Suggestions on repurposing old Servers with FreeNAS?

[greenpaddyirishman]

Hi there,
I'm new to the FreeNAS scene - looks great!

So at work I recently obtained 6 blade servers that are no longer needed after a project that is now finished. A quick run down:
HP Proliants DL320 G5 that include any where from:
Xeon E3010 Processors
RAM 2-8GB
HD 72 GB, 120 HD and 149 HD - SATA

None of them have a SCSI or SAS cards so that's a problem. They do have their own RAID controllers - some of the cards have had issues with the on board battery giving out.

I also have a new in the box HP2012sa(MSA 2000 StorageWorks) with SCSI ports - no HD but I could always purchase some if needed.

So I have no way of connecting the MSA to the blade servers without purchasing a SAS controller for a blade correct?

I want to use these servers for storage primarily. I already am backing 2 ESXI servers to a SnapServer which is running out of room.
Would any body any ideas or suggestions on what they might do with this equipment - I would like to use FreeNAS to get more experience!

Thanks in advance.

 

[cyberjock]

Anything with <8GB of RAM is instantly a fail for FreeNAS.

Anything with a RAID controller is almost instantly a fail. Even in passthrough many cards come with risks and gotchas. The safest bet.. assume all RAID controllers want to eat your data for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.


As for your MSA box, I have no experience so I can't say.

 

[greenpaddyirishman]

Anything with <8GB of RAM is instantly a fail for FreeNAS.

Anything with a RAID controller is almost instantly a fail. Even in passthrough many cards come with risks and gotchas. The safest bet.. assume all RAID controllers want to eat your data for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.


As for your MSA box, I have no experience so I can't say.

Thank you for the reply...yes the RAID controllers in those blades have been nothing but trouble to say the least. I will do some research on the MSA side of things.