Upgrading NAS to Xeon, thoughts?
- Thread starter Solkku
- Start date
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true via passthrough.
E3 is to beefy for standalon NAS,
I3 is a bit beefy too. I am using I3 for my ZoL standalnone fileserver.
I have Areca controllers, and they work just fine with SMART data. It is available through utility or vib Web server (with ethernet port option).
Like I said in the first post, this server will also host a small modded Minecraft server, so that's why I chose this cpu to begin with.
This is what the current plans are for running on a hypervisor:
- NAS4Free / FreeNAS (with Plex Media server)
- Apache webserver with PHP, MySQL etc. (low traffic sites)
- ownCloud
- Transmission
- Modded Minecraft server (~10 players)
- A few test VMs (Linux, Windows etc.). These will not be active all the time.
- SMB share to my main Windows machine
Not good for ZFS..
your areca sets each drive as raid 0
...ZFS likes to get access directly to drives
My point is, you configure the controller in JBOD mode. Create VMDKs on each drive and let ZFS to sit on VMDKs. SMART data can be managed by the controller.
the point is, you add extra layer
yours:
drive<->raid 0<-> zfs
on HBA
drive <-> zfs
smart must be access by smartctl directly.
JBOD is not RAID0. Even with passthrough, there is an extra layer, you still have to go through the controller to get to drives...
If you are using it firmware. No layer at all
On Linux. I am using smartctl tools to get smart.
If you can get smart. This is direct.
If not. Your are on raid 0.
On Adaptec. They mention jbod. Actually raid 0 on each drive.
Make sure smartctl tool can access smart info directly.
Passthrugh hba do not need to access bios controller.
I mentioned to pass through hba card for zfs vm
While originally RAID0 was stripping and spanning. These days, it is only stripping. Configuring JBOD is not RAID0 (stripping only) in terms of modern terminology. JBOD can be used to concatenate multiple drives in one but read/write operations are performed in a different way.
I know that that ZFS can work with JBOD mode, you can use Google if you don't agree.
I know that that ZFS can work with JBOD mode, you can use Google if you don't agree.
Does anyone know why the MegaRAID Storage Manager software doesn't recognize the drives anymore? Am I missing something?
Originally the M1015 SAS-card was flashed to 9211-8i IT mode version P14 and they showed up fine (check screenshots on previous page). I then flashed it to P17 and all drives disappeared from my Windows test environment. Just a few minutes ago I flashed it even further to version P19 and still nothing... I removed the boot BIOS from it during P19 fw update again to speed up boot times, as it isn't needed in IT-mode anyway.
The drives do start spinning when the machine is turned on, and I doubt both of them magically died here.
Originally the M1015 SAS-card was flashed to 9211-8i IT mode version P14 and they showed up fine (check screenshots on previous page). I then flashed it to P17 and all drives disappeared from my Windows test environment. Just a few minutes ago I flashed it even further to version P19 and still nothing... I removed the boot BIOS from it during P19 fw update again to speed up boot times, as it isn't needed in IT-mode anyway.
The drives do start spinning when the machine is turned on, and I doubt both of them magically died here.
Hmm... That is a weird one. I couldn't find any relevant information regarding the problem. I guess, you have to stick with P14 BIOS. Unless somebody knows how to fix it.
Yeah weird indeed! I've tried google also but with no results.
Also just checked with NAS4Free, and the drives do show up there as well. Was able to create a ZFS Pool after I formatted them (pic below is before).
But according to the documentation I've read, you need to flash the card's firmware to match the driver that's native in FreeBSD. That's why I wanted to update to P17 first. But it seems the P19 is the right one for FreeBSD 10 (which NAS4Free is currently based on). P20, which is also available has documented bugs...
I just wonder if I'll stumble upon problems later on with it flashed to P14, the only one that can actually detect the drives attached. When flashed to P19 the drives wouldn't show up under disk management in NAS4Free 10 nor Windows 7 as I stated. Tricky one.
Also just checked with NAS4Free, and the drives do show up there as well. Was able to create a ZFS Pool after I formatted them (pic below is before).
But according to the documentation I've read, you need to flash the card's firmware to match the driver that's native in FreeBSD. That's why I wanted to update to P17 first. But it seems the P19 is the right one for FreeBSD 10 (which NAS4Free is currently based on). P20, which is also available has documented bugs...
I just wonder if I'll stumble upon problems later on with it flashed to P14, the only one that can actually detect the drives attached. When flashed to P19 the drives wouldn't show up under disk management in NAS4Free 10 nor Windows 7 as I stated. Tricky one.
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my non-production, non-pro opinion is that if you're going to use a vm that has windows on it and want to leverage all the goodies of SMB3 and RDMA run a windows host with hyper-v, otherwise kvm or esxi work great.
@gigatexal No, no you understand it wrong.. this Windows 7 on the SSD is only a temporary test environment, as it's the most familiar to me. The final solution will not me Microsoft-based. Just want the drives detected in Windows so I can "count" on the setup working as it should... The spinners attached to the SAS card will in fact be used with pass-through in a hypervisor for storage in the NAS-part of the server.
As it stands now, P14 is the only firmware that detects the drives in Windows or FreeBSD 10.
Just want the drives detected in Windows so I can "count" on the setup working as it should... The spinners attached to the SAS card will in fact be used with pass-through in a hypervisor for storage in the NAS-part of the server.As it stands now, P14 is the only firmware that detects the drives in Windows or FreeBSD 10.
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I've decided to stick with what works for now, so P14 firmware on the M1015 it is!
While browsing server videos on Youtube yesterday I stumbled upon XPEnology. I've seen that name tossed around on the forums & Internet, but not knowing what it was I never looked into it closer. How freakin' cool is it to have Synology's NAS OS with built in, simple to use downloadable "apps" on your DIY server. I decided to give it a go on my freshly installed ESXi 6 hypervisor and it seems nice.
However, this made me even more confused on what to run on my new server... I had already planned on using ZFS with NAS4Free / FreeNAS, with iSCSI "shares" to other VMs that need it.
While browsing server videos on Youtube yesterday I stumbled upon XPEnology. I've seen that name tossed around on the forums & Internet, but not knowing what it was I never looked into it closer. How freakin' cool is it to have Synology's NAS OS with built in, simple to use downloadable "apps" on your DIY server. I decided to give it a go on my freshly installed ESXi 6 hypervisor and it seems nice.
However, this made me even more confused on what to run on my new server...
I had already planned on using ZFS with NAS4Free / FreeNAS, with iSCSI "shares" to other VMs that need it.Go with the plan! You can test XPEnology on one of VMs, if you like it, you can switch to it later.
Yeah I think I will! That DS Cloud just looks so much more sophisticated than ownCloud...
Quick question about iSCSI. All tutorials explaining how to enable it in ESXi ends with them adding the datastore to your hypervisor. What is the next step from there to make other VMs see it? I was under the assumption that:
1) Enable the iSCSI target on your big storage on VM 1.
2) Add the iSCSI target to VM 2.
3) VM 2 would see a "hard disk" with the same files & folders that's placed there by VM 1.
Is this correct? I was able to create an iSCSI target on NAS4Free and add it to ESXi, but my XPEnology VM doesn't see it.
Quick question about iSCSI. All tutorials explaining how to enable it in ESXi ends with them adding the datastore to your hypervisor. What is the next step from there to make other VMs see it? I was under the assumption that:
1) Enable the iSCSI target on your big storage on VM 1.
2) Add the iSCSI target to VM 2.
3) VM 2 would see a "hard disk" with the same files & folders that's placed there by VM 1.
Is this correct? I was able to create an iSCSI target on NAS4Free and add it to ESXi, but my XPEnology VM doesn't see it.
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