Freenas on a Poweredge r710 for file sharing

[leta-md]

Hi,
At my work, we are renewing our file server. It's an old Poweredge with Windows Server 2012. No Active Directory, just network drives mapped on the client machines with users created on the server. We want to keep acces this way (network drives).
Our first option was to buy a Synology rack. But I am considering to install Freenas on a more recent Poweredge (like R710).

But I'm a little bit lost, so I have a few questions :

1) Is it a good idea ? Maybe FreeNas cannot be used this way ?
2) I've read about ZFS and Z-Raid, and that it is a big advantage of Freenas. If I understand correctly, the Raid wouldn't done through the raid card but at the os level, correct ?
3) Usually, we set up a Raid60, is there a similar z-Raid ?
4) I'm used to create mail alerts with Dell OMSA for disk problems, will it be possible ?
5) Will the LED of the disk caddies report disk statuses ?

That's all for now.

 

[sretalla]

1) Is it a good idea ? Maybe FreeNas cannot be used this way ?

Maybe. FreeNAS can certainly do the job.

Raid wouldn't done through the raid card but at the os level, correct ?

Ideally you won't have a RAID card at all (rather an HBA) to connect your disks. Using a RAID card with write cache is very bad for ZFS data integrity.

3) Usually, we set up a Raid60, is there a similar z-Raid ?

Sounds like you want a pool with 2 RAIDZ2 VDEVs.

4) I'm used to create mail alerts with Dell OMSA for disk problems, will it be possible ?

Probably not, most of that stuff has agents for Windows and Linux, but other OS options tend to be lacking. FreeNAS has its own alert and notification system which can be used, perhaps not for all the things you're currently seeing.

5) Will the LED of the disk caddies report disk statuses ?

Also probably not. If you really want that, buy either a FreeNAS system or a TrueNAS system from IX.

 

[leta-md]

Thank you Sretalla,

Ideally you won't have a RAID card at all (rather an HBA) to connect your disks. Using a RAID card with write cache is very bad for ZFS data integrity.

I don't think that it is possible to run without the raid card, but surely find a Raid card that supports JBOD.
Would it be ok ?

Probably not, most of that stuff has agents for Windows and Linux, but other OS options tend to be lacking. FreeNAS has its own alert and notification system which can be used, perhaps not for all the things you're currently seeing.

Ok, nice.
Not using OMSA is totally ok.
I just want a mail alert if a disk fails, or is about to. So it seems to be OK.

 

[ornias]

I don't think that it is possible to run without the raid card, but surely find a Raid card that supports JBOD.
Would it be ok ?

It depends a bit, when you do single-disk jbod...
- With some raid controllers it looks more like a weird form of single-disk raid-something
- With other raid controllers its almost similair to a normal HBA.

And:
- Some raidcard JBOD can be read just fine if you put them in an HBA
- Some raidcard JBODS add data to the first sectors or other strange shinanigans and might not import nicely if later moved to a normal HBA (I'm looking at you, AMD).

It might work, might not...
But: There should be r710 compatible HBA's for relative cheap... Think my own H310 should work just fine for example ;)

 

[leta-md]

Thanks Ornias,
Yep, it looks like H200 or H310 should be ok :

First FreeNAS Server Build Dell R710 - Looking For Best HBA Card

Hi Everyone, I'm purchasing a Dell Power Edge R710 in the very near future. I was originally going to purchase this box: http://www.dfwpartsdepot.com/?product=dell-poweredge-c2100-2x-xeon-e5630-2-53ghz-qc-32gb-9211-8i-2x-750w-trays&doing_wp_cron=1479955150.1947500705718994140625 from this form...

www.ixsystems.com

 

[ornias]

Thanks Ornias,
Yep, it looks like H200 or H310 should be ok :

First FreeNAS Server Build Dell R710 - Looking For Best HBA Card

Hi Everyone, I'm purchasing a Dell Power Edge R710 in the very near future. I was originally going to purchase this box: http://www.dfwpartsdepot.com/?product=dell-poweredge-c2100-2x-xeon-e5630-2-53ghz-qc-32gb-9211-8i-2x-750w-trays&doing_wp_cron=1479955150.1947500705718994140625 from this form...

www.ixsystems.com

No problem! :)
I'm very happy with my H310 and its fully stable on FreeNAS, although I have no experience with the r710, I assume it should be no problem (also based on topics like the one you just quoted)... Good luck!

 

[hescominsoon]

look for an ebay and youtube channel claled artofserver. he flashes most perc raid cards(including the 7xx series) to it mode..:)