Lenovo TS 440 Build

[Jason B]

I just installed FreeNAS 11 on my TS440 and now I am preparing to configure my storage. I will be using 6 - 2TB disks. I am still waiting for hardware to install 2 more disks. Currently four disks are installed using the built in SATA controller which supports 4 drives. This can be configured in the BIOS as: AHCI, IDE, or RAID. It is my understanding that if I wish to use ZFS, I don't want to configure the SATA drives in the BIOS as RAID. So should I choose AHCI or IDE? Currently it is set to RAID. I booted the system (from USB drive) using the current BIOS SATA config and logged into the Web Interface from another PC. If I select Storage > View Disks I see this image file:
View attachment 20404

Currently no volumes are configured. I am familarizing myself with the Web interface. I have installed an optional 4 bay drive cage for a total of 8 drive slots. To control the drives in this cage I installed an LSI 9211-8i host bus adapter (HBA). I am hoping that I can use this controller out of the box and not have to flash it. I will be putting 2 more disks in the additional 4 bay cage when the drive caddies arrive. I plan to configure the six drives in a single vdev using RAIDZ2 giving me 2 parity disks and 8TB storage. From reading I understand I can get better performance with to vdevs using RAIDZ1 each with 3 disks and 1 parity disk. But I don't need the performance and I don't have enough disks for 2 parity drive each. Since I installed the LSI HBA which I think supports 8 drives, I was wondering if I should use this controller for all 6 disks, or keep the 4 drives connected to the built in SATA controller and connect the two additional disks to the LSI controller?

 

[Jason B]

This is the image I was referring to above.
ViewDisks.JPG

 

[garm]

This is a very similar build to my last one. It is also using the 9211-8i. What you need to do is make sure is flashed to IT mode.

http://brycv.com/blog/2012/flashing-it-firmware-to-lsi-sas9211-8i/

Also if you want a 6 drive pool using raidz2 you need all drives in the system when you create it. There is no way of adding drives to a vdev. If you go for two raidz1 vdevs then you could start already with three of your disks.

Don't use the motherboard controller for your disks. You have a nice HBA, use it instead. Buy sas-to-sata cables of a "nice" quality.

Then when you have everything set up run the burn in to make sure you didn't get shipped broken parts

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/building-burn-in-and-testing-your-freenas-system.17750/

 

[Jason B]

Thanks for the advice. The expansion drive cage came with a Lenovo mini SAS cable. I will use that to connect the first SAS connector on the HBA to the expansion cage. If I go with using the HBA for all 6 disks, I will have to get another mini SAS cable since the on board controller uses a breakout cable 4 SATA to 1 mini SAS.

 

[Jason B]

I have read a few articles on LSI 9211-8i flashing procedure. However, which ever one I try I continue to have the same problem. I cannot boot into the EFI shell on my Lenovo TS440. It does support UEFI. However, setting the BIOS to boot only to UEFI fails when trying too boot from the USB drive with error:

Error 1962: No operating system found. Boot sequence will automatically repeat.

I can configure the BIOS to auto boot and it will boot to the USB drive in DOS but when I run the command sas2flsh.exe, the SAS2Flash Utiltiy banner appears but I get the the error:

Error: Failed to initialize PAL. Exiting Program.

Some of the articles I have read suggest booting to UEFI when getting the PAL error. So this is my problem. I cannot flash using the sas2flash program because of said error and I cannot boot to UEFI.

The articles contain similar information. Download the firmware and installer packages, create a bootable USB, copy the firmaware, installer and UEFI shell to the USB, then boot to the USB drive.

None of the articles mention the USB boot creation utility settings except that they should be FAT or FAT32. What about partition scheme and target system type? There are a couple of options:

MBR partition scheme for BIOS or UEFI
MBR partition scheme for UEFI
GPT partition scheme for UEFI

Anyway I am frustrated and could use some help.

 

[SweetAndLow]

This is a very similar build to my last one. It is also using the 9211-8i. What you need to do is make sure is flashed to IT mode.

http://brycv.com/blog/2012/flashing-it-firmware-to-lsi-sas9211-8i/

Also if you want a 6 drive pool using raidz2 you need all drives in the system when you create it. There is no way of adding drives to a vdev. If you go for two raidz1 vdevs then you could start already with three of your disks.

Don't use the motherboard controller for your disks. You have a nice HBA, use it instead. Buy sas-to-sata cables of a "nice" quality.

Then when you have everything set up run the burn in to make sure you didn't get shipped broken parts

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/building-burn-in-and-testing-your-freenas-system.17750/

Wrong, motherboard sata ports will work exactly the same as a hba as long as the controller is supported.

If your motherboard does not a built in efi Shell option in the boot menu you need to load a efishell on a USB key and but that. Does that make sense? It's super confusing when your motherboard does not have it built in and there is very little documentation about it.

Sent from my XT1096 using Tapatalk

 

[danb35]

If your motherboard does not a built in efi Shell option in the boot menu you need to load a efishell on a USB key and but that.

...or just use the sas2flash binary that's included with FreeNAS...

 

[Jason B]

So, I determined my problem was the result of the path to the efi shell file is specific on my Lenovo server. This fact was mentioned in this guide but the exact filename is specific to motherboards or h/w manufacturers. I found a Lenovo article that carefully explains UEFI on my server and lists the required filename.

https://www.lenovo.com/images/produ...resources/thinkserver_ts140_ts440_uefi_tr.pdf

In my case I needed to rename the file shellx64.efi to bootx64.efi. I renamed the file in both the USB root and \efi\boot folder.

 

[Jason B]

Wrong, motherboard sata ports will work exactly the same as a hba as long as the controller is supported.

So if I choose to use both controllers, in the BIOS option which SATA setting should I choose (i.e. "Configure SATA as"), IDE, AHCI, RAID? I'm pretty sure i don't want to select RAID.

 

[Jason B]

Also are you sure they will perform exactly the same?

 

[SweetAndLow]

Also are you sure they will perform exactly the same?

Ahci is what you pick and they will perform exactly the same.

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[Jason B]

New question. Once I am ready to configure my storage, do I have to do it from the console on the server? I would much prefer to do it using the Web interface. I only have one monitor and one USB keyboard connected to my desktop PC. Each time I need to configure something on the server I have to disconnect them from the PC and connect them to the server. It's a pain. I have a laptop but I cannot use that as a monitor and keyboard.

 

[danb35]

Once I am ready to configure my storage, do I have to do it from the console on the server?

No, and you shouldn't. It should be done, along with the rest of the server's configuration, through the web GUI.

 

[Jason B]

So I'm ready to create my storage volume(s) but I'm wrestling with performance vs. redundancy. With 6 - 2TB disks I'm considering the following:

• One 8TB RAIDZ2 vdev (6 disks, two of which are used for parity)
• Two 4TB RAIDZ1 vdev's (3 disks each, one of which is used for parity) combined into a single zpool for double the IOPS

I've read that re-silvering (I think that's the process used when replacing a failed disk or upgrading the disks in a vdev), puts a stressful load on the disks and that it's not all that uncommon to lose a disk during this process.

My question is this: how high is the risk of losing two disks in one of the RAIDZ1 vdevs; particularly when resilvering/rebuilding: slight : low : medium : high?

Also, my main use of the storage is for photos, music, personal and financial information. Not so much for video. Although about 1/3 of the media downloaded from my phone is video.

 

[SweetAndLow]

So I'm ready to create my storage volume(s) but I'm wrestling with performance vs. redundancy. With 6 - 2TB disks I'm considering the following:

• One 8TB RAIDZ2 vdev (6 disks, two of which are used for parity)
• Two 4TB RAIDZ1 vdev's (3 disks each, one of which is used for parity) combined into a single zpool for double the IOPS

I've read that re-silvering (I think that's the process used when replacing a failed disk or upgrading the disks in a vdev), puts a stressful load on the disks and that it's not all that uncommon to lose a disk during this process.

My question is this: how high is the risk of losing two disks in one of the RAIDZ1 vdevs; particularly when resilvering/rebuilding: slight : low : medium : high?

Also, my main use of the storage is for photos, music, personal and financial information. Not so much for video. Although about 1/3 of the media downloaded from my phone is video.

raidz2 is what you should be using no questions asked. raidz1 should never be used anymore. Performance will not be noticeable.

 

[Jason B]

I've created my volume and now I need to perform the next steps:

• Create Dataset
• Create Zvol
• Directory Services
• Create Shares

Questions:

• How many datasets do I need? I'm thinking one of type Windows for an SMB share. I don't think I need one of type Mac for an AFP share. Although I would like to access my NAS from my iPhone using an app, it's not necessary because most of my data will come from my Windows machines. I usually import my iPhone data (photos, videos) when I connect it to my PC. So I will probably just copy the phone data to FreeNAS using my windows machines.
• Next, do I need to create a zVol? If so, why, I've already created the ZFS volume (pool) and dataset? Also why specify a size, can't we just let the volumes grow dynamically? If I must specify sizes I speculate that I should leave room for unknown future uses, such as another dataset. Is this correct?
• I don't have a Windows server at home (no domain, no name servers), just machines running windows (7, 10). So I don't think I need Active Directory, LDAP, NIS or Kerberos directory services. Does this sound reasonable for my needs?
• From what I've read I think I will only need a Windows (SMB) share and probably a WebDAV share so I can browse data from my smartphone browser or browser on another machine. Again, does this sound reasonable for my needs?
• Are these the minimum steps I need to complete in order to start using my FreeNAS server (i.e. copying data from my windows machines)?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm anxious to start using the storage.

 

[SweetAndLow]

actually the first thing you should do is:
0. setup email notifications
1. setup smart tests, short and long
2. setup ups email notifications if you have a ups
3. setup scrub schedules, there is a default one that runs every 35 days i think. usually fine for most people.

It sounds like you don't need a zvol that is for iscsi only, it sounds like you don't need directory services just use local users(that is what most people do), you need a dataset for different types of data and if you want different snapshot schedules or quotas. One is probable fine to start. You should be able to use smb for everything including browsing from your phone.

did you burn in your hdd's? I didn't read up in this thread to find out.

 

[Jason B]

I did not burn in my hdds. From what I've read this takes a long time. But if it is necessary I can do it. Should this be done before creating ZFS volumes?

 

[SweetAndLow]

I did not burn in my hdds. From what I've read this takes a long time. But if it is necessary I can do it. Should this be done before creating ZFS volumes?

Yeah it required so you know your drives are not doa. You do it before your pool is created.

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[Inxsible]

I did not burn in my hdds. From what I've read this takes a long time. But if it is necessary I can do it. Should this be done before creating ZFS volumes?

I would. I burn in all my disks. New or used. See this thread for more info.