HP H240 HBA Controller

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chinraam

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Hi,

I have a HP DL 180 Gen 9 Server with H240 HBA card and I have enabled HBA mode. I can see all the disks directly getting attached to Freenas but the SMART function is not getting started.

Can any one please help? Also If i run FreeNAS storage without SMART function will there be any drawback as hardware status is getting displayed in ILO?
 

Redcoat

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Hi,

I have a HP DL 180 Gen 9 Server with H240 HBA card and I have enabled HBA mode. I can see all the disks directly getting attached to Freenas but the SMART function is not getting started.

Can any one please help? Also If i run FreeNAS storage without SMART function will there be any drawback as hardware status is getting displayed in ILO?

Not trying to be SMART here, but did you turn on SMART on the Services tab?
 

chinraam

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Not trying to be SMART here, but did you turn on SMART on the Services tab?
Yes I tried to start from service tab but it fails.
I see the error message in logs that the configuration file is empty.
smart.conf file is empty
I tried to run smartctl command and it shows smart unavailable for the HDD
 

Redcoat

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Again, not trying to be SMART, you checked the SMART box for each drive?

Also verified that the drives have SMART capability?
 

chinraam

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Again, not trying to be SMART, you checked the SMART box for each drive?

Also verified that the drives have SMART capability?

Yes I checked and all the HDD has SMART Box enabled.

The disks are HP 10K SAS HDD.

I also tried a different method - I disabled HBA mode and enabled Hardware Raid mode. Created seperate Hardware LUN and Hardware raid 0 for all the disks and I was able to see all disks separately getting displayed in FreeNAS. Now the SMART is running.

When I enable Hardware Raid the disks are detected as /dev/ciss0 cssi1 and so on
in normal HBA mode the device are detected as /dev/da0 da1 so on
 

Redcoat

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Ahh... hopefully somebody with specific experience with your hardware combination will be able to shed light on this issue and allow you to have SMART with HBA mode.
 

chinraam

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Ahh... hopefully somebody with specific experience with your hardware combination will be able to shed light on this issue and allow you to have SMART with HBA mode.

Thank You. I have to immediately start the storage in our LAB, so
is SMART an important feature? What all drawbacks will i be getting?
Any read and write performance issues?
 

Linkman

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FreeNAS won't be able to proactively alert you to issues with the drives.
 

chinraam

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FreeNAS won't be able to proactively alert you to issues with the drives.
Thank You,
Running plain HBA and configuring ZFS software raid is advisable or running hardware raid first with separate LUN for each disk with Raid 0, attaching all the disks separately and configuring ZFS software raid is advisable?
This is for a large setup with 40HDD.

Will there be any performance difference or issues?
 

Chris Moore

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Thank You,
Running plain HBA and configuring ZFS software raid is advisable or running hardware raid first with separate LUN for each disk with Raid 0, attaching all the disks separately and configuring ZFS software raid is advisable?
This is for a large setup with 40HDD.

Will there be any performance difference or issues?
The configuration is not optimal. You can learn more about it in the hardware recommendations section of the Forum.
You want the option that allows you to see the SMART data from the drive. That's how you monitor disk health.
If you must move forward with the hardware you have, ensure that the hardware RAID controller is not doing anything with the data. No read or write buffer etc.
This is not how you should be doing this.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk
 

Chris Moore

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PS. Yes, this will likely cause problems on undefined nature due to the fact that it is not the intended hardware for ZFS.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk
 

Ericloewe

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What's the controller on that card, anyway?
 

chinraam

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With Plan HBA the SMART is not running. If I enable Hardware Raid Im able to get the SMART running. I'm attaching all the disks through hardware raid zero each with seperate LUN so freenas has access to each disk. The SMART is able to read the serial number of the device in this case.

Is there any issue with this type?
 

SweetAndLow

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With Plan HBA the SMART is not running. If I enable Hardware Raid Im able to get the SMART running. I'm attaching all the disks through hardware raid zero each with seperate LUN so freenas has access to each disk. The SMART is able to read the serial number of the device in this case.

Is there any issue with this type?
Yes there are issues you will lose the entire pool one day unexpectedly
 

SweetAndLow

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What version of the IT firmware do you have? sas2flash --listall should tell us? I suspect it's not in IT mode or can't be flashed.
 

chinraam

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What version of the IT firmware do you have? sas2flash --listall should tell us? I suspect it's not in IT mode or can't be flashed.

I have only two options with this controller. Raid Mode or HBA mode. I can see in HBA mode the disks are getting directly visible and even the serial number is visible including the hardware type.


root@freenas:~ # sas2flash --listall
LSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility
Version 16.00.00.00 (2013.03.01)
Copyright (c) 2008-2013 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved

No LSI SAS adapters found! Limited Command Set Available!
ERROR: Invalid command --listall

Exiting Program.
 

Chris Moore

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That is why I said this is not optimal. You really need to look through the hardware guide:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/
This hardware you are using is going to cause you problems down the line and if there is any way that you can get different hardware before you go into production, you should do that instead.
You have a hardware RAID controller and you need an HBA. It is not the same thing at all.
 
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