Plan: Build a reliable NAS as a significant upgrade to an old FreeNAS PC that's been in use for 10 years. Use for storing all the things: photos, software, backup files, and possibly NFS/iSCSI for my LAN. Setup on a Dell PowerEdge R720xd fully loaded with 12 front LFF HDD's and 2 rear SSD's. Install TrueNAS Scale on bare metal. Server came equipped with PERC H710P.
I was able to create individual RAID0 virtual groups for each of the 14 physical drives. Then, I installed TrueNAS Scale on the SSD's as RAIDZ mirror and built a RAIDZ2 pool out of the 12 HDDs. Note: I'm not using hardware RAID6; I'm letting zfs run the array. This appears to work fine and I have satisfactory performance with some fio testing.
My research indicates using H710P without pass-through is not ideal for zfs. For one, I was able to confirm that smartctl -i /dev/sda reports basically no drive info except it's a PERC H710P device. But, I can get drive info in other places, couldn't I? So if a disk is throwing warnings, I can theoretically capture it in some monitoring tool.
I looked into using an H310, which supports pass-through, but Dell warns it has performance limitations because it lacks a cache.
I bought an H710 flashed with LSI 9207-8i firmware. It technically works, but it's hacky and I'm reluctant to use it. The rear flex bay drives do not illuminate its power/activity LEDs, even though the installer was able to locate the drives. I can't seem to get into the HBA configuration utility on boot. I press Ctrl-C and it indicates it will go into config setup, but then just boots into OS as usual. Seems like a UEFI incompatibility. So, I put the original H710P back in.
After all this, what is the compelling reason to ditch the H710P for a pass-through HBA?
I was able to create individual RAID0 virtual groups for each of the 14 physical drives. Then, I installed TrueNAS Scale on the SSD's as RAIDZ mirror and built a RAIDZ2 pool out of the 12 HDDs. Note: I'm not using hardware RAID6; I'm letting zfs run the array. This appears to work fine and I have satisfactory performance with some fio testing.
My research indicates using H710P without pass-through is not ideal for zfs. For one, I was able to confirm that smartctl -i /dev/sda reports basically no drive info except it's a PERC H710P device. But, I can get drive info in other places, couldn't I? So if a disk is throwing warnings, I can theoretically capture it in some monitoring tool.
I looked into using an H310, which supports pass-through, but Dell warns it has performance limitations because it lacks a cache.
I bought an H710 flashed with LSI 9207-8i firmware. It technically works, but it's hacky and I'm reluctant to use it. The rear flex bay drives do not illuminate its power/activity LEDs, even though the installer was able to locate the drives. I can't seem to get into the HBA configuration utility on boot. I press Ctrl-C and it indicates it will go into config setup, but then just boots into OS as usual. Seems like a UEFI incompatibility. So, I put the original H710P back in.
After all this, what is the compelling reason to ditch the H710P for a pass-through HBA?