Thoughts on running TrueNAS Scale w/ Dell H710P without pass-through?

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spoulson

New Member
Mar 3, 2023
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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?
 

mrpasc

Active Member
Jan 8, 2022
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Munich, Germany
Well, if you want to understand why your H710 isn’t a proper device I strongly recommend this Ressource from TrueNAS forums:
 

spoulson

New Member
Mar 3, 2023
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I've found that same thread in my research. It just says to do it their way... or else who knows. The main point is that the LSI HBA drivers are much more trusted than MegaRAID. I'm asking why. If it were any other subject, I'd be scolded for taking Internet advice.

Secondarily on this other H710 that's already flashed, maybe LSI 9207-8i is not the best option as that model is a 6Gbps SAS card? My hardware supports 12Gbps. I see other models mentioned in that thread and wonder what is best practice for my equipment. And hopefully it won't have issues with the rear flex bay drives.

Wondering which LSI HBA firmware could I reflash on this already-flashed H710 that I have? The Fohdeesha guide has specific steps for each PERC variant, but doesn't suggest which firmware to use. I suppose it has that already figured out on the ISOs he provides? Has anyone gone through this without bricking their H710?
 
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