Fibre Channel 2 Truenas boxes

[MrGamecase]

Hi All,

Firstly it's nice to be here :D & i apologise if i have posted this in the wrong section.

I've got 2xDell R720xd - 24x 1.2G sas, 1x200G flash boot & 3.4G converted EMC Cache disk. [Came with QLogic 8GB FC cards].... in short
28 storage drives 2 cach disk & 2 boot disk 24x16G ram [384G].

I know Truenas will work with the QLogic FC cards, That you all know of can i use one of the Dell 720xd to expand the first 720xd Truenas box with the FC cards in Aggregation?....

What i'm after is 1 instance of Truenas Scale with both boxes utilising all the drives would save me having to purchase a Dell md1420. If not can anyone suggest a good way if utilising both boxes & the cards with Truenas scale to get a zraid 2.

 

[MrGamecase]

28 storage drives 2 cach disk & 2 boot disk 24x16G ram [384G].

Correction 48 Storage Drives :D

 

[Arwen]

I can't answer your question directly

It is possible to use another computer chassis as a disk slot with power. Probably the easiest way is to use another SAS controller. Here are the parts:

• SAS controller with external SAS ports
• SAS cable(s) to connect the 2 chassis
• PCIe back panel with SAS cut outs
• Internal SAS cable from PCIe back panel to internal SAS back plane

The exact parts depend on if your back plane has a SAS Expander, or just raw disk connections. (With that many disks per chassis, it's almost certainly to have a SAS Expander. But, I don't know Dell hardware...) The motherboard in the disk only chassis is not used at all.

One comment about external disks. Some people dis-like the concept because your pool can be come unavailable if the external chassis has a problem. Like pulled SAS cable or power cable.

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I do suggest reading up on TrueNAS & ZFS before considering using them. Certain terminology is different. For example "zraid 2" is meaningless. You probably meant RAID-Z2, but it's possible you had something else in mind. Here is a quick read on the subject;
Terminology and Abbreviations Primer

Their are lots of other resources, (see tab on top of forum pages). Plus, lots of sticky threads in the various forums that have lots of information.