Perc 6i?

[JimPhreak]

Will a Dell Perc 6i work with FreeNAS?

 

[cyberjock]

I don't know, but a very good place to start is the FreeBSD hardware compatibility list. I think it's linked in the manual.

 

[survive]

Hi JimPhreak,

It will, sure....but there are a couple of caveats.

You could run it as a proper hardware RAID card and use UFS on it. Or you could do the same and use ZFS, but that takes some of the magic out of ZFS (since zfs thinks it's just talking to a single monster disk drive). You could make a bunch of individual RAID-0 disks out of each drive & present them to FreeNAS, but you still have a bunch of disks that have some amount of abstraction between the disks & ZFS that really shouldn't be there.

The short answer is the PERC 6 has had a long illustrious career, but for use in ZFS it should be respectfully regulated to the shelf until you can find time to dispose of it in a properly labeled electronics recycling bin.

Smart money goes out and replaces PERC 6's with IBM 1015 controllers for ZFS use.

-Will

 

[JimPhreak]

Hi JimPhreak,

It will, sure....but there are a couple of caveats.

You could run it as a proper hardware RAID card and use UFS on it. Or you could do the same and use ZFS, but that takes some of the magic out of ZFS (since zfs thinks it's just talking to a single monster disk drive). You could make a bunch of individual RAID-0 disks out of each drive & present them to FreeNAS, but you still have a bunch of disks that have some amount of abstraction between the disks & ZFS that really shouldn't be there.

The short answer is the PERC 6 has had a long illustrious career, but for use in ZFS it should be respectfully regulated to the shelf until you can find time to dispose of it in a properly labeled electronics recycling bin.

Smart money goes out and replaces PERC 6's with IBM 1015 controllers for ZFS use.

-Will

I was under the impression that you could flash the Perc 6i to IT mode just like with the M1015.

 

[pirateghost]

I'm running 2 perc 6's and they work wonderfully. I am not running any raid at all on the card just using zfs

 

[JimPhreak]

I'm running 2 perc 6's and they work wonderfully. I am not running any raid at all on the card just using zfs

Did you flash the card to allow it to function as JBOD?

 

[pirateghost]

Did you flash the card to allow it to function as JBOD?

I didn't do anything but pull it out of an 'old' dell power edge and plug it into my amd board

 

[survive]

Hi JimPhreak,

As far as I know there is no "IT" firmware for the PERC 6. Pirateghost might actually be running a SAS/6, which is a simpler card without the on-board memory & raid-5 controller which would explain why it was "plg & play" for them.

-Will

 

[pirateghost]

without opening up the case and looking at the actual model number, this is what I know they are.

Code:

mpt0@pci0:2:0:0:        class=0x010000 card=0x1f101028 chip=0x00581000 rev=0x08 hdr=0x00
    vendor    = 'LSI Logic / Symbios Logic'
    device    = 'SAS1068E PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS'
    class      = mass storage
    subclass  = SCSI
mpt1@pci0:5:0:0:        class=0x010000 card=0x1f101028 chip=0x00581000 rev=0x08 hdr=0x00
    vendor    = 'LSI Logic / Symbios Logic'
    device    = 'SAS1068E PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS'
    class      = mass storage
    subclass  = SCSI

so since the PERC 6 is based on the 1078 chip, I must have the PERC 5. I have some PERC 6 and PERC H700's laying around (I know for a fact the H700 doesnt work), but I thought I had the 6's in my FreeNAS box.

 

[JimPhreak]

Annoying to have to buy another $100+ RAID card just to be able to connect 2 more drives (Mobo comes with 6 sata ports and I have 8 drives).

 

[pirateghost]

so why not buy a cheaper sata card that is supported in FreeNAS? (PCI Express recommended)

 

[survive]

without opening up the case and looking at the actual model number, this is what I know they are.

Code:

mpt0@pci0:2:0:0:        class=0x010000 card=0x1f101028 chip=0x00581000 rev=0x08 hdr=0x00
    vendor    = 'LSI Logic / Symbios Logic'
    device    = 'SAS1068E PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS'
    class      = mass storage
    subclass  = SCSI
mpt1@pci0:5:0:0:        class=0x010000 card=0x1f101028 chip=0x00581000 rev=0x08 hdr=0x00
    vendor    = 'LSI Logic / Symbios Logic'
    device    = 'SAS1068E PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS'
    class      = mass storage
    subclass  = SCSI

so since the PERC 6 is based on the 1078 chip, I must have the PERC 5. I have some PERC 6 and PERC H700's laying around (I know for a fact the H700 doesnt work), but I thought I had the 6's in my FreeNAS box.

The PERC 6 is also based on the 1078 chip. The SAS1068 is simpler cousin that just does mirrors & such. Pertty much the same card I use (BR10i), only IBM made mine & it has the SFF-8087 connectors, not SFF-8484.

-Will

 

[cyberjock]

Honestly, if you have to add a controller, the M1015 is THE way to go. It's cheaper than anything else with 8 ports, its SAS 6Gbps, supports up to 42TB drives or something, and its highly recommended and support around here. You can bet that if the M1015 has some kind of driver bug(like 9.1-betas did) that someone will jump on that problem and have it fixed before RELEASE.

It's by far the smartest choice you can make if you are new to FreeNAS. Let the community provide support for the controller and there's no reason to not go with it.