SFF8088 to PCI

[Stefan Kerstner]

hi to all of you
I am no here and i would like to create a FREE NAS Storage system but my problems are more with the Hardware Parts!

i ve got a Promise Technology VTRACK e610s 16x HDD 19" Rack RAID Controller
http://www.promiseworks.com/datasheets/VTrak-Jx10.pdf
My Motherbord will be a ASUS P5Q PRO with a Intel 2,8GHz DUAL CORE Processor (RAM not bought yet)

i would like to run the FREENAS Software on this PC and connect the HDD RAID rack to it but i need a SFF8088 PCI Controller wich one would u recomend to use and is this possible to get this working?
thanks a lot for your help
Stefan

 

[jde]

I would strongly recommend you go read the hardware stickies on this forum. Truthfully, and please don't take offense, but parts of your build looks like disasters waiting to happen. Your MB is not server grade, non-Intel NIC, doesn't support ECC memory, maxed out at 16 GB of memory (may be a significant issue depending on 1) how much storage you put in that 16 bay enclosure, and 2) whether you run a bunch of jails or VMs ), and it has a front side bus which can hurt performance significantly.

Beyond those issues, I would really research into to whether the controller hardware in your storage enclosure is known to play well with freenas.

Also, what are your plans for configuring your storage?

If you are looking for a PCIe HBA, the IBM M1015 flashed to IT mode is recommended by the community. I think it's an 8087 connection though. A Google search returns several results for 8088 to 8087 adapters.

 

[Stefan Kerstner]

i would turn off the hardware RAID and do it with free nas software raid and ill fill in 16x 2tb hdds and for internal network data storage i dont think ill need a server motherboard or am i wrong ? thanks for responding

 

[jde]

Read the following:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hardware-recommendations-read-this-first.23069/

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/ecc-vs-non-ecc-ram-and-zfs.15449/

If you care about the data you are going to store on freenas, I would highly recommend following community advice.

 

[Stefan Kerstner]

ill read all of that and ask again then thank u very much

 

[Ericloewe]

What the...?

SFF-8088 is a connector, agreed upon as the standard connector for external SAS links.

Theoretically it could carry any number of things. In practice, it only does SAS. PCI-e has no business here whatsoever.