Adaptec 52445 & 24 x 2.5tb WDC Drives

[GWizz]

Hi new to all this, so this is a first time build with Freenas. Thought i'd best warn you :)
Have an adaptec 52445 controller card but Freenas doesn't see any of the drives. Could it be a driver issue or am i doing/not doing something wrong ?? Anyone any idea ?
Regards
Glenn

 

[cbray]

More specific info would help us GWizz... FreeNAS version/build and other hardware specifics please ?

 

[GWizz]

Sorry Drives are Western Digital 2.5tb Sata 3 caviar green 64mb cache, Coolermaster Silent Pro PSU 700, AMD Phenom 2 X6, Asus M4A87TD Evo Motherboard, 16gb Corsair DDR3 1333Mghz memory, X-Case RM 424-24 Hotswop Mini SAS Backplane, Adaptec 52445 Controller, Boot medium is a 2gb usb drive. Anything else you need ??
Regards
Glenn

 

[GWizz]

Freenas version is -> FreeNAS-8.0-RELEASE-amd64.Full_Install.xz

 

[GWizz]

Firmware on Adaptec is the latest build also 18252

 

[GWizz]

and an Intel Gigabit ET Quad Port Server Adapter

 

[GWizz]

Just trying the BETA version of FreeNAS but i understand the 52445 is supported natively by FreeBSD anyway ...

 

[GWizz]

Just a little update for anyone that's having a go at doing this.
After calling Adaptec for support they agreed to swop the 52445 for a new card (which was good cos I got it off ebay:)) still no joy drives would appear and then disappear with a warning beep from the card (which was really annoying) we spent days at this getting nowhere slowly... Threw another power supply along side the 700w Coolermaster and the beeping stopped & drives appeared correctly. So replaced the 700w with a 1050 from OCZ and the thing stabalised. All good at the moment but during testing we've had a few issue's with the filesystem becoming corrupt. Keep you posted.

 

[Tekkie]

24 drives on a 700W PSU? You were kidding right?

PS. How did you configure those 24 drives in FN8?

 

[GWizz]

no as true as i'm riding this bike :) 700w (i know)
Each drive is setup as a simple volume & then freenas see's them as individual drives, rather than use the raid on the card. It does mean that we can have up to 28 drives attached to the one card.
Then it's just one big zfs2 volume. Which is maybe not the best way to set it up but we're just experimenting at the moment, it's not a production nas yet. Anyone suggest what might be the best way to setup this volume ?
Regards

 

[Tekkie]

Its really a questions of 'stats' RAIDZ2 means you can loose 2 drives before data is lost... what are the chances of 2+ drives dieing in a 24 drive setup?

I guess the question is "Do you feel lucky Punk?" :) (Just in case you are too young to know, its a quote from Dirty Harry)

 

[GWizz]

I believe though that 2 drives are hot swap-able spares so would automatically step in should a drive fail ?? Anyone correct me ? But that's then quite an overhead 2 hot swops & the raid overhead. I never feel lucky when it comes to storage ....

 

[CBNAS]

Don't use WDC or Seagate Green drives.
You will have issues with both software and hardware RAID.
They go to sleep and park their heads.

Stick with Black Caviar or Seagate XT drives.
Better yet, use RAID edition drives.

I have had lots of problems with Green drives using both hardware and software RAID in simple 2 drive mirrors.
The mirrors went off line, and a lot of controllers won't even create the RAID partition.

 

[GWizz]

Raid card swop

Swapped the raid card to a RockerRaid 2782 and it's working fine with the WD's :)

The WD's & adaptec combination was much more problematic.

Regards

Glenn

 

[richcj10]

" Swapped the raid card to a RockerRaid 2782 and it's working fine with the WD's "

You go a Rocket RAID card to work? HOW!!!!! I couldn't....

 

[Mcavity]

rocket raid?

is that card still working well for you?
have you had any issues?
I'm looking into geting a card that can support at least 16 drives and that looks good.. if it works.