quick question about HBA for dell r610 ZFS?

[killmasta93]

Hi,
I was wondering if someone could shed some light on a question i have, currently have dell r610 and does not have passthough, so i was reading i need to buy a PERC9, or HBA200/300 but any ideas which one is compatible or the easiest to swap

Thank you

 

[Chris Moore]

Hi,
I was wondering if someone could shed some light on a question i have, currently have dell r610 and does not have passthough, so i was reading i need to buy a PERC9, or HBA200/300 but any ideas which one is compatible or the easiest to swap

Thank you

That system should have come with a card similar to this:
All these images are clickable to enlarge...
The problem with that card is the kind of cabling between the card and the front drive bays.
The good news, maybe, is the drive backplane, which should look like this:

The backplane has more modern/common Mini SAS connectors (SFF-8087) and that means you will probably need to change the existing cables out for ones like this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/miniSAS-IPASS-SFF-8087-to-SFF-8087-28-inch-71cm-host-to-backplane-cable/163288758700
although, it might be better to get the Dell specific cables that have angled connectors on the ends instead of the straight connectors.
Electrically the same, the angled connectors help with the tight clearances inside the chassis.
Once you switch those cables out, you would be able to install a card like this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-H200-6Gbps-SAS-HBA-LSI-9210-8i-9211-8i-P20-IT-Mode-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID/163142320696
which is already flashed with the correct firmware to work with both the Dell server and FreeNAS.
That seller also has the cables with the angled ends but I am not sure if the length is the same as these cables are marked as being for the R510, but they are probably close. You might want to message the seller:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SAS-cable-set-for-Dell-PowerEdge-R510-12-bay-backplane-to-H700-H200-Y674P-P745P/163644367559

 

[killmasta93]

Thank you for the reply, very useful information you gave me, i still have not opened the server because its in production using LVM which i want to change to ZFS. So first i need to buy this https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-H200-6Gbps-SAS-HBA-LSI-9210-8i-9211-8i-P20-IT-Mode-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID/163142320696
after that connect it to the PCI board and connect these cables to the disks? https://www.ebay.com/itm/SAS-cable-set-for-Dell-PowerEdge-R510-12-bay-backplane-to-H700-H200-Y674P-P745P/163644367559

and these cables https://www.ebay.com/itm/miniSAS-IPASS-SFF-8087-to-SFF-8087-28-inch-71cm-host-to-backplane-cable/163288758700
are for connecting the Mini SAS connectors to the board?

Thank you again