC switch. I have did what Aran said in the post but i have no idea what i should do with my brocade switch.
can anyone tell the basic flows/steps ? such as setup zone? and etc
I believe I can look up the cli guides online.
I couldn't use the ezswitch software because some java related issue.

 

[colintheitguy]

sorry for hijacking the post a little bit. I have no previous experiences of FC and FC switch. I have did what Aran said in the post but i have no idea what i should do with my brocade switch.
can anyone tell the basic flows/steps ? such as setup zone? and etc
I believe I can look up the cli guides online.
I couldn't use the ezswitch software because some java related issue.

I know I have a couple of older Brocade 5100 switches at work, I had to install an older version of Java. The last revision of the JRE6 family worked fine for me. Sorry I can’t be of more help with your other questions, I’m a noob when it comes to FC switches myself.

 

[CalvinHobbesN7]

Wonderful instructions so far! Hoping for a bit of help on the second portion. I'm working on a personal build for a school senior project, and part of it includes booting my little Windows Server 2016 box straight from Fibre Channel SAN. This is my first toe-dip into Fibre Channel tech. After following the FreeNAS portion, how would I configure the bios in my Win Server box to boot via Fibre Channel?

We can assume there is NO OS installed, and I want to use Fibre Channel as my installation disk.
I am able to configure the HBA through the UEFI on my motherboard (weird right?)
The status-light when for both Win Server and FreeNAS when connected to my Cisco 9124 switch are AMBER indicating 4G speeds.

QLE 2462 HBA
Using FreeNAS 11

 

[CalvinHobbesN7]

[deleted, awaiting response]

 

[mav@]

It was found that BIOS in QLogic HBA does not register FC-4 type in FC name server, that made them impossible to boot from FreeNAS. It should be workarounded in FreeNAS 11.1.

 

[CalvinHobbesN7]

It was found that BIOS in QLogic HBA does not register FC-4 type in FC name server, that made them impossible to boot from FreeNAS. It should be workarounded in FreeNAS 11.1.

I don't really know what that means, but it sounds like you think I'm sunk so far (as far as FreeNAS is concerned?) until 11.1 is released.

Perhaps you can point me in the right direction as far as using a Disk or FileExtent, and whether to use a Dataset or ZVol?

 

[mav@]

It is recommended to use ZVOLs for block storage now.

 

[CalvinHobbesN7]

It was found that BIOS in QLogic HBA does not register FC-4 type in FC name server, that made them impossible to boot from FreeNAS. It should be workarounded in FreeNAS 11.1.

So the issue lays inside of the QLogic HBA itself, and not from FreeNAS limitations? Or does FreeNAS not (currently) support FC-4 encapsulation?

 

[mav@]

So the issue lays inside of the QLogic HBA itself, and not from FreeNAS limitations?

Yes, I believe so. FreeNAS expected each host register in FC name server its capabilities as required by FC specifications, while QLogic HBA BIOS does not bother to do it while booting. Updated driver in FreeNAS 11.1 uses different, more complicated, scanning method, allowing to handle such cases.

 

[CalvinHobbesN7]

Yes, I believe so. FreeNAS expected each host register in FC name server its capabilities as required by FC specifications, while QLogic HBA BIOS does not bother to do it while booting. Updated driver in FreeNAS 11.1 uses different, more complicated, scanning method, allowing to handle such cases.

Interesting. So you think it's Beta time? I'm down for that. I have found no alternative to trying to make FreeNAS work since this is just a student project with a $0 budget.
Follow the same instructions as on the front of this page, (perhaps?). I know they're old instructions, and that's why I ask.

 

[mav@]

Interesting. So you think it's Beta time?

There is 11.1-RC1 already on downloads site. Release is planned in few weeks.

 

[RegularJoe]

are you booting your Dell R610 for VMware in BIOS or UEFI mode? Are you passing all 4 Fiber Channel ports to the FreeNAS VM or are you using NPIV? When I reboot VMware 6.5 keeps saying I have to reboot to pass the card thru.

 

[RegularJoe]

I got it to work. FreeNAS 11.2u2.1, VMware ESXi 6.5, LSI SAS HBA 9207-8i pass thru, Qlogic 2532 in pass thru to FreeNAS. I had a QLogic 2564 and it will not pass thru because it has a PCIe bridge on it, it acts like it will but when you reboot it never passes thru.

My concern is that iSCSI is configured to allow ALL ip addresses to this FC LUN, that means a windows server could format my VMFS LUN?

 

[arankaspar1]

There is 11.1-RC1 already on downloads site. Release is planned in few weeks.

Hi Mav,
Thanks again for helping me setup fiber channel storage years ago. I'm back with a quick question.
The QLE2462 4Gb HBAs I have are maxing out on FC at 410.91MB/s read consistently.
Using iSCSI vdev extent with two striped SSDs. (Testing on initiator with Crystal Disk Mark on bare-metal Windows 7)

Created a jail to run Bonnie++ which outputs...
610m on Sequential Output and 945m on Sequential Input

I had a spare mobo so I swapped it out - CPU and RAM power now doubled and I'm getting the same results. Phenom 980 3.7GHz 16GB RAM.

Also seeing someone else online with this HBA model get maxed out at 400MBps too.

Could this be a driver issue or just a bad HBA?