TrueNAS Core on Dell Poweredge T330

[technobabble]

Hi Everyone!

Total noob here so my apologies for any and all basic and/or stupid questions in advance.

I am planning to install TrueNAS Core on a used Dell Poweredge T330 with an Intel Xeon E3-1230 v5 3.4GHz, 8M cache, 4C/8T, turbo (80W) and 32GB of ram. I just wanted some advice on whether this server would work using TrueNAS Core? It has a H730 PERC (Poweredge Raid COntroller), and I know that Hardware Raid controllers don't play well with ZFS ( or atleast don't allow me to make full use of the benefits of ZFS). Is there any way around this? Coudl I replace or bypass the PERC and still have this server work?

 

[Ericloewe]

am planning to install TrueNAS Core on a used Dell Poweredge T330 with an Intel Xeon E3-1230 v5 3.4GHz, 8M cache, 4C/8T, turbo (80W) and 32GB of ram. I just wanted some advice on whether this server would work using TrueNAS Core?

Sure.

It has a H730 PERC (Poweredge Raid COntroller), and I know that Hardware Raid controllers don't play well with ZFS ( or atleast don't allow me to make full use of the benefits of ZFS). Is there any way around this? Coudl I replace or bypass the PERC and still have this server work?

Yeah, just replace it. It's a standard PCIe card in those things, right? If so, just replace it with any of the standard recommended cards. If it's a Dell-proprietary mezzanine, you can either ignore it or replace it with a Dell HBA330 mini.

 

[technobabble]

Sure.

Yeah, just replace it. It's a standard PCIe card in those things, right? If so, just replace it with any of the standard recommended cards. If it's a Dell-proprietary mezzanine, you can either ignore it or replace it with a Dell HBA330 mini.

Thanks! Yeah I believe the PERC is just a PCIe card but I'll have to confirm. Would you happen to know where I could get a list of recommended cards?

 

[Ericloewe]

Shameless plug alert: https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

 

[technobabble]

Shameless plug alert: https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

Thank you!

 

[technobabble]

Shameless plug alert: https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

So it took me awhile, but I finally found the time to check on the PERC in my T330 server and good news is it does seem to be a PICe card!
I took a look at the hardware guide, and it's more about what type of cards I should get, not really specifying actual cards to get. And since I'm a total noob at this, I don't know where to start.

Is there an alternative to buying a hardware RAID controller? Could I maybe buy a PCIE sata expansion card instead? Not sure about this since the connector looks different on a PERC.

Also, in the guide it mentions that the baseline for RAM is 1GB per 1TB. I intend to have 4x 12TB Drives and I currently only have 32GB of RAM so looks like I'll need to take care of that too, although the uDIMM RAM sticks for this server ain't that cheap.. so that sucks.

 

[Ericloewe]

Is there an alternative to buying a hardware RAID controller? Could I maybe buy a PCIE sata expansion card instead?

Yes and no. See:

Don't be afraid to be SAS-sy ... a primer on basic SAS and SATA

With the introduction of SAS 12Gbps, seems like "it's time" to do a braindump on SAS. Work in progress, as usual. History By the late '90's, SCSI and PATA were the dominant technologies to attach disks. Both were parallel bus multiple drop...

www.truenas.com

What's all the noise about HBAs, and why can't I use a RAID controller?

1) An HBA is a Host Bus Adapter. This is a controller that allows SAS and SATA devices to be attached to, and communicate directly with, a server. RAID controllers typically aggregate several disks into a Virtual Disk abstraction of some sort...

www.truenas.com

Also, in the guide it mentions that the baseline for RAM is 1GB per 1TB. I intend to have 4x 12TB Drives and I currently only have 32GB of RAM so looks like I'll need to take care of that too, although the uDIMM RAM sticks for this server ain't that cheap.. so that sucks.

It's a rule of thumb and you're encouraged to test your workload and see for yourself if performance is acceptable, keeping in mind that it may degrade somewhat as data accumulates.

 

[technobabble]

Just to update, I've purchased a LSI 9211-8i CONTROLLER IT MODE HBA PCI-E 6Gb that's already flashed for ZFS :). Should arrive next week... excited!

 

[ChrisRJ]

Hardware Raid controllers don't play well with ZFS ( or atleast don't allow me to make full use of the benefits of ZFS).

It's more like you put your data at risk, and not about loosing part of the functionality of ZFS.

 

[technobabble]

It's more like you put your data at risk, and not about loosing part of the functionality of ZFS.

Ah I see.. that's good to know thank you!