Hardware advice for new server. R730 - Newbie

[Tackleberry]

Hello,
First off, I apologize if I missed the direct answer to this on the forum, I’m overseas with limited internet and using my phone only so research has been difficult.

My home setup currently is running various services on a few raspberry pi’s. I am working on moving everything over to a proper server and just ordered a Dell R730 with 2x 2697v4 and 384 Ram. The server is coming with the H730P Mini Mono.

I am intending to setup my server with Proxmox and virtualizing TrueNAS. I’ll have 4x16TB drives in the bays for now.

From what I’m reading, it sounds like using a hardware RAID controller is not recommended. Is this still accurate?
Being new to this side, I’m still researching the terminology but it sounds like I need an older raid controller in IT mode. Would my best best for this system be to find a H310 flashed to IT mode like I’ve seen on ebay or is there something I’m missing in my reading so far?

Thank you for the help pointing me in the right direction.

 

[jgreco]

From what I’m reading, it sounds like using a hardware RAID controller is not recommended. Is this still accurate?

Years and years of projects warning people not to use a RAID controller with ZFS isn't something that's going to turn on a dime. There are technical reasons for it. It isn't going to suddenly become in"accurate".

What's all the noise about HBAs, and why can't I use a RAID controller?

1) An HBA is a Host Bus Adapter. This is a controller that allows SAS and SATA devices to be attached to, and communicate directly with, a server. RAID controllers typically aggregate several disks into a Virtual Disk abstraction of some sort...

www.truenas.com

I am intending to setup my server with Proxmox and virtualizing TrueNAS.

Note that the H730p is just as worthless for use with Proxmox if you choose to use ZFS for storing your VM's. Same problem. Also note that virtualizing on Proxmox is a little bit dicey, as its PCIe passthru support is still "experimental". I think enough people are doing it that it is likely to be stable though. Please make sure you follow the guidelines we have for virtualizing TrueNAS posted in the article quoted below. Please note the title of the article.

"Absolutely must virtualize FreeNAS!" ... a guide to not completely losing your data.

[---- 2018/02/27: This is still as relevant as ever. As PCIe-Passthru has matured, fewer problems are reported. I've updated some specific things known to be problematic ----] [---- 2014/12/24: Note, there is another post discussing how to deploy a small FreeNAS VM instance for basic file...

www.truenas.com

You will probably want something along the lines of an H310 using PCIe passthru to TrueNAS for your main pool. The typical problem with Dell gear is that this leaves nowhere for Proxmox to store its VM's. Adding an internal NVMe boot solution such as the Dell BOSS is one possible option. Some of us install a second H310 or H200 and then run SATA M.2 SSD on an add-on card (finding power inside the chassis is tricky).

 

[HoneyBadger]

Being new to this side, I’m still researching the terminology but it sounds like I need an older raid controller in IT mode. Would my best best for this system be to find a H310 flashed to IT mode like I’ve seen on ebay or is there something I’m missing in my reading so far?

The correct card to fit the "Mini Mono" slot is either the HBA330 or an H330 that has been reflashed into one. An H310 will still work, but would go into a PCIe slot and be "in addition to" your H730p.