BUILD HP ProLiant DL180 Gen9

[babblo]

Hi,

I need a new NAS and have a DL180 Gen9 ready to buy, but I'm unable to find if the HD controller (HP Smart Array H240 Zero Cache) will work with FreeNAS (FreeBSD) at all. Anyone have tried? BSD compatibility list said nothing and HP less.

The idea is use this server just to store 8/10 VMs (don't know if will use Proxmox or VMWare) with not so much load, mostly LAMP's and 1 or 2 W2003 with little load to, BUT searching for this topic I see some recommendations that are killing my plans before I started... they said that this is gonna be slow as f***k, at the point of unusable systems..

Server is (as said) a "HP ProLiant DL180 Gen9" with:

- Intel® Xeon® E5-2609v3 (1.9GHz/6-core/15MB/85W)
- 32GB RAM ( Single Rank x4 DDR4-2133 CAS-15-15-15 Registered Memory )
- 6 x 2TB SATA HD's (ZFS RAID 1+0)

TL;DR

- Will it boot?
- Will it be able to serve the vm's?
- Will it blend?

 

[Darren Myers]

Whats the goal....are you gonna use this G9 for a FreeNAS server (and serve your VM client(s) )? Or are you hoping for some "All in one" solution where you have FreeNAS as a VM and then serve your VM's that live on the G9?

 

[marbus90]

it works, only problem is that controller. I don't know if it supports proper HBA mode with passing the disks trough with SMART etc. you might want to check if you can use onboard SATA ports.

All in all, either you get a damn good deal on that one or a Supermicro is usually thereabouts with almost guranteed compatibility. Call/mail ixsystems for pricing.

 

[babblo]

Whats the goal....are you gonna use this G9 for a FreeNAS server (and serve your VM client(s) )? Or are you hoping for some "All in one" solution where you have FreeNAS as a VM and then serve your VM's that live on the G9?

Darren, my goas is to use the G9 just for FreeNas, to serve the VM files to clients.

All in all, either you get a damn good deal on that one or a Supermicro is usually thereabouts with almost guranteed compatibility. Call/mail ixsystems for pricing.

marbus90, hope I can call ixsystems.. I'm from Argentina...

 

[marbus90]

They've sold to Kuwait already, south america shouldn't pose a problem. :)

 

[babblo]

As I said, hope I can do bussiness with ixsystems, but I don't think so. We are (in argentina) having some goverment restrictions about imports.

 

[jpoa]

babblo, did the HBA worked as JBOD? Can you please confirm that?

BRs

 

[babblo]

jpoa, I was thinking about an update of this thread, but was unsure because of it age... now you give me the perfect excuse :)

Please note, I'm by far not an expert in FreeNAS/FreeBSD and is my first time working with real server grade hard. Said that:

To answer your question:

- The bundled extra array controller doesn't work with FreeNAS 9.3 (latest version downloaded).
- You can disable / remove it and use the onboard controller in sata ahci mode. Working OK, with full S.M.A.R.T. access. I was not able to get working the status front leds (besides the activity leds)
- Be sure to CLEAR the controller data before you disable it, if you don't do that, the front leds keep showing the HDs as part of an array. I didn't feel comfortable with that.
- As you disabled / removed the board, a bug in the server firmware shows up. Thermal controller goes crazy and put fans at 100% all the time. Not big deal, they just sound like a f**g hurricane. Applying the last SSP fixed the problem (2015.06 as I'm writing this)

Some extra information about by doubts:

I ended buying the server with:

- 64 GB RAM ( Single Rank x4 DDR4-2133 CAS-15-15-15 Registered Memory )
- 4 x 3TB SATA HD's (ZFS RAID 10)

Everything is working very nice and, at least for now and my needs, performance is OK too.

Hope this help!

Bye

 

[jpoa]

So, just to get this right:

#1: Clear the controller data
#2: Open case
#3: Bypass the controller and connect the HDDs cable directly to the onboard controller
#4: Power up

Is that it?

I can live with the non-working LED lights.

 

[babblo]

Almost.. two more thing:

#5: Optional, install latest SSP or buy new ear protectors.
#6: I forgot to mention on previous post. Disable 2xACPI on bios.

Thanks all

 

[jpoa]

babblo, can you confirm me that you do not need to purchase new cables in order to bypass the controller?

Also, how is the system running nowadays?

I am considering getting two of these for a replicated setup sharing files via AFP/CIFS.

Best regards!

 

[babblo]

Hi jpoa, I used the same cables without problems. System is running fine, is (relative to other users in this forum) a very small NAS, just 6TB. Tell me if I can do anything else for you.

Code:

uptime
11:44AM  up 109 days, 15:08, 1 user, load averages: 0.06, 0.08, 0.11

zpool status
  pool: freenas-boot
state: ONLINE
  scan: scrub repaired 0 in 0h0m with 0 errors on Sun Dec  6 03:45:57 2015
config:

        NAME                                          STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        freenas-boot                                  ONLINE       0     0     0
          gptid/xxxxxxxx-4753-11e5-902b-9cb654754654  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

  pool: tank
state: ONLINE
  scan: scrub repaired 0 in 0h45m with 0 errors on Sun Nov  8 00:46:01 2015
config:

        NAME                                                STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        tank                                                ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-0                                          ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/xxxxxxxx-4860-11e5-80ae-9cb654754654.eli  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/xxxxxxxx-4860-11e5-80ae-9cb654754654.eli  ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-1                                          ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/xxxxxxxx-4860-11e5-80ae-9cb654754654.eli  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/xxxxxxxx-4860-11e5-80ae-9cb654754654.eli  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

 

[titusc]

Am eyeing for the DL180G9 as well because I want a short length chassis to fit this in a closet. I just looked at the datasheet which shows the internal parts of the server but where are the SATA connectors? Are there enough connectors for 12 x LFF SATA drives? Would the P840/4G FIO Controller work?