FreeNAS on HP DL380 G5 (P400 SmartArray)

[Tweexter]

Hello community,
I am attempting to make use of some old servers we have laying around here and in this case use a DL380 G5 as a freenas box. I filled the 8-bay with SAS drives and made one big raid5 array. I then installed freenas on the machine successfully, however freenas cannot see the array/drives. I've searched and searched but am not finding any info about what I'm doing wrong here.
If anyone could be of assistance I'd greatly appreciate it!!
Cheers

 

[Tweexter]

No P400 users out there had this issue? Am I just out of luck here?

 

[cyberjock]

Maybe try without the hardware RAID. Some users have had problems with some hardware RAIDs, but by setting up JBOD the disks will work in FreeNAS. I know, it may not be the option you are wanting to hear if you were bent on using the hardware RAID, but at least it would prove that the hardware should work.

 

[Tweexter]

So with 8 drives I'd just take off the raid5 and make a logical volume on each individual drive? Then I assume install FreeNAS on one drive, then let freenas raid the remaining 7? I assumed hardware raid would have significantly better performance with all that write cache, but if it don't work it don't work...

 

[cyberjock]

Before you continue I'd recommend reading the manual if you haven't already. It explains why you shouldn't use a hardware RAID as well as many other tips to not get simple things wrong and cost you your data.

No, you shouldn't make each drive its own RAID. You really need the hard drives in JBOD. Sometimes you don't want JBOD, but the manual will give you the education to know when you want hardware RAID and when you don't.

Keep in mind that your hardware might not be supported. The manual includes links to check your hardware against known good hardware so you can get an idea of what will and won't work.

 

[Tweexter]

Thanks for the pointers cyberjock. You're absolutely right that I rushed into it a bit quickly. It's only for a 3rd backup site for company, we already have two EqualLogic SANs doing the official work. Just a 3rd lightweight one for good measure. :)