FreeNAS Mini XL Hardware

[riktam]

Hi,
did anyone had the chance to get their hands on a Freenas Mini XL? is it just a the same hardware as the previous Mini (Avoton C2750 ) with 8 bays? Did the Marvell controller become stable with Freebsd 10? If so, which Sata ports are they using?
Thanks.

 

[russnas]

I couldnt find any info on the motherboard, but i think your right judging by the images here
https://www.ixsystems.com/freenas-mini/

What about using Hot-Swappable Drive Bays on FreeNAS?, so you can remove the drive while its running, obviously not in a raid.

 

[Shastada]

I would just love to be able to buy that case as a stand alone to build out my own box. That case looks real sweet, but most of the fun of FreeNAS is building out your own thing, not buying something off the shelf ;)

 

[jgreco]

Why not just call Supermicro and ask about it? The 4 bay version's just an SC721 and I'd guess the new one is just a new variant of it.

 

[riktam]

Do you mean Supermicro or ixsystems? I didn't find any 8 bay chassis on Supermicros Website.

 

[gpsguy]

I believe it's an Ablecom CS-T80


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jgreco]

"The 4 bay version's just an SC721"

"I'd guess the new one is just a new variant of it."

(self evident I hope)

"Why not just call Supermicro and ask about it?"

 

[jgreco]

I believe it's an Ablecom CS-T80

That too. I wonder if anyone else is selling it.

 

[Shastada]

I believe it's an Ablecom CS-T80


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good call, that looks like it.

http://ablecom.en.taiwantrade.com.tw/product/8bays-tower-chassis-791976.html

 

[riktam]

Hey Guys... thanks for your help on the chassis side, but what I really really want to know is if the Marvell Sata Controllers that were"unstable" and recommended not to used with FreeNAS 9.3 are now working properly in FreeNAS 9.10.
Thanks.

 

[jgreco]

As far as I know, Marvell still isn't releasing technical documentation or FreeBSD drivers for their chipsets. There is no reason to expect that the current situation would be improved.

 

[Arwen]

Hey Guys... thanks for your help on the chassis side, but what I really really want to know is if the Marvell Sata Controllers that were"unstable" and recommended not to used with Freenas 9.3 are now working properly in Freenas 9.10.
Thanks.

I have a FreeNAS Mini and its Marvell ports seem to work fine. Both SATA DOMs for the OS are
on Marvell ports, and a few other things, (the mirrored SLOG?). All in all 10 ports allocated, so it
must be using some of the Marvell ports, (as this board only came with 6 Intel ports).

Though, if I remember correctly, I use an Intel port for the eSATA bracket and my backup disk.

 

[russnas]

found more negatives than positives for marvell ports on FreeBSD/FreeNAS. if FreeNAS is advertising it then it must be supported.

 

[INCSlayer]

Before upgrading to my current system I ran with the asrock board and i was running 8 disks of the marvel controllers using the M9230_1063.zip firmware from the asrock support site and atleast for me during that time there was no issues with my drives or any errors. I ran that system for about 8 months as my primary NAS and as I said I had no issues. So it is possible that the stability issues have been resolved

 

[jgreco]

It's worth noting that there are different types of Marvell ports, Marvell is a prolific (awww bad pun!) silicon manufacturer just like Realtek.

There are some things we know absolutely don't work well, including the Marvell Hercules-2 (which forms the basis for add-on cards like the Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8).

There are others that are believed to work fine, including ONE of the two Marvell controllers on the ASRock board, the SE9172 which provides two ports and works fine IIRC, and the SE9230 which had several firmware updates which were all promised to fix the problems, but never quite seemed to. The last firmware update was last fall. I don't know if I've heard complaints since then, but you're encouraged to very carefully analyze what's been said about the SE9230 ports on these forums to date.

I would love for the SE9230 issues to be cleared up, because in every other way the C2750D4I is a rockin' board.

 

[Nick R]

Anyone know where I can buy the Ablecom CS-T80 case? It seems I need to get bulk quantities...only need one.

 

[JDM]

Anyone know where I can buy the Ablecom CS-T80 case? It seems I need to get bulk quantities...only need one.

In the same boat. Found them being sold out of Norway at approx $400 USD (give or take the exchange rate)

https://www.nextron.no/en/main.php3?PI=info&PNO=37045

However they don't seem to ship to the US, so far no luck anywhere else. I emailed Supermicro's marketing alias, but got no response. Also pinged iXSystems, but they only sell them as the appliance, what I expected, but didn't hurt to ask.

I'm getting ready to feel the crunch as my current setup is approaching full and I'm ready to upgrade. Unless I can grab the case in the next 4-5 weeks, I'll just do my Xeon-D build in the Supermicro 4-bay version (original freenas mini case) which will give me enough expansion to last another year and a half or so by current estimates. Hopefully by then I'll be able to track one down to buy, and sell the 4-bay case to reclaim some of the cost.

 

[Stux]

In the same boat. Found them being sold out of Norway at approx $400 USD (give or take the exchange rate)

https://www.nextron.no/en/main.php3?PI=info&PNO=37045

However they don't seem to ship to the US, so far no luck anywhere else. I emailed Supermicro's marketing alias, but got no response. Also pinged iXSystems, but they only sell them as the appliance, what I expected, but didn't hurt to ask.

I'm getting ready to feel the crunch as my current setup is approaching full and I'm ready to upgrade. Unless I can grab the case in the next 4-5 weeks, I'll just do my Xeon-D build in the Supermicro 4-bay version (original freenas mini case) which will give me enough expansion to last another year and a half or so by current estimates. Hopefully by then I'll be able to track one down to buy, and sell the 4-bay case to reclaim some of the cost.

Have you considered the Norco ITX-S8,

Or the U-NAS NSC-800

I too was looking at the Ablecom chassis, but couldn't source it, but in the end couldn't source an ITX mobo with the capabilities I was looking for :(

 

[anodos]

Personally, I think the uber-compact NAS chassis are a poor tradeoff. You get a slightly smaller form factor at the expense of:

1. reduced cooling capability
2. possibly doing sketchy things with flexible risers for your HBA
3. lower quality / capacity PSU
4. possibly shoddy hotswap caddies / backplane.

 

[JDM]

Generally agree. Reasons 2,3,4 are my reason for holding out for/using initially a Supermicro/Abelcom product as those generally hold up well. Still not quite sure I want to trust my data to Norco. For me this will just serve as my offsite backup for the 16-bay, 3U on site main unit (also Supermicro). Idea with an 8 bay enclosure being that the drives offsite are twice the size of the on site. So when I run out of space I have half my new onsite drives already. In this case goaling for 6TB offsite, 3TB onsite.