Please Help Install...

[BamBamm]

Okay, I know there are a ton of tutorials out there, so much I am overwhelmed...
So, I am going to post here what hardware I have and what I need, and ask that someone helps by pointing me to the correct spot...

My hardware: I have two Supermicro X8DTH-6F v:2.1b (Current Bios) 2U/12 Bay servers.
Both are identical... dual Xeon E5620, 12GB RAM, MHDD Crucial M4 256Gb SSD, 12 - 2GB Seagate Constellation. I also have the catalyst switches to connect everything. All these are set in a RACK.

My plans: I will upgrade RAM to 96GB in each server and replace all 24 of the Seagate Constellation with WD Red 6TB NAS HDDS (If I can. The advertisements say these are for up-to 8 bays?)

What I did: I installed the current version (FreeNAS 9.3?) via CD on-to the M4 SSD, via another server (Dell T7400). Removed the M4 SSD and placed it into the Supermicro X8DTH-6F server. FreeNAS boots and seems to run fine, however it only shows 10GB of HDD, not the 24TB that is available.

What I need: My data is crucial. I work from home and my kids and I are starting our own 3D Rendering business. i.e. We are are using Unreal Engine and other programs to develop video games, Photoshop for images (wife has a image restoration business), Maya for 3D Assets, etc, etc, etc...

All files will be stored onto the file server and I would like it to mirror my information so if a HDD goes out, we don't lose our information. It would be great to use one of the Supermicro X8DTH-6F as the main storage and the second Supermicro X8DTH-6F as the mirror, but it doesn't need to be.

I would like to set this all up myself and not pay someone $2k to install and set it up. I would have to tear down my FARM and take my servers to them as I live way out in the country and no one is willing to travel here for a decent price.

Thanks for reading,
~ William

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Might be best to start working your way through some of the pinned threads in the New to FreeNAS sub-forum, especially the
Slideshow explaining VDev, zpool, ZIL and L2ARC for noobs!

 

[gpsguy]

Do a Google search for TB vs TiB. Here's an online calculator - http://www.convertunits.com/from/TB/to/tebibyte

 

[danb35]

TB vs TiB wouldn't account for the OP's stated difference of 10 GB vs 12 TB.

 

[joeschmuck]

After reading the posting (and I' not trying to be snotty with you) but you have no idea what you are doing with FreeNAS, but you did admit you were overwhelmed up front.

There are a few things you need to know such as what kind of pool you created with your drives. This is where your capacity comes in. In my tagline are links to 2 different capacity calculators, ether one is fine.

Your verbiage is a bit (pun intended) off. A large B = Bytes, and small b = bits. Thus a typical hard drive is rated in TB such as a 6TB hard drive. A 6Tb hard drive would be very small. I think we understand your point none the less.

Once you have read that powerpoint presentation, next tell us what kind of ZFS RAID you created? Provide the output of "zpool status" as well and some real advice will come your way. Also, where are you reading your capacity? So provide the output of "zfs list" as well. Please format in code brackets or attach as text files.

 

[gpsguy]

You are right - I read it as 10TB, not 10GB.

TB vs TiB wouldn't account for the OP's stated difference of 10 GB vs 12 TB.

 

[joeschmuck]

You are right - I read it as 10TB, not 10GB.

Hey, I just laughed, I figured you just read it wrong, still it was funny.

 

[BamBamm]

Thanks, I am going through the PP now. You are correct, I know NOTHING about servers or FreeNAS.
As far as my "verbiage", you are the only person that has ever corrected me on that, not sure I know anyone that knows the difference between the capital B and lower case b... I also don't think they make a 6Tb HDD. So yes, I meant a 6TB WD Red HDD.
I have NOT set up anything using FreeNAS, I have no "pools" or anything. I just installed it and it didn't seem to find the drives in the RAID setup, so I didn't mess with it. Came here looking for answers first before I screwed something up.

 

[joeschmuck]

RAID setup, hopefully you do not have a hardware raid card in use. Anyway, I cannot support further for the evening, clean up house time and then bed time. I've got work in the early morning.

 

[BamBamm]

Yes, I am using a RAID card...

 

[SweetAndLow]

You don't want to use a raid card. Depending on what you have you could flash it into IT mode. You need to use a simple HBA card when using zfs.

 

[BamBamm]

I will move onto something else.
Thank you...

 

[pirateghost]

I will move onto something else.
Thank you...

Why wouldn't you just configure your drives to NOT use the RAID?

 

[BamBamm]

All 12 HDD bays are connected via a L3‑25121‑86C LSI MegaRAID SATA/SAS PCI Express 2.0 RAID Controller.
There is no other option to connect the storage drives.

 

[SweetAndLow]

All 12 HDD bays are connected via a L3‑25121‑86C LSI MegaRAID SATA/SAS PCI Express 2.0 RAID Controller.
There is no other option to connect the storage drives.

You are correct that card won't work. Could buy a $100 lsi 9211 like everyone else, flash it to IT mode and be ready to go.

 

[danb35]

I can't tell quickly whether that card (an LSI 9260-4i) supports an IT mode firmware or not. But supposing it doesn't, is there something that precludes you from replacing it with a card that does, like the 9211-8i?

 

[BamBamm]

Not at all, I just didn't know. It came with the unit.
I also have no idea what "flash it to IT mode" means... :-D

 

[danb35]

"IT mode" is initiator-target mode, which pretty much renders the card a dumb HBA. That's what you want--you want your disk controller to just present the individual disks to the OS, without any fancy stuff. You don't want the card acting as a read or write cache, you don't want it managing disk replacements, you don't want it handling redundancy--all of that should be left to the OS. You'll need to load new firmware onto the card to put it in that mode, a process which is well-documented in a number of places (among the most recent of which is this thread).

 

[BamBamm]

B4 I just jump and buy, is this the card I need to buy? http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-LSI-Internal-SAS-SATA-9211-8i-6Gbps-8-Ports-HBA-PCI-E-RAID-Controller-Card-/281409936741?hash=item418556dd65

 

[danb35]

That card looks fine to me; it's what a number of us here are running.