USB Add on card compatible with FreeNAS / FreeBSD

[rruss]

My IT admin has asked me to add a second USB flash device to mirror the boot "disk".

Unfortunately, the ASRock C2750D4I only supports 3 USB ports, and all 3 are currently used.
1) USB Flash boot
2) Keyboard/Mouse via KVM switch
3) APC UPS system

I will want both USB flash disks on the motherboard USB ports, and the keyboard probably also needs to remain on the motherboard port because it needs to work at boot time.

I see two options to get more ports:
1) USB hub - which is not a great solution because this server sits in a very populated rack with other equipment and I'd prefer to keep the ports on the server itself.
2) Add a PCI-e USB port card.

So that leads me to the question I have for the forum...

Any experience using a card like this with FreeNAS (or FreeBSD in general)? There are a handful of comments saying it worked in linux, but I'm not finding any comments regarding use in a FreeBSD machine.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002RL8V7E/?tag=ozlp-20

Thoughts?

 

[danb35]

Why do you need the keyboard to work at boot time? The system should boot unattended.

 

[rruss]

You're right - it would boot unattended, and I do even have the IPMI interface should I need to interact at boot. In general, I'm just not comfortable losing console control of the machine during the boot sequence. But I still only have 3 ports so unless I give up the keyboard entirely, I'll need to add additional ports.

 

[danb35]

unless I give up the keyboard entirely

Seems like the simplest thing to do. As you say, you have IPMI, and in the very rare case that you actually need a directly-attached keyboard, you could always unplug one of the boot USBs.

 

[cyberjock]

Honestly, I think you are doing this wrong. ;)

I'm sure the reason for mirroring your boot device is to add reliability. Switching from USB (even mirrored USB) to a single SSD adds far more reliability than USB can ever provide. If you are truly looking to make the system more reliable, go SSD.

 

[ethereal]

i concur - i used mirrored usb drives and they didn't last very long - and twice the usb to go wrong. i switched to a single ssd and it is so much better in so many ways. i'd go with a single ssd

 

[JDCynical]

it would boot unattended, and I do even have the IPMI interface should I need to interact at boot

Yeppers. Assuming the system doesn't have problems with booting without a keyboard, you are golden.

The only possible need for a keyboard is convenience if you have to physically interact with the machine, like hardware replacement and validation or fresh installs (yes, you can mount iso's over the IPMI, but lets face it, it's often faster to have the media in the target machine vs going over the network, or dealing with SM's archaic DOS-only BIOS update procedure).

 

[cyberjock]

The only possible need for a keyboard is convenience if you have to physically interact with the machine, like hardware replacement and validation or fresh installs (yes, you can mount iso's over the IPMI, but lets face it, it's often faster to have the media in the target machine vs going over the network, or dealing with SM's archaic DOS-only BIOS update procedure).

I totally agree. BUT, I don't know of any FreeNAS machines that have CD-ROMs. They're really an accessory you don't need. For those of us doing rackmount servers, they often have no provision for a CD-ROM. So the best (and basically only option) is to use IPMI.

 

[Mirfster]

Any experience using a card like this with FreeNAS (or FreeBSD in general)? There are a handful of comments saying it worked in linux, but I'm not finding any comments regarding use in a FreeBSD machine.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002RL8V7E/?tag=ozlp-20

Just to provide insight to this portion: https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...mpatibility-on-freenas-9-3.41194/#post-262496