FreeNAS V9.3.1 on Dell R710

[gchliu]

Hello,

I am new to FreeNAS and to this forum. I am hoping to get some guidance on how to properly install FreeNAS V9.3.1 on my Dell R710. I recently bought this server from eBay. It has 6x2TB of SATA hard drives and no OS. It also has an integrated RAID controller (iPERC6/i).

FreeNAS manual states -

"FreeNAS® supports hot pluggable drives. To use this feature, make sure that AHCI is enabled in the BIOS."

"While ZFS can also be used with a RAID controller, it is recommended that the controller be put into JBOD mode so that ZFS has full control of the disks."

I updated the latest BIOS from the Dell site, and still can't find the settings for "AHCI" or "JBOD". Could someone point me to the right direction, please.

One post said that mixing RAID and ZFS is a bad idea. If I can't disable the RAID controller, what RAID number should I go with? and what would be the risk?

Thank you

 

[diedrichg]

Hopefully this can get you pointed in the right direction regarding getting the PERC 6/i into IT mode. https://www.google.com/search?q=del...eid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#q=lsi+1078+it+mode

FreeNAS expects and needs to have full control of the ZFS software RAID. If you can't get this card into IT mode then you will need to replace it with a IBM ServerRAID M1015 https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/confused-about-that-lsi-card-join-the-crowd.11901/

Regarding AHCI, this should help:
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/servers/f/906/t/19471857

Here is your manual:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...oNzeWMOpoEPqLXvKg&sig2=RJECOypUecUvkaCNJ8oaoQ

 

[gchliu]

Thanks Diedrichg for pointing me to the right direction. I see that there is a bit of work/experimentation involved to get FreeNAS running on Dell R710 system. In hindsight, perhaps Dell server was not a good platform for FreeNAS.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

In hindsight, perhaps Dell server was not a good platform for FreeNAS.

There's nothing inherently wrong with running FreeNAS on a Dell server (check my signature for my shiny new box). The issue is that you're using obsolete Dell hardware. In particular, the PERC6 controllers limit hard drive capacity to 2TB, regardless of firmware. I had a PERC SAS 6/iR flashed to IT mode in my previous box (a used PowerEdge T110) and had no issues with it, but I would have had to replace it before installing larger drives.