SM CSE 826 sweet deal

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Fritz

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Apr 6, 2015
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This seller also has 5 Supermicro X10DRH-CT in stock @ $189.99. They require password reset.
Looks like these chassis's come with an SAS2 backplane. Bummer. :(

I have a X10DRH-CT MB. Keep in mind that it uses a 3108 chipset which is RAID and can't be flashed to IT mode. However, if there are no RAID config it will act like a HBA and pass all drives to the OS. But I wouldn't run TrueNAS or any other zfs OS on it.
 
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LoneGeek

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Sep 13, 2020
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I have a X10DRH-CT MB. Keep in mind that it uses a 3108 chipset which is RAID and can't be flashed to IT mode. However, if there are no RAID config it will act like a HBA and pass all drives to the OS. But I wouldn't run TrueNAS or any other zfs OS on it.
According to this message there shouldn't be any problem with it.
 

Fritz

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Apr 6, 2015
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According to this message there shouldn't be any problem with it.
I still wouldn't trust it and neither do the people over at iX Systems. All RAID controllers that I'm aware of do not give the OS full control of the HD's. You're asking for trouble running ZFS on one.
 

FlorianZ

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Dec 10, 2019
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I still wouldn't trust it and neither do the people over at iX Systems.
I would take that with a grain of salt. They sell validated hardware and technically don't trust anything but that hardware.

I would take my comment with a grain of salt, too. Just because it worked well for me doesn't mean it will work well in all other cases. Simply reporting that in my case, the 3108 in JBOD mode had none of the issues that are otherwise commonly encountered with RAID controllers. Also, just to reiterate, I was using this setup with ZoL. It is my understanding that the mrsas drivers on FreeBSD, which you're forced to use with the 3108 are not as well tested. Not sure if that has changed in recent years...

At any rate, I wouldn't hesitate to run this setup again for my personal storage needs. But if you're in a commercial setting, ignore all the opinions and anecdotal evidence here and go with a validated, warrantied solution with a nice service contract ;-)
 
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Fritz

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I may give it a try one day. I've read millions of times that a RAID controller is taboo where zfs is concerned.
 

Sean Ho

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One concern I'd have is whether the 3108 in JBOD mode writes any RAID headers to the drive, complicating use of the drive with other HBAs in case you ever have to move the drives to another system.
 
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FlorianZ

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Dec 10, 2019
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One concern I'd have is whether the 3108 in JBOD mode writes any RAID headers to the drive, complicating use of the drive with other HBAs in case you ever have to move the drives to another system.
Ah, I can answer this again with anecdotal evidence only: When I upgraded this system with an EPYC-based motherboard and a 3008 based HBA, all my drives came right back up with all the data present. To be honest, I hadn't even thought about that being a potential problem until you mentioned it just now.
 
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eduncan911

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Jul 27, 2015
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OT: RE: ZFS/UnRaid and raid controllers as HBA...

IME across several brands and HBAs, when I have run across this issue it is because the Raid controller had no other option than to set each drive as RAID0. Raid controllers have have an option to set drives as Passthrough don't usually have an issue.

The end all test is spin-down. This is such a difficult thing to support on HBAs, cross flashing, Windows drivers, Linux builds of custom drivers, etc. If you "pass through" a disk, can your OS put it to sleep? Yes, it's perfect for ZFS. No, then check smartctl and other tools for how the drive is presented to the OS. It must be the full drive smart data and allow you to run a Long test - without failure.

Smartctl long test can take 12h (my 10TB SAS3 drives lately @ 6Gbps), or even days (my shucked WD white label bottom dollar 10TB drives).

If your raid controller in Pass-through can leave your HDD alone to where a long offline smartctl test passes, you will have zero issues. However, if the long test keeps getting interrupted on a completely idle server, then not a good setup for ZFS.
 
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EvoDyn

New Member
Jun 23, 2021
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Any recent orders for this case? Just curious if they are shipping a WIO case (what is listed in the description) versus what is pictured? I asked them (out of curiosity) and they said that it's a SAS2 backplane with no 3.5" caddies.
 

Fritz

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Apr 6, 2015
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I got this from them but I just ordered another chassis so I'll pass on this one.

Screenshot from 2022-06-17 17-59-14.png
 

Markess

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May 19, 2018
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Any recent orders for this case? Just curious if they are shipping a WIO case (what is listed in the description) versus what is pictured? I asked them (out of curiosity) and they said that it's a SAS2 backplane with no 3.5" caddies.
With this vendor, pictures and/or descriptions are usually "close" but not always totally accurate. You'll for sure get some sort of 826...but as you note, the SM webpage screencap in the item description is for a WIO variant, the pics are a 7xLP slots version, and the specifics section lists a third variant.

OTOH, I've found them willing to entertain multiple requests for clarification when the initial one wasn't really answered. The folks answering the queries don't always seem to be familiar with SM's product line, so sometimes the question they answer isn't the question you're asking!

I found that including a picture in the message and listing exactly what I wanted to knowhelped me when I was trying to get the point across with them about how there are different 1U fan tray types. Maybe you could screencap and paste a picture of the rear window on a WIO version and ask if the back side of what they are selling looks the same, or if it looks different?
 

EvoDyn

New Member
Jun 23, 2021
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received my X10DRH-CT. Came fully locked with a BIOS and ipmi password. In addition an unknown ipmi ip address. :mad:

Found a nice little tidbit of info that allowed me to correct both problems. When you clear the CMOS you get one free pass into the BIOS. If you screw it up you'll have to re clear the CMOS and try again. Once in the BIOS you can set the ipmi address to DHCP (or whatever you prefer). You can also flash the BIOS to clear the password if you have a license key. I went ahead and flashed from a USB key and thus cleared the BIOS password.

Nice board for the price.
Did you use the super.rom USB method? Just got a board myself and trying to plan ahead.