Good and bad controllers for ZFS

[eccevery]

I've been running a FreeNAS server for a few years now, it works great but it's really about time that I get a proper backup server. The server I have now is a DIY thing with a supermicro motherboard and a LSI SATA controller with flashed firmware.

My plan was to get a supermicro server off ebay, probably based on a X8 motherboard, load it with disks and fire up another freenas solution. How do I know if the SATA controller on it is suitable? If I remember it correctly you don't want the controller to interfere with the data flowing though it, hence the firmware mod I made to the controller I have now. I've become a bit lazy nowadays, if it would "just work" out of the box I'd be happy. :)

 

[Mirfster]

If the motherboard has ample SATA ports on it for the number of drives you want to use, then you really don't need a HBA.

Check out cyberjock's "Hardware recommendations (read this first)" thread.

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hardware-recommendations-read-this-first.23069/

 

[tvsjr]

Go X9 or newer, not X8. The X8 stuff is all FSB-based, which has poor performance per watt. The X9 stuff is quite affordable these days. And yes, you want the controller in IT mode - the LSI 9211-8i is quite simple to flash into that mode, and is readily available on eBay for ~$100.

 

[Ericloewe]

Go X9 or newer, not X8. The X8 stuff is all FSB-based, which has poor performance per watt. The X9 stuff is quite affordable these days. And yes, you want the controller in IT mode - the LSI 9211-8i is quite simple to flash into that mode, and is readily available on eBay for ~$100.

X8 is Nehalem, which does not have a FSB. It's slower and more pwoer-hungry, but still quite usable.

 

[eccevery]

Thanks guys for your replies. I have read the guide, it gave me a few flashbacks and refreshed a few things, but the question remains. I am aiming for a supermicro 1U server with four disk bays, leaving little room for an extra controller. Lets assume i use the integrated controller on the supermicro intel based motherboard. It has raid functionality (dont have the exaxt model number now but it supported raid 0, 1, 5 and JBOD). I dont know if it software raid or not. According to the guide this "will work quiet well". Will it just be a bit slower than an ideal ibm m1015 IT card or will it interfear with the data written to disk in an unwanted way? Or do you turn the raid feature off?

 

[Mirfster]

While I don't have a SuperMicro, I would say that at most, you would use it in JBOD (if not Off). No RAID for sure... That way it would just present the disks to FreeNas (which is exactly what a HBA does).

Speed wise, there should not be any difference.

 

[Ericloewe]

Lets assume i use the integrated controller on the supermicro intel based motherboard. It has raid functionality (dont have the exaxt model number now but it supported raid 0, 1, 5 and JBOD)

That's just the chipset. If we're talking about X8, that's an ICH10R Southbridge SATA 3Gb/s controller. It works fine. Just don't use the fakeRAID, it won't work at all without driver support.

 

[jgreco]

Thanks guys for your replies. I have read the guide, it gave me a few flashbacks and refreshed a few things, but the question remains. I am aiming for a supermicro 1U server with four disk bays, leaving little room for an extra controller. Lets assume i use the integrated controller on the supermicro intel based motherboard. It has raid functionality (dont have the exaxt model number now but it supported raid 0, 1, 5 and JBOD). I dont know if it software raid or not. According to the guide this "will work quiet well". Will it just be a bit slower than an ideal ibm m1015 IT card or will it interfear with the data written to disk in an unwanted way? Or do you turn the raid feature off?

There's plenty of room in a 1U for an extra controller. Look, two full PCIe slots and a half height: http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/1u/5018/sys-5018r-wr.cfm

But if you just want a basic 1U server with 4 bays, you probably want something like a CSE-813MTQ and an X10SLM-F which you can just get a prebuilt of: http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/1u/5018/SYS-5018D-MTF.cfm

Should be around $450-500.

 

[eccevery]

I think I will go with X8, like X8DT6-F. It's for backing up my server at home, the performance is more than enough.

Thanks a lot to all of you for your help!