LSI 4 Internal Port RAID Card 9361-4i with SAS Expander for 24 disks

[tbaror]

Hi All,

We are about to buy new storage that will have total 24 xSeagate 4TB Enterprise NAS SATA 6Gb/s 128MB Cache 3.5" with 4U on SuperChassis 846BE1C-R1K28B

The supplier propose to use LSI 4 Internal Port RAID Card 9361-4i with SAS Expander , and suggesting to stick with 12GB controller.
My question would be is such configuration is recommended performance wise , what is more suggested for such disk quantity and type and if there is specific controller more recommended?
Thanks

 

[danb35]

Can that controller operate as a dumb HBA, in IT mode? If not, it's a poor choice. The most common choice for HBAs around here is the LSI 9211-8i and variants, and it should work very well in the application you propose.

 

[tbaror]

Can that controller operate as a dumb HBA, in IT mode? If not, it's a poor choice. The most common choice for HBAs around here is the LSI 9211-8i and variants, and it should work very well in the application you propose.

I think only by passing to each individual drive to raid 0 , on your opinion 2xSAS 9300-16i Host Bus Adapter will be better choice ?
Thanks

 

[danb35]

Creating individual RAID0's for each disk is a terrible idea for FreeNAS, so if that's the only way this card can act at all like an HBA, then I'd definitely replace it with something else.

The chassis you specify has a SAS3 backplane, and as I understand it SAS3 hardware is not thoroughly tested with FreeNAS and may not be completely stable. If it were I buying, I'd probably go for a BE16 chassis instead, and a single 9211-8i card. Yes, SAS3 will in theory give higher throughput, but unless you're going for an all-SSD pool, I don't think you're going to see any benefit from it.

 

[tbaror]

Thanks for the info
Cheers