SAS NAS ? again ...

[atb2]

Hi, this is my first post here, so hello :)

I m running a freeNAS system for my home, it is a very basic setup, an old HP ProDesk 600 G1 with 16Gb Ram , i5 CPU, and 2x 1TB HDDs. the system is running smooth and I do not have any problems with it. This is to store some photos and music and movies, so nothing demanding, it is just home environment.

Ok, lets get to the question, I was thinking to upgrade HDDs to larger ones, from my work I have access to SAS drives for dirt cheap, they are used but with that price i do not have a problem if they go bad, so the question is, is it possible to get a pci SAS controller for my current hardware (i5, 16GB RAM) and run free NAS on it ?
I m not asking to help with software part, i m just asking is it possible ? my only doubt is if freeNAS being able to see the SAS drives through the SAS controller card without any headaches.

Thanks in advanced for your help.
A

 

[danb35]

I don't know about PCI, but PCI Express SAS cards are as common as dirt and lots of us here are using them. LSI/Broadcom/Avago 2308/3008-based cards are the thing to look for. FreeNAS should work equally with SAS as with SATA disks.

 

[atb2]

Thanks for the reply. so a pcie SAS card (looking at SAS3081E-R) with SAS to SATA adapter (hdds have SAS connecter) should work fine then :)

 

[kdragon75]

Thanks for the reply. so a pcie SAS card (looking at SAS3081E-R) with SAS to SATA adapter (hdds have SAS connecter) should work fine then :)

You need to look into the chips that @danb35 mentioned. The card you mentioned is SAS1 you want at least SAS2 for better performance or at least the compatibility. That card is also not a true HBA. Its a RAID card, the exact thing you don't want. You may be able to cross flash with an HBA firmware but again, its an old and likely poorly supported card that may have issues with newer (last 5 years) drives of large size and may not work at all with 4k drives. We recommenced specific hardware for good reason as its well tested and know to work well with FreeBSD and ZFS.

 

[atb2]

Thanks for quick reply, sorry for my ignorant, obviously this is new territoy for me and I m just looking for an easy straight forward solution.
I m gonna go with LSI 9207-8i then :)

 

[kdragon75]

Thanks for quick reply, sorry for my ignorant, obviously this is new territoy for me and I m just looking for an easy straight forward solution.
I m gonna go with LSI 9207-8i then :)

That's an ideal card.

 

[atb2]

nice ! thanks for the help.