Raid 5 and TrueNAS

Genefreak

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May 18, 2021
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Hi there. I have an old Dell T610 PowerEdge server at home with 6 2TB spinning disks in a hardware RAID 5 array. On this, I run Proxmox and run OMV as a VM.

I'm thinking about installing TrueNAS Core. My hardware questions are:

Will ZFS install OK on an array that is already raided? Would I be better off not using my hardware RAID at all and letting ZFS handle the bare metal directly?

Another question - not technically hardware, but I've noticed that TrueNAS has it's own hypervisor built in. Would I notice any performance hit if I used FreeNAS' Hypervisor instead of Proxmox?

Thanks in advance.

Steve.
 

Patrick M. Hausen

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Will ZFS install OK on an array that is already raided? Would I be better off not using my hardware RAID at all and letting ZFS handle the bare metal directly?
It will install OK, but you will deprive ZFS of its ability to detect any problem with your disk and make sure your data stays intact. Therefore it is strongly discouraged.

You probably want to read this :wink:

Another question - not technically hardware, but I've noticed that TrueNAS has it's own hypervisor built in. Would I notice any performance hit if I used FreeNAS' Hypervisor instead of Proxmox?
Bhyve, the FreeBSD hypervisor really is quite performant even in direct comparison. But it is picky about the guest OS. 64 bit only, UEFI boot only, if you want to avoid unnecessary trouble. The PCI-E passthrough is ... well ... experimental.
If you just want to run Linux and Windows guests and connect to the Linux guests via SSH and to Windows via RDP and don't need a fast local graphics system inside the VM, go for it. I run one Windows and four Linux VMs on my home system and that works great. Plus many more productive VMs at work. All in TrueNAS CORE. See below for the hardware specs.
For Linux I recommend setting up a serial console and deleting the VGA device altogether. For Windows, use it for installation and then forget it exists. Use RDP instead.

HTH,
Patrick
 

Genefreak

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May 18, 2021
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Thank you so much for your response. Currently getting loads of information from everywhere so that I don't make a serious error and lose all the family photos - oh and my less important business info and tax documents! Now I have to figure out if I can just disable the raid on the card or if I actually have to physically remove the card.

Regarding the use of the hypervisor, yeah I only need ssh access really as I use self hosted web front ends. The only area where graphics acceleration would be nice is checking out new distros and how the UI feels... but I have a separate box for that.

Looking forward to my new adventure into TrueNAS, ZFS and - dare I say it - BSD! :smile:
 

Genefreak

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May 18, 2021
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I have a question - related to above.

I have 6 drives in my array and 5 storage. I only have two sata ports in the server. As I am going to do away with the raid functionality, I'm wondering if I can keep the card in place to act as a "hub" and let zfs access the metal directly, or if I will have to disconnect from the raid card completely and find a way to add more sata drives?

I have a Dell PowerEdge T610 and I think the RAID card is the standard.

Thanks again.
 

Patrick M. Hausen

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According to the data sheet this sever can come with the PERC 200, 700, or 6i series of RAID cards. Would be good to know which model exactly. If you are lucky you can cross-flash it with LSI IT mode firmware to get a supported HBA.
 

Genefreak

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May 18, 2021
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It seems to be a PERC 6i. I'll have a look at how to cross flash it. I'm relatively new to this hardware side of things. :smile:
 
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