LSI 9240-8i and ZFS

[Firebird99ta]

Just have a couple of questions if anyone can help:

Configuration:

Supermicro X8SIL-F
32gig RDIMM ECC
LSI 9240-8i
8x6TB Seagate Drives

1. The LSI shows JBOD as the initial configuration, I have read where people are flashing there 9211/92XX with the IT flash rom to move it to HBA.

Should I really flash the raid bios, FreeNas shows all the drives/size correctly, albeit named them based off the raid card.

2. After reading the Cyber's power-point, I'm a little confused as to the current setup Freenas choose, now while I have always been a fan of RAID 10, I'm open to trying something different.

FreeNas made 2 4x6TB RaidZ2 yielding 24TB for space, and 24TB for Parity:

4x6TB = 24TB broken down to 12TB for storage and 12TB for Parity: Set 1
4x6TB = 24TB broken down to 12TB for storage and 12TB for Parity: Set 2

Drive storage was pooled to 24TB

Question if the sets are independent, how is it that Freenas pooled the Storage to 24TB?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Ericloewe]

Yes, you should crossflash that card to LSI 9211 IT mode. If you don't, you'll find people will tell you to do so if you ask for help. There've been too many bad experiences with hardware RAID.

If you have a single pool, they're not independent. If that is the case, you have two RAIDZ2 vdevs which are striped. In effect, a sort of RAID60 configuration.

 

[gpsguy]

Yes, you should flash your BIOS to IT mode. Use the phase 16 firmware.

In your example, you have 2 - RAIDz2 vdev's that have been striped together to create a "24Gb" pool. That being said, 4 disk RAIDz2 vdev's consume a lot of overhead (parity). For a "24Gb" pool, you could create a single 6x6Tb RAIDz2 pool.

How do you plan to use your storage? If you plan to use iSCSI, striped mirrors (akin to RAID10) is the way to go.

 

[Firebird99ta]

Okay, following up on RAID 60 in my books, I was not correlating ZFS raid options with hardware options. SO that being said, that narrows that down.

Typically I have always used RAID 10, performance has never really been an issue for me, and have always used a second set of matched drives and swapped out and let the hardware raid rebuild the data as needed.

My FreeNAS is going to be used for nothing more that just saving data across my network, Storing my project files, typical media (albeit hardly any streaming, other then music remotely), PC image backups, remote off site access for work purposes. Mind that this is all going to be transferred from a OpenSuSe server.

Currently toying with the idea of adding another 8 drives, that way I don't have to think about drive upgrades for a couple of years. Backups would/will be handled by and LTO-6.

 

[Oko]

Yes, you should crossflash that card to LSI 9211 IT mode. If you don't, you'll find people will tell you to do so if you ask for help. There've been too many bad experiences with hardware RAID.

If you have a single pool, they're not independent. If that is the case, you have two RAIDZ2 vdevs which are striped. In effect, a sort of RAID60 configuration.

That might be sound technical advise but horrible practical advise. LSI 9240-8i is a very good hardware RAID card which new cost close to $700. You are suggesting that he cross flashes it to become HBA which can be new bought on E-bay for $110. Why not sell that controller and get appropriate HBA for ZFS?

 

[gpsguy]

The OP asked "Should I really flash the raid bios" - to which Ericloewe and I answered "Yes". We answered the question.

We don't know the OP's financial situation. Perhaps they'd rather reuse what they have, rather than be bothered trying to sell it and buy something else.

You are suggesting that he cross flashes it to become HBA which can be new bought on E-bay for $110. Why not sell that controller and get appropriate HBA for ZFS?

 

[cyberjock]

That might be sound technical advise but horrible practical advise. LSI 9240-8i is a very good hardware RAID card which new cost close to $700. You are suggesting that he cross flashes it to become HBA which can be new bought on E-bay for $110. Why not sell that controller and get appropriate HBA for ZFS?

That's what he should probably do. ;)

 

[Firebird99ta]

Okay let me clarify my question. Is it necessary to flash the raid card to IT mode?

Taken from the Freenas Manual:

The Disk section of the FreeBSD Hardware List lists the supported disk controllers. In addition,
support for 3ware 6gbps RAID controllers has been added along with the CLI utility tw_cli for
managing 3ware RAID controllers. FreeNAS® supports hot pluggable drives. Make sure that AHCI is enabled in the BIOS. Note that hot
plugging is not the same as a hot spare, which is not supported at this time.

If you need reliable disk alerting, immediate reporting of a failed drive, and or swapping, use a fully
manageable hardware RAID controller such as a LSI MegaRAID controller or a 3Ware twa-compatible
controller.

The current FreeBSD ZFS implementation will not notice that a drive is gone until you
reboot or put the volume on high load. More information about LSI cards and FreeNAS® can be found
in this forum post.

Which is why I bought 2 of these cards in the first place.