Still need help with RAID card

[tjrose91]

I know enough about raid and PC's but still new to sever grade hardware but i am looking for a Raid card that will support these connection types since there are so many cards on ebay its hard find the right card for the right price as well it supporting 4+ TB HDD as i plan to go with 4x6tb HDD Ironwolf Pros in Raid 5 as my Main Gaming rig and Editing Rig that currently has 3x10TB HDD Barracuda Pro in Raid 5 giving me only 20tb of space

and currently has data rescue protection for the next 3 years and my used sever i plan to upgrade to 32gb of Ecc Ram as Linus mention you need one gig of ram per tb of storage if using freenas and it would also give me room to upgrade storage my Poweredge T410, and below is the Youtube video Linus did about "Insane Compact NAS 2014 - 48TB of Network-attached Storage"

 

or even if i could find an male adapter to go with the cables

 

https://youtu.be/KYBok-XGsKM?t=165

[nka]

wow that was hard to read. Please use formating next time (space, dot, line return) !

 

For FreeNAS, you don't want a RAID card, you will want an HBA (a card in "IT Mode" - Like the cheap LSI 9211 or M1015 or Perc H310 flashed).

 

The connector you show on the picture look like from a Dell Server. What do you have on the other end ? Might be easier to get a card and new cables (like SFF-8087 to 4 x SATA)

[tjrose91]

i really just need a PCIE card that supports more than 4tb hard drive

[dalekphalm]

15 minutes ago, tjrose91 said:

i really just need a PCIE card that supports more than 4tb hard drive

Any SAS 6 Gbps RAID Card will do the trick. I highly recommend the LSI 92xx lineup. Also, check out the IBM m1015 - it's an LSI RAID Card flashed with IBM firmware. You can flash it back to standard LSI Firmware or just leave as IBM.

 

In any case, make sure you get both the RAM Cache and the BBU (Battery Backup Unit).

 

Something like this would be good:

LSI 9270-8i: 1GB Cache w/ BBU - PCIe 3.0

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/LSI-9270-8i-1GB-RAID-PCIe-3-0-6Gbps-Controller-Raid-Card-BBU09-Battery-9271-8I/132406895456?hash=item1ed410e360:g:GtYAAOSwnTdaFCql

 

LSI 9266-8i: 1GB Cache w/ BBU - PCIe 2.0

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/LSI-MegaRAID-9266-8i-1gb-Cache-SATA-SAS-Controller-Card-with-LSICVM01-Battery/142621905857?hash=item2134ed93c1:g:VEAAAOSwTzxaLon7

 

Other options include something like a Dell Hxxx RAID Card (H330, H730, etc).

[tjrose91]

I always forget LMG is Canadian and i was like damn that some steep prices then realized it was the Canadian eBay site then decided to go to the american version of Ebay, hope i got to LTX in the near future

[tjrose91]

but for the most part, im okay with the Dell Poweredge specs and speed and know its PCIE 2.0 its going to be used for Archival storage and in case my main HDD die in my main rig and have to wait 3-6 months for segate to return the drives back to me i know i wont be without my 20tb of porn i mean my youtube channel video files, since this is also my editing rig

[Razor Blade]

That old Perc 6 controller uses SFF 8484 to SFF 8087 cables. So you'll need to add some SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 cables to your shopping list if you're going with a newer controller. They should be plug and play with your current backplane.

 

The Dell Perc H700 controller should be a drop in replacement and with current firmware should have no problem handling >4TB drives (though support for larger than 6TB drives is spotty). Keep in mind that if you do order one of the H700 cards that have older firmware, you may get the dreaded "Blocked" drive problem. Once apon a time, Dell decided they were not going to let people use non Dell drives in their servers but since then have unlocked their cards). Just update the firmware and you'll be fine.

 

Also in looking at specs on a T410 it doesn't appear to have a storage slot so if you get other Dell controllers do NOT get the "integrated" models...you would not only have to get a bracket for them, you would have to try to cross-flash them with different firmware.

[dalekphalm]

3 minutes ago, Razor Blade said:

That old Perc 6 controller uses SFF 8484 to SFF 8087 cables. So you'll need to add some SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 cables to your shopping list if you're going with a newer controller. They should be plug and play with your current backplane.

 

The Dell Perc H700 controller should be a drop in replacement and with current firmware should have no problem handling >4TB drives (though support for larger than 6TB drives is spotty). Keep in mind that if you do order one of the H700 cards that have older firmware, you may get the dreaded "Blocked" drive problem. Once apon a time, Dell decided they were not going to let people use non Dell drives in their servers but since then have unlocked their cards). Just update the firmware and you'll be fine.

 

Also in looking at specs on a T410 it doesn't appear to have a storage slot so if you get other Dell controllers do NOT get the "integrated" models...you would not only have to get a bracket for them, you would have to try to cross-flash them with different firmware.

I have a T410 - it does not have a storage slot. Standard PCIe RAID Cards only.

[tjrose91]

i was going to mention something about PCIE, it has 6 sata ports on the MB but knowing it does not support anything larger than 2tb, i could use software raid for a while till i get my drives and PCIE raid card in 

[dalekphalm]

2 minutes ago, tjrose91 said:

i was going to mention something about PCIE, it has 6 sata ports on the MB but knowing it does not support anything larger than 2tb, i could use software raid for a while till i get my drives and PCIE raid card in 

The SATA ports on your T410 should in theory support larger HDD's. I haven't personally tested this (never had a need, only thing on SATA in my T410 is a 256GB SSD), but I don't think it would be affected.

[tjrose91]

1 minute ago, dalekphalm said:

The SATA ports on your T410 should in theory support larger HDD's. I haven't personally tested this (never had a need, only thing on SATA in my T410 is a 256GB SSD), but I don't think it would be affected.

i have tried to set the two 3tb HDD i have in raid thru the Intergrated Raid Controller and even with the included Raid PCIE card its only support up to 2tb, in windows 10 it sees the drive as 3tb so software RAID is the only option for right now but i plan to have 6 drives, so unless FreeNas works with the 6 included sata ports and i can run FreeNas off a Flashdrive i wonder if that will work just fine

[dalekphalm]

Just now, tjrose91 said:

i have tried to set the two 3tb HDD i have in raid thru the Intergrated Raid Controller and even with the included Raid PCIE card its only support up to 2tb, in windows 10 it sees the drive as 3tb so software RAID is the only option for right now but i plan to have 6 drives, so unless FreeNas works with the 6 included sata ports and i can run FreeNas off a Flashdrive i wonder if that will work just fine

Okay - there seems to be some confusion here.

 

When you say "The Integrated RAID Controller" what are you talking about? Are you talking about the PERC that feeds the backplane? Or are you talking about the SATA Ports on the motherboard itself? The onboard SATA Ports wouldn't have an integrated RAID Card - not in this model of server anyway. You can use Intel RAID/Software RAID, but that's not the same thing.

 

And yes, FreeNAS would indeed work with the 6 onboard SATA ports. You can also run FreeNAS off of a flashdrive, also yes.

[Razor Blade]

I believe the onboard ports are operate at 3Gb/s. HBA and RAID cards of that era operate at 6Gb/s. So using the onboard ports could greatly impact performance.

[dalekphalm]

3 minutes ago, Razor Blade said:

I believe the onboard ports are operate at 3Gb/s. HBA and RAID cards of that era operate at 6Gb/s. So using the onboard ports could greatly impact performance.

The onboard ports should be SATAII at the minimum. Also, he's running HDD's off of them. At 300 MB/s, his drives will never reach that speed. As each port has the 3Gbps bandwidth, it shouldn't be an issue. An SSD? Yes that could be a problem.

 

With that in mind, a 6Gbps RAID Card has other advantages, including the Cache, which would significantly speed up smaller transfers. It also is OS agnostic, and rebuilds may well be faster as well.

[tjrose91]

4 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Okay - there seems to be some confusion here.

 

When you say "The Integrated RAID Controller" what are you talking about? Are you talking about the PERC that feeds the backplane? Or are you talking about the SATA Ports on the motherboard itself? The onboard SATA Ports wouldn't have an integrated RAID Card - not in this model of server anyway. You can use Intel RAID/Software RAID, but that's not the same thing.

 

And yes, FreeNAS would indeed work with the 6 onboard SATA ports. You can also run FreeNAS off of a flashdrive, also yes.

ya i tend to use the terms interchangble, but the 6 sata ports on the mb, I still might use a PCIE Raid Card that supports 6gbs since i want to also use Windows 10 on the side when im in wichita, ks and need to do homework, and im not worried about performance on 3gbs since this is for backup and not an everyday use server

[dalekphalm]

3 minutes ago, tjrose91 said:

ya i tend to use the terms interchangble,

Please don't. I know that you're new to all of this - and I want you to learn and have a good experience, because server stuff is goddamn awesome. But mixing the terms can lead to extreme confusion and even inappropriate purchases or setups that aren't compatible with your hardware.

3 minutes ago, tjrose91 said:

but the 6 sata ports on the mb, I still might use a PCIE Raid Card that supports 6gbs since i want to also use Windows 10 on the side when im in wichita, ks and need to do homework, and im not worried about performance on 3gbs since this is for backup and not an everyday use server

I'm confused about this statement entirely. What does your homework in Wichita have to do with whether you're using the SATA Ports, or a 6Gbps RAID Card?

 

Windows 10 would be compatible with either setup (As would a Windows 10 VM inside of FreeNAS or any other OS).

[tjrose91]

1 minute ago, dalekphalm said:

Please don't. I know that you're new to all of this - and I want you to learn and have a good experience, because server stuff is goddamn awesome. But mixing the terms can lead to extreme confusion and even inappropriate purchases or setups that aren't compatible with your hardware.

I'm confused about this statement entirely. What does your homework in Wichita have to do with whether you're using the SATA Ports, or a 6Gbps RAID Card?

 

Windows 10 would be compatible with either setup (As would a Windows 10 VM inside of FreeNAS or any other OS).

i think we was talking about speeds on the Sata ports and not really caring to much speed, but if im going to retain the sata ports might have to see about if they can handle 6tb HDD per port, but overall im leaning towards a dedicated RAID Card 

[Razor Blade]

4 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

The onboard ports should be SATAII at the minimum. Also, he's running HDD's off of them. At 300 MB/s, his drives will never reach that speed. As each port has the 3Gbps bandwidth, it shouldn't be an issue. An SSD? Yes that could be a problem.

 

With that in mind, a 6Gbps RAID Card has other advantages, including the Cache.

True especially if using a SATA storage drive. I haven't messed with the ports on my R410 or R510 other than optical drives.

3 minutes ago, tjrose91 said:

ya i tend to use the terms interchangble, but the 6 sata ports on the mb, I still might use a PCIE Raid Card that supports 6gbs since i want to also use Windows 10 on the side when im in wichita, ks and need to do homework, and im not worried about performance on 3gbs since this is for backup and not an everyday use server

There are SFF 8087 to sata breakout cables but there isn't a guarantee that your backplane would operate properly or not. If not, you lose the function of the hot swap bays and would have to find a different way to power your drives.

[tjrose91]

Just now, Razor Blade said:

True especially if using a SATA storage drive. I haven't messed with the ports on my R410 or R510 other than optical drives.

There are SFF 8087 to sata breakout cables but there isn't a guarantee that your backplane would operate properly or not. If not, you lose the function of the hot swap bays and would have to find a different way to power your drives.

my specific T410 does not have hotswap Bays and i dont mind shutting down the PC if needed

[Razor Blade]

Just now, tjrose91 said:

my specific T410 does not have hotswap Bays and i dont mind shutting down the PC if needed

Those SATA ports can operate as AHCI so shutting down is not necessary required.

 

Out of curiosity... it doesn't have a hot swap backplane? Curious...what was the Perc 6 controller connected to?

[tjrose91]

it came with a Perc 6 controller but cant use it as it wont do anything past 2tb in RAID and i dont know what you mean but hotswap backplane just a standard plug and play 

[tjrose91]

would i need a 512mb cache or 1gb cache if going with a dell H700

[dalekphalm]

2 minutes ago, tjrose91 said:

it came with a Perc 6 controller but cant use it as it wont do anything past 2tb in RAID and i dont know what you mean but hotswap backplane just a standard plug and play 

What does the front of your server look like?

 

Are there multiple drive bays? Does the HDD slide directly into the bay, or do you need to put the drive into a metal/plastic sled?

[dalekphalm]

3 minutes ago, tjrose91 said:

would i need a 512mb cache or 1gb cache if going with a dell H700

Depends on the kinds of files you're transferring. The larger cache simply means your performance will be a bit faster (As it can throw stuff onto the Cache longer until it fills up). Unless there's a huge price difference, get the larger cache (And MAKE SURE you get the battery too).

[tjrose91]