FreeNAS Installation 32 GB SATA DOM & PCIe Card

[jay-zzz]

Hello and thank you in advance for your direction and support!

:DGOAL: Install FreeNAS on a 32GB SATA DOM and use that as the primary boot device.

ISSUE: Purchased a 32 GB SATA DOM and a PCIe SATA 6G Card (to expand the SATA ports) and installed the card onto the PCI slot on the motherboard. When I power up the server, I can’t access the server via IPMI any longer. The system does boot up normally from the internal USB drive and FreeNAS is accessible via GUI.

NOTICE / WARNING: Somewhere in the instructions that came with the PCIe SATA card it says:
“Warning: All the data on the hard disks connected to the controller card will be permanently erased in the following actions. 1. Create a RAID/HyperDuo virtual disk; 2. Rebuild a virtual disk; 3. Marvell Storage Utility (MSU) for RAID/HyperDuo Setup.”

I should mention that I only have macs and my FreeNAS is headless. I use to manage the server via the IPMI however that is no longer possible. I’m not really sure what the next step should be.

QUESTIONS:
Q. I thought a Supermicro SATA DOM would not require setup on a Supermicro motherboard. Do I have to install a driver or configure the PCIe card before it can work with my motherboard?
Q. I’d like to switch 4 SATA drives from the motherboard (3G) onto the PCIe ports (6G) but I’m worried about data loss. Should I be concerned? Will this really make the data 2X faster?
Q. Which option (from the 3 listed above in the notice / warning section) should I set up the SATA DOM as?
Q. Will I need to get a PC monitor, keyboard and mouse in order to set up the SATA DOM & PCIe SATA Card?
Q. What’s the best way to get this these two parts working? Any thing else I missed? (I’m sure I have!)

I’m really a noob particularly since I’ve never installed or configured a PCIe card or SATA DOM on a PC. I’m really quick at learning, just need some direction as to what steps should be taken. I’m afraid I’ll mess something up and won’t be able to fix it! :(

 

[diedrichg]

Just remember this; if you are using spinning hard drives, 7200 RPM drives can't even saturate SATA2.

 

[marbus90]

Which SATA card is that exactly?

The Supermicro SATADOMs require a special power cable in order to use them on non-yellow SATA ports (which would have the power supply integrated).

 

[Ericloewe]

That PCI-e SATA controller really isn't going to be reliable.
Unless you need more ports for more drives, you really won't benefit from an external controller anyway, since HDDs are slower than SATA 6Gb/s.

IPMI not working is very weird, since it's a mostly independent system. Can't you access the IPMI GUI at all?

 

[SweetAndLow]

Are you sure you are trying to use the correct ip for the ipmi interface? The reboot might have given it a different ip unless you configured it to be static.

 

[jay-zzz]

@diedrichg - thanks for the heads up!

@marbus90 - Supermicro SATA DOM SSD-DM032-PHI 32 GB

@ericloewe - the PCI-e SATA controller is an internal, perhaps I didn’t mention this before. As for the IPMI not working, I did NOT change the dedicated IP address. I double checked my pfsense router and it shows the correct ip. I CAN connect to the FreeNAS GUI though.

@SweetAndLow - I am using the correct dedicated IP address. Double checked the pfsense router which is allocating the same dedicated IP addresses to the IPMI and FreeNAS. They do not share the same IP address, but rather the same dedicated IP addresses as they did before the installation of the PCI-e SATA card.

 

[marbus90]

I know the model number of the DOM. I wanted to know the model/make of the generic PCIe SATA card.

 

[jay-zzz]

@marbus90 - sorry I misunderstood. PCIe Xl, 4-port SATA6G | Model Name: non-Raid, Marvell 88SE9215 | Model: SI-PEX40064
bought it on eBay, here’s the link.

 

[marbus90]

Not a FreeNAS card.

 

[jay-zzz]

This is what I purchased from eBay so I could plug in the SATA DOM into it since I didn’t have any more ports on the motherboard. The brand name on the box says IOCREST SATA 6G PCI EXPRESS CARD. Hope this helps.

 

[marbus90]

not even for a SATA DOM. especially not for that one. it's a bad card. don't use it with freenas. for nothing.

 

[cyberjock]

That card is not compatible with FreeBSD/FreeNAS. No drivers exist for it. Buy what we recommend if you want a working card. ;)

 

[jay-zzz]

@marbus90 - thanks for the update.
@cyberjock - thanks for the recommendation.

Based on your hardware recommendation list, I will return IOCREST PCI card and purchase a IBM ServeRAID M1015 from eBay.

I’ll update this thread if I continue to have issues or after I figure out how to get to work - thanks again!