HPE ML110 Gen10 and HPE P440 controller

[osalj]

Hi,

I have an HPE ML110 Gen10 server running TrueNAS SCALE.
Currently, all drives - 8x Seagate 4TB Exos 7E8 Enterprise SATA(storage) are connected to the controller on the motherboard, the controller is set to SATA AHCI Support mode.

I have an HPE Smart Array P440 controller that I can set to HBA mode and connect all drives to it.

Does it make sense to use this controller?
Will he notice any difference in performance?

Please let me know.

 

[jgreco]

No, there is no such thing as "HBA mode". It's a lobotomized RAID controller and is really just working in lobotomy mode, not a true "HBA" mode. Please see

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

Most of the Smart Array controllers are crummy PMC Sierra silicon and are poorly supported by both FreeBSD and Linux. Please consider using a common LSI HBA instead. Your pool and data will thank you.

 

[osalj]

As I wrote in the first post.
Currently, I have disks connected to the controller on the motherboard, the controller is set to AHCI mode and I have no problems or low transfers.

This system has been running with TrueNAS SCALE for several months now.
At the moment I do not want to buy an LSI controller because I upgraded the entire network to Unifi, which cost me a lot.
Maybe in a few months I'll think about buying an LSI controller.

What model of controller would you recommend for my setup?
The only thing I require is 12Gbps controller because I will be replacing SATA drives with SAS 12Gbps.

 

[jgreco]

As I wrote in the first post.
Currently, I have disks connected to the controller on the motherboard, the controller is set to AHCI mode and I have no problems or low transfers.

That's fine. No one said you can't use that. Intel AHCI SATA controllers are fast and efficient.

What model of controller would you recommend for my setup?

As outlined in the resource you were referred to, the recommended HBA's are from LSI. Which one is most suitable to your application depends on various factors. Typically if you have SFF-8087 connectors or just need HDD support, an LSI 2308 based controller is likely sufficient. If you have SFF-8643 or need fast SSD support, then move on up to LSI 3008.