NetApp DS2246 + HBA? with RAID options?

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Derwood

Member
May 22, 2019
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Hey folks,

Seem to be getting myself in to a right kafaffle here with regards to options, part numbers and correct information regarding both.

Simply put, I'd like to connect an NetApp DS2246 to an HBA card that supports RAID 1+0 at bare minimum, could anyone point me in the direction of the correct card? (3/6G, quad port)?

Sourcing parts from eBay the NetApp cards on offer which seem to match comprise of the codes: 111-00341 along with the added B0, B1 through to F2 and such and I cannot seem to find anyone willing to reply or offer me some factual information before purchasing the next possible failure.

-So far this week I've had to ask for two refunds and it's now starting to dawn upon me the issues others have had with regards to lesser experience within this realm(Including myself). But quite simply put, I'd just like to stripe and mirror 24, SATA drives using the IOM6 modules which come combined with the DS2246 I've purchased, while using all NetApp products to suit.

I'd be most thankful on the matter for some clarity.
Kind regards,
 

gregsachs

Active Member
Aug 14, 2018
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What OS?
LSI 9285cv-8e or 86cv-8e. Both are full raid controllers, with battery backup and 1gb cache, the only real difference between the two seems to be pci 2 vs 3
You will also need a qsfp->sff8088 cable. In my experience, sata drives will only show up on a single one of the ports between the 4 on the IOM6 units. My understanding is that the netapp cards typically do not have good driver support outside of netapp.
See here for a little more info on the netapp HBA:
https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...qsfp-hba-x2065a-r6-111-00341-pcie-card.19102/
(and tonight I can hook up my idle ds2246 to a 9285 with at least a couple disks and demo if useful. Depending on how many 2.5" drives I have at home).
 
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Derwood

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May 22, 2019
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Thank you very much indeed for taking the time to reply. In reality this is due in part to my inexperienced knowledge and usage prior of NetApp products as a whole while also being the main reason for myself reaching out towards the community.

Thank you very much, I really need to do some more desk research as noticed you mention about the SATA drives and how they are shown. Now that in general is a good piece of information I have never come across within documentation I've read prior.

I'm going to get some rapid reading done on this subject further, but if anyone else has some pointers too that could become invaluable your more then welcome to comment also as I don't totally assume this subject to be closed.

Thank you kindly buddy ;)
 

Derwood

Member
May 22, 2019
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Useful link possibly for any other IBM NetApp hardware purchaser: http://www.datadisk.co.uk/html_docs/netapp/netapp_cs.htm

I'm also considering cobbing together an schematic, a small temperature sensor that will or could work but if IBM NetApp kit is anything like some of the SUN branded hardware it'll be a pig while also being the next generation of clash of the titans onslaught of killer bees verses the war wasps all in a box!!

I've asked around a few firms online and done some desk research via search engines but nothing concrete turned up and I could not seem to gain access to NetApps errata (which I think in part was due to me trying to sign-up with an android smartphone)?

But the F2 variant does look promising however it's just going to be a case of trial and error learning experience and if I have again brought the incorrect product I'm not even going to return the item because I've bothered a number of people over this issue when I should have known better or done prior research more thoroughly.

If however this time around all does go well I'll document my findings, screenshots and such and update this forum post in the effort it helps others along.

Thanks folks and onlookers :D
 

gregsachs

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Aug 14, 2018
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What are you trying to do? Are you attaching the ds2246 to a non-netapp PC and using as a disk shelf? Or are you trying to work with the netapp filer ecosystem?
 
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Derwood

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May 22, 2019
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I'm attempting to hook-up the IBM NetApp DS2246 to the listed F2 HBA on an 1U DELL CS24-NV7 [Dual socket, AMD Opteron Quad Core 2.10Ghz (2373ee), 32GB RAM, PERC6/I consisting of 4x2TB 3.5" Spindle SATAs RAID1|0] node for the initial trial.

Edit: If I remove the PERC6/I which are labelled as awful and use the six onboard SATA ports the 2TB limit is then removed and could even install a mix of twin pure SSDs along with 4x6TB spindle drives.. Not directly seen anyone try that, mind.. Possible however.
 
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gregsachs

Active Member
Aug 14, 2018
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I'm attempting to hook-up the IBM NetApp DS2246 to the listed F2 HBA on an 1U DELL CS24-NV7 [Dual socket, AMD Opteron Quad Core 2.10Ghz (2373ee), 32GB RAM, PERC6/I consisting of 4x2TB 3.5" Spindle SATAs RAID1|0] node for the initial trial.

Edit: If I remove the PERC6/I which are labelled as awful and use the six onboard SATA ports the 2TB limit is then removed and could even install a mix of twin pure SSDs along with 4x6TB spindle drives.. Not directly seen anyone try that, mind.. Possible however.
I don't think this will work with the netapp HBA; and I suspect that if it did the HBA is a pure HBA, not a RAID adapter. The ds2246 with IOM6 is a dumb JBOD shelf. All of those commands you linked are for ontap, not internal to the shelf.
My suggestion; depending on OS:
If windows, get one of the LSI cards I referenced. If unraid or similar that wants a pure HBA in IT mode, get a dumber card than the 9285/9286. Get a SFF-8088 to QSFP cable, which is will be ~$35, but this combination will be dead simple to get working. I don't believe you will have any luck getting the netapp HBA working under windows.
I've heard of people getting it to work under linux/other unix, but I think windows will be a real struggle.
Like I said, I have a ds2246 I could hook up to a 9285 with a little work and demo. I've got 2 2.5" drives that are unused right now.
 
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Derwood

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May 22, 2019
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I don't think this will work with the netapp HBA; and I suspect that if it did the HBA is a pure HBA, not a RAID adapter. The ds2246 with IOM6 is a dumb JBOD shelf. All of those commands you linked are for ontap, not internal to the shelf.
My suggestion; depending on OS:
If windows, get one of the LSI cards I referenced. If unraid or similar that wants a pure HBA in IT mode, get a dumber card than the 9285/9286. Get a SFF-8088 to QSFP cable, which is will be ~$35, but this combination will be dead simple to get working. I don't believe you will have any luck getting the netapp HBA working under windows.
I've heard of people getting it to work under linux/other unix, but I think windows will be a real struggle.
Like I said, I have a ds2246 I could hook up to a 9285 with a little work and demo. I've got 2 2.5" drives that are unused right now.
You may well be very correct with regards to the actual RAID functionality and yes the DS2246 is mainly from what I've noticed used for JBOD, also with regards to the LSI offerings and software issues with Windows based OSs. If it's a failure with regards to RAID offerings I was going to go for LUN and suchlike division if that's possible too.

The links for OnTap I came across earlier was just a post if it ever became needed for anyone really, just a handy link maybe :eek:

My initial install will be using VMWare offerings and that in essence is Linux/UNIX based, I have Hyper-V installed on top of that within an VM but have hardly ever touched it to be fair and was not my first port of call really.

If my first go at this is a failure I'll try other options as I go along and to be fair I reckon your correct and this route in total is due to my own inexperienced knowledge of IBM NetApp hardware. I still might even remove the PERC6/I card an backplane and if possible use the H700 or even failing that strip out the entire HW RAID, use the six onboard SATA ports while having then two free PCIe slots and try Infiniband or could go a bit further with 10G NIC card while retiring the two onboard 1G NIC ports.

Plenty of options but it's a case of what's worth it, when, where and why.

*I'd love to trade in my seven identical nodes for a couple of quad socket deca core XEON DELL R810s but what with hassles XEON is having within the data centers of late I'm not looking to change my AMD current compute offerings for XEON.

I do however like XEONs within my workstation but that's hardly ever visible online, just for development and such.
 

Derwood

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May 22, 2019
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Made a slight mistake in some of the above with regards to the PERC6/I being present within the CS24-NV7 nodes, it's actually nVidia RAID which is also useless for usage AFAIK within ESXI regardless of the version.. I don't actually think anything like that is supposed by VMWARE products however I could be slightly wrong.

I had the FS12-NV7 mixed up with the CS24-NV7, so the PERC6/I is within the FS12-NV7 which although has the almost identical motherboard and CPUs is actually an 2u variant, two PERC6/I cards along with the addition of 12, 3.5" storage bays.

Sorry about that, just got the servers mixed up.

The NetApp DS2246, rails along with a few other things but sadly I've not taken delivery yet of the HBA or cabling which should be on route for further testing, I'll try as best I can to reach a viable working solution but need to start somewhere even if an almost all NetApp approach fails with regards to connecting directly to a server.

Should even point out I do have another option and that could be using an SAN, iSCSI switch and rather then directly connected to a single server I could run via LAN.. We'll see I guess.
 

Derwood

Member
May 22, 2019
52
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What OS?
LSI 9285cv-8e or 86cv-8e. Both are full raid controllers, with battery backup and 1gb cache, the only real difference between the two seems to be pci 2 vs 3
You will also need a qsfp->sff8088 cable. In my experience, sata drives will only show up on a single one of the ports between the 4 on the IOM6 units. My understanding is that the netapp cards typically do not have good driver support outside of netapp.
See here for a little more info on the netapp HBA:
https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...qsfp-hba-x2065a-r6-111-00341-pcie-card.19102/
(and tonight I can hook up my idle ds2246 to a 9285 with at least a couple disks and demo if useful. Depending on how many 2.5" drives I have at home).
I've the cards in question you mention almost brought and paid for but the cables I'll have to source too as they won't match with the ones currently on delivery.

*Edit: however half the cables won't come to a waste because I have four on delivery brand new and all I'd do is use them for daisy-chaining between IOM controllers and then using the other cable type to run from HBA>IOM.

I guess it'll look like:
HBA/SFF8088 > square IOM6/QSFP(controller 1) then, circle IOM6/QSFP(controller 1) > square IOM6/QSFP(controller 2) then, circle IOM6/QSFP(controller 2) > HBA/SFF8088. if that makes sense, sorry.

This way it's a two prong attack on functionality.

Thanks for the options experience sharing :)
 
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Derwood

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May 22, 2019
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The LSI card has arrived, still expecting the NetApp F2 variant and thankfully as prescribed two cables meeting the QSFP+ > SFF-8088 requirements..

I doubt to be needing two cables but if this works out as I've intended I'll purchase another NetApp to fill too and carry on from there.

I've also an electrician coming soon to install an 240v 32amp circuit to host the entire rack and I've a few 16amp PDUs available while also UPS power and control equipment to install too :)
 

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Derwood

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May 22, 2019
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Well I ordered the +F2 variant and received the +B1 sadly this morning.. Chasing up the seller for an exchange as we speak.
Darn, this shall lead to another week of waiting around to test the entire DS2246 and both cards side by side with all the correct cabling.

I'll be using a couple of 2.5" HDDs I have spare but within the next week or so I'll be making my first order for five 2TB 2.5" magnetic spindle drives to suit this array and will follow on as such each fortnight until full :)

I guess I could test this cards RAID ability but to be honest I'd just like an exchange for the correct model I ordered and if still not working as I assumed, read, an refund if possible.
 

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Derwood

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May 22, 2019
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From where the mistake took place with regards to taking delivery of an B1 rather then an F2.. The strange thing is they've emailed me personally and told me not to worry with regards to sending them the card back at all and that the correct card '+F2' will be in the post today!

All this is totally unexpected, I'm very happy to return the card, I've no complaint because everyone makes mistakes but they are very short and sweet on the matter with essentially.. Don't worry, new card on route!

I'm very thankful, it's not totally needed BUT offers me another opportunity here because I can now try using three identical servers apart from HBA/HCL cards and two being the NetApps B1, F2 and another with the LSI.

If the NetApp cards do lead to complete failure then I shall keep them for a FAS whenever the opportunity comes in order to purchase one :)
 

Derwood

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May 22, 2019
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Well, starting to be tested today when I found time away from my R&D bench, building some apparatus to assist me elsewhere with a pre-production job.

This is a totally fresh install of Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS with nothing done apart from installing the PMC8003 REV:3.0 part: 111-00341+B1, connecting one QSFP+ SAS wire to the square port of IOM6:1 on the DS2246 with two handy 2.5" 512byte standard laptop SATA drives with no partitions and then running fdisk -l.

*Waiting on cables to suit the LSI > DS2246 & the 111-00341+F2 variant card which should be here in a few days to see how rev:5.0 does or what can it offer in difference to this current B1 card.

**All seems to be working writable and readable for this test anyway.
Code:
Disk /dev/loop0: 91 MiB, 95408128 bytes, 186344 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/sda: 74.5 GiB, 80000000000 bytes, 156250000 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: D7672685-4819-4CED-916D-764793EB65AF

Device     Start       End   Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1   2048      4095      2048    1M BIOS boot
/dev/sda2   4096 156246015 156241920 74.5G Linux filesystem


Disk /dev/sdb: 111.8 GiB, 120034123776 bytes, 234441648 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x2bef4e2d


Disk /dev/sdc: 55.9 GiB, 60011642880 bytes, 117210240 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00098095


Disk /dev/md126: 55.4 GiB, 59458453504 bytes, 116129792 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 65536 bytes / 65536 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00098095


Disk /dev/md124: 111.3 GiB, 119453777920 bytes, 233308160 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 65536 bytes / 65536 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x2bef4e2d
:~$ fstab
fstab: command not found
:~$ clear
:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/loop0: 91 MiB, 95408128 bytes, 186344 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/sda: 74.5 GiB, 80000000000 bytes, 156250000 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: D7672685-4819-4CED-916D-764793EB65AF

Device     Start       End   Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1   2048      4095      2048    1M BIOS boot
/dev/sda2   4096 156246015 156241920 74.5G Linux filesystem


Disk /dev/sdb: 111.8 GiB, 120034123776 bytes, 234441648 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x2bef4e2d


Disk /dev/sdc: 55.9 GiB, 60011642880 bytes, 117210240 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00098095


Disk /dev/md126: 55.4 GiB, 59458453504 bytes, 116129792 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 65536 bytes / 65536 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00098095


Disk /dev/md124: 111.3 GiB, 119453777920 bytes, 233308160 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 65536 bytes / 65536 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x2bef4e2d
:~$ sudo mkdir /media/120g
:~$ sudo mkdir /media/80g
:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/md124

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.31.1).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.


Command (m for help): n
Partition type
   p   primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
   e   extended (container for logical partitions)
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 1
First sector (2048-233308159, default 2048):
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-233308159, default 233308159):

Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 111.3 GiB.
Partition #1 contains a ntfs signature.

Do you want to remove the signature? [Y]es/[N]o: y

The signature will be removed by a write command.

Command (m for help): q

:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/md126

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.31.1).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.


Command (m for help): n
Partition type
   p   primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
   e   extended (container for logical partitions)
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 1
First sector (2048-116129791, default 2048):
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-116129791, default 116129791):

Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 55.4 GiB.
Partition #1 contains a ntfs signature.

Do you want to remove the signature? [Y]es/[N]o: y

The signature will be removed by a write command.

Command (m for help): q

:~$ mkfs.ext4 /dev/md124
mke2fs 1.44.1 (24-Mar-2018)
Could not open /dev/md124: Permission denied
:~$ sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/md124
mke2fs 1.44.1 (24-Mar-2018)
/dev/md124 contains a ext3 file system
        last mounted on Sun Feb 20 20:48:58 2000
Proceed anyway? (y,N) y
Creating filesystem with 29163520 4k blocks and 7290880 inodes
Filesystem UUID: c729e49f-fd47-4e44-89ba-3357b3498c45
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
        4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872

Allocating group tables: done
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (131072 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

:~$ sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/md126
mke2fs 1.44.1 (24-Mar-2018)
Found a dos partition table in /dev/md126
Proceed anyway? (y,N) y
Creating filesystem with 14516224 4k blocks and 3629056 inodes
Filesystem UUID: c01c3722-72e0-47ac-93b2-c22b9d87494f
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
        4096000, 7962624, 11239424

Allocating group tables: done
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (65536 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

:~$ sudo mount /dev/md124 /media/120g
:~$ sudo mount /dev/md126 /media/80g
:~$ cd /media
:/media$ ls
120g  80g
:/media$ cd 120g
:/media/120g$ ls
lost+found
:/media/120g$ sudo mkdir hello
:/media/120g$ ls
hello  lost+found
:/media/120g$ cd ..
:/media$ ls
120g  80g
:/media$ cd 80g
:/media/80g$ sudo mkdir hello
:/media/80g$ ls
hello  lost+found
:/media$ cd ..
:/media$ sudo chmod -R -v 777 *
 

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jcousindesign

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Apr 4, 2022
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What are you trying to do? Are you attaching the ds2246 to a non-netapp PC and using as a disk shelf?
I am, while running windows server or truenas.
I have purchased the:
NetApp 111-00341+D0 HCS-1041 SAS Quad Port 3/6 Gb QSFP Adapter Controller however, there are no windows drivers available.
I Need a compatible card. Any recommendations greatly appreciated
 

gregsachs

Active Member
Aug 14, 2018
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Basically any truenas compatible HBA should work, then you need a SFF-8088->qspf+ cable, which is $$$
 

jcousindesign

New Member
Apr 4, 2022
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Basically any truenas compatible HBA should work, then you need a SFF-8088->qspf+ cable, which is $$$
I have quite a few of the cables and just purchased
LSI MegaRAID 9285CV-8e 6Gb/s RAID Controller
 

gregsachs

Active Member
Aug 14, 2018
559
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I have quite a few of the cables and just purchased
LSI MegaRAID 9285CV-8e 6Gb/s RAID Controller
The 9285 can do JBOD mode which works just fine for windows storage spaces, I don't know about truenas. That may need it reflashed to IT mode if possible.
Of course, the 9285 can also do hardware raid. I ran a 9285 for a while with storage spaces, then went to a 9286(PCIe 3), now using an intel RS25SB008 which is the OEM 9286 with a xyratex 12x3.5 and a netapp 24x2.5