NetApp X2065A-R6 HBA with Dell & FreeNAS

[mellman]

Hi All,

I've got a few NetApp Disk Shelves, and am looking to utilize them with FreeNAS. Rather than buy an LSI card and use a QSFP->SF-8088 cable I'm thinking of just going with a X2065A-R6 HBA and using QSFP to connect the shelves.

I haven't had much luck finding others using that card in FreeNAS in a Dell server, so just looking for some confirmation that it'll work and not have any boot issues or compatibility issues in FreeNAS.

Cheers
Matt

 

[Chris Moore]

I don't recall seeing any posts about using this controller.
I wonder if there are drivers.
Lots of people have used those disk shelves with the adapter cable to an LSI card.

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[mellman]

I don't recall seeing any posts about using this controller.
I wonder if there are drivers.
Lots of people have used those disk shelves with the adapter cable to an LSI card.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

Thanks. I've seen plenty of people saying it works in FreeBSD, but nobody in FreeNAS specifically. Apparently it shows as a PMC8001 HBA, but I've seen lots of issues from people trying to get it working in other operating systems, and even others with BIOS/boot issues.

As much as I'd love to try it out and save from having to buy a $150 cable...I think my time spent troubleshooting if it didn't work right away would cost more. cable and LSI card it is then!

 

[mellman]

Ended up finding a X2065A-R6 so figured I'd try it out alongside my LSI Cards.

So I've not yet added the drives in FreeNAS because I need to format them to 512b sectors, but so far after a few boots with the PMC8001 HBA (or X2065A-R6 as it's commonly referred to) using QSFP cables to the shelves, this card works great. Drives showed right up in FreeNAS.

@Chris Moore - figured you might be interested!

 

[Chris Moore]

Thanks.
I don't anticipate doing it myself, but now I know, I may very likely share it with others on the forum.

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