LSI card crossflashed... and now what's next? Is there a config to do?

[jbesclapez]

Hello,

So I crossflashed my IBM 1015 to LSI9211-IT. Now I am a bit lost on what to do to take fully advantage of it... Is FreeNAS dealing with it directly?
My understanding was that the RAID filesystem was saved on the card... i have trouble understanding how all this works with FreeNAS?

Thanks

Nic

 

[Samuel Tai]

All cross-flashing does is get the HBA out of FreeNAS's way, so the OS can address the disks directly. Now you can create a RAIDZx pool without the HBA interfering.

 

[jbesclapez]

All cross-flashing does is get the HBA out of FreeNAS's way, so the OS can address the disks directly. Now you can create a RAIDZx pool without the HBA interfering.

Hi again Sam,
I am sorry for all those questions, but I still do not understand in what way the HBA was interfering with FreeNAS?
I thought that those cards where in between the drives and the OS. The HBA manages the drives for the OS...
So how can the OS can address the disks directly?
Thanks Sam, and once again, sorry for those noobs questions!

 

[Samuel Tai]

ZFS is a filesystem that expects direct access to the drives, without any devices intervening. Any HBAs used for ZFS have to be in JBOD mode, without ANY RAID capability.

 

[jbesclapez]

now it is clear to me. As teh ZFS format is taking of the data protection, we can bypass the RAID. makes sense.

But how are we sure that I am in JBOD mode then? That is the OS FreeNAS that takes care of it no?

 

[sretalla]

If your firmware is confirmed to finish with IT, that's it... it would finish with IR if it was in RAID mode.

 

[jbesclapez]

Thanks guys! It means i have it all good, thanks to your advices.