From owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jan 23 09:16:33 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 19837A55 for ; Fri, 23 Jan 2015 09:16:33 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-lb0-x22c.google.com (mail-lb0-x22c.google.com [IPv6:2a00:1450:4010:c04::22c]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "smtp.gmail.com", Issuer "Google Internet Authority G2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 8FF5E699 for ; Fri, 23 Jan 2015 09:16:32 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-lb0-f172.google.com with SMTP id l4so6012231lbv.3 for ; Fri, 23 Jan 2015 01:16:30 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=googlemail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:from:date:message-id:subject:to:content-type; bh=t1DmQEDLNH2BVeU0syrpU7UK1mjhmAhTm+hvqp9Uqeg=; b=ml2/O0FJ+CMdhA3Al1aFO6Qr2dkpSPtAZRWFDUwNIRlkclhkVyD+3TlbQkrIBn1l3E xzrIw35hpgfJVfhvx9qHEWM9iabGnXE44V3x9ST5pNaZSeNsYY/jpv+SYksi+Kawr9FB 6J62OgxH0goziyCOjM6weTiNuXeK//82p6RmEXdH1mB3mwMPbJz6gAbF+NpFGTZ5pCYo y8tazl5wZuggsAZfeozki7xt/qLmXHfbs59kej02d5CGkBS6aRF1tB0aUc8GG8+S8OIZ bXjjNT7ErdkYMvwmjKTCvT44eT2TOu+f2OHed9tbQuPqWCIoORg3hj14wroLP4rL04BP dVWA== X-Received: by 10.152.45.4 with SMTP id i4mr6225311lam.74.1422004590432; Fri, 23 Jan 2015 01:16:30 -0800 (PST) MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.25.163.73 with HTTP; Fri, 23 Jan 2015 01:16:09 -0800 (PST) From: Ahmed Kamal Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 11:16:09 +0200 Message-ID: Subject: Dell branded storage controller for ZFS file-server | Advice requested To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.18-1 X-BeenThere: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18-1 Precedence: list List-Id: SCSI subsystem List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 09:16:33 -0000 Hi everyone, I'm looking to build a ZFS file-server, unfortunately I'm locked into Dell branded hardware only. I know Dell sometimes ships LSI branded cards, but that too probably won't work for me, as I live outside the US and the local Dell rep is clueless (so whatever I want to buy, has to be on Dell's website). I am considering Dell R720xd or R730xd. I will use Intel i350 NICs, and ECC RAM, but the biggest questions are around the SAS HBA Per my research, I have the following notes and questions. Appreciating your comments on them * H310 Card supports syspd (jbod) mode per http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base?view=revision&revision=254906 so it is probably the best card for what I want to do, right? * H310 is a low end card, it has very limited queue depth (25 I believe) .. Is this actually a problem when using the disks (20 x SAS 10k disks) in syspd/jbod mode? what about if I attach a couple of SSD disks? * H310 can be flashed to IT mode (LSI firmware), and is supported by Illumos kernel (if I'll ever need that) .. so overall it looks like a good option. Any "watch-outs" I should be aware of ? * H710/p have no way of exposing JBOD/syspd in any way .. If using those cards, the best I can do, is to create a raid-0 per disk, and put zfs on top of that. How bad is this? Is the only problem that I'm locked into H710 firmware? Would the nvram and bbu on H710 improve performance significantly vs H310? * H330 and H730, seem supported by mrsas driver. Is this driver able to expose jbod/syspd mode? If yes, what's the overall advise, should I go with one of those, or the "trusty" H310 ? Your help and advice is most appreciated