Hardware Recommendations Guide

Hardware Recommendations Guide Discussion Thread Rev 2a) 2021-01-24

Arwen

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The C3758 has a couple of quirks.

Intel ARK does not show 5Gbps Ethernet. It DOES show 2.5Gbps, (in addition to the standard speeds of 1Gbps & 10Gbps). I hope it's just a typo. No real reason to support 2.5Gbps and not 5Gbps.

Un-buffered DIMM size is limited to 16GB. Reasonable for now, but who knows what happens next year, (or next week).
 

MrToddsFriends

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Un-buffered DIMM size is limited to 16GB. Reasonable for now, but who knows what happens next year, (or next week).

To my knowledge the largest unbuffered DDR4 ECC DIMMs available are 16GByte. Are there any boards that claim compatibility with larger unbuffered DIMMs?
 

Ericloewe

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I'm pretty sure that later UDIMMs would be supported, if available. At most, it might require a system firmware update.
 

capa

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The section on SSD needs some elaboration.
Cheap, low-end SSDs from reputable brands work very well.

We found that the following SSD don't work with FreeNAS 11.1:
The following SSD work:
  • ADATA SP920 128 GB (Marvell Controller)
  • SanDisk X300s 64GB (Marvell Controller)
  • SanDisk X400 128GB (Marvell Controller)
  • Kingston Technology SA400S37/120G SSD A400 120 GB Solid State Drive (2.5 Inch SATA 3)
For more details see the following forum discussion:
 

Stux

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I would posit that if a Sata ssd doesn’t work with FreeNAS, the SSD doesn’t work.
 

joeschmuck

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The section on SSD needs some elaboration.


We found that the following SSD don't work with FreeNAS 11.1:
The following SSD work:
  • ADATA SP920 128 GB (Marvell Controller)
  • SanDisk X300s 64GB (Marvell Controller)
  • SanDisk X400 128GB (Marvell Controller)
  • Kingston Technology SA400S37/120G SSD A400 120 GB Solid State Drive (2.5 Inch SATA 3)
For more details see the following forum discussion:
I'm not disputing the problem, I would just like some testing done and/or a realistic rationale for why these drives failed. I have previously used an ADATA SP550 120GB SSD (Silicon Motion's SM2256 Controller) without issue, however in all fairness it would have been FreeNAS 9.x and 10.x, not FreeNAS 11.x. Right now that SSD is being used as my boot drive and datastore for ESXi 6.0.
 

Ericloewe

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I would posit that if a Sata ssd doesn’t work with FreeNAS, the SSD doesn’t work.
Here's the thing. I have one of those SanDisks in a laptop, running FreeBSD 11.1, obviously booting from ZFS, and it works.

So... what's going on? Is the FreeNAS installer at a specific point where the quirks are applied incorrectly to disks using these controllers? If so, that's an easy software fix that'll come soon. If not... maybe a different revision of the controller or something?

I know that the SanDisks and WD Greens (which I expect to be basically the same thing with different labels) are the cheapest ones available around here, possibly elsewhere. That tends to make them the go-to choice for this sort of application, which in turn leaves me in a tricky position.

For more details see the following forum discussion:
Can you keep us updated about the state of the bug ticket? It's marked private.
 

capa

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Here's the thing. I have one of those SanDisks in a laptop, running FreeBSD 11.1, obviously booting from ZFS, and it works.
...
Can you keep us updated about the state of the bug ticket? It's marked private.

Thank you for sharing. I changed the bug reports' status to public. Since I have sent back my SANDisk SSD Plus 2.5'' maybe you could help to provide the following (extract from the Bug report):

Just a guess, there were some SSDs on the market with broken TRIM or NCQ TRIM implementations, corrupting the data. It would be useful to find out whether problem is reproducible with TRIM forcefully disabled with vfs.zfs.trim.enabled=0 loader tunable. If that help, I may need more detailed information about the SSDs (like `camcontrol identify /dev/ada0 -v`) to add them into exceptions list.
 

s0n1kpt

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Hi can someone please clarify my head...

We can find :
"Popular models include the LSI SAS 9211, SAS 9240 and SAS 9207 series, the IBM/Lenovo
M1015/M1115 and the Dell H200 and H310. All of these, except for the LSI SAS 9211 and 9207,
must be crossflashed.
"

Hi see a lot of people posting threads about flashing 9211-8i, after all i need to flash it or not ?

Thanks
 

Ericloewe

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Crossflashing != flashing

Straight-up HBA models don't need to be crossflashed, but all cards need to be updated to the latest firmware if they're not already.
 

s0n1kpt

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Crossflashing != flashing

Straight-up HBA models don't need to be crossflashed, but all cards need to be updated to the latest firmware if they're not already.

Thanks you very much for the clarification.
 

SavageAUS

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I'm looking at expanding my sata ports in my freenas system and found this card. Will this be suitable for FreeNAS 11.1 and up? (currently running nightlies) Once flashed to IT mode? Also some information on which cables i would need to connect to sata hard drives would e helpful.

Are these cables ok?
 
Last edited:

Chris Moore

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I'm looking at expanding my sata ports in my freenas system and found this card. Will this be suitable for FreeNAS 11.1 and up? (currently running nightlies) Once flashed to IT mode? Also some information on which cables i would need to connect to sata hard drives would e helpful.

Are these cables ok?
If you have questions about your own build, you should start a thread and ask the question. This thread is supposed to be a reference like going to the encyclopedia.
The card you linked to is not one that I would suggest. This is a better solution :
https://m.ebay.com.au/itm/HP-H220-6...-IT-Mode-for-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID-/162862201664

The cables are fine.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk
 

nemo1478

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The document states that the ASRock Rack E3C224D4I-14S and Supermicro X10SL7-F both have onboard SAS2 controllers which allow 14 drives to be directly attached. Directly attached? How?
 

Ericloewe

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Directly attached? How?
With cables. I don't really understand your question, can you talk us through your thought process?
 

Chris Moore

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Directly attached? How?
In the SUPERMICRO X10SL7-F system board, the two white connections are SATA3 (6 Gbps) ports, the four black connectors are SATA2 (3 Gbps) ports, and the eight dark blue connections are SAS2 (6Gbps) via LSI 2308. This gives 14 drives of connectivity.

Supermicro-X10SL7-F-SATA-and-SAS-connectors.jpg
 

Chris Moore

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The document states that the ASRock Rack E3C224D4I-14S
For the Asrock board:
upload_2018-10-12_12-31-33.png


There are three SFF-8087 sockets, two vertical and one laying on the side, each provide four connections (3x4=12) plus the two "regular" SATA ports.
 

Stux

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In the SUPERMICRO X10SL7-F system board, the two white connections are SATA3 (6 Gbps) ports, the four black connectors are SATA2 (3 Gbps) ports, and the eight dark blue connections are SAS2 (6Gbps) via LSI 2308. This gives 14 drives of connectivity.

Supermicro-X10SL7-F-SATA-and-SAS-connectors.jpg

And if necessary you can use a reverse breakout cable to turn this into ‘normal’ 4 lane mini sas to run to expanders and backplanes, etc.
 

nemo1478

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Thank you for your patience and understanding. I understand now.
 

-MG-

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What is the general approach most people take to HDDs?

I am seeing a lot of sellers on Amazon selling a 'certified refurbished' drive and promising a 3 year warranty with it:

https://www.amazon.com/HGST-Ultrast...=UTF8&qid=1546796098&sr=1-1&keywords=hgst+he6

I'm looking to buy 6 drives for a new setup and 6TB drives in a z2 setup would provide me enough space for a long time. The warranty is only as good as the reseller right?
 
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