8.3 and areca ARC1223-8i

[MikeS]

I am building a storage system to be used in a VM environment utilizing ISCSI for the OS storage of the VM’s and NFS for the mass storage. Normally I would just build an Linux / Centos based storage system that will give me the stability that I need but is lacking in the management controls that a purpose built storage system such as FreeNAS has. Part of what I need for the uptime that I am looking for is the ability to hot swap failed drives that I get with a dedicated hardware Raid controller. I have been playing with FreeNAS on the new storage hardware and I am impressed with what I am seeing. The problem that I am having is compatibility with the areca ARC1223-8i that I am using. The drivers for this controller do not seem to be part of the FreeNAS system. How can I install the drivers and the management interface software for this controller in FreeNAS?

System Information:
Build: FreeNAS-8.3.1-RELEASE-p2-x64 (r12686+b770da6_dirty)
Platform: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2603 0 @ 1.80GHz
Memory: 16GB
System: SuperMicro 5027R-WRF, 8 Hot swap drive bays
Boot drive: 2 - 2.5” hot swap – MB onboard Controller
Raid Controller: ARC1223-8i
Drives: 8 – 3TB STAT 6Gb/s hot swap
RAID: Raid 6 with hot spare

 

[survive]

Hi MikeS,

The short answer is you really, really don't want to use the Areca controller.

I don't want to say it defeats the purpose of running FreeNAS to do so, but when you get right down to it....it defeats the purpose of running FreeNAS.

Best thing you could do would be to bin\hock\shelve the Areca and get a proper HBA to provide your system with the kind of hardware environment that it needs to take advantage of all the things that make zfs so impressive.

-Will

 

[cyberjock]

I had an Areca 1280-ML24 and it worked well, once I figured out all of the limitations. The controller will work well once you figure out how to do SMART disk testing. There is no need to use the Areca CLI as you should be using the controller in JBOD mode. I'm using an M1015 with an Intel SAS expander and I actually miss my Areca because it performed SO much better than the M1015(still trying to figure out why...) but it doesn't limit my Gb LAN speeds.

If the drivers aren't included you can put a ticket in at support.freenas.org. If the drivers exist you should be able to copy the .ko driver file from a FreeBSD 8.3 installation to your USB stick(read the FAQ for how to make the USB stick writable) and you should be good to go.

Now consider this. If you bought that controller just for FreeNAS, you made a big mistake. The M1015 works well and is much cheaper than the controller you bought. You could probably ebay the Areca and buy 2 or more M1015s...