HDD Configuration & Other Help

[Sam71]

Hi all,

I am new to FreeNas and coming from a windows server background!

I am setting up my old windows server box into a FreeNas box using 2 16gb usb 3 flash drives! (Will try and enable usb 3)

It has 24gb ram with 6x500gb drives (currently raid 5 on M/B) & 2x1tb drives mirrored via simple raid card!

I understand that I will need to put the raid 5 drives back to individual drives so that ZFS can be setup through FreeNas! What would the best setup be using the drives that I have installed as I don't want to spend anymore on this box! I back up to a usb hard drive but would still like some form of redundancy!

If I just used the 500gb drives for now can I add another set of drives later? I am trying to get my head around pools etc.

 

[Bidule0hm]

Well, I recommend to use your 6 or 8 drives in a RAID-Z2 vdev. Of course if you use the 8 drives you lose 500GB on each 1TB drive.

For more info you can read Cyberjock's guide (link in his sig or my sig) ;)

 

[Sam71]

Well, I recommend to use your 6 or 8 drives in a RAID-Z2 vdev. Of course if you use the 8 drives you lose 500GB on each 1TB drive.

For more info you can read Cyberjock's guide (link in his sig or my sig) ;)

From what I have read and understand is that I could replace the 500gb drives over time with 1tb drives and when I replaced all 6 500gb drives I would then have 6tb of storage space! Am I correct? Or because the 1tb drives start off as 500gb in theory it will not work?

 

[Bidule0hm]

Yes, exactly ;)

 

[Sam71]

Yes, exactly ;)

So the 1tb drives will change from 500gb to 1tb on the fly? If so very cool......

As I said I am used to windows stuff where you are very limited......

 

[Sam71]

Oh the other issue will it still work with the drives being on different controllers? I assume it is!

 

[Bidule0hm]

Yep, a whole another world :D

Yes, FreeNAS doesn't care about where each drive is connected. But if you use RAID controllers be careful to set them to passthrough mode (or better, don't use RAID controllers...). I recommend you to read the hardware recommendation thread (link in my sig) for more details ;)

 

[Sam71]

The 6 drives are on the m/b which I will change from raid 5 and the 2 other drives are on a basic raid 1 card which as far as I know is just running in non raid mode! The original card stuffed up which has got me down the FreeNas path!

All I can do is give it a go! Picked up the second USB flash card (both the same) this arvo so will give it a go tonight....

Thanks heaps! Helps to have someone put the doubts out of your mind!

 

[Sam71]

Which NIC would I be best using?

Onboard - Realtek RTL8111E
PCIx - Dual Intel Pro GT
PCIx - HP NC7771 Broadcom
PCIe - TP-Link TG-3468 (Realtek RTL8168B)
PCIe - Repotec RP-3200EX

Have all of the above! No PCIx slots but cards work on m/b

 

[enemy85]

Intel are the best working ones

 

[Bidule0hm]

Intel ;)

The drives on the MB with RAID disabled in the BIOS are ok.

The drives on the RAID card are more problematic. You must be sure that they are exposed as bare drives by the card. The card must not mess with the drives.

 

[Sam71]

Just a thought.....

Would I be best to create a separate volume with the 2 1tb drives mirrored (sata card)for less critical data and raidz2 for the 6 500gb drives for more critical data? I could then replace the 500gb drives with 1tb drives (use the existing 1tb drives after deleting the second volume) or even get bigger ones......

Can nics be changed easily?

 

[Bidule0hm]

Yes, you can totally do that, it's just up to you to chose your pool config ;)

No, you can't change a integrated NIC but you can add another NIC with a PCIe card for example.

 

[Sam71]

No, you can't change a integrated NIC but you can add another NIC with a PCIe card for example.

So let me get this correct!

If I install with a nic and it is either crap or fails you just add a new one but the old one stays in the config? Or have I got it all wrong?

 

[Bidule0hm]

If you can disable it in the BIOS do it and it won't even show up on FreeNAS so you would have only one interface, no problem.

If you can't disable it then you would have two interfaces showing up so you need to chose the right one and just ditch the other ;) (hmm, maybe if there is nothing connected on the other NIC the interface would automatically be disabled in FreeNAS, not sure...)

 

[Sam71]

If you can disable it in the BIOS do it and it won't even show up on FreeNAS so you would have only one interface, no problem.

If you can't disable it then you would have two interfaces showing up so you need to chose the right one and just ditch the other ;) (hmm, maybe if there is nothing connected on the other NIC the interface would automatically be disabled in FreeNAS, not sure...)

Ah sorry still half asleep here! I have already got it disabled in the bios! I meant more so to see which card would work the best....

I will probably install a few time to get used to it and I can try all of the NICs to see which one I get the fasted speed with... Pitty my switch isn't a managed one then I could have setup multiple nics.....

 

[Bidule0hm]

You can use the CLI to identify which interface is on which NIC but I won't search and explain how to do this, it's up to you and you are solely responsible of all the things you do in the CLI, don't blame me/us if something goes wrong :)

 

[Sam71]

You can use the CLI to identify which interface is on which NIC but I won't search and explain how to do this, it's up to you and you are solely responsible of all the things you do in the CLI, don't blame me/us if something goes wrong :)

All good! Thanks for your time..... :)

Just worried about the speed drop of the Intel PCIx card in a standard PCI slot! I know it works because it was installed in the box when I was running windows server and Hyper-V VMs

 

[Ericloewe]

All good! Thanks for your time..... :)

Just worried about the speed drop of the Intel PCIx card in a standard PCI slot! I know it works because it was installed in the box when I was running windows server and Hyper-V VMs

PCI-X? Phew...

Do note that, at PCI speeds, you'll barely be able to saturate GbE. Anything else on the bus (highly likely) and you'll get less than GbE.

 

[Sam71]

PCI-X? Phew...

Do note that, at PCI speeds, you'll barely be able to saturate GbE. Anything else on the bus (highly likely) and you'll get less than GbE.

Yeah that's what I am worried about..... It is only for home use so not that much of a biggy I guess! But if you can get the fastest possible speed it is better!