Recommendations and input for PowerEdge R730xd

[pfsfan]

Hi,
I am planning to buy a used server from Dell, PowerEdge R730xd with 24 x 1 TB disks (1TB 6G 7.2K 2.5" NLSAS) in the front, additionally 2 x 1 TB (same:1TB 6G 7.2K 2.5" NLSAS) in the back. In the server there is a H730P controller built in, which I believe is not first choice with Truenas (at least I got to this point with the research)
The server should be a storage device on one hand for virtualization data from proxmox (KVM guests) and on the other hand a CIFS-target in a windows network.

I would like to get some additional information, about what you guys think about the hardware (what recommendations for HBA controller, as the H730P is not first choice) and what setup for the drives?

Thanks in advance

 

[pfsfan]

ok - seller offered me to replace the 730xd with a HBA330. I guess that will do it

 

[firesyde424]

Two options depending on your backplane config:

1. ok - seller offered me to replace the 730xd with a HBA330. I guess that will do it

That's a good call. The HBA330 is a drop in replacement and is just Dell's rebrand of an LSI 9300. It will work out of the box with TrueNAS, no configuration or firmware flashing required.


The one thing you might consider in the future, though it's less of a benefit with mechanical hard drives. Should you ever replace those hard drives with SSDs, there is a config for the 730xd called a "split backplane." It came in two versions, either a physically segmented backplane or a backplane capable of being reconfigured. Once you get above 15 devices, for the HBA330 at least, you must use a SAS expander which introduces additional latency into the storage path. You probably wouldn't notice it with the mechanical drives, but given your stated goal of VM storage, you would notice the difference with SSDs. With a split backplane, you add a 2nd HBA330 and then split the front drives between them so that each card is only controlling 12 drives. This way, each drive gets its own channel and there is no additional latency.

Depending on when your 730xd was manufactured, you may have a backplane capable of doing this, even if it wasn't selected as an option when the server was originally ordered. Part way through the manufacturing cycle of the R730xd, Dell switched to a single backplane for the 24 x 2.5" models.

 

[pfsfan]

iTwo options depending on your backplane config:

That's a good call. The HBA330 is a drop in replacement and is just Dell's rebrand of an LSI 9300. It will work out of the box with TrueNAS, no configuration or firmware flashing required.


The one thing you might consider in the future, though it's less of a benefit with mechanical hard drives. Should you ever replace those hard drives with SSDs, there is a config for the 730xd called a "split backplane." It came in two versions, either a physically segmented backplane or a backplane capable of being reconfigured. Once you get above 15 devices, for the HBA330 at least, you must use a SAS expander which introduces additional latency into the storage path. You probably wouldn't notice it with the mechanical drives, but given your stated goal of VM storage, you would notice the difference with SSDs. With a split backplane, you add a 2nd HBA330 and then split the front drives between them so that each card is only controlling 12 drives. This way, each drive gets its own channel and there is no additional latency.

Depending on when your 730xd was manufactured, you may have a backplane capable of doing this, even if it wasn't selected as an option when the server was originally ordered. Part way through the manufacturing cycle of the R730xd, Dell switched to a single backplane for the 24 x 2.5" models.

Thanks for the input. I guess I won't really find out, which one is used.
Currently I am struggling with the decision, if I really should take the "real" SAS drives with 1,2TB each and 10k, or the NL-SAS with 1TB and 7.2k rpm.
I am not really planning to change this server to configuration with SSDs, unless someone is going to make me a gift :D.
About the right layout of drives I am still going through some forum-input and details about the ZFS system, but for the beginning I understood following:
- not more than 10 drives into raid-z2
- RAM, RAM, RAM :) - currently I am planning with 128GB
This server won't do anything else than Truenas with CIFS for an active directory, services will be on other servers and I am planning the access via NFS (in my case it is a proxmox-based solution)