XigmaNAS

I'm new to this, so my apologies..

I'm building some NAS for my small business, and I've got the following to work with.

- Dell MD1000 disk expansion
- 15 x 1TB SATA disks in the MD1000
- Dell PE2950III dual xeon quad core with 32gb RAM
- Dell PERC6/E RAID card, which I anticipate not being able to use effectively with ZFS etc.
- Dell SAS 6GB HBA card, which I believe will work very nicely for ZFS

The PERC6/E card is ill suited for ZFS from what I gather, since it won't present raw access to the disks.

The SAS 6GB HBA is based on the LSI SAS2008 from what I understand, is equivalent to a LSI 9200-8e, and should present raw access to the disks right out of the box without needing to be flashed or messed with. I believe this adapter will work nicely for ZFS.

I'm looking for some feedback about this configuration - Anything I should know? Does it look workable (particularly the 15 drives in the MD1000, connected to the Dell SAS 6gb HBA).

Thanks!

looks like a solid build if the sas2008 hba is compatible with nas4free. atleast card shows freebsd compatible. PERC6/E Raid would be pointless unless there is a flash to HBA option. get an M1015 with an external SFF converter bracket or another Dell HBA if it works out.

hopefully your choice of HDD's has a reason - something like cost cutting for a WD Red or you already have the HDD's? else a 15disk 1TB looks rather power hungry for Z2\Z3 zfs and not that great with the per GB cost. 3TB WD Purple would be more cost effective if you are buying new.

do post how it works out with your HBA card. not sure i saw anyone post test results with this HBA card on nas4free.

renjithc wrote:looks like a solid build if the sas2008 hba is compatible with nas4free. atleast card shows freebsd compatible.

Yes, it seems the SAS2008, which is the same as used in the M1015, is a solid base for a NAS build from what I'm reading.

renjithc wrote:PERC6/E Raid would be pointless unless there is a flash to HBA option. get an M1015 with an external SFF converter bracket or another Dell HBA if it works out.

I think I'm essentially doing that already, in that the Dell SAS 6gb HBA card is SAS2008 based but has external connectivity, while the M1015 is internal.

renjithc wrote:hopefully your choice of HDD's has a reason - something like cost cutting for a WD Red or you already have the HDD's? else a 15disk 1TB looks rather power hungry for Z2\Z3 zfs and not that great with the per GB cost. 3TB WD Purple would be more cost effective if you are buying new.

It's not the most efficient, I'll give you that! I got the MD1000 loaded with 15 x 1TB ST31000340NS drives in it for about $600 on eBay. I figure this was a good deal for 15 TB on 15 spindles. I'm planning to serve data out either via iSCSI or NFS across some etherchannel to my physical machines (more PE2950III's) that host my VMs. More spindles will help with performance, and the waste heat generated by the systems helps to heat my home in the winter. Summer is a different story.. but where I live, I need heat pretty much 7-8 months of the year so I think it works out pretty well.

renjithc wrote:do post how it works out with your HBA card. not sure i saw anyone post test results with this HBA card on nas4free.

Will do! I'm planning to do some benchmarks of the Perc6e RAID6 EXT4 CentOS vs. SAS HBA ZFS NAS4Free. I'll try to report back once complete.