Truenas multipath with dual HBA

[Abhishek2101]

Can I use something like the Supermicro SAS2-826EL Series Backplane connected to two different HBA’s along with multipath support to achieve redundancy ?

 

[ChrisRJ]

A setup like this, due to its complexity, carries a high risk to be less safe than something "simple". Just adding redundancy to a particular part of the overall system will likely not help with overall availability. I know this is not what you asked for. But I have seen too many people shooting themselves in the foot with something like this ... So please read it as a friendly warning.

 

[Abhishek2101]

A setup like this, due to its complexity, carries a high risk to be less safe than something "simple". Just adding redundancy to a particular part of the overall system will likely not help with overall availability. I know this is not what you asked for. But I have seen too many people shooting themselves in the foot with something like this ... So please read it as a friendly warning.

so how do you think we can achieve active/active redundacy with truenas scale ? We can't use specialised hardware from Ixsystems due to cost reasons.

 

[Johnny Fartpants]

Historically multipath was supported in FreeNAS but as @ChrisRJ said due to people shooting themselves in the foot occasionally it was removed. When I say removed the functionality is still there but the UI makes little to no attempt to assist you with config. Therefore I also suggest you steer clear of it. Not quite the same but you may want to consider two cables to one HBA as this would provide you cable resilience and also extra potential throughput if needed.

 

[Ericloewe]

so how do you think we can achieve active/active redundacy with truenas scale ? We can't use specialised hardware from Ixsystems due to cost reasons.

Well, you'd never get that with multipath. How many times have you heard about an HBA or expander failing in such a way that multipath would have allowed the system to remain up? For me it's exactly zero.

For the best HA , you would need a two-host system from iX. There is nothing else. If you do not want that for any reason, you'll need to setup multiple servers to suit your needs (which is typically best anyway).

 

[ChrisRJ]

so how do you think we can achieve active/active redundacy with truenas scale ? We can't use specialised hardware from Ixsystems due to cost reasons.

Can you elaborate on the background for this requirement? What is your budget?

 

[HoneyBadger]

so how do you think we can achieve active/active redundacy with truenas scale ? We can't use specialised hardware from Ixsystems due to cost reasons.

Hey @Abhishek2101

Multipathing was deprecated in 13.0 and SCALE for safety reasons. Miscabling or administrative mistakes can result in total pool loss, and since data safety is the highest priority it was deemed too much of a risk. You can import a previously created multipath pool onto CORE 13, but SCALE will not allow it.

SCALE is capable of using an active/active setup for SMB or object storage clustering, this requires two systems with independent storage pools. If you're looking for a shared-storage HA setup, that's supported via iX hardware using multi-pathing and active/standby failover options.

Posting some more detail on your intended protocol(s) and use case(s) for TrueNAS can help us make a solid recommendation. Regarding the cost concerns, feel free to reach out to me via DM - I'd like to see if I can help allay those cost concerns somehow.