Running Hardware RAID, big mistake?

[johan56]

Hi guys!

Alright, so this is my concern:

I started my freenas project way back in 2013 I think it was. I did my research and I bought server gear.

Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1240 V2 @ 3.40GHz
Supermicro x9scm-f
Kingston ValueRAM 8 GB - DIMM 240-pin unbuffered ECC

And some sweet disks.

I also bought IBM serveraid M5015 (I think).

The problem is that I'm running the raid card as a raid card, and not as a HBA (I think).

At first I had problems with write speed. It was awful slow. But did some research on youtube and changed some settings on the card, and voilá, I have throughput of 115mb/s, and that seems legit of a gigabit network right?

But recently, every time I boot my NAS I get a critical warning on "one or more devices". And because I run my 8 disks in hardware raid I can't see the smart status on what disk that is perhaps failing.

So what should I do? Try to find a how-to flash the raid card, but then I will loose all my data. Or should I buy more disks and try to backup everything before flashing. Seems expensive.

Any ideas?

 

[BigDave]

So what should I do? Try to find a how-to flash the raid card, but then I will loose all my data. Or should I buy more disks and try to backup everything before flashing. Seems expensive.
Any ideas?

The good news is that so far you still have
access to your data, for how much longer is the question.
You should make what ever efforts you can to backup your data
before doing ANYTHING else. Obviously you are now aware of the
mistakes made back then (hardware raid) will need to be corrected, but first things first...

 

[johan56]

The good news is that so far you still have
access to your data, for how much longer is the question.
You should make what ever efforts you can to backup your data
before doing ANYTHING else. Obviously you are now aware of the
mistakes made back then (hardware raid) will need to be corrected, but first things first...

Thanks!

Okey so I need to figure out how to back all data up:)

But what about the M5015? Can I flash it to a HBA? I have tried to look at the sticky threads, but cannot find a absolute answer of that is possible. Or should I buy a M1015 and flash that to a HBA, that seems possible at least(?)

Appreciate all help

 

[nojohnny101]

This is the resident thread on M1015s:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/confused-about-that-lsi-card-join-the-crowd.11901/

 

[johan56]

Thansk, i hade a look at that 17 page thread :)

I also found this http://www.freenas.org/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/ link when googling.

It mentions the lsi 9207. And that seems to be a HBA out of the box right? So no hussel with flahing? Just insert the card and let freenas do the rest?

Thansk in advance! :)

 

[nojohnny101]

If you don't want to bother with flashing the M1015, I can take it off your hands :)

It will be in excellent hands and treated right, promise

 

[johan56]

It's the m5015 I believe, sorry :)

 

[nojohnny101]

Its the m5015 i belive, sorry :)

Ah you're right, read too quickly and saw what I wanted to see.
Cheers!