Raid 1 with Intel ICH10R

[vwarner]

We are building a new machine to be used as an iSCSI SAN. Here are the specs.

Supermicro X8ST3-F
Xeon E5620 @ 2.4 GHz (quad core)
24GB RAM
2 intel 120GB SSD drives for the OS (overkill for FreeNAS, but we may use Windows if my boss doesn't like FreeNAS)
16 Seagate 600GB Cheetah 15K.7 SAS drives for our storage.

This is going to be a data storage server for a midsize company.

Here is our issue. My boss wants me to setup the two SSDs in RAID 1 through the Intel raid config (ICH10R). The drives are setup in raid 1, but when FreeNAS goes to install, it doesn't detect the array, it just lists both drives. Is ICH10R supported by FreeNas? I don't believe it is supported by FreeBSD. Is there anyway that I can load the drivers? Would I be better off installing on one drive, and configuring the raid for FreeNAS in FreeNAS?

This is my first exposure to FreeNAS. I didn't build this machine. I came back from vacation with this on my desk, and was asked to get it up and running with FreeNAS with Raid 1 on the SSDs.

Is there anything else you guys need to know?

 

[vwarner]

If he was dead set on using raid for the SSD's, would we be better off installing a dedicated hardware raid controller for them? Any recommendations on a controller?

It looks like FreeNAS doesn't support the intel ICH10R raid, so I answered part of my questions. I kinda knew that going in.

 

[cyberjock]

If you are trying to use a hardware RAID with FreeNAS, that's really not a great idea. I'd recommend taking a few hours to read the manual. I bailed on Windows Server after I found FreeNAS and i'll never go back. The performance and reliability is amazing. But, you do need to know what you are doing. This isn't a car where you can get in and you know where the gas and brake pedals are because they're the same in all cars.

Something else(I'm sure you won't like to hear this)... If your boss doesn't work in IT he should have almost zero say in how the server is configured. He should be paying you to tell him what the best configuration is, not the other way around. If he does work in IT, he should be getting familiar with what FreeNAS is, how it works and what it's strengths and weaknesses are before he starts telling you how to build it. Also if your boss works in IT he should be reading the manual with you. The only way you will be informed enough to build a system correctly the first time if data integrity is important is to read the manual or get personal assistance from someone that is thoroughly familiar with FreeNAS.

If you can't take the time to learn FreeNAS and understand it thoroughly I'd almost recommend you stick with what you know. If that's Windows Server then so be it. But ZFS has advantages that will never compare with a hardware RAID if your data is important.

 

[vwarner]

Thanks for getting back to me. My boss is the IT Director. My position kind of encompasses everything in IT. I do programming, hardware builds and repairs, help desk, and I assist with infrastructure stuff occasionally.

I am new to FreeNAS, and I've been looking into it all day (between helpdesk calls and other stuff anyway). As we speak, I am running tests at home with it in VMware to get familiar with it.

Like I said, I came back from vacation and the server was built and sitting on my desk. He ordered the parts, and put it together. Basically, yesterday as I was getting ready to go home he said he was having trouble getting it to boot up, and asked me to work on it. I got it up and running no problem. Then he told me to install FreeNAS on it, and he told me how he wanted it setup.


His biggest concern is having the drive running FreeNAS failing, and having the machine go down. He wants the drive that FreeNAS is running from to have redundancy. Should my redundancy be just to back up the config file periodically? If I can only run FreeNAS from a single device (usb stick, ssd, etc), how do you protect against that device failing? I'm sorry if I'm missing something.

Thanks.

 

[cyberjock]

Hardware RAIDs are strongly not recommended for FreeNAS. Many aren't compatible(as you have witnessed) but FreeNAS has no way to identify if a drive in a hardware RAID with redundancy(or mirror) has failed. You will often have to rely on either bootup messages or an audible alarm to know if a drive has failed.

Ok, here's what you should do:

1. FreeNAS prefers USB keys. It was designed to be used on USB for power savings as well as an extra port free on your server for another SATA disk. So that RAID1 isn't necessary as a boot device, you simply have to save your config as you mentioned. If your USB key fails you simply reinstall FreeNAS on a new USB key, then login and restore your config and import your old zpool. Then do a reboot. Your system will be back up and running. Honestly, I'd expect that your "downtime" will mostly be taken up with downloading and burning the ISO image. My recommendation is to make it a regular part of your weekly schedule to backup the FreeNAS configuration. People log in and make changes and forget to do a backup afterwards. If you log in every Monday morning or Friday afternoon you'll also get to see if there is any errors that need your attention(not to mention you SHOULD be setting up emails to be sent to you in case of a problem). Keep all of the configs you save. The file names are auto named with the date and time so it is easy to find the latest version. Just don't backup the config files to your FreeNAS server. ;)

2. Make sure your motherboard has the latest BIOS. FreeBSD is picky about hardware and often a BIOS update will fix problems with booting up. Also make sure you are plugging into the Intel NICs and not the Realtek. Intel works great on FreeNAS, Realtek does not.

3. I'm not sure how you plan to hook up 16 hard drives to that motherboard. WIth the SAS and SATA ports you can only use 14 drives. What extra controller do you plan to use? Is it be compatible with FreeNAS?

 

[vwarner]

Thanks for getting back to me. It is an LSI 9750-16i4e controller.

I'm having issues getting this box up and running. I'm going to post about it.

Thanks again!

 

[cyberjock]

Yeah, that controller isn't a controller I'd recommend. The LSI I have requires I do a RAID0 of 1 disk for each drive, which is NOT the recommended method for setting up a zpool. It is preferred that you use JBOD. With my configuration FreeNAS will only recognized a drive is failed if I reboot the machine. The RAID controller still seems to report that the drive is attached if it fails. The only way I can actually determine it has failed without a reboot is to do a "zpool status" and look for a device with a really high error rate.