Solved Hardware for OS installation

M

mefizto

Greeting all,

I am planning to rebuild my server with RAIDZ2 configuration. To get the best trade-off for usable storage, I planned to use six hard-drives. Unfortunately the Supermicro X9SCM-F motherboard has only six SATA ports. Thus, the question is how do deal with hardware for OS.

As I see it, there are two options.

1. Use a USB drive on an internal type A connector. I have experimented with such an install and it seems to be working. My concern is with the writing endurance of the USB drive. If I were to relocate log files on the RAIDZ2, how much more writing will the USB drive experience? I would not mind to spend money on a reliable (TLC) USB drive, but since I am still contempleating both options, not mentioning the fact that other unknown to me exists, I have not yet done any research if such a drive is still being made.

2. Buy a PCIe to SATA or PCIe to NVME card and a SATA or NVME hard drive. This appears to be more attractive option, from the writing endurance aspect, albeit with (potentially significantly) higher price tag. However, despite reading the motherboard's manual it does not discuss such an option. Thus I was wondering, if anybody would have any experience with the motherboard.

In that regards, I was also wondering whether it is worth to mirror the boot drive. As I understand it, the mirroring requires support for automatic fail-over, and the accounts on whether FreeBSD supports it are contradictory.

Any comments, insights, hardware recommendations would be appreciated.

Kindest regards,

M
 
+1 on LSI cards. You should be able to get a 9207-8i for example fairly cheaply nowadays. Other mfi(4), mrsas(4) or mpt(4) based cards should work fine too.

Code: 
root@molly:~ # mpsutil show adapter
mps0 Adapter:
       Board Name: SAS9207-8i
   Board Assembly: H3-25412-00K
        Chip Name: LSISAS2308
    Chip Revision: ALL
    BIOS Revision: 7.39.00.00
Firmware Revision: 20.00.02.00
  Integrated RAID: no

PhyNum  CtlrHandle  DevHandle  Disabled  Speed   Min    Max    Device
0       0001        0009       N         6.0     1.5    6.0    SAS Initiator
1       0002        000a       N         6.0     1.5    6.0    SAS Initiator
2       0003        000b       N         6.0     1.5    6.0    SAS Initiator
3       0004        000c       N         6.0     1.5    6.0    SAS Initiator
4       0005        000d       N         6.0     1.5    6.0    SAS Initiator
5       0006        000e       N         6.0     1.5    6.0    SAS Initiator
6       0007        000f       N         6.0     1.5    6.0    SAS Initiator
7                              N                 1.5    6.0    SAS Initiator
 
Hi Rigoletto, SirDice,

thank you for the recommendation.

I looked at the card and if I understand, I would use the card for my RAIDZ2 and use the motherboard SATA ports for the boot drive, correct? Or, can I mix the ports on the card and the motherboard for the RAIDZ2?

Kindest regards,

M
 
mefizto said:
I would use the card for my RAIDZ2 and use the motherboard SATA ports for the boot drive, correct?
Click to expand...
That's what I would do (and did on my own server).
mefizto said:
Or, can I mix the ports on the card and the motherboard for the RAIDZ2?
Click to expand...
Possible. ZFS doesn't care, drives don't need to be connected to the same controller. But it might not be a good idea to mix if one is 6Gb/s and the other 12Gb/s for example. It will work but performance of the whole pool would be limited by the slowest controller.
 
Hi SirDice,

thank you for the reply. I have received a reply from Supermicro, the board does not support booting from PCIe ports, thus, I will go hunt for the card that you have recommended.

Kindest regards,

M
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top