ZFS for Smart array P440ar?

[killmasta93]

Hi,
I was wondering if someone else has any experience with a Smart array P440ar success story with ZFS? currently has Hyper V, but before i format need to know if it will work on HBA mode?
or would i need to buy an HBA card H240
Thank you

 

[dlavigne]

Did you decide upon a solution for this?

 

[killmasta93]

THanks for the reply, not yet i was reading maybe better an HBA Card but also read that can be configured HBA mode?

 

[Elliot Dierksen]

Even if you can configure it in HBA mode, I think you would be better off with the H240 or something similar. If you don't need 12G, an LSI 9207-8i can be had on eBay for ~=$50. I think there is an HP branded flavor of that, but I don't recall the part number.

 

[HoneyBadger]

I think there is an HP branded flavor of that, but I don't recall the part number.

HP H220, P/N 650933-B21 ;)

 

[killmasta93]

Thanks for the replies, good point i had to get hba Card flash IT mode with dell 620 for the HP server would this work?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-H220-6G...-IT-Mode-for-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID-/162862201664
im guessing it has to be IT mode?

 

[Elliot Dierksen]

would this work?

Yes, that would work.

im guessing it has to be IT mode?

Yes, it has to be in IT mode.

 

[jgreco]

The correct answer is that you want a true LSI HBA.

Most RAID cards offer some sort of "HBA" mode, but these range from "we create virtual devices that cover drives" to "we pass through requests to the drives". The main problem is that the RAID card device driver is still used, and many of these are suboptimal, are buggy, or are less than perfect. The secondary problem is that you're still dependent on the RAID card firmware surviving, and ZFS is known to place a huge workload on it - a RAID card torture test. Even for cards where you can manage to get proper SMART support, this really isn't worth the risk.

The LSI HBA isn't something radical. It's nothing more than a low-end RAID card with a processor. It's just that the FreeBSD driver is known to be non-problematic, and it's known that the IT firmware is known to be non-problematic --- to the tune of billions of aggregate hours of runtime across the installed base.

I have absolutely no doubt that there could be other stable device driver/card combos out there, but it is also known that there are other dodgy combos out there, and so if you don't want to be having to be a guinea pig and you just want your data stored without drama, it's LSI HBA all the way.

 

[killmasta93]

Thanks for the reply, will try it out and post back how it goes thank you so much

 

[killmasta93]

Even if you can configure it in HBA mode, I think you would be better off with the H240 or something similar. If you don't need 12G, an LSI 9207-8i can be had on eBay for ~=$50. I think there is an HP branded flavor of that, but I don't recall the part number.

@Elliot Dierksen
when you say if i dont need a 12G what if i might? is there a card you might mind? forgot to mention its a server HP proliant dl380 GEN9

 

[Elliot Dierksen]

when you say if i don't need a 12G what if i might? is there a card you might mind?

The H240 is a 12G card. Also, it is an HBA card and not RAID. That is good. I haven't worked with one of those, but I would guess it is also probably a re-badged LSI card. I suspect it would work, but I don't have any firsthand experience to say for sure. I would say you won't need 12G unless the disks you are using are all NVMe or SSD.

 

[killmasta93]

Thanks for the reply, currently have disks SAS, out curiosity and i know its not part of the topic but in that HP the previous person configure a lot of different sets of RAID prob because of the size. My question is the server has this and how would you recommend i would distribute it on ZFS

Code:

600GBsas disk 15k rpm
600GBsas disk 15k rpm
600GBsas disk 15k rpm
600GBsas disk 15k rpm
600GBsas disk 15k rpm
2tb sas 512E disk  7200rpm
2tb sas 512E disk  7200rpm
2tb sas 512E disk  7200rpm
2tb sas 512E disk  7200rpm
1.8tb SAS 512E DISK 10k rpm
1.8tb SAS 512E DISK 10k rpm
1.8tb SAS 512E DISK 10k rpm
1.8tb SAS 512E DISK 10k rpm
1.8tb SAS 512E DISK 10k rpm

 

[Elliot Dierksen]

You should search the forums for other threads on ZFS performance and pool/vdev selection. Start with the "Resources" section at the top of the forum page. https://www.ixsystems.com/community/resources/. A lot of that selection will have to do with what workloads are using your FreeNAS.