Marvell 88se9128

[joris simons]

Hello,

I've been looking all over this forum (at least for the past 4 hours) trying to find an answer to this problem.
I bought a dawicontrol dc-600e controller, pci-e x1, 2 sata 600 ports, a while ago.
I've been trying to get it to work, but some people say it's simply impossible.

At this point, I figured, let's buy a different one, which has been tested by other users.
Found this highpoint rocket 620, should work according to an other thread.

Turns out, both cards have the same 88se9128 chipset.(according to data sheet on manufacturer site)
Though, when I check the dawi card, it says 88se9170.

Basically, I'm drowning in information, most of it doesn't even make sense to me.
Some speak of drivers I need to enable in the kernel (lost me there)

 

[BigDave]

Assuming you are using FreeNAS version 11 (you didn't say in your post above).
You may search this FreeBSD hardware compatibility notes document to discover
if the hardware you have is supported by the OS.

Some speak of drivers I need to enable in the kernel (lost me there)

I would simply ignore the above comment.

 

[Ericloewe]

If you'd read the Hardware Recommendations Guide (link in my sig), you'd know that the only good option for additional disk connectivity is an LSI/Broadcom/Avago HBA like the SAS 9211 or SAS 9300 or rebrands.

 

[Chris Moore]

At this point, I figured, let's buy a different one, which has been tested by other users.
Found this highpoint rocket 620, should work according to an other thread.

Before you bought anything for a FreeNAS or FreeBSD build, you should have checked the hardware compatibility guide because there are many things that work fine with Windows that do not work at all with BSD Unix.

In addition to the very good hardware guide recommended by @Ericloewe , there is a whole resources section on this forum and that is where you should turn for the best answers the community has come up with.
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/

 

[joris simons]

Well, I got it as a gift, so no real loss...

 

[joeschmuck]

There are many different options available for your situation, many people run into this besides you. Presently you are just asking for assistance for an HBA but you really have not provided all the proper information for us to give you a very good recommendation. For what data you have given, I'd say the posting by @BigDave it the resource I'd use, however you also are not familiar with what a Kernel is so this tells me that you are really looking for someone to just tell you what will work for your system.

First of all I would highly recommend that you post all your system specs and what your goals are for your system. Don't be shy, post all the data you can think of, even if you don't think we need to know it, such as the computer case so we have an idea on if the case can cool a hot HBA card. Once we know exactly what you have and what you desire to do, then we can give you a complete answer. How you plan to use this machine is very important too.

 

[joris simons]

Alright,
this is my second freenas build. First one was literally made from scraps.
This build:
Case: standard pc case,
Mainboard: Asro H61 PRO BTC H61 RGVSA
CPU: Int Celeron G1620 2700 1155 BOX
Memory: 1x D3 8GB 1333-9 30mm KVR
Boot device: 2x philips 16 Gb usb flash drive (mirrored, have been replaced a few times in the past years)
Storage pool: 3x 3Tb WD red, raid Z (initially 3Tb + 1,5Tb + 750 Gb)
I am running plugins like sickrage, transmission and plex, for their intended purposes, and try to keep a backup both mine and my wife's personal files and photo's)

This setup has been running nicely for the past 5 years, been updated and maintained.
Replaced some of the initial hard drives to expand to larger size. Kinda stuck now.
Either buy bigger drives, of find a way to attach more of them.

Don't know much about how it works, just followed the manual, and it worked.

 

[joeschmuck]

First of all, thanks for posting the added information, it does help to know how you use the system, the components, and your goal.

What I see is a low cost system and you just need to add a little bit more storage. It appears that you have not used any of the PCI-E slots but if you have, please state which slots were used and what card is installed.

If you have the PCI-E X16 slot still open then you have a lot of options available however if you only have the X1 slots availble then you are very limited on what you can do.

You can use the Recommended Hardware Guide (linked in my signature) and buy a good HBA which will need the X16 slot on your motherboard, or you can do something that I have done and buy a small add-on card with a controller which FreeBSD supports. There is a cost difference and performance difference as well and heat is generated significantly more by the more robust HBAs over the smaller HBAs. My advice would be to use a IOCREST Model SI-PEX40062 which can be used in the X16 slot. This offers up 4 more SATA ports giving you a total of 8 SATA ports. This card "should" work in one of the X1 slots on your motherboard however I personnaly have not tested it in a X1 slot. There are 8 port cards out there as well however if you need 8 ports then I recommend one of the HBAs in the Recommended Hardware Guide.

Just to point out what you are up against when it comes to adding more hard drives to your system, and I only state this because too many people are just unaware... You can't simply add a hard drive to an existing vdev without causing problems such as single drive failure = total data loss.

You may already have a scheme to implement a new set of hard drives but if not it would be helpful to know how much data you would like to store over the next 5 years. So figure that out and add 20% more for a healthy pool. You should never go below 20% free however if you do, you got until 10% free to fix it otherwise the system will enter an optimized mode and slow down like crazy.

Once you have figured out how much storage you need then you can figure out the capacity and number of hard drives you need. Use a RAIDZ calculator to figure this out. You presently have three 3TB drives in a RAIDZ1 with = 5.5TB - 1.1TB (20%) = 4.4TB of storage. You could two more 3TB drives to double that capacity to 10.9TB - 2TB (20%) = 9.9TB of storage. These are approximate values and keeps you at a RAIDZ1.

The issue comes in when you try to add just two hard drives. You need to backup all the files you want to keep and of course all your configuration information, destroy the pool, add the new hard drives, create the new pool, restore your configuration, restore all your data. This is not a quick task. Also, if you can afford it I would install a third drive and create the new pool as a RAIDZ2 to cover for two drive failures.

Another option is to add another three 3TB hard drives as a second VDEV to your existing pool and you get double the capacity. If you wanted the second easiest way to add more storage then this is the way. The downside is you are still running a RAIDZ1 setup and if two drives fail in either VDEV then all your data is gone, but this is the second easiest way if you cannot destroy your pool.

If you plan to purchase all new hard drives for your system and replace the older ones then you could go for 4TB or larger drives however this comes with a cost. But maybe you desire to double your capacity and would like to slap in three 6TB hard drives. You could do this by simply replacing each hard drive one at a time as you have done in the past. This is of course the easiest way to upgrade but costs more since you are replacing all the hard drives, but it's an option.

Also, with the added SATA ports you could replace the USB boot devices with a single cheap SSD and stop replacing boot devices. I would recommend the SSD be on the motherboard in SATA port 0. Just another option to think about.

With respect to the data you backup. The photos and other personal files, if you are not already doing so, I'd periodically place those on DVD(s) because generally photos cannot be replaced and something can go wrong and you loose all your data. Having the photos and other data on a DVD would make them available still.

Fell free to ask questions, let us know what you are thinking. No one here like to see someone loose their data.

 

[joris simons]

That would make for an awful lot of dvd's...
I'm currently bidding on a second hand server, Dell R510, going to see how this turns out.
If I don't get this one, I'll probably have to look into the pciex16 option. (which is indeed still free)

 

[joeschmuck]

That would make for an awful lot of dvd's...

Then Blu Ray media may be what you need. Just some friendly advice.