Some questions about TrueNAS

[furiah95]

Hi, I am new so I send a greeting to the entire community and I am also a newbie in this guild.

I was planning to make a cloud and remote host virtualization system, at first I was planning to use FreeBSD since I am a user of that OS. But when he met Thunder in the end he decided for him.

Well I will not extend the introduction any longer and write my questions.

Model: Dell PowerEdge R320
CPU: E5-2430v2
RAM: 24GB DDR3 ECC
Storage: 8 x 2,5 Sas Bays | 2 x 600GB 10 K SAS 6G 2.5 HDD | 6 X 1TB 7.2 K SAS 6G 2.5 HDD
Raid Controller: Dell PERC H710

I've thought about using that hardware. The problem from what I have read in the forum is the RAID controller that would have to be replaced by an HBA controller.

Apparently they recommend models like this:

Dell H310

But from what I see there are different vendors that advertise FreeNAS compatibility in their products, such as this one:

LSI 9201-8i

What I mean is that I am not supposed to have problems with other controllers, supposedly supported by Freenas.


Another of my questions is the following, the HBA controllers are used to contain all the Disks as if they were one, right? To then have a zpool with all the disks. And to be able to choose the RaidZ that best suits your needs, right?

So, I could connect my 8 drives to the HBA controller and have a separate SSD drive outside the HBA controller, to host TrueNAS and BOOT, right?

And another question about for a future expansion of the server.

I don't know if what I'm going to say is crazy, since I'm a newbie. I have seen HBA controllers with external connectors, to be able to connect them to other machines outside the server, you give me to understand, is it true?

For example to a storage array such as an HPE - AJ941A, It is designed for that, I do not know the procedure well, and the operation itself of a storage array.

Those are practically the questions that I have, it is simply to make sure that I can start correctly in TrueNAS and that I do not have problems with the Hardware, and I can learn.

Thanks.

 

[Nick2253]

The problem from what I have read in the forum is the RAID controller that would have to be replaced by an HBA controller.

Depending on exactly which H710 you have, you may be able to cross-flash it with the LSI firmware. If you can't cross-flash it, then you'll need a different card.

Introduction - Fohdeesha Docs

fohdeesha.com

There are a lot of cards that work. It really depends on how many drives you need to support, what interface (i.e. ports) options you need, and what cards actually fit in your server (some chassis don't support overly long cards, some don't support full-width cards, etc).

Another of my questions is the following, the HBA controllers are used to contain all the Disks as if they were one, right?

No.

At least for TrueNAS, you *want* a card that explicitly does *not* do this. You want each drive to show up to the computer as individual drives, and then you let ZFS do all the magic stuff to merge them into one disk.

So, I could connect my 8 drives to the HBA controller and have a separate SSD drive outside the HBA controller, to host TrueNAS and BOOT, right?

Yes and kinda. Many HBAs actually support booting, so you could at least theoretically boot using a drive attached to an HBA. In fact, if memory serves, the R320 only provides backplane connections for drives, and does not otherwise provide any SATA or SAS ports.

And another question about for a future expansion of the server.

Yes, you could add a SAS expander. https://www.truenas.com/community/r...-be-sas-sy-a-primer-on-basic-sas-and-sata.48/

 

[furiah95]

Depending on exactly which H710 you have, you may be able to cross-flash it with the LSI firmware. If you can't cross-flash it, then you'll need a different card.

Introduction - Fohdeesha Docs

fohdeesha.com

There are a lot of cards that work. It really depends on how many drives you need to support, what interface (i.e. ports) options you need, and what cards actually fit in your server (some chassis don't support overly long cards, some don't support full-width cards, etc).


No.

At least for TrueNAS, you *want* a card that explicitly does *not* do this. You want each drive to show up to the computer as individual drives, and then you let ZFS do all the magic stuff to merge them into one disk.


Yes and kinda. Many HBAs actually support booting, so you could at least theoretically boot using a drive attached to an HBA. In fact, if memory serves, the R320 only provides backplane connections for drives, and does not otherwise provide any SATA or SAS ports.


Yes, you could add a SAS expander. https://www.truenas.com/community/r...-be-sas-sy-a-primer-on-basic-sas-and-sata.48/

Thanks, now I have no excuse not to start with Truenas.

 

[furiah95]

Yes and kinda. Many HBAs actually support booting, so you could at least theoretically boot using a drive attached to an HBA. In fact, if memory serves, the R320 only provides backplane connections for drives, and does not otherwise provide any SATA or SAS ports.

But I've been thinking, to not have that kind of problem or have to use a boot in an external memory etc... as you have said the r 320 does not have any SATA port.

Wouldn't it be better to use a model like the r610, that model has cd-rom optics. I could remove it and use the SATA port to connect my internal SSD and boot from there Truenas.

That's a better idea right?

Thanks.

 

[Nick2253]

There's no problem booting a system from a drive connected to an HBA. Having a motherboard with built-in SATA ports is not necessarily a benefit over one that does not.

What really matter is: (1) How many drives do you want in your system? and (2) How are you going to provide sufficient ports to connect all those drives?

If you want to slap an SSD in your chassis somewhere for your boot device, then you'll have to provide a port to connect it. That can come from an add-in HBA or it can come from the motherboard. As long as it supports booting, then you're golden.

In the case of your R320, getting a separate HBA for the drives, and then booting off the SSD through the onboard H710 is a perfectly workable solution.

 

[furiah95]

Thanks, in the end I opted for an R320 but the E5-2407 it has a H710 mini controller, you shouldn't have any problems.

P.S:

It is equipped with 3 1TB disks, the reason for this change is due to the tariff prices that it had when buying the first R320 that it published, since it was located in the UK.

Well more than enough to start with Truenas. I think..

I made sure that the RAID controller could be flashed, and according to the list you gave me, it is possible.

Well now I just have to wait for my R320 to arrive and get on with it.

 

[furiah95]

Well I already have my r320, but surprise the disks are SATA.

The seller did not specify. It's a problem? Or do I continue with the procedure of flashing the h710 mini?

Thanks.

 

[furiah95]

The disks are SATA but the cables refers to SAS.

I think the h710 controller supports both SATA and SAS. that's why as I told you before I didn't have to bring any problem when flashing and using TrueNAS, right?

 

[Arwen]

All SAS controllers & expanders are SATA compatible. It's part of the standard. When using a SAS controller, you generally use SAS cables, even if the disks are SATA. Just understand their is a more restricted cable length for SATA disks.

The sort of exception to using SAS cables with a SAS controller, is that when the SAS controller has SATA connectors. Then you use normal SATA cables, even for SAS disks.


Some details. When a SATA disk is wired directly to a SAS port, the SAS controller chip changes it's behavior to SATA protocol. So SATA cable lengths now applies to that connection. I think SATA cable limit is 1 meter or less. But, short as possible is always good.

Next, when a SATA disk is wired to a SAS expander, (which is a special chip intending to increase the number of disks per SAS port), the SAS expander does the SATA behavior change. And thus, it's the SATA disk to expander chip cable distance that maters here. The SAS expander to SAS controller connection can be much longer, per SAS standard, (I think 2 meters).

 

[furiah95]

Well, I managed to install the firmware successfully and the bootloader.

I also installed Truenas on a disk, all 3 are recognized whit M2T2BIOS but when booting the disk where I install it is not recognized.

Install the bootloader as recommended in the guide in case I want to start Truenas from SAS, but nothing, I just get an image and that's it.

I get and image: blancco


What can be wrong?

Thanks again guys.

 

[furiah95]

Excuse my previous message and its little information.

Well, as I said, I followed the guide without any errors when flashing the H710. Ok, at the end of the guide there is an optional part which is the boot images.

Well I install the version for the BIOS.

flashboot /root/Bootloaders/mptsas2.rom

M2T2BIOS it runs and shows me a message for the configuration of Avago Control-C

But I couldn't get anything clear from that menu or anything from the boot.

Then it shows me the LSI SAS2300-IT sas card and the 3 ATA disks.

With the following message:

Apportable devices are presented for system boot selection:

MPT2 boot ROM successfully installed!

Well, as I indicate to which disk to boot, where to install Truenas.


And as I mentioned before, by not being able to boot, it starts from:

Integrated RAID #0100 ID0A LUN0A TOSHIBA MG03AC

Thanks,

 

[furiah95]

That's my SAS Topology

It is impossible for me to select the correcto disk to boot, not even in the dell bios.

The disks seem identified to me as Direct Attach Devices, I don't understand, did I do something wrong when flashing the controller?

 

[Arwen]

...
Integrated RAID #0100 ID0A LUN0A TOSHIBA MG03AC

This appears to be a problem, wrong firmware. TrueNAS really wants IT, aka Integrated Target, not IR, Integrated RAID.

I am not an expert in Dell hardware... so I don't know if your SAS controller can support IT firmware.

 

[furiah95]

This appears to be a problem, wrong firmware. TrueNAS really wants IT, aka Integrated Target, not IR, Integrated RAID.

I am not an expert in Dell hardware... so I don't know if your SAS controller can support IT firmware.

In the end I was able to boot truenas with three disks, it was not difficult for me to identify it and install it on it. in the end installed Truenas on an external drive it jumps when having Truenas installed on one of them it was unusable and I didn't even have the option of raid-Z1 with three disks yes I have it available.

I think it's correct that the Dell BIOS bot appears in the raid, follow the art of server guide, but I don't have the same options as it, I can't change the boot disk, I don't know if it's because it has a SAS disk.

Select Boot

I have many questions, I will group them and comment them to the community.

Thanks.